Chapter Text
Growing Power
The Curator wrapped her fingers around the squirming stonebat in an attempt to keep him still, letting the Accuser pull free a thick splinter from a crack in his foot. How it got there she had no idea, nor what made the crack, but Kenatar seemed insistent on getting back out into the Ward with a series of impatient squeaks. Since finding out his masters weren't coming back anytime soon he had been nearly impossible to control, often coming back exhausted or injured and escorted by Sybille. Even now he was trying to flap his wings inside her grasp to escape, kicking his little feet around and she felt terrible for having to put him into a hastily constructed cage. Luckily Denoreth's quick wire-work was holding under sharp stone fangs trying to gnaw their way out with annoyed screeches, scratching and biting wherever he could flitting to each strand that he could test.
"Kenatar, please!" she sighed, "We want to help but you can't keep hurting yourself like this."
He stopped gnawing long enough to hiss in her direction then went straight back to trying to find an escape. Rubbing her hands into her eyes with a large sigh didn't get out half the frustration she felt now, not just the unruly pets but running the entire realm was now on their shoulders. While she didn't regret the choice to send Renathal into purgatory with Sanoleth, sometimes she did waver with the absolutely ridiculous requests they were getting in the wake of the dreadlords.
"I hope they're doing better than us on their side," the Curator mused while trying to put a finger into the cage to pet the stonebat only to pull it back as he snapped.
"I assure you that they will both be suffering their own versions of insanity," the Accuser said as she re-approached holding Sanoleth's green scarf in hand, "Now let us see if a scent will calm him."
Placing the garment just outside of his cage got the stonebat's attention, little snout sniffing the air as he jumped off the cage and skittered toward where the cloth poked through. Letting out a little squeal he bit the tab to pull it inside the cage and neither of them made a move to catch it, watching the scarf unwind inside while Kenatar made himself a small nest to lie in and purr away under the faded scent of Sanoleth. The Harvesters looked at one another and could only shrug. Returning to work with the occasional glance at the stonebat meant there was some time to read through more reports, then groan at the stupidity inside. How Renathal dealt with it she had no idea and perhaps she shouldn't have pushed him to leave so quickly. Then again she supposed there were different problems to deal with now.
The sky wasn't sky. The ground wasn't ground. Skin crawled through bone and muscle while breath taken missed lungs and began a panic cycle in a brain not fully aware. Was the world upside down? Or downside up? What was the difference? How could one tell? Something in black entered the not-sky and leaned down, making flinching a reactive instinct at its approach.
"Renathal? Can you hear me?"
Ears flicked in recognition. A name. Yes, his own, the memories started to pull apart from one another in the strange dimension. He was dreaming, that was it. Dreaming to help his mate. Using hands he hoped existed he tried to point towards his throat and the dark figure placed their own upon him to help. Suddenly his airway opened and he could take a large gasping breath into burning lungs. The relief was immediate but his head started to spin, reaching up to grasp tightly at the roots of his hair in an effort to distract from it all. The sky seemed more real at least, painted a nice gradient of pink and yellow like a purian. When he felt ready he pushed up from the ground covered in blue-tipped grass and a myriad of odd yet familiar flowers. Daisies, dandelions, speedwells, everything he might expect to find out in somewhere like Bastion or Ardenweald, but they were poking out between his fingers and all across the field around them.
"How are you now?" the figure asked.
"Better."
"Good. Sanoleth's influence is becoming disruptive to me already it would seem. We will find her in the forest, though how deep I do not know."
Following her pointing westward, far in the distance there was indeed a series of thick, dense trees stood all the way into the heavens, clouds drifting around their summits where a single red-black line of energy reached even higher to the atmosphere unceasingly. There was a series of smaller shapes near the bottom that looked like they could have been walls.
"How?"
"Sanoleth has created its entirety," she smarted as she stood up to brush off her knees and offered a hand to him, "Come. Let us see the world she has created for herself."
Accepting the hand to get to his feet and looking at himself properly it was to realise the shirt he had just taken off was now back on but unbuttoned and the body wasn't the one he left behind either. He was still skinny but no longer to the point he could see his ribs without trying. There wasn't exactly muscle on his chest but no excess fat either, the same for his biceps and torso.
"What... what is this?"
"How she wishes to see you. No longer starving nor addled by it, but given she has never seen a 'healthy' venthyr this is as far as her imagination can go."
