Chapter Text
For some fitting background music, check out: "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psvFoGMtcFQ"
“Your turn”, announced Elarynn, after she’d just burned Saewron’s last minion to a crisp with a Fireblast.
It wasn’t fair. His Hero Power as a Rogue was to equip a pair of lousy daggers, which only allowed him to attack like a normal minion, meaning he had to put his Hero’s health pool at risk, while Elarynn’s Mage could dish out the damage safely without any backlash. How those Hero Powers were considered as equal was a mystery to Saewron, but then again, a lot considering Hearthstone still was, despite Elarynn’s efforts to change that during the past hours.
He reached out and drew a card from his deck – or rather Elarynn’s deck, which she’d lent him – and studied it carefully. As usually the artwork on it caught his attention first, which was nice to look at despite the morbid scene that was depicted (nothing uncommon for Rogue Spells) but he had trouble to value how good or bad the effect of the Spell actually was.
Saewron turned and gently nudged Luthir, who was sitting beside him. “What do you think? Can that card save my ass somehow?”
Of course, usually he’d have needed to decide that for himself, but since he was only just learning the game, Elarynn had totally agreed with Luthir acting as his adviser, basically playing against the two of them. With a hint of worry the rogue noticed it took the other ren’dorei a moment to focus on the game. Clearly he’d grown absent-minded again during the past minutes. Since they’d woken up, his boyfriend had been brooding far too much for his liking.
They’d all slept in late, recovering either from the fighting yesterday or from the mistreatment endured at the hands of the venthyr of Caretaker’s Manor. During brunch they’d decided to spend the day idle, mainly to give Luthir and Naethir some more rest before they’d head to Sinfall again. They were hoping that staying closer to the Venthyr’s base of operation would prevent another incident like the one the other day and additionally there had been a great Ember Court announced, inviting not only members of Revendreth to join in on the festivities, but also friends from other realms of the Shadowlands (including their mortal allies).
The priest uttered a pensive noise and then leaned in closer to once again study the other cards in his hand. “The Combo effect is useless, so you don’t need to pay any attention to it and the rest… well, depends on luck. Sadly you don’t have any minions with Rush to take care of her Mirror Images first. In this situation, a minion with Taunt would’ve been more helpful. Then again… she’ll probably get another Fireball from her Antonidas during the next turn and with that you’d be toast anyway.”
Saewron had already guessed as much, but he was nonetheless impressed by Luthir’s analysis. He hadn’t considered that – in theory – there was a way to improve his luck before using the Spell and he’d forgotten about the minions with the special ability to attack straightway during the turn they entered the game. It showed the priest was already a far better player than himself, although he’d only played the game a few times before on his own admission.
It would’ve probably been more fun for Elarynn to play against Luthir instead of him. Saewron would’ve been fine with watching a few of their games first before jumping in at the deep end, but the priest hadn’t wanted to, preferring his role as an observer (with privileges).
“All right then, I play the Sabotage.”
He, Luthir and Elarynn observed tensely how the card landed on the board, shuddered on its own accord and then shot out a spark of light. The spark circled for a moment above the playing board and then locked on to a target, hitting… one of the Mirror Images that cried out and disappeared.
Saewron’s disappointed groan and Elarynn’s delighted outcry echoed through the otherwise almost empty great hall of the Sinposium, drawing attention.
“No luck again?”, asked Orthorin from the other end of the big table, looking up from the Jihui board that stood between him and Naethir.
“Of course not”, Saewron commented with a sigh.
“See, that’s why I’m not interested in playing that game: it’s far too random for my taste. Impossible to carry out a proper strategy if not only the cards you draw are random, but most of the time also the targets chosen by their effect.” He picked up and shook the canister with his playing pieces, eventually upending it. “Jihui also has its elements of luck, but they don’t impact the game as heavily. They mainly influence the setting of each game… or offer a last resort.” He glanced at the piece that had fallen out and then commented calmly: “And I yield, by the way. This battle goes to you, big brother.”
