p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"strongDisclaimer:/strong The characters and settings created by Blizzard Entertainment Inc in this story are owned by their creators. I do not claim them as mine in any way, shape or form. I am not receiving monetary profit from this story and no copyright infringement is intended./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"…/p
p class="MsoNormal"strongChapter 39: Summon Me Daddy/strong/p
p class="MsoNormal"strongG/strongoblin tech is beyond sexy. Guns, especially big rifles, they have this rapport that fills your world when you get a shot off. And you get blown back. You feel it all over your body. This monstrous death suit Fitz and his boys put me in, the firepower reverberated up and down my arms and legs. It got in my belly. It was part of me in a way that made the firepower feel intimate./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"No wonder the Goblins, Gnomes too I guess, went mad and engineered gadgets the way that they did. They absolutely could not live without tinkering. This was like coming home to a lover. Every time I pulled a trigger, aimed a missile, I got this thrill. She was making me bigger, stronger. She believed in me. I wasn't about to live without her, and I was never going to abandon her. If this big, fun toy blew up, or even if I'd lost a limb, I'd have to go back and build again, bigger. Nothing matched the fun, the ego stroke. Meanwhile the rest of the world, us Orcs and Tauren, were watching the Goblins go on cackling like mad even as they failed, just shaking our heads. Now, I was a fellow addict./p
p class="MsoNormal"And at long last, I had the ability to point at any of those dumb Elves who had been tormenting me and end them with half a thought. I pointed my arm, but somehow the machine already knew a moment before I did, what I wanted. She nearly pointed my arm for me, told me who and how to shoot. A novice could almost use the suit, it was twisted. With the machine nearly reading my thoughts, it felt like we were moving faster than everything around us. I gasped when I saw Saturna raise her Whiteblade amid a conflagration, to deflect a white-hot missile coming at them. The small Goblin rocket punched the gleaming metal. The painted red cap with a snarling face blew off. Rocket fuel erupted from a tight ball, ignited. Destruction bloomed across the magical sword. From head to gleaming fire tail, the impact looked soft. And a Blood Knight in her full form, wielding a sacred blade and fully believing her fierce control over Light magic could stop it, it shook me. That surprised me. What that Goblin mech suit could do was one thing. What Saturna shouted about and slung that massive bright sword against with nothing but her naked, fragile conviction, was another./p
p class="MsoNormal"The moment we had all been avoiding, terrified, yet excited for had finally come because as Paladins, we were all zealous bastards deep down. I had attacked Kael'thas, their king, and shown how much of a heathen I was. Now Saturna and her henchmen could purge me from their holy ground./p
p class="MsoNormal""Bring it on!" I yelled through the helmet./p
p class="MsoNormal"No fun retort back. Fear raced around my chest. I was inside the royal treasury after all, and attacking their sovereign. Bad, stupid place to lose your temper. Wait. Making a one-man war on the Blood Elves, was that what I had just done?/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"Hell, felt good at the time./p
p class="MsoNormal"I'd put the Blood Knights and Kael'thas on their back foot, so to speak. They were busy trying to throw up a defense. And, they were worried about the precious goods in the room blowing up./p
p class="MsoNormal"Well, I thought they were until Rommath came up from a pillar he and Kael'thas had huddled behind, to hurl a gold phoenix statue at me./p
p class="MsoNormal""Hey!" I gleefully aimed to blast it into a thousand pretty pieces. The missile weaved around it strangely, though. I watched it make a hole in the wall, then made another shot in a flash. I wanted to snag Rommath at least before he finished throwing me that obvious distraction. Kael'thas had ducked down and scuttled to a new spot among the treasure chests./p
