Chapter 44

Unrecoverable Loss

Fox dropped herself down in the chair and stared at Damiana with annoyance. "Can we get this over with as quickly as possible? I have no liking of allowing you access to my mind. It has been turbulent enough with just myself in it lately."

"There will be no need to probe your memories." Damiana shook her head and pinned her eyes on the Lady Lothar. "I already know that Sylvanas has not touched them."

That took Fox by surprise. She almost smiled in relief. "You actually believe me? Great! That makes one person down, and an entire Kingdom to go."

"Under normal circumstances I wouldn't, but I have been tampering with your mind for a few weeks now myself. If there had been any of the Forsaken corruption, I would have already encountered it long ago." Damiana shrugged and looked away. Watching as Fox came slowly to her feet. The look on Lady Lothar's face one of incredulity. "I can see that you did not suspect me of twisting your actions. Perhaps you never suspected I was working with Lord Bascomb? Perhaps I was doing better then I originally suspected, if I can hide something this great from a trained SI-7 agent."

"Lord Bascomb has had you tampering with my mind?" Fox took a deep breath trying to calm herself. Perhaps this was some sort of test?

"Of course. You have to admit it is odd for you to align yourself against him, and with those that planned your assassination. There are some of us who do not like the idea of Lothar's heir strolling into absolute power like you did. You have no right to it you know. Just because you were born of his line does not make you the leader he was." Damiana spoke candidly. It was almost like she didn't have a care in the world. There was no fear of reprisal.

Fox grasped on to that. "So you are telling me all this now? Why what have you and your master have to gain?"

"King Wyrnn has placed blame for all our work in Sylvanas. There is no need to tip toe around you any longer. What is the worst that could happen? You tell someone that it was us?" Damiana laughed at that. "If his Majesty doesn't believe in you, who will?"

"Mathias Shaw and the entirety of the SI-7!" Fox threw back at the Priestess. "You have not forgotten the position they hold within Stormwind, have you?"

"Nope, sorry. We already factored that in, but if I were you I would head to the throne room as soon as possible. Word is the new Queen of Stormwind is about to take her place at King Wyrnn's side." Damiana swept across the room and pulled open the drawer of Fox's desk.

Fox spun around and fixed her eyes on the contents of the drawer. She saw instantly the scroll case for the royal decree was missing. "You have got to be kidding me. You think that alone can put someone else on the throne? Varian will never allow it."

"He doesn't have a choice. You, my dear Lady Lothar, are corrupted by the Forsaken. Mad beyond all redemption, that will be my version of events. You can demand a second opinion, but most of the Priests at the Cathedral are under Lord Bascomb's control now. The people of Stormwind will never accept you one word is leaked. King Wyrnn will have no choice but to let you go. Perhaps you may even come out of this with your life. Although if I were to wager a guess, it is more likely you will be killed off soon enough. The child along with you. Lord Bascomb has thought of everything."

Fox moved so swiftly Damiana could hardly moved to avoid the attack. An elaborate hair pin pulled from Fox's black locks embedding in the wall near Damiana's head. "But you forget I was a Stormwind assassin, myself. How do you think you could tell me this and get out alive?"

Damiana raised her hand and Fox buckled over. "Because I have had enough time to gain the facets of how your mind works. You will do as we say. You have no choice."

Fox struggled against the paralyzing grip. Looking up with pain in her brown eyes, she ground out. "Then you forget human will. You can not hold me like this forever! I will break free and I will destroy you for what you have done. I don't forget and I certainly do not forgive."

Knowing that Fox was right Damiana made for the door. The minute it crashed closed behind the priestess Fox made to go after her. Skidding to a stop as her mind began to work free of the control. That was what they would expect. Well, she would not be caught in their trap, whatever it was, unarmed. Going to her closet she pushed aside the dresses, and hit the secret latch. She didn't have time to change into her fighting armor. Fox tossed it aside and pulled out the wooden case containing her daggers. No time was wasted in pulling it open. The glass vials clattered as she moved through them. It didn't take her any time to coat her weapons with the most lethal one she had. She was a professional after all.

