Sapphire's children refused to go asleep alone. All of them wanted to sleep with their mother. Sapphire had been planning on talking with her father, but the moaning and begging of her children forced her to retire early, and have the four of them up around her.
Serenity, clutched at Sapphire's leg, whimpering in her sleep. Calia was splayed out, snoring. Arty was curled up in a fetal position. Terenas had his head laying on Sapphire's arm. They were all covered up in fur blankets. The cold had been getting to them. Sapphire felt odd about that, how her children did not have a resistance to cold as she did. But they had been not been raised in Icecrown.
Sapphire could not sleep, worried for her children. There was no possible way for Adalger to get inside Icecrown Citadel. Everyone was on high alert.
Even if he could...Sapphire looked at the door. Laying in front of it, was two animals. Ni'kua was curled up next to a hyena. The hyena was ugly. Spots ran down its ragged fur hide. It was smiling, looking around. The short stumpy tail was wagging. When it saw Sapphire looking, it make a sound akin to laughing.
The girl put a finger to her lips. She whispered, "Shh. Marywn, the kids are sleeping."
The hyena nodded, making it look more comedic. Ni'kua opened his eyes, and gave the hyena a look of contempt. He was a professional guard dog. And hated hyenas.
Marwyn rolled over onto his back, and opened his mouth. His tongue dangled down.
Sapphire sighed. She regretted turning Marwyn into a hyena. She should have turned him into something else. A bunny would have been good. Falric had offered to be the guard, but Sapphire would rather have Marwyn. The thought of Falric watching her sleep was disturbing.
Serenity moaned, and tightened her grip on Sapphire's leg. Marwyn raised his head. He got up onto his feet and went over to her. Marwyn hopped onto the bed, and nuzzled Serenity with his nose. The girl calmed down.
"Thanks..." Sapphire whispered. Marwyn went over to Ni'kua to lay back down. With that, Sapphire finally decided to go to sleep.
Arthas looked at the children sitting in front of him. They were yawning. Sapphire was too. He had woken them up early, and not explained why. Lethumo had come too, since Silvia was one of the kids. He was leaning against the wall, playing with an alcohol bottle.
"Since you guys are staying here for a while...I thought you might like to have some fun."
Terry raised an eyebrow. He was shivering. "What's so fun to do here?"
"Well, I was thinking perhaps you could go into the Canyon."
"The big ravine that comes right up to the Citadel?" Serenity asked, hugging herself. Before Arthas could answer, the girl continued, "The one that Deathwing destroyed, with the bones and the place where Momma found that plant seed...Momma, what was the plant anyway?"
Sapphire shook her head. "Nothing but a type of fern."
The children were starting to look bored. It sounded like an educational trip. Nothing fun. Arthas wanted the kids out of the Citadel, so he could get the security precautions in place without the curious, mischievous children getting under people's feet. Sapphire seemed to understand.
"Hey, there are a lot of crevices, and skeletons in the Canyon...Why don't we play hide and seek?"
The children all gasped.
"Yeah!" Arty and Terry said.
"Woohoo!" Silvia screamed.
Angelica puffed out her chest. "I am going to win!"
The children all ran off toward the main hallway. Lethumo watched them.
"I suppose I should come as some kind of...adult supervision?" The night elf asked. Sapphire scowled.
"What do you think!"
The elf sighed, and walked off in the direction the children. Sapphire looked at Arthas.
"So...What are you going to do?"
"Have the Frostwyrms fly off to where the Forsaken are. Ethan should have led an attack by now. I'll be having the traffic from the outside shut off. No one in or out of the Citadel."
"A bit extreme already? And I haven't even had breakfast yet. Mom would approve."
Arthas grimaced. Sapphire frowned.
"Where is she anyway...Surely she would be back by now?"
Arthas folded his arms, and would not look Sapphire in the eye. The girl scowled.
"Dad."
He looked up. "What? Oh, she's fine. She's probably just busy."
His daughter narrowed her eyes. She walked over to her father.
"Don't lie to me, Dad."
"She...I found out Jaina has been making plague, and experimenting on Horde members."
Sapphire recoiled in surprise. She looked horrified. "What! But...Oh, Dad. I am so sorry! I...I've been finding people that have been thinking about exploring Northrend again, and I have been dissuading them. I brought some to Mother for her to threaten them to never to think of Northrend again. I didn't know she was experimenting on them!"
Arthas looked at his daughter. "You lied to me about that?"
"I did not lie. I just didn't say the truth. But...I am sorry. I was just trying to make keep us left alone from the rest of the world."
Arthas was angry, but he could see the guilt on Sapphire's face. He just growled.
"You didn't know. So I will let you slide on that."
Sapphire did not like the sound of that. "Let me slide on that! Fuck you, Dad. I think you are just angry that Mom betrayed you. I haven't done that...yet."
