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 40: Another Mad Tea Party/strong/p
p class="MsoNormal"strongS/strongpeaking of the devil himself. I had a dream about Illidan while I was out. At least, I hope it was just a dream./p
p class="MsoNormal"We were in Mulgore again. Illidan was pouring me tea./p
p class="MsoNormal""Illidan Stormrage. This is somehow the worst thing I have ever seen or heard of you doing—"/p
p class="MsoNormal""Shut up," Illidan smirked at me./p
p class="MsoNormal"When he was done serving me a steaming cup of tea, and it was humble Tauren stone-carved flatware by the way, Illidan itched at his nose and nudged up his blindfold a bit. I liked noticing that./p
p class="MsoNormal"He grinned at me, with pointed teeth. "So. Did you have fun playtime with my old friend?"/p
p class="MsoNormal"I saw how I was in one piece, seated on a tree stump. Our table was a slab of petrified wood. It was a real table alright, and excellent quality actually. The sycamore tree would have been hundreds of years old. Illidan and his imagination had some great taste./p
p class="MsoNormal"I noted the sky as well, blue and fine. Better than that weakling, sickly Silvermoon City sky blue. It was a lovely Mulgore day. Except for the black whorl at the center of the sky when I craned my neck all the way back./p
p class="MsoNormal""Oh, so. I'm dead. Right?"/p
p class="MsoNormal"Illidan reached for his stone cup of tea. He blew on it gently. "Well, I'm helping you again. For whatever it's worth. Kael'thas wanted to 'accidentally obliterate you' in the void summoning spell."/p
p class="MsoNormal"I blinked slowly at that./p
p class="MsoNormal"Illidan blew on his tea again, "But a few problems with that tack. One, it would make Rommath a witness to your murder. Killing you in self-defense inside of the treasury would have been better. But after you were summoned outside using exceptional magical skill, then summoned again beyond your mech suit? Even Kael'thas would have to explain that to his own people. Quel'thalas has enough capable mages to understand the foolishness of that, even among its normal citizenry. However he's managed to sway the newspapers and such… Go on, it's good tea." Illidan had a deep sip, "Perfect and hot."/p
p class="MsoNormal"I squinted an eye, "Are you trying to be my spirit guide? If that's gonna be anyone, it should be my mother. She's a spirit."/p
p class="MsoNormal"Illidan ignored me, "Second, a certain person is arguing, vehemently right now, that you not be killed. Especially not ontop of everything else Kael'thas has already been accused of."/p
p class="MsoNormal""Who?"/p
p class="MsoNormal"But I knew who it was. Saturna was the one most likely to do so. Illidan had trouble talking about Saturna for some reason. She was the woman, no, the lone mortal in this life, willing to come between Kael'thas and Illidan's mad scheming while they were back in Outland./p
p class="MsoNormal"A mystery for me to solve another day, I think. When Illidan wasn't helping to keep me alive via some soul link magic between him and Kael'thas. I guess that's what Illidan was describing to me./p
p class="MsoNormal"I had some of the tea. It was lavender, actually. Very soothing. "What now?" I tried to stay as calm as he was about being suspended in some sort of judgement over my soul, by the Blood Elves involved in the investigation./p
p class="MsoNormal"Illidan set down his stone cup with a rich click on the petrified wood table. A songbird chirruped majestically from among the fir trees at the edge of the clearing./p
p class="MsoNormal""I told you before, Turaho, that you don't know how deep this goes. When your dog Zoca wandered through, I watched over her for a while. Now you've wandered by and I am watching over you. I could have stayed comfortable on my seat, inside my tree—"/p
p class="MsoNormal""Your brother's tree?"/p
p class="MsoNormal"At last, Illidan looked right at me and fully acknowledged me. "My tree. A tree for all Night Elves, not just my brother. If I put it that way before, I misspoke."/p
p class="MsoNormal""Change of heart after your prank went off?"/p
p class="MsoNormal"Illidan rested his clawed hands on his knees. The silken green arcane runes on his violet chest held latent power. It was so beautifully quiet in that space he'd carved out for the two of us, inside of Kael'thas' spell or wherever we were, I think I could hear those runes humming, ever so gently./p
p class="MsoNormal""Something like that. It is the holiday season, after all."/p
p class="MsoNormal"I nodded that it was true./p
p class="MsoNormal""An old Dwarf in a red suit got to you as well?"/p
