Greetings, I’m Sekana Katayama. This is the fourth and final installment in the series of Why Can’t We Be Friends. Here is the order in which to read.

1) Why Can’t We Be Friends?

2) Just Friends

3) More Than Friends

4) That’s What Friends Are For

So if you’re interested in this story and have not read from the start, please go all the way back to the first story and work your way up from there. I promise it’s all good stuff. Really.

Reviewers: My apologies for the delay in getting these most recent chapters up. The document uploader was giving me quite the attitude.

Disclaimer: It’s safe to say that I do not own Warcraft. But I do own my ‘creations.’ This means all of my characters. And I have a lot of characters. I also own the MORMRIS.

That’s What Friends Are For

Chapter One

As they drew closer to the aboveground entrance to Undercity, those gates that seemed as undead mouths opening to swallow unwary walkers, it was Felfe who noted the absence of the steady stream of travelers going to and from the place. The zeppelin tower was silent and occupied only by the goblins that normally guarded and operated it, and even they appeared unusually quiet.

“Something must have happened.” Kain surmised, a prick of warning alerting him to possible danger. “I’ll go on ahead.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Yuren scoffed. “If there’s trouble, you’re the first target.”

“What?” Felfe asked hurriedly, suddenly worried, glancing at Kain to see the barely visible nod. “Why would they target you?”

“I hold power here. People naturally attack what they believe is evil at its source.” Kain explained, making Felfe rather more confused than he had been with his elaborateness.

“They think you’re evil?” Felfe’s expression assumed a familiar confusion, one that he had never gotten comfortable with despite its commonality.

“Not exactly.” Kain frowned and admitted, “However, when things go wrong, I am the one who shoulders the blame.”

“Oh.” Felfe said, expressing his complete understanding of the situation in a single word.

Meanwhile, Yuren was impatient as always. “Lance and I will go on ahead, and you two can hide in the bushes or something. I don’t care.” He had revealed too much of his caring side after he had rescued Felfe from trolls and found Kain alive and unharmed, and he was loathe to make it a habit.

“He also doesn’t care what you do while in the bushes.” Lance reassured them aloud, joking in an attempt to lighten the mood.

“Pfft. We’re going.” Yuren barked the command, and started on the path to the gates without so much as a gesture to invite Lance to follow.

Lance shrugged and bowed to Felfe, who waved him away, embarrassed that his friend was treating him like a member of royalty.

“Take care of Yuren.” Felfe said, unable to not say anything at all. For reasons unknown to him, the sentence carried an implication that wasn’t too far from the mark, and Lance laughed in barely disguised surprise, looking pleased. Kain likewise smiled at Felfe’s oblivious comment.

Yuren didn’t turn back towards them, and only sighed. “I can take care of myself, Felfe.” But his words didn’t carry the threat they should have, and Felfe smiled at his undead back.

“Then make sure you take care of Lance, too.” Felfe said encouragingly, thinking he understood, believing that Yuren’s denial was due to his inability to accept the idea that maybe he needed help defending himself sometimes, too.

Lance flushed slightly and went to follow Yuren, muttering to him something about how he didn’t need to be taken care of, at which point Yuren scaldingly reminded him of the incident with the kitchen knife and a certain paladin who fainted on him at the sight of a severed finger. Lance fell silent.

“I suppose we’d better find some bushes.” Kain suggested calmly, and after the sentence he paused and seemed to reevaluate his dignity, and sighed.

Felfe, of course unaware of any loss of pride Kain had suffered by saying such a thing, followed along, nodding.

They found a nice clump of nearby foliage that could be termed ‘bushes’ and crawled through the scratchy brambles to sit inside the leafy bubbles that then encased them, hiding them from casual view. It wasn’t terribly comfortable because of the limited space and sharp braches everywhere, but Felfe managed to remedy that, at least for himself, by sitting on Kain instead of the hard earth.

Naturally, Kain didn’t mind, and they sat there in near silence for a while, exchanging quiet words every so often to make sure the other was still there, or in Felfe’s case, still awake, because the night-elf, reveling in the warm embrace, had closed his eyes at some point, and the only indication that he hadn’t fallen asleep was his occasional words.

One of these occasional points came after a long time of their occupation of the bushes, when Felfe turned an adorably sleepy expression on his companion. “Do you think they’re in any trouble?”

Kain, having thought of the possibility himself, only assumed an uncertain expression, and held Felfe closer. “Perhaps. It does seem strange…”

Yuren and Lance strode out of the elevator and into the center of Undercity, and were greeted with a sight stranger than anything they had ever expected to see there. Everyone had cleared out from the area, even the vendors, and in return there was a large but organized crowd surrounding a lone figure, who seemed to be standing on a sort of elevated platform, casually standing there and speaking as if nothing out of the ordinary was happening.

Everything changed when the two of them walked into view, the undead warrior, main tank for the guild, and his apparent friend, the leader of the Alliance himself, Lord Lancelot. Co-conspirators, they looked like, to the crowd who had been thinking in such a way already.

“Yuren? I’m surprised to see you back here already.” The blood-elf on the platform said, sounding sincere but the surprise never reached his eyes. He had obviously expected them to arrive around the time they did, and seemed to have rehearsed his lines accordingly.

“LIAM!?” Yuren shrieked immediately upon recognizing the man, striding up to the crowds and roughly pushing his way through to get close enough to the platform to be sure. “What the HELL are you doing in Undercity?”

Lance had followed close behind his companion in order to maintain some level of dignity and security, although they were now enclosed in a small circle by the crowd, which was a terribly dangerous set-up since Liam was in the circle with them.

When no one said anything in response to Yuren, the undead grew alarmed. “You were BANISHED! Why aren’t the fucking guards –”

Liam let a hint of a smirk drift over his face, but he was still maintaining his calm façade for the crowd, so he only smiled an oddly serene smile, and said with chilling confidence, “No one felt like it was necessary to arrest me. I have a reprieve for the time being.”

