Not So Happily Ever After

Elicoor stared. “Impossible. You should not be able to conceive for decades, at the very least.”

“Yes, I do believe I know my own body. That’s why I went to a priest, and then to Shad, and now you.” Lycannon said, leaning up against the large table behind her.

“Their opinion was not enough?” Elicoor asked, seeming quite disgruntled. “What would I be able to do?”

Lyc sighed. “I didn’t have Shad look at me. I couldn’t after seeing the state he was in, how Aselleus left him. We just talked a bit. He suggested that I find someone with more knowledge of arcane magics to have a look at me in case there’s some magical ticking time bomb implanted in me somewhere. I was going to ask Larnus, but he was having a good time with the druid Alythdria. I wasn’t about to ruin it, not after all the grief everyone’s been through.”

Elicoor rubbed the bit of hair on his jowls with thumb and forefinger, tip of his tail twitching with worry. She had a point. He was silent for a long moment as he mulled over his thoughts, taking in consideration everything that had transpired.

“Alright.” he finally murmured with exasperation, moving to place one hand on her torso and another at the small of her back. Just as his fingers came in contact with the fabric of her blouse, he pulled back suddenly, almost too quickly, and looked at her wide-eyed.

Lycannon flinched. “What the hell? What is it?”

“Saying that magic was involved is… an understatement. A blood elf could practically smell you from miles away.” The mage shook out his hands as if he had been burned. “Shit…”

“So what then? I really am a magical bomb of some sort?”

“I honestly don’t know, Lycannon. I’d try to touch you again if I wasn’t afraid of my head exploding.”

Lyc snorted. “That doesn’t make any sense, Elicoor. How could the priest do it then? She didn’t explode.”

The man threw his hands up, defeated. “I… I don’t know, Lyc. Perhaps it was because she was using a different magic? The light or something of the sort…” He trailed off and groaned. “I… should probably get back to Dorothia. Hopefully she’s figured out what’s wrong with Sorinna.”

Lycannon rubbed her face, paying no mind to Elicoor as he left the room.

So that was it. Aselleus (the false husband and goody-good, peace-making tool of a paladin,) had turned into a bitter, vengeful and jealous abomination of the Twilight Cult, hell-bent on tearing down Lycannon and anyone she had ever had some sort of a relationship with. Despite being perhaps the most difficult and personal problem Shadow Watch members and various affiliates have had to deal with yet, in the end they managed to dispatch the man, but not before he set traps to bring everyone down with him; a twisted insurance plan. Khoura and Kordas were both dead, Shadoren was more or less Broken, Sorinna had contracted some sort of disease, and Lyc herself had something unknown and malicious inside of her. Who knew what else he had laying in wait for the others? Only time would tell.

“Fel damn it all.”

Polaris

I think the thing that bothered me the most about the entire ordeal, was that I couldn’t help but feel that it was somehow all my fault. Had I enough willpower, I would not of lost my mind and killed Esixa’s children.

I’ve survived three separate wars, nearly dying several times in all of them, and even becoming mentally indisposed during one. I’ve lived through two different exoduses and two different genocides against my people. My parents, my husband, the father of my children and my son all perished. Of all the trials and tribulations I have gone through, this one that finally ended less than two days ago was the hardest I had ever endured.  Had I not the friends I did, I would not be here now.

Esixa came into my home and knocked me about, then managing to get the one up on me and my current sensitive state by cracking my head against the wall and stabbing me with the dagger Saibley had given me. When I awoke, I found myself slumped over her back with my hooves dragging the ground. We were in the Wetlands, I knew by the smell. I managed to topple her over by shifting my weight. I even wiggled free and ran for my life as best I could with a knife wound in my chest. There was distance between us, and I figured I could hide in the marshlands until I either outsmarted her and back-tracked to Ironforge, or someone found me. There was no way I could take her on. Not now. Neivala had sapped all of my strength for herself. I flew across those glades. I ran as hard as I could. I thought I had gotten away when she shot my leg out from underneath me.

I hit the peat face first and rolled a few times, finally coming to a halt thanks to a nearby tree. She was on me before I could even draw the next breath, and yet again, she cracked me over the head with the hilt of the dagger. I would learn to become used to this.

