(2023-08-14) Teambuilding

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Author:	Alli
Summary:	After the first mission in Zul'drak, Ben and Sil talk about their new team and focus in the Argent Crusade camp, and then they find out they have another unexpected Argent teammate (Aszera). ~4000 words
Rating:	M for Mature 17+

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discussion of grief and death knights, some anxiety about teambuilding

The camp of Light's Breach might be considered rather pretty, when taken out of context. The tents are nestled among the ruins of ancient troll architecture, and venerable red-leafed trees stretch their branches overhead. Really, it's only the local presence of the hostile trolls and Scourge monstrosities that might detract from the impression. At least, neither of these forces are attacking the camp at present, and the only sounds are those of Argent Crusaders and their allies going about their daily lives.

Sil Silentstep's tent is set up near an intricately carved half-wall ruin, and it's in a slightly different style than the standard-issue Argent Crusade fare. The canvas is weathered but clearly good quality, and a darker color than the others. Sil sits in front, resting in a simple, low chair of wood and fabric, writing in a notebook that rests in his lap.

Ben Hazan approaches from the direction of the gryphon roost. He is armored and wearing his Cobalt Company tabard pinned with an emblem of the Argent Crusade; he's wearing his sword and shield. His hair is disordered by the recent gryphon-flight.

"Sil," he says, when he's within non-shouting distance. The Argent encampment, nestled in its somber ruins and surrounded by hostile Scourge, doesn't seem like a shouting kind of place. "Hey, Sil. How's it goin'?"

Sil looks up and his expression brightens when he sees Ben approaching. He tucks his notebook back into a netherweave bag with one hand and gestures Ben over with the other.

"Alright, all things considered," Sil says. "Been meaning to catch up with you since Undercity. Just so much going on, yeah?"

Ben laughs a little humorlessly and drags a hand through his hair. "Yeah. You can say that, yeah." He looks around, then gestures at the ground by Sil's chair. "Okay if I sit? You got a good setup here. Kind of homey."

"Yeah," Sil says, and then straightens. "Oh, shit, wait. I got another chair, let me get you…" Sil stands and goes in through the tent flap, returning with a folding wooden frame with fabric panels that he opens out into a similar low chair. He gestures at it, and then carefully sits down in his own seat. "Draenei-make."

Ben eyes the chair, looks down at himself and his armor, looks at the chair again. He glances at Sil dubiously. "It's sturdy? I mean, I guess if it's made by draeneis…."

"Uh… I haven't tried it with plate," Sil says, eyeing it. "I don't wear plate. But, yeah, draenei? Anyway, I have two, so."

"Okay," says Ben equably. After a moment's consideration, he takes his shield from his back and lays it down, unhooks his sword belt and sets this aside too, and then settles gingerly into the draenei camp chair.

"Damn," he says after a moment. "That's pretty nice." He looks around.

Eventually he glances back at Sil. "So. How's it been? Squad again."

"Yeah, it's… well… it's real different from how it was back in Outland, isn't it?" Sil turns to look at Ben. "I got a good long break in there, but you've just been carrying it week in week out since then. It's good to be back working with you again, but… how you been, lately? It's a hell of a lot, isn't it?"

"It has been — I mean." Ben drags a hand through his hair and looks blindly into the distance for a long moment. "Yeah. It is a hell of a lot. But I got… Cobalt is good people, you know? And I got Mizzy lookin' after me." He glances sidelong at Sil. "Good havin' you back again, too, though. Like old times, yeah? Except… also not."

Sil rests back in his chair and nods, looking up at the light through the tree leaves. "One thing like old times - we can talk to each other, right? You know I'll respect you as a leader, no matter what. But like, when we're not in the field, we're friends, yeah?"

Ben knits his brows. "Yeah. 'Course we are, yeah." He peers at Sil. "You got… a thing on your mind?"

