Chapter 3: Splinter
It was... stupor inducing, Jaina supposed, to see everything she had hoped by altering the Battle of Stratholme turn to ash.
"My son," stressed King Terenas, "It is our duty to save our people, not abuse our authority to lead them as lambs to the slaughter!"
"They were infected, father!" shouts Arthas in return, "They turned within an hour, less even, what were we supposed to do?"
"Anything but round them up like cattle and butcher them!" answered Terenas sharply before glaring at Jaina, "Or should I say cook them?"
Jaina's lips purse under the gaze of the King, Uther, Master Antonidas, and the Court in the Lordaeran Capital Throne room, all gazes critical.
"Jaina," begged Antonidas, "Sending Uther to Dalaran with a few samples and an ultimatum was not the proper way. You should have come for me, I could have gathered our best for a mass stasis spell, then we could have devoted effort to..."
"You say that in hindsight," said Jaina sharply, "But how honest are you, Master? If I had come to you, would you have immediately come with others? Not argued about the severity and the danger with me? Would we have even thought of that idea under the pressure of the situation? Not after the fact?"
Antonidas's eyes narrow. "Do not take that tone with me, apprentice."
"I did the best with what I had," she shot back, "The fact that you are questioning it means you still are underestimating the threat the Scourge posses. The only reason we even had the time we had before the infected started turning in bulk was because the demon found our efforts 'amusing' to watch."
"Yes," said Antonidas flatly, "I've heard the reports from several different sources, of how this 'Mal'Ganis' approved of your work."
"Antonidas!" exclaimed Arthas when Jaina faltered, "That is uncalled for!"
"The truth is often a painful thing, lad," said Uther quietly, "You did what you thought was best for Lordaeran, but what of the cost of the people, and your own souls? You still can at least hear the light, Arthas, look on yourselves, you can see the harm its done, the darkness of what you did."
"What we did or what we witnessed and struggled against?" rebutted Arthas, "My apologies, Lord Uther, if you weren't there to help us bear the burden we carry now."
Uther's jaw tightens. "Yes, your burden. How thoughtless of me. How about the burden you've placed upon the Crown and the Order of the Silver Hand? You lied to the people you were supposed to protect and led them to be massacred, even if their fates were sealed what you two did was abominable. How are the people we are supposed to protect ever going to trust us again?"
So foolish and ignorant, they all were. Late into the Third War and the campaign against the Lich King, this Battle for Stratholme would have been an acceptable victory, not a good one, but people were saved and the Scourge was beaten and driven back. They were all still thinking of facing the Horde, still trapped in that mindset when the Scourge, and eventually the Burning Legion, required something far more harsh to survive.
"If they want to live against what is coming, they will," said Jaina harshly, drawing stunned looks from all but Arthas, "You, Uther, do not understand what we are truly up against."
"Dark heathens that seek to stamp out the Light and its people, they're not the first nor will they be the last," said Uther.
"Wrong," she said, grimacing, "We're facing the literal end of the world."
Terenas scoffed. "Fear mongering, Lady Proudmoore?"
"Do you think the undead would be satisfied corrupting Lordaeran and consuming all life in it? That they wouldn't move on afterwords?" she posed.
Not even touching on the Legion.
"They'd have to defeat us first, and the Light stands ready to defend Lordaeran and her people," said Uther sharply before turning to Arthas, "Without betraying their trust in us. As it is lad, I should strip you of your position as a paladin."
Arthas stared at him in shock, speechless.
"As should I for you Jaina," agreed Antonidas, "However, I..."
"Do it."
Antonidas went into a shocked silence.
Jaina regarded him coldly. "I can already see that we wasted our time coming back. You're not going to help us stop this, are you? Not going to approve of an assault on Northrend to end the threat of the Scourge? They need to be destroyed, now, before they can become the threat they have the potential to become."
"Are you even the slightest bit repentant, Jaina?" asked Uther seriously, "Or are you so driven by fear and hate that you would throw everything away on the path of vengeance?"
"I regret the loss of the life, regret that it had to be done," she said sharply, "I will always have to live with what I did, but if my reputation, my life, my very soul is the price I need pay to save us all, then I will pay it."
Antonidas stares at her with loss. "Then you give me little choice. Jaina, I hoped to merely put you on probation, a suspension of duties while you reflect on what you did..."
