The Club Scene

                Kyliska blinked in the darkness as something nudged her side again. She yawned, slowly becoming aware of someone standing over her in her bedroom. She squinted and recognized Biara’s form, her sister silently gesturing for her to follow. Sleepily she detangled herself from Braeth’el’s arms, careful not to wake him from his slumber. She let her gaze linger on his mostly naked form in the mound of sheets before her sister’s insistent tugging pulled her towards the far end of the room and into her adjoining dressing room.

                “Biara? What are you do-,“ Kyliska tried to say before being interrupted.

                “No time for that! Here, quickly put this on!” Biara said in an excited tone of voice.

                Kyliska found herself suddenly holding a bundle of clothing that had been tossed to her. She quickly began to don them, realizing it was a stunning, ruby red dress with matching jewelry and belt. She finished changing and noticed her sister was wearing a golden dress with a plunging neckline and a slit up the side that was almost indecent, the glittering fabric complimenting her red hair. Kyli’s own dress was almost an opposite companion to Biara’s, with the golden hue complimenting her own blonde hair.

                “Perfect! I’ve got shoes for you here too. There’s just one more thing I think…” Biara muttered. She brought her hands up, chanting a spell and Kyliska saw little glowing bracelets of arcane light appear around her wrists and ankles. Biara reached out and took a lock of Kyliska’s hair, illuminating the lock with a similar blue glow. She repeated the process on herself before nodding in satisfaction and turning. With another murmured spell a portal opened and Kyliska found herself haphazardly being dragged to Sunwell knew where in the middle of the night.

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                The portal disgorged the two Sin’dorei into a plaza filled with other elves, many dressed in fancy dresses like the sisters were wearing. Quite a few of them were hurrying towards a door that let light out into the courtyard each time it was opened, with many elves standing in a long queue waiting to get into the door. Still holding Kyli’s hand, Biara tugged her sister towards the door, flashing a smile at the bouncer guarding it as he let the two stunning elves cut the line and enter the doorway beyond.

                Kyliska was instantly struck with the pulsing sound of music and the flash of arcane lights as the two entered what could only be described as a club. Elves danced everywhere, with a goblin DJ playing the booming base from a strange mechanical contraption on a stage to one side. Immediately Kyliska could feel the pulse of the beat sweep through her, and she laughed as Biara began to dance next to her, the arcane ‘bracelets’ she had created for the two glowing in the dim light and highlighting the movement of their limbs.

                Shocked by her sister’s sudden desire to go out partying and thrilled by it at the same time, Kyliska let the beat take her, dancing next to her sister, her cares and worries melting away as the sound of Biara’s happy laughter was heard briefly over the beat.

                The next two hours were a blur of movement, of thrumming music, and beautiful elves with drinks in hand.

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                After a time the two sisters grew tired and moved towards the bar, taking two empty stools there. Biara nodded at the bartender, gesturing towards one of the more expensive arcane-infused beverages. The bartender set a bottle and two glasses before the elves and Biara smiled, tossing far more coin than the drink was worth onto the bar for him.

                She uncorked the bottle, pouring a glass for herself and then one for Kyliska. She brought her glass up, smiling at Kyli, her voice barely heard over the pounding of the music, “To us my dear sister. To our future. To fun!”

                “I’ll drink to that anytime!” Kyliska said with a smile, bringing her own glass up and clinking it against Biara’s. The drink burned all the way down, releasing a pleasant sensation of mana through her for a moment before fading.

                Kyliska smiled and sighed happily, studying Biara for a moment before talking loud enough for her to hear, “What made you decide to come here and do this? I love it! We haven’t done this in something like twenty years.”

                Biara returned the smile, shaking her head, “It’s been too long, and we’ve been through too much. Enough is enough I say. I’ve been thinking long and hard about things, and it’s time for a change.”

                “Thinking about what? What’s on your mind?” Kyliska replied, taking another sip of her drink.

                “That highborne…what she said about us being destructive,” Biara began, taking a sip of her own drink. “Between that and what happened to you, the way everyone just abandoned you to your misery, I realized something important. We’ve spent so much time trying to find allies, trying to build things up only to be rebuffed and to have our efforts come to nothing because others fear to go where we’ve gone. What is the point in all of it? Why should we pretend we’re anything other than we are?”

                Kyliska nodded, taking another long sip of her drink; her sister was saying what had been on her mind for a long time now, “What can we do though? What is your solution?”

