Happy New Year! Thank you to everyone who has read and followed this story in the past year, and I hope you will continue to enjoy my work in 2020. I am immensely grateful to each and every one of you for the time you put into reading and commenting on my story, and I wish you all a safe, happy and prosperous year ahead.

Vol'jin

After a night of fitful sleep, it was the faint sound of dripping water that finally roused Vol'jin to full wakefulness. Initially, he woke in a state of mild panic, confused by the dark and the cold stone and the odd orange glow all around him, until he remembered exactly where he was and what had happened the day before, with the bomb and his precipitous fall into the icy caverns hidden beneath the Tournament grounds. He had no real means of judging the passage of time, of course, but he guessed that it had been at least a few hours since he and the Queen of Stormwind had finally fallen asleep. Somewhat miraculously, they had not frozen to death during the night - and nor, fortunately, had they been devoured by whatever spiderous creatures lurked in the depths below.

Auriana was still asleep in his arms; her head tucked into the crook of his arm and one of her own small hands pressed against his stomach. Her unruly hair had fallen forward to cover most of her face, though Vol'jin could still see patches of her pale skin peeking out from between the waves of her dark locks. In truth, her pallor concerned him. While dull compared to a troll, he knew that her paleness was not entirely uncommon amongst humans - but surely they were not meant to be that pale. Her breathing was also uncomfortably slow and shallow, and while she had previously insisted that she was uninjured, he began to fear that she was in more pain than she had first let on.

Vol'jin hesitated for a moment, then reached out to press the back of his hand against her cheek in a gesture of both concern and curiosity. He understood humans better than most of his cohorts, thanks to his time with Tyrathan Khort in Pandaria, but he had never been quite so physically close to one for so long. Auriana's skin was cool beneath his hand, and unexpectedly soft. Troll skin had a naturally rough and pebbled texture, making it difficult to rend or tear, whereas Auriana's skin was so satiny that it was like tissue paper by comparison. Vol'jin could scarcely understand how humans could survive with such scanty physical protections, and yet years of experience fighting both with humans and against them had taught him that they were a lot hardier than they appeared.

Vol'jin's moment of curiosity was short lived, however, as Auriana instinctively twitched away from his touch. He immediately pulled his hand away, feeling somewhat abashed, but she was already starting to stir. She mumbled something beneath her breath, the words too quiet for Vol'jin to hear, and a moment later her blue eyes slowly fluttered open.

"How ya doin', mon?" he asked quietly, placing a bracing hand upon her back as she awkwardly pushed herself back upright.

"Vol'jin? I… the cave… it… is it morning?" she asked, rubbing a bleary hand across her face.

"Ya guess be as good as mine," Vol'jin remarked, gesturing to the cloying darkness all around them.

Now freed of her weight, he took the opportunity to stretch out his sore, stiff limbs. His stomach was rumbling loudly, and his throat was bone dry. He had slept rough before, of course, but that made very little difference to his current situation. His back also ached where a sharp outcropping of rock had spent the better part of the night digging into his spine, and the less said about his hip, the better.

You're getting old, a distant voice in the back of his head laughed. Vol'jin ignored it.

"Ya look so pale," he added, shifting his weight. "I was startin' to worry."

"No need. That's how I normally look…" Auriana grinned, tapping a finger against the high arch of her left cheekbone.

She rose to her feet, stumbling a little as she stretched her own cramped muscles. Her dress had dried overnight, though it was now creased and dirty where it had once been straight and smooth. Vol'jin could also see a nasty bruise darkening her neck along her right collarbone, and a vicious scratch torn through the dark silk of her left sleeve.

"Ya sure?" he pressed, his concern genuine. "Ya be so cold… I thought ya might be sick… or injured… unless it be some kinda frost mage ting?"

"Not so much a frost mage thing as a 'me' thing, I'm afraid," Auriana said, shaking her head. "I've always run cold… even when I'm not trapped in a subterranean ice cave. And I'm not injured… or at least, not too badly."

She touched a hand to the point where her right shoulder met the curve of her neck, and winced.

"Speaking of injuries, though, I should check your wound."

Auriana gathered her skirts, and gracefully crouched back down beside Vol'jin's injured leg. She moved very slowly and carefully as she peeled back the layers of the makeshift bandage with gentle fingers, letting out a small gasp as she revealed his wound. Thanks to the natural regenerative abilities of his people, Vol'jin was already feeling much better than he had the night before. The jagged tear in his leg was not completely healed, though it now looked more like a wound that was two or three days old, rather than something that had happened only yesterday.

"That's... amazing," Auriana remarked. "How?"

"Troll healin'," Vol'jin grunted.

He knew that his leg would eventually need to be examined by a healer, if only to ensure that there were no shards of wood still embedded in his flesh, but for the time being, at least, it was relatively stable.

"So… can you walk?" Auriana asked, retying his bandage and returning to her feet once more.

She offered Vol'jin a hand, which he gratefully accepted. He braced his other hand against the damp stone wall, and with a surprisingly firm pull from Auriana, he clambered back to his feet. His injured leg protested as he tested his weight, but not so badly that he would be unable to walk. He had little choice, in any case - Auriana was strong, but still far too small to carry him effectively without her magic, and Vol'jin absolutely hated to be the weak link.

"Well enough," he concluded.

Auriana gave him a skeptical look; her bright blue eyes raking him from head to toe. Her gaze was so razer sharp that Vol'jin felt as if she could see right through him, and he subconsciously stood up straighter in an effort to convince her of his fitness. He was not as strong as he would have been without such a serious injury, of course, even with his natural ability to heal, but he was determined to be strong enough.

"In that case, we should attempt to outrange the dampening field," Auriana said finally, turning towards the tunnel mouth that led out into the cavern proper.

"Ya don't wanna wait?" Vol'jin asked, looking back towards the pile of rubble that separated them from the pool beneath the arena.

"The dampening field is still up," she huffed. "No-one has found a way through that wall, and…"

"And ya don't much like sittin' here doin' nothin'?" Vol'jin guessed.

Auriana pressed her lips together, and even in the low light Vol'jin could tell she was trying not to smile at the fact that she'd been made.

"Perhaps," she admitted sheepishly. "Do you disagree?"

Vol'jin could have denied it, but it would have been a lie. Much like Auriana, he was not the type to simply sit back and let things happen to him. He had never considered himself reckless, but nor was he indecisive. He shook his head.

