Awake
"Let's go, mom."
Sylvanas slowly walked with Victoria who held onto her hand, occasionally looking back to Athrodar and the other injured being treated by Liadrin, Tanadia and other priests. "He didn't wake up yet..."
"I know." Victoria looked back at her father. "I told Liadrin to tell him about Elaria and Luna. They're being taken back to Stormwind and I instructed the group taking them back to bring them to our home, to bury them by the ocean."
"Your father would have asked for the same thing." Sylvanas said, taking off her quiver to count her arrows and discarding of half of them after they had snapped shortly after Goroth knocked them all back. "Where are we going now?"
"There's a Captain.. or Commander... Or something deep in these tombs called the Maiden of Vigilance." Victoria looked back at Hroki, Thal'ena and the other armies following them to their new target. "That's where Khadgar, Illidan and company are waiting for us."
"We best not keep them waiting." Sylvanas said, placing her quiver back over her shoulder and rubbing a finger and thumb over her wedding ring. Hating that she was going into another fight recently without her other half. "I'm sure some of them would like an update on your father when we get there."
"Khadgar will, and Cyndia." Victoria said. "My Ranger-General still worships you both for bringing her back to life and Khadgar is just a nice person who is concerned for all of those in the fight to rid the Legion from this world."
"As long as you're not crushing on him, then I don't mind how nice of a person he is." Sylvanas' words were meant to tease, but she began to feel guilty almost immediately when she caught Victoria looking sad. "I'm sorry, I forget you're not over Sera yet."
Victoria shook her head. "It's not that. It's just... We lost Elaria and Luna and we don't even know if Athrodar will wake up. I have many things on my mind, but that is definitely not one of them."
Sylvanas moved an arm around her daughter and pulled her in for a half hug as they walked. "Listen to me. I want you to come home with us once we've cleared the Tomb. I'm almost certain it would have been rebuilt by then and I know your father would a lot of rest... We kind of pushed him into this place before he was feeling his old self."
"As long as you're taking responsibility, that's all that matters." Victoria said, grinning at her mother.
"Don't tell me that... I feel bad enough as it is that I couldn't keep him awake." Sylvanas looked down as they walked together. "I got to be with him the entire time, but I managed to sleep and I woke him up when it was his turn."
"So you feel guilty." Victoria said, squeezing her mother's hand to get her attention. "Don't be. I mean, waking him up was a bit of a dick move, but you were both trapped under that debris and I probably would have done the same after a while. I know how much he calms you, how much you both need each other when in similar situations."
"You know, you're going to have to be my person until your father is back to his old self." Sylvanas told her daughter, now grinning at her. "Family above everything else. And I'm more family than Thal'ena is, even if you two do share the occasional longing look." She leaned closer to her daughter who remained silent. "And your mind isn't even thinking of that, you said."
"I-I'm not." Victoria stuttered, looking away from her mother. "It's just... I promised Thal'ena that when I'm ready to date again, I'd come to her first." She glanced over to Sylvanas who raised an eyebrow at her now. "Don't look at me like that. I like her a lot."
"Between keeping her around despite admitting to trying to brainwash you into loving her and flirting with your father and I when we retired, I think she is definitely someone you should keep around." Sylvanas grinned at her daughter and bumped her shoulder into her. "Bet you didn't know that second part, did you?"
"Actually, I did." Victoria said, sticking her tongue out at her mother. "She told me and I shrugged my shoulders, wished her good luck and she came back disappointed."
Sylvanas gasped and let go of Victoria's hand. "She was disappointed?" She narrowed her eyes at her daughter. "It was Athrodar, wasn't it."
Victoria shook her head. "She said he was amazing... You on the other hand..."
"What about me?" Sylvanas asked, now narrowing her eyes at her daughter.
"She said you were boring." Victoria told her, poking her tongue in her cheek and watching Sylvanas look around for the Royal Magister. "And that she barely noticed you were there."
"Okay, where is this bitch." Sylvanas said, standing in place and letting the soldiers of the armies behind them walk passed her and Victoria. "You!" She yelled, pointing at the Royal Magister who frowned at her.
"Me? What did I do?" Thal'ena asked, actually worried she had done something wrong and looking over to her Queen who her a huge smirk on her face.
"I was a boring lay?" Sylvanas glared at the Royal Magister who was no genuinely lost.
"I... I have no idea what you're on about." Thal'ena told her, looking over to Victoria again for some help and just getting a laugh from her.
