#maeorra

“You see Maeorra! When you strap Elekk to Rocket, your ground mount becomes flying mount!! Elekk Rocket!!!”

The tension rolled off the mage in waves. Relke had calmly and confidently moved around her kitchen, making tea, but she had pointedly ignored him, only breaking her thousand yard stare when Xaph brought the baby back, laying him in her arms before quickly retreating back to his own home, child, and Cat.

They had, however, gotten her to sit before Xaph had gone, to stop her relentless pacing a dizzying circle around her living room. She refused to change out of her formal white robes, and they were gathering dirt and dust around the hem. But she had allowed the men to lead her to the rocker when Xaph brought Aussie.

Relke could no longer stand it. Her silence and agitation were starting to drive him up a wall. He sighed heavily, slamming the book shut, his eyes on her as she jumped slightly at the sound. "Lena, we'll get her back." The Prelate had been taken by the Sargerei on Socrethar's Rise, now presumably being held hostage. At least, they could hope. The alternatives were unthinkable. Yet, Relke thought, that was all Lena was thinking about.

"I'm not letting you out there if you're all catatonic, you know," he rumbled with some authority. Though she was the Archon, he tended to be a voice of reason. Like Maeorra. They both seemed to realize it at the same time. Lena's eyes flashed angrily, at the same time that Relke hung his head.

Suddenly, she swept up, on her hooves, marching the baby to his room, putting him to bed. He was already sleeping deeply, so she didn't bother with lullabies, just a gentle kiss on the forehead. Closing the door to his room, she returned to her pacing. She was having trouble keeping her focus. Keeping her cool. Keeping the magic contained. The arcane energy seemed to ripple over her blue skin. Her fingers flexed and stretched impatiently, as if desperate to cause some destruction.

"Lena," Relke began in a softer voice, pleading this time. "You've gotta calm down. None of this pacing and impatience is gonna help get Maeorra back. We're working on a plan. We just need to make it right, some time to make it perfect."

She couldn't help herself, bitter words spat at the shaman over her shoulder as she paced, "And if in that time, they kill her?"

Relke stood suddenly, shoving the chair aside, hissing at her back, "Then she'll take out as many as she can before she goes." Lena stopped, mid-step, frozen. He stared at her profile for a long moment before seeing the tear darken her skin. He almost missed her whisper. "She's my... friend."

Relke gathered himself, taking a breath as he evaluated her. "That's a hard word for you to say, isn't it?" His voice grew softer, kinder, as he took on the role of counselor. Her posture relaxed a notch and she managed a nod. Her arms wrapped around her torso and the arcane that had been pulsing over and through her skin seemed to lessen. Lena tucked her newly-shortened hair behind her ear and returned to the rocking chair, lowering herself into it, then pulling her knees to her chest, suddenly looking very small in it. Her desperation rapidly disintegrated into defeat.

After a beat, Relke sat, too, pushing a teacup in her direction on the small table between them. "Xaph's relaxation blend," he murmured. A tiny fire elemental, about half the size of his hand, flickered nearby. It didn't burn the table, but kept the tea warm. Lena eyed it warily.

She rested her chin on her knees, still curled up tightly in the rocking chair. "I hate what we've become." Relke tilted his head, but waited for her to elaborate.

"I was only a few hundred years old when the Legion came. When I was put on the ship." Lena wrapped her arms around her legs. "Magic isn't for the beauty anymore." Her voice was sad, longing. "It's for destruction." Relke nodded amicably, but still didn't speak. He was fairly new to the 'magic' bit, only having discovered the elements recently - for the draenei, anyway, and they were really the only magic he'd understood in his three thousand or so years.

Lena seemed to drift away, eyes sliding out of focus as she concentrated on a memory. "Momma would practice with me. It wasn't always blowing things up and burning things down. We floated the wooden blocks Daddy made for me. Built entire cities out of them that way, changing their shapes and sizes and colors - all with magic. She could draw me pictures with the magic when she read to me. Argus was so beautiful, and our people's magic made it so much more beautiful..." Her wrists flexed, her fingers fanning out as if pulling invisible strings on the memories she relived.

Relke leaned forward, listening quietly, his eyebrows drawing together, wondering where she was going and inexplicably filled with a longing for a home he'd never seen. She lifted her eyes to him and the azure glow seemed to slide into focus again.

"I'm tired of being a weapon. I want to be a mother. A leader, yes, of course. But I need my child to know that I'm not always a force of destruction. We have to save Maeorra. Because she is my ...friend..." - she still stumbled gently over the word.

"And because I want her to help me lead the Shadows."