"A rescue doesn't seem to be forthcoming, and I don't fancy being trapped in a dead-end tunnel with nerubians about," Auriana added, leaving little room for further argument.

She strode determinedly over to the strange egg-light she had procured the night before, and hefted it up so it was balanced against her chest. It was a tad too big for her to put on her shoulder, and lacking some sort of backpack or sack, there was not really a better option. Vol'jin, of course, immediately made to offer to carry it himself, but Auriana waved him off before he could even open his mouth. Her jaw tightened stubbornly as if she expected him to argue, though Vol'jin knew her well enough by now to know that there was little point. She was a fiercely protective person, and it seemed that she was determined to alleviate the strain on his injury wherever she could - even if it meant lugging around a gelatinous egg that was almost half as tall as she. Vol'jin was affected by her concern, though it didn't make him feel any less like a burden as he limped further into the tunnel after her.

As they walked, Vol'jin soon realised that his leg injury was the least of their problems. It was difficult to keep track of time and bearing underground, without either landmarks, sun or stars for guidance. The glowing egg Auriana cradled in her arms was a useful light, at least, though Vol'jin couldn't help but feel that they were going in circles. The path they were on snaked up and down through the rock, and while it seemed as if they were making forward progress, for all he really knew they were simply stumbling around in a never-ending maze.

Had the atmosphere within the cavern not been quite so unsettling, Vol'jin might have also taken more time to study their surroundings. Having spent most of his life on various tropical islands, he was used to all manner of exotic plant life, but the underground kingdom of the nerubians was something else entirely. As they walked, they passed a wide variety of fleshy, glowing plants; everything from green mushrooms the size of tauren to tiny luminescent buds whose lights winked out whenever he walked too close. Everything around them was uncomfortably moist and alien, and gave Vol'jin the uncanny sense that he was being watched. The skin at the base of his skull prickled in warning, more so with every step, and he sent a silent prayer to the loa that they would escape the oppressive pit soon.

"Do you know what doesn't make sense?" Auriana asked, abruptly breaking the silence.

"Dere are a great many tings in dis world dat don't make sense," Vol'jin replied, carefully stepping around a giant, quivering mushroom.

Auriana glanced back at him over her shoulder, and her lips drew into a thin line. The egg-light she carried in her arms cast a haunting, ominous orange glow over her high cheekbones and wide eyes, and made her look particularly intense.

"The bomb. Why did it go off when it did? You and I had only planned to meet earlier that afternoon. There were no matches scheduled."

Vol'jin frowned. Between his injury and the immediacy of their predicament, he hadn't given much thought to the explosion that had caused the problem in the first place, though now that he thought about it, Auriana was absolutely right. He didn't want to believe that she had betrayed him, and nor did he think she was stupid enough to have risked her own life to do so, but the unescapable truth of the matter was that something didn't add up.

"Did you tell anyone?" Auriana asked bluntly, clearly having arrived at the same conclusion.

"Zala'din," Vol'jin answered quickly. "How 'bout ya side of tings?"

"Varian. And I'm fairly sure neither of them have a reason to kill us. I suppose there's always the chance that one of us was overheard… but no-one could have predicted when we would have walked past that exact spot," Auriana grumbled. "That kind of bomb can't be detonated remotely, from what I remember of Thunderfist's little experiments at Wintergarde, it's pretty much a matter of 'set and pray'. So what happened?"

"Perhaps neither one of us were intended ta be in da line of fire," Vol'jin suggested.

It was the only explanation he could think of that made sense. Not that he had any idea who the actual target might have been, but it seemed highly unlikely that someone would have managed to coordinate so precisely around what had ultimately been a spontaneous gesture on Vol'jin's behalf. The Tournament was ripe with potential targets by its very nature, and it was entirely possible that they had been the victims of simple bad luck, rather than targeted malfeasance. Still, someone out there was the intended target, even if Vol'jin and Auriana were not, and he wasn't sure which possibility he found more unsettling.

"You might be onto something there," she said slowly, nodding to herself. "But if not us, then who…?"

Auriana fell into an irritable silence once more, though Vol'jin could practically hear her mind churning with thoughts as they continued further on into the dark. She was fiercely intelligent, and he knew that such a conundrum would bother her immensely. It bothered him, too. He had taken a great risk in enacting the Tournament, and for once on Azeroth, things seemed to have been going to plan. There had been tension, certainly, but also a definite sense of possibility, hope and camaraderie in the air. The bomb threatened to destroy all that, even if no one had yet died, and Vol'jin couldn't help but to start making his own mental checklist of both possible targets and possible suspects as they continued...

Vol'jin guessed they had been walking for nearly another hour before Auriana finally came to a halt ahead of him. After brooding over the mystery of the bomb for a while, he had then passed the rest of the time by counting out his steps; the simple mental act helping to distract from both the dull ache that had arisen in his injured leg, and the nagging fear that they were walking down into their own cold graves. In fact, he was so focused on his counting task that at first he did not see Auriana pause, and he nearly walked right over the top of her.

She had not said another word since their brief discussion of the bomb, and Vol'jin wasn't sure whether it was because she was fixated on solving the mystery of the bomb's target, or whether because it was requiring more of her attention to stay on the path. The rocky track had narrowed considerably as they had continued, and it was now downright difficult to walk. Auriana doubtless had an easier time of it, given her smaller stature, though she was carrying the egg-light, and Vol'jin had seen the heel of her boot slip precipitously close to the track edge on more than one occasion.

"Somethin' wrong?" he whispered, pressing a hand to the nearest rock wall for balance.

"The path up ahead turns into a cave," she explained, pointing. "I think we ought to keep going that way, but… I can't say for sure."

"What makes ya tink dat be the right way?"

"I'm trying to feel for minute variations in the dampening field, but if I'm being honest, I'm mostly guessing," she sighed.

"How does feelin' out da field help us?" Vol'jin wondered.

As a shadow hunter, he too had a vague sense of the barrier keeping him from his loa-blessed powers, though he doubted he was anywhere near as attuned to the effects of the field as a mage like Auriana.

"Well, the dampening spell is a little weaker near its boundary… if I can feel it changing slightly, that should give us a sense of direction," she explained. "But sensing tiny fluctuations in the field strength is difficult, if not nearly impossible, and frankly, it's giving me a headache."