"Fox! What are you doing?"

Fox whirled around, and held her daggers up toward Goldenleaf. Distrust written on her face. "What are you doing here, Druid?"

"Easy. I am not here to hurt you." Goldenleaf put his hands up.

"Well, I just found out my personal healer has been working for Lord Bascomb the entire time she was attending me. Excuse me for being leery!" Fox did not lower her weapon. It hit her then that there were very little people she could openly trust anymore. It was one of the many reasons she had not wanted to be Queen of Stormwind. Funny how things like that always come home to roost.

"Then Braelyn was right? She sent me to tell you that you and the baby are in terrible danger. I don't have all the facts since they have her under close watch at her parent's house." Goldenleaf moved slowly toward the Rogue.

"Braelyn Hawke?" Fox gasped. She was such a fool! "Damn, I should have seen it. Braelyn's being blackmailed."

"So I assumed." Goldenleaf nodded. "Can you tell me what is going on?"

"Stormwind is in terrible danger Goldenleaf. Lord Bascomb is trying to destroy me as well as the SI-7. I am sure they want to use Braelyn as their puppet Queen." Fox dropped her daggers and paced in a short circle. "It makes sense. She has no political backing. She isn't aligned with any formal organization. She has a history they can threaten her with. She is perfectly helpless and completely malleable to their will."

"She knows how to defend herself." Goldenleaf argued, not wanting to dismiss the other woman's abilities. "I have seen her fight."

"In fair combat. Bascomb is not playing fair." Fox pinned her eyes on Goldenleaf. "I still have no idea what he could possibly use against Varian though. He would not simply forsake me because Braelyn signed the Marriage decree."

"Marriage Decree? What marriage Decree?" Goldenleaf straightened trying valiantly to understand what was going on in his adopted home city. "Who is Braelyn suppose to marry that would cause all this trouble?"

"King Wyrnn!" Fox shook a fist at Goldenleaf. "If you are not going to keep up with what I am saying, then get out of my way."

"Fox, make sense! Varian loves you. There is no way he would marry anyone else. You are talking like a mad woman." Goldenleaf pointed out

Fox gasped at that. " I know it sounds crazy, but it's true. There is no way to stop this besides..."

"Don't look at me like that.

"You have to go to my parents house and get them both to come to the main keep. Tell them to bring the marriage certificate."

"The marriage decree?"

"No! Damn. Goldenleaf listen very carefully. The King and I are already married. We did it in secret to ensure the baby's place on the House of Wynn's registry."

"When did this happen?"

"It doesn't matter. The Paladin Goya married us and then left for Pandaria with the marriage certificate. My parents were witness and the hold a copy at their home. Without Goya here to valid the union, they are the next best thing to hold Lord Bascomb's plot off."

"The townhouse on the canal. I will go right away." Golden leaf turned and then looked back at Fox. "What about you? Will you be alright if I leave you alone?"

"Better the Lord Bascomb is going to be when I find him." Fox flipped her blades in her hands. "I'm going to kill him this time. Varian be damned."

O0O0O0O0O0

"It's done. I doubt she will be far behind me." Damiana rushed up to Bascomb. The Lord stood in a very full court.

"Then take your place. Make sure you work with Astarii rotating her mind control. I do not want either one of you losing control." Bascomb whispered and then pushed her off to a far corner. If they failed, he knew Lady Lothar would not let him live. It was this rage he was counting on. He glanced around the room and knew the stage was set.

Soon Stormwind would be under his complete control.

O0O0O0O0O0

Fox came into the throne room and pinned her eyes on Bascomb. It was not hard to find him in the empty room. He seemed to be awaiting her arrival. Good. "How dare you send people to trifle with my mind!"

He turned calmly before coming to stand before her. "What are you talking about, dear Lady?"