He pauses, looking at her, pleading for her to give him a reason to back down, but she just stares at him coldly. Some part of her, the young and foolish mind she has now perhaps, screams at her to stop, to stay with her master and work with him. The older, cynical, bitter woman knows better. She will always be watched and judged from here on in even if she stayed, never fully trusted. It will only grow worse and worse from here on in. She has to do what she can before everyone turns on her again. Because... because they will... just like before... she fought so hard for them all... but they abandoned her... betrayed her...
She'll be all alone again...
Antonidas closes his eyes and sighs softly. "I hereby strip you of your position as an Apprentice Archmage of Dalaran. For your own sake, Jaina, return to your home and find healing among your family. You are not of the right mind and conscious, something in you is... broken, even I can see that without needing the light."
Jaina should feel something, at the betrayal of her Master, she just... feels utterly apathetic. Like she had been when the had been exiled from Dalaran in her own time. Rank and position meant nothing to her in the face of stopping the Scourge and the Legion. Even if the entire world hated her, so long as evil was stopped, she would be content. And broken? Maybe she was, she had already lost everything once, no one comes out of that the same as they were. She's... she's not the young archmage they once knew. Not even close. Just an old, bitter woman who will do what must be done.
"I see," is all she says.
"As for you, Arthas, you are suspended from your duties as a paladin," said Uther, "Your father has also agreed that you need to be kept here in the capital to meditate and find yourself again. Despite what you may think, this is not meant as punishment, but as guidance and care. You are not well, this trial was not one you were ready for. Its not a trial I would have wished on anyone, and where at times you did rise to the occasion, your actions after the massacre were commendable, what you did to get there was not."
He sighs. "I still have faith in you lad, but all actions have consequences."
Arthas says nothing, jaw set, frustration and fury in his eyes.
"There is one, last thing," said King Terenas, "Proudmoore, even if it sets me at odds with the Lord Admiral, you are not welcome in Lordaeran from now on."
"Father!" exclaims Arthas sharply, "That's unacceptable!"
"It is my WORD!" roared Terenas, "The Butcher of Stratholme is not welcome in these lands when she walks completely unrepentant! Should she properly seek forgiveness then perhaps one day my mind may be changed, but not now, not for years in the face of this callous disregard for my people's lives."
Butcher of...
She regards Terenas coldly. "I tried to save you AND your people, but you wouldn't let me. When the Scourge and their masters devour you all, you only have your damn self to blame."
"Leave," ordered Terenas.
Jaina turned and walked out.
"Jaina wait!"
Arthas came after her, ignoring his father's demands to remain, letting the doors close behind them.
"I never expected this," seethed Arthas.
"I should have," said Jaina quietly, "They're to damn soft to survive the Scourge, haven't truly seen firsthand what we are up against."
He nods in grim agreement. "They'll damn us all to the Scourge. They want to buckle down and hold the line, but how can we? I talked with Rivendare after Uther cleansed the curse, his father had alluded to other high ranking nobility of Lordaeran having betrayed the crown. How can we hope to defend our home with traitors littering it? All it would take is a single traitor dumping the plague into a well to start it all over again. We have to break the heart of the Scourge and scatter them, only then can we properly cleanse Lordaeran of its taint."
"I don't see how Arthas," said Jaina tiredly, "We have no support..."
"We do," said Arthas grimly, "Though its probably going to get us both permanently exiled from Lordaeran, I stand with you. If it saves my people, I'll pay the price."
She frowned. "What do you mean?"
"The men will follow us," said Arthas, "Any who fought against the Scourge know just what we face. They will accept a call to arms, even in the face of my father's orders. Hopefully we can draw in enough to drive into Northrend and destroy the Scourge."
Jaina hesitated, unease sparking in her. It would have been one thing if they had the full might of Lordaeran and the Kirin Tor at their back, but this... this was too much like Arthas's original campaign north. "I'm no coward Arthas, but I am realistic, can we truly get enough men? Not to mention people of power? If you are the only paladin and I the only Archmage... none of the Kirin Tor will defy Antonidas now that he's given a public order, not for me."
"What about your father?"
She laughed bitterly. "Once my father catches wind of this... he'll probably agree with them and hog-tie me home to scream at me until I'm 'fixed'. I... I don't know who we can call upon that will both believe us, understand the danger, and are willing to accept the consequences of facing it."
The elves wont help then, not until the Scourge has stepped upon their lands. Those of Kalimdor wont come with her even if she teleports over and asks (Night Elves might shoot her considering their early outlook towards outsiders). The Horde would probably kill her on sight if she managed to figure out where at sea they were and teleport to them...
"I'm alone Arthas," she said bitterly, "All alone."
All alone...
All over again...
Again again again again...
"Not alone, never alone," he says sharply.