p class="MsoNormal"Illidan shook his head and his great arcing demon horns. "He comes every year, and he fails with me. I didn't expect Greatfather Winter to make it this year, but clearly you liberated him in time. I can only congratulate you on that. Like a great many Light-touched, titan-touched or adjacent creatures, the Dwarf thinks I need to be redeemed. I'm fine as I am. But he was right that I didn't exactly need to unleash havoc right during the holiday while my brother was home in Teldrassil. And, I suppose he and I talked instead of arguing this time. Which amazed me."/p
p class="MsoNormal"I shook my head at how fast, and how efficiently, Greatfather Winter could work. And I'd only unleashed him back into the world, escorted by Alessandre and the Night Elves of course, a day before./p
p class="MsoNormal""I owe you one," Illidan told me./p
p class="MsoNormal""Let's… not do this again. You're reading me somehow, like before. I thought you might say that—"/p
p class="MsoNormal""Because it's true."/p
p class="MsoNormal""…because it's slightly true. Illidan, please." I dragged a hand down my Tauren muzzle, huffed a long sigh. I waited for him to get over all that./p
p class="MsoNormal""Turaho, I stepped in to save you just now for that reason. You've given something back to me. I may as well also advise you in some useful manner to help you survive this. Though… I am usually terse on this subject. It is a rare favor, from me. Are you ready to listen?"/p
p class="MsoNormal"I drank up the rest of my lukewarm tea like it was a stiff drink. Clunked the cup down on the table./p
p class="MsoNormal"Illidan smiled genuinely at me, "Maybe she will… reveal all to you, about me. I don't know. Maybe it will make this advice meaningless. I only hope that through my actions over the years, I have proven myself well enough. But I urge you now to look past any…" Illidan paused again. He made one of his clawed hands into a fist, over his knee. I wasn't sure if he was going to finish, he looked so lost. I thought I might change the subject, wondered if it might be polite to talk about the weather instead. If there was any in this spell we were stuck inside of./p
p class="MsoNormal"Illidan began again, "I was deeply wounded, in my soul, I think. I told her that," he inhaled a troubled breath, "You can't save half of a man. I told her that I was the other half of Kael'thas."/p
p class="MsoNormal"I was already putting it together in my investigator's mind. I wasn't sure if I had it fully, yet. I just couldn't imagine Saturna going to Illidan willingly, for romantic reasons you know. Back then in Outland. Though, women will always surprise you. It's why us men will gladly make a play in some unusual situations. You saw me flirt with Aponi Brightmane at my Sunwalker initiation, right?/p
p class="MsoNormal"I decided not to make a thing of it, though my instincts were leading me there about their past together in Outland. But I wasn't getting confidence or any kind of bravado from Illidan. There was no lust in him, only fear. Someone in that trio had been deeply wronged, horribly betrayed, and Illidan himself felt he was the one to blame. Rare indeed, for him./p
p class="MsoNormal"Illidan tried for a third time, "You will have the chance to do, to say something, that I cannot. A chance that I lost forever. I hope you will not miss it when you see it."/p
p class="MsoNormal""What is Saturna going to ask me, Illidan?"/p
p class="MsoNormal"Illidan didn't like me saying her name, as if he had assumed we had an understanding about that. I guess we did have one. But I wanted to survive. I needed more intel. I was tired of dancing around so many facts on this mission./p
p class="MsoNormal"He growled, "Don't fuck up your chance, due to pride! You can still look him in the eye. Shake emhis/em hand. Ask about his day and genuinely mean it, have him tell you! You can walk beside them, him and her, and in their very footsteps if you like, in broad daylight if you choose. You have no idea how precious a chance that is, Turaho. You can reverse being spurned forever. Undo being a pariah, hated!"/p
p class="MsoNormal""How, Illidan? How do I reverse being spurned forever?"/p
p class="MsoNormal"Illidan stood from the table made from a tree so ancient it had turned into something like stone or glass. He opened his dark, tattered wings against the blue sky and fir trees, the green grass all around us./p
p class="MsoNormal"Illidan snarled at me, "Is the world filled with thorns and needles? Do you bite into bread and it becomes salt, ash on your tongue?"/p
p class="MsoNormal""Um, no."/p
p class="MsoNormal""Good for you! Then do not live as if it is. And do not make monsters out of people. If there is no war, then…" he opened his hand with long black nails, dropped it at his side, "there is no war. It took me an entire lifetime to understand that."/p