The next time I awoke, It was dark and I was naked, tied to another tree in what looked like a graveyard. I knew I was still in the marsh, but closer to the water. I could hear it. The only thing I could think of was that she stuck me out there so no one would find me, and then she went into Menethil Harbor. I tried my damnedest to wrestle free of my bindings, and I screamed at the top of my lungs through whatever she stuck in my mouth to muffle the noise. All night I writhed, but it was too much. The coldness of the mire, combined with my wounds and me being with child did not allow for my freedom. I did not sleep until the sun rose, and she came to crack my skull again.

It must of taken her all day to row from Baradin Bay to Faldir’s Cove. It was evening once more, so far as I could see through the blood dried to my face. She had clothed me, at least. I had known the place from my travels there about a year earlier, and it was the favorite spot of the well known Blackwater Raiders; A band of pirates who seemed to have good graces with Booty Bay. That being said, I thought I might actually be able to convince one of the men to kill the bitch and set me free for some sort of gold payoff, but what she offered them was too good to pass up. She told them that they could have their way with me, an exotic woman, if they allowed her safe passage to Booty Bay. As it was, she didn’t get off the hook just that easily. She ended up paying them a large sum of gold and gems, probably to ensure her own safety, as well as most of her armor and Saibley’s dagger. They untied me and threw me into a room that looked rather clean for a bunch of pirates. A few minutes went passed, and I took the chance to try and find something to defend myself with, but they had cleared the cabin of anything dangerous. She had tipped them off about my prowess.

The first man who thought he would get lucky entered the room, and I came up from behind and twisted his head, snapping his neck, simple as that. He wasn’t very big. It was easy to do. Of course, they started to get curious as to the quietness of the situation and when the door opened and they saw their comrade laying slack-jawed on the floor, they wasted no time in calling for the captain of the ship, but not before I broke a few of their faces. Again, I thought I might actually have a chance, they were dropping like flies and I wasn’t even hitting them that hard. I wasn’t paying attention to what they looked like, I didn’t care. The last hook I would throw was caught in the large fist of an even larger man, and he took my arm and snapped it back, breaking it like a twig. I screamed, crippled by pain and dropped to my knees immediately. I screamed when he picked me up and slammed me into the bed. I screamed for Jacob, calling for him, hoping desperately that somehow he would hear me and come to my rescue, but this was not the case. I knew that if this man did as he wanted, I would lose Neivala.

The last thing I remember is him uncorking some flask and forcing it down my throat, then lifting my dress.

We were in Booty Bay the next I think I awoke. I wasn’t sure, I couldn’t open my eyes and everything was very hazy and slow, as if I were drunk. He had given me some sort of a potion to knock me out and when I realized this, I wished not to know how many of his pirates touched me. The only thought on my mind was if I still had Neivala with me. This realization lingered in my mind for only a few minutes, until she cracked my skull again, and I was out.

“Oh shit..” I remember Saibley saying that clear as day, despite the shape my head and my body were in. I hadn’t eaten or slept properly in a few days, and when she cut me free I hadn’t even the strength to hold myself up. I couldn’t speak, my jaw was shattered, and my eyes were swollen shut.  My conscience was screaming out, hoping she could read my mind somehow and whisk me away before Esixa came back. I knew that if she were here, Jacob and whoever else were not too far behind. Once more, freedom stared me in the face, and once more it was stolen from me.  I could hear the thumping of saber paws and a chinking of armor, followed by a thud and a yelp from Saibley, then another, louder thud against what I guessed was a tree. I didn’t know it at the time, but we were in Ashenvale as Esixa plucked me up and slumped me over her saber, quickly making a get away from the scene.

We rode for a while, stopping a long bit in between to board a ferry, so it seemed, before taking off again. When we finally stopped, she threw me down onto a ground that was littered in leaves. It had a distinct smell about it, and I recognized it instantly. We were on Bloodmyst Isle. The fact that we were here told me she had no where left to run, that this was her last stand. It was here that either she would die, or I would.

