(2021-03-07) Oranna and the Priestess of the Light

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Author:	Athena
Summary:	Oranna Stormbreaker and Niris Hazan have a chat in Stormwind.
Rating:	T for Teen

Niris stands in the square outside the Stormwind Keep and surveys the cobbled streets ahead. Sure enough, she spies the distinctive and unlikely tail of a snow leopard disappearing around the corner. She gathers her skirts and hurries after it.

People make way for a Priestess of the Light in her cloth the way they might not for just anyone, and Niris’s long-legged stride makes swift gain on the dwarf — it isn’t long before she can see the leopard’s spotted back, and then the neat brown braid of the girl that walks alongside it.

“Oranna!” she calls breathlessly. “Oranna, wait..”

The dwarven hunter looks up from her map in surprise, looking over her shoulder. There's a brief flash of panic in her expression when she spots Niris, and Oranna rapidly scans her surroundings to see what has the priestess moving so quickly. When she doesn't see any obvious danger, her expression becomes puzzled.

She turns to face Niris, moving slightly to the side of the road, her head cocked to one side. Befound dutifully stays by her side, and Oranna places one hand lightly on the leopard's head.

"Somethin' wrong, lass?"

Niris stops beside the pair, still a little breathless. She shakes her head, and then gives Oranna a searching, golden-eyed look. “I don’t know, is there?” She looks around them. “Only first Ivrianna disappeared, and then you slipped out, and I don’t want to lose track of our people in the city with all this” — she waves a vague hand — “ nonsense going on.” She looks back at Oranna, studies her again.

Oranna draws in a quick breath, her eyes darting to one side unfocused, and her right thumb beats out a rapid staccato beat very lightly on Befound’s head. "No, I — " She clears her throat and pastes a small smile over her expression. "I jus' thought that it'd be best to no get in the way." Her thumb keeps tapping.

She frowns suddenly. "Wait, didja say Ivri went missing?" She shakes her head with a shrug. "Hard t' tell with that one if there was outside mischief or, well, Ivri mischief. I'm jus' walkin' to The Empty Quiver, lass. No harm, and I've got Befound with me." She seems to notice her thumb tapping and stops. "If ye needed to go find out where the young lass went, we'll be fine on our own." Her eyes briefly unfocus once more, but she rallies quickly to meet Niris' eyes with a small smile.

Niris folds her arms, motherly-stern. “I am absolutely confident that Ivrianna is just up to … well, being Ivrianna. Of the lot of us, she’s probably safest at the moment. I’m under the impression that all but perhaps two of the city guards are siblings of hers.” She cants her head. “But you’ve mentioned how turned around you get in human towns, and — ” She looks around again, and then gives Oranna a wry smile, almost conspiratorial. “Light, but this is a turning-aroundy town. I still get lost along the canals.” She gestures to a nearby tree, the raised stone edge of its planter. “Will you sit with me a moment? Give an old lady a chance to catch her breath?” She’s plainly not out of breath any longer, nor, to be fair, particularly old, but she’s still watching Oranna in that attentive way.

The dwarven hunter looks mildly startled, and looks searchingly at the priestess. "Oh! I'm sorry, lass, ah, ma'am, I didnae realize ye were ol-, ah…of course, I can take a moment." Oranna directs Befound to lay down near the tree, and stands awkwardly near the tree. Her eyes dart off to the right, unfocused, and she draws a sharp breath before looking at Niris again.

She looks ruefully at the human woman. "I'm sorry, ma'am. I'm no the best with human ages. That is — I dun know Stormwind well, but I can mostly get around to The Empty Quiver now. I didnae mean to make ye run after me." She seems to consider saying more, but instead gives another tight smile.

Niris’s own smile is warm. “Oh, I only tease. Not you: myself, mostly. I suppose I’m … about right in the middle, for a human. Not as young as I was, but not as old as I will be.” Her eyes glint merrily. “But it’s a teasing sort of thing. I give Elo a terrible time about what an old man he is, and he’s younger than I am.” She pats the stone beside her. “Won’t you sit also? How old are you, if I might ask? I had guessed young, for one of your people, but of course I could be wrong. I’ve only ever been well -acquainted with one dwarf.”

