Amber - 5 (An Order of Amber) (Patreon)

For all my meeting with Darius had gone as well, if not better, than I could have hoped it still wasn't a resolution. It didn't really solveanything, it just meant things were progressing and I had more people on my side; or I suppose I was on Darius' side now.

Even if I didn't agree with all of his decisions. I still thought rescuing Calia Menethil would be a worthwhile act, and even if shipsweren't feasible... we had a gryphon. One, but I could likely barter or beg aid from the Matriarch if it was for a specified length of time. Rescuing a Princess, her daughter and her husband... Lorna would certainly be willing to help me. For all that she was a crack shot with her rifle and incredibly close with Donovan she still leaned into the Knightly training Dame Hilda was giving her. Giving her the opportunity to ride in and rescue a princess, or two princesses?

She'd leapt at it before I even finished explaining.

There was a lot to consider about the Gilnean Brigade itself, and Darius and I had spent a long time debating on it. Every man sent with Jaina Proudmoore would be one less for the civil war, one less soldier to free us from Genn's tyranny. And yet for all we needed them the most important battles would happen there, on Kalimdor.

I was already working to sketch a map and provide every note I could. My cartography skills had, if anything, decayed from before and I wasn't working with an easy-to-work-with computer program like I had back then, or the pencils I'd used before that. Those were old memories now... but the result was serviceable. Harpies, Quillboar, and Centaur; the most common threats. Kaldorei, Furbolg, Tauren; the possible allies.

There was more to say about the allies than the foes. Tyrande and Malfurion, of course, but also Jarod. I barely remembered him at all, but unlike those two he actually knew how to fight a war. Had lead one. I couldn't recall whybut I didn't have a high opinion of Tyrande.

Carine, of course, and Magatha. The good Tauren and the scheming Tauren.

It would be interesting to see what came of Jaina knowing all of this in advance, and how alliances and allegiances shifted as a result. So long as it didn't somehow result in everything falling apart because of me. It would be a bare-faced lie to say I wasn't afraid of that.

My part in things, beyond the notes, was frustratingly minor. I couldn't help recruit the nobility to our side, I was already reaching the limit of how quickly I could teach my students, Celestine was the one with the connections amongst the other Witches and building bridges there. I was the newcomer, the youngest, and my help wouldn't be helpfulin that regard. Heather and Joseline were better suited to it, and both had committed themselves to support me.

Heather wholeheartedly as my friend, Joseline to help her daughter.

"So, what now?" I mumbled frustratedly as I put down my pen and rubbed at my temples, the flickering of the sole candle in my home dancing in a curious draft. The levers available were moving and I couldn't make them move any faster. I was almost done with my task for Jaina.

Did I go to the city right away? Find a warlock and enlist their aid to research curses? We hadto obtain the Worgen cure earlier...

The Scythe of Elune would still be on Kalimdor, and I didn't know where. It would be years before whatever Night Elf found it did so and dragged it to Duskwood. If they even did so this time around. Belysra was someone I needed to contact, and I could include a request for her with my message to Jaina but not much more than that at this time. If nothing else her calming ritual would let us save the people even if it didn't cure them.

What methods could defeat the curse? The calming ritual didn't deal with the physical aspects. What was the root of it, anyway? Goldrinn, obviously, it was his Pack Form that had become broken with his rage, his fury, and twisted those Druids who took it up. Rendering them Feral.

But it wasn't until... something,the Scythe? Presumably the Scythe, got involved that they became Worgen. The Scythe of Elune. So, the curse was due to the mixing of a Wild God's emotions and Elune's power.

"Why?" My notebooks weren't good for an answer. Either it hadn't been specified or I never came across it. I hadn't known everything, even back then, and I'd forgotten more since. "The moon drives the Worgen to change, into a fury. Does Goldrinn have something against her?"

That could be it. And if it was, that actually left open options. Elune wasn't Azeroth's only moon, so if I substituted drawing on her power for the Blue Child it might have some effect. "Or gaining the blessing of another Wild God somehow."

