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| Details |
| Author: | Alli |
| Summary: | The day after the siege of Wyrmrest Temple is broken, Anareline and Caspis find a quiet moment to discuss recent revelations, as well as to look ahead to the future. One thing is certain, they will never be alone again. ~3300 words |
| Rating: | T for Teen |
With the battle calmed for the moment, Anareline has sheathed her weapons and turned her mind to another purpose — finding her shalan. It should not be hard, as she knows he is here and that he has survived. If that weren't the case, she would have felt it. She stalks around the interior of Wyrmrest Temple, seeking a bird, or a moonkin, or perhaps a bald elf in his second-best armor.
A bald elf in his second best armor sits crosslegged with his hands resting on his knees, his gaze distant and unfocused. As Anareline approaches, his gaze sharpens and he looks up.
"You fought well," he says solemnly.
Anareline sits cross-legged in front of him and meets his gaze. "And you," she says. "I saw… your treant form. It has returned to you?"
Caspis nods. "I began to feel a connection to nature's regenerative forces again sometime ago, and when Fandral struck me down, something profound seemed to happen within me. I answered my fellow druid’s call and returned to us, but I seem to have left something behind. I believe that either it loosened my connection to my goddess, or her own anger was finally released in that moment. Perhaps she saw the cost of darkness, when she lost her most loyal follower. Or perhaps the transition that my spirit underwent in death released the overly tight grip she had held on me since her own resurrection. Whatever happened, I feel a sense of peace that I have never known. It is strangely disorienting."
Anareline listens to him with careful attention and concern, leaning forward and resting one hand casually on his knee.
"Do you still feel her, in your heart?" Anareline asks. "In the place where you felt her before?"
He seems to search inside himself for a moment, his gaze going distant again. Then he shakes his head. "I feel her the way I felt her when I was young. An unshakable faith that she endures, and that she guides me with her fierce yet buoyant spirit. But I no longer feel the sense of a seed planted within me, growing twisted roots and holding fast. "
"That is… maybe healthier?" Ana asks, a little uncertain. "I do not know much of gods, but it may be that she grabbed you in a moment of fear or reliance and was harming you with her touch."
He nods with confidence. "Yes," he says. "I believe that an unhealthy attachment was formed between us for a brief period after I helped to resurrect her. The combination of my undying devotion to her and a rage that I had carried for centuries gave her a pathway into me that was more intimate than any God should ever have with a follower. Her rage flowed into mine like a lake that has found connection to a small stream. And I was overwhelmed. I was not meant to carry the rage of a goddess."
"Then she pulled back, after she saw that it led you to your death," Ana says, considering. "Perhaps that was her love. I regret that I was not able to call your spirit back, as you did mine. But Yveris… it is good she was with us."
"Is that her name?" he says with unintentional cruelty. "I must remember to thank her." His tone carries the doubt of a man who considers himself unlikely to remember anything. His face changes expressions a few times, and then his gaze focuses back on Ana."There is something else that I meant to speak to you about. You know of my mission for the Timeless Pne, yes?"
Ana nods. "You speak of the one just before ours together, yes? The one to the far future?"
"Yes, "he says. "I have recently developed a fuller understanding of the way that he views time. Are you aware that infinite realities exist alongside one another, each one brought into being by a single moment in which possibilities diverge?"
"Infinite realities," Ana repeats, surprised. "Is there not one true timeline? Or are all these others less true?" Ana pauses, and then adds, "Would we exist, in each of those timelines?"
"We would, "he says. "And Nozdormu speaks of a true timeline. As I understand it, at every moment in time, infinite possibilities exist, but only one of these possibilities is designated as true. His duty is to string these moments together into a true timeline, and that is what we experience. But he sees all of it at once. And sometimes other forces try to tamper with it and change the reality that we all experience."
"What makes such a timeline true?" Ana asks, frowning. "Some of them may be better than ours. Many terrible things have happened."
"Only the Aspect himself has the knowledge of the true and correct timeline," he says. "Only with the full vision of all possibilities can one truly know which is the best version of reality, because something that seems bad in the short term can lead to a greater good in the long run. No mortal has the capability of understanding this. Only he can see it all."
"And you trust his wisdom and knowledge," Ana says, looking at Cas in genuine question.
He returns her gaze, genuinely baffled. "He is a dragon Aspect," he replies, simply, as though maybe she has forgotten this fact.
"We have slain a dragon Aspect," Ana says gently. "And we seek to slay another. They are not beyond a fall."
"But he has not fallen," he says, in the same tone, as though this should be obvious, and maybe she just has somehow failed to notice.
"Not yet," Ana nods. "And may he never. But we must always be cautious with those of great power."
A look of sudden realization passes over Caspis's face. "Oh, yes, "he says. "You were not there. I always feel as though you are with me, even when you are not. He will fall. He has seen it. He sees all moments in time, including his own fall, his own death. But this happens far in the future, past the end of our lives."
