【06】
So, Aeron was “escorted” to thegathering.
While he wasn’t certain why theapothecaries were so obsessed with having him be in attendance for this, theymade sure to seat him alongside the rows of soldiers so they had a clear viewof his every move. If he so much as lifted a foot or looked to make an exit,they would rush to stop him.
‘You might as well just kill me,’ he thought, irritated. Yet hismind went blank as he saw Sylvanas walk up to the podium, poised to give herspeech. Back in the Western Plaguelands, hewould not deny that sometimes when he was lonely he would think back upon whatshe said to him before she left, that if things had been different, she wouldhave started all over again.
As he observed from afar, henoted that Sylvanas was now equipped with leather armor allowing her a freerrange of movement. Also, her eyebrows would move along with her emotions andeven her steps, agile like a panther, sprang with a little more life.Everything else about her was the same as it was during their first encounter,except that instead of carrying a bow, she carried herself with the attitudeand mannerisms of a ruler.
‘I guess she no longer sees herself as a ranger now,' Aeron mused as he watched her black capeflutter in the wind. He was so lost in his own thoughts he paid no attention toWroth’s opening remarks, and failed to register Ziggi’s giddy winks at him. Itwas only a few moments, but soon he felt like he was back at the familiar gorybattlefield once again, with Sylvanas’ voice ringing in his ears, overlappingwith the speech coming from the podium. Still elegant, still arrogant, nowundeniably a tad bit more cruel.
‘What would Lavinia think if she saw Sylvanas now?’ Aeron dared notcontinue this train of thought and instead, shifted his foot unconsciously.
“Hey!” barked an apothecary,glaring at him.
...How annoying.
“──and now, our goal is right before us, within thatblack ivory tower we see whenever we raise our heads to the horizon.” Sylvanas’voice had taken over Aeron’s head, her icy cold tone pulling him out of hisflashbacks. “There was someone who made us this way, who abandoned us… But wenever forgot who we were and never lost sight of our aims.”
Her voice sounded so distant, yetit successfully lit up the souls of each and every Forsaken present. Aeronscanned the soldiers around him -- he had never seen such unity from thembefore, chanting Sylvanas’ name in unison.
Except for Aeron, who could notfind any reason to partake in their fervor over Sylvanas’ rousing remarks.
“Revenge.” She clearly enunciatedthis word, packing all the hate she’s stored until this moment.
“Revenge!” the group roaredbelow, “For the Banshee Queen! REVENGE!”
“All of this is not solely for mybehalf.” Sylvanas grinned and took a step forward. “This is for all the pain wehave endured! I want you to exact our revenge upon the man who sits on theFrozen Throne, upon those who despise us in the name of ‘justice’, and uponthis heartless world!”
“For revenge! We are the Undercity! We are the Forsaken!”
──Sylvanas, is this what you really want?
The fanatical craze among thearmy sent a chill down Aeron’s spine. When the morale rally was over, Aerondidn’t want to stay a second longer. He ignored the apothecary’s glare, turnedaround and left.
“Get back here, Aeron! You are toremain here awaiting Master Wroth’s orders!” The apothecary’s piercing voicefollowed his steps, driving him insane.
“What does he want from me? I don’t report to him.”
“You don’t report to him, but heis in charge here, so you’d better show some respect, you imbecile.” The hooded apothecary gritted his teeth tostop himself from cursing out loud. “Stop trying my patience and follow me.”
Aeron followed him to the commandtower -- as if he had any other choice in the matter. No specific orders weregiven, aside being from being available on command, and everyone else carriedon as if he wasn’t here.
He zoned out again and theDreadlord’s voice rang from his memories.
‘QueenSylvanas is fighting with all her might. She is about to face her biggest enemy, but she doesn’t have anyone toaid her...’
Few months back, this arrogantDreadlord suddenly showed up in front of Aeron and the first thing to come outof his mouth was a request to go to Northrend. At the time, Aeron had just leftthe northern Eastern Kingdoms and was about to travel to southern Kalimdor.
‘How does the Undercity’s war concern me?’