Lance saw Yuren’s eyes, orbs of petrified yellow light, widen a fraction, and he called out, “Did they forget the attempted murder by which you were indicted?”

A few disinterested murmurs were all that showed that the crowd had heard the charge at all, and even those faded away quickly until the gathering was silent again for a brief time before the continued conflict.

“They were made aware of other matters which are much more important. Or rather, were.” Liam said offhandedly, as if what he was saying hardly mattered except to the uninformed newcomers he was addressing.

“What have you been doing to them? Answer me THAT, Liam!” Yuren demanded, fuming at the scene which was becoming all the more clear. “What ridiculous ideas have you put into their heads?”

Lance looked around at the crowd, expecting to see gullible types, and getting a shock. They were all level seventy. And they were all raiding members of the Horde’s guild. Was it possible that they were all on Liam’s side, whatever this was about? But then, the guild was led by Kain, and everyone had to be aware of the sort of thing that had happened what seemed like years ago between him and Liam. So then, why…?

“I have told them the truth, and they have decided for themselves what is right and what is wrong.” Liam said cryptically, eyes narrowing slightly as he looked down at them. If he hadn’t been surrounded by the others, Lance suspected the elf would have had a smug look on his face.

“I’m worried about them.” Felfe stated at last, tired of the concerned looks he shared with Kain every few minutes, wordless but obvious in meaning.

“As am I,” Kain said, well-hidden distress hinted at. “I’m not sure what we can do yet.”

“Could we go look for them?” Felfe pleaded, also apprehensive of danger but needing to do something, anything, to relieve his spiraling thoughts. “We could be careful.”

“Careful? You mean that we should enter through the air-flow system?” Kain assumed far too much, not realizing that Felfe had no idea that there even was an air-flow system in Undercity, nevermind the details and possible entrance it presented to them.

“We can do that?” Felfe asked, not having meant anything in particular by ‘careful’ except perhaps that he would stealth, as if that did any good around higher levels anyway.

“It has been done,” Kain mused, eyes closing for a moment. “It might be the only option we have, at least for now. They’ve been gone far too long for everything to be fine.”

“All right.” Felfe said somberly, relinquishing his seat on Kain so that they could both extract themselves from the foliage. He slipped immediately into stealth, already intimidated by the idea that something dangerous could be going on in Undercity.

“Here,” Kain beckoned, and Felfe crept over to him, a pale silhouette easily visible at close range. When the night-elf was standing in front of him, Kain began to whisper to him furtively, aware that anyone who saw him would see a blood-elf speaking into thin air. Or, to more clever minds, talking to a rogue.

“I know you can’t keep up with me while you’re in stealth, so I want you to follow as closely as you can. Once I get to the entrance of the air-flow system, I’ll help you up and go after you. It’s a simple matter of crawling through until we find the slits where the air goes out – from there we’ll be able to see parts of Undercity.” Kain explained, and then hesitated, warning, “But if the system is on, there will be air elementals floating through it, and we’ll have to find some way to dismantle the system.”

Felfe nodded, understanding the big picture. Get in, see what’s going on, but be careful and turn off system if there are air elementals. Except Kain didn’t seem to know exactly where to find the means to turn off the system.

“Let’s go.” Kain said quietly, and took Felfe’s hand in his for a moment to give it an encouraging squeeze. Then their hands parted ways, and Kain went on ahead with Felfe attempting to follow him at a much slower and stealthier pace.

They found the air-flow entrance soon after entering the inside of Undercity, before taking the elevator down to the main area. In one of the small, stone halls there was a conspicuous plate in part of the ceiling, something of an air vent. Kain hastily pried it open with his sword, trying not to make too much noise and attract attention, if anyone was even around. Probably not. People always stayed mainly in the center of Undercity, vaguely below them somewhere.

The metal plate came out, and an opening large enough for a good-sized air elemental appeared to them. Since an air elemental usually made elves look like dwarves in comparison, both of them were able to fit into the tunnel-like area without much difficulty, though they could not crawl along side-by-side, forcing Felfe to brave the corridor first with Kain following.

“Oh-” Felfe stopped himself from swearing, though it was hardly necessary.

“Elementals?” Kain guessed, and saw a silvery head nod in confirmation.

“What are we gonna do?” Felfe asked apprehensively, and the answer he received didn’t thrill him.

“Stay here – I’ll try to find a way to shut the power off without attracting attention.” Kain ordered, and then as a last note of advice, muttered, “And try to stay as quiet as possible in here, just in case.”

“In case what?” Felfe asked, but his sentence was muffled by the short, sharp sound of the metal grate being put back into place. “Sprinkles…”

“Oh, honestly. Do you expect them to believe you now?” Liam asked annoyingly, having the privilege of Yuren’s ears alone as he bent down to whisper. “You never had a chance, poor thing.”

He checked the handcuffs to make sure that they were still tight and locked completely. They were. Just to be sure, he checked the ones on Lancelot as well, and nodded the same satisfied nod, at which point he stood back up and addressed the crowd, the guards flanking him and his new prisoners only serving to make him seem more tangible, more like a leader than before.

“They will be questioned about what they know, and in the meantime kept in a place where they cannot try to escape and make our efforts seem like anything other than they are.” Liam’s cryptic messages were normality now, and the crowd nodded appreciatively at what the meaning seemed to be rather than what he was actually saying.

Liam continued to make his point memorable. “These two would love to spread the word of our group as a rebellion, some sort of chaotic gathering of desperates. We are not rebels. We are simply a guild unappreciated and scorned, looking to build itself up once again as what it deserves to become – a group of raiders, confident and powerful, taking full opportunity of raiding with a leader who does not misuse their time.”

