Disclaimer: 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.

…

Chapter 44: Sunset

The day we buried Meydiri, there was a bad storm at dawn. Black thunderheads rolled along fast, and lightning licked the green canyons of Mulgore, all around us. I knew it was her. And I have a way with the dead. I knew that she was raging, that she didn't want to be put to rest. Perhaps she didn't even want to be put to rest here, in her motherland, in the warm and loving embrace of Mu'sha herself.

But knowing spirits and their ways, I knew what was best for Meydiri, so that she could finally have a chance at a peaceful afterlife. I mean, I didn't want her to come see me every holiday like Ma did. Though, Ma was special. She had been a powerful shamaness in life, and spirits don't always get to strut around after they're dead, annoy who they choose.

The Goblins were back in the tunnels of the Venture Co. mining operation, waiting out the storm. Fitz had tried to charge me extra for digging up a damp burial plot and said I hadn't insured the funeral, whatever that means, but I finally just threatened to run him over with my hooves and gore him with my horns, as well as pull out any warrant I liked on him, that I still had. He should have known better, this wasn't the day to squeeze more profit out of me.

Not this Tauren, not today. I stood at the cave entrance, letting it rain and storm. I'd wait as for as long as Meydiri needed to make her peace with it. It wasn't long before I felt an old familiar presence beside me.

"Son, you're doing the right thing."

I looked over to see my mother's spirit. She held her candy-colored red and white cane. Zoca's ghost also walked up to us, out of nothing. She wagged her tail lightly. My mother petted her.

"Eh there, girl…" Zoca let me pet her wispy blue head too.

"Never thought… I'd be the one to bury her. I might have imagined I'd outlive her, the way she was going. And I could never dream I'd be the one."

I shut my eyes, but then tried gazing at the gray-green horizon to steady myself. A line of silver glowed just there, where the storm was starting to break. Mu'sha was winning her argument with Mey'diri. Daughter of the Twilight Hammer cult or not, this day would dawn, she was going into her native ground.

"Well, I was the one to shoot her dead. I ended her wild and beautiful, miserable existence."

My mother raised her muzzle at me. "I know one thing. That girl would not have brought you back here to your native soil and buried you. She'd be glad for you to roam restless through the Ghostlands and be torn away from me forever."

"Torn away from you? We'd both be ghosts, then."

"There is a process, first. You'll see when your time comes. There is someone you must face who will read through all of what you've done, see into your very heart. Then, you can choose how you will live your afterlife."

"Really?"

"I shouldn't say much more about it. But they looked into my soul, my whole life, and they believed me when I said I was a shamaness who felt her work was not done."

"Yeah, you need to keep me on edge for the rest of my life."

She smiled gently, "I do other things as well. I wander around. I helped you solve your mystery, didn't I?"

"Ma, I still can't believe you had a whole chat with Greatfather Winter but then didn't tell me where he was!"

"You're my son and I know you better than anyone, Turaho. There was a way things had to play out. You needed to make peace with a few truths, and certain people. Such as the Night Elf."

"Oh, him."

"You couldn't have done it without that Night Elf spymaster. You had one half, and he had the other half of the mystery. It didn't involve just one faction, it involved the whole world, didn't it?"

I grunted, nodded.

"And son, you were also about to tear a kingdom apart, just because you were inconvenienced."

"Inconvenienced! Those Blood Knights broke my legs!"

"Well. It annoyed the hell out of Greatfather Winter too, that I didn't want you to just stroll through everything and condemn the wrong man and upset two kingdoms. Darnassus would have suffered as well. But the old Dwarf let he have my way. That was his present to me I think."

"And you have no reaction, whatsoever, to those Blood Elves breaking my legs?"

"Son. Would you like me to haunt the Sunthraze Estate for you?"

"Yes, please."

"Alright, done. I just need to pencil it in with my other spirit work… I'll let you know once it happens."

I took my rifle down, set the butt of it in the dirt. Leaned on it. "Weather's easing up."

"Yes, it is."

Meydiri could have possibly been meaner, but Mu'sha was bigger. That's how it goes.

We stood together in grand silence for a time. It was nice to do that with my mother again. Zoca started barking, then she raced out into the grass, across the whole field once the weather cleared.