“What?! Have you gone mad?”, the death knight exclaimed in surprise.
“Not yet, I think. Last time I checked I hadn’t sprouted any additional tentacles.”
His twin’s dry humor elicited a hearty snort from Saewron and made Elarynn giggle, while the death knight only rolled his eyes.
“You know I didn’t mean it like that!”, he grumbled and then explained in puzzlement: “I just can’t understand why you’re already yielding. I’ve said before it’s getting boring to play against you because I lose all the time, but that doesn’t mean you have to hand me over a free win.”
“It does look like I’m just letting you win, doesn’t it?”
“Yes! That’s what I’m saying!”
Orthorin studied the board in front of them again. “Point is, when we started this game, I’ve decided to play this round with an additional rule applying just to myself.”
“Which is?”
“Not to lose a single one of my pieces throughout the game, and after your last turn there is no option left for me to do that without yielding.”
A frown appeared on the death knight’s brow. “Why would you do that? Just to give me a chance to win?”
“No!”, the monk replied quickly, obviously having noticed the displeased undertone to Naethir’s always chilly voice. “Yesterday just had me thinking. I’ve planned the attack on the manor with the dredgers more as if it had been a normal Jihui game… while back in Maldraxxus I’d started to do everything with that additional rule in mind. That, though, quickly makes it impossible to win in a battle, because sometimes you simply have to sacrifice a few… pieces to save others and the outcome of the battle. The result of which has once again been illustrated by our current game.”
Orthorin hesitated and for a few moments only the crackling of the fire in the big braziers along the side of the hall, which offered illumination and warmth, broke the silence.
“It might not have been fair toward the dredgers, but their nature and the fact we haven’t known them for long yet made it easy for me to think of them as nothing more than playing pieces. That reminds me of the topic we’d broached the day I had to surrender command. When…”, he sighed, “if I’ll get my company back, I’ll have to pay closer attention to that. I can’t allow myself again to command with a special rule applying to me without realizing.”
“No!”
Elarynn’s vehement statement surprised Saewron and made the laid out playing cards vibrate, apparently reacting to the latent arcane energies all around that tended to be quickly affected by the mage’s moods.
A hint of crimson spread across the night elf’s usually pale cheeks when all of their attention turned toward her, but she elaborated without hesitation: “That’s exactly what made you such an admired captain. The soldiers have figured out you truly value them as people and not just as replaceable playing pieces!”
“I understand that”, Orthorin admitted, “but as an officer of the army I must think of the bigger picture, especially in a war where the outcome of a battle can decide the fate of many.” In a softer tone he added: “It doesn’t mean I have to treat the soldiers like cannon fodder, but I at least need to be aware my decision making can be influenced based on being too attached to them, which can result in failure with a negative impact on even more people.”
Elarynn remained tense for bit longer, then she lowered her gaze to her hands, but clearly not to study her playing cards. “It’s just…”, she began, “I wished all army officers were like that or even worse, as you’d probably call it, because I believe this way we’d no longer have any wars at all. Leaders need to understand that fighting gets people hurt… and not merely the enemy about whom they don’t care, but also their own folk. The whole Fourth War could’ve been prevented if the Horde hadn’t been led by a heartless monster!”
“Maybe”, Orthorin conceded tentatively and then wondered: “But didn’t you also claim the armistice with the Horde was a mistake? That the war should’ve been continued? How does that add up?”
The kaldorei briefly opened her mouth and then closed it again, only finding the right words to express her thoughts on the second try: “Well… yes, until the Horde is eradicated… or rather that part of it that keeps attacking the Alliance. Afterwards we could all live in peace and there’s nothing I’d like more. I want to have my own home and a family without needing to fear the next war awaits us around the corner and is going to ruin everything! So far all the Horde has done is to prove time and again they only pretend to be living peacefully until they’ve regained their strength for another attack!”
