Parting Ways

Sylvanas looked over to the forest on the other side of the lake she stood beside, frowning at something that was burning in the back of her mind, a small voice telling her they went through there. "This way." She said, looking back to Thalina and Luna. "They went into this forest."

"How do you know?" Luna asked, looking down at the lake in front of them. "And is there a way to get across without getting wet?"

"She's my daughter." Sylvanas said with a smile of certainty, looking back at the forests of Val'sharah. "She knows the forest would play to her strengths."

Thalina looked at the forests of Val'sharah and hugged herself. "This place doesn't look healthy." She muttered, looking back to Sylvanas and Luna. "There is something dark happening in this forest. The trees are seeping with dark magic and I don't know what it is... I can almost taste the corruption."

Luna nodded her head in agreement. "I have never seen a forest like this. Are we sure they went into there?"

"No." Sylvanas said honestly, pulling on the bowstring across her chest. "But it's north and where I would have gone to get away from the demons to our south."

Thalina sighed, waving her hand at the river and freezing a path towards the other side of it. "Looks like we're going into the dark, scary woods."

Sylvanas grinned and followed Thalina and Luna across the river, placing her hands on the Magister's shoulders and growing a dark grin on her face. "Beware of the worgen that lurk here... They eat small elves when they're left alone."

"Is that wise, telling her that?" Luna asked. "We're trying to find your daughters who could be alone in these woods with those worgen."

Sylvanas let go of Thalina's shoulders, looking down at the forest floor below them. "Sorry... It was meant to be for a joke. If it means anything, Athrodar and I practically exterminated them."

"Yes, that makes me feel so much better." Thalina muttered. "Knowing that my daughter spent time with her dad and step-mother, two elves who have exterminated an entire race."

"In our defence, they did try to kidnap our daughter." Sylvanas told her.

"I'm not arguing, I think I would have done the same if I was in that situation." Thalina looked over to Sylvanas who was watching her intently, growing a smile and making the taller elf smile down at her. "Let's just find our daughters and head home, at least for a while until we know they are okay."

"Sounds like a good plan." Luna said, standing on the outskirts of Val'sharah forest. "I look forward to returning home."

Athrodar looked at each of the faces around the table they sat at, focusing on Lord Ravenholdt who sat at the head of the table and getting a feeling of nostalgia as he was brought back to his time as an assassin. "Thank you all for coming here." Ravenholdt said, standing up from his chair and looking around the table this time. "You are all here because I believe you all can play a key part in taking out important figures of the Legion in a manner which will both stun and surprise our enemy with how quickly and quietly we can dispatch of them."

"I take it there's more?" Valeera asked, looking over to Shaw who nodded his head in agreement to her question. "You called us away from Theramore to be more than just assassins, I hope."

"Of course." Ravenholdt said, smirking at the blood elf. "You are also here because we will need someone to take charge of us, all of us. To find key targets to take out, powerful artifacts for us to wield and to play a key part in fighting alongside the best of what this planet has to offer."

"Count me out." Athrodar said as soon as Ravenholdt had finished. "I came here hoping I could get some sort of help with finding my daughters. I don't wish to be a leader of assassins, rogues, cut throats and whatever else we have here. I have no need to fight the Legion to the end."

"And what do you want?" Valeera asked. "You won't fight the Legion who killed Varian, Tirion. Your daughter's General and her guard."

"Varian and Tirion are dead?" Athrodar asked, sitting forward and widening his eyes at Valeera.

"You didn't know?" Ravenholdt responded with his own question, watching Athrodar shake his head. "Tirion was tortured in felfire and Varian sacrificed himself to save Jaina and several soldiers, both Alliance and Horde." Ravenholdt frowned at Athrodar who now began to get lost in deep thought. "Now do you want to fight the Legion? Knowing they have killed two noble and powerful warriors?"

"I..." Athrodar closed his eyes and shook his head. "No. I have retired from fighting, I just want to spend time with my family now. I will fight who ever stands in my way to get to them, but once I have my family back, I have no desire to continue this fight."

Elaria, who had remained silent the entire time since she woke up, let alone this meeting, shook her head at Athrodar who she sat opposite from. "You won't even fight the Legion to avenge the death of my sister?" She asked, looking up at him with a slight glare. "They butchered her, burnt her body and stuck her hide on a spike for the felbats to feed off. And you're telling me you don't want to kill every fucking demon on this fucking planet until they are all DEAD!?"

Athrodar flinched at Elaria's roar of anger, keeping his head low when he felt her continue to glare a hole into his head. "I..."

