The Nexus
The town was illuminated by street lamps when the sky got dark. People and beings from realms beyond Azeroth were heading back to their homes when stars began to fill the darkening azure. Looking out of the window, I couldn't help but wonder how nights and days work in the Nexus. But from what I had seen, it kind of worked in the same way as on Azeroth, with a sun during the day and a moon during the night.
Mandel had allowed me to stay inside the guest room on the second floor until I could find my own plot of land. Timmy and Sera's room was beside mine while Mandel and his wife's was on the opposite side.
Having discarded the plates save my tunic and breeches, my body felt much lighter with the heavy armor off. Since that helmet came on my head, I hadn't taken my armor off for years. I walked back to the bed and sat down before trying to recall what had happened after the dinner.
After Alicia had cleared the plates and sent Timmy and Sera to their room, the three of us continued to talk about how each of us had gotten here.
My curiosity on why I felt I had seen Alicia and Timmy somewhere before was satisfied when I remembered what had happened during my paladin years. It was during the mission to defend Strahnbrad—a town raided by the Blackrock orcs during that time—that I first met Alicia and Timmy. On my way to Strahnbrad, I encountered a woman who pleaded me to rescue a boy from a group of gnolls. That woman was Alicia and the boy I had rescued was Timmy. When this was brought up, Alicia told me how grateful she was—for Timmy wouldn't have been sitting with us at the dinner earlier if I hadn't listened to her plea—along with how a good prince I had been and still was. I would like to differ on the latter, but didn't say anything as I would tell her and Mandel everything at the end of the conversation.
Alicia told me how she and her husband had migrated to Theramore during some point after my first encounter with her and Timmy. She had sent her older sons to study in Stormwind, leaving only Timmy with her and Mandel.
Little Timmy he was. I couldn't help but smiled at how I once had saved a life. A life which brought smiles to a family unlike me who had brought dismay and demise to my own bloodline.
Alicia continued with how she, Mandel, and Timmy had managed to fall into a Nexus portal on one particular day, along with how they had been living here since then while making visits to Azeroth from time to time. Sera was also conceived and born here in the Nexus. It was at this moment when Alicia asked me a question I hadn't expected to come up so soon.
"What happened to you Arthas?"
"I…" I couldn't continue. It was too much for me to bear to go over my atrocities again, especially that one decision which later led me to the Frozen Throne while shattering a part of me in the process. I remained silent, my gaze falling onto my lap while I tried to gather the nerve to speak up.
"It's okay if you don't want to tell us," said Mendel. "It will do no good if it causes you pain when you speak about it." He placed his hand on my shoulder and gave me some pats. Looking up from my lap, I saw both Mandel and Alicia smiling at me, trying to cheer me up.
Lying down, I sighed before closing my eyes. I lay there trying to clear my mind while silence occupied the room. It was so quiet now—I could hear the night ambience, my breaths, and soft beats of my heart.
Wait.
I sat up instantly after that thought.
No.
I bolted out of the room and went downstairs, all the while trying not to make any noise. Entering the bathroom and switching on the lights, I walked up to the mirror and took off my tunic before throwing it on the floor. Time froze the moment I looked at the once familiar image of a man.
My skin, while currently pale, had started to gain its pigment back. My white hair, noticeable from lock to lock, had started to show its former blonde color. My blue-green eyes had also retained their once lost sparkles.
It cannot be.
The moment I struck the cursed blade into my chest and ripped out my heart came back to me when I saw my torso. My chest on which I had thought to have an opening was instead lined with a long scar. Beneath it came beats of something, something precious for me to become a human again after not being one for so long.
It was my heart, back and beating as it once used to.
I am alive.
Icecrown Citadel
"Yes adventurers, how may I help you?"
"We have something to give to you, Lady Jaina."
"…What is that in your hand?"
