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.
Note: This is 20 pages. Get some hot cocoa. Take your time. I SO loved writing this one!
Chapter 18: A Bad Outland Tattoo, part 2: Illidaddy
You gotta give it to him. I ran upstairs and hid under the covers like a little kid, I was so scared and tired by the end of it. Kael'thas had totally unnerved me, so I forgot that he slept nextdoor. I mean, I knew he slept nextdoor, but I hadn't been able to focus, my brain couldn't put two and two together, the state I was in.
And who forgets about Kael'thas? That's like forgetting your house burned down.
Or, your favorite Night Elf.
Then, weight at the end of my bed. He had a seat.
Kael'thas said, "Go on. It's only me."
His voice was eerily kind. I don't know why that's the worst way to wake a person up, but it was. It was intimate, coming from the last man in the world I needed to see after the day I had. Aside from Illidan.
I turned down the covers, sat up. In my head though, I vaulted off the bed and smashed through the pretty red stained glass window to fall about thirty stories to a better doom.
Just thought you'd like to know.
Kael'thas Sunstrider sat cross-legged in white socks and black and gold phoenix pajamas at the end of my bed, like it was a damn slumber party. If I'd had a vision of him doing that months ago, I would have refused to come all the way to Silvermoon. That's how dreadful the room and the ruby night lights looked then, twisting, almost contorting around him. Nevermind the stand-out white socks and unusually fashionable pajamas. Kael'thas, he was doing that with the nightlights somehow. I never figured out how.
He curled a lip at me. "I knew."
"You did, did you? Sorry that I stole your chocolate chip cookie recipe. Saturna and I chatted about it the whole way over here. It was never about Greatfather Winter. But I figured, if I could fit fel magic, arcane crystals and a half-dead Naaru on chocolate cookies…" I was being an ass on purpose. I felt so uncomfortable, I'd have done anything to wriggle out from his awful gaze. I muttered, at least trying to finish, "I might put the whole Bilgewater Cartel out of business."
It's a wonder Kael'thas did not take my head off. Not only was that a horrible joke… Alright, it was just a really horrible joke, I admit it.
Kael'thas almost smiled at me. "I already knew, about the camps. I knew that Anthene was seeing someone secretly, out there. I just didn't know how to break it to Saturna. It would have meant I was spying on my own wife, her work out there in the Ghostlands. Right? You did me a favor. It's the only reason you're not locked up in the keep right now."
I looked down at the blanket, refusing to be afraid of him. Mostly.
Then he had to go and say it, "Anyway, Anthene was safe."
Anger empowered me out of nowhere, "The Night Elves have practically turned your daughter into a double-agent, Kael'thas. You do understand that? One of them is seducing her. Are you really saying that you didn't do anything about it, all this time, to avoid having yet another stupid fight with your wife?"
"…What?"
Oh shit.
Uh oh…
…Crap.
"Is Anthene… she wouldn't be with… That wouldn't happen. A Night Elf?"
No wonder he was being so nice…. Well, crappity-crap!
Normally, I'm so much better than that. I must have been truly sleepy, and rattled by the Ghostlands, Bloodknights, that awful Chao'thas, everything… to tell Anthene's biggest secret to her own father, the last one who needed to know.
Next, and it was menacing, "Who is it, Turaho?"
"I don't know! I seriously don't know-"
The bed was suddenly gone and I was up in the air. Instinct begged me to look. I saw the headboard, bedframe, torn apart, disassembled. Slowly crawling along the wall, each rotating in its own momentum, caught in a thread of the mysterious, violent spell Kael'thas had decided to use, with half a thought.
I looked back at him. One hand was out, conjuring. I just barely saw a rose-colored thread slithering around me, holding me up. And I'm a big guy. Before I could say anything else, Kael'thas thrust out his other arm, and my throat tightened up.
"Oh, Investigator Turaho. Do we have to say goodnight at last?"
Of course, I couldn't say anything to him. He realized that after a few more dizzying moments. And surely, thoughts of Saturna were in there, too. I could feel it, how he didn't care. How he never cared about me. How, in a way, Kael'thas didn't care about any living thing that didn't suit him. He was happy to snuff it out if he was allowed. But Saturna would never allow him this.
Excitement, probably arousal, the freak—it edged at his smile, as he lowered the fiery spell. But he only teased at setting me back down.
"Turaho Runestalker. I'm going to kill you. I am going to kill you until you tell me."
I lifted a finger the moment it was allowed. I also brushed the bead on my vest. I'd be damned if I died and Thunderbluff or Orgrimmar didn't see this, "That's… physically impossible—"
"Not if I make you into one of my pets first, Turaho. To resurrect at my whim!"
"And it can't happen tonight, because you'd make me stand up Illidan and he's impatiently waiting for us by now." I hoped. I so hoped…
His green eyes flared, a vein in his neck stood out. Then, his yellow and black hair, ignited and flaring everywhere now in some crazy mage-spell wind, it all eased down now. He gnashed teeth, "We are not done talking about this."
