Chapter 30: Beauty and Bravery
Maltacus
Getting sticky.
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Chapter 30: Beauty and Bravery
The Forsaken army was just about readying to march out as Anya entered the Dark Lady's office. Sylvanas was sitting by her desk and made a good impression of appearing busy and in a much sterner mood than she was.
"Ranger Lieutenant Eversong." She leaned back in her chair and considered Anya.
"Dark Lady."
"I am having trouble with one of the rangers in your squadron." Sylvanas drawled and watched Anya blink in confusion. "I think I need to report her to her squadron lieutenant."
"Who…?" Sometimes Anya was nearly as adorable as Proudmoore when you managed to fluster her.
"Ranger Sylvanas Windrunner." Sylvanas sighed. "She is part of your squadron so technically you are her squadron commander, Lieutenant Eversong. She has been outrageously distracted lately."
"Has she?" Anya tilted her head and her confusion gave way to…something soft that Sylvanas could not completely place.
"Indeed. She can barely do her job some days. Or nights." Sylvanas rose from her chair. "I can not for my life fathom what could have gotten into her."
A small smile formed in the corner of Anya's mouth.
"I may have an idea of what has gotten into her, Dark Lady…" she almost whispered and took a step closer.
"Would you, now?"
"Too litte…" Anya breathed into Sylvanas' ear, melodic and smooth as silk.
It was very little that could leave the Dark Lady of the Forsaken speechless. Anya Eversong's cute little fangs shyly peeking out over her lower lip just like that, was evidently one of those things.
"And how do you intend to deal with the situation, Lieutenant?" Sylvanas husked.
"I am sure I will think of something. Excessive acrobatics, perhaps…" Anya was positively grinning now, shameless and mischievous and radiant. "Otherwise, maybe I should ask my new ranger mage for advice… I have recently learned from reliable sources – that means a dinner party with Amora's squadron – that half of the city's proper inhabitants see her as our shared plaything and the other half consider us to be hers. So maybe she would know something about handling dark rangers, wouldn't you say?"
Sylvanas could not help but smile at the thought, both of her blushing mage if Anya would actually ask such an insane question and of how Proudmoore would genuinely wish for Ranger Windrunner and any other dark ranger to be as happy as they possibly could.
"What do you think she would recommend?" Sylvanas mumbled and allowed her eyes to feast on Anya's visage.
"A queen-sized bed in dark purple for a start…" Anya held her gaze and slowly snaked a hand around Sylvanas' neck. "A night without obligations…"
"That sounds…" Sylvanas grabbed Anya by her hips and effortlessly lifted her up to sit her down on top of the desk. "…like something that would worsen the situation considerably…"
"Dangerously…" Anya tightened her grip and pulled Sylvanas down closer to her.
"Disastrously…" Sylvanas held Anya tightly with one arm around her back as she bent down and kissed her.
Anya clung to her neck and leaned further back, pulling them both further down. Something clattered, but Sylvanas could not care less. This time, her most precious ranger would not have to struggle to keep her here. This time, Sylvanas kissed her hungrily from the start and Anya matched her. Her legs snapped shut around Sylvanas' hips and held them both in place. Sylvanas longed to breathe again, so that Anya could leave her out of breath and hear it. She longed for a heartbeat, that Anya could feel quicken.
She had none of those things, but in that case she would just have to kiss Anya twice as deeply instead. Because they did not, after all, have to pause for breathing or other distractions. Sylvanas ran her tongue along Anya's lips and teeth and caressed her fangs, and Anya's tongue that was seeking out hers. Sylvanas shifted her balance so she could lean forward even more and hold Anya's neck with her other hand. The dark ranger moaned longingly – it was almost a whimper – and pulled Sylvanas even harder towards her.
Then Anya was pulling out of the kiss.
"What's that awful sound?!" she whined angrily.
She was right. There was a growing rumble of heavy feet outside the door.
They were marching out today after all.
Sylvanas sighed and smiled sadly at her frustrated ranger. Belore, Anya looked like she was close to pouting. Just then, they could hear someone knocking on the door.
"In a moment!" Sylvanas shouted and turned back to stroke along Anya's dark hair. Something caught her eye below and she gently moved har ranger's arm to see better.
Anya was sitting in a puddle of freshly spilled ink with the overturned bottle next to her left thigh.
"Did you think your dark rangers were not dark enough, Dark Lady?" Anya's smile was sad, but it was still a smile.
"I thought I should lacquer you a bit so that you all look pretty for this important day."
"Maybe it could help us disguise ourselves. We would be travelling ink-ognito."
"I think leaning back like that has made you ink-lined." She helped Anya get off the desk without smearing herself too much more and shrugged dismissively at the ruined report Anya had been sitting on. "It was already unreadable. The man writes like a drunk ogre."
Sylvanas grabbed a rag and wiped up most of the ink and then wiped most of it from Anya. Hopefully it would just add to the black dye of her pants.
"Have you packed everything?" Sylvanas asked teasingly.
"Yes…that is…I'm sure Lyana has." Anya admitted in a low voice and sounded embarrassed. She and Proudmoore were so much alike sometimes.
"Anya, being able to rely on others is not a weakness for a squadron commander." Sylvanas reminded her gently.
"We… We're mostly carrying Jaina's things honestly. She didn't want us to have to burden ourselves but she doesn't grasp how light the load is for us now." Anya looked thoughtful. "It feels nice to have someone to carry things for. At least one of us can eat the provisions we pack and be warmed by the bedrolls and tent we bring with us."
"How is our mage?"
"She's nervous. But eager too. Kitala has been making up stuff about what rangers do to live in the wilds. It… Jaina makes us feel better."
"How are you, Anya?" Sylvanas tilted her head up so Anya looked straight at her.
"Scared." Anya's whisper was barely audible.
Sylvanas pulled Anya close, inside the protective embrace of her arms.
"Will you be alright?" Sylvanas whispered into her hair.
"I think so. If I have my squadron. And my ranger mage. And my Dark Lady."
"One day, I will give you a world without Lich Kings." Sylvanas kissed her forehead. "A world without the Scourge. And I won't let any of them touch you."
"I know someone else I would rather like to be touched by…" Anya whispered against Sylvanas' chest.
***
Anya looked across the boulder-strewn slope ahead of them and into the teeming mass of Scourge that was bearing down on the Forsaken squares. She could hear the Lich King calling to her and knew it was her imagination. She could hear his call anyway.
"Baron! Move 4:th and 7:th guard companies to your left side and assume command of our wing! Hold position and guard our flank, advance only upon my or Areiel's orders! Deploy your rangers and mages to support your own position as you see fit!"
Sylvanas' voice chased that call away.
"Zey shall break upon my shieldwalls like sticks against a castle wall, My Queen!"
To be honest, Baron Frostfel made a good effort too. Anya wished she could be so encouraging herself. The boasting, but very skilled, knight would have the hardest task today. The Forsaken army was divided into three massive hollow squares with the left one overstrength and made up primarily of the deathguard. Ahead of it was the flattest and most open patch of ground and it would entice any enemy to put in a lot of effort at that place to encircle and break their left wing. Baron Frostfel would have to prevent that and hold his position at almost any cost to let the two other squares move back and forth. He had the Forsaken spellcasters and some rangers for support but not nearly enough to keep a lot of Scourge from reaching his lines. They would have to concentrate on key targets like abominations and above all the Scourge necromancers.
"Kalira, you have the right wing! Follow mine or Areiel's lead!"
Velonara waved briefly when her squadron sprinted after Kalira towards the Forsaken right. Ahead of the centre and right squares was rugged ground filled with rocks and sparse trees. Kalira would hold the right but with the least heavy infantry and most rangers she would work in the opposite way and skirmish back and forth and make the Scourge trip and tangle in the harsh terrain while ranger squadrons shot them down. She would advance or retreat as needed.
"Areiel, you have the centre and overall command. You know the plan."
Anya's squadron was positioned in the middle. The Forsaken centre was one square length ahead of the other two, an obvious bait and in a position to support the wings on either side if the Scourge ignored it. Deathguard lines made up it's front with dreadguards on the sides and rear. Ahead was a massive slope of rugged terrain leading up to the mountains and coming down it right now was the Scourge.
"Understood." Areiel was as calm as if they were chatting by the archery range. "And may I ask where you will be, Dark Lady?"
"Wherever my squadron lieutenant wants me."
"Best report to her quickly then, Ranger Windrunner!" Areiel was still businesslike, but she wasn't able to hide the trace of amusement or affection beneath.
Anya's mood soared immediately. Sylvanas would be next to her and Jaina, and Anya would not have to choose between which one to guard.
"Lieutenant Eversong!" Areiel sounded demanding.
"Yes, Ranger-Captain!"
"Deploy your squadron at the front and find some good spot. Break every dense formation coming close and watch for artillery and enemy casters."
Anya saluted her and looked over her squadron. Her full squadron. All six rangers.
"Ranger Windrunner, pair with Ranger Proudmoore." Anya commanded. "Let no Scourge get close to her."
Sylvanas grinned ferally and saluted Anya with impeccable form. Anya was not staring at her pearly teeth. Especially not the long ones at the corners.
"Clea and Kitala, watch our right and tell me if you spot something of interest and if Kalira needs assistance. Lyana and I will watch the left."
All eyes were on Anya. They listened to her, even Sylvanas did without showing the slightest sign of not taking this seriously. In life, Anya knew that Sylvanas had served under Areiel and Lireesa Windrunner. But as dark rangers, none but Anya Eversong had ever had the Dark Lady in her squadron.
And no known ranger lieutenant had an archmage.
"Ranger Proudmoore!"
"Lieutenant Eversong." Jaina didn't smile but all of her beamed at Anya.
"Wouldn't it be such a shame for the Lich King if all the rocks were suddenly covered in ice and made all his stupid lackeys trip?" Anya said vengefully. The Lich King himself should trip and fall down into some deep hole somewhere and never come for Anya or her sisters again.
Now Jaina smiled, wide and with sparkling eyes lighting up with arcane white. She gestured with her staff and arcane runes blinked in the air before her.
"Like this, maybe?"
The Scourge masses passed an invisible line and tumbled. Not every one of them, but well beyond half lost their footing or took a wrong step and staggered, and the sloping ground did the rest. Here and there a boulder or patch of bare rock glimmered, coated in slick ice.
"Just like that. Good work!" Now Anya was smiling too. A little bit. "Continue to mess upp their ranks. Everyone else look for siege weaponry!"
Like with every defensive position, enemy artillery and casters were the most dangerous things. This particular field was very good for the Forsaken though, because the rugged terrain made transporting anything resembling the meat wagons of the Scourge a challenge, and the ridgeline was so far away that Anya was sure they would be out of range if something was hidden beyond it. It might look like the Forsaken were in a very exposed position on the low ground, but the elevation meant that their rangers could shoot from behind the infantry ranks without anything impeding their sights.
Anya recognized the gusts of wind that Jaina had summoned before. Now they were more brief and random instead of one single howling gale. They caused confusion in the Scourge ranks, which were more uniform than other times. Skeleton warriors, mindless heaps of reanimated bones and a bare spark of necromancy to sustain them.
Sylvanas had seen it too.
"Lieutenant, it would appear we are up against a first wave of classic arrow fodder. To me this smells of attrition tactics."
She didn't follow up with an order or even a suggestion of what to do. Sylvanas would, for real, let Anya work out for herself how to respond to the situation and follow her lead. Anya desperately wanted to pass that test. The Dark Lady – no, Sylvanas – had let her lead and she couldn't disappoint her.
"Jaina…" Anya asked slowly before she really had her question finished. "Would you be able to pretend to have spent your mana on these skeletons even though you had a lot left?"
"That always depends on who is watching and how much they know of me and of magic in general. But if we assume that the other side doesn't know me very well I could always cast a stream of gradually weakening spells – fireballs for example – to give the impression that I was tiring."
"Then do that. Do as much damage as you can and make it look panicked and like you soon tired yourself out."
"On it, Lieutenant! One frantic flurry on it's way!"
Jaina begun to cast shortly after when the first enemy ranks were coming in range. The rangers in the Forsaken lines conserved their arrows, which were ineffective against mere skeletons and better spent later. The square formations meant that the dark rangers could sneak out and fall back into safety in any direction and also have many places to lay in wait behind the burly forms of the heavy infantry in order to mask their numbers for whoever on the other side that was watching.
Sylvanas glanced at Anya. She didn't say anything, neither praising nor criticising her. But she winked.
The sound when both lines clashed was one of creaking and snapping bone and clatter against metal as the disordered masses of skeletons hit tightly packed deathguards bracing against their onslaught. Once more, Forsaken infantry proved tougher than living simply by virtue of not needing to breathe or tiring. They stopped the tide of Scourge and begun cutting them apart methodically and conservatively, never breaking formation or exposing themselves needlessly. Anya had heard that Baron Frostfel had drilled the guard to near mutiny with remarks that rest was for the living, whereupon someone had pointed out that in life, the Baron had told his soldiers that they could rest when they were dead, and asked him to make his mind up.