At this point, she had worked herself into a near hysteria, going on about her children and what she would do to me, that she would kill those coming after her and such. She had finally lost it, and despite my condition, I tried to crawl away, but not before she slammed her hoof onto my good arm, crushing it under her weight. I screamed and she laughed. It was then that Jacob, Saibley and Sorinna came charging in. I passed out the second time she ground her hoof into my flesh.

I learned later that Jacob had killed her.

After five or so days and being drug across Azeroth, stabbed, beaten, and taken advantage of, I was finally back at home in the Forge, surrounded by the people that cared about me.

Normally I’d be rather pissed off at this point, and wanting to seek my own revenge somehow, even if the one person who caused me all of this grief was dead. But something happened in between the time I had last passed out and the time I woke up in my bed.

I think it was a combination of Sorinna and Maricella’s healing what was left of my mangled shell of a body, and then my body channeling that energy the only way it could to save itself. It had unlocked those mental pathways that had been shell-shocked closed so long ago in the battle for Shattrath, and by doing that, it reawakened my being able to use the Light. I could heal just as well as I used to, as if Shattrath never even happened.

When I was able to realize this, the flooding of the ability to be able to use the Light again mucked up my mind and memoirs, and I had jumbled up the past with the present. I first thought that I was in the infirmary in Shattrath, talking to medics that I recognized as my friends, but thought were different people entirely at the same time. This lapse in differentiation didn’t last too long though, and I quickly regained my full capacity, with the old ability to use the Light to boot. The most important part of all of this, was that Neivala was fine, completely unharmed. That, I cannot believe.

As horrible as it was, if this didn’t happen, I might of been lost to the depths of anger and rage forever.

Thank you, Esixa.

Information, Part Two

McSars looks around. “Neivala. I got your letter.”

Sorinna eyes the draenei.

Neivala brought the pipe from her mouth and turned on her hooves upon hearing his voice. “Hmm? Oh. Good, good…Where’s Saibley?”

“She couldn’t make it.” The man responds.

Neivala nods, glancing at Sorinna. “I see. Ah well, I s’pose I’ll let her know at some point. Anyway, about Lycannon, yes? I guess you think I might know a thing or two about this, seeing as where I’m from, but..” She pauses, looking about the place. “I know only a little more than you do. You see..I..I’m the one who told Esixa where Lycannon was and about ‘er and stuff.” Pausing, she raises a hand. “But..”

Sorinna blinks.

Neivala shrugs. “I didn’t know she was after her for malicious reasons. She told me she was an old friend, wanted to catch up on some things… Ran into each other in the Exodar, got to talkin’.”

McSars nods. “You couldn’t have known. Get anything useful out of her that could be of use?”

The huntress crosses her arms, rolling her shoulders in thought. “Well, I do know a few things. One, is that she spends most of her time at the Exodar. She rarely leaves Kalimdor.”

The man nods again, thinking about this. “Hmm…” He scratches his chin.

“Another, is that Esixa stayed here last night.” Neivala smirks at this, continuing. “I’m not sure who all you have on this ‘case’, but I’m quite surprised none of ’em spotted the trail of blood leading from your house.”

Sorinna looks at McSars briefly then back to the young woman.

“Is Esixa still in this area, or has she moved on? I doubt she’d take Lycannon to the Exodar.” He says, watching Neivala, who raises a finger in point and motions for them to follow.

“That’s where I’m rather stumped. She cleaned herself up and apparently Lycannon too after she left. She was here last night.”

The two indeed follow the huntress outside of the tavern, and she stops to sigh and shake hear head at her worg, who had decided to take a nap at his post.

“Dark as it was, no one probably noticed the stains.” Neivala begins, making her way to the gates of the harbor.

“Not to mention all the soot on the floor.” McSars states, walking closely behind.

“Well, they are dwarves. I’m not sure the last that hearth was cleaned but..hmm..” The huntress trails off, letting another moment go by before speaking again, stopping on the bank just passed the bridge into town. “Obviously, she wouldn’t drag a nearly dead woman into a town and not expect some brows to be raised.”

McSars nods. “Of course.”

Neivala points over to the tree in the distance. “The trail ends over there. I’d imagine she dumped Lycannon in the graveyard, tied her up or somethin’, and washed herself in the water…The innkeeper can confirm he kept a room for a draenei named Esixa. Short, brown hair, rather ugly, to be honest.” she says, then laughing. “Mmm, Come on.”

