Vacation (Part One)

Please stay safe.

Aeryliss stared at the desperately scrawled sentence for a moment. It sounded stupid and dramatic. She lifted the pen to scratch it out then stopped, shook her head, and just kept writing. There wasn’t time to worry about that. She quickly signed the note and sent it off, gathering her things and hurrying through the portal by the Murder Row mailbox that was about to dissipate.

As she emerged from the other side of the portal, Aeryliss gazed up at A’dal for a moment. She closed her eyes, letting a wave of comfort spread through her. Giving a quick, appreciative nod, she continued on her way with a clear head.

“Where to?”

Aeryliss stared blankly at the flight master and realized that she wasn’t quite sure.

“Nevermind. Sorry.” She shrugged and made her way toward the Lower City.

As she approached the small Consortium platform, one of the Ethereals held out his arms with an inquisitive grin. He grabbed her shoulders and greeted her in a high pitched, raspy voice.

“Dora! Good to see you again.”

He’d called her that ever since she first approached the Consortium in Nagrand.
“Those are some long ears you got, kid,” he joked, “What are ya, some kinda rabbit girl?”
She just smiled and replied, “Sin’dorei. It means ‘children of the blood’ in my language. Though, most people just call us Blood Elves.”
He shrugged and looked at her like she was some kind of crazy. “Alright then, Sindora.”

“Nice to see you too, Zenn.”

Aeryliss explained to Zennshi that she was going to be in the area for a few days and was wondering if she could do the Consirtium some favors in exchange for a bed. After a minute or so of negotiating and a few questionable exchanges, she returned to the flight master.

“Netherstorm. Stormspire.”

Liss’s Wish

Aeryliss stared at the small coin in her hand, turning it over and over as though she expected it to do something.

“Make a wish, Lissa!” She looked up at Lanuria’s face, all lit up like a little kid in a toy store or something. She watched as the ranger held her coin up to her lips for a moment before tossing it in to the Dalaran fountain.

She blinked down at the coin. She knew it was just a silly superstition, that throwing money in to a fountain couldn’t really grant wishes… but it seemed important to Lanuria. She looked back up at her. “What do I wish for?” Lanuria smiled and replied simply, “Anything you want.”

Anything she wanted? There were plenty of things she wanted, but she was pretty sure she could only wish for one thing per coin. She started going through them in her mind. She wanted to leave Northrend. No, she couldn’t wish for that. She had to stay. She had to pull through, for her people, for everything she believed in. She wanted independence, something that seemed to be slipping away from her lately. But at what cost?

There was something else she wanted. Something she couldn’t quite seem to figure out, with long dark hair and- No. She shouldn’t wish for that. She shouldn’t even want that.

She looked at Lanuria watching her with that childlike sparkle in her eye. She looked back down at the coin and held it to her lips, muttering her secret wish. She flung the coin in to the fountain and smiled up at Lan. “Let’s go.”

Don’t let him run away again. From either of us.