Ana's eyes widen. "He sees his own fall ahead of him, and continues on? That must take tremendous strength of heart. Does he know what will cause it?"
"I assume he knows, but he did not speak to us of the specifics. He only sent us to kill him. I am not meant to speak of it, but there is nothing of which I would not speak to you, and he must know this in advance. He would not have sent me, if he did not want you to know."
"You have slain his fallen self," Ana says in amazement. "And so he knows his end. I take back my doubt about his wisdom."
Caspis nods solemnly. "This experience has given me full trust in him. And there is more I must tell you. It seems that much of our good fortune we owe to him. It was a very particular path through the forest you took one day 10,000 years ago – it might have been another path. But changing it to favor us did not alter the true timeline, and so he altered which version of reality was folded into the timeline to include the moment in which you found me hiding in that tree. This was his payment to me for assisting in his destruction. If I had not been there, the others would have been destroyed. My presence was necessary, and so he paid for it in advance."
"That was Nozdormu?" Ana asks, this time in amazement. "He saved two lives there. I do not know what my life would have been, if I had not that connection to you, unrecognized as it was. That knowledge that there was some connection to the world, even at my most isolated. I have underestimated the compassion of the Aspect."
“Yes," he says softly. "I find that, while I have always respected the Aspects, I now feel a deep affection for him in particular. Devotion, you might even say. I have already performed the service that was required of me, but I will always be loyal to him, even if he never calls upon me again. I must assume that the others who were present also owe him for setting them on their path to lead to that moment, but I was the only one who asked. I suppose the long life I have lived has given me more reason to ponder causality, and the small details that can miraculously or catastrophically shape history."
"I will hold him in reverence as well," Ana says, leaning her forehead towards his. "And I am glad I listened, at the Well. I thought only, if I could shorten our long wait— but other hands were at work for us already."
He leans against her quietly for a moment, simply enjoying their closeness. When he speaks again, his voice is touched with sadness.
"I feel pity for him as well," he says. "To live so long, knowing one's own end, and how twisted and chaotic it is, how violent. And still to serve as best one can. I do not know that I would have the strength."
He looks up for a moment, as if searching for an answer somewhere in the sky. His singed bare brows draw together.
"He said a name in his last moment," he murmurs to himself. "I did not recognize the name, but he cried it out in such pain and desperation. Aman'Thul, he called. Normally, I cannot hold names in my mind anymore than I can hold water in a cloth sack. But this one has branded itself into me as though with fire. Does it mean anything to you?" He peers at her curiously.
"Aman'thul," she repeats and shakes her head. "I don't think I've ever heard that name before. It does not sound like a dragon's name. Some other ancient creature?"
"I do not know," he says. "Perhaps whatever it is, only the Aspect himself knows. But I believe I have already asked more questions and received more answers than I am owed from such a being."
Ana smiles faintly at him. "It is fortunate for us that you were granted so many. Perhaps the next might wait until we next assist the dragons. As we are now, here."
Ana glances up at the columns and high ceiling of Wyrmrest Temple. "I do hope the Dragon Soul will help, and that they have a plan to return it to its place."
Caspis nods. For a long time, he sits in thoughtful silence. He reaches for Ana's hand, without looking, and twines his fingers through hers as he sits in contemplation. When he breaks the silence, his expression is soft and strangely youthful.
"What happens now?" He asks her, searching her face. "I lived so long with one purpose. Driven by anger, and by the need to make people see what I saw. But the villain was revealed at long last, and now he has been defeated. I believe part of me never thought this day would come, or that if it ever did, I would simply fade away, no longer having a purpose in this world." He reaches out his other hand so that Ana's is nestled between them both. "But now there is you. We have agreed that when we leave this world, we will do so together. I do not believe that you are finished here, so I must find a purpose of my own."
"I am not finished," Ana confirms, resting her other hand on top of both of his. "There is so much in the world that I would love to see and experience, and I want to do it with you. I want us to see both of our children happy and grown, and perhaps have one of our own, Elune willing. And for you, the fight does not end when the villain is vanquished. That is only the beginning, where one can change from destruction to creation."
Ana looks into his eyes, her own full of pride and love. "You are a formidable druid, my love. Whatever the Cenarion Circle becomes, you should be one to help shape it. Training the young, advising the old. We have unmasked one false Archdruid, it may be you who can become a true one."
He processes this in silence. Then he gives a hesitant nod. "In time, perhaps. For now, I will continue teaching, and I will continue following Cobalt Company into danger when they call. It seems to me they are always on the right side of any conflict in this world. Are you pleased that you decided to join them?"
"I… think so," Ana says, her certainty fading. "I confess that I have never felt myself betrayed by the leaders. It has been… difficult, knowing some looked to me for direction, when I was leading in the Firelands. Many of their people are young, and not fully prepared to pay the costs of war. I am not skilled at comfort, but I… I try to prevent the costs from being too high."