p class="MsoNormal"I was too frightened to contradict him./p
p class="MsoNormal""It is time for you to go, Turaho. She's just done it." He looked up, pricked a long ear slightly, listening. Night Elves can do that. "She has argued for you, this time. For your sake. Not for me. How fortunate you are."/p
p class="MsoNormal"I stood from my seat, that humble tree trunk. Illidan was really making me miss home. All this beautiful Mulgore I hadn't seen in months, and couldn't truly have back. Not yet. I suppose that was his point./p
p class="MsoNormal"I chanced it, "Illidan, Kael'thas must know that you miss his friendship. Deeply." It felt like dragging nails on slate, bringing the last part up, "Saturna, too. Maybe one day, you three can re-capture the alliance you had, even if brief, in Outland. Couldn't you also hope?"/p
p class="MsoNormal"Illidan stood there, refusing to react to it, show any more vulnerability on the subject./p
p class="MsoNormal"Then, he surprised me, "I am forbidden to say her name."/p
p class="MsoNormal""Ah—"/p
p class="MsoNormal""If she remembers… and I pray she still does not. She will be glad whenever I am dead, when I pass into the next realm. I will always live with that knowledge. A deeper brand than these." He gestured at the runes on his chest. I noticed also, a faint, long jagged scar along his violet skin. Well, he had a lot of scars. But my eyes kept roving back to it now. It snagged my imagination for some reason. Was that what he had really pointed at? Was it included in his gesture, part of his damnable brand? Or, was I finally checking him out? Hell if I truly know./p
p class="MsoNormal"I remembered he had been talking to me, his cryptic self-deprecation. What do you say to all that?/p
p class="MsoNormal""…Oh."/p
p class="MsoNormal""Turaho, don't you ever get beyond hope. Do not do things to get you beyond the hopes of others."/p
p class="MsoNormal""No, sir." I don't know why I put it like that./p
p class="MsoNormal""Turaho, you can leave now."/p
p class="MsoNormal""Yes, that. Once again, I think I'm going to have to ask you, um. Uh… h-how do I…?"/p
p class="MsoNormal"And that is when I woke up on the bench in my cell. I've never been more happy to see cold prison bars in all my life./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"…/p
p class="MsoNormal"strongChapter 40: Another Mad Tea Party/strong/p
p class="MsoNormal"strongS/strongpeaking of the devil himself. I had a dream about Illidan while I was out. At least, I hope it was just a dream./p
p class="MsoNormal"We were in Mulgore again. Illidan was pouring me tea./p
p class="MsoNormal""Illidan Stormrage. This is somehow the worst thing I have ever seen or heard of you doing—"/p
p class="MsoNormal""Shut up," Illidan smirked at me./p
p class="MsoNormal"When he was done serving me a steaming cup of tea, and it was humble Tauren stone-carved flatware by the way, Illidan itched at his nose and nudged up his blindfold a bit. I liked noticing that./p
p class="MsoNormal"He grinned at me, with pointed teeth. "So. Did you have fun playtime with my old friend?"/p
p class="MsoNormal"I saw how I was in one piece, seated on a tree stump. Our table was a slab of petrified wood. It was a real table alright, and excellent quality actually. The sycamore tree would have been hundreds of years old. Illidan and his imagination had some great taste./p
p class="MsoNormal"I noted the sky as well, blue and fine. Better than that weakling, sickly Silvermoon City sky blue. It was a lovely Mulgore day. Except for the black whorl at the center of the sky when I craned my neck all the way back./p
p class="MsoNormal""Oh, so. I'm dead. Right?"/p
p class="MsoNormal"Illidan reached for his stone cup of tea. He blew on it gently. "Well, I'm helping you again. For whatever it's worth. Kael'thas wanted to 'accidentally obliterate you' in the void summoning spell."/p
p class="MsoNormal"I blinked slowly at that./p
p class="MsoNormal"Illidan blew on his tea again, "But a few problems with that tack. One, it would make Rommath a witness to your murder. Killing you in self-defense inside of the treasury would have been better. But after you were summoned outside using exceptional magical skill, then summoned again beyond your mech suit? Even Kael'thas would have to explain that to his own people. Quel'thalas has enough capable mages to understand the foolishness of that, even among its normal citizenry. However he's managed to sway the newspapers and such… Go on, it's good tea." Illidan had a deep sip, "Perfect and hot."/p
p class="MsoNormal"I squinted an eye, "Are you trying to be my spirit guide? If that's gonna be anyone, it should be my mother. She's a spirit."/p
