"What is that...thing?" Sylvanas stood in the doorway to the bedroom, watching as Jaina hung up her cloak. A furry black head with ears far too large for the face peeked out over Jaina's shoulder and mewled.

Jaina turned towards her, smiling serenely. "His name is Varian. He's returned to life just to vex you."

Sylvanas took a moment to process that. Jaina had left to help with a trade agreement and had returned with a fuzzy little beast? She snorted. "Tell me you didn't trade away anything of value for that disgusting creature."

"He was a gift." Jaina said. Sylvanas stared in abject horror at the absurd picture as Lady Jaina Proudmoore, Consort to the Warchief of the Horde, Archmage of the Kirin Tor, member of the Council of Tirisfal, Formerly Lord Admiral of Kul Tiras, Formerly Leader of the Kirin Tor, Dalaran and the Council of Six, Former Ruler of Theramore and once apprenticed to the great mage Antonidas, lifted the kitten up and nuzzled her nose into the soft, furry belly.

Her face hurt, and she realized she was grinning. Sylvanas forced her face into a neutral expression before Jaina could notice. "I am not taking care of it."

"No one asked you to." Jaina set the kitten on the floor so it could start exploring the bedroom. She'd already put a collar on the creature, though it was a bit too large at the moment. A blood-red collar. Horde red. Somehow, Jaina was mocking her.

"What will you do when you cannot be here? He is very young."

"I already have two volunteers and I'll pay them both," Jaina assured her. "No duties will be interrupted…" she trailed off, rounding on Sylvanas and walking over to her, hands on her hips. "And excuse me. I have every right to choose a familiar. Or a damn pet, for that matter. You're not my mother and I don't have to explain myself to you in personal matters."

"I am very glad I'm not your mother." Amusement laced Sylvanas's tone and she openly admired Jaina's fire. "It would make this marriage awkward."

Her smile returned as Jaina's eye twitched. Jaina poked her in the chest. "Are you teasing me?"

Sylvanas lifted her hand, brushing the back of her knuckles along Jaina's cheek. "Perish the thought."

The contact made Jaina's skin flush and her glare was half-hearted at best. "So would you like to know how it went, or can that wait until morning?"

Jaina was in a very good mood, so it must have gone well. Time away might have helped, though the thought left a sour taste in her mouth and a feeling she refused to consider. "Tomorrow is fine."

Smile returning, Jaina stepped out of Sylvanas's reach. "I got you something, but you have to wait until Winter's Veil."

Folding her arms and leaning against the wall, Sylvanas watched her as she prepared for bed. She didn't respond, simply observed. Jaina stripped out of her traveling robes, setting them on a chair before pulling a night shirt on. She looked at Sylvanas with a knowing smile and said, "Come help me out of my braid."

And so Sylvanas Windrunner, Warchief of the Horde, Banshee Queen of the Forsaken, sat on the bed behind Jaina Proudmoore and reached for her hair. She felt Jaina lean against her, and gave a sensual tug to evoke the response she'd come to enjoy perhaps a little too much. "Discuss business tomorrow. What did you do for fun, besides adopt helpless animals?"

"There's this little place I love to eat at, I must have gone there three times," Jaina said.

The living and their need to eat. Sylvanas had forgotten what food tasted like. Everything she'd once enjoyed had become like sawdust and salt. She frowned, then leaned in and flicked her tongue at Jaina's earlobe, making the other woman shudder.

"I uh…" Jaina wet her lips, and Sylvanas could hear her heart racing. "Jumped off of a gunship."

Sylvanas's fingers stilled in Jaina's hair. "You what?"

"You know Yukale, right?"

"She still owes me for the coppers she stole."

"Right. She's developing this sport."

"A sport that involves jumping out of airships." Sylvanas resumed her work in Jaina's hair. She could have been done already, but she was in no hurry.

"And deploying parachute cloaks. She's also got a variant involving flexible cords but I wasn't ready to try that one."

"That Kaldorei is either insane or has a death wish. Death comes for us all, eventually. Odd that one so vibrant would seek its embrace sooner." Sylvanas pulled Jaina a little closer, one arm sliding around her waist.

"I think the appropriate term is adrenaline junkie." Jaina leaned her head back against Sylvana's shoulder. "There are worse things to be addicted to."

Sylvanas rubbed her tongue against the top of her mouth. "I've never been addicted to anything in life, or death."

Jaina smiled as Sylvanas combed her fingers through her hair. "Mm. I'm sure you haven't."

Somewhere near the entrance to the bathroom, Varian mewled. Sylvanas narrowed her eyes. "That thing is not sleeping in the bed."

