Building of Relationships

"They are definitely down there." Melonara said, looking over to Elaria and Viraleth, the three of them standing on the edge of the giant lake in the middle of Zangarmarsh, looking towards the structure placed in the center of the lake. "And you said some of the druids saw pipes going down and under the lake?"

"Exactly." Elaria confirmed, dipping her sword into the body of water in front of her. "It's already deep right here, so I can only imagine how deep the middle of this lake is."

"All of this doesn't matter when we don't have a good way for us all to get over there and to investigate without drowning." Viraleth told them both. "The druids can get over there, but we won't find it so easy."

"What about the Draenei who are nearby? Did we get any information about them?" Melonara now asked them. "Or are they heavily involved in the Alliance and we should stay away?"

Viraleth frowned and looked over to the strange contraption in the middle of the lake. "I don't know. Kael'thas made sure we knew to leave the Alliance and Horde alone, since we don't want to get involved in whatever is going on between them." She shrugged her shoulders and looked back over to Melonara. "We can send a message to the General, see what she says about it."

"I can get to writing it up the moment we return." Melonara said, looking over to Elaria who continued to look at the Naga construction in the middle of the lake. "What are you thinking about?"

"Just surprised how complex, yet simple this all looks. I didn't think the Naga would be able to make such a thing, unless they had some sort of help." Elaria shook her head and looked over to both Melonara and Viraleth. "Anyway. I think we should head back, I'll inform Ysiel of what we know so far and you can write up that letter to your General."

"Lead the way." Viraleth said, gesturing towards the Cenarion outpost in the distance.

"How long have they been in there?" Aerinan asked, standing beside Thalina who was waiting on her King to finish talking to Lady Proudmoore.

"A couple hours." Thalina told him, looking over to Aerinan and finding him more agreeable when he wasn't around his father or wife. "I think it's going well, since I hear the occasional laughter from either one of them." She smiled at the idea of her King finding someone to settle down with. "Maybe this will get the Convocation off his back."

"I heard about that." Aerinan muttered. "They keep pushing him to find someone so they can name an heir when he eventually has a child."

Thalina looked Aerinan up and down whilst he stood nearby, watching the twin doors to the Throne Room. "Not that I don't enjoy any kind of company whilst Liadrin, Athrodar and my brother aren't here, but why are you here?"

"I have some information for the King." Aerinan told her, looking over to the young Dawnstrider mage. "For his ears only."

"Fine..." Thalina muttered, folding her arms across her chest and returning her attention back to the Throne Room doors. "I'm sure he will tell me anyway."

"I wouldn't be surprised, seeing as you are his ward." Aerinan said, smiling when Thalina glanced over to him. "I'm still not telling you though."

"Ugh..." She groaned, moving her attention back to the twin doors. "Now I know where Athrodar's father gets his teasing from. He did the same to Liadrin and I whenever we would ask about Athrodar."

Aerinan smiled, though he looked away when even he noticed it began to get sad the longer he thought about his son. "I'll be back in thirty minutes or so. Maybe an hour."

"I'll most likely still be here." Thalina told him. "Light knows how long they will be in there for."

Aerinan chuckled and bowed his head slightly to the mage. "Good luck with that, Thalina." He told her, leaving her alone outside the Throne Room.

"And we're back in Shattrath." Sylvanas muttered, taking hold of Athrodar's hand whilst her squad walked by them. "Clea said she'll report in tomorrow with a progress report of the Stronghold and any news on the demons we pushed back."

Athrodar stood in place when Sylvanas began to walk further into the city, holding onto her hand to keep her in place and spinning her around to face him. "One thing before we return to our little ones and my mother."

Sylvanas began to giggle when Athrodar kissed her, moving her arms around his neck to pull herself closer to him. "Mmm..." She moaned when the kiss finished, biting her bottom lip. "Maybe another one." She purred, leaning forward and kissing her husband again.

"You're not alone here." Liadrin said, standing beside them. "Save it for the bedroom and go see your kids."

"Mood killer." Sylvanas said, looking over to Liadrin who poked her tongue out at them. "Come on. We've been away from them long enough." She then said, taking hold of Athrodar's hand again and pulling him towards where their kids and Illana were staying.

