On Sacrificing Family

[opalexian]

I had been walkin outside the Heart of Fear on patrol for the Klaxxi (very interestin, those bugs) when I heard something behind me. Before I could blink a kuchong was in my face, charging with rage at my closeness to his Empress (bitch.) The impact knocked me across the scarred ground until I skidded to a stop against...something. Sittin up made my head spin so I put my hand behind me to feel it, and was suddenly grabbed by somethin and pulled...into nothin.

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Wakin up, I was in darkness. No spirits, no elements, jus darkness and....cold. Bitter. I wondered if this is what it was like for her, when Arthas took her.

'Good, you're awake', a familiar booming voice said. I expected him to cackle at any second 'cause he seems to like doin that.

'Whachoo wan'?' I growled, baring my claws and attempting to stand but findin there was nothin to stand ON.

A familiar face appeared in front of me, if you could call it a 'face'. The shiftin smoke and cold tendrils of evil waved around excitedly until he was right in front of me, breathin his vile breath into my face. The tendrils started to caress me; I tried to turn away but they were everywhere. I tried to figure out which Sha it was, but they were all so similar. I settled on callin him 'Sha Asshole'.

'I understand that you have been giving my, ah, brethren difficulties with continuing our, ah, work. They asked me to discuss this little indiscretion with you and make you see the error of your ways.'

I raised my eyebrow at him and gave him a fake thoughtful look for a moment. 'Well, Sha...yeh muddah sucks cocks in dey undaworl'!' Without thinkin I headbutted him and was going to fill his face with fire and wolves but instead I sank right into him, the tendrils gently stroking my body as they pulled me into the cold negatin space.

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Everythin was a blur. I could see black and white swirling around; looking down I found that the tendrils were movin around and through me without carin. I might have been freezin or blazin but the numbness burned more than either could have. I tried to move and was horrified to find that I couldn even turn my head or blink.

His face popped up in front of me again. 'You had your chance, little girl. Let's see what you have in here for me, hmmm?' Claws popped out of either side of his face and started to sink themselves into mine. He released his hold on my body just long enough for me to scream in agony before I lost consciousness listening to his disgusting cackle.

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Images from my past swirled around in my head. Fightin Ragnaros and bein pulled away into the Nether. Terror as The Raven Cross first descendin on me to initiate me. Meetin her. Seein her die and hatin Garrosh for it. Lookin into my remainin family's faces as they stared at me with horror, seein the dead livin again. War. Death. Disgusted with elves bein in the Horde. Deathwing tearin apart the planet like it was his toy. Pain. Fallin through that Nether, angry elements batterin me until I fell outta that damned Bom'bays witchin kettle of things better left untouched. Covered in mire of the Nether, strugglin to get free. Can't breathe, can't breathe...

Primal anxieties took over and I finally passed out with that cackle ringing in my ears.

[opalexian]

Apologies-this takes place two days after the first part

A pair of feet flew down the halls of the Shado-Pan Monastery, lightly tapping on the stone floor in a cadence that indicated the two people had trained together. The doors to the infirmary flew open to reveal Chao the Voice, her polearm firmly strapped to her back, and a taller cloaked figure. 'Over here,' Chao said. The hood nodded and they walked to a secluded corner of the room.

Behind the screen isolating the corner, the priest Yalia Sagewhisper was tending what was probably a female troll but she was wrapped head to foot in some of the most powerful medicinal bandages the Monastery had. Across the strips ancient Pandaren was inscribed on every inch of it.

'I brought her as soon as we could leave the front,' Chao said. Yalia nodded and looked up at the cloaked figure, who threw back her hood to reveal a young female troll with green hair pulled back severely and purple skin that was smudged with the remains of prolonged fighting. 'I'll leave you two. Yuolin, she will live but it was difficult to secure her chi, and her recovery will be long in coming.' Yalia patted Yuolin's arm and left.

Yuo sucked in a breath between her teeth and frowned. 'You want me to leave?' Chao asked. 'Nah. Just might have ta hear some angreh Trollish.' Chao tittered but covered her mouth so as not to disturb the sick and the injured.