She shifted the egg so that it was balanced on her right hip, and used her now free left hand to rub at her temple.

"It's times like these I wish Khadgar were here. He's much better at this sort of… touchy-feely magic," she grumbled, her impatience plain. "Not that this is really magic. More… sensing where the magic isn't."

"We can rest, if ya need?" Vol'jin offered.

His knowledge of arcane magic was scant at best, though he had been around it often enough to know that using it took a great physical and mental toll. Outwardly, it might have seemed like a great deal of easy hand-waving, but a mage had to be just as fit as any warrior.

"No," Auriana said firmly. "Unless you need some time off that leg…?"

Vol'jin shook his head. A rest would not have gone unappreciated, but he doggedly refused to ask. He already felt rather useless as it was, given that Auriana was both carrying the egg and bearing the mental burden of trying to lead them to safety, and while he was not so foolish as to press on if his wound took a turn for the worse, he also didn't want to be more of a burden than he already was. His leg was fine enough for now, and he trusted the natural vitality and hardiness of his people to get him through.

"Da sooner we get out of here, da better," he said.

As if to add emphasis to his words, an eerie chittering suddenly echoed up to them from somewhere deep in the cavern below. The sound was harsh and high-pitched, like nails scraping over stone, and it sent an uneasy frisson rippling down Vol'jin's spine. It was difficult to tell whether the creature that had called was miles away or mere feet, such was the way sound reverberated in the cavern, and he instantly felt his muscles tense in wary anticipation. He had heard many stories from Horde warriors who had faced nerubians in combat, and he didn't fancy having to fight one off with a busted leg and no weapons.

For her part, Auriana's eyes widened, and she clutched the egg closer to her chest.

"The cave it is," she agreed.

Vol'jin followed close on her heels as she stumbled up the slight incline that led into the cave. Inside, it was damp, dark, and extremely cramped. Auriana moved with relative ease, but Vol'jin was so tall that he kept cracking the top of his head against the ceiling. The rock floor was also very slippery, and more than once Vol'jin had been forced to catch himself on the wall - and once or twice, Auriana's shoulder - as he struggled to keep his footing.

After another fifteen or so minutes of walking, they discovered exactly why the ground had become so unexpectedly slick. After a brief rise, the tunnel dropped down sharply towards a pool of black, icy water. Auriana let an irritated snort of disappointment as she dipped the toe of her boot into the pool, sending ripples out as far as the eye could see. Evidently, the entire tunnel was flooded, and there was no way out save for through the water.

"We could go back…" Vol'jin suggested doubtfully.

Once again, it seemed that the denizens of the deep had heard him speak, for no sooner had the words left his mouth than another low, alien wail came floating through the cavern towards them. It sounded closer this time, more urgent, and deep in his bones, Vol'jin knew the truth. They were being hunted.

"You were saying?" Auriana asked, raising her eyebrows.

She placed the egg-light down on the ground, wedging it between two rocks so that it wouldn't roll away, and turned back to face the still, dark water with a resigned sigh. She seemed to be wrestling with something in herself, and after a few moments hesitation, she then reached around to her back and began to tug awkwardly at the laces securing her dress.

"Give me a hand, would you?"

"Er… whatcha doin', mon?" Vol'jin asked, completely bewildered.

"Have you ever tried to swim in a dress?" Auriana muttered. "Knowing my luck, it'd hook on a rock and drown."

"Swim… in a dress?" Vol'jin repeated. "Ya gonna get in da water?"

"I know we're trying hard to ignore it, but I think we're both very aware that something is climbing up the cavern behind us," she growled. "This could be our only way out. I don't exactly fancy going for a dip, but we're running out of options, and from what I can sense… this is the right way. I think we have to try."

"I should be goin' first, den," he insisted, but Auriana took a swift step sideways to block his path.

Despite the fact that she was half his size, Auriana stared up at him as if she could stop him physically - which, admittedly, might not have been entirely out of the question. A troll's ability to regenerate after injury was nothing short of remarkable, but regeneration required both time and considerable amounts of energy, and several hours of walking on a leg that had only just started to heal had left Vol'jin a great deal more tired and pained than he cared to admit. He was no doubt faring better than a human or an orc would have in the same position, but that still didn't mean he was at his best.

"I'm smaller, and uninjured," Auriana countered, as if reading his mind. "I'll have an easier time scouting the tunnel than you will. And if something goes wrong in there, I'll have a better chance of getting out."

"And if ya drown? Ya don't know how far dat tunnel goes."

"Vol'jin," she said flatly, "You're the Warchief of the Horde. Of the two of us, you're the one who ultimately needs to make it out of this mess alive, otherwise everything we've worked for goes up in smoke. I'm the better choice for any number of reasons, and you know it. If I don't come back, then you'll know it's a dead end and you find another way out of here before those things catch you."

Objectively, she was right, though Vol'jin didn't like how casually she seemed to treat her own life. There were far too many reactionary personalities amongst the Horde leadership who would be more than willing to use his death under suspicious circumstances as a pretext for war. Of course, he doubted that Varian Wrynn would cope at all well with the loss of his wife, but on balance, Vol'jin figured that the human king had far more people around him who might persuade him from a path of violence and bloodshed - and it seemed that Auriana had made the same ruthless calculation. That didn't mean Vol'jin was comfortable with the fact that she was willing to risk herself without so much as a second thought, though he wasn't entirely sure how to convince her when the facts were on her side. He had thought himself stubborn, but she was something else entirely.

"Auriana…"

"Please don't argue with me in a misguided attempt at chivalry. I get enough of that from human men. I'll be fine - assuming you help me out of this damn dress."

Auriana tossed him a sly, confident grin, though her smile didn't quite meet eyes. She clearly shared Vol'jin's concerns for her safety, though apparently it wasn't enough to dissuade her from action. Sensing the futility of arguing further, Vol'jin then reluctantly offered his own fumbling assistance with her dress; the odd intimacy of the process making the both of them flush blazing red. Fortunately, her dress was of a relatively simple design, and within a few minutes she had been stripped of her her outer layers so that she stood shivering in naught but an undershirt, a fitted bodice and a pair of thick, woollen tights.

Without the full skirts of her dress lending her figure dimension, Auriana somehow looked even smaller, and - not for the first time - Vol'jin vaguely wondered how she had ended up with a man as enormous as Varian. Still, perhaps her size in this case would be an advantage. There was a good chance that even if she did make it through the tunnel, he would be unable to follow by virtue of his width. If her instincts were correct, however, and the border of the dampening field were somewhere nearby, she could use her magic to either save him directly, or at the very least call for a proper rescue.