He grips her shoulder and turns her, pinning her against a nearby pillar as his mouth crashes into hers in a deep, passionate kiss, breaking away and pulling back after, "We will always have eachother."
She smiles shakily at him, tears in her eyes. That's right... she still has her prince... hasn't lost him yet... "My prince..."
"My queen."
She smiles bitterly. "Well, not likely anymore."
He closes his eyes and exhales. "You'll always be the queen of my heart, never doubt that Jaina. Lets go."
Falric and Marwyn were a given, they fall in behind Arthas, righteous anger in their steps after he explained what happened. "We need to move quickly. Once Uther and my father catch wind of whats going on they will try to stop us."
"Yes Milord," they both echo.
"I need you two to split up and round up the men, any who were at Stratholme, any who will follow us," said Arthas, "But not in the presence of a paladin or the knights."
"Of course, what of you?" asked Falric.
Arthas grinned. "I'm going to get us ships."
Jaina was still uneasy about this, but, she asks, "Where do you want me Arthas?"
"Teleport me northbound towards the fleet," he says, "And begin teleporting the men once they gather. Hide in the woods outside Brill. Falric, Marwyn, send the men her way."
Like a thief siphoning water from a well, Jaina stole away one squad of men after another. Under the trees of Brill she beckoned them through a portal to another set of trees up north near the coast. All the while, she is counting, and all the while, her stomach is sinking. Its not enough. At this pace, even if its all night, its not enough. Not for Northrend, even IF its not yet the bastion the Lich King of her time had made it. Arthas had never stood an actual chance the first time around, not with the horror's of Naxxramas being at the ready, not to mention who knows what horrific servants the Lich King currently had. Finally, here and now, Kel'Thuzad was still alive, a horrible change from before, and him alone had the power to break the forces if not contained. The Lich King had allowed Arthas breach into Northrend...
Had allowed him...
Jaina closes her eyes, exhaling in a mixture of hope and despair after the next group of men go through. If they used the Lich King's arrogance against him, his own plans, could they kill him? He would be the most powerful source of energy and evil in Northrend, once she got close enough she'd hopefully be able to feel his presence. If they teleported close enough and blitzed him... could they destroy the Frozen Throne? What defenses did this Lich King personally have compared to Arthas as the Lich King?
Could they get out alive afterwards even if they did kill the Lich King?
Doubtful, it would likely take everything they had to do the deed to begin with, escaping after... was it a suicide mission then? Suicide missions didn't work well against the Scourge unless you managed to blow yourself up at the same time, because they tended to just reanimate those that died. There was a chance, a small chance, that in the chaos of the Lich King's death and the Scourge going out of control, that they could slip away. Or, be torn apart by hordes of mindless undead with no master. Even if the died though, and were reanimated...
There was no being short of the Lich King or an entity on his scale or above that could control her, and she'd kill anyone that tried to make an undead slave out of Arthas. They could potentially make their own Forsaken, something better than what had existed before. Honestly though, she'd rather burn her body from the inside out that be undead. If it got to the point of dying and becoming undead...
Well...
She could create scrolls or trinkets that could do the deed and blow them to hell and back.
She doesn't want this, but she doesn't see any other way out. There was... the potential of going back in time again, but could she survive the madness of murdering another timeline? Even if she somehow convinced Arthas to come with her? Not to mention she didn't know where the Book of Medivh was in Dalaran, and didn't have a prayer of getting it through the entirety of Dalaran's magi and security wards. She was good, and perhaps if she were at her prime she could have managed it, but not now. Not in this young, largely untested body with pathetic mana reserves compared to what she will one day have. She'd be lucky to defeat any of the Council of Six at this point...
Her thoughts trailed off as the next group arrived, and with it, a Paladin. She tensed briefly before pausing. "Aurius."
"Lady Proudmoore," said the younger Rivendare, "I come to offer my service in the name of the Light, even if we must tread and do what makes it weep to see it saved."
That... was different. "We could definitely use the help right now."
Another Paladin would be a blessing, maybe even make up some of the loss not having any other magi will have. Arthas hadn't had the major fallout the original Stratholme had with the Silver Hand, but any paladin siding with him at all would help soften the blow Uther dealt him earlier. "Any other brothers or sisters joining us?"
"Unlikely," said Rivendare, sighing, "Few would question Uther even in the depths of their own mind. But what I saw... what we went through... it must be stopped."
"Go then," she says, motioning to the portal, "Arthas will be glad for your help."
He gives her a nod and goes through.
She hopes, and prays, that he is the first of many surprises on who will show up.