The pile of bandages on the cot stirred and a long arm with two bandaged fingers reached out. 'T'chae...' the mass whispered. 'Da name's Yuolin. Yah can stop...' Chao grabbed Yuo's arm and dug her claws into the troll. 'She barely survived an attack most people would have crumpled under. At least try to respect her for a couple minutes?' Yuo glared at Chao then smirked. 'Fine.' She yanked her arm back and took hold of the outstretched arm. 'Im here, Opalekshan.' Chao nudged her and Yuo stepped closer, kneeling down on the pad Yalia had previously occupied.

Tiny slits in the bandages on the head suddenly had large yellow and orange pupils looking out from behind them, but Yuo noticed that the color was a little off, the glow of life normally there dulled enough that any troll knew this one had been close to death, but the loa were still deciding whether to take her or not. Opal patted her arm with her other hand then was racked with coughs. Yuo gasped briefly as red flecked the bandages loosely covering Opal's mouth. 'Relax,' Chao said. 'They told me when she was brought in that it was black. The red is good.' Yuo nodded over her shoulder then pressed her lips together in a thin line.

'I've come. Now...' Yuo's eyes narrowed for a second. 'I am here. What do yah...what can I do for ya?' 'Heh. Yeh nevah stoppin wit' dey t'inkin meh nah...her.' Opal chuckled a little. 'I wantin ta see yeh. Ma sayin...' 'Don' be sayin dat!' Yuo said sharply, her troll accent slipping in with the anger. 'She nevah yah muddah, yah...' Chao grabbed her shoulder and pulled Yuo around so she was nose to muzzle with the Pandaren. 'Yuo, anger will not help anyone here heal.' Chao nodded at Opal but glared at Yuo. Yuo sighed and turned back to the other troll.
'Speak trollish, Opal. Your accent is coarse on ears,' Yuo said in trollish. Despite the words, she forced her tone to soften. 'That's ok,' Opal rasped back in trollish. 'Easier to talk this way now. Makes me remember more of myself.'

Yuo took Opal's hand again and looked at her bandages. She didn't recognize a lot of the ancient Pandaren script but noticed in several spots that the symbol to ward off evil was very conspicuous. Additionally she realized that Opal's limbs didn't all appear to be as straight as they should have been. She sighed and bowed her head for a moment. 'I received a letter on the front lines from Mother saying she needed me here with you. What do you...um, what can I do for you?'

'I know you hate me for who I am and who I'm not but I need you to do something very important for me, if only because I took care of your sister in her new life, and because I'm her twin.' Yuo gritted her teeth to keep her anger in check and said 'You're not her twin.' Despite saying in in a conversational tone Yuo heard her words echo off the walls and she suddenly shivered because it sounded like the loa mocking her. Opal coughed again, rasping, and cried out in pain. Yalia ran back behind the partition. 'What happened?' She pushed Yuo out of the way and knelt down beside the injured troll, holding out her paws and chanting quietly. Her healing illuminated the wraps and the script looked as if were lit from within. 'She's mad,' Chao said from her perch by the wall, jabbing a thumb at Yuo. 'Told you this wasn't a good idea, Yalliloo.' Yalia bristled at hearing her pet name but continued with her heal-weaving until she was satisfied that the patient was stabilized for the time being. 'There, good as the day you grew tusks.'

She smiled at Opal then swung around to face Yuo, the Pandaren's eyes blazing. She hissed 'You will NOT talk to your sister like that, and you will NOT bring anger to her! She has already seen enough for a lifetime.' Yalia jabbed a claw into Yuo's chest once for emphasis, but her stern look betrayed her concern for the sisters repairing what little relationship they had. Yalia turned to leave, but not before knocking Chao off her perch. 'You're supposed to be HELPING, Little Mouth.' Chao sat on the floor for a minute nursing her wounded pride when she saw Yuo and Opal both staring at her. Chao jumped lightly to her feet and straightened her tunic. 'Sisters. Tcha.' She crossed her eyes at the trolls and stuck out her tongue, making the sisters laugh for the first time since Yuo had arrived.

