Broken Sky
The day had been peaceful thus far. A lazy morning, begun with a wonderful breakfast and an afternoon nap together for Gav, Shalaisa and Estel. They all knew it was the calm before the storm; but how could they not savor it while it lasted?
Now, Valdyrr was still in the infirmary, covering for Malcolm and Jensha in their new household. Shalaisa was cooking dinner, humming to herself in the kitchen while Gavriyal was playing with Estel, sitting on the living room floor with her. The huntress had never envisioned herself married, much less a parent. But here… watching as the beautiful little snowy-haired baby girl wobbled to her hands and knees, she couldn’t picture herself anywhere else.
She was kissing Estel’s head after the baby rolled over onto her back all by herself--when Gav abruptly grimaced, her hand going to her own head--the side that was more heavily scarred. Her ears pinned back as a wave of dizziness and nausea washed over her. This was a feeling she hadn’t had in blessed years since she’d last--
No...
Images of Icecrown, the sky shattering and erupting into flames flashing through her mind with the next wave of pain and dizziness--and a voice in her head. A familiar voice that made her go pale--before her eyes rolled back and she collapsed on her side beside the baby.
"Well, well, sister dear. It seems things are about to get much more interesting..."
Estel began to cry when her papa collapsed beside her--rousing Gavriyal to a fresh wave of vertigo. The huntress groaned and tried--and failed--to even sit up. A burning began in that old scar, deep in its long-healed tissues. A burning that wasn’t unlike accidentally pressing one’s hand to the still-hot embers of a campfire.
When Shalaisa didn’t hear Gavriyal trying to soothe their daughter, she put the food aside on the stove and went to check. “Gav?” Her eyes widened when she saw her wife out like a light on the floor. She raced across the room and dropped to her knees beside the unconscious hunter. “Gav!” Her first order of business was to check for a pulse, all while pulling out the guild stone they’d been given so she could call her husband. “Valdyrr! Valdyrr, help!”
Not only did Gav have a pulse, it was racing. As the mage watched, the scarred side of Gavriyal’s face--the very edges of those scars were beginning to glow a faint purple; almost like the embers of a fire on the edge of a paper. Gav groaned, one hand going to that side of her face. "Fuck.."
The infirmary had been quiet--peaceful, even. Considering it was his first true day serving the House Winchester’s infirmary, Valdyrr had been especially grateful for that. But as he heard the panic in Shalaisa’s voice; a bolt of panic shot through his being. "Shal? What's wrong?" Valdyrr called through the stone. He looked up from the stone, around the infirmary. He was the only one there! Fuck!
Her reply was tinged with tears that she was just barely holding back. Shal’s current pregnancy was making it twice as hard to rein in her emotions. She didn’t want to cause undue panic--but Gavriyal was one of the most stalwart, hardy women she knew. If Gavriyal At’Lané collapsed, it was serious. “Something’s wrong with Gav. I don’t know what to do,” Shal replied to Valdyrr, his pregnant wife sounding like she was trying not to panic. When Gav stirred, she gave a tiny, nervous laugh. “Gav! Oh thank Elune. What happened to you?”
Gav tried to sit up again and reassure Shalaisa, but another wave of dizziness went over her and she had to lay back down. "Fuck--" She groaned through her teeth. The wound began to burn more intensely and a much more bright, arcane purple."It burns..."
"I'm on my way!" Valdyrr said, rushing through the infirmary. When he spotted Jensha and Lierran--two of the Lords of House Winchester--in the foyer. "I--Jensha, Lierran--something's wrong with Gavriyal and Shalaisa, could you--" He motioned to the door of the infirmary as he made his way to the stairs.
Jensha, the younger of the two Winchesters present, nodded at his elder brother, then his brow furrowed at Valdyrr. “We’ve got a bit of a crisis on our hands at the moment.” But he quickly left to see to the emergency call from an affiliated household. Chaos was erupting throughout Azeroth, it seemed.
“Understatement,” Lierran said, but waved Valdyrr on. “Go. See to your wives.”
