A/N:I am so sorry for such a long delay! Soul searching happened, vacation happened, and now university projects are picking up again so busy-busy-busyness galore. Such a bad excuse of course, and I hope this chapter will make up for such a long wait.
As always, a hundred thousand thanks for your thorough and honest reviews on my humble story, White Bishop! Looking back on the previous chapter I see a lot I can definitely improve on, and I wholeheartedly agree to the remark of a feeling like it was a filler chapter. It was embarrassing to admit it to myself, but in the end I can't refute that! I know I can do better, and I absolutely will. Thank you!
Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoy!
Apsara snapped awake, realizing she had drifted off. Opening her heavy-lidded eyes to see the darkening desert sky she found a field of stars winking into existence above her and her companions. Breathlessly she watched the river of light formed by individual bright pinpoints stretch across the skies. She ignored the aching of her back and neck and slowly tilted her chin upwards, sleepily marveling at the velvety smooth dark purples and blues of the sky before it would fade to black.
She was sitting in front of Baile on the war wolf, she remembered. The exhaustion was still heavy in her bones as she shifted, trying to ease the ache in her lower back. The movement dislodged a thin sheet of fine-grained sand that had been forming in the folds of her bunched-up robe and sent it sliding down the fabric and into the ground. The hem was hitched high, almost to her hip, revealing the thin leggings she had trained in that morning.
Had it really been this morning? Apsara thought to herself tiredly as she stifled a yawn.
Baile's arms surrounded her, gently keeping her in place while her back rested against his chest, the metallic edges of his armor chafing even through the layered fabric of her robes. Mentally shaking herself awake, Apsara straightened in the saddle and cast a final glance towards the skies.
Fine grains of sand kicked up by the occasional gusts of wind made her want to cough and she was almost certain that full handfuls of sand nested in her hair. Apsara noticed that the skin of her face felt tight and hot; she must've gotten sunburnt already. She would have given a lot for a bath as the first layer of her robes clung her body like a second skin. Rapidly cooling sweat made her cringe, but she resigned to tolerating the sensation as it was not likely she would be able to change into fresh robes anytime soon.
Off to her left, Kremor remarked in an exhausted voice, "Well, if I had to choose between this and the wide open desert for a place to sleep, I would choose this." Nayanna murmured her grumpy assent, her words too quiet for the priestess to hear.
The gentle swaying of the war wolf's rolling walk came to a halt. Apsara could feel Baile's chest move behind her. A sigh stirred her hair.
"Very well. It's not ideal to stay out in the wilderness, but we'll have to rest sometime."
The priestess peered through the gloom. The high dunes of the desert had turned to mostly flat sandy terrain with the occasional scattered silhouettes of wind-worn rocks of varying sizes and tough, sinewy underbrush spotting the scenery. They'd stopped at a clearing, about 5 meters in diameter; surrounded on three sides by large boulders - the largest being as tall as Baile, and the smallest half that height - that formed something like a protective wall against the cold night wind.
Nayanna and Kremor promptly slid off their exhausted raptor, landing with thuds in the sand. Behind Apsara, Baile threw his leg over the back of the wolf and dismounted. He hissed quietly as his feet made contact with the sand and promptly stretched, his back cracking audibly. Before he could step up and help Apsara dismount, she grabbed a handful of the wolf's black mane and slid down, with much less grace than the paladin. She landed heavily on her feet and the painful jolt traveling up her travel-weary, numb legs made her bite back a groan. Baile arched an eyebrow, barely visible in the darkness.
Truth be told, Apsara was done being put on a pedestal like a priceless jewel. Determination flared in her gut as she met Baile's eyes and smiled. As long as they were out in the wilderness, she would need to learn to look out for herself – starting right now. She would have to cut Baile's protective attempts short and carry her own weight.
To the side, Nayanna fussed with the great, green-and-black striped raptor. The warrior cooed at him as she pulled off the saddle and the bridle, trying to make the creature as comfortable as possible. Kremor did the same with the war wolf, undoing the clasp of the great spiked collar wrapped around his neck and opening the buckles of the saddle strap.
While the two were busy with their mounts, Baile motioned Apsara to follow him as he headed towards one of the boulders. Swiftly unhooking his magical satchels from his belt, he started rummaging through them. With an irritated click of his tongue, he soon abandoned the effort and let his shoulders sag.
