The Fourth Test

"Attack Darnassus? Do we even have the means to do such a thing?"

Before Sylvanas could scold Thalina for speaking out of turn, Athrodar spoke up. "She's right actually. We've left Gallywix and his goblins in charge of creating weapons, I only spoke to them yesterday to see if he had any, to which he didn't."

As if only hearing the concern from her General, Sylvanas addressed the situation by looking at only him. "No, we don't have the means to do such a thing. But we can prepare for the attack on that tree nonetheless.

"By occupying Darnassus however," She added. "we will control the flow of Azerite and ensure it cannot be used against us. The Alliance will dare not attack its own city for fear of harming civilians."

"And you're sure the Kal'dorei will just allow you to occupy their tree?"

Both Athrodar and Sylvanas turned their gaze to Thalina, the Warchief glaring at her for speaking out of turn once more, Athrodar shaking his head at her when she looked over to him. Stop talking. You're going to make it worse for yourself.

Sylvanas looked over to Athrodar, once again addressing him instead of Thalina who had asked the question. "They will defy our occupation... Unless we break their spirits. We must inflict a blow that will show them what is at stake. They need to lose something... someone... in whom they have absolute trust and faith. A symbol of hope."

Athrodar slowly nodded, trying to think of whom she could be speaking about, focusing on the Warchief when a name came to mind. "Malfurion."

A cold smile grew on the Warchief's face. "Malfurion Stormrage must die." She glanced over to Thalina who had remained silent after being told to do so by Athrodar. "I must return to Undercity for a few hours, inform Nathanos and Clea on what we plan to do."

Without having to be told to do so, Thalina opened up a portal to Undercity, all three of them stepping through it once it appeared though both her and Athrodar broke away from Sylvanas, knowing they weren't to be needed until called upon once more.

They both went back to Athrodar's office in the War Quarter, Thalina slamming the door behind her and glaring at him when he turned around. "Okay, what have I done?" He asked.

"You fucking liar." She threw a ball of fire at him, Athrodar moving out the way and watching it hit the wall behind him.

"What do you mean liar? What have I lied about?" He remained calm, though he was certain she was anything but.

"You told me nothing has happened between you since the last time you were with her, yet clearly something has!" She threw another one, having the same results play out as the last.

"Thal, I promise you nothing has happened since then."

"No? So she just happens to look at you in a way that suggests something has?"

He scoffed. "Yes! Thal listen to me," He took hold of one of her hands, watching as she pulled it out of his grip. "Nothing has happened between Sylvanas and I. Believe me when I say I have only been with you since then."

"Then what was that earlier?"

Athrodar frowned at her. "What?"

"Siding with her on everything, berating me for speaking my mind on a subject that clearly needs more than two people's input." She narrowed her eyes at him. "Was it just a lie then when you told me you were tired of fighting? Because you seemed up for it just then!"

"What did you want me to do, lie? Tell her 'No, sorry Warchief, your newly appointed General is going to retire from war because he has grown tired of it.'? I can't see that playing out well for anyone." He pinched the bridge of his nose, turning away from her and slowly starting to pace the room. "Where is this even coming from? Not once did you seem to care when I was in Stormwind earlier, a place a lot more dangerous on my own than with an army attacking a city."

"Where is this coming from? I think you know where it's coming from! I'm scared Athrodar, alright? I'm scared of this new form of warfare that looks to be coming our way." She sighed. "I mean come on, Azerite weapons? That's going to destroy this world, not to mention the weaponised plague I've seen the apothecaries working on. It's going to be like the Wrathgate all over again."

Athrodar turned around to look at her, feeling that she was still hiding something but she wasn't giving him access to it. "There's something else, Thal. We both know there is." He stepped closer to her, placing a hand on her arm. "What is it?"

She looked down at the floor, stepping forward until her head was lightly touching him. "It's something that's impossible for me, for us." Her voice was low and seemed to break up at the end, as if she was trying to fight back her emotions.

