Aisslyn's Arc

Chapter 3 of 3

Aisslyn slept, but the sleep gave her nothing. In it she was back on the cold Vault floor, chained, breathing in the dark. She woke with her jaw clenched and her hands aching. The anchor had killed the demon, but it was killing her too. Each time she reached for that memory, she stayed inside it a little longer. She needed calm that was hers, not pain she borrowed. She left the fortress before dawn. Maiev found her at the edge of the trees, glaive across her back. The woman who had once chained her now watched her with something close to worry. "You're not resting," Maiev said. "The memory doesn't let me. It holds the rage, but it holds me too." Aisslyn met her eyes. "You told me to find a thing that doesn't run dry. I found one that poisons me instead." Maiev was quiet a moment. "Then we look for another." She turned and walked into the trees. Aisslyn followed. They came to a lake hidden deep in the woods. Mist sat on the dark water. The moon hung full above it, and stars floated on the surface like scattered coins. It was still. Aisslyn had not seen anything so still since before the Vault. "I used to grow things," Aisslyn said. She surprised herself saying it. "Before Illidan. Before any of this. I'd wake and check the soil and that was the whole day." She knelt at the water's edge. "I forgot I was ever that person." Maiev crouched beside her. She did not speak, and for once the silence did not feel like a wall. Aisslyn cupped water in her hands. It was cold and clean. She pressed it to her face and breathed. No red crept in. Her heartbeat slowed on its own. "Try it now," Maiev said softly. "Reach for the corruption. Let it rise a little." Aisslyn did. She let Illidan's blood stir under her skin. The rage lifted its head. But she held the water in her hands, the cold of it, the quiet of the lake, the memory of soil and green shoots. She held a good thing instead of a wound. The rage rose and found no room. It sank back down. Her hands did not shake. She opened her eyes. The lake was still there, and so was she. "That," Aisslyn breathed. "That's the one." Maiev almost smiled. "A calm thing. Not a scar." "It's mine. It won't run dry, and it won't rot me." Aisslyn looked at the woman beside her. She had feared this face once. Now she was glad of it. "Thank you." They stayed a while by the water. For the first time since the Vault, Aisslyn felt she might one day be free of Illidan's blood entirely. The corruption still lived in her. But now she had a way to hold it without breaking. And she had someone who had chosen to sit in the quiet with her.