‘TheDark Lady needs you. Even if I hadn’t sought you out, eventually she would havecome for you. Not being part of theUndercity is precisely the reason why.’ The Dreadlord was weary and he wasunable to convince Aeron until he explained further. 'The Queen is morehelpless than you think; way more than you can imagine.’
If Aeron hadn’t been persuadedand genuinely believed in the Dreadlord’s words, he would already be relaxingin Kalimdor by now. However, after witnessing this rally and the accompanyingspeech, he suddenly found himself puzzled over why he was even needed here inthe first place.
──Sylvanas had everything under control, right? She wasa qualified Queen. No matter which way he analyzed it, Aeron couldn’t seehimself as the ‘game changer’ the Dreadlord made him out to be.
“You can go back now, Aeron.Looks like the High Executor didn’t need you after all.” A clerk walked overand informed him as the sky darkened and the rally had dissolved.
Finally.
He was too tired to be angry, andtherefore tried to part ways with a simple “Thanks” before the clerk halted himonce more.
“Don’t go through the maingate. Head through there.” The clerkpointed at another path.
Aeron was briefly confused buttoo exhausted to even bother questioning. He took the small path through thenarrow stone walls and pushed open the only door at the end.
And there she was.
Sylvanas.
Abruptly appearing right before him.
Shocked, he scanned the room. Itwas dark and damp, except for the flickering candle illuminating the maps anddocuments scattered across the table. Sylvanas was barely visible in thislight, sitting in the largest chair in the room, facing Aeron with her gazefirmly fixed on him.
The path didn’t lead him out ofthe command tower, but instead took him directly to the command room.“Sorry...” he immediately attempted to pull the door shut, but Sylvanas calledout to him.
“Sit.” she commanded.
Aeron remained standing in thedoorway, overwhelmed.
“Close the door behind you. Ordid you fall asleep standing?” Her irritated voice finally animated him again.Aeron followed her orders, closed the door and pulled up a chair.
“Um, Your Majesty...”
“I’m surprised. I had a few guesses what you might look likeunder that mask... but your face is so remarkably intact I can’t figure out whyyou wore a mask back then.”
“Thank you for the compliment,Your Majesty.” He awkwardly touched his face. He wasn’t expecting it to be thefirst thing Sylvanas would bring up.
With half of her body hidden inthe darkness, she crossed her legs and lazily propped her chin with her hand.“How are you getting along here?”
“Alright.”
“Uh-huh.” She lowered her voice alittle. “Wroth didn’t give you a hard time, did he?”
“Nope.”
“I heard you visited theUndercity?”
"Yes, once. Only passing through.”
Then, after a short moment of silence, the queencalled out “Aeron.”
“Yes, Ma’am.”
“Do you understand what it means when the clerkinstructs you to not go through the main gate?" Slowly, she extended herarm to move around the tactical battle pieces on the table. “It means whateverhappens in this command room is off the record and not a soul will know whattook place here. Is that clear?”
Aeron felt as though he wasstruck by a mallet. He never thought hewould become a pawn for Sylvanas.
“Let’s start over: What do youthink of Venomspite?”
“...I think Wroth is trying hardto gather the loyalty of the army.” He awkwardly cleared his throat.
“But obviously not enough,right?” Sylvanas wasn’t too satisfied with this answer, but a smile was slowlyforming on her face. “Let’s speak frankly with each other, Aeron. I suspect someone is planning a revolt inVenomspite.”
His heart sank. “...What, exactly, do you have planned forme?” Aeron quietly asked. He almost felt like there was no choice when facingthe Dark Lady.
“Officially join the ranks of theUndercity. I will assign you to be the regent here. If necessary, your authority would overruleanyone else’s” Sylvanas twirled around the tactical piece until it toppled overon itself, and then she set it straight again. “Of course, assuming you agreeto this.”
“You’re not being completelyhonest.” He tried to hold back his rage, “You’re only granting me this becauseyou suspect Wroth means to revolt.”
“You could say that.”
