This is before the whole elemental thing. Kalec and Jaina is technically a thing but I'm gonna change it slightly for my fanfic. Also, apologies for the late submission. I'm busy with school as well as playing Shadowlands. No spoilers, but I'm enjoying it so much.


"You are supposed to be dead."

"Technically, I am," Arthas replied rather casually. Jaina had not called him a murderer or set him on fire yet, so Arthas figured it was going well. All she could do was stare at him.

They both stood in Theramore. Or at least what remained of it. The whole city was practically humming with the residual arcane magic from the mana bomb. Nothing survived but Jaina it seemed. She was still in shock from the bombing it seemed. He must seem like an hallucination to her. Arthas would not blame her for that assumption.

"Jaina..." He started to say, only to realize he had nothing to say. There was nothing he could say. He had flown all this way only to find he did not know what to say to her.

The tears welling up in her eyes were enough. The blood on her face was already starting to dry. Tears and blood.

"Why are you here?" She whispered, voice edging to break. She still looked skeptical at his existence, but she had recovered enough to demand the reason to it.

Arthas took a deep breath. "I suppose I thought I could come swooping in and save you."

Now he realized what an idiot he was. He never thought things through before acting. Jaina never needed his help. She would have never even wanted it, even before Stratholme. Jaina would have been insulted at the idea.

Rather harshly, Jaina laughed in response. "Great job."

Her cold response took him off guard. Sarcasm was never in her vocabulary before. Normally he would have shot back a similar answer, but he restrained himself. Jaina could still set him on fire.

"I am...truly sorry, Jaina. I cannot imagine how you are feeling," Arthas said honestly.

"No, you cannot possibly. Can you even feel anything anymore?" She asked, spreading her arms out in amazement.

Arthas looked her directly in her eyes. "I believe I still love you."

That seemed to take her aback. The last time they met, she had probably given up all hope in him. Now here he was, admitting his love. If Arthas was honest himself, he did not know if what he was feeling was love towards her. But it was something.

However, he did not get the response he wanted. Instead of replying in kind, Jaina turned away. A sob escaped her lips.

"No, I can't do this! Not right now. You are nothing but a cruel hallucination. A remnant of this." She gestured to the ruins of Theramore.

Arthas looked around at the broken walls and dead bodies. Garrosh had certainly destroyed what he perceived as a threat. Nothing threatening remained. It reminded him of Stratholme. The rage and impotence he had felt. Surely Jaina was feeling similar. The desire for vengeance and violence. The dried blood on her face was evidence of that.

"Suppose I were a hallucination, it would just be another insult that Garrosh has inflicted on you. He obliterated your friends and annihilated your home. Right now he and the Horde are no doubt drinking and celebrating this massacre. What are you going to do about it?" Arthas demanded as he aggressively gestured to all the ruin and destruction. He needed to know if she felt like he had.

Jaina's gaze immediately turned to the crater. Without a word she strode off in determination. Arthas followed her curiously. Her heart was racing. There, sitting at the bottom of the crater, was what looked like a giant orb of delicate glass. It looked like a single touch would shatter it completely, but looks were deceiving. Jaina rushed down to the bottom and stood before the giant object. Arthas assumed this was what had caused all the destruction.

Jaina put one hand on the orb, then turned to face Arthas.

"Garrosh wants blood. He wants war. Then he shall have both!"

That sounded good to Arthas. He watched silently as Jaina performed a spell on the object and it faded out of existence. Jaina then turned to Arthas. Now that he had recovered from first seeing her, he saw that she was not doing well. Her white hair was wild and there were bags under her glowing eyes. She looked older than she should look. She leaned heavily on her staff for support.

No words were spoken between them but they both went toward each other simultaneously. Arthas wrapped his arms around her. She laid her head on his shoulder. The only noises was the still crackling of magic and the distant cries of gulls. Arthas would have liked for them to be like that for longer, but Jaina pulled away too quickly.

"I need to go to Stormwind. Varian needs to know what happened," She rubbed her eyes as if to wipe away tears, though she had shed none.

She was not wrong. No one else survived. Only she had. He supposed the Alliance needed to know of this development. He started to take a step back but she reached out and touched him gently.

