Old friends

Author: Kayaara

It was foreseen for weeks, months by now. Not by Lexa herself, no, she never would have even imagined that these demons that she had tried so hard to run away from, to forget all about, would ever return to this planet, or back into her life. The doomsayers stood in the streets of Stormwind were the ones who were warning the people of a new danger coming to this world. Yet, who was going to believe them? Who would believe a group of naysayers, who were shouting on the streets of the danger coming to this planet?

Lexa was stupid to even leave her house during this time. She was only paying a visit to the cathedral, but strangely enough a doomsayer had made their way to the steps of the cathedral, a desperate and pleading cry being shouted at by the top of the short human lady’s voice.

“The Light has forsaken us!” She screamed, and as Lexa began walking up the steps, around this crazy woman, said woman turned to face Lexa, and shoved a pamphlet into her chest.

Now, Lexa had always been told ever since these doomsayers arrived that she should avoid eye contact, and stay as far away from them as possible (“You don’t want any of your old… Tendencies to show up, now do you dear?”), but this one was just. In the way, when all she wanted to do was get through to the cathedral. How they were even allowed to stand there was a mystery to the girl.

“You there, young miss! Your precious Light cannot save you now! Quick, run before it is too late!” She had both hands on either side of Lexa, a look of worry plastered over her face as she looked into Lexa’s eyes. She was blocking her from entering the home of the Light now, almost begging her to turn away.

The pamphlet that was shoved towards Lexa had fallen to the ground, Lexa not wanting to grab it, but unfortunately for her the doomsayer had more in a small satchel attached to her dress, where she took one out and handed it to Lexa, this time putting it in her hand and closing her fingers around it. Lexa, unsure of what to do, took a tighter grip of the pamphlet and just quickly scrambled down the steps, running out of the cathedral district all together.

This was only a week before the attack happened. A week before the first demon sighting in Westfall was declared. Lexa could see it from the city as clear as day, from when the first fel comet came soaring down from the sky, and the sky turned a sick kind of green. Lexa was inside when it first happened, but when Valsey came rushing inside for her armor and runeblades, of course Lexa was going to be curious.

“What’s going on? Val?” Lexa stood up from the table she was sat at, book she was reading discarded on top as she followed Valsey over to the door. The death knight stopped before she opened the door, turning to face Lexa, weapons sheathed and helmet held between her arm and her waist. She looked almost upset, if that were even possible for her anymore.

“Stay inside. Don’t come out, and tell Tarylle to stay indoors too. Seriously, Lexa. It’s happening.”

Of course Lexa knew what that meant. It was what the city was warned about for ages now, but didn’t want to believe. She was sure the city had made preparations just in case, but she wanted to believe that it wouldn’t happen.

Boy was she wrong.

Valsey left for days. Lexa did as she was told; stay indoors with her mother until further instruction from the city in case of an evacuation. Word came around that a select group of heroes were being sent on a mission to a new isle to stop the flow of demons flowing, the King himself included. She’d heard from her mother, who rarely left the house if not to collect a few necessities, and when she came home the sadness and worry on her face didn’t go away.

It was the day that the first set of soldiers were being sent off to fend off the attacks from the Broken Isles, as she’d eventually learned to call it. Lexa couldn’t bear to stay inside any longer, instead deciding to head outside and get some fresh air, maybe take a walk to the new area that had been worked on to replace the park. Honestly, anything to get away from her house for a while.

The path towards the park was unfamiliar to her almost, as though she hadn’t walked it in years, when, in reality the last time she’d walked in the general direction was the last time she ran away to the draenei home. It wasn’t strange in any way however, in fact, it felt just like she was a child again, excitedly running ahead from her parents to get to the park first.

As she took the final steps over to a bench near the new water function at the park, she took a look up at the sky. It was still dark, black twisting clouds forming and dissipating while green lighting crackled against the horizon. Finally sitting down, she sighed. To think that a day like this would finally come aro—

“Lexa? Lexa Carabell? Is that you?” An all too familiar female voice chimed as sweet as candy through the air. It came from across the bridge, and caused Lexa to turn her head, curious to see if the voice really did fit the character she was thinking of.