"A lot of things," Sil chuckles, but somehow doesn't really sound amused, still staring up at the sky. "I know I'm a good scout. Sintha might like to poke me on it, but I'm damn good at what I do. I'm skilled enough for 7th Legion, and I'm skilled enough for Cobalt. I'm not, like, bragging. Just. You know I used to be a little nervous about measuring up." Sil sighs, and turns back to Ben, his brow lowering. "But one of the things Captain Tyrrell said he valued about me was how I put folk at ease. And maybe - maybe I'm losing that."

"What?" Ben sits up a little, awkward in the combination of the folding chair and his plate armor. "First off, you are a hell of a scout and I dunno what the fuck Sintha — you mean Sintha Fallon? — knows about you or anything. Second… you are good at that. At people. You always been. Why you think you ain't?"

"Yeah, Sintha Fallon. We were havin' a beer and there was this elf throwing pebbles at my head and… you know, maybe that's not important right now," Sil waves it away with one hand. "It's just like… even last time, you know? You had to keep me and Lord Ference and Auralind from bickering on elf stuff. And this time, what Azizia must think about me after the Undercity, and both of them clearly wanted to trade me for one of the Aspenwoods."

Ben raises his eyebrows. "Okay, well. Mr. Ference and Auralind are pretty set on their ways, you know? I ain't push back on them myself because I got to lead everyone, yeah? The whole team. I can't be arguin' with people when I got to have them followin' me. But it ain't make you wrong or them more right than you. And what makes you think they want to trade you for an Aspenwood?"

"Oh, you know. The longing looks. How they'd go stand next to them till they had to split." Sil shrugs. "I know, it's just that they don't know me yet, right? And I mean, at least I'm not replacing someone got turned inside out this time, so maybe it'll go smoother."

"Sil." Ben laughs a little, unhappily. "Sil, that ain't you. I spent, like — a couple of hours a few days back tryin' to convince Caspis he was gonna be okay with me instead of Mr. Atley. They are… real attached to followin' Mr. Atley. Azizia, she's been on my squad before, and we kind of… butt heads a lot, then. Caspis, I dunno, reckon I just make him nervous or somethin'."

Sil stares at him blankly for a moment, surprised. "But… you're… you? I mean, you've led us into some real shit places and back out again." He shakes his head. "They've got to know you can make the right calls, 'cause you always have before."

"I mean, I dunno. They ain't got to know anything, I guess, if they — well, Caspis ain't gone with me before. And like I said, me and Azizia ain't always seen eye to eye. I am younger than Mr. At- Sir Atley, and I ain't seen as much shit in my time. Plus it is true he ain't talk half so much, and he ain't cuss hardly at all. Reckon I do seem pretty… I dunno. Different from him." Ben shrugs. "Anyhow, though, I know it for a fact because I had a talk with Caspis about it, so it ain't you, yeah? Or ain't all you, an' it's mostly me. But, you know. We can help each other out an' make 'em feel better about it, maybe. Makin' sure my squad will work together is a piece of my job, an' you are good at settin' people at ease. Caspis 'preciated what you said about his dead wife, yeah? When I kind of put my foot in it there."

"I think that was Azizia more than me," Sil shrugs apologetically. "But I'll do what I can to make them feel more welcome. As for age, Caspis is like… over seven thousand years old. I'd bet you and me and Sir Atley and Lord Ference are pretty well all the same age, as far's he's concerned. So if it's just that you've got a different style, he'll probably get used to it."

"Well, that's kind of the thing." Ben sighs. "He said he don't get used to shit real easy. Like, when you are as old as him, I reckon he could work with me… a year, two years, an' it wouldn't hardly be a minute. You know?"

"He's only been Cobalt what, half a year? And he seems in the stride in general," Sil frowns. "I don't think this is an old dog new tricks situation, 'cause he must've learned plenty of tricks over the millenia. But… well… we're all good at what we do, so maybe it's just on you and me to make sure we all do it together."

Ben glances sidelong at Sil. After a moment, he says quietly, "I am real glad you are back, Sil. That we are workin' together again. Even if it is gonna be some more rough shit. I mean, especially if it is."

