"Well, that's a face I wasn't expecting to see again anytime soon," Lord Theron said to Myphria as she stood at attention, Dar'khan's head at her feet. "Guards, remove that… trash. Good work, Corporal Skyflame, you do your city, your family, and yourself proud."

"Thank you, Regent-Lord," Myphria replied, her ego quite thoroughly stoked even as the guards moved to comply with the Reagent's command.

"I'm sure that your sisters, particularly Asyria will be delighted to hear of your success, as well as the praise your squad is signing for you. Sadly, she will have to communicate her approval via letter," Lord Theron said as he turned to pick up a scroll.

Myphria stiffened. She'd never liked the idea of being separated from Asyria. She'd understood that military service might mean just that, but it still bothered her. "My lord?" she asked.

"Thrall has finally accepted our petition to join the Horde. Of course, Lady Windrunner's support on our behalf didn't hurt matters, but dealing with the traitor was, as my father liked to say, the last nail in the cabinet," he informed her. "As such, Silvermoon is receiving reinforcements from other Horde factions to help us push the undead and purge the infected from our beloved forest. But also as such, it means that Asyria and her regiment are on their way to Kalimdor. She left early this morning."

"Did she… leave a message for me?" Myphria asked.

"Not that I am aware of, though that doesn't preclude a note stuffed in your sock drawer. You will have ample time to find such a note as you pack. Tomorrow, you ship out to Alterac."

"Alterac, milord?"

He handed her the scroll he'd been holding. "If you wish to serve our people, I would advise you become accustomed to taking orders from your superiors with fewer questions. Your rank is hereby altered to its Horde equivalent, and you are officially assigned to General Drek'thar's command. The details are on this. While I am not officially authorized to promote you, I have recommended you, based on your squad's praise, for officer training."

"Thank you, sir. I'll try my best to bring honor to our people," she replied with a salute after tucking her orders away.

"You've already done that by eliminating the traitor. Keep up the good work."

Recognizing the dismissal, she saluted again, and turned to find her way home for a bath. She hadn't even washed since her return from the Scourgeholme mission. There were standing orders to report directly to the Sunspire once proof of the traitor's permanent death had been acquired.

His severed head had served that purpose most adequately.

"Myphria!" she heard one of her friend's voices calling out as she reached the base of the Sunspire's entry ramp. She turned and smiled at Krelordial as he ran up to her, already out of breath.

"Hey Lordie," she greeted him. "What's up?"

"What's up?" he retorted. "You killed him? You actually killed the betrayer?"

"Yes, I did," she confirmed. This was just getting better and better. Oh, she had no interest in the slightly doughy man, though he did feed her a steady stream of her favorite pastries from one of the bakeries his family owned. "I've only just returned."

"Perhaps a celebratory dinner then, just the two of us?" he inquired hopefully. He was always trying to get her to agree to a date.

"My apologies, but I was just going to go home and take a bath, and then I believe Celandia wanted me for something and I have to pack."

"Oh," he said dejectedly. He wasn't a bad guy, just not the type of man she got all warm and tingly over. "You're shipping out then?"

"First thing tomorrow," she confirmed. Before she could say another word, Anhandariel, 'Andie' for short' sprinted up to join them. The conversation was a near-replay of the one she'd just had with Andie's brother, with the notable lack of a request for an outing.

"Just be careful!" the slightly older woman exclaimed when she heard that Myphria was shipping out. "And watch out for lechers. My boyfriend told me that they make men and women bunk together and even take common baths!"

"Surely not!" Myphria protested, her cheeks heating at the very thought.

"Well… maybe," Andie admitted with her own blush. "He might've just been hitting on me because the next words out of his mouth were to ask if I wanted to practice."

Myphria had to laugh at that. But she was with her friends, not strangers, so it was alright to let her guard down and her emotions show. "Where are you going to be stationed?" she asked when her giggles abated, but her blush remained.

"Some place called Feralas," the woman answered with a small grimace. "It'll take me a month just to get there, and from the sound of it it's a wild jungle."