Valdyrr was conflicted. His duties as a husband and as a healer were at war with one another. What was he supposed to do? "...Malcolm back in the house?" He said, looking at Lierran hopefully. He couldn't leave the rest of the house without a healer. Malcolm was a fellow druid, a healer.
Lierran, the eldest of the Winchesters, reached out and squeezed his fellow Gilnean’s shoulder. “He’ll head to the infirmary once he finishes gathering up the household mages for me,” Lierran said with a nod. “Let us know if you need assistance. Go!”
Valdyrr nodded to Lierran with a grateful smile, then rushed up the stairs toward their apartment. For a split second, he was unsure that he had gone the right way. They had only just moved into the Winchesters’ manor in the last few weeks and he hadn’t quite learned the layout just yet.
Shalaisa picked Estel up off the floor, trying to soothe her, and quickly settled her in her playpen before returning to Gav’s side. “Has this ever happened before?” She asked, kneeling and smoothing some of the huntress’s snowy white hair back from the scars. Her eyes widened as she saw the purple embers at the edges of the wound beginning to flare brighter. “Gav, what’s happening? Talk to me!”
Gav shook her head a bit. "...Not like this, no." She muttered, still laying there on her side.
The last time it had burned like this was when Alenras had first scored her face with his blade. When Valdyrr had had to fight to keep the plague and necrotic spells from reaching her brain. They had been fighting to keep her brother from acquiring an artifact of considerable arcane power--a spell focus of a Highborne sorceress--and rather than allow him to take it, Gav had shattered it.
In retaliation, her brother’s plague-tainted weapon had left a deep score in that side of her face. Valdyrr had had to spend a day and a half halting the spread of that disease, having to sacrifice the cosmetic appearance of the huntress in order to save her life. The pain Gav felt now was bringing the memories of that fight for her life back to the forefront of her mind. The wound felt fresh again.
Shalaisa was terribly worried and scared, holding her wife’s hand. Her attention bouncing back and forth between Gav, and Estel. The infant was standing in her playpen and crying, distressed at her parents’ distress. “I’m sorry, I don’t know what to do...” She had no medical training or healing magic.
"I don--" Gav gasped softly, the purple glow at the edges of that wound intensifying as she shifted, laying on her stomach instead of her side. The pain intensified with it. She gasped as the edges began to get sharp, slicing pains. The edge of the skin began to bleed some, dripping onto the floor. That blood began to move, drawing lines on the floor around Gav. "...Fuck..." She said, her eyes widening as she watched her own blood begin to move.
Shalaisa’s eyes widened. Blood magic? She was scared and so out of her depth. “Gavriyal…” She said. Later she would be unable to keep from blaming herself for freezing. Fear paralyzed Shalaisa and she was just barely able to move in the slightest as her wife’s blood moved on its own.
Gav motioned for Shalaisa to back up. "Get away from it!" She said, worried for her. She grimaced as the wound stung and burned more, sending more blood to the ground to join the rest in making what looked to be a spell circle. Already she knew that something bad was coming, and she wanted her wife to be out of harm’s way. “Shal, take Estel--” She tried to say, but more pain tore through her head. More of her blood spilled forth to the floor and another wave of dizziness had the huntress’s vision swimming.
There was their door! The manor was constructed carefully. Each ‘room’ was actually an apartment--sometimes a full house to itself--and thus allowed the Winchesters to host other full families within their walls. It had been that which attracted them to their house in the first place. When they had approached Valdyrr to become one of their healers, it seemed an obvious yes.
He burst through the door. "Shal? Gav?" Valdyrr called out, looking around for them. The worgen could smell blood, and his hackles began to raise even more than they already had been. Gavriyal’s blood. He’d become familiar with that scent, with as many battles as they’d been in together.
“Val!” Shalaisa cried out for him, looking like she didn’t want to move away from Gav. “Help!” Tears she had been just holding back were spilling out as she looked to the entry to their living room for the druid’s arrival.
