Vallin didn’t like boats. Lots of Dwarves did, he knew he was the outlier in that regard, but he had never cared for them. And so it was that even as the gangplank was extended for the ship, he shot Lia a look. “Ye could teleport us out of here, couldn’t ye?” he asked, half-expectant and half-pleading.
“I could teleport Wadrem and myself. Not you and Oreya,” the undead mage replied, leaning a bit more upon her staff to keep herself upright than she usually would. “Just be happy that we haven’t had to spend the past few years sniping at one another with anything other than words. We’re taking the boat.”
“The boat is fine,” Oreya stated flatly, clopping her way onto the deck with her usual nonchalance. “It’s the start of a new adventure, after all.”
Lia responded to that with a hacking, unpleasant laugh. Wadrem, a few steps behind the woman he clearly saw as his mentor, reached over to help steady her, but she brushed him off immediately. “I’m fine,” she clarified. “Oreya’s just making a joke without knowing it.”
“You do realize that we have jokes,” the Lightforged replied with a quirk of her lips, gesturing toward some benches toward the side of the deck; she knew from experience that Vallin did better when he was on the deck instead of below, a fact he appreciated. “That wasn’t one of them.”
Wadrem looked between the two of them, then shrugged. He didn’t bother taking a seat on the bench, instead just flopping down on the ground as Lia lowered herself onto the bench. It seemed standoffish, but it was almost a hang-up for him. “She has a point. You said this was going to be a new adventure.”
“Aye, promises ta be a memorable one, lad,” replied Vallin with a chuckle. “I remember when I first met Earthen, ye ken? Venturin’ into the halls of Uldaman for the first time an’ seein’ what looked like me kinfolk, but hewn from stone? Titans, it was something else ta be right there when -”
“Memorable?” Lia gave another laugh, though thankfully a less hacking-filled one this time. “It’s going to be the same thing as ever, Vallin.”
Vallin just stared for a moment. Much of the time he and Lia found themselves on the same side in arguments, one of the things that had helped guide the quartet in their unlikely friendship over the past few years. “How is it the same, exactly?” he asked with a slight edge to his voice. “I know ye dinnae care for caves.”
“It’s the same because it’s always the same,” Wadrem said, nodding sadly. “Look at us. Setting sail from the Dragon Isles, and then what? We’ll never be back here again. Just another group of villains to stomp out, same as it’s ever been.”
“Well that’s what we’re here for, are we nae?!” Vallin thundered, springing to his feet and looking aghast at the two naysayers. It was the first time in years that he’d really thought of them as being part of the Horde; most days they were just his friends, but he suddenly felt adrift. “Ye go, ye see, ye stop someone who’d do wrong ta the world! If’n ye wanted somethin’ else, go be an accountant!”
“You know I’m bad at math,” muttered Wadrem. “Stop rubbing it in.”
“Nae the point!”
“Look, Vallin, it’s not about being surrounded by rock dwarves.” Lia paused. “Well, not just that. You’ve been at this just like me, right? We know the score. However important this might seem, it’s just… not any more. We’ve been there, done that, got some robes to commemorate it.”
Vallin felt an old and deep-seated anger rising in him, but he pushed it down. Lia wasn’t trying to antagonize him, or at least not more than she always did. And he had to admit that she had a point. He could feel the ache in his joints more and more these days. After years and years, it just didn’t feel the way it used to. He could see what she meant. Quietly, he started to push himself back up to the bench, feeling a queasy lurch deep in the pit of his stomach.
“How do you know it will be the same?”
Oreya’s voice was unexpected, not just because it was gentler than normal but because she wasn’t doubting him for once. She leaned forward despite the seemingly rigid armor cloaking her, looking quizzical at the other two.
Lia just shook her head. “Oreya, you’re a sweet girl, but we’ve been around the block before. It always turns into the same thing. Go here, fight these, fix that, learn this -”
“Four years ago, could we be friends like we are?” the Lightforged continued, gesturing to Lia and Wadrem even as she put a hand on Vallin’s shoulder. “There was a time when the four of us would as soon kill one another as we would regard one another. Our nations stood in stark opposition. Now? We journey together.”
Wadrem raised a hand, then lowered it, nodding despite himself. “But it isn’t as much change as it should be, is it?”
“Nay, lad, it isn’t,” Vallin responded, suddenly feeling moved and inspired. “An’ aye, maybe Lia’s right. Maybe it won’t be worth th’time we spend. Happens a lot and I’ll nae pretend otherwise. But look over here. Two of the people ye have leading ye are an aging, rotten grump who ought to be collecting dust in a tomb, and Lia.”
That prompted another laugh from Lia, but this one was warmer. The one she reserved for when she felt genuinely happy, not the harsh bark of disagreement but something close to endearing. “So you want us to give war a chance?” she asked with a smirk.
“If we let ourselves believe nothing can change, we assure we will not see it when it does,” Oreya replied. “I would prefer that things were more different than they are. It should not have taken us so long to get where we are. But… should we not hope that things can still get better? Even if by smaller steps than we wish?”
“You can’t will yourself to be excited, though.” Wadrem raised a hand again, this time in one of his more common gestures to make it clear he was disagreeing respectfully. “Even if I haven’t been here long, it doesn’t feel exciting.”
“Aye, ye cannae manufacture excitement,” Vallin conceded, reaching up to run his fingers through his beard, thankful that he’d finally discarded the rings that had previously so often gotten tangled in the strands. “But I’d like t’hope that the best years may be ahead of me. Can ye blame an old dwarf who sees signs of things bein’ better?”
Lia just shrugged. “And what if they’re just garbage again?”
“Well then ye can complain about how this was all a mistake and none of ye should have listened ta me in the first place,” he replied, hopping back on the bench. “Ye know, same as ye planned t’do nae matter what.”
“I was planning to tell you that you bring me to all the worst places,” Oreya admitted.
They all got a chuckle from that.
War never changes, but World of Warcraft does, with almost two decades of history and a huge footprint in the MMORPG industry. Join Eliot Lefebvre each week for a new installment of WoW Factor as he examines the enormous MMO, how it interacts with the larger world of online gaming, and what’s new in the worlds of Azeroth and Draenor.