p class="MsoNormal"I figured there was some panic button Kael'thas was trying to reach. It would make my life difficult, either with a new energy field or calling the guards. Well, if the royal guards just outside the door didn't realize there was trouble by now, they weren't worth their salt./p
p class="MsoNormal"I wanted to blast apart an ornate vase blocking my view of Kael'thas, that he hoped would obscure whatever he was conjuring. Again the machine lifted my arm, almost before I could aim, then unleashed a blooming white missile. Then, seeing Saturna, Pyorin and Daphne suddenly on the move, I fired a new round their way to keep them pinned down./p
p class="MsoNormal"When the machine swiveled for me to re-engage Kael'thas, I saw that damned vase was still sitting there blocking his blonde head. Perfectly intact./p
p class="MsoNormal""The hell-?"/p
p class="MsoNormal"Daphne was sharp, she caught the problem before anyone else, "He's missing all the treasure. The treasure pieces! Gems, vases or gold, the machine won't let him destroy it!"/p
p class="MsoNormal"Pyorin complained, "What, Daphne? I don't get it!"/p
p class="MsoNormal"Pyorin never gets it, by the way. Okay so well he did marry her. So he does get it right, sometimes./p
p class="MsoNormal""The Goblin suit can't destroy treasure!"/p
p class="MsoNormal"Did I hear Kael'thas laughing?/p
p class="MsoNormal"Rommath almost cheered out, "The loot! Get behind the loot!"/p
p class="MsoNormal"Saturna gave the final order, though I could see the pain in her face. It was hard for her, having her best jewels put in danger. "Throw it at him!"/p
p class="MsoNormal"Well for frack's sake. Of all the things, was that the big weakness in my Goblin super suit? My suit swiveled back at Rommath. He pitched another gold statue my way, right at my helmet. I know that I fired something to deflect it, then mashed a bunch of buttons to pull up an energy shield that should have fried the thing. Instead, I heard the terrible 'bonk' when the statue bashed into my helmet./p
p class="MsoNormal""What the frick?! Protect me, you stupid suit!" I know they heard me scream that./p
p class="MsoNormal"Saturna pointed at me, "More! Hurl treasure boxes, sacks coins, my… my tiaras! Pummel the hell out of that suit!"/p
p class="MsoNormal""NOOO!" I was so furious by then. I was yelling over Fitz saying they were flying in anyway. I think he said that the sub had docked at Sunsail Anchorage? Damn that was close, if so. "Did you say Sunsail? That's a dangerous spot to be in—you still in target range?"/p
p class="MsoNormal"There was a high-pitched sound in the room. It was getting higher and higher. I felt the legs of the suit seize up, sort of. I didn't know what was going on. But I was certain Kael'thas was the one doing it./p
p class="MsoNormal"I fired off another shot in his direction. But then I watched the pathetic missile split into three, then nine and more to avoid the shape of Kael'thas stooping behind that vase again./p
p class="MsoNormal""Dammit! I could swear my gramma had one of those stinky Elf vases in her hut. It can't be worth all that much!" I yelled at the numbers racing across my view screen, then blinking to remind me, again, that nothing valuable was going to be destroyed./p
p class="MsoNormal"I guess Goblins appreciate being able to hurl explosives any which way and not destroy the swag. I, for one, prefer to live!/p
p class="MsoNormal"Helpless, I watched Kael'thas straighten and pick up that vase. He walked toward me, holding it in front of him./p
p class="MsoNormal""The moment you move your hands to cast a damn spell, Kael'thas, I've got you!" Though, on my end I was pulling on the levers inside of the suit's hands and mashing buttons like mad. But it refused to blow up the vase Kael'thas was hugging as he marched. And then, he managed to get it in just one arm, though it was heavy. He'd drop it any second./p
p class="MsoNormal"I turned and saw Saturna and the Blood Knights doing the same. All of them were holding some of that royal junk, so many glittering hostages, as they approached to encircle me./p
p class="MsoNormal"I raged as my mech was hobbled and went down on one knee, then another. That strange high-pitched magic was doing it. "Enough! Work, damn you! Blow someone up! You're Goblin tech, and worse, you're Venture Co. tech, so you know how to do that, you fool suit!"/p
