Chapter Ten
Larraine remained quiet during the morning meal she and Fang shared with Cho, her gaze sweeping about the inside of the hut whenever the pandaren didn't appear to be paying attention to her. She was certain she hadn't said anything to him about Anduin being a prince, and now she worried that perhaps she had allowed herself to walk right into a trap. Maybe Cho was in league with the Horde – though the Horde forces had only been there for a short while prior to the arrival of her and the others, she assumed it could be possible – and he was only helping her so that he could find out where Anduin was for Hellscream. It would certain explain the Warchief's appearance in the vision she'd had the previous day.
"There is something on your mind, my young friend," Cho addressed her, and she turned her gaze down toward the bowl of fish soup she had been eating.
"Do not play coy with me, I can sense the doubt in your soul."
Her eyes snapped up to meet Cho's, and he gave her the same kind smile he always seemed to be wearing despite the fact she was well aware of the accusatory look upon her own face.
"How did you know Anduin is a prince?" she asked him point blank, hoping that her trust in him had not been misplaced all along.
"Ah, it seems my tongue has given my secret away," Cho said with a chuckle, and Larraine slowly began to reach for her mother's dagger at her hip, knowing her bow was too far away for her to reach it in time should she need to protect herself.
"I am a bit of a... how do you say... busybody?" he continued to speak, waving his hands about. "I looked through your pack last night while you were working on that painting you so graciously did for me."
"You looked through my things?" Larraine snapped. She got up from the table and quickly retrieved her bag from where it was sitting by the door, then opened it and began to check that all of the contents were still inside.
"Yes, and I apologize," Cho told her, frowning slightly and bowing to her over the table. "It is an unfortunate habit of mine to look through the belongings of others in order to learn more about the kind of person that they are."
"I take it that means you also read this?" she asked, pulling Anduin's journal from her pack and holding it up to show him.
"No, I did not," Cho insisted. "However, it was not hard to deduce who the owner of that fine book is. Your friend's name is Anduin, and those initials upon the front cover begin with an A."
"That still doesn't explain how you know he's a prince!" she shouted, pointing an accusatory finger at him, though now she was more angry at having her things gone through than concerned he was some sort of secret agent of the Horde.
"That is a finely-made book, no doubt very expensive. The penmanship it also impeccable. And no," he said, holding up a hand to stop her from interrupting him, "I did not read any of the entries. I merely glanced at some of the pages to see what the handwriting might tell me about the one who wrote it."
"Oh, really?" Larraine said, then scoffed in disbelief as she shoved Anduin's journal back into her bag. "And what did it tell you?"
"The writer strives for perfection in all he does, but he sometimes lacks confidence," Cho told her, finally rising from his place at the table and approaching her as he continued to speak. "He is well-educated, and probably had lessons in penmanship – which is not something most people are given. That, combined with the expensive appearance of the journal, is what led me to believe he was a young man of means. Your portrait of him, however, was what led to me concluding that he is a prince."
"What are you talking about?" she asked, shaking her head in confusion as to how her somewhat crude portrait of Anduin had given him any indication that he was a prince.
"While you are by no means an supremely gifted artist, you were able to capture his eyes brilliantly," Cho explained. "And in those eyes, I could see the look of a young man who has been forced to grow up far too quickly. Were he just any young man of means, he would likely have a more carefree spirit about him. Your Anduin, however, has the unfortunate burden of attempting to balance a somewhat normal life with the everyday pressures of the crown he will no doubt inherit someday."
Larraine remained silent, her mouth agape in wonder. Everything Cho had said, from the analysis of the handwriting in the journal to the impression he got from her painting, fit Anduin perfectly. Even when they had first met, he had been struggling with the balance between his studies and duties as the Prince-cum-King of Stormwind and his desire to do things any other normal child would have been allowed to do. In more recent years, the conflict between his father's expectations for him and his desires to follow his own path in life had caused even more of a hardened sadness in his eyes that Larraine always did her best to help alleviate both in her letters as well as during the increasingly rare occasions when they got to see one another.
"And I can also see you care a great deal for the boy," Cho remarked, pulling her out of her thoughts. "Otherwise, you would not have been compelled to paint his picture last night, nor would you be so protective of that book and whatever it is he has written within its pages."