Could Worgen infect a Druid who was shapeshifted, or did shapeshifting into a different shape do anything with to how Curse progressed? It was an interesting thought, but not one I had any real way of testing.

Nor did I have a way of getting the blessing of a Wild God either. I still didn't know if there were any here in the Eastern Kingdoms; I'd thought the Ravens... but no, nothing had come out while I was there. Would a Loa be able to intervene? There were a number around, The Amani had the Bear, Dragonhawk, Eagle, and a... cat? Then there with the Witherbark and other Forest Trolls.

But I quickly discarded that train of thought, it wasn't worth pursuing.

"Trolls wouldn't help me if I was on fire. Probably just wait until I was cooked and eat me." I grumbled, waste of an idea. The candle danced in the breeze, the wind curious. "Thinking about the Loa, but it's a dead end." I sighed.

So I had trying to work the Blue Child into things, and Tal'Doren's presence would likely help as well. The Wild Home had helped soothe the Worgen if I remembered things right, was where the Ritual of Balance was performed, and I had felt... comfortedbut the moonlight there. I jotted it down, but it wasn't something I could work on that often; the Blue Child came and went as it pleased a lot of the time.

Another part of Azeroth's wacky celestial mechanics alongside the Zodiac.

I'd picked up some of the herb from around Tal'Doren, the Silverleaf lookalike... I needed a name for it. It was still in stasis, I needed to plant some; probably a pain in the arse to grow but I knew it was important.

For a moment I froze, connecting the dots in my head.

Silverleaf, herbs, alchemy.

I snatched up my notebook and flipped through the pages. Alchemist, alchemist. "Krennan Arenas." The Royal Alchemist who saved Tess Greymane's life as a child and created a tonic that restored somedegree of sanity and control to those turned into feral Worgen.

He likely hadn't encountered the... oh, sod it. Moonleaf. It had near enough glowed in the moonlight. Shoddy name but it'd do. He likely hadn't ever found it before, with how difficult it was to reach that far into the Blackwald, but things could change in the coming years. Genn would lead his stupid hunting parties into the woods to try and keep the Worgen secret, the Witches might get driven out, the forest changedand that calming blue-green grass turned red.

Was it part of his cure? I definitelyneeded to start cultivating some if it was.

"Another reason to head to the capital," I muttered. The Spellwakers, Krennan likely lived there, and visiting Tinker Coilgear again wouldn't be terrible either.

Likely against my better judgement I was still tempted by the Warlock idea.

Even if I didn't find any more reasons to go there it was more than enough. Get the Moonleaf planted and settled enough that I could leave for a time, convince Heather to cover my lessons for a while, and take a month to head out and come back. Summer, most likely.

I scribbled it down in my plans and leaned back, pondering. I'd need to get another letter from Darius for Krennan, or whatever made up Gilneas' alchemist collective. Something I shouldhave looked into before. I didn't have any doubt he'd give it to me.

It had caught me off guard that, when Darius had declared he believed me, he had both wanted and listenedto my thoughts on how to proceed. He hadn't just taken the information and gone off to make plans of his own.

In the back of my head I'd always thought that once I told the people in charge, the ones with the power to act and the age and experience to make decisions, all that I could they would effectively ignore me. Maybe ask questions to get more information. But asking me for what I thought should be done? It hadn't featured. Even just including me in the planning hadn't really featured. In what world would they involve someone so young, so unimportant, in their planning to save the world?

Compared to the likes of Jaina, Antonidas, Thrall, or Sylvanas... I was a nobody.

But I wasn't dealing with them, was I? I was working with Darius Crowley, who wasn't unimportant, but in the grand scheme of things he was a second to a second-rate power. Where Genn would be an adviser to Varian and Anduin, Darius would be an adviser to an adviser.

If I compared myself to himinstead of themI wasn't unimportant at all.

