![](http://cobalt-company.wdfiles.com/local--resized-images/writing:2025-09-01-like-a-prism/style="margin:/medium.jpg) |
| Details |
| Author: | inkie |
| Summary: | Mr. and Mrs. Shine are reunited -- to the surprise of Mrs. Shine -- on the coast of Pandaria as the Fallon ships make landfall. |
| Rating: | T for Teen |
Chain: Shena
Shine takes Lena by the hand and draws her wordlessly up the beach and under the fragrant shelter of the blooming apple branches. He turns to gaze down at her again. "I would have sent word," he tells her. "If there'd been a way to. I didn't mean it for a shock."
Lena breathes the scent of apple blossoms in something close to amazement. Once she's sure they aren't in sight of the arrival group, she turns and grabs the front of his shirt with her hand, pulling him wordlessly into a long kiss.
When she pulls back, she says, her voice still a little breathy, "If it's shock, it's good shock. When my dreams come to life, it usually isn't the good ones. I thought I'd left you weeks behind, and only war ahead."
Shine smiles. Rather than answer immediately, he stoops to kiss her again. (Possibly that is his first answer.) When he lifts his head, he says, "The mission was a secret before we embarked, but Captain Sparkwire did mention in her letter that it had to do with where you and Fallon had gone. I admit I looked forward to this job even more than usual. And I've been watching that harbor."
"I'm sorry now we didn't make even more haste," Lena says, smiling up at him. "Not likely possible, though, Fallon had us going fast as we could make it. And this — the beach, the orchard — it's almost like a honeymoon, isn't it? Not quite, because I'm sure you're busy with squad work, and who knows where they'll send the Lady Blanche. Would be just my luck if they sent us around the coast or some such nonsense…"
Shine shakes his head. "Don't know who there is to send you anywhere now. With Rogers gone, it's only Fallon and Taylor in the area. Taylor's not well, and fretting about our lack of support besides; he's not going to send ye away. He'll probably kiss Fallon from relief. So it'll be down to Fallon's call, if he thinks there's someplace else the Blanche ought to be, but." He shrugs, then looks up at the apple blossoms and back down to Lena. "And if it is to be a honeymoon, couldn't have asked for a lovelier. The place is beautiful, Lena. Village, countryside, all of it."
"I can see that right off, and I've only just stepped to soil. I trust you for the rest of it, but I'm excited to see it with you, if I can," Lena smiles up at Shine, and then bumps her shoulder into his lightly. She reaches over a hand to his chest, to steady herself. "Still a bit wavy from the voyage — it was a few weeks asea. Are Taylor and Fallon…? Well, I suppose that's not any of my business."
Shine puts a hand over hers on his chest, and rests his other hand on her hip. He laughs softly. "Taylor and Fallon…? No, no, I can't imagine. Even if Fallon would, have ye met Admiral Taylor? Not sure the man's ever taken his pants off. But also Fallon wouldn't, not with a colleague, not with Admiralty. Not even Jes-Tereth, and that's a flirtation going on close to a decade now."
"Flirting with the Grand Admiral," Lena says with a soft laugh of her own. "You know I didn't mean anything untoward. So tell me what you've been up to, all this time we were sailing towards you and not knowing it. You've given the status on the ground, but you personally. No problems with Sha monsters, I hope? Is it like — do I need to do anything to prevent problems? I'm not sure I've ever had to control what I'm feeling, just the expression of it."
Shine's smile fades and he gazes past Lena toward the sea, half-glimpsed now through the screen of petals. "I don't — I haven't had trouble myself, no. Don't believe the others have. I know we're all on edge about it. I can't tell if some people are more susceptible than others, or if there's a kind of… threshold to be crossed, either in the strength of feeling or the duration of exposure." His tone is clinical, detached. "The first one we saw — Admiral Rogers gave a… questionable order. The lead SI:7 agent clearly had a problem with it, and that's when the sha appeared. The pandaren who cured him said it was because of his doubt. The other one, the orc — he'd been here for a while, seems like. They got here around the time Taylor and his people did, and he'd been sitting up in these ruins trying to keep command of his shipwreck rabble of orcs and Forsaken — neither of 'em too happy with the other — and holding out for reinforcements, watching out for Alliance. Think he went off some kind of… paranoid cliff. Instead of just sort of shedding sha, like the SI:7 agent did, he lost it completely. Turned into one."