Myphria clapped her hand on her friend's shoulder. "You take care of yourself out there. Who's gonna look after Lordie if you get yourself killed?"

"Hey!" the man protested. "That's it, no box of muffins for you!"

She gave him a cute little pout. "Aww, but I was so looking forward to them," she protested sweetly. In fact she hadn't thought about them, but wouldn't mind some to sink her teeth into; though she had far more pressing issues at the moment though.

"Okay, well, maybe one box," he conceded.

"Great!" Myphria exclaimed. "If you'll excuse me, I should be getting home."

"Take care of yourself, yourself," they both said in unison. Twins where like that sometimes, and these two more so than every other set she'd met.

Less than an hour later, she'd made her way home, practically wading through the praise of anyone who recognized her, and had already heard; as well as those who didn't know her and had just heard from someone else congratulating her. It was flattering, but starting to get annoying coming so fast, so quickly. It made her wonder how Celandia dealt with it.

She located the letter that Asyria had left for her in short order, slipped into the front cover of her journal. It was typical of the woman, putting it somewhere where she knew that Myphria would eventually look anyway. It bore words of comfort mixed with bits of advice, and subtle signs of worry in it that no one not so in-tune with her would have picked up on, but knowing that her dearest sister worried so about her made her smile, if a bit wanly.

After reading it, Myphria took what she knew was likely to be her last bit of luxury, along with her last chance to spend time with any of her siblings, for a very long time. Celandia, upon learning that her youngest sister was shipping out the following day, promptly cleared her schedule for the day and night. That was a feat in and of itself; the High Priestess's time was normally in very short supply. They started out by bathing together, washing each other's backs and laboriously caring for one another's hair. She wasn't likely to get good shampoo or even decent soap on the front lines and they both knew it.

Celandia was… quiet, as she usually was when they got together. There was something about her eldest surviving sibling that just… didn't make sense. It was off-putting, though Myphria certainly loved her as much as the others; well, as much as Ashantra anyway. There was such pride in her eyes when she looked at Myphria, and worry. Asyria's were the only eyes she'd ever seen match that expression. She could even see it in the mirror as they took turns brushing and arranging each other's hair.

"Is something bothering you, sister?" Myphria asked.

"Bothering me? Well, perhaps. You are the last of my blood that's anywhere near here. These last few years, the only solaces I've been able to take from the tedium and sadness of my duties is spending time with my siblings and the times of High Service."

"At least the funerals are starting to taper down," Myphria offered consolingly. "That's a good thing, isn't it? A sign that things are starting to go back to the way they were?"

"It would be better had it happened sooner… five years of funerals from dawn until dusk and we're still backlogged from that… day. Not to mention that more often than not we're laying to rest barely identifiable, burned refuse that had to be put down first… But enough of that morose, depressing talk. I insist that if this is our last day together – for some, time at least – that we spend it discussing such frivolities as clothes, hair, whichever male or males have your eye at the moment…"

"Sister!" Myphria objected with a little whine. She hated talking about her crushes, innocent and silly though they were. It embarrassed her to no end, particularly when it was one of her sisters that she was talking about them to. When she was with her friends, it was… less so, but it was just awkward talking to Celandia, Ashantra, or Asyria about it.

"Oh come now, surely you can accommodate my curiosity? I don't even know what sort of man you're attracted to. That will make it all the much more difficult for me to play matchmaker." There was a teasing note in her sister's voice as she grinned at the younger woman. Still, Myphria wouldn't put it past Celandia to have a list of males in the temple who 'she might like to meet' if she ever returned home.

When, she corrected herself silently. When she returned home, though that may be some time away, she knew. And besides, she wanted a big, strong warrior type… she shook that thought off, glancing at Celandia as if the older woman might have heard her think it.

"Perhaps we could go out to eat, instead," Myphria offered in a desperate attempt to change the topic. "I heard that little café you always liked so much finally reopened."