Yuo turned back to Opal, still grinning. Their eyes met but Yuo stopped smiling and looked at the ground. 'I'm not the girl you remember,' she said in a somber tone, continuing on in Trollish again. 'With....Opal gone I had to take her place in training as a shaman. Then you showed up, and Opal...came back, but neither of you were the sister that I had, not completely. Everyone in Sen'Jin hated her for coming back as a lich, but you....you they adored. 'The loa brought you back!' they said. 'Opalekshan's come back to us!' they said. But they cast my sister aside when she needed them just because you popped out of that stupid witch doctor's pot. Even Ma turned her back on my sister for you. I was the only one who tried to care for her after she came back!' Yuo's eyes welled up but she bared her jaw and her eyes blazed as she forced the tears to not come.

Opal watched her, unable to cry; the damage the Sha had done had made it almost impossible for her to cry because he had ripped almost all the moisture from her body. 'T'chae...Yuolin. No one could help what happened. The loa saw fit to give you your sister's body and your sister's mind back to you separately. I am sorry I couldn't take that back for you, and I'm sorry everyone made me her to deny that the Lich King had taken her in battle but returned her shell. I didn't understand your world then, this world. I couldn't know that you were not the sister I remembered, or that I had died at the hands of the Scourge while protecting you, or that I'd come back and...see myself reflected in those cold eyes of hers.'

Opal held up her hand and looked at her palm. A small gap had formed in the bandages and she could see where her skin was reforming the familiar crevices and lines it had had before the attack. She closed the hand to make a fist, wincing at the pain it caused but relishing it too-pain means life so she was thankful for that. 'Yuo, she didn't feel anything, your Opal. She was returned as a machine of war and little else. I am grateful that you cared for her when no one else could, when I didn't know where I was or what was happening. But please, you can't hate me for existing. I did the best I could to give her a life she liked for what...who she was. All we could do was avenge her, destroy her murderer.' Opal saw the sadness in Yuo's face so she reached out and touched her sister's cheek lightly. 'And we did! He's gone now, we destroyed The Lich King. Every soul he stole, burned, or destroyed was avenged with his death but it didn't bring them back, and we've all had to learn to live with that. It's what she would have wanted, because that's what I want.'

Yuo chewed her lip for a moment before her face hardened. 'This romp in the past is all well and good but you're not telling me why you asked me here.' Opal frowned for a moment. 'I've asked you here because I need you to do something for me, something that will take you away from your duties to the Shado-Pan for a while. I've already spoken with Lord Tzu and he's approved your leave if you agree to this.' Yuo scowled at Opal and suddenly could barely contain her anger. 'You killed someone who wanted to destroy the world anyway and now you ask a favor just because you say you saved Opal when in truth you just ended up getting her killed anyway.' Yuo's eyes blazed at her sister's doppelganger, boring a hole through the bandages. Opal gasped for a second before Yuo realized that the damage the Sha had done had weakened all of her defenses and dropped her fiery gaze, composing herself.

'You ask something of me that Lord Zhu thinks is important enough to give me leave. Tell me what you need and I will do it for you, for the sake of my sister that you are not.' Yuo's face became stone and Opal noted with bemusement that her shaman training could never be completely erased by anything as she saw the element of earth ripple beneath her sister's skin. Opal looked her in the eye and said 'I need you to take my place as a supplicant in The Grim while I am recovering.'

Yuo stood up stiffly, gave Opal a glare, then turned on her heel and saluted Chao sharply before walking out the door. Opal watched her go, sad that their first discussion in years had to end so abruptly. Chao nodded to Opal after a minute and said in Pandaren 'The Celestials will watch over her.' Opal nodded her head. 'I'm not even sure the Loa will.' Chao ran to see her friend off.

[opalexian]

Opal had waited several months with no word from her sister and only small whispers that the High Inquisitor had been unhappy with Yuo's performance. Since Yuo was only required to finish the last two trials she knew the issue wasn't combat skills; Yuo likely was displaying her great distaste for written assignments that she had had since childhood, no matter what plane of reality she was on.