"I did not take the bag with our rations or tent in it," he finally said in a flat tone, flicking the satchel lid shut. He reached to another bag and pulled out a water flask, giving it an experimental shake. From the sloshing sound, Apsara could discern less than half of the flask's contents remained.
Quickly running her fingers through her belongings, the realization that she had also left the bag with her bedroll and her meager camping supplies behind made her wince. She had some clothes – more precisely, one more robe and a light cloak -, a small coin pouch, her magical locket as well as the jeweled crown she was to deliver, but little else. They were out in the desert of Tanaris with barely anything, days from civilization and possibly any kind of shelter from the unforgiving sun. Apsara bit her lip, anxiety slowly taking hold.
Something clattered to the sand in the empty space between the stones and a bright spark momentarily lit the night.
In front of Apsara's surprised eyes Nayanna, whose eyes glowed a muted yellow in the darkness, flicked a burning bit of paper in the middle of the logs she had seemingly found in her magical bags and nursed the pitiful flame to a bright fire in the matter of minutes. Cool gusts of wind sent the flames dancing, sending long shadows snaking across the desert. Warm glow illuminated their campsite, revealing Kremor in the process of pulling out something that looked like dried meat and bread wrapped in a cloth from his bags and their mounts laying comfortably in the sand next to each other. The wolf and the raptor eyed the meat with glinting eyes.
"There's plenty to go around... don't look at me like you're going to eat me!" Kremor admonished their mounts. The wolf turned his head away, glancing at Kremor from the corner of his eye. The raptor, however, kept on staring at him hungrily.
Apsara's stomach growled loud enough for all of her companions to snap their faces towards her. After a moment, all of them burst to laughter, the sound echoing off the stones around them and escaping into the night. Blushing with embarrassment, Apsara laughed the hardest.
It had indeed been a while since she'd last eaten.
"I should be afraid of the little priestess eating me, then!" Kremor chortled while putting together sizeable sandwiches with what he pulled from his bags. The shaman had also brought several full water skins with him which he passed around. To the questioning looks he shrugged his shoulders and mumbled that he liked to be prepared. Nayanna glared at him, and he begrudgingly added that it had been the warrior's idea to bring food.
The companions sat down around the campfire digging into the surprisingly tasty rations, Baile to Apsara's right by a large rock and Kremor and Nayanna across from the duo. True to his word, Kremor had indeed had enough to fill up everyone, including their mounts. Apsara suspected that most of what the lively shaman had in his bags was food.
"So, assuming we're in Tanaris, we might as well get an idea about our surroundings," Kremor began as he ate, etching a rough map in the sand with his finger.
Apsara scooted closer, looking at the shape the shaman was drawing. Tanaris was surrounded by mountains in the north and in the west, and impassable hills blocked passage to the south. Kremor scribbled wave-like shapes in the east, and Apsara realized that the sea was on that side. A quiet part of her hoped that she would like to see the sea and the long, white beaches she had read about.
Pursing her lips, Nayanna joined in. With her thin, long-nailed fingers she drew a circle with several boxes on it, located in the northeast portion of the map, fairly close to the mountains. She added hills to the east, between the inland sand dunes and the sea and tilted her head to appraise the map with a critical eye.
"I'm guessing we're somewhere here." Kremor poked a finger accusingly in the middle of their map. "Happy we didn't end up in the sea, but… this is not a great place to be. Especially not when we're not prepared."
Next to Apsara, Baile nodded as he examined the map, his narrowed eyes unreadable. "There should also be several tribes of ogres in these parts. We'd better avoid them," the paladin added, taking another bite out of his sandwich.
Nayanna, Kremor and Baile began planning a route through the dunes, every now and then glancing at the skies and arguing about the location of the stars. The quartet was to travel north, make a stop at Gadgetzan and after restocking their supplies ride into Thousand Needles and further to The Barrens, hopefully arriving without incident in Orgrimmar. Apsara fell into thought as she listened, knowing most locations by name only. What she did know is that traveling in a desert such as Tanaris without taking precautions would be dangerous. If they were to travel all day, they would not only need water, but they would also need protection from the sun. But what could they use?