"If I do drown…" she muttered, apprehensively dancing from one foot to another as she stared into the inky black water, "Tell Varian… tell him…"

She sighed.

"Oh, nevermind, he knows…"

Without any further adieu, Auriana then grit her teeth and stepped into the pool; her entire body going rigid in shock as she immediately plunged in up to the tops of her thighs.

"Khadgar's whiskers, that is chilly!" she yelped, lifting her arms above her head as if it would somehow ameliorate the cold.

"Ya alright?"

"Yes, I'm fine… I'm f-fine," she insisted, though she was already visibly shivering. "Perfectly fine. It's practically a s-summer vacation to Stranglethorn in h-here…"

Auriana gave him a smile that was not at all convincing, and made even less so by the fact that she started to bob up and down in an effort to steel herself for the task ahead. She clenched and unclenched her fists in clear discomfort, and for a second Vol'jin wasn't sure whether she would actually dive. He couldn't blame her - it looked horribly unpleasant - and he, too, flinched as she finally took a deep breath and slipped beneath the eerie black surface with little more than a ripple to mark her passage.

What came next was perhaps the longest and most nerve-wracking experience of Vol'jin's life. Every second that Auriana was gone felt like an hour, and he began to imagine all sorts of horrible fates that might have befallen her. Drowning was the obvious threat, but that didn't preclude the possibility of her freezing to death first, or being eaten alive by some nasty tentacled creature lurking below the surface.

A minute passed, then another, and Vol'jin genuinely began to fear that she had drowned. His heartbeat thundered wildly in his ears and he actually stopped breathing himself, subconsciously testing how long she could possibly hold her breath. In the back of his mind, he began to wonder what would happen if he did somehow manage to make it out of the caverns without Auriana, and his heart grew heavy with dread as he imagined having to inform Varian of her death...

"Vol'jin!"

Auriana's sudden cry stopped Vol'jin's racing heart in his chest. Her voice was faint, and she sounded distinctly out of breath, but she was alive, and that was all that mattered.

"Vol'jin?!"

"I be here! Ya alright?" he called back, feeling rather breathless himself.

"C-cold, but t-there's a passage!" she shouted. "It's lighter through h-here, and I think I can see a way out!"

"The water be safe, then?"

"Ah… m-mostly? It might be a bit of a squeeze for you, but I think you can make it," she replied, her tone bright but oddly strained, as if she were forcing herself to sound cheerful. "It's more or less a straight line, though… though it's p-pitch black down there. K-keep your hand on the ceiling as a guide, and b-be careful with your feet - there's some kind of root system down there. It should only take you about a minute. I would have been f-faster, but I got my foot s-stuck."

Vol'jin wasn't sure he could sound quite as casual about having his foot caught while underwater in complete darkness, but apparently it was an everyday kind of occurrence for Auriana. He was a strong swimmer, having spent so much of his life living on islands, though diving for clams in the warm, clear waters off the Echo Isles was a far cry from swimming blind through a freezing tunnel. He glanced doubtfully down at the pool, and let out a resigned sigh.

"Vol'jin?"

"Yeah, yeah, I be coming'..."

Unlike Auriana, he had no impractical clothing to remove, and so he simply stepped off the rocky ledge and into the pool. He hissed as the water hit his knees; the shock of the cold racing up his spine with a speed that left him dizzy. While the cavern itself had been warmer than expected for an underground ice cave, whatever magical or geothermic forces heating the rest of the labyrinth clearly did not extend to the watery tunnel in which he now stood. Still, there was no turning back now, no matter how uncomfortable he might have been. Vol'jin sucked in as much air as he could, and doing his best to ignore the biting sting of the cold tearing at his skin, dove beneath the surface.

Vol'jin was a seasoned veteran of many battles, but it took every bit of self-control he possessed not to succumb to a primal panic. There was not a single pinprick of light to be found underwater, and the rocks and roots and loa knew what else scraped at his legs and back like a thousand grasping hands waiting to pull him further into the deep. The dark around him was endless and all-consuming, and his pulse accelerated wildly out of control as he fumbled to find the ceiling that would guide him to safety.

If he thought waiting for Auriana to swim the passage had taken an eternity, it was nothing compared to making the journey himself. He simultaneously felt as if he had been swimming for hours, and as if he had made absolutely no progress at whatsoever. The walls seemed to close in on him with every stroke of his arms, and yet at the same time he felt as if he were floating in an infinite void. It was confusing, disorienting, and frankly terrifying, and Vol'jin swore prayers to every loa he could name that he would make it out alive. His lungs began to burn, his vision began to blur… and just when he thought he might pass out, he finally, painfully broke free of the merciless black water and sucked down a greedy mouthful of air.

Auriana was sitting on the edge of the pool, shivering, with her knees curled up to her chest. Her wet hair was plastered down her neck, giving her a rather drowned and miserable appearance, and she was still panting and struggling to breathe. She nevertheless broke into a wide, relieved smile as soon as she saw Vol'jin surface, and she immediately crawled forward on her hands and knees to help drag him out of the water.

For a moment, they sat on the edge of the pool in stunned silence, each entirely focused on recovering their breath. Auriana's hand remained firmly on Vol'jin's shoulder the entire while, and he was surprised at how much succour he took from such a simple act. Something about the pool had made him feel more utterly isolated than he ever had in his life, and words could not describe how comforting it was to know that he was not really alone. Auriana never said a word, but from the tightness of her grip and the haggard look on her face, Vol'jin guessed she had experienced a similar moment of terror during her own time in the tunnel.

"Are you… are you a-alright?" she asked finally, struggling to form the words through her wildy chattering teeth.

"Been w-warmer," he managed, his lungs still burning, "But I be breathin', at least."

"T-that's g-good," Auriana said, nodding. "B-breathing is… is good…"

Vol'jin reached out to place his hand over her own, and she knotted her fingers with his in a simple but meaningful gesture of solidarity.

"Let's never be doin' dat again," he said solemnly.

"No arguments h-here."

Auriana swallowed and shook herself slightly, before gently releasing his hand. Vol'jin visibly saw her force fear down to somewhere deep inside, and her face hardened into an expression of cool, flinty-eyed determination.

