Ask nicely

[moonshadows]

The scarred man in the beat-up armor didn’t register to me until he said, “Hey, you, the druid. I’m conscripting you for a mission.”

I turned to look at him, silent for the moment in my incredulity. Elsewhere, Illidan paused in the middle of what he was doing to peer through my eyes. A breath later, I found my voice. “Excuse me?”

“Your queen is allied with Stormwind,” the man said firmly. “That means I can enlist the aid of her citizens. Well, I’m enlisting you.”

“Queen?” I was trying not to get angry, but that kind of insult…

Easy, sister-doe.

 “The woman who leads you,” he said, waving away the issue.

“And who are you,” I said, pacing closer, hands fisted at my sides, “to enlist anyone?”

He’s not worth it, just walk away.

Oh, no. I want to see who this human is that he thinks he can “conscript” me.

A little sin’dorei I hadn’t noticed piped up from beside him. “Watch your tone, you’re speaking to King Varian Wrynn.”

I looked around for any witnesses to this madness, and to my relief saw a burly green-haired night elf approach, his aura swirling with the force of nature. “Oh good, another druid. Brother druid,” I called as he got within earshot.

“Yes, sister?” he replied, coming over to stand midway between me and the human who may or may not be a king.

His face was unknown to me, but I never knew all the druids by sight. More importantly, he had young antlers and I know I hadn’t heard of anyone with those recently. “I don’t recognize you; you must be young. What’s your name?”

“He’s over three hundred,” the blood elf interjected. “He’s not young.”

“Broll Bearmantle,” he answered calmly. “And yours?”

“Ellekayne, and it’s been five hundred years since I last spent any time in Moonglade. Do I need to test you to make sure the Circle’s education is still up to standard?”

The human interrupted with, “Hey, what’s your surname?”

Broll caught the human’s eye and shook his head slightly. “There’s no need for that, Ellekayne. I know your name.”

“Ah, good. Tell me, Broll, are you allied with the king of Stormwind?”

“I am.”

I crossed my arms. “And are you allied as a kaldorei, or as a druid?”

“As a friend,” he said in a firm but gentle tone.

“As a friend.” I eyed the human, one eyebrow raised, and was rewarded with a challenging stare. “Has the Circle allied with Stormwind?”

“No, Ellekayne.”

“Has the Temple allied with Stormwind?”

“Yes, the High Priestess signed a treaty last year.”

“Well, I guess that explains why your friend tried to conscript me.”

Broll paled slightly. “Varian,” he said, turning to the human, “you cannot conscript her.”

The blood elf scowled. “But she’s a night elf, isn’t she?”

Varian held one hand up, silencing her. “Explain, Broll.”

“Night elves who are also druids are answerable to two authorities,” Broll began. “High Priestess Tyrande Whisperwind, and Archdruid Malfurion Stormrage. These two have led our people for ten thousand years. Malfurion leads the Cenarian Circle, while Tyrande leads the rest of our people. Ellekayne is a very old, very powerful druid. She was not Malfurion’s first student, nor the first female druid, but nevertheless she is second to only him. She is not part of the Cenarian Circle, nor is she properly a citizen of Darnassus. She travels the world as she pleases in the company of an equally old, equally powerful mage, and she bows to neither authority.”

Varian studied me, and it was my turn to give him a challenging stare. “And why is that?” he asked.

When Broll made a helpless gesture, I smirked. “Because they are my parents.” I turned to Broll. “I’m also a Priestess of Elune, but most people tend to forget that.”

The blood elf looked sour, and finally sneered, “If she’s so powerful, Broll, why doesn’t she have antlers and golden eyes like you? I thought those were a sign of Cenarius’s favor.”

“I’m my mother’s daughter as much as I am the child of my father,” I said evenly. “Elune keeps her mark on my eyes to show that I still belong to her. As for antlers…” Illidan was laughing so hard he could barely breathe, and my lips twitched. “Does usually don’t have them.”

The blood elf smirked, thinking she’d won. Then I brushed my hair out of the way so she could see the slender, three-inch prongs.

“With Elune claiming my eyes, Cenarius decided to make it visibly known that I belonged to him, too.”

“That’s my sister-doe,” Illidan said as he stepped out of my shadow. He draped one arm over my shoulder proprietarily and looked over at Broll for a reaction.

“Illidan,” the druid said in awe. “Ishnu-alah.”

“Ishnu dal-dieb,” he replied with a smirk. “Good to see someone with manners here. Yes, my sister-doe is highly favored by Cenarius. He calls her-”

“Brother-buck, don’t-”

“-little fawn.” Illidan smirked while I covered my face briefly with one hand. “I am Illidan, the only night elf to hold the distinction of mastering the Emerald Dream and the ability to shapeshift while being a mage, rather than a druid. We are quite outside your authority to conscript, however…” He grinned broadly, hugging me closer while I tried to look surly and stern. “If you ask very, very nicely, we might find your task interesting enough to perform anyway.”

“If you’re as old as that,” Varian said, arms crossed over his broad chest, “then I doubt you would be interested in my little mission. Such things are surely beneath your notice.”