"Thal come on, what is it?" He kneeled down, taking hold of her hand in his and looking up at her, noticing she was still looking at the floor.

"I... I want another baby." Her eyes flickered up to his, watching him as he closed his eyes and sighed. "I know," she began. "what I'm asking for is impossible for us and it hurts knowing that fact. So much so that it angers me deeply and I couldn't help but take it out on you." She got on her knees to level out their height, hugging him tightly. "I'm sorry for yelling and for accusing you of lying. I know you weren't."

Athrodar put a hand behind her head, keeping her close to him as he felt her wanting to stay there for a while, especially after talking about something as big as wanting to have another baby but not being able to. He smiled sadly at the idea of it, kissing the top of her head. "You say you want another baby, yet we barely spend any time with our current one."

Thalina nodded her head. "I know." She pulled away a little, looking up at him. "Do you even want another baby?"

He kissed her before pulling her back in for a hug. "I do, but considering how much we screwed up the last one, I don't think any baby will want us."

Thalina gasped. "We did not screw up our last one! You did, you screwed up our last one."

They both laughed, Athrodar nodded his agreement to the statement. "I hope she's coping well, it must be tough for her at such a young age."

"She's with those priests in that temple, she couldn't be in safer hands."

"Hold this."

Calia handed Tanadia a shard of Saa'ra. "Are you sure I should be touching this?" She saw the older priestess smile at her, telling her it was alright to hold it. "What do I have to do with in test?"

"You just need to hold it, that's all."

Tanadia looked down at the shard in her hand. "I mean, there has to be more to it than just me holding it? Surely."

Calia looked over to Archbishop Faol who looked back at her. "There is one thing we need you to do."

Tanadia began to look back and forth between them. "What?"

"You will need to go into your Shadowform." Replied Alonsus who didn't sound too keen about it all.

"This is going to hurt, isn't it?"

The two priests in front of her exchanged looks once more, Alonsus slowly nodding to her question. "Unfortunately, it is. We were going to save it for last, until all our options had run out, but since nothing seems to get even close to working, we are going to have to do it now."

"Oh..." She took a deep breath, looking down at the shard once more. "Well.. It was inevitable that this day would come." She laughed humourlessly. "I was just hoping it would come a lot later."

Mindy, who was standing by Tanadia's side ever since the test in the bath, tugged on her leg. "You don't have to do this, y'know."

Tanadia nodded. "I do. I want to get rid of the Void inside me and this may be the only way." She looked down at her hands, focusing on the shadows and watching as her hands began to glow purple. "Alright, let's do this. Whatever it is we're doing."

All three of them watched on as Tanadia was becoming engulfed by the shadow, Alonsus nodding to the other two when she fully took on the Void. "Now it begins." He looked over to Tanadia. "This will hurt, but we don't know by how much. Tanadia, we're going to start hitting you with holy spells whilst you're in your Shadowform. With this, we hope to kill the Void on the surface than from within."

The elven priestess took another deep intake of breath, bracing herself for the spells to come. "Okay, I'm ready."

Alonsus looked back at Mindy and Calia. "Expect the Void to attack us when we start this, it won't want to leave its host and it will do anything to keep itself attached to her." He saw the two of them nod at him, turning around to face Tanadia once more. "I want to apologise now for any harm we bring to you, Tanadia. Know that we only do this to help you."

Just as Tanadia was about to speak, she was hit by a holy spell from the Archbishop, followed closely by one from Mindy and Calia. The burning sensation she was getting wasn't as bad as she thought it would be, but it still hurt like hell. With every hit she stumbled backwards, holding out a hand to try and stop them and firing a shadow spell at them in return. "I.. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to..."

Good, fight off the Light with the Void. Show them the taste of your power!

She clutched her head, falling to her knees when the whispers in her head began to turn into deafening shouts. The more the three priests in front of her poured holy magic over her, the louder the voices became, so much so that it was all she could hear. "The Void... It hurts!"