She glanced around. Baile, having taken off his gauntlets, helmet and stripped himself of as much armor as possible, was walking around in a stained shirt and black pants. Kremor wore his long kilt and vest, which would be burning him up once the temperatures rose.
As for Nayanna…
Apsara wasn't quite sure whether Forsaken were bothered by heat, or even the unavoidable grains of sand that would wind up in her heavy armor and all over her face.
The priestess chewed on her lip as she pondered. Most of her companions would need something to protect their eyes from the sands somehow… and then Apsara realized that she might just have the thing.
Eagerly, she opened her clothing bag and looked at her remaining unused robe, neatly folded in her bag – an ornate priestess robe in her house's colors usually reserved for festive occasions; a regalia consisting of a bottom robe woven from lightweight cotton dyed a deep teal with light gold accents, over which she'd usually drape a long, lighter teal-with-white vest with flowing, pure white sleeves and beautifully embroidered golden details over the chest and up to her shoulders. An optional accessory, a belt of golden loops with small, sparkling topazes would top off the ensemble when worn, but Apsara had another idea.
She could only hope her mother would understand why she ripped her most beautiful – and by far the most expensive - robe.
As she pulled the robe out of her bag, her companions fell silent to stare at her. Baile swallowed, his eyes roaming the folded robe with a mixture of … horror and fascination?
"We'll be badly sunburnt by the time we reach Gadgetzan if we don't protect ourselves, right?" Apsara asked, unfolding the robe. "I think we can fashion some sort of head protection, at least, from this."
Her companions eyed the robe, eyes wide at the intricate embroidery and at her apparent willingness to destroy something that looked so expensive. Nayanna and Kremor began nodding appreciatively. Baile remained still, staring at the robe. As soon as he noticed that she saw his long stare, he tore his eyes from the garment, finishing his dinner in silence.
"That's a good idea, Apsara," Kremor admitted as he stood up and wandered to the priestess. "I know a thing or two about working with leather so I should be some kind of help with figuring out the best way of using this."
Together, Apsara and Kremor cut the cloth into strips and fashioned headwraps from the bottom robe and simple veils from the sheer vest to protect their eyes. Despite being Forsaken and not, strictly speaking, vulnerable to the elements in the way she had been when she was alive, Nayanna accepted the meager protective measures gratefully.
As soon as they were done with their dinner, Nayanna stood up and announced she would take the first watch. Without further ado, she stomped off into the darkness just beyond the reach of their campfire's light. Across the campfire from Baile and Apsara, Kremor laid on his back, his arms folded under his head as he rested. Baile folded his legs and began caring for his sword, working on removing the blood stains from the metal.
Apsara watched the surly Forsaken disappear into the darkness. Before the priestess could settle down for the evening, though, she would have to do something about her blood-soaked sleeves. It was good the blood had long since dried, but it seemed like it would have been entirely possible for the smell to attract predators, and the last thing that she wanted was having their camp attacked by hungry desert animals.
With a small sigh, she surveyed the state of her current robe.
The bloodstains on her robe were mostly down on her sleeves. There was no point in trying to wash the blood off – it had soaked through the fabric and crusted over. Apsara wrinkled her nose and set to cutting the sleeves off at her elbow with a small dagger, leaving her forearms bare to the elements.
It will just have to do, she thought grimly as she finished and discarded the stained pieces of cloth.
Silence returned – except for Kremor's increasing snoring across the campfire - and Apsara leaned backwards, settling against the smooth edge of the rock behind her. She looked up at the stars, now even more numerous up in the dark night sky.
She touched her throat gingerly with the tips of her fingers. The edges of the shallow wound were raw and stung at the gentle touch. She winced. By the feel of it the cut was mending, but she had entirely forgotten about it until now. A simple spell Apsara evoked closed the wound and purified it, preventing infection.
For now, she felt safe and content. She took a deep breath, reminding herself that she would be just fine if she would work together with Baile, Kremor and Nayanna. She would have to live a day at a time, and contact her mother with her magical locket as soon as they were back to civilization to explain the lengthy break in communication. Sathira would be furious, of course, but from Gadgetzan it wouldn't take too long for them to reach Orgrimmar – and from there she would be able to board a zeppelin to Undercity. From there on it was practically a hop away to Silvermoon.
