Khai'rhi pushed herself up from where she'd landed in the dirt, wincing a little as a soft ache spread through her lower back and abdomen. For the last few weeks, she'd been overwhelmed several times by waves of fatigue that made little to no sense. One minute she'd be fine, the next she'd be leaning against something or slouching lower to her mount, waiting for dizziness to wear off.

It was bizarre, and as a healer, she'd yet to figure out what was causing it. A cold perhaps? Of all the times to get sick, this had to have been one of the worst.

She spat out a bit of dirt as she peered up. They'd been making good time toward Coldarra when suddenly she'd been in the air, along with most of her guild. She'd used a bit of wind magic to break her fall, as well as anyone in the near vicinity, though it hadn't seemed particularly successful.

Maybe it had worked better on the others.

She cast a quick heal on herself and then stood up, shaking her head to get more small rocks and clumps of earth out of her hair.

Their group had been heading been on the road—so to speak, as there were almost no actual roads here in Northrend, it seemed—for almost a week, charging on to try to help Dalaran mages deal with some issues going on with the blue dragon flight. Impervious had been heading across the plains, with a few of their more childish guild members racing their mounts to see who could beat who—of course Haa'aji was on his damned flying ghost horse, so he was running in circles over the rest of them.

Or… he had been.

Khai'rhi peered up toward the sky, searching for the rogue, only to scowl when she instead found a few of those flying nerubian monsters flapping overhead. She cast a chain lightning at a small group of them, and her mood worsened when it didn't immediately drop them from the sky.

She'd forgotten how tough new creatures could be.

There was always that miserable shift when going to a new place, where one had to examine their spells and retailor them to be effective against the unique resistances that developed based on where a creature lived. She'd thought Winterspring would have prepared her for Northrend, but that was proving to be far from the case.

Considering she was one of the guild's healers, she opted not to try to tinker with her lightning spell here, instead focusing on locating her allies and healing them.

An arrow flew into another of the monsters as her gaze dropped just as the aggravated insect turned toward her. The despicable thing dropped from the sky like a rock. When Khai'rhi afforded herself a glance in the direction the arrow had come from, she saw Ta'lim a few yards away. He waved to her and then refocused on downing their enemies.

She felt a slight swell of pride in her chest. Ta'lim was a damned good shot. Always had been.

As Khai'rhi shifted back to healing, and Ta'lim felt a wave of nature magic wash over him like a gentle pat on the back, he couldn't help a small smile. It was short lived.

There were so many of those damned flyers. Normally, he'd have gotten into a little bit of a competition with Lash, seeing how many of them each of the hunters could pick off before one of the casters started in.

They would keep score, and the one with the higher score would buy the other a drink—kept them from getting too full of themselves, they'd always joked.

Normally, it would have been fun trying to work with a partner, enjoying the occasional, playful quip about how well they were doing and how their aim was for the day.

Normally, Lash would have been there, period.

But he wasn't.

He'd…

What had even happened?

Lash had left the guild. Ta'lim had tried to talk to him about it, but…he'd gotten so angry when Ta'lim tried to follow him, insisting this was for the best and that there was nothing left to say, that his mind was made up.

Was it because he'd gotten his name? Because he'd gotten to fight against the Alliance and decided that was more worthwhile? Was it something else?

Ta'lim hadn't done anything, had he?

He and Lash were close. They always had been. He'd noticed Lash had seemed a bit down lately, but he'd figured it would pass once they were back to their adventuring. After all, everyone got a little restless when things went sideways or slowed down, but all that waiting around Orgrimmar for the expeditions heading north to get underway had been the lull before the storm.

They'd known it would pick up soon.

And they'd come all the way out here. Why leave before anything could really start?

None of it made any sense.

Ta'lim shot the last of the venom-spitters from the sky and then looked around. The rest of the guild had been working on downing a rather large, scarab-like nerubian and a few of the more spindly ones like what they'd seen in Stratholme, forever ago.

With a whistle, he directed his attention to picking off a few of the smaller enemies. However, he'd downed two when it occurred to him that Rapta was not listening to him.

He whistled again.

Nothing.

With a sinking feeling in his gut, he stood up out of his hunch to get a clearer view of the area. Rapta was nowhere in sight.

