Sapphire (again)

[moonshadows]

“Lady Sunstrider?”

It wasn’t unusual for children who had recently turned from the night to seek me out and watch me work. To them, arcane magic was a mysterious and wondrous thing, and they watched me for hours as I set up wards and other spells, obediently sitting within the glowing circle I directed them to. But this young voice – about twelve or fourteen, I’d say, and female – didn’t sound like the usual child about to ask if she could watch me. When I glanced over my shoulder, the structure I’d been erecting dissipated in a glittering shower.

“Who are you?” I demanded, a bit more intensely than the situation perhaps warranted, but I knew her face. I’d stared at it enough in paintings, shaped it into a skin to cover my own.

“Sapphire,” she answered, chin thrust out in silent challenge.

I wasn’t afraid to take that challenge. “That’s not your real name.”

“No, it’s not.”

“Who gave it to you?”

“I gave it to myself.”

“Why?”

“Because I don’t want to tell you my real one,” she burst out, on the verge of tears. “I ran away from home.”

And everything came full circle. “Shh, it’s okay, don’t cry.” Gently, I pulled her into as motherly an embrace as I could manage. “You don’t have to tell me your name or anything about your family or why you ran away if you don’t want to. Just tell me why you sought me out.”

“Because you’re a mage,” she whispered into my shoulder, swallowing against the tears. “And I don’t want to be a priestess or a druid. I want to be a mage like you.”

“I will teach you,” I promised, suddenly feeling like my late father must have, ten thousand years ago, “but first I have to make sure you’re safe. I assume your father doesn’t know yet?”

Silently, she shook her head.

“Are you willing to leave Kalimdor entirely?”

Her chin dug into my collarbone as she nodded.

“Does your mother know?”

“Probably,” she whispered.

“If they come for you…?”

Sapphire clung to me, all composure gone as she wept in panic. ‘I don’t want to go back’ was all I could make out, although there was some garbled plea to ‘don’t’. I stroked her hair and murmured soothingly as my mother had done once upon a time, but my attention was in the trees. They were only mildly curious, and I encouraged them to pay closer attention and tell Cenarius what they saw. A falcon, no matter how mighty, could never be an eagle and this little sapling was absolutely not an oak.

“Sapphire, Sapphire, it’s okay.” She straightened, and I pulled out a small cloth to dab tears from her cheeks with. “Feeling better?”

“A little,” she said in a small voice.

“Well, listen to this and tell me how it sounds. You and I go back to New Jaedenar, where I report that a kaldorei child of unknown parentage has opted to join those who walk the day, and that I am taking said child of unknown parentage to Silvermoon City, where she will become my student. Then you and I walk through a portal to the palace, where I inform King Kael’thas of my intent to adopt you under refugee law. When your parents find you-” neither of us bothered to pretend that it wasn’t just a matter of time – “they’ll have to petition a court to convince the judge that they should get you back. You’ll be able to speak for yourself, and the judge will decide if you’re better off going back with them, or staying with me.” I paused to let that sink in. “Of course, the day you enter your third decade, what they want doesn’t matter anymore. As long as you’ve sworn fealty to the throne of Quel’Thalas, you’re a free woman as soon as you turn twenty.”

“You’ll adopt me?”

Oh, stars, it was just like when I’d first arrived in Zin-Azshari. Out of everything I’d said, all she’d heard was ‘you’ll have a parent who cares about what you want’. “I’ll adopt you. You’ll be my legal daughter. You won’t be in line to inherit the throne, of course.”

She laughed at the teasing tone of that last statement. “C-can I call you mom?”

“Or mother, mommy, father, dad, daddy – whatever you like.”

Shining silver eyes blinked at me. “But you’re…you can’t be…”

She didn’t know. Furion, you arrogant prick, was this your doing or Tyrande’s?

“Sapphire…do you know who Illidan is?”

Her expression shifted to wistful awe. “He’s the one who saved us from the demons and created the Second Well.” The awe dulled to resentment. “And then he got locked away, and no one’s seen him since. He’s probably dead.”

“He’s not dead,” I said gently. “He escaped thousands of years ago.”

Sapphire wailed, “Then why hasn’t anyone seen him?”

“Because,” I told her with a broad smile, “they didn’t know what they were looking for.”

My second skin dropped, leaving her to gape as I shot nearly two feet higher, my shoulders broadening, my light armor clinking as the clever catches shifted.

“You’re…” The color faded from her cheeks as the family resemblance caught her attention.

“I’m Illidan Stormrage, and I’m also Solaria Sunstrider. This is not a secret among my people; I had no idea Malfurion and Tyrande had suppressed the information among the night elves.”

“I hate them,” she spat, scowling.

Gently, I pulled her back into a hug. “As my father Dath’Remar once told me, the best revenge is to rise above and overshadow. You will be my daughter; you will learn arcane magic and live in Silvermoon City and learn the dances of high society and politics, and when your parents come for you, they will be denied.”

“But the judge…”

I laughed. “If I have to, my jewel, I will tell the story of how I ran away from home because the forest god Cenarius told me to follow my roots, to go to Zin-Azshari and learn arcane magic. How I was adopted by Dath’Remar as his daughter and how my twin, Malfurion, disowned me for it. No judge in Quel’Thalas would rule in Malfurion’s favor after hearing that, I promise you.”

“Even though I’m…”

“If you swear fealty to King Kael’thas, you’ll no longer be a night elf. They will have to go to war if they want you back, and it is a war they would not win even if they were foolish enough to declare it. You’re safe,” I said gently. “I won’t let them take you. You’re safe.”

She cried again, in relief this time, and when the storm had passed her smile was like the sun emerging from the clouds that had shrouded it. “So…can I call you Papa and Mama?”

“As long as you keep the genders straight,” I teased. “I do try to keep my names associated with their respective skins, but I’m equally comfortable in both of them. So I’ll be both your mother and your father, if you’re okay with that.”

For a long minute, Sapphire was quiet. “I’m okay with that,” she said finally. “Better than okay, because you’re both the people I’ve secretly looked up to my whole life.”

“But?”

“But…you deserve to know…” She trembled in my arms.

“I know Malfurion sired you. I know Tyrande birthed you. I don’t need to know what name they gave you. They can’t have you, Sapphire. You’re safe, but we should get everything in order as soon as possible.”

“But…the trees…he’ll know.”

“I asked them to tell Cenarius what happened here. The forest god will keep our secret.” I hugged her again and then let go to offer her my hand. “So, register you in New Jaedenar and then take you across the world to your new life?”

Shyly, she took my hand. “Okay…Papa.”