Apsara lowered her gaze from the stars, looking at Baile. The warm light of the fire danced on his sharp features. Her eyes roamed his profile, sweeping past the sharp ridge of his nose down to his lips that were tightened in a concentrated line. Baile ran a cloth down his sword with practiced movements, carefully wiping off grime and dust until the blade shone in the meager light.
"I realize I promised to teach you about the stars," Baile remarked quietly as he held his sword up, examining the blade in the light of the campfire. "and I apologize I haven't really gotten around to it, Apsara."
"There hasn't really been an occasion to do that, Baile," Apsara replied, barely suppressing an unladylike snort. She clapped a hand on her mouth.
Baile's long, pointed ears twitched. He glanced at her sideways, his focus slowly shifting from his blade to her. The corners of his lips were pulled up in a sneaky grin as he regarded her.
"You've changed. Wonder if your mother will recognize you once you get back," he noted, seeming entirely too smug about it. For a moment, his grin faltered. "And I will bring you back. You have my word."
With a wave of her hand, Apsara dismissed the worried promise. "I was never afraid you wouldn't."
Baile watched her under his eyebrows. The priestess realized he was expecting her to elaborate.
"I don't want to feel like dead weight. That is why I'd like you to stop thinking of me as someone you need to guard and start thinking of me as someone who is your equal. Your companion." The words spilled from her lips before she could stop or even consider how she wanted to say it. At them, Baile's eyebrows rose in surprise. "I realize this is most likely the worst time for me to ask this, but… I want to be someone you can trust."
Apsara folded her hands in her lap, trying not to wring them. For a moment she wanted to apologize and to ask Baile to forget what she'd said, but determination and curiosity took hold of her.
The silver-haired paladin laid his sword gently on the sand. The neatly folded cleaning cloth followed and Baile leaned back, his grin fading further.
"I want you to be able to trust me enough to tell me what happened in the tower and why," Apsara finished, suddenly out of breath.
Avoiding her gaze, Baile rested his hands on his knees. His eyes were dark as he cleared his throat, trying to find words to explain his thoughts. "He nearly killed you, Apsara. I reacted on instinct."
The priestess shook her head slowly. "It's more than that."
The tall blood elf's shoulders stiffened, a crack in his smooth, steady facade. Slowly and carefully Apsara laid her small hand atop his, briefly brushing her fingertips across his knuckles. The contact of warm skin finally encouraged him to turn his gaze to meet hers. His eyes, sharp and cold even in the warm light of the fire, looked back at her, evaluating her.
"It's about time you tell me the truth, Baile. "
A deep sigh escaped the tall elf, his grim expression softening. Without pressuring him, Apsara simply smiled and waited patiently, watching the wary posture of her bodyguard. If there had been something Apsara had learned during her studies as a priestess, it had been that sometimes silence encouraged people to talk better than any words would.
Those days felt like they had happened lifetimes ago, now.
"The truth?" Baile asked quietly, mulling the word over. His eyebrows furrowed, the only sign of an internal struggle for a moment before he continued. "I was told to not tell you the truth, Apsara. You would have eventually heard it from your mother. Possibly even the moment you came home – but I doubt I can keep you from the truth for any longer, and your mother will have to deal with that." The slight joking tone died altogether too fast from his lips.
The slight shift in his stoic demeanor alerted Apsara to the gravity of what he was about to tell her.
"Despite what you might think, I'm more than a mercenary, Apsara," Baile began quietly, picking each word with uncharacteristic care, his gaze never wandering far from hers. His eyes never wandered far from hers as he spoke, his expression guarded. "I worked with your mother, true, but in a different.. capacity than what you might think."
Unease stirred in Apsara at those words. It's as if the collar of her robe was too tight and slowly robbing her of precious air. The priestess ignored the urge to tug at her robe to loosen it.
"Your family is known and respected for their resourcefulness, especially when it comes to magic and the research of it. In fact, some of this research is kept very secret, especially the kind pertaining to trapping and transferring souls. Ordinary enough for warlocks of all kinds to harness, but your family has managed to create one such slave with memories and skills of his own."