He frowned. Surely somewhere in his memory there was a time he looked in the mirror and had some genuine muscle? Yet the longer he trailed back in his mind the more obvious it became that it wasn't as true as he'd hoped. A pull on his arm didn't allow him to brood too much as Mother started toward the forest and brought him along. Walking through the field of flowers was surprisingly calming and a kaleidoscope of colours of species Renathal had only seen in Sanoleth's mind. Tiny blue ones easily crushed underfoot, clovers, buttercups, and yet an eerily distinct lack of insect life to maintain them. Perhaps she hadn't thought of them yet, too busy with her new town and what flowers she wanted to notice such creatures as a priority. Except now he couldn't unnotice the distinct lack of wildlife in general. Nothing flying overhead, no animals in the field itself, completely silent except for the two of them now invaders in a lifeless land. It set his hackles to raise with the unnaturalness of it all. It was possible that everything found itself in the confines of the forest that was becoming more gloomy and overbearing the closer they travelled, a low fog clinging to the ground only shifted by their steps through it. The closer they walked the thicker it became until it looked like spiders had woven cobwebs through the grass and he couldn't see his feet anymore.
"Reminds me of the Banewood," he commented with a huff of amusement.
"Perhaps it was on her mind."
"She did wonder what it looked like in its glory."
"Not this."
Renathal grumbled his agreement and stopped as they reached the outermost treeline that became depressingly dark extremely quickly while he stared into its depths. Pricking up his ears as he tried to listen for any unusual sounds there was merely the rustling of leaves in a small breeze. Still the wind brought with it the barest taste of a scent, that of rose and lily mixed together in a crush of perfume that reached out for him to find and indulges on. His mate was in there somewhere. The Prince set his jaw straight, brushed down his jacket and almost immediately tripped over a series of large roots hidden by the fog.
"Be careful," came a mildly haughty warning.
"Thank you for the warning," he growled as he brushed himself off a second time and pressed forward only to realise she wasn't following, "Are you not joining me?"
"My part in this is done, my son. All I do now is maintain you both in reality. Who she becomes, how she evolves from her chrysalis, that is up to you. And a certain someone else that will have her in his care."
"Who?" Renathal tilted his head as he asked but she didn't answer.
Mother only held out a hand in a gesture toward the forest urging him onward, leaving them at a silent impasse for several moments until he knew he wouldn't get an answer. Turning again to face the darkness, this time there was more care put into mapping out a path through the clinging fog once he made his moves. A tap of the boot here and there to determine where and how high with those not poking through prevented anything more but it wasn't long before the light behind had been swallowed in its entirety and the second realisation that his eyes weren't adjusting to this preternatural darkness was more apparent. He frowned considering he was used to living in eternal twilight, this wasn't entirely different so far as he was concerned, yet still it was denied him and the only solution he had was to keep his hands out to determine how close the trees were. Some he was able to squeeze through and step over the roots of without much resistance but others seemed to enjoy not allowing him any pass for several close-knit clusters at a time. Musty moss and damp assailed his nose while the breeze began to pick up around him shifting the fog in different directions, the only thing that was luminescent in the dark, making him stumble time and again despite his care. Wishing silently for some sort of map or clue of any direction to go in, Renathal stumbled again into a clearing that let through a single ray of light that had dust pouring all the way through- and it pointed directly to a long-dead campfire. Blinking, then looking around to ensure he was truly alone, the Prince approached cautiously in complete bewilderment. Kneeling down to run his hand through the ash told him it was definitely stone cold yet not constructed hastily, rubbing the grey between his fingers where it stuck and a few charcoal sticks remained. The stones around the outside were placed carefully and in a considered manner to create a place for the brush to catch and if he waved around in the fog he found the flint that was used to light it near the side. Yet other than that there was no evidence of anything else unusual that somehow made him even more on edge.
