Senkha slips out of Oliver's arms and watches him, relinquishing her hold on his body as Nialos arrives. She isn't saying very much, but she looks tense.
Nialos waves Oliver's runeblade about, signaling that, yes. He has it.
Senkha tenses upon seeing this, glancing at Oliver as if she expects him to basically eat everything.
Macglynn runs at Nialos and tries to wrestle the blade out of his hands.
Senkha says: --let him have it.
Senkha says: Nothing out here to kill but the Scourge and us, and he won't hurt us.
Nialos relinquishes his grip, letting the blade fall into Oliver's grabby palms. "Fine, fine..."
Senkha watches this and awkwardly explains, "It's angry. It wants to kill. ...it probably wants me to help."
Macglynn doesn't waste a second in taking a swing at Nialos with his newly-acquired blade.
Senkha 's body jerks again, her eyes clenching shut.
And then she takes control again. Down boy. Easy. Easy.
Nialos ' eye flares, body instinstively ducking down and rolling away from Oliver. "What happened to, "he won't hurt us"!?" he cries.
Macglynn 's blade stops far before it ever would have hit Nialos. Slowly, he lowers it.
Senkha remains stiff and motionless. "...I won't let him," she explains through gritted teeth. Her eyes are still closed. She seems unable to move for herself and, occasionally, her voice seems to come through Oliver's mouth.
Nialos deadpans. "Fantastic."
"You're seeing things. You're killing things that shouldn't be killed. Don't hurt Dad. Don't hurt me. Turn around... destroy the Scourge there."
Macglynn raises his blade again and turns, charging off toward the corpses that still aimlessly wander the valley.
Senkha remains motionless, though she continues to speak. "I'm sorry, Dad," she says after a long moment. Her voice breaks a bit on the last word.
Nialos sighs, the glow of his eye dimming to normal. "For what."
Senkha sighs audibly, though her body doesn't really move at all. "For what I'm doing right now. For... this. Because I... Light, this is going to sound crazy."
Nialos says: Dear, after everything I've seen you two do, say and fall prey to? I don't think there's anything that'll really surprise me.
Senkha says: ...I'm controlling Oliver's body. I've done it three times before, all when he was feeding his blade. With his direction, I... committed necromancy. And then I did it again to close up his wounds.
Senkha adds, after a very, very long pause, "...and I'm not sorry."
Nialos grumbles, fussing with his beard. "And are you willing to suffer the same fate of the damned?" His voice lacks the usual warmth, carrying a cold, direct bite.
Senkha doesn't move, though her voice carries with it the same sound as someone who's squared her shoulders, prepared for any sort of dressing down or lecture she might receive. "I am. I can't undo it now. Necromancy is damnable, and it's done."
Nialos nods. "So be it, then."
Senkha says: ...I know it hurts you. And for -that- I'm sorry. I n-never want to hurt you. I didn't even mean to, at least to start, but...
Senkha fails at being rigid in her position on matters.
Nialos frees his runeblade of its constraints, draws, and plunges it into the ground. Then he crashes to the ground - he has made himself a makeshift chair.
Nialos says: It hurts, yes. I never wanted you to suffer -our- fate -- our damnation -- but...
Nialos looks out over the frozen wastes, watching as the animated corpses lumber about. "I think, at the back of my mind, I knew it'd happen."
Senkha says: That doesn't make it any easier, though. I... I know. I wasn't going to... I mean. I didn't want to tell you. Or anyone. But now..
Nialos says: Senkha. I'm your father. Even if there's no true blood between us, that bond holds; I know you. You've always been... 'close', to this path.
Nialos says: Hell, if your initial attraction to Oliver wasn't enough of an indicator...
Senkha makes a quiet, pained sound. Her body, tired of standing stiffly, wilts to the ground, though Senkha seems unaffected. "You encouraged that, though."
Nialos lets his head fall back against the blade with a quiet 'plink'. "I know I did. I thought that, just maybe... he could have showed you the darkness and turned you away. Saved you."
Senkha makes another pained sound. "In a way, he has. Even if I've done this... damned myself ...I'm not the same woman I was when you met me. You know that. ...right?"
Nialos says: I know. I know.
Nialos ' head drops to rest against his chest, a quiet, defeated sigh escaping him. "But that doesn't mean things couldn't have been different..."
Senkha says: He calls it "sinning nobly." I don't want to control an army of ghouls or rule the world from a frozen throne. I just want to keep my husband from being destroyed if I can. And to save others when he loses his mind.
Senkha says: And I don't -like- doing it. I feel -disgusting- when I do. It's why this is only the fourth time this has happened.
Nialos says: But that brings the question to mind, Senkha... if this continues on, how long until it stops being Oliver?
Nialos says: How long until the person you're trying to control is no longer the man you love?
Senkha makes another pained noise. "And that's the other part. I'm not trying to control him... I'm trying to avoid that. I... hnn. I don't want to talk to you about our sex life. But the point is... I know it's bound to happen sooner or later."
Senkha says: Just like it will happen to you. Just like it will happen to me. And every Death Knight... not that I am one.
Senkha says: And Light-willing, someone will have the foresight to off us when that happens.
Nialos ' head rises, slowly, and his expression tells it all: he's tired. "If it comes to it, you'll both die by my hand."
Senkha says: ...within minutes of each other. Please.
Nialos runs a hand over the earth. "It'd be at the same time. Overlooking Lordaeron."
Senkha 's shoulders shudder without her consent. She's crying and can't control it. "Would it be painless?"
Nialos says: You'd be lined up next to the blade, on your knees. Clean slice. Takes your head, destroys the blade.
Senkha says: ...is that-- nnn.
Nialos says: What?
Senkha speaks more quietly, almost childishly. "...is that how you killed William?"