He drops his gaze to Lena again. "But it doesn't seem like any of his people were infected the same way, and none of us on the dock with the SI:7 agent — even those you could see didn't love Rogers' order — took it the same as he did. I've had an eye on everyone since, but they all seem to be handling it. Some more tense than others, but we're all handling it. So far."
"Maybe some folks are hit by it right away, and in others it grows slowly. Like fel corruption. If that's the case… if we can figure a way to keep track of the level of influence, maybe we can keep our people safe," Lena says, and then her brow creases as she looks back to Shine. "I don't like the number of ifs and maybes in that statement. Did you get a feel for what kind of power are behind them? The fel or… death magic? Or something like the shadow?"
Shine shakes his head. "Perhaps you'll be able to get a sense of it. Ye know it's not something I'm fit to do. If Miss Fey were here…." He glances over his shoulder. "Miss Herald has a better idea, at least. Ye could speak with her on it."
"I have been studying how to sense different sorts of magic, for the last few years," Lena says, raising a hand to tuck a stray wisp of hair, pulled loose by the morning coastal wind, behind her ear. "If we run across more of it, I'll see what I can figure out. Miss Fey would likely have a good sense of it, too, but they did say it was a delicate diplomatic situation. She… can be diplomatic, if she wants. But I'm not sure if I could predict whether she'd want. Reckon I could talk to Miss Herald, maybe. Anyway, if you start feeling any kind of odd way, you'll tell me?"
Shine's gaze tracks the motion of Lena's hand and windblown hair. He nods at her. "I will," he says. "I've been careful. And it's not like it was in the Highlands. No… whispers, or anything like that." He studies her gravely for another moment. "Tides, but you're a cure for it all, aren't ye? I couldn't be gladder to see ye."
"A pleasure unlooked-for," Lena says with a soft smile, turning so that of all the beauty in this new land, the one foremost in her vision is Shine. "And maybe we can chase the Sha away from each other."
A layer of amusement comes into her smiles as she adds, "I admit I might be a little jealous your journey here took days and mine weeks, but then… I would only ever have come here with the Lady Blanche, so maybe that's all happened as it should be. The army group we've brought seems alright — I don't think they'll cause much problems with the locals."
Shine nods. "Tennerow — sorry, it's Azuredown now? — he and Fallon go back a ways, and I know Fallon thinks highly. Dinnsfield and his friends are a solid lot. Hartrim seems bent on foolishness much of the time, but not the sort to trouble the sha, I don't think. Or the locals. I don't know some of the others, but those are a decent group. Blanche's people in general are steady, though Fallon might want to cut back on liquor rations." He pauses to consider. "Or increase them. I don't know."
He looks over his shoulder toward the village and then back to Lena. "I have wondered, to be honest, how much the sha is powered by a person's feelings and how much it might… feed those feelings itself. But I can't say I've seen trouble in any of ours, so who knows? And the pandaren themselves don't seem subject to it."
"I scarcely know Azuredown at all, but for this last voyage — he's been courteous, suppose that goes with the whole noble upbringing. Of Dinnsfield's lot, Hartrim was the one I knew the least, though I think he's been up to Fallon House a few times. He doesn't strike me as a strong negative feelings sort," Lena flicks her own gaze towards the village, and adds, "Maybe it's something like food and water. You know, you go to a new place and your body handles the unfamiliar poorly for a while, though the locals aren't troubled at all. Then, eventually, you get used to it. That would explain the one fellow having trouble right off."
"Oh," says Shine, and raises his eyebrow. "That's… a hell of a hypothesis. Ought to put it to the rest." He nods slowly and then smiles at her. "Aye, that's brilliant." He squeezes her hip gently. "You're brilliant." He lowers his voice. "Have I told ye I'm glad to see ye?" His smile is crooked.
"Aye, you have, and I might ask you to show me if I weren't worried we might scandalize the locals," Lena says in a low voice, with a light and playful smile that does nothing to disguise the genuine heat in her eyes. "Did I tell you I thought you a dream or a phantom or a trick? Only I've never known anything that got into my mind to show me things I wanted to see. That would be a new thing, in a new land… some mind-creature that only shows you your dearest desire."