Celandia gave her a knowing look, but mercifully allowed herself to be diverted as they dressed. They didn't wear their finest things, of course, but fine enough to have warranted a coach in the old days, and instructed one of the servants to pack her things. Just the absolutely bare necessities, of course, but she'd still have to check before morning to ensure that she wasn't taking ball gowns to a battlefield. Well, at least no more than one. She had to have some formal wear after all, just in case…

And then they headed out for a night on what was left of the town. Since her orders specified that she show up at dawn, that gave them the whole night, minus an hour and a half, to run that check on her bags. They went everywhere, and Cel seemed to loosen up as the night wore on. They took an early supper at the café before Myphria stopped by some other friends' homes to say goodbye. No one she knew was being dispatched to Alterac, which made her sad and nervous at the same time. Cel even listened to some of Myphria's 'techno babble' when they stopped for a drink at a bar. She even let Myphria have some wine, which she normally didn't do. And for the first time ever, Myphria seemed to be drawing as much, if not more attention than the High Priestess, which suited both of them just fine.

"Do you want me to come with you?" Celandia offered consolingly just as Myphria removed a third gown from her bag. It seemed to her that the servants really didn't understand what 'bare essentials' meant.

"Sister, I'm a grown woman!" Myphria declared, trying to hide her blush at how the offer tempted her. "I'm a soldier of the Horde and scheduled for evaluation on my officer application when I land. How do you think that's going to look if I show up with big sister holding my hand?"

She'd meant to say it gently, but for some reason it seemed to effect the much older woman in a most distressing manner, though she was better at hiding it.

"I'm sorry," Myphria apologized before Celandia could say anything. "I didn't mean that you were patronizing me or being over-motherly, especially since Asyria already left. Just… I have to start dealing with this sort of thing on my own, you know?"

"Oh, so you see Asyria as kind of a surrogate mother then?" Celandia asked flatly, sky-blue eyes flashing. She closed those eyes and composed herself, offering a compromise before Myphria could come up with a reply. "I don't see that there's any harm in seeing you to the tower though, is there?"

Myphria smiled and hugged her sister. "Alright, I could live with that," she conceded. Celandia always could come up with compromises that satisfied her and the other two. "It's not that… I'm not trying to devalue our mother, but… you know."

"I know," Celandia said with a kind of quiet hesitation. "Believe me; I understand what you mean sister."

They hugged again and again, saying goodbye over and over before finally, just short of being late, they arrived at the new tower, built expressly for zeppelin travel. The Sky Tower certainly looked rickety from the ground. It swayed and shook in the wind, and Myphria was terrified that she was going to fall off as she hugged Celandia before racing up the stairs.

There was high wind today, and the top of the thing felt even less stable than the rest of it looked, especially when the enormous machine came into view, the wake from its engines buffeting the construct. At least trying to dissect the machinery with her eyes distracted her from the swaying of the tower.

It was pure chaos up top. Almost all the elves assembled to depart were green troops, the veterans having shipped out at about the same time as Asyria. In fact, almost half of the elite that weren't staying in Quel'Thalas had left as a part of her command. Then the boarding ramp lowered while a huge lift – she was really itching to study the mechanics on this thing – lowered to bring the cargo going off down and the mounts and supplies and such up in turn. A goblin appeared at the top of the boarding ramp and held up some sort of horn that amplified his voice enough that the whole crowd could hear, blaring out unit and company numbers to board, hers included.

At least the rumor about mixed sleeping quarters and baths proved to be erroneous. Apparently Andie's boyfriend really had just been trying to get into her pants. Myphria didn't know what she would have done if asked to bunk directly above or below a male, even if it had turned out to be an ugly one, let alone bathe with one or more in plain view. The very thought of them leering over her in such a state made her flush with embarrassment. But each of them was assigned a cabin, and a bunk or hammock, depending on which cabin they were assigned to, and forced to fill out a manifest of everything on their person or in their bags. She wound up in a cabin inhabited by nothing but women, most of whom left her alone as they stowed their gear on racks at the feet of their bunk. Saleia, who just happened to be assigned to the bunk above hers was the main exception.

Saleia was a pretty little thing, a finger shorter than Myphria with raven hair and a long, straight nose that ended close to her face, green eyes that reminded her of Asyria's, a lean frame that made her think of Ashantra, and pale skin that made her think of Celandia. She was somewhere between Myphria's age and Ashantra's, but Myphria wasn't sure just how old she was.