He gritted his teeth. Aeron felt the elven ranger from his pastwas slowly fading from his memories, replaced by this beautiful yet lurid facein front of him. She was still undoubtedly Sylvanas. But Aeron’s fury wasreaching its crescendo. This fury began to coalesce the moment he first setfoot in Venomspite, and at the time he couldn’t understand why.
But it all came clear to him whenhe saw Sylvanas’ face again.
“Milady, I can recommend someonewho is more suitable--” He managed to calmly spit out these words.
“From Venomspite? There’s noneed. I can’t trust anyone here.” She raised her eyebrow, scoffed off hissuggestion and laughed mockingly. “I’m sure Varimathras brought it up already,but you should know I--”
“Your majesty, may I speak thetruth?” Aeron cut her off.
Sylvanas was hesitant, but shegestured him to proceed. “Carry on.”
“I know you couldn’t standhumans, but can you no longer tolerate Forsaken as well?” His lowered voicesounded threatening and furious.
The tactical piece fell over onthe table again.
Sylvanas responded with a deadcold silence. Her hand stopped toying with the piece, came back and held herlowered forehead. Her faded golden bangs covered her face and the twistedexpressed that flashed across her face. ── Aeron assumed the hot-bloodedranger from his past had resurfaced again, the one who was willing to love andhate, who was willing to admit and grow from her weaknesses.
But when she raised her headagain, there was same icy Sylvanas from moments earlier.
“I’ve asked you to make achoice.” she slowly broke the silence.
“...What will you do once youhave your revenge?” He ignored the defensive tone of her voice. “Where will you lead your followers after youhave your revenge?”
“Listen, Aeron...”
“Look at your soldiers outside!They will most certainly feel it if you doubt their loyalties! If you couldonly see your face right now! You’re testing me, testing everyone. It’s thevery same look when you talk to Wroth.” He bent forward, aggressively lashingout at the elf in front of him, hoping she would respond.
But she would spare no furtherwords. She coldly stared at Aeron.
He shot up from his seat, glaredinto her emotionless eyes and dumped all of his built-up rage onto her. “Youasked me what I think of Venomspite? Well, it’s a fucking ridiculous dump of anoutpost! Hell, it’s both fucking ridiculous and hilarious. From its very nameto the faces of the soldiers -- it’s not somewhere you carry out your plan,it’s a fucking coliseum! You gather all of the men you don’t trust and stickthem here and leave them to fight to the death like dogs!”
When he was finished, neither ofthem said anything for a while. Aeron was eagerly hoping the elf would leap toattack him out of frustration, or better yet, behead him. Was all of thisbecause she was close to marching on the Frozen Throne? She had turned so coldand distant, as if the void itself has devoured what remained of her heart,leaving no trace of sympathy nor struggle -- just a twisted visage of hatred.
“Are you done?” she finallyresponded after a long pause..
“No.” He spat on the ground. “Ifyou don’t care about the plague experiments here, then at least stop thepointless pollution. D.E.H.T.A. sentanother letter of complaint today -- I bet Wroth didn’t tell you that, did he?”
“......”
“I’m done.” He shrugged.
Sylvanas shifted in her seat, butmade no response to Aeron’s outburst. Maybe Wroth was right to withhold thatcomplaint from her; she didn’t give a damn about what a bunch ofenvironmentalists had to say.
“Wroth still has his uses. I don’t need the researchdone here, but I definitely need someone to fend off the Scarlet Onslaught.”
“You should really listen to yourown words,” He sighed and backed up a few steps. “Can’t you see? This is exactly why they want to revolt.You’re too cruel, my Queen. Eventually,this darkness will consume you.”
“I don’t need your judgement.”She leaned back again, as arrogant as ever, and firmer than before. “In time,my methods will be vindicated. But whatI do need is for you to weigh yourchoices.”
Aeron stared at her.
"I’ll give you two choices:the first one is to formally join the Undercity and become the only person whoever threw curses to my face and live to tell about it.” She stuck up twofingers and continued, “The second is to throw open the door behind you andleave Venomspite forever.”
“You’ll kill me if I choose thelatter, won’t you?”