The walk through the city took them just over ten minutes before they reached the part of the city their family and rangers were staying in, opening the door to their temporary home and being attacked by Talanas who hugged his mother tightly. "It looks like he missed us." Athrodar commented as Sylvanas crouched down to level out her height to their son.

"And we missed him too." Sylvanas whispered, kissing her son on the cheek and hugging him tightly.

"Victoria went back home to continue her training at the academy." Illana said, hugging her son when she made her way over to the three of them."She said you would understand and she hopes to be a lot better by the time you all return from this place, or it's the end of the year and she can come visit again for a couple months."

"I'm hoping we're done here soon enough so we can return home, I can take over the class once again and see her almost daily." Athrodar told his mother, both of them pulling back and smiling at each other. "I'm happy I'm back here though. I take it he wasn't too much trouble?"

"Not as much as you were at his age." Illana told him, making Sylvanas laugh. "I managed to handle this one a lot better."

"That's because he's a lot more well behaved with both of us raising him and no input from Athrodar." Sylvanas told her, hearing Athrodar sigh. "I love you."

"I love you too." Athrodar muttered, smiling when Sylvanas hugged and kissed him on the cheek. "Now I forgive you."

"Good." She whispered in his ear, keeping her arms around him and looking over to Illana. "When did she return home?"

"A couple days ago." Illana told her. "She seemed confident and determined to do it so I didn't stop her. I think she really wants to impress you both with how far she has come as a ranger."

"No problem." Athrodar said, looking down to Sylvanas when he felt her squeeze him a little tighter. "She is becoming a ranger like the two of us. I am almost certain you wanted to be independent too. Just like she is being now."

"Doesn't mean I have to like it." Sylvanas muttered, taking hold of Talanas' hand and leading him further into the house. "Come on, let's go get something to eat. It was a long march back here."

"I heard you were sick." Illana whispered, walking beside her son. "I hope you're okay now?"

"I am, mom." Athrodar told her, looking over to Sylvanas in the distance. "She worked hard to find a cure to my sickness. Thankfully Khadgar and the Draenei with him healed us. We only lost a couple of rangers, but they got sick whilst they were injured, so they weren't strong enough to fight it off."

"Remind me to thank her later." Illana said, cupping her son's face in her hands. "She kept you in our lives by not resting until you were healed."

Athrodar just smiled and kissed his mother on the cheek. "Come on, let's go join them for lunch."

"Looks like you had a good few days, my King." Thalina said, folding his clothes and placing them in his wardrobe. "I take it things went well with Lady Proudmoore?"

"They did." Kael'thas said, looking through the reports Thalina had handed him. "When did you get these by the way?"

"Around midday, my King." Thalina told him, making her way back over to Kael'thas and standing in front of the desk in his chambers. "The one from Halduron was the last one I received and that one was a couple hours ago."

"Okay, good." Kael'thas then said, reading through Halduron's report. "The more up to date his reports are, the better. I need to know his assessments on the Forsaken to our south before I make a final decision on their status. I hope they're neutral, but I fear they will be hostile to anyone living, or at the very least, anyone entering their territory."

"And with our General far away, we don't exactly have a full strength military to deal with them should they decide to attack." Thalina commented, getting a nod from Kael'thas.

"Luckily the Argent Dawn are between us and them, so there's some buffer and hopefully they could deal with the army before they get to us." Kael'thas told her, looking over to Thalina. "But we're not there yet, so we won't discuss this any more than we have." He looked back down to the reports in front of him, he began to smile to himself. "Jaina however, I can talk to you about. Should you want to know."

"Of course I want to know, my King." Thalina said, sounding a bit too excited and realising that too when she saw Kael'thas raise an eyebrow at her. "Sorry."

"It's fine." He said, laughing lightly. "What do you want to know?"

"Do you think she is the one?" Thalina asked, getting giddy for the answer already seconds after asking him. "What am I saying, of course she's the one. You would never make a mistake, my King. Do you think she will accept your courtship? Become the Queen and you have cute little half elf children? Ahh, I can't wait to see them!"

