#amdiren

Just a dream. Or a daydream.

Perhaps it had not been a simple fancy of imagination, however. Two days earlier, Solarine received a report from the Spire that one of the Priests had seen her sister, Aliese, come through the Orb of Translocation and walk through the building. The younger Fairlight had been a fairly common sight at the Spire before Silvermoon's fall, as her sister was a Priestess and her husband was a Magister.

Solarine had grilled the other Priest about what he saw, and he was absolutely sure that it was Aliese. Her healthy sunkissed glow had faded into the pallor of undeath, but the features remained the same, and her sunshine-gold hair still somehow retained its luster.

Two days had been spent searching for Aliese Fairlight, whose husband had taken her name in an act of defiance toward his family and illustrating the strength of her own.

Only traces had come up. The Death Knight - for that was what she was now - had been seen at the forge and the training dummies, but had kept an apparently intentionally low profile.

Julian and Amdiren knew of Aliese's return, and the both had urged Solarine's caution in the matter. She took their advice to heart.

If Aliese Fairlight had chosen to stay away from Silvermoon and cut off contact from her once-beloved older sister, there must have been a reason.

"Why should you have to share your fiance with someone he met two weeks ago?"

The question lingered in Solarine's mind, and it was one to which she had only one makeshift answer. "I would rather have some of him than none at all" was what she told the other Priestess. She meant to honour that idea and try to make it work, but such a thing would require all three of them to agree to it. Julian had told her that he'd need to discuss it with Amdiren before making a decision.

Why did she need to beg for scraps of affection and attention from the man who had, two weeks earlier, been helping her plan their wedding?

As she stared out the window to the half-finished pool dug in the back yard, however, Solarine admitted to herself that she did not expect any kindness to be shown to her in this situation. She would always come second, even though she had been there first.

Sometimes, I wonder if I was ever meant to be happy. Those were the words she had spoken to Talaen a few hours earlier. He assured her that she deserved to be happy. Deserved. But some things deserved were not what was actually meant for someone.

The Priestess turned her gaze to her belly. There was no outward sign of the life growing within, as it was far too early. Nobody would even know she was pregnant if she hadn't said anything. A feeling of dread twisted into her. Would Julian even be around to care for their child, or would this pattern of absence continue throughout the pregnancy and afterward? Or was it possible that he would take the child from her and whisk it away to wherever he went with Lucius and Amdiren? This last thought was almost too cruel for consideration, but she could not quite push it from the back of her mind.

Hot tears stung Solarine's eyes, and she attempted to bite them back upon her lip. When the taste of coppery blood touched her tongue, the tears broke through and flowed freely.

When the tears began to let up, a slow rage began to fill the woman. It burned in her gut, and she hated it. She hated the feeling of jealousy clawing at her, and she hated the utter loneliness echoing in the rooms of the once-cozy little house in the woods.

Her armor would still fit for some time. Solarine gathered her plated robes and her halberd, suiting up as the slow burn of anger washed through her. This would not do.

Without a look back, she set off toward Silvermoon, her charger running at a breakneck pace.

Solarine bathed Julian carefully and tenderly, wiping the blood and sweat away from his bruised and battered skin. His arms were too stiff and sore to reach his own back, and though the Priestess still had not recovered enough to use much of her healing magics, she did her best to tend to the many cuts and bruises dotting the man's skin.

Talaen was asleep by the time the conversation between Julian, Solarine, and Amdiren had ended, and they were careful to be quiet as they snuck past the sofa where he now dozed.

Once Julian was tended to, Solarine tucked him into their bed and sat with him until he slept. It did not take long, as he had been beaten to a pulp once by Talaen and then again by Josrial. Once she was confident that he was fast asleep, she shuffled from the room and back to the living room where Talaen slept.

The albino hadn't even removed most of his armor, but Solarine supposed he was probably used to having to sleep that way.

Carefully and quietly, Solarine fetched a blanket from the linen closet and a spare pillow from the guest room. She realised that she should have offered that room to her friend, and felt a stab of guilt at not having done so. She draped the blanket over her friend and tucked him in, then gently placed the pillow behind his head. He did not awaken, and Solarine knew that he must have expended a great deal of energy to the Shadow when he had lost control and beaten Julian.

Talaen looked almost peaceful when he slept. He was beautiful in a sharp and almost severe way, and in that moment she understood why so many women seemed to take a liking to him. If only they knew, she thought, now mildly amused.

Solarine, Julian, and Amdiren had come to what she hoped was an understanding. She could not fathom the relationship between the two men because they could not either. During her coma-like state, however, Solarine's mind had been repaired enough that she came out of it with more clarity than she had had before.

Julian had been utterly astounded at her offer of sharing him with Amdiren. Solarine herself was unsure if she was doing the right thing, but once she knew for certain that she now carried Julian's unborn child within her womb, she was not going to simply roll over and give him up.

She would share. And she would teach them both. Alone together, they were borderline irrational and certainly obnoxious. Solarine realised that both Julian and Amdiren needed tempering. Guidance. The Light and the Shadow uncontrolled could burn each other out if one grew too powerful. But when the scales kept them balanced, perhaps they could all reach some sort of harmony together.

Solarine, wide awake after having slept for three days straight, spent the rest of the night wandering from room to room and checking in on Talaen and Julian. They were the closest thing she had to family. No, they were family. She did not know if the two men would ever see eye to eye again, but she would love them both regardless. To Solarine, protecting her little family was just as important as Julian's quest to protect Quel'thalas and its people. Selfish, she realised, but she had given up so much that she had room to be selfish every now and then.

With every step of her weary armor-clad feet, she dreaded returning to the house she shared with Julian. She was certain that he would not return that night, just the same as so many other nights that week.

She clutched his letter in her hand, having only seen it after the evening's events had transpired. How could he write such things while virtually ignoring her presence once she returned to the city? After assisting in his healing, he'd said only two words to her before asking for Amdiren. Then, when they all left with Bloodraven, he neither spoke to her nor even acknowledged her presence.

The jump off of the spire would not have been so bad after all, the Priestess thought to herself as she shed her armor and placed it on its stand.

She had not slept in three nights, not since the culmination of her renewed nightmares into the sheer night terror that had awakened her several mornings prior.There was a case of sleeping draughts on the floor next to her writing desk. The box had been meant for Jadoth, but she had not yet sent it. She stared at the potions for some time before plucking three of them from their compartments. Solarine downed all three potions in rapid succession. If she managed to survive the overdose, she would likely be asleep for the next day and the one after that.