Chapter Sixteen

Arrentai

I awoke early. Quickly, quietly I dressed, shoving all my belongings back in my bag. It was a habit I'd developed while travelling round Azeroth, always being ready to move at a moment's notice, and one I never ignored except when I was at home. Jothan and Lissan were still sleeping. I left them; they'd wake soon enough; and went downstairs, carrying my bag and weapons. Gillaen and Nerissina were already there, sitting together, studying a map and some handwritten notes.

My brother looked up at me as I approached, breakfast in hand.

"Making plans?" I asked, indicating the papers as I sat down.

"No. I haven't spoken to the commander yet. Just running through some ideas based on what we remember from our deployment here. It hasn't changed much. Along the Path of Glory from Hellfire Citadel, maybe half its length, there are fel orcs. That's pretty much covered; they send the less experienced adventurers there. Here and here," (he pointed to two areas along the north edge of the zone) "there are demons, but they keep to themselves. Over here, the Legion Front, this is the place that always gave us the most trouble. The most dangerous demons are here, the clever ones, the biggest. They build portals to the Twisting Nether, to other worlds. As soon as we close them they open new ones to bring in reinforcements. It's a never-ending battle; one we can't afford to lose."

I pointed to the southern edge, which he hadn't mentioned.

"What about here?"

"The Expedition Armoury? Not a place anyone wants to go. After the second war a battle was fought there between humans and orcs. The orcs destroyed the place and their death knights raised our fallen as ghosts. They're still there, unable to find peace unless someone kills them again. It's not an easy thing to do; most people can't stay there long enough to make much difference. I wouldn't advise you to go there."

I sat deep in thought as I ate. I'd noticed Gillaen's choice of words. He didn't forbid me to go there, although as the de facto leader of our group he could have done so. But he knew me better than that; to forbid me something would immediately make it more attractive.

However I'd been thinking about what task I'd choose to undertake. When we were flying across the peninsula I'd noticed that the demons were spread out, leaving little ground uncovered.

Gillaen and the others were all melee fighters, they wouldn't have a problem. But me, I was a ranged fighter and healer. My spells took time to cast; I needed to stay back away from the fighting to ensure I wasn't distracted while casting. If Gillaen chose to fight the demons I wouldn't have that option.

Yes, I could fight as a bear or cat, I'd done so before now, but I'd still have to shift out of either form to heal. And that would leave me vulnerable.

While I was eating Jothan and Lissan joined us with their own breakfast. Once they were done we all gathered up our belongings and headed to the keep to speak to the commander. Business was conducted in a large upstairs room dominated by a large desk on a dais, covered in maps, papers and documents. Force Commander Danath Trollbane sat behind the desk overseeing everything. Gillaen had told me about him; a member of the Sons of Lothar, he and his companions had come to Draenor during the second war against the orcs and destroyed the Dark Portal to keep more orcs from invading our world. With no way to return home they'd been trapped on Draenor for twenty years or more, devoting themselves to keeping things under control.

Other people were there ahead of us and we had to wait our turn to receive orders. I saw the draenei Kayllen talking to a draenei official to one side of the desk. Their conversation was becoming quite heated, and unashamedly I eavesdropped.

"Nobody wants you as their healer, Kayllen," the draenei said.

"Every group you've been with says the same thing. You're unreliable, too easily distracted, a liability. I'm not sending you out unless you can find someone willing to accept you."

"Fine. If that's how you feel, Kryv, I'll go out alone. There's plenty I can do on my own."

Before anyone could say anything more Kayllen turned and stomped out. The draenei at the desk shrugged and turned back to his task.

I hesitated for a moment then made up my mind and turned to Gillaen.

"Can you manage without me?" I asked.

"Yes, sure, I guess so," my brother replied.

I stepped out of the line and walked up to the desk.

"I'll go with him," I said. "Where will I find him?"

"Most likely the Path of Glory or the Expedition Armoury. There's not much else he could do alone."

He handed me a flask of water.

"Take this; it's Draenei Holy Water. If you end up on the Path of Glory use it to bless any draenei bones you find. A drop or two will suffice and it will give peace to our dead."

I took the flask and tucked it securely into my pack before leaving. There was no sign of Kayllen within the walls. He had to have a mount, I reasoned. It would be easier to spot him if I knew what he was riding. A quick chat with the stable master informed me that he was riding a winged guardian and he'd headed north.