Tilting her head so that she could look at Sylvanas without moving from her shoulder, Jaina responded, "That's not up to you."

Sylvanas could feel Jaina's too-hot breath on her face and tried not to reflect on the fact that she'd missed this. Missed Jaina. She sighed, overly dramatic, and relented. "As you wish. This is your home too."

Jaina kissed her cheek, and as she got up to get the kitten, Sylvanas felt something like a crack inside her chest.

Like Hallow's End, Jaina hadn't celebrated Winter's Veil last year. Why should she have? She had just been bonded in a marriage of political convenience to a woman she hated, and had been in no mood to give anything more than a token appearance near the tree for the public.

But this year was different. Hate had softened into … something else … and Jaina had found a number of friendships in the city, and a purpose with her growing duties as Sylvanas trusted her more and more.

She contributed to the decorations, assisting a few other mages with floating lanterns and colorful lights-as well as a twist of her own for the actual day that would surprise just about everyone, or so she hoped. She didn't stop to think of the absurdity of it all because it was no longer absurd. It was the new normal, and she was...increasingly at peace with it.

An orc spit at her feet, glaring at her as he passed, and Jaina clenched her fist. Maybe not entirely at peace; bad blood couldn't cool after a single year and that wasn't the first time she'd been spat on. She could make an example of him (Sylvanas would have) but she was in too good a mood to let one sour orc ruin it. So Jaina called out with overdone cheer. "Happy feast!"

Tyra looked at his back, then at Jaina. "Yeh just gonna let that go?"

"Any other time of year, I wouldn't."

"Lemme take care of it."

Jaina considered that. "Would it improve your holiday cheer? You've been grumpy."

Tyra nodded.

Sighing, Jaina said. "Okay. Just don't kill him."

"Promise I'll only remove a few tusks." Tyra laughed, then chased after the orc, calling out, "Hey you! I gotta present for yeh from the Warchief!"

They disappeared around the corner and Jaina heard a loud cracking sound and the orc crying out in pain. All things considered, it was a mild punishment compared to previous incidents; Sylvanas suffered no disrespect for her wife.

Tyra returned, carrying a tooth and a tusk. It should have sickened her, but it didn't, though she didn't feel the same degree of satisfaction as she had previous times. She shook her head when Tyra offered up the trophies. "Uh, thank you, but keep them. Consider it my present to you for Winter's Veil."

"Really?" Tyra all but beamed at her, and bowed deeply. "Thank yeh, Lady."

Tyra tucked the trophies into one of her pouches, then rocked on her heels as she regarded her Lady's lady. Jaina eyed her. "What?"

"Nothin'."

"There's something." Jaina had been around Tyra long enough to start figuring out her tells. Maybe someday she'd tell her side of her story with Yukale.

"Yeh haven't been what I expected," she said, after a long moment mulling over her words.

Jaina made sure Tyra had her full attention. "What did you expect?"

"Fire an' fury and a lot more throwing things."

She frowned, rubbing her arm. "Would it make you feel better if I was all of that, just mostly in private? If I let that out in public I risk breaking the compact. If the compact breaks, we go back to war and a lot of people die. People on both sides that I've come to tolerate, and maybe like. A little. I don't want to see the Alliance collapse any more than you want to see the Horde fall."

"Are yeh still angry, sometimes?"

Jaina glanced around, then looked back at Tyra and nodded. "Anger is a normal emotion, Tyra. But for a long time it was all I felt. Anger and rage and an agony in my heart. Even before the compact, I found ways to deal with it, to find some calm and maybe a middle ground. But sometimes, I still feel it. I wouldn't be human if I didn't."

Tyra shuffled on her feet, then asked. "Do you hate her?"

"Who? Sylvanas?"

"Aye."

Thinking this wasn't entirely about Jaina and her relationship with her wife, she answered cautiously. "When you're in a circumstance as delicate and intimate as this one, emotions can become … blurred. I don't have an answer for you, even one I could say in private. It's complicated."

Did she still hate Sylvanas? Sometimes. But it wasn't an all consuming thing like it had been even a few months ago. Jaina couldn't even say when things had shifted. "Do you hate her?"

"Of course not, she's the Dark Lady. She saved me." Tyra's voice was passionate.

"No, I mean Yukale."

Back stiffening, Tyra narrowed her eyes at Jaina. "I don' like what yeh gettin' at, my lady."

Setting aside the sudden shift from just 'lady' to 'my lady,' Jaina persisted. "It just feels like there's something a little personal to your line of questioning. Like you're trying to ask me if it's possible to overcome hating someone you want to care about."