                Biara smiled, patting her sister’s arm, “The solution, my dear, is to be who we were always meant to be. If others don’t want to ally with us, then so be it. If they fear our destructive nature, then let them fear us instead of respecting us. I no longer care. There will be Sin’dorei who will flock to our cause, no matter what we do. Others who want more done about the dangers to Quel’Thalas. Elves who are not afraid to risk their lives working beside us. There will always be more allies who see things our way, so who cares about those who don’t? I’m done playing their games. From now on, we’re going to take matters into our own hands. Our power, our House, our objectives will be first and foremost. If others get in the way of our plans, we will set them straight or remove them from our path.”

                Kyliska beamed; this was what she’d been waiting to her, the resolution in her sister’s voice enough to send a thrill through her. The political bullshit she’d been dealing with for months faded away like a snuffed candle and she brought her drink up to toast her sister again. As their glasses clinked, she looked beyond Biara and frowned, spying a group of House Spellblaze soldiers who had entered the club, clearly already inebriated from some other venue.

                Biara’s glass clinked against Kyli’s but then she noticed her sister’s frown. She turned, her gaze immediately going to the men that Kyliska was now scowling at. She turned back, her smile mischievous now, “Why don’t we do something about them?”

                “I’m not ‘allowed’ or we’ll have more troubles,” Kyliska said glumly.

                Biara laughed, the sound bright and full of fire, “I think you misunderstood what I said just a moment ago. Either that, or you believe I honestly give a fuck what we’re ‘allowed’ to do anymore. Those days are over. It’s a new dawn for us. You just need to do things the right way. I heard about the fight you started that caused the situation to spiral out of control. Would you like a lesson on how to do that in a way that leaves your hands clean?”

                Kyliska blinked, her eyes widening, “Are you serious? What do you mean?”

                Biara winked at her, downing the rest of her drink in one gulp and slamming her glass on the table. She slid off her stool, squirming out of her shoes and thrusting them into Kyliska’s hands. In a blink of an eye she waded into the crowd, her slender form sliding between dancing elves and her hips rocking seductively to the beat.

                Kyliska watched with her mouth hanging open in surprise as Biara shimmied up against one of the House Spellblaze guards. Her lithe body moved in time to the music, getting ever closer to him as she playfully flipped her hair in his face. He grunted, dancing closer to this elven woman that was suddenly against him, his hands sliding against her hips. Biara backed against him and dipped down, her whole body rubbing against his as she danced nearly to the floor before slowly coming back up.

                Kyliska laughed as the guard’s face turned red with excitement, her sister continuing to grind against him while gesturing at another nearby House Spellblaze guard. That elf, not seeing his companion, or anything other than Biara’s low cut dress, waded closer through the dancing elves, only to have his hand caught by Biara. She dragged him closer, for a moment sandwiched between the two guards, her body writhing as she leaned forward and kissed the second guard, her tongue very obviously playfully running against his. Her hands moved wickedly over the body of both of the elves she’d caught.

                A moment later the first guard noticed his friend kissing the girl he was dancing with. His red face became one of rage, and he reached out and pushed the other Spellblaze guard. The second elf, his rather exciting kiss suddenly broken by the shove, yelled something incoherent and punched his friend in the arm. To Kyliska’s amusement she saw Biara reach out, a dainty hand planted on each elf’s chest, the sound of her voice lost in the music but her mouth obviously saying, “Boys boys….no need to fight over me.”

                The suggestion was all it took for the first guard to react, punching his friend in the face to get him away from ‘his’ girl. The second guard reeled back into some of his companions, elves who yelled and shoved him, one of them getting elbowed in the face as the punched guard flailed. A second later the scene exploded into a fistfight, the Spellblaze guards going at each other viciously.

                As the fight expanded, Biara casually padded barefoot from the middle of it, her hips still swaying seductively as she avoided being entangled by the fist-flailing elves around her. She slipped free, returning to Kyliska’s side and getting back on her stool.

                “Oops...did I do that?” Biara said with a smirk.

                “Oh my…I totally see what I did wrong now,” Kyliska replied, refilling Biara’s glass.

                The two elves held their drinks up, clinking them merrily together as they watched the House Spellblaze guards get beaten and bodily thrown to the ground before they were dragged from the club by the bouncers. Once the commotion was done Biara slipped from the stool again, reaching out and taking Kyliska’s hand, dragging her back towards the dance floor.