One day she finally received word that Yuo had completed her second task and was going to visit her. Opal had recovered sufficiently that she was able to walk around the Monastery with the help of a cane and most of the bandages were gone. She had to tell the elements several times a day that they could not run free with her however because the strain on her body was too much for her to handle; her pups visited her often and whined to come and play with them. She could only ruffle their ethereal fur and smile sadly at them. They understood but it didn't stop them from skulking off with their heads hanging pitifully.

The day that Yuo was to visit, Opal was feeling better than she had for a while so she was out on a balcony overlooking the mountains. The crisp mountain air let her breathe in ice crystals that invigorated her further. Her spirit wolves Chaos and Creed were bouncing around begging to play; since she couldn't run around with them she manifested small bursts of flame that they were thrilled to run after and snap at as she let it fly around the great stone porch. The two ghost wolves were so excited they became dizzy, falling over and exaggeratedly letting their tongues loll out to play dead, making her laugh more than she had in ages.

The wolves suddenly stiffened and both turned towards the doorway. Opal looked up to see a somewhat-dour looking Yuolin leaning against the doorway with Chao standing slightly behind her, her mouth stopped in mid-sentence and staring at the spirit wolves. Opal laughed at Chao's expression and said 'Dey nah jus' warriahs. Dey like anneh ot'er dog, jus' a little less livin.' Opal motioned for them to go to Chao. After sniffing her for a second they decided they liked her and expressed it by standing on their hind paws and knocking her over. She laughed and chased after them to another part of the balcony since they understood why Yuo was there.

Yuo watched the trio bounce off with an impassive look before turning back to Opal. 'I'll skip pleasantries and get to the point' she said in Trollish. 'I completed your second 'task', meeting with several Grim and giving reports to their Inquisitor on what I had learned of them and their 'Mandate'. When I completed that I was told by the Inquisitor that the final task was to make some sort of 'sacrifice' to fully prove acceptance of their Mandate and shed any other loyalties to other groups or beliefs. As Yalia says that you are still in no shape to take a puff of wind to the chest I am assuming that you want me to complete this for you.' Yuo gave Opal the same glare she had when they had last seen each other. It suddenly felt like no time had passed between then and now. Opal turned away to lean on the balcony and look at the peaceful view that had once brought Yuo the peace of mind she so desperately sought after her death knight sister had met her final death.

Yuo walked up beside her and looked over the mountains with her. 'Yalia said that I am to be kind to you in spite of all this so I will.' Opal looked at Yuo's face to see the placidity of a mountain lake ripple across her features, but her knuckles betrayed her mind as she grasped the banister so hard that her knuckles were pink. Opal looked down and, after a long pause nodded and looked up at the beautiful view again. She could hear Chao running back and forth with Chaos and Creed, the three of them running and laughing and yipping. She yearned to be Chao at that moment, happy, healthy, and in her native land among friends and family. Opal had made friends within the Shado-Pan but she still wanted to stand on the edge of the ocean, warm air and sand moving over and around her finely-furred skin and to be able to sleep in an airy hut next to a fire, far from stone walls and dark evils the planet had hidden under Pandaria. Yuolin looked completely at home except for her unintentional determination to rend the rock banister with her rage and her deadly fists.

Yuo chewed on her lip until it bled and finally said, 'You fucking bitch.' After another minute she turned to Opal. Blood was dripping down her lip and reaching for her chin. 'You call me to my own home, invoke the name of my dead sister, get the head of the Shado-Pan to agree to my leave, but you forget to tell me that I might have to give up everything I know and love just to fulfill YOUR duties to YOUR cause. Did the dark loa take possession of all your facilities or is your mind just so addled by the Sha that you thought I wouldn't have a single issue with your stupid deception?' Yuo turn angrily back to look at the mountains and blood floated into the air in a shiny red arc. She spat more out and Opal imagined it sullying the pure snow below them.

Guilt flooded over her so she sent a small healing wave to close Yuo's lip. Feeling the tingle of elements from Opal, she pounded the banister so hard that the rock cracked slightly and the sound reverberated over the snow. Chao looked up from the suspended bridge her and the spirit wolves were on and yelled 'Is everything okay over there?' Opal could hear the pups whimper in her mind. Yuo waved at Chao and gave her a strained smile to alleviate concerns.

