Caniell's Journey- Background for A Letter from EKACS
As Cani went to go have some drinks with some friends after a day of work, Zack, having gotten "permission" by Amara, puts his plan of sending Cani out to Pandaria to do some Self-Reflection and Emotion Training.
Having spiked her last drink of the night to make her pass out about one hour after she would return home. Zack then secured passage to take her out to Pandaria and he gets help with getting her changed into VERY basic leather armor, stashing her normal set in a locker until her return.
From there he would go through her bags, giving her two changes of clothing, a simple stave and her daggers, some rations that would last for at least three days after drop off and a canteen of water.
Zack then stashed a note within her pack as well. The note reads as follows:
"Morning my dear Caniell,
I know that by the time you awaken, I bet you are probably cursing my name and existence. Welcome to your Self-Reflection and Emotion Training. As you may notice, I have dropped you off within Krasarang Wilds.
The whole purpose to this is to work on yourself. To make the attempt to overcome emotions that I, and many others in our University family, know you keep bottled up. While the heart of the old god is dead, the lands of Pandaria still teem with the ability to manifest one's emotions as Sha.
It is up to you on how you will survive yourself as well as the land itself. As you may notice, you have no currency, two change of clothing besides what you are wearing now, limited rations, and a single canteen. It will be advised that you will not be allowed to enter any towns or settlements or interact to anyone else along the way. And yes...I will know as I will be monitoring you from afar.
All of this will be up to you on how long you will be out here for. You can either face your issues head on....or you can make it difficult on yourself and refuse to accept what is needed to be done. And if you are asking yourself if I got permission from Amara.....yes I did. Almost a month or more in advance."
From there, Zack would take the transport with the unconscious Caniell and be taken to Krasarang Wilds, dropping her off on the southern most edge. After making sure her drop zone was secure, he took to the air and would begin his vigil.
Caniell Ann Lyca awoke in a blur of sunlight and confusion on a beautiful forest floor on a lovely Sunday, and let the initial instinct to chide herself for over indulgence give way near immediately to training and protocol.
When you find yourself in an unfamiliar area, potentially in enemy territory, begin by assessing your surroundings for immediate threats.
Still lying on the ground, Cani pressed a hand carefully to the grass and expanded her awareness, looking for any beast or being that may mean her harm. The lack of threats was suspicious in its own right, but that could wait.
Good. Now take stock of yourself. Check for injuries first.
She felt… Light? Like after waking up from a dreamless sleep potion. No other injuries, move on, come back to that
Then check your supplies.
Armor. Not her own, but good enough. Staff, wooden, also unfamiliar. With sudden panic, her hands flew to her hips, and she sighed her relief when they met familiar metal and cool moonlight. She whispered along to a fragment of memory.
“As long as we have faith and will we’re never without hope. I remember.”
Moving along, she found her Chatstone still present, but fiddling with the settings refused to bring up any signals. Mac won't be happy to hear someone had tampered with it. Bag, also not her own, with food, clothes, and a note.
"Morning my dear Caniell,
I know that by the time you awaken, I bet you are probably cursing my name and existence. Welcome to your Self-Reflection and Emotion Training. As you may notice, I have dropped you off within Krasarang Wilds.
The whole purpose to this is to work on yourself. To make the attempt to overcome emotions that I, and many others in our University family, know you keep bottled up. While the heart of the old god is dead, the lands of Pandaria still teem with the ability to manifest one's emotions as Sha.
It is up to you on how you will survive yourself as well as the land itself. As you may notice, you have no currency, two change of clothing besides what you are wearing now, limited rations, and a single canteen. It will be advised that you will not be allowed to enter or interact to anyone else along the way. And yes...I will know as I will be monitoring you from afar.
All of this will be up to you on how long you will be out here for. You can either face your issues head on....or you can make it difficult on yourself and refuse to accept what is needed to be done. And if you are asking yourself if I got permission from Amara.....yes I did. Almost a month or more in advance."
Caniell nearly dropped everything in shock. Surely Amara didn't agree to leaving her in the forest without warning, without farewell, without so much as a chance to step onto this path of her own accord… Did she?
The doubtling that this train of thought caused nearly caught Cani off-guard.
“You can do this. You just have to hold together long enough to find a portal. If you don't let yourself feel it, maybe it won't manifest.”
And with the dubious comfort of that thought, Cani set off to the north.
The problem with Sha, when compared to most things one fights in their life, is that they tend to whisper.
It's not even like demons, where they whisper things where you never thought of that before but my it seems tempting, doesn't-that-make-so-much-sense of course you could help me achieve all my dreams. Sha whisper the things you were already thinking, echo your worst memories, slide into your head and eat you from the inside out.
There was no telling how long Caniell had been running, but every inch of her ached and the only thoughts in her head were “give up, give up, give up”
And the wind swirled around her.
“I cannot teach you, Adept, if you cannot control yourself.”
“You'll break their hearts like your father broke ours, someday. Is that what you want?”
“Not a challenge”
“Very well, yield to the strongarm tactic”
“You have so much potential, my dear, why is this tripping you up?”
“You can't save everyone”
“This is why you need my training! You can't keep doing this!”
“I can't have my professors going around with black eyes and broken noses”
“Nahlen’do would weep to see this brutality”
“You're nothing but a beast, and you'll never be anything but a beast”
One missed step set the Worgen tumbling, and the last thing she was aware of was panicked shouting and a pair of arms around her.
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Zack quickly lands, standing over Caniell as she drops. With swift movements, he warded and dispelled the Sha from around Caniell. The sounds of their hissing and screeching could be heard from miles around. He bent down, wrapping his arms around her, picking her up. He took her to a safe house like camp, laying her down on a cot to rest. He tended the fire, sitting next to her, keeping hold of one of her hands for comfort. Zack had no doubt that when she was aware again, that she might stab him.
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The first thing Caniell did when she returned to awareness was yank her hand away from Zack.
The second thing she did was attempt to throw her canteen at his head.
Third, she vanished in a flash of green light.