No More Sacrifice
In dire situations people normally offered their council coupled with experiences and opinions though this time nothing of the sort came. There were unfamiliar reigns places within her hands and the Priestess knew not on where to start. Much of the days passed where she tended to her work with Juvess though no one cared to ask, simply put she spent a lot of time translating Common texts and scripts for the Troll Priestess and organizing her collections while the Keeper worked diligently on the research she adored so much. Many times throughout the day there would be a vacant stare from Kaevia, her eyes just staring at the massive open tome for all of the Temple to read.
She read it a dozen times over, at least six times a day to be sure, inspecting to see if anything else had been added by the Keeper.
But not today. She simply stared at it while a hollow spot held to her core.
It was becoming difficult for her to place her emotions, to really have a handle on what she was feeling from one moment to the next – she was……hovering from decision to decision.
“Perhaps such is what has made my father hardened over the many years.” her thoughts were clear and she stepped from the nook and down the stairs. Time was passing quickly and Rethandus was sure to continue reminding her on how many days Alucieus had been gone. A month, already? Was it going on to the 5th week so soon?
Her heart was heavy when she ascended the final set of stairs within the Temple and towards the portal. Her father was a person who went to war constantly and protected those who still lived in gilded cages while people like he and his troops bled for freedom. When she was younger she didn’t understand, simply that her father left and as she got older the crying and tears grew into understanding and just typical habit. For a moment her own children came to mind and the things she had been missing out on when it came to him, how she followed so closely in her father’s footsteps no matter how unintentional it had been or how she tried to avoid it – her blood ran the same course as his it seemed and there was no denying it or escaping it.
Rethandus was someone her father trusted and in turn she did the same if only because the man knew what to do in dire situations such as these when someone of great importance went missing or there was a loss within the ranks which caused a large shift in permissions. She didn’t fully trust him, she couldn’t. Not a man who looked to bow to no other but seemed perfectly fine with her climbing that ladder. The coming of Whitstan only made her solidify her stalwart personality even more. She couldn’t look flaky or weak in front of two strong individuals who would crush her at a moment’s notice though it was Vesk’s presence she had to get use to the most. The vision of the sunborn followed her everywhere and today was no different though she sought to play a blind eye to it and go about her day as she normally would.
Dalaran came into view after the Priestess pulled from the portal and in the moment of the night and darkness of the sky hitting her, she thought of something so terribly true: people did not need her hope and words of faith on the situation, they were already drawing their own conclusions be it good or bad. None of them had been forwardly open about it with all things considered and they kept their silence, always fluffing their words around her as if though she were a brittle woman and bound to weep at any second. Their half truths and sweetened lies of promises of his return – it mattered little as they conflicted with their thoughts and she could see it in their eyes.
A wispy chime escaped the vision that trailed behind her while they walked the streets of Dalaran towards the small flat she and her husband had been staying at. When push came to shove she would exact whatever she could to see the mission complete upon her father’s request even if it meant she had to wrestle for the power of the command. People would have to pry it from her cold dead hands before she let someone else over see the vision her father had set out with the Oathguard.
Kaevia was not physically tired but slightly mentally exhausted though she did not let it show; perhaps anyone in these situations might have been as well. Undertaking something so foreign and lost to them with little outside help.. She knew of no other organizations that weren’t already strapped thin with their forces to give help. It was one man versus their many and while Alucieus was important to many and her, he was still one man to plenty more.
Men and women who trusted Alucieus and threw their lives at his feet with such loyalty – even some of them had begun to let doubt grow. The odds were stacked against him in this moment but through it all Kaevia refused to take the title of Commander as such things were earned and never given. Commander was her father, first and foremost, she was simply standing in and acting upon his vision that kept the Oathguard going with Sehrgei and Rethandus at her side.
And through it all…..Rethandus had asked that one question she feared the most, that one little question that no one dared to ask her to her face or suggest…
“ In the worse case scenario we find his corpse….I wanted to know if you would be willing to raise him in undeath so he could continue the fight.”
Her better judgement screamed no but over and over her selfishness told her yes. She could have said yes and had her father but knowing how most had turned out in those situations it was often their body and never fully their mind. Internally she bled so hard even at the question and thought of it though she was certain her posture and expression did not give her away in that moment the night before. She could not ask more of her father in his death or rest to continue to serve. Perhaps new mantles had to be forged but to her…..he had sacrificed enough, life or death he sacrificed.
The door to her temporary abode opened and she seen her husband within but said nothing until his touch had found her. Sure, she wanted to see her children but duty called. Perhaps these were the struggles her mother was once faced with, “ No. I cannot take the time to frolic back to Eversong even if it is to deliver news in person, until I know for certain on his condition I will be remaining here. My mother need not worry herself to death.” She waved him off and his words or touches, looking to be left alone for the night as her brain waged war against her, “I will visit the children when things have settled, they are in good hands.”