Saewron nodded to himself, sharing the mage’s wishes regarding a peaceful future wholly. What Elarynn described applied to that part of the Horde he’d always disliked himself: mainly the orcs and their warmongering. Then again, he’d read enough books to know Azeroth hadn’t exactly been peaceful even before the orc’s appearance in history and that his own ancestors hadn’t behaved like the paradigm for peaceful coexistence either, mainly in regard to the trolls who’d considered the region today known as the sin’dorei’s Quel’Thalas as their sacred lands.
“But the Horde doesn’t attack for no reason”, Orthorin’s voice interrupted the rogue’s musing. “I don’t want to justify Sylvanas’ actions in any way, but if she hadn’t had some reasonable arguments for her decisions, the rest of the Horde hadn’t followed her along. Officially it was always a fight for new resources: new lands that had been discovered like Pandaria or… in case of the Fourth War: Azerite, which the Horde wanted to claim for itself, eventually for the benefit of its own people.”
“But… that’s the point… there was no reason to fight! Those resources could’ve been shared peacefully. They always could. Look at how the draenei did it. They didn’t come to Azeroth and wanted to claim a piece of the land for themselves by force. They went and asked the Alliance for help and got it, in turn becoming useful allies to us. All resources could be shared like that across whole Azeroth.”
“Are you sure you would’ve done that?”, asked Orthorin, “Give the Horde half of the powerful Azerite?”
The mage hesitated. “If I’d known they would only use it for peaceful purposes… yes. But that’s the problem with the Horde. There’s no reason to trust them.”
“That, among other things, is what the armistice is meant to change”, the monk pointed out, “At one point or another you have to give trust a chance to be reestablished, or else you end up in an endless war. Of course that feels bad at the start and maybe it won’t even work out, but I don’t think there’s a better alternative.”
The rogue itched for the continuation of their talk, especially to elaborate Elarynn’s idea of an Azeroth conducting peaceful business across all continents, and excitedly glanced at Luthir, intending to find out his opinion on the matter. He immediately saw the priest hadn’t been following the discussion, his unseeing eyes still lingering on the playing cards while he was clearly lost in his own thoughts. Anxiously Saewron reached out for his hand, cupping it in his own. Noticing it felt rather cold, he immediately started to massage some warmth back into it. The touch earned Saewron a reassuring smile from the other void elf, but it nonetheless appeared a little forced to him.
Naethir cleared his throat, turning toward the mage in wonder: “After hearing such pacifistic tunes from you, what surprises me is that you’re still here fighting alongside us and even looking for a job that will force you to continue fighting. I mean, as a death knight I no longer have a choice, but you could simply quit all of this and open up some kind of shop in Stormwind or something like that. Wherever or whatever you like.”
Elarynn’s answer followed quickly. “Well, it’s not that I don’t like fighting in general, it’s just that I want to be doing it for the right cause, to protect my people! Which I’m allegedly doing here in the Shadowlands. Apart from that, I haven’t given up on my revenge on Sylvanas yet.” She gave an abashed cough and then added with a raised finger: “But, more importantly, I had to repay my debt, hadn’t I? It might not have been your intention, since you were just looking for your brother, but you, Saewron and Luthir also saved my life back at the House of Constructs. From that perspective I was lucky to reach Darkhaven when I did yesterday, otherwise I would have missed out on a good chance!” She tilted her head slightly, examining the rogue through narrow, black eyes. “To be even, technically I now only need to save your life once, Saewron.”
The rogue stared at the mage in amazement, getting flustered at the same time. “I don’t think so. You’ve already saved my life by helping me save Luthir”, he explained honestly, clutching his lover’s hand tightly. “Your arrival was indeed timely. I don’t know what Rin and I would’ve done without your help. Well, and Nadjia’s, of course.”