"We need to keep moving," she said evenly, though Vol'jin could tell that her words were for herself as much as for him. "Come on."

Auriana clambered back to her feet, heedless of the trembling in her legs and her scant, sodden clothing, and strode off up the tunnel as if she were walking calmly through the streets of Stormwind on a sunny day. Vol'jin let out a soft snort of genuine admiration. Even without her powers, she was a very strong woman indeed.

As promised, the part of the tunnel they were now in was far brighter than the cavern deeps, even when they had been carrying the glowing egg. It was larger, too, and high enough that when Vol'jin finally managed to convince his own shaking legs to work, he was able to stand up to his full height. He swore he could also smell a change in the air as they walked - it was no longer quite so musty and damp, but fresher, colder, and a good deal more breathable.

Despite Vol'jin's growing fatigue, the promise of potential escape was enough to spur him on faster, and he loped up the tunnel right on Auriana's heels. She, too, increased her pace, and was practically jogging by the time they emerged into a large, vaulted cavern with slick walls and a rocky floor.

"I think can see a path to the surface!" she called excitedly… mere seconds before the ground in front of her abruptly erupted, and an enormous nerubian warrior burst forth.

Auriana let out an involuntary squeal as she fell backwards and landed hard on her rear. At the same time, she automatically threw her hand outwards as if to cast a spell, only to soon realise that she had no magic to call on. Snarling, she let out a rapidfire series of expletives that would have made an orc veteran blush, raging loudly as she fought to dodge the bladed pincer thrust aggressively at her throat.

For his part, Vol'Jin managed to stay on his feet, but it was a close run thing. He stumbled backwards, grunting as the back of his head slammed into the rocky wall, though his situation was nowhere near as dire as Auriana's. She was trapped on her back beneath the spider warrior's bulk, forced to roll from side to side to avoid a flurry of strikes from the nerubian's legs. Its mandibles dripped menacingly as it loomed over her, and while she was doing a tremendous job of dodging thus far, she could not hope to avoid its attacks forever.

Snarling in defiance, Vol'jin barely paused to think as he threw himself bodily at the nerubian's side. The creature's neck and back were protected by a heavy, armour-like chitin that Vol'jin wasn't sure he could penetrate with a sword even if he had one, but his weight was at least enough to knock the creature off balance so that Auriana might scramble free.

She scooted backwards on her rear end, struggling to regain her feet as the hissing and spitting nerubian howled in fury and pursued her across the floor. It seemed to have decided that she was its preferred target, and Vol'jin's desperate charge had only managed to buy them a few seconds. Still, he persisted, wrapping his arms around the creature's right back leg and hauling back with all the strength he could muster.

The three of them struggled back and forth for some time; the nerubian slashing repeatedly at the grounded Auriana while Vol'jin did his darndest to pull it off. Unfortunately, Vol'jin was easily outweighed by the thrashing warrior, and he quickly realised that his assault was rather futile. He seemed to be mildly irritating the nerubian more than actually harming it, and he was just barely able to keep it from skewering Auriana. He desperately wished he had something - a weapon, his shadow hunter powers, a pointy rock - just about anything that he might be able to slip between the spider creature's body plates to strike at the flesh beneath.

In his frustration, Vol'jin's attention briefly slipped, and in that split second the thrashing nerubian managed to tear a shallow gash across Auriana's thigh. She cried out in pain, and in a sudden flash of inspiration, Vol'jin realised there was one potential weapon in range that he had not considered…

While the spider warrior's back was heavily armoured, its segmented legs were rather spindly for such a large creature - and in that, Vol'Jin saw a chance. He quickly adjusted his grip on the nerubian's right leg, placing a hand on either side of the lowest segment he could reach, and grit his teeth. He was not a berserker in the same sense as Auriana, but his people were well known for their ability to summon short bursts of incredible strength and speed when under pressure.

Vol'jin called that strength to him now, unleashing a brutal kick at the same moment he yanked his hands upwards as hard as he could. His foot met the nerubian's leg right at the weakest part, and with a hideous crack of rending exoskeleton, he tore its tarsus clean off.

"Auri!"

Vol'jin hurled the severed limb towards her like a javelin, desperately hoping that she would understand his intent. Fortunately for the both of them, she was quick on the uptake, and she immediately threw herself to the side with her hand outstretched. She caught the detached leg as it fell through the air, and in a single, smooth movement, twisted it deftly in her fingers and thrust its razor-sharp, clawed edge up into soft, vulnerable flesh of the nerubian's open mouth.

The nerubian let out a furious, disbelieving wail as it died, which Vol'jin supposed was fair reaction to being impaled with one's own leg. A veritable flood of clear, sticky ichor rained down on Auriana from the creature's yawning maw, until it finally collapsed back on its thorax its with an oddly human expression of surprise now forever fixed on its many-eyed face.

"Oh, ew," she muttered distastefully.

"Complain later, Yer Majesty," Vol'jin quipped. "Right now we gotta run!"

A frantic gnashing sound bubbled up through the broken earth towards them, and while Vol'jin dearly would have loved to sit for a moment to catch his breath, he decided that he would rather not wait for more nerubians to emerge. They had defeated one, yes, but he wasn't sure that the feat could be easily repeated. Instead, he hauled Auriana to her feet, ignoring both the slick layer of fluid that coated her arm and the sudden piercing pain that shot through his leg, and pushed her roughly into the tunnel ahead of him.

Fortunately, it seemed that her magical instincts had been correct. Thirty yards in, the tunnel took a sharp turn upwards, and after a short, intense climb, Vol'jin and Auriana burst free of the oppressive underground cavern system and out into the bright light of day.

Guess we were right, it is morning...

After so long underground, Vol'jin's eyes were ill-adjusted for light, and he instinctively flinched away from the sudden assault of blazing sunlight glinting off blinding white snow. Still, he never stopped moving, knowing that even the slightest delay might cost him his life. While he dared not look back over his shoulder, he could hear the hair-raising staccato of pointed pincers scrabbling for purchase on the rocky mouth of the tunnel.

Under normal circumstances, Vol'jin would have also easily outstripped Auriana, especially given that his legs were nearly as long as she was tall. With his wounded calf still mending and already fatigued, however, she had him at a distinct disadvantage. She was also far lighter, seemingly racing across the surface of the snow rather than through it, and she easily kept apace with him.