At the last part of his lengthy explanation and inspirational talk, the crowd began cheering, and soon there came a great roar of assent and agreement that nearly shattered the halls of Undercity themselves. Yuren and Lance were so thoroughly shocked and helpless that they could only stand there, cuffed and restrained by guards, and watch Liam’s unnerving and obvious manipulation of the guild members.

“Guards, take them away.” Liam murmured the command, and by the quirking of his lips into a smug smile which he quickly masked, the two captives could tell that he had always wanted to say it.

“I can’t believe I tried to get him not to kill you.” Yuren muttered, making sure he said it just loud enough that Liam heard. “You bastard.”

Liam only waved a hand with mock carelessness as the guards half-dragged, half-walked Yuren and Lance to the dungeons. The crowd watched the prisoners leave and then as soon as the disturbance had gone their eyes shifted back to Liam, ever watching, always absorbed in whatever he said. And Liam always made sure he had something to say.

It was really pathetic that it had come to this, though. They just didn’t understand. He could never be free so long as there was memory of his own mistakes. And he wanted freedom more than he cared about what he did to get it. By the very chance that he made the mistake of trying to kidnap Felfe, and by the very occurrence of that battle where he was subsequently banished from Undercity and the other locations, something irreversible had happened with could not now be changed. Kain’s own decision to banish him now led to a comeuppance, one that the blood-elf ‘Lord’ would not be pleased to find, and would be downright shocked to see support for, especially from his very own guild members.

‘You never had a chance of keeping your guild in line after that happened, Kain.’ Liam pondered to himself, aware that he wasn’t actually talking to the blood-elf royalty. ‘Just like I never had a chance. But that goes far back – I doubt you would remember.’

A knock came at the metal grate close to Felfe’s feet, and he inched forward to let Kain take out the cover for the air-flow system. The grate slid out of place, and he heard it being placed softly on the ground before hands reached for him and settled on his boots temporarily.

“I need to help you out of there for now.” Kain cautioned to prepare the night-elf, and the slowly extracted Felfe from the tunnel with the help of Felfe himself.

When Felfe was down on the ground, Kain gave out his information. “I can’t find a way to shut the system down without going down there and possibly ending up in a dangerous place.”

Felfe paled, and nodded, the realities of ‘dangerous place’ hitting him. Hard.

“I’m going to go into the tunnel first, dispose of the air elementals, and you’ll follow after me. You won’t be able to close the grate, but we’ll have to sacrifice evidence for efficiency.” Kain explained, pulling Felfe into a quick embrace before climbing up into the ventilation system.

Felfe frowned, but followed after anyway, not at all satisfied with his level of experience with battles, not at all satisfied with his lack of weapon skill with swords, which he had picked out recently on their way back to Undercity. But it would have to do.

Kain began making quick work of the air elementals patrolling the ventilation shaft, assuming a hardened expression at the realization that doing so was going to destroy the air-flow system beyond casual repair. Desperate times called for desperate and unconventional measures.

Felfe crawled along the tunnel behind Kain, hearing the soft clangs of the Hungering Cold as ice met air, and elementals perished one by one. They moved through the ventilation shaft as quietly as possible, and every so often there would be slits in the metal under them, air vents looking onto various parts of the floor they had just been on.

“The tunnel splits into two here, we’re taking the one leading downwards, towards the main area of the city.” Kain whispered, pausing after defeating another elemental so that his words could be heard in the resulting silence.

“Okay.” Felfe said softly.

Kain went towards the path on the left, with sloped down very steeply for a good distance, and cautioned before he went in, “Be careful, you’ll end up sliding down this part.”

And then Kain entered the sloping tunnel and soon disappeared. Felfe crawled up to it, looked down at the sharply sloping metal air-flow shaft, and winced. He went into it beginning to tremble, and tried to relax as he pushed himself into the tunnel. The descent was harsh and fast as he more or less flew through the air. The tunnel had more or less opened up in size, and he noted at some point during his fall that he should have repositioned himself and fallen legs-first rather than hands-first, as it was.

Kain was waiting to catch him, probably having anticipated such a mistake, so Felfe felt himself fall onto an armored but semi-soft object that cringed slightly with the impact that knocked it down but otherwise seemed unharmed.

Felfe stayed there for a moment, laying on top of his companion and recovering from the recent trauma, breathing hard against the comforting chest. “T-thanks…”

“Any time.” Kain murmured, wrapping careful arms around him for a moment.

They parted and managed to stand up awkwardly in the part of the tunnel that had a higher metal ceiling due to the sharp slope slanting upwards. Felfe brushed himself off despite the absence of dirt in the cold, metal ventilation shaft, and Kain ran a hand through his hair before pondering their options.

“We should be getting closer to the main area now.” He informed Felfe, seeing glowing eyes looking to him for guidance. “I’ll tell you when I get to a grate. We’ll be able to see if anything is going on from there.”

Felfe nodded in the semi-darkness, the movement made more obvious by the moving flecks of white that were his eyes. “All right.”

Kain went into a crouch, and then began inching carefully into the tunnel, where it narrowed in height. Felfe did the same, and soon they were back on track, with Kain slaying an air elemental every so often and progressing through the air-flow system.

It was only a few minutes, but seemed like much longer, before Kain paused significantly, and made a noise of recognition. He had found the grate, and was peering through the slits to examine the scene far below them.

“What…?” A sharp intake of breath choked the word as it left Kain’s lips. “NO.”

“What is it? What’s wron-”

“He’s here! This shouldn’t be happening, how did they –” Kain paused hollowly, and his voice was tortured when he continued. “Wait… wait… no…”

Felfe stayed still, helpless and unaware of the horrors Kain was witnessing that very moment, knowing only that it had to be something terrifying for the commander of the Horde to suddenly break.

