"So. What is this?" Sylvanas gestured at the strange device that Jaina had placed on her desk. It covered much of the surface, and every inch was a forest of knobs and dials with Thalassian letters written on them. There was paper slotted into the top and some kind of ribbon with ink.

"One of your presents." Jaina leaned on the device with a smug smile on her face. "It's a typographer." She tapped her finger on one of the keys and a metal spine snapped forward, marking the paper with the letter. "Should make paperwork a little more efficient once I'm used to it."

"So you bought yourself a present in order to help me?" Amusement filled Sylvanas's voice as she eyed Jaina up and down.

"Well. Yes." Jaina looked down at the device, then back at Sylvanas. "You should learn to use it too, you know."

Sylvanas stared at her for a solid minute, then threw her head back and laughed. The very idea of her using that contraption was ludicrous. "No."

Her reaction made Jaina visibly irritated, which only made it better. "Scared of a little technology, Warchief? It's not goblin tech, it won't explode."

Dubiously, Sylvanas replied, "If Gnomes had anything to do with it any malfunctions could be catastrophic."

"It's not a shrink ray," Jaina countered. She stepped up to Sylvanas. "Close your eyes and hold out your hands."

Sylvanas folded her arms.

Jaina sighed, mimicking the movement. "Come on, humor me?" Jaina shifted from foot to foot, leaning in slightly and then straightening as she caught herself.

This was another game of Jaina's, one that Sylvanas didn't typically like to play, but there was something earnest in her eyes. If she was going to do something drastic, Sylvanas reasoned that it would be with eyes open. She rolled her eyes, then closed them and held out her hand, indulging Jaina.

"Wow, you actu- I mean…" Jaina pressed something cold and metal into Sylvanas's hand, her touch lingering for several seconds before she slowly trailed her fingers along Sylvanas's and let go. "Okay."

Sylvanas opened her eyes with an exaggerated sigh, and peered down at the object in her hand. It was a gold pendant on a long chain, and it glittered when she held it up to look closer and let it twist in the candlelight.

"It's elvish. Obviously. There was a stall at the market and they had a few nice things, but that one kind of called out to me. I know we're not exactly friends, but I thought it would look nice on you."

Red glinted off the gold as Sylvanas saw herself reflected. The pendant was a simple design; a barbed arrow with three fletchings, and an inscription in Thallassian along the shaft. She read it, then reread it and an invisible tear burned down her cheek before she dropped it into her other hand and closed her fist tightly around it.

Jaina looked like she was holding her breath, doubt creeping into her eyes, and Sylvanas found herself speaking. "It's lovely."

"You're lying. You don't like it."

Sylvanas shook her head. "My feelings on the matter are complicated. I ... appreciate the thought."

"Oh." Jaina seemed to close up, folding her arms again and looking off to the side.

Touching Jaina's chin, Sylvanas forced her to look up. "I know you can read the inscription. But do you truly understand what it means?"

"I thought I did," Jaina replied, searching Sylvanas's eyes. "But I suppose I don't."

"Get some rest." Sylvanas let go of Jaina and brushed past her. "We'll deal with Wrynn's answer to my missive tomorrow."

If Jaina had a response, Sylvanas didn't hear it as she closed the door behind her and stared out into the night. Opening her hand, she looked at the pendant; black blood oozed out from where it had cut into her palm.

It was a relief to get to actual business in the morning. Sylvanas arrived early, settling into the throne as she waited for Jaina and the rest of her advisors to wake up. Jaina was usually the first to arrive, and as always she did not disappoint. She stepped into the Hold carrying a mug of coffee.

Jaina studied her as she took her position, and then her brow furrowed as her eyes dropped to the pendant dangling from Sylvanas's neck then back to her face.

Sylvanas lifted a finger to her own lips before Jaina could question her on it. The others had arrived, led by Nathanos, who shot Jaina an annoyed look. That too had become familiar. Nathanos hated it when Jaina got here first.

She didn't waste any time. "Wrynn is also intending on merchant convoys, and has agreed to a test run of Lady Proudmoore's joint convoy. He has also suggested a joint operation to discover the source of these attacks and eliminate it."

"Warchief, I don't think that's a wise idea," Nathanos said. "What's to stop the Alliance from turning their guns on our ships? Or use the chaos of combat to 'accidentally' sink one."

"What's to stop the Horde from doing the same," Jaina snarled. She gave him hard look, then turned that look at Sylvanas.

"You both have a point," Sylvanas allowed. "And while there is a risk of friendly fire, I believe that the idea has merit. These pirates, if that be what they are, believe us weak. The Horde will show them otherwise."

This was one of the things Sylvanas enjoyed about her role. The logistics of warfare, the give and take between her advisors as they offered suggestions or argued over the details of King Wrynn's suggestions. Lady Proudmoore in particular had suggestions stemming from her experience leading Kul Tiras.

