Surprise Visit

"So they're back together after a day, huh?"

Victoria smirked at Thal'ena who rolled her eyes. "Yes they are. I know I complained a lot about seeing them together and how annoying it was that they were always so damned happy all day every day, but seeing how much it destroyed my father having Sylvanas away for a day..." She shrugged her shoulders and looked towards the door leading to the Royal Chambers. "I missed just seeing him happy. Even if it was a day."

"And what about you?" Thal'ena asked.

"What about me?" Victoria then asked, turning her question back on the Royal Magister.

"Do you miss being that happy?" Thal'ena now asked, making her question a little clearer.

Victoria frowned and looked over to the door that connected the throne room to the Royal Chambers once more. "I.. I don't know. I was never really that happy, but I believe I was close when I was with Sera."

"And what about Viraleth?" Thal'ena asked her, wanting to know whilst deep down regretting she asked in case she got the answer she didn't want to hear.

"I'm not sure. In undeath she was my first love, but in life she... She wasn't the same." Victoria shrugged her shoulders again, picking at a loose bit of stone on the arm of the throne. "After we broke up, I slept with her a couple of times. I don't want to say I liked having her around for a quickie, but she always used to cheer me up when I went to her for that."

Thal'ena didn't know how to feel about that answer. It wasn't exactly what she was expecting, but it was better than what she had feared she might have said. That was until a final question crossed her mind that made her gulp and take a deep breath. "And what about me?" She asked quietly.

"I don't know." Victoria told her honestly. "We've not had much of a relationship in that way since before we were brought back to life. And even then it was your magic manipulating my feelings which you can't do any more." She glanced over to Thal'ena who had remained silent. "Right?"

The Royal Magister smiled a little at her. "No, my Queen. I can't do that any more, it was more of a Scourge mage thing, not a fire mage thing."

"Good." Victoria said, looking down at the arm of the throne she was still picking at. "Like I was saying, we never had that type of relationship after we were brought back to life. Sure I came to you a lot, but that was because you were flirting with me and we were both horny. One of us more than the other."

Thal'ena let out a small laugh. "What can I say? Some habits are hard to get rid of, especially if they were hard wired into your very being." She smiled warmly at the Queen but then began to feel that fear in the back of her mind and butterflies in her stomach when her final question on this topic came to mind. "Do you think we could ever have that type of relationship?"

Victoria stopped picking at the arm of the throne, thinking about her answer before she responded. "I'm not sure." She told her as a base to work from. "We've had a similar discussion in the past, and I said I wanted to wait until this war was over and I could move on from Sera. But with how caring you have been for me and how much I rely on you, there is a possibility for us to have... that."

Thal'ena smiled a little again, looking down at her hands that she was fiddling with. "I would like that type of relationship with you, my Lady. Working so close to you these last few years has really changed my perspective on how I feel about you. I'm not normally this forward with this sort of thing -"

Victoria let out a quick laugh, interrupting the Royal Magister. "You constantly flirt with the court."

"But this is different, my Lady. I do that to get what I want from them because it's easy." She looked at her Queen who went back to listening to her. "I've never really felt like this before and it's hard for me to get these words out without sounding like I am waffling on."

"Which you are." Victoria told her, smiling warmly at the mage. "I think I told you this last time, but you are at the top of my list, Thal'ena. If I was to ever seek out another relationship after Sera, it was and will always be you."

Thal'ena felt both happy and sad about that. One on hand she was told not now, that they weren't going to build on what they have and to remain alone until then. But on the other hand, she was just told that when the Queen was ready, she would be the one person she would want to be with. "Okay." She said when she realized she didn't respond. "I can wait for you, my Lady."


Athrodar laid in bed and watched Sylvanas get dressed, having a smile on his face as he watched pick up her leather tunic. "What?" She asked when she saw him staring at her.

"Nothing." He told her, smiling a little wider when she went back to getting dressed.

She glanced over to him again and began to smile at him. "What?" She asked him again, letting out a small laugh when she did.

"You're going to laugh." Athrodar told her, looking over to the bedside table.

"Tell me." Sylvanas said, sitting at the foot of the bed on her knees.

Athrodar kept the smile on his face but began to shake his head. "Promise you won't laugh at me?"

"Hey. We may have had an argument, but you know I will never laugh at you. Unless it's stupid." Sylvanas smirked at him, shrugging her shoulders. "Then who knows?"

Athrodar sighed. "Fine." He looked back to his wife and smiled at her. "I just wanted to look at you, to never get your image out of my head."