"Second wave in the trees." As chaotic and teasing as Kitala was off duty and during training, as considerate as she became whenever someone needed her, so was she disciplined and steady when she had to. She had to speak for them both. Clea's whisper did not carry over the noise of a battlefield.
Ghouls crawled and leapt and abomination lumbered among them down the slope, using their claws and hooks and cleavers respectively to steady themselves among the ice patches. In the rear ranks crawled many-legged spidery creatures who showed no sign of being troubled by the ice or uneven terrain.
"Crypt fiends." Sylvanas noted calmly. "Rare thing to see those around these days."
Anya's eyes darted left and right. Everywhere was Scourge. Everywhere were the Lich King's monstrosities. Everywhere were hands and claws and hooked mandibles that came to tear her from Sylvanas and from Lyana and Clea and Kitala and Velonara and Jaina and take her back to the darkness without end…
NO.
"Dark rangers, ready! Nock arrows!"
Five elven bows creaked simultaneously.
Jaina was looking at her attentively. She was so pretty in her dark ranger cloak with the ear slits sewn shut by Lyana, and her eyes glowed white from the mana she held ready, matching the eyes of any Forsaken.
The Lich King would take her away from Anya and hurt her, and kill her and Raise her and make Jaina do what Anya had done.
"Ranger Proudmoore! Target those crypt fiends, they are too close to the ground for us."
They would not have Jaina. Not in a million years. Not ever.
Anya would tear them apart if they so much as poked her ranger mage.
"Rangers! Abominations first, crypt fiends and ghouls second! Loose!"
The sky did not darken this time. Not like it had outside the Undercity. The ice came from nowhere and everywhere, hundreds of sharp hails that struck down like a volley of arrows, then of javelins. Crypt fiends had tough skin, chitinous Nerubian shells and natural plates.
Abominations did not, but the bloated masses of dead flesh on them would simply soak up a great deal of damage and such a small object as an arrow needed to either be enchanted or hit a vulnerable spot like their eyes and skulls. A ranger squadron needed to work together to bring down one before it came close enough to barrel into the deathguards and break up their formation by sheer mass and weight if nothing else. It was much more valuable to stop one completely than let two wounded reach the Forsaken lines.
The Scourge second wave washed over their first that were engaging the Forsaken squares. The skeletons were not imaginative enough to surround but ghouls leapt through the gaps between the central and adjoining squares in their search for new flesh to carve up, undead or not. The dreadguard welcomed them with raised shields and chanted something Anya did not quite catch.
To the right of Anya's was Amora's squadron. She kept close to Alina with the Mirrahs further out.
"Anya, watch out for our right!" Amora shouted. "Kalira's falling back and Marrah saw a flash that could be casting!"
"Understood!"
Hunting the Scourge necromancers was the primary goal of all ranger squadrons on the field. Anya's in particular because they had Jaina who could strike from the sky behind the Scourge minions.
The right wing had soaked up the wave of skeletons with it's front and the dark rangers had spread out to flank their square, especially on the open far right side, and worked their way in. When the second wave fell over them they had retreated around and taken up a position behind the square, while the impatient and aggravated enemy rushed right for them and exposed themselves to the swords of the heavy infantry whose square they were passing too close. It soon had the full attention of the Scourge's left – if they could be said to even have a left or right wing at all – and Kalira's rangers were starting to withdraw into the square.
"Anya! Amora! Keep shooting, but listen!" Areiel ordered. "Change of plans. We will push from the centre towards the right to free up Kalira. I want your squadrons to move to our rear and attack the Scourge there. We need to make some space for Kalira's rangers to move around again."
It was not the first thing Anya would have thought of doing. The large mass of Scourge was in front of them and she assumed that was the place to focus their shooting on. But Areiel had said so and Areiel usually knew what she was doing. Or, more than usually.
Normally, now would have been the time to tell her squadron to leg it and cross the inside of their square and squeeze between infantry ranks.
Normally. Anya smirked. The Scourge would be in for a surprise.
"Squadron, cease shooting! Amora, come close to us!"
Both Anya's squadron and Amora's did as she had said but Amora looked questioning and in a hurry, and not like she had much patience to spare.
"Jaina, Areiel wants us to move behind our lines and relieve Kalira's square. Can you get us all there?"
"In a blink, Lieutenant." Jaina smirked at her. It was just a little strange with her glowing eyes. "How about the small hill with the broken tree?" she asked and pointed.
"That looks like a nice spot. Good thinking, Ranger Proudmoore." Anya said briskly and felt proud. "Take us there."
The world flashed white and while they had been warned about the possibility, Amora's rangers took a moment to orientate themselves.
The rookies. Anya smiled a little to herself. She had done it five times now. Two times in battle and three times when Jaina was playing with them.
Now the dark rangers were back in their right element, an irregular fight in the wilderness. The squadrons spread out without having to be told so and stalked forward to hunt the Scourge.
One by one, two by two, ghouls and zombies and skeletons broke away from hacking against the rear ranks of Kalira's square. They rushed against the dark rangers and met their end when black arrows sent them crashing into the ground. It was a trickle, but a rapid trickle, of enemies away from Kalira and more importantly Anya's squadron was now with the Forsaken rightmost side in view.
"Jaina, what was the name again, is it raiding shots?"
"Raking shots." Jaina had been keeping pace with them and throwing out small ice lances against individual ghouls. She looked every bit the part of a ranger mage. "But the ground is broken here and I honestly think a few normal fireballs would be mana better spent, Lieutenant."
"Alright. Amora, I suggest we focus our arrows on the Scourge to the rear while Jaina sets them on fire to the right."
Amora grinned at Anya and nodded, but just then a half dozen ghouls became visible among the rocks to their right.
"Mine." Sylvanas said casually and nocked and loosed an arrow so fast that Anya only caught a blur. "Heed your Lieutenants order, Ranger Proudmoore. I will deal with these."
That reminder hit home with Anya too. She hurriedly picked a ghoul out of the throngs clawing at the nearby heavy infantry, less elite and not as heavily armoured Forsaken soldiers that made up the rear of the square. It was so many things to keep track of in a field battle. So many things to worry about when comrades and allies were dying everywhere around every minute. How did Sylvanas and Areiel do it?
Anya could spare a quick look at Sylvanas at least. She danced among the ghouls and left collapsing piles of rotting flesh in her wake. They had nothing on Anya's Dark Lady.
Ahead of her, Jaina's fireballs had begun to rain and left smouldering holes in the Scourge ranks. Maybe Anya imagined it, but it sounded very much like the dreadguards on the side cheered or chanted louder when seeing it. They knew what Jaina's presence counted for.
Black shapes darted and slunk between the rear ranks and Kalira's ranger squadrons joined the fight outside the square.
"Amora!" Anya could hear Anthis Sunbow calling out. "Kalira is advancing, move up along the right side with us and keep pace! We're going to send this filth running!"
"Necromancers!" Anya flinched when she heard Alina. Far up the slope, the sickly green lights and the motley red and purple robes of the senior members of the Cult of the Damned were visible for all. Before them, skeletons rose from the ground where they had lain still.
Anya did not know what to do. They were not done with Areiel's task. But the Scourge spellcasters were the whole point. Nothing mattered in the long run if they escaped to raise new Scourge armies somewhere else. And their magics could still tip the scales if there were sufficient numbers of them present.
Sylvanas were back at Jaina's side. She stepped up to Anya, still with a thoroughly casual demeanour.
"Kalira's wing has been relieved enough for her to manoeuvre. If you want to go for a hunt, we are ready, Lieutenant."
Well, when Ranger Windrunner put it in that way.
"Squadron, to me!" Anya would be much more comfortable up there in the wilderness than down here in this confused mess anyway. "We are going to pay a visit to that handful of necromancers up on the slope. I want us all spread out in front of Jaina when we appear and engaging our opposite number of those goat-heads."
The rangers formed a half circle around their mage and Jaina took note of their positions.
"Ready? Two, one…"
Stony field turned into to rugged sparse woodland. Anya raised her bow, drew, and put a black arrow through the neck of a gnarly man with greasy hair and one of the stupid skull hats his kind adorned themselves with.
Alarmed shouts cut through the air and heaps of bones rose and formed into a kind of wall in front of four remaining necromancers. Five lay dead after the rangers' first shots.
"Back, mindless creatures!"
Anya clenched her jaws tightly. That was what they were to the necromancers and liches and death knights of the Scourge. Failed minions. Broken puppets. Beasts to reassert control over.
Then a huge fireball blew the bone wall apart. Smoking and blackened pieces flew high and wide.
"Who are you calling mindless, you foul, evil -" Jaina's angry outburst was cut short by a deafening roar from the side. The largest abomination Anya had ever seen barrelled through the trees, felling smaller ones and breaking branches as it bore down on the dark rangers.
On Jaina.
Anya leapt past her into position with her daggers pulled out and ready when she landed. She had no idea of how to fight such a mountain of meat but she had to keep it's attention if nothing else. Then she stumbled, her limbs shaking and unsteady, and nearly dropped her daggers. What was happening to her? How could she hold off that thing when she could barely move a…
Jaina…
Jaina!
Anya walked – it was pathetic, but it was all she could do – defiantly forward. The monstrosity peered at her with small, bloodshot eyes and made a grimace that was like some greasy parody of a grin.
"HHHRRREND AND TEARRR!!!"
Biting cold suddenly emanated in front of Anya and the gigantic abomination slowed, and slowed even more, and frost coated it's rotting and bleeding skin. Waves of ever deeper cold pulsed about the thing, driven deeper into it until there was more icy blue than anything else.
With black fumes waving off her shoulders Sylvanas walked with furiously lowered brows past Anya. Darkness enveloped her and she rose above the ground in banshee form and Wailed.
The deep frozen abomination disintegrated and exploded into hundreds of pieces of foul-looking ice.
Sylvanas resumed her elven form again and turned around towards Anya.
"Crippling curse."
Only then did Anya notice that she could move as usual again. It was eerie.
"What about…"
Sylvanas nodded at Lyana, Clea and Kitala who had appeared with drawn bows, back after having finished off the remaining necromancers. Had so little time really passed?
"Your orders, Lieutenant Eversong?"
Anya looked around, noticing the carnage but also the apparent lack of anything like a command post. This was not the head of the Scourge army, it was more like a hand they had cut off.
"We continue our hunt. This can't be the only necromancers on the field, can it?"
Sylvanas shook her head.
"From what we have seen so far there is likely to be at least one more group, controlling their right side of the field and focusing their attention on Baron Frostfel. The attacks against our centre and right were simultaneous and the view from here covers both."
Anya gave it some thought.
"We should not risk running blindly into something. I think it's best if we continue on foot to the top of this ridge to scout."
"As you command, Lieutenant."
Then, Sylvanas winked at her again.
Anya waved for her squadron to follow her. Jaina and Sylvanas remained a little behind since Jaina was not as silent as the rest. It took them about two hundred steps to reach the edge from where they could look down on the left side of the field, with a good view of it too.
It was quite a sight.
Anya had to admit that she had never been very good at understanding large scale infantry tactics. She was well trained in how to fight as part of a small group like a ranger squadron and their irregular methods and tricks but pitched battles with heavy troops had always seemed like a mass of slow, immobile mobs of soldiers to her.
But when viewed from above, well, she had to give Areiel and the Baron all credit for how they could keep everything together like they did.
When viewed from above and afar, the small bricks that made up the squares and lines and columns became visible, even in the chaos of close combat. The companies that moved about independently but acted together as part of the bigger whole.
Kalira's square was gone and her infantry advanced in small spread out units with rangers circling them, over the broken ground before and around Areiel's central square towards the left. Areiel had shifted it's front halfway left as well and the entire Forsaken right was turning to fall upon the Scourge that besieged Baron Frostfel's fortress of iron and deathguards. The amount of soldiers spread out in it's middle was an indication of the toll that defence had taken, Anya could only hope that as many as possible were only wounded.
"Mostly according to plan." Sylvanas commented quietly beside her. "We expected to break them in the centre rather than the right."
"Can you see who is leading the Scourge?"
"No, but Kitala pointed out something interesting. Look there." Sylvanas pointed and Anya could see some sort of tower or obelisk-like thing. It seemed to have some sort of statue on it and vaguely resembled both the Scourge's buildings and their stone gargoyles.
"There are some people on it, or next to it at least." Anya couldn't quite make out what they looked like at this distance.
"Elevated position, Scourge iconography and most likely some sort of magical benefits about it too. I say we have found our command post, Lieutenant."
"Can we take it?"
"I think that is dependant on what our ranger mage feels up to."