As if on cue, the Naaru shard in her hand began to resonate holy magic, forcing Tanadia to drop it on the floor as it too began to burn her hand. "Heal the shard, Saa'ra knows what to do from here." Alonsus told the other two, focussing all his healing abilities on the shard that Tanadia dropped.

Now's your chance, little elf. They're distracted. Create a portal with the Void and escape from them! Tanadia looked down at the shard that was beginning to resonate more and more of the Light up to her, stopping herself from pushing it away as the Void began to take over her actions. Don't you see!? The Light is harming you! Once you were a priestess devoted to it, now it tries to kill you! Flee from here and the Light, come back when you are stronger and more able to convert those who wish to do you harm!

"Hurry.. up! It's trying... to.. escape!" She struggled to get out her words as the Void was taking away her freedom to do anything, watching as her hand slowly began to rise up from where she held it, trying to hold it down with her other.

Just as she was about to create a portal with the Void, Saa'ra's Shard let out a massive pulse of Light that extinguished the Void in an instant, sucking the air out of Tanadia's lungs momentarily before she fell to the ground, unconscious. The Archbishop sighed, looking down at Mindy. "Get some help, we need to take her back to her bed." He looked down at the sleeping priestess. "She just needs to rest now."

Athrodar stood in Brill's stables a week after Thalina had told him she wanted another baby, the topic not coming up since then. He stood directly in front of his Deathcharger, stroking it's muzzle and speaking to it in Thalassian. "And how are we this day?" He continued to pet his horse, smiling when it whinnied at him, stamping it hoof a couple of times. "I know, we don't go out as much as we used to, but times have changed now and we're apparently important."

He watched as his Deathcharger butted it's head against his chest lightly, smiling some more. "Come on, we've not got the time." He looked around the stables, noticing he was alone. "Tell you what, when I come back we can go for a long ride. Get you out of these stables." He felt his horse nuzzle itself into his chest, stamping his hoof a couple more times. "What? This is what you wanted, right?"

He looked down at his locket when his Deathcharger began to nudge him exactly where it was hanging, pulling out the locket and looking at it. "You want Thal to be there?" He heard his Deathcharger whinny once more, grinning and petting it on the head. "We like her, don't we? She's special to us." He heard someone walking closer to the stables, laying his eyes upon Thalina who smiled at him from the entrance to the building. "She's really special to us."

"Speaking to our horse again, are we?" She walked towards both Athrodar and his Deathcharger, laughing when his horse began to butt its head against her. "My aren't we over excited today?" She placed a hand on its nose, watching as it began to calm down.

"He really likes you, by the way."

Thalina glanced over to him, still stroking the horse's nose. "Oh? You can speak horse now?"

He chuckled. "He understands Thalassian." He nodded over to his horse. "Try it."

She turned her attention back to the Deathcharger, speaking to it in Thalassian. "So you can understand me, huh?" When the horse nodded its head up and down, Thalina's smile widened. "I also heard that you like me." She glanced over to Athrodar. "Hopefully you like me more than you like him."

Athrodar made his way towards her and his horse, holding Thalina from behind. "Believe it or not," he began, kissing Thalina on her neck. "he wants to go out riding soon, and has requested you be there with us."

Thalina continued to pet his horse, raising an eyebrow when Athrodar continued to plant kisses along her neck. "Now, did he request that, or are you just asking me and saying he did?"

"A little bit of both. Why? Don't you want to?"

Spinning on her heel, she turned to face Athrodar, looking up at him and placing a hand on his chest to keep him at a small distance. "I do, it's just that... What you said last week, about not minding that we're planning on taking Darnassus." She sighed, dropping her hand. "How do you still have the willingness to fight after telling me the day before that you were tired of fighting? Was that just a lie to make me feel better about asking you to stay with me?"

He shook his head. "No, it's not a lie. It's just that... War for me, for other Death Knights, the Dark Rangers and all those who were raised by Arthas and the Scourge, it's... it's in our nature."

"It's in your nature?"