The Path of Glory then; and what an inappropriate name that was. As I neared the road I saw Kayllen wandering along, tailed by his mount, a massive dark grey and white leonine beast. Every so often he paused and knelt as though praying. I landed a few yards from him and shifted from flight form to worgen. He was obviously aware I was there but he ignored me. Well, two could play at that game. I turned my attention to the task I'd been given, to bless the bones of any dead draenei I found on the road. I'd assumed they'd be relatively complete bodies, or at worst, whole skeletons; but as I looked around me I realised it was far worse than that. What I'd originally thought was broken stones under my feet was in fact partially crushed bones. The whole road was coated with them. I shuddered involuntarily; what kind of sick mind believed bones to be an appropriate paving material?

I pulled out the flask of holy water, but I had no idea how to deal with this and I muttered as much loud enough for Kayllen to hear.

"Look for the most complete ones," he said. "They're the ones who need our help the most, to let their spirits move on."

I watched him for a few moments. Kneeling, he tipped a drop from his bottle into a pile if bones and murmured a brief blessing. A faint wisp of something akin to smoke rose spiralling into the air and dissipated in the heat. I stepped away from him and began my own task. For some time we worked in silence

"I can't understand this," I said quietly.

"Don't even try," Kayllen replied. "Just let it suffice that the fel orcs have no respect for life. The orcs of the Horde, they killed so many draenei, they almost eradicated our race; but for the most part they fought fairly in battle, their warriors, their magic, against ours... except at Telmor... we thought the city was safe, hidden from sight. But there were two orcs who knew our secret, boys whose lives we'd saved. We had no idea they knew or we might have changed it, but we thought we were safe. In the end loyalty to their people was more important to them than gratitude for their lives.

"It would have been better if we'd let the ogres have them; we might have saved so many lives."

"But could you have done that? Deliberately left them to die?"

"No. That would make us no better than the Eredar. And we've been running from that fate for more years than I care to remember."

Kayllen wandered over to another pile of bones and knelt to bless them.

"I remember Argus," he murmured softly. "What it was before the Burning Legion destroyed our lives. We can never go back, but maybe one day we can find a new home where they can't find us."

I looked at him curiously, wondering how old he was to remember his people's original home. I'd heard that the draenei had been roaming the stars for thousands of years, always just one step ahead of the Burning Legion. Yet he seemed little older than me.

He stood and walked away, towards the road's edge, where he stopped and shoved his flask into a pocket.

"I can't keep doing this," he said and I could hear the anguish in his voice. "There are too many; and so few of us left to remember them."

"You can't do it all yourself," I argued, following him. "Maybe it's time for you to let someone else take their turn. Go home; make a new life for yourself."

"I lost everything at Telmor," he said, so quietly I almost couldn't hear him.

"What?"

"My wife, my beautiful Taari, they killed her in our home where she should have been safe. I never found out what happened to our daughter, she just disappeared. I only survived because I wasn't there when they attacked. Now, Telmor isn't even there, it fell into the void when Draenor broke apart."

I had no idea what to say; there wasn't anything that would make it right. All I could do was just listen.

I became aware of voices behind me and glanced over my shoulder. Several fel orcs had noticed us and were approaching.

"Kayllen, we need to get out of here, now. We can't take on that many at once."

He looked past me and nodded, reaching for the reins of his mount which had continued to shadow his every move.

"But you don't have a mount..."

"I'm a druid, I don't need one."

I watched him mount and take off before shifting to flight form and following. I barely made it before the fel orcs reached the place where we'd been standing. Circling round for a few moments I kept their attention while Kayllen made good his escape before following him. We landed at a safe distance away and I shifted back to worgen.

"That was too close for my liking," I commented. "We can't go back there now. Do you have anything else that needs doing?"

"The expedition armoury; I was asked to look for a mislaid book there, and deal with some of the ghosts."

"Ghosts? It always puzzles me how you can kill ghosts. I would think weapons would just pass through them."

"Nevertheless it can be done. I suspect these ghosts have more substance than normal ghosts. Otherwise they wouldn't ask people to do this."

I nodded. "Let's go then."

"You don't have to help me."

"I know."