Anya turned towards Jaina and waved her over. Jaina really did her best at staying quiet but she still stepped on too many dry twigs when she walked.
"Nice view." Jaina commented flippantly but her face was very serious. She too had seen the predicament of their left square. "Do you want us to shoot from up here?"
"No, something much more risky. See that tower in the Scourge lines? We think it is where their other necromancers will be."
"And you want to pay them a visit?"
"As quick as possible."
"Of course, Lieutenant. We wouldn't want to impose. Tell me when you're ready." Jaina smiled and Anya's confidence rose with it.
When her squadron had assembled just beneath the ridge Anya had a plan.
"Jaina will teleport us in front of that statue thing. It is most probable that the Scourge commanders are there rather than hiding behind it, they will want to see what happens and where to cast their spells. We stay close to her in a ring and when we appear Jaina casts a shield while the rest of us look for targets. Bows out for everyone. Hopefully Jaina's magic can destroy any cover they seek to hide behind. What do you think?"
"Let's go." Kitala grinned.
"If we need to hold our ground, what's our division?" Clea pointed out.
"Sylvanas and Jaina on necromancers, me and Lyana left and you and Kitala right."
"Sounds good. Are we off?"
Anya almost waited for someone to point out what she had forgotten.
"Seems like you have everything in hand, Lieutenant…" Sylvanas whispered into her ear.
"A-alright then." Anya said just a little shakily. "Take your positions."
The ground they landed on was already showing signs of blight. It was almost muddy after countless undead feet had trampled though it. The towering statue seemed a lot larger from beneath it, dark and foreboding with a leering skull set in it.
And the necromancers, were where they were supposed to be.
"Loose at will! Anya shouted and aimed for one acolyte in the dark and purple robes of their cult. Something burned her arm and she turned to face a chanting human, man or woman she could honestly not tell underneath the skull mask and years' worth of grime. As Anya loosed her arrow the world around her turned red and a wave, no, a sea of rage coursed through her and she could all but stop herself from Wailing then and there. She had to hit something, and now! She loosed her next few arrows frantically but the targets were gone! Who had had the gall to steal her kills?! It burned inside her, it thrashed, it shook! The rage was destroying her and she needed to focus it…
The red world flashed white.
She landed back at the hill with the broken tree where Jaina had first teleported them to. The place was empty! It was intolerable!
"Get away from me!" Anya forced out desperately.
She bit down on the fury inside her. Why should she have to do that, why couldn't she just strike something instead?! Why couldn't she just…just..
A discernible force of nothing at all hit her. A wave of emptiness and calm. Such calm.
"Anya?" Jaina sounded so worried. Had…had she been hurt?
"I…I couldn't…I didn't…" Anya didn't know what to say.
"That wasn't you." Jaina didn't recoil from her. Jaina wasn't afraid of her. "But there is no curse they can conjure that I can not dispel. Come on, let's go and inform the Scourge that they have lost this battle. I bet Areiel is wondering where we are too."
Anya stared into her eyes, bright white and wonderful like the Sunwell itself.
Maybe it was a little bit alright to stare sometimes.
***
Dear Pained,
Forgive me for not writing more and sooner, I must have worried you terribly. I am fine and doing well along with the Forsaken. There is a great deal to tell so I will try to keep to what is most important.
I am allowed to cast again and help in the fight against the Scourge. We have repelled a large attack against the capital city and the queen has begun a counter-attack to take back territory west of Lordamere Lake.
I have been appointed Honorary Ranger Mage! I am the first and only of my kind in the corps of dark rangers and they are being really kind to me. Especially my squadron and the ranger captain, Areiel, who I think you have one or two things in common with. The queen is actually very kind too even though she can be very frightening. They are all united in an unholy pact to bug me about eating regularly – as mentioned, you could probably find common ground.
I do not know how long this campaign will take or what will happen next but I hope we will be able to reach Dalaran. Then the Forsaken could make contact with the Kirin Tor and perhaps from some sort of alliance. It would mean so much, for they have been rejected time after time and it hurts to see how it has affected them.
I realise as I write that I will have to split all I have to tell you into several letters lest I overwhelm you or my portal. In my next I will tell you about Anya Eversong, my squadron lieutenant. She is the sweetest thing you could imagine.
Jaina"
The small portal shimmered in her tent and Jaina quickly shoved the letter through and let the portal dissipate. She breathed out with relief. This communication was possible to keep up now that she did not have to live in a warded dungeon but by no means easy. Dark rangers could come and go at a moments notice and Jaina had not the heart to tell them to knock routinely or something like it. She wanted them to barge into her tent without warning. She wanted it to be their tent too, and for herself to be one of them as much as she could. Even when it lead to nervous situations like this one.
Or embarrassing ones.
Jaina had learned to remember that her new tent – much larger and also thicker and warmer than the one she had slept in inside her dungeon – did not have enclosed spaces for dressing oneself and that any squadmate entering would leave the rest of the camp with a brief view through the door. Furthermore, the fact that Jaina's tent was the only one regularly furnished with an actual fire pit seemed to attract all sorts of dark ranger visitors at the oddest hours. A couple of hours after dark Anya and Lyana would usually start to firmly tell everyone present that they must keep their voices down and let Jaina sleep.
Jaina did in fact sleep, and surprisingly well for someone who battled a nightmarish undead army all day long. She had became used to the soft whispers of chatty elves and the reassuring closeness of one of her squadmates who kept watch over her. They kept her bad dreams away or woke her when she had one, and Jaina wouldn't care if it made her look like a little girl because if she was being childish then she was in damn good company with this bunch of silly elves!
Today was another close call because when Jaina turned around she came almost face to face with Anya. She swallowed, and wondered what Anya had seen or not and what would be going through the dark ranger's mind.
"Uh, h-hello Anya." Jaina forced out.
"Hi. Did I startle you?"
"No! Well, just a little. My mistake. Constant vigilance, like Kitala preaches when she pranks me."
"Oh." Far from looking like someone who had caught Jaina doing something she shouldn't, Anya seemed tense herself. Unsure, and hesitant. "Did you want to be alone? I can come back la…"
"No, Anya, not at all. Is something the matter?"
Anya was sitting on her knees in front of Jaina and now she slowly reached inside a pocket and produced something covered in bright cloth that she apparently almost didn't dare to look at. She still unwrapped the bundle carefully and the contents inside glimmered.
The mirror.
The exquisite leaf-shaped mirror that Jaina had inconsiderately thrown away and smashed to pieces against her dungeon wall, but whole and smooth again like it had never been anything else.
"You…you said that you wished you could make it whole again like it had never broken." Anya spoke so low it was almost a whisper. "I took it to Akara and she helped me…"
"You mended it…" Jaina probably looked incredulous. The mirror was truly indistinguishable from how it had been when Anya had first given it to her.
"Was it…was it a bad idea?" Anya looked so worried it hurt to see it. Why did she have to be so worried?
"No, not at all…Anya, come here…" Jaina held out her hand. Very slowly, Anya set the mirror down on the tent floor, careful to the point of reverent. Then she edged away from it and crawled with uncharacteristic clumsiness over to Jaina. "That's so very, very thoughtful of you. I can't think of what to say, almost."
"Do you like it?"
"Of course I do! Tides, Anya, I was so ashamed of what I did, you have no idea! And I know it is you who have done everything but it still feels so much better knowing it is whole. It's such a lovely piece." Jaina took the dark ranger's hand in hers. "Thank you. Thank you so much."
Anya relaxed visibly but was looking at her like there was more she wanted to say. Jaina sat down beside her so she wouldn't be staring Anya in the face and pressure her. The dark ranger was so fearless in some situations and so shy in others. Truth be told Jaina wondered if that hadn't been getting worse lately.
"I…" Anya begun, but she ran out of words. "When I mended your mirror I thought of you."
"Of course you did, that was so very kind of you."
"No!" Anya cut her off insistently, but still speaking rather quietly. "Not in that way."
Jaina realised this was something much more difficult than she could guess and the wisest thing she could do was to be silent and let Anya take her time.
"I thought of you when I mended the mirror because you mend us."
There was such an insistent sincerity in Anya's voice that Jaina forgot herself and turned to look right into Anya's bright red eyes. Jaina had rarely heard her sounding so earnest. It was like the first time they had met when Anya had carded her hair in her cabin on the Banshee's Wail.
"When…when Sylvanas was bringing Irizadan and the mages to craft your bracelets Clea had just asked me to call you something nice…" Anya swallowed.
Jaina nodded and tried to smile as encouragingly as possible.
"And I called you glue. Because I meant it, even if everyone laughed. Except you. Because…because you make us more whole."
"I know that you meant it." Jaina whispered.
"You…know?"
"Not that you meant it in this way exactly, but I knew you meant it in some way, for real." Very gently, Jaina pulled the frightened-looking elf into her arms and held her. "That is quite possibly the nicest thing anyone has ever called me. And I always want to be your glue."
Then, finally, all tension left Anya and she shuddered in Jaina's arms and hugged her back hard.
"Anya…" Jaina whispered into her ear. "I think you were really brave telling me. Thank you."
Then, before her overthinking mind had time to question her heart, Jaina planted the smallest kiss on the dark ranger's ear. Anya grew completely still, but whether it was from surprise, discomfort or that she wanted more of Jaina's tenderness, Jaina could not be sure of. But at least she showed no inclination of wanting to get up and away from Jaina, and honestly Anya was leaning into her.
"Candle eyes." Jaina smiled. "If I were to think up something half as nice to say to you it would be that." Anya's questioning look was so endearing. "They glow in the dark like candles, and they are hopeful, because you care so much about everyone close to you. You are like a candle in the darkness. And I bet the whole squadron and the Dark Lady would agree with me without a second thought."
Speaking of which, Sylvanas' eyes were more like burning fires at all time, in one way or another. She and Anya complemented one another very well.
By now Anya was smiling shyly. Jaina was sure she would have blushed even more than herself if she could.
The mirror, Jaina noted, had been wrapped into something red with green, black and blue stripes forming square patterns.
"Is that one of the scarves?"
"Yes. I thought you should have one too. You can feel the cold, even if you can warm yourself with your magic now. And you are one of us now so you should also have a scarf."
"If you get any sweeter someone will eat you for dessert Anya, do you know that? I think it better stay wrapped around the mirror. I wouldn't dare to risk harm to any of them."
Jaina was silent and pondered something. It wasn't something she looked forward to, but she had a very distinct feeling that she needed to get it done unless she wanted it to be hanging over her.
"Anya, there is something I would like to ask your help with. Or for." Jaina grimaced uncomfortably. "I think I better have a look at myself in the mirror. Properly, this time" she added shamefully. "And with someone else with me. Do you think you could…stay with me for a while? While I…try to get used to it?"
"Of course. I told Clea that I wanted to talk to you alone for a while. You don't have to hurry."
"Thanks." Jaina sighed and awkwardly begun to undo her ranger armour while Anya sat down next to her and helped with a strap here and there.
It was such a blessing to be able to warm herself with fire magics and not have to think about hurrying because of the chill from outside against her bare skin. Jaina folded her shirt with undue slowness, both because she wasn't looking forward to what was coming next and because unwrapping her chest with a dark ranger's attention so fixed on her made Jaina feel just uncomfortably warm.
She winded the linen off her and around her hand. The cloth was good for staying cool against her skin but it still felt healthy to feel the fresh air against her. No matter what you dressed in it was nigh impossible to not eventually get inconveniently warm or damp under your arms.
Jaina had turned her back to Anya, and realised that she had thereby already displayed her disfiguring scars to her. She strained to look over her shoulder for the mirror and reached for it.
"Do you want me to hold it up for you?" Anya asked.
"Yeah, that might be best. So I don't break it again."
"You know that wasn't how I meant, Jaina." Anya managed to sound both admonishing and comforting at the same time. "Are you ready?"
Jaina nodded and braced herself.
Her scars were as bad as last time.
And she knew that.
They were red, uneven stripes across her skin and Jaina could handle seeing it. With Anya next to her she could handle it. Jaina would never be able to wear a low-cut dress again, not without upsetting the entire party and ruining whatever was the occasion. She would, well, have to wear ones with a high collar then. Unless dark rangers had dress uniforms for ceremonial occasions, or had an idea for one that Jaina could commission. She would endure this. For them. With them. With Anya.
"Alright." Jaina muttered lowly. "I think it's enough. Or something."
"You have healed." Anya's voice was so impossibly gentle at times like this. "That is most important to us."
"It still…hurts…" Jaina choked on her next word and could suddenly not say another one as tears welled up in her eyes.
She heard the shuffling against the tent floor and bedrolls they were sitting on. Then felt the light brushing of Anya's knuckles against her shoulder.
All of Jaina twitched at the touch.
It was so unfair! She could sense it coming, feel it coming, almost see it like she was watching herself from outside, but not hinder it. It was just like when Sylvanas had been about to check on her bandages on the ride home from Hearthglen, only now Jaina was even more aware of what she did and still couldn't stop herself.