“No…!” Kain exclaimed abruptly, as if in response to something hidden from Felfe’s view, and then let slip a hint of what was going on. “Damn it, they never stood a chance!”

“Are they okay? Yuren and-”

“For now, but I don’t know. I don’t know!” Kain whispered the last part to himself with a touch of insanity, and at last Felfe could wait no longer to demand to know what he was seeing.

“What’s going on!?” The night-elf tried to ask in a demanding tone, but it sounded more of a squeak.

“Liam.” Kain said quietly, voice nothing but cold steel, the voice of the Hungering Cold itself.

“No!” Felfe cried, with complete understanding of Kain’s sudden breakdown. “How is he here? I-I thought he was banished!”

“I don’t know!” Kain snapped, still staring down through the holes in the grate. “They took them to the dungeons.”

“Yuren and Lance!?”

“Yes.”

“Couldn’t they fight him?” Felfe asked, in a way that seemed like pleading, however little sense that made.

“He has the guild on his side.” Kain said softly, and there was the sound of a drop of water hitting metal. Tears.

“Your… your guild?” Felfe looked down at his hands, on the cold steel of the tunnel, and knew that Kain was losing it now, thinking he had come here to protect those who now betrayed him so thoroughly.

A drop of water hitting metal. Tears.

“You had all of them on your side, didn't you?” Kain muttered, as if speaking directly to Liam, that ruiner of hope and betrayer of loyalties. “And they believe all your lies…?”

A drop of water hitting metal. Tears.

“What are we gonna do?” Felfe asked, panicked. “Yuren and Lance, will they…”

“I’m not sure.” Kain replied, and whether it was to one question or the other, neither of them knew.

“Something is not right.” Alyane said with a tinge of apprehensiveness, scanning the area around them, the path to Undercity, and seeing no one and nothing moving.

Silya, completely refreshed since the night’s sleep, was unused to being so aware of her surroundings, and noticed acutely the difference in what she had expected to see at the path to Undercity. “It’s deserted. But didn’t Lance say that they were going back here? There should be tons of people coming in from the zeppelin to see us back…”

“I sense that… there might be trouble.” Alyane said much too calmly, without so much as an ounce of satisfaction that usually accompanied her predictions, however grim.

Silya looked to her teacher for a verdict, and got one quickly.

“We are going to see what has happened. Follow closely, and I will do my best to protect you should there be danger.” Alyane instructed, and then walked up the path and into the courtyard.

They crossed the courtyard and entered the castle-like interior that led to the elevators. Alyane insisted on searching the corridors before using the elevators, mainly because she noted Silya’s frozen demeanor at the thought of stepping inside one of the death traps again.

“Alyane,” Silya called out quietly to her teacher, who was out in the main part of the hallway by the small table. “Come see this.”

They examined the metal grate lying on the floor, and the orifice in the ceiling presented to them, and Alyane’s mind flew past the mere idea of the tunnel’s use as a secret entrance to Undercity.

“They used the air-flow system to get in.” She mused. “But was it invaders, or investigators?”

“I’m going.” Silya said stubbornly, and began to climb into the ventilation shaft.

Alyane maintained a firm grip on her student’s cloak, and tugged her back down to the ground with a stern expression. “I will go first. There could be air elementals respawning.”

“Respawning?” Silya asked before realizing. “Oh, you mean… someone must have gone through and killed them already? That’s far too drastic, no one would ever – I mean, they could just turn off the system couldn’t they?”

“Not if they did not want to risk revealing their presence.” Alyane said briskly, and climbed up into the ventilation shaft first, making the action as graceful as possible despite the difficulty added by her dress and slippers. Silya managed to get up with a great deal more difficulty and bearing a humiliating resemblance to… herself.

There were no air elementals left, and it was clear that whoever had come through the tunnel had not been long gone. Alyane went first with Silya following close behind her, and after a few minutes they came to a fork in the tunnel.

“The right tunnel leads around this floor, which is useless because we have already searched here.” Alyane replied, in response to Silya’s question of which path to take. “The left tunnels slopes downward, to the main area of Undercity below us.”

Alyane took the left tunnel, managing to slide down the steep slope maintaining her dignity. Silya did the same, having watched her teacher’s movements like always, and mimicked them. They both ended up in the next part of the tunnel, and returned to crawling along the metal enclosure in silence.

“We will have to wait until we can get him alone.” Kain finally managed to calm himself somewhat with the idea of making a plan. “And then…”

“What are we gonna do, though?” Felfe asked worriedly. “If he turned them against you, how can we get them to listen to us?”

“I didn’t think about that,” Kain admitted, his voice taking on a morbid tone. “After all, after the leader of a rebellion is killed, usually his accomplices lose faith in the movement.”

“You’re going to kill him?” Felfe asked, feeling a sense of déjà vu with the familiar sentence from when he had tried to stop Kain from ‘disposing of’ Liam a long time ago.

“I should have done it then.” Kain muttered. “So I shall have to do it now.”

“That’s my fault…” Felfe admitted mournfully. “I didn’t realize then how much he hated you, or whatever his goal is.”

“I’d rather not think about his goal.” Kain closed his eyes in an attempt to clear his mind, and his emotions, of Liam.

“Wait, shhh!” Felfe hushed him, and Kain, surprised, complied.

The sounds of others approaching in the tunnel made Kain nearly panic once again, urging Felfe to follow him in an attempt to avoid the intruders by the only means possible – outdistancing them in the narrow tunnel.

“No, wait, what if they’re okay?” Felfe asked, implying by the word ‘okay’ that they might be friendly to their plight. “Hey! Who’s there?”

“Felfe?” A distinguished voice asked, sounding surprised for what must have been one of the only times in her life. “Kain is with you, I presume?”

“Yes. Alyane, is it?” Kain sounded thoroughly relieved to hear the familiar voice for what must have been one for the only times in his life.