"He's the only real friend I have," she admitted quietly, then cleared her throat and leveled her gaze with Cho's in an attempt to make herself appear more confident. "I mean, I do have other friends. Not just Anduin. He's simply the one I trust the most. And he's my prince, so why wouldn't I want to find him and bring him home safely?"
Cho let out a hearty chuckle and reached with one large hand to pat her shoulder. "Of course. And I aim to help you find him, but first I will need you to gather some ingredients for me."
"Why?" Larraine wondered. "Can't you just give me some more of that stuff I drank yesterday?"
"Yes, but it is an older batch," Cho told her, holding up a finger. "It has lost much of its potency, otherwise it would work perfectly for what it is we must do in order for you to find the prince."
"So what do you need me to get for you?" she asked, and Cho wandered about his home for a bit before returning to her with three empty jars.
"You will need to gather three distinct ingredients for me," he instructed, handing the jars to her. "First, I will need the eyes of a bog crocolisk in order to give the brew its proper body. I also require the wings of some of the glittering amberflies near here to give the mixture its distinguishing color."
"You want me to kill a creature for its wings just to make the brew a pretty color?" Larraine asked, horrified. She had been trained to respect all of the world's creatures as fellow living beings, only to be hunted for necessity or in order to protect oneself, their family, or their livelihood – in which case the beasts were almost always also made use of in some way. To simply kill them for the sake of making a drink look more appetizing seemed incredibly immoral, to her.
"It is mostly for the color, but their wings also possess a sedative quality which assists the one who drinks the brew in attaining the proper state of consciousness needed in order to receive their vision."
"Fine," Larraine begrudgingly agreed. She still didn't feel right, killing animals just for certain parts, but she had to do what needed to be done in order to rescue Anduin from whatever danger he might be in.
"Finally," Cho continued, "for potency, I will need the heart of a mist horror."
"A what?" Larraine wondered, her brow furrowing in confusion.
"It is a creature said to appear only where the fog is deepest," he explained. "In order to lure one out, you must kill some of the smaller mist creepers which shamble about in the marsh nearby. Once one makes its appearance, defeat it and place its heart into your final jar. Then, bring everything back here to me and I will make a fresh batch of Dream Brew for you."
"Got it," Larraine said, then carefully packed the three jars into her bag and retrieved her bow and quiver. Cho wished her luck and she waved back over her shoulder to him as she and Fang made their way back out into the marsh they had traveled through while seeking out Cho's home.
The fog was nearly as thick as it had been the day before, but some patches had cleared up enough to allow her to see where they were going so that they could safely leave the path. They walked for a while before finally coming upon a rather large crocolisk, and Larraine signaled for Fang to move in before carefully taking aim with her bow. Normally, she would have shot the creature through one of its eyes – a tricky shot, but one she knew she could make which would also cause a quick and relatively painless death for her prey – but she needed the eyes intact and so she instead waited for Fang to attack and hoped he would be able to move the large beast into a better position so she could easily pierce its heart.
She watched as her wolf jumped from a crouching position behind the crocolisk, leaping onto it's thickly-scaled back. He bit into the side of the creature's neck and held on tight as it began thrashing about, moving his head in a controlled way which allowed him to continue holding on without getting his own neck snapped in the process. Thankfully, his own size rivaled that of the crocolisk despite it being such a large animal, and so he had little trouble keeping his footing upon its back. Larraine remained perfectly still, her bow pulled tight, and as soon as the beast reared back a bit and exposed its vulnerable, soft underside, she loosed her arrow straight into its chest, then quickly followed it up with a second and third in case the first had missed its mark. The crocolisk continued to struggle, but after another minute it slowed down considerably. Fang finally jumped off the creature's back and took a few steps away from it, then charged into its side and sent it flipping onto its back. Still, the large beast continued to squirm, struggling to hold on to the very last bit of its life. Larraine soon put an end to that, however, by shooting one final arrow directly into its heart.
She felt a heaviness in her chest as she approached the dead crocolisk, and hoped her mentor would forgive her for such a sloppy kill. What should have only taken a single shot – perhaps two – had taken four, and she could tell the poor creature had suffered greatly in its final moments.
"I'm sorry," she apologized to the fallen beast, then knelt down and pulled her arrows from the beast's body. She sat there for a moment in quiet contemplation, thinking that perhaps she should at least honor the beast by making use of more than its eyes, but she was too far from home to get much of it properly processed. Normally, the skin would be used for armor and the bones would be used to make everything from sewing needles to daggers to simple trinkets, but all she could really do was harvest some of the meat and hope that Cho would at least appreciate the gesture and make use of it somehow.
