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Anduin Wrynn sat on the edge of the outer ring of Oribos. Mesmerized, he stared at the floating gateway to Ardenweald, deep blue magic shimmering within and a thin anima stream flowing beneath it. Behind him, a pair of Oribos residents - Anduin didn’t know what to call them - walked past him and were talking about the most recent purchase they had made at the bazaar inside. The outer ring was far less crowded than the rest of the Eternal City, which is exactly what he needed - a place to hide.
He almost didn’t hear the footsteps behind him, footsteps that sounded different from the clinking of the brokers’ feet. Thankfully, he had noticed it just before it would have startled him. Light only knows what would have happened if his surprise had thrown him off the edge of the ring.
“Hi.” Taelia was the source of the footsteps, and she approached him cautiously.
A range of emotions ran through Anduin in an instant. On one hand, he was glad that someone had found him, as the company would keep him distracted. On the other hand, he was angry, just as he was with everyone who treated him like a wounded animal since he was rescued from the Maw. The Jailer had personally seen to his torment, filling his mind with lies and dark visions. It was true that he occasionally had to blink these visions away, but he wasn’t lost. It hurt to see people treating him like he was. On the third hand - if humans could have three hands - he was sad, because he knew what he had failed to tell Taelia.
“Hi.” He managed to reply, wincing internally at how shakily the single word had come out.
Taelia slowed her movements closer to the edge of the ring, carefully lowering herself into a sitting position and scooting over to him. She sighed as her body adjusted and looked over at Anduin.
Neither of them spoke for a moment, the only sounds around them being the whistling wind and the gentle hum of anima streams.
“How are you holding up?” She asked him.
“About as well as I can, I think. I dunno.”
“Yeah. I can’t imagine what you endured down there, which is why I thought you could use some company.” Taelia’s expression of concern relaxed into a gentle smile.
“Thank you.” Anduin replied, offering a small smile back. “Though I suspect that I won’t be entertaining company right now.”
“You don’t have to be. We don’t have to talk.”
For a moment, Anduin took in the silence and the newfound calm within him that had arrived with Taelia. The feeling did not last long, however, because he knew he had something to say.
“Taelia, I...I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about your father. I’ve been meaning to talk to you about it since I was rescued. I wanted to tell you, I truly did. I just didn’t know how to.”
He expected her to sigh in frustration, to raise her voice, to get back up and leave the same way she had come. He supposed he was feeling rather pessimistic after everything that had happened, so he was surprised to hear what she said in response.
“It’s okay, Anduin. I get it.”
Anduin’s eyebrows raised. “You do?”
“Yeah. I’ll admit that I was angry at first. I felt like I had been lied to by everyone who would have known. You, Jaina, Genn, our champions, my father…”
An understandable feeling. Anduin thought.
“The more I thought about it though, the more I realized that if I was in your position… or Jaina’s, or Genn’s...I wouldn’t know how to tell me either. There are no words that adequately describe what my father went through and I don’t expect you to find them. I don’t expect anyone to find them.”
Anduin’s expression relaxed. “I am relieved to know that you aren’t mad, though I would understand completely if you were.”
“I’m not.” Taelia’s expression was warm.
Anduin’s smile followed. “Good, I’m glad. I would hate for us to have grown apart so early in our…acquaintance? Friendship?”
“Something like that.” Taelia giggled. “I would like us to be friends, though.”
“I would, too.” Anduin replied. “I enjoy your company.”
“As I enjoy yours.” After she spoke, Anduin felt his breath hitch slightly, though he was not sure why.
“It’s settled then.” Taelia said. “We’re officially friends.”
Anduin laughed. “It’s that easy, is it?”
Taelia shrugged. “Yeah. Why not?”
“That’s a fair point. Why not?”
The pair looked at each other for a brief moment before turning to look at the sky in front of them. The view from the Eternal City was breathtaking: shimmering gateways to infinite realms, rivers of anima flowing in the distance, and colorful swirls of cloud that looked straight out of an oil painting. It brought Anduin a feeling of peace as well as curiosity. He wondered which realms his parents had been sent to and if he would see them during his time in the Shadowlands. He prayed they were safe during all of this chaos and uncertainty, and that his father had made it to the Shadowlands before the anima drought that sent all souls to the Maw.
Before he could get too deep into his thoughts - which would likely be an unpleasant experience- he decided to pull himself entirely into the present moment. He was here with Taelia, a girl he was particularly curious about, in a city that he would likely never get to see again until after death. The circumstances which brought him here were not ideal to say the least, but he might as well savor it now that he was free.
The two of them sat in silence for a while, only occasionally breaking it to comment about the beauty of the scene before them. To their far right, darkness from the Maw had long since begun to shroud the rainbow sky, but much of the color was still visible from their perspective. As long as they focused on that, Anduin decided, they would be okay.