Chapter 3
Alyna hugged her knees as best she could as she sat facing the campfire. They had spent the last five days travelling, and were only a couple more days from Silvermoon. They had stopped in a small village for the night, and the local mayor had practically fallen over himself as he offered his home to her father and the mages. They had accepted, as they thought was their right. Alyna had stubbornly refused, preferring to sleep outside, as she had every night. This had forced her father to leave two of his arcanists outside with her to act as guards, and they were making sure she knew of their discomfort.
She didn't care. They were ruining her life. She ate awkwardly as her hands were still bound, though she had no appetite. Her burnt hand had been finally healed at least as the village had a visiting priestess versed in healing magic. Ultimately, she was just relieved to be outside in the fresh air. The carriage was cramped and the ride had not been a smooth one despite the expensive suspension it possessed. Her father had almost constantly spoken about what Alyna would be learning, and who would teach it, but she had not engaged him at all in conversation. It had been a one-way stream of information she had no interest in.
She looked up as she heard a commotion in the direction of the village centre. She could hear horses snorting and stamping, and eventually voices raised in anger. One of them was instantly recognisable to her.
Only just managing to remember to be formal, she cried out, "General! I'm over here!"
After a brief pause in activity, she could hear approaching hooves. "Alyna?"
"Over here!" she yelled as she clambered to her feet, the two guards stepping nearer as she did so.
Sylvanas trotted into view on her large grey Quel'dorei steed. When she saw Alyna, she dismounted quickly, not even waiting for it to stop, before she rushed over to pull her into a fierce embrace. It took a moment before the general realised she wasn't being hugged back and she pulled away and looked down at Alyna's bound wrists. She whirled on one of the mages guarding Alyna.
"What is the meaning of this?" she demanded furiously.
"It's to prevent her from casting magic inadvertently and potentially hurting herself, or others," came the commanding tone of Alyna's father from behind them.
Sylvanas turned to regard the approaching magister. "Magister Salonar, I presume?"
He bowed his head slightly. "Ranger General Windrunner. I regret we are meeting under these circumstances, but it's an honour to meet you."
She did not return his pleasantry. "I had a rather urgent message telling me one of my captains had been kidnapped by her own father. Care to explain, Magister?"
If the words had any effect on her father, Alyna didn't see it. He calmly pulled a small scroll from inside his robes and handed it over to Sylvanas. When she had finished reading it, she glanced at Alyna before she addressed the magister. "I want to talk to my captain. Alone."
He took a moment to consider the request, and then turned to go back to the mayor's home, Alyna's guards following him.
Sylvanas moved around so she could keep an eye on any one who may approach them before she held the scroll out to Alyna, her tone clipped. "Have you seen this?"
She shook her head, "No." She took it from Sylvanas and began to read, her eyes widening in shock. It was a writ stamped by her own grandfather on behalf of the Council of Silvermoon and the Magisterium, authorising her father to detain and test Alyna for magical talent, and remove her to Quel'Danas for training if she was found to possess magic, by any means necessary. It had been issued at the request of her father, after hearing of a report from two fellow magisters regarding a Farstrider captain who they suspected of using magic to save the life of a civilian.
"I read your report regarding that event, and I keenly remember you not mentioning that you used magic, or are even capable of such." Alyna realised Sylvanas was angry, and the general was now pacing. Sylvanas never paced, and to see her so agitated unsettled Alyna. "Do you have any idea how stupid you've just made me seem by my rushing out here to stop a legal proceeding issued by the Council themselves?"
Alyna blinked. "I … I'm sorry you've been inconvenienced by my life effectively coming to an end," she snapped bitterly.
"You're being melodramatic, Alyna," Sylvanas snapped back. "You've manifested magical talent; something most citizens would love to be able to do. I realise it's a bit of a shock having it happen so long after adolescence, but your life is not coming to an end."
"That's so easy for you to say isn't it?" She could feel tears forming and she tried to blink them away. "It's not your life being turned upside down! It's not you being ripped away from everything you've worked hard for, and from everything you love!" Alyna stopped and blinked in realisation. "Wait, are you happy that I'm being taken away? Is that it? I'm finally out of your hair?"
Sylvanas groaned. "By the Sunwell, not this again. I thought we were done with you thinking I don't want you in my life. I don't doubt this is going to make a complicated situation even more ridiculous, but I'm not about to abandon you."
"Sure as hell feels like it. You're just handing me over!"
"What the fuck am I supposed to do against an order from the Council, Alyna?" Sylvanas hissed. "Sure, I could take you and leave but to what end? Where could we run to? We'd be caught, and I'd be arrested and thrown out of the Farstriders, and you'd still be taken to Quel'Danas to train as a mage, albeit as an effective prisoner yourself with absolutely no liberties."
Alyna slumped down to the floor, her body feeling cold despite the heat from the campfire. "So that's it," she said in defeat. She threw the scroll into the fire, causing Sylvanas to yelp as she tried to lunge after it.
"Ahh … shit! I can't believe you just did that," she groaned in annoyance.
"It's just parchment." She shrugged. "I'm still going to be taken against my will and you're still going to go back to Farstrider Enclave and get on with your life. Whether the writ exists or not now is a moot point. It's happening."
Sylvanas knelt down beside Alyna and threaded her fingers back through her own golden hair. "I'm not going back to the enclave just yet," she said softly. "I'm going to ride on to Silvermoon and see if I can talk to the Council before you arrive." She took Alyna's hand and squeezed it. "I don't know what's going to happen, but we're in this together, okay?"
