Chapter 21: Of Greetings and Goodbyes
It was nearly impossible to breathe in the Salty Sailor Tavern in Booty Bay the entire next night and day, as it was completely packed to the gills with celebrating drunkards. With the dead of the battle either having been lost to the sea, or being quickly buried in the small graveyard outside Booty Bay with little to no ceremony, the denizens of the town quickly got about to what they did best: drinking copious amounts. Arrien was sitting up at the bar, grinning foolishly, having been thanked and congratulated all night. She idly sipped on a mug of rum.
"Don't let it go to your head," Heathcliff said next to her, smirking, "sure you helped save the town, but that speech you made while beating the ever-loving guts out of that kid was remarkably cliche." Arrien shot him a disappointed look over his glass of honey mead, "'Friendship makes me stronger!' I mean..." He was interrupted by a smack upside the head by Tilanne.
"I thought it was lovely, Arrien," the Night Elf said, nodding firmly as she sipped at her cup of tea, "Well... perhaps a bit cliche..." Arrien giggled softly, shaking her head.
"Just said what I felt at the time is all. I couldn't have accomplished all this without you."
"I should say," Heathcliff laughed, grabbing his imp as it tried to light a nearby celebrator's cloak on fire, "Of course that bit where you caused the entire ship to explode was a nice bit of magic."
"Well... I don't like to brag..."
"Yes, you do!" Tilanne protested with a snicker as she scratched gently behind Murgle's ear, who was in his usual spot, perched alertly on Arrien's shoulder.
"Hey, take a look over there, Tilanne, that a cousin of yours?" Heathcliff pointed in the direction of the door. Arrien turned to look and saw the Night Elf that the explosion had sent flying off into the drink, clearly unconcious, a woman in plate mail supporting her bodily on each side. One of the women, a blonde-haired girl who stared at the drunkards with an odd fascination, could not have been much older than Arrien, and kept glancing over at her companion, taking her verbal cues and trying her best to fulfill them, carefully moving the Night Elf towards a table. Arrien saw a large, black something moving near their feet, and saw that it was the giant black wolf, who snarled at anyone who drew too close to his master, before looking back at her with what the mage thought was a concerned look.
"We're not all related, Heath," Tilanne groaned irritably, watching carefully as well. The two women in plate made their way to a table where two men were sitting.
"Kindly move out of the way so I can put my friend down," the woman who was clearly the blonde's superior said. This woman had a bit of ethereal beauty to her, but was somewhat grizzled from life and war, not lining her face in the least, but showing deeply in her eyes. Her light brown hair was pulled up into a bun, though loose bits fell down around her ears and a few loose strands revealed her hair to be nearly as long as Tilanne's, falling to her lower back.
"Hey, it's not our fault your friend had a bit too much to---" the sailor's protest was interrupted by a loud crack as the darker-haired woman brought around her free hand to deliver a solid punch to the man's jaw, sending him stumbling backwards and out of the chair. The pair placed their injured friend in the seat, the blonde looking as though she was expecting trouble to start from her companion's actions, though no retaliation came, the victim simply moving to stand along the wall, nursing a bleeding mouth. Arrien found herself moving towards the others, without really even thinking about it, and mumured to the dark-haired woman, who was kneeling down now, her hand placed on the elf's forehead.
"Is she all right?" the mage inquired softly, a bit shy, as she still blamed herself for what had happened.
"She's still alive, so I guess the answer to that would be yes," the woman replied sharply, "I was supposed to meet her here tonight... do you know what happened?"
"There was an explosion during the pirate attack," Arrien said, feeling a bit nervous as the wolf looked up at her, sniffing her and staring with what felt like recognition, but not making any indications of hostility. "knocked her into the water."
"Well, Ewigkeit here helped get her to shore," the older woman in plate replied, affectionately scratching at the wolf's ears, "good friend that he is."
"By the way, my name is Arrien," the mage introduced herself, offering her hand to shake, though the other just looked at her as though she was rather odd.
"You can call me Lady Vi---," she stopped suddenly, breathing out a deep sigh as though trying to break herself of a bad habit, "I'm Silbyr... call me Silbyr."
"Rozial," the blonde woman said with a warm smile, taking Arrien's proffered hand and shaking it gently, "of the Order of the Silver Hand." The name forced Arrien to suppress a shudder, recalling the seeming madman who Selessa had kept from slaughtering her as he had her recently undead parents.
"Paladins, then?" She murmured, only to be ignored by Silbyr, who was muttering what sounded like a prayer, a soft white glow emanating from her hand and illuminating the Night Elf's face, which Arrien could now see, once again, was rather strikingly beautiful, with dark marks over her eyes in the shape of leaves.
"Yes," Rozial said, smiling brightly, "I am Lady Silbyr's apprentice." A small gasp came from the direction of the night elf, who was now slowly opening her eyes, groaning.
"Where... where am I?" She spoke softly, as though raising her voice might cause her head to explode.
"Booty Bay, Crish... you took a bit of abuse from some pirates."
"Pirates?" The Night Elf raised a hand to her temple, rubbing slightly. Ewigkeit was at her side now, nuzzling and licking at her hand. "Who are you?"