His brow pinched together before he finally shook himself out of his stupor and went back to fighting. He'd look for Rapta after the dust had settled, even though he had a curl of dread nestled in the pit of his stomach that he was going to need a new pet.

Again.

With everything else happening, it seemed like the loa could have taken at least a little bit of mercy on him.

But then, that'd never been his luck, had it?

As an arrow thudded into a rampaging nerubian, Renza'shi beheaded the one next to it, sighing as both of them collapsed before they could tackle him.

His muscles were aching from all the swinging and spinning and general chaos of the battle.

While he was used to fighting, he hadn't expected Impervious to be nearly this good, or for them to be attacked with such a force so soon into their adventures. He'd intended to part ways with them as soon as the zeppelin had landed—indeed he'd actually leapt off the damned thing before it'd even come to a full stop. However, he'd been more than a little mortified to find that some of Blood and Honor had come over with Garrosh Hellscream to help out around Warsong Hold.

He'd thought that, taking the first public zeppelin over, he'd have a head start on everyone he wanted to get away from. And then when it had been cluttered with Impervious, he'd decided that if they went east, he'd go west, if they went north, he'd go east.

It had been a long time since he'd been on his own, but he'd wanted to give himself time to rediscover himself, to decide what it was he really, truly wanted to do with his life.

Obviously fighting would be involved. He was nothing without a good, heavy blade in his arms.

And yet, as soon as he'd arrived, Embry had been there. She'd made some annoying comment about how he seemed a little lost. Poor wayward soul.

Something like that.

Then, she'd had the gall to assume he was there to try and beg Taknar for a place in the guild again.

In his anger, he'd done something stupid. He'd declared that he was there to work with Impervious, that he enjoyed being with them, was thinking about applying for the guild.

Margaret had overheard him, and she and Liila had hugged Renza'shi's arms as they expressed how glad they were to have such a handsome troll in their midst.

The way Embry's eyes had glazed over had been amusing.

And honestly, Impervious wasn't that bad. Aside from Haa'aji, he actually liked most of them.

He heaved his axe up over his shoulder and charged toward the nearest monster, swinging easily and working with Shadow and Blood, who were focused on death gripping all the smaller nerubian into a group to make for easier fighting. Their small area lit up as a chain heal bounced through them. Renza'shi found himself with more energy than before—he must have been hit somewhere without realizing it.

As the last of the nerubian fell, the three melee turned in time to see the crypt lord that was leading the assault against them towering up over their group. As he and the others turned to run back, he abruptly found tendrils of light wrapping around him. Before he could register what was happening, he was jerked to the side very abruptly. It was as though he'd unwillingly charged, and the shift in everything was horribly disorienting. He nearly fell into Wren.

Tizzle had grabbed Shadow and cursed as the tauren seemed just as unstable on his hooves, teetering to one side and almost squishing the small healer.

Blood narrowly managed to dive out of the way before the crypt lord could land on him and then looked up to scowl at Haa'aji, who was resting on top of the dead monster, idly inspecting his daggers as though he hadn't almost crushed his guild mates. Roberts was up there with him, both of them doing a piss poor job of hiding their smirks.

Had they purposely toppled the damn thing where it had landed?

Was Haa'aji trying to kill Renza'shi?

Surely, he wasn't that big of a prick…

"Could you watch it?" Blood snapped, gaze snapping around. When he found what he'd been worried for, he rolled his eyes. His eerie 'pet', Gobber, limped up to him. With a clench of his fist, death runes lit up on the ghoul and healed the worst of its injuries. It let out a happy gurgle and shuffled to a stop beside him, idly watching as the troll rogue slipped down the side of the giant bug and trotted toward Shadow and the others, completely ignoring Blood's foul mood.

"De fuck been dat, mon?" Haa'aji asked as he came to a stop in front of Renza'shi and the others. "Now de priestehs be grippin' people like de death knights been doin'? Ya gotta steal all dea tricks, eh?"

"Would ya rather we let our guild mates die?" Tizzle snapped, crossing his arms pointedly.

Wren was too busy making little lights flicker and fade over his palm to pay attention to the argument. Renza'shi eyed him. He'd known more than a few elves who were easily distracted by spells, but Wren was on a whole other level.