Athrodar laughed, rubbing his eyes with on hand. "Yes, it's in my nature. I was raised from the dead and taught to hate everything, to feed off the pain and suffering I cause others." He closed his eyes when he felt his temper flaring, even just thinking about what Arthas done to him made his blood boil. "So as much as I want to retire to be with you, and believe me I do, I will always have this nagging feeling in the back of my head telling me that I need to fight, to cause pain to people."

Thalina frowned at him. "Then.. Why don't I feel like that?"

Stepping closer to her, Athrodar tilted her head up to look at him, kissing her lightly. "Just be happy you don't. I was raised from hatred and by someone who only sought to destroy the world. You were raised by me, someone who loves you more than anything." He kissed her again, the pair of them walking towards the back of the stables until Thalina's back hit the wall.

She smiled seductively, looking up at him. "You don't cause me any pain, my love. Only an immense amount of pleasure." She kissed him deeply, ignoring the noises coming from Athrodar's Deathcharger.

The General looked back momentarily when his horse continued to make noises, locking eyes with the stable keeper. "It appears we have company, my heart." He looked back to her, stroking her cheek with the back of his hand. "This seems to only happen when we're being spontaneous."

"Then we best stop being so spontaneous about having sex." She turned her hand clockwise, summoning a portal to the Mage Quarter in Undercity. "I best get going however, those recruits aren't going to train themselves." She kissed him goodbye, stepping through the portal and leaving him there in the stables.

He began to walk back to his Deathcharger, petting it on the neck and whispering to it in Thalassian. "It's just you and me again buddy." He looked back to the stable keeper who was looking after the other skeletal horses in the stable. "But between you and me, I think she has taken a shining to you."

"How is she?"

Mindy looked over her shoulder to the two human priests standing behind her. "She's still sleeping, Thomas, not much has changed."

He sighed, sitting down next to Mindy and placing a hand on Tanadia's arm. "It's been a week now, someone has to get in touch with her family, her friends. They have the right to know her current state." He looked over his shoulder to the other human. "Right, Amanda?"

"I don't know, I suppose so." She looked down at Tanadia before squeezing Thomas' shoulder. "I'll go talk to Archbishop Faol, see if we can tell someone she knows."

Both Mindy and Thomas sat by Tanadia for half an hour, Amanda coming in with Archbishop Faol after five minutes to tell them they were getting someone she knows, leaving the temple momentarily before returning there with Liadrin. "What did you do to her?" She ran to Tanadia's side, taking hold of her hand and kissing it. "How long has she been like this?"

Archbishop Faol stood over the pair of them, looking down at Tanadia as she slept. "For a week now. We had run some tests on her, all of them weren't there to harm her. We had tasked her with studying and praying to the Light as well as bathing in holy water for an hour, though none of them worked until.."

Liadrin looked up at him. "Until what?"

"Until the last one. This one was more hands on. We told her to let the shadows take over whilst we attacked her with holy magic." He raised his bony hands before she could speak. "It's not how it sounds, we were trying to extinguish the Void that enveloped her." He looked down at Tanadia. "We don't know if it has worked, not until she wakes up."

"And when will that be!?" She snapped at him, looking down at Tanadia and feeling a small tug on her heart. "She's the closest thing I have to a daughter, I need to know she's okay. I need to take her home with me."

"That would be a bad idea, Liadrin. She needs to rest here where -"

"I don't care. I'm taking her home with me." Liadrin began to lift up Tanadia, looking over to the three priests that sat opposite her. "Thank you, all of you for watching over her and coming to get me, but her time here is up." She glanced back at Archbishop Faol. "And you can't stop me from taking her."

"You're right, she's free leave whenever she wants but listen to what I'm about to say. She is safer here than back home. We can look after her whilst she recovers and you can visit whenever you want."

Rethinking about taking her home with her, she slowly placed Tanadia back down on the bed, holding onto her hand once more. "I can visit whenever I want?"

"Yes."

She climbed into bed with the priestess, curling up next to her and watching her sleep. "Then I'm going to stay here for a while and watch over her personally."