"Huh," I said, the thought slotting into place and making complete sense. I was a small fish in the wider ocean of Azeroth, but this wasn't that. This was Gilneas. To Darius, Lorna, Celestine, and certainly to Vivi, I wasimportant. Even if I wasn't their equal – though I'm sure Vivi saw me that way – I was worth listening to. "So, they're going to want my input."

I thumbed the pages in my notebook.

That changed things. I couldn't just think about my personal contributions, I needed to think of how I might shape and impact the future of Gilneas as a whole with the influence I had.

"What comes after?" I whispered. "What comes after the Scourge, after the Worgen, after the rebellion?" Genn Greymane couldn't remain king. Darius wouldn't stand for it, the Alliance would despise it, and the damage he had done in such a short time was undercutting all his father had built.

Planning for the future had never been my strongest point, taking into account so many things to create a cohesive whole. I fixated too easily, as I had with my mother, on finding Antonidas, Jaina, or Krasus and Rhonin to tell them. My reveal to Modera had been one of desperation, not careful planning or forethought.

There would always be another calamity, another threat that needed to be faced. Those we would have to take as they came.

What was importantwas keeping Gilneas whole enough that we couldtake them. Lordaeron had been, would be, gutted and torn apart. Alterac was in ruins and traitorous besides. Stromgarde had departed and would fall to internal struggles I scarcely remembered. Stormwind had been broken and faced its own rebellions, and, of course, the whole Onyxia thing. Kul Tiras and Daelin... Dalaran's falling towers.

Ironforge, Gnomeregan, the Kaldorei. They were little better off, each with troubles of their own.

"We can't be divided," I said, with finality. That was the core point of it – and I didn't mean in the sense of the Alliance. I meant Gilneas itself.

Genn Greymane had torn my home in two, those who followed the King because he was the Greymane, and those who suffered so greatly from his actions that they could not condone him to remain. And that divide wouldn't leave just because one side won a civil war.

The wind brushed my shoulders, a soft caress of agreement.

Liam could take the throne, but that wouldn't solve things. No matter how good a king he might be he was another Greymane, the son of the man who did this to us. Without a loud public declaration, or even going so far as to join the revolt against his father, it wouldn't be enough to placate those who resented the king.

But he hadto take the throne. A Greymane had to be king, for continuity after nearly a thousand years of rule, to keep the Royalists from revolting when the Northgate Rebellion won – it wasn't even worth thinking of what would happen should we lose.

There wouldn't be a cell in Stoneward Prison for me. Gilneas had no way to hold those with magic captive.

After a few moments of thought, the answer became obvious: Not all kings had to be absolute like the human Kingdoms were. Even Ironforge and Silvermoon placed immense power, near total, in the hands of their kings as far as I knew. Only Dalaran and Gnomeregan were truly different; from what I knew of Kul Tiras the Proudmoores were kings in all but name.

A true democracy wouldn't work, without a precedent and tradition behind it voter turnout would be abysmal and corruption rampant. It wasn't something you could force, the institutions needed time to grow, the people time to learn. A council, then, with powers equal to or superseding that of the king. Parliament. A house of elected peers, lords and other notables – and I would absolutelybe angling for representation of the Witches alongside the Church – and second to represent the common folk.

It mirrored what I knew best from before, what I could understand, even if it wasn't perfect. The commons would almost certainly end up being for the wealthy and connected, but even if it was as simple as a mayor or burgher from major towns like Keel Harbour having a say it would be a step in the rightdirection.

Piece by piece I pried all that I could remember out of my mind. With how much I despisedFirst Past the Post I wasn't even going to mention it. Even something as simple as Instant-Runoff was better by miles.

As proposals went the result of my writing was a horrifically convoluted mess, but it was the first draft. I had time to revise it, work on it, to make something presentable. No first draft was a masterpiece.