                There were many more hours in the night after all, and they had a new way of life to celebrate.

Homecoming

                Kyliska’s head pounded, her stress high enough to make her want to return to the room she had been trapped in for so long, but she knew she couldn’t. As she stood in the courtyard of Sunfire Estate, the babble of all of the petitioners that had plagued her for the past few weeks rose into a dull roar, echoing inside her skull with a dull pain.

                She’d come out into the courtyard after servants had reported a caravan of elves approaching the estate, wrongly thinking that the insistent, rude petitioners would remain indoors where they had been consuming her finest wine. They came from various lowborn Houses, from the Magistrate, from Orgrimmar, and one of them was even a page all the way from Suramar with some message or another. All were uninvited, all refused to leave despite her insistence. It was times like these that Kyliska longed for the old days when she didn’t have to deal with any of this and could just put her sword to good use.

                A particularly jarring and raucous laugh echoed off the stone pavement, setting Kyliska to grind her teeth. Lord Amrath of House Windstar was one of the most annoying of the petitioners. Insisting on his ‘right’ to remain to parley with her over matters concerning his ‘mighty’ house, he had obnoxiously eaten twice his share of food and four times his share of wine. The insult to it all was that his ‘house’ was made up of no more than fifteen retainers and wouldn’t have dared to come petitioning back in the height of House Sunfire’s power.

                Kyliska tried to push the irritation to the side as horns sounded outside and the gates to the estate’s courtyard swung wide. Her mood was temporarily bolstered by the sight of Braeth’el riding at the head of a pack of Sin’dorei on hawkstriders. He’d wrapped up his winter gear, storing it on his mount’s saddle, leaving his tight leather tunic on for protection. The armor glinted dully with polish in the warm sunlight, the sun’s rays playing along his muscular arms as he brought his mount to a halt before her.

                She could have basked in the sight of his strong form forever, his presence bolstering her, except for the mystery of his trip and the caravan of elves approaching behind him. He’d said he had something important to attend to, something she would be pleased with once he was able to reveal more. Now she peered past him curiously as a trio of hawkstriders pulled an open-air carriage behind them into the courtyard, a cloaked and hooded figure seated on its soft cushions.

                Kyliska’s gaze homed in on that figure, a female elf sitting alone and accompanied by guards as if she were a queen. For reasons she couldn’t quite understand, Kyli’s heart began to pound as a nagging realization set in. Her pulse quickened as she caught a glimpse of arcane wards flickering within the shadowed depths of the hood. She knew, in that moment, who sat in the carriage, and if Braeth’el had brought her…

                Her thoughts were interrupted by Lord Amrath as he rudely shouldered his way through the mounted elves, standing with his back straight before her, “Lady Kyli… Are we to be forced to remain in this heat all day? This procession hardly looks worthy of our valuable time, and we have much to discuss in the ways of our future business. It is unseemly for you to keep your guests waiting with only a mediocre wine to drink and all of this dust.”

                Kyliska felt a stab of irritation spike through her. Her mouth opened and closed, longing to say so many things that her staff had assured her would be political suicide to utter. She was both saved and horrified when another voice answered the inquiry, her eyes snapping to the hooded figure in the carriage. A figure that had risen and spoken with a voice that chilled her to her core.

                “Your audience is over. You will depart these grounds at once, never to return.”

                Lord Amrath sniffed disdainfully, swirling his wine in his glass, “I hardly think that House Sunfire can afford to treat its guests in such a manner, given its current…difficulties. Perhaps you should reconsider what you’re saying, stranger.”

                Kyliska’s heart felt like a hand was squeezing it as she watched the woman reach up and expose the features she knew so well. The only surprise was the golden eyes that glared down at the unfortunate elf that was about to learn a very valuable lesson. Although her world spun around her, Kyli clung to the pounding rage, confusion, and hope that surged through her, clung to consciousness for a moment longer before she heard a thing that confirmed her deepest fears and joys.

                As the sounds of over a hundred wine glasses and bottles shattering from the sudden ice that had claimed them tinkled over the gasps of petitioners who had been cut by flying shards of glass, Kyli watched Lord Amrath tumble to his knees, his arms and face bleeding. That voice echoed out over the crowd once again.

                “Guards, remove these insolent pests from my property before I make a mess in the courtyard. I am the Magistrix Biara Dayfire, and I will not tolerate a traitorous little bitch like this to talk back to me. Throw his belongings in the river and let him fish them out.”

