Burn

Just gonna stand there and watch me burn

But that’s alright because I like the way it hurts

Just gonna stand there and hear me cry

But that’s alright because I love the way you lie

I love the way you lie

Her eyes were furious as she lifted her staff, slamming it into the ground and a wave of flames and arcane energy advanced toward him.

–

Lena had wrestled out of his grip, hooves clomping down the stairs, throwing on her armor, grabbing her staff and daggers and untying Pryt from the porch with trembling fingers.  Mounting up, she nudged the animal and he shot forward, narrowly ducking and twisting around the residents of Stormwind as they fled the city, her cloak flying behind her.  She leaned forward in the saddle, laying low against the talbuk’s neck as he charged forward, through Elwynn Forest, through the pit of sin that was Goldshire, past the logging camps, and into the Redridge Mountains.  The air was suddenly dry, the soil soft and loose and dusty, and she pulled up on Pryt’s reins, slowing his frantic gallop to an easy, more relaxed run.

Krastos had promised.  He had vowed that he had stopped working with the Underground.  He swore he wouldn’t put her in danger any more.  The trunk full of treasures and gold that was supposed to last them through the tough times, she knew, he had acquired it through the work he did with them.  But he promised he was done with that life.  He worked for Shadows of Argus now.  There was too much at stake now that they were starting a new order, now that they were on their own out there.  She rubbed at her face, swiping angrily at the tears that came despite her fury.  They were watching her now.  They were following him.  They were taking stock of what they could take back from him.  He had earned all that, and they wanted to take it away.

She had been brushing her hair, smoothing it out after their day-long session in the bed, at the dresser when he came up behind her with a pained look.  He wrapped his arms around her naked body and pulled her against him, nuzzling at her neck apologetically.  She looked at his reflection in the mirror, eyebrows furrowed, face falling as he began talking.  Once you’re in, you can’t leave, Lena.  He had said.  It’s not that simple.  She turned around and glared at him directly, “What do you mean it isn’t that simple?  Just walk away, Kras!”  He had sighed and pressed his forehead against hers, arms tight around her back, “I have, Lena.  I walked away a long time ago.  But they’ll always be watching.  They’ll always be following me.  I know too much.  They’ll always be trying to get me back or kill me.”  He let the last statement hang between them as it sunk in.

Lena growled and wriggled away from him, pushing him away, and slapping him across the face, cursing him out in Draenic.  ”How can you do this to me?  How can you tell me this?  Kras, didn’t you think before you signed on with them in the first place?”

“I didn’t have a choice, Lena!”  He took a step toward her.  ”Do you remember what it was like when we landed here?  We had no home, we had no food, no shelter, no way to know what was good or bad about this planet.  I had to provide for you, Lena, for my people.  They offered money – a lot of it – for basic tasks.  Sure, eventually, I was doing less than savory things, but it had a purpose, Lena!”  His voice was growing louder as he got closer, but she kept shaking her head and backing away.  He finally caught her, grabbing her arms and pressing her up against the wall.  She struggled and ducked away from him, making her escape.  ”LENA!” he bellowed as she fled.

Maybe our relationship isn’t as crazy as it seems

Maybe that’s what happens when a tornado meets a volcano

 

Kras smashed his head against the wall, punching it, barely feeling the pain.  He’d fucked up.  He dressed quickly, grabbing his shields and finding his own talbuk ready to ride outside.  He closed his eyes for a moment, sensing her, trying to see where she might have gone.  He called on the ancestors to give him a lead.  After a moment he nodded to himself, mounted up, and headed out of the city.

Coming through the pass in Redridge, he saw Pryt’s frantic hoofprints.  They seemed to slow in the sandy soil by the lake, but continued on.  He thought he saw a glimpse of her telltale red armor shimmering in the sun up ahead and nudged his talbuk to catch up with her.  When he was in earshot, she popped off a curse over her shoulder, and nudged Pryt back into a run.  ”Lena!” he called, spurring his own mount into a gallop, “Come home.  You’re going to wear out that damn talbuk!”

Suddenly, she pulled up on Pryt, swinging down from the saddle.  Even from a distance, he could see the anger on her face.  He saw her mouth moving as she raised the staff and slammed it against the ground.  His talbuk reared at the wave of crackling arcane energy and fire rolling toward them, tossing Krastos to the ground and bolting.  So that’s how we fight this out, then, Kras thought, scrambling to his hooves when the air returned to his lungs.  So be it.  He lifted his shield to protect his face from the oncoming magic as he prepared himself.

 

Krastos summoned and threw a grounding totem as far as he could, hoping it would land in her range and slow her spells.  He knew how dangerous she could get when her temper was out of control.  She scowled at him, and he saw her mouth moving as she chanted the incantations that would volley her power at him.  She let loose with a series of quick fireballs, which he deflected easily with the shield, calling on the nearby lake to rise up and dampen any fires that she might cause on the dried, dead earth.  He glanced up at the skies, just a few moments sunny with few clouds, now darkening with a storm.  He had asked the skies to assist in balancing her, helping to calm her or deflect her enough so that he could communicate with her.  Now, he called for lightning and directed it from the sky, to his fingers, toward her, where he wrapped her in it, not intending to hurt her, but to slow her even more.  The crackling energy pinned her arms to her sides and he pulled her towards him.  As she got close, she let loose with close range spells that didn’t require channeling.  Her mind lay down a circle of fire around them and she threw her head back and laughed wickedly, a cone of fire seeming to emit from her throat at his face.  She had set both of them on fire.  Her robes were starting to burn, and he smelled the unpleasant stench of burning hair.  He gasped and glanced up at the skies, quietly asking for rain to heal the scorch marks she was leaving in her wake.

The winds picked up as the storm sensed Lena’s unrest and Kras’s desperate attempts to calm her.  Clouds opened up and rain began pouring down, the lake churning dangerously, waves lapping angrily at the shore in the wind.  Lightning struck the earth nearby, breaking both their concentrations as it knocked them to the ground.  Lena was freed from her lightning stasis and started winding up for another devastating fire spell, struggling to her hooves as she pushed Kras away.  He called upon the wind, feeling it surround him, watching her quietly as it interrupted her cast.  She howled in frustration, stomping a hoof and trying to start over.  Kras frowned as he let go of a lava burst of his own, a fireball that interrupted her once again, praying it wouldn’t injure her too badly.  She was more than frustrated now, and he knew he risked her very life if he pushed her over the edge now.  He hated to do it, but he cast an ice block, freezing her in place, keeping her from casting for the third time in a row.  The storm raged around them as he looked at her sadly.  He pressed his hands against the ice and searched for her eyes.  ”I’m sorry, Lena.”  He whispered, knowing she couldn’t hear him, hoping that she could read his lips.  The anger in her eyes lessened as she was contained by the ice, immobilized.

When he felt her anger receding, he asked that the ice return to water, watching it splash to the ground, and Lena with it.  She gasped for breath, soaked to the skin from the rain and the ice, and cried as he knelt beside her, gathering her in his arms.  ”I’m sorry, Lena,” he said again, whispering it in her ear this time as he stroked her sopping hair.  ”You are my life, and I am so sorry that I have ever put you in danger.”  She continued to cry, defeated.

They sat there in the mud, listening to the storm continue to rage overhead, feeling the rain washing them clean.