Then I looked around me. Ma was gone. I'm sure you can imagine why she doesn't like funerals.

I set out alone. The Goblins were reluctant, but they followed my lead, dragging the tools we'd need and all the other things. Drinks, tables, chairs, a tent. I was going to do the prayer myself.

When people were done setting up, and had started to arrange themselves around the grave plot, I looked for Fitz. His people were supposed to carry in the coffin. He said he'd fixed it so that some local Bloodtotem could sneak in through the Venture Co. tunnels. Her own tribe. We'd set down our war spears for the day so they could bear Meydiri's casket properly to the grave.

Bonnie sneaked up next to me again. She's good at that. "Woah. Bonnie. You're dressed for a… funeral."

Bonnie was wearing some crazy black silk dress, with a veil. It didn't really look right for a funeral, but I wasn't going to give her a hard time. How do women even find these outfits! And on such short notice?

Bonnie caught me eyeing her, "It's our second date. It's something I've accepted about the Fitz. He's a cheapskate."

"Cheapskate! You're only now seeing this? And are we up to pet names already?"

"Shut up, Turaho."

Bonnie waltzed in front of me. I tramped my big hooves behind.

She shrugged in her cute way, "Anyways, I'm happy to make a few tiny sacrifices for Fitz. Cause uh… he's great in the sack."

"Ho-oh! Good job, Fitzy!"

"Yeah. And I guess he's pretty hard-workin' for a supervisor. That man's part jackhamma' and a livin' bulldoza!"

Bonnie went on to make a lot more goofy, dirty Goblin jokes involving tools, even power tools, profits, construction and explosions that I'm too much of a gentleman to mention.

I was shocked. Not that they… I mean, I was sure old Fitzy would find a way to get his girl in the end, even if he had to do something crazy like hire a submarine or fool Bonnie into being promoted under a new contract with plenty of fine print. But I always thought Bonnie was this sweet, innocent, girl-next-door type. People can like what they like, don't get me wrong. Though, it actually put me off somewhat, to have the fantasy stripped away. She and I would have never worked. Bonnie would have thought me a prude, in comparison to Fitz.

In the end, though, she was also probably trying to distract me from the difficult day ahead. She, and me and Fitz, we faced Meydiri's home-going ceremony together. It was strange. Tauren who knew her were gathered there, straight ones, mixed in with the regular Venture Co. workers. I didn't know Mulgore could bring itself together like that, under Mu'sha's own sun, on her land that we loved, or loved too much—to the point of stripping its resources away.

Meydiri had stood proudly with a hoof in both of these worlds.

And no, Meydiri had not been the girl-next-door type. It's why we hardly worked. Whoever I ended up with next, and it was weird to think this at my ex's funeral, she needed to be the slow-down type who wanted to listen to the waves, watch me sit by the fire. Eat porridge. And whittle. Man, I considered retiring altogether, right then. My time in Silvermoon had been so rough.

One thing that was hard for me, I never knew if Meydiri and me were soulmates. Kael'thas, yes, had put me in an evil situation. She and I didn't have to end like that. However, evil was what Meydiri was up to. I loved her, I truly loved her, but the woman I loved stood by, watching cultists and agents of the Twilight's Hammer destroy people's lives. And she had joined in with them, she had bloodied her hands as well. She could not have been so trusted by them, among their higher ranks, if she hadn't proven she was capable.

But I had still loved her. I had not wanted her to die. Even when I knew…

Perhaps it was that we never had enough time. Day in, day out in a marriage, we would have learned all (or most) of each other's secrets and bad habits. If we ever had a chance to court properly, a lot of this stuff would have come out, then.

So our fate, our horrible destiny, was for one Tauren to live, because we were both survivors, and for one of us to die—because one of us valued life very cheaply. The other Tauren—me, I championed it in everything I did, whether I was a Pathfinder or a Paladin or, unwittingly, a Shaman. I'd let Blood Elves of all things (uh, of all people?) into my life. Meydiri, instead, had welcomed agents of vile destruction.

Okay, so I won't go as far as saying Blood Elves are agents of vile destruction, though I do sometimes find them annoying. Hey! To be fair, other people do, too.