Oblivious to the way a few of his guild mates were eyeing him, Wren kept at his conjuring. Since his recovery, he felt like he had an endless font with which to cast.

He had magic.

More than that, he felt like it had always been there, just beneath the surface. It was as though there'd been something blocking it, like ice over the top of a lake. His magic had been able to stir and twist, but never reach through the top layer.

Now, though…

Ever since Mitchell had cast that remove curse spell…

Fucking hell, his brother had cursed him, hadn't he?

It would figure that that ass would have done this to him. Had it been because having a light wielder in the family would have 'ruined' the Duskflame name? Or was it something else? Had little Adrias been too afraid of competition for their parents'…affection wasn't really the word Wren was looking for, but it was the closest he could think of.

He conjured another light, watching it glimmer and sparkle.

Whatever Adrias' motivations had been, it didn't matter now. The damage had been undone, and Wren was free to be who he'd always meant to be.

A caster. A priest.

He could use magic.

"Not dat it ain' fun ta see ya 'n de elfeh be back wit' us," Haa'aji said, noting how Wren still looked a more than a little out of it, with dark circles under his eyes—though the more startling part of the elf's features was that Wren's eyes were sort of a turquoise, and Haa'aji wondered if he'd be considered a high elf or a blood elf now, or if maybe he was a new kind of elf, since all those elves seemed so weird when it came to eye color—and instead let his gaze wander. "But Ah been kinda expectin' any priesteh spells ta be Liila's doin', nah ya's."

Sethyl and Howl trotted over to them as well, scanning their surroundings. Neither looked like they'd had much trouble during the fighting, with barely any scratches on their armor to show, even though Haa'aji knew damned well that both of them had been fighting just as hard as the rest of them.

Curious.

Howl was the one to speak. "Where is Liila?"

Rolling his eyes, Haa'aji sent out a quick message on his guild stone. It was so like Howl to worry about pointless things. After all, Liila couldn't die. What did he think could go wrong?

Haa'aji stood there, bored, waiting for a response. When nothing happened, he straightened up a little, sending another. Blood had tinkered with Liila's death runes and supposedly, she was even less susceptible to death than she'd been before. He wondered if the same thing could be done to him.

He'd always known she'd done something to him—he'd been in too many weird situations where he knew he shouldn't have lived, and yet had. While he wondered if he'd actually trust Blood to carve him up into a perfect soldier, the death knight hadn't offered to extend the courtesy to anyone aside from Liila thus far, and so Haa'aji hadn't asked about it.

There would be time.

After all, he was immortal now.

When his latest comment still failed to warrant a response from Liila, he straightened up a bit further. This repeated until he was finally standing at his full height, debatably as tall or even an inch taller than Shadow.

His brow was low as he scanned the area, gaze flickering over every moving form. Then, he turned and scrambled back up on top of the crypt lord. Roberts was already there, quietly counting guild mates. Haa'aji's movements were progressively more panicked with each second that ticked by. "We be missin' a buncha people," he called down. Then he scrawled out a quick message that would flicker across every single guild stone.

Roll call. Now.

~"~

Cloudless' ear twitched when he heard his guild stone chime. Skybow had heard it as well, and Cloudless wondered if it would start another fight. They were in such a delicate place in their relationship right now…he didn't want to mess things up before they could have an honest conversation.

Well, they'd already had more than a few of those, truth be told, but he was still afraid. Skybow had admitted to having been on the verge of heading to Orgrimmar to find Cloudless when their city had been attacked by the Alliance.

Both of them were too smitten with the other to let things fall apart, especially after so long.

There had to be some middle ground they could reach, where both of them could be happy with their lives. That was why he'd stayed; he wanted to find that place before any irreparable damage could be done.

Things had been going well since he'd come home. Northrend could wait, at least for now. As much as he wanted to keep the world safe, what good did it do if the people he wanted to protect felt like their world was falling apart anyway?

"They need you?" Skybow asked. His voice sounded like he was trying to be pleasant, despite the strain that came with it.

The two of them were sitting beside the small pond in Thunder Bluff, fishing. While neither of them were particularly good at it, they'd decided to try something new. Cloudless found that it was surprisingly relaxing. It helped that some new type of fish needed to be caught and removed from the pond, as well. It was always good to keep the natural order in balance.

"I'm sure it's nothing."