“Kain!” Silya shouted, excited to hear her brother’s voice after such a long time worrying for his life. “I’m here, too!”

“Silya.” Kain greeted her with another dose of relief. “I’m glad.”

“What’s going on?” Silya asked them, and it was obvious by the very fact that the four of them were in a ventilation shaft far above the main area of Undercity that she was talking of the dangerous situation of which she and Alyane did not yet understand.

“Liam is here.” Kain said quickly, ignoring the reactions of the other two blood-elves. “And he has turned the guild against us. Or, I should say, against me. And Yuren and Lancelot are now being held in the dungeons, no doubt being questioned for our whereabouts.”

“Are you sure of this?” Alyane asked grimly, her emerald eyes blazing with something like fear and determination.

“I am watching it at this very moment.” Kain said disheartenedly. “The slits in the grate.”

“Yuren and Lance went on ahead, didn’t they?” Silya asked, knowing the answer already.

“Yes. They were captured by the guards while talking to Liam. He has the guild there with him, right now.” Kain then started to fume, eyes narrowing. “Telling them his lies.”

“This is…” Alyane paused, for once searching for the right word, and grasping air. “I cannot believe it. I would not, if this wasn’t such a…” She halted again, and sighed.

“It’s horrible.” Silya picked up where her teacher left off, sounding a little shaken as if she was still trying to comprehend what all this meant. “This means… Liam is guildmaster now? What can we do against that?”

“I don’t know.” Kain answered, again to either question, and then specified. “As for what we can do, the only thing I can think of is that we find him when he is alone or less guarded. Right now, the crowd around him is more than enough to protect him from us.”

“And what then?” Alyane pressed, eyebrow raising a fraction. “Do you intend to kill him?”

“If it must be done, I shall.” Kain admitted, and then said, in a low, dangerous voice, “Gladly.”

The other three suppressed reactions of some sort to this, and then attempted to construct a sort of support for the plan.

“We will have to find somewhere safe to hide until his meeting with the guild is over, but one of us still needs to watch through this grate to tell the rest of us when Liam leaves and where he goes.” Alyane suggested, thinking things out.

“This is a safe enough place to hide for the time being, yes, and I would advocate staying here indefinitely, but one of us needs to go on ahead to see where the other grates lead to, so we can better plan out all the routes we can take to slip into the city.” Kain presented the idea, and Alyane nodded before realizing that only Silya could see her.

“Yes, that sounds agreeable. It will have to be you who scouts, since we can’t get past each other here. Unless we retreat to the place where the slope joins the tunnel, where we might have room to switch places…?” Alyane pondered, and then nodded to herself. “Yes, that might work.”

“I will still take on the role of scout, regardless.” Kain said commandingly. “The three of you can take turns at the grate.”

He went on ahead, and Felfe inched forward to peer down through the holes in the grate. His breath caught abruptly, despite thinking he knew what he was going to see.

Liam stood there on a platform of some sort, and he was surrounded by a crowd of people who must have been Kain’s guild members. What’s more, he recognized a few of them from around the mansion various times. Here was a priest he remembered had healed him, there was Melinda, the warlock who had defended him from Liam himself. There was a paladin who had rushed over to Lance after the battle with Liam, gushing that there could be no man of greater virtue than one that refused to run in order to prove undying loyalty to his companion. How had they been so well convinced? What had Liam said that could have made them see him not as a threat but a friend?

Felfe belatedly realized that Silya and Alyane had been calling his name softly, and he gave a start. “W-what?”

“What’s wrong?” Silya asked quickly, concerned over Felfe’s unnatural quiet.

“H-he… he has all of them just like,” Felfe hesitated, unsure of his voice. “They look like they believe whatever he says.”

“Maybe they do,” Silya whispered into the awkward and stuffy silence, and then fell silent herself.

Alyane and Silya retreated to the area where slope met the floor of the tunnel, and stood up awkwardly, at least able to stretch in the added space. Silya, still under the after-effects of the potion, was not at all weary, but Alyane, who had lately been worried for her student and hadn’t gotten as much rest, was tired enough to sink down to the metal floor and into a sitting position.

‘I wish I could hear what he was saying to them,’ Felfe thought, clenching fists to keep the fear at bay.

“Oh, they’re here, mark my words.” Liam assured the crowd, casting a serious and yet confident glance around the large main area of the city as if expecting the ‘intruders’ to materialize at that very moment. “No doubt they’re apprehensive now since they only sent those two first. No, I think they will wait for a better moment to confront us.”

The use of the word ‘us’ tied Liam further to the group’s cause as they saw it, but even so they nodded agreement before he was even finished with the sentence. They followed him now, like blind soldiers, because of the way he had fed them truth after truth with just the right amount of honey.

“Perhaps they’ll try to sneak in like criminals. Wouldn’t that be ironic?” Liam tilted his head to the side casually, inviting assent with his created smile.

Various voices raised in agreement, and glances were exchanged, full of understanding of the irony. The Lord Kain, sneaking into his own city as if he had been exiled from it and was returning in secret, which was just what Liam himself had done. It was a flip, and it made them consider Kain as the one who had wronged, not the one who was wronged. Liam had slid into Kain’s role and now the only position for Kain was the space formerly occupied by the banished convict himself.

“Then again,” Liam mused, faking light interest. “Maybe they are already sneaking in as we speak. I wonder how they would do that?” The question was asked curiously, as if Liam actually had no idea of such a thing. His audience, forgetting the fact that Liam had secretly infiltrated Undercity just a few days ago, began to supply what information they knew.

“The easiest way would be the air-flow system,” One blood-elf hunter called out, wanting to say something that would prove helpful to Liam and ‘their’ cause. “All they would have to do is crawl into the ventilation shafts and kill off the air elementals.”