Tyra looked away, hands balling into fists and then relaxing. "We met durin' the Third War. When I was still alive. We fought back to back against the Burnin' Legion, an' then got real drunk together after it was all over. But… Lordaeron was still overrun. I had t'go back." She gestured down at herself as if to explain what happened after that.

"It was your home."

"Aye." She shifted on her feet. "While I was out adventurin', relearnin' the parts of me that had been lost while I was Scourge, I made a friend. An'... maybe I started to remember other things. Like what friendship an' love were."

She touched her cheek, where Jaina remembered Tyra had marked herself with ash. "Zanda was a… calmin' influence on me. Always boppin' me on the noggin when I'd get on my bullshit. Always backin' me up in my crusade to find a way to live again, though I think she was a little sad at that. I think she just wanted me to accept who I was.."

Gently, Jaina took Tyra by the elbow and guided her out of sight of the general public.

Tyra barely seemed to notice. "We were up north a ways. I can't even remember why. Ran into Yuka on accident. She was fleein' her crazy ass mother."

A thousand questions sprung into Jaina's mind, but she just nodded at Tyra to encourage her to continue.

"I was already in a bad way. Tried to... Take my own sword to myself. Zanda and Yuka both tried to stop me. That damn troll ended up with the blade in her chest instead." Tyra closed her eyes, and forced air out of her decayed lungs. "So I blamed Yukale for it, for a long time. But the compact, it's helped some. An' sometimes I like ta think Zanda's spirit still whispers to me."

"Is she saying anything right now?"

A confident smile returned to Tyra's face. "That yeh an' the Dark Lady make a really hot couple. An' somethin' else but I can't tell yeh that just yet."

Jaina grimaced, then laughed. "I'm sorry I asked."

"Yeh won't tell anyone about this, will yeh? I've got a reputation to maintain."

She gave Tyra a quick, kind of awkward hug. "Your secret is safe with me and any of Sylvanas's spies that might be nearby."

Tyra snorted, eyes shifty. "It's just that...yeh right. Yeh can't let it consume yeh because yeh end up missin' out on things. There's so much I wish I'd done an' said with Zanda and Yukale. So now… now I got a chance with one of 'em. I'll be grateful to both of my ladies forever for that."

An old sadness welled up inside Jaina, though it didn't hurt as much as it had before. "No, thank you for sharing and reminding me of things like that. I needed to hear that."

"Ever been in love?" Tyra started to walk back the way they'd come.

A haunted look crossed Jaina's face as she followed. "I don't think I can even remember what love is."

There weren't many people that could sneak into Orgrimmar undetected at night, and Jaina knew all six of them. She peered out the window, before closing the shutters and smiling at Vereesa. "It's so good to see you. Did you have much trouble getting in?"

Vereesa shook her head and gave Jaina a teasing smile. "This isn't the first time I've snuck in."

"I'll be angry about that later, I'm really sick of being spied on by everyone." Sylvanas's spies and Alliance spies were a given.

"Aside from the usual spies, we occasionally send Yukale or Unariel in to check on you," Vereesa admitted. "Just to observe."

Jaina frowned, folding her arms. They would be two of the others. "I appreciate it, but I'd like you to put a stop to that. I don't want them getting hurt because of me and it's hard enough pretending SI:7's operative is who they say they are."

Renzik the goblin would probably get roughed up and expelled if he was lucky. Having spies in each others' cities was to be expected; Jaina had thus far taken a stand with both Anduin and Sylvanas that spies should be exchanged, not killed. But that hadn't been tested yet and Jaina would like to avoid testing it if at all possible.

"Jaina…" Vereesa approached her, hesitating before giving her a hug. "We just want to make sure you're safe."

"I am safe." She wished that maybe, just once, someone would actually believeher.

Jaina slid her arms around Vereesa and rested her chin on the top of her head. Until just now, Jaina hadn't realized how much she needed and craved this kind of contact. It was a depressing revelation and put more context into the kitten that was snoozing on top of one of Sylvanas's discarded cloaks.

She pulled away from Vereesa before it could get awkward or inappropriate, barely noticing how Vereesa's touch lingered or the way she almost leaned in her direction.

Vereesa sighed, moving to the north wall and leaning against it. "Okay, I'll pass your request on to the King, but your mother might be a touch harder. That was her idea."

"I don't know how I feel about my mother spying on me," Jaina remarked. She found two glasses and the bottle she'd set aside for this meeting.

"Appreciative for a start?"