Yes, Kael'thas had forced our situation. I spent, and wasted, a lot of time blaming him. But if I was going to get Meydiri locked up, then the authorities were going to deal the ultimate punishment for her heinous trespasses. And knowing what I did, I would hunt her for as long as I lived if I could, rather than be solely responsible for her escaping and torturing more people.

This all had been between me and her. I'm not saying that I forgive Kael'thas—but at the end of the day, I don't care shit about him and his involvement in this… this was a Tauren thing. She was mine to love and then mine to give away. I would have wanted her to face her crimes in a court of law, a chieftan's tribunal…

But she had become so powerful already that mere prison bars could not hold her.

Actually, I left out what happened the night that Saturna and Kael'thas agreed to finally take me to see Mavia the Maneater herself, the one who started everything.

This is how it went…

We went into the depths of the Sunspire. Some of the jail, I remembered. I was floored by the gall of Saturna and the rest, to move Mavia in at the very moment I was done searching for Greatfather Winter down there. Move her in and then simply move on. I kept shaking my head, every time we turned another corner that I recognized, a cell or a few that I remembered Pyorin going into, and shoving inmates awake so I could see their faces.

We came to an empty set of cells. Fennore was down there already, waiting with his succubus wife. She had a hand on the bars, he had his hand over hers, both of them gripping the bar between them. I felt sad for them. I didn't expect to feel that for a once agent of the Burning Legion.

Saturna introduced us. I noticed that she was firm, unapologetic that one of her own was serving time. Likely, it suited their interests too, to rein Mavia in and show her that she couldn't put her needs above the Blood Knight matriarch's orders.

I nodded my head in turn, I guess. In a way this was perfunctory. I needed to take her statement, that was all. Hear her say that she did it. Or, she could deny it. But we already knew that she was guilty, so it didn't matter. It was a way for me to close any loopholes that Horde or specifically, Blood Elf lawyers, possibly Fennore's own lawyers, might get their noses in to. That man did not look well, or sane down there, next to his wife. His carefully-wrapped spite for me, and his healer training, were all gone now that he was here next to the one he loved, and she was caged up.

Mavia was so orange, it was unsettling. Not like fire, or the subtle, burnt-edge markings of a Dark Iron Dwarf. She resembled candy. Tall, fit and unabashedly the color of an orange, sugary treat. I had a feeling that she was in control of that somehow, that the color suited her and had served its purposes for her in the past.

In case you wanted to laugh her off, whenever she laughed back, her lips were ink-dark, and so was her hair, her horns, her hooves. In that way, she was intimidating. You remembered what she was, and that you had mere moments with her to decide whether you were really going to crack another smirk, tempt your fate.

Mavia had no whip to crack on her person now. I wondered if that how she had stolen that shard of A'dal? Kael'thas had theorized she used a whip, but was unsure. I doubted a whip would do. Mavia must have had powerful enough magic to manage it on her own, without the Sh'atar realizing an agent of the Legion had entered their city, all those years ago, on the eve of Winter's Veil.

It took me too long to address Mavia. I was so busy reading her. She took advantage of my caution and then dominated the entire exchange.

She shouted, "You want to judge me, but I know what Meydiri died for. I know precisely why she perished so willingly for her cause, corrupted so many!"

"Do you!"

"It is the same reason why I joined the Knights of the Blood Nexus, and stole a shard from A'dal, and was more than willing to make any sacrifice again, for myself. And for the future of my new family."

Saturna warned her, "Mavia…"

Fennore also worried about his wife, "Love, I don't think you should. Whatever you say, it will go in writing, on your record."

She snarled with real fangs and bright eyes, spoke over them both, "Back then, I wanted the shard because I wanted to have power, control. The Sha'tar, and Master Kael'thas, they lacked the power to really secure our future against agents of true evil. The evil I became aware of that walks this earth like nothing, wherever it pleases. The Legion showed me a greater reality, back then. But what's missing here, Turaho? What is wrong with this picture, me attacking the Sha'tar, to feed the Legion, to feed more destruction? This is chaos. Where does it end?"

I narrowed eyes at her.

