#kudrelke

[glyllena]

Lena sat rigidly in her rocker, not even seeming to notice Aussie snuggling against her chest and falling asleep, his little hands reaching up to reach for the hair that was no longer down to her waist. Relke sat in the chair opposite her, alternately staring at the fire or at the book in his hand. The cast on his left hand was itchy and the bones underneath already mended, but Xaph insisted he keep it on. He liked keeping up some appearances, that one.

The tension rolled off the mage in waves. Relke had calmly and confidently moved around her kitchen, making tea, but she had pointedly ignored him, only breaking her thousand yard stare when Xaph brought the baby back, laying him in her arms before quickly retreating back to his own home, child, and Cat.

They had, however, gotten her to sit before Xaph had gone, to stop her relentless pacing a dizzying circle around her living room. She refused to change out of her formal white robes, and they were gathering dirt and dust around the hem. But she had allowed the men to lead her to the rocker when Xaph brought Aussie.

Relke could no longer stand it. Her silence and agitation were starting to drive him up a wall. He sighed heavily, slamming the book shut, his eyes on her as she jumped slightly at the sound. "Lena, we'll get her back." The Prelate had been taken by the Sargerei on Socrethar's Rise, now presumably being held hostage. At least, they could hope. The alternatives were unthinkable. Yet, Relke thought, that was all Lena was thinking about.

"I'm not letting you out there if you're all catatonic, you know," he rumbled with some authority. Though she was the Archon, he tended to be a voice of reason. Like Maeorra. They both seemed to realize it at the same time. Lena's eyes flashed angrily, at the same time that Relke hung his head.

Suddenly, she swept up, on her hooves, marching the baby to his room, putting him to bed. He was already sleeping deeply, so she didn't bother with lullabies, just a gentle kiss on the forehead. Closing the door to his room, she returned to her pacing. She was having trouble keeping her focus. Keeping her cool. Keeping the magic contained. The arcane energy seemed to ripple over her blue skin. Her fingers flexed and stretched impatiently, as if desperate to cause some destruction.

"Lena," Relke began in a softer voice, pleading this time. "You've gotta calm down. None of this pacing and impatience is gonna help get Maeorra back. We're working on a plan. We just need to make it right, some time to make it perfect."

She couldn't help herself, bitter words spat at the shaman over her shoulder as she paced, "And if in that time, they kill her?"

Relke stood suddenly, shoving the chair aside, hissing at her back, "Then she'll take out as many as she can before she goes." Lena stopped, mid-step, frozen. He stared at her profile for a long moment before seeing the tear darken her skin. He almost missed her whisper. "She's my... friend."

Relke gathered himself, taking a breath as he evaluated her. "That's a hard word for you to say, isn't it?" His voice grew softer, kinder, as he took on the role of counselor. Her posture relaxed a notch and she managed a nod. Her arms wrapped around her torso and the arcane that had been pulsing over and through her skin seemed to lessen. Lena tucked her newly-shortened hair behind her ear and returned to the rocking chair, lowering herself into it, then pulling her knees to her chest, suddenly looking very small in it. Her desperation rapidly disintegrated into defeat.

After a beat, Relke sat, too, pushing a teacup in her direction on the small table between them. "Xaph's relaxation blend," he murmured. A tiny fire elemental, about half the size of his hand, flickered nearby. It didn't burn the table, but kept the tea warm. Lena eyed it warily.

She rested her chin on her knees, still curled up tightly in the rocking chair. "I hate what we've become." Relke tilted his head, but waited for her to elaborate.

"I was only a few hundred years old when the Legion came. When I was put on the ship." Lena wrapped her arms around her legs. "Magic isn't for the beauty anymore." Her voice was sad, longing. "It's for destruction." Relke nodded amicably, but still didn't speak. He was fairly new to the 'magic' bit, only having discovered the elements recently - for the draenei, anyway, and they were really the only magic he'd understood in his three thousand or so years.

Lena seemed to drift away, eyes sliding out of focus as she concentrated on a memory. "Momma would practice with me. It wasn't always blowing things up and burning things down. We floated the wooden blocks Daddy made for me. Built entire cities out of them that way, changing their shapes and sizes and colors - all with magic. She could draw me pictures with the magic when she read to me. Argus was so beautiful, and our people's magic made it so much more beautiful..." Her wrists flexed, her fingers fanning out as if pulling invisible strings on the memories she relived.

Relke leaned forward, listening quietly, his eyebrows drawing together, wondering where she was going and inexplicably filled with a longing for a home he'd never seen. She lifted her eyes to him and the azure glow seemed to slide into focus again.

