Return, The

'The Return
 * --by Ayrma

She heard Edrek approach the door long before he poked his head into the one room house that sat above the falls in Elwynn Forest. Probably the Defias, in the way again, though Edrek hadn’t a scratch on him. "...Annoying buggers. Ayrma, how are you? You couldn't have chosen a place less remote, maybe?"

Ayrma didn't get up from her chair to greet him. She couldn’t. Instead, she craned her neck. "Ed. Glad you could come. I need your help."

"Ayrma? What's wrong?" He rushed in. It amused her, how quickly the druid in his floppy hat and Cenarion-issue robes could go from confident to concerned.

She smoothed down her own robe – high necked to hide the bruises. "It's time for me to go home. I just.. can't make it there alone. I don't think I'm welcome." The admission took a lot from her. She eyed Edrek, waiting for a cynical retort.

One which never came. Edrek smiled ruefully. "I know that feeling all too well. Of course I'll help you. Where's 'home' for you? Astranaar? Feathermoon?"

"... Moonglade." Her smile was bitter, though not a bitter as the memories.

Edrek looked very surprised at this. "Really? That's astonishing. I didn't realize that anyone other than the Sentinels and Wardens actually LIVED in Moonglade." He shrugged. "Of course, I suppose if your father is Januus Moonsong..."

"Was. Was Januus Moonsong." The smile was even darker. "After the destruction of Nordrassil he seldom left, not until the gates of Ahn Qiraj opened."

Ed looked embarrassed at his gaffe. "My apologies. Well, yes, I can see how getting home might be difficult then. And I don't think the Furlbog are your concern."

She looked down at her hands, avoiding Edrek’s gaze. "The problem is more than twofold, actually. My father is ... missing, and he was Fandral's aide de camp. That's sure to raise questions, as I'm sure Fandral KNEW he was off to visit his estranged daughter. On top of that... I don't have the magic to take myself in under my own power, not anymore. And I can't walk." Ayrma kept her gaze down.

"You can't WALK? I knew your power was being leached by something but I didn't realize..."

From Edrek, the speculation was too hard to bear. "Inquisitor Debonaire broke my back. My power - or lack thereof - has nothing to do with it. If not for..." She sighed, adjusted her glove to hide her hesitation. "A good man found me. Without him, I'd be dead."

Edrek paled, grabbing the back of Ayrma’s chair. "He did WHAT? Elune... Why?"

"I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Over the wrong body… so to speak."

He shook his head angrily. "That bastard. And I thought his little notes were amusing." He looked disgusted with himself. "...The worst of a bad bunch. Something has to be done about him... But later. Task at hand."

And finally, a bit of pride broke through. She was still alive, after all, immobilized or no. Ayrma smirked up at Edrek from beneath locks of dark hair. "I have the feeling he'll be leaving a new one soon... and there will be something done about him. Just... not yet."

He noded absentmindedly. "The mobility thing won't be a problem, I have a friend who can make a conveyance for just such a purpose." He broke off. "Erm, you ARE off the furlbog's hate list, right?"

Ayrma rolled her eyes. "Honestly, Ed... I DID spend six years in training in Moonglade, and ALL of those years were spent avoiding my father... what else did I have to do than make nice with furbolgs?"

"All right, all right, just checking. So that shouldn't be a problem." Edrek cleared his throat, looking a little uncomfortable with the topic. “The issue of your father, of course, remains troublesome."

That was no surprise. "They'll assume I killed him. I'll be brought up before whatever law the Circle now uses, in a heartbeat."

Edrek sighed. "Indeed, it would be the logical conclusion. Give me a moment to think." He started pacing again. "To a certain extent, you're lucky you decided to do this when you did, because since I was just appointed to Acolyte I can offer limited protection."

Ed, in a position of power? Wonders would never cease… and neither would the opportunities that came from them. "Acolyte...? Congrats, Edrek. Certainly never a position I could attain."