She wanted to stab him there in that instant. "There are laws about this kind of action. Even commoners have rights against having their minds tampered with. You had to know it would catch up to you, and there is no way to get away with such illegal acts against my person."

"It had to be done. There is no other way to save your remaining family, Crimson Fox." The triumphant smile on his face. "But then you always were such an unfortunate little bad luck charm. From Ondrena Manston to the city of Stormwind it's self. Why should the Fulbrights be any different?"

"Don't you go near them!" Fox tightened her hold on the daggers. Waiting to see what he would say. If Myles and Gracie were in danger she had to know all the facts before acting. "Tell me what you want?"

"I want you to admit you are not Anduin Lothar's child. That you and Mathias Shaw, with the help of the SI-7, instigated the entire lie." Then he reached forward and rested a hand on her cheek. Looking deep in her brown eyes he added, "And then you will admit to all of Stormwind that the child you are carrying is not King Wyrnn's at all."

"I will kill you before I even suggest such a thing. You're mad." Fox was seeing red. So this was his goal all along? She had no idea why he hated her so, but it would not stop her. Varian and Stormwind's justice be damned. There was no more waiting for some sort of action against this monster.

He was a Noble, and dodging her killing blow to his chest at this range was impossible. Fox felt a sickening sense of pleasure. She pushed the dagger deeper and gave a harsh twist. She pulled back and enjoyed the shocked look on his face. A slight grin coming to her lips. "It will be my pleasure to see what takes you first, bleeding out or the poison. You are not going easy into the nether. When you get there I have a feeling you will be so much more at home. No amount of the Light's grace could have lit your dark soul."

Bascomb's hand clinched his wounds and he looked up at her with pained eyes. One word slipping out. "Why?" Before he collapsed to the ground in clear pain from the burning poison. "Eloise?"

That was a strange thing to say. Why? That is what she suddenly wanted to know herself. A faint buzzing starting to form louder in Fox's head. She placed a hand to her temple and felt the hands grasping at her arms to pull her back. Slowly tuning in the screams as the room blurred before her eyes. It was an offensive sensation as the strong control of her mind was lifted. Fox shook her head hard as she opened her eyes. The room suddenly filled with horrified witnesses to her open act of brutality. Stunned to realize she had been controlled during the previous moments. Damn, when had they taken hold of her again. The action was so flawlessly seamless to her fractured memories. She wondered then how much of the last few weeks she had actually been lucid?

"Fox!" Varian's voice drew her attention. She looked to him standing a few feet away from the throne. It looked as if he had been trying to reach her. The Stormwind Guards keeping their place between them with swords drawn at the ready.

It was then she noticed Bascomb standing behind Varian. A smug expression on his face as he watched the scene. Fox felt her eyes widen and her mouth drop. She lifted her hands that were still holding the blood coated daggers. Then looked to her feet, and an anguished cry broke out from the core of her soul.

Myles Fulbright withered in pain on the floor below her. The walking stick at his side. He looked up at his daughter as he gasped on his last breaths.

"Dad!" She pulled away from the guards. Dropping to draw Myles close to her chest. The wound was fatal. She knew her own handy work when she saw it. The life was draining out of him and she could feel it in his form. "No. No. Noooooo!"

"Eloise." The voice was above a whisper. She was the only one who could hear the weak sound. "I know. Not." He closed his eyes and forced the words out on a shaking breath. "you."

Fox felt the tears streaming. She was in such grief words could not come. It was her. She had done this. The blood was still on her daggers, on her hands! Fox whimpered and tossed her daggers away. She rubbed her hands on her legs trying to remove the red proof of her actions. The lower lip trembling.

"Love, my darling girl." The eyes began to haze over in death. "Forever."

Fox rocked him as the buzz of the crowd around her grew louder. The guards reaching down to remove her weapons from the cold stone. She did not care. What did it matter?