p class="MsoNormal"Instead, I was being defeated by the Antiques Trunk Show, Silvermoon Edition. Ugh…/p
p class="MsoNormal"Not that I longed to blow anyone to bits. I did know these people's names, their scents by heart. The decent Tauren in me did not want to go straight to putting people down into bloody pulps. However, I also didn't want to lose miserably. Or, you know, die. Especially not in such a stupid damned way./p
p class="MsoNormal""Rommath!"/p
p class="MsoNormal"Well, shit. Kael'thas and his secret powerful pocket mage, his low-key best friend, were about to finish me off. Convenient. There were no words for how much I hated this man./p
p class="MsoNormal"I braced myself for what was going to happen next. Fitz's mech suit was about to be fire-tested into oblivion, that was clear./p
p class="MsoNormal"On his mark, both mages let go their vases, leaving them to hover with some magic. Then, Kael'thas thrust both hands out at me. He conjured a portal. It was a line, then suddenly a black oval hovering between us, growing./p
p class="MsoNormal"I nearly laughed. It was one of those things, you know, where a warlock needs a couple friends to touch the spell and stabilize it. I saw Pyorin drop his bag of gold and run over to tap it as well./p
p class="MsoNormal"With all my might, I lunged when the himbo lost his shield, to fire something off at him. Anything. But that high pitched whine was rattling the suit by then. And it was killing my ears. I leaned down on my fist. What were they trying to do, pull the suit apart? It felt like they were pulling my suit apart, stripping the chassis off, rattling the bolts until they unscrewed themselves. Could a treasure room alarm actually do something so specific? Kael'thas must have rigged it./p
p class="MsoNormal"The controls were failing. My breath was fogging inside of the helm, something it couldn't do before. Was air from the outside leaking in? So the thing really was coming apart. "What the hell…"/p
p class="MsoNormal""Now, Rommath—invert!"/p
p class="MsoNormal"I hated in that moment that I didn't get magic. That I couldn't imagine, not in my wildest dreams, what was going to happen next./p
p class="MsoNormal"The black void of the portal enveloped me. It was cold, so cold it was breathless. Then, I was weightless. I'd been summoned by a warlock spell before. You sort of blink, it's like your whole body blinks and shuts down for a moment, but when you blink again, you're in a new place. It's all fine. Scary the first time around, but you're also strangely relieved that warlocks do know what they're doing and that they are on our side. They use demons and their magic to get to vital shortcuts, get straight to results and save lives, time./p
p class="MsoNormal"This felt different. When I blinked awake, I was still freezing cold, even through that suit. I felt the cold deep in my lungs and it was harder to breathe than before. And daylight was coming through. Somehow, I knew that I was outside and the day was all around me. My nose told me that if nothing else. The scent of air, the sweet magic-tainted air of Silvermoon City was all around me. It was streaming into the suit./p
p class="MsoNormal"The fog against my helmet cleared, one breathy patch at a time. That was how I saw Kael'thas again, between my labored breaths. Breathe in, and he's hovering there, mid-air. I didn't know what the hell he was doing. Breathe out, and I could see the features of his face almost. His blonde hair streaming in the wind all around us. Was he a shaman, having conjured some wind storm to buoy us up?/p
p class="MsoNormal""Go on, look down." Rommath was there, too./p
p class="MsoNormal"The three of us were hovering many stories above Silvermoon City. We were positioned just as we had been, inside of the treasury. In a sort of triad. I watched Kael's vase suddenly drop fast, become a dot and slip into the blue sky, going a long way until it inevitably crashed on the city streets below. I couldn't hear or see it. That's how far up we were./p
p class="MsoNormal"I chanced a look, trying to make sense of things. I guessed the royal treasury was in the pale white tower some feet away from us, on my left./p