"How much kit did you bring?" the unknown woman asked with a note of teasing when she saw Myphria's bag.

"Sorry?" Myphria replied as she stowed that bag on the rack at the end of the bed.

"Your bag? It's almost as big as both of us put together," she commented.

"Oh… did I bring too much? I thought I cut out everything that wasn't necessary."

The woman smiled at her sympathetically. "First time away from home?" she asked with a touch to the shoulder.

"That obvious, huh?" Myphria asked as she sat down on her bunk.

"A bit," the woman said as she sat down next to her. "Don't worry, it gets better, and think of it this way: being away from home makes you appreciate it all the more when you finally get to see your brothers and sisters again."

"Two of my sisters are stationed elsewhere. My brothers died not long after I was born," she answered glumly.

"Oh, sorry… I didn't know," Saleia replied, her smile slipping. "Guess I messed up on the whole 'cheering you up' thing, huh?"

That made her giggle a little, and Saleia smiled all the more. "Little tip: watch your belongings like a hawk when you're on a goblin ship. I'm not gonna put my bag down unless I'm asleep. And even then… I'll probably sleep on it."

"Yeah, I hear they're kind of sticky-fingered," Myphria replied, chagrined and let the topic change. "I supposed I could've done without a few things…"

"Lemme guess, you've got a box of your favorite soap, your personal hair brush, maybe a bottle of shampoo and a set of fancy combs. I did the same thing the first time I went away from home."

"Just a few keepsakes from my sisters," Myphria defended herself.

"Hey, I'm not accusing," the other woman said with a grin as she raised her hands in surrender. "Senior Sergeant Saleia Cloudwind, House Sunhawk," she introduced herself, offering her hand.

"Grunt Myphria Skyflame, House Skyflame," Myphria replied, taking the offered hand and shaking it briefly.

Saleia laughed as they shook. "A genuine, bonefied noblewoman," she commented. "Skyflame? You're not related to Her Eminence, are you?"

"She's my eldest sister," Myphria confirmed. "Well… the eldest that's still alive."

"I heard about Lynathariel," Saleia said softly, her mirth evaporating completely this time. "Her loss was a blow to both our houses."

"Not that I mind the company… but is it appropriate for a Senior Sergeant to be chatting all friendly-like with a grunt?"

"Only if we wind up in the same squad, and even then, only while on duty," Saleia supplied with a renewed grin. She certainly seemed to like grinning, which was odd. Every other elf that Myphria knew – though it occurred to her that every other elf she knew was in the nobility – considered it immature to let your emotions show in public under most circumstances.

"Why do you do that?" Myphria asked.

"Do what?"

"Grin so much."

"Oh you mean that stigma most of our kind have about letting strangers see how we feel? I never really bought into that. Sure it makes me the odd-ball, but hey, at least I'm me. Besides, I happen to like you."

Myphria couldn't fully suppress a smile at being told she was liked. She needed more practice. "Let's go get something to eat, shall we?" Myphria offered.

"I'd love to. Though I gotta warn you, food aboard ships tends to be on the nasty side. Try not to think about what you're eating. Or taste it or… ya know what, just chew as few times as you can manage and bolt it down."

Myphria thought that a lifetime of being forced to learn good and proper eating habits would be difficult to break. One look at the food in the mess hall almost made her reconsider that opinion, and after her first bite, she almost choked on the revolting taste.

"Warned you," Saleia teased. "Not exactly what your pallet it used to, is it?"

"Hey, I'm not some delicate little flower you know," Myphria replied before putting more food in her mouth and making herself bolt it down just so she didn't have to taste it for such a long time.

"Didn't say you were," Saleia countered. "Relax, I'm just teasing. Besides, I wanna finish up quick so I can get around to sneaking peeks at some of these machines."

"Oh, You're interested in mechanical apparatuses?"

"Sure am. I think they're neat. Some of them are almost as complex as the enchantments I work with."

With Saleia's company, the trip seemed to hardly take any time at all.