Planning An Escape

Three days had passed by since Victoria woke up in Dalaran and was cleared to walk around the city, keeping close to her mother as they both walked around the magical floating city arm hook around arm. "I have spent at least ten years with this family as your daughter and yet I don't think I've ever visited your sister's city."

Sylvanas smiled and gently placed her hand over Victoria's, patting the top of it as she looked over to her. "Then, despite the circumstances, welcome to Dalaran."

Victoria smiled and leaned her head on her mother's arm. "It's a beautiful place. Shame it's located over the Legion's playground."

"Not for much longer." Sylvanas told her, kissing the top of her daughter's head. "They are spreading themselves thin over the Broken Isles, we will begin to push them back once we get a foothold."

There was one big reason why Victoria wanted to walk around the city today and that was because she heard Viraleth and her rangers were visiting the city before heading out in a couple of days and she wanted to both thank the Scout Captain of Silvermoon for trying to find her and to catch up with an old friend.

"So what do you want to do after this meeting today?" Sylvanas asked her daughter, glancing over to the slightly smaller elf and raising an eyebrow at her distracted face. "Unless you have plans already?"

"I want to find Viraleth." She told her mother. "I haven't spoken to her since before I became the Queen. It would be nice to see her again."

Sylvanas nodded her head slowly. "Okay, I understand." She smiled down at her daughter who looked up at her. "I'm sure she will want to see you too. She seems like her old self when I last spoke to her, so maybe you will have a good talk."

"What do you mean by 'good talk' mom?" Victoria asked, tilting her head a little at Sylvanas. "I hope it's not what I think you're implying. I have only just lost my General, the woman I loved, so I am not looking to start anything for a long while."

"I wasn't implying anything, honey." Sylvanas told her, patting the hand that was hooked around her arm. "Other than she will be a good friend to talk to, if you need it."

Victoria couldn't help but smile, looking down at the road they were walking along and squeezing Sylvanas' hand. "Thank you."

Sylvanas continued to smile, holding onto her daughter's arm as it remained hooked around hers. "You're welcome." She replied, not needing to know why she was saying thank you and just taking it in her stride as they neared the Violet Citadel. "Ready to see everyone?" She asked as they began to climb the steps leading to the entrance of the Citadel.

"Who is going to be there again?"

"Your aunt and uncle, along with your twin cousins. Myself, obviously and if she is feeling up to it, Thalina. Then a few ambassadors from Stormwind who wouldn't take no for an answer, Thal'ena and Cyndia." Sylvanas' face began to frown as she thought she had missed somebody off the list, becoming sad when she remembered who it was. "Your father was supposed to be there too, but he..."

Victoria stopped walking as they reached the top step, removing her arm from her mother's and turning to face her completely before hugging her to keep her mother calm. "It's okay, mom. We will get him back, just like you got me back. Tanadia too."

Sylvanas smiled and melted into the hug. "We will. As soon as we find out where they have taken them all, we will take out their camp and free everyone those demons have captured." She pulled back and cupped Victoria's face in her hands, brushing her thumbs across both cheeks. "Then we will be here with and for you until you get sick of having us around, or this war is over and we return back home." She watched her daughter close her eyes as she continued to brush her thumbs across her cheeks, smiling a little brighter. "And you are welcome to drop everything and come with us. For as long as you like, forever preferably, but for as long as you like is good too."

"Maybe a couple weeks would be good, before I return to Stormwind." Victoria said, looking into her mother's eyes and knowing she would love her to stay forever. "Maybe after this meeting and once I'm fully cleared to leave the city, we can go home for a bit and I can hold onto my brother and sisters for two weeks until my arms grow tired and they no longer want to be near me?"

Sylvanas laughed lightly and nodded her head in agreement. "Okay, deal. When you're cleared to leave Dalaran, we will head home so you can hug your siblings and never let go of them."

"They have a tiny hole in their guard rotations." Athrodar whispered to Tanadia as they both carried several of rock and stone to the big pile in the distance where other captured fighters were building the foundations of the portal. "It's not big enough to sneak through without getting caught, unless we can get them distracted."

Tanadia shook her head, letting out a long exhale as she dropped the rocks in her arms onto the pile in front of her. "Too risky. We need something solid so we can get several of us out of here, papa. I don't feel comfortable leaving everyone behind whilst we both escape."

"We may not be able to get more than just the two of us out of here, Tana." Athrodar told her, picking up a big rock and being helped by his daughter as they both carried it to the pile. "The only way I can see us all leaving here together is if we're liberated. Or all the demons leave and abandon the project."