p class="MsoNormal"Kael'thas' green eyes were blazing. He mouthed words I couldn't hear as he moved his hands and conjured. Rommath was more relaxed, with his hands spread. He was the one keeping us alight./p
p class="MsoNormal"Rommath noted that I finally guessed my potential demise. "What now, Kael'thas? Do we drop him?"/p
p class="MsoNormal"Kael'thas looked up. Now it was his turn to calm, look less god-like, more like the scholar and once member of the Kirin Tor that he was./p
p class="MsoNormal""No. Something far more fun. Turaho, I just summoned you out of the tower."/p
p class="MsoNormal""CONGRATUFUCKINGLATIONS!" It was all I could think of, and breathing was hard, remember that as well. I shouted that so hard through my helmet for him to hear./p
p class="MsoNormal"Rommath let out a shocked chuckle./p
p class="MsoNormal"Kael'thas narrowed his gaze on me. "I thought if I can't figure out how to defeat a Goblin suit in time, I should change up the battlefield to take away your advantage."/p
p class="MsoNormal"Rommath arched an eyebrow at Kael'thas, "We're thinking on the fly, though."/p
p class="MsoNormal"I hated the thought that this was all impromptu for them. A few quick stabs in the dark to undo the threat. Meanwhile, this mech suit was expensive for a Goblin to make and probably took years to get schematics, materials, put in a personal crafting order for the parts… you know how it is./p
p class="MsoNormal""I know." Kael'thas rolled his wrists, and purple arcane script sparked around his hands. "But not for much longer. He spoke again in that cocky, regal voice. "Say Turaho? I wonder how hard it would be to pull the same trick again? And summon you out of that suit?"/p
p class="MsoNormal"Aw, shit. Not again./p
p class="MsoNormal"Kael'thas summoned another portal. Rommath reached out to help./p
p class="MsoNormal""Ha! You can't do it, can you? Because you need a third man!"/p
p class="MsoNormal"Kael'thas rolled his eyes. "If I was a mighty Bloodmage limited to that old rule, do you think I would have ever got this far?" Kael'thas reached out a red-gloved hand, beckoned me. "I honestly don't know why Pyorin rushed up to touch the portal. I never needed him. Just Rommath, to handle the floating spell out here once we crossed to the other side. I had no idea if this would work, or what would go wrong if it didn't."/p
p class="MsoNormal"em"Turaho? Turaho! We can't get to ya. We're under heavy fire at the anchorage. They found us!"/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"Yeah, because Fitz had stupidly shouted his location through my helmet for the whole room to hear. And there went my backup. I could just see a bloom of orange flame and streaming black smoke on the eastern horizon, far off beyond the tall towers of Silvermoon City. Sunsail Anchorage and Fitz's besieged Goblin sub was somewhere out there in the city outskirts, the countryside of Eversong Forest./p
p class="MsoNormal""No!" I remembered saying again and again, breathless, as Kael'thas used his powers to draw me in, suit and all, to force me through the black portal. "My chance… I should have shot you dead!"/p
p class="MsoNormal""Don't be a whining baby, Turaho. I'm only going to pull you apart, push you through a void sieve into a million points of magic, then reassemble you again someplace of my choosing. I only wonder, where oh where will that be after all the hell you put me through!"/p
p class="MsoNormal"Greatfather Winter said if I was good, then I would get a present. It was so unfair because I don't know how much kinder you can be to the world than finally eliminating that full-blown, blonde, bull-headed jerk!/p
p class="MsoNormal"Weird thought, then. I completely empathized with Illidan Stormrage. Keeping the vials of the Well of Eternity to himself, never trusting Kael'thas, constantly lying to him, attempting to kill him, putting a collar around Kael's neck to control his mad Bloodmage tendencies. Illidan Stormrage sitting alone grumbling away in a hole inside his brother's world tree was suddenly the most sane and coherent man in existence. And Illidan had warned me, hadn't he? He did! I should have listened to him. I should have got the hell out of Kael'thas' company while I still had the chance./p
p class="MsoNormal"I wonder how many other people in Kael's inner circle reached that same conclusion about Illidan in their final moments before they died?/p