The priestess frowned, but remained silent. She tried to swallow, but found her throat dry. A small part of her protested. How could something like that even exist without her knowing? Baile was showing her a side of her own family she had not ever seen before, and the thought made her deeply uncomfortable. But somehow… deep inside her gut she knew he was speaking the truth.
"Your lineage is long and proud… and not without their trump cards." Baile's eyes flicked towards the Elenn family seal embroidered on the collar of Apsara's robe. "I am one of those trump cards. At your mother's behest I was recovered from my sleep and placed at your disposal."
The quiet, accusing tone in those words hit Apsara in the gut like a hammer. Merely thinking of Baile in the role of a slave to her household made no sense to Apsara as her mind reeled.
"You… what? … How can that be? You're not a magical servant, you're a sin'dorei, flesh and blood!"
Baile's upper lip curled an inch, ghosting the motion of snarling. Smoldering anger flared in his eyes before being carefully extinguished. "I am flesh and blood… and a magical servant, both. I am bound by an oath of servitude and magic that split my soul apart. Part of that soul is contained in a locket … which is in your mother's possession."
The weight of those words created a curtain of silence around the pair, the rest of the world suddenly forgotten.
Questions swirled in Apsara's head. Her knowledge about this kind of magic was limited, but she knew one thing – creatures with partial souls could never function to the extent they used to before a part of them had been taken away.
"Your soul… has been split? That explains why-"
"That is one part of the reason I can't cast magic except in very limited amounts, yes," the paladin interrupted, anger bubbling from within him before he could get it under control. Apsara flinched, but didn't pull her hand back from where it still lay on top of his. Baile turned his gaze away, flustered – him, of all people, flustered! – and shifted slightly.
Magic was the birthright as well as the curse of all sin'dorei. Many tread the extremely thin line between use and abuse, precariously teetering over the abyss that was magic addiction. A great number of blood elves kept their hunger in check by absorbing regular but strictly portioned doses of it, others became victims of it and did unspeakable things just to get their hands on some magic. These elves would then slowly transform into the Wretched, their outer appearance – emaciated faces, fingers transformed to claws, hollow eyes - matching their inner desperation. Their minds were entirely consumed by need, and they would not even recognize their own family or friends anymore, often becoming a threat to those they held dear.
Those creatures tended to disappear as fast as the guards would manage to dispose of them.
As a priestess, Apsara had been taught to keep the hunger for magic in check by meditation, but the simple act of casting a spell was just as important as the ability to taste or smell. To be barred from it was like being deprived of air. For a moment, she found it hard to breathe as she tried to imagine a life without magic.
Apsara could very well imagine the magnitude of Baile's anger and frustration. If someone as proud as himself was forced to serve in a state of perpetual magic starvation, the wrath that would be bubbling inside would be a force to be reckoned with. In a sudden flash she understood his stare when she had pulled out her Elenn ceremonial robe. It was a representation of all the things that had kept him leashed for so long.
Baile glanced across the campfire, towards the noisily snoring form of Kremor. The shaman rolled over to his side in his sleep while muttering something that Apsara didn't quite catch. Finally, the paladin turned his gaze back to her. His anger subdued, he simply looked at her, half expectantly.
"And… What happened back in the tower reminded me of something that happened long ago. I lost control of my temper," Baile continued in a lower voice, unwavering. He wouldn't apologize for what he had done, even as he lowered his voice further. "I didn't want it to end the same way it did back then."
Even without asking, somehow Apsara knew that whoever he had rushed to defend had died.
Her heart ached at the thought.
Baile watched her carefully, trying to gauge her reaction to everything he had just told her. She knew better than to pity him. To pity the paladin was to anger him beyond reproach. He didn't need her pity. He needed…
A thought struck Apsara.
It's not as if she wasn't in a position to help him. The fact the two had been brought together couldn't have been a coincidence. Apsara knew her mother disliked her steadfast belief in fate, but she knew it wouldn't change her perception of this chain of events.
She could free him.
She would free him even if she had to defy her mother – or even her whole family - to do it.
The priestess shifted on the sand and pulled her hand from where it laid on top of his, facing towards Baile fully. Her anxiety and worry faded away and were replaced by determination. She could breathe again freely, and so she inhaled in deep breaths of cool night air. For all that he had done for her – saved her life, shown her the world, fought by her side and turned to something much more than a friend - she owed him at least this much.