A voice filtering into her mind. "Tell them. Tell everyone here that it's all a lie."

"No." Fox sobbed at the Bascomb in her mind. "I wont do it."

"Do you want to loose Mrs. Fulbright as well? Because we have her. I will have my men slit her throat just like Ondrena Manston. That way both your mothers can die the same way. You know what that's like right? You remember how she died don't you? Protecting you, even though you were not worth the effort."

"NO!" Fox screamed and bent over Myles's body. Clearly they had been deep in her mind. Pulling and informing Bascomb of her deepest fears and inner most secrets.

The room silenced at her shout. The guards reaching down to pull her up and into their custody.

Fox turned her eyes to the ceiling. "I am not Lady Lothar. It was all a trap for King Wyrnn." Fox called loudly so everyone could hear. She forced it out between sobs that shook her body.

The room went into an uproar, but the only one she could hear clearly was Varian. "What are you saying? Fox, I know that is not true."

"It was a plot by the SI-7, King Wyrnn. Mathias Shaw wanted to gain more power in Stormwind. He promised me the throne and I was more then happy to go along with it. After all, the worst thing I had to endure was your attentions from time to time." She felt as if the words were killing her. Each one a shard of jagged glass in her throat. She looked over at Varian's confused expression. "The child is not yours. I am so sorry!" And she was. The pain on his face was crushing her heart. The anguish of her life was to great.

She pushed one of the guards off her, and turned to the other. She twisted around to get hold of his sword. Seeking the escape it could give her. The weapon was long for her short arms as she tried to turn it on herself. It was the only way she could think to end this pain. She had endured it before only for a time. When she was small and removed from Anduin Lothar's care. In the end they had magically sealed her memories to keep her safe. This time no one was going to help her forget. The torment was all they planned for her. That was proven true as the weapon was pulled from her grip as more guards rushed her.

"Remove her from the Keep!" Bascomb called out in a commanding tone. He was ready to take charge. "Everyone get out! We have heard enough of this traitor's words!"

"No!" Varian roared. He wanted to order the guards to drop their hold on Fox. Still he feared she would try and take her life if he did so.

The people were leaving as Bascomb had told them. Although the guards hesitated in doing as Bascomb had commanded. The looked around wondering just what they should do.

"She needs to be gone from here. She is a defilement on Stormwind and not fit to grace your presence, your Majesty. The Crimson Fox belongs in the Stockades!"

Varian turned his eyes on Bascomb. "What have you done? I know Fox, and I know she is being coerced, and you my old friend, are the only one with anything to gain from it. So tell me WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!?"

Bascomb waved a hand at his guards. "I did not want it to be like this King Wyrnn."

Varian turned to see the guard pulling Fox's head up by her short hair. A sword coming to Fox's throat. How could they think of doing this, and right in front of him. The tone was pure anger as Varian called out. "Release her immediately or I will have your lives!"

"They will not. These men work for me. The people in the Keep today, all loyal to me. They are already informing everyone who will listen in all Stormwind and Elywnn Forest what they heard against the fake Lady Lothar." The Lord Bascomb's face was almost serene as he spoke to Varian. "She is ruined now, King Wyrnn. No one will trust her now."

"I will make you pay if you harm her, Bascomb."

Lord Bascomb looked at his men and nodded. They turned and half dragged half carried Fox from the throne room on their way to the Stockades. "I regret to inform you, that the Lady Lothar's fate is sealed. I will have her life for challenging me. No one can question the power of the Stormwind Nobles."

Varian pulled out Shalamayne and held it's tip at Bascomb's throat. "Do you want to die?"

"Hold!" Bascomb remained motionless as his eyes slid to lock on Varian. "Think of your child."

Varian felt the weight of his weapon triple in his hands. "You Bastard!"

"You think I would go this far and not have a plan in place to contain your rage?" Bascomb snapped back at the King. He knew he was winning this battle. "I will allow the Lady Lothar to remain alive long enough to give birth to your child. After that she will have to be disposed of."

