Duality Risen | By : RotSeele Category: +S through Z > World of Warcraft Views: 5041 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0 |
Disclaimer: I do not own World of Warcraft. I do not make any money from this story. |
Seventeen “What’s the first rule about battle?” Goran asked a ten-year-old Mardruk. The boy’s face scrunched as he tried to come up with an answer. Mardruk stood in the shadows, watching this memory. Or maybe it wasn’t a memory, but real, and he really wasn’t witnessing this again. He shivered, feeling hot and feverish. Maybe he was dying. Old warriors said that when your time comes all your memories flash before you eyes. Mardruk didn’t want to die, not while Aljei was running around Azeroth, murdering people. As if the thought summoned the man, Aljei appeared in the place of the child-Mardruk and Goran. Mardruk stared, waiting for the warlock to attack, but the sin’dorei didn’t move. It simply WAS a memory then, conjured up by Mardruk’s imagination. Why couldn’t his imagination tell him where Aljei was? Why couldn’t it be useful before he died? Mardruk blinked as his imagination-Aljei lifted a hand and pointed to his chest. Mardruk stared. He really couldn’t do anything more, just stand like a deer and wait to die. But the imagination-Aljei didn’t strike. He just pointed. What did it mean? Mardruk frowned as he tried to connect the pieces. They wouldn’t fit in his mind, like he was trying to shove pieces of one puzzle into the cardboard map of another. “What is the first rule of battle?” Goran asked again. Mardruk answered, “Know thine enemy as you know thine self.” The orc jerked. Know my enemy. Like I know myself. It was something Goran had drilled into him from day one. Aljei was just like every other enemy Mardruk had faced when you got down to the basic. They were connected, and Mardruk only had to focus on the connection to discover the bastard warlock’s location. But how could he do that? A shaman would ask fire to help, a mage a scrying bowl. Mardruk was neither of these things. But he knew two people who were. Mardruk’s eyes snapped open and he focused on Cassie’s face. She was hovering over him, her green eyes wide. She was holding a strip of damp cloth, torn from her dress. Mardruk’s gaze slid down and decided the human woman had very nice legs. “Mardruk?” Cassie asked quietly, as though she was unsure of his sanity. Mardruk swallowed. “I can find him. I need Peritali. Or a scrying bowl.” Cassie blinked. “Well, I’m fresh out of scrying bowls, so if you want Peritali we have to get moving.” Mardruk nodded and gave a grunt as he struggled upright. The first thing he noticed was the pain. It was centered in his back, thin dagger-like pulses that pinched and pulled his skin. The second thing he noticed was the bandages. A glance proved his theory right – Cassie had sacrificed the skirts of her dress to patch him up. He couldn’t remember when she had done that, nor could Mardruk remember passing out. “I didn’t do anything stupid, did I?” Mardruk asked slowly. Cassie tried to hide her blush. “No. Passed right out. You were lucky. A few more inches over and deeper and you’d have been yeti chow.” Mardruk frowned. “What’d I do?” “Nothing.” “Uh-huh.” Mardruk struggled to his feet and reached for his armour, pulling it on as gingerly as he could. He’d finally have to get new armour, it seemed. Cassie didn’t watch him, her cheeks still coloured rose. Whatever he’d done, she didn’t seem angry about it. But she wasn’t going to tell hi what he’d done either. So he couldn’t fix it, but he couldn’t improve it either. If he even wanted to improve it. Did he want to? Cassie was beautiful, strong-willed and quite opinionated. She could most definitely hold her own against orc women if Mardruk ever made it back to Durotar. But would she want-? Cassie snapped her fingers in front of the warrior’s eyes. “We were leaving, remember?” Mardruk blinked. “Right. Let’s go.” Cassie eyed him oddly, but led the way out of the waterfall cave. She didn’t protest when Mardruk bundled her in his torn cloak, but Cassie wasn’t about to let him baby her. Besides, the mage decided, next time she would initiate the kiss. If there was a next time. The ocean lazily lapped at the beach ahead of them, complete with the water elementals and the sea giants. Between the two of them, they could easily dominate the elementals, but Mardruk and Cassie were in agreement to avoid the giants. Being squashed wasn’t high on their To-Do list after all. As they drew nearer to the dock set at the foot of the hill, Mardruk could see the smoke of a campfire. Then he could see Nolay, rising up high on her bear legs, seeing with her bear eyes. The transformation back to her Tauren body was swift, her eyes alight with joy as she turned and shouted something to a figure walking up the hill. Almost immediately the figure turned, the kal’dorei’s yellow eyes wide as he saw Mardruk and Cassie taking their time in coming up the beach. Tyr launched down the hill and as soon as Cassie got close he picked her up in a fierce hug. Mardruk gave a wry grin to Peritali. “I hope there wasn’t much trouble while I was gone?” he asked the druid. “None more so than usual,” Nolay answered. “We learned, though, that Chairon was hired by Aljei to kill you.” Cassie’s head whipped toward the druid, something dangerous in her eyes flashing once, then quickly hidden. Mardruk grunted. “Where is he now?” “Up there. With everyone else. We waited for you.” Tyr set Cassie on her feet. “He’ll probably expect you to maim him or something.” Said the night elf. “He’s been behaving, but he sits apart from the rest of us.” “Well, wouldn’t you?” Mardruk asked. “You’re a rogue, hired to do a job for your guild. Not only do you fail, but also you’re now compromised. I don’t know how Silvermoon deals with compromised agents, but in Orgrimmar they’re disposed of.” Tyr blinked. “Why?” “You’re useless. You’re a failure. How can a guild trust you to complete another assignment?” Mardruk shrugged. “You look at me like I’m cruel. Whether you see it or not, we’re in a war. By the standards of that war, we shouldn’t even be friends.” Cassie frowned. “While that’s true, it doesn’t explain why Chairon is still here.” Mardruk shook his head. “Of course it does. To any spy, he’s being with us proves he’s doing his job. If he weren’t with us, and I was alive, there’d be nowhere in the known worlds where he’d be safe.” The warrior turned to Nolay. “I need Peritali.” “What for?” Asked Nolay. “I need her shaman skills. I know how we can find Aljei. I just need her help.” Nolay nodded. “I’ll go get her.” As the druid turned to trudge up the hill, Mardruk turned to look at Tyr and Cassie. “Don’t judge Chairon because of the job he was hired to do. We’ve all done jobs that others don’t agree with.” Cassie looked about to say something, then thought better of it. Instead she pulled away from Tyr and announced, “I’m going to find Serasin. I want a bath and fresh clothes.” The two males watched her trudge up the hill as Nolay and Peritali came down, the troll looking about to break into dance that Mardruk and Cassie were still alive. As Mardruk told Peritali what he wanted, Tyr looked at Nolay and found her studying him. “What?” he asked almost defensively. Nolay smiled. “Both of you act tough and disinterested, but maybe you’re each waiting for the other to make the first move. You’ve more in common than you think. Take some initiative, hunter.” She walked away then, following Mardruk and Peritali to the campfire. Tyr stared after her, speechless and dumbfounded. What did Nolay mean by that?
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