Author's Note: This chapter takes place during Legion.
"May you one day find peace, Mel." He said as his kissed her gauntleted hand and bowed his head.
Melaria Dawnrunner nodded, even though her husband had already turned away, and melted back into the shadows. She waited until she was a sufficient distance away, then sat down against a wall and let out a gut-wrenching sob. She was dead, wasn't she? How is it possible for me to feel this way…? She thought miserably.
Melaria had spent almost the entirety of the last decade since her untimely death at the hands of the Scourge trying to track down her husband, Thantys Dawnrunner. Despite her superior tracking skills, a remnant of her life as a Farstrider ranger, he proved quite difficult to locate. It seemed that her once-predictable mate had, in fact, altered his calling from artificer in Dalaran to a strange combination of that plus a bit of archaeologist and treasure hunter, travelling to distant lands to bring magical artifacts back to the Kirin Tor. What was even more astonishing was the fact that he had taken an apprentice, a young human boy. He had never done that in the centuries they had been married, never expressed any interest in doing so, ceding that area of expertise to his twin brother. Why he chose to take one on at the time was anyone's guess. Outside of those two areas, Thantys remained much the same as he ever was.
Once located, she spent the next few years keeping track of him between doing missions of atonement for her past crimes as a death knight, never daring to show herself for fear of his reaction to her. There had been one scare, however, as she stood in Dalaran staring at the back of his head from behind a pillar about fifty feet away. He really does have the most gorgeous hair, she had thought for the hundred thousandth time as she watched him. Without warning he turned around and looked in her direction. She fled the scene immediately, thankfully never revealing her presence. One day, about a week ago, she gathered up the resolve to finally meet him; she just had to wait for the right opportunity.
That opportunity came today, as he had to travel to Undercity on a mission for the Kirin Tor. For whatever reason he had decided not to stay in an inn, rather opting to make camp in a secluded area of the Ruins of Lordaeron. She pondered that strange choice, also so unlike him, as she watched him from the deep, menacing shadows of the ruined courtyard. She steeled herself for the inevitable confrontation, anxiety somehow knotting in her chest. Ever so slowly, she inched forward until she stood at the border between visibility and shadow, and waited. She did not have to wait long.
"Who's there?" called a voice, as she felt her feet encased in ice, unable to move away.
To her immense sorrow and disappointment, Thantys reacted…poorly…to her existence. Instead of unbridled joy at his wife's continued presence in the mortal realm, he seemed to feel first surprise, then shock, then resignation with a hint of disgust in his eyes. It utterly broke her to see that last marring his still-handsome countenance. They talked for over an hour. Despite her best efforts, and eventual frustration, she failed to make him see her as anything but a monster who happened to look like his Mel and who happened to possess her memories. Their reunion reached a breaking point the moment he expressed his hope to never see her again. He must have heard the despair in her voice and seen it in her expression, as all traces of earlier disgust left his eyes, to be replaced by a forlorn solidarity. He explained that it was incredibly painful for him to see her this way, and he would have been better off never knowing. He still loved the woman she had been and all of the fond memories they shared, he said, but he could not fathom friendship with a being who reminded him of everything he had lost. Their meeting ended on a wholly unsatisfying note, at least for her.
Could she really disappear from his life entirely? What, then, would be her purpose in undeath? She brooded over the prospect of wandering about with no goals, no reason to continue. Those are the only things giving her life, such as it was, any meaning. She shook her head and let out a bitter laugh at the absurdity of it all. What am I doing, pining over a man when there are far more important things to worry about? I have my mission, to get revenge on those who made me this way and took away everything! If I can't have Than, I can at least make the Burning Legion pay for what they have done! With that barely sustainable thought, she disappeared from the ruins.
The Felskorn raiders charged at her, yelling obscenities and threats in their own strange tongue. Melaria stood her ground and gave them a cruel smile as she thrust out a hand and let dark magic fly. The ground between her and the raiders instantly withered and decayed, slowing them down dramatically. Bewildered, they looked down before trying in vain to rush at her faster, brandishing their greatswords, their strength dwindling every second they stood in the death and decay. At long last, they reached her and she quickly dispatched them in their weakened state, using her own greatsword to leave lengthy, bloody gashes across their chests. With a grim nod, she turned and sauntered away.
She heard a faint groan coming from one of the raiders. He was still alive! That simply would not do. She immediately rushed back and plunged her blade into his heart, killing him on the spot. She glared at him. What was infinitely worse than the Burning Legion was, in her mind, a living person who willingly allied with the Burning Legion, as the Felskorn Vrykul in Stormheim had done. Couldn't these fools see that allying with the Legion was to spell their own destruction? Did they really think they would be spared from the upcoming annihilation if they won? They deserved whatever they received, and more.
A few minutes later, she heard the pounding of hooves along the road. She stood and smiled, for she recognized the horse. She waited for the rider to approach. "It took you long enough, I almost slaughtered the whole camp waiting for you!" she called.
The rider slowed to a halt and gracefully leapt off the horse and on to the road. Elendraa Dawnrunner, her sister-in-law, stood before her with her blue-black plate armor and twin pink blades. "Sorry Mel, I…spent the night with Nix and lost track of the time." She said, strangely intent on looking at the dead raiders strewn about the side of the road.