Leaning back in my seat I stretched, glancing out the window and finding it was well and truly dark. My room was lit with balls of starlight that I must've cast without even thinking about it.

No doubt it would be changed drastically if it was even considered, others would have their own plans, their own ideas for how to twist Gilneas into something more preferable to them. Some form of compromise would have to be made.

But for all it wasn't directly useful to our struggle against the most immediate threats... it was something worth doing. Worth trying for.

-oOoOo-

"–And Howard's finallysettling down, mother insisted and wants to see grand-babies. Maybe I'll get a little niece soon?" Vivi mused.

"What's her name?" Lorna asked.

"Isolde Merrowfall." Vivi answered, "I don't know her well, but mother approves. Which means she's probably boring." She whined petulantly. "Maybe she at least likes riding? I could tolerate her as a sister-in-law if she at least likes to go riding."

I hummed, Vivi was ever the tomboy. Not that I minded. "With a name like that, maybe she likes to go sailing or fishing?"

She laughed. "I wouldn't mind going sailing! Her family lives beside Emberstone, so maybe. Not really anything for it around here, the river I guess? Hey, Lorna–"

"The Ember's not big enough for proper ships," I said, answering first. "Barges and small boats for three or four people but no real ships."

There were canals closer to the capital, but not around here. Gilneas mostly used its natural riverine system rather than a constructed one; I got to see a fair few small boats moving up and down the River Ember from my house.

When I had more time to myself I should make a kayak. Messing about on the water was fun.

"The Northgate is, though porting ships up into the highlands past the falls is hard. I've seen men do it, carry a ship all the way up to the lake," Lorna said, "But it must be backbreaking. I never understood why they did it."

"Easier to build a ship in the shipyards and move it up than build a new yard on the lake for it." I shrugged, it was still kind of crazy to do but it couldmake sense as a one-off thing. "Probably a boat for someone who wanted the prestige of the biggest ship on the lake, I know Heather's village makes their own fishing skiffs but they're not terribly impressive."

Our conversations kept going, wandering from topic to topic as we rode down the country path. It was an almost idyllic summer's day, though the lack of rain over the last month was starting to turn the grasses yellow and I personally liked it a bit colder. I didn't mind seeing my friends' summer dresses, though.

It was a nice break from my work before I headed off to the capital. Between preparing my notes for Jaina into something comprehensible, teaching, healing, meeting with Darius regularly for more planning, and working on my parliament proposal my days had been painfully full of late.

After a while we came to a stop, Vivi protesting her hunger and I pulled out a blanket and the picnic I'd crammed into my bags and laid them out in the shade of an Alder tree.

"I still get amazed by what magic can do sometimes," Lorna said as I pulled another carefully wrapped sandwich out of my bag, and then went back for the desserts. "I really must get you to make me one."

"Hey!" Vivi protested, "I asked for one a year ago and still don't have it. You can wait in line. So there." She stuck her tongue out for a moment.

"But I'm her liege lady," Lorna said, puffing herself up. "Obviously Gwen should provide for me first."

"Wouldn't that mean I should make one for Lord Crowley first?" I mused, tapping my chin as if I was seriously considering it.

They both turned to me aghast.

Vivi pouted at me, her lip trembling. "No way, you promised!"

"My father has no need for one, but with Donovan–" Lorna cut herself off, and eyed me suspiciously.

I tried to hold back my grin, but I don't think I stopped myself from smirking. "I never promised, Vivi. I said I'd consider it."

She crawled over the blanket towards me. "But I really want one!" She whined, her lip wobbling.

Her red eyes shone with emotion I knewhad to be fake, but my resolve still wavered anyway.

"It would make a gift for when mother presents me to court. Don't you want me to have something you made with me?"

I swallowed as she tugged on my dress plaintively like I was denying her some fundamental right by refusing. "F–fine," I said, turning my head with my cheeks aflame. "Fine, I'll do it." Her face lit up with triumph, the fake tears she was making vanishing in an instant. "But..." I grimaced, I didn't have time to do it before I left and I needed to focus on my other projects, even if they were still dreams without any real substance. "But I don't know when I can get around to it. I'll be very busy soon."