"Yeah, 'specially if it is," Sil says, relaxing back into a chair. "I miss Cobalt, after I stepped down. I missed you. I didn't really know where I was going, you know? Lot of different things, the Explorer's League, the 7th, responsibilities in Stormwind… but I think I got a clearer look at the path ahead of me now. And we'll get there eventually, right, with the team? Maybe it won't be the same as before, but we can make it something good."

Sil glances over at Ben and adds with a small smile, "I'd offer you a beer, but I've got nothing right now. Seems a long time since we were hangin' out at Bruuk's, you knittin' or workin' on your book."

Ben laughs ruefully and rubs the back of his neck. "I ain't done neither of those in a while. Reckon I ought to pick 'em both up again out here. Was soothin'. The knitting, anyhow. Book was a headache but give me something to think about. I am suppose to be doin' a new one, too."

"Oh, yeah?" Sil gestures around them. "About this whole campaign?"

"Beginnin' at the beginnin'. Comin' here, how it was in Valgarde an' Howling Fjord, all of that." Ben pauses. "I am kind of two minds about it now, though. Like, I felt like I had to write somethin' so people known how bad it was up here — like, not just with the shit goin' on, Scourge an' all, but also how bad it was with the military? Fellows like that Keller and so on?" Ben gazes into the distance again, frowning uneasily. "But now it feels like maybe it would be in bad taste, you know? After… Wrathgate, an' all that. To be kickin' the military while it is down. But then again, maybe it is more important for people to know we are bein' let down in places up here. I dunno."

Sil ponders this one for a while in silence. "Well, the story might change again, before it's through? Maybe the only thing you can do for the first draft is set it down how it happened, with all the surprises along the way. Then, you can go back after and see what parts don't fit anymore."

As he speaks, a slender, black-cloaked figure wanders through the camp, not too far away. The figure stops in its tracks, and then turns to walk toward Sil's tent.

Ben nods thoughtfully at Sil. "I guess yeah." He considers for a moment. "What you reckon I should knit? Prob'ly some baby shit for Ivri an' Mr. Atley? Maybe Caspis an' Azizia would like somethin'."

He scans the camp, catches sight of the approaching figure, squints a little.

"That's an idea," Sil says. "Maybe not Azizia, because who the fuck knows what she's gonna say is fashionable, but it's cold up here. I bet Caspis'd like a scarf or somethin'."

He trails off as he follows Ben's gaze.

The figure pushes back her hood as she approaches, and then it becomes clear that it's a sin'dorei woman with loose black hair and a blindfold over her eyes. With a smile full of surprise and delight, she raises a hand in greeting, and the black, red-lined cloak falls back to show an Argent Crusade tabard.

Ben blinks. "Is that —" He glances at Sil and then back to the sin'dorei. "Aze? That you?"

"Of course it's me," Aze says cheerily, coming over to join them without invitation. "And you both lived, that's amazing. Shiny as ever, Ben."

"You're alright?" Sil says, sitting up in his chair a little and then falling back. It's not really a sitting-up-straight kind of chair. "You could've written. I didn't see you at the Wrathgate, but I didn't know for sure."

Ben looks down at himself self-consciously, trying to determine what about him is shiny. He looks up again. "We — yeah. Were you — are you with the Argents, now?" He squints at the tabard as if trying to determine whether it's counterfeit; maybe there's some subtle dye difference he can catch.

"Or did you steal a tabard, maybe?" Sil asks, with more curiosity than judgment in his tone.

"Nope, no stealing," Aze says with a laugh as she drops to sit cross-legged on the ground in front of the two chairs. To Ben, she adds cheerfully, "I'm your sister in the Light now! And don't worry, I'm not keeping any secrets from our holy leaders or anything. That was one of the conditions."

"Huh," says Ben, his ears a little red. He definitely did not suspect her of fibbing on her application or anything, nope, nosir. "Well, congratulation? That's good? I reckon you ain't lyin' low no more."

"Yeah, I don't have to anymore," Aze nods, looking pleased with herself. "That's the beauty of being part of something like this. With good people, I mean. Anybody wants to fuck with me over the whole Illidari thing, this tells them they can't." She pats her tabard. "Not without causing a much bigger problem. That's not the only reason, of course, but… I did say I wouldn't hold anything back. Not with any of my brothers and sisters in the Light."

