“What news Theridran?” The elf lifted his head, looking up at his Lord and Master from his kneeling position on the floor at his feet.
She has allowed the Tauren-beasts to remain in our district. One is gravely injured - a bear-form. When I left she was slipping into the other realm.”
“Hardly news.”
“There’s more! Another beast joined them! My Lord, he speaks our language. How could a beast possibly learn our language?”
“You underestimate their powers Theridran.” The man was silent for a moment, before speaking again, “Perhaps we should welcome our exotic guests properly.” Both elf and man wore matching smirks, neither of which was hospitable. The elf’s Lord and Master gestured to a nearby guard, “Have my troops assembled. Its been some time since I strolled around the Park.”
--------
“What do you need?"
Asterius held up three fingers. "I need time, I need to be completely uninterrupted, and I need that elf over there.” He vaguely gestured toward where Nara was still gaping, her mouth hanging open in – what Leda’s mind told her – the most adorable way.
Shaking the misplaced thoughts from her head, Leda nodded gravely, their two voices blending in an awkward, echo-y mix of Iyo’s baritone and Leda’s gruff soprano.“I can give you two of those.” She turned, nearly stumbling, unused to the sheer width of her twin’s body. Leda nearly lost her footing again, when her eyes met the female elf Asterius had gestured at. Flashes of images assaulted her senses, clouding her vision - the curve of a lavender jaw, slender, long fingers and - Leda could feel the blood rushing to her face, stubbornly refusing to think of the last, rather intimate image. For the moment, it felt that Iyotanka was nearby, but unconscious - sleeping, perhaps. The images - memories, Leda decided - must be Iyo’s, excluding that last image, which she imaged would be a wishful thought.
Steadfastly ignoring Nara’s confused gaze, Leda continued, slowly finding her new centre of balance and thankfully avoiding falling on her new face. She continued up the grassy slope to the spiky thorns blocking the exit, flexing her new fingers and flicking her new tail.
She had just turned to look back at the two druids standing at the Moonwell, when the brambles began to slip away. Ledatonka braced herself, hooves dug into the cool, wet grass, stretching his arms out in front of her, like she’d watched Iyo do a million times before. The thick, dangerous stalks slowly slunk back into the earth, revealing an elf with dark purple skin. Iyotanka seemed to recognize him and although the memories were not fond ones, this druid hadn’t attempted to harm either of them. Ledatonka relaxed, stepping back to allow him entrance.
The thorns continued to slink away, leaving both archways into the quiet district open. Leda’s eyes – carbon copies of her own - widened as she saw the army waiting there. Through both archways were troops, faceless Syreen for as far as Leda could see.
“How rude of us not to welcome our guests. Forgive us, Druid.” The voice was heavily accented, the language was unfamiliar and slippery sounding, but Leda understood what had been said. Iyo may have been unconscious, but the dozens of languages he knew were like second nature by now.
From between the rows upon rows of dark, matching helms stepped a man, or at least, Leda supposed, he looked like a man. “Quite the welcome wagon,” she sneered, only to be answered with a smirk from her arrogant foe.
“Indeed. Although I suppose you’ve noticed the battle waging outside these walls,” his black eyes eyed her up and down, resting on the various poorly healed cuts and the lack of nose ring – courtesy of Iyo’s torturer in the Mage District. “In order to welcome you –“
He stopped. His disgusted sneer flickered – surprise and confusion evident on his pale tattooed face. “My my my, two souls stuffed into one body? What will I see next?”The black eyes of the Syreen commander shifted, looking past Iyo’s shoulder, grinning at Nara and Asterius. “It keeps getting better! How extraordinary! My Lord will be pleased with your captures: a two-for-one, a member of the Green Flight and that pretty little stubborn elf-whore.” Black eyes smirked in anticipation, watching Nara for longer than necessary. She could feel Iyo, in the back of her mind getting anxious, stirring, almost as if he was tossing and turning in his sleep. Her fingers itched and the urge to wrap them around the commander’s neck grew. “Does that anger you Tauren? Is that your pretty little elf-whore?”
Leda settled for a glare, to be honest, she could care less about the elf. Asterius said he’d need time and she’d give him time. Unfortunately, she knew she’d never be as eloquent as her twin; she couldn’t keep him talking forever. Ignoring his taunting questions, Leda asked, in her unnatural double-voice “What do they call you?”
He grinned, his teeth were straight – perfect really. “They call me General Lapsus. And you, my dear? Forgive me; there are two of you in there. I shall need both names, please, to add to my Book of the Dead.” It was a terrible thing – bound in human flesh, the parchment pages splattered with blood. There were no words written, but faces protruded from each page, contorted in pain, silently screaming. Iyo was whispering in the back of her mind, his thoughts ran quickly in his unconscious state.
”Souls. He collects them. Can sense them. Use them”
“Your names? I can’t wait all day you know.”
Glaring, Leda answered, voices mixes and swirling hauntingly,“I amknown as Leda Savagedawn –
”Full names, Iyo interrupted. Keys to the soul. He needs true names. Can sense us, not distinguish us. Specific souls must be called. Needs true names. Vaguely, Leda considered that this whole situation must seem like a dream to Iyo. He had told her once that he often solved riddles and mysteries in his dreams.
”And the other. The other is ... not important,” she finished, uncertainly.
“Ah, someone you care about? How ... heart-warming.” Lapsus grinned, “A lover perhaps? No no no, I can’t see that at all. There we are, a twin? Interesting. Why won’t he come out to play?”