"I'll ask Illidan who she's dating, if you like?" Slim possibility of that happening or even working out, but anything to get out of this night, alive. And you thought I hated Kael'thas for no good reason!
"As if Illidan would know!" Kael'thas set into panic, "WHY would she date a Night Elf? I can't…" he sniffed hard, pinched his upper lip. That was about when I fell. He let me fall, by the way.
I lay there, stunned, in pain in a few places while Kael'thas' voice floated back.
"Well, she's angry at me, obviously. Alright." He began thinking it all through, clearly, but his only conclusion could have been that, whatever it was, now was not the time. Kael'thas eyed me again. I flinched. "…We'd better get going."
Stupidly curious as ever, "And you are going to tell Saturna this, right?"
"I can't tell Saturna, she'll kill me."
I scrabbled backward, half thinking he would attempt to roast me alive again, "Or, you know-Only if it's your fault, and obviously, it isn't. It's not like you laid out a romantic picnic with candles by a moonwell in the forest…" Then I followed Kael'thas' thinking. It was, entirely, his fault. For letting it go on so long. What else would an attractive young thing like Princess Anthene end up… attracting out there? Maybe somewhere in Kael's drug-addled mind, he assumed that since the sentinels and priestesses were all women… Or perhaps his imagination never dared go that far about his own daughter, and it was as simple as that.
Another possibility was that Anthene was a lot tougher than she seemed, and Kael'thas didn't see her the way I did, like a delicate sea shell that needed to be wrapped in tissue and kept in a box. She was a Sunstrider, as well as Saturna's daughter after all. Evenso, he was right about one part of this fiasco. Whatever slip up Kael'thas had made, big or small, Saturna would only ever see it one way. He'd endangered their little princess. Literally.
I sighed at him.
Kael'thas suddenly lifted his arms again. And I flinched again.
But he was only conjuring a portal. "Shut up. If I need your help, and I never would, I'll ask for it. And, I can always have my own damn degrading conversations with Illidan."
Degrading? What did Kael'thas mean by that? Was there a glimmer of hope that tonight might actually be fun?
The violet, sparking portal was up by then.
He said, "Look, I didn't actually kill you."
That was not comforting to me, in the least.
Then, he half-bowed, "Jackasses first."
Well done, Kael'thas. But then I inclined my head and horns, gestured for Kael'thas to start. I mean, if those were the rules…
"Just go, Turaho, before I change my mind and close this thing on your head."
I went.
I touched down in a world that was more sensation and feeling. Sights, smells, sounds… that was blurred. It came into focus only after a while. I felt like I was lying on the floor of a loud celebration. The ground was booming. Light bloomed and faded above. Fireworks, maybe. But I was blearly-eyed and I felt very light. Almost ecstatic.
Then, grass. That was the first thing that came to me. Sweet, sharp grass. Green, green, green grass. I felt like I could love that grass. I was definitely back on some plain. I felt the grass between my fingers, got carried away petting it.
It occurred to me that I was under another powerful spell, or drugged. I decided on drugged.
Ah, but you see, I hadn't known about Illidan's dream magic.
A dog barking very loudly finally got me to sit up. She was throwing herself in wild circles, wagging her brushy tail like crazy…she? SHE!
"Zoca!"
Zoca nuzzled my face immediately. Yep, that cold nose was familiar. It had felt the same at my Sunwalker initiation. I petted her, I hugged her and wrestled her.
"Silly dog? Where have you been? Where in the world have you been, girl?"
Cloven feet. I got to mine, expecting to thank the other Tauren for finding my dog at last. In my haze, I still didn't understand.
Illidan Stormrage stood there, looking very serene. Dare I say… pleased with himself, somehow?
The old blindfold was there. His great, arcing horns. The green jagged runes slashed across his chest.
A fading white scar that I had never read about before. I came to, somewhat, remembering the rumor. Saturna had attacked him once. Was that it? Something like that had not fully healed, after all these years?
"Forgive me. I knew you were going to Silvermoon to deal with Kael'thas. I met your dog and decided to keep her safe."
Oh, yes. This was deeper than I realized. I believe… I was sure Illidan just made a vague confession to kidnapping my dog.
"Kael'thas and his Bloodknights would have used your ghost dog against you."
"Really? I don't see how." I checked my tone after that. I really shouldn't have been chancing my legendary sass-mouth against Illidan Stormrage.
Illidan extended an arm. It was kindly. He meant for us to walk together. And where were we? Illidan wanted us to stroll across the Barrens. Or, what the Barrens once had been.
Somehow, he'd had the power to take us back to the pristine beauty of the region before anything had happened to it, before any terrible trespass in Kalimdor by evil forces. I don't know how he did it. It could have been one of his own memories, perhaps? Or, that of one of his ancestors. Illidan had been around a very, precious long time.