                Kyli’s world turned black as she fainted.

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                The world spun again and blackness receded to reveal the all too familiar sight of the ceiling in Kyliska’s room. For a moment she thought she had dreamed the entire thing, thought that perhaps the pressure had finally gotten to her. She shifted in place, a gasp escaping her as she realized a silent figure sat beside her bed.

                Biara was paler than she remembered, and thinner, as if she had suffered much over a long period of time. Her eyes glowed brightly with power though, those golden orbs affixed on some distant place beyond Kyliska’s view. She struggled to sit up, her mouth opening and then closing, unable to find the words to say.

                Biara saved her the trouble, speaking without looking at her, her gaze still on the floor, “I was captured many months ago. Taken by surprise in the night. For the first few months, I couldn’t move because of the temporal spells on me, but such magic can’t hold me. Not after the experiments I’ve done with that type of power. As the spell faded, I began to use my magic to try to scry, siphoning as much as I could with my limited resources.”

                She turned, her piercing gaze meeting Kyli’s, “I hoped…for a long time I hoped you would all see through the deception and lies the Highborne spun. That you would come to find me. I couldn’t reach you, but I could watch and hope. As time passed and my prison began to malfunction, I realized you had been truly fooled, that you had believed that I could betray you so deeply. It hurt to know that you thought that about me, that you wouldn’t come for me because of a lie.”

                Kyliska tried to speak, but Biara held up a hand to forestall her, “I realized you didn’t have the magic, didn’t have the power needed to see through the deception. It wasn’t your fault, even if it hurt me. For a time I raged, alone in my cell, slowly starving of mana exhaustion. I thought about all I had seen, what I now knew. The Highborne, the one calling herself Kerriel, she explained it to me. We are her blood heirs, her descendants. She wanted to keep us safe, and the two of us together are like oil and water. We create trouble, we bring about destruction. I lead you into disaster, you egg me on with your passion, and together we cause hardship on ourselves and on others. She had to put me away, she said, had to keep us safe from ourselves so she could achieve her plans. So she ruined our bond and kept us apart. She put me safely away and out of the picture so we could not ruin it all.”

                The enormity of what Biara was saying settled on Kyliska even as tears streamed down her face. All of it, all of her suffering, was over. Her sister was here, in the flesh, on her side again. A million things flashed through her mind, all of them trying to get out at once. Instead she just said, “So what do we do now?”

                Biara smiled at her, the look cold and full of fury that ignited something deep within Kyliska. She rose, standing over her sister, her voice full of fire, “Now? Well, I have been fully briefed on events since my departure. I consider this entire thing fortunate in the end. It has exposed a dangerous enemy we did not know. It has proven that friends and allies I thought reliable were mercurial and traitorous. That they were unreliable in your deepest time of need. I understand now that had I truly died at some point, you would have been cast adrift by the others, and that I need to show you how to ensure that never happens again.”

                She shifted in place, the hand behind her reaching forward, revealing Kyliska’s sheathed sword in her fist. “Now, my dearest sister, now we will take an accounting of every wrong that has been done to us in the past year. Now we will teach our allies why they should have stuck by their word. Now, I will lead, and you will follow with your blade drawn, your passion and anger driving me. We will be oil and water, and we will ignite the flames across the surface until it all burns down. The Highborne feared destruction? Just wait until she sees what we will unleash upon her, upon the world.”

                Kyliska felt a vicious grin creep across her face as Biara reached out and handed her the sword. She felt it in her hands, the steel sending an electric thrill through her. Things would be like they had been! Her sister would make it right!

                As Kyliska grinned, Biara’s face mirrored hers. Her hands came up, clapping twice very sharply. The door to Kyliska’s room opened and a number of Blood Knights and apprentices poured in, all standing at attention, all of them apparently inspired by a previous, similar speech from their Magistrix.

                “Come sister, you have lain quietly by the wayside for long enough. Let us soak your blade in the blood of enemies and traitors, until the world learns just exactly how destructive we can be.”

                Kyliska rose from her bed, whipping her sword out and raising it high as her knights cheered her. Her heart pounded again, but this time, it was with a thrilling joy that had been missing for far too long. Everyone would pay. Everyone would learn why the sisters had survived for so very long through so much hardship. They would learn that lesson the hard way.

                Together the two dangerous Sin’dorei marched from the room, their guards and servants following, ready to carry out the orders of House Sunfire’s renewed leadership.