He noded. "Thank you. To a certain extent the speed of my promotion is because I'm talonic, and we're severely underrepresented on the circle... Anyway, not the point."

She eyed Edrek, the potential of his new position foremost in her mind. "What rumors have you heard of my father's disappearance?"

"...I must admit that the rumors I've heard don't exactly favor you."

Not surprising. "And what do YOU believe?"

"What I believe is irrelevant." He shrugged. "Honestly, if they're true, I don't want to know. Because if I vouch for you to the circle, and it comes out that I have been colluding... That's not something either of us want."

She eyed him again, then looked down at her hands. "I did not kill my father. By all that's holy... he didn't die by my hand." She didn't elaborate. No need for him to know more. The truth – the simple truth, without other facts to bend it – should be plenty.

Edrek gave her a long, hard look for a moment, then noded. "All right. In that case we need a way to convince the Circle of that."

But not enough. "I don't know how, not without dragging in.. the one who DID do it." From the tone of her voice, that would be highly unlikely.

He sighed again in frustration. "Ayrma, you need to either be honest with me or not tell me anything. These half-truths are not going to help you."

"I did not kill him.” Truth. “Giving more information would put lives at risk... yours included." She spared a Ed a glance before examining the wooden walls very carefully, hands folded lightly on her lap. "You DO remember who I used to work for?"

Edrek considered for a moment. Then his face lit up in realization. "Oh. OH. That makes this considerably more difficult."

Ayrma gave a curt nod, barely restraining herself from rolling her eyes in frustration. "I didn't kill him. That should be enough. We can work from there."

"OK. Just... give me a moment." He covered his eyes with his hand and squeezed his temples. "So, with an Acolyte vouching for you, we can get you into Nighthaven without you being locked up in a barrow den cell until your trial. It's also probable that they won't kill you in such a circumstance. Beyond that... We need something. The circle only has circumstantial evidence that your father died at your hands."

Circumstantial evidence? Less than that, surely. "They have no evidence but hearsay. Besides, I could lie and claim I did it, and acted in self defense." She snorts. "Even Fandral couldn't overthrow THAT verdict."

"It might be enough. But if we can counteract it with something that suggests you could not have possibly done it... not even necessarily an alibi, but something in your character..."

"I don't have an alibi." Or anyone to bribe to create an alibi, as most of the people she knew had been in the room that night.

Edrek shrugged. "It may not be necessary, as you say. Hearsay only holds up so well even in the circle... but if they have even one solid piece of evidence, you're sunk."

She shook her head. "There is no evidence. I didn't do it."

"...Speaking as the grandchild of a crimelord who controlled the courts in Astranaar, that is not always relevant."

She snorted. The justice of the de Medici clan was something of legend. "Think you can get your grandmother to clear me?"

He snorted himself. "Astranaar is one thing. Even if Jhansi DID have the influence to sway the Circle, she certainly wouldn't waste the effort on a friend of mine… I speak more specifically of fabricated evidence. You need to know your enemies. Know who might want to see you guilty, who is spreading these rumors. You can't waltz--" He catches himself-- "can't enter Moonglade and just plan to wing it, Acolyte protection or no.”

That hadn’t been the plan. However, calling her one advocate an idiot would probably not get her far.

Edrek continued, oblivious. "So far your best option seems to be self-defense. Let's call that 'Plan B', because it's based on just as much hearsay as is the charge itself."

She scowled. "My father was well known for his verbal abuse. Convincing the elders that he went a step further shouldn't be much of an issue."

"Certainly I was on the receiving end of that more than once...” He started pacing again “But, again, the problem is one of credibility. To a certain extent I help with that, but I wasn't there, I can't..." An unwelcome realization dawned on his face. "....Ayrma, why did you stop your Druidic training? Was it because of your father?"

She pursed her lips. Vital information.

At least Edrek was bright enough to notice her hesitancy. "All right, let me rephrase that: Will the Inner Circle THINK it was because of your father?"