"About five years ago, you visited Athrodar and I at Windrunner Village, had some fun and then you told Victoria that Athrodar was amazing and I was boring." Sylvanas glared at Thal'ena who began to remember what she was on about and smiling before wiping away said smile when she saw the glare burning a hole into her head.
"Oh..." Thal'ena looked away and rubbed the back of her head. "I'm sure it was a bad day for you, my Lady. If it changes anything, I am more than happy to go again, Sylvanas. Someone as beautiful as you, it's hard to not want you again."
Sylvanas' glare softened with the compliment, looking away for a second before turning her attention back to the Royal Magister. "Okay... I suppose it may have been a bad day for me."
"Exactly." Thal'ena smiled at Sylvanas who placed a hand on her arm. "Besides, Athrodar is practically addicted to you. There must be a reason to it, so I want to join you again sometime just to see why." She stepped closer to Sylvanas and lowered her voice to a whisper. "Bring your 'A' game. I want to see what your tongue and those pretty lips can do."
Sylvanas right this second wanted to jump the Royal Magister who was flirting heavily with her, stopping herself when she heard Victoria's voice in the background. "So, your plan to have strong words with my Royal Magister didn't go well, did it?"
"When we are finished here, she is coming to visit Athrodar and I for a weekend." Sylvanas said, looking over her shoulder at her daughter who laughed and shook her head. "She's very persuasive and I want to make up for my off day."
Victoria laughed again, wiping her a couple of tears from her eyes. "Oh man, she got you with that old trick." She walked over to her mother and hugged her, knowing she won't get one back from her but not minding in the slightest. "Let me guess, she didn't remember at first? Then when she did remember, she said she was certain you had a bad day?"
Sylvanas pushed her daughter back a bit and looking at her with a frown and a tilted head. "H-how do you know that?"
"She used it on all my servants, some of the council and many... many visitors of the city she took a liking to." Victoria shrugged her shoulders. "Let's say I have heard that story a lot from anyone that spoke about her. I made sure to keep her at arms length since I heard the story for the fourth time, only using her when I was feeling lonely." She began to grin at her mother. "And I am her Queen, if she dared use that on me, I would skin her."
Sylvanas chuckled and took hold of her daughter's hand again. "Ahh... Taking after your own mother, I love it."
Liadrin sat beside Athrodar, letting out a defeated sigh as he had yet to wake up. She was confused as to why that was, seeing as he didn't have any injuries or signs to say he would remain asleep for so long.
"He's not waking up, is he?" Tanadia asked, walking towards her father's bed.
Liadrin shook her head. "I don't know why. I just wished he did." She let out a long sigh. "He's all I have left. After you of course. I suppose that's the same for you if you don't include me."
Tanadia laid down beside her father, closing her eyes and hugging him tightly. "Please wake up, Papa." She whispered, squeezing Athrodar a little tighter. "We need you."
Liadrin watched Tanadia as she began to have a feint glow about her. Her gaze turned to Athrodar's hand when it twitched, deciding to let Tanadia carry on with whatever it was she was doing. She crouched down beside the bed and watched Athrodar's hand clench tightly before relaxing.
"Athrodar?" She said softly, taking hold of his hand. "Can you hear me?"
There was a slight grumble, forcing Tanadia off him as the young priestess heard him and stood up instantly. "Papa?"
"Hand..." Athrodar muttered.
Both Liadrin and Tanadia looked down to his hands, the priestess noticing Liadrin was holding onto his hand very tightly. "Uhm.. Li Li."
Liadrin looked down at Athrodar's hand in hers and letting go of it. "Oh, sorry."
Athrodar sat up slowly and began to cough, having a dry throat and reaching for the water pouch that was taken from him. "Drink." He asked, taking a pouch of water from Liadrin who handed him one. "Thank you." He then said, looking at his daughter who was struggling to hold in her need to hug him. "Come here."
Tanadia burst forward and hugged Athrodar tightly. "I'm happy you're awake, Papa." She cried, ignoring his groan when she hugged him tighter than he was expecting.
"I can see that." Athrodar said, looking over to Liadrin and then down to Tanadia, the Paladin picking Tanadia up and dragging her off her father. "Thank you." He then said to the Paladin, being hugged by Liadrin tightly now. "Okay... That wasn't what I was planning. I wanted to sit up."
"I don't care." Liadrin told him, hugging Athrodar tightly now. "You are my last friend from our old days. Theron and Halduron don't count, they weren't in our group."
"I wasn't going to involve them." Athrodar said, patting the Paladin on the back. "Please get off me. I want to see if Sylvanas is awake."