Viv huffed. "More busy than usual?"

With a wan smile, I nodded. This was the first time in a while I'd put time aside to see them; I hadn't visited Vivi or mother at all this spring. I hoped she was settling in well with the reconstruction of Northglade on this side of the wall.

"I've been working on a project for Darius recently, and it's not going to let up any time soon," I said. He didn't want his daughter to know, to have to worry about the future. She wasn't a child, even legally an adult, but I didn't want to see her happiness consumed by worry either. Nor Vivi's. So for the moment, I agreed, but we couldn't keep it secret forever.

Soon enough we'd have to tell them about my future knowledge, the coming threats, and bring them both into the Northgate Rebellion. Lorna was going to be essential; so much of war was deception that having the only aerial scout could turn the tide on its own.

But with Darius recognising that I had chosen to interact with him, to work for him, based on what I knew he would do I worried how Lorna would react. He had said it was simply politics, but Lorna... Lorna was my friend.

Guilt gnawed in me at the idea that I'd usedher, but I'd had ulterior motives from the start. Even though it wasn't malicious, meant to harm, and I had never meant to be anything other than her friend... I didn't know if it would change things.

"Father has been calling you to his office often recently," Lorna said, a frustrated frown spoiling her good looks.

Vivi looked at me quizzically, but I shook my head. She shrugged and lay down on the blanket beside me, resting her head against my leg.

"Gwen'd tell us if we needed to know." She said confidently, smiling up at me.

I smiled back, the simple trust she had for me buoying my heart. "It's... We're still only planning and talking. Before anything concrete happens if Darius doesn't tell you both, I will."

"We'll hold you to that," Lorna said.

Vivi hummed, grabbing one of the cookies I'd baked and nibbling on it.

A part of me wanted to tell both of them everythingwhen I did, to tell them stories about the world before. Some things would be too surreal, too strange, too crazyto talk about... but that I'd had another life? For all I was Gwen now, for all I wasn't even vaguely who I had been before, I still clung to some parts of Elwyn and held onto them tightly.

"Hey, Lorna, did anything happen with Lord Frennals' proposal?" Vivi said, changing the subject. "Or did you 'forget' and go flying when he showed up?"

Lorna rolled her eyes and turned up her nose at Vivi. "I greeted him properly, as afforded to his station, and enjoyed a pleasant walk through the gardens with his son. Unfortunately, I don't believe he was comfortable with my martial practice, nor... well, Donovan."

"So," Vivi said, a smirk growing. "You're still hoping Prince Liam will sweep you off your feet?"

"Vivi!" Lorna said, a blush on her face as she spun on our friend.

"Oh?" I looked down at Vivi. "The Prince?"

Vivi nodded, a little awkward in her current position. "Uh-huh. We went to the Noble Garden festival and I caught her dancing with the prince~!"

"It's– Liam wanted someone who wouldn't–" Lorna stopped, taking a moment to compose herself. "His Highness merely wished for someone to shield him from all those who sought to do little more than curry favour. We've known each other since we were children, and we spent most of our time talking about his sister. She's becoming quite precocious and always sneaking out." There was the faintest of blushes on Lorna's cheeks, though her eyes weren't happy. "Besides, it wouldn't work. I have to continue the Crowley name."

I was about to reach out a comforting hand to her when her gaze became mischievous and turned towards Vivi.

"What about you, Vivianne?" Lorna said, "You're of age to receive betrothal offers; how has your mother been getting on with your matches?"

Vivi glared back at her for a moment before crossing her arms and looking away. "Miserably." She muttered, barely loud enough to hear.

Something about the thought made my belly churn uncomfortably. Lorna was always going to be around, crush on the prince or not; these were herlands. So long as I lived here we could remain close, and... though I wanted to travel the world I liked it here. Close enough to society to be part of it but rural enough to feel comfortable.

