Chapter 35: Help from some friends

He was right, but not entirely. After the events in Silithus, we learned of the existence of the Old Gods. The Old God C'thun had manipulated then Qiraji into doing its bidding and that was how history repeated itself. When I had found it, I was fascinated, I asked for samples, and I got them by the cartload, but for some time, they just sat on my front lawn, gathering dirt and grimes and leaves from the trees as the seasons changed. I busied myself with work inside my home, often spending hours staring into vials or tanks as I worked for hours on end, sometimes even just staring off into space.

Yes, I know that the humans were technically our enemies, but Silas didn't need to kill the man to get what he wanted. Stopping the Qiraji, that was what we wanted, or at least I thought it was. I slipped into a dark, brooding depression. Silas was, and I care not what others may say, my friend. He helped me in a time in my life when I had nothing and no one else. I was dead for Aspect's sake and I was crawling out of a dank and dirty grave into a life I knew nothing about. I owed him that and now he sat in our dungeons somewhere, rotting away further. I wanted to help him to plead his case for our Warchief and our Queen, but I knew that, ultimately, I had not a leg to stand on. I'm not ashamed to admit my own reputation was a factor as well. I was fitting in well with the new horde and the Banshee Queen valued my expertise. At the time, I was ashamed of myself, but it wasn't until that I heard a pounding at my front door that pulled me from one of my many stupors.

"Go away." I muttered as I pulled myself up from my seat and shuffled to the door, pulling it open. My chest ached when I saw Tengiu's smiling face.

"Heya, boss!" He grinned at me and Razor chuffed behind him and stamped his paws into the ground. Serg looked at me with great concern on his face.

"Matthew, how long have you been inside?" Serg asked.

"I don't…" I closed my eyes and shook my head. "I don't know. Please leave." I tried to shut the door, but Tengiu's surprisingly strong hand stopped it from snapping shut.

"Matthew, there's…" Serg sighed and pushed his way inside.

"Serg, I do not want visitors. Please." I gestured towards the door.

"The Scourge has returned, Matthew. Scourge bases have appeared in the skies around Azeroth. Have you not heard?" Serg said and explained what was happening outside my home. You know as well as I do, Kel'thuzad had taken control of Naxxramas and renewed the assault on the living world, yadda yadda. I didn't care. I wanted to wallow in pity longer and I wanted to mourn Silas longer.

"I don't…" I sighed. "Serg, please. I don't care."

Serg grunted and nodded to Tengiu. "So you will not leave your home to fight your enemy?"

I shook my head. "Serg. No more."

"He was your friend. I know." Serg said as Tengiu carried in several backpacks. Razor was kind enough to wipe his paws on the welcome mat. "But what is wallowing here alone going to serve?"

"Please do not talk about him. It makes me ill to think about him." I said.

"Listen, boss, we might know whatcha goin' t'rough." Tengiu set the backpacks on the ground which the arcane constructs began to remove from the house, but Tengiu was too quick for them and snatched them back.

"You're wrong; you don't know what I am going through." I snapped. "Silas was my friend."

"Matthew, we know. This is why we are here."

"I don't want you here." I snapped again.

"Serg, dis is a waste. We should just let 'im be." Tengiu said, but Serg quickly thumped Tengiu on one of his ears.

"Helping our friend is not a waste, Tengiu." Serg looked back towards me. "Are we not your friends, Matthew?"

I struggled for a moment. "You don't know what it was like."

"Dat's not even true." Tengiu said and scoffed.

"How is it not?" I said with my own scoff.

"Because my people stood on a mountain and drank the blood of demons and were slaves to a machine we didn't even understand. Tengiu lost his father. Abusive as he may have been, a father is a father." Serg grunted and crossed his arms. "Not the same, no, but close enough."

I hung my head and sighed. I shut the door to the house when I realized that getting them to leave was not going to happen.

"Doesn't the horde need you? To defend our people and defeat the great Scourge?" I said, my shoulders slumped in defeat.

"There are enough strong arms and powerful spells in our horde and the alliance to defeat the Scourge." Serg said. "But there isn't enough kindness to comfort you in your time of ache."

I sighed. "I tire of this."

I started to shuffle towards the kitchen to make some tea, but the troll and the orc followed me. I glared at them.

"Glare all you want, Matthew." Serg shook his head. "Orcs do not turn their back on their friends."

"Friend?" I said quietly, looking at the still warm kettle and empty mug with the tea bag that was never filled earlier that morning. I put my hands on the counter and stared at the mug. Tengiu went over and hopped up on the counter.