Arthas was about to snap a retort, but Sapphire growled.
"Where is Mom? I will talk to her."
Not finding a good reason to deny his daughter permission to see her mother, Arthas sighed, "She's in her room in the Crimson Halls. I will tell the guards you are coming."
Sapphire walked through the Crimson Halls. Gone was the rich and lavish decorations that the San'layn had used. Now, the cold walls and ceilings had human, and some dwarven decoration, which made Sapphire feel much better. She especially liked the paintings. The saronite walls used to be sharp, and bare. The floors were still bare, but Sapphire didn't mind that.
A plaguehound ran up to her. Sapphire stopped, and smiled. The dog hopped up and down, wagging his tail. He was holding a bone in his mouth. Dropping it to the ground, the animal barked. Sapphire picked it up, and threw it as far as she could.
Autum came out of nowhere, clutching some books. The bone hit her hard in the face. She dropped the books.
"Ow!"
Sapphire covered her mouth with both hands. The dog woofed, and went to go grab the bone.
"Sorry, Autum!" Sapphire yelled, running over to the girl.
Autum rubbed her nose, wincing. She looked at the thing that hit her, the plaguehound, and then Sapphire. Sapphire smiled sheepishly, and helped Autum pick up the fallen books.
"That's okay. I'm fine. I heard about Ethan's brother! Oh, I just want to...let Falric teach that jerk a lesson."
Sapphire grinned. "He'll have to get in line behind Arthas and Ethan. Well, I need to go see my mother."
"Oh...She's gone loony. Like a penguin."
When Sapphire looked at her friend oddly, Autum smiled.
"Penguins are all crazy."
"Right...Okay. Bye, Autum."
Sapphire left as quickly as she could without offending the girl.
Ethan watched angrily as three more ships were approaching on the horizon. He snarled, and looked at the rest of his group. The other worgen were busy dumping the bodies of the Forsaken in a big pile. Ethan heard hoof beats coming from the forest. He sniffed.
Three horses caming trotting out of the tree line. Two living horses, and one deathcharger. Ethan saw Nicci was on one of the living ones. There was another necromancer, and a deathknight with her.
"Nicci!"
The woman dismounted, and ran toward him.
"Are you all right?" She asked, seeing his fur stained with black blood.
Ethan nodded. "Yeah. This blood is from the Forsaken. What are you doing here?"
Nicci looked to the bodies. "I do know a good fire spell. I am not just trained in necromancy."
"Thanks. Could you set fire to their boat too? And...maybe theirs?"
The woman looked to the approaching ships.
"I could. But you will owe me dinner. Using so much magic will tire me out."
"Sure thing. As long as it isn't barbeque."
Sapphire knocked on the door to her mother's room. Without out waiting for an answer, she entered.
The room looked normal, but Sapphire felt the anti-magic shield as soon as she crossed the doorway. Sapphire hated it. It felt like an itch. And her blood veins hurt.
Jaina was standing at the doors to the balcony. They had been frozen shut, spikes of ice growing from the seams. The mage was looking outside, arms crossed. She looked angry, even more so when she turned around to face her daughter.
"What do you want?"
Sapphire did not react to the harsh tone. That was what Jaina wanted. She just looked at her mother.
"I was wondering how you were. Dad told me you were-"
"Go away, Sapphire. I don't need to hear any hypocritical speeches from you."
That got a reaction. Sapphire scowled. "What do you mean hypocritical?"
"Oh, well it has nothing to do with you playing around with necromancy, and when I do it, it's a crime."
"Uh...I practice it on small animals. Not people. And I have told Dad about it before I do it!"
"Really. Have you told him about the Owl?"
Sapphire growled. "I am protecting the Scourge. Or was. None of my spies told me about the group that's here now."
Jaina snorted in derision, and turned away. Sapphire narrowed her eyes, and pulled off her cloak. She also took off her wedding ring, and the belt around her waist. She went over to her mother. The women turned to tell her daughter off, but Sapphire stopped that. She smacked her mother across the face.
Jaina looked at her, shocked. Sapphire waited for the backlash.
"How dare you!" Jaina snapped. The girl just looked at her mother.
"There's no magic allowed, Mother. I guess we have to settle it the old-fashioned way.
The guards to Jaina's room heard things breaking and being smashed. There were insults yelled, and obvious sounds of fighting. One of the deathknights looked at his partner. The sound of shattering glass, and a curse resounded from the doors. The deatknight winced.
"Uh...Should we stop them?"
The other was a woman, and she smiled. "It would be safer not to. Go tell the Master. Let him sort it out."
Lethumo sighed, watching the children play on a some large extinct animal's bones. Calia pushed Arty off and laughed as he hit the snow. Arty sniffled, as if he were going to cry, but Rot came running over to him. The plaguehound licked the boy's face, and Arty smiled.