She nodded, and paused. "... it was because of him."

"All right. We may be able to work with this…" His pacing continued as he wove his story. "Your father, filled with rage, took his verbal abuse a step further. You did what came naturally." She muttered under her breath: "Wouldn't be the first time."

Edrek didn’t seem to hear as he gestured wildly. "Afterwards, however, you were filled with a great sense of remorse, because, the circumstances notwithstanding, he was clearly a great man who somewhere had lost his way." He paused. "Yes, I know," He said, accurately reading the look on Ayrma's face. "But bear with me, you don't want to be locked in a barrow den for the rest of you life, right?"

"Rather not, no."

"So, you're overcome with remorse at having to kill a great druid who has clearly been affected by the taint in the Emerald Dream. The reason you haven't come forward before now is because you have been doing some soul-searching. And, after doing so, you find that the only way that you can do penitence and honor the man whom your father was, not whom he had become, is to complete your training."

Training? He expected he could convince the circle to let her train, rather than take the punishment she deserved? She glared. "I'm not listening to Fandral Stag-horn-up-his-ass and his dumb as rocks training again."

"I think you'll find that with a master who actually cares for his apprentices, the Archdruid's methods become much less of a concern."

That was hardly the point. "I don't want to complete my training. I just want to learn what's wrong with my healing abilities... and leave."

He snorted again and eyed her paralyzed legs. "And you think that likely, do you? The great healers of Moonglade spend their time on an apostate who may or may not have killed the Archdruid's aide in self defense, and who shows no remorse for it either way?"

A good point, however little she wished to concede. There were other ways, though… "I suppose I can lie my way in."

Ed didn’t take the suggestion well. "Ayrma, they're not stupid. It's OK if you don't actually feel remorse about your father's death, it's OK if you feel the need to protect his actual killer, but if you throw yourself at the feet of the Circle requesting to return, you have to MEAN it." He sighed. “Look. From what I can tell you're almost done with what you have to do. My apprenticeship lasted as long as it did because I've been aiming for Circle standing. All you want to do is achieve standing as a Druid, full stop.

As long as the painful truth was being outed, she figured it was time to spill… most of it. "... I was two weeks away from completing it."

Ed's eyes nearly bugged out of his head. "...Two weeks? You left two weeks before...? No, no, not important. The point is, that's good. You should be able to make that little up in no time at all. Two months, say."

She shook her head. "I won't stay in that hellhole for two months. I just want to know what's wrong with me!"

"And I tell you that they won't even give you a second glance if you aren't a Druid in their eyes. Whether or not you manage to avoid sentence from the Inner Circle. You have to believe me, Ayrma. I don't know what's wrong with you, but I know that these people will, and I know how these people think. I've had almost a century to learn it."

She began a retort, but snaped her mouth shut for a long moment before continuing. "Do you think I can do it in a month?"

Another long, hard look. "If you put everything you have into it... then yes. It will be hard, but you have not a small amount of skill. You are a Moonsong."

She shook her head. "I'm not a Moonsong. I never was. Not how he wanted me to be."

Nod of understanding. "And I am not a de Medici. And yet, here we are." He started to the door. "I'll have my friend prepare the conveyance for you. I'll tell him to keep the bells and whistles to a minimum, too many bells and whistles on an Asparagus Stronginthearm device tend to be... unpleasant for the user."

Ayrma snags a piece of paper with an awkward reach and scribbled a quick note, which she leaves folded on the table beside her. "I'll do my best, Edrek. I just... this is going to open up the worst years of my life."

He turned back. "I understand, Ayrma. I've been there. But if you don't confront your demons, eventually they come to control you. Even I had to see Jhansi again."

She smiled - it's not pretty, and not kind. "Yes... but my demon is dead."

Edrek returned the smile, similarly ironic. "Well, then, this should be easy for you, shouldn't it?" He turned and left Ayrma staring out the door.