"Oh, aye? Middle? Thas…" Oranna shifts uncomfortably, and leans up against the stone, but doesn't sit. She looks up at Niris. "I'm not as young as I used t' be, either. I'll be 93 end o' this year, actually. I don't rightly know what that is to humans. We can go pretty long, if things are right. My great-aunt Nettie lived ta see her 500s, but well. Most of us are just happy to get past 200, especially these days." She sighs and gazes up at the sky, her brow furrowing.

"I, well, I got a bit of a late start. Might be why I dun seem my age. I didn't really start even learning how to right proper shoot a gun in combat until th — until about 20 years ago." She swallows hard, and takes a long blink. "An' I've ne'er worked closely with humans before t'all. My family did, especially my brothers, but I." She looks down at the ground. "I didn't."

“Ninety-three?” Niris laughs, startled. “Bless. I should be calling you ma’am, and I beg your pardon.” Her tone is light, though, and lightly teasing. “I’d never have guessed that the gun was relatively new. You seem very … of a piece with it.” She studies Oranna again, her gaze shrewd and serious but her expression mild and pleasant. “You have brothers? Or had ?” Her tone is very, very gentle; she heard the past tense in my family did.

"Oh, Boomstick? No, she's a right old guard, she is. Been part of the Stormbreaker’s arsenal for four generations. I…I got her during the," she sighs. "The siege of Ironforge. My cousin Topa managed to keep ahold of it when…" She stops suddenly. "I don't know if yer old enough ta remember it, lass. When the…when they came for the dwarves."

Oranna claps her hands together, and her right thumb begins to tap against her left hand. "My family, the Stormbreakers, they were a lot of warriors." Her eyes unfocus briefly. "All Stormbreakers are warriors," she says in a voice that is clearly someone else's cadence. "Well. Except for one." She looks up at Niris briefly, and tries to smile, not quite managing it.

"My four brothers were worth a squadron of humans, my ma used to say." She swallows hard and ducks her head, hiding her expression. "We knew they were coming, lass. We thought we could handle them. By the time we realized we were outmatched in open land, it was too late. Our camp was overrun. We ran to Ironforge. Some." Her breath quickens, and she crushes her hands together. "Some stayed to make sure the rest got across to the gates. The Stormbreakers stood that day, with the others, 40 strong against hundreds of orcs. The rest o' us collapsed the bridge behind them." She looks to the right, her eyes unfocused.

"My brothers got me out o' that. I still don't know if it was because they wanted me safe, or because they knew I'd've been useless trying to stand with them. Could be both, honestly." She attempts a laugh. It sounds suspiciously closer to a sob. "They never did have any use for me. I was born when even the youngest, Nikhail, was a full adult. They…well. I'm sure ye've seen me in a close fight, lass. I jus' end up runnin'." Her knuckles are white and her thumb continues to tap out a rapid beat. She seems to notice it, and stops, deliberately relaxing her hand. "Brothers, right?" Her tone is a little too shaky to be joking, but it's clearly what she is trying for.

“Brothers,” Niris agrees gently, and reaches over to lay her own hand gently over Oranna’s clasped ones. “I remember the Siege of Ironforge. Not — I wasn’t there. But that was the Second War, and I remember it. The First — the First War was my first, when I was barely more than a girl, and they — I was here, when they swept through Elwynn. When this — this very city fell. I was here, and I fought.” She squeezes Oranna’s hands.

“We didn’t win. They destroyed us.” Her tone is very strange on this last: not ragged or emotional, very matter-of-fact, but at the same time there’s something hollow in it that suggests she isn’t speaking of the city or Elwynn or humanity at large.

“But you — your people, they held. They held. And in the end, they made it right. But I know that ….” She pauses, her golden eyes very dark, and searches Oranna’s face again earnestly. “I know that just because a thing is made right in a war, in a country, in the world, that doesn’t mean it’s ever made exactly right again for you. And I’m so sorry.”