p class="MsoNormal"Illidan ignored me, "Second, a certain person is arguing, vehemently right now, that you not be killed. Especially not ontop of everything else Kael'thas has already been accused of."/p
p class="MsoNormal""Who?"/p
p class="MsoNormal"But I knew who it was. Saturna was the one most likely to do so. Illidan had trouble talking about Saturna for some reason. She was the woman, no, the lone mortal in this life, willing to come between Kael'thas and Illidan's mad scheming while they were back in Outland./p
p class="MsoNormal"A mystery for me to solve another day, I think. When Illidan wasn't helping to keep me alive via some soul link magic between him and Kael'thas. I guess that's what Illidan was describing to me./p
p class="MsoNormal"I had some of the tea. It was lavender, actually. Very soothing. "What now?" I tried to stay as calm as he was about being suspended in some sort of judgement over my soul, by the Blood Elves involved in the investigation./p
p class="MsoNormal"Illidan set down his stone cup with a rich click on the petrified wood table. A songbird chirruped majestically from among the fir trees at the edge of the clearing./p
p class="MsoNormal""I told you before, Turaho, that you don't know how deep this goes. When your dog Zoca wandered through, I watched over her for a while. Now you've wandered by and I am watching over you. I could have stayed comfortable on my seat, inside my tree—"/p
p class="MsoNormal""Your brother's tree?"/p
p class="MsoNormal"At last, Illidan looked right at me and fully acknowledged me. "My tree. A tree for all Night Elves, not just my brother. If I put it that way before, I misspoke."/p
p class="MsoNormal""Change of heart after your prank went off?"/p
p class="MsoNormal"Illidan rested his clawed hands on his knees. The silken green arcane runes on his violet chest held latent power. It was so beautifully quiet in that space he'd carved out for the two of us, inside of Kael'thas' spell or wherever we were, I think I could hear those runes humming, ever so gently./p
p class="MsoNormal""Something like that. It is the holiday season, after all."/p
p class="MsoNormal"I nodded that it was true./p
p class="MsoNormal""An old Dwarf in a red suit got to you as well?"/p
p class="MsoNormal"Illidan shook his head and his great arcing demon horns. "He comes every year, and he fails with me. I didn't expect Greatfather Winter to make it this year, but clearly you liberated him in time. I can only congratulate you on that. Like a great many Light-touched, titan-touched or adjacent creatures, the Dwarf thinks I need to be redeemed. I'm fine as I am. But he was right that I didn't exactly need to unleash havoc right during the holiday while my brother was home in Teldrassil. And, I suppose he and I talked instead of arguing this time. Which amazed me."/p
p class="MsoNormal"I shook my head at how fast, and how efficiently, Greatfather Winter could work. And I'd only unleashed him back into the world, escorted by Alessandre and the Night Elves of course, a day before./p
p class="MsoNormal""I owe you one," Illidan told me./p
p class="MsoNormal""Let's… not do this again. You're reading me somehow, like before. I thought you might say that—"/p
p class="MsoNormal""Because it's true."/p
p class="MsoNormal""…because it's slightly true. Illidan, please." I dragged a hand down my Tauren muzzle, huffed a long sigh. I waited for him to get over all that./p
p class="MsoNormal""Turaho, I stepped in to save you just now for that reason. You've given something back to me. I may as well also advise you in some useful manner to help you survive this. Though… I am usually terse on this subject. It is a rare favor, from me. Are you ready to listen?"/p
p class="MsoNormal"I drank up the rest of my lukewarm tea like it was a stiff drink. Clunked the cup down on the table./p
p class="MsoNormal"Illidan smiled genuinely at me, "Maybe she will… reveal all to you, about me. I don't know. Maybe it will make this advice meaningless. I only hope that through my actions over the years, I have proven myself well enough. But I urge you now to look past any…" Illidan paused again. He made one of his clawed hands into a fist, over his knee. I wasn't sure if he was going to finish, he looked so lost. I thought I might change the subject, wondered if it might be polite to talk about the weather instead. If there was any in this spell we were stuck inside of./p
p class="MsoNormal"Illidan began again, "I was deeply wounded, in my soul, I think. I told her that," he inhaled a troubled breath, "You can't save half of a man. I told her that I was the other half of Kael'thas."/p
