Varian
Two days after our initial attempt to contact Jaina, we tried again. The connection took only a few moments to make this time around, which was good, but very little else happened differently than the first attempt. We had picked a different time of day, in hopes of having better results, but we still spent the entire day staring at a blank mirror.
We made an attempt every other day, following the same procedure each time, but each attempt ended in failure. I could tell from Vala's expression that she was getting more and more frustrated with each failed attempt. It wasn't so much the failures getting to her, as the total lack of any progress at all.
Unfortunately, there were very few adjustments she could make to force better results, other than trying to connect to a random mirror. We hadn't gotten to the point that we were desperate enough to attempt a more broad search. At least not yet. So, for the time being, we kept a few hours every other day open for more attempts.
It was the middle of the night and I was awoken by the temperature of our cavern dropping quickly and getting much colder than normal. I sat up from my bed to find our fire had gone out completely. Usually, we kept a small fire burning most of the night, just to keep the chill out of the air. On closer inspection, I noticed the fire hadn't died out on its own, it had been extinguished.
I went to try to rekindle the flame, when Vala's hand stopped my motion. I looked up at her and she placed a finger over her lips, indicating I should remain quiet, rather than voice my confusion. She looked around the cavern, as if looking for something, her eyes looked afraid. For all the demons she'd fought and bravery she'd shown over the weeks we'd been stranded together, I'd never seen her afraid before. And not just afraid, terrified.
"What's wrong?" I asked, mouthing the words with only the barest of sound coming out.
"It's a gathering." She replied, almost as quietly. "Make no noise and try to stay as still as possible."
Without any further explanation, she leaned herself against the wall on her side of the cold fireplace, wrapping her blanket more firmly around her shoulders. I could barely see her, considering we only kept one small light on during the night, along with the fire, to stave off the otherwise total blackness of our cavern home. From what I could see, she was shivering. I could not tell if the motion was from the cold, fear, or maybe a little of both.
I debated with myself for a few minutes, then moving quickly and quietly, so as not to alarm Vala anymore than she already was. I sat next to her, putting my arm around her shoulders and wrapping my own blanket around both of us. Vala went rigid for a few moments, as if waiting for my actions to cause something to happen, then relaxed into my side.
She was indeed trembling, but after a few minutes, the shivering slowed significantly. After several more minutes, it stopped completely. I looked down at Vala to see her asleep at my side, her head pillowed against my chest.
I leaned my head against the wall, making myself more comfortable. I sat awake for quite a while, trying to figure out what this gathering was and why it scared Vala so completely, but eventually I slipped off to sleep myself.
I had slept soundly enough, only waking when I felt Vala moving under my arm, which had fallen asleep from being held in a semi-awkward position all night.
Vala moved away from me, though didn't extract herself from either my blanket or her own. The air was still rather cold, but not nearly as cold as during the night. I lowered my arm to my side, shaking my hand slightly to help the limb regain feeling.
"Good morning." She said to me, using a normal volume. She no longer seemed afraid.
"Is everything alright now?" I asked, extracting myself from the blanket to gather up some wood from the corner, so we could relight the fire. Thankfully, dead wood was easy to find in this dimension. I had yet to find any truly live trees, which begged the question where did all the dead wood come from, but I decided I wasn't curious enough to go searching for the answer.
"Yes. The gatherings only last for one night." She replied. Preparing the old fire, but waiting until I returned with some fresh wood to light it. It was handy having a fire mage around, starting a fire was never an issue.
"And what, exactly, are these gatherings?"
Vala shrugged, sending a small fireball into the wood, igniting it instantly. "Every thirty to forty days, a large group of demons seem to congregate in the area around our little boulder mountain. I have no idea why. That many demons in one place seems to impact the temperature in the surrounding area. Or, I guess, whatever they're doing is impacting the temperature. The first time it happened, I left the cavern to take a look and ended up on the run from a couple dozen demons. If I hadn't known how to Blink, I'd probably be dead."
Vala shivered slightly, wrapping her arms around herself.
"I spent the night out on the open plain, once I lost the demons. It was a sleepless night for me, as you can imagine. Fortunately, demons may be fierce, but they certainly aren't smart. Since I had the sense to run away from them, rather than back into the cavern, they hadn't discovered my home. Finding another cave as well hidden as this one would probably be impossible."
"The next time it happened, I was a little more cautious. I peeked outside to see several demons circling the boulders, like they were looking for something. I immediately ducked back inside, put out the fire and kept as still and quiet as possible. By the next morning, they were gone, but I could see hundreds of tracks circling. The Third time it happened, I didn't go outside at all, I simply put out the fire and kept quiet. The next morning there were very few tracks which circled. The tracks only seemed to pass by, rather than focus on the boulders. I have no idea if it's the smoke from the fire, the heat, the sound, the smell, my movements, or something else entirely, but when the temperature drops drastically, I do exactly what you saw. I put out the fire and huddle quietly until the morning. Usually, I don't even fall asleep."
"I looked like you slept fairly well last night."
Vala chuckled lightly. "That's because you are incredibly warm. And I guess I felt safer having you here. If we had been discovered, we would have been in trouble, regardless, but I still found your presence a comfort. I am sorry I didn't mention the gatherings sooner. I honestly try not to think about them."
"It's alright, we survived. It was nice to be a comfort to someone, actually. It's been many years since Anduin sought me out for comfort. He lost most of his sentimentality towards me a long time ago. My own fault."
Vala gave me a look I couldn't quite read. Then sighed, shaking her head. "I am a complete idiot!"
"...okay...how so?"
"You said your son lost his sentimentality towards you, but is he still a sentimental young man?"
"Reasonably so, yes." I said, not quite sure where Vala was heading.
"Is he the type of man who might value an object, like a mirror, given to him by someone he considers family?"
"He is. In fact, I think I've seen a hand mirror on his desk. Assuming, of course, it's the same one."
"We've been trying to connect to the wrong damn mirror!" She said forcefully, throwing her hands up. "A scrying mirror is no big thing to a mage. They break or lose one, they just make another one. No big deal. And if your mage friend is around Stormwind, helping your son adapt to your death, there's no reason for her to have the mirror out at all. Your son's mirror, on the other hand, would mean more to him than just a means to communicate with his aunt."
"I see what you mean. He'd keep his out for sentimental reasons, meaning if we try to connect with Anduin's mirror…"
"We might actually get somewhere, hence me being an idiot. I should have thought of this days ago."
"Don't beat yourself up. You've had a lot on your mind. Will the mirror work with him, like it would have worked for Jaina?"
Vala sighed deeply, thinking. "No, he'd be able to see you through the mirror, but he wouldn't be able to complete the connection. He'd need to take the mirror to a mage."
"I don't think that would be a problem, since seeing me in a magic mirror would definitely prompt him to go to Jaina. Even if he thought my image was just some Horde trick, he'd still go to her."
"Okay then, this evening when we make our attempt, we'll work to find your son's mirror. With any luck, we'll be able to at least confirm if it's on his desk, as you remember. It's worth a try, anyway."
To Be Continued...