Oranna looks down at the human’s hand on her own for a long moment, listening to the priestess. Then, gently, the dwarf removes her left to place it on top, pressing gently. "Aye, we held, lass. But that was all. We were dying in there, breaking all the same, jus' slow like." She looks up into Niris' face and she smiles even as tears shimmer in her eyes briefly. "Ye heard what they said, right? 'Five orcs fell for every one dwarf.' They made it sound like that's a victory." She shakes her head. "It's not. There are no winners in a siege like tha' or in a war like the First, on either side. There are jus' survivors."

She looks down at their hands. "And sometimes even those of us that survive don't get ta take all of us with us in the end. We lose little pieces of who we were, so we can make space ta carry those that didnae survive with us." Oranna looks up into Niris eyes, studying the human woman's darkened eyes, and the lines of her face. The dwarf's gaze is sharp, but filled with compassion. "Sometimes we hold those ghosts too close, and it hurts. But, it hurts jus' as much to try to push them away. So we hold. And try not ta break until we can make it right."

She takes a deep breath and tilts her head back looking at the buildings around them. "Ye know, if my brother Silvano could see me here, talkin' to a priestess o' the Light in a human city, part of some company lead by a human soldier, he'd probably fall o'er." She chuckles lightly. "He was the oldest of us, and he always thought he'd be the one who made a dwarven name among humans. He and Coperun hired out with any humans passing through Dun Morogh they could convince ta pay them. Being a part of a Company like this as a shining example of a Stormbreaker was their dream."

"Did yer family…" She pauses and clears her throat. "Did they want ye to be a priestess? I dun know how humans are about it. Some dwarves can still be a bit reluctant about the whole priesthood."

Niris chuckles. “That’s funny, I was just writing to my dwarf — friend, about the inroads the Light has and hasn’t made among your people.” She makes a wry face. “My family — no. My family were all faithful to the Light, but no, they didn’t want me to be a priestess.” She hesitates. “I ran away. When I was … oh, fifteen, sixteen. Very long ago, now.”

"Oh, aye, some dwarves jus' can't quite wrap their heads around the way the priesthood works. I admit, I'm not too sure how all the bits and bobs fit together proper like in the priesthood. I believe in the Light, jus' not sure how it is ye folks channel it, or all that structure of who is what." She shrugs good-naturedly, and then frowns, tilting her head to the right.

"Fifteen o' sixteen, didye say? That seems young, even for humans." She frowns and her eyes dart to the right. "Must have taken a lot of strength ta walk away from yer family so young." She considers her words, and after a pause says, "I wouldn't call it running away, but I left home, too. Couldn't be what my family wanted, and got tired of tryin'. I was just shy o' thirty, which is pretty grown for us, but no quite. Went to my great-aunt Nettie’s farm. She was one my da's line, one of the Tuberholds. She was ne'er quite the same after a…after an accident, and she was gettin' on in years."

Oranna sighs, and seems to realize she's still holding the human's hand caught between her own. She pulls away as gently as she can and to cover the motion, takes out a morsel of food for Befound. The leopard accepts the treat, and returns to laying on the grass. "Where did ye go? After ye left?"

“Oh, to the Abbey,” Niris laughs. “Just marched straight north. I reckoned the Church pretty much had to take a person in who asked, and I was already clever with plants and mending, and knew that I wanted to heal. Most of the other novices in my group were older, city girls who’d studied at the Cathedral previously or come from nicer families, but I worked twice as hard as any of them to hang on to my place tooth and claw. Not that the Abbey would have turned me out, mind, just that — I’ve always been like that, I suppose. Actually wielding the Light hadn’t come naturally to me, unlike some of them. I was just a country bumpkin with her herbs and her recipes for … horse liniment, and colic remedies. But the first time a Stormwind girl looked down her pert little nose at me and told me that the Light was a calling and some people never heard the call, well.” She shakes her head wryly. “It was a very bad idea, when I was younger, to tell me I couldn’t do a thing.”