The flint would be useful he decided as he got to his knees with a crack that brought a wince. A thought he never really considered crossed his mind then while pressing back into the folds of the waiting forest, that being how young his mate was compared to him. Elves were seen as ancient beings for the short-lived mortal races, that much he knew, yet to be a thousand years was a young adult to them. Had she not once told him that Tyrande, the Night Warrior, was over ten thousand herself? How was that considered given that she fought in Ardenweald with the fervour of a well-disciplined militarist? And how long could they go for as mortals? ... What would it mean for Sanoleth? Would they restart her count from zero or would they add the years now that they knew there was an afterlife to be counted from? Would she escape the rigours of age unlike him? Once the questions flooded his mind they refused to stop even when he shook his head and growled to try and clear them away. After a few futile moments he sighed and slumped against the nearest tree, rubbing his temples in an attempt to squeeze the thoughts out but that wasn't working either. It hadn't bothered him before so why they were suddenly springing from his mind now was perplexing. Flaring his nostrils and pushing back from his perch, Renathal started his trek once again and used what energy he had to try and find the scent that lured him inside the forest again.
Why would she choose you when she could have the confidence to take anyone she wanted?
What makes you so worthy of her devotion?
How do you add anything she cannot find elsewhere?
When have you improved anything about her life?
The questions assailed him from all directions now and he couldn't understand why, what was happening or where such doubts were allowed to assault him from. They sounded like-like...
"Sanoleth..."
It made more sense now. The doubts were Sanoleth's, those that swam through her mind on the regular to bring herself down into despair and cowed reclusiveness. Quickly pressing down over his coat and praying that she knew him well enough, triumphantly from his outer pockets emerged a quill and single sheaf of paper that was put to immediate use scribbling down all the questions he could remember. Anything to give him a headstart on tackling them would be a help at this point. The pale parchment was somewhat visible under the dark but his handwriting was bleeding together making his loops extremely difficult but hopefully still legible once he reached some sort of light. Once he was done the paper was quickly folded and stuffed unceremoniously into a pocket so he could continue into his excursion. The dark began to turn so thick he could have cut into it with a knife and made a sandwich from the pieces making careful treading all the more important as he bumped roots, cracked fallen twigs and slipped on slick leaves covering the floor. Yet up ahead, squinting into the now near-blinding thickness that tried to prevent his way forward, there was a single pinprick of unexpected orange. Proverbial heart in his throat, Renathal crouched to minimise his noise as he began the approach toward the phenomenon. The only object that came to mind was either a campfire or a lantern to produce such flame, given the one he came across earlier one felt more likely than the other. Pressing against the tree-trunks as he moved silently toward the expanding spark, it took a minute to get into a position he could see and not be seen around one of the thickest and inside the clearing he saw them: A newer campfire being tended by a taller man in a too-large coat that only covered his torso, red and gold that reminded him far too much of the Master, heavy duty boots being used while he poked the fire to greater life with a series of different sticks, and next to them on a bed of leaves was the familiar proportions of his mate still in the armour she had passed with.
"Sanoleth," he whispered under his breath and was pleased when her ear flicked and she started to stir.
The man looked up from his fire-tending and a wave of blonde hair suddenly fell from over his shoulder once he got to his feet. Renathal watched perhaps too closely while he made his way over and knelt down to investigate. Suppressing the growl but not the snarl that came to his face while crouching lower against the trees, he could make out flecks of Sanoleth's voice while they conversed, the nightborne trying to get up from lying down while he was pressing her back down.
"You need to rest. I will inform the Prince of the same. You have overexerted yourself creating this place and must recover before anything else."
"But he's here. I know it. I have to find him."
"He will find you. Have faith. After you found him in the Maw I think you can afford to let him do the same here."
Sanoleth was holding herself up on one elbow still insistent on getting up to find him, but even from his vantage point the little tremor in her bicep under the strain told the real story. A sigh of resignation came after a moment and she slid back down onto the leaves, an act he knew well of doing what he wanted so he would go away and she could plot on her own. A quirk of amusement tugged his lips as he shirked back into the shadows avoiding the possibility of a stray glance of her new protector spotting him in the dark, sneaking his way around the clearing between trees so he could be in only Sanoleth's eyeline. Before he could even reach the spot he noticed that her head was up looking in his exact direction, a little sparkle of hope in eyes that were both lavender again. Renathal put a finger to his lips and she nodded slowly. Not that he expected her to give him away but it would make any rescue attempt vaguely difficult. Sliding down into a convenient alcove at the base of a tree so he could spy on the would-be protector within her eyeline, wondering why he seemed recognisable despite not seeing his face yet. On a closer, more thorough look the gold filigree of his coat had a pattern akin to veins instead of spikes like he originally thought, all reaching toward the smallest crest he couldn't see even if he squinted hard. Waving his hand a little to recapture Sanoleth's attention, he pointed at himself first then to the man before pointing in a circle around his face. She frowned for a moment before pointing to the man herself with one hand and then copying the circle so he nodded with a slight prayer she had some idea.