Liadrin pulled back and looked at Athrodar with a frown. "Well... Long story short... She is with your daughter, moving towards the next big bad inside this place. They're meeting up with Khadgar and Illidan as well as the rest of them that starts to take too long to list, so I named the two leaders of our little army."
Athrodar looked at Liadrin who smiled at him. "You've been talking to Viraleth again, haven't you?"
Liadrin shook her head and waved away his comment. "Doesn't matter. Either way, Sylvanas isn't here and she didn't want to leave, but they need every single fighter available to help them kill the next commander."
Athrodar pulled the blanket off him and climbed out of bed, stumbling forward a little but keeping himself up on his feet. "Then I have to go to them."
"Papa?" Tanadia walked towards Athrodar who was picking up his belt, sword, bow and quiver. "You're not ready to join them yet. You've just woken up and you're weak. Both Liadrin and I could feel it before you woke up, your body is tired."
"I don't care." Athrodar told them, struggling to put his quiver on and deciding to carry it in his hands until he reached Sylvanas and the rest of their army. "I have to get to the rest of our family to help them."
Tanadia helped Athrodar put his quiver on. "Then let us help you get there. There are plenty of priests still here who can help the rest of them recover, Liadrin and I could be of use to you."
The lack of nicknames told Athrodar all he needed to know that she was serious, a tone that he had not from her in a long time. "Okay." He said, standing outside the tent and looking at his daughter. "Come on then, show me where they went and hopefully we can catch them."
Liadrin took the lead, deciding it was better to go with them than to argue against it, especially since Athrodar needed to stretch his legs after remaining stuck under the debris for hours and then in bed for many hours after that. "Stay close, I don't want either of you to get lost."
Sylvanas sat down beside Victoria, both of them trying to catch their breaths along with everyone else. "We can't do any more..." Sylvanas muttered, looking over to the swirling portal their new target had gone through. Kil'jaeden was in charge of the whole operation in the Tomb of Sargeras, someone they thought they would be coming across soon but not this soon. "Especially against him."
"We had a hard time taking out that big guy... We lost a lot of fighters." Victoria said, looking over to Thal'ena who was practically asleep in front of them. "She is drained of mana, I've lost half my army and Athrodar's family army seems to be avoiding conflict to keep up their numbers."
"I have a feeling they knew exactly what to expect at the end of this." Sylvanas said, looking over to Leotheis, the commander of the Sunblade Army. "Which gives me a bad feeling."
"I don't think they will be a threat in the final fight, I think they will be a good asset for the final fight." Victoria laid down and stretched out her hand towards Thal'ena and placing her fingertips on her arm. "Hey, are you good?"
Thal'ena nodded her head slowly. "Give me a sec... Having this blade makes me want to use my magic more, but it drains me greatly at the same time."
"Just rest then." Victoria told her, smiling sofly at her Royal Magister which made her smile back. "I need you for the final fight, if you're able to recover in time."
"I probably won't be there, but I will try to recover some mana naturally." Thal'ena told her Queen.
"How do you do that, by the way?" Sylvanas asked, overhearing their conversation. "Tanadia got mana sickness when she ran out of mana. I want to avoid that in the future."
"It takes years of learning." Thal'ena told her. "I can teach her, but it will take years. Even for someone as naturally talented as her, it will take years for her to learn how to naturally regain mana. To conserve it will take days, maybe weeks... But she will still get sick if she runs out."
"She is becoming very busy." Victoria said, laughing lightly. "Looking after dad, learning to use a sword, going to the Netherlight Temple to become a better priestess, and now a visit from the Royal Magister to learn how to conserve mana."
Sylvanas rolled her eyes. "She has many, many years ahead of her. She doesn't have to learn it right away."
"Good. Don't want to burn her out so young." Victoria said, looking over to the portal Kil'jaeden walked through and watching Khadgar, Illidan, Jaina and Rhonin all examine it. "We're going to have to go through there, aren't we?"
"Yes we are." Arator said, sitting down beside them all. "I overheard Khadgar talking to Illidan and they believe it will lead to Kil'jaeden."
Sylvanas leaned her head on Arator's shoulder just be to close to someone who was a similar build to Athrodar. "How are you?" She asked her nephew, smiling a little when he put an arm around her for comfort.
"I'm doing better than you seem to be doing." Arator said, looking down at Sylvanas who cuddled up to him. "A lot better than you seem to be doing."
"My husband, your uncle, isn't here. So I'm doing as well as I possibly can." Sylvanas looked over to Victoria who gave her a look of sympathy. "I don't like going into fights without him. Ever since he came into my life properly, I have always had him with me, until the Legion attacked... Now I can't seem to have more than one fight with him by my side until he is taken from me in one way or another."