Oranna laughs heartily, hitting her thigh with a hand. "Aye, lass. I can see that. I'm nae to sure I'd be wantin' to try to tell ye what yer business is now, either." She rubs a hand across her neck. "A fellow farm girl, eh? I dun know much about farmin' plants beyond potatoes, which practically grow themselves if I'm honest, but I had a fair hand with our chickens and the goats. I picked up great-aunt Nettie’s old gun when we lost one too many to some wolves, an' got better at it when we had a bear ransack our storage." She grins at Niris, her dark eyes twinkling with genuine mirth. "Nothin' more dangerous than a country bumpkin farm girl when she's got somethin' to prove. Or some ducklings to look after." Her smile softens a little, and she gives the human woman's knee a light pat.

Niris smiles at her. “Or a leopard to look after.” She studies Befound for a moment. “It’s plain you’ve always been at ease with animals. That’s such a lovely knack. I know farm animals, of course, but I confess the day you turned up with an entire leopard at your heels — it did give me a start.” She continues to regard the animal solemnly. “It must feel remarkable, to have such a bond with a wild creature.” She turns her gaze back to Oranna now, her eyes warm and sympathetic. “Not many folk in Stormwind see leopards just walking about, you know. I think it’s wonderful. Do children approach you much? Apart from Sandy?” For a moment there’s a merry glint in her eyes, and then it softens again. “But some people are uneasy, I expect. A leopard is as new to the city as the city no doubt is to the leopard.”

"Oh, someday I'll have to tell ye the story of my first leopard, Mywill. That's a good story for a campfire or a rainy day," she says with a chuckle. "Befound here is a different lass." At her name one of the leopard's ears swivels back. "Had ta really look for her. It's how she got her name, ye know, 'Can't Be Found.' She'd been on her own a long time." Oranna reaches a hand down and the leopard moves her head to butt against the dwarf's fingers.

"But she’s changin'. It used ta be tha' everyone in Stormwind would give us a wide berth. Now, sometimes when I'm at the shop with that lass Lina, some of the younger kids wanderin' about will come up and ask if they can pet her." Oranna scratches gently at the leopard’s head, and Befound begins to purr so deep it's felt more than heard. "People like Sandy, who never saw the threat at all, they're rare these days. Those of us who have been bitten hard before, who've seen our blood on the ground, and who've looked into another living creature's eye and seen our death waitin' there…we stay cautious. And there's a lot more of us than the Sandy's of Azeroth."

She shifts against the side of the bench. "That's part of it, ye know. Learnin' how ta be part of another creature. Ye can't jus' be unafraid. That only lasts until the first time something takes a real bite out of ye. No, ye got to accept that you're afraid. And that ye might get hurt. And ye show that yer willin' anyway. Willin' ta wait while they claw and hiss at ye, show them that even if yer scared, yer no so scared yer leavin'." She looks directly into Niris eyes, and seems to take mental note of what she sees there. She steps away from the bench, and smiles.

“May I pet her?” Niris asks.

"Oh, aye, I think. Jus' hold out yer hand, slow like, and give her time to decide. Like with most lasses, ye want to make sure she's said yes before ye do anythin'. I'll let you know if she's ready. If she agrees, just go slower an softer than ye might with, say, a dog. And stay right here, on the top, unless she tilts her head like this," as she speaks she demonstrates, showing how Befound arches her head so Oranna can gently scratch the leopard's cheeks.

Niris nods, and rises carefully from her stone perch to settle on her knees before the leopard, arranging her skirts with slow care around herself so as not to startle. She offers a hand out for Befound to contemplate, and doesn’t look directly into the big cat’s eyes but at a point slightly off to the left, politely.

Befound watches the approach with the blase air only cats truly perfect, and gives a perfunctory sniff of the offered hand before rather abruptly butting her large head against the human woman’s hand with enough force that another might have been knocked over. Oranna laughs. “That’s a yes, then.”