“Hey, wait,” A priest said immediately after the other stopped speaking. “Doesn’t it feel a little stuffy in here?”

Noises of recognition abounded, and it seemed that the crowd simultaneously realized what must have happened. Various cries of ‘they’re here already!’ and ‘they’re in the air-flow system!’ reached Liam, and he looked entirely satisfied.

“My, it seems that you’re right! Well, then, we’ll have to make sure they don’t take us by surprise.” Although Liam finished the sentence without another question, the way he trailed off at the end hinted at something unfinished, like an unspoken inquiry.

“Of course!” A tauren druid wearing engineering goggles supplied, “If we turn the heat system on, the fire elementals will be able to catch them in an ambush.”

A troll mage, probably fire-specced, added, “Ja, mon, an’ dat be makin’ da metal tunnel inta sum bad place ta be, what wit da metal heatin’ up.”

“What genius!” Liam’s eyes seemed to sparkle, and he smiled down at them with pride. “That sounds like an excellent idea. Would someone with some expertise with engineering go and turn on the heat system?”

More than a few hands were raised, but despite the logic of only sending one or two, Liam let all five of them go to do the task, because otherwise the ones left out would feel unwanted and useless, and he could not have that. Not only were all five satisfied with being able to be important, but the rest of the crowd, aware for once of the action’s effects, thought Liam a tactful leader for making such a decision.

“We might even get to see our intruders soon, if this works well enough.” Liam said rewardingly, as if it was some sort of treat, and the crowd lapped it up. “After all, where else is there to go in a burning metal tunnel besides out?”

“Some of them just left the crowd.” Felfe noted aloud, confused. “Do you think they’re on our side?”

“No,” Alyane said dismissively. “He wouldn’t let them go freely if that was the case. They probably have some sort of task to do. What do they look like?”

“Well,” Felfe squinted, trying to see any details as the five figures walked out of sight. “All I could really tell was that they were all wearing goggles.”

“Engineers?” Silya guessed, and then shrugged. “Seems like anything they’d do would be pretty useless.”

Alyane thought for a moment, and frowned, her calm melting away. “Felfe, go on ahead and warn Kain, now. They’re going to turn on the heat system.”

Felfe wasn’t positive why it was so terrible – at least, he knew that Alyane and Kain could easily finish off fire elementals just like they had vanquished all the air elementals earlier. But he knew Alyane was always right about things, so he crawled as quickly as possible along the tunnel, hoping things wouldn’t be as bad as the prickling on the back of his neck was telling him they would be.

Back in the part of the tunnel where there was the steep slope upwards, Alyane was trying to get some sort of hold on the metal to climb up, but it was impossible. There was no going back.

“That way is useless.” Alyane said quickly, and crawled into the part of the tunnel after the slope to look through the grate for a moment. “They aren’t moving. It would be too dangerous to go down there with all of them guarding Liam. And the distance to the ground… it’s doubtful the impact wouldn’t be fatal.”

“I could slow my fall,” Silya said hesitantly, “But they would still get me unless there was some sort of distraction.”

“No time,” Alyane murmured while already going forward through the tunnel. “We will have to go forward and hope there is another grate in a position closer to the ground and away from the guild.”

Then the warlock paused, and backed up, forcing Silya to get back into the area near the slope, where there was room for them to stand. Alyane pushed Silya in front of her hastily, without much direction.

“You may go first. The fire elementals will appear from that direction.” Alyane said, without a hint of pompousness or self-sacrifice evident in her expression or her voice.

Silya nodded and scampered into the tunnel, crawling as fast as she could with Alyane following, hoping that the engineers would take a very, very long time to get anything done. After all, there were five of them, and they would probably fight over the task, each wanting to be the one to please Liam.

Unfortunately, she was wrong. Undercity had four Quarters and a main area, which ultimately made for five control panels for five engineers. Liam had unknowingly ended up with the exact right number of workers for the job.

“Kain!” Felfe called out, seeing the familiar shape further down the tunnel. Kain, unable to turn around, glanced back over his shoulder with a questioning expression.

“I thought you were going to stay with them?” Kain continued on, motioning for Felfe to follow him while they talked.

“There’s trouble, Alyane says it really bad.” Felfe said quickly. “Something about the engineers turning on the heat system?”

Kain halted, and then began crawling forward with as much speed as possible. “Follow me, we have to get to somewhere safe.”

“Somewhere safe?” Felfe echoed, but received no answer.

Kain rushed through the tunnel, looking down constantly in search of a metal grate at an appropriate location. Once or twice he paused, but then shook his head hurriedly and continued on, and when Felfe looked down as he passed the spot where Kain had stopped, he saw a metal grate that was far above the ground, looking out onto another section of Undercity than the one they had seen before.

After a few minutes of searching, something occurred to Kain. “Where are they?”

“Alyane and Silya? They stayed back there, I think.” Felfe recalled worriedly.

“They can’t…!” Kain cut himself off, distressed at what he was about to say, something like ‘they can’t stay there!’ but it was too obvious what he was implying – the fire elementals were coming, spreading with them a solid heat that would make the metal all around them burning sheets, like being trapped in a giant oven. “The metal – they won’t be able to…”

“Will they be okay?” Felfe asked hurriedly, insistently, at the reaction Kain had given. “Should we go back for them?”

“No! We have to keep going for now, we can’t…” Kain cringed, the expression invisible to Felfe, and continued through the tunnel, still looking for a well-placed grate. “Damn it.”

A short time later, Kain found another grate, and this time he punched right into it, and it flew off and, by the sounds of it, hit a floor not very far down. Kain slipped through the hole and Felfe did the same, ending up in an unfamiliar area of what a sign proclaimed the Magic Quarter. Kain led him, at a run, to a small room in the middle of several short halls, where they stopped.