Sure enough, a black haired, short woman around the same age – maybe a little bit older – elegantly walked down the bridge, robes long enough to cover her feet, but they remained perfectly intact. Behind the woman, was a taller male who had the same black hair but wore a full set of heavy-looking armour bar the helmet, slowly making his way behind the woman and towards Lexa. Lexa could even pick out a sense of surprise behind that stoic expression he seemed to almost always wear, but all he did was nod in greeting.

“E-Elspeth! Raylon, I –“

“My, my, Lexa. It’s been too long! Why haven’t you been coming to the Lamb? People’ve been asking about you, sweetie. We’ve been worried, especially Raylon. Can you imagine what you did to the poor guy? Basically loved him and-“

“Elspeth.” The warrior said, firmly and if Lexa was looking, she would have seen that he had a slight blush on his face.

“Sorry!~ I know it’s a sore subject for you. I’m just curious about where Lexa had gone off to!” Elspeth smiled, and her words didn’t actually hold any kind of real apology. “Anyway, we’re watching the soldiers off. Did you want to come too? We can have a proper catch up after that.”

Lexa was honestly in utter shock herself at the sight of her former friends. She hadn’t spoken to either of them ever since… Ever since her last visit to the Slaughtered Lamb which, admittedly had been a long time. Really, she didn’t see any harm in catching up.

That was why Lexa found herself sitting on the edge of one of the empty piers in the evening, on one side of her Elspeth, the other Raylon. It had been a few hours since she’d left her house for the walk, but she didn’t have any thought of telling Tarylle anything, or of where she was. Instead, her time was spent listening to tales of where Elspeth and Raylon had gone, and what they’d gotten up to. Lexa didn’t dare mention anything about meeting her draenei friends or, more importantly, the exorcism, especially in front of Elspeth. She was content with just listening to mostly Elspeth spin a tale of how she once managed to enslave a doomguard ‘for ten whole seconds, Lexa! Ten seconds!’, or the time when she successfully bound a soul to a stone (which, almost made Lexa tell her own story of when she’d done the same, but that was for a different time she decided).

There was no sun to determine when night fell, the sky covered in a full blanket of dark clouds with no indication of when the night began. But, with how long they’d been out it was obvious to guess what time of day it was. Elspeth let out a sigh of content before pushing herself up, stretching her arms up above her head. Lexa looked up at her, but didn’t make any attempt to move from her spot. Honestly, she didn’t really want to go home yet.

“I’m gonna head back home. Gotta prepare for when Ray and I are going to the Isles. Oh—OH! Lexa, you have to come with us. You still know how to summon even something like an imp, don’t you? Cast shadow magic? Fire?” Elspeth leaned down slightly only so she could rest a hand on Lexa’s shoulder, and immediately Lexa looked down at the water.

“Ah, uh, I don’t know if I should go… You know, it’s been so long since I’ve done anything like that.”

“Seriously, you should consider. It’ll be so fun! Just the three of us, like back when we were just teenagers! Right, Ray?”

Raylon nodded in reply, hands on the edge of the pier and looking down at the water like Lexa was. Elspeth smiled, then leaned down to press a kiss to Lexa’s cheek, then moved to kiss Raylon’s cheek as well. “Coming, Raylon?”

“I’ll just meet you back at home. Think I might stick around for a little longer.” Raylon said, voice low and exactly as Lexa remembered it. He didn’t talk much – never did – but when he did it was always spoken either quietly or gruffly.

Elspeth smiled and nodded, taking a few more steps down the harbour. “Okay, Ray! I really do hope to see you soon then, Lexa,” Was the last thing she said to the pair before walking back towards the city.

And so Lexa and Raylon were left to sit together at the end of the harbour, Lexa swinging her legs slightly off the edge, often catching on the wooden planks. Her fingers tapped on the wood as well, and she held her breath in the silence between them.

The silence was cut short by Raylon, who cleared his throat before speaking. The gruffness from before had gone, his voice a lot clearer now as he spoke. “Alexa—“

“Please don’t call me that.”