Niris smiles warmly and scratches the leopard softly between the ears. “What a pretty lass,” she says softly, not in the high-pitched coo many people switch to reflexively but her regular, gentle contralto register. “What a soft lass.” She’s taken on a trace accent — maybe too slight for Oranna to detect, in fairness — but it doesn’t seem quite to be an imitation of the dwarf’s own. Nor does she seem to notice she’s done it.

She smiles up at Oranna, still stroking the leopard’s head. “I am sorry, if she doesn’t find welcome everywhere in the city straightaway. But you’ll find that humans can be a flexible and changeable lot, too — the world has done a lot of shifting under our feet the last years, and apparently we’re all still quite young.” She laughs, a little self-deprecatingly. “We’ll all get to understanding sometime, won’t we?”

Oranna looks at the priestess, her brows drawing in together slightly in an expression somewhere between concern and sympathy. She smoothes it out deliberately with another smile, and gestures to the leopard, who stands and obediently returns to the hunter’s side, glancing back at the priestess with big eyes. “Aye, lass, that’s somethin’ I’ve been noticin’.” She straightens her shoulders, and tucks a stray bit of hair behind her ear. She takes a deep breath, and runs her right hand down her left arm.

“I hope ye know, lass, that ye can count on us, when ye need us. I dun like tae get in the way of things, but if ye ever need me, all ye hafta do is holler, and we’ll come runnin’. Somethin’ I learned durin’ the Siege is that we gotta stick together in these times, and take our allies where we find them. The Alliance is a big thing, and thas great for those big folk, but when it comes down to it, we each have ta have each other’s backs.” Her eyes are somber as she looks at the priestess. “I may be a bit set in my ways and used tae bein’ on my own, but I can promise ye that much.”

Niris smiles gravely and rises to her feet, smoothing her skirts. “I do know that, Oranna. I’ve seen you in action, yes? But I hope that you know it’s as true of the rest of us as well.” She hesitates. “I wasn’t … even certain I was going to do this thing. The Company. I am that — set in my ways. I’d had enough of certain things. Elo sent me his letter, and as dear a friend as he is, I didn’t reply. But I turned up that day anyway, half out of curiosity and half because I’d decided if I was going to tell him no, he at least deserved to hear it directly, and then I met all of you, and —” She makes a graceful gesture with both hands. “And now here we all are. Together.”

"Aye. I know what ye mean, lass. I found his flyer on the ground in a tavern just when I got into my head that I needed to do somethin' and had no right idea exactly what that is at my age, knowing I'm jus' no made ta do some things." She hesitates. "And I know that there's a risk in business like this, no just what have you with that EVC fellow, but the smaller, more personal danger for those of us carrying ghosts already. When yer together like this, ye have someone ta watch yer back. And ye have that much more ta lose." She sniffs and looks down at the ground. "But sometimes ye jus' dun want ta carry them ghosts all alone anymore."

"I'm not used ta being part o' something like this." She shifts her weight to foot to foot, and rolls her right ankle sheepishly. "Not used to needing ta make sure people know where I am, or used ta thinkin' people might notice if I were gone." She gives Niris a lopsided smile. "But I'm tryin', lass. And I'm grateful I picked up that flyer."

Niris’s answering smile is warm. “So am I, Oranna.” She very briefly lays a hand feather-light on the dwarf’s head. “Light bless and keep you.”

When she lifts her hand away, she leaves behind a faint, restorative sensation; nothing dramatic, but a feeling like settling by a homey fire after a cold day’s trek, a sudden lightening and comfort, a gradual warmth. “Now, you and Befound be well, yes? I will see you both.”

The dwarf blinks a little at the blessing, and there seems to be a brief cross between panic and relief mixed together before a warm smile takes its place. "Aye, lass." Oranna huffs a short laugh. "As the say back in Dun Morogh, keep yer feet on the ground." She gestures to the leopard. "We'll be over at The Empty Quiver if ye need us." With a small wave, the hunter turns and begins walking the wrong way to the store, stops, mutters about gophers making cities, then turns and starts walking the right way. "Ye didn't see that, lass," she calls out over her shoulder, waving once more.