Calling for her elekk, the young woman mounts quickly and heads across the water a little ways to the spot she was pointing at; A graveyard, to be exact. Stepping down from the beast, she slips between the grave stones and waits for the other two to catch up. Poking her fingers around in the grass, she lifts them to the sunlight, eyeing the blueish color. “Mhm. Same on the tree too. Bit of rope on the other side, all bloodied up.” She stands, turning and looking at McSars.

Any trails from here? He asks.

Sorinna finally speaks, after having been quiet for a while. “She’s really not trying to hide her path very well is she?”

McSars keeps himself neutral as possible, keeping focused. “Maybe she’s counting on Kaludra following the trail.”

Neivala shakes her head. “She’s in a hurry to get wherever she’s goin’. Seein’ as how the tail stops here, I can only assume she took one of the boats elsewhere.”

“Hm…” He begins, “It wouldn’t be a long range boat – this is too small, it’d be noticed.”

Neivala nods at the man. “Spot on.”

McSars gazes out over the water, thinking. “There’s numerous places to hide up the coast from here. There’s some caves around Arathi, in fact… A remote stretch of farmland. There’s also a landing to the far south.”

“You might be right, I haven’t thought of that yet. Perhaps she took a small rowboat across or..” The huntress nods, considering. “Hmm..”

McSars turns and walks a few paces, regarding the other draenei a moment. “Sorinna…”

“Hm?”

“I need you to check in Menethil with people who hire out and or sell boats for short range transport. We’re probably looking at a rowboat of some kind.”

Neivala pulls a small flask from her hip and takes a swig, gazing into the distance with a sigh. She faced the ocean and mulled over the possibilities of where her birth mother might be stowed away.

“Alright…I’ll let you know what I find.” Sorinna says, nodding.

“Thank-you.”

Sorinna nods, smiling briefly, “I’ll catch up.”

McSars salutes the woman, who returns the gesture and promptly calls for her saber, taking off at a brisk pace. He then walks back over to his daughter, standing at her side and watching the water.

“There’s hundreds of places she could be.” He pauses. “Neivala, good work. And.. Thank-you.”

“For?” The huntress nods again, watching him.

“Helping.” The man says then scowling out over the water.

She raises a brow. “Why wouldn’t I?”

“You did a good job anyway.”

“I guess so. Either way, she’s still alive, I’m still here…Though I feel like hell..” Neivala shrugs, taking another swig and then pursing her lips.

He turns to her. “Why’s that?”

“I have no idea. Started yesterday or so.”

“Maybe there’s some kind of connection between you and, er, you, but I’m not a doctor.” Stopping, he shrugs, letting a bit of silence go between them. “Right. The only course of action I can think of for now is to search up the coast.”

Neivala shakes her head. “I don’t know, maybe…” She pauses and clears her throat. “Right. I’ve yet to get that far with Alta’ir. His nose has been doing most of the work here.”

“Alright. I’m going to check the places of interest. The pirates at the cave I spoke of may have some information, even if I have to beat it out of them. After that I’ll start an in-depth search, all the way down the coast.”

Dipping her head a moment, her voice becomes low. “She could be anywhere, McSars.”

“I know. But we can’t afford to let despondency take hold.” he turns to her and puts a hand on her shoulder, looking directly at her. “We’ll find her, Neivala.”

The young woman blinks and tilts her head, looking at his gauntlet and then meeting his gaze. “I know..” she whispered.

“My radio frequency is 6.05.2. Let me know what you find.”

Neivala nods, patting the holster on her hip. “I will..” She pauses again, drawing a breath. “I know how much you love her. I won’t stop until I find something.”

McSars nods in turn. “She means a lot to me. So do my daughters.” He smiles slightly. “Present or future.”

“It takes time..” The huntress whispers, looking down and biting her lip. “Er..no pun intended..”

“And time will tell. Pun intended. Good luck.”

She allows a smirk to crack her features and he salutes her as well, doing what any good soldier would do. As she watched him go, she sighed and gently pat her wolf on his head. She knew they had to find Lycannon soon.