"I didn't mean to give you a turn," Shine tells her with a note of wry apology. "But if I must be a phantom, I'm glad to be a welcome one. Gladder still not to be one at all." He lifts her hand to kiss her knuckles gently, his gaze never leaving hers. "Orchard's quiet at this hour, don't expect we'd scandalize anyone. But if we don't want to chance making the impression, I can give ye a little tour of the place. I've got a very pretty inn room I can show ye."
"A tour would be nice," Lena says, letting her breath out in a shivering sigh at the kiss. "I can be patient, for a little while. My husband. We've scarce had a chance to call each other such, with all the demands of war."
Then she does look back over toward the orchard and the village, as she adds, "I've not even seen the pandaren as came to Stormwind yet, though I heard rumors."
"My wife," he says, and kisses her hand again, his eye gleaming. "War or no, I can't think of a prettier place for a honeymoon — which is appropriate for my Mrs. Shine. And I believe we have the privilege of being the first foreigners to honeymoon in Pandaria."
Lena leans gently towards him at the kiss to her hand, as if compelled by some kind of magnetic attraction. She doesn't do anything more forward — at least for now. "I think a land hidden in the mists is a proper honeymoon place for my Mr. Shine, who can move unseen when it suits him. I thought Kalimdor alone a strange and mysterious place, in years past, but this is a long step past that."
"It is," Shine agrees, and steps closer to set his hands at her waist. "I never saw its like. And we've only seen a fragment so far. I'll be glad to see the rest of it with you." He pauses. "Eventually. After I tour ye up to the inn. I expect the long journey was wearing. Ye might want some time abed."
"Now that is a tour I'd like to see," Lena says with a light laugh. "I expect that may be a place I spend some time after all, at least in certain company." She pauses, and a touch more seriously adds, "I hope we get to. See it all together, that is. Of course I hope we find the missing safely, of course, but… maybe not so soon that the locals send us on our way."
"If we tell them we're on honeymoon, maybe they'll let us hang around," Shine suggests, smiling. The smile fades. "It was a week before we found Taylor, and he was in a bad way. No sign of the other one at all. Thin air. I don't like to suspect the worst, but…."
"If they'd known who he was, it wouldn't be thin air," Lena says, her own smile faltering. "They'd be proud and taking credit. Unless it was somebody local, who didn't know… how is Admiral Taylor? Did the healers get to him in time?" Before things were unhealable, she likely means.
"They did, aye," confirms Shine. "Not our healers. He was with the jinyu — fish people — when we found him, and they've been at war with the hozen — the monkeys who took Taylor — for… ages, I guess. They knew their methods and toxins, and took us to their village to look after him. He's there now. Back on his feet, but not in much shape."
"Fish people — I suppose they're shamans?" Lena guesses. "Do they heal with water spirits, like Kae?"
"Aye, that's right. And worship the spirits of water, as well." Shine nods gravely.
Lena raises an eyebrow with a faint quirk at one corner of her lips. "I expect Fallon will try to entice them to the fleet. That is, if they can be enticed to the Alliance properly. Do you think it's much like the Tidemother faith?"
"It doesn't sound much like, but who knows? Water all flows together." Smiling faintly, Shine takes Lena's hand and tugs gently. "Shall we walk up through the orchard?"
The Shines flow together, too, as Lena follows him easily towards the orchard, lacing her fingers through his. "Apples… puts me of a mind to the Hazans and their old orchards, and wondering what kind of cider the pandaren make. I might ought to write Ben and suggest they visit, at least maybe once things are a bit more friendly. Could be a bright thing for his wife to look forward to, if all goes well."
"It's good stuff, the cider. I don't know the pair of them well — the Hazans — but the pandaren have agreed to open a portal for us. Selective use. A lieutenant of Cobalt and his wife would probably be welcome." Shine guides them on a meandering course among the trees; a sea breeze whispers in the blossoms overhead and sends petals drifting. "I hope the arrival of Fallon isn't going to set us back. Admiral Rogers was — I mean the lady no offense, she's a fine commander, but I don't think she did much for the Alliance cause among the locals. And it was her order that set off the SI:7 agent when we got here."
"Fallon knows what we're here for — though I don't imagine he'd sidestep any conflict with the Horde, if they turn up," Lena says, raising a hand to catch a drifting petal, oblivious to the one that's just settling on her hair. "Still, we're not occupying Pandaria. I hope it'll help when they see we've no intention of that. Provided — that is provided the Alliance doesn't get any intentions that way. What was it that Rogers ordered, that upset SI:7?"