'I didn't think it would take me so long to recover. No one did' Opal whispered. 'I have tried so hard to recover quickly so you wouldn't have to finish the Inquisition. My injuries were worse than anyone had anticipated, and my relationship with the elements has been too stressful to my body for me to even look to them for more than passing support in healing myself. This is the first day I didn't have to turn the boys away when they came to see me.' She nodded at Chao, who was currently wrapped in a ball of translucent fur that was rolling around and laughing. 'Yalia had told her balance and inner strength were all that stood between healing and relapsing to my previous condition.' She smiled sadly and turned back to Yuo; she was no longer flush with rage, but her brows were knit with a great displeasure that Opal knew meant that Yuo was about to walk away. Yuo said calmly 'Why would I owe you this much in the first place when you just let my sister die, cold and alone?'

Opal grabbed her sister's arm to stop her. 'Yuo. I want to tell you something that I never got to say to you before because I knew it wouldn't matter to you right after your sister died. Just listen to me, hear me, and then you can walk away and I will never bother you again. I'll even leave Mother alone if you wish it-just hear what I need to tell you now that I have a chance.' Yuolin glared at Opal's hand on her arm but pulled it away slowly and turned back to look back at the breathtaking view and nodded. 'Okay. You have your story so be done with it and this business can be finished.'

'The fight that killed Opal...your sister I mean-It was a milk run, but one that led into a trap,' Opal said quietly. 'Garrosh knew he was sending us into it because he had planned it. Destroy that trollish distraction of the 'twins' who were impossible, and heroes of Sen'Jin, and he was one step closer to making a fool of Vol'Jin and all trolls. Your sister knew it too. Garrosh figured her general muteness was an excuse for him to taunt her before we left, so she knew. She protected me, threw herself in front of a poison bolt that was meant for me, for a living creature, and then fought that orc assassin off. The necrotic decay the warlock was going to blow at her was easy enough to disarm, but...I couldn't stop her death. She was mortally wounded and I never got to tell you that...her last word was your name.'

Opal stopped a second to gauge Yuo's reaction. The younger troll refused to talk to Opal after her death knight doppelganger died and had left for Pandaria soon after that. Yuo abandoned the peace she sought in the mountains and stared at her. Opal continued. 'After we killed the assassins I realized too late that she'd been stabbed in the back with her own runeblade. The damage was too extensive and shadow-ridden for me to do anything for her.' Opal looked down at her hands as if the body was still there for her to cradle. 'She...she took some of her blood and painted in the dirt. Garrosh's axe and a large 'X' over it. She pointed at the axe and said in an orcish growl 'finish dying.' Then the light in her eyes started to go out and as it did, she put her hand to her heart then mine, and said 'Tchae'. And she died.'

The bandages still on her cheeks were wet and the tears poured of their own accord. Opal realized she had never actually told the whole story to anyone. She looked at Yuo-her sister was looking at her with tears running off her cheeks. The ghost wolves had padded up to them and were standing on either side of Opal and Yuo, watching them both with concerned looks. Peripherally Opal also heard quiet snuffling by the entrance; Yalia had come to check on her, and her and Chao were clasping each other's shoulders and had their heads together, watching the trolls as they cried silently. Apparently the Pandaren had a better aptitude for languages than they had let on.

Opal nodded curtly to them then turned back to her sister. She noticed for the first time that Yuo's eyes had dark rings around them, the toll sleepless nights fighting herself about why she was with The Grim for someone who was a poor replacement for her sister combined with the revelation of her real sister's last moments suddenly manifesting on her face. She looked down, pondering Opal's words for a moment before edging her hand across the banister to tentatively touch Opal's finger, eventually covering Opal's hand with her own. They stood like that for several minutes until Yuo blinked and met Opal's eyes, and she smiled slightly at her, the first genuine smile she'd given the shaman since Opal had 'arrived' in this reality. Opal smiled back and said 'I came to Pandaria not just to train and explore this new land, but to find you and do whatever I could to make sure you were as safe as, well, as I could make you without your knowing.'