"Let me guess, you once had a Tauren friend, too?"
He gave a tight, very pleased smile. "Long, long time ago. I didn't think I'd be this glad to speak with one of your people again, over a matter like this one."
Zoca ran ahead of us, barking her head off. She was blissfully ignorant of the danger we might be in, beneath all of this. My mind was putting it together slowly. None of this should be possible. Illidan shouldn't have been capable of it, from what I knew about him. It was something a shaman could do, like my mother. Bend the spirit world, tempt dreams, tip them to pour into his own fantasies. But not even my mother could manage this. She could very well explain it or describe it to me—and she had. I did ask her how Farseer visions worked once, and it was close to what I was experiencing now. No, I didn't fully get it. But I was confident that my skill as an investigator would get me close, even if I wasn't a powerful mage like Kael'thas… In fact, where was Kael'thas? I checked all around us.
"He's gone. He hates me, you know." He sighed, but it wasn't disappointed. He was tired, "I thought I should clear that up, first thing."
What do you say to that?
"Gotchya."
"Don't ever let Kael'thas and his Bloodknights see your ghost dog. You can certainly have Zoca back after this, but I figured I should finish my favor to you and warn you first."
It still felt like a deception somehow.
"A Sunwalker paladin, who can also summon spirits…" Illidan sounded like he was going to tut at me, but he wasn't really the sort. I was kind of pleased that Illidan, Illidan Stormrage himself, could be playful, "You'll be ripe for the picking."
"Do you mean…" I wondered if I should say Saturna's name. "The Knights of the Blood Nexus?"
"Yes, them." Illidan and I walked for a while longer. Wildflowers were suddenly on the horizon, a whole field of them. They were orange and pink, some red, now suddenly, some were blue. I hadn't noticed them before.
"They collect paladins who possess exceptional abilities. Each one of them is a weapon. I suppose weapons crave more weapons. Metal wants metal. Sometimes, raw elements do get magnetized, don't they?"
I didn't know why he was asking me.
"The Knights of the Blood Nexus are Silvermoon's true arsenal. The magic runestones help. The Sunwell surely helps. But those ruthless paladins are often overlooked. It's less how they swing a sword or smite… demons with their Light magic. It's how they all think. How they see the world." He glanced down at me, "They'll try and make you one of them. Is that what you want?"
"I'm a Tauren."
"You are a shaman. And, you are a paladin."
That… what?
"I can see it because I've been looking into you, eversince Kael'thas wondered about you. He does not have secret access to the vast records of the Darnassian spies. He cannot peer at you from the dream world, not like I can. And I'm better at keeping my secrets than he is. I always have been."
"I don't understand."
"Yes you do. You don't want to listen."
Oh no. Was another one of these Night Elves about to mentor me? I stopped walking. I was offended and I had something to settle with Illidan right then and there.
"First off, I'm nobody's…"
But Illidan kept going on without me. And he was very far away by the time I noticed. How had he done that, hurtled ahead through the field? Through the air? Through time? He left me shouting into the wind, alone. After that? I had no choice but to keep up, and to pay closer attention to him.
Illidan already knew what it was about. He seemed to be ahead of all my questions. When we finally got down to it, he was very amused with me. I think he even already liked me, which was a weird feeling.
"Tell me what you know about the last time Kael'thas had Greatfather Winter kidnapped."
"You reckon this is the second time. You're sure?" His rich voice kept my eyes from wandering, to look at his frightening horns, or claws or hooves. It's bad when you know a Tauren is uncomfortable staring at those features.
Also, 'Reckon.' Illidan just said 'reckon.' He could be casual, Illidan could be chill.
So cool!
And in case you were wondering, I don't think that an invisible, rapid-blink-spell Kael'thas was in the field with us. And Illidan was so easy with me, it didn't seem like someone he hated—that we both hated—was anywhere around. I'm no warlock or mage, I don't get where Kael'thas stashed himself otherwise, but he'd left me and Illidan completely alone.
Illidan also kept watching me. It reminded me of the way Alessandre used to watch me, like all Night Elves secretly thought Tauren were 'cute'.
I kept the conversation going, "I know that you have, or used to have a soul link with Kael'thas. Few people knew about that. I'd say I inferred right, since Kael'thas was able to summon us over here to see you. And you admitted to being able to sense what he does… you somehow saw me through your link?"
"Oh, that old thing." Illidan waved a claw. His tone was oddly cheerful about that. Heh, he was taking a rare opportunity to be silly. He put it like a woman who was delighted that you noticed her new dress.
Finally, I laughed.
"Yes, I'm funny. You'll find I'm good at being charming. It takes other men longer to articulate it though. Women go instantly on edge, they know what it is. I'll use it against anyone."
What a… way to put it.
