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The gryphons soared high above the fel-scorched wasteland. Most humanoid
and humanoid-sized creatures were reduced to little more than dirt specks
crawling across the reddened earth, and the air rushed past in their ears. The
siege tank carriers ferrying the delegates’ and their escorts’ steeds had
already rumbled out of Honor Hold by the time Theluin, Eleazar and Tuan had
mounted their travelling gryphons and been joined by their flying escort, but
they would overtake the transport column swiftly enough as it trundled onwards
with ponderous urgency on the dusty road below.
The trip itself was largely uneventful. Eleazar kept trying to keep an
eye on Tuan, but with the gryphons alternating positions in their flight
formation to throw potential snipers off target, there was little he could do. The
she-rogue continued to clench her hands hard into her gryphon’s mane, keeping
her head down and never looking up.
The temple wasn’t hard to miss; the peculiar, alien architecture of the
Draenei, embellished with glowing sigils and crystalline structures – even in
its paltry appearance, the temple was a sight to behold. The gryphons touched
down smoothly on a flattened hilltop, the temple’s resident guards holding the
great beasts’ harnesses with trained firmness while the new arrivals dismounted.
The War Gryphon riders that had accompanied them circled the premise once to
ensure no immediate ambushes, and with a departing flourish they wheeled around
and vanished back into the sky, returning to the Hold.
The Ambassador was first to greet his erstwhile escorts, reaching out a
hand to Theluin who grasped it in kind. “Praise the Naaru, you are well!” The
Draenei’s voice and face were as carefully balanced as ever, but his eyes
betrayed his relief.
Theluin merely smiled diplomatically and bowed his head. “I will assume
the Citadel’s eruption was visible even here,” the Night Elf mused with a
suitably lowered voice.
This time, the Ambassador let show a smidgeon more ambivalence. “I will
not lie to you, reverend. More than one here feared both for your lives and
those of the rest of the Hold’s inhabitants. We were assured that everything
was as it should be, but it is still a great reprieve to have your well-being
confirmed.”
At this, Theluin raised his sculpted eyebrows somewhat. The Ambassador
immediately caught himself.
“Ah, of course. Where are my manners? Allow me to show you the way.” He
gestured graciously towards the central building of the small settlement, and
the three newcomers followed along with his metered steps. “Amaan the Wise is
the leader of this temple and those who live here. … I urge you not to be
alarmed by his countenance when we meet him. Let me just say that while he may
not have mortal sight any longer, he instead has sight where most others do
not.”
Eleazar had to suppress a rather egregious flinch as he heard Tuan’s
voice suddenly mumble in his ear from over his armoured shoulder. “Two copper
says the guy is blind.”
The Paladin breathed gingerly and shot a reprimanding glare over his
shoulder. He kept forgetting how tall the woman was. “Miss Tuan.”
“Just saying.” And with that, the she-rogue fell back in behind the
man’s plate-clad frame.
Eleazar sighed inwardly. He also kept forgetting about her … well,
roguish behaviour.
Amaan the Wise certainly made his epithet justice. His eyes, rather than
the luminescent bluish nuances common among Draenei, were a misted, milky
white, though still endowed with a faint glow of their own. He turned his head
only minutely, a knowing, fatherly smile upon his lips even as the Ambassador
stepped inside the temple with the three strangers in tow.
Eleazar could’ve sworn he heard a muttered “toldya” behind him before
the incorrigible she-rogue slunk aside to plop herself into a shadowed corner at
a safe distance from the small group of Draenei officials gathered in the
sanctified room. The Paladin decided not to let her coarse manners impede him,
and was nary a step behind Theluin as the latter bowed to the temple elder, who
greeted them just as respectfully in return.
“It is good that you have arrived.” Amaan’s voice fit his demeanour
perfectly; a deep but soft baritone, somewhat weakened from age. “I understand
that your stay will need to be brief, but please, make yourselves comfortable
and introduce yourselves to the others who call this temple their home.”