"Will you come with me?" She asked hesitantly.

Arthas nodded and took her hand in his.


The cake was smaller than Sapphire had imagined and frosting was not actually made out of ice, but she was still impressed by it. It was rounded like a wheel of cheese. The so called frosting looked like snow, but apparently it was just sugar and other stuff. Apparently it was not even cold, though Lethumo refused to let her touch it. One of the druids had baked and decorated it with edible flowers. More icing had been colored blue and her name had been At the moment, Lethumo was putting tiny candles on top of it.

"I don't suppose you know how old she is, Keifer?" He asked the cultist. He seemed hesitant whether or not to add thirteen or fourteen candles.

Keifer gave him a sardonic look. "No birth certificate or records on any census, for obvious reasons. Just make it thirteen. Personally, I'd prefer to be younger than older."

The night elf shrugged and finished sticking the candles in the cake. Tanomoan swooped into the room, landing before the cake. She sniffed it curiously.

"No! Bad darter!" Lethumo admonished.

Tanomoan jumped back in alarm and mewed in dismay. She flung herself off the table and proceeded to hide herself among the brightly wrapped presents in the living room. Sapphire had gotten more than she expected. After learning of her existence through letters, Lethumo's parents had sent her presents and promised to attend her next birthday. Sapphire could not understand how two strangers would go out of their way to send her presents, but she was happy either way. One present came from Cerelial. Even Keifer admitted to getting her a present.

Like the cake, she was forbidden to touch them. Everyone needed to be there to watch her blow out the candles and rip open the packages. Cerelial would be showing up any minute. As for her father, Sapphire did not know. Keifer had become pretty evasive when she asked once.

It should not hurt. It never hurt before. All of Sapphire's previous birthdays never included Arthas. Marwyn would always do something nice for her. Falric would be less cruel. A few cultists were nice to her. But Arthas never even acknowledged her existence.

Still, she had wanted him anyway but he did not show up.

Cerelial came to the house shortly before dinner. Lethumo had made Sapphire's favorite, cranberry chicken with orzo. Both Lethumo and Keifer left to greet the druid. Sapphire snuck a spoonful of orzo when they left. She also managed to hand over biscuits to both Tanomoan and Rot. Just as she was about to go in for another biscuit, she heard a raised voice and sharp retorts of shushing.

She turned to where the adults were. They were now whispering. Sapphire scowled. They were trying to hide something from her. She made toward them as if to confront them, but Cerelial's hearing was acute. The three quieted before she could hear a single word.

"What's going on?" She asked, eyeing the three. Keifer looked the most upset, while Lethumo immediately put on an obviously fake smile.

"Nothing! Well, your father might be a bit...late," He said, but immediately put his hands under her arms and lifted her into his arms.

She was not able to get a word in before the elf continued. "But who needs him, am I right? More cake for you!"

Sapphire wanted to demand what they were keeping from her but Lethumo carried her into the dining room for dinner. Dinner was eerily quiet and went by fast. Then it was time for the cake. Keifer lit the candles himself. Tanomoan fluttered over to the cake, entranced by the tiny flames. The cultist proceeded to pick up Rot and place him on the table. The dog's tail wagged furiously. All thoughts of Arthas left Sapphire's mind.

"Before you can blow them out, we have to sing!" Lethumo said with enthusiasm.

Keifer and Cerelial immediately seemed hesitant. The bard scoffed at their moods.

"Fine. I will sing for her. You are both tone deaf anyway!"

With that, Lethumo cleared his throat and sang about birthdays and how many more she would have. Rot laid his head on the table and attempted to cover his single ear with his paws. Tanomoan stuck her tongue out in disdain. But Sapphire enjoyed Lethumo's singing. His voice was nice and smooth, unlike Cerelial's deep rumble of a voice or Keifer's flat voice.

As soon as the song ended, Keifer nodded at the cake. Sapphire thought of a wish. At first she was going to wish for Arthas to come back, but that seemed arbitrary. Of course he would come back. Instead, a sudden dark thought came to mind. She thought of the creature. It had no name, but from the others' description, it had been a kind of wiry wolf like beast with antlers and a skull of a face.