Tanadia frowned as they dropped the rock next to the pile, both walking over to the nearby stones for the thousandth time today. "Is there really nothing else?" She asked, looking over to a human woman who collapsed and dropped her rocks on the floor, glancing over to her father who began to run to her side. "Papa, wait!"

"Get back, scum!" A Demon Overlord yelled, pushing Athrodar back hard enough so he fell on his ass. "You, get back up. Now!" They yelled atthe human woman who tried to push herself up, only to collapse back onto the floor. "Hmmph, fine. Bring her to the warlocks." The Overlord looked over to Athrodar who stood up and brushed the dirt off his leggings. "Get back to work."

"That's the forth one today." Tanadia muttered, picking up a couple of rocks and walking beside her father once more. "This is why I want to save everyone here. We are losing close to ten soldiers a day here where they've just collapsed and given up. Those Warlocks steal their souls and use them to power the portals."

"I know..." Athrodar whispered to her, dropping his rocks on the pile. "Give me more time... There is bound to be a weakness somewhere that we can exploit."

"There will be, papa. We will keep looking for it until it's found." Tanadia smiled and took hold of his hand briefly, making sure the demons around them didn't see it as the last time it happened, Athrodar was punished for an entire day. "Let's just keep working and keeping our findings on the down low."

Athrodar grinned and squeezed his daughter's hand before letting go of it. "I am proud of you, little one." He whispered, making her smile at him. "You are growing up faster than I would have expected, which is what is needed right now."

"I have to, papa." Tanadia told him, picking up more rocks and stone. "Victoria is injured, I forgot to tell you that... Her leg was broken from the crash and I had to step up and look after her and Snow before..." Her smile faded a little, shaking her head and back to her father. "I had to grow up really quickly over the last week."

"When we're out of here, you don't have to worry about growing up as quickly as we will be heading home." Athrodar dropped off his rocks and stone on the pile, looking over to his daughter who smiled brightly at him again. "You can stay as long as you'd like as well. We have enough homes for your and your mother too, so if you want to stay forever, you can."

"I do want that..." Tanadia muttered. "I don't know if mama will."

"I will talk to her when I next see her. When we get out of here." Athrodar placed a hand on his daughter's face and pulled in her closer so he could kiss her on the forehead, quickly retracting his hand when he heard a couple of demons patrolling passed them. "Come on, back to finding a way out of here."

Night had fallen over Dalaran and Victoria was laying in bed after a long day, the trauma from the last week finally catching up to her as she had no energy to leave her bed let alone the room. She had spent a few hours in the Violet Citadel with everyone her mother had mentioned would be there, most of it spent with the council members that came to see her and were relieved she was alive. She had told them she wasn't coming back to Stormwind for a few more weeks, needing to recover and spending time at home with her family.

They told her they understood and were sorry for the loss of both the General and her nightsaber, Snow, wishing her the best before heading back to Stormwind with the sole purpose of telling the people that their Queen was alive and recovering from her injuries. When her part of the meeting was over, she had left the Violet Citadel to retire to the room she was staying in until she recovered, laying down on her bed and having the trauma of the last week catch up to her as she began to cry uncontrollably.

She was left in this state, alone for an hour before she had her one and only visitor of the day. Viraleth had the day off, needing to go back to Silvermoon to talk to Lor'themar and Halduron to update them on her task the next day and deciding to spend her final day in Dalaran with the Queen of Stormwind. Mostly to catch up and to make sure she was okay, but it quickly turned into her comforting the younger elf when she walked in on her crying.

"I'm here for you, Vic." She whispered the moment she sat down beside Victoria, having the Queen roll over to face her and gripping onto the Scout Captain's tunic to bury her face in her stomach. "Just let it out."

That was the only thing that was said between the two of them for a couple hours. Victoria continued to cry and mourn nonstop whilst Viraleth just held her, opting to lay down beside her and cuddle the elf she still had feelings for. Despite not being aroudn her for over five years, she had heard about Victoria's reign from messengers and from Sylvanas, feeling proud of the young elf and her tenure as Queen of Stormwind.

Deep down she had a small, selfish part of her that was happy Sera was no longer in the picture, but it was constantly being crushed by both the disgust she felt at having those thoughts and the need to be there for a friend who was grieving, squeezing Victoria every now and then when the thoughts came back into her mind just to push them away.

"I don't want to go back..." Victoria muttered when her crying had died down. "I'm tired of losing people. Sera is gone, Snow is gone. I have lost countless rangers, soldiers, mages and many civilians over the last five years due to war, raids or skirmishes. Not to mention the wars leading up to us taking Stormwind." She looked up at the Scout Captain who was gazing down at her. "I want to go home, with my mom and my dad. I don't want to rule over a city any more, I just want to be with my family in peace."