Sylvanas smiled at him now. "Then look at me." She whispered to him, placing her hands on his face. "Only look at me."

Athrodar's smile began to fade as he stared at her. "I don't want to lose you again."

Sylvanas shook her head, keeping her hands on his face. "No, you won't lose me again. Yesterday was a mistake, I shouldn't have left you alone. I was just angry and I took it out on you the wrong way."

Closing his eyes, Athrodar leaned into one of her hands that remained on his face. "I have to go to DaelThaelas today." He told her.

Sylvanas sighed and nodded her head. "I know." She whispered, leaning forward and hugging him. "Please try to find something we can exploit." She begged, holding onto him just a little tighter. "I don't want to have him over our heads any longer than we need to."

Athrodar pulled back to kiss her, pressing his head against hers and exhaling slowly. "Neither do I." He began to frown and shook his head a little. "He said something to me when we last met."

"What did he say?" Sylvanas asked him, pulling back now to look at him.

"He said, that me taking the army will allow our family name to live on just a little longer." He shook his head again, furrowing his brow at the comment. "I don't know what he means by it."

"Maybe it was nothing." Sylvanas told him, stroking his cheek to get his attention. "Maybe he was trying to scare you into taking the army? Telling you that because you did, our family will live whereas if you didn't, they would die." She moved forward and sat on his lap, cupping his face in her hands and looking into his eyes. "We both know we have each other's backs. Nothing will destroy our family."

"That's what I thought." Athrodar sighed and looked down. "But there's a reason why he said that and it wasn't to just get me to take the army, because it was after I took it." He looked back up to her. "He managed to survive the Sunwell attack, him and his army. He could manipulate my dreams into getting me to go to him. Maybe he knows something about my future, about our future."

"Baby, listen to yourself." Sylvanas whispered, planting a kiss on his lips and gazing into his eyes once more. "Unless he is a part of the Bronze Dragonflight, or has one of them working for him, he knows nothing of our future." She pulled his head into her chest and began to stroke his hair. "You're going to be fine, we all are. Remember what we said in Pandaria? Our future is what we make it." She kissed the top of his head and smiled. "I'll go to Dalaran and get our daughters back from Vereesa whilst you're away. Just to show you that we are all safe together. Tahnir will remain in the Farstrider Academy where it's safe."

Athrodar nodded against her chest. "Okay."

Sylvanas smiled a little wider. "Good."


"Back so soon?" Dael'Thaelas smiled and hugged his great grandson. "How is the army?"

"I am impressed with them. She hasn't admitted it yet, but Sylvanas is too." Athrodar looked at Dael'Thaelas closely for his reaction to Sylvanas coming back and stopping himself from grinning when he saw his great grandfather's smile lessen a little. "I forgot to say, she came back and apologized for reacting how she did."

"Good. You two are better together, or so I have heard." Dael'Thaelas began to walk around the outside of his former home with Athrodar following him closely behind. "And your family, how have they reacted to you taking up our army?"

"Tanadia only wants me to be happy, so keeping them all safe is doing that. Victoria, despite not saying it, is the same. My other two daughters aren't old enough to know what's going on and Tahnir is still in the Farstrider Academy, so he doesn't know about this all."

"That's good, that your two eldest want this too. Victoria will be a great leader for the army, she is already showing signs of being a great ranger and being trained by you and Sylvanas means only good things in her future." He glanced over to Athrodar who had a proud look about him. "Tanadia however, I have been told she is learning quicker than others her age. Has she thought about becoming a Paladin? I could send a weapon trainer to Stormwind and teach her how to use swords or maces."

Athrodar shook his head. "Right now, she wants to just focus on her priest training. After her mother's death, it's the only thing keeping her sane. I don't want to add more onto her shoulders."

"I understand." Dael'Thaelas looked over to Athrodar who walked beside him. "So, what brings you here so soon after our last meeting?"

"I wanted to ask about my father." Athrodar said, stopping and making Dael'Thaelas stop and turn to him. "I don't remember a thing about him and probably will never remember him as he's not here any more. I just wanted to know what he was like."

"You are very much like him. Going against the family's best interests, trying to figure things out on his own. Marrying out of love and not to boost our family name." Dael'Thaelas shrugged his shoulders at Athrodar. "All those things annoyed me when our name alone brought the room to silence out of respect and fear. Now, I just want to see it rebuilt into its former glory. Luckily for you, you've married a Windrunner and the most famous one at that. Though you have taken her name, so it does deal a mighty blow to our reputation some more."