Terry helped Serenity and Silvia get up onto the skull. It was a large creature. To Lethumo's eye, it looked like a giant nightsaber.
"Thank you, Terry," Silvia said as he helped her up. She kissed him on the cheek.
Lethumo grinned, and turned to the hooded man next to him. It was a deathknight like him. The elf did not know who he was, but Arthas had given him the highest regard. The human was not that old by their standards. About the same age as Arthas, maybe older. He had a full grown beard and mustache, his hair white.
"See that, Randall?"
The deathknight laughed awkwardly. "Your daughter with Prince Terenas?"
"Yup. I would rather have her be that kid than some hippie druid."
The deathknight raised an eyebrow. Lethumo scowled.
"Hey, don't look at me that way. I can be racist against my own kind. Bunch of tree-hugging pointy ears."
Randall held a hand up. "All right, all right. What are Ethan's children's names again? I am newly made, after all."
Lethumo would have questioned the man as to why he was on first name basis with Ethan, but he was too full of alcohol to care.
"Terenas is the one with the white hair. Serenity is the smaller blonde, while Angelica is Arthas's kid. Arty and Calia are both the black-haired kids."
The deathknight said nothing. He watched the children with an odd expression.
They were at the bottom of the Canyon. The great sides of the ice rose up above them, gleaming blue and white. The wind was starting to howl. Lethumo looked up.
"Looks like a storm might be coming!"
The children looked up. Serenity gave Lethumo a worried look.
"But, I thought it only stormed when Grandpa was angry. Is he angry?"
"No. He just makes the worst of them. Come on. Let's go back to the Citadel. My wife probably has made cookies for all of you," Lethumo said. The response was instant. The children jumped, climbed, and hopped off of the skeleton, and ran off toward the Citadel.
Lethumo followed them, his quiet companion after him.
After he got to the doors, he counted the children.
"One, two, three, four, five...Five. Two black hairs, Silvia, white hair, blonde...Where's Angelica!"
Angelica went over to find her father. She found him in the war room. She had run ahead of the others, in order to go see her father.
She sneaked over to him. There were necromancers, deathknights, and various undead. She brushed past their legs, making her way to her father. He was sitting in a chair. Angelica clambered up into his lap, and hugged his arm.
Arthas looked down, and patted her on the head. Angelica closed her eyes, and listened while her father talked to others. She didn't really care what he was saying. Angelica liked the sound of his voice.
He shook her gently. "Wake up, Angel."
The girl opened her eyes, and looked around. The people were all gone. She yawned.
"I fell asleep?"
"Yeah. You freaked out Lethumo, and that's tough to do."
The girl frowned. "Sorry. Carry me?"
Arthas sighed, and picked her up. He grunted. "Heavy, aren't you?"
"No!"
The man laughed, and carried her to where Lethumo stayed. He knocked on the door.
It opened, and Meizhen gasped. The pandaren's fur was reddish brown and white. Her tail was big and bushy.
"Oh, we were so worried!" She said, taking the girl from Arthas. The man looked in, and saw the rest of the children playing.
"Want a cookie, Sweetheart?"
It took a second for Arthas to realize she was talking to him.
"No thank you, Mei. I need to-"
The pandaren was strong, and pulled him into the main room. She closed the door.
"They're chocolate chip."
"But I-" Arthas should have realized by now that there was no protesting around Meizhen. She ignored them, or pretended she couldn't understand.
"You're so thin. I should cook for you more often, Arthas," The pandaren smiled warmly.
The man sighed, and sat down to the chair she offered. Silvia went over to him, and poked him. Arthas growled. "What?"
Her eyes were bright, and hopeful. "Can I kill a Forsaken?"
"No." The girl pouted, but Arthas did not budge. She asked again, lip sticking up in an adorable face. Arthas was not persuaded.
"No."
"Daddy!"
Lethumo took a draught of some kind of liquor. "He's the King. You can ask him again in a couple of years."
A cultist braved the blistering storm outside to go see the Northrend Express. It had been on approach when the storm came. Tanomoan had been smart, and planned for that. The train was sturdy, able to handle storm force winds.
It was now here, having sped up so it could wait in station while the storm passed.
A deathknight came out of the engine car. He smiled at the cultist. "Man, that storm."
"Yes, it is quite-"
The deathknight grabbed the cultist, and quickly snapped his neck. He looked to the engine car. He watched the hooded figure exit, and looked at the body.
"Must you resort to such senseless violence? Now we must hide the body."
"Shut up, elf. Like you haven't enjoyed killing."
But Adalger grabbed the body, and dragged it away. Then, he took the robes from the body. He tossed it to his ally.
"Here. Wear this. It's not like anyone will recognize you."