(2022-12-06) After Tempest

Details

Author:	inkie
Summary:	Listen, titles are hard. Ben finally catches up with Erixa after the storming of Tempest Keep, to ascertain how she and her fellow Cobalt draenei are doing. They discuss the Light, Vond Satterly's Traveling Temple Principle, and Paluuva's dating history.
Rating:	T for Teen

[Ben]: Erixa! Hey. I was lookin' for you.

[Ben]: I mean, not — y'know. Just kind of lookin' out if I saw you.

[Ben]: Not chasin' you down or nothin'.

[Erixa]: Yes? *Erixa looks at him expectantly.* You have some problem since the battle?

[Ben]: I do not have any problem since the battle. Apart from, y'know. My face rearranged. *He points to the fuzz of his new eyebrow growth and makes a rueful face. His hair still looks like it was cut hastily and possibly with pruning shears.*

[Erixa]: That will grow back. *Erixa's expression suddenly freezes in alarm.* It does, doesn't it? For humans?

Ben grins at her. "Azizia asked the same. Yeah, it does. Eyebrow should come pretty quick for me, the rate I usually got to shave. Though I dunno if that's—" He frowns, briefly lost in some tangential speculation.

[Ben]: — Sorry. Anyhow.

[Ben]: I was more lookin' to see how you are doin'. Azizia seemed okay on Sunday, but, y'know. You and Miz Paluuva and that Pericula and all.

[Erixa]: Pericula… *Erixa looks puzzled for a moment, then says,* Oh, Pericleia?

[Ben]: … yeah. Sorry. That ain't what I said? Sorry. Say it again slow.

Ben frowns at Erixa intently.

[Erixa]: Pe-ri-clei-a

[Ben]: Pe-ri-clee-a.

[Erixa]: That is close… enough. *Erixa grins* I am alright. It was a good battle. Very clear battle. We won!

Ben grins back at her, a little relieved. "We did. We won the hell out of it. Okay, I'm glad you are all right. I just wanted to make sure, y'know? I know it was… a thing, for your people. The draeneis, I mean."

Erixa nods. "It was not the Genedar, but it was important. And the enemy was the Legion and people with the Legion, which are the same thing really."

Ben nods. "Kind of expected more demons in there. But I reckon Kael figured it was not good for his associations or somethin', to have 'em loiterin' in the open."

[Erixa]: Probably he would have lost more people to defecting. Not good for morale.

Ben nods grimly. "Give 'em credit for that much, at least. Like, the smallest credit possible, but."

[Erixa]: For knowing at least that it was a bad enough thing they needed to hide it? Very little credit.

Ben tips his head in concession.

[Ben]: You been helpin' clean shit up after? Chase 'em out an' all that? I hear there is some of 'em still dug in, places.

[Erixa]: Yes, there are a lot of satellites, and then all of Netherstorm. So many blood elves.

[Ben]: Like fucken ants. The little red kind.

[Erixa]: Is your Light doing okay? Sometimes battles affect that, I think.

[Ben]: … my Light? I think so, yeah?

Ben eyes Erixa cautiously and then looks down at himself, in case she can see something he can't.

[Ben]: I have been… thinkin' about it lately some. The Light, I mean, in general. But I think mine is… about how it was.

[Erixa]: Good, good. I do not know how durable you humans' blessing is. Seems tough, though.

[Erixa]: What do you think about it lately?

Ben considers his words, a line between his brows. His brow and a half.

[Ben]: I am thinkin'… how to come in to a greater accord with it.

[Erixa]: A greater cord? Or chord like music?

[Ben]: A greater AH-cord. Like, uh. Bond? Harmony.

[Erixa]: Ohh… greater harmony. Yes, that is a good idea. How are you going to do it?

[Ben]: By not lookin' at it like a goal far off and lookin' more like the work to get there is part of the whole thing. I am in harmony with the Light when I am workin' to be, if that makes sense?

[Ben]: And if the Cathedral and bells and all that do not move me there is other ways to have meaning and… moving. For yourself. In your work. You have got to carry your temple with you, you know?

Ben peers earnestly up at Erixa.

Erixa considers that carefully. "I am not sure I get the temple things. I do not have a temple. But… Maybe?"

[Erixa]: The Light itself is not a goal, it is what we do with it each time.

[Ben]: Okay, but, so — that is kind of what it means, I guess, yeah? Like, you do not have a temple. Not one like the Cathedral in Stormwind, anyhow. Your people been on the move for… ever, pretty much.

[Ben]: But you carry the Light where you go, an' keep its meanin' in you, and whatever. Even so.

[Erixa]: It's very pretty, your Cathedral. But yes, we were always on the move, but then… *Erixa's expression hardens a little.*

Ben waits, watching her.

[Erixa]: We did have a Temple, in Karabor. It is not ours anymore, like the Tempest Keep. It was a beautiful temple.

[Erixa]: But my Light is not from that Temple. My Light is from the Naaru.

[Ben]: Is that… the Black Temple? I mean, that they call it now?

[Erixa]: Yes, now Black Temple. All ruined.

Ben nods somberly.

[Ben]: I been there. I mean, I been by there. Not in it.

[Erixa]: Maybe someday it can be fixed, too. Probably not to what it was, but cleaned, somehow. But this is not what you were asking. I just… do not think of my Light from a temple.

[Ben]: But yeah. Your Light is not from there, and you do not need it for the Light. You carry it, an' the naaru, and you can make a new temple someplace maybe someday but you don't need one. Because you are carryin' it. See?