"And I am —" Ben considers this a moment, and then nods slowly. "I am your brother in the Light now," he says. He says it a little cautiously, like it's a test of some sort, though whether he or Aze is the one being tested is unclear.

He glances at Sil.

Sil has no answers. He shrugs, looking from Ben to the tabard. "I thought it was mostly priests and paladins, the Argent Crusade. I didn't think they were in for…"

"Yeah, well, that means they're good influences, right? They told me they want as many willing hands as they can get. And I have willing hands," Aze lifts her hands to demonstrate, then folds them together in her lap. "It was Kit that helped me get in. But… maybe you too, Ben? I've been thinking a lot about trust lately. I trust you."

Ben blinks at her and his ears redden again. "Oh," he says. And then realizes that's probably insufficient. "That is — I 'preciate you, Aze. That is… nice to hear." He nods solemnly.

"This what you were on about, last time we spoke? In the Wyrmrest Temple?" Sil asks, glancing sidelong at Ben and then back at Aze. "About trust? I meant what I said, then. I'll try. You don't make it easy sometimes."

"Oh, fuck, now I've gone and made it all awkward," Aze says, propping her head on one hand. "I didn't mean to go emotional on you. Just, sometimes it's easy for me to get mixed up in my head about things, and it's good to know there's people around who can see if I'm pointed in the wrong direction and turn me back around." She frowns, and then asks, "What about Ralaea? Did she die at Wrathgate?"

Ben stares at her. After a few moments he says gruffly, "She did not. She was okay, thank the Light. All of Cobalt’s people come out of it… more or less okay."

Aze makes a kind of hm sound. "The first thing I heard was that everyone died, but… it seems like most of my friends made it through. Turned out better than the last few times. And your people are safe?" Another hesitation, then she adds, "How are you two holding up? Kit was… not really okay. She's not used to this sort of thing."

Sil looks away for a moment and says in a quieter voice, "A lot of people didn't make it through."

Ben eyes Sil sympathetically. To Aze, he says quietly, "A lot of Sil's squad in the 7th. They ain't made it. A lot of people ain't. Cobalt was… lucky, I guess."

"The… 7th Legion…?" Aze says, turning to Sil in surprise. "That's sort of like being in the Kor'kron, isn't it?"

"Yeah, I uh… did I not mention? I was in the 7th Legion for a while," Sil shrugs uncomfortably, turning to look off over the camp for a moment. "But we lost… I am holding up. Mostly."

"Then I grieve for your loss." Aze's expression falls into unusually serious lines. She reaches over on a sudden impulse, briefly setting her hand on Sil's wrist. "If you need somebody, I do know what that's like. It's… It's good you're keeping busy, then. It'll help you to look away from the… well, I think of it as the wound."

Sil nods, looking back at Aze, then glancing at Ben. "Thanks. I've got people to talk to. But still, thanks."

Ben nods firmly back at Sil, and then slightly less firmly at Aze. After a moment, he asks her, "How is Kit? She around here?"

"Yeah, she wandered back in a week or so after the battle," Aze says, and her expression grows a little guarded. "She'd spent the time… coping. In a reasonable way. She's talked to… Brother Black? Is that how I'm supposed to call people?"

"Brother Sev? He's around?" Ben sits up and looks, as though expecting the man himself to stroll by.

"Yeah, he was one of the people who agreed to recruit me. He's here, in Zul'drak," Aze says, leaning back on her hands. "Seems like everyone knows that guy."

"I don't, really," Sil says. "I guess he's important in the Argent Crusade?"

"He was Argent Dawn from the beginnin’," Ben says. "He's the one asked us up to Plaguelands to help out, back when I was pretty new with squads myself. He kind of took me in hand with my trainin', some, too. Friend of Aunt Nir and Sir Elo."