Shine's expression is neutral. "After we sank the Horde ships, bunch of orcs were swimming for the shore. We were on the docks. Rogers ordered us to shoot them all." There is a pause before he allows, "They were unarmed, some of 'em injured. Likely just wanted out of the water. Nightwind protested, Rogers overrode him, the Marines opened fire, the orcs died."
"It was Rogers's call," Lena says, and then falls silent for a long moment. "Could be they'd have opened hostilities soon's they made ground. Or maybe they'd have summoned krakens or molten giants or dragged up a mana bomb, and the desperation was just an act to throw folk like Nightwind off — the orcs don't seem keen on fighting fairly these days. It could've been they just wanted to gain the shore and survive, but…" she shakes her head.
Shine nods briefly. "Aye, just so. Ye wouldn't think an SI:7 man would balk at killing some orcs, but there it was. And then the sha."
"So it wasn't rage at the Horde that did it?" Lena frowns, looking down at the petal in her palm. "It was… that he didn't want to kill orcs? Pacifism brought the Sha?"
"Apparently. He argued with Rogers over the order, and it was when she overrode him that the… change came over him. When the pandaren who drove it out of him showed up, he said it was a… sha of doubt." Shine shrugs.
"Doubt," Lena repeats. "That is a dangerous thing, if we must face everything with certainty. I would like to talk to this pandaren, see if there's any… subtlety to it? What kind of doubt. Surely considering other perspectives is not a negative thing." She pauses again, as they amble through the orchard, thinking. "I can see how it would be a conflict in this case. Maybe the type of doubt was… seeing that he was acting contrary to his own convictions. Doubt of one's own actions."
"Aye, maybe. To be honest, I can think of just as many situations where certainty's a more dangerous thing than doubt. But none of it makes a great deal of sense to me yet." Shine walks in silence a few steps, then glances down at Lena, and a soft smile lights his features. He reaches up with his free hand to pluck the petal from her hair and show it to her. "Make a wish," he suggests.
"So many of them have come true already," Lena says, and her answering smile is more in the vein of certainty than doubt. No sha today, it seems. Still, she closes her eyes obediently and nods. "Should I keep it secret, tell you if it comes true?"
Shine considers. "Ye should keep it secret till it comes true, aye. But ye should tell me what ye wished for on the lunar lantern."
"That — oh, yes, it worked," Lena says with a quiet laugh, opening her eyes. "Since a few weeks now, I should've said. A silly charm, you'll think it, a superstition. Home again safe, mostly. That we would be wed. That nothing in the universe would stop us. That I wouldn't lose you, nor you me, not to anything. That's why — that day, I said it was well on its way. Intention was the half of it, but there is so much chance in the world that can get in the way of intention becoming reality."
Shine regards her gravely. "Why would I think that a silly charm? I think it's the best one I've heard."
Lena reaches over to brush her fingertips against his temple, tracing the plane of his face. "There were a few points, weren't there? Between then and now, times the world might have parted us. Deathwing, Bladefist Bay. But we both came home safe, in the end."
"A few points," Shine agrees, smiling down at her. "But then again, maybe it couldn't have. Parted us. I came back to ye from Deathwing, didn't I? And you through… hurricanes, kraken, Bloodfist Bay. Even in spite of all of this, we got our day." He studies her, still smiling, though his dark, one-eyed gaze is intent. "I think ye have a way, Lena Shine. I think you're that remarkable, that ye can… bend the world around you, a little. Like a prism bends the light and makes it something lovely."
A blush rises in Lena's cheeks and she lowers her gaze. There's a faint shyness to her smile as she says, "I never would've thought of myself so. Maybe I'd have said that I bend for the world, to fit, or maybe in the sense of making things seem brighter than they really are. But if that's how you see me…" her gaze darts back up to meet his, "I'll bend the world for you, if I can. Maybe not to storybook lovely, but to where we'll always have a place in it, together. That we always come home safe, death or kraken be damned."
Shine stops walking. He turns to face her, setting his hands at her waist and drawing her close. His gaze is soft. "I think," he says, "that sounds lovelier than any storybook." He bends to kiss her again.
Lena reaches her arms around his neck, melting into the kiss and pulling herself closer, nesting her body close against his. When she can speak again, still holding him close, she says, "At least, for a while, we won't need to rely on charms. Anything terrible happens here, we face it together."