Lapsus twisted his fingers grotesquely around a small skull – a gnome? No, Leda squinted harder, unused to seeing with both eyes – it looked disturbingly like a child’s skull. A foreign word was snapped at her, followed by staggering pain. Her muscles twisted and contracted, she could taste blood in her mouth, feel it dribbling out her ears.
The pain subsided. Lapsus was still grinning, still stroking the little skull. Thankfully, Iyo remained sleeping. “Still shy, sleeping druid? This may change your mind!” Again, a foreign word and again the skull-splitting headache. Her muscles twisted and turned until ... something snapped. Like a bow, pulled taut and then suddenly released. Leda’s vision cleared, the pain was gone and she was already running toward the only man without a helm, easily adjusting to running on four legs instead of two.
Five steps later, Lapsus had disappeared. The faceless Syreen, clothed in black metal rushed in at the overgrown bear. With a snarl, Leda was in her element. Black armour was crushed; Syreen flew through the air, hitting the walls, knocking down their comrades, and landing with sickening crunches. Wave after wave, Leda desperately tried to contain them. She easily knocked over half a dozen, rearing up on her hind legs and crashing down on them. The pile of metal-clad bodies at her paws was getting larger, but still the Syreen came pouring in. Arrows flew into her fur, sticking out like voodoo pins along her back. The stone beneath her grew hot, searing the tender flesh on the bottom of her paws.
The agonizing headache returned after she crushed a helm with one paw. Screaming in pain, the bear desperately searches for the General – their eyes meet as spots him atop a barrel, caressing the skull. Again, her muscles twist, again the blood flows freely from her ears, her knees give out and Leda, defeated, curls up to ward off the pain.
The bow-string is released.
Their voices scream, their vision is blurred red, their pain is minimal – split between two souls. Iyotanka was awake.
When asked about this moment later on in life, the only thing Leda could recall was that she couldn’t hear Iyo’s thoughts. She had expected to hear him.
Their eyes were no longer clear and blue, but shot with red – blood vessels had burst, but Leda, through the haze, could see the smile of triumph on Lapsus’ face slowly fade. They grew taller, taller than a bear, standing confidently on two feet again. The emotionless Syreen continued to march in and Ledotanka ignored the handful which had slipped past.
There was a flash of blinding light, pure moonlight and distantly she could feel Iyo’s anger. Taller than the faceless soldiers, Leda easily picked up two, crushing them together between her overgrown paws. Iyo’s face bore a smirk as she tossed them away. She could get used to the power. Tree roots strangled several Syreen, curling around their necks and then slipping away as their bodies cool. Glittering stars shone out of the broken armour of several of the dead. Swirling winds carried them up over the walls before dropping them mercilessly to their deaths below. A dozen saplings, surprisingly strong dragged their enemies into the canals, drowning them easily. With a roar, one emotionless Syreen went flying into the others. Leda’s claws perforated holes into the black plate they all wore, tearing at the vulnerable flesh beneath.
And then the General appeared. The bodies of his men lay scattered around Ledotanka’s Moonkin feet, but still he smirked. “The other is awake! Tell me, does it feel crazy for both of you to be awake at once?” Neither of the twins answered – in all honesty, there was no pain involved. Their minds had divided Iyo’s brain and body efficiently into two, each taking which part suited them best. Lapsus continued “And what is your name, Other?”
“I am Iyotanka Savagedawn,” Iyo answered calmly in his own natural voice, “Mine is also the last face you will have the pleasure of seeing.”
Leda easily batted away the following bolt of pure malice, its shadowy streak making a fist-sized crater in the stone wall. She dodged the fire-rain, an unidentifiable curse and redirected several more shadow bolts. The frustration on the General’s beautiful face was gratifying for both twins. Slowly, calmly they approached him, backing him into a corner, grinning as Leda easily deflected each and every one of his desperate attempts. The bear wrapped her overgrown paws around the warlock, squeezing the life out of him in a sick parody of a hug while Iyo laughed as nearly 13 stars soared down from the heavens, embedding themselves in the General’s head in a sick parody of a halo. The head, halo and all, was later found near the Moonwell, after rolling down the gentle green slope of the Park.
Each still chuckling to themselves, Ledotanka turned from the gore they had created only to find four more armor-clad living bodies struggling against several brambles – which looked suspiciously like the rose bushes from around the Moonwell. Leda could feel Iyo’s amusement as they turned their red-stained gaze toward the sky, finding another soldier spinning around and around in a small whirlwind. They were merciless. Moonkin feet, driven by the power of the bear inside, easily crushed skulls against the grass; the roots slipped away as they died. The wind was dismissed, several necks broke. Nara was horrified, disgust was written across her flawless face.
They strode over to Asterius, who of all things, appeared to be sleeping, his hands sculpting a dirt figure. Leda remembered the snowmen she and Iyo made their first time in Dun Morogh. Iyotanka wondered what he was doing in the Dream, angrily batting away thoughts of snowmen. Then, they caught sight of their reflection in the still waters of the Moonwell. Both cringed to see a bear head, bear paws, Moonkin torso and feet and of all things – a Tauren tail. Their eyes were blood red, matching the blood they were covered in – both theirs and Lapsus’. Nara avoided their combined gaze, slipping into her tailoring shop, but not unnoticed.
Iyo’s heart clenched as if an ice cold hand had found its way into his chest. His thoughts raced, barely resting on one fear before flitting to the next: Had he lost her? Did he ever have her? What would become of them? She hated him. She was disgusted by him. Should he follow her? Should he let her be? Did he have a chance?
With a mental sigh, Leda stepped back, allowing Iyo to take full control of his body, as he easily, painlessly shifted into a Tauren. At the back of Iyo’s mind, Leda slipped into sleep, uninterested in her brother’s fascination with the elf.