Ben gazes earnestly at her. Do you see, Erixa? Don't make him use metaphors. Because he will. He has metaphors on standby.

Erixa nods. "So maybe you can carry a Temple inside yourself."

[Ben]: Yeah! Yeah.

Wow, what a quick study, Erixa.

[Erixa]: Or at least, the bits that make you feel… *She clenches her hand into a fist and puts it over her heart.*

[Ben]: Yeah.

Ben nods gravely and mimics her gesture.

[Erixa]: Then you can focus on the journey, on how to use the Light to help.

Ben spreads his hands at her, his expression glowing proudly. She totally gets it!

[Ben]: So anyway I reckon I got to focus more on the daily, like, work of it and not so much like how the prayers in Stormwind go or whatever.

[Ben]: Anyhow.

[Ben]: Tangent.

[Erixa]: That sounds right, to me. I do worry sometimes about losing the Light, but it would not be because of my heart. It would be if someone poisoned me.

[Ben]: Poisoned you like how?

Ben tilts his head.

[Erixa]: Like… the Broken. That is a nightmare.

[Ben]: Ohhhh, right. Yeah. That is what– they got cut off from it, yeah? The Light?

Ben shifts his weight uneasily..

[Ben]: I recollect we talked about it.

Erixa nods. "It's not contagious, we know now. So. Only a problem if someone else wanted a weapon."

[Ben]: How'd they even– I mean, what kind of weapon even was it? Like, how'd the orcs do it? Is it a thing could be done again?

[Erixa]: It was… like a disease that the orcs had? But also not, because in the end it did not
spread. I do not know how they made it. But if a thing can be done once, it can be done again.

Ben furrows his brow again. "Hm."

Erixa looks up at the Tempest Keep for a moment, before she admits, "We thought it was the disease, and it would spread. That's why we… drove them out. Of the refugee camps."

Ben eyes her again. He nods slowly, sympathetically. "I mean. If you didn't know. You got to keep people safe. But you know now…."

[Erixa]: Yes, we know now. *She looks back at Ben.* Some things you do for the future, and it is hard to say if they are the right things. But this, stopping the blood elves here, this was right."

[Ben]: Yeah. Yes, it was.

[Ben]: And next, the Legion, right? *He grins at her, self-deprecating.*

[Erixa]: Yeah, maybe we finish that off next year. *She chuckles*

Ben's ears redden and he laughs.

[Ben]: You seen any of the rest of 'em? Paluuva or Peri– Pe-ri-clee-ah?

[Erixa]: Not since the battle. Just after the battle. But they seemed okay, then.

[Erixa]: Paluuva is very tough for a schoolteacher.

Ben nods. "Okay. Good. Yeah, she seems like, yeah. She said somethin' about goin' to search out some relics or somethin'? That was the last I saw her."

Erixa chuckles. "That is most important to her, I think, over everything. History, knowledge, culture…"

[Erixa]: But yes, we helped her gather what was left.

[Erixa]: Did you know her ex-boyfriend is a death knight?

[Ben]: Was it much? Did the blood elves loot the pla– what now?

[Ben]: I, uh. Do not think I knew she had a ex-boyfriend.

Ben appears to be revising his idea of Paluuva.

[Erixa]: Oh, they looted. Anything with power or worth money. But a lot of old things are only worth knowledge, and that the blood elves don't care about so much, it seems.

[Erixa]: But… oh yes, ex-boyfriend, it's great gossip. I will not tell secret details, though.

Ben tries not to look too obviously disappointed.

[Erixa]: But she is teaching him now, he seems… a decent student? Even though death knight.

[Ben]: … she is teaching? A death knight?

Erixa nods. "She has a very big heart."

[Ben]: The fuck is she teachin' him? How not to fuck shit up everywhere he goes?

[Erixa]: Oh, um. Scrib… Scrip… Inscription? And he is teaching her about death knights. She says, tactical advantage.

Ben considers this for a silent moment. "… huh."

[Erixa]: I have not met the ex-boyfriend.

[Erixa]: I mean, that's not true. I knew Icaros when he was alive. But not since.

[Ben]: But so he is a draenei, I am guessin'. Draenei death knight? *Ben looks briefly, cautiously hopeful at the intriguing prospect that Paluuva might have a non-draenei ex-boyfriend.*

[Erixa]: Draenei, yes, *Erixa says, dashing his imaginative hopes.*

Ben is dashed, but only momentarily. "So it was real recent, then. The… death knighting. Before Light's Hope an' all."

[Erixa]: Yes, it was with the others, I think. He was alive when we landed with Exodar, and joined Cobalt.

[Ben]: He was a Cobalt? And now a death knight? How come I ain't heard about this? There was another couple other of ours I known but… do the captains know?

[Erixa]: Uh. I do not know?

[Ben]: … okay I got to check with the captains. That is… damn.

Ben rubs the back of his neck, grim with chagrin. Chagrim.

[Erixa]: Maybe he is more stable than the other ones, because so many thousands of years old already.

[Ben]: Yeah. Maybe?

Ben doesn't sound convinced.

[Erixa]: Paluuva is being safe, anyway. She's smart.

[Ben]: Good. I know she is, but yeah. Good.

[Erixa]: I should probably get back to cleaning up Netherstorm. You will tell the captains, in case they were not told?

[Ben]: I will tell 'em. Thanks. And… good luck here? I will be back to pitch in.

Erixa smiles. "I count on it."

Ben smiles back at her. "See you around, then. You take care."