p class="MsoNormal"I was already putting it together in my investigator's mind. I wasn't sure if I had it fully, yet. I just couldn't imagine Saturna going to Illidan willingly, for romantic reasons you know. Back then in Outland. Though, women will always surprise you. It's why us men will gladly make a play in some unusual situations. You saw me flirt with Aponi Brightmane at my Sunwalker initiation, right?/p
p class="MsoNormal"I decided not to make a thing of it, though my instincts were leading me there about their past together in Outland. But I wasn't getting confidence or any kind of bravado from Illidan. There was no lust in him, only fear. Someone in that trio had been deeply wronged, horribly betrayed, and Illidan himself felt he was the one to blame. Rare indeed, for him./p
p class="MsoNormal"Illidan tried for a third time, "You will have the chance to do, to say something, that I cannot. A chance that I lost forever. I hope you will not miss it when you see it."/p
p class="MsoNormal""What is Saturna going to ask me, Illidan?"/p
p class="MsoNormal"Illidan didn't like me saying her name, as if he had assumed we had an understanding about that. I guess we did have one. But I wanted to survive. I needed more intel. I was tired of dancing around so many facts on this mission./p
p class="MsoNormal"He growled, "Don't fuck up your chance, due to pride! You can still look him in the eye. Shake emhis/em hand. Ask about his day and genuinely mean it, have him tell you! You can walk beside them, him and her, and in their very footsteps if you like, in broad daylight if you choose. You have no idea how precious a chance that is, Turaho. You can reverse being spurned forever. Undo being a pariah, hated!"/p
p class="MsoNormal""How, Illidan? How do I reverse being spurned forever?"/p
p class="MsoNormal"Illidan stood from the table made from a tree so ancient it had turned into something like stone or glass. He opened his dark, tattered wings against the blue sky and fir trees, the green grass all around us./p
p class="MsoNormal"Illidan snarled at me, "Is the world filled with thorns and needles? Do you bite into bread and it becomes salt, ash on your tongue?"/p
p class="MsoNormal""Um, no."/p
p class="MsoNormal""Good for you! Then do not live as if it is. And do not make monsters out of people. If there is no war, then…" he opened his hand with long black nails, dropped it at his side, "there is no war. It took me an entire lifetime to understand that."/p
p class="MsoNormal"I was too frightened to contradict him./p
p class="MsoNormal""It is time for you to go, Turaho. She's just done it." He looked up, pricked a long ear slightly, listening. Night Elves can do that. "She has argued for you, this time. For your sake. Not for me. How fortunate you are."/p
p class="MsoNormal"I stood from my seat, that humble tree trunk. Illidan was really making me miss home. All this beautiful Mulgore I hadn't seen in months, and couldn't truly have back. Not yet. I suppose that was his point./p
p class="MsoNormal"I chanced it, "Illidan, Kael'thas must know that you miss his friendship. Deeply." It felt like dragging nails on slate, bringing the last part up, "Saturna, too. Maybe one day, you three can re-capture the alliance you had, even if brief, in Outland. Couldn't you also hope?"/p
p class="MsoNormal"Illidan stood there, refusing to react to it, show any more vulnerability on the subject./p
p class="MsoNormal"Then, he surprised me, "I am forbidden to say her name."/p
p class="MsoNormal""Ah—"/p
p class="MsoNormal""If she remembers… and I pray she still does not. She will be glad whenever I am dead, when I pass into the next realm. I will always live with that knowledge. A deeper brand than these." He gestured at the runes on his chest. I noticed also, a faint, long jagged scar along his violet skin. Well, he had a lot of scars. But my eyes kept roving back to it now. It snagged my imagination for some reason. Was that what he had really pointed at? Was it included in his gesture, part of his damnable brand? Or, was I finally checking him out? Hell if I truly know./p
p class="MsoNormal"I remembered he had been talking to me, his cryptic self-deprecation. What do you say to all that?/p
p class="MsoNormal""…Oh."/p
p class="MsoNormal""Turaho, don't you ever get beyond hope. Do not do things to get you beyond the hopes of others."/p
p class="MsoNormal""No, sir." I don't know why I put it like that./p
p class="MsoNormal""Turaho, you can leave now."/p
p class="MsoNormal""Yes, that. Once again, I think I'm going to have to ask you, um. Uh… h-how do I…?"/p
p class="MsoNormal"And that is when I woke up on the bench in my cell. I've never been more happy to see cold prison bars in all my life./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p