p class="MsoNormal"I swear if that is the moral of this skewed, rambling, over-long chapter of my life I will absolutely have to hurt someone./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"…/p
p class="MsoNormal"strongChapter 39: Summon Me Daddy/strong/p
p class="MsoNormal"strongG/strongoblin tech is beyond sexy. Guns, especially big rifles, they have this rapport that fills your world when you get a shot off. And you get blown back. You feel it all over your body. This monstrous death suit Fitz and his boys put me in, the firepower reverberated up and down my arms and legs. It got in my belly. It was part of me in a way that made the firepower feel intimate./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"No wonder the Goblins, Gnomes too I guess, went mad and engineered gadgets the way that they did. They absolutely could not live without tinkering. This was like coming home to a lover. Every time I pulled a trigger, aimed a missile, I got this thrill. She was making me bigger, stronger. She believed in me. I wasn't about to live without her, and I was never going to abandon her. If this big, fun toy blew up, or even if I'd lost a limb, I'd have to go back and build again, bigger. Nothing matched the fun, the ego stroke. Meanwhile the rest of the world, us Orcs and Tauren, were watching the Goblins go on cackling like mad even as they failed, just shaking our heads. Now, I was a fellow addict./p
p class="MsoNormal"And at long last, I had the ability to point at any of those dumb Elves who had been tormenting me and end them with half a thought. I pointed my arm, but somehow the machine already knew a moment before I did, what I wanted. She nearly pointed my arm for me, told me who and how to shoot. A novice could almost use the suit, it was twisted. With the machine nearly reading my thoughts, it felt like we were moving faster than everything around us. I gasped when I saw Saturna raise her Whiteblade amid a conflagration, to deflect a white-hot missile coming at them. The small Goblin rocket punched the gleaming metal. The painted red cap with a snarling face blew off. Rocket fuel erupted from a tight ball, ignited. Destruction bloomed across the magical sword. From head to gleaming fire tail, the impact looked soft. And a Blood Knight in her full form, wielding a sacred blade and fully believing her fierce control over Light magic could stop it, it shook me. That surprised me. What that Goblin mech suit could do was one thing. What Saturna shouted about and slung that massive bright sword against with nothing but her naked, fragile conviction, was another./p
p class="MsoNormal"The moment we had all been avoiding, terrified, yet excited for had finally come because as Paladins, we were all zealous bastards deep down. I had attacked Kael'thas, their king, and shown how much of a heathen I was. Now Saturna and her henchmen could purge me from their holy ground./p
p class="MsoNormal""Bring it on!" I yelled through the helmet./p
p class="MsoNormal"No fun retort back. Fear raced around my chest. I was inside the royal treasury after all, and attacking their sovereign. Bad, stupid place to lose your temper. Wait. Making a one-man war on the Blood Elves, was that what I had just done?/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"Hell, felt good at the time./p
p class="MsoNormal"I'd put the Blood Knights and Kael'thas on their back foot, so to speak. They were busy trying to throw up a defense. And, they were worried about the precious goods in the room blowing up./p
p class="MsoNormal"Well, I thought they were until Rommath came up from a pillar he and Kael'thas had huddled behind, to hurl a gold phoenix statue at me./p
p class="MsoNormal""Hey!" I gleefully aimed to blast it into a thousand pretty pieces. The missile weaved around it strangely, though. I watched it make a hole in the wall, then made another shot in a flash. I wanted to snag Rommath at least before he finished throwing me that obvious distraction. Kael'thas had ducked down and scuttled to a new spot among the treasure chests./p
p class="MsoNormal"I figured there was some panic button Kael'thas was trying to reach. It would make my life difficult, either with a new energy field or calling the guards. Well, if the royal guards just outside the door didn't realize there was trouble by now, they weren't worth their salt./p