Kael'thas began to laugh when he saw her excitement as she awaited his answer. "Yes I think she's the one, Thalina. Though the talk about kids is a bit early." He then thought about his answer for her second question. "I am not sure if she will accept my courtship. Or if she even knows I am seeking such a thing. We spoke about the past and present, but the future never really came up. At least, not our future."

"It was three days, my King. It didn't even come up once?" Thalina asked, both shocked and a little disappointed.

"There wasn't a natural time for it to come up." Kael'thas told her, sighing when he saw her less than enthusiastic look. "I know, I should have told her the real reason I asked her to visit here."

Thalina opened her mouth to speak, but was interrupted by a knock on the door, followed by a voice that made her smile. "I have a feeling she might have already had an idea of why she was here." She said, opening the door for Jaina who looked over to her and then to Kael'thas. "I'll be outside, my King."

Jaina watched Thalina close the door behind her and then turned her attention to Kael'thas. "I..."

"Wait, let me talk first." Kael'thas said, taking a deep breath. "The real reason why I asked you to visit was because, well..."

Jaina stepped forward and placed a hand on his arm. "I know." She said softly, smiling at his shocked face. "You're not very good at hiding it, Kael. I knew this day was coming since that demonic invasion." She told him, smiling warmly at the King.

"Oh..." Kael'thas let out a quick laugh and shook his head. "Maybe I am bad at hiding it."

"When that Lieutenant confirmed it, I knew this day was coming. I just didn't think it would take so long." She told him, looking down at the floor when she saw him look over to her. "With everything that has happened between then and now, I needed some company. Friendship or otherwise. I lost my father, Arthas betrayed us all, his sister is nowhere to be seen. I ran out of people I could talk to and with you on the other side of the world and not in Dalaran, I felt lonely sometimes."

"I'm sorry about that." Kael'thas told her. "It has been busy here. The Amani have left, which caught us all off guard and now we believe they are planning a counter attack with the Horde, the humans of Lordaeron who are now undead are a separate faction to our south. the Argent Dawn, led by Highlords Tirion and Mograine are in between us and them. The portal to the orcish home world is open again and I have become King now. All of this in such a short amount of time has made me very busy." He gave her a small smile. "But I am happy we had this time together."

"So am I." Jaina agreed. "Which is why I want to do this more often. The dinners, lunches. The talking and the time alone." She smiled at the King who looked surprised. "I want to give us a go, Kael'thas. Not because you are a King or to secure our cities in an alliance of sorts, but because I think it's time for me to move on from everything that has happened in the past and to spend time with the one person who has helped me through it all."

Kael'thas watched Jaina step forward, looking down at her hand when she hesitated a little and taking hold of it. "I want that too, Jaina." He told her, lifting her hand up to his lips and kissing the back of it.

"Then I say we make this a weekly thing." She told him, both of them smiling at the idea. "We can grow closer, I will have someone who I can talk to and so can you. And hopefully, it will bring our people closer too. I know Theramore isn't anywhere as grand in scale of Silvermoon, Stormwind or Ironforge. But we are a strong naval ally should you need one."

"That would be nice." Kael'thas said, getting a brighter smile from Jaina. "Do you still need to leave? Or can you stay for one night longer?"

"I have to leave, I'm afraid." She told him. "But I am looking forward to next week." She then said, squeezing his hand lightly. "Goodbye, Kael'thas. I'll see you next week."

Kael'thas nodded his head and smiled at her too. "I'll see you next week."

Athrodar woke up in a part of the city called Scryer's Tier, sitting underneath a tree with his wife and General who was also sleep, sitting on his lap, facing him and leaning forward to rest against his chest. He smiled to himself when he saw her resting against him, still asleep and hearing her steady breathing as well as the occasional sigh or moan whenever something happened in her sleep. "You're too cute to be a General if you sleep like this." He whispered to himself, moving his arms around her and hearing a sigh of contentment from the General the moment he touched her.

The moment he began to pull her hood down so he could stroke her hair however, was when she suddenly woke up and pushed his hand away. "Leave it up." She muttered, making Athrodar chuckle at her.