Opal nodded at Chao; Yuo looked at her and Chao said 'It's true. She worked her way up the ranks of the Shado-Pan just so she could get assurances from Lord Zhu that you would be warded and as safe as we could make a crazy two-toe as you.' She let out a tiny giggle when Yuo gasped because Chao had just spoken perfect trollish to her for the first time. 'What do you think I was doing that whole time you were muddling through learning Pandaren?' Chao grinned.

Yuo smiled at her and turned back to her sister, this other one she was seeing for the first time now. 'Being with The Grim has given me a family and a sense of purpose when this world remained foreign to me. They accepted me as I was even as Thrall subjected me to test after test to figure out how I'd come here. I will love and follow that orc until the end of days as I always have, but it cut me greatly, seeing his looks of disbelief and distrust since I was an impossibility in this world-the shaman that didn't die and become a slave to Arthas. The Grim didn't care about my past; they didn't fawn over me like some bizarre savior like the trolls of Sen'Jin did. I was a warrior who wanted to serve the Mandate, to protect the Horde at all costs even if that means destroying Garrosh before he kills us all or worse, throws us all to the Sha to become mindless slaves. He's no better than Arthas but he leads the Horde. Someone needs to protect the Horde from him.'

Yuo cleared her throat, not wanting to tell Opal about the change in leadership and the guild's direction. 'They are a family of sorts, aye, and they have a strong purpose. I will make my sacrifice in your stead and join them fully because you joined them to protect a Horde that never saw you as the same person my sister was before her death. I will do this for her, and for what you did for her over the years.' Yuo's face hardened suddenly and her jaw clenched up. 'You will however owe me a favor of great importance, and one day I will ask you for it. On that day you will stop everything you're doing and do as I ask.' Opal wiped her eyes and nodded. 'Aye, I will, I swear it on our ancestors.' Yuo's face twitched with a small smirk of satisfaction. 'And you will never, ever return to Sen'Jin, never see Mother or the graves of our ancestors again.'

Opal stared at her in shock for a moment then nodded sullenly. 'Aye, I will, I swear it on all the loa. I will pay what is owed to you for this sacrifice you make in my stead' She looked Yuo in the eye and held her composure. Yuo stared at her for a moment longer. 'I take my leave of you now, sister. I need to prepare for my new life.' She saluted Opal stiffly then turned on her heel and walked past the Pandaren as if they weren't there. Chao, confused, ran off to see what Yuo was up to, leaving her sister and Opal on the balcony alone.

Chaos and Creed whimpered and laid down on Opal's feet to try and comfort her. She turned away from Yalia to look at the mountains again. Yalia stepped up to stand next to her, finding that Opal was crying. She put her paw on the troll's shoulder and tried to console her. 'Taran Zhu taught us all that even the most mighty among us can be humbled by things that were beyond their control. He also showed us that loyalty and those you surround yourself with can make you stronger than you thought possible. Your sister will be fine.'

Opal shuddered. 'Aye, she will. Bu' I now givin' up e'eryt'in. All I 'avin left is dey fight.' Yalia hugged her lightly and left Opal on the porch. Sensing their companion's mood, the ghost wolves stood up and padded off, disappearing back into the spirit realm. Knowing she was finally alone, Opal crumpled to the ground and cried. She had at last left everything from her own world behind and was truly alone in this one. Now all she was was Grim.

[opalexian]

Aureliya had returned to her office after a almost too easy routine patrol to find an elegantly folded bamboo leaf laying very squarely in the middle of her desk. Opening it she found written-

'High Inquisitor-

I feel I finally understand my purpose with The Grim and am prepared to make my sacrifice. I wish to present it at the next gathering of the guild. You will, I hope, find it suitable enough to make myself a full member of The Grim. Opal has accepted her own personal sacrifice to myself in turn and will return fully to our ranks when she is healed sufficiently from her ordeal with the Sha.

Peace through annihilation, m'lady-
Yuolin'