He ends up being the only one of note.
Jaina honestly thinks they have less people than Arthas took with him last time. He had the entire 1st Legion Expeditionary Force, with some mage and priest support. Hell, she didn't even see Thassarian come through and she knows he was murdered and turned into a Death Knight up in Northrend before. There was a chance he was maybe on one of the ships Arthas was... acquiring... but she's not sure. Somehow, she's made the foray into Northrend worse, weaker overall. Jaina knows she's strong, and will only get stronger, they might have more overall power with her, but not sustainability against the Scourge. Even she needs support against endless hordes of undead, men to hold the line and keep them off her while she focuses on her spellwork. Or to guard the camp when she needs to rest and recover her strength.
Her, Arthas, Aurius, and Muradin should they find and link up with him, are not enough.
Its not enough...
But they have to try regardless.
No matter how hopeless it had seemed before, no one had truly ever given up.
Though, she idly wishes she had several dozen Heroes of Azeroth to throw at the problem right about now.
That tended to usually work.
Somehow.
In the end, they fill up about three ships with supplies and several hundred men. The strike force is... so small. So incredibly small. Were this an elite fighting force from her time maybe it could work. But here and now? At least half of them will die and be reanimated against them in the first week of the campaign north. The rest will grow and learn, becoming a stronger force. The next half will likely die when they breach further into Northrend and encounter harsher resistance, the more horrific creations and abilities of the Scourge...
Depending on what kind of defenses the Lich King sets up as his bait with Mal'Ganis.
Its cold, hard, brutal logic, but after years of facing the Scourge and the Burning Legion, and so many other threats, she can already see how much of this will play out. The Lich King could have destroyed Arthas in the original campaign north easily, but that wasn't his goal with Arthas. He didn't want a slave, he wanted a host, a true willing host to have corrupted from her noble prince. You didn't get that from mental domination and enslavement.
Even then, from what she understood, Arthas had ended up dominating that fusion between him and Ner'Zhul.
The ebb and flow of this would be simple to predict: The Lich King will offer token resistance at first, allowing them to establish a base and push deeper. He would steadily increase the amount and strength of the Scourge until they entered into the depths of Icecrown. Then it would a crushing madness, Scourge from all sides, incredible do and die pressure, but then, the rumor he placed would come to fruition.
Frostmourne would be there offered as salvation.
She wonders idly if she's strong enough to destroy the blade without it being gorged on countless souls for power. If so, how would that effect the Lich King? The Blade was part of the whole armor setup, at least that's what she had been led to believe. If they destroyed a piece of the whole, would it wound the Lich King? Cause disruption that they could use to penetrate to the Frozen Throne to destroy it?
She doesn't know, there's so much uncertainty, so much unknown, so much at stake...
Well... that's how its always been. The original scourging, fleeing across the sea, allying with the Horde, Hyjal, all the time since... nothing has ever been certain.
What is certain, and brings a soft smile to her face, is the clear brotherhood on her Prince's face as he and Aurius stand at the helm of their ship, pestering one another with friendly needling. Its kind of surprising, Arthas is still somewhat young, twenty four. Aurius looks to be... late thirties, early forties. Yet there's no age disconnect, no deference between them based on rank, royal or within the Order of the Silver Hand. Just two men bantering with each other as an escape.
Because both of them distinctly look like they could use it.
Arthas's need is obvious and the same as her own. Aurius? Considering he was at the heart of Stratholme when that madness began, betrayed by his own father who then tried to kill his own son, perhaps the comradery is something he desperately needed for his own well-being. She personally knows the pain of a parent turning on her, but his is a worse pain, because Jaina had earned her mother's condemnation for failing to do something to save her father. She leaves the men to it, retreating to her and Arthas's cabin to brood, sitting on the edge of the bed.
The dangers of using a plan that is entirely dependent on her enemy's arrogance are not lost to her. All Archimonde had to do at the original Battle for Mount Hyjal was stop, look around, wave a hand and destroy all the wisps, and he would have won. Their victory was only because of Archimonde's failure to contain his arrogance. The problem was, the Lich King was not Archimonde, and she didn't know nearly enough about the original Lich King to know if he would suffer the same failure. She knows some things about Ner'Zhul the Orc. She knows about Arthas the Lich King. She knows very, very little about Ner'Zhul the Lich King.