I shifted back to flight form and took off in the direction I remembered from Gillaen's map. I'd almost passed Honor Hold by the time Kayllen caught up with me. An hour later we reached the armoury. I landed and shifted before we got too close; the ruined buildings were right on the edge of the land and I was wary of flying near it. I had no way of knowing how the thermals and air currents would be affected so close to the void. And another thing, something I never spoke of because it seemed so ridiculous for a druid, when I wasn't in flight form I had a fear of heights. As a stormcrow I could fly as far and as high as I chose with no ill effects. Possibly the bird mind had enough influence that it was able to subsume my fears, but in any other form the fear was there. There was no way I was going near enough to the edge of the world to be able to look down into the void of space. I'd heard someone talking about the Abyssal Shelf, how they'd been flying between the floating rocks and bombing demons. That was one task I would definitely not be volunteering for.

With Kayllen leading we made our way to the building where he'd been told he could find the book and after some searching we found it. Kayllen tucked it safely in his bag, then we turned our attention to the ghosts. They fought as fiercely as a living opponent; it seemed to me that they weren't aware that they were dead but eventually we managed to kill several, including their officers. It was then it became obvious they were ghosts as their bodies dissipated into vapour rather than remaining where they fell.

We headed back to Honor Hold as evening fell, and met up with Gillaen and the others. They'd been fighting demons at the Legion Front. Kayllen joined us for our evening meal and, at Gillaen's invitation, became a welcome addition to our group for the rest of the week.

Seer Kryv had little to say when we collected our instructions each morning; I think he was glad we had taken Kayllen off his hands and he no longer had to deal with the priest. It wasn't a problem for us; we'd taken a liking to the man, and were happy to include him in our group. When he wasn't in a melancholic mood, Kayllen was an interesting person to talk to, telling us about some of the many worlds he'd lived on during his long life. Of course what he never said, but what we all understood was that the draenei had been forced to leave those worlds when the Burning Legion caught up with them; and they almost certainly no longer existed as he remembered them.

We had to leave Draenor at the end of a week as we needed to be back on Azeroth ready for our journey to Pandaria. As we made our final report to Commander Trollbane Seer Kryv took me to one side and thanked me for helping Kayllen. I assured him that it had been no problem.

"He just needed someone to talk to," I said. "He's lonely."

We were at the flight master's post arranging for our flight back to the Dark Portal when Kayllen joined us. Leading his mount he came out of the stable and walked up to us. I glanced at the beast, laden with several bags and a variety of weapons.

"Going somewhere?" I asked curiously.

"Yes. I am returning to Darnassus, to the responsibilities I left there. Maybe one day I will return to Outland, but I need more time to let the memories fade, so I am not reminded so much of the home that I lost."

"That's sounds like a good decision," I commented. "My home is in Darnassus, so maybe after I return from Pandaria I will see you there."

Kayllen joined us on the flight back, his winged guardian easily keeping pace with our gryphons. Together we walked through the portal back to the Blasted Lands where it seemed very little had changed. It was there we parted company, Kayllen going to find a mage who would make him a portal back to Darnassus and the rest of us to reclaim our horses from the stables.

The stable master looked heartily relieved to see us. It seemed as if he couldn't get our horses out of his stable quick enough. He led out Jothan's, Lissan's and my horses readily enough, but told Gillaen he could fetch his own horse.

"And don't ever ask me to care for that demon horse again. I won't have it in my stables."

Gillaen made no reply; he simply walked past the man to the stall where his horse had been housed. It stood there quietly enough watching him approach and bent its head to his caress.

"Doesn't seem very demonic to me," I commented. The stable master merely snorted and walked away. Gillaen opened the door and the horse whinnied, causing the man to quicken his pace. Gillaen chuckled softly as he stroked the creature's neck.

"Hush now, my Joy," he soothed, so quietly I scarcely heard him.

"Don't be so unkind. He doesn't understand you, that's all."

I watched him begin to saddle and bridle his horse, his every movement gentle and slow.

"Joy?" I queried.

Gillaen glanced up at me for a moment before he resumed his task.

"She was a joy to me when all there was in my life was death and pain and loneliness, and she never held it against me for stealing her and taking her life. She deserves all I can give her."

I said nothing more, musing over what my brother had said. I'd never thought about how he came by his horse, assuming I suppose that it was just a demonic summoning. I hadn't realised that he'd had to create her from a living creature. And knowing my brother he regarded it as yet another in his list of wrong-doing.

Note - I had the idea for the name of Gillaen's horse from the hymn "When a knight won his spurs". The line that inspired me was "let faith be my shield and let joy be my steed" and I thought it sounded right for Gillaen.