Xaphias took a step back as Lena roared, and she moved in closer. She took a breath and ground her teeth and hitched Aussie up on her hip, her smaller frame seeming to tower over Xaph. Her voice was deadly calm when she next spoke.

"Take the baby."

Xaph quailed a bit, shuffling backwards again. "Lena, I don't think you need to..." He was cut off by the blaze in her eyes. Didn't he tell Kudrelke? Lena would set the damn sky on fire when she heard about this.

"Xaphias. Take. The. Baby. And I will consider... Not setting you on fire right now." Oh, she was pissed. Beyond pissed.

The barman reached out and grabbed Aussie from his mother, nearly ripping half her hair with him, as his tiny fingers were clenched in it. She clearly barely felt it. She spun on a hoof and stormed off. Aussie gurgled up at Xaphias, looking a little bewildered, but thankfully not upset. "Mama's fixin' to lose her mind, little man. Let's go find Ela and Lila." He retreated, cautiously, stealing glances at Lena's property as they went.

Lena slammed the door of her little house behind her, the entire structure shuddering, then took two steps into the living room and stopped dead, digging her nails into her palms. She closed her eyes, her mouth drawn into a deep, puckered frown.  Get your shit together, Lena.  She stood stock still, her body stiff, the blood and magic vibrating through her veins. To an outside observer, she might appear to shimmer. A mirage of sorts, as the magic nearly twisted her inside out, into another plane, into the Nether.

She took a deep breath, unclenching her hands and opening her eyes, unfocused as they were. She turned a palm upward, appearing to concentrate on it. Slowly, a sphere of orange fire and purple arcane twisted and flickered there. Her fingers flexed, nursing the ball of flame, allowing it to grow in potency. They took Maeorra. Again. AGAIN.  Lena allowed herself one moment of bottoming-out despair before she retreated into anger again, the flame flickering ominously, hovering in her palm.

With sudden forcefulness, she hurled the purple and orange sphere into the fireplace. As it caught the kindling there, her eyes finally focused.  We won't lose her this time.

She stood and watched the fire for some time, then broke herself out of her reverie, suddenly in a flurry of activity. She stripped out of her every day robes, the ones covered in various toddler-related stains and smudges, then rummaged through her desk for something. Lena yanked the purple headband she always wore from her hair, her lip curled as she looked at herself in the bathroom mirror.

Her stark white hair was snarled and knotted from lack of caring or time to be devoted to caring, as well as Aussie's new habit of grabbing everything he could reach and yanking it to him. The mage looked down at the shears she'd pulled from her desk, then swiftly cut off the majority of her long locks. After dunking her head under the faucet, she ran her fingers through the new bob cut. Krastos would hate it. She shrugged at herself in the mirror.

Stalking to her wardrobe, Lena flicked through her dress robes with a purpose. She'd go find Maeorra herself if she had to. Her eyes were drawn to the white robe in the back, the one she never wore, because she was too easily singed, soiled, or otherwise dingy and dirty, even without knowing how. The Sargerei operatives would see her coming a mile away. Good. She pulled the robe off it's hanger and slid into it, impressed with herself that it still fit, post-baby.  

Once dressed, she focused, standing in the center of the living room, taking many long, deep breaths to calm herself before teleporting silently out of the house and onto a cliff in Shadowmoon Valley that looked across to Socrethar's Rise. The idea of the place made her skin crawl as she stood there, eyes narrowed as if searching for any sign of Maeorra.

She never heard the footfalls behind her. Kudrelke slid from his jeweled panther construct with some difficulty, considering his injuries.

"If you're going to go all... nuclear... on us, or all... suicide mission-y, or whatever this is..." His deep voice startled her out of her concentration. She whirled on him, staff at the ready. He smiled tentatively, holding up his hands in surrender, his left wrist in a cast. "Then you should probably not wear your communicator." Relke flicked his fingers in the direction of the comm unit she had unknowingly clipped on to her belt. "Tracking signals, remember?"

Lena remained silent, but flicked the unit off in irritation. She turned back toward the Rise and nearly growled. "Xaph..." Relke started. "Sent you," she finished. "I know. He assumes I'll do something stupid to get her back."

Relke took another step closer behind her. "Maeorra won't go out with out a fight. She'll take out as many as she can on the way down, knowing her." Lena flinched, then wrapped her arms around her midsection. Her words were almost a whisper against the wind.

"I won't lose her again."

(( @maeorra @glaucophane​ @tallgeezwow​ @butcanihuntit​ based on the RP that Tallgeez and Sevda (and their respective characters) did with us last Saturday, ramifications of which are still coming out but the start of which can be found here, and by the way YOU SHOULD COME DO WITH US. ))

(( Also, Lena has fun with transmog. ))