She laughed at me, "And in your own homeland, today, the Grimtotem only want revenge on you, the Twilight Cultists hunger endlessly for power in Thousand Needles and elsewhere on the borders of your territory, all over Kalimdor, all over Azeroth. Worse, the Alliance could never be trusted to uphold their kind of 'justice.' No, there is a constant cycle of abusing your people, the Tauren, getting revenge on them, that never ends. Who leads them now does not matter. How do we fix the problem once and for all? There is no Baine Bloodhoof to temper it forever, no Pathfinders to root out criminals for eternity, and no Sunwalker is powerful enough to excise this kind of moral corruption, magical and moral, that runs so deep. No one mortal man, or army of men, made of flesh and blood alone could ever achieve this. It takes more. Far more."

A very eloquent succubus. I felt the anger in what she was saying, I wanted it to be wrong and evil and all lies. But I sensed she was going somewhere that I had ventured before, in my mind. I was too afraid to go there again, but she was brave enough. She'd seen worse, I take it.

I told her, "Mavia. Meydiri wanted a Thunderbluff given over to pure anarchy, free of the authorities and their so-called chokehold they call 'tradition' and 'the law'."

She sneered back, disregarding my statement, "Only the Blood Elves have the kind of magical insight that might save your people. The Blood Elves, the Knights of the Blood Nexus, The Coven of Three. Me, Fennore, Saturna. Master Kael'thas Sunstrider. Us. It takes magic. Ruthless Light magic, tempered by a blade. An ensorcelled blade for the Horde."

Suddenly, I was seeing Thunderbluff. The bluffs I loved were overtaken by the Grimtotem who had joined up with the Alliance. The Alliance led the effort to finally cut Thunderbluff off from the Horde. The Twilight Cultists then appeared, a ring of men and women of all races, in cloaks. They walked through the chaos, reaping whomever they wanted, sowing fear, winning.

People begged for their lives to be spared, or be taken prisoner if only they would be allowed to live under their regime. The Twilight Cultists had been helping with this secretly all along, by getting the Alliance resources they needed along the mountain switchbacks, and sabotaging Horde efforts to save Thunderbluff until finally, once and for all, the Twilight Cultists formally joined up with the Grimtotem and the Quilboar, now streaming down into the plain, covering it on the backs of their hogs like so many dark ants. All to take control of Thunderbluff.

Blackened void ley lines then glowed all along the plain. Tendrils raced up the rock bluff to reach my hooves, where I stood observing it all. This was a magical corruption that the Tauren couldn't possibly fix ourselves. This was what it was going to be like, this was going to be our future if a force with the right magical intel and skill never intervened. If we left it all to charismatic chieftans and Pathfinders who refused to see beyond Mulgore itself.

I blinked and inhaled a shocked breath. My eyes focused on the succubus in front of me again. I had never experienced a seduction spell before. Was this it? It felt like something I longed to see, like knowing exactly how the bear's paw was caught in the steel trap. But I had always been too afraid to see the gore, try and open it to release the poor thing.

Mavia's black lips formed a sneer. "Buck up, Turhao, it's not all so dark. Didn't I just give you your first shaman vision?"

I got the hell out of there.

She laughed at me, I could hear it all through the prison. "You need us, Turaho Runestalker. And you need me out! Of! This! CAAAGE!" Mavia roared, and I could hear the footfalls of the other Blood Knights joining mine. Not even they wanted to deal with her when she was this furious.

"Write what you want in your report, Turaho…" Saturna's voice was punctuated by hasty breaths, as she walked fast to catch me. She snatched my arm, "But this is the same demon woman who demanded Illidan Stormrage let Kael'thas keep our son, at a time when Illidan, at the height of his madness, would have stolen Belorim for himself."

"Good for her."

Saturna stopped me again, "What more do you want? She did the crime, she's being punished. Fennore was needed as a healer, because of the crisis in the Ghostlands. I intend to suspend him now, and he knows it."

I kept shaking my head, walking fast out of there.

"She's just learning. Mavia needs boundaries, not destruction. She is a powerful demoness and she's insightful, you heard her. We need someone like her. Are you going to throw her to the Horde wolves, Turaho? Answer me!"