"I'm tired of being a weapon. I want to be a mother. A leader, yes, of course. But I need my child to know that I'm not always a force of destruction. We have to save Maeorra. Because she is my ...friend..." - she still stumbled gently over the word.

"And because I want her to help me lead the Shadows."

(( @maeorra ))

[glyllena]

SPLAT! Relke stopped short, mud now slopping down his back from his hair. He sighed, closed his eyes, and took three long breaths before turning around. He blinked placidly at a small earth elemental, a tiny tornado of rocks and mud, bobbing and making crunching Kalimag noises. Relke crossed his arms, narrowed his eyes, and took a step forward, and the elemental froze momentarily before throwing an 'arm' out to it's left. Then both arms flew into the air as it twirled on the spot, dissolving into a thick puddle on the grass, a crunchy yelp in its wake. Shaking the mud out of his ponytail, Relke continued toward the area where the elemental had pointed. What was with them lately? So rude. Mud? Honestly. A high pitched titter drew his eyes to the space under the front porch of the house. He approached and crouched down, a stern but humored expression on his face. Lila sat there, eyes gleaming, her hands clapped over her mouth and barely containing the giggles. Eladea lay curled next to her, ears pricked forward, looking alert and amused. "Well, someone's made a new friend, huh?" Lila squealed as Relke swept an arm under the porch and scooped her up. "I met Mr. Mud!" Relke tickled her belly and grinned, "Mr. Mud, huh? Why did he throw mud at me?" Lila's yelp of laughter made him chuckle, "Cuz I told him Puppy would think it was funny!" She squirmed against his tickles and twisted to look over his shoulder at the damp patch of grass where the elemental disappeared. She whined softly, her arms stretching out as if to grab at the mud. Relke took her over to the area and sat down, settling her in his lap. He couldn't help smiling. "Well, it was kinda funny." He gently booped her nose with a finger, then turned serious, "But it's not nice to throw mud at people. Would you throw mud at Auntie Lena or Auntie Mae?" Lila ducked her head as if deep in thought about this. After a long silence, she lifted her shoulders, looking up with a devilish grin, and nodded wildly. Relke fought the smile that tugged at his lips. "Well, that's not very nice! You know Auntie Lena and Auntie Mae like to be clean and dry. They're not all rough and tumble like us, kiddo." He tickled her belly again, grinning as she squealed once more, kicking her little hooves. "Where did Mr. Mud go?" Lila flung herself forward, almost out of his lap, in the direction of the muddy spot. "I wanna play with him some more!" "I dunno, sweetling. The elementals can be pretty picky about who they like to play with," Relke said, keeping a grip on her middle and resting his chin gently on her head. "But it seems like they like you, little girl." Lila whirled around, looking up at him with huge, excited eyes. "They do?! Can I keep one???" Relke smiled down at her, unconsciously kissing his fingers and touching them to her crest. She squeaked and bounced in his lap, looking longingly at the mud, opening and closing her fist over it as if calling the elemental back to her. Relke leaned his face down next to hers and whispered a request to the earth in Kalimag. Lila swung her face around and looked at him in awe, only distracted when the tiny elemental rose again from the mud. "Maybe they'll keep you, Lila."

[glyllena]

"No...No, I like you here..." Relke mumbled through sleepy lips, holding Xaph's head to his chest as the man started to stir. They were tangled in a too-small bed in an inn near Ironforge, the bright summer sun doing them no favors as it reflected off the ever-present snow in Dun Morogh and into their windows. Relke wrapped his arms around Xaph's shoulders and held him close.

Xaph yawned and tried to sit up again, not as urgently as before, wincing in the light, "But Lila will be up soon..." His words were slurred and he flopped a hand toward the next tiny room where Lila and the cat were slumbering. "And that's," yawned Relke, tugging Xaph's hair gently, "Why we have Eladea. They'll be ok for another hour and then we'll go sledding again, yeah?"

Xaph groaned and stretched out over Relke's body - as much as he could in the little bed. "No more sledding," he moaned with a laugh. Indeed, Xaph had taken the brunt of the sledding adventure from the day before. Lila had been enthralled each time they'd encountered snow on Azeroth, having not been old enough to ever see the regions where it fell freely on Draenor. Lila had dragged them all over Winterspring a few weeks before, at the start of their journey, making their way North-to-South through Kalimdor. The men indulged her in snowball fights, snowmen making, and sledding. Being most attached to Xaph, Lila had made him be the one to haul her up and down the hills the most, squealing and laughing as they tumbled and careened down the hills. It looked like Dun Morogh would prove to be another adventure in snow play.

