Through the wind and the chill and the rain
And the storm and the flood
I can feel his approach
Like the fire in my blood
~Holding Out For A Hero-Bonnie Raitt~
"I am going with you," said Garona.
It was still dark, the day had not yet begun to show itself, but the Archmage had already begun his preparations.
"I regret to inform you that you are not," he said quietly and did not look at his friend.
She gave a barking laugh and sat down, watching him.
"Alright, then I have one question for you, Great One. Where exactly are you going?"
Khadgar stopped, was silent for a moment then turned to her.
Garona nodded. "As I thought, thinking with your emotions. It is to be expected, however you may feel a little lost out there with no direction in which to proceed."
The Archmage sighed, looked around then headed for the kitchen. "Might I offer you a drink then, since you obviously will not be leaving any time soon?"
"That would be very fine, thank you," she said with a crooked smile on her lips.
When he returned, he sat down opposite her and leaned forward. "I trust that you know where Cordana is being held, and will either give me a map or lead me there."
Garona took a sip of her drink. "If I give you any map you will memorize it and leave me behind." She tapped her head. "The map is in here. And you will take me with you."
"Why do you wish to come with me so badly? You will be collateral damage. I took great pains in freeing you from Gul'Dan and not with an aim to have you die needlessly! I do not understand you, Garona!"
She swirled the liquid around in the glass, took a thoughtful sip, then raised her eyes to meet his.
"The blood that runs in my veins comes from honorable people. The Orcs keep their family close especially during the worst times. I have no family, I never knew my Orcish father. My Uncle Maraad is dead and he is all I had left. No one cared about me from the day I was conceived, not even my mother wanted me for I was a product of rape, but I know the Draenei people are good and loyal and would give their lives for those they love. You are the only living being aside from Maraad who cared whether I lived or died. You and Cordana, who are now suffering because you gave me my freedom. I owe you my life and where you go I will follow. I am a master assassin. You will need another pair of eyes within that fortress and a blade to guard your back. If something were to happen to you, someone needs to tell your story to your son. That will be me."
Khadgar looked down. His voice was soft and edged with sadness. "You make me out to be a good man, when I am not. Your being freed was not personal, it was a means to an end Garona."
She shook her head. "You saw my face and you remembered a friend. You could have killed me after I told you what I knew. Many times I could have been executed either by your hand or by being sent away to SI:7. You could have had me imprisoned all that time without food or water, without creature comforts, yet unfailingly each day you looked after Maiev and I and insured that we were well. After what was done to you, your mercy astonished me. I know the ways of the Kirin Tor, and was prepared to see the horrors first hand of one of your magical interrogations. I was prepared to die, Khadgar, and instead you showed me the only compassion I have ever known. This makes you a good man. Part of me does wish I had died, for if I had not been here all that time, Gul'Dan could not have used that Orb to weaken and take your mate. I thought of ways of killing myself, but I found none at my disposal. This again is part of the life debt I now owe to you and Cordana."
There were tears in Khadgar's eyes, but he would not allow her to see them. He felt like a failure in so many respects, his confidence destroyed, his self esteem in question. The arrogance that Cordana had warned him about so many times finally did cause great damage and he wondered if he would ever be able to recover himself from it. All the times he should have listened to her instead of doing what he wished. All the times he went head to head with the Kirin Tor when he should have stopped and seriously considered their words instead of his emotions.
Khadgar faced an uncertain future now, and his wanting to go to the fortress alone was part of that. If he could not do what he set out to do, he wanted that failure to be on his head alone, and he did not want to drag others to their deaths or worse. But now the situation had turned once more, and he had to consider his friend Garona. He could not rush into the fortress filled with anger and power. He had to make a proper plan to ensure that at least Garona would be safe.
She seemed to read his mind. "You cannot guarantee my safety, Khadgar," she said. "I go with you of my own free will knowing there is a chance I will not return. I offer my life gladly to your cause. Do what you must, and I will do the same."
