Valindria watched silently, waiting for Niha to share her thoughts. She was not well. Even the glow of her eyes had dimmed somewhat, something only a blood elf could see. Inwardly resigned, she sipped her water and looked back upon the events that had brought them both to this moment.
----
Niha was Mizue's older sister, though you would not be able to tell anymore. When they both had served at the Argent outpost in Icecrown many years ago, Niha had been grievously injured while tending to fallen Horde upon the battlefield, trying to protect them - to protect Mizue. The skirmish had ended in a routing of the Scourge warband, though Niha had not been awake to see it. With no calling to the ways of healing and rapidly exhausting her options, Mizue had brought Niha to the priests.Valindria had encountered the sisters before, and had fought beside them in dozens of battles already. During those years, she had been known simply as the Wandering Saiin, the solitary maiden who healed the injured and then departed - often without speaking a single word. Having been at the camp at the time, she had taken charge of Niha's recovery. She remembered Mizue carrying Niha into the tent, both awash in blood; trailing her fingertips though the cooling streams as she and an assistant carefully peeled Niha's armor and underlayers from her cold skin. The wounds had bled more slowly by then, with little left to give now.
Though she had been able to make the paladin's body whole again, the wide cuts in her chest and neck leaving only faint scars, the full scope of the damage to her spirit was beyond Valindria's reach. The process had taken many hours and was rigorous by necessity. Niha had to be moved to a new bed four times when the blood soaked the linens she laid upon. Valindria's robe had quickly become smeared with blood and grime from the battle. Barely awake for half an hour, Niha had entered a coma shortly after the healing without so much as a whisper. After seeing that her friend would not wake, Valindria herself had surrendered to her own fatigue and could not be roused for more than three days.
And so Niha slept for many years, as Time marched on and new conflicts emerged to replace the old ones. Mizue continued on, unable to do any more for her sister. After seeing that the priests at the Argent outpost would care for Niha until she awoke, Valindria left Icecrown as well, taking up the task of looking out for Mizue. While devastatingly effective in battle, even the younger Valentine needed recovery at times.
They both had returned to visit frequently, and had rushed back to Icecrown when word had reached them from the priests when Niha finally awoke. But the change was evident. She had no memory of the fight, the blood or the fall into the snow. Where once she had been the elder sister, it was obvious that she had become the younger. The paladin had left Northrend that same day, moving her convalescence to Silvermoon City. The Shrine of Two Moons in Pandaria was not safe enough, and she had made clear that she'd wanted to be among her own kind again in familiar environs.