But Vivi... she was the second child, a spare and a daughter. It wasn't anywhere near as bad as things had been for women back on earth, but there were still expectations; more so for the nobility than common folk. No one expected me to marry, to wed, to... well, do anything. I was a Witch, I was outside of the rules, but even a normal peasant girl could decide to take up arms and learn to fight. Dame Hilda had come from such beginnings.

It was how things worked that Vivi's parents could decide her match for her, and she would be forced by society to go along with it unless she chose to enter a calling like the Church.

She would hate being forced to pray to the light each day. If she could join the paladins... but the Silver Hand was almost exclusively male. Lordaeron was worse than Gilneas for women, to my knowledge, and their institutions reflected that. She would hate being forced to fit the mould of a noble woman, with embroidery and quiet poise, for some fopthat her mother picked out for her too.

And I would hate not having her in my life.

"I'm going to practice," Vivi said, getting up and walking off.

Taking her training blade off her horse she set herself into a stance, the blade held out in front of her, breathing steadily.

"I really don't like Vivi's mother," I muttered. Isobel didn't try at allto work with Vivi's wants. She stilldisapproved of our friendship, on the occasions I met with her at dinner in Northglade Castle she either barely spoke to me or tested my etiquette in the most obtuse manner on the obscurest subjects she could. Doing all she could to find fault with my presence. "Isn't it good enough that Dame Hilda thinks Vivi has potential?"

I knew it wasn't. But it shouldbe, she'd told me Howard had no head for a fight. He could rule their lands while she defended them, it was a promise they'd made as children when she'd taken a practice sword and beaten up the bullies going after her older brother.

But her mother didn't agree.

"If she just tried, legitimately tried, I think Isobel would be more considerate," Lorna said, shaking her head. "But Vivi doesn't wantto marry, she confessed to me she wants love but not if it means being tied down. But neither of us are likely to get exactly what we wish for. I know Lord Bainsbury's wife was a soldier before they fell in love and married; his son would've been a good match for her but she wouldn't even speak to him." She glanced at me. "And besides, shestarted this conversation."

For all nobles had a lot of advantages over the rest of us common folk, I was honestly glad I wasn't one of them. Too many obligations; not that I hadn't ended up with a mountain of them anyway... but I'd chosen to take them on.

"I suppose you're right," I said, though I still didn't like Isobel. Vivi was best when she was free to be her energetic self.

Like now, as she started to move. Taking her body through the motions of a dance with a blade in hand, drawing it alongside to cut and slice the air; a grace to her movements that was mesmerising.

She hadn't taken at all well to meditation until I tried to take her through movingwhile doing it. I always sat in peace, with the sounds of nature, but Vivi needed to move. We'd found the most success with dancing, and it had been a lot of fun learning with her as we came up with ways to get her in tune with herself. It took Dame Hilda's work to incorporate a blade, with her saying what we were trying to do was closest to something she had seen from Silvermoon Rangers on those rare occasions they fought in melee.

But all that work had paid off. The wind stirred at her back, dancing along the length of her blade as she came to the culmination of this set of movements. A final slash as she twirled, and a blade of wind flew out; dispersing into the distance without anything to strike.

The only signs of it were the magic I had seen building within her, and the yellowed grass swaying in a wind from nowhere.

I couldn't help but smile as she turned around, beaming with pride, and met my gaze. We had no real knowledge of how Monks worked, even a book I found about the Warrior Monks of the Old Monastery had been more about Pugilism and the Light than anything related to Monks, but there had been real progress.

Vivi quickly returned, the wind joining in her dance; the elemental I knew following her movements and more joining it.

"She's getting faster," Lorna said, looking at our friend fondly.

We fell into watching Vivi for some time, enjoying the summer's day and peaceful company as we filled each other in on what we'd missed in each other's lives since we'd last spoken.