She stood up and finished the last of the drink. "It will be a long ride, and I will procure some wolves from the stable. No, I will not tell you where we are going and there will be no portals. You need this time to reflect and plan. Go now to your son, Khadgar. Meet me at the stable in one hour and we shall go."
Khadgar felt like a child, being mindlessly led. For a moment he felt annoyance but then a relief settled over him. For once he did not have to do all the thinking. No one was relying on him to fix the situation, no unwilling lives hung in the balance.
Oh Cordana, he thought. I once promised you that I would move heaven and earth to save you if it ever came to that, and at the time I never believed it would. I aim to keep that promise no matter the cost to me.
It was a long ride. They had snuck through the sleeping garrison and were not questioned by anyone. The Archmage Khadgar was a familiar sight and no one would think it odd to see him or his strange half orcish companion at any hour. Mages were strange creatures and it was a widely accepted fact. Garona's wolf moved on silent feet, but as always Khadgar refused to ride, taking his raven form and flying with her, or riding on her shoulder.
He had thought he knew where they were going, but it turned out he was quite wrong. The mission specialists had mapped out the known Shadow Council bases but this one was not included. Garona explained it was a training facility but had creatures within that were deadly and would require an army to destroy. Gul'Dan maintained many such facilities, all located underground, all with access points known to very few, and only reachable by portal. Even the best spies of SI:7 had yet to locate them.
"You say they are impregnable, yet a Kaldorei youth barely out of her teenage years managed to infiltrate and locate Cordana," said Khadgar as they took a rest break.
"Did she?" asked Garona, looking off into the distance.
Khadgar's eyes widened.
Garona smiled. "Sidore is talented, she will one day rival me in skill, and she did follow the trail of rumors very well but she needed a little push to set her in the right direction."
"A push from a half orcen hand?" asked Khadgar.
Garona laughed.
"You have been assisting me all along without a word," he mused.
"After what I told you, you should not be surprised Archmage," she said, finishing off the last of her conjured pastry.
"I am grateful, Garona," he said quietly and stood up, stretching.
She mounted the wolf and he took to his raven form and they moved on.
They made one camp at night to sleep. Khadgar felt uneasy. He had grown accustomed to Cordana guarding him, and he no longer felt quite sure about his own wards. Garona seemed unconcerned and fell asleep immediately, but it took him far longer. He thought about his wife and their incredible son, and his arms felt empty without them to hold. Damn you Gul'Dan, he thought angrily. I will see you destroyed if it is the only thing I will ever do.
"That's it?" asked Khadgar, incredulously.
"That is it," responded Garona.
He had conjured them a shadow council illusion, making them look like one of the mindless peons that steadily entered what looked like a rock. A large rock, with two shadow council sentries posted nearby. There was nothing to suggest it was anything other than what it appeared to be. Until someone walked out of it and another walked into it.
"Unless you witness the ingress and egress," he breathed. "There is no way to know this is a portal! I have underestimated Gul'Dan. That much is certain."
"You have indeed, and a few times it nearly cost you your life. Your mate's intuition saved you more than once. She was a bone of contention for me when Gul'Dan ordered me to strike you."
"My dear Cordana," he said softly.
Garona touched his arm. "We are bringing her home today, Khadgar. You follow me and I will find her. Sidore and I had a long talk about this place. I have been here many times and her descriptions are good."
Sidore had not mentioned a rock portal, the only thing Khadgar remembered her saying was that Cordana was in the company of a Sin'Dorei. You have no idea how close you are to your death, he thought darkly.
"Garona, will we need an Orb to free her as we did you?"
"I cannot say," she responded. "It will depend on how much control of her mind has been wrested from her. Gul'Dan uses the dark parts of our minds to control us. He finds our weaknesses, our doubts, our lingering failures. The greater these are, the easier and more firm his hold will be. I hope that Cordana has a strong mind or it will be a difficult journey for you both."