"Which may seem an unusual thing to point out, but I must know my powers, intimately." I braced myself, wide-eyed, for the big confession, that it had worked back in Outland and he and Kael'thas had experimented…
I watch too much 'The Goblin and the Beautiful' now that I think of it.
Illidan stopped by a try. I hadn't known it was there. It felt like the world kept expanding at the edge of my vision. As soon as I turned my head, there was more that hadn't been there before… I think.
He pointed a nail into the old bark. It crumbled away in bits.
"Is this… vision of the ancient world, is this you making sure that I'm impressed with you, Illidan? Are you winning me over to your side already then?"
He'd already done it, though. We already both hated Kael'thas, and now I'd learned that had cool powers, the coolest—and Illidan was fun to hang out with.
"Yes. He'll tell you himself. I'm surprised he didn't mention it already. Long ago, I maneuvered Kael'thas into a soul link with me, since he was skilled as a warlock. I, perhaps, needed the comfort of his soul at the time."
"I assumed that was all about power."
"It wasn't." Illidan then recovered from sounding personally offended. Or, was it defensive. He looked down, flicked something off his chest. Some tiny insect that had fled from the miniature hole he'd bored in the dying tree. "I am capable of feelings, you know. Kael'thas put it better than I ever could, years later. I was missing my brother and he had every right to miss his father, after what he went through. So, we used one another."
Illidan missed Kael'thas today. I could feel that. Having him for a friend, for a confidante, it was something Illidan regretted losing. And he was so interested in relieving the problem that he didn't mind who knew how he felt. Sort of like when you complained to everyone else in your family about something your cousin did. It has the effect of getting the whole family to eventually prod them back in your direction, to apologize.
I tried not to get too carried away wondering, or even worrying, what had happened to Kael'thas and Illidan. Warlock and so-called Demon Lord, Blood Elf and Night Elf, evil and eviler… Yes, that kind of creeper friendship did make some sense.
And poor Vashj, what a third wheel she would have ended up as, or really anyone who came between those two men. I started to also wonder how Saturna handled it, but then I really didn't want to think of Saturna either, right then.
"These days, our old soul link feels more like something stupid I did while on vacation—like a dumb tattoo." And Illidan was carving something into the tree bark. He was getting very distracted by that tree. Sort of like a cat testing its claws.
I had to repeat what he said again in my mind. I suddenly laughed very hard.
Zoca yipped and howled with me. I regarded for her a bit, patting my leg for her to come back for a good scratch on the head. When that was done, she budged onto my big hoof to lay on it.
"Yes, I guess an actual Kael'thas tattoo on your arm would have been safer."
"No, I would have put it someplace else."
I refused to query that.
Illidan showed teeth, kind of growling at the tree.
"What are you carving on that thing?"
He ignored me until he was finished. But I couldn't see it. Whatever he'd written or drawn, was cluttered with dust and chunks of wood from his effort. Illidan went on in his own good time, "Soul links atrophy when you don't use them. It would take thousands of years to notice—so few warlocks in existence have learned that fact. But I always knew it might happen. And Kael'thas must have figured it out, too. We had less to talk about, less reason to interact… it faded away. But he's still in my old villainous… social network, whether I like it or not. We can block out each other, but it's never permanent. If one of us really wants to override it—"
"Interesting way to put it?"
"Ask me for a favor sometime, and you will find out exactly what I mean. I always remember who owes me what. Always."
"I know a Goblin mob boss like that."
"Ha!"
Okay, I could see how Kael'thas fell into a bromance with this guy.
"Illidan, we never did answer my first question. What do you remember about the time Kael'thas arranged to have Greatfather Winter… let's say, removed from Shatthrath City?"
"And then we all know he appeared at Tempest Keep—" We'd both said it at the same time, both of us rolling our eyes. Then we both gave over to laughter again.
Wow. Illidan was really, very easy to get along with. Unless… it kinda felt like he was… no. Only little kids did that.
I had to prod him again, "Yes. So… that fateful holiday at Tempest Keep…"
Illidan told the same version of the story as Daphne, Pyorin, everybody. But for him, the party announcement happened while he was at the Black Temple. Yes, Kael'thas had announced it and sent out invitations. Ugh…
"I remember, it was strange because the Burning Legion had also heightened activity around that time. Mavia and some of my other spies were watching it."
"Okay."
"Kael'thas didn't know I was using her like that." He blew at his artwork on the tree, then looked over at me finally.
I got very distracted by what Illidan had done. He'd drawn initials, a heart.
"You know, she's—"
"Let me hopeless. Let me enjoy writing our names on a tree like I always did. Like when I thought she was mine."
Poor Tyrande.
It had made Illidan happy in a strange way that I didn't understand, though.
"At first, I thought the party was a cover for something else Kael'thas was doing, with the Burning Legion."
"Kael'thas fought the Legion."