To make matters even worse, Vol'jin's foot abruptly caught on a rock or some other hard object concealed beneath the snow, and in barely a second he found himself sprawling face-first on the ground. He coughed as he inhaled a mouthful of snow, and instinctively covered his head in what was most likely a futile attempt at protection. He had managed to keep ahead of the nerubians by about forty yards, but they were deceptively swift, and he knew they would be on him in seconds.

To Vol'jin's genuine surprise, Auriana kept running, plowing onwards through the snow without so much as a backwards glance. Even if it were not for their conversation the night before, he would not have believed her to be quite so cold as to leave him to fend for himself against a pack of nerubians, but apparently, she did not share his sentiment. If anything, his fall appeared to spur her on faster, and she quickly left him far behind.

It seemed that Auriana knew something that he didn't, however, for a few seconds later she slid to a halt and whirled, her teeth bared in a feral grin. Her hands exploded with bright purple light, and Vol'jin quickly realised that her desperate sprint must have finally managed to bring her outside the boundaries of the dampening field. A second later, he felt a curious tugging sensation somewhere in the vicinity of his naval, and he was ripped through space to land roughly on his feet behind her.

Once satisfied that Vol'jin was safe, Auriana turned her full attention back to the nerubians. Three had emerged from the tunnels to chase them across the snow; their pincers clacking menacingly as they closed the distance. The frontrunner was the smallest of the three, outpacing its companions by perhaps a dozen yards, though its speed ultimately proved to be its doom. As soon as it closed in range, Auriana thrust both her hands upwards, and called down a giant pillar of fire that came rushing down from the heavens like the spear of an angry god. One second the nerubian was there, and the next he was simply gone; vanished in a cloud of ash that lingered briefly in the chill morning air.

Vol'jin blinked.

"You want him?" Auriana snarled, the naked savagery in her voice chilling Vol'jin to the bone. "You go through me."

As much as she may have looked about as physically substantial as a wisp, there was nothing phantasmic about her power. The air around her fairly cracked with energy, and Vol'jin was starkly reminded of the first time he had seen her fight, on a windswept clifftop in the wilds of Draenor. At the time, he could have sworn he heard the echo of Bwonsamdi's laughter in his ears as he watched her fight, and he was sure that he heard the same amused, exultant chuckle now. Auriana traded in death, and the loa of graves knew his own.

A churning ball of flame flared to life in her right hand, and while Vol'jin doubted the nerubians spoke Common, her intentions were abundantly clear. The two remaining creatures slid to an abrupt halt in the dust of their companion's demise, and let out a series of urgent, high-pitched clicks. They were sentient creatures, far from stupid, and they appeared to have come to the conclusion that engaging Auriana further was inadvisable. The larger of the two reared back on its hind legs, and with a loud, hateful hiss in her direction, turned and urged its companion back the way they had come.

Auriana waited until the were well and truly gone before she finally lowered her hands, and flopped down on the ground in a spray of snow. She was breathing rather heavily, and Vol'jin realised she must have been exhausted. Performing magic was tiring, and performing magic after a long, burdensome walk, a terrifying swim and a battle with ravening spider lords - on an empty stomach, no less - was doubtless doubly so.

"I take it you got ya powers back, den," he observed, collapsing wearily beside her.

Vol'jin, too, could feel a renewed strength in his connection to the loa. The dampening field had not severed the bond entirely, but it did make the connection feel muted and dull, as if he were trying to listen to someone standing on the other side of a very thick wall. Out here, with the cool air on his face and the crunch of fresh snow beneath his feet, he could feel their power all around him, and as always, it brought him a feeling of indescribable comfort.

"It would appear so," Auriana snorted, rubbing her forehead. "I don't think they were particularly interested in killing us, they just wanted us out of their territory."

"Dat, and dey didn't wanna end up fried."

Auriana conceded the point with a slight smirk, then raised her left hand. Her eyes flared, and a second later Vol'jin felt a curious warmth settle over him, like an invisible blanket draped around his shoulders. The cold felt as if it were being forcefully pushed from his bones, and within mere seconds he no longer felt quite so drowned and frozen.

"Uh… thanks," he murmured.

He touched an experimental hand to his forearm, half expecting it to come away burned, but his skin felt just the same as always.

"And… thanks for savin' me from dat nerubian."

"You're welcome," Auriana murmured. "It was the least I could do, considering you saved me from the one in the cavern."

"We make quite da team, huh?"

Vol'jin stretched out his aching leg, and took quick stock of their surroundings. They were sitting beneath the shadow of a curved, snow-covered butte, a hundred or so yards away from the edge of the precipitous cliff that marked the end of Icecrown Glacier. He could hear the crash of waves against frozen rock far below, and the faint whistle of the wind across the icy plain. The landscape was starkly beautiful in its own way, and certainly far more familiar and comfortable than the underground cavern had been.

"So… what now?"

He could see the Tournament grounds off in the distance, though the harsh glare of sunlight off the snow made it difficult to make out any details.

"Well, I assume someone in the camp noticed my little light show," Auriana sighed, miming another flamestrike. "Hopefully they'll send riders out to find us; I'm not sure you should keep walking around on that leg."

She gave him a stern look, as if she weren't just as battered, tired and filthy as he was.

"Ya can't teleport us?"

"Not inside the barrier. I could teleport us about twenty feet that way," she said, pointing, "If you're feeling especially lazy."

"Nah," he conceded. "I can wait. I tink we both done enough walkin' for one day."

Vol'jin settled back against a mound of snow, and took a deep, steadying breath. He was far from unfit, but since becoming Warchief of the Horde he had spent more time behind a desk than out in the field, clambering through flooded caverns and fighting off deadly monsters. Part of him missed the immediacy and excitement of the front line, though the events of the last day had reminded him that life on the edge was not without its drawbacks.

He looked across to Auriana, intending to voice his observations out loud, only to find that she was staring off into the distance - not towards the Tournament, but up towards the small cliff overlooking their current position.

"Uh… whatcha doin'?" Vol'jin asked.

"There's something up there..."

Vol'jin followed her line of sight, though he couldn't see whatever it was that had caught her attention. He opened his mouth to say as much, but she flicked her wrist and vanished in a burst of light before he could manage to speak a single word.

I swear to all the loa, if she manages to find more nerubians...