"Is Maiev under Gul'Dan's control also?" he asked.
Garona shook her head. "Maiev is a strange one. I did not sense Gul'Dan's presence in her. It is a terrible thing to say but it is possible she willingly has joined with him because she believes in what he is doing. There is something wrong with Maiev that I was unable to discern, but she has a relationship with Cordana and that will make her a foe we cannot brush aside. Cordana freed her from your prison so there is something between them. I am concerned about Maiev and hope that we can capture her also but according to Sidore, she does not come here often."
Khadgar was replacing his anger with worry and he did not like it. He needed his anger to fuel his motivation, to repress his own doubts about himself and his power. He set his jaw in determination.
"Let us begin, Garona. I am eager to see this ended."
He followed her into the portal.
The cold eyed, screaming creature in the arcane prison was alien to him. It bore his wife's face and her beautiful hair, but nothing else about her was Cordana.
She launched herself at the walls, screaming obscenities, then alternatively curled up on the ground crying and calling out for someone, no doubt the Sin'Dorei who was, at present time, food for several hungry vultures.
Cordana had been quite happy to follow the strange shadow council cultists who came to see her, provided her companion came along. The Sin'Dorei was her controller, and his words to her were her law. She gazed at him with a glassy eyed, vapid stare. Khadgar could barely control himself when he saw the way that sire manipulated her, and how easily she was led.
They got outside, and Khadgar easily killed the sentries. Then he bubbled Cordana, and slaughtered the Sin'Dorei in a black rage. Without sire's Orb holding her mind, the Warden snapped. She became as a wild beast, much like Garona had been. Khadgar tried to calm her, to talk to her, but she was not present and accounted for. Her mind no longer belonged to her, and the Cordana he loved was not found in the raging creature before him.
"I warned you, she would not be the same, Khadgar," said Garona gently. "We must get her home and begin to free her mind. Come."
She tried to pull him away, to redirect his focus onto making a portal to get them back to the Tower, but he shoved her aside and tried once more to reach his wife. Tears streamed down his face as he let Cordana's twisted and venomous words reach his heart.
"Khadgar, silence her!" cried Garona. "It is not your wife, but a twisted version, it is the Fel speaking the demon's tongue! It is Gul'Dan's words you hear!"
Khadgar turned on the half orc and knocked her back with a force missile but Garona was undaunted. She leaped on her friend, throwing him off balance and wrestling him to the ground. She sat on him and pinned him down.
"Look at me!" she yelled. "See me! Hear the truth from my lips! That is not Cordana! Say it!"
Khadgar struggled with her and she saw the shifting confusion in his eyes. She slapped him, hard, and pinned his arm again before he could react.
"That is not Cordana! Say it!" she screamed again.
The close bond Khadgar shared with Cordana was twisting him inside as well. He had not guarded himself against her, he was unwarded, and her corruption was leaking into his mind. Rage burned in his eyes. He could not free his hands to channel any spells as Garona was very strong, but he could still speak the words of magic. An enraged Archmage was death incarnate and Garona had to stop him. She had to bring him back to his senses.
Garona brought her lips to his in a sudden and fierce kiss.
Shocked, Khadgar froze. The sudden sideways emotion had diverted his mind. His expression normalized and he even managed to look puzzled. Garona sat back slowly, releasing his arms.
"W...what are you doing, Garona?" he asked her.
"Stopping you from killing me, I believe," she said. "You just keep looking at me, do not look at Cordana. Can you teleport her and her bubble to the Tower?"
He nodded, still confused. "Why am I on the ground, why are you sitting on me, and more importantly why are you kissing me? This is not appropriate, Garona."
She started laughing and got to her feet, helping him up. "I am glad you are back. It seems that there was a bit of Fel at play in your mind. Now, teleport us back. There is much work to be done, Archmage."