"You what? You dare try to tell me you aren't going to fight the Legion because you want to be with your family, because I swear to whatever Gods are listening, I will cut out your tongue right here."

Athrodar looked up at Elaria who continued to glare at him, waiting for his response. "Elaria... This isn't the life I want any more. You would be far better off here than back home, I know it. You know it. But we also both know that I have a family back home, three children waiting for their parents to return with their two older sisters." He sighed and lowered his gaze from her. "I understand if you're angry at me, but I have other responsibilities."

Elaria scoffed and looked away from him. "Fine... Then I guess this is where we will part ways."

"Elaria..."

"No, you've made your mind up. I am staying here where I can do some real damage to the Legion." Elaria looked over to Lord Ravenholdt who nodded at her. "I hope you find your daughters, but I won't be there to help you."

The rest of the meeting went on without Athrodar speaking, or listening for that matter. He had never seen Elaria so angry with him, even after everything they had been through, the two of them had never been angry with one another. But this was something else. He could see Elaria was angry not only with him and his defiance to help her get revenge, but also with everything and every one. He had never seen her so blood thirsty, not even as assassins or during the war in Northrend. She couldn't even look at him, especially after he denied helping her and that was what had stung him the most.

As the meeting had come to a close, Athrodar watched the Night Elf leave the room before anyone else and went to go after her, only to be stopped by a buzzing sound coming from his pocket, taking out the Comm. Disc and pressing the two buttons to both answer the buzzing and to bring up a picture of whomever was trying to get in contact with him. "Now's not a good time."

Sylvanas frowned at the obviously distraught Athrodar, watching his gaze not even focus on her as he looked off into the distance. "What happened? What's wrong?" She asked, hearing him sigh and watching him now shake his head.

"Elaria has left the company. She wants to join them all here in fighting the Legion over finding our daughters." Athrodar looked at the image of Sylvanas who had now raised an eyebrow at him. "She hates me, Sylv. She asked me to join her in fighting the Legion with the rest of the assassins here and I told her I couldn't. Not whilst our daughter was still out there."

"I'm sure she doesn't hate you." Sylvanas told him softly and with a warm smile. "She has only recently lost her sister, she wants to take it out on the Legion and I can't blame her. But we also have to find our daughter and Thal's daughter, she knows that and she won't hold that against you once this red mist has died down." She looked behind her and towards Lunara and Thalina who were talking to a couple of druids that they had come across. "We have found something that you will want to hear."

Athrodar waited patiently in the meeting room as the rest of them left, leaving him alone with Lord Ravenholdt who was going through reports far enough away to not hear him. "Where are you?"

"Val'sharah. These druids were talking about some sort of darkness taking over the forest, but there's something else." Sylvanas looked at the druids who were talking to the other two women, showing them the Comm. Disc so they could see Athrodar. "Tell him what you just told us." She said, glancing over to Thalina who had a smile on her face.

"Your daughters, both Queen and Princess were with us in the Grove of Cenarius not a day ago. The Queen has a broken leg that is on the mend, but we had to send them on their way when the darkness that has taken this forest crept in around us. From what I was told, they are heading north towards Highmountain. We sent a messenger out to find you a couple days ago, but they had apparently just missed you in Dalaran."

Sylvanas thanked the druids and turned the Comm. Disc back on herself. "Did you hear that? We are closing in on them."

Athrodar smiled for the first time today at the good news. "I will leave as soon as possible and race down there. We will catch up to them soon, I know it."

"And Elaria?" Sylvanas asked, looking back at Luna who thanked the druids along with Thalina before sending them on their way. "You know Luna will ask about her."

"We tell her the truth." Athrodar told her. "No point lying to her, she will want to go find Elaria no matter what."

Sylvanas nodded her head in agreement. "Okay. Then we wait until you're back with us." She smiled at her husband who looked less distracted now than he did, but she could still see this Elaria thing was playing on his mind. "I love you."

"I love you too." Athrodar whispered to his wife, smiling at her before they both turned off their Comm. Discs.

Sylvanas looked back to Thalina and Luna who were awaiting her command? No, that seemed too much like being in charge. More like what she had to say, an update on what they were going to do next. "Athrodar is on his way here." She told them, knowing Luna had already picked up on the lack of a second name.

"And Elaria? What about her?"

"You'll have to ask Athrodar when he gets here." Sylvanas told the Draenei, beginning to walk passed them to find out where exactly 'here' was, only to be stopped by Luna who held onto her arm.