p class="MsoNormal"I wanted to blast apart an ornate vase blocking my view of Kael'thas, that he hoped would obscure whatever he was conjuring. Again the machine lifted my arm, almost before I could aim, then unleashed a blooming white missile. Then, seeing Saturna, Pyorin and Daphne suddenly on the move, I fired a new round their way to keep them pinned down./p
p class="MsoNormal"When the machine swiveled for me to re-engage Kael'thas, I saw that damned vase was still sitting there blocking his blonde head. Perfectly intact./p
p class="MsoNormal""The hell-?"/p
p class="MsoNormal"Daphne was sharp, she caught the problem before anyone else, "He's missing all the treasure. The treasure pieces! Gems, vases or gold, the machine won't let him destroy it!"/p
p class="MsoNormal"Pyorin complained, "What, Daphne? I don't get it!"/p
p class="MsoNormal"Pyorin never gets it, by the way. Okay so well he did marry her. So he does get it right, sometimes./p
p class="MsoNormal""The Goblin suit can't destroy treasure!"/p
p class="MsoNormal"Did I hear Kael'thas laughing?/p
p class="MsoNormal"Rommath almost cheered out, "The loot! Get behind the loot!"/p
p class="MsoNormal"Saturna gave the final order, though I could see the pain in her face. It was hard for her, having her best jewels put in danger. "Throw it at him!"/p
p class="MsoNormal"Well for frack's sake. Of all the things, was that the big weakness in my Goblin super suit? My suit swiveled back at Rommath. He pitched another gold statue my way, right at my helmet. I know that I fired something to deflect it, then mashed a bunch of buttons to pull up an energy shield that should have fried the thing. Instead, I heard the terrible 'bonk' when the statue bashed into my helmet./p
p class="MsoNormal""What the frick?! Protect me, you stupid suit!" I know they heard me scream that./p
p class="MsoNormal"Saturna pointed at me, "More! Hurl treasure boxes, sacks coins, my… my tiaras! Pummel the hell out of that suit!"/p
p class="MsoNormal""NOOO!" I was so furious by then. I was yelling over Fitz saying they were flying in anyway. I think he said that the sub had docked at Sunsail Anchorage? Damn that was close, if so. "Did you say Sunsail? That's a dangerous spot to be in—you still in target range?"/p
p class="MsoNormal"There was a high-pitched sound in the room. It was getting higher and higher. I felt the legs of the suit seize up, sort of. I didn't know what was going on. But I was certain Kael'thas was the one doing it./p
p class="MsoNormal"I fired off another shot in his direction. But then I watched the pathetic missile split into three, then nine and more to avoid the shape of Kael'thas stooping behind that vase again./p
p class="MsoNormal""Dammit! I could swear my gramma had one of those stinky Elf vases in her hut. It can't be worth all that much!" I yelled at the numbers racing across my view screen, then blinking to remind me, again, that nothing valuable was going to be destroyed./p
p class="MsoNormal"I guess Goblins appreciate being able to hurl explosives any which way and not destroy the swag. I, for one, prefer to live!/p
p class="MsoNormal"Helpless, I watched Kael'thas straighten and pick up that vase. He walked toward me, holding it in front of him./p
p class="MsoNormal""The moment you move your hands to cast a damn spell, Kael'thas, I've got you!" Though, on my end I was pulling on the levers inside of the suit's hands and mashing buttons like mad. But it refused to blow up the vase Kael'thas was hugging as he marched. And then, he managed to get it in just one arm, though it was heavy. He'd drop it any second./p
p class="MsoNormal"I turned and saw Saturna and the Blood Knights doing the same. All of them were holding some of that royal junk, so many glittering hostages, as they approached to encircle me./p
p class="MsoNormal"I raged as my mech was hobbled and went down on one knee, then another. That strange high-pitched magic was doing it. "Enough! Work, damn you! Blow someone up! You're Goblin tech, and worse, you're Venture Co. tech, so you know how to do that, you fool suit!"/p
p class="MsoNormal"Instead, I was being defeated by the Antiques Trunk Show, Silvermoon Edition. Ugh…/p