"Crishna, it's me, Silbyr... you don't remember, do you?" The Night Elf slowly shook her head in a negative, a rather confused look crossing her features. Arrien felt Tilanne and Heathcliff approach behind her to see what was going on. "Looks like she lost her memory," Sil announced needlessly, and Arrien swore she heard the paladin mutter under her breath, "maybe that's for the best, after all," as she fidgeted with a ring on one of her fingers, staring at the piece of jewelry with a bit of distraction.
"Isn't there anything we can do?" Rozial asked, a frown crossing her young features.
"No... I can heal the body and spirit, but not the mind," Silbyr closed her eyes and snorted disdainfully. "So, why are you so curious about Crishna, anyway?" The paladin stood, bringing herself to her full height, a bit taller than Arrien, and rather intimidating at that.
"I... I... just saw what happened to her," Arrien said, fighting the guilt, "I had been wondering if she'd made it out alive." Silbyr's eyes seemed to bore into her soul for a moment, but it passed and the paladin sighed, wordlessly moving to the bar, coming back with two unmarked bottles, handing one to Crishna and drinking the entirety of hers in a matter of seconds. Crishna sipped at hers and choked, the drink clearly rather volatile, though Silbyr seemed rather unaffected.
"Let's go somewhere more private," Silbyr said to Rozial and Crishna, turning to Arrien and her friends, "we will probably see you tomorrow morning." As Silbyr headed for the stairs, Crishna followed groggily, Keit close behind her in tow. Rozial stopped and smiled at the red-haired mage.
"Don't worry, she'll be fine..."
"Is your friend always so... abrupt?" Tilanne inquired.
"She has a very... commanding personality," Rozial said with a sigh, "deep down, she really is a good person, just rough around the edges."
"I don't know, I rather liked the look of her edges," this comment earned Heathcliff a solid elbow to the ribs from Tilanne. Rozial bowed slightly, then chased after her party. Arrien felt an odd twist of destiny as she watched the three of them go and turned back to Heathcliff and Tilanne, a warm smile on her lips.
"So... I'm thinking about heading to Stormwind and continuing my mage training," Arrien stated matter-of-factly, "I think it's about time I learned more about who I am and what I might be capable of, instead of the crash course I've received lately."
"You'll probably just end up getting frustrated with the stuffy magocracy and lighting a few of them on fire, from what I've seen," Heathcliff snickered.
"You'll come with me, right, Tilanne?"
Tilanne remained silent for a moment before finally speaking, "I need to return home," she murmured, "I've been hearing from the sailors that demons took Ashenvale... destroyed the forests. I have a duty to mend them," she sighed softly. Arrien felt her smile fade and her shoulders slump.
"So... so you're leaving?"
"I need to. I've explored the world so much, now I need to go home, show some responsibility. I wasn't there when the demons invaded, I should go back and rectify that by helping bring life back."
Arrien's heart sank. Her best friend was going to leave her now, too. She looked up the stairs towards where Silbyr, Rozial, and Crishna had gone, silently wondering if they were planning on heading back to Stormwind, and if, even then, they'd welcome her amongst them.
"I'm heading back to Stormwind," Heathcliff said, "I live there... was just down here because I got a bit of cabin fever in the city. Plus, I had a unique... business opportunity to take care of." He smirked slightly, and the two women decided not to even bother questioning him.
The next morning, Tilanne found a ship that was departing immediately for Kalimdor to bring relief to the troops fighting the Burning Legion there. She and Arrien had a long, tearful goodbye, which Heathcliff mostly rolled his eyes at, but said very little, instead contenting himself with tormenting his imp.
"We will meet again," Tilanne said as she finally stepped onto the boat after a rather bone-breaking hug, "I can feel it... never question a druid's intuition." She wiped some tears from her eyes, offering a deep bow, before heading off to the boat, her few mean possessions in a sack over her shoulder. The tearful mage sniffled, heading back towards the Salty Sailor with Heathcliff beside her, trying fruitlessly (and rather poorly, at that) to cheer her up. However, somewhere deep inside, Arrien knew that she'd be reunited again with Tilanne at some point in the future. Another day passed, and Silbyr, Rozial, and Crishna finally emerged from their room. Crishna looked far healthier now, although rather frustrated and confused.
"We're departing tomorrow for Stormwind," Rozial announced, "you're free to come with us if you like," she said, mainly looking at Arrien, but glancing at Heathcliff to let him know that, although she was rather wary of someone who wielded fel magic, he was invited as well.
"It would be nice to have some travelling company besides a leaky mage," Heathcliff joked, earning him a harsh look from Arrien. Rozial, Arrien, and Heathcliff spent the rest of the evening sharing exciting stories of narrow escapes from the Undead in Lordaeron, battling with pirates, and the intricate magicks required to call forth demons into the world. Arrien looked past Rozial's shoulder now and again to see Silbyr and Crishna in a corner, Silbyr talking rather fervently, one hand always twisting the ring on her finger. In Crishna's eyes was beginning to form something of an understanding of events past, though Arrien couldn't quite tell if the huntress liked what she was hearing.
The next morning, the five boarded a ship heading for Stormwind. Arrien breathed out a deep, sad sigh as she watched Booty Bay slide away into the distance, knowing that her days as a pirate, as horrible as some of them had been, were now over.