"You're making sounds in your sleep." He told her, looking Sylvanas in the eyes when she pulled back to look at him. "It's really cute."

"Thanks." Sylvanas said, yawning and leaning forward onto her husband once again. "Now keep quiet and stay still. I want to enjoy our time alone here for as long as possible."

Athrodar smiled and nodded his head slowly. "We can't exactly do this back home, so I will let you rest up."

"Good, thank you." She whispered, kissing him on the neck. "Love you."

"I love you too." Athrodar whispered back to her, kissing her on the forehead and looking up into the sky and watching the Twisting Nether flow above them. It looked beautiful and terrifying at the same time. This was something that loomed above them the entire time they were on the planet and the place the demons go to when they're killed, only to be resurrected again and sent back into the fight.

Whilst his attention was on the Twisting Nether above, he failed to notice the paladin making her way towards the two of them. "Hey." Liadrin said softly, trying to make sure the General didn't wake up. "How are you feeling? It's been a few days since you returned here so I thought I would check up on you."

"I'm doing and feeling a lot better." Athrodar told her, smiling up at the paladin. "And that doesn't include having my wife sleep on me whilst I enjoy the scenery."

"But I'm sure that helps." Liadrin said, chuckling lightly when Athrodar hesitated. "I thought so." She said smiling at him. "Anyway. I'm glad you're feeling better, there seems to be no lasting effects and your wife seems to be at peace now, so I suppose I'll leave you alone until I get bored, or you need me for something."

"Or you can just come and visit to spend time with Talanas, or me?" Athrodar suggested, smiling at the paladin. "You are a good friend of mine and I know Sylvanas likes having you around. So you could just visit whenever you want." He told her, getting a brighter smile from Liadrin. "Think about it?"

"I will. I might be more swayed into dropping by whenever now that you said I can spend time with your son..." She muttered, making Athrodar chuckle lightly. "I'll see you later, okay? Maybe around dinner, so I can steal your son away for a bit."

"I'll see you then." Athrodar agreed, smiling and shaking his head whilst he watched Liadrin walk away. "I think it will be good. This will allow us to spend some more time alone." He said, glancing down to Sylvanas who had woken up halfway through the conversation. Something he realised the second her breathing changed. "Don't you agree?"

"I do." Sylvanas whispered, leaning back and looking her husband in the eyes. "She could be a good influence on our little ones too." She said, making Athrodar raise an eyebrow at her. "Okay, she will be an okay influence."

"That's better." Athrodar said, laughing lightly when he saw her roll her eyes. "Any plans for what our next mission in this place will be?"

"Probably north to that place called Blade's Edge." She told him, placing a hand on Athrodar's face and stroking his cheek lightly. "If we don't get an update from Viraleth or Clea first, of course."

"What's in Blade's Edge?" Athrodar asked.

"Supposedly, there were black dragons there, as well as ogres and this giant beast called Gruul that killed many of the dragons." Sylvanas began to think back to what Khadgar had told her about that place. "Apparently it's fully of razor-sharp rocks, which is why it's called Blade's Edge?" She shrugged her shoulders and looked back to Athrodar. "I guess we'll find out if we go there."

"Or we'll be asked to return to Hellfire Peninsula because the Grand Magister needs our help." Athrodar muttered, hearing Sylvanas chuckle and frowning at her. "What?"

"Nothing. I just find it cute that you hate that place more than anything." She said, placing her hands on either side of his face. "Just like you find it cute when I make noises in my sleep."

"Fair point." Athrodar said, noticing a different elf making their way towards them now. "Can't even have five minutes alone." He muttered, having Sylvanas turn her head a little to look behind her and spot the elf coming towards them.

"They're from Viraleth's unit." She said, offering out a hand to the ranger who stood beside them, taking the letter off her when it was handed over. "This has to be important if Viraleth is writing to me whilst on a mission."

"Doesn't she usually write to you whilst on a mission?" Athrodar asked, knowing he had seen the letters they send to each other.

"She does, but I haven't replied to the last one yet, so that's how I know something is wrong." She told him, watching Athrodar frown at her and knowing she had to explain a bit more. "She doesn't send two in a row, unless it's important. She writes everything down on the report she sends me the first time."