Theluin bowed his head again, now joined by Eleazar who stepped up
beside the elderly Kaldorei and, bowing reverently to the aged Draenei, replied
in near-perfect Draenic: “<We are honoured, wise one. Your hospitality will
not be forgotten.>”
Amaan merely continued to smile, although a warm, somewhat humorous
glint entered his unseeing gaze; the other anchorites, by marked contrast, were
uniformly staring with equal parts astonishment and disbelief at the human so
effortlessly uttering words in their own native tongue.
Amaan’s gentle but unwavering voice broke the silence before it would
turn awkward. “<The stubborn close their minds and convince themselves of
one truth. The wise keep an open mind to the different possibilities leading to
and stemming from the present.>” The other dignitaries snapped ever so
slightly to attention, making a single, odd gesture in near-unison as if
acknowledging a sermon that had just ended.
The Ambassador smiled smoothly, but his eyes clearly showed his profound
admiration for the elder, and he bowed deeply. “<The tales of your wisdom
are as true as ever, Amaan. May it continue to be a guiding light to us.>”
Amaan merely inclined his head modestly.
The other Anchorites excused themselves with gracious bows and curtsies,
and thus the three newcomers were left with the Ambassador and the temple
elder. Amaan turned towards them (likely out of consideration for their
composure) and attributed them once more in the typical Draenic-accented
Common. “Again, take your time and acquaint yourselves to our humble
settlement. It would nevertheless please me if we could take a moment later and
hear your tales more in-depth.” He turned aside slightly, indicating with a
light gesture a motherly-looking female Draenei who had come out of one of the
alcoves, wiping her hands with a small, smooth cloth towel and smiling politely.
“Our caregiver will see to accommodations should your stay here linger into the
small hours.”
Once more, Eleazar could swear on his ancestral graves that he heard an
acidic mutter behind him – “how do you even tell night from day in a place like
this?” – but did his level best to ignore it.
“Our ground mounts will arrive with Honor Hold’s rebuilt siege tanks,”
Theluin interjected smoothly. “While their journey here will only be limited by
the crew’s efficiency, it would still be another half a day at earliest before
we are ready to depart.”
“Ah, yes. That would likely be our next supply delivery as well.” At
this, the caregiver lit up and vanished back into the alcove which apparently
served as a makeshift inn reception. Amaan merely smiled gently. “While we have
survived on much less in the quite recent past, the exchange with our returning
brothers and sisters and the new Alliance presence has done much to ease our
minds of most of our everyday uncertainties.”
Amaan stepped back, indicating with a wide gesture the sparse but
well-maintained furniture lining the room’s perimeter. “It would seem it is my
turn to forget my manners. Please; take a rest, explore the temple grounds.
Forget your worries, if only for a moment. That is, after all, why this temple
was founded once.”
Theluin and Eleazar both nodded their thanks; the Kaldorei diplomat, true
to form, swiftly engaged in three-way small talk between the Ambassador and the
temple elder, and Eleazar found himself a little out of options … until he
spotted Tuan’s silver-teal eyes glinting mischievously in the shaded nook she
had claimed for herself during the interchange.
He let his shoulders down with a sigh and a lopsided, somewhat resigned
smile, and strolled over to her. “Sumthing’s amusin’ you, Miss Tuan?” he
ventured in a discreet voice, leaning against the wall and crossing his
armoured arms over his chest.
The she-rogue flashed a brief, toothy smile back at him. “You enjoyed
showing off back there, Eli.”
Eli blinked in befuddlement, and then raised a hand to his neck
embarrassedly. “Eh … I wouldn’ call it ‘showin’ off’, really. Jes’ polite ta
‘proach people in their own ways, y’know?”
Tuan snickered quietly, reaching out and giving the Paladin a light
shove against his pauldroned shoulder. “Hey, no need to be so unassuming. We
all need to flaunt ourselves a bit every now and then. The world’d be too
boring otherwise.”
