"Have you told the princess yet?"

When Keifer entered the room and asked that question, Arthas did not bother looking up from the letter he was penning. Both he and Kiefer had converted one of the spare bedrooms into a sort of laboratory and study. It seemed innocent enough. If anyone asked what the glassware and various reagents were for, Kiefer would have said they were just for his arthritis. Kiefer had a bad back as well, or at least pretended to. There had been no need for the lies yet.

"Sapphire is busy with her own studies. Let it be a surprise," Arthas said simply.

Kiefer nodded, as if that was the most reasonable answer, and returned to his own work. Deceiving Sapphire was easy, though Arthas did not enjoy it. She did not need to know anything about what he was doing. Or why Kiefer would disappear for weeks at a time. Rebuilding the Cult of the Damned would take time, especially when the only recruiter was the uncharismatic ratfaced Kiefer.

Neither Sapphire nor Lethumo knew what Arthas had been doing and he never strictly lied to them. Yes, he had been off to Felwood a few times and he had slaughtered a couple dozen demons there, and he also traveled to Winterspring and to the neutral city of Everlook. Isolated as it was, Everlook was one of the better places to meet discreetly and to send letters. He threw suspicion off himself by buying luxury goods from Everlook hawkers. Lethumo enjoyed rare wines and perfumes. Even Sapphire liked candies or smoked meat.

Keifer handed Arthas letters as well as planting several thick books on the clear section of the desk. "I have spoken with a few independent necromancers in the Plaguelands. They are skeptical of your survival naturally."

He was not surprised, but still irritated by it. He would not present himself to every skeptical cultist. If they did not believe, then they would eventually suffer the consequences. Arthas finished up the rest of his letters and sealed them. He would send them the next time he went to Everlook.

"Did you find the books I was looking for, Keifer?"

The cultist nodded and pointed to the books he had placed on the desk. "Everything I could get on the Drust and Drustvar, and the genealogy of the Proudmoore line. I marked pages for you."

Arthas picked up one of the books. It was old, dusty, and pages were obviously missing out of it. He flipped it open and turned to one of the marked pages. Before his and Sapphire's encounter with the Drust Gorak Tul and his lackey, Arthas had never once heard of the Drust but he could guess a few things. Their height and general body type led him to believe they were some subspecies of vrykul and Arthas had plenty of knowledge about them. Gorak Tul called Sapphire a Drust and even his descendant. A lie, most likely, but one that Arthas intended to pursue using that genealogy book.

House Proudmoore was the ruling house of Kul Tiras, of which Drustvar was a part. They were nobility, but never truly considered royalty. Sapphire likely knew nothing of House Proudmoore, let alone that she was technically one.

Arthas leaned back in his chair, uncomfortable with the memories that came over him.

Jaina. Even after all that he had been through, he could still remember her beautiful hair, those eyes as blue as the ocean, and the furrow in her brow when she was concentrating on a spell or reading a very enthralling book. One night of irresponsibility and a little too much wine, and nine months later Sapphire had been born. Not that Arthas knew that at the time. He did not learn of Sapphire until well after he wielded Frostmourne. And he could not have cared more upon learning about her. He never even cared enough to consider killing the baby.

Now, he was almost grateful that his headstrong captain, Marwyn, had been weak enough to become attached to Sapphire.

Unfortunately for Sapphire, Marwyn it seemed had been the first one who cared for her. Jaina had just abandoned Sapphire shortly after birth. Very uncharacteristic of her, but at the time, again, Arthas did not care. He cared now. Was it guilt? Shame? Fear? Arthas could only speculate. Nor did it really matter now. Jaina had given Sapphire up and now Arthas had her. And he was intent on keeping her.

After he was done reading and taking notes, he decided to go see Sapphire. Something in one of the books intrigued him so he decided to follow up on the theory. He had to go to the local vegetable vendor first. The girl was behind the house, in a rough garden. The garden beds were lined with rocks of varying sizes. Sapphire collected them whenever she was exploring Moonglade. A few Arthas had brought back from Winterspring. Sapphire had started it only a month ago so most of the garden lay barren. The few plants that did grow were still small and fragile. Sapphire looked up at her father's approach.

Sapphire was watering a few tiny peacebloom plants, but she stopped when she saw Arthas. She pointed over to one garden bed.

"Look, some of my rot berries are growing. Those tiny thorny plants."

Arthas glanced at where she was pointing and did see on some mounds that rot berries were growing.

"Usually rot berries prefer growing on top of fresh corpses," He noted. He continued to approach Sapphire, as casually as he could.

Sapphire grew a little fidgetty when Arthas got closer. "Yeah, well...I buried some dead squirrels under them."

As Arthas got closer, she seemed to grow uncomfortable so he quickly pointed at another one of her garden plots with one of his hands. For the most part he had kept both hands behind his back but now only one hand remained hidden.

"What's in that one?"

Sapphire stood up now, backing away instinctually from Arthas. She went over to the garden bed, keeping her enthusiasm up

"Those are panther mushrooms! They can cause convulsions, delusions, respiratory failure, coma and eventually death if the person ingests too much!"