"I will never sign any decree issuing that action." Varian growled on a fierce promise.

"I know that. So I am willing to commit murder to see it done." Bascomb informed his King. "The people love you, and you may not believe me, but I do as well. This is for the good of Stormwind. Eloise Lothar was a forming cancer. She was changing the system and crushing the Nobles. I can tell you the majority of them are supporting this agenda. It is all being done for your own good. You will thank us in time."

"She was right about you all." Varian could not believe what he was hearing. He should have paid more attention to Fox's words. Listened when Shaw tried to explain about the Nobles. How could he have known they would take action against his very wishes. The truth was plainly out in the open. The Nobles had truly and unquestionably over stepped themselves. "I should have listened when they tried to warn me."

"But you didn't, and it is for the best. Now this is the other part you are to comply with. You will be married." Lord Bascomb waited for Varian's reaction

"And which Noble Daughter have you decided on?" Varian clenched his hand down hard on the hilt of his weapon until the fingers turned white.

"None. I decided on Miss Braelyn Hawke." Bascomb turned and beckoned a man forward. Taking the elaborately decorated scroll that was offered. "Remember this?"

"How did you get your hands on..." Varian watched as Bascomb pulled out the paper and unscrolled it. Seeing Braelyn's name clearly scrawled across the parchment. "Son of a..."

"As you see, you are already officially unified." Bascomb returned the paper to it's case. "Copies of it will be posted throughout Stormwind by the evening. A date for an official ceremony will be within the week."

"I don't understand?" Varian was doing his utmost not to wrap his hands around Bascomb's neck and choke him to death. It was only the fact that Fox and his child would probably be killed before he could fight through the traitorous guardsmen and reach the Stockades.

"Simply put, the people want a Queen. They latched on to Lady Lothar like a spark on dry tinder. Miss Hawke has no backing and you know of Rommath already. If news of that gets out, she will fare no better then the Lady Lothar. So to keep me and my men silent, her family has agreed. Although they had to be told what a villain Lady Lothar was to get them to comply completely. Your attention to the girl will have everyone accepting your affections for her. It will also help in implying you knew all along what the Crimson Fox was up too and using it as a way to expose the corrupt members of the SI-7. It will save you face amongst the masses."

"Wonderful. Is there an end to your manipulations of my Kingdom?

"Actually no. The SI-7 is yet to be dealt with. I already have the criminal order for that ready for you to sign. Mathias Shaw will be executed before the day is out. And for the rest of the SI-7 all of them will be moved to the stockade until we develop a labor camp suitable to contain them. They really are far to talented and crafty to be trusted. Lord Winchester and Lord Remmington will be taken to the Stockades and held until their holdings are doled out to those loyal to me. Then I want them gone as well."

"And who do you have on hand that is capable of subduing and killing Shaw." Varian smirked at the very idea, but it did not last for long.

"Learen, come forward." Bascomb turned to see the Gnome coming into sight. "There is no need to wait for the official signature. Go dispatch Shaw."

"Yes, Lord Bascomb. I will make sure he is appropriately dealt with." Learen saluted sharply. Then vanished from sight.

"Do you doubt his ability to end Mathias Shaw. Kin Wyrnn?"

"I am going to kill you for this." Varian stared hard at Bascomb.

"The day you do, the child will die. I have been very specific, and there are plenty of men under me with this order. Remember that. Keep it formost in your mind. The child of the House of Wyrnn and the Royal Family of Lothar will face danger from every direction on the day of my death, natural or otherwise. You should do your utmost to keep me in good health, King Wyrnn. Now let's go sign some papers and send for your new Queen. We have wasted enough of our time on Stormwind's garbage already."

Author Note: The End. Lord Bascomb wins... Unless I get cookies! Or Reviews. I will settle for reviews, but cookies are better.

And big thanks to Chelinka and Mythique for helping motivating me through to continue writing.