"I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to…" Anya started until Jaina insistently shook her head as she tried to breathe slowly again.
"Not your fault."
"I shouldn't have done that, it was intrusive, I…" Anya sounded mortified.
"Not your fault!" Jaina almost snapped at her. She was so angry with herself, with her scars, with the loathsome bloody Scarlets who had caused this…
Jaina managed to count to twenty without saying anything worse. Anya was the absolute last person who should suffer for this.
"Try again. Please." Jaina whispered pleadingly.
I will not have the Scarlets robbing me of this, I will not, will not, will not, will…
Anya's fingertips followed her neck slowly down, cold and calming. Jaina's breath hitched and she breathed out long and shakily while immense relief settled in her. Anya drew a wide circle over her shoulder blades and Jaina relaxed to the point of slumping forward and nearly toppling.
"Is it really true that I am not ugly to you?"
"What did I say about how the mirror would give you something beautiful to look at?"
Anya's hand was pressing down on her upper back and Jaina understood she wanted her to lie down.
Right now Jaina wouldn't deny her anything.
Anya was humming something. It was a melody Jaina could not place but it reminded her that Anya was there, sitting next to her and stroking Jaina over her hair until her eyelids became heavy and her breathing deeper.
"You are beautiful, Jaina." Anya mumbled, and her voice was a melody in it's own right.
She resumed following Jaina's back with her fingertips, touching so lightly and feeling so much in wide or narrow circles along the contours of Jaina's bones and muscles. Jaina felt herself tense and relax all at once. Her body braced for the next touch of her nape while at the same time shouting for more of it. The scars were gone in her mind. All that held meaning in the world was Anya's hand.
Jaina suddenly realised that she had no idea at all of how much time had passed. If someone would come barging in she doubted she could move a limb at the moment even if she tried. Her entire body was entranced by the smooth stroking of the world's gentlest elf. Jaina wondered if she shouldn't be getting cold soon. She could honestly not tell. Shivers were coursing down her spine every time Anya traced it but between those Jaina felt only warm. Very warm.
Sweating even, in her thick and tight dark ranger leather pants that clung to her upper thighs and her…
Not sweating.
Jaina flung her eyes wide open. She wasn't warm, she was now positively burning with embarrassment. And she was…wet.
Tides! No, not at all 'Tides' because that was not an appropriate expression in this particular situation! Would Anya notice anything? Certain very unbidden examples of dark ranger humour now came to her mind. Yes, at the moment Jaina was irrefutably and undeniably…flooded. Or in any case her current underwear was. Yes, current indeed…
Jaina tried to force her heartbeat and breathing back to normal levels. So long as she wasn't outright…squishy…she could probably get up without Anya noticing anything. She hoped. She shifted her thighs just a little and immediately wished she hadn't. Jaina had to think of something else now and calm down. But the thing with trying to think of something else than what you were thinking of was, that you always came to think of the thing you were trying not to think of, instead of the thing you were trying to think of instead.
Jaina came to think of all sorts of inconvenient things. Like, for example, the very fact that she was lying down on her belly in snug leather pants with her backside up. Those very snug pants. How tight-looking were they, was it too much?
And that certain outrageous and very vivid dream, that Jaina had told herself repeatedly to absolutely not think about, where she had been in a similar position except she had been lying across Sylvanas' lap. That dream which a certain Anya Eversong had woken Jaina from, upon which Jaina had been close to dying of embarrassment. What if Anya had somehow found out what that dream had been about? Could Jaina have been talking in her sleep?
And how would it actually feel if Anya's hand continued lower…NO! That was absolutely not something Jaina should think of!
Then, when Jaina was just about convinced that her head-to-toe blushing must have given her away if nothing else did, someone stormed into the tent like a bristling, crimson-eyed hurricane.
***
"Anya, I need you!" Velonara almost shouted. "I have to talk to you, I can't take this anymore! I…eh, hello Jaina…" Velonara seemed to be too preoccupied with whatever it was that burdened her to divert more than a stray thought to the fact that Jaina was lying on her stomach only half dressed and probably red as a beet. "Did I interrupt something?"
Jaina only stammered some half-intelligible words but Anya had her wits with her and handed Jaina one of the tunics she usually slept in.
"I was checking up on Jaina's scars." Anya explained smoothly. "They bother her a lot. What's the matter, Vel'?"
"I bet they do, fucking Scarlet savages…" Velonara cursed almost reflexively, and then burst out in a pained and angry tirade. "I don't know what to do! I want – I want my ranger partner back! For real! But all I get is Westley this, Westley that, my stupid stableboy needs me because he has oh, so many needs that I must tend to even though he never asked me to, because he is living, you see, living – living – living!"
Velonara had tried to pace around the tent as she ranted but found the place too small and had to settle for standing with her fists clenched and ducking slightly under the low canvas ceiling.
"And Cyndia takes stupid risks for his sake and what the hell does it matter if he got her back if she's just going to disappear from us again!"
Jaina had just pulled the tunic over her head and could see Velonara's agitation written plainly on her.
"Will it be a fireball or an ice spike for me?" Velonara slumped and looked really shame-faced at Jaina. "Now that you are out of those cuffs and all I mean, Ranger Mage Proudmoore."
"Vel', why don't you sit down to start with?" Jaina pointed to the floor between herself and Anya. Velonara looked so lost that Jaina couldn't bring herself be cross with her.
Velonara sank down between them and Anya put an arm around her shoulders. It was very touching to see, Jaina thought.
"I…" Velonara struggled to find her words. "Look, Jaina, I'm… It was just wrong. How I said it."
"I'm the ranger mage here so I'll be the one deciding if you have earned a fireball or not." Jaina suddenly remembered something Sylvanas had mentioned about Velonara. She had her sense of smell unusually intact. Jaina opened her hand, and a small conjured rose appeared in it. "I happen to have learned a thing or two about what dark rangers need at times like this and fireballs and ice lances came pretty low on the list."
Velonara's eyes widened in surprise and she hesitantly took up and inhaled the scent from the white flower.
"Alright Vel', tell us." Anya said. "What do you really think of Westley?" She rubbed Velonara's back soothingly. "What is good and what is bad about him, in your opinion?"
"It's bad that he's a needy living…" Velonara just about pouted and then remembered herself. "No, Jaina I'm so sorry!" She actually hid her face in her hands. "I can't stop myself from spewing out complete troll vomit!"
"Hey, Vel'." Jaina almost wanted to smile at the frustrated Velonara. "I quite agree that being alive is a bit of a hassle. Just think of how all of you have taken care of me." At that Velonara sunk even deeper into her hands, if that was possible.
"It's good that he rescued Cyndia." Velonara mumbled from behind her arms.
"Really good." Jaina nodded.
"What really happened? Do you know that?" Anya asked.
"No, she doesn't want to talk about it. Not in detail."
"Have you asked Westley about it?"
Velonara did not answer the question but Jaina could see plainly how the mere idea made her uncomfortable.
"I want my old Cyndia back." Velonara sounded like she was close to tears. "The one that was my ranging partner. I want to be enough for her. I want to be good enough for her. Now I never am."
"Because she spends time with Westley?" Anya asked.
"Because she needs Westley."
"I don't know Cyndia like the rest of you do but I won't believe for a minute that she doesn't need you anymore." Jaina tried to sound convincing but it came out more feeble than she would have wanted.
" Vel'…" Anya hugged her friend a little from the side. "Can it be that we forgot to ask how you were doing and only thought about how Cyndia was doing now after she had come back to us?" Velonara slumped a little when she said that. "You protected both Cyndia and Westley on the way out and the way back. If they're being ungrateful for that then I will be having words with both."
"It isn't like that. Cyndia doesn't drive me away. It's just that she doesn't want to talk and I can't do anything about it. I feel useless."
"Then you're being a good ranging partner who sticks by her even if you don't like what she's doing, aren't you? Not useless."
"Jaina! Are you in there?" Jaina recognized Lyanas' voice from outside.
"Am I?" Jaina asked the other two. Anya shrugged with a quirky expression and Velonara nodded with a rueful smile. "Yes, come on in!"
Lyana entered, followed by a curious Clea and nosy Kitala looking over her shoulders.
"Hi! Look, your potion's finished!" Lyana blurted out. She looked eager and expectant and without another thought than her being able to help.
"My…potion…" Jaina begun in confusion, and wondered if it was some sort of healing potion until she remembered Lyana promising to brew her one of more private character when they had been at the Apothecarium.
"Your potion of barrenness, so you don't have to bleed so much! Fresh off the bat! Or fresh off the vat, maybe?"
Jaina groaned inside at that less than discreet reveal and her first instinct was to find a way to shut Lyana up and deflect the whole conversation in some yet undetermined way. Then she remembered Velonara next to her. And…surely Jaina could let Vel' have a little fun at her expense.
"Thank you, Lyana." Jaina smiled at her. Lyana was always so caring for her squadmates and Jaina in particular. She and Anya were a perfect match as ranging partners. "My bedclothes and undergarments are in your debt."
Well, the corner of Velonara's mouth was creeping up.
"You don't think our surroundings are barren enough already?" Clea grinned while Kitala snorted with amusement.
"It's once a month for humans, Clea." Lyana chided. "Once a month. Jaina said this would help. And I can brew more pretty easily now that I've worked out the routine." she assured Jaina.
"Well, that is good." Kitala grinned widely and just reeked of teasing. "We can't have scores of little Jaina's running around everywhere. The Undercity can only be dug out so much faster."
Jaina made a shooing motion at her.
"Not to mention how many mana buns it would take to feed them all. I bet there is a secret cache somewhere in Azeroth's core where a gigantic pile of mana buns are dwindling at a frightening rate and ethereal bakers toil to keep up with the deamand." Clea chuckled.
"Hey! I don't eat that many!" Jaina protested. "And I only drink the potions to lessen my monthly troubles – yes, it is once a month as Lyana has nosily researched – not because I go out and, well…" she mumbled.
"Completely wrong attitude, totally unacceptable." Kitala declared. "But, hey now! We're packing more living ones nowadays." She was clearly restraining herself from laughing. "Are you maybe planning to go for a ride with Westley? Better ask Cyndia first though, horse boy theft is looked upon seriously I understand!"
"Kitala!" Jaina shouted out indignantly while the rest of her tent broke out in laughter. Even Velonara chuckled but Jaina thought it was a bit of a sad undertone to it, understandably. And since Jaina was already blushing anyway she might as well see if she could cheer Vel' up some more. "I thought it was determined that I was the dark rangers' plaything? Or the other way around. The Undercity's prudes has decided it after all, so obviously it must be true."
"But now you are one of us, so obviously we are old news and no longer suffice to sate the appetites of Archmage Jaina Prowlmoore, ever on the hunt to devour more of all the alluring races of Azeroth's." Kitala suggested and elicited a new wave of laughs.
Actually, there was some truth to what Kitala said. Jaina had been able to see a lot of the world and got to meet and know many people she had never expected to, and she had loved the fact even with the terror of the Burning Legion being ever present. But, but not in that manner!
Jaina Prowlmoore… It was certainly a wide step from Jaina Prudemoore that she had been known as during a lot of her apprenticeship.
She noticed that Anya was whispering something into Velonara's ear, quite eagerly, that made her smile widely even if she shook her head too.
"It's brilliant!" Anya insisted and grinned. "Problem solved!"
"What is?" Clea asked.
"We send Jaina to charm the stableboy and then I could talk to Cyndia in peace. Total honey jar!" Velonara giggled.
"Guaranteed success!" Kitala agreed.
"It's called a 'honey pot', not 'honey jar'!" Jaina corrected. "You should take Common lessons with Clea and Kitala. And people only do that in silly adventure novels. And I'm not…" She just gave up, and rose.
"No, Jaina, where are you going? We're laying out plans here!"
"Here's another Common idiom for you; I'm going to powder my nose."
The evening air was refreshingly cool and in her haste at being flustered about recent comments Jaina had not had time to be flustered about earlier things. There was a certain distinct dark ranger practicality to that.
Her tent shone invitingly with warm light from inside when she got back and quietly talking voices escaped out through the flaps at the door. Jaina snuck in to grab her toothbrush while Lyana piled some wood on the fire and put rocks in a kettle they had hanging over it. Jaina's squadmates would place them inside rolled blankets that they put around Jaina's bed like a nest to keep her warm during the night. Jaina had enough warm clothes at her disposal to get by well enough anyway, but being able to sleep in just her tunic was a nice treat, and it was just so very kind of them all.
And it made it considerably easier to discreetly change panties under her blankets.
Jaina curled up into a warm ball and fell asleep to the sound of Velonara's ranger sisters sorting through her problems in low voices and watching Anya with her arm around Velonara whispering into her ear.
Field battles did not hold half the drama that an average day in a dark ranger encampment did.