Eli couldn’t help but chuckle helplessly. He glanced back at her. “…
you’re feelin’ alright now, Miss Tuan?”
She paused for a moment, her face flicking briefly into a strange,
pensive expression, and Eli felt himself wait with baited breath for the usual
ornery moment-crasher to come out of the woman’s (admittedly rather foul)
mouth. Instead, Tuan simply leaned her head back against the wall with a sigh.
“… I’m still feeling that migraine, if that’s what you’re asking,” she
finally muttered. “S’easier if I don’t look at the sky too much, I guess. Or
I’m just finally getting blunted to it.” She grunted and let her head fall
forward again. “Stare at that fel-blasted sky—*snrk* literally—or be mercilessly cooped up in here for the next
twelve-plus hours? … I’ll pick the lesser of those two evils.” She stood from
her partial slump and stretched with an almost unnoticeable back pop. “I guess
I’ll be stuck in here for the time being then. Hey, I wonder what recipes that
caregiver might have …” Between one sentence and the next, she had swaggered
off towards the inn alcove, leaving a thoroughly bemused Eleazar behind.
Theluin chose that moment to return to his younger friend. “She seems to
be doing well,” the elderly Night Elf remarked gently.
Eli blinked and looked up, smiling weakly. “Seems like it.” He stood up
as well. “I hav’ta admit, I’m kinda relieved.”
Theluin raised one of his sculpted eyebrows. Eli gestured vaguely.
“Well … I guess I did kinda expect her to be a lot … worse than this.
Y’know?”
At this, Theluin once again smiled, though noticeably more ironic. “I
assure you that I can imagine.”
They were interrupted by a slight clamour from the inn alcove, and
turned their heads just in time to see Tuan exit it with all the graceful hurry
of an ousted thief; hands defensively in the air, quickly backing away.
“Alright! Alright! Sorry for wanting to learn new things! Sheesh.” Catching sight of her two friends, she immediately
sauntered over to them with a magnificent eyeroll.
“Territorial lunch ladies. Such
a pain. So what are you two up to?”
Eli was about to stammer out something half-hearted, when Amaan came to
the rescue, stepping back inside the temple after seeing to some matters
outside. “Perhaps we could take the opportunity while supper is being prepared
to share our experiences. Don’t worry about the time,” the elder went on before
his visitors could say anything in return. “A tale told halfway is much
preferable to a tale never told at all.”
Tuan was suddenly backing away sideways towards the very same exit that
the temple elder had just entered from. “On second thought I don’t think I’ll
mind staring at this affront of a spectacle you insist on calling ‘evening’.
You wouldn’t happen to have a smithy or something around here?”
Amaan never seemed to falter in his step; neither did he turn his head
or shift his serene smile. “Directly to your left after exiting, then to your
right.” Tuan promptly vanished outside without any further dignifications.
Eli turned to the temple elder, about to start apologizing for the
she-rogue’s uncouth behaviour, but Amaan smoothly raised an aging hand, still
smiling gently. “Each to their own way of finding respite. The Light never
abandons, no matter how far you may try to run.”
Eli breathed out, genuinely relieved. It was definitely nerve-frazzling
having to constantly fear for the temperamental woman’s rakish tendencies.
Amaan motioned to a nearby small couch, and sat himself down on it,
Night Elf and human joining him on comfortable chairs. “I sense that you have
both experienced great upheavals, both physical and spiritual, upon coming to
this tortured land,” the temple elder began, his face shifting into a soft but
sincere empathy. “You are free to share it, if you like.”
Eli found himself relaxing into his seat, a familiar sensation of
security enveloping him. It was a feeling he had often experienced when sitting
down with his most trusted mentor after a hard day of repeated failures in the
Stormwind Cathedral’s training grounds, when the razed capital was still
rebuilding and he was himself a mere paladin initiate.
Taking the cue, Theluin began painting in broad strokes their trials and
tribulations in Hellfire Peninsula over the past week …
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Originally written by Tuan Taureo
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