"Do you still lack confidence in your own judgment in the field? Or is it those who follow you who seem to doubt?"
"I do not want to be someone to lead anyone to ruin," Ana says, and falls quiet for a long moment before adding, "I am content in making decisions for myself, and I have to trust that they are well for others. Ralaea… is coming along as a student, but she has a weakness in strategic thought. I worry sometimes she will misstep from misunderstanding."
"Perhaps communication is the roadblock to you as a leader at the moment," he proposes gently. "I know it goes against your nature to use any more words than you deem necessary. But as a leader and a teacher, sometimes you need to say things in several different ways to make certain that everyone understands."
Ana frowns, and then nods slowly. "She often seems to struggle to understand the things happening around her. I do not know if it is a human thing. Mordecai does not express confusion in the same manner, but then he is also rather quiet sometimes. And Atley is very experienced in war, so he would not. I will try…. to explain more carefully, in different ways, next time."
"Everyone has their weaknesses," he says. "Mine is my… Contemplative nature. Sometimes I get caught up in a thought or a memory, and I fail to notice something that is happening in the present. This can be inconvenient or downright dangerous. It is something that I constantly struggle with."
"Yes, that can be dangerous in combat," Ana considers. "That I am not sure how to suggest to help. Perhaps if we agreed on a warning word I could call, to draw your attention to a danger."
Caspis gives her a very faint, infinitely warm smile. "I believe the sound of your voice could pull my mind back from anywhere it might wander," he says. "But I believe the primary responsibility is mine. In the time it would take you to warn me of something I should've seen, I might already be struck down. I must find some way to keep my focus more completely, at least in battle situations. I do believe I am improving already, because we have made it through some extremely difficult battles, but I could use more improvement. What is interesting to me is that the more difficult the battle, the better I seem to do."
"Then maybe part of the problem is that you must be in a situation that fully engages you?" Ana asks, frowning in thought. "So there is no space in which your mind could wander?"
"That may be it exactly," he says, his eyes brightening. "I had not thought of it that way. When I was fighting Murozond, for example, the leader of the infinite dragon flight, the sands were covered in magical storms, and it was difficult to find a safe place to stand. I had to move constantly, and the battle itself slowly turned a circle over the sand, like the hands of a clock. There was not a moment for me to think of anything else, but where I should stand, and where my targets were in relation to me."
"Even in that distant, diminished time, I imagine he was a mighty enemy," Ana nods. "That may be the way to start, then. And for less demanding, less fraught battles, it may be you need to learn to find things that can occupy your mind in the present. Perhaps… a focus on the foe, with a thought to attack if none require healing in the moment. At least, that is what I focus on. I do not know if it is helpful."
He thinks this over for a moment, and then nods slowly.
"Anger does seem to focus me," he says. "And now that I have a less dangerous relationship with anger, I do not need to fear it. Allowing myself to feel anger at those who would harm my friends could be what it takes to keep me from drifting off into that dreamlike state that so many of my kind are prone to."
"And then when the danger is fully past, you may let it wander once again," Ana says with a nod. "Your anger can be powerful, when it is not burning out of control. As can mine, when I do not let it turn inward and become a poison. A clean, focused anger at an unambiguous threat."
"Yes," he says firmly. Then his gaze drifts away and upward. He cannot fully see the sky from where they sit, but his gaze seems to penetrate the stone of the temple and somehow find it. "And what about now? Do you believe that in the end we will engage Deathwing directly?"
"Us? I cannot be certain. The Aspects have their plan with the Dragon Soul, and we cannot wield it," Ana glances upward. "They may need us to hold him off, to defend while they strike. If they have need of us, I will answer. Though… I do not know how long we could hold against Deathwing. What are your thoughts on the coming battle?"
"I fear it," he admits. "I have not faced an enemy of that power, even once in 10,000 years. I know so much about him, from the tales that Shan’do Stormrage has told us and the other lore and history kept by our people, but when we traveled back in time to the Well of Eternity, that was the first time I ever saw him. It gave me such a chill, a terror unlike anything I have ever felt."
"He seemed… so unwell even back then," Ana says, with a shudder. "I know the corruption must have already had him, and now he has rested in it for ten thousand years. I had never seen him before either. I do not know how we can fight that. But we must try, somehow."
Caspis reaches for her hand again, folding it between his own. "Whatever happens, remember that it will happen to both of us. I will be with you in danger and terror, in victory, or in death. I cannot shelter you from every evil possibility, but I can promise that you will never have to endure anything alone. Never again."
"Never again," Ana repeats, curling her fingers through his. "I find that I trust in the Aspects' plan, a kind of trust I have not felt in many years. If it costs our lives, they will make certain it was worth the cost."