"Ah 'ad a friend once." The troll said, taking a banana from the bowl beside him.

"Get off the counter."

He took a big bite of the fruit. "So dare was dis bat dat 'ad babies in Zul'gurub one time."

"Get off of the counter, Tengiu."

"And one of dem babies was a little runty t'ing. Mama ignored 'er. Wouldn't feed her none and dah poor t'ing was so sick by dah time ah found 'er."

"Is nobody listening to me? Get off."

"So I went into dah nest one day, ya see, and found dah little baby. Ah tell ya, t'ing broke my 'eart, tryin'a be so tough, but it could barely even move. So ah snatched dat t'ing out of dah nest and took it as my own."

I actually listened to the story and watched the troll eat my bowl of fruit. I was actually interested to see what point this story had.

"So what ah did," Tengiu said, taking an apple. "Is ah would take dese little bits of fruits and chew dem up real good and feed it to 'er."

"That's disgusting." I said.

"T'ing grew up real quick and strong." Ten said, peeling the apple with one of his knives. "We was friends. We'd get into all kinds of trouble toget'er." The troll nodded a few times.

"What…" I started. "What happened to her?"

"Fat'er found out ah 'ad a pet. 'E didn't like dat too much." Tengiu tossed the apple core into the bin. "So 'e took 'er away and…"

"Tengiu." Serg said.

The troll nodded. "Dah point is, sometimes friends come, dey go, but it's dah impression dey leave dat's important."

I looked back at the cooling kettle and took in Tengiu's story and words. They resonated with me. Silas helped me through so much when I first became Forsaken. I must sound like such a broken record, but I knew that I had things to work through. That's not to say that I haven't worked through it enough as it is, but…

It still hurts sometimes.

"There have been many times throughout the years of warfare that I thought Razor was going to pass into the beyond." Serg said. "But he has been there through it all. Sometimes I held him in my arms as he lay dying." Razor went to Serg's side and sat down. "But…he has been a good friend."

I sighed heavily and I knew that feeling, despite the fact that the tears would not come. I put my fists on the counter and contorted my face into every possible expression.

"Silas may not be completely lost. Give it time. Just as I thought Razor was dead to me and survived, maybe Silas will too." Serg whispered.

I yelled in anger and threw the kettle through the kitchen window and heard it thump into the ground somewhere outside.

"We'll fix dat." Tengiu said as he hopped down from the counter.

Oh, my, that is so embarrassing to speak about. Over the next few days, Tengiu and Serg stayed in my home, despite my protests, and took care of the things I was too fatigued to bother with. Tengiu worked to fix a few things around the house, and ended up with a broken thumb more than once, but he tried and that made me feel good. Serg used the elements and the spirits to tend to the hedges and the trees, as well as the garden that had become very overgrown. He even used the elements…I should rephrase. He asked the elements to help him repair the window that I had broken. At first, I shouted at them that I didn't need their help and tried to lock them out of the house, but I would peek through the drapes and see them sitting on the porch reading or playing Hearthstone or napping. I would always let them back in and meekly apologize. I hated the way the situation was making me feel, but Serg assured me it was a natural feeling to being betrayed. As time went on, I was more and more thankful for their presence. I even made a meal and we sat down for dinner together. Tengiu and Serg told stories and we laughed and made merry. I would always slip back into depression, though, and disappear to my quarters to stare out the window vacantly.

Day by day, though, things became easier and easier to deal with and I started to pull myself from my stupor. Oh, and Tengiu's egg hatched! The egg he had taken from Un'goro of the Venomhide, but that is his story to tell. I received a letter from Sylvanas updating me on Silas' imprisonment and sentence. Since he had no character witnesses, he was sentenced to time in Orgrimmar's prison per Thrall's request, since he technically had committed a war crime.

"Does this upset you?" Serg asked.

"It does and it doesn't." I said with a sigh. "I knew this is where he would end up."

"Why did you not go to the trail?" Serg asked, but I shook my head.

"I could not, in good conscience, go to something where I know that I would have nothing good to say."

"Dat didn't make no sense."

"Hush, you. You know what I mean."

Serg and Tengiu spent several more days at the mansion, and I was slowly beginning to be happy that they were there. We made plans to join the fight against the Scourge and Kel'thuzad in Naxxramas, but soon, I heard that the Argent Dawn and the Brotherhood of the Light had succeeded in routing the Scourge from our cities, and it was just Naxxramas left to contend with. We got ready to leave, but something kept us from leaving. Honestly, with everything we had accomplished during the war against the Qiraji, we thought it best to let the horde's heroes handle this battle. We spent the weeks arguing about whether or not we should assist against the dangers of Naxxramas, which none of us were terribly convincing about whether or not we should go, playing hearthstone, and exploring the countryside of Lordaeron. Before long, we heard that Kel'thuzad had been defeated, and Naxxramas retreated back to Northrend.