"Hey, do we have anymore clean water?" she asked, and to his relief the man turned around.
And his stomach joined the collection in his throat as his mouth dropped open. A stern brow pinched together threw shadow over his face in the traditional gauntness of a venthyr, beady little eyes blazing out from under them lending to the annoyance he was displaying.
"I told you already that you do not require sustenance in this place, I do not understand your insistence to the contrary."
"Why should I believe anything you say?" she scoffed, "I was meant to be alone in this place."
"She would tell you anything to get what she wanted. It is how I came to-ulp!"
He fell immediately quiet with Renathal's conjured knife at his throat, hands immediately out in a placating motion like it was going to make a difference. It was worth it to see Sanoleth get to kneeling smiling up at him, the light in her eyes recently returned accompanying a wide smile. It made him feel somewhat proud in a strange sense.
"If I am not supposed to be here then neither are you, Prince Renathal," the snide tone came from under his blade.
"Oh do be quiet, Lurithan. You speak often for a dead man."
His face paled then rounded to look at the Prince in utter shock. "You... you recognise me?"
"It took seeing your face but yes. Considering the last time I saw you was little more than a skeleton hunched over your desk this is quite the improvement."
Renathal moved around so that he was stood between Lurithan and Sanoleth, the former still with his hands up and a shadow of a frown on his features. A pair of arms linked around his waist and squeezed tight along with the imprint of the side of Sanoleth's face against his back lighting a spark of lost warmth in his chest as he placed his free hand over her arms.
"Why do I know that name?" she asked in a whisper.
"He wrote a letter for the Stonewright that she passed onto us in the crate the dreadlord pretending to be Chelra stole," he replied flatly, narrowing his eyes as the opposing venthyr put his hands down.
"So that's what happened to it. I did begin to wonder," Lurithan said with a hum of concern.
"It does not explain how you escaped apparent death only to return now," the Prince pointed out, still keeping the point of the dagger against his throat.
"Is it not obvious? Sanoleth is her chosen Architect. I was sent here to teach her how to use these powers so that she avoids what happened when she created this forest."
"I don't want to learn from you. You've already tried to tell me that what I want doesn't matter and I refuse to believe that," Sanoleth rebutted as she unlinked her arms from him and came to his side instead.
"Then who will you learn from?" he scoffed, "Prince Renathal has no idea about the connection needed for-"
"I'll teach myself, like I always have!" she exclaimed, "You're right, I doubt he can help me with the learning, but you know what he does help with? Focus. Understanding problems. Getting me to think outside of my own head. You know, instead of assuming I have any idea what's talking about the first time I meet them out here in the void where I assumed I would be alone."
Renathal cocked an eyebrow at that. "... This forest came from a desire to avoid you, hmm?"
"Something like that," his mate said between gritted teeth as she folded her arms.
The animosity flowed off her in waves but there was a sense of disappointment from the venthyr in front of him. Renathal had the feeling he wouldn't try anything so long as he was around his mate so slowly lowered the dagger along with a cautionary glare. There was more relief he could finally drop his arms to massage the aching muscles than having the steel at his skin.
"Perhaps it would be prudent for us to set expectations... and some explanations," the Prince suggested as he slipped his arm around Sanoleth and gently pushed her toward the campfire, "As for water, I doubt it has such a scarcity that you need deny her request."
"It was more about discipline than-"
"Why? Emotional discipline perhaps but she has fought hard to keep herself fit for a war she never wanted. If water is what she says she needs then it will be given considering exactly what she just sacrificed for our people to have a remote chance against a universal menace."
It came out in far more scathing tone than he initially tried to convey yet found it deserving. Sanoleth had already made her comfortable on the leafy side of the fire, arms hugging her knees while she watched them both, only shifting to put her head on his shoulder when he joined her and found that she felt oddly cold to the touch. Lurithan took the hint to sit opposite them with a grimace crossing his legs and poking again at the fire with an errant stick.