With a sigh, she used her mother's dagger to butcher a couple of the better cuts of meat from the beast, then carefully removed its eyes and placed them into one of the jars Cho had given her. She hated leaving so much to waste, but at least whatever scavengers existed in the pandaren jungle would get a good meal, or perhaps someone native to the area might stumble upon the kill before it had gone bad and make use of what she had to leave behind.
Her mood was no more improved by her need to kill some of the amberflies which inhabited the area, which was further compounded by the fact that the beautiful, wasp-like creatures appeared to not be hostile at all. However, she could at least take some solace in the fact that she could kill them in an efficient and humane way – even if she still felt guilty for having to do it at all in the first place. With their wings collected and the proper respects paid, all that was left to do was draw out a mist horror.
After a brief internal debate, she finally decided to leave the clearer areas of the marsh and moved deeper into the fog. Fang remained close at her side, likely not wanting to lose sight of her as much as she didn't want to lose sight of him, and they slowly and carefully traversed the marshy landscape in search for whatever sort of creature a marsh creeper might be.
Before long, Larraine began hearing strange sounds close by which were much like the ones she'd heard coming from within the fog near Cho's home the previous day. She readied an arrow as they continued toward the sound, but soon it faded away and she relaxed her stance. That proved to be a mistake, however, when a moment later a creature the size of a large man came bounding toward them from the fog, violently waving about limbs which appeared to be made from moss and tangled roots. Larraine quickly brought her bow up, aiming for the single, large eye it possessed, and sent a shot flying straight into it.
As soon as the arrow hit its mark, the creature dissolved into a brownish mist with a horrifying screech, but Larraine didn't let her guard down again. Cho had told her she would need to kill several of them before the mist horror whose heart she needed would appear, and so she called Fang to her side and began to slowly turn in circles as they walked, her senses on high alert as she scanned the fog around them with a carefully-trained eye for any signs of another incoming attack. After several minutes of quiet, two more of the creatures emerged from seemingly out of nowhere, shambling quickly in their direction. Larraine shot one down while Fang attacked the other and both of the creatures dissolved in a single hit just as the first had done. This continued for what seemed like hours, and Larraine was acutely aware of the density of the fog gradually increasing as time wore on.
"Fang!" she called after they killed yet another group of creepers, this time four of them. That was something else she had noticed – the number of creepers that came after them had also been growing. First, there had been one, then two pairs, then three groups of three, and finally they had started to come in packs of four. That had been their fourth pack, so now she was anticipating a group of five to show up next and she wanted to be sure her companion was close by when the time came. She called after him again when he failed to make any noise to answer her, but soon she felt him rub against her leg and she reached down to pat his head.
"I sure hope you're having an easier time seeing in this than I am, boy," she said, struggling to see through the fog even though she was using every bit of her training to enhance her natural gifts. If things kept going the way they were, soon she wouldn't even be able to see her hand pressed up to her own face.
Silence continued to permeate the thick air around them, but somehow it was different this time than it had been after the other creepers that had attacked them. Before, she had still been able to faintly hear the ambient sounds of the jungle around them. Now, however, there was nothing but Fang's breathing, the beating of her heart, and the stillness around them. After another couple of minuted of silence, Larraine began to weigh her options, wondering if it was really worth the risk of the two of them suddenly getting ambushed just so she could tap farther into her senses to attempt to locate any additional creepers which might be hiding in the mist surrounding them.
Fang suddenly started growling next to her, and Larraine bent down close to him to see where he was looking, then turned in the same direction and squinted as she peered through the fog. To her surprise, she could actually see the fog moving toward a single point as though it was being collected together by some unseen force. The air around them gradually cleared and she left out a sigh of relief at the increased visibility – but soon that relief turned to dread.
The fog had, indeed, been gathering together in one particular spot, and upon that spot stood a towering being unlike anything Larraine had ever seen. It resembled the smaller mist creepers, but was easily as big as all of the ones she and Fang had killed combined and had the added feature of some sort of slimy, dark green substance covering its entire body. Unlike the others, its single eye glowed eerily, and that eyes was fixated right upon them.