After over an hour of discussion, however, Jaina came to some kind of decision. "Warchief, I can lead this. I've got a powerful ship. Give me three Horde and three Alliance warships and-"

"No." Sylvanas lazily rubbed her thumb over her palm.

"Why not? I know my tactics, and I'm right in the middle of both of us. The Alliance will follow me, and the Horde will too under your orders."

"You're more valuable here," Sylvanas pointed out. She was calm, and curious as to how far Jaina was willing to push this.

"I can catch these bastards, Warchief." Jaina stared at her, expression neutral but eyes almost pleading.

Sylvanas regarded her for a moment. She could feel the eyes on her as everyone in the hold seemed to hold their breath. Eventually, she inclined her head. "I'll consider it, but the fleet will be led by a commander agreed upon by both myself and King Wrynn. Whether or not that is you or if you will even accompany the task force has yet to be decided."

Anger flared in Jaina's eyes, and Nathanos made to speak, but Sylvanas held up her hand. "Everyone. Leave us."

Sylvanas watched everyone file out, though she kept one eye on Jaina as she did so. Jaina was always so beautiful when she was angry.

Jaina took a few steadying breaths as she waited, visibly calming herself.

"Come here." Sylvanas crooked her finger, smiling as Jaina obeyed. "I know you understand the complexities of this situation."

"Is this the part where you scold me?" Jaina asked, stopping close enough for Sylvanas to touch if she wished.

And Sylvanas wished, hooking her finger into Jaina's belt and tugging her closer. "I don't think this is the hill either of us wishes to die upon. I believe you are more needed here, but I acknowledge there is...potential, in having you directly involved with the task force."

"It would show the world you trust me," Jaina pointed out. "That I am actually your equal."

"And it would drive Greymane rabid trying to find some ulterior motive."

"That's half of your motivation, isn't it."

Sylvanas grinned. "At least." She placed her hand over Jaina's, stroking her thumb across Jaina's knuckles.

Jaina half-heartedly tried to pull her hand away. Sylvanas lifted her eyes to Jaina's and held her gaze.

Jaina stared hard at Sylvanas, conflict making her tense. The Warchief reclined against the armrest of the throne, looking up at her. Slowly, she ran her hand up Jaina's arm until she could grasp her by the elbow, then pulled her down into her lap.

Unlike the last time, Jaina caught herself on something less embarrassing, gripping Sylvanas's shoulder as she settled against her wife's hip. She was so close she could smell a faint trace of some fragrance she couldn't place. It was pleasant, and new, and Jaina caught herself slowly inhaling it.

Sylvanas was so close she could feel her skin drawing the heat from Jaina's, and the air felt charged.

She traced the arrow on Sylvanas's neck, wondering why she had worn it. Sylvanas's reaction had hurt her; she hadn't slept well, wondering what she'd done wrong now. "I just want to be useful."

"Well. You have been." Sylvanas stroked Jaina's neck, then slid her fingers into her hair. When she started to roughly undo her braid, Jaina opened her mouth to protest and instead let out an embarrassing groan.

"I think you'd be upset if I kept it down," she managed to say. Her annoyance and anger had faded as the mood shifted. "Taking away your ability to do it for me."

"The question I have for you, Lady Proudmoore, is which of us enjoys this more?" Sylvanas slowly pulled Jaina's head back until her throat was completely exposed to her.

Jaina's breath quickened, and she licked her lips as she felt Sylvanas's eyes on her. A shiver ran through her when Sylvanas drew her fingers along Jaina's clavicle and then down to the valley between her breasts. "I hate-" the way "-you."

"Really? I couldn't tell." Sylvanas flicked her tongue against Jaina's neck, causing Jaina to squirm.

Briefly, Jaina was consumed with the need for Sylvanas to kiss her throat, bite at her and choke her. Sylvanas had tested all those things before and it took a moment before Jaina regained coherent thought. She ran her hand down Sylvanas's arm then squeezed her wrist. "We're in Grommash Hold."

"That's not a no." Sylvanas took her hand from Jaina's hair, stroking her neck and throat and then moving it lightly across the fabric of Jaina's dress.

Jaina was so hypersensitive to Sylvanas's touch that the contact set fire to her skin. Every time Sylvanas moved her hand it jostled the fabric of her dress, rubbing it across her skin and against her nipples. Little jolts of pleasure made it difficult to think and Jaina quickly realized Sylvanas was doing that on purpose. Jaina put her arm around Sylvanas's shoulders, bringing her hand up to stroke at her ear in a vain effort to gain some kind of control. "Oh, fuck you-"

Sylvanas removed Jaina's arm from around her, turning her to face the throne room. One arm around her hips held her firmly in place, while Sylvanas' free hand ran up her side to cup her breast. Too dazed to stop herself, Jaina arched her back, pressing herself into the firm touch. Sylvanas nipped at her ear and whispered coldly, "No. Not today."