Viraleth stroked her hair, smiling at her when she closed her eyes at the slightest of touches. "Then go home with them. Nobody is forcing you to be the Queen of Stormwind, your mother will understand if you tell her what you just told me."

"I guess..." Victoria muttered, sniffing and wiping her eyes. "Do you not think she will be angry that I have abandoned everything my parents have worked hard for? To have one of their children on the throne of Stormwind?"

"What? Of course not." Viraleth laughed lightly, pulling the Queen into her embrace once more. "Whenever I spoke to your mother, all she could go on about was how proud of you she was. I had to ask about Athrodar some days just so the topic would change. And I don't even care about Athrodar!"

Victoria let out a small laugh which Viraleth took as a victory due to it being the first time she had heard her laugh since her arrival. "That is surprising, since she usually can go on for hours about how much she loves him, that she is lucky to have him and how she doesn't want to be anywhere else but by his side." Victoria's face began to turn sad again when she just thought about what she said. "Now he has been taken by demons like my sister and my mom is alone. She has her sister and me, but she's never as happy as she normally is unless Athrodar is right beside her."

"We will get him back." Viraleth promised her, stroking the Queen's hair. "Everyone is working hard to find him as we speak, scouts being sent out to every corner of the Broken Isles just to find a demon camp that would house both Athrodar and Tanadia as well as my scouts and anyone else who has been captured." She heard Victoria yawn, looking down at her and grinning at the Queen. "You should sleep. I will be here to watch over you until Sylvanas comes back."

Victoria shook her head, closing her eyes and holding onto Viraleth's tunic. "No... Stay here." She muttered, snuggling up to her. "I want a friend with me."

Viraleth cursed silently to herself, holding onto the Queen as she buried her head in the Scout Captain's neck. "I'll stay." She told her closing her eyes and suppressing a sigh when she felt Victoria shuffle just a little closer to her. "I won't be going anywhere." Viraleth muttered.

Forty minutes or so passed by before Sylvanas returned to check on Victoria, stopping at the entrance of her bedroom and smiling when she saw her daughter sleeping peacefully beside Viraleth who herself had drifted off to sleep too. "Cute." She whispered to herself, sitting down on a nearby chair and smiling at the two elves sleeping beside her, turning around to face the desk she was sitting beside and taking out the arrowhead she carried around with her out from her cloak pocket. "We're closing in on your location." Sylvanas whispered to the arrowhead in her hand, rubbing her thumb across it. "We will find you soon my love..."

Her eyes began to water before she even knew what was happening, spending almost a week away from her husband who she had rarely gone more than two days without was start to play on her mind. A lone tear dropped down onto the arrowhead in her hand when she realised her emotions were winning this fight, wiping away any more tears before they could fall and blinking hard to clear her vision. "I just want you back in my arms, Athrodar. Too many people have died this week, I don't want you to be the next."

Sylvanas took a long breath out, trying to keep herself calm and looking over to her daughter who continued to sleep peacefully beside Viraleth. "Your daughter is back with me. She misses you greatly, I can see it." She placed the arrowhead down on the desk and took off her cloak, boots and shoulderguards, climbing into the bed on the other side of her daughter and placing a gentle hand on her back, smiling and closing her eyes when Victoria woke up just enough to roll over and snuggle up to her mother. "I need you here with me, little one." She whispered to Victoria. "Your father isn't here and I need someone to keep my mind at ease."

Victoria smiled, a little dazed and confused at what was happening but nodded her head in agreement to Sylvanas' request. "Okay."

Waking up the next day, Viraleth slowly began to raise an eyebrow at the hand that was groping one of her breasts. "So this is happening..." She muttered, looking down at the hand and following the arm it was attatched to until she found the owner of it. "That's new." She said, clearing her throat to wake up the owner of the hand.

Sylvanas woke up from Viraleth's constant clearing of her throat, glaring at her from the other side of the bed. "What?"

"Can you remove your hand from my breast?" She asked, never expecting Sylvanas to be the one to fondle her whilst she slept. "You don't do this to Athrodar, I hope?"

Sylvanas widened her eyes and removed her hand from Viraleth's breast. "Sorry. I don't know... Sorry."

Viraleth rolled her eyes and standing up off the bed, looking down at Victoria who was the only one still sleeping. "She looks so peaceful compared to last night."

"Well, she had her mother and a close friend with her all night. Perhaps she just needed to be with loved ones after finally mourning the loss of Sera and Snow." Sylvanas smiled and looked down at her daughter. "I think she is just happy she got to spend time with you."