“If you say so…”, Elarynn accepted his argument with a wink and then perked up: “Speaking of which, I hope she didn’t get into trouble with Prince Renathal for helping us. I don’t think there are many swordswomen of her skill in Revendreth. Makes me suspect she might have been recognized back at Caretaker’s Manor despite her disguise.”
Saewron nodded. “The same thought has crossed my mind before.”
“I wouldn’t worry about that too much”, Orthorin said, “I had a word with her after I’d sent the dredgers off yesterday. She knew the danger, but she doesn’t expect the nobles to use that against Renathal. In the end, it was still just her, a single venthyr; us, some petty mortals; and, even worse, a bunch of lowly muckborn who managed to invade and escape an allegedly well protected estate. That was a humiliation they won’t be prone to spread around, especially if they don’t want to risk appearing weak in the eyes of the other nobles.”
Naethir and Elarynn simultaneously uttered an agreeing noise.
“Thinking about it”, the monk pondered: “It would’ve actually been a brilliant move by the Prince if he’d sent only Nadjia to us with that in mind… but I don’t expect this to have been the case. Otherwise Renathal would’ve needed to know what happened before we did….”
“In any case…”, the death knight began, “what about your brilliant moves? Care about a repetition of that last game? And this time without any backfiring shenanigans from your end? I’d actually like to properly win against you at least once and have something in mind that could help me do it.”
The monk made an intrigued sound. “Care to explain?”
“Nope. Otherwise you’ll know what to expect, but… let me tell you that much: I’ll switch up my strategy and go for a bit more of an Ebon Blade approach to Jihui. Don’t think the pandaren would be very happy with the style in which the game is usually played in Acherus and in real warfare it would be impossible to pull off by anyone but an undead army, but since this is just a board game after all….”
“I see. Sounds… refreshing”, with a challenging smile Orthorin added: “Show me what you’ve got.”
With that Saewron and Elarynn also picked up their own game of Hearthstone, but – as previously foretold by Luthir – it didn’t take long until the rogue’s Health was reduced to zero by the expected Fireball.
“I want a rematch, too!”, announced Saewron immediately, “but I don’t want to play Rogue anymore. That Hero Power is stupid. What can Priests do instead? Do you have a deck for them?”
Elarynn studied him for a moment thoughtfully. “I do, but I’m not sure if it’s smart for you to change decks and Heroes like that… on the other hand, you haven’t seen much of the Rogue deck anyway, so I guess it doesn’t matter.” While she rummaged through her bag, she explained: “Priests can heal with their Hero Power… I believe it was for two Health each turn at the cost of two Mana. No idea anymore how the ability is called. I’m totally out of practice. Also a reason why I wouldn’t stand a chance playing against anyone of my former colleagues. Especially not with those decks. They’re completely outdated.”
Apparently Elarynn was quite into the card game, or rather had been, back during her mage training in Dalaran before the Fourth War, where Hearthstone had – according to her – become something like a must for everybody studying the arcane arts. Today, thanks to their idle time, she’d rediscovered her playing cards in the darkest recesses of her luggage. Now she pulled out not just one other box of cards, but two.
“I’ll switch, too”, she explained, “I should’ve thought of that earlier. After all, Mage was always my best Class. Not really fair to play it against you. And… Mage is kinda special with all its spells that directly target a Hero’s Health. Maybe it will be easier to handle for you if I play something with more of a minion focus.”
“So, what do you play instead?”
Elarynn grinned. “I’ll go dark side… and play a Warlock!”
“Do you have a deck for every fighting profession there is?”, Saewron wondered.
“Not quite. There’s no Death Knight or Monk Class yet… and Demon Hunter has only recently been introduced so I missed out on that, but I’ve never built myself a Warrior or Hunter deck.”
“Why not?”
