The Things We've Lost

Author: Janna

You don't know what you've got until you lose it.

Such an old, deadbeat saying. But Eudaimonia, and too many of her Draenei brethren, knew its meaning only too well. If only she had known the hardships her life would bring, she might have appreciated so many more things the way they deserved to be appreciated. Her parents, for instance, or their home in Shattrath. Oh, how she regretted not having known the value of their peaceful life until in one violent, horrible night, it was gone forever.

Those days were long past now. Sitting here now as she did, in her workshop deep inside the Exodar, watching her two assistants bowed over their own respective projects, she let out a contended sigh. Yes: this was where she wanted to be now. Not on the battlefield, where fate had carried her. Not by the side of her dying companion – Mahdaan, another person she had not realised was important to her until his tragic departure. Leading the Echoes into Draenor had been an adventure, for sure. Reluctant to take on the role designated for her, she nevertheless had had high hopes at the beginning of their expedition. Then everything fell apart, yet again.

War was an ugly thing.

Eudaimonia shook her head to disperse her reverie. About to turn back to the robot before her – disassembled into its parts, ready to receive an upgrade – she was interrupted by a familiar sound. Much like a toad's croaking, she thought. She smiled and stood to offer Atrophus her seat.

“Greetings, brother.”

He bowed his head politely to greet her, and sat.

“Greetings, Eudaimonia. I see the three of you are busy today.” His glance wandered over the robot parts on her desk, to the Gnome quietly talking to herself while drawing, to the Dwarf who had just given a loud curse and kicked his malfunctioning brewbot.

She suppressed a chuckle. “As per usual. Ah! I have something for you, brother... a proposal, if you will. Hold on, just let me find it, I must have left it somewhere over here...”

When she returned with a thin stack of technical drawings in her arm, she found him frowning.

“Again?”

She smiled sweetly. “I had a great new idea to make the joints as flexibel as possible. With this one, you would be extremely stable even when walking backwards. Let me show you...”

He adjusted his glasses and stiffly turned to inspect the pages she laid out before him.

“It has been five hundred years, child. Will you never give up?”

“Not until I see you walk, without pain, where ever you want to go.”

Her tone was earnest now.

He shuffled the pages back into a stack and handed them back to her.

“I bring news.”

She stopped dead. A sudden nervous tingle made itself felt in the pit of her stomach.

“The archives are progressing. We are now moving on to catalogue all manner of books and scrolls from Draenor that we can find, beyond history and religion.”

She nodded. “Go on.”

“I believe we found her. Your alter ego."
He cleared his throat.

"And her parents.”