Her skin was turning pale. For her entire childhood, Sapphire had been pale as snow due to lack of sunlight. While they had lived in Moonglade and even back in Stormwind, Sapphire's skin had tanned considerably so she no longer looked like a living corpse. Now she was starting to look more like she had as a child, only with a slighlty greenish tint. Her nose scrunched up a little like she was smelling something foul.

"I'm sorry...I don't feel good. I think I need to lay down," She said.

Arthas gave her a concerned look. "No need to apologize. Ask Keifer to make you some tea."

Sapphire headed back inside, making sure to give Arthas a wide berth. As soon as she went inside Arthas pulled out the cause of her discomfort. A simple, ordinary onion. Just in case, Arthas had cut it open so the pungent smell could reach Sapphire and it obviously worked. She never even got within twenty feet of him. Drusts were strong if Gorak Tul was anything to go by, but it seemed they had weaknesses that made them look pathetic. Nothing but a common vegetable caused Sapphire to practically flee from him.


After a nap and some hot mint tea that Keifer made, Sapphire felt better just in time for dinner. When he wasn't writing poetry, drinking, or looking for love, Lethumo had recently started learning how to cook. Mostly human cuisine, but he had started making his own people's food to Sapphire's delight. Night elves loved rice and Lethumo did not seem much different.

As Sapphire made her way to the kitchen, she could smell the frying of rice cakes. She rushed in.

"I want a rice cake," She demanded viciously.

Lethumo turned from his frying pan. "Could we say the magic word?"

"Now," Sapphire said, smiling sweetly.

The night elf picked up the tray of cooked cakes and held it out to her. Sapphire took one, which was still hot but not hot enough to burn her fingers. On the counter, a clay pot sat. Sapphire reached over and popped the lid off. At first it seemed like it was just some water, but then she saw some movement in it. She jerked back in surprise.

"Uh...what's in the jar?" She asked nervously.

"It is a surprise! Delivered all the way from the coast. I thought you might like these."

Lethumo finished up the rice cakes and pulled the jar away from her. He reached in and yanked out a tiny squirming mass. Sapphire stared at it in fasnication. A small round body with lots of wiggling arms.

"Fresh baby octopus! Little fiends of the deep ever dark abyss. Pairs well with rice cakes."

Arthas came into the house just in time to see the two of them. Lethumo held up the octopus.

"Look Arthas! I hope you like octopus!"

Sapphire curiously reached into the jar and tried to catch one of them. She got one and held it up in the air. It struggled furiously with her grip but it was so small that its fight was futile.

Before either man could do anything, Sapphire popped it into her mouth. The sensation of it squirming in her mouth was interesting, but Sapphire did not care for it. She immediately bit down on it, stopping all movement. Sapphire was surprised by the taste, like a combination of chicken and clam. She chewed it even as Arthas came forward.

"Sapphire no!"

Lethumo put one hand between Arthas and Sapphire. "No, no! It's fine. Most people eat these raw! I just happen to have a conscious and fry mine first."

Arthas raised his eyebrows and curled his lip up. Sapphire did not see what the big problem was. She had eaten cockroaches alive before. If she was perfectly honest, she preferred the cockroaches. Cockroaches were meatier and crunchy. The octopus was slimy and gooey, but edible.

She reached in for another but Arthas stopped her this time. Sapphire started to pout and protest, but Arthas was firm.

"Wait till dinner is ready. Keifer isn't even here yet," He said.

"Okay...Hey, can I come with you to Winterspring next time you go?" She asked, changing the subject. Arthas and Keifer would leave, sometimes separately, for either Winterspring or Felwood while Sapphire was stuck in Moonglade. Not that Moonglade was uninteresting or anything. There was so much stuff for Sapphire to explore and do, but still...Moonglade was temperate and warm. She had not seen even a single snowflake since leaving Northrend. Everywhere was either blistering hot, or infuriatingly comfortable.

Arthas did not look at her, instead grabbing one of the rice cakes from the tray.

"I will think about it. You have to ask all of your teachers for permission though. It takes a day to travel to and from Winterspring."

Sapphire laid her head on the counter and groaned. "Not Miss Lunabreeze? She always makes me talk to her in Darnassian. My Darnassian sucks."

Lethumo shook his head as he poured some cranberries into a bowl.

"It is important to know other languages," The night elf said, in perfect Darnassian.

Sapphire attempted to reply back in Darnassian. "But I am so tedious and tumble feather."

The night elf pursed his lips in order to stifle a laugh. Sapphire narrowed her eyes at him, but let it go. She was hungry and he was taking his time readying dinner. So, Sapphire decided to help. She hopped down away from the counter to set the table for three who would be eating, and four who would be drinking. Arthas and Lethumo drank wine while Keifer and Sapphire settled with fruit juice. Just before she finished putting all the forks and spoons down, Keifer finished whatever he was doing in the study that he and her father shared. He came out of the room, looking a little annoyed.

"Ah, Keifer! Dinner time," Lethumo said, pleased with himself. As soon as he sat the clay jar down on the table, Sapphire reached in for another octopus.