"At least you're getting a workout," Relke let out a rumbling laugh, rubbing Xaph's shoulders. His husband grumbled and tucked himself closer against Relke. "Just because you do ten laps around whatever city we're in every morning..." he muttered into Relke's bare chest. "Not fair." 

Indeed, Relke had spent their vacation trying to keep up with the workout regimen he'd prescribed to the guards at the garrison before he left, the state of which he had desperately been trying to put out of his mind. If there was trouble, he reasoned to himself, Lena would let us know. 

"Hey," he said, lifting his head, his hand tangled in Xaph's hair. "Have we written to or heard from Lena lately?" Xaph mumbled something against his chest, already starting to fall asleep again. Relke sighed and laid his head back on the pillow, suddenly wide awake, worrying again. He'd done so well. Xaph couldn't have been happier, seeing him relax, finally. But now their impending return weighed on Relke's mind. Nearly five weeks of traveling, hanging out with his new husband, his daughter, and the nanny-cat had been fairly blissful. There was a small bickering match when they'd reached Uldum, debating which end of the Eastern Kingdoms to start at. In the end, they'd decided the Cape would be best, and work their way north, both agreeing it would be best to avoid the Plaguelands, which were still infested with Scourge remnants. 

That weekend, they'd work their way back to Stormwind and take the portal to visit Pandaria, ending their trip with it. Relke grinned to himself, rubbing Xaph's back as his husband started snoring again. Lila would love the Pandaren. She'd probably try to adopt one, like she'd taken to Eladea. Xaph, in the same vein, might not mind having a Pandaren brewer friend around. Relke peered down at the top of Xaph's head, smiled fondly, then closed his eyes and went back to dozing.

It felt like only a few seconds had passed before Lila and cat both came bounding into the bedroom, pouncing on their bed, startling both men. "SNOW!" She belted at the top of her lungs. Xaph scrabbled to sit up and gathered her in his arms, covering her cheeks with kisses. "You wanna go see New Tinkertown today?" "Whassat?" Lila asked, squirming and wiping away the kisses with a silly grin. "It's where the gnomes live," Xaph continued. Relke looked on, resting a warm hand on Xaph's back, smiling at his family. Lila wrinkled her nose for a moment. "But then can we go sledding?" She looked up at Xaph with big eyes, giving him that look he couldn't resist, bouncing excitedly in his lap.

"And then...we can go sledding," Xaph said, smiling at his daughter, winking at Eladea. 

Relke laughed, relaxing again.

( glaucophane )    

[glyllena]

Xaphias and Kudrelke have their formal marriage ceremony.  So much feels.  <3

[glyllena]

Xaph propped himself up on the headboard, like he always did, and dragged Relke into his lap, cradling his head there, like he always did. Relke allowed this, of course, since it was the middle of the night, in the privacy of their own home, their own bedroom. The nice thing about this relationship, he thought, was that they could take turns being the strong one. The big spoon. The protector. He leaned his cheek into Xaph's hand, closing his eyes. He was going to ask again, wasn't he? If he had in-laws out there somewhere, where his family was, why they weren't...? And there it was: "So really.  Do I have in-laws out there somewhere?" The words were lighthearted, but there was a hopefulness that was a shade too desperate behind them. Xaph loved family. He wanted to adopt or otherwise rescue every child that came along. He had loved his own parents. Probably Mo's, too. A knife of jealousy twisted in his gut. Relke let out a long breath and opened his eyes, peering up at his husband. Xaph had lost so much, and was still standing. Searching his partner's eyes, Relke finally whispered, "I don't know." That, at least, was the truth. Xaph didn't even flinch. Just brushed Relke's hair back from his forehead, laying a warm hand over his crest. "You don't know where they are, or you don't know if they're..." He did, however, trail off, looking worriedly at him. Relke closed his eyes again, wrapping a hand around Xaph's wrist. Family hadn't mattered that much to him. Until now. Xaph and Lila were his world, and the Shadows to some extent. Everything he did, he worked to protect the two of them. They'd become his family, so easily. He slid right into it so perfectly and effortlessly that it - well, it terrified him. How easily can I lose them? He let out a long breath. Xaph spoke of his mother so fondly. "I'm not sure what to say." His voice was quiet and strained. He'd had parents, yeah. He hadn't exactly been cut from the crystals of Argus. What made him think of that? It was the preferred creation myth of his grandmother. Also, he had a grandmother. He smiled at the memory of her. She was an archivist, working in the libraries, responsible for documenting the cultures and the peoples the draenei encountered on their journeys. Oh, she had stories. She had started this research on Argus, visiting the various cities and tribes to glean their stories, their explanations of how their world worked, how it began, what happened at the end of life. She wore glasses, and they were forever sliding down her nose as she read. She'd smelled of parchment and ink, often dusty. In fact, her hair wasn’t so much grey as full of dust. Once, she'd taken him, as an adolescent, to help her take notes as she visited one of the friendlier tribes they'd come across on a long-forgotten planet. As he smiled with his eyes closed, he could practically feel Xaphias's eyes light up, could almost see the thought bubble over his head, "PROGRESS!" "That story about how the stars got into the sky. I said it was one my grandmother used to tell. I hadn't remembered it at all until we sat up in the tower and watched the stars. I know I told it wrong, but it's been a few thousand years." He opened his eyes and gazed up at Xaph, who was looking on encouragingly. "I was born a few planets before Draenor. When my parents worked, Grandmother would keep me. Tell me stories. She taught me to read and write." He stumbled over the words. "She taught me to be curious." Xaph stroked his hair gently, smiling as his husband finally spoke, finally opened that door. "Where is she now?" He spoke hesitantly, as if afraid to break the spell. Relke abruptly rolled over, turning his face away from Xaph's. Even he could hear the door slam. "If she's alive? ...Kro'kul."