He grit his teeth in consternation as Auriana briefly reappeared on the top of the butte, before she turned and stepped out of view. He might have said 'be careful', if he thought that there was the slightest chance she would listen, but he was rapidly learning that in these sorts of situations, she tended to do whatever was needed, without much thought for her own safety. She was not reckless, precisely, but she clearly trusted her own instincts above anything else.

"There's a dead man up here!"

Vol'jin frowned and shook his head, certain he had to have misheard.

"What?"

"I mean, a dead man… a man… who is… uh… dead…"

Auriana let out a loud huff, audible even from a distance.

"I'm not quite sure how else to explain that…"

Vol'jin pushed himself awkwardly back to his feet, and limped closer to the cliff top behind which she had disappeared.

"What killed him?"

"I'm going to hazard a guess and say it was probably the giant, gaping slit in his throat. There's no sign of rot, which suggests he died recently…" Auriana called back, briefly popping her head up over the ridge. "Though he is a tad frozen, which confuses the issue a bit."

She disappeared once more, and Vol'jin heard a faint rustling sound.

"Hold on a minute, I'm going to bring him down."

"How you gonna do that?" Vol'jin wondered.

"You forget, I have my magic now."

Vol'jin couldn't see her face, but he could hear a distinct hint of satisfaction in her voice. Magic was clearly a very important part of her identity, and despite the strange and serious nature of their current predicament, she apparently still took great pleasure in being able to use her powers freely and without restriction. Vol'jin felt another strange tingle of electricity in the air as she cast her spell, and floated the body off the edge and laid it gently on the ground at his feet. Auriana herself followed a few seconds later, and immediately crouched down so that she could inspect the corpse more closely.

The dead man was human; tall, and particularly broad across the shoulders. He had a thick, heavy beard, and he was wearing a well-worn and rugged set of leathers and furs. His neck was a rather gruesome mess of blood where his throat had been cut, and in his hand he clutched part of a leather torc that had been slashed roughly in half. Vol'jin was no expert, but he had seen many corpses in his time, and he agreed the man had died only recently - perhaps even within the last day or so.

"What is happening at this Tournament?" Auriana muttered, clearly more to herself than to Vol'jin. "A bombing that was apparently aimed at no one, a corpse out in the middle of nowhere…"

She began to pace back and forth as she spoke; wearing a shallow furrow in the snow with every step. Her brows were creased in a heavy scowl, and there was something in the particular set of her shoulders and the way that she walked that made her look uncannily similar to Varian - albeit a Varian that was only five feet tall.

"A cycle of endless war on Azeroth benefits no one. Certainly not in the long term," she grumbled, her nostrils flaring in growing irritation. "I know… I know how it feels to hate the Horde. To want revenge. But anyone with half a brain can see that it has to stop… so who, then, is trying to stop the largest step we've taken towards peace in years?"

"Folks with less den half a brain, I suppose," Vol'jin snorted.

He did not mean to make light of the situation as a whole, but he had noticed a faint arcane glow beginning to shine around Auriana's eyes. She was angry, so angry that she was practically leaking magic in response - and while he hoped she wouldn't lose her temper, he didn't blame her. He felt much the same. As much as Varian, Auriana, and several of his own people had been instrumental in bringing his plan of a Grand Tournament to fruition, it was still his plan, and it would ultimately be his failure if it were all to come crashing down.

"I'm starting to think that 'less than half a brain' describes more people on Azeroth than I'm strictly comfortable with," Auriana agreed, with a rueful sigh.

She scrunched up her eyes and shook her head, as if forcibly dispelling her negative thoughts, and when she finally looked up again, her gaze was clear.

"One thing's for sure, though - there's definitely a saboteur at work. When we get back to camp, we need to start a proper investigation."

"Ya won't have ta wait too long, at least," Vol'jin said, nodding over her shoulder.

In the time it had taken for Auriana to find and retrieve the dead body, a small group of riders had managed to make their way out across the windswept snowplain. Varian Wrynn rode at the head of the group, still distinctly recognisable as he crouched low over the neck of his racing horse. Saurfang and Thrall followed close behind, though neither orc looked quite as comfortable on horseback as the King of Stormwind. A dozen Argent Crusaders brought up the rear, leading behind them a pair of riderless horses. Evidently, they had come with high hopes of finding survivors, though the possibility seemed to have done little to soothe Varian's temper.

"Auriana!" he bellowed, leaping from his horse before the beast had even come to a full stop.

He charged towards them like a rampaging bull, kicking up great sprays of fresh snow as he ran, before skidding to a halt mere inches in front of his bedraggled wife.

"Are you alright?" he demanded, grasping her left shoulder with an intensity that made even Vol'jin wince. "Are you hurt?"

His eyes were absolutely wild, and in that moment Vol'jin was starkly reminded of why the man had earned the sobriquet 'Lo'Gosh'. He had seen glimpses of the wolf during their battle in the arena, but it was nothing compared to the vehemence with which Varian now stared down at Auriana. He seemed to be struggling to restrain himself in front of Vol'jin and the others, though his frantic desire to embrace his mate was clear to all those present.

"How did you get all the way out here?" he continued, barely pausing for half a second to allow her to respond. "Why are you half-undressed and covered in… goo? And… is that… is that a dead body?"

While he ranted, he nevertheless had the presence of mind to unfasten the clasps of his heavy cloak and hold it out towards Auriana.

"Good morning to you too, Varian," she replied patiently, gently but firmly prising his fingers loose from where they dug into the flesh of her upper arm.

She appeared outwardly unfazed by their ordeal, though Vol'jin did not miss the gratitude in her eyes as she accepted the warm cloak and wrapped it eagerly around her slender form, nor the way she rested her head against Varian's chest when he abruptly abandoned all pretense of propriety and pulled her close to her body. Ostensibly, their embrace was nothing more than a practical means of exchanging warmth, but Vol'jin could tell just how much they needed each other's touch. It had been a long time since he had held someone like that, and he felt a faint twinge of yearning deep in his chest. He was normally able to put such emotions to one side, but it seemed that his conversation with Auriana had stirred up feelings that were not quite as buried as he had thought...

"I'm fine," Auriana murmured, her voice slightly muffled by Varian's chest. "Cold and a little bruised, but... fine."

"Your leg?" Varian asked, frowning down at the bloody slash across her thigh.

"A scratch. Really," she insisted. "The Warchief here will need a healer, however."