The others looked expectantly at her and she panicked. Before she could think, she decided to blow out the candles. Then she wished never to turn into that thing again, but she mentally despaired. Was she supposed to wish before blowing out the candles, during the event, or after?

But the others quickly cheered and clapped. Lethumo wrapped his arms around Sapphire and kissed her forehead.

"Happy Birthday, Sapphire!"

All negative emotions washed away. Sapphire hugged Lethumo back, feeling warm and happy. Keifer cut the cake for everyone, even Rot and Tanomoan. Cerelial turned back into his elf form in order to eat the cake. Sapphire's piece was bigger than everyone else's.

After the last forkful of cake, Lethumo shoved presents into Sapphire's waiting arms. Cerelial assured her she was allowed to rip open the brightly colored paper that wrapped each present. Confidently, she tore each one to pieces. Lethumo's parents had gotten her a stuffed night saber toy and a beautiful black owl feather.

Cerelial took the feather briefly from Sapphire. "Ah. Night elven children are given owl feathers on their first birthdays for good luck. Since this is the first birthday you are sharing with Lethumo, it should give you good luck as well."

Lethumo took the feather from his uncle and immediately tucked it in some of Sapphire's hair. "I can braid it into your hair later."

Sapphire felt very grateful for both the toy and feather. Now she had three toys in total. And the black feather stood out sharply against her white hair. Keifer's gift was a simple leatherbound book.

"You can write in it or press dried flowers into it like a tree hugger," Keifer casually suggested. He made a noise of protest when Sapphire hugged him for the gift. The next one came from Cerelial. A dreamcatcher made out of wood and silken string.

When Sapphire lifted up the dreamcatcher for inspection, Cerelial sat up. "You will want to bring that with you when we enter the barrow dens. They keep nightmares away."

At last it was Lethumo's turn. It was a big present, though he admitted it was not much. Sapphire ripped the paper up and opened the box.

Inside was a bunch of clothing, but not just any normal clothing. Sapphire pulled out the purple and green robes.

"Now you will look like a proper druid!" He said proudly. Sapphire immediately pulled the garment over her head and wriggled into it over her normal clothes. He had not only gotten her the robes, but fur lined gloves, and thick boats made of supple leather. All of them were decorated with leaves and animals of various kinds.

Cerelial did not seem to appreicate the gifts and gave Lethumo a very stern look.

"That was...kind of you, Lethumo," He said slowly.

Lethumo returned his uncle's look with a rather dark one of his own. "Yes. It was."

Sapphire did not really know what was going on with them, but she was too distracted by all of her gifts. Already she planned on taking all kinds of notes in her new book. She would have to give her night saber toy a name. Rot and Tanomoan occupied themselves by attacking what was left of the wrapping paper. As the girl pulled on her new gloves and admired them, a sudden thought came to her. She had one present left. Her father's gift, wrapped in simple blue paper, sat alone on the floor.

Keifer noticed her gaze and cleared his throat.

"Perhaps Andrew will want to see you open it himself? You can always wait," He suggested rather kindly. Sapphire nodded, subdued at the thought.

Though Cerelial and Lethumo seemed tense, they both spoke to each other amicably as the elder started to leave. Sapphire thanked him for the dreamcatcher. Once Cerelial left, Lethumo seemed less tense. Sapphire stood at the entrance way, holding her new night saber plush and Rot in her arms. The night elf looked down at her.

"Well, you want to stay up a little longer? It is your birthday?"

Sapphire shook her head. As if to emphasize, she started to yawn. Lethumo took one of her hands and led her to her room.

"Why did my shan'do look at you like that?" She asked sleepily.

Lethumo brushed aside her concerns with a dismissive wave. "Oh, something about traditions and what not. Don't let it bother you."

Once she got to the door of her room, Lethumo let go of her hand. She expected him to just say good night and leave. Instead, He laid his hand on top of her head right between her antlers.

"You're a good kid, you know that?" He asked.

Sapphire tilted her head, thinking about it. She really did not have much experience to know if she was good or not, but he seemed to think so. So she merely nodded. With that, Lethumo said good night and left her.