Varian
I woke up vaguely aware of a familiar voice coming from above me. I opened my eyes to see Anduin and Jaina standing over me, but not looking directly at me. I was lying in a medical bed and both my son and my friend looked terribly worried. I smiled despite the situation.
"Welcome back, Father." Anduin said, noticing my conscious state.
I sat up with a groan, looking around. I was indeed in Stormwind Keep's medical wing. Everyone stood around me, with looks of concern, but also happiness.
"It worked?" I asked.
Jaina nodded. "It did. You're home, safe and sound."
"What happened? Why did I pass out?" I asked, my head still pounding. It felt almost like when I first arrived in the demon dimension, though without the back injury.
"Apparently, even though you can't use magic, a certain amount of fel magic clung to you from your time over there. We had to purge it from your system. It seemed to be attacking you." Anduin explained. "I've been told the fel in the dimension you were in was more independent than most."
I took a moment to really look at my son. He'd changed so much since the last time I'd seen him, when we'd said our goodbyes before I sailed out to the broken shore. He looked older. More confident. He looked like a king, not the young man I left behind. I'd never been so proud in all my life.
"What about Vala?" I asked, noticing the young woman was nowhere in sight. I did note that Kalec was standing nearby and I vaguely remembered seeing him and Vala step through the portal before I collapsed, so she had to be around here somewhere.
"The healers are still working on her." Jaina said, almost sadly. "She had far more fel magic in her system. They're having a hard time purging it.
The archbishop walked into the room, clearing his throat. "We can't purge her system."
"What do you mean?" Anduin asked.
"Everytime we think we've purged all the fel from her, it goes right back in. I've never seen anything like it. It's like the magic is a parasite and it's stuck within her and no amount of Light energy has worked. I'm not sure we can save her. Her only chance might be to return her to the demon dimension."
I stood, though my legs felt just a little wobbly. "You most certainly will not send her back!"
"Then she'll most likely die. I'm not even sure how she's stayed alive this long."
I stayed quiet for a moment, not believing Vala came this far just to die, but then realized exactly why she was still alive. "The Light." I said quietly.
"Excuse me?" The archbishop asked.
"Vala has a very weak connection to the Light. She was able to heal both of us whenever we got injured."
The archbishop rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "That might explain how she's managed to keep the fel magic from consuming her completely. I'm not sure how it will help heal her, though. Eventually, the fel magic will win. The Light is powerful, but it can still be overwhelmed."
"I have an idea." Anduin said. "Let me try."
"With all due respect to your talents, Your Majesty, I don't thinkā¦" The archbishop began.
"I'm going to try." Auduin repeated, more commandingly.
The Archbishop immediately stopped his thought and nodded. "Of course, Your Majesty."
Anduin left the room and headed out to one of the private side rooms. The young woman, Connie, followed behind him. Jaina took a step closer to me, smiling. I was overjoyed to see that my son was indeed acting like a king. I had been worried, since Anduin had always had a more mild mannered personality than myself. It turns out, I had no reason to worry.
"It's so good to see you alive, Varian. I was sure we'd lost you permanently this time."
I had to laugh. "For a time, I was fairly sure I was dead too. Apparently, I'm harder to kill than I thought."
"It was lucky this young mage was also stranded. Without her, I doubted we'd have ever known you were still alive. Damn that orc. If he weren't already dead, I'd kill him myself." Jaina replied.
"So, I'm guessing the Legion has been defeated?"
Jaina nodded. "Anduin, thankfully, went against my advice and joined forces with the Horde and together we were able to defeat them. Turns out the Horde didn't abandon us on the broken shore, like we thought. The Horde had been ambushed on the opposite side of the ridge, where we could not see. Vol'jin was mortally wounded in the attack and died shortly after returning to Orgrimmar."
"So, who's the warchief now?"
"Vol'jin named Sylvanas warchief after the battle, right before he died, but that appointment didn't last very long, though she did plenty of damage after the Legion was defeated."
"She's dead? Well, more dead than she already was?" I asked.
Jaina shook her head.
"She's been dethroned from within, with a little help from your son. The Horde is being led by a council now, whose mouthpiece is Baine Bloodhoof. Oh Varian, you'd be so proud of Anduin. He's been an outstanding king, even when some of his advisors were being less than helpful. He rode into battle and generated peace, all while trying to hold everything together through his grief and the doubts of those who thought he was too young to be a wise king."
"Less than helpful?" I asked. "How were his advisers less than helpful?"
"We'll have lots of time to talk about everything you missed later. I know you hate to be coddled, but you've been through an ordeal. You need to rest." Jaina replied.
I did hate to be coddled, but at the moment, I was too tired, my head hurt too much, and I was too worried about Vala to press. Besides, I had other things I needed from Jaina.
"Can you do something for me?"
"Anything." Jaina replied.
"I need you to look into Vala's family. She was fifteen when she ended up in that damned dimension. She has parents and a younger brother. I promised I'd find out what happened to them if we returned home. Since she was training to be a mage, I thought the Kirin Tor might have a record on her."
Jaina shrugged. "It's a place to start. What's her full name?"
"Vala Herndon, though I'm not sure if Vala is short for something."
"I'll look into it."
"Good." I headed towards where Anduin had gone.
"Where do you think you're going?" Jaina asked, standing in front of me, blocking me passage.
"I'm going to check on Vala."
"You should rest." Jaina said.
"Like hell. She's the only reason I'm alive right now. I owe it to her to be there when she wakes up or dies on the table!"
Jaina sighed, but moved out of my way. When I got to the private room, I found Anduin standing over an unconscious Vala. He was glowing slightly gold, one hand resting gently on her arm, the other on her stomach. There were two other healers, along with the archbishop standing around the room. I stood off to the side, watching. Waiting.
"Come on, Vala." I said quietly. She had to survive. She'd been through too much to die now.
To Be Continued...