Jaina laughed at that. "Forgive me if I'm just a little wary. Our relationship is mending. Forgiveness does not mean forgetting."

It still stung to think about it, even years later. Learning how reviled she was, and then to have her own mother reject her and allow her to be sent to that horrible place. Jaina remained convinced she'd deserved it. Deserved to suffer the reminder of her choices and to be punished for them. Mostly to herself, she murmured, "I wonder what price I'll pay for agreeing to this..."

"I'm sorry?"

Shaking her head, Jaina spoke louder. "Nothing, Vereesa. Would you like a drink?"

Vereesa shook her head. "Thank you, but I'd like to keep my wits about me while I'm here."

The way Vereesa said 'while I'm here' stung Jaina unexpectedly. "I wish you could visit openly. Then you could allow yourself to relax."

Vereesa gave a mirthless smile. "She might not kill me on sight, but I don't like my chances."

Jaina turned to focus on pouring herself a drink in order to hide her wince. "I'm not saying you're wrong, necessarily. But I've been thinking… Do you really not believe, given time, that you and your sisters could come to some kind of…accord? You're family."

"We don't exactly get along these days." Sadness crept into Vereesa's voice. "What did she say when you brought it up?"

"I didn't." Jaina looked at Vereesa like she was out of her mind. "I just told her I was working on a … project. I figured she'd say no and it's better to ask forgiveness than permission anyway. It's not like we're trading secrets." She waggled the bottle. "One drink. I'll only fill it a little bit."

"So more like a shot." Vereesa ran her hands through her hair, then nodded. "I could use a shot right now."

She took a seat on one of the lounges, absently scritching Varian behind the ears as Jaina handed her the glass, which had been filled about one quarter of the way up.

Jaina sat next to her, leaning against against the back of the couch and resting her arm along it behind Vereesa's head. "How have you been? Are the twins well?"

Vereesa leaned back as well, letting her head lay on Jaina's arm as she closed her eyes. "Busy. They keep asking about you, wanting to know if you're okay. They also have a thousand questions about Orgrimmar and the Horde."

"Do they, now? What do they want to know?" Jaina leaned closer; she liked the twins and they were that age where children were actually tolerable. They had to be thirteen now, at least.

"Everything." Vereesa scrunched up her nose and Jaina had to stop herself from playing with her hair.

"Everything is a tall order, but maybe I can get some of that into a letter for them." Even if their generation might never fully forget the blood that had been spilled, maybe they could start with the next. She could read the same conflict in Vereesa's eyes that she felt herself; Vereesa hated the Horde even more than Jaina. They'd cost her her husband, and now one of her dearest friends was in bed with them, so to speak.

"Thank you." Vereesa gave her a smile, before her eyes fell to Jaina's drink hand. Her expression changed.

"Vereesa?" Jaina watched her with concern, and this time she did toy with her hair. She thought it was a calming sort of friendly contact and suddenly understood why Sylvanas was so obsessed with her own.

"That was mother's. I couldn't believe that…" Vereesa shivered when Jaina's finger brushed the leading edge of her ear and her voice caught. "Can't believe that Sylvanas still had it. I thought it lost when Windrunner Spire was overrun. She must have retrieved it after..."

Jaina pursed her lips, looking down at her fingers as Vereesa trailed off. The ring glinted there, a silver band with a small, raised stone engraved with the crest of the house of Windrunner. She usually forgot it was there, at this point; and she wasn't inclined to share Sylvanas's secret wants, even with her sister. Nor was she inclined to remove it, for some reason she couldn't explain. "Tell me about her? Your mother. You've never spoken of her to me."

Vereesa stroked the ring, then slowly trailed her fingers across Jaina's hand. She knocked back her drink, then got to her feet. "We should… do dinner sometime. Next time you visit Dalaran."

"It's a deal." Jaina said. She stared at her a moment, then took Vereesa's offered hand and kissed her cheek. "I wish you could stay longer."

"It's probably for the best I don't," Vereesa said, turning her head away as some pink colored her face. It took her another few seconds to peel herself away from Jaina.

As she paused to scritch Varian again an arrow passed her cheek, sinking deeply into the wall behind her head.

Vereesa froze as the kitten tumbled onto the floor, scampering in a panic to the relative safety of under the couch. Eyes wide, she took in the sight of Sylvanas in the hallway, cold fury in her eyes.

Blood dribbled down Vereesa's face as she edged between her sister and Jaina.

Sylvanas almost sounded bored. "What a surprise to find you here, my dear, sweet sister. Are you my consort's little project?"