“You’d be surprised,” my brother-buck said lightly. “After a few quiet centuries ignoring the irritations of civilization, you start to long for distractions.”

“Your…” Varian looked to Broll for clarification.

“Sister-doe,” the other druid supplied.

“Your…sister-doe…doesn’t seem interested in distractions.”

“Well, you did try to conscript her, and she’s a little irritated about that, but she’s also checking your sin’dorei to see how addicted she is.”

All three of them started at that; Varian seemed unaware of what his companion’s green eyes meant, the blood elf herself jerked guiltily, and Broll seemed merely surprised. I ignored them all, monitoring the spell as it analyzed her aura.

“Valeera?”

The blood elf flinched at the human’s sharp tone. “I haven’t touched the stuff in months! Why is it her business, anyway?”

“She’s judging me by my companions,” he answered grimly. “I’ve insulted her by trying to conscript her. Broll’s apparently passed muster. But I’m keeping company with – what is it she’s addicted to?”

“Fel energy,” Illidan said grimly as the druid opened his mouth to answer. “From drinking demon’s blood, usually, but sometimes by directly absorbing a demon’s life-force. Very nasty, and it gets nastier the longer you’re addicted. Takes years to completely clear out – again, longer if the addiction has been going on longer.”

Valeera glared. “I told you, I’m clean!”

“Your eyes are green and you’re not a mage. If it’s merely been months since your last infusion, then the withdrawal hasn’t hit you yet. The hunger will set in before that, in any case.”

“What would you know about it, anyway?”

I took Illidan’s hand; he squeezed it tightly.

“I was completely isolated for the duration of my cleansing,” he said in a quiet, intense voice. “According to the reports written by the one assigned to watch over me, it took twenty-five years for the withdrawal symptoms to end. I was addicted for three times that.”

The blood elf looked scared; the human, grim. Broll looked shocked that my brother-buck had just confessed to having been a fel addict. The spell completed.

“Six months before the hunger starts,” I announced. “A year and a half before she’s clean, assuming she doesn’t get any more.”

Illidan nodded while the blood elf looked horrified. “Was it one big dose, or several small ones?”

“Several small ones. Probably better that way; she won’t fight the hunger as much, but the withdrawal won’t be as intense, either.”

“That’s good, right?” she asked in a small voice.

My brother-buck ignored her. “Broll, Varian, she will need to be contained and possibly restrained until her system is clear. Believe me when I say that the kindest thing you can do is isolate her before the dose already in her body starts wearing off.”

“I have a den in the woods north of Ashenvale,” the druid offered. “I will watch her.”

Varian nodded. “Bring her back safe and whole.”

Valeera did not protest as the night elf gathered her into his arms, although she looked like she wanted to. “But Varian, what about…”

He looked at me grimly, then looked away. “I’ll find someone else. I won’t ask Ellekayne and Illidan, not after the enormous favor they’ve already done for me.”

“What do you think, brother-buck?”

He pretended to examine the human king. “I kind of like him. He has potential.”

“Well then, your majesty, consider us volunteers for whatever you were going to conscript me for.”

The human looked at me incredulously, then at Broll, who shrugged. “She’s known to do that, Varian,” he said. Then he looked at me and asked in his own language, “Your parents are…?”

“Explains why young druids are taught who I am, doesn’t it?” I answered with a grin.

“And why you go without a surname. But what about your brother-buck?”

Illidan draped an arm around me again. “I prefer being mysterious,” he said lightly.

“If I may ask, Ellekayne, have you ever felt that you were marked because…” Broll struggled to put his thoughts into words. “Not because everything about you is destined for greatness, but because there was a specific destiny in store for you, and you had to find it?”

I couldn’t help it; I started laughing.

“Hey,” Varian said with a frown. “What’s so funny?”

“Broll,” I said between giggles as Illidan tried in vain to hide his amusement, “I stumbled into it before my third decade, and it wasn’t subtle.”

“Was it-” he broke off, glancing at his human friend, and switched back to elvish. “Was it aiding someone, grounding him and guiding him?”

“If it had not been for my sister-doe,” Illidan said solemnly, “I would have done a terrible thing for the most noble reason, and caused great suffering to many. If you feel your destiny is to help your friends here, to heal and guide them, then do just that. Have faith that Cenarius or Elune would tell you if you were doing something wrong.”

“Thank you,” he said, visibly relieved.

The little blood elf looked up at him curiously. “What was that all about, Broll?”

“Antler talk,” I chirped. “Oh, before I forget – Broll, send Malfurion a request for Warden Shadowsong’s cleansing procedures. There were many cases over the centuries. There’s no reason for you to care for Valeera without having the benefit of all that experience.”

Green eyebrows raised. “And this information is readily available?”

“Not usually, but tell him,” I slipped into elvish. “A wren jumped out of a hawthorne tree. That will let him know you spoke with me,” I finished in common. “Now then, your majesty, what was it you needed done?”

“Let’s go to Stormwind Keep,” he said slowly. “I think I’d prefer to discuss it in more civilized surroundings.”

I grinned. “Lead the way.”