Melaria gaped at her. Was she blushing? No that's impossible, death knights can't blush. Last night must have gone really well then. A few weeks ago, only days after her meeting with Thantys, Elendraa had shown up to the cave they temporarily shared excited to share her own news. She had found her former husband, Nixillis, who was also Than's twin. Nixillis had apparently been far more receptive to Elendraa's existence than her own husband was, and Mel had tried her hardest not to let any of her bitterness cast any gloom. One of them had to be happy, or as close to it as they could be in death. She enjoyed the feeling of the sisterhood of sorts they shared, so she would not tarnish it. Elendraa had been outraged when Mel told her of Than's reaction to her, in fact she had been on the verge of finding him herself and threatening him at swordpoint when Mel quickly diffused her temper by revealing a rumor of Nix's whereabouts. That rumor proved to be true, and Elendraa had rushed off between forays into the Broken Isles to be with him ever since.
"No worries, Ele, I'm glad you had a good time." Mel said, genuinely meaning it.
"What do we have here?" Elendraa asked, looking around.
"No more than scum getting what they deserve."
"Oh, are these Felskorn?" Elendraa mused. Her mouth curved into a wicked grin. "Are there more?"
For the next few hours, the two death knights worked in silence, utterly wiping the Felskorn raiders from the map amid a flurry of frost, blood, and plague magic. Both were deadly grace personified, borne of a lifetime of combat training and fighting: Mel a Farstrider, Elendraa a battle mage of the Kirin Tor. Now, in death, they kept their martial prowess yet had new skills added to their arsenal. Elendraa had additional frost abilities to supplement her already prodigious frost magic, while Mel gained the use of significant quantities of disease and unholy magic. She supposed the Lich King granted her the ultimate perversion of everything she once stood for in life; Farstriders protected all life in Quel'thalas, yet in death Mel's very presence was sufficient to drain the living essence from anything she touched with her bare hands.
After the battle they left the carnage behind, oblivious to the rotting stench of the corpses. They stopped near a rocky outcropping by a stream and knelt down to clean their gear before the next incursion. Now that the fog of war had cleared from Mel's mind, her misery returned in full force, exacerbated by the knowledge of her companion's own good feelings.
Elendraa gazed at her as she scrubbed gore from her armor with more vigor than necessary. She gently took one of Mel's hands. "Mel, what's wrong? And don't tell me nothing's wrong, I know you! You'll break that wrist guard if you keep at it like that."
Mel sighed. Was she always so transparent? Apparently so. "To tell you the truth, Ele, seeing you flush after an encounter with your husband makes me jealous. I shouldn't even be able to feel jealousy, but there it is. For weeks I have tried to put Than out of my mind, but I cannot. He does not want me in his life the way I am, but I know him, Ele! I know he is more miserable now without me…he needs me. He needs me, but he won't have me. That breaks me inside."
Elendraa looked at her with an expression not entirely unlike pity. "I talked to Nix about what you told me, Mel. I was – am – incensed Than would speak to you that way and say all those horrible things to you. Nix was shocked, but then he believes Than will come around if he has not already. He says his brother processes things differently and while he was willing to accept me as I am immediately, Than will take longer to do that for you. But he hopes he will. Also…" she smiled knowingly and added, "I have a feeling Than is about to get an earful from him any time now. You know how they are."
Mel did know how the twins were, at least she thought she did. During the centuries she shared with that family, she discovered that both brothers stopped at nothing to annoy one another and, when one did something the other did not like, the former would never cease to hear about it. If what Ele said was true, Than would definitely be having a tough time. As much as she disliked the thought of him going through anything remotely negative, she had to laugh out loud at the idea of the twins talking with each other as they once did many years ago. She could imagine the unbridled joy they must have felt not too long ago in discovering that the other was alive after being separated for over a decade, that they were not alone in the world after the Scourge invasion.
She stopped laughing. "Do you really think Than has changed his mind? I could not bear meeting with him a second time if it's going to be like the first…" she said, her eyes wide. She looked less like a death knight and more like a teenage elf with her first love.
Elendraa's gaze was adamantium. "Of course he's changed his mind. How can he not? But, if he for some reason cannot see sense, I can always…convince him my way. Go, go see him!" Her tone brooked no argument.
Mel nodded. "I will! I must! But I dare not try to talk to him myself. Can you arrange a meeting with him through Nix?"
"Yes, absolutely. Tell me your message and I will make sure Than gets it."
True to her word, through a series of complicated channels even Mel had trouble following, Elendraa was able to alert Thantys of her desire to meet with him again. She stood alone in the broken, crumbling ruins of her parents' house in what they now called the Ghostlands. After the invasion all those years ago, her parents were forced to flee to Silvermoon City where they now lived. They left everything behind, never daring to brave the Dead Scar to retrieve their belongings. Going through what was left of the dwelling, Mel felt wave after wave of nostalgia and sorrow as she waited for Thantys to arrive. If he actually does arrive…she thought. Her message to him said that she would wait here all day and all night. If he did not show up by dawn, she would leave the area and never attempt to message him again, as that would prove once and for all that he did not want her.
Mel waited, her heightened senses on high alert for any sign of trouble from either the living or the dead. She dared not venture too much farther into Sin'dorei territory for fear of reprisal. Even this remote location was putting her existence at great risk. Yet this place called to her as a beacon, since this was where she and Thantys first met over three centuries ago. Surely he would not have forgotten…
At long last, a portal wove into being in the main living room and an elf emerged, smiling slightly at his surroundings.