Jaina gasped, tilting her head back as Sylvanas ripped the laces on the front of her corset out. She stroked lazily along Jaina's exposed skin, expertly pinching and stroking her nipples. Sylvanas leaned back in the throne, hiking Jaina's skirts up with her other hand and allowing her fingers to linger on the heated skin of her inner thigh. The sensations were almost too much, and Jaina dug her fingers into the arm of the throne.

Chuckling, Sylvanas abandoned Jaina's breast for the time being, drifting her hand to her shoulder, throat, and jaw. She murmured something Jaina couldn't hear as her fingers caressed her lips. Jaina let her mouth fall open and Sylvanas slipped two fingers between her lips.

This was too easy, Jaina thought, she was making it too easy and yet with every action Sylvanas took Jaina only wanted more. She sucked on the digits, flicking her tongue between them. Nails dug into her thigh and she grinned, leaning forward slightly to guide Sylvanas' fingers deeper.

"Such a good girl," Sylvanas purred, eyes bright with desire and delight, knowing Jaina couldn't respond just then and perhaps even knowing the way those words curled her toes from the sound she made.

Praying that no one would walk in, Jaina ran her tongue against Sylvanas's fingers, sucking lightly and using her teeth in an effort to get another rise out of the Warchief. The only thing she succeeded in doing was making Sylvanas take her ear into her mouth and nibble along the shell.

Jaina groaned around the fingers in her mouth as Sylvanas licked her ear. Some vaguely coherent part of her mind observed that while Sylvanas started out cold, she always took on Jaina's body heat until their temperatures were more in line. Mostly, she was grateful for the cooling effect Sylvanas had on her burning skin.

Fingers probed at her undergarments, so close that Jaina wriggled her hips trying to get them closer. She sighed in disappointment when Sylvanas withdrew her hand. A few heartbeats later, cold steel pressed into her thigh, a sharp edge scraping along her skin. Jaina froze, except for the rapid movement of her chest.

Sylvanas nudged Jaina's head to the side, biting the area behind her jaw as the knife moved up Jaina's thigh. She pulled her fingers from Jaina's mouth and wiped them dry on the remains of her top. "Are you afraid?"

Only of you stopping. Jaina shook her head. "No."

The tip of the knife edged under the leg band of Jaina's underwear, and Sylvanas lifted it away from her skin. With a flick of her wrist, she sliced the fabric. The knife clattered to the floor and Sylvanas pushed the remains of Jaina's underwear aside as she stroked two fingers against her outer folds. Jaina tilted her head back with a long, shuddery moan.

"I can feel how ready you are." Sylvanas smiled against her skin, kissing from neck to shoulder and then biting as she stroked her fingers in a lazy circle between Jaina's legs. "You liked the knife."

Jaina squirmed, unwilling to beg but driven to the edge of madness by Sylvanas's teasing. She spread her legs farther and hated herself for it, shifting to her right so she could look at Sylvanas's face. She opened her mouth and a huffing sound came out.

Sylvanas looked back at her, eyes tiny intense points of red light. "Say it."

"Damn you…" Jaina tried to rock her hips but Sylvanas held her tight against her.

Leaning in, Sylvanas licked along Jaina's jaw. "What do you want, Lady Proudmoore?"

"You know damn well what I-" Sylvanas's touch withdrew completely in a silent threat and Jaina rolled her head, jerking her hips again. "I want you to touch me, Sylvanas."

A long, dexterous finger sank into Jaina and the only reason her voice didn't echo through the hold was a well-timed hand over her mouth. It wasn't enough but it was so much better than she'd fantasized. Sylvanas's arm around her, finger inside her, thumb stroking lazily at her pelvis; it was all too much. Jaina couldn't manage to stop the stray tear that ran down her cheek.

Sylvanas's lips caught it, her tongue flicking it away. Before Jaina could say anything about that, she felt Sylvanas's finger move. It was slow, deliberate, as if they had all the time in the world, and her thumb and other fingers explored wherever they could reach.

Jaina tangled her fingers in Sylvanas's hair, begging with her eyes and finally, finally Sylvanas took pity on her. She thrust and curled her finger inside Jaina, finding a slightly rougher area and focusing there. Her thumb started to feather across Jaina's clit and she clasped her hand over Jaina's mouth again when Jaina couldn't muffle herself. Her teeth found a spot just beneath her jaw on the right side, biting deep. She sucked, flicking her tongue at the growing bruise, and if Jaina were more coherent she'd wonder at Sylvanas's habit of marking her.