"No, Kael'thas fully turned to the Burning Legion while in Outland. He sneaked back to Azeroth and redeemed himself, fooled Thrall perhaps. Well, he and I both did. We fooled the world. But, no. Getting his head cut off so I could put a collar around his neck. Those Bloodknights coming to fetch him at Tempest Keep when the Black Temple mission didn't work… it was all about dragging him away from a painful addiction to fel magic, power, revenge. We were all trying to get Kael'thas off that junk."
I raised my eyebrows.
"But he ended up in…" Illidan tried not to laugh. "Some cage. He's lucky the Legion agent that caught him was slightly an idiot. And he was obsessively besotted with him, secretly stealing his underwear and that, if you can believe such a thing went on. I say slightly an idiot, because it did work after all, and I was even fooled into letting it happen. I actually lost Kael'thas that way, by assuming I was smarter." Illidan offered for us to start walking again, "Another thing you'll do well to remember. Don't ever underestimate that man."
I brought us back on track, though the aside about what the heck really happened to Kael'thas before he returned to Azeroth was sufficiently embarrassing and entertaining. I'd revisit it one night with popcorn and an icy beer. As for the right now, though, "But Demons don't celebrate Winter's Veil, do they? What did the Burning Legion care about Kael'thas and about the holiday?"
"What did the Burning Legion want with Greatfather Winter?" He smiled at me, "How did you miss that?"
"I…" How had I missed that?
"Maybe I made you miss that. Sorry."
Illidan had lost me again. I wished I had more lessons on schools of magic, anything to help guide me here. For him, it was all so obvious. But I felt like, at times, I was having half a conversation with him.
"If only we knew what the Burning Legion could possibly want with Greatfather Winter."
Illidan wasn't asking. He was trying to tell me something. Something I already knew? No, something I was supposed to figure out on my own, without Illidan also having to spell it out for Kael'thas, where might hear.
Wait, I thought he was gone? He was still here, somehow? So where in the hell did Kael'thas get to after all? Was he inside the walls of this… vision thing? Infesting it like mice?
"Look. Illidan, if you can sense… a modicum of what Kael'thas is thinking and feeling—"
"It's more like my skin itches if he's distraught about something. Or, if he is thinking about me a great deal." He grimaced, "I don't get much out of it anymore."
It almost sounded like he was a wife complaining about how things used to be between them. Well, they do say warlocks are a bunch of weirdos with their demon pets. In a few ways.
"Alright, let's set the Legion thing aside for a while. You don't feel up for telling me, or it still has something to do with Kael'thas, and we shouldn't speak more about it right now." Illidan looked over at me, but he didn't confirm either. I guessed it was a yes.
God-damn, it Kael'thas. You're still dealing with the Legion? STILL? And that was supposed to be finished. You're such a big idiot.
"So then… could you tell if Kael'thas knows who the kidnapper is this time around, or if he was the kidnapper, himself?"
Illidan shook his head, No.
"You can't even give me a good guess?"
"All I know about the kidnapper is that it was someone who betrayed me." He grasped angrily at the air.
Well that narrowed it the hell down. Who has betrayed Illidan?
WHO HASN'T betrayed Illidan, seriously! The man has a complex. I was probably going to betray him in about five minutes after we left and he realized I stepped on his favorite pet flea or something.
I thanked Illidan, but it was more a 'Gee, thanks, Illidan.'
"I have one more question to ask…" I remembered Anthene desperately needing me to follow up with him.
Illidan stopped us walking this time. He turned to face me fully. I had a strong feeling then, that he did know the question to Anthene's question. He already knew what I was going to ask.
And, I figured if Kael'thas was somehow still aware of us, what we were saying to one another… it probably wasn't so safe to ask after all.
"I think…" Illidan was unusually delicate about it, "I'm sure, at times, that Kael'thas and… he will try for another child, sometime. A son, or a daughter."
I kept calm, tried to read that as well as I could.
"I think… Kael'thas would like another child, very badly."
Damn. Either Kael'thas loved being a daddy, changing diapers and all that or… there was something he needed to finally settle. With Saturna. With himself. That wasn't good.
"I also believe that, if there is a young lady who wants to rule Quel'thalas, as badly as that, she should not let anything stop her. Especially foolish mistakes in the past that are not her own. By any measure."
I nodded my thanks.
"Do you know who she is, um… going with?" I tried to laugh it off, "Do you think the next king of Quel'thalas will be a Night Elf?"
Illidan looked at me like I already knew the answer. That was even more confusing. Man, I was really falling short here. Remind me to sign up for some warlock classes or maybe some Demon Hunter training the next time I'm in Orgrimmar. Geez!
"One last thing—" Old Pathfinder's trick. Ask them the most important question before you finally leave. And mine was far more important than Anthene's, "There's not really a big hit on Kael'thas' head is there? You seem to like him."
Illidan was caught off by it. I felt a little proud that I was able to do that. Then again, it might have just been that spooky of a concept. Illidan really didn't like it.
"Who is threatening Kael'thas?"