Viraleth also smiled and looked down at the Queen, stroking a hand through her hair lightly and trying not to wake her at the same time. "I am happy I got to spend some time with her too." She watched Sylvanas stand up and stretch. "Where are you going?"

"I need to shower." Sylvanas told her, walking towards the bathroom. "Tell her that if she wakes up and I'm not there."

Walking into the bathroom, Sylvanas stripped until she was wearing nothing, opening the door to the shower and pausing before she stepped inside, staring at the showerhead hanging on the wall. This was something she done intimately with Athrodar for the past five years, along with seemingly everything else apparently. But this... This was what she had enjoyed more than most things, standing in the shower with her husband as they washed each other. She placed a hand on her neck and feeling the kisses Athrodar used to leave there when things got heated, closing her eyes and smiling as her hands began to trace down her body as if they were Athrodar's and stopping just as they rested between her legs. "Even for such a simple task as washing myself, you have made my life difficult when you're not around." She whispered to herself, opening her eyes and sighing.

"It's not going to be as fun now that I have to do it myself." She said to herself as she stepped in the shower.

"The eastern side of the camp isn't as guarded as the other sides." Athrodar whispered to himself, picking up the food in his bowl with his hand and looking around for Tanadia who had come up with the idea of finding a group of like minded people to help find a way out of the camp with them.

When he found her, he raised an eyebrow when he saw her sitting with two Humans, a Tauren and a Troll, the last one being the only woman out of the four. The reason he raised his eyebrow at them was because one of the human men were getting a little close to her, placing a hand on her back when they all laughed. "Okay, that's not happening." He told himself, standing up and making his way over to them.

"What else, what else?" Tanadia asked, smiling brightly at the other Human talking to the group, telling stories about his time before the Legion's invasion.

"Okay. I spent a couple of weeks in Stranglethorn and -"

Everyone looked over to Athrodar when he cleared his throat, Tanadia smiling up at her dad whilst the two humans looked down at the floor, the Tauren saluting him and the Troll looking Athrodar up and down, seemingly checking him out. "Dad, I think these four can help us."

"Is that so?" He asked, deliberately sitting between Tanadia and the human that had his hand on her back. "Then I think I have some news that could help us all. The eastern side of the camp isn't as guarded as the other sides when we're in here."

"Well that's good, right?" Tanadia asked, leaning on Athrodar's arm and taking hold of his hand, looking around at the rest of their new group. "OH! I forgot to mention, this is Michael." Tanadia pointed at the human who was telling stories. "Hroki is this big Tauren here, Tujali is our Troll friend and the human sitting next to you is George."

Athrodar looked over to George who was slowly shuffling away from him, knowing Athrodar saw where his hand was. "It is good, yes." Athrodar said, looking back to his daughter. "If we're quick and plan this perfectly, we could kill the demons on the eastern side and retreat into the woods of Val'sharah before they know we're gone."

"So what do we need to do?" Tanadia asked, squeezing her father's hand as her eyes beamed hope up to him. "How can we help?"

"If you're all down for it, I need you all to keep count of how many demons are on the other side over the next couple of days. If it remains consistent, we will begin to plan our escape and more importantly, how to get the weapons to make our escape easier." Athrodar looked over to the Tauren who nodded his head slowly. "Especially for you, big guy. I reckon if we get a weapon in your hands, the demons will wish they never captured you."

"How do you know I'm not a druid?" Hroki asked, letting out a long breath through his nose and making his nose ring move with his breath. "I might not even like violence."

Athrodar grinned at the Tauren. "Oh I know you're not a druid. The way you hold yourself, the scars on your arms and face and how you're fidgeting with your hands gives it all away. You're used to holding a weapon, which is why you don't know what to do with your hands when you've not got a weapon in them." Athrodar looked over to Tanadia who smiled at the Tauren. "My daughter isn't built like her older sister or my wife. She isn't a warrior, she is a priestess, which is why her hands are either in mine or wrapped around my arm, because she is either trying to help my need to do something with my hands, or she wants to hold onto me for comfort." He smiled at his daughter, kissing the top of her head. "Plus she's not built like a warrior. She's soft and squishy and can't lift a sword."

Tanadia gasped, falling for Athrodar's bait and slapping him on the arm. "I can pick up a sword!"

Athrodar grinned and threw an arm around her. "It's a shame we don't have a sword to prove it."

Tanadia pouted and looked away from her father. "I can pick up a sword..." She muttered, making the group laugh lightly at her. "This isn't a fun topic of conversation."

Athrodar pulled her in close and kissed the top of her head again. "Okay, we'll change it."

Tanadia began to smile once more when her head rested under her father's arm. "Thank you."