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"Common."

"Assigned language."

'Thoughts.'

Rivanis crushed the peacebloom with the pestle. Two days had passed since his patient had woken up somewhat conscious. Instead of tying him up he decided it was best to introduce a tranquilizer. The first time he had tried to administer the solution Vael responded by kicking the syringe out of his hand. Rivanis had thought about strangling the elf to death but his common sense won over.

Now he stood in front of a wooden desk, back to the blood elf, mixing a sort of numbing mixture to keep the elf with enough energy to wake up and blink now and then, but not enough to move a limb. It was just what he needed really, Rivanis was a healer not a baby sitter. He couldn't risk having him jump out the window or worse, having his niece get hurt. Even if he was taking care of him, Vael had proved to be a worthy opponent in the past and now turned out to be a real pain. Any unfortunate incidents could be avoided very easily, many people underestimated peaceblooms.

Rivanis's long lavender ears flicked at the sound of footsteps rushing up. The door creaked and in came Ali holding an intravenous drip in a bowl of water.

"Good morning," she said, a bright smile blooming on her face.

"Good morning."

"Not you Uncle, pshh I already said hi to you, remember?" she stuck her tongue out playfully, setting the bowl next to the mortar and pestle. "Breakfast today is hmmm a hydrating solution!"

Rivanis glanced to the bed to confirm that Vael was indeed awake and glaring before chanting a small spell over the mortar. The liquid came on top of the crushed and smeared leaves much like oil would set on water. He then inserted the milky green liquid into the IV from a tube, and set the bag on a rolling stand. Here came the difficult part.

He had opened his mouth to ask the sin'dorei to cooperate but before he got anything out the elf bluntly stated "No."

Vael was lucid enough to tell what was going on. He had paled considerably when the younger night elf set the bag down and the contrast made the dark circles under his eyes stand out. His stomach had tightened at the sight of a needle and he had spent the next minute trying to convince his mind that it was alright, it was just a needle.

His mind responded with brief flashbacks of the citadel, a rotting man had simply jabbed the syringe in back then. Said syringe numbed the body but left the mind intact. Vael would then spend the next hour, or day, staring at the ceiling while feeling the incisions being made to his body. Sometimes the Professor would purposely inject him with that numbing agent only to have him witness the same thing being done to his sister... or his teammates.

He had long ago stopped trying to make sense out of it. None of it was fair, none of it made sense. The man was clearly insane. But brilliant, if the Lich King kept him around. A terrible combination.

"I'll uh, cover his eyes and you put it in okay?" Ali didn't wait for his Uncle's approval, the blood elf's reaction unnerved her. It only encouraged her belief that something terrible must have happened to him. She had worked with torture victims before, the behavior was similar, even if it was in response to different things. Maybe he got mangled, cut to pieces and then stitched back. Or skinned alive and then glued back whole. Her silvery glowing eyes gave her Uncle a last glance before she set to work.

Ali quickly lunged for the sin'dorei's face, her palm immediately covered the eyes and her other arm meanwhile grabbed Vael's other arm, which had flailed automatically as if to rip her throat out. Rivanis acted quickly too. He focused his energy on the muscle to calm and find the vein, when he did he pushed the bandage aside and expertly inserted the needle.

Despite all of his paladin training and thoughtful meditations done to calm the mind, Vael panicked. His first instinct had been to gauge the elf woman's eyes out and then hurl her body across towards Rivanis. He only found enough strength to hold her neck in a weak grip and gave a sharp gasp as the needle was put in. Vael's hand fell limp to his side, his body relaxed and an even breathing resumed.

"Ah... he fainted..." Ali muttered, rubbing her neck thoughtfully. 'And now I'm in deep shit.' As her human friends would say.

"Aliane Starbrook." The tone indicated that her father would hear of this. She slowly turned her head, a pitiful apologetic look on her face. "Don't ever. EVER. Do that again. That could have been a crushed windpipe, or a scarred face. Just because he looks like he is defenseless does not mean he can't do either of those things. He was a gladiator at some point and incase you forgot what that means I'll remind you: he knows how to effectively and swiftly kill people. People like you."

Rivanis took a deep breath in. He wanted to continue, really wanted to but he felt he had had this talk with her before. When a recovering human rogue had tried to take advantage of her kindness, if he remember correctly. He rubbed the bridge of his nose, willing the built up tension to rinse off and then turned to face Vael.

The response to the needle had made him raise an eyebrow. Never in a thousand years would he had thought that the ex-gladiator was afraid of needles.

"But you're one too..." Ali mumbled, kicking invisible dust with the foot hanging from the bed. Rivanis didn't let her see the fond smile that graced his face. They all had their number of wins. Rivanis had started even before the arena masters started calling the years of high arena activity into 'seasons.' After that it became a sort of... phenomenon. Cities started hosting tournaments and it drew enough people to make it into something worldwide. The promises of gold, drakes and fame drew interesting competitors. Amongst them a group of stray blood elves that took two consecutive wins. That had been before the incident.

A shadow crossed his face as the memories resurfaced. He had lost dear companions that season too.

"Gosh Uncle I'm still alive you know..." she stopped that sentence when he fixed her with a serious contemplative look. "I'm sorry I'll be more careful from now on."