Point blank, like that. I was suddenly afraid that I'd get blamed for it.
"I can't say—"
"You don't tell me, and I'll keep you down here forever."
"… Down?"
The beautiful vision of Mulgore blinked out. We were suddenly in a room, a stone room with no windows. Or, was it… a tree? I smelled resin, though the floor beneath my hooves was well petrified. It felt like stone. Zoca was fast asleep, by the way.
"Someone will find me." But then, I gave that up. Illidan was good at kidnapping people, wasn't he? He'd done it once to his own brother back in Shadowmoon Valley, I forgot.
This… this is why you have to know your Warcraft lore, people.
Then, I got distracted with something more important, "You're protective of Kael'thas?"
Illidan was slow to answer. "I think that's obvious. And what should be more obvious to everyone is that he is the main person alive on this rock who is indebted to me. And I am indebted to him… so many bloody debts."
I shuddered when I was finally able to say it. Telling the truth might get me killed as well. I didn't think Illidan would ever care so much, but he might just get miffed about the role I played in Ashenvale, on behalf his brother's people. I no longer had a choice, though.
"There is this Night Elf rogue, or there was…"
"I know Mirothalas Shademoon."
"His name is Alessandre—" then, I felt silly. Of course it would have been a moniker. Al had done spywork after all. When he was living. I felt that old, horrible ache for fate he befell. Even if it was at the hands of a Horde leader protecting our interests. Then, I let it out, "Kael'thas killed him."
"With fire? Kael'thas doesn't miss."
Was Illidan reading my mind? He was reading my mind!
Illidan quickly reassured me by ratting on himself, somewhat. I don't know why, "I see that you don't fully understand. Demonic language can undo the untrained. You aren't trained, so I sound like anyone else, to you. But I always like to speak Demonic with strangers."
"Okay?"
"Stay calm. Sit down."
I did. Not that I could get calm at that point. But when Illidan Stormrage tells you to do something, and it's as easy as sitting down for a spell…
"Who did Mirothalas say put a hit on Kael'thas?"
I couldn't tell Illidan, I really couldn't.
"…Your brother."
Illidan blinked. Then, he looked up, thinking. "It would be easy for Kael'thas and his feckless Bloodknights to figure that out for themselves. And if it had been going on for so long… only now does Kael'thas try to do something about it? And he misses?"
No, Illidan knew. Right now, he was teaching me something. Not just what I needed to see, but how to think around Kael'thas. Like he'd been doing about the Legion wanting Greatfather Winter thing.
"My, my... Has the Kal'dorei Rogue Network done a number on you, Tauren." Illidan wandered over to a large old chair I hadn't noticed before. He spread wings and sat.
Another thing I started to notice. Illidan was also teaching me how to think around Night Elves as well, at this level of the game.
Illidan looked down at me again from what felt like his throne, "The Alliance claims me. Or, some of them do. I don't know how I feel about that these days. So then, we find ourselves on different sides of a conflict—"
"The Horde and Alliance made peace, you know."
"It's just what they call it these days. Peace between the Horde and the Alliance is like believing in Greatfather Winter."
I smiled up at him.
"Turaho…I will tell you something. Because I think I know exactly where you are going to end up once this is finished. And, I think that… finally appeals to me." He bit his lip, for a time. I could tell, he was already making his plan, within a plan. I couldn't possibly imagine what he meant right then, I swear.
"Turaho, the Blood Elves may be vain and feckless and intolerable—but in the end, they are good at what they do." He really focused on me, "And you are good at what you do. You were supposed to be distracted by pretty woman elves in Silvermoon and running around in Kael'thas' little circles, but instead you're halfway across the world, down beneath a barrow den, chatting with me. Nobody expected you to do that, not even the Triumvir Rogue of Darnassus—"
A barrow den! For the love of—what the hell was Illidan doing? He would get caught in the worst way if they… wait.
"Why are you down here anyway? We're beneath a druid's barrow den? No. We're down below Darnassus."
"Clever. The one place they would never look."
What can I say, I'm good. I also get overwhelmed by curiosity at times.
Illidan huffed a laugh, "I like to play little jokes on my brother. While I'm down here, I can listen to see if it went off with a bang."
"Um… you're going to blow something up? You're playing some practical joke on your brother?"
"It's more him finding something out that he didn't want to know. He'll surely scream about it. I can listen from here. Really, Malfurion should have figured out that I'm behind a few of his misfortunes lately, unless my fool brother thinks a giant chipmunk lives down at the center of his World Tree."
Ouch.
Illidan looked aside, "I risk my own people telling you this, but the man you call Alessandre is not dead. He only faked his death."
I didn't hear that at first. I felt like I left my body for a moment. And I hadn't wanted to come back.
"No."
Illidan tapped his claws on the chair, waited patiently for me.
"What?!"
"It keeps you feeling guilty and beholden to him, and the opportunity came up. And, he's very mortal, vulnerable. It would have been easy for him. I can't play that trick on people anymore."