“Stay here, I’m going back.” Was all Kain said before he disappeared with a swirl of crimson cape and silky black hair.

Felfe didn’t bother to protest, although he felt sick, unable to think straight. He didn’t want Kain to go back by himself, to that tunnel that would soon become a burning hell filled with incoming elementals. He shuddered, and went into stealth, sitting there alone. He felt close to insanity there, worried for all three of them, and even so there was still danger to him, should anyone wander into this obscure part of the Magic Quarter. But that wasn’t what he was concerned about. No, he had an inkling that if someone found him, if would be because they were looking for him.

Liam…

“They’re coming. I will take aggro, and then you run.” Alyane ordered tensely, beginning to cast shadowbolts at the incoming fire elementals both behind and in front of her.

Silya wasn’t so calm, ducking as a fire elemental swung a giant fist and missed her, and then abandoned her completely to attack Alyane. “What about you!?”

Alyane didn’t reply, hurling shadowbolts in almost every direction with unequaled swiftness. The elementals kept coming, as if there was no end to them, and Silya kept glancing from her teacher to the path in front of her, seeing the stray elementals keep appearing from the tunnel ahead of her. It wasn’t like she wanted to save herself, but if Alyane insisted, she would try. But the path wasn’t at all clear.

Alyane shouted what sounded like an incantation, and a huge cloud of fire burst from her, incinerating several nearby enemies and setting the metal below them on fire briefly.

“No! What are you- ”

“Go!”

“No!”

A rain of fire fell from the air, shielding the warlock from view with falling meteors as the floor became burning hot and aflame.

Silya went forward, leaving behind her teacher in a stream of tears and shame, not even noticing that there were no more elementals coming from her direction, but Alyane was still surrounded, and the tunnel was burning, flames licking at the joints of the tunnel and making the air stifling with smoke.

“Don’t come back for me!” Alyane called out, beautiful voice without poise and careful presentation in such a desperate moment.

Silya sobbed as she crawled quickly along the tunnel, racing against the flames and heat that would surely spread to her. In her mind, it already had, engulfing her body in melting warmth that turned to white-hot pain and dissolved her in drawn out final moments.

A light at the end of the tunnel alerted her to Kain’s reappearance, and hope surged in her for a moment before it fell again, defeated.

“Silya! Where is –”

Silya shook her head so fast her vision flickered, and pushed at Kain. “C-c’mon!”

Kain, not questioning, began crawling backwards, sheathing the Hungering Cold. Silya knew she should have begged him to go back with her, back to Alyane and the smoky corridor, but his shield was fading, and if he went and Alyane was… unable to fight… he would be caught in the same burning trap.

They came to a grate after what seemed like days, and Kain slid out the opening and lifted her down, whereupon she collapsed into him and cried until her face hurt all over and his tabard was soaked with salty tears.

He said nothing, having nothing good enough to say, and they went to Felfe, both knowing there would be an explanation needed.

“What? No, not – that’s not true!” Felfe protested, face falling rapidly. “You can’t mean…”

Silya practically threw herself at him, releasing her grief and attempting to give comfort simultaneously without accomplishing much of each. The action told Felfe the answer, and he let Silya cry on him as he looked blankly at a wall on the opposite side of the room, not being able to comprehend death, not being able to even think about Alyane, impervious to everything, caught in a burning chamber of death and hellfire. Hellfire that she had summoned herself to save Silya.

Kain stood there, face like stone, regretting so much and yet having nothing to do now, nothing to say, no comforting words came to mind. The only thing occupying his thoughts was a vague picture of Liam, constantly there but always changing, sometimes smirking, sometimes laughing at him, driving him insane to the point that he willed the picture to change, and it did, with blood streaming down the blood-elf’s face, or a sword sinking into his chest with a spurt of red and soaking his tunic. The other pictures were much worse.

Neither Silya nor Felfe seemed able to return to reality, and Kain was having a difficult enough time as it was with his own thoughts, so when the silence was marred by something other than Silya’s muffled sobs, they were caught off guards.

Footsteps.

Kain spun around, Hungering Cold bared in a flash of icy air. Absurdly Felfe pushed Silya behind him and drew twin swords from their scabbards, as if he was somehow stronger than she was, although it was clear she was in no way fit to do battle.

“Ah, Lord Kain.” That voice grated on their skin, fell over them like grease.

“Liam!” Kain snarled, and then his mouth fell open as others poured through the doorway, standing between him and Liam.

Silya was behind Felfe, Felfe was behind Kain, Liam was behind a group of guild members. It was Kain versus his guild, and a priest, a tauren shaman and a paladin stood before him, very clearly protecting that bastard, Liam. There were probably more around the corner, knowing how fair Liam liked his fights.

“Although I’d love to have a heart-to-heart talk,” Liam began, obviously saying rehearsed lines again, “That will have to wait until you’re on one side of the bars, and I’m on the other.”

An arrow flew from his bow so fast it seemed he had barely raised the weapon. Kain felt the sting of a wyvern pierce his chest, but there was no pain. “What…?”

And then his eyes closed of their own accord, and his world faded into unconsciousness.

“Well, I suppose that might be taken the wrong way…” Liam drawled, as he had Kain’s sleeping form handcuffed and restrained, and the guild members took their own leader to the dungeons. “After all, which side of the bars am I on?”

Two more guild members came from around the corner, took a look at Felfe and Silya, both of whom were much too shocked to do much besides stare, and chuckled. “What do we do with these, Liam?” Asked one.

“Take Lady Silya to join her brother.” Liam commanded, sounding oddly comfortable in his imperious tone before he changed it to a quieter and kinder one. “But just handcuff the night-elf and bring him here, I’ll take care of him.”