p class="MsoNormal"Not that I longed to blow anyone to bits. I did know these people's names, their scents by heart. The decent Tauren in me did not want to go straight to putting people down into bloody pulps. However, I also didn't want to lose miserably. Or, you know, die. Especially not in such a stupid damned way./p
p class="MsoNormal""Rommath!"/p
p class="MsoNormal"Well, shit. Kael'thas and his secret powerful pocket mage, his low-key best friend, were about to finish me off. Convenient. There were no words for how much I hated this man./p
p class="MsoNormal"I braced myself for what was going to happen next. Fitz's mech suit was about to be fire-tested into oblivion, that was clear./p
p class="MsoNormal"On his mark, both mages let go their vases, leaving them to hover with some magic. Then, Kael'thas thrust both hands out at me. He conjured a portal. It was a line, then suddenly a black oval hovering between us, growing./p
p class="MsoNormal"I nearly laughed. It was one of those things, you know, where a warlock needs a couple friends to touch the spell and stabilize it. I saw Pyorin drop his bag of gold and run over to tap it as well./p
p class="MsoNormal"With all my might, I lunged when the himbo lost his shield, to fire something off at him. Anything. But that high pitched whine was rattling the suit by then. And it was killing my ears. I leaned down on my fist. What were they trying to do, pull the suit apart? It felt like they were pulling my suit apart, stripping the chassis off, rattling the bolts until they unscrewed themselves. Could a treasure room alarm actually do something so specific? Kael'thas must have rigged it./p
p class="MsoNormal"The controls were failing. My breath was fogging inside of the helm, something it couldn't do before. Was air from the outside leaking in? So the thing really was coming apart. "What the hell…"/p
p class="MsoNormal""Now, Rommath—invert!"/p
p class="MsoNormal"I hated in that moment that I didn't get magic. That I couldn't imagine, not in my wildest dreams, what was going to happen next./p
p class="MsoNormal"The black void of the portal enveloped me. It was cold, so cold it was breathless. Then, I was weightless. I'd been summoned by a warlock spell before. You sort of blink, it's like your whole body blinks and shuts down for a moment, but when you blink again, you're in a new place. It's all fine. Scary the first time around, but you're also strangely relieved that warlocks do know what they're doing and that they are on our side. They use demons and their magic to get to vital shortcuts, get straight to results and save lives, time./p
p class="MsoNormal"This felt different. When I blinked awake, I was still freezing cold, even through that suit. I felt the cold deep in my lungs and it was harder to breathe than before. And daylight was coming through. Somehow, I knew that I was outside and the day was all around me. My nose told me that if nothing else. The scent of air, the sweet magic-tainted air of Silvermoon City was all around me. It was streaming into the suit./p
p class="MsoNormal"The fog against my helmet cleared, one breathy patch at a time. That was how I saw Kael'thas again, between my labored breaths. Breathe in, and he's hovering there, mid-air. I didn't know what the hell he was doing. Breathe out, and I could see the features of his face almost. His blonde hair streaming in the wind all around us. Was he a shaman, having conjured some wind storm to buoy us up?/p
p class="MsoNormal""Go on, look down." Rommath was there, too./p
p class="MsoNormal"The three of us were hovering many stories above Silvermoon City. We were positioned just as we had been, inside of the treasury. In a sort of triad. I watched Kael's vase suddenly drop fast, become a dot and slip into the blue sky, going a long way until it inevitably crashed on the city streets below. I couldn't hear or see it. That's how far up we were./p
p class="MsoNormal"I chanced a look, trying to make sense of things. I guessed the royal treasury was in the pale white tower some feet away from us, on my left./p
p class="MsoNormal"Kael'thas' green eyes were blazing. He mouthed words I couldn't hear as he moved his hands and conjured. Rommath was more relaxed, with his hands spread. He was the one keeping us alight./p