I chose not to ask Illidan about that one, either. We needed to stay on track, now more than ever.
"…Meanwhile, Tauraho, Alessandre has you wandering around, feeling responsible, feeling like you were old friends. Likely, you're doing his work for him, trying to finish up things in his name. The final job he never got to finish. If the opportunity comes up to ever justifiably stick it to Kael'thas, you'll take it. Have I guessed right?"
I was beyond words. It was hard to think, I was so shocked. So…
"I… I hadn't got to the point where… But I was starting to feel like it would be a shame if, after all he sacrificed... I even think he got a message through to me, but I didn't want to accept that it was him. About Kael'thas' hair?" Illidan nodded confirmation, which felt odd, but I couldn't put my finger on why, "And maybe I did notice after all, but the thing is… I… I think I didn't care. I don't think I cared that he was possibly messing with me. I just hated to think of him as dead, or think about it at all. Or even judge him again, after all he went through—that BASTARD!"
"One more fun little tip, Sunwalker. You are very in the dark in this. The Blood Elves could have also helped you, because they know, too. But I see that they didn't. You aren't dealing with one rogue, who is an assassin. An assassin who only wants to hide, then kill. Thinks only of that." He shook his great horns, "No matter which of them you meet first, you are always facing the entire Triumvirate. Alessandre, or Mirothalas Shademoon, he works with two other Night Elf rogues to run the Kaldorei Rogue Network. He is the assassin, but there is also a patriot and a master manipulator. So, how did they help him in Mulgore? Alessandre found himself in a conundrum, 'Kael'thas has come to kill me, but I cannot kill Kael'thas.' Nor could Alessandre get out of Mulgore fast enough, correct?"
I nodded, anxious. I felt my heartbeat pounding in my throat as Illidan slowly revealed all.
"So then, he sends an owl. Some messenger bird. The KRN, probably Mistress Rogue Wisthera, she sends him back a Plan B to follow. This is it."
I squeezed my eyes shut, "Wait-why, am I listening to you of all people? You just said you identified with the Alliance, or you else you have to, others make you. Maybe you're just messing me around, too. He can't be-"
"You don't know how deep this goes."
Things slowed down for me, then. Wasn't that… Tempest, didn't she say the same? Had Saturna said it before then?
"Tauren, what I told you was hardly anything." He waited, I guess until I looked less terrified. "Do you want to survive this? With Kael'thas?"
"Not necessarily…"
Illidan dismissed my, well, it was catty behavior regarding Kael'thas at that point. Any of the women in my family would have called it.
"Imagine, Turaho, what else Alessandre is lying to you about, if he would lie about this?"
"So, look—you keep dancing around answers. Is there a hit on Kael'thas or not? Did your brother do it? Wait, you were surprised about it yourself. Extremely surprised…"
"Indeed. My brother is the Shan'do."
This time, Illidan wasn't dancing around anything. And he wasn't mind-reading with demonic language or anything like that, either… that was the same common sense, gut reaction I had. Sometimes, investigations are like chemistry. Certain elements just don't mix. Malfurion was made of something special, we all are, and putting a hit on Kael'thas, spending loads of money on getting another man killed? It simply was not Malfurion's style.
Probably, Malfurion would show up one day where his enemy was walking in the forest, where he had a strategic advantage. Announce the duel to his rival and handle it himself, if it was his own family being threatened.
But, perhaps not even then. Malfurion was concerned with the world, with balance, with saving animals and plants and environs. Does the sun get anxious about the blade of grass it's singed, then stop shining altogether? Hardly.
"And what do you know about the KRN and their real stake in all this, Illidan?"
Illidan wouldn't answer. He shut me out completely. Actually, he started to seem very angry. For the first time that evening. I felt very awkward. Even more unsettling, I kind of wanted Kael'thas back. He was the one man alive who could probably deal with Illidan and live. Well, he had!
I needed to get out of there, immediately. I needed to untangle and settle a whole lot of things. And I no longer trusted Illidan. He'd confessed a lot to me, but it was… well a lot. He was too strong. He knew too much. And he was controlling everything. He was even keeping me in a cell inside of Teldrassil. Well, it was both of us at the moment. I needed to get Horde soil back under my hooves. I just had this feeling.
You'd think Zoca would growl or something, but she was deep, deep under. It made me think of Kael'thas standing over my bed, for some reason.
"There's no need to be afraid, Turaho." He said it too evenly. "Aren't we happy here? Helping each other?"
"…Illidan, what did you do to my dog?"
Illidan gripped the armrests of his chair. I figured it out, then. He was reading me. And I was busy panicking. Maybe he was starting to regret telling me so much. There were some people in the Alliance he still cared about. What if his actions, his confessions tonight, to a capable Horde soldier, led to their demise? I wasn't wrong to doubt him but… I wasn't so used to dealing with Illidan. I'd failed to keep my doubts about him to myself, close up against my chest, somehow knowing about it without thinking about it. Up until now, I'd been happy, comfortable, impressed to be hanging out with him. All of a sudden, I'd changed.