It opened its mouth and let out a sound somewhere between a shriek and a roar, then charged at them. Larraine fired a shot and missed, her arrow hitting the horror in the shoulder rather than its eye, and the jumped aside just in time to avoid being trampled by the creature's trunk-like legs. It stopped once it realized she had evaded it, then slowly turned toward her. Fang took the opportunity to jump up and grab one of its long arms, and he shook his head and pulled back with all his might in an effort to at least distract the monstrosity. It turned its gaze upon the wolf and raised its other arm, flexing its thick, heavy root-fingers, and Larraine sent an arrow into its hand to pull the creature's attention back to her out of fear for her beloved pet's safety.
Now torn between two targets, the mist horror looked back and forth between her and Fang, as if trying to decide who was the bigger threat and therefore warranted being dealt with first. Larraine took advantage of the situation, sending a couple more arrows into its chest – being sure to avoid where she assumed the heart would be since they needed it – and eventually it settled on her being the most threatening of the two of them and stared her down with its giant, glowing eye.
"That's it," Larraine muttered, smirking a bit. "Look right over here, you ugly son of a bitch."
Now having the creature's full attention, she knocked two arrows into her bow at the same time and sent them both flying into the horror's eye. The creature howled and reached for its eye, doubling over in pain, and she sent a third between its fingers and into the eye's very center. Another horrific howl came from the creature as it stumbled backward, and then it slowly sank to its knees before falling over, dead.
Larraine cautiously approached the dead horror, part of her expecting it to suddenly sit up and grab either her or Fang and eat them like something out of a campfire tale, but it remained completely unmoving. Satisfied that the thing was indeed dead, she cut open its chest and began digging around in search of its heart. The inside of the creature was filled with a thick goop which Larraine wasn't sure she wanted to know the origin of, and she had to swallow heavily a few times to keep herself from vomiting at the foul odor of it, but thankfully she found the heart in short order and placed it in the final jar Cho had provided for her.
With her tasks completed, she took a moment to quickly wash her hands in a nearby pool of water, then she and Fang began to make their way back to Cho's home. Surprisingly, with the fog cleared away she could see that they hadn't ventured all that far away from Dreamer's Rest, and it only took a matter of a few minutes for them to arrive back at Cho's door.
"Ah, I see you have returned!" Cho greeted them, looking up from some form of writing he had been working on at a low table in the corner.
"It wasn't exactly easy, but we got everything you asked for," Larraine told him, then set out the three jars and the crocolisk meat she had retrieved upon the table where they had taken their meals. "I also brought you this meat. I thought you might be able to use it."
"My, that is very generous of you!" Cho graciously accepted her offering, and he rose from his seat to retrieve the jars and examine the objects within.
"Excellent specimens!" he said with a nod. "I will begin the brewing process, and while we wait I shall use the meat you brought to make us some lunch."
"Is there anything I can do to help?" Larraine asked, and Cho chuckled and shook his head.
"You have already done enough for me, my young friend," he told her. "Please, go outside and enjoy this lovely day. I will let you know when our meal is ready."
Larraine nodded and set her things aside, then went outside and sat under one of the large trees near where she had fed Cho's birds that morning. Fang laid down next to her and placed in his head in her lap, and she sighed as she began brushing her fingers through his fur.
"You're getting tired of all this running around, too, huh?" she asked him. "Well, with any luck this will be the last thing we need to do in order to find Anduin."
The two of them continued to rest together in the shade of the tree, and after a while Larraine began to consider what she should do if Cho's Dream Brew actually worked and showed her where Anduin was. She supposed she could just go find him on her own, but a part of her knew she should probably go inform the others and have them join her. Then again, Rell was still badly injured – if he was even still alive at all – and while she liked Amber and Sully well enough neither of them really had the authority to order the crown prince of Stormwind to go home. Plus, if Cho's Dream Brew turned out to show her nothing which really led to them actually finding Anduin, she would have wasted their time.
Cho soon called Larraine and Fang in for lunch, and the three of them ate a simple stir-fry of cocolisk and vegetables. It was very different preparation of crocolisk meat from what she was used to, and she was surprised that it hadn't become too tough to chew without some sort of slow preparation method. Fang quickly gobbled his up, but she ate hers a bit more slowly since Cho hadn't said the Dream Brew was ready yet. Once they had all finished, Cho gathered up their bowls and set them aside, then retrieved a clear glass vessel containing a familiar-looking liquid within it.