As he rushed through their hallways, Valdyrr felt his form shift. His family was in danger from an unknown threat, and it was all he could do to keep his human form as he ran. There was a foul, arcane magic in the air, making things feel static-charged. Valdyrr remembered the last time he’d sensed that magic, experienced it, and knowing it was there with his wives and baby...
"Shal, get away--" Gav said through her teeth. Her vision was swimming, her stomach rolling, and it was a battle to stay conscious at this point. Then the deepest pain came--feeling like a spike going through her head. Had she still a working eye in that socket, she doubted she would have been able to see out of it at that point--Gav knew it was too late.
As some more of Gav’s blood pooled, it moved slightly, forming another spell circle. That purple glow intensified into a flash once the circle was completed, and the liquid moved up, forming a figure within its circle.The form that it took was a very tall, nearly eight foot tall Kaldorei man. He was gaunt in his face, a gauntness to his entire being. He was well toned, well muscled and his outfit accented that very well.
He wore plate mail with a robe over it like a jacket. The colors were an iridescent silver for the plate, with trim in a dark navy. The robe was of similar colors--but veins of that deep arcane purple as trim. Arcane runes were embroidered into the trim, and etched into the armor he wore.
As he stretched, his white hair fell back from his shoulders and then framed his face as he stood straight once again. His eyes were glowing a pale lilac in color, accenting the dulled lavender tone of his skin. As he smiled, Shalaisa felt a coldness in the pit of her stomach. Their intruder was pleased to have made it past the Winchesters’ security wards.
Alenras stretched and chuckled. "Seems like an age since we last saw one another, Gavriyal..." He said, tilting his head to crack his neck some. He stepped out of his spell circle and straightened his robe, brushing off his sleeves. That motion was almost certainly purely dramatic as his entire being was immaculate. “Interesting… this place is far more protected than your last residence was. If the Banshee hadn’t broken the damned sky, perhaps I’d never have been able to reach you here.”
There was no resisting the change this time. Valdyrr bristled, snarling as his worgen form burst forth explosively. The bastard had threatened his family and friends, invaded their home! “I don’t know what you think you’re doing here, but you are leaving BLEEDING--!” Valdyrr roared. He was not an aggressive man in the slightest, but the wild side of the druid was out to play as he lunged for him.
“Val--!” Gav said, still pinned down by the crippling vertigo and pain that her brother’s spells had given her. Thankfully she wasn’t bleeding any longer, but the edges of that old scar were still glowing the arcane purple--new marks burning into the edges there in the form of arcane runes.
Alenras raised a hand, and a ball of arcane energy formed quickly in his palm, striking the worgen in the chest to knock him back into the closest wall--and held him there. The smirk he wore wasn’t directed at anyone in particular. He hadn’t even needed to look at Valdyrr in order to repel his attack. The smirk was wicked, almost a smug sneer. The expression faded as he looked over at Valdyrr. He looked far more displeased--perhaps even bored as he regarded the healer.
"I see you still have the dog." Alenras said dryly. “Honestly, sister dear, you must cease bringing home every single stray you encounter!” He said-- before his eyes went to Shalaisa, widening in surprise. He stopped short, and then approached the mage.
"...My, my. Who have we here?" He smiled--surprisingly personably-- and reached forward to lift Shalaisa's hand to kiss it. "Charmed and enchanted. It seems Gavriyal and I have more in common than I thought! Sister dear, you have impeccable taste in women."
"Don't... you dare touch her--" Gav snarled, glaring up at him from where she lay on the floor. She fought to get to one knee even as the room spun in her vision, reaching for the knife she'd taken off her belt and laid on the coffee table before she'd gotten down to play with Estel. "Rip you to SHREDS--!" She said through her teeth as she watched him kiss her wife's hand.
Shalaisa was afraid and it showed, her hand trembling as Alenras held it. As gentle and charming as his touch and his manner was, it was impossible to ignore that this stranger had singlehandedly incapacitated both of her spouses. Shal tried to take a step back and take her hand back from his grip--but as gentle as his hold was, it was also unyielding. As Alenras’s gaze met hers, abruptly Estel gave a despairing wail from her playpen. Shalaisa’s ears pinned back and her eyes went to her daughter immediately, as did Valdyrr’s and Gavriyal’s.