Maybe she would have to give Pained a summary rather than a full report…
The Forsaken army was just about readying to march out as Anya entered the Dark Lady's office. Sylvanas was sitting by her desk and made a good impression of appearing busy and in a much sterner mood than she was.
"Ranger Lieutenant Eversong." She leaned back in her chair and considered Anya.
"Dark Lady."
"I am having trouble with one of the rangers in your squadron." Sylvanas drawled and watched Anya blink in confusion. "I think I need to report her to her squadron lieutenant."
"Who…?" Sometimes Anya was nearly as adorable as Proudmoore when you managed to fluster her.
"Ranger Sylvanas Windrunner." Sylvanas sighed. "She is part of your squadron so technically you are her squadron commander, Lieutenant Eversong. She has been outrageously distracted lately."
"Has she?" Anya tilted her head and her confusion gave way to…something soft that Sylvanas could not completely place.
"Indeed. She can barely do her job some days. Or nights." Sylvanas rose from her chair. "I can not for my life fathom what could have gotten into her."
A small smile formed in the corner of Anya's mouth.
"I may have an idea of what has gotten into her, Dark Lady…" she almost whispered and took a step closer.
"Would you, now?"
"Too litte…" Anya breathed into Sylvanas' ear, melodic and smooth as silk.
It was very little that could leave the Dark Lady of the Forsaken speechless. Anya Eversong's cute little fangs shyly peeking out over her lower lip just like that, was evidently one of those things.
"And how do you intend to deal with the situation, Lieutenant?" Sylvanas husked.
"I am sure I will think of something. Excessive acrobatics, perhaps…" Anya was positively grinning now, shameless and mischievous and radiant. "Otherwise, maybe I should ask my new ranger mage for advice… I have recently learned from reliable sources – that means a dinner party with Amora's squadron – that half of the city's proper inhabitants see her as our shared plaything and the other half consider us to be hers. So maybe she would know something about handling dark rangers, wouldn't you say?"
Sylvanas could not help but smile at the thought, both of her blushing mage if Anya would actually ask such an insane question and of how Proudmoore would genuinely wish for Ranger Windrunner and any other dark ranger to be as happy as they possibly could.
"What do you think she would recommend?" Sylvanas mumbled and allowed her eyes to feast on Anya's visage.
"A queen-sized bed in dark purple for a start…" Anya held her gaze and slowly snaked a hand around Sylvanas' neck. "A night without obligations…"
"That sounds…" Sylvanas grabbed Anya by her hips and effortlessly lifted her up to sit her down on top of the desk. "…like something that would worsen the situation considerably…"
"Dangerously…" Anya tightened her grip and pulled Sylvanas down closer to her.
"Disastrously…" Sylvanas held Anya tightly with one arm around her back as she bent down and kissed her.
Anya clung to her neck and leaned further back, pulling them both further down. Something clattered, but Sylvanas could not care less. This time, her most precious ranger would not have to struggle to keep her here. This time, Sylvanas kissed her hungrily from the start and Anya matched her. Her legs snapped shut around Sylvanas' hips and held them both in place. Sylvanas longed to breathe again, so that Anya could leave her out of breath and hear it. She longed for a heartbeat, that Anya could feel quicken.
She had none of those things, but in that case she would just have to kiss Anya twice as deeply instead. Because they did not, after all, have to pause for breathing or other distractions. Sylvanas ran her tongue along Anya's lips and teeth and caressed her fangs, and Anya's tongue that was seeking out hers. Sylvanas shifted her balance so she could lean forward even more and hold Anya's neck with her other hand. The dark ranger moaned longingly – it was almost a whimper – and pulled Sylvanas even harder towards her.
Then Anya was pulling out of the kiss.
"What's that awful sound?!" she whined angrily.
She was right. There was a growing rumble of heavy feet outside the door.
They were marching out today after all.
Sylvanas sighed and smiled sadly at her frustrated ranger. Belore, Anya looked like she was close to pouting. Just then, they could hear someone knocking on the door.
"In a moment!" Sylvanas shouted and turned back to stroke along Anya's dark hair. Something caught her eye below and she gently moved har ranger's arm to see better.
Anya was sitting in a puddle of freshly spilled ink with the overturned bottle next to her left thigh.
"Did you think your dark rangers were not dark enough, Dark Lady?" Anya's smile was sad, but it was still a smile.
"I thought I should lacquer you a bit so that you all look pretty for this important day."
"Maybe it could help us disguise ourselves. We would be travelling ink-ognito."
"I think leaning back like that has made you ink-lined." She helped Anya get off the desk without smearing herself too much more and shrugged dismissively at the ruined report Anya had been sitting on. "It was already unreadable. The man writes like a drunk ogre."
Sylvanas grabbed a rag and wiped up most of the ink and then wiped most of it from Anya. Hopefully it would just add to the black dye of her pants.
"Have you packed everything?" Sylvanas asked teasingly.
"Yes…that is…I'm sure Lyana has." Anya admitted in a low voice and sounded embarrassed. She and Proudmoore were so much alike sometimes.
"Anya, being able to rely on others is not a weakness for a squadron commander." Sylvanas reminded her gently.
"We… We're mostly carrying Jaina's things honestly. She didn't want us to have to burden ourselves but she doesn't grasp how light the load is for us now." Anya looked thoughtful. "It feels nice to have someone to carry things for. At least one of us can eat the provisions we pack and be warmed by the bedrolls and tent we bring with us."
"How is our mage?"
"She's nervous. But eager too. Kitala has been making up stuff about what rangers do to live in the wilds. It… Jaina makes us feel better."
"How are you, Anya?" Sylvanas tilted her head up so Anya looked straight at her.
"Scared." Anya's whisper was barely audible.
Sylvanas pulled Anya close, inside the protective embrace of her arms.
"Will you be alright?" Sylvanas whispered into her hair.
"I think so. If I have my squadron. And my ranger mage. And my Dark Lady."
"One day, I will give you a world without Lich Kings." Sylvanas kissed her forehead. "A world without the Scourge. And I won't let any of them touch you."
"I know someone else I would rather like to be touched by…" Anya whispered against Sylvanas' chest.
***
Anya looked across the boulder-strewn slope ahead of them and into the teeming mass of Scourge that was bearing down on the Forsaken squares. She could hear the Lich King calling to her and knew it was her imagination. She could hear his call anyway.
"Baron! Move 4:th and 7:th guard companies to your left side and assume command of our wing! Hold position and guard our flank, advance only upon my or Areiel's orders! Deploy your rangers and mages to support your own position as you see fit!"
Sylvanas' voice chased that call away.
"Zey shall break upon my shieldwalls like sticks against a castle wall, My Queen!"
To be honest, Baron Frostfel made a good effort too. Anya wished she could be so encouraging herself. The boasting, but very skilled, knight would have the hardest task today. The Forsaken army was divided into three massive hollow squares with the left one overstrength and made up primarily of the deathguard. Ahead of it was the flattest and most open patch of ground and it would entice any enemy to put in a lot of effort at that place to encircle and break their left wing. Baron Frostfel would have to prevent that and hold his position at almost any cost to let the two other squares move back and forth. He had the Forsaken spellcasters and some rangers for support but not nearly enough to keep a lot of Scourge from reaching his lines. They would have to concentrate on key targets like abominations and above all the Scourge necromancers.
"Kalira, you have the right wing! Follow mine or Areiel's lead!"
Velonara waved briefly when her squadron sprinted after Kalira towards the Forsaken right. Ahead of the centre and right squares was rugged ground filled with rocks and sparse trees. Kalira would hold the right but with the least heavy infantry and most rangers she would work in the opposite way and skirmish back and forth and make the Scourge trip and tangle in the harsh terrain while ranger squadrons shot them down. She would advance or retreat as needed.
"Areiel, you have the centre and overall command. You know the plan."
Anya's squadron was positioned in the middle. The Forsaken centre was one square length ahead of the other two, an obvious bait and in a position to support the wings on either side if the Scourge ignored it. Deathguard lines made up it's front with dreadguards on the sides and rear. Ahead was a massive slope of rugged terrain leading up to the mountains and coming down it right now was the Scourge.
"Understood." Areiel was as calm as if they were chatting by the archery range. "And may I ask where you will be, Dark Lady?"
"Wherever my squadron lieutenant wants me."
"Best report to her quickly then, Ranger Windrunner!" Areiel was still businesslike, but she wasn't able to hide the trace of amusement or affection beneath.
Anya's mood soared immediately. Sylvanas would be next to her and Jaina, and Anya would not have to choose between which one to guard.
"Lieutenant Eversong!" Areiel sounded demanding.
"Yes, Ranger-Captain!"
"Deploy your squadron at the front and find some good spot. Break every dense formation coming close and watch for artillery and enemy casters."
Anya saluted her and looked over her squadron. Her full squadron. All six rangers.
"Ranger Windrunner, pair with Ranger Proudmoore." Anya commanded. "Let no Scourge get close to her."
Sylvanas grinned ferally and saluted Anya with impeccable form. Anya was not staring at her pearly teeth. Especially not the long ones at the corners.
"Clea and Kitala, watch our right and tell me if you spot something of interest and if Kalira needs assistance. Lyana and I will watch the left."
All eyes were on Anya. They listened to her, even Sylvanas did without showing the slightest sign of not taking this seriously. In life, Anya knew that Sylvanas had served under Areiel and Lireesa Windrunner. But as dark rangers, none but Anya Eversong had ever had the Dark Lady in her squadron.
And no known ranger lieutenant had an archmage.
"Ranger Proudmoore!"
"Lieutenant Eversong." Jaina didn't smile but all of her beamed at Anya.
"Wouldn't it be such a shame for the Lich King if all the rocks were suddenly covered in ice and made all his stupid lackeys trip?" Anya said vengefully. The Lich King himself should trip and fall down into some deep hole somewhere and never come for Anya or her sisters again.
Now Jaina smiled, wide and with sparkling eyes lighting up with arcane white. She gestured with her staff and arcane runes blinked in the air before her.
"Like this, maybe?"
The Scourge masses passed an invisible line and tumbled. Not every one of them, but well beyond half lost their footing or took a wrong step and staggered, and the sloping ground did the rest. Here and there a boulder or patch of bare rock glimmered, coated in slick ice.
"Just like that. Good work!" Now Anya was smiling too. A little bit. "Continue to mess upp their ranks. Everyone else look for siege weaponry!"
Like with every defensive position, enemy artillery and casters were the most dangerous things. This particular field was very good for the Forsaken though, because the rugged terrain made transporting anything resembling the meat wagons of the Scourge a challenge, and the ridgeline was so far away that Anya was sure they would be out of range if something was hidden beyond it. It might look like the Forsaken were in a very exposed position on the low ground, but the elevation meant that their rangers could shoot from behind the infantry ranks without anything impeding their sights.
Anya recognized the gusts of wind that Jaina had summoned before. Now they were more brief and random instead of one single howling gale. They caused confusion in the Scourge ranks, which were more uniform than other times. Skeleton warriors, mindless heaps of reanimated bones and a bare spark of necromancy to sustain them.
Sylvanas had seen it too.
"Lieutenant, it would appear we are up against a first wave of classic arrow fodder. To me this smells of attrition tactics."
She didn't follow up with an order or even a suggestion of what to do. Sylvanas would, for real, let Anya work out for herself how to respond to the situation and follow her lead. Anya desperately wanted to pass that test. The Dark Lady – no, Sylvanas – had let her lead and she couldn't disappoint her.
"Jaina…" Anya asked slowly before she really had her question finished. "Would you be able to pretend to have spent your mana on these skeletons even though you had a lot left?"
"That always depends on who is watching and how much they know of me and of magic in general. But if we assume that the other side doesn't know me very well I could always cast a stream of gradually weakening spells – fireballs for example – to give the impression that I was tiring."
"Then do that. Do as much damage as you can and make it look panicked and like you soon tired yourself out."
"On it, Lieutenant! One frantic flurry on it's way!"
Jaina begun to cast shortly after when the first enemy ranks were coming in range. The rangers in the Forsaken lines conserved their arrows, which were ineffective against mere skeletons and better spent later. The square formations meant that the dark rangers could sneak out and fall back into safety in any direction and also have many places to lay in wait behind the burly forms of the heavy infantry in order to mask their numbers for whoever on the other side that was watching.
Sylvanas glanced at Anya. She didn't say anything, neither praising nor criticising her. But she winked.
The sound when both lines clashed was one of creaking and snapping bone and clatter against metal as the disordered masses of skeletons hit tightly packed deathguards bracing against their onslaught. Once more, Forsaken infantry proved tougher than living simply by virtue of not needing to breathe or tiring. They stopped the tide of Scourge and begun cutting them apart methodically and conservatively, never breaking formation or exposing themselves needlessly. Anya had heard that Baron Frostfel had drilled the guard to near mutiny with remarks that rest was for the living, whereupon someone had pointed out that in life, the Baron had told his soldiers that they could rest when they were dead, and asked him to make his mind up.