"What happened?" Luna now asked, knowing something did with the way Sylvanas passed on the explaination onto Athrodar.

Sylvanas sighed, knowing she wasn't going to get away with saying nothing. "Elaria is staying with the assassin group in Dalaran because they are taking the fight to the Burning Legion whilst we are out here trying to find our missing family members." She looked over to Thalina as she knew that, despite wanting to help fight this new threat, her main goal was finding her daughter. "We are doing the right thing. Elaria is driven by grief and is seeking out revenge by slaying those that may or may not have been involved with killing her sister."

"Then I am going back to Dalaran." Luna told them, letting go of Sylvanas' arm and making her way back south.

"Luna, wait. You can't leave." Thalina's eyes begged for her to stay. "We need you."

"I can't. Elaria is all I have left, I will be damned if I let her slip away into the darkness of vengeance without my being there to help her through it." The Draenei placed a gentle hand on Thalina's cheek and smiled at her. "I hope you find your daughters safe and sound. They are close and we all know it."

Thalina smiled at the Draenei, but also had a look of sadness on her face at saying goodbye to her friend. "I hope you get to Elaria safe and sound too. I want her to be okay and I think you're the only one who can help."

Luna hugged the Magister tightly when the smaller elf threw herself at the Draenei. "I will help her." Luna pulled back and then hugged Sylvanas goodbye, whispering to her the moment they hugged to tell her something she didn't want Thalina to hear. "Watch out for her." She told Sylvanas, pulling back a little and keeping her hands on her arms. "Just listening to her for the last two days, she is breaking. Her daughter is missing and she is about to be left alone with the woman who stole the man she has loved for as long as she can remember."

Sylvanas looked over to Thalina who was looking out into the forest and down the road they were walking along. "What are you saying?"

"Keep an eye on her. I can't be here for her and Elaria, so she will need someone to make sure she doesn't just snap and burn this forest down until she finds her daughter." Luna smiled a little at Sylvanas who slowly nodded her head at the Draenei. "She might not like it, but you have to be there for her should she break."

"I will." Sylvanas whispered to her, looking back to Thalina who was kicking her foot back and forth. "Athrodar cares for her. It's the one thing about him that annoys me, but she is slowly growing on me. I will look out for her, but I may not be able to stop her if she was to snap and start casting spells."

"Then find your daughters quickly." Luna advised. "I have to go. Elaria needs me now."

Sylvanas smiled and bowed her head to the Draenei. "Go. We'll head back to Dalaran once we find them. Hopefully soon."

Tanadia paced back and forth, looking down at both her sister and the body of Snow. "We have to get moving, Vic." She said softly, having stayed in the same place for over an hour now and was growing worried at the darkness that was creeping in around them once more. "We have to go."

Victoria had remained silent for the last hour however, keeping her head rested on Snow's belly and her ear pressed against his heart, knowing she was never going to hear his heart beat again, hear him purr again or have a play fight with her best friend again. But she didn't want to ever move from this spot again, holding onto her nightsaber as if her life depended on it.

The Priestess sat down beside her sister, placing a hand on her back and slowly rubbing it to soothe her. "Something is coming, I can feel it. We have to head north to avoid it before it comes for us."

Victoria ignored her, keeping her arms around her nightsaber and not moving an inch.

Although she knew her sister was grieving, Tanadia began to get mildy frustrated after spending over an hour trying to get Victoria to move, trying to pick her up time and time again and being pushed off by the older and stronger elf as she felt both pained that her friend had gone as well as a massive amount of guilt for having shot Snow with both arrows that injured and then killed him.

"I'll carry you if I have to, Vic, but at the end of the day we have to move, now." Tanadia put her arms under Victoria's and pulled her up onto her feet with all her strength, slowly dragging her away and getting the first sound out of her sister since she stopped crying which was a scream of defiance the second she pushed Tanadia off her.

"I'm not leaving him!" Victoria roared, collapsing back down onto the floor and throwing herself on Snow's body. "I did this to him and I am going to die here with him." She then mumbled, having more tears leave her eyes after she had stopped crying for a few minutes. "Leave, Tana... Get out of here before this place consumes you too."

Tanadia shook her head and sat down beside her sister. "No. I am not leaving you, our parents are coming to get us. Don't you want to hold them, have them hold you?"

"They're not coming... We left that druid village and headed north without actually knowing where we're going." Victoria closed her eyes and sighed, holding onto Snow tightly. "Just keep going north, Tana. You will come across help soon enough."