He is cunning, intelligent. He set up the Scourging of Lordaeran perfectly. Lured in Arthas with masterful manipulation and deception, along with who knows how many other cultists or people who ended up undead. He has eyes and ears through his Scourge, and can constantly be appraised of their progress. He is a calculated schemer, and that alone puts this entire plan she's thinking of in jeopardy. If only because if she follows Hyjal to a T, feeding Ner'Zhul's arrogance by playing along and then trying to subvert him at the last minute...
Unlike Archimonde, its very likely Ner'Zhul will have a backup plan. Unless he doesn't have time to enact it, but... there's so much risk, and the dread in her stomach...
Arms wrap around her and she jolts when her prince plants a gentle kiss against her cheek. "I swear I could feel you brooding from the deck."
She huffs and swats his arms. "Brat."
"Prince Brat to you."
She hums, leaning back into him. "You and Aurius seem to get alone well."
"I wish more of the Silver Hand weren't such sticks in the mud," said Arthas sourly, "He's a good man. Friendly and outgoing, but only after I worked it out of him. I fear the treachery of his father is going to make it difficult for him to so easily trust another again. I had the benefits of being a fellow paladin, and someone who fought through Stratholme alongside him. Others..."
Jaina nods solemnly. "It will be a long road, for all of us."
He goes silent for a long moment. "A long road. As much as Uther seems to think otherwise, I'm not blind to what we did, what we had to do. We will have to live with it for the rest of our lives. We didn't need a damn reminder ground in like that. Does he think I don't hate myself for what we did? That you don't? I saw you Jaina... when you... you freed them from their suffering. The expression you had was awful."
Jaina closes her eyes and takes in a shaky breath. "Some roads are longer to walk then others."
Hers covered the span of being complicit in murdering an entire timeline. She doesn't think she'll ever see the end of that road.
"We'll walk it together, my Queen," he murmurs, head leaning down to kiss her cheek, slowly and tenderly trailing down her neck.
His intent is plain as day.
"Do we have any -oh- further duties we need handled today," she said, trying to stifle a moan.
"The ships are on the way," kiss, "Provisions have been counted and double checked," kiss, "And orders have been distributed," oh he was going to leave a hickey with that one, "The sun is soon to set," his hands are slowly bringing the clothes down from her shoulder, "I think, all things considered, we've earned some time to ourselves. Light knows once we make landfall on Northrend we're not going to have the chance."
Their time on the ship might be the last time they ever have the chance to.
So, she turns to meet him as her robes fall off her shoulders, wrapping her arms around him, kissing him, and falling upon their bed, making love to her prince for the first time in a very long time...
"We need to brief the men."
Arthas glances over at Jaina, sitting in the mess deck alongside her, his captains, and Aurius. "About what specifically? They know what our purposes is, and we did not deceive any of them about my father's orders."
"About the Scourge," said Jaina, "I don't know how many of them were or were not at Stratholme. They need to know the capabilities of the Scourge that we have seen. The less caught off guard they are, the more that will live."
Arthas considers it before giving his Queen a nod. "Fair point. I hadn't considered it to be honest, I think maybe their fellows would have briefed them, but its always better to be sure."
The concern for their men warms his heart in a time when so much weighs on it and tries to make it cold. His father is a fool, Jaina would have made an amazing Queen of Lordaeran. "I'll gather as much of the men as possible down here, and have someone take notes to give to the other two ships."
He watches, half an hour later, as Jaina lectures their troops on the Scourge. Warning of things even Arthas hadn't been aware of. He had known fighting abominations was awful, but he hadn't actually paid attention enough outside of beating them into the ground that they had an actual air of disease around them. His light likely protected him from the worst of that. Her tips to let a stronger single combatant try to handle them if possible was thought out. An entire ring of men surrounding an abomination to cut it down was overkill, and would only serve to potentially plague more men or be cut down by the sweep of a cleaver.
Blunt weapons for skeletons, or at least severing a limb off. They lacked the physical strength an actual muscled person would have, thought it was somewhat fortified by unholy magic. Overwhelming numbers were their strength, along with swords getting caught between a rib-cage and doing absolutely nothing. Their riflemen were directed to shoot other targets, since shooting a skeleton was rather pointless and likely to just break a single bone or pass through a gap and waste a bullet.
His eyebrows steadily climb as one by one, Jaina completely and utterly picks apart the Scourge they had fought against as if she had been fighting them and figuring out their weaknesses for years. Some of it is common sense when one stops to think about it, but the fact that she's caught so much of it as one person... he's been impressed by a lot of things about Jaina since they were reunited, but this... this is something else.