Alyna looked up into the intent grey-blue eyes of her lover. "And if I'm now a mage for life?"
"We figured the distance out when I promoted you, and we'll figure this out too. If it means I'll have to attend a damn sight more Council meetings than I currently do so I'm closer to you for visits, then that's what I'll have to do."
Alyna smiled softly. "You hate those meetings."
Sylvanas quickly glanced around before she ducked her head down to give Alyna a brief but tender kiss. "I love you more," she whispered against her captain's lips. And with that, she was gone.
Alyna tugged at the awkward-fitting blue apprentice robe. Her mother had promised she'd have a better tailored one made before her father had told her to stop fussing. Obediently, her mother had obeyed and had left the room. With a growl, Alyna pulled the robe off over her head and threw it across her childhood bedroom before searching through her wardrobe. Nothing had changed since the last time she had seen it nine decades ago, and she was quite sure some of the clothing would disintegrate if she touched them.
Looking at the poor selection, she lamented her younger self's sense of fashion. She had tried to keep up with it in her youth in a vain attempt to fit in. She pulled out the drawers in frustration, and that's when she noticed the neatly folded pale blue leggings and tunic at the bottom of the wardrobe. She pulled out the simple garments and realised they were new. Her mother must have snuck them in there, she realised. Grateful, she pulled them on. They fit tightly, but then she hadn't expected a perfect fit. Her mother had used the last measurements available to her of a willowy youth. She was now a muscled woman and her new clothes left nothing to the imagination as they hugged every contour of her toned body.
Her only warning that someone was about to enter her room were the heavy steps on the landing outside before her father intruded into her solitude. His sense of entitlement had meant he never knocked, even when she was young. He looked at the discarded robe on the floor before looking her up and down in surprise.
"Where'd you get those from?" She pointed unhelpfully at the wardrobe. His surprise was quickly replaced with a frown as he realised the likely source. "No matter. You have a visitor. Don't keep her too long. We have work to do and I'm sure she is just as busy."
He left just as abruptly as he arrived before Sylvanas strode in, closing the door behind her. When she turned, Alyna could see the exhaustion on the face she knew so well, but it did not stop the older woman from looking Alyna up and down appreciatively, and she felt a little colour rise to her cheeks despite the situation. They regarded each other silently before Sylvanas took the first step forward. It acted as a release for Alyna and she flew into the waiting arms of her lover.
Strong arms held her tightly for long moments before she heard and felt a wretched sob shudder through Sylvanas' body. She pulled back and she knew by the look on her general's face that nothing could be done about her situation.
She had never heard her general sound so defeated. "I'm sorry, Alyna. I tried, but they just won't see reason. They ... they made me officially withdraw your commission."
Alyna felt the words like a physical blow, and she felt faint. Sylvanas took her weight and guided them to the bed where they sat together. She grasped just how much she had been hoping Sylvanas could make the Council agree to letting Alyna go back to being a ranger after she was no longer a threat. She felt her tears run hotly down her cheeks. Sylvanas was blinking away some of her own.
"This is not what I am," Alyna whispered hoarsely. "I'm a ranger … I can't be a mage."
Sylvanas held her close, her hand making slow circles on her lower back in an attempt to calm her. She felt her general rest her cheek against the top of her head as she spoke. "If there's one thing I've learnt about you, my love, it's that you can be whatever you set your mind to."
Alyna pulled away to gape at Sylvanas. "You're saying to … be the best mage I can be? Embrace something I hate?"
Sylvanas pinched the bridge of her nose. "Life as a mage can be highly restrictive when you're starting out. What I'm suggesting … is that you focus on becoming as accomplished a mage as you have become a ranger. The higher you rise amongst their ranks; the more freedom you'll have to do what you want." She gently brushed Alyna's wet cheek tenderly with her fingers. "The more freedom we'll have to be together."
Alyna wrapped her fingers around Sylvanas' and held them tightly. "You'll visit?" she asked hopefully.
Sylvanas smiled softly. "As regularly as I can. They won't be able to stop me from seeing you." She glanced around the bedroom. "Though, you may want to move out of your father's house if we're to have any kind of privacy."
Alyna agreed. "Not to mention retain my sanity. This is all bad enough without living under his roof. I'll make it a priority."
The exhausted general pulled Alyna into a long, explorative kiss, and the younger woman sunk into it readily. It was over too soon though, and they rested their foreheads together after, neither wanting to be the first to move.
"You have to go," Alyna said sadly, desperately not wanting to be left alone in this new world.
The general sighed. "The longer I stay, the more likely your father will catch us doing something he'll disapprove of."
"I like those things."
Sylvanas chuckled. "So do I." She paused before saying quietly, "I love you. Once I've sorted a few things out, I'll be back, I promise."
Alyna nodded, their foreheads still touching. She knew Sylvanas had to fill her now vacant captaincy, and deal with the repercussions of one of her Farstriders being publically removed from office and escorted up through Quel'Thalas in magical restraints. It was a public relations nightmare for the general, and she'd have to confront it sooner rather than later.
"I love you too, my General. I'll be waiting."
They shared one more kiss before Sylvanas reluctantly left. Alyna curled up into herself on the bed, hugging her knees to her chest. She could hear voices below her as Sylvanas said her farewells, and with a heavy heart, she listened to the sound of retreating hoof beats as the woman she loved went back to the life Alyna would never know again.