Silence soon followed Victoria's advice with Tanadia remaining sat behind her, watching her sister continue to rest on the body of Snow and feeling sorry for her. Not only because she had lost her best friend and the woman she loved within the same week, but because she had truly given up on everything. "If you're going to die here, Vic. I am going to die here with you."

"Don't be stupid, Tana. You still have a future." Victoria opened her eyes and stared at Snow's head, feeling her chest tighten at seeing his lifeless body again. "Mine has gone the moment the Legion invaded..."

"Don't be stupid, Vic." Tanadia said, standing up and walking around until she was in front of Victoria's eyeline, placing her hands on her hips and narrowing her eyes at her sister. "You're a Queen of a city, the Capital city of Azeroth to be exact. You have people counting on you back home. They are probably mourning us this very second because they think we are dead, but if we get out of this alive and head back home, our people will rejoice in seeing their Royal Family alive." Tanadia knelt down in front of her sister, her eyes pleading as she saw Victoria look up at her. "Let me help you up. We can bury him here and find someone who can port us and his body to Stormwind where we can bury him properly."

Victoria shook her head. "No." She rolled over to face away from her sister. "We are both staying here."

Tanadia closed her eyes and surpressed a frustrated sigh. "Fine... Then I am going to go find you some help up north. If you're planning to die here, the least I can do is get someone who can help you out of this state of mind and get us both home."

Victoria watched her sister begin to walk north and away from her, getting smaller and smaller as she get further away until she was almost out of her line of sight. Just as she went back to holding onto Snow, she heard a scream in the direction Tanadia was walking in, reaching for her nearby bow and shooting up onto her feet, running towards the sound of fighting in the distance but stopping to look back at Snow's body. She didn't want to leave him there for be eaten by whatever predator would smell him, but she also needed to help Tanadia fight off whatever was attacking her.

Knowing she couldn't lose her sister as well, she began to run to the sound of the fighting, pulling an arrow back on her bow and letting it loose into a Felguard, watching him turn around to face her and letting loose another arrow into his chest. She pulled back another arrow after reaching for it in her quiver and nocking it in place, letting it loose between the Felguard's eyes and reaching for a forth arrow as she scanned the fighting for Tanadia, watching a demon with a fel cage on its back, pick up her sister's unconscious body and look back to Victoria who slowly lowered her bow. "Kill her." The demon commanded, pointing at the Queen and carrying Tanadia into the forest.

"No..." Victoria muttered as the demon followed by several other demons retreated into the forests of Val'sharah, leaving her alone with several felhounds and felguards charging towards her, letting loose two arrows into two seperate felhounds and killing them before they could get to her, reaching for her sword and parrying the first swing from a felguard's great axe, hoping to dodge the second but being betrayed by her leg as it buckled beneath her and she collapsed to the floor, dropping her sword in the meantime. Though she did dodge it in the end, she had to think and act quickly to dodge the third strike from her kneeling position.

Diving out the way, she watched as the axe buried itself into the floor beside her and reaching for her nearby sword that she had dropped the moment she collapsed to the ground and stuck it deep into the felguard's chest, watching as the second felguard charged at her and rolling away from his strike, reaching for an arrow in her quiver and looking around for her bow. "Damn it..." She muttered when she saw it was beside the fallen felguard.

As the axe came swinging down at her, she rolled again and stuck the arrow in the felguard's arm, reaching for another arrow and not noticing the felhound racing towrads her, moving her arm up to try and block the jaw that now clamped down on her arm, letting out a scream as pain shot through her and forcing the arrow deep into the felhound's head. "Fuck you..." She breathed, looking down at her now free arm and cursing to herself again when she saw several teeth had punctured her arm and made her bleed. A lot.

She still had one felguard to deal with however, hugging her arm into her chest as she rolled away from the great axe once more, reaching for an arrow and just stroking the fletching on it before having to duck under the side swinging axe, pulling out the arrow once the axe had gone passed her and sticking it into the felguard's leg behind the knee, dragging herself to her sword and pulling it out the first felguard's chest before rolling onto her back and taking in a deep breath before pushing herself up onto her feet and stumbling over to the second felguard, pushing her sword into its back and collapsing onto the floor with the demon.

"Tana..." She muttered, closing her eyes and letting out a loud scream of anguish as she had now lost her sister too. She had one job, protect her sister and she couldn't even do that. Tanadia had been taken by the Legion and now she was going through many scenarios in which most of them involved her being tortured. "I'm sorry..." She began to say to herself, being one of the many times she had said sorry today and knowing it wouldn't change anything. "I couldn't even protect you..."