Illidan was too good with Demonic. I was no Kael'thas.
I tried to make it seem like nothing, "You know, this is funny. I never thought I'd have this kind of problem, heh. But I can't tell where the door is, or where Kael'thas even got to, you know, to port me back? This room doesn't seem to… have doors? How did you even get in here, Illidan?"
"Oh, that's not an issue. I'll send you back if you want." He was still uncomfortable, though. "Your little dog, too."
Why did the space we were in suddenly seem so much smaller? What if it was a crawl space, a sliver of a space for one body, maybe two, and Illidan made it seem larger? I mean, why would a chair be in there? How would he get a chair in there?
I found the amusement in the situation, "Really? How?" Well, I supposed he had about a thousand powers I didn't know about, but Illidan didn't look like a mage to me and he sure wasn't ever able to swan around from Outland to Azeroth to wherever if the mood took him. It must have only been something Illidan could do for other people.
"I summoned you and Kael'thas here in the first place." Illidan let loose a smile. He was bragging.
"Like he's your demon pet?"
Illidan shrugged one glowing runed shoulder in the near-dark, "Kael'thas conjured, but I'm faster. He hates it."
What… what was wrong with the two of them? And no wonder Kael'thas got in such a huff the moment we arrived. Well, other than all the rest of their old feud. But, in order to summon us… Illidan can't have been telling the full truth about his power over their soul link, then. He would have needed an inkling that Kael'thas chose that moment to take me to him. Wasn't that how summoning worked?
"I have the power to summon Kael'thas because he has so much damned fel magic in his system, still. He might as well be one of my demonic minions."
I blurt out laughter again. And Illidan blurt out laughter again, at his own joke. That was when I caught it. Mimicry. Illidan was parroting me. I think to get on my good side? Like pretending to like the same things as someone else, or kind of… finishing their sentences if you can guess what they're about to say next. Some people did it because they really needed to be liked and it was too hard to resist. But Illidan wasn't weak-willed, he was…
Okay, so I decided then that Illidan was crazy. Possibly certifiable.
Illidan came over and nudged me in the shoulder. He was smiling too much, "Hey, nice hooves."
"Heh—" Then, I stopped myself. Fear.
Illidan then summoned the portal back to Quel'thalas and waited.
"So, you're really not going to tell me how the kal'dorei rogues, how Alessandre, is still involved in this? What is he really up to? And is he the one…"
All of a sudden, I couldn't say it. How ruthless Alessandre could truly be. If any speck of me was glad he still lived, I'd better not get carried away with it. Not if he was busy corrupting innocents. All in the name of his precious Alliance.
I tried again, with resolve this time. "Tell me what Alessandre is doing to the Blood Elves. I need to know. Illidan, please. Why is he involved?"
"You want to make me an offer, Turaho?"
I thought about what he said, about doing favors for him, owing him things. And Illidan remembering it for thousands of years or more.
I laughed and it came off nervous, "I dunno if I even have anything you would want."
"I know that you don't, I'm telling you to leave because I've had enough."
Well, that burned.
"I am grateful that you gave me all this insight, Illidan."
He sidestepped, sort of walking me to the portal. Or, hemming me in closeby it. That man takes big steps.
"I don't see how the KRN could care so much about Greatfather Winter, though? That stymies me. You want this wrapped up fast and tidy like I do? Right? And I'm in a position to actually do that. You're sort of outside the situation."
Illidan stretched one of his bat-like wings, idly. "It's funny the things we take for granted. The people we're supposed to love, when we don't. The details in life we miss, for our own absurd flaws. Flaws that are endemic to us. Tauren, sometimes, I feel as if we are all meant to fail in this life, to be betrayed and feel lost, not to succeed. And that we don't meet our friends, our soulmates, because we are busy being so good. But, because we fall down so hard, and need someone to cling to when we get up."
"You know, forget Tyrande. You should start dating again. I have some uh, pretty cute cousins who would have lapped up that line."
Illidan laughed so hard, so honestly, that I heard it through the other side of the portal when I stepped down in golden Eversong Woods.
Kael'thas was standing right there when I touched ground again.
Illidan's laughter floated around us while the magic faded.
Kael'thas crossed his arms, "What did you do."
Kael'thas accused me as if I'd just got him into trouble with his wife. Again.
"Don't be jealous because Illidan likes me. Wait—how did you get back?"
Kael'thas said nothing as we walked over to the nearest path, through the trees.
"…Did Illidan punk-summon you? A second time?"
"Illidan Stormrage is an ass."
And, after he listened to my hooves sweeping through the grass a few more times, I guess Kael'thas got the other jab.
"Did you just say Illidan punk-summoned me?"