Elarynn shrugged. “Never cared much about them, neither in Hearthstone nor in reality. They just seem so boring in comparison to everything else. Why fight without really using spells? That’s something for people who don’t have any talent for magic. I don’t mean to be disrespectful… King Varian Wrynn was a warrior and a good man, but nonetheless, the first thing that comes to my mind when thinking about warriors is a tyrannical brute like Garrosh.”
“Don’t let Valentian hear that…”, Orthorin remarked quietly, and Saewron could’ve sworn his twin immediately blushed faintly, since he must have realized he’d thereby revealed he’d been listening in on them.
“I won’t”, Elarynn quickly assured.
“And what about hunters?”, Saewron inquired. “The Sentinels are quite iconic to the night elves.”
“Nonetheless. Yes, a marksman’s long-distance aim is impressive, but why go about shooting with arrows and taming animals if you can achieve the same effect yourself by controlling cosmic powers?”
Saewron glanced over her rhetoric question, instead getting curious about the boxes of playing cards in her hands again. “And what is a Warlock’s Hero Power?”
“Um… good question”, Elarynn frowned, “I think it was drawing a card… also in exchange for two Mana.”
“Health.”
Luthir’s contribution to their discussion actually came as a surprise to Saewron.
“Right! They pay two Health and can draw an additional card each turn… if they chose to. Are you a Warlock player?”, Elarynn asked the priest.
Luthir grimaced and shook his head. “Friend is and plays Warlock.”
“I see. Good, then you’ll probably know their most common strategies. Might give you and Saewron an additional advantage against me… since I assume you also know something about playing Priest.”
“Actually: no. I always played Mage…”, Luthir corrected, pointedly avoiding Saewron’s gaze.
“Oh!”, Elarynn looked surprised, “Well, I still expect this game to go better for you two than the last one.”
Five minutes into it this had already proven itself to have been a good estimation. Of course, their game still proceeded slowly, since Saewron always needed time to study each new card he picked up, but so far he still felt like he could do something against Elarynn and didn’t just have to hope the next card he drew would have some miraculous effect. The Priest’s Lesser Heal Hero Power came in handy to regularly save minions that had been attacked by Elarynn, completely negating some of the damage for which she’d sacrificed her own minions. That in general seemed to be the Warlock’s strategy: summoning many but weak minions and send them all against the opponent, heedless of their possible demise.
All in all Saewron liked the Priest deck a lot more than the Rogue one before. Even the cards were more interesting to look at, varying greatly between those that clearly fit a holy priest or a shadow priest. He’d even started to take the time to read not only the card text that explained a spell’s effect or a minion’s abilities, but also the flavor text that most of the time made some joke about the effect or name of the card. He’d especially grown fond of all the quirky remarks in regard to the Void, which weren’t uncommon to find.
He chuckled. “This one’s also nice: Don’t TOUCH the Void. You don’t know where it’s been. Guess that’s some sound advice, but sometimes the Void just touches you out of its own accord”, Saewron commented, while he decided to immediately bring the shadow priest dwarf minion into play.
He knew by now the purple gem in the middle beneath the Voidtouched Attendant’s picture (most cards had a colorless or blue one) indicated it had to be quite a strong card, and the fact that it only cost a single Mana to summon but had three Health showed it. In addition, its effect would cause Elarynn to suffer three damage instead of two if she used her Hero Power as a Warlock to draw an extra card. Maybe that would make her hesitate to do so.
“Hem, that reminds me of something…”, Naethir said and then paused. “Sorry, I know we are all in the middle of a game, but we aren’t on a timer, right?” Since nobody said anything to the contrary, the death knight eventually continued: “Yesterday in the dining room at the manor… what happened between you and that venthyr? Somehow the Void touched the lady through you… like back in Lor’danel with Rin, but it made her… unconscious or something like that.”
Saewron tensed, not just because he could promptly feel the others’ attention on himself.
“You did what?!”, Luthir inquired, the mentioning of the Void obviously having dispelled his thoughts, which calmed the rogue’s concern for his mental state slightly.