Silya was dragged out of the room, still crying, and Felfe was easily disarmed and then handcuffed by a troll hunter. He protested as he was dragged towards Liam, but it accomplished nothing, and when Liam placed what looked like a comforting hand on his shoulder, he did nothing besides looking down at the stone floor, wishing he had perished in that tunnel of death.

“It’s just you and I, now.” Liam said softly, having dismissed the troll already. He had an iron grip on the handcuffs with his free hand, but even if he hadn’t, Felfe knew escape was a useless idea, especially against a hunter.

“Just you, you mean.” Felfe mumbled, frightened but trying to put up a tough front.

“Why do you say that?” Liam asked playfully, caring not that the night-elf had no desire whatsoever to even look at him.

Felfe had no cutting reply, so he directed his gaze at a certain spot on the floor and kept it there, refusing to give Liam the satisfaction of a reaction. That all changed when Liam tilted his face upwards with an insistent hand on his chin, and he was forced to look his captor in the eyes. Eyes that held not only a revolving green fire, but every manner of suffering possible, and then were glazed over with his pleasure at the current situation.

Felfe still said nothing, and tried to look unintimidated, but he was unable to stop his eyes from widening at what Liam told him next.

“I’m letting you go.” The words were quiet and tinged with regret, but they were said just the same, and the next moment Liam took a skeleton key out of a pouch and unlocked the handcuffs.

Felfe wasn’t sure what was going on, but it had to be a trap, so he hesitated instead of running as fast as he could away from the other elf, which was what he was urging himself to do. As the handcuffs clanged to the floor, a hand pressed lightly on his arm, not restraining but with just enough strength to imply an action to get his attention.

His eyes went slowly back to Liam’s, afraid that the next moment he would be back in captivity, that the insane, twisted elf would change his mind in a few seconds.

Beautifully regretful eyes of green connected to his, as if in apology, and Liam leaned closer to him to whisper. “I ruin everything I see… I don’t want you to be another broken doll.”

Felfe shuddered visibly though he tried not to, and he opened his eyes carefully, thinking that he should just get out while he still could. He would have said something if he didn’t want to maintain a sort of muteness to increase the chance that Liam might lose interest in him. Not that he had anything significant enough to say to something like that.

Liam smiled as Felfe opened his eyes, an odd smile that didn’t look right on him, and when he spoke, it was an uncertain voice. “I have a request for you…”

Felfe froze, thinking that this was the trap, the catch that came from being set free. But he nodded, knowing that if he ran, Liam would catch him, and things would be worse. He had to wait for the right time to make his escape.

“Let me kiss you.” Liam made it sound like an offer he could refuse, lightly trailing fingers through his hair as if he wasn’t sure he had the right to do so, nor to ask such a thing.

It had to be a trap. It had to be some sort of trick, like he was going to whisk Kain in from around the corner to observe the torture if Felfe said yes, heart breaking and betrayal cutting both of them, hitting Kain too hard for it to ever be healed, like Kael.

“… Why?” Felfe asked quietly, his tone pleading for Liam to just say, ‘forget about it’ and let him go.

Liam withdrew the hand, letting Felfe stand there without any sort of touch, any restraint placed on him, and shrugged as if he wasn’t the criminal mastermind he had grown into. “Because I’m asking you. That’s all.”

The idea of the trap, the simple request, the way he phrased it as some sort of personal favor that didn’t really require any punishment if unfulfilled… it played with Felfe’s mind, and he didn’t like it, nor did he like the idea of going through with it. But how could he refuse and walk away feeling safe? If he made him angry, maybe it would all cease to matter. If he satisfied the last request… Liam made it sound like it was a final test before he could go free.

Heart hurting and promising to punish himself for such words later, Felfe looked up at Liam, his fiery hair and eyes of complex emotion, and said, “All right.”

Liam’s eyebrows rose, as if he hadn’t expected the agreement, and then he looked relieved. “I was hoping you would say that.”

His reply had the wrong, wrong feeling of a trap closing, but Kain was not dragged in to witness the scene, and no one else was, either. Just the two of them as Liam moved closer.

Hands were placed at his waist, and Felfe tried to make his body untense as Liam leaned in ever so slowly. His heart beat fast from fear, and however wrong it was, he wanted to close his eyes and pretend that it was Kain about to kiss him, and that his heartbeats were reacting to the impending passion. But those unfamiliar eyes commanded his to stay open as their lips touched softly, and Liam kneaded their mouths together hesitantly, grip tightening on Felfe’s waist as he focused his strength there instead of giving in to his animalistic desires while he kissed the night-elf.

He said he didn’t want to ruin him, and he seemed to be trying his hardest not to as he leaned in further, the kiss continuing but not deepening, velvet lips against his, the feeling sadly lovely in its restraint, in the way he could see Liam’s eyes swirling with intensity that he kept from his actions.

And then it was over, and Liam released him, gone before it registered to Felfe that he had stopped kissing.

“Go. Go on.” Liam said haltingly, rubbing a hand against his forehead and looking away from Felfe as if he couldn’t let himself look. “This is goodbye, if you want to look at it that way.”

Felfe wondered at the strange way he was saying it, like it was a final goodbye before death, and it made him feel even sicker from the after-effects of being kissed by someone other than Kain and the cryptic words put together. “Goodbye?”

“I have nothing to lose, now.” Liam muttered to himself, as if unaware that Felfe hadn’t left yet. “No one can stop me because I have nothing to lose.”

Felfe felt ashamed as he left the room, ashamed most of all because he hadn’t anything to say to the evil that was Liam, the evil that had a heart cloaked in darkness and sympathy disguised by a forked tongue. But most of all, he was ashamed because he didn’t know what to do anymore, and he had just left a man on the verge of insanity alone in a lonely room of cold and stone. And Liam had said goodbye. Why?

Felfe felt ashamed because he didn’t want to know why.

Expect the next chapter in a day or two - I'm working hard for once.