Loreliae Nightwhisper

I write to inform you that my commission as a healer of Quel'thalas has been reinstated. I have been moved into active duty and in a few short days myself along with several others will be filtered into a regiment and sent into the Blasted Lands to tend to those who have sustained injuries in this latest assault on Azeroth's people.

I am not angered by or resentful of this decision, though I do believe it is important to note that the hand that penned it was not my own. My reasons for being stationed at home and on a voluntary basis are no longer considered relevant or obligatory. Shydir is a boy nearly grown and there are not many things that I alone can offer him. I have no younger children and there is little that can stop what has already been set in motion. What could be done, I will not try.

For once, sister mine, I will do the honorable thing of my own choosing instead of being driven to it by necessity or despair. It is time to let go of past lives and impossible hopes. It is time to move forward, and for the time being that consists of fulfilling my duty to my people.

This letter is not how I hope to say goodbye, but rather to inform you that one is imminent. I know we have lived somewhat separate lives these last few years, but you and your boys have always been special treasures to my heart. I have loved them as my own blood, just as I have loved you, and so I write to you with one single purpose.

Please, Valrae. Come home.

Do not be misled. I will fulfill my obligations with or without you standing in my place, but I would serve them so much better with the reassurance that you and your iron will protected all that we hold dear. I would sleep easier knowing that you watched over my son and nephews, and that should I not return from the red portal everything I possessed would pass to you until they came of age.

I understand if you cannot shoulder this mantle, but have one alternate request. Before I leave my home and family, I would see you safe and well. That is all I ask.

With all of my love,

Your beloved sister

Loreliae

Long lashes fluttered as Loreliae's fel-tinged gaze blinked open slowly, delicate hands withdrawing from her sister's unconscious form and exhaustion lurking in the mender's eyes. How many times had she poured every ounce of energy she had into healing Valrae since they'd come here? Three times? Four? She'd lost track, just as hours had bled into days beneath her notice.

The sleeping form upon the bed claimed all of her attention, the sickly pallor and clammy balm of her skin concerning. A pulse jumped in the rogue's throat. Too fast, Lore thought, but still beating. It was a sound so loud in her ears it seemed to follow her around the room...the master suite of the manor they had shared once when the House was thriving, lively.

Nobody had used this room in some time, evidenced by the layer of dust upon nearly every surface...but Lore could think of nowhere else to lay her sister. It had been her own, once, but now she wondered if it should have been. Valrae had always been the better leader, after all.

She shook the thoughts away, rising to move to a chair across the room. What had caused the conflict her sister had found herself in was beyond Loreliae's comprehension...she knew only that her opponent had fared far worse. His family would have no opportunity for the constant vigil that she held now, unless they wished to hold it around a grave dripping with the smell of freshly turned earth.

Thump, thump, thump...

The steady rhythm of her sister's heartbeat followed her across the room where she slipped into the chair. The morning beams which filtered through large windows on one side of the room faded to the deep oranges and reds of evening in a second, giving Valrae's skin the hint of a glow it didn't actually hold. Loreliae blinked. Had she fallen asleep, or simply lost herself in the thoughts and the hours? She wasn't sure, and her mind felt to heavy to dwell on it.

Thump...thump...thump...

She stood, crossing to her sister's side again. Someone had lit a candle upon the nightstand, but she had no idea who. The manor had been lacking in employees for years, no servants necessary for the few people who dwelled within its walls. Loreliae laid a hand upon her sister's brow, the thought hardly qualifying as important. There was no change, and the reality of that was a heavy one to bear.

A single tear slipped down her cheek, mirroring the glow of the candle along its journey...and then the feel of gentle fingers encircling her wrist broke through the trance.

"Don't leave me."

One tear turned into two, and then broke free like a river as Loreliae's free hand came up to clasp that of her weakened sister, that small sign of life filling her with an impossible hope. She couldn't speak for a time, not without her voice wavering with the waves of emotion that crashed down upon her one after another. With a single breath did she extinguish the candle, pulling herself onto the cushion beside her sister.

sometimes I'm all like: oh god I can't write more than 3 lines

but other time: here have 3 paragraphs