"Warchief? You're injured?" Saurfang rumbled, his heavy brow creasing in concern.

"As da Queen said… just a scratch, mon," Vol'jin said dismissively, quickly forcing his thoughts back to the present. "Nothin' ta worry about."

In truth, his leg ached terribly, but he wasn't about to admit as much in his present company.

"That may be, but you should still speak to a healer," Auriana pressed, her tone a little too knowing.

She pushed away from Varian's chest so that she could see Vol'jin better, and fixed him with a stern yet compassionate glare. For all her concern over being Queen, she certainly spoke with the air of a woman used to being obeyed.

"I will," he promised, "But ya don't all need ta look at me like I be dyin'."

"Speaking of dying… did you kill someone?" Varian asked.

Now satisfied that Auriana was not in any immediate danger, his attention now turned to the frozen corpse lying on the ground behind them. He did not seem surprised by the possibility, however, nor even especially perturbed. Evidently, he was willing to assume that if his wife had killed someone, she must have done so with good reason.

"What? No," Auriana protested. "We found him like that."

"What is a dead human doing out here in the first place?" Thrall wondered. "For that matter, what are you two doing out here?"

"When da bomb went off and da floor collapsed, we fell into da pool beneath de arena," Vol'jin explained. "Dere was all sorts of debris fallin' down on us, so we sought shelter in a small tunnel."

"Which promptly collapsed," Auriana supplied drily.

"We spent da night recoverin' from da fall. When we woke dis mornin', no one had come ta rescue us, so we decided ta find our own way out," Vol'jin continued, noting the dark frown that crossed Varian's face at the mention of the delayed rescue. "Long story short, we den went for a swim, fought off a few nerubians, and… uh… dug up a corpse."

"Quite the eventful time you've had, Warchief," Thrall rumbled, raising an eyebrow as his gaze found the charred patch of snow that marked the final resting place of the nerubian scout. "Should we be worried about a nerubian counterattack?"

"I don't think so," Auriana said, shaking her head. "I don't think they liked us wandering through their caverns. We killed two of them, but they backed off pretty quickly once they realised that they would be unable to counter my magic. I don't think they'd risk more unnecessary deaths; at least not now that we're gone."

As they discussed the nerubian threat, Saurfang had knelt down to none-too-gently prod around the corpse with his large hands.

"This man was not killed by nerubians - his throat was cut," he muttered, his upper lip curling in distaste. "Perhaps a clue?"

"Unfortunately, that doesn't really rule anybody out. We're at a Tournament with all the greatest fighters in the world," Auriana said grimly. "You could cast a net out there and rake in a dozen people all fully capable of inflicting this kind of injury."

"Knives, swords and other bladed weapons are forbidden, Your Majesty," one of the Argent Crusaders piped up.

"You wouldn't need a knife," Saurfang grunted. "A shard of glass would do. Or a suitably sharp piece of flinty rock."

"It also doesn't preclude the possibility that someone somehow managed to sneak a weapon inside Tournament grounds," Varian growled, his voice low and dangerous. "Someone managed to make a bomb, after all."

He put a strange emphasis on the word bomb, and he and Thrall exchanged a dark look. Both seemed edgier than Vol'jin would have expected, even when considering the circumstances at hand, and he quietly made a mental note to ask Thrall about it later in private.

"Speaking of the bomb… did you figure out who set it?" Auriana asked. "Was anyone else hurt?"

"No. We've had precious few answers so far," Varian muttered bitterly. "The explosion also did some significant damage to the runes controlling the dampening field."

His tone softened as he addressed his Auriana directly, and his expression grew tender and apologetic. Vol'jin also caught the slightest twitch in the High King's right hand, as if he longed to touch Auriana's cheek or stroke her hair, and was only narrowly holding himself back.

"I… that's why we couldn't get to you faster... or… or lower the field so you could get yourself out…"

"I figured as much," she said quickly, giving her King a reassuring pat on the arm.

Thrall cleared his throat.

"Perhaps we would be better served continuing this discussion back at the camp," he suggested. "There may be more of the nerubians you sighted, and I believe both the Warchief and the Queen would benefit from medical attention."

"Quite right," Varian coughed.

His gaze hardened, and in half a second he was the cool and commanding King of Stormwind once more; his brief expression of vulnerability vanishing as though it had never been.

"We should bring that body back with us," Auriana remarked. "Have him properly examined. Who knows, he might have even been connected with the bomb in some way."

She glanced to Vol'jin for support, and he nodded his agreement.

"Begging your pardon, Your Majesty, but we only brought two spare horses," a second Argent Crusader reminded them. "One for you, and one for the Warchief."

"Not to worry, Auriana and I can ride double," Varian said smoothly, beckoning the riderless beasts forward. "The Warchief will take the first horse, and we'll secure the corpse on the second. Vol'jin - I trust you know how to ride?"

"I much prefer a raptor, but dis hardly be da time to be picky," Vol'jin shrugged, making Auriana grin.

Despite his outward confidence, however, mounting the horse proved to be rather difficult. The skittish beast clearly did not appreciate having a troll for a rider, and it shied away from his touch. His leg also made things a bit complicated, but with a bit of grunting and swearing, he managed to pull himself up into the saddle.

Auriana had no such difficulties, for Varian simply lifted her into the air and sat her down on his horse's rump, before swinging easily into his own the saddle in front of her. The King of Stormwind's face was set, and he circled his horse impatiently as he waited for the Argent Crusaders to secure the dead body to the other riderless horse, while Vol'jin tried not to be offended by the fact that the beasts found him far more alarming than an actual corpse.

Eventually, the Argent Crusaders managed to secure the body in place, and they remounted their own horses alongside Saurfang and Thrall. Auriana had wrapped her arms around Varian's waist as far as they would go, though she twisted around slightly to give Vol'jin a brief, grateful smile before Varian heeled his horse away. They had faced many challenges together in the last day, and while Vol'jin was especially not looking forward to dealing with the inevitable fallout from the bombing, he felt more confident knowing that there were people like Auriana on the Alliance side fighting just as hard to preserve the peace. He had always known her to be clever and brave, but in the last day she had shown him a sensitivity and genuine empathy that he had not expected, but had welcomed nonetheless.

There will always be those who seek to tear us apart, he reminded himself, as he turned his own begrudging horse back towards the Tournament, But together, we are strong… and not quite so different as we seem.

It was a lesson he did not intend to forget.