Chapter 1 - Prologue – The Shining City of Stormwind
Stormwind was beautiful at sunrise.
The whitewashed walls of the great city seemed to glow almost copper in the light of the dawn. It was a beauty few people saw since most of the two hundred thousand citizens were still sleep in their beds not yet ready to face the day.
King Varian Wrynn stood on the balcony of his chambers looking out as the sun began to kiss the buildings with the warm healing glow. In his arms was the still sleeping Princess he had longed for. He loved his son, but since he had fallen in love with Rhenn, though his feelings were forbidden for a long time, he had craved to have a child with her, and that child to be a daughter to have her grace and intellect, but his ability to fight and strategize. Anduin, though he did well enough in battles with others with him, such as his step brother Jamiy, he was no warrior. That said being a priest was no trivial skill either and he was thankful of his son's ability to soothe tempers as his wife did.
He looked down. This child, however, would be different. He would be there for her and train her himself. With any hope she would be as good as Varian himself, perhaps even better. He looked at her fair skinned face and smiled. Her thick curly dark hair on her head was one of the few marks of her sire, but even as she gripped his finger in her sleep, he felt her strength.
He chuckled a little and bent to kiss her brow, breathed in her soft baby scent, and sighed. She smelled like the lavender bath the nurse had washed her in the night before as well as the unique calming scent all babies seemed to possess. He remembered it well from holding Anduin when he was a babe.
Varian was not in his armor and had risen from bed unable to sleep anymore. His wife, the beautiful Rhenn of the Tuskarr, was still sleeping in their great bed. He could see her in the shadows breathing lightly as the room began to lighten.
He looked back at the small princess that rested tucked in the crook of his arm. He had picked her up and carried her to the balcony needing to think and holding his prized princess made it all the better. He had such little time holding her during the day when she was awake, but sleeping he could just hold her.
He knew well she would wake soon and demand breakfast from his wife's breast shortly before his wife, the Queen whom had recently returned to him, would demand breakfast as well. Country living had slimmed her body back down so she looked as though she had never been pregnant with Thea in the first place. The pregnancies and years had added to her figure, but to the king it made her all the more desirable rather than less.
Thea yawned a little in her sleep and he froze not wanting her to wake just yet. He wanted a few more moments with her before she woke and started to cry. This would wake Rhenn whom he also hoped would sleep longer, though her breasts would soon ache enough to cause her to wake as well.
He looked down into the courtyard. A horse with a young foal was being lad toward the stables. The young filly was still young and a little wild as evidenced by her kicking up her back legs and moving about her mother, but soon his daughter would be of age to ride and he would teach her. First, in the saddle with him on his own mount and then on her own, on that very horse. The filly's was named Light's Joy or simply Joy, named because she was born the same day that the Scourge was driven from Stormwind. Her mother Hope's Fury was a horse of the Argent Crusade that had been born at Light's Hope Chapel in the Plaguelands. Such a good line was worthy of a princess.
Varian kissed the tiny brow and sighed. His little hope. Aramathea, daughter of Kings. She would be beautiful and a force to be reckoned with. He smiled. Anduin, her much senior brother, was equally as taken with her and was often holding her to gain his on practice for when his own child was born. Ellsa was with child and the thought of being a grandfather in his own right made Varian smile. More children to love and spoil were exactly what the aging warrior wanted.
He watched the dawn brighten in the sky and thought of his son. He had feared at first that Anduin would be jealous of the affections he lavished on his daughter and wife, but Anduin did as well. The Prince seemed to be just as content with his sister as the King, perhaps more so. With her, Varian had another chance to be the father he had always wanted to be. He had been so enthralled at Anduin's birth, but when Tiffin had been murdered, he had sunk into a deep depression and did not even see his son often. Nursemaids raised him, much to Varian's regret. The boy had been very intelligent and been well read, but not a warrior as his father had hoped. When Varian had been kidnapped, then split, his son had been a regent with his two care takers. He had returned and been made whole again and devoted himself to his son, but his son, then a teenager, rejected some of what his father tried to do. As such Varian had sent him to learn from King Magni of Ironforge and one of Anduin's favorite "uncles". There he had learned well, but was not skilled at being a warrior even still. His talents lay elsewhere and Varian had finally accepted that.
Rhenn had been a supporter and teacher to his son from when she had first came to Stormwind. She was far younger and was almost more of a big sister than a mother, but he had craved that maternal guidance as much as he had paternal when Varian had been missing. Now as Queen, Anduin regarded her as the mother he had always known since Tiffin, though she birthed him, had died when he was still a young toddler and he did not remember her.
Varian sighed and shifted his daughter so he could look at her. She was perfect. From her tiny pointed ears to her tiny toes, she was destined to do great things. Her father would see to that. She was his princess as much as the kingdom's and he would love and protect her and correct his mistakes with Anduin.
Aramathea, his light.