"It's ready?" Larraine eagerly asked, feeling like a child on the day of Winter Veil.
"Yes," Cho replied, chuckling. "However, this time when you drink it you must embrace the visions you see from a state of inner focus. Otherwise, they will come to you in a strange myriad of images you will not be able to make sense of."
"I see," Larraine said with a slight nod. "I suppose that's why, the last time I drank your dream brew, I saw so many strange things. But how do I find my inner focus?"
"Come with me to my pavilion, and I shall teach you," Cho instructed, carrying the Dream Brew outside, and Larraine followed him.
"Your troubled mind will present you with many distractions, but just remember to stay centered and you will achieve the sense of inner calm we pandaren value so much. That is the key to finding your prince."
He led her to the pavilion across the courtyard from his home, and Larraine was surprised to find at least a dozen candles and several sicks of incense placed in a circle at the center. None of the items had been there when she first examined the area, and she wondered when Cho had set everything up. Perhaps he had done so while she was gathering the ingredients for the Dream Brew, but she supposed he just as easily could have done it during the night while she was painting. The pandaren gestured for her to sit within the circle and she carefully stepped over the items so as not to knock anything out of place, then she sat down cross-legged below the very center of the roof above her head.
"You must relax your spirit," Cho told her, lighting the candles and incense as he spoke. "Our minds can often become clouded with many thoughts, but you must clear yours of all else but that which you so desperately seek."
Larraine nodded and remained silent while Cho continued to circle around her, then he retrieved the Dream Brew from where he had set it down on a nearby bench and handed it to her.
"Drink up to begin, friend."
Without hesitation, she began to drink the brew, and continued to do so until Cho told her to stop. He then asked her to close her eyes and concentrate, and she complied. She soon felt the light-headedness that she had experienced following her earlier consumption of the Dream Brew, and she took a deep breath and attempted to focus solely upon Anduin. Her concentration was soon broken, however, when Cho suddenly slapped her upside the head with one of his large hands.
"What was that for?" Larraine snapped, turning to glare at him.
"You are not concentrating hard enough," Cho scolded her. "True concentration enables us to block out all other distractions – both within ourselves and without."
He gestured for her to continue, and Larraine turned back and closed her eyes once more. She could hear Cho continue to speak about remaining in the center and being focused on the moment, but she ignored his words and instead concentrated on thinking about Anduin. She attempted to regain the feeling she'd had back in Paw'don Village, when she realized that he was still alive, and though it was faint it was still there. Tapping into her determination, she put all of her energy toward focusing upon that tiny glimmer of hope in her heart and soon it was as though Cho wasn't even there ant more. In fact, she didn't even feel like she was in her own body any more and soon she found herself flying high up above everything and soaring across the vast forest. She passed Pearlfin Village and what appeared to be another jinyu settlement which had been over-run by hozen.
Everything flew past her in a flash, but somehow she was still able to fully make out where she was going... and then she suddenly slowed down and hovered in the air above a particular spot. There was a circular path... a crossroads of some sort, perhaps... and low stone walls which had been intricately carved. Near the center of the area stood a tall stone tied with rope bearing unusual charms – probably some sort of shrine – and beyond that what appeared to be the entrance to some sort of cave.
Then... what she saw made her blood run cold, but she dare not stop watching. Anduin ran into the center of the area, pursued by a pair of hozen. Two more cut off his escape and the group attempted to trap him, backing him up toward one of the stone walls in order to block his escape. Three out of the four carried large spears with them and the largest of the group pointed its weapon threateningly at the young prince. She continued to watch as Anduin struck down one of the others with a bolt of holy fire straight from the heavens above, but the attack only served to infuriate the others and they hooted and hollered as they continued to close in on him.
"I won't die here. Not like this!"
Larraine felt proud as she watched him tap into the other side of his abilities in order to send his attackers running in the opposite direction. She knew that the shadow was a dangerous force to deal with, but when used sparingly it had little effect when compared upon those who regularly chose to tap into its power. This was one situation where it had been necessary and she was glad he had chosen to use it. However, the spell didn't last nearly as long as Anduin had probably hoped – though whether it was due to his reluctance to use the shadow or the number of enemies he had attempted to use the spell on, she wasn't sure. Either way, he soon ended up being chased once more by the remaining three hozen and she felt her panic begin to rise when she realized he was heading toward a dead end. As luck would have it, though, two pandaren were meditating at the very spot he was headed to, and they took it upon themselves to help rid the prince of his pursuers.