Nialos says: ...no.
Nialos says: Dagger. Missed his heart. Bled out.
Senkha grunts in response. "...I hope it won't come to that."
Nialos says: It won't.
Senkha says: Do you think you'll go first?
Nialos says: 'Go first'?
Senkha says: Die first I mean.
Senkha says: Before you have to kill us.
Nialos grunts. "Doubt it."
Senkha 's voice is very small. "I don't want you to go through that again."
Nialos says: I probably will, though.
Senkha just grunts quietly. Mutters something about Oliver coming back.
Macglynn plods silently back over to the two, throwing his blade violently to the ground when he reaches them. It jumps across the ice and skids to a harmless stop. He sits.
Nialos weakly raises an arm, waves, then lets it drop into his lap. "How is he?"
Senkha 's eyes snap open as she relinquishes control of Oliver's body to move back into her own. Stiffly, and like she's been sleeping for hours, she goes to Nialos' runeblade chair and rests her head on his shoulder. "How are you?" she repeats, looking at her husband.
Macglynn doesn't respond to their questions right away, staring at his blade for a long moment. He finally mutters, "Fahn."
Senkha , after a few minutes, removes her mask and just holds it in her lap, staring at it and letting this awkward silence persist. Persist, awkward silence, persist.
Macglynn says: Don't- dun' take me back up t' Daleran.
Nialos clamps his eye shut, head falling again to his chest. "Why?"
Macglynn shakes his head slowly. "They ain't lettin' me back in there."
Senkha says: You're not going back there. We'll spend the night here and in the morning, we'll go to the Argent Crusade's quarantine in Lordaeron.
Macglynn says: Good. Near Ebon Hold.
Nialos grunts. Just. Grunts.
Senkha says: They've almost got the cure, love. And as soon as they do, I'll have Marius come administer it. And then you and I can kidnap him and we'll have a long weekend of drinking and bullshit.
Macglynn nods, staring blankly at the ground. Slowly, he reaches out and grabs his blade by the hilt. He pulls it to himself and uses it to hoist himself up to his feet. He walks sluggishly closer to the two and drops down again, next to his wife.
Senkha takes a moment and then places her mask against Oliver's shoulder, between her and the Blight. And then she rests her head there, sighing. "Why us," she grumbles after resting for a long time.
Nialos reaches for the hilt of his blade, pulling himself up soon after. He practically rips the blade free from its icy sheath before stalking off into the dead-infested tundra.
Macglynn still doesn't seem to be in a vocal mood. He allows her to rest her head there, but doesn't move closer to her.
Oliver is beyond angry with himself, to the point of just shutting down.
Senkha doesn't respond much to this anger; she's kind of expected it, though she does wearily think "this isn't your fault." She's to the point of "whatever, man," though.
Senkha says: So Dad knows.
Macglynn peels a chunk of ghoul from what remains of his tabard and tosses it to the side. "Knows whut."
Senkha says: The whole... necromancy thing.
Senkha says: It's kind of hard to not explain to someone who's watching you remotely control your husband that you're...er. Remotely controlling your husband.
Macglynn says: Oh, well that's beautiful. Whut'd 'e say t' that.
Macglynn says: Ah kin guess.
Senkha says: Please do.
Macglynn says: Ah'm gunna guess 'e expected it b'cause Ah'm a damned Death Knight an' you ain't, but still pissed.
Senkha says: Hurt would be more accurate.
Senkha says: He fully expects to kill us both someday. On a hill overlooking Lordaeron. We'd both be kneeling... and he'd take off our heads.
Senkha says: ...it's really creepy that he's thought that much about it.
Macglynn says: ... We all tend t' dwell on death a lot.
Senkha knows; she's likely seen the hundreds of deaths Oliver's considered that would be ways of going out "usefully".
But on Senkha's part, she can't think of these things... she's tried, but she can't. It hurts too much. And this is new, so she pretends it doesn't and ignores these things, hoping they'll go away.
Senkha says: You're dead. Dad's dead. I'll be there soon enough.
Macglynn says: Not jus' 'cause y'healed me a couple'a tahms, Senkha. Or even th' control thing.
Macglynn says: That ain't gunna corrupt yah inna th' undead.
Senkha says: ...it's because I'm not sorry, isn't it.
Macglynn says: ... What?
Senkha says: Well, if that's not it, why -will- I be corrupted into one of the undead? And if you say "It's because I'm going to kill you" and then we have a repeat of Azshara, I demand that my entry into undeath be followed by three solid weeks at an Acherus spa.
Senkha says: And no, I am not kidding.
Macglynn says: We... don't got a spa.
Senkha says: What do the geists do then?
Whether she actually believes this or not, Senkha presses upon Oliver a mental image of the geists existing to ensure that Death Knights stay mostly unrotted. They give massages, too. And paint Blood Elf Death Knights' toenails.
Macglynn says: Jump around an' git in ever'body's way lahk a bunch 'a assholes?
Macglynn stares you down.
Macglynn says: Sometahms they mop, too.
Senkha says: How about the vrykul?
Senkha says: Is that what they are? No, the flappy ones.
Senkha flaps her hands like wings.
Macglynn says: Whutever happened t'talkin' 'bout this undead thing?
Senkha says: Sorry. Why am I going to be undead?
Senkha stops trying to whistle in the dark.
Macglynn says: B'cause you ain't gunna wanna leave me.
Senkha says: ...if there was another way, you -know- I'd rather take that. Maybe Marius would know something.
Senkha says: We can ask him when we're drunk.
Macglynn says: Look me in th' eye an' tell me y'see any other future.
Senkha looks at Oliver quite seriously. "I can't. But I've never been much good at predicting things."
Macglynn says: Mm. Well. Y'go 'head an' ask Maryus.
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