"Second wave in the trees." As chaotic and teasing as Kitala was off duty and during training, as considerate as she became whenever someone needed her, so was she disciplined and steady when she had to. She had to speak for them both. Clea's whisper did not carry over the noise of a battlefield.
Ghouls crawled and leapt and abomination lumbered among them down the slope, using their claws and hooks and cleavers respectively to steady themselves among the ice patches. In the rear ranks crawled many-legged spidery creatures who showed no sign of being troubled by the ice or uneven terrain.
"Crypt fiends." Sylvanas noted calmly. "Rare thing to see those around these days."
Anya's eyes darted left and right. Everywhere was Scourge. Everywhere were the Lich King's monstrosities. Everywhere were hands and claws and hooked mandibles that came to tear her from Sylvanas and from Lyana and Clea and Kitala and Velonara and Jaina and take her back to the darkness without end…
NO.
"Dark rangers, ready! Nock arrows!"
Five elven bows creaked simultaneously.
Jaina was looking at her attentively. She was so pretty in her dark ranger cloak with the ear slits sewn shut by Lyana, and her eyes glowed white from the mana she held ready, matching the eyes of any Forsaken.
The Lich King would take her away from Anya and hurt her, and kill her and Raise her and make Jaina do what Anya had done.
"Ranger Proudmoore! Target those crypt fiends, they are too close to the ground for us."
They would not have Jaina. Not in a million years. Not ever.
Anya would tear them apart if they so much as poked her ranger mage.
"Rangers! Abominations first, crypt fiends and ghouls second! Loose!"
The sky did not darken this time. Not like it had outside the Undercity. The ice came from nowhere and everywhere, hundreds of sharp hails that struck down like a volley of arrows, then of javelins. Crypt fiends had tough skin, chitinous Nerubian shells and natural plates.
Abominations did not, but the bloated masses of dead flesh on them would simply soak up a great deal of damage and such a small object as an arrow needed to either be enchanted or hit a vulnerable spot like their eyes and skulls. A ranger squadron needed to work together to bring down one before it came close enough to barrel into the deathguards and break up their formation by sheer mass and weight if nothing else. It was much more valuable to stop one completely than let two wounded reach the Forsaken lines.
The Scourge second wave washed over their first that were engaging the Forsaken squares. The skeletons were not imaginative enough to surround but ghouls leapt through the gaps between the central and adjoining squares in their search for new flesh to carve up, undead or not. The dreadguard welcomed them with raised shields and chanted something Anya did not quite catch.
To the right of Anya's was Amora's squadron. She kept close to Alina with the Mirrahs further out.
"Anya, watch out for our right!" Amora shouted. "Kalira's falling back and Marrah saw a flash that could be casting!"
"Understood!"
Hunting the Scourge necromancers was the primary goal of all ranger squadrons on the field. Anya's in particular because they had Jaina who could strike from the sky behind the Scourge minions.
The right wing had soaked up the wave of skeletons with it's front and the dark rangers had spread out to flank their square, especially on the open far right side, and worked their way in. When the second wave fell over them they had retreated around and taken up a position behind the square, while the impatient and aggravated enemy rushed right for them and exposed themselves to the swords of the heavy infantry whose square they were passing too close. It soon had the full attention of the Scourge's left – if they could be said to even have a left or right wing at all – and Kalira's rangers were starting to withdraw into the square.
"Anya! Amora! Keep shooting, but listen!" Areiel ordered. "Change of plans. We will push from the centre towards the right to free up Kalira. I want your squadrons to move to our rear and attack the Scourge there. We need to make some space for Kalira's rangers to move around again."
It was not the first thing Anya would have thought of doing. The large mass of Scourge was in front of them and she assumed that was the place to focus their shooting on. But Areiel had said so and Areiel usually knew what she was doing. Or, more than usually.
Normally, now would have been the time to tell her squadron to leg it and cross the inside of their square and squeeze between infantry ranks.
Normally. Anya smirked. The Scourge would be in for a surprise.
"Squadron, cease shooting! Amora, come close to us!"
Both Anya's squadron and Amora's did as she had said but Amora looked questioning and in a hurry, and not like she had much patience to spare.
"Jaina, Areiel wants us to move behind our lines and relieve Kalira's square. Can you get us all there?"
"In a blink, Lieutenant." Jaina smirked at her. It was just a little strange with her glowing eyes. "How about the small hill with the broken tree?" she asked and pointed.
"That looks like a nice spot. Good thinking, Ranger Proudmoore." Anya said briskly and felt proud. "Take us there."
The world flashed white and while they had been warned about the possibility, Amora's rangers took a moment to orientate themselves.
The rookies. Anya smiled a little to herself. She had done it five times now. Two times in battle and three times when Jaina was playing with them.
Now the dark rangers were back in their right element, an irregular fight in the wilderness. The squadrons spread out without having to be told so and stalked forward to hunt the Scourge.
One by one, two by two, ghouls and zombies and skeletons broke away from hacking against the rear ranks of Kalira's square. They rushed against the dark rangers and met their end when black arrows sent them crashing into the ground. It was a trickle, but a rapid trickle, of enemies away from Kalira and more importantly Anya's squadron was now with the Forsaken rightmost side in view.
"Jaina, what was the name again, is it raiding shots?"
"Raking shots." Jaina had been keeping pace with them and throwing out small ice lances against individual ghouls. She looked every bit the part of a ranger mage. "But the ground is broken here and I honestly think a few normal fireballs would be mana better spent, Lieutenant."
"Alright. Amora, I suggest we focus our arrows on the Scourge to the rear while Jaina sets them on fire to the right."
Amora grinned at Anya and nodded, but just then a half dozen ghouls became visible among the rocks to their right.
"Mine." Sylvanas said casually and nocked and loosed an arrow so fast that Anya only caught a blur. "Heed your Lieutenants order, Ranger Proudmoore. I will deal with these."
That reminder hit home with Anya too. She hurriedly picked a ghoul out of the throngs clawing at the nearby heavy infantry, less elite and not as heavily armoured Forsaken soldiers that made up the rear of the square. It was so many things to keep track of in a field battle. So many things to worry about when comrades and allies were dying everywhere around every minute. How did Sylvanas and Areiel do it?
Anya could spare a quick look at Sylvanas at least. She danced among the ghouls and left collapsing piles of rotting flesh in her wake. They had nothing on Anya's Dark Lady.
Ahead of her, Jaina's fireballs had begun to rain and left smouldering holes in the Scourge ranks. Maybe Anya imagined it, but it sounded very much like the dreadguards on the side cheered or chanted louder when seeing it. They knew what Jaina's presence counted for.
Black shapes darted and slunk between the rear ranks and Kalira's ranger squadrons joined the fight outside the square.
"Amora!" Anya could hear Anthis Sunbow calling out. "Kalira is advancing, move up along the right side with us and keep pace! We're going to send this filth running!"
"Necromancers!" Anya flinched when she heard Alina. Far up the slope, the sickly green lights and the motley red and purple robes of the senior members of the Cult of the Damned were visible for all. Before them, skeletons rose from the ground where they had lain still.
Anya did not know what to do. They were not done with Areiel's task. But the Scourge spellcasters were the whole point. Nothing mattered in the long run if they escaped to raise new Scourge armies somewhere else. And their magics could still tip the scales if there were sufficient numbers of them present.
Sylvanas were back at Jaina's side. She stepped up to Anya, still with a thoroughly casual demeanour.
"Kalira's wing has been relieved enough for her to manoeuvre. If you want to go for a hunt, we are ready, Lieutenant."
Well, when Ranger Windrunner put it in that way.
"Squadron, to me!" Anya would be much more comfortable up there in the wilderness than down here in this confused mess anyway. "We are going to pay a visit to that handful of necromancers up on the slope. I want us all spread out in front of Jaina when we appear and engaging our opposite number of those goat-heads."
The rangers formed a half circle around their mage and Jaina took note of their positions.
"Ready? Two, one…"
Stony field turned into to rugged sparse woodland. Anya raised her bow, drew, and put a black arrow through the neck of a gnarly man with greasy hair and one of the stupid skull hats his kind adorned themselves with.
Alarmed shouts cut through the air and heaps of bones rose and formed into a kind of wall in front of four remaining necromancers. Five lay dead after the rangers' first shots.
"Back, mindless creatures!"
Anya clenched her jaws tightly. That was what they were to the necromancers and liches and death knights of the Scourge. Failed minions. Broken puppets. Beasts to reassert control over.
Then a huge fireball blew the bone wall apart. Smoking and blackened pieces flew high and wide.
"Who are you calling mindless, you foul, evil -" Jaina's angry outburst was cut short by a deafening roar from the side. The largest abomination Anya had ever seen barrelled through the trees, felling smaller ones and breaking branches as it bore down on the dark rangers.
On Jaina.
Anya leapt past her into position with her daggers pulled out and ready when she landed. She had no idea of how to fight such a mountain of meat but she had to keep it's attention if nothing else. Then she stumbled, her limbs shaking and unsteady, and nearly dropped her daggers. What was happening to her? How could she hold off that thing when she could barely move a…
Jaina…
Jaina!
Anya walked – it was pathetic, but it was all she could do – defiantly forward. The monstrosity peered at her with small, bloodshot eyes and made a grimace that was like some greasy parody of a grin.
"HHHRRREND AND TEARRR!!!"
Biting cold suddenly emanated in front of Anya and the gigantic abomination slowed, and slowed even more, and frost coated it's rotting and bleeding skin. Waves of ever deeper cold pulsed about the thing, driven deeper into it until there was more icy blue than anything else.
With black fumes waving off her shoulders Sylvanas walked with furiously lowered brows past Anya. Darkness enveloped her and she rose above the ground in banshee form and Wailed.
The deep frozen abomination disintegrated and exploded into hundreds of pieces of foul-looking ice.
Sylvanas resumed her elven form again and turned around towards Anya.
"Crippling curse."
Only then did Anya notice that she could move as usual again. It was eerie.
"What about…"
Sylvanas nodded at Lyana, Clea and Kitala who had appeared with drawn bows, back after having finished off the remaining necromancers. Had so little time really passed?
"Your orders, Lieutenant Eversong?"
Anya looked around, noticing the carnage but also the apparent lack of anything like a command post. This was not the head of the Scourge army, it was more like a hand they had cut off.
"We continue our hunt. This can't be the only necromancers on the field, can it?"
Sylvanas shook her head.
"From what we have seen so far there is likely to be at least one more group, controlling their right side of the field and focusing their attention on Baron Frostfel. The attacks against our centre and right were simultaneous and the view from here covers both."
Anya gave it some thought.
"We should not risk running blindly into something. I think it's best if we continue on foot to the top of this ridge to scout."
"As you command, Lieutenant."
Then, Sylvanas winked at her again.
Anya waved for her squadron to follow her. Jaina and Sylvanas remained a little behind since Jaina was not as silent as the rest. It took them about two hundred steps to reach the edge from where they could look down on the left side of the field, with a good view of it too.
It was quite a sight.
Anya had to admit that she had never been very good at understanding large scale infantry tactics. She was well trained in how to fight as part of a small group like a ranger squadron and their irregular methods and tricks but pitched battles with heavy troops had always seemed like a mass of slow, immobile mobs of soldiers to her.
But when viewed from above, well, she had to give Areiel and the Baron all credit for how they could keep everything together like they did.
When viewed from above and afar, the small bricks that made up the squares and lines and columns became visible, even in the chaos of close combat. The companies that moved about independently but acted together as part of the bigger whole.
Kalira's square was gone and her infantry advanced in small spread out units with rangers circling them, over the broken ground before and around Areiel's central square towards the left. Areiel had shifted it's front halfway left as well and the entire Forsaken right was turning to fall upon the Scourge that besieged Baron Frostfel's fortress of iron and deathguards. The amount of soldiers spread out in it's middle was an indication of the toll that defence had taken, Anya could only hope that as many as possible were only wounded.
"Mostly according to plan." Sylvanas commented quietly beside her. "We expected to break them in the centre rather than the right."
"Can you see who is leading the Scourge?"
"No, but Kitala pointed out something interesting. Look there." Sylvanas pointed and Anya could see some sort of tower or obelisk-like thing. It seemed to have some sort of statue on it and vaguely resembled both the Scourge's buildings and their stone gargoyles.
"There are some people on it, or next to it at least." Anya couldn't quite make out what they looked like at this distance.
"Elevated position, Scourge iconography and most likely some sort of magical benefits about it too. I say we have found our command post, Lieutenant."
"Can we take it?"
"I think that is dependant on what our ranger mage feels up to."
Anya turned towards Jaina and waved her over. Jaina really did her best at staying quiet but she still stepped on too many dry twigs when she walked.