"That's because you and your son destroyed it." Athrodar told him. "I was told my father and I stood against you both and fought our own kin to clear as much bad blood with our family name as possible." This time Athrodar shrugged his shoulders. "I suppose that doesn't matter now as it's forever tainted in bad history."

"Maybe you're right." Dael'Thaelas said, a hard pill to swallow since he spent the majority of his life building up his family name. "Though I am hoping that with you and Sylvanas uniting the world as best as you could, rebuilding parts of Southern Quel'Thalas and helping these Pandaren with their homeland, you have brought some honor back into our family name, even if you're not going by it anymore."

"Can you really blame me? My mother was shunned the first year after the Sunwell, it took a lot out of her to get her reputation near to where it was." Athrodar looked over to Dael'Thaelas who had this strange look of guilt about him, the first time he had actually seen his great grandfather look anything but smug. "After her husband died, she clung onto me when I returned home, but only for a day before I was sent out again by the Regent Lord."

"I am sorry for everything that has happened to her." Dael'Thaelas said, sounding sincere and looking over to Athrodar. "I haven't admitted this to anyone, not even Anasterian, but I was jealous of your father. He married out of love, something I couldn't afford to do or your grandfather. I wanted to build our family to greatness, instead I followed our Prince and threw our name into ruins."

Athrodar had found a weakness. Dael'Thaelas had never truly loved someone, it was perfect. But now he had a new problem. How could he exploit this? How could he use his great grandfather's weakness to be rid of him? "I suppose that means you are jealous of me too, huh? More so than my father."

Dael'Thaelas laughed and nodded his head. "I suppose you're right. You married out of love, but got power with it too. Something I had dreamed about and tried to get for you." He looked around the ruined village. "I know I don't have to tell you about the arrangement I had with Sylvanas, Titans knows she has told you by now, but when she came to me that day to tell me she wanted you, I knew it was going to be something I had to protect."

"To have the Sunblade name tied to a Ranger-General?" Athrodar asked, albeit jokingly though he knew deep down there was some truth behind the question.

"To have our future secured in your marriage to her. A Sunblade and a Windrunner, a family of power marrying to a family of Ranger-Generals. How different our lives could have been if that delusional Princeling from Lordaeron didn't fuck things up." Dael'Thaelas sighed and looked back to Athrodar. "Your father would be proud of you, you know. He wanted nothing more than for you to be happy. He won't care that you united Azeroth, or that you were a King. He just wanted to make sure you were happy and I can see that you are."

Athrodar smiled and looked down at the ground. "I am. Four beautiful daughters and a son that is in the Farstrider Academy, trying his hardest to be like his parents." He shrugged his shoulders and looked up at Dael'Thaelas. "I just hope it's going to be easy when they get to the stage where they want to date people."

Dael'Thaelas laughed. "Good luck keeping the boys away from your daughters."

"Already having a tough time with Tanadia..." He muttered, rubbing the back of his neck. "Victoria was already too old to protect her, Alleria will be like her mother, trying her best to be the best ranger in the world before realizing she is missing something, so I have a century or two to worry about that. Cedani however, she will be too nice to everyone that I will have to protect her."

"She not even at the walking or talking age yet, is she?" Dael'Thaelas asked.

"Not yet, but I just have a feeling, you know?" He smiled and looked out towards the Ghostlands. "She will be who decides she wants to stay with us whilst her brother and sisters are out in the world."


Sylvanas stood on the balcony connecting to her bedroom, looking out at the city and waiting for Athrodar to make his way to her after she saw him walk into the Keep below. She was still unsure about him keeping contact with Dael'Thaelas, but reminded herself every time the topic came up that he was there to find a weakness in his great grandfather for them to exploit and, hopefully, kill him before he gets his claws into their children.

"I found something." Athrodar said, standing at the doors connecting the bedroom to the balcony.

"What did you find?" Sylvanas asked him, turning around and looking at her husband.

Athrodar stepped forward and took hold of her hands. "He is jealous of me and was jealous of my father as we both married out of love." He looked up into her eyes and saw her smiling at him without looking at her mouth. "He had never truly loved someone. I don't know how we will exploit that, but there is a weakness."

Sylvanas frowned, trying to think of a plan. "Nothing comes to mind. But I also don't want you with him for too long, just to find a weakness. He may get his claws into you further." She turned to face him, placing her hands on his face. "If he does, he will try to get his claws in our children."