p class="MsoNormal"Rommath noted that I finally guessed my potential demise. "What now, Kael'thas? Do we drop him?"/p
p class="MsoNormal"Kael'thas looked up. Now it was his turn to calm, look less god-like, more like the scholar and once member of the Kirin Tor that he was./p
p class="MsoNormal""No. Something far more fun. Turaho, I just summoned you out of the tower."/p
p class="MsoNormal""CONGRATUFUCKINGLATIONS!" It was all I could think of, and breathing was hard, remember that as well. I shouted that so hard through my helmet for him to hear./p
p class="MsoNormal"Rommath let out a shocked chuckle./p
p class="MsoNormal"Kael'thas narrowed his gaze on me. "I thought if I can't figure out how to defeat a Goblin suit in time, I should change up the battlefield to take away your advantage."/p
p class="MsoNormal"Rommath arched an eyebrow at Kael'thas, "We're thinking on the fly, though."/p
p class="MsoNormal"I hated the thought that this was all impromptu for them. A few quick stabs in the dark to undo the threat. Meanwhile, this mech suit was expensive for a Goblin to make and probably took years to get schematics, materials, put in a personal crafting order for the parts… you know how it is./p
p class="MsoNormal""I know." Kael'thas rolled his wrists, and purple arcane script sparked around his hands. "But not for much longer. He spoke again in that cocky, regal voice. "Say Turaho? I wonder how hard it would be to pull the same trick again? And summon you out of that suit?"/p
p class="MsoNormal"Aw, shit. Not again./p
p class="MsoNormal"Kael'thas summoned another portal. Rommath reached out to help./p
p class="MsoNormal""Ha! You can't do it, can you? Because you need a third man!"/p
p class="MsoNormal"Kael'thas rolled his eyes. "If I was a mighty Bloodmage limited to that old rule, do you think I would have ever got this far?" Kael'thas reached out a red-gloved hand, beckoned me. "I honestly don't know why Pyorin rushed up to touch the portal. I never needed him. Just Rommath, to handle the floating spell out here once we crossed to the other side. I had no idea if this would work, or what would go wrong if it didn't."/p
p class="MsoNormal"em"Turaho? Turaho! We can't get to ya. We're under heavy fire at the anchorage. They found us!"/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"Yeah, because Fitz had stupidly shouted his location through my helmet for the whole room to hear. And there went my backup. I could just see a bloom of orange flame and streaming black smoke on the eastern horizon, far off beyond the tall towers of Silvermoon City. Sunsail Anchorage and Fitz's besieged Goblin sub was somewhere out there in the city outskirts, the countryside of Eversong Forest./p
p class="MsoNormal""No!" I remembered saying again and again, breathless, as Kael'thas used his powers to draw me in, suit and all, to force me through the black portal. "My chance… I should have shot you dead!"/p
p class="MsoNormal""Don't be a whining baby, Turaho. I'm only going to pull you apart, push you through a void sieve into a million points of magic, then reassemble you again someplace of my choosing. I only wonder, where oh where will that be after all the hell you put me through!"/p
p class="MsoNormal"Greatfather Winter said if I was good, then I would get a present. It was so unfair because I don't know how much kinder you can be to the world than finally eliminating that full-blown, blonde, bull-headed jerk!/p
p class="MsoNormal"Weird thought, then. I completely empathized with Illidan Stormrage. Keeping the vials of the Well of Eternity to himself, never trusting Kael'thas, constantly lying to him, attempting to kill him, putting a collar around Kael's neck to control his mad Bloodmage tendencies. Illidan Stormrage sitting alone grumbling away in a hole inside his brother's world tree was suddenly the most sane and coherent man in existence. And Illidan had warned me, hadn't he? He did! I should have listened to him. I should have got the hell out of Kael'thas' company while I still had the chance./p
p class="MsoNormal"I wonder how many other people in Kael's inner circle reached that same conclusion about Illidan in their final moments before they died?/p
p class="MsoNormal"I swear if that is the moral of this skewed, rambling, over-long chapter of my life I will absolutely have to hurt someone./p