Shattered Sun, Mended Hearts

I knew how Kaelydia had come to be golden-eyed — see the flavor text descriptions for Blood Elf Mage outfits 62 – 64 & 60 — but I didn’t know much else about her. I was wondering what her relationship status might be when she said, “Oh, I’m married. To a Draenei.”

~*~*~

We were both members of the Army of the Shattered Sun, and occasionally had assignments together. We became moderately well acquainted with each other, but not enough that I would necessarily have called us “friends”. After the restoration of the Sunwell, I stayed at Quel’Danas while he went to Icecrown with the Argent Crusade. Following the defeat of the Lich King, he returned to Quel’Danas. By that time, the number of long-term members of the Army of the Shattered Sun had gotten much smaller, and so we encountered and worked with each other much more frequently than before. Over the years, we gradually became friends, then better friends, until eventually we were quite close.

When Lady Liadrin went with Archmage Khadgar to the other Draenor, we both chose to go with her. We spent most of our time with Lady Liadrin’s forces at Auchindoun in Talador. Occasionally, he took me to see places in Shadowmoon Valley that corresponded to the places he had known on “our” Draenor, to show me what they had been like before our Draenor became Outland.

On one such outing, I dared to ask a question that had been consuming me with curiosity for some time. I’d observed that Draenei wore different colors of gems in their tail rings, which sometimes changed. More to the point, I wondered what the green gems that he’d begun wearing in his tail rings some time ago signified.

“Ah,” he answered, rather shyly and awkwardly, “the colors are a signal between Draenei about our interest in romantic relationships. The green means that I am not currently seeking a relationship because I am already… seeing someone. And the pattern…” he became even more shy and awkward, “means that there is some… complexity.”

I was surprised. We had known each other well enough for long enough that we had shared a great deal of our pasts with each other. I knew about the wives and children he had lost to the Burning Legion, most recently when the Orcs went on their rampage on Outland. He knew about my two failed marriages.

My first marriage hadn’t quite been Arranged, but it had certainly been Set Up. As a young woman, I had been deeply immersed in my studies and had no marital prospects to speak of. I wasn’t bothered by this; my older brother had married well and would handle the family futures quite competently. The young man was a younger son of his family; when began courting me, I knew at once that it was because my parents and his sought a financial alliance. We got along amiably enough, so I agreed to the match. After three successive pregnancies ended in early miscarriages, however, he sued to be released from the marriage. Because it had been a political marriage, the legal jousting required to disentangle the conjoined business affairs without completely ruining either family took so long that my husband had fathered two children with another woman by the time everything was resolved. Once our divorce was final, he married her as promptly as he could.

(To their credit, my parents learned from this debacle and did not attempt to manipulate the marital prospects of my younger brother, Ianestin. Although I do not know her well, I approve of the young woman who has captured his attention — though neither he nor she seems willing yet to admit to the depth of their mutual affection and desire.)

After the destruction of the Sunwell, I followed Prince Kael’thas to Outland. During that journey, I fell madly in love with a certain man in the group.

He was as infatuated with me as I was with him, and infatuation rapidly progressed to a marriage proposal. Our wedding was a great celebration for the whole group; Prince Kael’thas himself showered it with praise as a sign of the new hope the Sin’dorei had before us in Outland. When we were together, fireworks flew.

But the whole thing was a mistake. For all the things we found fascinating about each other, there were as many or more that we disagreed upon, especially as Prince Kael’thas’s choices became more and more extreme. My second husband was staunchly loyal to Prince Kael’thas, whereas I began to be persuaded by Seer Voren’thal. When Seer Voren’thal began to talk, quietly, of defecting to Shattrath City, I divorced my second husband.

After that, I had been embittered and not at all interested in anything other than friendship for a very, very long time.

But my dear Draenei friend had said nothing of any recent romantic attachments.

“Are you willing to tell me about it?” I asked.

He twisted his fingers together. “I am not interested in a relationship with another Draenei,” he said slowly, “because I am too much in love with you.”

“Well, then,” I said, “let me uncomplicate things for you.” And I reached up and kissed him.

When we returned to the Sunsworn camp in Talador, we went straight to Lady Liadrin and asked her to marry us. She gave us a Look that said I was wondering how long it would take you two to figure that out and then asked simply, “Which rite?”

We’d discussed this thoroughly on the journey back to the camp, and we answered, “Both of them.”

That evening, when the appropriate ceremonial preparations had been made and the required number of witnesses had been gathered from among our friends, we were wed: first with Soulbinder Tuulani conducting the Draenei ceremony, then with Lady Liadrin conducting the Sin’dorei ceremony.

This time, the celebrations and feelings of hope were genuine.