"We don't know if there will be any more of those... Lichs like there was at Hearthglen," says Jaina with distaste, "In Northrend, but please, if you come across one, scatter. Do not group up, their area spells are devastating. I do not disparage any of your abilities, but this monstrosities are best lest to myself or the Paladins. Being skeletal, it has the same advantages as normal skeletons, but ramped up in power to cover weaknesses. Generally, a paladin casting divine shield and beating them into the dirt works well."
"What about the demon?" asked Falric, shuddering a little, "I saw that thing in Stratholme. You blew it out of the sky, but it was still blasted alive after taking that hit."
"Mal'Ganis," spat Jaina, "Is a creature of nightmares. Its... its likely there isn't a single person here strong enough at the moment to take the demon."
"But the strength of the light and its followers is in unity," offers Aurius.
Jaina nods, glancing at Arthas. "I doubt Mal'Ganis can take the three of us together. Even a pair might be able to take him."
She glances at Falric. "But he is a cunning creature, when the odds were against him, he retreated and laid his bait."
"So... its a trap then?" poses Falric.
Jaina sighs. "Yes, its a trap."
Falric considers it. "Springing it on our own terms then?"
"In a manner of speaking," said Jaina before admitting, "But honestly, there is very little choice but to spring it. To follow him to Northrend. If we don't stop him and destroy the heart of the Scourge now, it will be far to easy for them to infiltrate and start another outbreak. If we are being perfectly clear..."
She clears her throat. "Do you all understand how lucky we were, in the initial outbreak?"
Arthas blinks. Did he hear that right? "Lucky?!"
"Arthas," she said tiredly, "Just how many graveyards exist throughout Lordaeran? Especially the capital area graves in Trisfal Glades?"
That makes Arthas wince, a tendril of horror running down his spine. "Light above..."
The true scope of what the Scourge could become was starting to hit him, more than just a horrific threat that had to be stopped. Now he considered the logistics of it, beyond 'every man and woman who dies becomes another slave of the Scourge'. He starts considering the numbers... especially when he considers those who died in ages past. Plenty of graveyards go back many, many, generations. Cremation has never been a common method of dealing with their dead. He doesn't want to consider how many unmarked graves or graveyards or are scattered around.
"We stamped down the Scourge swift and hard," she says, jaw set, "We saw what they were capable of in the Battle for Hearthglen, when they reach the size of a small army. That was off massacring and reanimating a few villages. What happens if the Scourge really gets going? Towns? Cities? Entire cemeteries? We headed it off before it could hit a catastrophic stage. But that's the thing, its so easy for the Scourge to start to reach that stage. A vial of their plague in a well or a granary and there potentially goes an entire town. Anyone they kill is another slave raises, its..."
"An exponential problem," says Marwyn, "It could get out of control in the blink of an eye."
"Correct," she offers tiredly, "So much rests on preventing the problem rather than dealing with the aftereffects. Those aftereffects keep on killing and creating more problems."
"This madness needs to be stopped here and now," agreed Arthas.
Aurius jabs him lightly with an elbow. "Here and now being a few weeks by boat."
He scoffs at the light laughter that rings through the mess hall. "Yes, in a few weeks, make fun of your poor prince."
Jaina is smiling at him, he gives her a sloppy grin in response.
"So, any advice if that demon comes and takes a swing at us?" someone asks.
Jaina gives a mirthless smile. "Duck?"
That gets another laugh, and Arthas settles in to watch his Queen ferry questions one by one. The way she interacts with the men, so at ease with their soldiers. Not like a noble looking down their nose. Or a paladins distant compassion. There's no overbearing pride there seeing this as beneath her. Its something he loves about Jaina. She's just so approachable. If one treats her friendly, with respect, she readily returns it with a smile. She thrives off it honestly; in this last few minutes, she's... she just seems so much happier than he's seen her since they met again. To be... well... if he had to say it, its almost like... like she's been missing these kind of interactions... that she hungers for them, needs them...
His eyes furrow in concern, thinking back to the moment they met up again for their mission. She had been shaken and unsettled, had that all be him? Or something else? Had her last few years in Dalaran since... since the disastrous Winter Veil, been that harsh on her? More than just him having pushed a change on her? He remembers how coldly she had interacted with Antonidas towards the end of that disastrous meeting. She had... she hadn't given a single damn about being banished from Dalaran...
Jaina, an apprentice archmage who had been training for years to become one, had pretty much encouraged Antonidas to banish her.
The unease sets in deeper now, it really hits him what that meant. He's not blind that Antonidas had tried to give her an out, Arthas had been mentally screaming for her to take it at the time, he hadn't wanted her to lose her position, but she... she had walked away from the Kirin Tor without a second thought. This had to be more than just the threat the Scourge represented. She hadn't cared about leaving what had been her home since she became an apprentice. Just what the hell had happened to her the last few years?