“Most definitely,” she grinned.“Understand that if you choose the latter, once you leave Venomspite you willhenceforth be an enemy of the Forsaken. Once our business here in Northrend iscomplete, if you’ve somehow managed to survive, I will hunt you down andpersonally claim your head. You can decide for yourself if that’s an idlethreat or not.”
He couldn’t help but barkback,“I’m guessing it’s more of a grudge against me.” He turned around andreached for the door knob.
“You haven’t changed a singlebit.” Her voice turned surprisingly soft. “Tell me one last thing, how isLavinia?”
“Thank you for thinking of her atthe last minute...although she died.”
“I know. Otherwise you wouldn’tbe here,” she replied somewhat bitterly. “But I wanted to know how she died.”
‘Is she truly concerned or is she trying to humiliate me?’
He couldn’t answer that question,but he knew he was crying on the inside, as if part of his soul was beingripped open. He had tried his best to put Lavinia behind him, except Sylvanaskept picking open his wounds, forcing him to succumb to the agony.
“By the river. Sometimes, Laviniawent to gather water and she was found by a Forsaken. By the time I got to her,that bastard had eaten most of her body.” He avoided looking at Sylvanas rightnow and forced out these words.
“...You...” her voice soundedbewildered.
“He ran off and I don’t know whoit was, nor did I care.” He paused, almost unable to continue. “Only the headand legs were still intact. So, yes, I did visit the Undercity. I found atailor there and asked him to sew Lavinia’s skin onto my face.”
Sylvanas shot up from her seat ashe finished his sentence.
“Farewell.” He walked out of the command room.
“Wait!” Sylvanas shouteduncontrollably, but Aeron had already shut the door behind him, leaving her inthe dark. “Get back here at once! Aeron!”
Aeron marched off, withoutresponding to her shouting. He was so focused on leaving he didn’t even botherapologizing to anyone he bumped into, nor did he care for any noises aroundhim. The world was collapsing under his feet, every inch of skin on his facewas reminding him the ugly truth that Lavinia had perished miserably.
'I shouldn’t have come to Northrend.' Neither of the women from hismemory -- regardless of whether it was Sylvanas or Lavinia -- remained in thisworld.
He crossed the plagued snowfield,walked through the poison catapults with their fearsome markings, and thenear-frozen giant bats. He continued walking, until an arrow whistled past hisears, nearly grazing him. From behind, the sound of Ziggi’s laughter returnedAeron to his senses.
“You’re walking the wrong way,soldier.” Ziggi grinned, put away the bow and caught up to Aeron. “Everyone’ssaying you’ve been cleaning up bat shit -- or was it Wroth’s? Well, either way,it doesn’t matter. I know better -- you went to see the Queen, right?”
Aeron turned to face Ziggi, andwatched briefly in silence. “I’m leaving, Ziggi.”
"Did you mention me in frontof the Queen? What did she say?”
“Friend,” he repeated, “I’m leaving.”
The wind picked up and began tohowl in the background while Ziggi shrugged and attempted to sneer with acrooked jaw. “...We’re not friends.” Jaw bones cracked, the empty eye socketsstared right at Aeron. "You’re well aware of this, aren’t you? There is nofriendship in Venomspite. You can’t trust anyone. I’ve warned you before, youuseless piece of crap.”
“If possible, I wish we couldbe.” Aeron sighed, “Maybe, somewhere else.”
“You’re running away?”
“Yes, far far away from here.”
“You’ll regret it, Aeron.” Ziggiraised the bow again, despite how difficult it had become to aim in thisblizzard. "If it’s somewhere else, we can only be enemies.”
“Even if you let that arrow flyI’ll still treat you as a friend...” Aeron turned around and proceeded to head into the forest. “Goodbye, I’m leaving.”
“...Screw you.” Ziggi struggledto hold the bow steady, and watched Aeron slowly fade into the forest.
In the end, even after Aeronvanished into the forest, the arrow was never released from the bow.
Written by: Ms.Ursus thibetanus formosanus
Translated by: Vicky Cheng