"Then I will wait until he calls for me. I won't go to him any more." Athrodar closed his eyes when she stepped forward and hugged him. "We can start to come up with a plan that doesn't involve exploiting that weakness. A last ditch attempt sort of thing."

Sylvanas pulled back and looked him in the eyes when he opened them. "Like... Killing him and getting killed ourselves? But as long as he can't get his claws into our children, we still win?"

Athrodar nodded his head slowly. "Exactly that, yes." He said quietly.

Sylvanas took a deep breath and nodded slowly too. "Okay..." She agreed. "We... We will kill him no matter what, but we will sacrifice ourselves for that goal if we have no other option." She placed one hand on his face again. "I would rather us both go down and our children safe than one of us being left alone without the other. Victoria and Tanadia can look after themselves and will look after their sisters too. Tahnir will be fine in the Farstrider Academy until he graduates, then he will be of the age to join a company in Silvermoon or his sister in Stormwind." Despite planning out her children's future without them, a lone tear still rolled down her cheek. "I don't want that for them, but it will be their future if we can't find anything to use against Dael'Thaelas."

"And Lor'Themar won't help us?" Athrodar asked, watching Sylvanas shrug her shoulders.

"I... I don't know. How do we tell him that Dael'Thaelas is still alive, in Quel'Thalas somewhere, but not in Quel'Thalas? He hid an entire army from them, so unless we have some real proof of Dael'Thaelas' location, he won't help us." Sylvanas sighed and pressed her head to his chest. "When did our lives get so difficult?"

"When Arthas didn't let us stay dead." Athrodar told her, kissing the top of her head and hugging her close to him. "But we've managed so far, made a family out of all the bad we have been through. We just have another bump in the road that we will overcome. It's just going to be harder than usual."

"As long as you're by my side, our children are safe and we have a place to call home, I think anything is doable. But like you said, it's going to be harder than usual." Sylvanas sighed and listened to his heart beat in his chest. "Whilst I was in Dalaran, Vereesa said they were really close to finding Turalyon and Alleria. Some of the Draenei that looked at the recording by Turalyon noticed a few things about it. They believe they are on Argus."

Athrodar frowned at the name of the planet. "Why does that sound familiar?"

"It's the Draenei home world. Now a haven for the Burning Legion." She pulled back and looked up at him. "Velen has his engineers working on something, but hasn't said what."

"I hope it helps us, whatever it is." Athrodar said, kissing the top of her head. "I'm going to spend some time with Tanadia today, or what's left of the day."

Sylvanas smiled and hugged him tighter. "She would love that. It hasn't been easy for her this last week. So to see you are in a better mood will make her happy." She pulled back and looked up at her husband. "She asked me something the other day, before this all started. It was shortly after her mother died and I caught her crying to herself."

Athrodar frowned at his wife. "What did she ask?"

"She wants to learn to use a sword. She said she would have asked Liadrin, but she has been busy seeking vengeance on every demon on Azeroth." Sylvanas looked him in the eyes and saw he was unsure. "I want us to teach her. Get her to use a two handed sword so she can become a Paladin like Liadrin." She placed a hand on his cheek. "That last part were her words, not mine. Apart from saying Liadrin... She called her Li Li."

Athrodar smiled at the nickname and closed his eyes as Sylvanas' hand lingered on his cheek for a bit longer. "Then I suppose we could teach her. I managed to teach Victoria and she hated using her blades."

"You also took joy in knocking her on her ass if I remember correctly." Sylvanas mused, smirking at her husband. "She also wasn't our daughter back then, so maybe you'll go easier on the little priestess." She tilted her head a little. "Plus a two handed sword is different to using two swords."

"I was a Death Knight, remember? I had to use a two handed sword for a few months before I got to decide what weapons I can use." Athrodar leaned down and kissed her lightly. "I'll get it done, trust me."

"The last time I trusted you, you spoke to Dael'Thaelas and brought back his army." Sylvanas told him, making Athrodar look away. "That's right, I'm going to keep reminding you until he has been dealt with."

"That's fair." Athrodar muttered, being pulled into a long kiss by Sylvanas who laughed lightly and felt a little bad for bringing it up.

"Don't worry, I won't use it unless you're being an idiot." She told him, hugging him and pressing her ear to his chest. "Which is actually often, so you'll be hearing it a lot."

Athrodar began to chuckle and kissed the top of her head again. "Thank you."