We were called to Light's Hope Chapel by Sylvanas and Thrall. They needed our expertise in dealing with the Scourge, but apparently, there was a bit of a…hiccup in the assault on Naxxramas.

"What do you mean, you lost it?" Sylvanas shouted.

"We had the phylactery in our possession, but it has since gone missing." Eligor Dawnbringer explained.

"Who was it given to?" I asked.

"His name is Father Inigo Montoy. Adventurers from Naxxramas delivered the phylactery to him, but he has since gone missing."

Sylvanas pinched the bridge of her nose. "And you did not think that this could be incredibly detrimental?"

Eligor shrugged. "Our goal was to defeat the Scourge. We succeeded. We didn't need the phylactery as a trophy?"

I put my hand on the table. "Commander, do you know what the phylactery does?"

Eligor shook his head.

I sighed. "It allows a lich to regain corporeal form if his physical body is destroyed. So long as the phylactery survives, it matters not how many times you slay the Lich."

In the end, the visit to Light's Hope Chapel was pointless. The Brotherhood and the Argent Dawn were far more caught up in their 'victory' than they should have been, and was satisfied that the Scourge was defeated. We tried to argue with them, but the Brotherhood was far less inclined to listen to the horde than their human allies. After all, we were remnants of the Scourge they were so desperate to defeat.

I'm rambling on, aren't I? Let's skip ahead a bit. You're not missing anything spectacular, unless you consider a Forsaken, Troll, and Orc doing mundane things spectacular.

If you do, then you're a strange person.

Let's see. It was the summer a year or so after Naxxramas had returned to Northrend. Tengiu and Serg had more or less taken up permanent residence in my home, but we were suddenly summoned back to Undercity, and I don't mean just me, I mean the three of us were asked to speak to Sylvanas.

"What could Sylvanas need from us?" Serg asked as I led the two of them into the Royal Quarter. Sylvanas was pacing in place on the dais.

"You asked to speak to us, my Queen?" I asked, bowing gently at the waist, but she just stared at me for a moment.

"You spoke of the Elves when we met, did you not?" She asked. I noticed she was clutching a letter in her hand.

"Yes." I asked, narrowing my eyes. "What about it?"

She continued to pace. "There were rumors the elves of Quel'thalas left the alliance." She settled her eyes on me, and I knew Tengiu and Serg looked at each other. "They joined forces with the Naga, and…"

You know the story. The High Elves, after being devastated by the Scourge and the loss of the Sunwell, they turned to more…unsavory magic. They were jailed, including Prince Kael'thas, at the magical prisons of Dalaran. This was truly the first time I had heard of it. To free themselves, they joined forces with the Naga, and Illidan Stormrage had promised them a fountain of magic to sate their thirst for it. The Sunwell had done lasting damage to the Elves, as it had supplied them with constant magic, but it also caused a painful magical addiction and withdrawal when it was damaged, because of that, they needed other ways to satisfy their hunger. This had all happened before, during, and after Arthas had ascended the Frozen Throne in Northrend to become the new Lich King. It was all a lot to take in, but Sylvanas' spies and informants knew what they were talking about.

"And so…" I rubbed my chin as I spun my mask in my palm. "The Elves now need new allies, seeing as many of them have gone to…"

"Outland." Sylvanas said. "With Illidan."

"And you do not trust him to care for your people." I said.

She glared at me. "They are not my people. The Forsaken are my people."

"I mean no disrespect, my queen. Just that I know how much you care for the elves."

She set her mouth into a firm, thin line, but she nodded a moment later. "Have the elves come to us?"

"Yes." Sylvanas said. "They need someone. Anyone. And I want you to secure their allegiance to the horde."

I agreed immediately, but I noticed that Serg was rather perturbed.

"What is it, Serg?"

"Outland." He replied. "Do you know what that place once was?"

I nodded. "Yes. It was once Draenor, the home of the orcs." I paused. "You want to go there."

Serg nodded. "I want to see my old home. I want to the closure from Ner'zhul's betrayal."

I nodded. "I've no doubt that our journey will take us there, my friend."

"Then I will make you a deal, Matthew. I will help you secure the elves. After, we go to Outland."

I nodded, and then looked at Sylvanas. "The path to Quel'thalas has been cleared. You are to meet with the Regent the day after tomorrow."