I had no more words for them. Mavia had just given me a dark gift. Clearly, she was good at giving out dark gifts.

I refuse to believe Mavia intimidated me. It was my choice to do nothing, make my report unremarkable regarding the succubus, say she was 'already in custody,' leave it like that. The whole kidnapping was Silvermoon's complicated, tangled mess that should not involve the Horde any further. But I did take my sweet time about it, make Saturna wait and sweat it out before she could be sure that was it for my dealings with the Blood Nexus' pet succubus.

Today, I was presiding over Meydiri's funeral. With that vision of a corrupted Thunderbluff foremost in my mind, I faced the Grimtotem bearers who brought her casket, shaped like her body, wrapped in cloth and printed with totemic symbols of her tribe.

They rocked in a rhythm that was familiar to me as they brought her near. And they shouted commands as they knelt, two-by-two, to get her near to the open grave.

"Everyone here gathered," I looked out at the assembly that comprised all the pitiful denizens of Mulgore, almost. "I vow to never let the sun finally set on this land we share, the way it set on Meydiri, this daughter of Mu'sha. I will go to any length, to any land, claim any… magic that it takes to keep our beautiful Mulgore safe."

Mavia's face, orange with black lips snarling, flashed in my mind. Determined to tell the wildest truth, determined to set things right no matter what and free herself from the cage. She wasn't like normal people, she simply wasn't. But she refused to be ignored and she would do nearly anything to be loved and stay loved, protected. Even when she went too far, and kidnapped Greatfather Winter. I was beginning to understand Mavia's desperation in that. No one could tell her no. She wanted to live. I hoped Mavia would cool off, given enough time. The cage seemed to be making her worse… Why was I thinking about Greatfather Winter's kidnapper like this?

But the rest of the service went like that for me, preaching about the meaning of Meydiri's troubled life with fiery resolve. I showed her a weird compassion for about two hours. I hadn't realized how much I needed it.

After the ceremony, Cokie Whitefeathers waved to me, I don't know why. Her very presence cheered me up. So we starting talking, I got her walking. Fitz was making faces at me, so I didn't want him or anyone else to approach us and ruin this.

"Shall we stroll?"

She took my arm, nodded a sly yes.

We wandered off a long ways, just conversing aimlessly. I wasn't sure where we were going. When I found my feet climbing the rise to my old hut, I shouldn't have been surprised. Habits for a Pathfinder die hard. I felt safe here, I could see the whole Golden Plains from here. And while I watched over the Tauren world, I could keep my back secure, to the rocks.

We had a seat inside my hut. I dusted off a cushion for her, half-sure this would all fail. But I had just learned a powerful lesson about hope. Not sure if Illidan meant it applied to all things, such as getting laid. But… well, he didn't seem a lonely bachelor, did he! Just wasn't with Tyrande as far as I knew. So let's hope for some booty, shall we?

Dark day, dark, dirty mind…

We had drinks, one thing and another, and then I went for it. "It's like…" I snuffled, "Nothing in the world can make me feel better. No woman is beautiful or kind or generous enough to ever replace her. It'd be like some kind of challenge to their ego and they'd never be amazing enough to attempt it and prove me wrong. Be the only one for me. The only one who understands me…"

Cokie gave me a look, "And definitely not after such a romantic funeral. Right?"

I was either getting slapped soon or… I sat there, still trying to look as miserable as possible.

"Turaho, is it true that you're going to become the first Tauren Blood Knight? You're going to make history, like Aponi Brightmane?"

I stopped sniffling, "I need to make that decision, yes."

"So you're a hero. You're a celebrity?"

Not a good time to lie. But I… lied. It's me we're talking about here. Everyone has a price. Cokie seemed like she wanted to make some career move out of it. Hell, I might even make a career move out of it, if this was how all the girls were going to respond to the first Tauren Blood Knight!

She was all crackle and pop, not a girl nextdoor. But, I'm not going to be choosy.

"…Of course, I'm a celebrity. I'm so hurt that you would doubt that—"

She hugged me instantly, "Oh, you silly thing! Don't worry, don't even worry about this big, brave decision you need to make…" she whispered, "Why don't you lay back, and let someone else take the heat for once?"

"The heat?"