Saewron had already wondered when his big brother was going to ask him about that. He’d known Naethir must have seen what he’d done and had been afraid his silence might be based on fear. What had happened had terrified himself back there and he’d mused on the event during the past night, but had eventually made his peace with it. He was nonetheless worried what the others might think of it….
To bring everybody up to speed who hadn’t witnessed the events at the manor, the rogue quickly summarized what had happened during his and Nadjia’s special task yesterday, including his struggle with the venthyr lady and up to the moment when he’d finally been able to free the two captured void elves.
“You know that it usually should get mentioned in a report that one almost died on duty? And why were you even alone there? Hadn’t I ordered you and Nadjia to stick together?”, Orthorin asked reproachfully.
Saewron vacillated between relief and upset. Apparently his twin was more worried by his (mis)behavior as a soldier than him killing a person with his Void powers. The latter feeling almost won out and the rogue was about to point out to Orthorin that he wasn’t taking orders from him, but then he stopped himself. Maybe his brother was just shocked by what he’d learned and trying to express that feeling in his sometimes a bit odd way.
“Well, yeah… but we had to improvise”, the rogue admitted, “I went ahead while Nadjia drew the attention of the guards in the manor. Everything would’ve gone smoothly if my flask and buff food hadn’t run out, which wasn’t a mistake on your side of the planning but mine, so I didn’t mention it.”
Luthir gripped his arm firmly, immediately drawing Saewron’s attention. “What do you mean by you pulled her into your mind?”
Saewron laid down his playing cards, instead rising the hand to smooth out his goatee while thinking on the right words to explain it. “I told you about that Void planet landscape I found myself in when I was locked inside my mind by the Drust Mask, right?”
Luthir and Naethir voiced their confirmation, while Orthorin and Elarynn denied it, but the rogue went on regardless. It wasn’t that important.
“Well… she was strangling me, I couldn’t find a way to break her hold and panicked. I just wanted her to let go and desperately wished she could see my point of view… and then we suddenly stood on that Void planet. Think we were both dumbfounded first, but when the tentacles made a move, I ran. The lady wasn’t as quick to react… they got her”, he shivered and added quietly: “They tore her to shreds.”
A tense silence unfolded, but apart from Elarynn, who actually looked a bit aghast, the other eyes on him remained mainly curious.
“When they were done, the tentacles turned on me… or… well, at least toward me… and I tried to wake up to escape them. Unlike back then with the Mask, this time it worked. Just like usually after my Spirit Healing. I opened my eyes and noticed the venthyr’s hand was gone… then I saw her lying on the floor with an empty gaze, like she was already dead, but her body hadn’t noticed it yet.”
The whispers had promptly reacted to the horror he’d felt at that sight. He could still remember their chant: Grief-freer. Pain-summoner. Doubt-master. Fear-awakener! Saewron had expected their usual harassment, only to realize they were sounding differently, not threatening or teasing, but… appreciative. Those had been titles they’d attributed to him. It had been even more eerie.
“Like a reverse Spirit Healing”, Luthir commented.
Saewron nodded uneasily. “Or rather a Spirit Breaking.”
“So, you… the Void virtually obliterated her mind? That’s… awful!” Elarynn whispered, her eyes wide.
“I know!”, Saewron acknowledged, “Believe me, if I have a choice, I won’t do it again. Ever. It’s just wrong. But whatever happened, happened. Feeling bad because of it won’t chance a thing. At least now I know it can happen… and honestly”, the rogue admitted, feeling another twinge of loathing for that venthyr, “after learning what she did to Luthir… and Naethir: she deserved it. If I’d known that from the get-go, I believe I would’ve actually enjoyed watching her get torn apart.”
The sudden biting of Luthir’s nails into the skin of his arm made Saewron wince.
“Sorry!”, the priest said immediately and let go of him, a purple blush spreading on his cheeks. Staring at the top of the table, he explained in a faint voice: “That just… didn’t sound like yourself.”