"Maybe I ought to meet him," Sil says. "I probably saw him up at Light's Hope, during the battle, and just didn't know him. Maybe I'll fit in here better, now we're going to be working with them for a while."

"And with me," Aze says firmly, uncrossing her legs and rising. "Because they're not going to regret letting me in. I'll see you around, then?"

"You will be seein' us," Ben agrees. "And we will be seein' you, I guess. Good for you, Aze, yeah? For serious. An' if you see Kit around before I catch her, maybe let her know we are here, come say hi?"

"Sure, yeah," Aze says, putting the smile back on as she turns to leave. She pauses and adds, "And if you see Ralaea? Tell her I haven't heard anything yet, but I'll tell her if I do. And, you know, hello."

Ben raises his eyebrows. "Rae? She is — I'm pretty sure she is down to Stormwind right now. But I will… yeah." He studies her. "You… took care of that other thing? For her?"

"Yeah, I…" Aze turns slightly toward Sil and then focuses back on Ben. "It's done. She and I talked about it later on, and she seemed to be bearing up. I don't think she's the sort to take care of those things herself. I don't think she needs to be."

Sil looks on in confusion.

Ben nods gravely at Aze. "Yeah. I — yeah. Agree with you." He pauses. "'Preciate you, Aze. Thanks."

Aze nods acknowledgement, then turns and walks away.

"Rae doing alright?" Sil asks cautiously. "I haven't really seen her much, since we stopped hanging out at Bruuk's."

"She is doin' —" Ben pauses, watching Aze walk off, before he glances back to Sil. "She is doin'… okay, I guess. I mean, it is… she has got her own shit goin' on up here, apart from all the… Lordaeron, Lich King, all that. There was — d'you remember her at Light's Hope?"

"Oh," Sil winces. "She still having problems with… Harvey and all that?"

"Yeah." Ben grimaces. "Him and… that former commander of hers, Mondragon? She is after Rae and the rest of her old squad, been turning the ones she got into death knights. It is… some whole ugly horseshit. Aze got caught up in a piece of it kind of on accident, on account of her sister." He looks again in the direction Aze went. "But she done a good turn for Rae. Couple've 'em, actually."

"Huh," Sil says, following Ben's gaze. "I feel like she's been getting less prickly lately. Toward me, too. I wouldn't have guessed her for getting involved with Rae, but maybe it's a good thing. If there's a bunch of death knights after Rae, it'll be good to have as many people as can be watching her back. Anyway, there's a lot of death knights here, so it's probably for the best that she's in Stormwind. Glad we're not working with 'em," Sil looks back to Ben. "Still, I feel like we're gonna do a lot of good here, with the Crusade."

Ben nods. "About time. I mean, not that we ain't been doin' plenty of good, but it is about time we thrown in with the Argents again. We know they will stay focus on a goal, ain't gonna go picking extra wars or get into weird ego horseshit. You know?" He glances at Sil. "You gonna feel okay with the death knights around?"

"I… hope so," Sil says slowly. "I can't see anything but that, when I see them. Monsters out to kill us all. Maybe I should've tried to talk to Harvey, back then, but I just couldn't. One of them came in Wintergarde not long ago to tell me Aze was in Northrend, though, so I guess I'm handling it a little better?"

There's the sound of raised voices over by the gryphon master, urgent but not yet panicked. Sil looks over at them, "Seems like it might be time to go handle some things now. Let's go?"

Ben follows his gaze. He nods and heaves himself out of the folding chair, then turns to fold it up again politely. He cannot do this. How does it work? He frowns at it, stymied.

Sil chuckles and reaches over to take the chair from him. A twist there, a non-intuitive backwards bend there, and the chair collapses into a flat structure of wood and cloth. "Takes a while to get used to it, to be honest."

"Damn." Ben eyes the chair — and then Sil — respectfully. "Gimme another couple years and I will get the hang of it."

He glances over at the commotion, and then back at Sil. "Anyhow. Guess we're up."

Sil carefully folds up his own chair and then turns back to Ben. "Hope it's nothing to do with the death knights. But whatever it is, I'll bet it's something worthwhile."