"Nice view." Jaina commented flippantly but her face was very serious. She too had seen the predicament of their left square. "Do you want us to shoot from up here?"
"No, something much more risky. See that tower in the Scourge lines? We think it is where their other necromancers will be."
"And you want to pay them a visit?"
"As quick as possible."
"Of course, Lieutenant. We wouldn't want to impose. Tell me when you're ready." Jaina smiled and Anya's confidence rose with it.
When her squadron had assembled just beneath the ridge Anya had a plan.
"Jaina will teleport us in front of that statue thing. It is most probable that the Scourge commanders are there rather than hiding behind it, they will want to see what happens and where to cast their spells. We stay close to her in a ring and when we appear Jaina casts a shield while the rest of us look for targets. Bows out for everyone. Hopefully Jaina's magic can destroy any cover they seek to hide behind. What do you think?"
"Let's go." Kitala grinned.
"If we need to hold our ground, what's our division?" Clea pointed out.
"Sylvanas and Jaina on necromancers, me and Lyana left and you and Kitala right."
"Sounds good. Are we off?"
Anya almost waited for someone to point out what she had forgotten.
"Seems like you have everything in hand, Lieutenant…" Sylvanas whispered into her ear.
"A-alright then." Anya said just a little shakily. "Take your positions."
The ground they landed on was already showing signs of blight. It was almost muddy after countless undead feet had trampled though it. The towering statue seemed a lot larger from beneath it, dark and foreboding with a leering skull set in it.
And the necromancers, were where they were supposed to be.
"Loose at will! Anya shouted and aimed for one acolyte in the dark and purple robes of their cult. Something burned her arm and she turned to face a chanting human, man or woman she could honestly not tell underneath the skull mask and years' worth of grime. As Anya loosed her arrow the world around her turned red and a wave, no, a sea of rage coursed through her and she could all but stop herself from Wailing then and there. She had to hit something, and now! She loosed her next few arrows frantically but the targets were gone! Who had had the gall to steal her kills?! It burned inside her, it thrashed, it shook! The rage was destroying her and she needed to focus it…
The red world flashed white.
She landed back at the hill with the broken tree where Jaina had first teleported them to. The place was empty! It was intolerable!
"Get away from me!" Anya forced out desperately.
She bit down on the fury inside her. Why should she have to do that, why couldn't she just strike something instead?! Why couldn't she just…just..
A discernible force of nothing at all hit her. A wave of emptiness and calm. Such calm.
"Anya?" Jaina sounded so worried. Had…had she been hurt?
"I…I couldn't…I didn't…" Anya didn't know what to say.
"That wasn't you." Jaina didn't recoil from her. Jaina wasn't afraid of her. "But there is no curse they can conjure that I can not dispel. Come on, let's go and inform the Scourge that they have lost this battle. I bet Areiel is wondering where we are too."
Anya stared into her eyes, bright white and wonderful like the Sunwell itself.
Maybe it was a little bit alright to stare sometimes.
***
Dear Pained,
Forgive me for not writing more and sooner, I must have worried you terribly. I am fine and doing well along with the Forsaken. There is a great deal to tell so I will try to keep to what is most important.
I am allowed to cast again and help in the fight against the Scourge. We have repelled a large attack against the capital city and the queen has begun a counter-attack to take back territory west of Lordamere Lake.
I have been appointed Honorary Ranger Mage! I am the first and only of my kind in the corps of dark rangers and they are being really kind to me. Especially my squadron and the ranger captain, Areiel, who I think you have one or two things in common with. The queen is actually very kind too even though she can be very frightening. They are all united in an unholy pact to bug me about eating regularly – as mentioned, you could probably find common ground.
I do not know how long this campaign will take or what will happen next but I hope we will be able to reach Dalaran. Then the Forsaken could make contact with the Kirin Tor and perhaps from some sort of alliance. It would mean so much, for they have been rejected time after time and it hurts to see how it has affected them.
I realise as I write that I will have to split all I have to tell you into several letters lest I overwhelm you or my portal. In my next I will tell you about Anya Eversong, my squadron lieutenant. She is the sweetest thing you could imagine.
Jaina"
The small portal shimmered in her tent and Jaina quickly shoved the letter through and let the portal dissipate. She breathed out with relief. This communication was possible to keep up now that she did not have to live in a warded dungeon but by no means easy. Dark rangers could come and go at a moments notice and Jaina had not the heart to tell them to knock routinely or something like it. She wanted them to barge into her tent without warning. She wanted it to be their tent too, and for herself to be one of them as much as she could. Even when it lead to nervous situations like this one.
Or embarrassing ones.
Jaina had learned to remember that her new tent – much larger and also thicker and warmer than the one she had slept in inside her dungeon – did not have enclosed spaces for dressing oneself and that any squadmate entering would leave the rest of the camp with a brief view through the door. Furthermore, the fact that Jaina's tent was the only one regularly furnished with an actual fire pit seemed to attract all sorts of dark ranger visitors at the oddest hours. A couple of hours after dark Anya and Lyana would usually start to firmly tell everyone present that they must keep their voices down and let Jaina sleep.
Jaina did in fact sleep, and surprisingly well for someone who battled a nightmarish undead army all day long. She had became used to the soft whispers of chatty elves and the reassuring closeness of one of her squadmates who kept watch over her. They kept her bad dreams away or woke her when she had one, and Jaina wouldn't care if it made her look like a little girl because if she was being childish then she was in damn good company with this bunch of silly elves!
Today was another close call because when Jaina turned around she came almost face to face with Anya. She swallowed, and wondered what Anya had seen or not and what would be going through the dark ranger's mind.
"Uh, h-hello Anya." Jaina forced out.
"Hi. Did I startle you?"
"No! Well, just a little. My mistake. Constant vigilance, like Kitala preaches when she pranks me."
"Oh." Far from looking like someone who had caught Jaina doing something she shouldn't, Anya seemed tense herself. Unsure, and hesitant. "Did you want to be alone? I can come back la…"
"No, Anya, not at all. Is something the matter?"
Anya was sitting on her knees in front of Jaina and now she slowly reached inside a pocket and produced something covered in bright cloth that she apparently almost didn't dare to look at. She still unwrapped the bundle carefully and the contents inside glimmered.
The mirror.
The exquisite leaf-shaped mirror that Jaina had inconsiderately thrown away and smashed to pieces against her dungeon wall, but whole and smooth again like it had never been anything else.
"You…you said that you wished you could make it whole again like it had never broken." Anya spoke so low it was almost a whisper. "I took it to Akara and she helped me…"
"You mended it…" Jaina probably looked incredulous. The mirror was truly indistinguishable from how it had been when Anya had first given it to her.
"Was it…was it a bad idea?" Anya looked so worried it hurt to see it. Why did she have to be so worried?
"No, not at all…Anya, come here…" Jaina held out her hand. Very slowly, Anya set the mirror down on the tent floor, careful to the point of reverent. Then she edged away from it and crawled with uncharacteristic clumsiness over to Jaina. "That's so very, very thoughtful of you. I can't think of what to say, almost."
"Do you like it?"
"Of course I do! Tides, Anya, I was so ashamed of what I did, you have no idea! And I know it is you who have done everything but it still feels so much better knowing it is whole. It's such a lovely piece." Jaina took the dark ranger's hand in hers. "Thank you. Thank you so much."
Anya relaxed visibly but was looking at her like there was more she wanted to say. Jaina sat down beside her so she wouldn't be staring Anya in the face and pressure her. The dark ranger was so fearless in some situations and so shy in others. Truth be told Jaina wondered if that hadn't been getting worse lately.
"I…" Anya begun, but she ran out of words. "When I mended your mirror I thought of you."
"Of course you did, that was so very kind of you."
"No!" Anya cut her off insistently, but still speaking rather quietly. "Not in that way."
Jaina realised this was something much more difficult than she could guess and the wisest thing she could do was to be silent and let Anya take her time.
"I thought of you when I mended the mirror because you mend us."
There was such an insistent sincerity in Anya's voice that Jaina forgot herself and turned to look right into Anya's bright red eyes. Jaina had rarely heard her sounding so earnest. It was like the first time they had met when Anya had carded her hair in her cabin on the Banshee's Wail.
"When…when Sylvanas was bringing Irizadan and the mages to craft your bracelets Clea had just asked me to call you something nice…" Anya swallowed.
Jaina nodded and tried to smile as encouragingly as possible.
"And I called you glue. Because I meant it, even if everyone laughed. Except you. Because…because you make us more whole."
"I know that you meant it." Jaina whispered.
"You…know?"
"Not that you meant it in this way exactly, but I knew you meant it in some way, for real." Very gently, Jaina pulled the frightened-looking elf into her arms and held her. "That is quite possibly the nicest thing anyone has ever called me. And I always want to be your glue."
Then, finally, all tension left Anya and she shuddered in Jaina's arms and hugged her back hard.
"Anya…" Jaina whispered into her ear. "I think you were really brave telling me. Thank you."
Then, before her overthinking mind had time to question her heart, Jaina planted the smallest kiss on the dark ranger's ear. Anya grew completely still, but whether it was from surprise, discomfort or that she wanted more of Jaina's tenderness, Jaina could not be sure of. But at least she showed no inclination of wanting to get up and away from Jaina, and honestly Anya was leaning into her.
"Candle eyes." Jaina smiled. "If I were to think up something half as nice to say to you it would be that." Anya's questioning look was so endearing. "They glow in the dark like candles, and they are hopeful, because you care so much about everyone close to you. You are like a candle in the darkness. And I bet the whole squadron and the Dark Lady would agree with me without a second thought."
Speaking of which, Sylvanas' eyes were more like burning fires at all time, in one way or another. She and Anya complemented one another very well.
By now Anya was smiling shyly. Jaina was sure she would have blushed even more than herself if she could.
The mirror, Jaina noted, had been wrapped into something red with green, black and blue stripes forming square patterns.
"Is that one of the scarves?"
"Yes. I thought you should have one too. You can feel the cold, even if you can warm yourself with your magic now. And you are one of us now so you should also have a scarf."
"If you get any sweeter someone will eat you for dessert Anya, do you know that? I think it better stay wrapped around the mirror. I wouldn't dare to risk harm to any of them."
Jaina was silent and pondered something. It wasn't something she looked forward to, but she had a very distinct feeling that she needed to get it done unless she wanted it to be hanging over her.
"Anya, there is something I would like to ask your help with. Or for." Jaina grimaced uncomfortably. "I think I better have a look at myself in the mirror. Properly, this time" she added shamefully. "And with someone else with me. Do you think you could…stay with me for a while? While I…try to get used to it?"
"Of course. I told Clea that I wanted to talk to you alone for a while. You don't have to hurry."
"Thanks." Jaina sighed and awkwardly begun to undo her ranger armour while Anya sat down next to her and helped with a strap here and there.
It was such a blessing to be able to warm herself with fire magics and not have to think about hurrying because of the chill from outside against her bare skin. Jaina folded her shirt with undue slowness, both because she wasn't looking forward to what was coming next and because unwrapping her chest with a dark ranger's attention so fixed on her made Jaina feel just uncomfortably warm.
She winded the linen off her and around her hand. The cloth was good for staying cool against her skin but it still felt healthy to feel the fresh air against her. No matter what you dressed in it was nigh impossible to not eventually get inconveniently warm or damp under your arms.
Jaina had turned her back to Anya, and realised that she had thereby already displayed her disfiguring scars to her. She strained to look over her shoulder for the mirror and reached for it.
"Do you want me to hold it up for you?" Anya asked.
"Yeah, that might be best. So I don't break it again."
"You know that wasn't how I meant, Jaina." Anya managed to sound both admonishing and comforting at the same time. "Are you ready?"
Jaina nodded and braced herself.
Her scars were as bad as last time.
And she knew that.
They were red, uneven stripes across her skin and Jaina could handle seeing it. With Anya next to her she could handle it. Jaina would never be able to wear a low-cut dress again, not without upsetting the entire party and ruining whatever was the occasion. She would, well, have to wear ones with a high collar then. Unless dark rangers had dress uniforms for ceremonial occasions, or had an idea for one that Jaina could commission. She would endure this. For them. With them. With Anya.
"Alright." Jaina muttered lowly. "I think it's enough. Or something."
"You have healed." Anya's voice was so impossibly gentle at times like this. "That is most important to us."
"It still…hurts…" Jaina choked on her next word and could suddenly not say another one as tears welled up in her eyes.
She heard the shuffling against the tent floor and bedrolls they were sitting on. Then felt the light brushing of Anya's knuckles against her shoulder.
All of Jaina twitched at the touch.
It was so unfair! She could sense it coming, feel it coming, almost see it like she was watching herself from outside, but not hinder it. It was just like when Sylvanas had been about to check on her bandages on the ride home from Hearthglen, only now Jaina was even more aware of what she did and still couldn't stop herself.