"I thought…" Skybow hesitated as his bobber went down. He started reeling in his catch. Unlike Cloudless, he seemed to have picked up the skill a bit faster. Perhaps he was lucky…or had actually done this sort of thing before and had just gone with the suggestion when it'd popped into Cloudless' head, not wanting to ruin what was so clearly an attempt to bond.

"What is it?"

"Nothing, forget I asked."

"No," Cloudless replied, turning to face him, ignoring as his line tugged a little. "Tell me."

After a brief internal debate, Skybow finally motioned toward Cloudless. "You said you turned your stone off."

"I did."

"Then why are we hearing it?" Skybow seemed worried as soon as he asked. "I understand they're your friends, I just… I was wondering how it works, I guess."

"Oh…" Cloudless scratched at his mane. "Well, it's more mage-y, so I don't know the technical bits, but…" He pulled his stone out. "We scrawl whatever message we want to send on the stone, and it sends. You can direct it to send to specific people, or everyone in the guild." He paused before adding, "I tried to give you one a few years back, but you weren't interested. I'd thought…it would be a nice way to keep in touch, while I traveled."

Skybow nodded slowly, gaze never leaving the stone. There was a hint of contempt glinting in his eyes, though he was clearly fighting against it. "And it makes noise when you get a message?"

"Yes." Cloudless hesitated and then tapped it a few times, checking the volume. "I know I turned it down. Maybe I jostled the sound back on somehow or…" He paused. The volume was still on silent. "That's…not good."

"What happened?"

"It's still off." Cloudless shifted, oblivious as something dragged his fishing pole into the pond. Skybow watched it disappear beneath the water, mouth agape, before looking back at his lover. Cloudless' lips were twisted into a frown. "The only thing that could have made the noise when it's off is an emergency roll call."

"A what?" It was Skybow's turn to frown.

"If something's happened and they can't find everyone, they'll do roll call to make sure everyone is accounted for and to see if anyone's trapped or lost or needs help or a summons. That sort of thing. If someone doesn't answer, they'll know there's a problem. I think the mages know how to track magic in the guild stones or something."

Skybow nodded, taking in the information. "So…it's pretty bad if they have to do that?"

With an eye roll, Cloudless shook his head. "Knowing the guild, Haa'aji probably got distracted by something shiny, and a few others went with him to explore. Now, they're needed and too preoccupied with their adventures to answer a regular call."

He couldn't help a smile. This sort of thing happened all the time. No one had ever actually been hurt, except for once, during their raid against in Zul'Gurub. Ta'lim had been mind controlled and had nearly taken out two of their guild mates before the others had been able to find them and break the spell.

"Do you think they need their druid healer?"

"They've got Cinder."

Skybow shifted his weight a little. "Do you…need to check in?"

"They know I'm not with them. I'll be fine." Cloudless slipped his stone back into his pocket. In truth, he hadn't meant to bring it with him. It was just such a habit to grab it before he headed anywhere. Even as Skybow nodded and allowed himself a small smile, Cloudless frowned, looking around the spot they were sitting at. "Where's my fishing pole?"

~"~

Adrias frowned as he heard someone call out to him—really, they'd said, 'Hey, warlock,' and he didn't feel that such a generic title deserved an answer—and slouched his shoulders a little further, like it might make him less noticeable.

He would have no such luck.

"Warlock!"

He was tempted to summon his felguard and let it play with whoever was bothering him. Instead, he turned slowly to see who would honestly stop him in the middle of the street. As his gaze swept the area, he stopped when he saw two paladins coming up to him.

If this was some attempt at cleaning up the streets—the order did that occasionally, though it never lasted and had just given them the reputation of being uptight dicks—then Adrias had to wonder what he'd done to catch their attention. They weren't some of those twits that got upset when they saw 'dark and brooding' individuals, were they?

Couldn't an elf frown and hate the world in peace without some sappy light-lover coming up and trying to insist he learn how to enjoy life?

After all, he enjoyed it just fine—in all the ways that made the light-lovers cry.

The elf who had called out to him was a blonde with a tawny complexion. He seemed as full of himself as most blood knights were, and Adrias was tempted to curse him just to whittle away at the confidence in his step. The elf beside him was familiar, however.