“But it’s true”, the rogue affirmed in an equally quiet but firm tone, gently touching his boyfriend’s face in an attempt to make him look up, “I’ll hold anyone accountable for hurting you!”
For some reason Luthir still evaded his gaze, which puzzled Saewron, but his twin’s voice and question kept him from wondering about it further:
“So, just to confirm that… we now both found ourselves once in a pretty much deadly situation and our powers of the Void saved us by acting on their own… at least partially?”
Saewron hesitated. “Ultimately: yes. But I’m not sure if that was the Void’s intent. Back inside my mind… on the Void planet with the tentacles: I know it was my desperation and fear that attracted them and made them attack. Well possible they only consumed the venthyr instead of me because I reacted faster.”
Saewron half expected Luthir’s protest or insistence on the Void’s good intentions, but the priest remained silent, instead Naethir concluded:
“Either way, it’s good to know the both of you can get something positive out of those powers now and then, aside from getting harassed by the whispers.”
Neither of them had anything to add to that and his brothers picked up their game, as did he and Elarynn, whereby Saewron felt a tense knot in his stomach ease: apparently his report hadn’t put the kaldorei off long term. He would’ve regretted that deeply, not just for his own sake, but more so for that of his twin.
After retrieving his hand cards, he needed a moment to recollect what his last move had been and then quickly realized he could still do something with the nine Mana he’d left for this turn. Gleefully he filled his side of the board with minions, thanks to an expensive one that summoned additional reinforcements and another lower cost minion that looked like a red crystal and made funny noises when getting poked. Next turn, after their attack, Elarynn would find herself seriously on the back foot for the first time while he was playing against her!
He ended his turn and then examined the mage expectantly, hoping to spot some sign of discomfort, but she remained utterly relaxed: the first clue that should’ve made him suspicious. Next she proceeded to attack his Hero with the few, weak minions she had left, which was odd, since before she’d always prioritized to get his minions out of the way by attacking them. Then she smiled at him sweetly:
“Now I play my Twisting Nether.”
A black maelstrom appeared in the middle of the playing board, devouring all minions: his and the mage’s.
“Oh, c’mon!”, Saewron exclaimed indignantly.
Elarynn giggled. “Sorry”, she said (not sounding sorry at all!) and explained: “Let this be a lesson to you that it can be dangerous to waste your hand, summoning minions just because you can.”
“Well, thanks for that”, the rogue replied in mock-huffiness, leaning back in his chair with his arms crossed.
“It gets even better!”, the night elf announced mischievously. “I play Raise Dead, paying three Health, which allows me to return two friendly minions that died this game to my hand.”
While two cards fluttered into the mage’s fingers, Saewron noticed in surprise: “That card looks weird. Why does it have a two-colored background?”
Elarynn herself examined the card for a moment with a frown. “Ha! Totally forgot about those.” She turned the Raise Dead around, pushing it toward him so he could have a better look. “It’s a dual-class card. The background is split in purple and white to indicate it can be played by Warlock and Priest alike. As far as I know, there was only one expansion with dual-class cards. Think they stopped making them because they were hard to balance, but I like the concept. There were some strange combos like Mage/Rogue, but Warlock/Priest fits quite well. They are close anyway. Especially Shadowpriest and Warlock is more or less the same.”
“They’re not!”, Luthir all of a sudden interposed, straightening his posture.
The vehemency of the reaction surprised Saewron and he watched his boyfriend carefully, immediately sensing there was something more behind this than his – so far lacking – enthusiasm for Hearthstone.
Elarynn, who hadn’t noticed the same as the rogue, went on: “You don’t think so? But both use shadow Spells and have eerie looking minions.”
“Creatures of the Void aren’t the same as demons!”