"I'm just a love machine. I won't work for anybody but you, Turaho."

Oh! She was flirting with me, Goblin-style. This was amazing.

I sealed it, "Cokie. We only shared one look that time in The Fitz, I believe. But I think I've wanted you forever. My vision of you kept me going on those worst lonely nights in Silvermoon. Where are you from, anyway?"

She could roll her shoulders and gesture very dramatically. Great actress, "It's not where we're from, Turaho. It's about where we're going. And I am about to send you to paradise." Then she shoved me down, "Now, relax and let me mooove you!"

The simplest lines are always the best.

"Dabble!" I cheered. She laughed with me and later, ensured that I did feel like a winner, at long last.

The next morning, I had my last big think about the situation. I'd scheduled the ceremony in Mulgore out of spite, mostly. Probably that was how people like Cokie had found out. Saturna and the others would be traveling in from Silvermoon to see it happen, and that would have got around too, among the Bluffstriders and all the other Tauren preparing for the event.

I had also wanted to keep Kael'thas on his toes, and I wanted Baine to accept that he didn't own me. He had asked me to send copies of the mission report straight to Stormwind. Stormwind, really? The last thing I wanted was to bundle all this investigation stuff up and send it off to the Alliance, just because 'Baine said so.' Baine was always doing that of late. I hated setting up that damnable message relay between him and Anduin, now. This mission had become so much bigger than keeping the peace between the Horde and Alliance.

Anyway, I was grown enough to realize that about myself, that I'd gotten into this whole Blood Knight mess for mostly the wrong reasons. Just like the last time, when I became a Sunwalker. However, there was also a small part of me, no a real part of me, that was too sensible to not consider it. How much would I gain from connection as mighty—and the Blood Elves were, I knew that now—as this one? They dealt with corruption in their home, but the Tauren did too. However, it wasn't lost on me that Kael'thas had the very machinery and magic, in his Blood Knights, to pull off an operation that sent me running around in circles, sorted out new threats in Meydiri and even Alessandre, and ultimately got them all off the hook. Even when they failed, they succeeded. That was the Knights of the Blood Nexus. I hated it, but they were ruthlessly efficient. Imagine turning that kind of strategy on Mulgore's enemies? It wasn't necessarily the individuals involved, or their skill with Light magic. Blasting an exorcism spell in a person's face didn't fix all this. It was the way they thought, the way they approached the world. It felt almost as if the Knights of the Blood Nexus could alter reality via their sheer will. The whole world had turned in their favor. Nothing should be so easy for a kingdom of miscreants. So, they were more than that. Far more.

Sidenote…

Also, Fitz was right. Cokie was soft and cuddly! Even better, she liked me. The new me. And I was beginning to, as well. In fact, somehow, I'd… I'd gotten to see myself again, like myself, love myself again. Can a person romance themselves? Well, that sounds weird. But I loved the new Turaho "the Runestalker", possible Blood Knight and Nexite, savior of Silvermoon and the Horde, lady-killer extraordinaire! Finally a good guy, a confident guy. A guy whose past wasn't driving him crazy. I'd swept myself off my feet!

Now, don't laugh. One last point on Saturna's side is what finally tipped the scales. I recalled her saying that the Nexites were all creative about the way they went Paladin-ing. One of them was even a warlock-Blood Knight. That idiot Fennore, who had married the succubus.

But, then again, they all had these horrible stories about chasing each other around, making trouble and hopping into each other's beds while at Tempest Keep. So dishonorable. It's not as if I'd ever be associated with a bunch of… good-looking, fun, wild, hedonist… awesome partiers.

The Sunwalkers would never allow such behavior on their side. Well, my romp with Aponi Brightmane at my initiation party not withstanding. But that had to be very discreet. I could never own up to nor follow up on it. Even if I wanted to, um, date Aponi. Then again, half of their order, the Knights of the Blood Nexus, was now married to the other half. They weren't totally crackers.

Saturna even said I could keep my gun if I was still a good shot. Sunwalkers can't do that, either.

So, at the end of the day… were the Blood Knights offering to do all the hot things for me that the Sunwalkers wouldn't?

I could chase women and keep my gun?

…

… …

…Done.