It felt amazing. There were a hundred things wrong with this but Jaina couldn't care. She was being touched, being used, her skin catching fire as Sylvanas added a second finger, and then a third. Jaina could let go like this and it was such a freeing feeling she almost wanted to cry.

"Shit," Jaina hissed. She rolled her head back, exposing her neck to Sylvanas's teeth. Sylvanas cupped her breast, kneading and squeezing, then caught her by the throat. Jaina gasped again, moving and rolling her hips until she was grinding on Sylvanas's hand.

Jaina felt herself getting closer and closer to the cliff's edge. "Oh gods, please…"

Those pinpoints of red in Sylvanas's eyes sharpened, and Jaina kissed her. Sylvanas's lips were cool, but not cold, and after a moment she kissed her back, groaning into Jaina's mouth. Consumed by a desperate loneliness that she'd never given voice to, Jaina moved her mouth against Sylvanas's, muffling another groan from her wife. Eliciting any reaction at all was a thrill and Jaina would not let Sylvanas escape; and Sylvanas would not back down from this new challenge.

Jaina gave a low keen, flicking her tongue against Sylvanas's lip and then biting it as she fumbled at Sylvanas's armor.

The hand at Jaina's throat moved up, threading into her hair, and Sylvanas pumped her fingers. Jaina cried out, the sound lost in the kiss. Sylvanas's tongue slipped into her mouth, exploring, and Jaina dutifully sucked on it.

Jaina was close, so close; but she wondered if Sylvanas would succumb to the thirst for power, or control. Jaina remembered the time in the Sanctuary. The way it had felt to bring Sylvanas to the edge and then push her over it.

She knew, instinctively, that Sylvanas had not been touched since her death and probably not for some time before that. The memory was suddenly a thrill for her, a thrill at holding that kind of power over a long-time enemy. And maybe that had been the reason that Sylvanas had left her to her own hand, asserting control rather than reveling in the power of making Jaina come.

If she pulled that trick again, Jaina thought she might finally go mad.

Jaina would have given almost anything in that moment for her release as the wave built and she felt Sylvanas start to still. She whimpered, tightening her fingers in Sylvanas's hair and deepening the kiss as her desperation grew.

And then Sylvanas's fingers dug deeper, her thumb stroking an almost tender circle across Jaina's clit. Shuddering, Jaina muffled herself on Sylvanas's mouth as her orgasm left her dazed. She lifted her head to catch her breath, only for Sylvanas to pull her back down and kiss her again hard enough to bruise, her fingers and thumb pushing Jaina towards a merciless second orgasm.

A low whine was the only coherent sound Jaina could make. Sylvanas stopped kissing her, though she didn't move her lips from Jaina's as she whispered huskily, "Did you really think I was finished with you?"

"Hnh?"

Sylvanas drew out a toe-curling third before she brought Jaina down with slow, gentle strokes and a kiss that was heartbreakingly tender.

The world spun, Jaina inhaling great gasps of air as Sylvanas lifted her fingers to her smirking mouth and sucked them clean. Jaina might have had a fourth, tiny little climax at the sight.

Her head fell onto Sylvanas's shoulder and she closed her eyes. There was the strangest sound, once she tuned out the rush of her own pulse. A kind of pulsing, thrumming sound. Jaina closed her eyes, listening to it. It was faint, and growing fainter, but it wasn't like a heartbeat.

It was Sylvanas. A magic kept her 'alive' as it were. A cold magic. Jaina put her hand over the center of Sylvanas's chest, above the scar. Sylvanas wasn't alive but this was the closest thing to a heartbeat she had.

Her skirts rustled as Sylvanas restored them. Jaina was in no mood to get up, let alone try to compose herself. But she lifted her head, hesitated, then pulled away before either of them could do something they'd regret.

As if what had just happened weren't regretful enough.

Jaina tried to stand, using Sylvanas to keep herself from falling over until she was certain of her footing. Her underwear was ruined and she absently kicked it under the throne. Her corset was also past saving, but with some clever tying of the remaining laces Jaina made it functional. She looked at Sylvanas, who still reclined on the throne, hair tousled and a single buckle on her armor undone. If Jaina had had the energy she would have fallen on Sylvanas all over again at the sight.

Instead, she stumbled towards the entrance. She was disheveled, lips swollen and skin glistening with sweat, corset held together by magic, string and hope as she tried to smooth her hair with her fingers, failing utterly.

Jaina still couldn't put to words the way Sylvanas tasted.

The sun was too bright outside, and she shielded her eyes. A muffled choking sound made her realize she wasn't alone, and she turned to find Tyra and Kalira staring at her. After a moment Tyra wordlessly held out her hand, and a visibly shell-shocked Kalira dropped a pile of gold into the open palm.

Mind still not entirely there, Jaina blinked once and then asked, "What?"