She had brown, curly hair, and a worried look in her eyes. Where had he seen her before?

"Ralarr, I don't think he wants to be bothered…"

"Well, it doesn't hurt to ask," Ralarr quipped, quickly redirecting his attention to Adrias. "We're trying to form a group to go to Northrend. We've got tank and heals. All we need is a few hard hitters."

Adrias stared at him.

Just stared.

He waited until the paladin finally began to shift his weight a little before he tilted his head. "So you're just…wandering up to people in the street, asking them to join your group?"

The lady elf looked embarrassed beyond all reason. Where had he seen her before? It was needling at his consciousness. "Let's just go to the message boards and put up a notice—"

"I don't see why you have to be so rude about it," Ralarr declared, despite his companion's growing discomfort. "You looked like you were heading to the Spire, so why not go with others."

"You realize there are all kinds of things in this direction, other than the translocation orb, yes?" Adrias replied curtly. "You would do well to listen to your friend about accosting people on the street, Miss…?"

Before she could answer, Ralarr scoffed. "No one accosted you. It was a simple question." He made a mock bow. "Sorry for wasting your precious time, warlock."

The woman's gaze widened slightly as she tried not to look at either of them, tugging her friend away, even as he looked ready to keep going.

Adrias was surprisingly disappointed not to be able to make the connection as to where he'd seen the lady elf before. He hadn't slept with her…

He dismissed the confusion, choosing instead to get back on task.

Having spent the last few weeks thinking over all the things he'd done wrong with his life and finding very little that he actually regretted, Adrias had come to one conclusion: he would regret not telling Gryst'lyn about Amaeria's reemergence. Gryst'lyn was the only friend he'd ever truly had—the only one he wanted—and it would not do to treat the one person he cared about unjustly.

Thus, he'd used a scrying crystal to locate his dear friend and had been appalled to find that of course Gryst'lyn was in Northrend. It would figure. No one could ever be anywhere easily reached. That would be too simple.

He'd started investigating the fastest way to Northrend and had been resigned to a month's long zeppelin trip when he'd caught wind that there was some sort of diplomatic excursion going to Dalaran, of all places.

While he'd remembered Dalaran being south of Silvermoon, he'd done some digging and learned that the city had disappeared—literally. There was now a gaping hole in the ground where it had once been. More than that, it had relocated to—drum roll—Northrend.

That hardly seemed like the most practical thing to do, with putting oneself in the direct reach of a monstrous army that one had narrowly avoiding succumbing to before, but then, Adrias didn't really care why mages did what they did.

However, Dalaran had relocated fairly close to where the scrying crystal had said Gryst'lyn was.

Thus, if Adrias could get in on the mission going there, he could get to Gryst'lyn without having to deal with idiots like those two paladins.

If not…he'd figure something out. Maybe he could blackmail a magister who had the old portal to the city.

That would take him to the current location, not the crater, right?

He mused quietly as he entered into the Sunspire and wound his way through the halls, ignoring any glances his way. Most were deterred by the assuredness of his steps, figuring he had sanctioned business there. He ignored the few who stepped toward him, trying to ask his purpose.

It wasn't until he was standing in front of one of Lor'themar's private viewing rooms that he finally had to speak his piece. With boredom dripping from his tone, he expressed how he had been sent by his coven to assist with the Dalaran excursion.

That made the guards glance at one another. "I didn't think mages and warlocks got along particularly well."

"You thought wrong. It's a good thing you're not in charge of anything important then, isn't it?" Adrias replied curtly, a friendly enough smile in place. As the guard bristled, he tugged on his sleeves. "If you do not wish my coven's assistance in Silvermoon matters anymore, then we can easily remove ourselves."

It wasn't nearly his place to speak on behalf of his coven, but considering it had been their idea to siphon from the demons and their abilities that had all but created the blood elves as they were now, there wasn't a soul in this city who would be quick to get rid of them.

Sure enough, the guard shifted his weight and then whispered to his fellow soldier. The second one nodded and slipped into the room they were guarding. The first glanced at Adrias a few times, but made sure not to keep eye contact for long.

When the door finally opened, Adrias swept in before he was properly invited and gave the few inside a quick, joyless smile. "Gentlemen. Shall we discuss preparations?"