“That’s debatable. After all, some of them are even classified as demons. Like this one”, she played one of the minions she’d only just received back onto her Hand. It was a Voidwalker for one Mana and at the bottom of the card between its Attack and Health stood indeed the word Demon written.
“Because it’s just a stupid game!”, Luthir exclaimed, “Whoever invented it obviously wanted to keep it simple, but in reality demons have nothing to do with Void creatures! It’s a common mistake. People tend to consider everything summoned by warlocks as demons, but that’s just because everybody is too lazy to say warlocks can summon demons and aberrations instead of just demons. That’s the end of that! Doesn’t mean a shadowpriest calling forth a shadowfiend is the same as a warlock summoning a demon!”
By now the kaldorei had also noticed they were at cross-purposes and her face took on a dismayed expression. “I’m really sorry. I’ve offended you, which wasn’t my intent at all. I was only talking about the game!”
Her carefully spoken words made Luthir blink, who only now seemed to realize he’d almost shouted his last words at the mage. He sighed, shaking his head more in disbelief about himself. “No, I’m the one who needs to apologize. I didn’t mean to raise my voice. Just forget about it. I’m still tired from… well, actually, I think it might be better if I just go to our room and try to sleep some more.”
He rose suddenly, making a move toward the stairs.
“I’ll accompany you”, Saewron suggested quickly, already reaching to collect the spread out playing cards, but Luthir’s vehement reaction made him freeze.
“No! No. There’s really no need for that. I didn’t mean to interrupt your game.”
Saewron examined his boyfriend skeptically. He was acting off, there was no doubt about that.
“Please”, Luthir added in a much softer tone of voice, obviously noticing his hesitation. “Just go on and continue your game. It would make me feel bad to know my… squeamishness has ruined your fun.”
“All right….”
“Thank you”, the priest offered Saewron a soft smile, bowed down for a brief kiss and then added, addressing everybody: “See you later”, before he withdrew from the hall, their send-off wishes sounding after him.
Saewron and Elarynn indeed continued their game after that, but the rogue’s luck seemed to have run out. He was starting to fall behind again, his loss clearly approaching.
“You aren’t really minding our game anymore, are you?”, Elarynn noticed correctly after a while.
“I’m sorry”, Saewron admitted, running a hand through his navy hair, “It’s not that I don’t like playing with you, I think the game is quite fun and I’d very much like it if we could continue this another time.”
“Sure”, Elarynn quickly interjected.
“It’s just… I have a feeling I currently shouldn’t let Luthir alone for long.” Especially since not even Tulu was around to keep an eye on him. The small purple fox had only taken the time to welcome them back after their return from the manor yesterday, then she’d taken off by herself, like she sometimes did, probably still sulking because he hadn’t taken her onto the rescue mission. Saewron was sure she’d soon forgive him that, being grateful she hadn’t just ignored his order (of which she’d well been capable), and gladly conceded her time to strike out on her own, but now he wished his pet fox had already returned. Maybe Luthir had accepted her company. “He’s been acting… weird ever since we woke up.” The priest had been withdrawn into himself and had held him at a distance (as much as possible while still sharing a room and bed), but clearly hadn’t been willing to talk about it. Up until now, Saewron hadn’t pushed him. “What those damn anima suckers did to him clearly still bothers him. I don-”
“Stop explaining yourself!”, the mage interrupted him with a sympathetic smile on her lips, “Go and care for your boyfriend. He needs you more than I do. I can watch your brothers’ play.” To herself she added: “Maybe I’ll even finally grasp some of the rules when I put in an effort.”
“Thanks!” With that the rogue rose, quickly ascending the stairs and heading toward the door behind which the corridor lay that led to the guestrooms. Saewron had already reached the balcony when he heard his twin’s voice from a distance, an unusually shy cast to it:
“I could try to explain the rules to you, if you want….”
He didn’t catch Elarynn’s answer anymore, but his last remnants of feeling bad about leaving the mage without a partner to play vanished.