Victoria looked behind Sylvanas and saw Liadrin, Tanadia and then Athrodar walk into the room they were all waiting in. "Mom..." She muttered, nodding over to the three newcomers.
Sylvanas looked over to the three newcomers and ignored everyone and everything the moment she locked eyes with Athrodar, standing up and practically running over to him before jumping at her husband and hugging him tightly. "You're okay." She whispered, kissing him on the cheek several times.
"I am." Athrodar told her, pulling back from the hug and fastening his lips to hers in a long kiss that was only broken when they needed to breathe. "I promise not to leave your side again."
Sylvanas shook her head. "It wasn't your fault. You couldn't do anything but rest, reset and come back to me." She moved her arms around him again for a tight hug, one that she never wanted to be parted from after the scare she got from being stuck under that debris. "Let's stand here and you hold me for as long as possible. I need your arms around me, just to make sure you're actually here."
"I'm here." Athrodar whispered in her ear. "Trust me, my love. I am definitely here."
Sylvanas felt her chest tighten at his words, burying her face in his chest and letting the couple of tears in her eyes roll down her cheeks. "Good. I didn't want this to be some sort of dream."
Victoria came to them shortly after, hugging both her parents, but trying to get in between them to hug her father properly. "Glad to see you're okay, dad." She whispered, squeezing him tighter this time.
"Of course I'm okay." Athrodar told her, pulling Victoria off him to look at her. "I'm glad to see you are okay. I got through one fight before needing a healer, you're yet to have a proper rest. I'm so proud of you."
Victoria smiled and closed her eyes the moment Athrodar cupped her face with his hands. "I love you, dad." She whispered, receiving a kiss on her forehead by Athrodar and cuddled up to him. "I don't want you to get hurt again. Stay away from war, both of you." She looked back to Sylvanas who still had a couple of tears in her eyes. "Especially you, since you're pregnant."
Athrodar pulled back and looked at Sylvanas with a frown. "You are?"
"Well... Yes, I am." Sylvanas smiled a little at Athrodar. "I told you whilst we were trapped down there, but I think you were already gone when I did." She stepped forward and took hold of his hand. "I found out a week before we had to come here, Vereesa was there when I found out. I was going to tell you after this assault, but I thought I was going to lose you, so I told you then."
Athrodar was a loss for words, what little part of him was angry she had kept this from him, was overwhelmed massively by the sense of joy as he pulled her in for a long, hard kiss on the lips. "Do we know what it is?" He asked once they broke off their kiss.
"No." Sylvanas said, cupping Athrodar's face in her hands. "But whatever it is, it's our last one for a while, okay?"
They both laughed as Athrodar nodded his head. "Deal." He whispered, pressing his head against hers. "I thought Cedani would have been our last, but I'm happy to have another one on the way."
"So am I." Sylvanas whispered back to him, moving her arms around Athrodar and hugging him tightly. "Are you well enough to fight Kil'jaeden and the countless demons behind that portal?" She asked, nodding over to the portal in question.
"No, but I refuse to stand by and watch others die when I could help, even if only a little." Athrodar raised one of Sylvanas' hands to her lips and kissing it. "But I will be well enough to deal with our other problem." He muttered, leaning closer to her so only she could hear him. "I am going to kill him, I can promise you that."
"The plan staying the same?" She asked, looking around them to make sure they were alone and leaning against Athrodar when they were. "We go to him and just kill him, hoping to find an escape once the deed is done?"
"That's that plan." Athrodar agreed. "I can't think of anything else, he would suspect something if we do anything out of the norm. Except going to talk to him, I think he misses talking to his family, so with me going to see him, he will keep his guard down."
"And if I'm going with you?" Sylvanas asked, tilting her head a little at him. "You did think of that, right?"
"Sort of." Athrodar admitted, hearing Sylvanas sigh. "But! We could tell him that you want to talk things out, after seeing his army at work. Anything to stroke his ego will make him drop his guard... I hope."
"It does sound like Dael'Thaelas, so maybe we can give it a go." Sylvanas span on her heel and leaned back against Athrodar whilst looking over to the portal. "We just have to deal with that."
"Yes we do." Athrodar whispered in her ear, hugging her from behind and kissing her on the neck. "If we are facing Kil'jaeden, he sent the army to our village. It may get a bit personal when we face him, since my mother died in that attack."
"I won't hold you back." Sylvanas told him, closing her eyes at the kisses Athrodar was placing on her neck. "Though you may have to hold me back if you keep this up."