He asks her that night as they lay in bed together.
She doesn't respond for the longest of times, enough to deeply unsettle him.
"I've... been alone for a long time now Arthas," she said quietly, and there is something... cracked... in her voice that he does not like at all, "Untrusted. Treated with suspicion, or fragile like I'm damaged..."
He grips her and pulls her tightly against his chest. "You're not alone now Jaina."
She rolls over, her eyes peering up into his, gentle and hurt need in them. Her holds her close that night, no passionate love like the last, just care, thumbing through her hair until they both fall asleep...
Jaina considers the water elemental she summoned sputtering around the deck.
Summoning elementals (and spirits) was generally a shaman thing, what mages did was a little... different. Mages used simulacrums, creations meant to imitate and replicate the function of the real deal (though they could take control of real elementals if they found them, but shamans really didn't like when they did that). The elemental she had summoned before her was not the same as one from Neptulon's realm. They were honestly more like arcane golems than actual elementals. She had never questioned a Elemental Lord on it, but she had the impression they were not amused by the simulacrums. To her point, while water could be useful, she finds she really wants fire based elementals. She knows its possible for a mage, she'd studied reports of the Scarlet Crusade, some of them had been seen summoning fire elementals in their monastery by the Heroes of Azeroth. So she knows she can do it. Its just...
Practicing with a fire elemental on a wooden boat is a terrible idea.
On the other hand, there are other elements as well. An earth elemental would be very useful to blocking a choke point, going toe to toe with abominations, or even drawing the focus of the mindless hordes. Which might be more important, because they have a numbers weakness she needs to make up for. Fire she thinks will be easy to make, transforming arcane energy to make something like an earth elemental would be a little more difficult, its kind of why mages generally just used golems. She doesn't have pretty much any ingredients or metals needed to make one though, so making an elemental was it.
She still wants to practice before they make landfall though, but they're over the sea, there's no dirt to even use as the basis for an arcane construct version of an earth elemental...
Over the sea...
She snaps her fingers, grinning. "Ah, but I don't have to practice on the boat."
She could just summon it over water instead. Should have thought of that to begin with. She considers how she forms a water elemental, compacting arcane energy, turning it cold, along with pulling moisture and air into a form. So... lets try turning the energy warm instead... she focuses the energy out past the ship, but mostly just makes a combustion of fire with a loud crack that makes the deckhands jump. Jaina scowls at the little explosion, pondering where she went wrong, and tries again...
She's mortified it takes her a whopping ten attempts to actually get it, watching the flaming being drop out of the air and sizzle into the ocean. Honestly, it hadn't taken her that long to learn spells since she was an apprentice. This body needed more experience in spellwork it seemed. To that end, she needed to decide how she wanted this elemental to work. She could simply make it a fire version of her current water elementals, or maybe she could form them as melee fighters, burning nearby undead. Though that risked burning allies, but so did fire projectiles going the wrong way. There was also the matter of delivery, summoning right next to her VS summoning at a distance. Ranged VS melee...
Then a nasty idea hit her.
She grinned and began to channel a fireball, focusing it her intent, similar to a pyroblast. She shoots out the blast a ways, imagining she's shooting into a horde of undead, and then detonates it in an explosion, which would destroy weaker undead and damage stronger ones. Out of the explosion, a fire elemental leaps, ready to tear into the damaged and offbalanced undead. Though, this one simply drops and dissipates into the ocean. Still, its a clever little idea, she always did like mixing spells together or coming up with new ideas...
She'd call it an Elemental Bomb.
Double meanings and all that.
"Jaina, stop giving the men a heart attack please."
Jaina glances back at her amused price and gives him a cheeky smile. "No promises."
"What do you think awaits us beyond this, Lady Proudmoore?" poses Aurius one day.
They're both leaning against the railing, staring north.
"If we live..., well...," she hesitates, "Has Arthas filled you in on how our entire mission went, from start to finish?"
"Not the entire thing, no, mostly shared miserable grumblings we drink to," admitted Aurius.
Jaina snorted. "Figures."
"What about it?"
"Kel'Thuzad mentioned demons," said Jaina, "And directly implied that both the Horde and the Scourge were instigated by them."
That makes Aurius go deathly silent, a number of deckhands glancing their way at her words.
"If that is truly the case," said Jaina, "Then I plan on doing something about that. Even if Lordaeran and the Kirin Tor wont. Perhaps... perhaps we can start up an organization, a faction, that specializes in dealing with such instances."