Larraine gasped, her eyes suddenly flying open, and she found Cho standing before her with a grin upon his face.
"Oh my! It seems a new urgency has hardened your resolve. I suppose my work here is done."
He bowed to her and Larraine quickly got to her feet and ran toward the house to retrieve her things, stopping only briefly to call her thanks and an apology over her shoulder after she knocked over several of the candles he had so carefully set up. She double-checked to make sure she still had Anduin's journal in her pack – in case Cho had gotten curious and started snooping again during her vision – then stepped outside and stopped short when she found the self-proclaimed Loremaster waiting for her.
"I take if your prince is in danger, yes?"
"Perhaps," she told him, shifting on the balls of her feet. "The last I saw of him, he was safe, but who knows how long that will last?"
"Please, take my crane so that you might get to him faster," he insisted, and Larraine followed his gaze to where the majestic bird was already waiting with a saddle upon its back.
"I really shouldn't," she protested, shaking her head. "That's your means of transportation and I'm not sure how long I will be gone or if I'll even come back here."
Cho chuckled. "All you need her for is to find your lost friend. Then, simply give her a tap behind the saddle and she will find her way back home to me."
"Are you sure?" Larraine asked. She really did want to take him up on the offer, because it would help her get to Anduin faster, but she hated the idea of his beloved pet getting lost – or killed – somewhere in the forest. Cho merely laughed again and retrieved the mount for her, then handed the reins to her with a bow.
"Thank you," she said, then carefully mounted the large bird. It was quite different from other animals she had ridden, but the saddle was surprisingly comfortable.
"Good luck," Cho told her, and Larraine smiled at him before urging her borrowed mount out into the forest, Fang following at her side.
She didn't know how she knew where to go, but somehow it was as though she had been traveling the roads of Pandaria all her life. She quickly rode through the trees, giving Pearlfin Village a wide berth so no one there would notice and try to follow her. She then passed by the ruined village which was over-run by hozen and eventually came to the spot she'd seen in her vision – only something was different about it. Before, the only beings she had seen were Anduin and the hozen which were attempting to capture him. Now, however, there were several shadowy specrtres milling about.
She brought the crane to a halt and dismounted, then tapped it behind the saddle to send it back to Cho. The bird made a high-pitched sound as if to say goodbye, then set off in the direction they had just come, and Larraine looked across the way toward where she'd seen Anduin being attacked. Her eyes followed the path she recalled him taking, and she soon found the incline he'd gone up which had nearly resulted in his capture.
"Come on, Fang," she said, then carefully made her way toward the last known location of the Prince of Stormwind. She timed their movements so that the two of them could carefully skirt around the spirits inhabiting the area, not wanting to disturb them, but one of them managed to spot her and called a few of the others down upon her along with it.
Larraine swore under her breath and shot down one of the spirits, ordering Fang to stay at her side lest he end up causing more of them to notice their presence and come after them, as well. She continued to fire one shot after another, but her arrows hadn't been properly enhanced to deal with beings of a spiritual nature and aside from the first, smaller one she had hit it was taking entirely too many shots for them to go down. She kept stepping backwards as she gradually whittled down the health of each one until only the final, largest spirit of the bunch remained, but ended up tripping on a rock in the path behind her. She scrambled to right herself and fire another shot, but before she got the chance a brilliant streak of light flashed before her and she watched as the spirit faded back into the afterlife. Gasping for breath, she rolled onto her side and smiled at the sight before her.
"Anduin!" she cried out in relief, her happiness not at all affected by the look of absolute confusion on the prince's face.
"Larraine?" he said her name, his blue eyes narrowing slightly in disbelief that she, of all people, would be there. "What are you doing here?"
"Looking for you, of course!" she told him, then she started laughing and laid back down on the ground.
With Anduin found, all of the adrenaline suddenly drained out of her system and the fact she hadn't slept in better than a day compounded with all of the fighting and running around she had been doing and finally caught up with her. The last thing she had the strength to do was let out a relieved sigh while saying a quiet prayer of thanks to the Light, and she could hear the sound of Anduin moving closer to her and asking if she was okay. And then she passed out.