"I see..." Athrodar looked down at the report in her hand. "So what does it say?"

Sylvanas moved around on Athrodar's lap so she could lean back against him, doing just that and reading the report in her hands the second her moved on arm around her abdomen. "It looks like she is requesting an audience with some local Draenei, but she needs permission first. Smart, since we were told to stay out of Alliance and Horde business and we don't know if these Draenei are with the Alliance or if they are independent."

"We had help from Velen." Athrodar reminded her, stroking her stomach lightly as he read through the report too. Smiling to himself when he swore he could hear her purr due to his light caresses. "He and his Draenei healed our rangers. I would think that was working with the Draenei at the very least."

"A very good point." She cooed, leaning back and closing her eyes whilst Athrodar continued to trace circles on her stomach. "That feels really nice by the way." She whispered to him, placing a hand over his. "Keep doing that." She then said, watching the ranger who gave her the report, make their way towards where the rest of the rangers were staying.

"Sure." Athrodar whispered back to her, still tracing circles lightly on her stomach. "So about her request. Do we tell her to talk to the Draenei? Get them to help out with this Naga problem? Or do we march north and help them ourselves?"

"I say both." She whispered to him. "She said it's an unknown number of enemies, they might not have enough with them and the Draenei, so we should go there as well to be safe." She told him, biting her bottom lip to stop a moan from escaping when she felt Athrodar kiss her on the neck. "Mmm... You're playful today, aren't you?"

"This is the most we've been alone since before we arrived here." Athrodar told her, kissing his way up to her lips and moving her head to the side a little so he could kiss her properly. "And we've only been alone a couple times since we arrived on this planet." He then told her, moving the General onto her back and kissing her on the stomach.

"We don't have time for this." Sylvanas protested, but she wasn't taken seriously as she was giggling the whole time and even biting her bottom lip again the moment he moved up her abdomen and towards her chest. "I mean it..." She cooed, placing a hand on the back of her husband's head and keeping his lips pressed against her chest. "Athrodar..."

"You're not exactly stopping me." Athrodar told her, pulling back to look her in the eyes and instantly noticing the hunger in them, moving forward and kissing her on the lips. The moment their lips touched, Sylvanas opened her mouth and began to deepen the kiss, wrapping her arms around his neck to keep them together and even moving one leg around him.

"Let's do this before we are interrupted again." She purred, gazing into his eyes. "Who knows when we will have another chance as we move north to help Viraleth tomorrow."

Athrodar moved his hands behind her back and undid her ranger corset and shoulderguards. "Unless it's family, can we both promise to kill the next person to interrupt us?"

"Deal." Sylvanas said with a chuckle, gazing into his eyes when she now wore nothing from the waist up. "Especially now that I am half naked. Only you can see me like this."

"Damn right only I can." Athrodar said, leaning down and kissing his wife. "Just like only you get to have all of me."

"Well that's obvious." Sylvanas told him. "I'll kill anyone who even gets close to having you."

Athrodar laughed and brushed a couple strands of hair away from her eyes. "Looks like Anya really is going to have no mother after all."

Sylvanas laughed and pulled Athrodar down to kiss him again. "You're getting it. Good." She purred, smiling when she felt Athrodar pull her leggings down. "Now we will have to kill them. I am practically naked and nobody other than you and a few previous lovers have this privilege."

"Lovers who you have threatened to kill if they speak about it after went your separate ways?" Athrodar asked, getting a smirk from the General. "Thank the Light we're married then, so I never have to make such a promise. How could I not tell the world I sleep with the most beautiful elf on Azeroth?"

Sylvanas laughed some more, lightly slapping Athrodar on the arm and shaking her head, smiling at him the entire time. "You're not allowed to tell people that. How would you like it if I told everyone I'm sleeping with you?"

"I'd love it." Athrodar told her honestly, watching the General roll her eyes.

"You're incorrigible." She told him, pulling his head down and kissing him on the lips again. "Now stop talking and let's have some fun. Light knows when someone will try to interrupt us."

"Anything for my General." Athrodar whispered in her ear, kissing there shortly after and working his way down her neck.