"You've given thought about this."
She nods. "A little over the voyage. The Horde, the Scourge, its not going to just end even if we defeat the current threat. Trust me, I... I want some peace and quiet after this, a chance to rest and recover and... and start a family, to be happy, but that doesn't mean I don't acknowledge what needs to be done in the long run. Someone needs to step up to handle it, because the Scourge is not the end."
Thoughts of Tichondrious shroud her mind.
It never ends.
A twisted grimace crosses her face. "Evil never truly dies, it always finds a way to come back, to get a another chance to strike again."
Aurius nods. "It always does, but so long as someone is there to rise and meet it, then it will always fall. You can consider me your first volunteer, when you start this 'faction'."
She smiles warmly, at the trust and faith put in her. "It'll be good to have you."
"You can probably count the crew in too," called over one of the not-so-subtle eavesdroppers.
But it only makes her feel warm.
Feel settled.
To have people on her side again.
"Though, you probably ought to tell em all about the demons starting both the Horde and the Scourge if you want to recruit, because that's... news."
Ah...
"Well, time for another meeting then."
Jaina stood silently, hushed whispers blowing past her ear on shivering winds. Her arms were crossed. Her hood was drawn. She stared with solemn focus at the distant shores coming into view. The oppressive atmosphere as they drew near Northrend was troubling. It wasn't... this wasn't like when she had set down that first time, the Horde from one side, the Alliance from another, in the campaign against Arthas as the Lich King. There was a palpable aura of dread hanging over the continent. The pure, raw, dark and twisted power that seductively called to her had not been there before.
She felt like something malevolent was staring at them, watching them, when no eyes were present. That she was willingly walking into the maw of a nightmare, mouth waiting to close around and devour them.
Every single instinct she had was screaming for her to take her prince and run.
Run and run and never stop running.
'The dead in this land might lie still for the time being, but don't be fooled. Your young prince will find only death in the cold north.'
Jaina swallows thickly.
The power emanating from Northrend is more psychic, more magic, than the raw might Arthas as the Lich King had. Ner'Zhul's presence permeates the very air seeping out of the frozen north like a malignant disease. Her gut feeling is that while Ner'Zhul is not more powerful than Lich King Arthas would be, he is far more evil. Without a shred of lingering sentimental little lights Arthas still had even at his worst, like him keeping her locket. Even more, Arthas was a human base, a human mind. Ner'Zhul hadn't been an Orc since Kil'Jaeden had gotten ahold of him, ripped him down to a soul, bound him to demonic crafted armor, and remade him as the Lich King.
There had been a lot of closed door arguments about why Arthas hadn't just full on unleashed the Scourge all over Azeroth. Some say he just wanted to test and lure in the Heroes of Azeroth to be his generals, which had nearly worked and would have screwed the entire world if Tirion hadn't gotten free, so there is that. Some of the few who had known and remembered the original prince pondered if some small fragment of him remained to hold back the worst of his capabilities. Truthfully, they don't know. But ultimately, there is no shred of a doubt to her that facing down Ner'Zhul will be nothing like facing Arthas.
For the first time, in a very long time, Jaina feels out of her depth and afraid.
That doesn't mean however, that she isn't going to face that fear head on and do her damn well best to destroy it.
No one else seemed to feel anything, though Aurius and Arthas seemed grim, but that was more along the lines of knowing what was coming than feeling something. As the shores of Northrend crawl closer and closer, Arthas moves to stand at her side, staring off into the Frozen north. They say nothing to one another, offering nothing but the comfort of one another's presence as they brace themselves for the cold north, and the undead that await them...
Review Responses:
Urazz: Considering I've already warned people that this is a dark story, being a part of the cult is likely to not be false this time around.
NotRob: The road to hell is paved with good intentions as they say.
Guest: Eh, enjoying a tragedy isn't sick, just a different flavor of tale you prefer. Though, this is a horror/tragedy, so this flavor is more hard to swallow than most.
Australian Dealer: Mmm, yeah. The first part of the chapter fits that bill. To be fair, they have a right to be angry and righteous, to a degree. The initial slaughter of the infected is... an awful thing. On the matter of the Gun, Jaina is not likely to be legion, but that doesn't mean they wont try, especially Tichondrious, just to be an ass.
Eragon95159: ...no.
WanderingStarmaster: By most sitting on the sideline collecting dust and infuriating the readers who prefer those be focused on over others. Occasionally bringing them out for spring cleaning.