"Renathal, I understand Sanoleth is your mate but you have no idea what it is to be an Architect. The realm itself pulls at you and demands your attention time and again. It would make sense to me that the Bride has run into a problem she cannot solve and has chosen her to be the solution."
"What kind of problem?" Sanoleth asked as she narrowed her eyes, "The anima? Or something else?"
"I don't know," he responded with a weary sigh, "The Prince can tell you that she does not bring back long-dead souls for no reason however. If I am to prepare you than I shall, if only because there is little else for me to do in this place."
Renathal could already tell that she wasn't best pleased at the idea of him staying around, lips pressed thin while squinting at him over the embers, but there was some acknowledgement that she wasn't going to fight the Prince on it. There was something about that fact that stoked his pride in an odd way, reaching up to run his fingers through her hair while he took a moment to think about what was happening.
"Why would she find the need to send a Harvester if you are already here?"
"I have no answers I'm afraid," he said with a shrug, "If I were a guessing man, she would possibly have hoped for you specifically since you're her mate. More likely to listen to your word than anyone else's."
"Ah yes, Sanoleth is most certainly known for her 'listening to orders' skills," Renathal's voice dripped with sarcasm to be rewarded with a snicker under his hand.
"Well if they're stupid orders then why would I?"
"To keep things interesting?"
"Because we need help with that."
He chuckled and was glad when she smiled. It seemed that death hadn't soured her humour, nor had pulling their link apart reduced the obvious enjoyment she had with him stroking her hair. A sigh across the fire drew his attention as Lurithan straightened up and pushed his own out of his face with an annoyed expression.
"Look, I apologise that we got off on the wrong foot. We are all here for our own reasons and mine, so far as I know, is to teach Sanoleth how to become the Architect so I can pass along my burden to her shoulders in a time where one is needed the most. I can only assume you and the other Harvesters spoke upon your own reason, Prince Renathal?" he said with a lilt of curiosity.
"I... really thought that the Accuser would wish to be the designated Harvester but to my surprise they did say that I should go," Renathal admitted.
"I know why," Sanoleth piped up.
"Oh?"
"You would've been mourning me and not able to concentrate, always wondering what was happening and when I would wake up. The Curator knows how you are so that probably helped influence the Accuser too. She's not that impartial."
A shadow of doubt crossed his face until he stopped to think about it. How had he been when she left back to Azeroth after retrieving Desire? Yes, he had followed the list to the letter, but that was proof of how well she knew him at the time. He needed something to get out of his own mind, to put something to work on in place of where the yawning despair had wanted to swallow him. The way she looked at him now, that sparkle of life that somehow hadn't been snuffed out through all that had happened to her, it made the guilt rear up again. The crushing depths in his stomach and squeezing tendrils around his chest made his fingers flicker in a squeeze that he prayed she didn't notice, yet the lilt of her head told him that she did. In a flash she had tucked a leg under herself to give the boost for a hard kiss against his lips and put her arms around him to squeeze tight.
"It wasn't your fault. None of it was," she whispered as she pulled away.
"Right emotion, wrong reason," he murmured back with a press of lips against her temple.
"Oh... right."
Sanoleth eyes dropped but he grabbed her chin to force her to look back up at him. "I appreciate that you care. I'm certain we'll get into it soon."
Those wide eyes softened just a little and she nodded, reaching up to caress his arm while relaxing his grip. Lurithan was either rolling his eyes so hard they were stuck looking at the sky or merely trying his best not to look at their affections. A quirk of a smile pulled his lips up for a split-second before returning to his mate and gesturing toward the leaf pile with his chin. She turned with an unenthusiastic smile but seem more receptive when he brought them to their feet and made to take his overcoat off. The easiest way to get her to move even unbound it seemed.
"I'll just keep watch shall I?" Lurithan commented.
"That would be helpful, thank you," Renathal responded in a bright voice that seemed to perplex him into silence.
Sanoleth waited for him to get comfortable first before laying into the rustling leaves to join him, pushing an earthy smell into the air around them until she was in her preferred position with her head on his chest and arm across his belly. Once he covered them both with his jacket she snuggled close into him and was asleep before he could finish getting it comfortable for himself. It seemed his assumption about the magical curse keeping her restrained wasn't the actual reason she could drop off so easily.
Not for the first time he wished he could do the same, tilting his head back to look up at the break in the canopy. And smiled up at her dreams of stars winking back.