"I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to…" Anya started until Jaina insistently shook her head as she tried to breathe slowly again.
"Not your fault."
"I shouldn't have done that, it was intrusive, I…" Anya sounded mortified.
"Not your fault!" Jaina almost snapped at her. She was so angry with herself, with her scars, with the loathsome bloody Scarlets who had caused this…
Jaina managed to count to twenty without saying anything worse. Anya was the absolute last person who should suffer for this.
"Try again. Please." Jaina whispered pleadingly.
I will not have the Scarlets robbing me of this, I will not, will not, will not, will…
Anya's fingertips followed her neck slowly down, cold and calming. Jaina's breath hitched and she breathed out long and shakily while immense relief settled in her. Anya drew a wide circle over her shoulder blades and Jaina relaxed to the point of slumping forward and nearly toppling.
"Is it really true that I am not ugly to you?"
"What did I say about how the mirror would give you something beautiful to look at?"
Anya's hand was pressing down on her upper back and Jaina understood she wanted her to lie down.
Right now Jaina wouldn't deny her anything.
Anya was humming something. It was a melody Jaina could not place but it reminded her that Anya was there, sitting next to her and stroking Jaina over her hair until her eyelids became heavy and her breathing deeper.
"You are beautiful, Jaina." Anya mumbled, and her voice was a melody in it's own right.
She resumed following Jaina's back with her fingertips, touching so lightly and feeling so much in wide or narrow circles along the contours of Jaina's bones and muscles. Jaina felt herself tense and relax all at once. Her body braced for the next touch of her nape while at the same time shouting for more of it. The scars were gone in her mind. All that held meaning in the world was Anya's hand.
Jaina suddenly realised that she had no idea at all of how much time had passed. If someone would come barging in she doubted she could move a limb at the moment even if she tried. Her entire body was entranced by the smooth stroking of the world's gentlest elf. Jaina wondered if she shouldn't be getting cold soon. She could honestly not tell. Shivers were coursing down her spine every time Anya traced it but between those Jaina felt only warm. Very warm.
Sweating even, in her thick and tight dark ranger leather pants that clung to her upper thighs and her…
Not sweating.
Jaina flung her eyes wide open. She wasn't warm, she was now positively burning with embarrassment. And she was…wet.
Tides! No, not at all 'Tides' because that was not an appropriate expression in this particular situation! Would Anya notice anything? Certain very unbidden examples of dark ranger humour now came to her mind. Yes, at the moment Jaina was irrefutably and undeniably…flooded. Or in any case her current underwear was. Yes, current indeed…
Jaina tried to force her heartbeat and breathing back to normal levels. So long as she wasn't outright…squishy…she could probably get up without Anya noticing anything. She hoped. She shifted her thighs just a little and immediately wished she hadn't. Jaina had to think of something else now and calm down. But the thing with trying to think of something else than what you were thinking of was, that you always came to think of the thing you were trying not to think of, instead of the thing you were trying to think of instead.
Jaina came to think of all sorts of inconvenient things. Like, for example, the very fact that she was lying down on her belly in snug leather pants with her backside up. Those very snug pants. How tight-looking were they, was it too much?
And that certain outrageous and very vivid dream, that Jaina had told herself repeatedly to absolutely not think about, where she had been in a similar position except she had been lying across Sylvanas' lap. That dream which a certain Anya Eversong had woken Jaina from, upon which Jaina had been close to dying of embarrassment. What if Anya had somehow found out what that dream had been about? Could Jaina have been talking in her sleep?
And how would it actually feel if Anya's hand continued lower…NO! That was absolutely not something Jaina should think of!
Then, when Jaina was just about convinced that her head-to-toe blushing must have given her away if nothing else did, someone stormed into the tent like a bristling, crimson-eyed hurricane.
***
"Anya, I need you!" Velonara almost shouted. "I have to talk to you, I can't take this anymore! I…eh, hello Jaina…" Velonara seemed to be too preoccupied with whatever it was that burdened her to divert more than a stray thought to the fact that Jaina was lying on her stomach only half dressed and probably red as a beet. "Did I interrupt something?"
Jaina only stammered some half-intelligible words but Anya had her wits with her and handed Jaina one of the tunics she usually slept in.
"I was checking up on Jaina's scars." Anya explained smoothly. "They bother her a lot. What's the matter, Vel'?"
"I bet they do, fucking Scarlet savages…" Velonara cursed almost reflexively, and then burst out in a pained and angry tirade. "I don't know what to do! I want – I want my ranger partner back! For real! But all I get is Westley this, Westley that, my stupid stableboy needs me because he has oh, so many needs that I must tend to even though he never asked me to, because he is living, you see, living – living – living!"
Velonara had tried to pace around the tent as she ranted but found the place too small and had to settle for standing with her fists clenched and ducking slightly under the low canvas ceiling.
"And Cyndia takes stupid risks for his sake and what the hell does it matter if he got her back if she's just going to disappear from us again!"
Jaina had just pulled the tunic over her head and could see Velonara's agitation written plainly on her.
"Will it be a fireball or an ice spike for me?" Velonara slumped and looked really shame-faced at Jaina. "Now that you are out of those cuffs and all I mean, Ranger Mage Proudmoore."
"Vel', why don't you sit down to start with?" Jaina pointed to the floor between herself and Anya. Velonara looked so lost that Jaina couldn't bring herself be cross with her.
Velonara sank down between them and Anya put an arm around her shoulders. It was very touching to see, Jaina thought.
"I…" Velonara struggled to find her words. "Look, Jaina, I'm… It was just wrong. How I said it."
"I'm the ranger mage here so I'll be the one deciding if you have earned a fireball or not." Jaina suddenly remembered something Sylvanas had mentioned about Velonara. She had her sense of smell unusually intact. Jaina opened her hand, and a small conjured rose appeared in it. "I happen to have learned a thing or two about what dark rangers need at times like this and fireballs and ice lances came pretty low on the list."
Velonara's eyes widened in surprise and she hesitantly took up and inhaled the scent from the white flower.
"Alright Vel', tell us." Anya said. "What do you really think of Westley?" She rubbed Velonara's back soothingly. "What is good and what is bad about him, in your opinion?"
"It's bad that he's a needy living…" Velonara just about pouted and then remembered herself. "No, Jaina I'm so sorry!" She actually hid her face in her hands. "I can't stop myself from spewing out complete troll vomit!"
"Hey, Vel'." Jaina almost wanted to smile at the frustrated Velonara. "I quite agree that being alive is a bit of a hassle. Just think of how all of you have taken care of me." At that Velonara sunk even deeper into her hands, if that was possible.
"It's good that he rescued Cyndia." Velonara mumbled from behind her arms.
"Really good." Jaina nodded.
"What really happened? Do you know that?" Anya asked.
"No, she doesn't want to talk about it. Not in detail."
"Have you asked Westley about it?"
Velonara did not answer the question but Jaina could see plainly how the mere idea made her uncomfortable.
"I want my old Cyndia back." Velonara sounded like she was close to tears. "The one that was my ranging partner. I want to be enough for her. I want to be good enough for her. Now I never am."
"Because she spends time with Westley?" Anya asked.
"Because she needs Westley."
"I don't know Cyndia like the rest of you do but I won't believe for a minute that she doesn't need you anymore." Jaina tried to sound convincing but it came out more feeble than she would have wanted.
" Vel'…" Anya hugged her friend a little from the side. "Can it be that we forgot to ask how you were doing and only thought about how Cyndia was doing now after she had come back to us?" Velonara slumped a little when she said that. "You protected both Cyndia and Westley on the way out and the way back. If they're being ungrateful for that then I will be having words with both."
"It isn't like that. Cyndia doesn't drive me away. It's just that she doesn't want to talk and I can't do anything about it. I feel useless."
"Then you're being a good ranging partner who sticks by her even if you don't like what she's doing, aren't you? Not useless."
"Jaina! Are you in there?" Jaina recognized Lyanas' voice from outside.
"Am I?" Jaina asked the other two. Anya shrugged with a quirky expression and Velonara nodded with a rueful smile. "Yes, come on in!"
Lyana entered, followed by a curious Clea and nosy Kitala looking over her shoulders.
"Hi! Look, your potion's finished!" Lyana blurted out. She looked eager and expectant and without another thought than her being able to help.
"My…potion…" Jaina begun in confusion, and wondered if it was some sort of healing potion until she remembered Lyana promising to brew her one of more private character when they had been at the Apothecarium.
"Your potion of barrenness, so you don't have to bleed so much! Fresh off the bat! Or fresh off the vat, maybe?"
Jaina groaned inside at that less than discreet reveal and her first instinct was to find a way to shut Lyana up and deflect the whole conversation in some yet undetermined way. Then she remembered Velonara next to her. And…surely Jaina could let Vel' have a little fun at her expense.
"Thank you, Lyana." Jaina smiled at her. Lyana was always so caring for her squadmates and Jaina in particular. She and Anya were a perfect match as ranging partners. "My bedclothes and undergarments are in your debt."
Well, the corner of Velonara's mouth was creeping up.
"You don't think our surroundings are barren enough already?" Clea grinned while Kitala snorted with amusement.
"It's once a month for humans, Clea." Lyana chided. "Once a month. Jaina said this would help. And I can brew more pretty easily now that I've worked out the routine." she assured Jaina.
"Well, that is good." Kitala grinned widely and just reeked of teasing. "We can't have scores of little Jaina's running around everywhere. The Undercity can only be dug out so much faster."
Jaina made a shooing motion at her.
"Not to mention how many mana buns it would take to feed them all. I bet there is a secret cache somewhere in Azeroth's core where a gigantic pile of mana buns are dwindling at a frightening rate and ethereal bakers toil to keep up with the deamand." Clea chuckled.
"Hey! I don't eat that many!" Jaina protested. "And I only drink the potions to lessen my monthly troubles – yes, it is once a month as Lyana has nosily researched – not because I go out and, well…" she mumbled.
"Completely wrong attitude, totally unacceptable." Kitala declared. "But, hey now! We're packing more living ones nowadays." She was clearly restraining herself from laughing. "Are you maybe planning to go for a ride with Westley? Better ask Cyndia first though, horse boy theft is looked upon seriously I understand!"
"Kitala!" Jaina shouted out indignantly while the rest of her tent broke out in laughter. Even Velonara chuckled but Jaina thought it was a bit of a sad undertone to it, understandably. And since Jaina was already blushing anyway she might as well see if she could cheer Vel' up some more. "I thought it was determined that I was the dark rangers' plaything? Or the other way around. The Undercity's prudes has decided it after all, so obviously it must be true."
"But now you are one of us, so obviously we are old news and no longer suffice to sate the appetites of Archmage Jaina Prowlmoore, ever on the hunt to devour more of all the alluring races of Azeroth's." Kitala suggested and elicited a new wave of laughs.
Actually, there was some truth to what Kitala said. Jaina had been able to see a lot of the world and got to meet and know many people she had never expected to, and she had loved the fact even with the terror of the Burning Legion being ever present. But, but not in that manner!
Jaina Prowlmoore… It was certainly a wide step from Jaina Prudemoore that she had been known as during a lot of her apprenticeship.
She noticed that Anya was whispering something into Velonara's ear, quite eagerly, that made her smile widely even if she shook her head too.
"It's brilliant!" Anya insisted and grinned. "Problem solved!"
"What is?" Clea asked.
"We send Jaina to charm the stableboy and then I could talk to Cyndia in peace. Total honey jar!" Velonara giggled.
"Guaranteed success!" Kitala agreed.
"It's called a 'honey pot', not 'honey jar'!" Jaina corrected. "You should take Common lessons with Clea and Kitala. And people only do that in silly adventure novels. And I'm not…" She just gave up, and rose.
"No, Jaina, where are you going? We're laying out plans here!"
"Here's another Common idiom for you; I'm going to powder my nose."
The evening air was refreshingly cool and in her haste at being flustered about recent comments Jaina had not had time to be flustered about earlier things. There was a certain distinct dark ranger practicality to that.
Her tent shone invitingly with warm light from inside when she got back and quietly talking voices escaped out through the flaps at the door. Jaina snuck in to grab her toothbrush while Lyana piled some wood on the fire and put rocks in a kettle they had hanging over it. Jaina's squadmates would place them inside rolled blankets that they put around Jaina's bed like a nest to keep her warm during the night. Jaina had enough warm clothes at her disposal to get by well enough anyway, but being able to sleep in just her tunic was a nice treat, and it was just so very kind of them all.
And it made it considerably easier to discreetly change panties under her blankets.
Jaina curled up into a warm ball and fell asleep to the sound of Velonara's ranger sisters sorting through her problems in low voices and watching Anya with her arm around Velonara whispering into her ear.
Field battles did not hold half the drama that an average day in a dark ranger encampment did.
Maybe she would have to give Pained a summary rather than a full report…