Alenras's brows lifted when he heard Estel. "...What..." He released Shalaisa’s hand and followed the noise to its source and regarded the baby curiously. "...Wonders never cease." He murmured, reaching down to pick up the infant.
Shalaisa tried to beat him to the playpen, but she just wasn’t quick enough. He had to be using magic to augment his speed. It seemed as though one second he was beside Shalaisa, and the next he was holding Estel. Tears were welling in her eyes as she watched this intruder handle her child.
Gav managed to get to her feet, grabbing the knife. Elune bless, she had to put all of her strength into just staying upright--but she couldn't leave the circle that had formed, fighting as arcane chains formed and lashed around her arms, shoulders and legs, pulling her back down to her knees.
Valdyrr struggled as well, his own chains having formed when he’d hit the wall. “Gav… Gav…” He grunted, trying to get her attention, get any indication that she had a plan--a way to break free! She usually did!
Alenras carried Estel into the hallway, ever so gently bouncing her to try and soothe her. "Is she yours?" He asked, looking at Shalaisa. "An exquisitely beautiful child, from an equally exquisite mother." He chuckled as he adjusted his hold on the squirming infant.
Estel didn’t know who the man was but she could tell her parents were upset and scared. And that the man holding her was a stranger. She kept crying. She reached for Shalaisa, her little hands splayed out desperately as she tried to reach her mother.
Shal gave him a small, strained nod. Tears slid from her filled eyes with the motion--she hadn’t dared blink as she watched Alenras with Estel. “Please…” She whispered, holding out her arms for her daughter.
Alenras quirked a brow, looking at Shalaisa and then to Estel. "...I'll be damned... Yours…” He looked over at Gavriyal where she knelt. “By my sister, I'm guessing? I can almost scent the magic used..." He said, smirking. He shook his head and sighed wistfully as he looked back at Estel. "If only we didn't have a schedule to keep..." He handed her back to Shalaisa at last, his touch surprisingly gentle with the baby. "I would love to get to know you both better. But sister dearest and I have places to be." He stepped back into the spell circle he'd arrived in and snapped his fingers.
Shalaisa took the baby and backed away from him quickly, clutching her daughter to her chest, kissing her head and running her hands over the infant. Instinctively, she was checking to be certain that her precious daughter was unharmed.
“You let her go--” Valdyrr tried to snarl, but one of the chains that had wrapped around him constricted around his neck. He was bound in such a way that he couldn’t even try to pry the metallic noose enough to get more breath.
“Down, mutt.” Alenras said flatly as he made his way back over to where his spell circles were. His manner was baffling--as though he were simply stopping in to visit. Perhaps to return a borrowed item, or to chat. The magic of his spells brightened as he stepped into the circle he’d initially emerged from. Runes in his robe and armor lit up to match them.
The chains that held Gav glowed with similar runes--and began to drag her down to the floor again. And then through it, into darkness. The sensation was awful--numbing and cold and yet it burnt worse than any fire she’d been clumsy enough to touch. She fought hard, but it was too much. The chains were strengthened by whatever catastrophe had lent her brother such power. Her companion pets were resting in the Winchesters’ stables with the mounts and other companions and she had been simply resting at home. No armor, no protection save what the house itself had provided. The huntress was completely disadvantaged and unprepared for this and all she could do was pray she would be the only one that would pay for it.
She wanted to tell Shalaisa not to worry, to keep Estel safe and sound. She wanted to tell Valdyrr to be strong, to know that they had strong new allies in their new home and that everything would be all right… "Shal--!" She cried out as she was dragged through. That was all she managed before the darkness swallowed her.
Whatever her brother had planned, wherever they were going, Gavriyal knew she was to face it alone. And that was a small comfort. At least the others were safe at home.