"I will do everything in my power to free you from your servitude. You deserve better," she simply announced.
Baile's eyes widened. "Apsara, you do not know-"
She shook her head, interrupting his sentence midway. Her frantic heartbeat, hammering against the cage of her ribs now, made her feel almost light-headed. "I might not know what happened a long time ago. What I do know is that my family has done wrong with what they've done to you. I'm an Elenn, for better or for worse. I am the one who needs to fix this."
Baile's resistance faded and he tugged the corners of his lips up in a small smile. "I admire your spirit - I truly do. You are persistent. Adaptive. Courageous."
Almost instinctively Apsara leaned closer to Baile. The tall elf towered over her, firelight dancing on his hair. The telltale burn of a blush crept down Apsara's ears. She barely felt it as she managed to conjure a confident smile on her face.
Baile's tone softened. He arched an eyebrow, questioningly. "However… I've been in your family's service for a very long time. Nothing short of a miracle will make Sathira hand over the locket with a part of my soul in it."
Feeling uncharacteristically bold, Apsara chuckled quietly. "Then we will just have to make a miracle happen, won't we?"
It was the paladin who leaned closer now. Their faces were suddenly very close to each other.
"If there is anyone capable of a miracle, it would be you," the paladin replied, his smile widening a fraction, the warmth of it finally reaching his eyes. In his eyes Apsara could also see a carefully hidden ocean of emotions and almost hear the unspoken words of gratitude, relief, worry.
Their breaths mingled in the cool night air. Her mind went blank as she gazed into his eyes, and he gazed back. Heartbeats passed with them just looking at each other, absorbing one another's presence.
Before Apsara could think about pulling back, Baile closed the distance between them and softly brushed his lips against hers.
A wave of warmth spread across Apsara's body, down from her neck all the way to her toes, leaving a tingling feeling in its wake. The tension that had been building between the two during their journey suddenly sparked. The priestess felt like she was floating, far away from thoughts of magical servitude and the tough reality of survival in Tanaris. She closed her eyes, breathing in his scent.
For a moment, a bittersweet thought crossed her mind. Why would he kiss me? I'm from the family that enslaved him…
All too soon, Baile pulled away and lifted his hand to touch her cheek. Apsara opened her eyes, breathless. He traced the outline of her jaw with a finger, smiling absent-mindedly.
"I've not known you for very long at all, Apsara," Baile began, tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear. "But your optimism and dedication shines bright indeed." The paladin retreated and pulled his hand back. The absence of Baile's lips against hers made her want to protest his withdrawal, blush burning her cheeks.
They both knew that what they were doing was unthinkable.
A killer and a healer. A slave and a mistress. A teacher and a student.
Kremor's snore turned into a cough, startling the duo and snapping Apsara out of her reverie. The shaman growled noisily in his sleep and rolled over, kicking up sand under the cloak he used as a blanket.
Apsara and Baile chuckled at Kremor. The orc seemed to have an atrocious sense of timing. He had successfully reminded the two elves that they were not far from danger at all.
"We should rest. Tomorrow is going to be tough enough as it is," Baile murmured quietly. "I… I think we're better off talking more when we're alone and not in the middle of a deadly desert. I will tell you all you want to know once we're safe."
Still dazed from the kiss, Apsara could only nod and mumble her agreement. She didn't resist when Baile handed her his cloak so that she could wrap up in it and sleep, protected from the cool gusts of night air.
The night had cooled down further, the frigid temperatures stinging her cheeks and fingers even as she laid down cautiously on her side. The lingering exhaustion from the battle in Alterac Valley surprised her and broke through her buzzing thoughts, forcing her asleep within minutes.
Well then! The mystery that is Baile has been somewhat unraveled, only to see that there's plenty more to it. ;) I had hard time writing the kissing scene - I found it somehow embarrassing, which is ridiculous because I read a lot more, ahem, adult stuff on and Archive of our Own. I guess it's difficult to show this side of me.
Besides writing, I'm also busy with artsy things. If you're curious, please look up Sissadora on Tumblr, because I regularly draw Apsara and Baile as well :)
Let me know what you guys think! I can't give any promises about chapter 13 delivery date, but it's continuously on my mind. :)