"Gosh..." Rivanis repeated, more to himself than anyone else. The word sounded foreign and strange on his tongue, definitely human. "Go get ready for school. I'm sure Master Jadetalon will be as eager to teach you as you are for learning."

VVVVVVVVVVV

"The northern scouts have not reported anything out of the ordinary. The west scouts are missing and the south scouts got recalled, as you ordered," a tall burly man with an eyepatch saluted the King of Stormwind one more time to end his report.

Varian sat on his throne, palm on his chin and with a bored look on his face. SI had informed him about the missing scouts about a week earlier. Subjects like the Lich King and Horde actions depended on trained spies, not scouts-in-training. He had ordered a raid on the citadel and they came back with favorable results that raised more questions. An entire wing of the cursed dominion had been claimed by the Alliance, it now served as a resting post while he gathered his forces for the final assault.

They had found a laboratory with hints of powerful abominations being created at some point. The documents searched indicated that these new monsters were made to take out large forces, more specifically, the Lich King had taken precautions against the raids.

"Dismissed."

The armored man saluted one last time, bowed and walked away. A commotion then erupted down the hall and already Varian could feel the starting of a headache. 'What is it this time?' He wondered. 'Probably a peasant coming to complain about taxes. Again.'

What greeted took him by surprise. Before him was a man dressed in black armor, pale skin and glowing blue eyes. His mere presence shouted death and necromancy, and Varian could not fathom why this being had not been slain on the spot.

"You have mere moments to live."

VVVVVVVVVVV

"Good evening Vael, did you sleep well?" Rivanis did not wait for a response, knowing full well there wasn't going to be one. Vael in the meantime had a still look in his eyes, one the druid couldn't quiet place. The peacebloom mixture had worn off an hour before and the blood elf had kept silent with a traumatized look. He waved his hand in front of him, just to make sure it wasn't anything serious, and was relieved to have his complete attention. "I will explain what I will do now for obvious reasons. If you don't cooperate..."

Vael tuned him out then, already having a pretty good idea of what would happen if he didn't 'cooperate.' He had woken up feeling like a stuffed mushroom and had been reliving his nightmares ever since. At the moment he couldn't help but think about his time in Icecrown and wonder if anyone else had made it out alive.

Rivanis's eyebrow twitched from annoyance, he knew that look, it was the same one Ali gave him when she was done listening to reason. He waved his hand again and Vael responded by frowning as best as he could.

Without warning Rivanis moved to the elf's side, lifted the warm fuzzy sheet to expose a bandaged leg, and began to unwrap it. Vael hissed as the bandage lifted old dried blood but otherwise remained attentive. The druid's gentle healing magic started digging into the ankle and the cuts started glowing but not sealing.

The sin'dorei struggled to stay still as the healing energies rose upwards with a fresh wave of pain. His body was not liking the healing and frankly neither was he.

"I bet you have no idea what you're doing, healing never hurt so much before. Unless it's a form of advanced torture in that case you get points for being creative. Aaah! You did that on purpose," Vael squirmed as he complained, glaring at the night elf while he was at it. He wrestled his leg free and spouted a string of curses in Thalassian.

"I know you speak Common." Rivanis forcefully grabbed his ankle and looked at his work. He had barely made any progress, the wounds were just not healing. The body needed a break. It was unable to regenerate at a rapid pace because too much healing had been done in such a short amount of time. The spirit was left weak and needed time to replenish. He sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose as was his habit and then turned to look at Vael.

Vael was paler than usual and stared at him intently, awaiting his next move. His leg slowly creeped back under the covers the same way he was trying to put distance between them.

"How did I end up here?" Vael asked, trying to sound casual. As casual as one gets when sitting across someone who would at some point in the past would have tried to do anything to kill him.

"The more you move the more you risk opening your wounds. You can't afford to lose any more blood, I don't exactly have a supply of sin'dorei blood you know. And to answer your question, my brother dropped you off," Rivanis stood only to take a seat by the table. He crossed his arms in front of his broad chest and started thinking up of alternatives to this case. A normal healing approach was just not cutting it.

Vael shook his head, that had not been the answer he was expecting or wanting to hear.

"Before that though..." he was unable to finish the sentence. A part of him didn't want to know what happened though the other part was dying to know if his sister was alive too. The night elf stared at him intently and Vael fidgeted under his gaze. "Never mind."

"You need more sleep," Rivanis stated suddenly, completely ignoring him. He nodded as if reassuring himself. It only made sense, the body needed time to regenerate and sleep was the best way to go. Vael wanted to yell at him out of frustration but the energy just wasn't there. The small amount of healing was starting to take its toll, by now he felt he had worked out for hours. Sleep sounded strangely welcoming. "Good night."

Vael was surprised when Rivanis simply got up and left. Just like that. He eyed the window, followed a path to the door and then started coming up with possibilities. This night elf was his enemy and rival, despite actions stating otherwise, he was set to die in this place. Or tree. Burrow. Whatever he was in.

The room smelled like wood and antiseptic with a trace of the dreaded peacebloom. It was very quiet outside, a couple of insects chirped now and then and his sensitive ears could pick up the sound of a stream nearby. He closed his eyes briefly and all plans of escaping were, for the time being, forgotten.

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