~"~

Leafless heard the ping from her stone, though she made no attempt to reach for it. She stood in the Noxious Glade, waiting for Bloodsworn. As her tail swished slowly behind her, she heard footsteps coming her way.

She didn't need to look to know it was him. "I've been thinking a lot about what you said," she started, turning and walking toward her fellow death knight.

Was it just her, or did his armor seem to gleam a bit harsher than usual? It was as though his entire outfit was somehow darker.

Like there was a shade darker than black.

Dismissing it, she realized that he was waiting for her to finish her statement. She strode over to him, stopping a few paces short so that she didn't completely tower above him. "It was easier. When the Lich King controlled us." She hesitated, gaze dipping down to inspect the brown, lifeless grass between them. "I miss it."

~"~

Gore ran his hand down his face, trying not to shake with rage.

And fear.

Sham was missing. Sham, Liila, Wrachette, Gregor, Margaret, and Enlyhn had gone missing during the fighting, and none of them were answering the roll call.

When they'd first been attacked, the nerubian had come up from underneath the earth, spraying dirt and the guild into the air. They'd recovered quickly and fought well, or so Gore had thought.

Now, with them missing over a fifth of their guild, he couldn't consider it much of a victory.

The ground had mostly caved where it had initially ruptured, but there was a small opening that Khai'rhi, Whisper, and Cinder were working on expanding and reinforcing with magic. There had been a brief terror that the missing few had been buried alive or crushed, but Shadow and Blood hadn't been able to find any humanoid bodies present that hadn't been around for at least a year or more.

Northrend was truly built upon corpses, it seemed.

More than that, Blood had felt the presence of death runes during the attack, though he couldn't place them on any of the enemies who had been killed. Either a death knight or a death knight's pet had led the assault against them.

That sang of Bloodsworn.

Especially considering Liila was one of the ones missing.

Well…Liila was gone, but Zeresa wasn't. She was still with the rest of them, timidly offering help to those she could, and staying near Wren, commenting on his eyes and how crazy it was that he could have been purified. She seemed almost envious.

Regardless, even if Bloodsworn wasn't in charge of the attack, some death knight was.

Gore and Howl had already made the decision. The guild was going to split up. Part of them would head to Coldarra as planned. A few would go with Shadow to seek out the Knights of the Ebonblade and see about getting help finding out just what the status was on this frozen hellscape. The rest of them would head down into the earth to retrieve their missing guild mates.

Gore would be leading that group, of course. After all, he couldn't very well go on without Sham by his side.

And if anything happened to her, there would be hell to pay.

~"~

With a heavy sigh, Ta'lim reached out and half-heartedly patted the nose of the rhino standing idly before him, his newest pet. Part of him didn't even want to name this one, figuring that it'd be gone in a month or two at most.

Ta'lim wondered if perhaps he should give up on the whole pet aspect of being a hunter. Wren had done a good job without, and Ta'lim was good enough with his bow that he didn't really need a pet to pull his weight in a group…

As his shoulders slumped, Khai'rhi reached out and patted his arm. "It be okay, yeh? Dis one gonna last."

"Mebbeh," Ta'lim muttered, not even bothering to hide his disappointment. His little pet, the phoenix hatchling, chirped from where it'd taken to resting on his head. He reached up and lightly patted its flaming form. It was almost hot enough to scorch, but not quite.

He'd meant to leave it behind in someone's care, but hadn't been able to find anyone willing to let a tiny firebird stay in their homes. While he fretted something horrible might befall the little bird, he had faith that it would be okay.

The little creature—he'd named it Firefly—seemed to be getting warmer, ever since they'd made it to Northrend. Perhaps it was just the cold's contrast to its little fire.

As it chattered away, seemingly trying to tell him something most important, he let his hand drop back down and then stroked the rhino's nose again. Looking at his sister, he nodded to her gently. "Ya be safe, yeh? Ah nah wanna hea ya getting' hurt wit' meh gone."

They were going to be going with different groups, and he didn't want to come back to find he'd lost everything. Surely, Genji would look after Khai'rhi and keep her safe while Ta'lim was gone. They all would. Just because he'd lost Lash and Rapta didn't mean everything would fall apart around him.

Khai'rhi reached out and punched his shoulder playfully. "Everehtin' gonna be all good. Jus' ya wait 'n see."