( glaucophane )

[glaucophane]

I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch) - The Four Tops

Because Xaph is shameless about how much he adores his family, weird as they are.

[glyllena]

Fragile

Relke did what he did best.

He ran.

With every hooffall, Xaph's words from just the night before dug themselves deeper into his brain.  "Everything is fragile to you."

The valley was dark, trees and rocks and thickets became blurs as he pushed himself onward. He finally skidded to a stop at the edge of a cliff overlooking the sea.  He stared hard across the waves, panting, refusing to close his eyes, because all he saw was Xaph's terrified expression when the shots and shouting began.  How he scooped up Lila and tucked her tight to his chest and practically begged Relke with his eyes to just do something. Fix it.  Make it right. 

And Relke had just stood there, frozen.  He had to check the guards, find out what was going on and how to stop it.  But he had to protect his family. Duty or family?  Since when did he have to make that choice?  

MOVE, dammit!

He wordlessly shoved Xaphias carrying Lila into the escape route from the house, the tunnel that would lead them into the bunker should they ever need it, looking longingly at Xaph as the other man peered at him.  Xaph trusted him, and where did it get them?  

Do I praise myself for putting this in or should I just give up now because we are always going to need it?

The guards were being mind controlled, he was sure of it.  He'd seen enough freaky stuff from Auchenai and particularly sadistic magic-wielders over the years to know the look of someone being mind controlled.  The blank, deadened expression, robotic movements of someone being puppeted.  Who the fuck would do this?  And as soon as the chaos started, it was over.  

Eight men down in all.  Two dead, six wounded.  All he could do was stare at the blood making rivulets in the dirt paths.  He was tired of scrubbing the blood from the garrison.  The other guards were doing triage, and Vastania ran through the main gates, clearly as panicked as he was. Maeorra was not far behind.  He gave his report, trying not to stumble too hard over the words, then retreated from the Prelate's stern and angry glare to find Xaphias and Lila shaken and shivering in the tunnel between the house and the bunker.  He hugged them both, and when Xaphias asked him in Common, "What the fuck is going on?" he simply shook his head.  His voice was rough and tired, "I have to get back out there."  

I have to find that bitch and put her in the ground.

And he'd run.

Everything is fragile to you.

The water elemental appeared at his left hoof, burbling reassuringly.  It chattered at him in Kalimag, but he barely heard.  Everything is fragile, it said, but you are strong, Kudrelke.  Finally, Relke looked down.  His strength meant nothing when his husband and child were terrified.  The elemental seemed to glance up at him.  If it had had eyes, it surely would be giving him a Look.  

He turned and ran back to the garrison. 

It was tense, but Xaphias launched into Ranger Maaya and Lila was soon asleep.  Buran's comment of loving storytime because she loved the sound of her father's voice hit him like a shot to the gut.  Relke stared down at the sleeping girl in his lap.  He was a father, for all intents and purposes.  He could almost feel Barnaby's eyes on him.  

Is it enough?  Am I strong enough?

Later, he crawled into the nest of blankets Xaphias was passing as their bed for now in their new house, holding his husband tight.  Xaph turned in his dozing and nudged their foreheads together and they clung to each other as they slept.

Everything is fragile to you.

[glyllena]

Music Monday, Xarelke edition!