Never Forgotten, Even Apart

The marsh was dank, muggy, and Sonna could feel the insects buzzing around her hair. Jhazphog, her voidwalker, crashed nosily over brush, despite her many attempts to explain to him the need to go quietly, or her many firm orders for him to take more care. Sonna had always had a problem with her demons listening to her, and tonight it was only worse. The witch was supposed to know what to do with the orb that the lady in Ratchet had taught her to make, an orb made by the sphere from an infernal and the shard of a felhound, creatures she had fought all day in the also dank and muggy, Desolace. Tabetha would know what to do with the orb, the warlock in Ratchet had told her. What the warlock had not been able to tell Sonna, was why Tabetha wanted to live in the middle of Duskwallow Marsh in a hut nearly impossible to find.

'phog's uneasy passage attracted the attention of a nearby crocolisk, sending the fangy creature rushing angrily after voidwalker and mistress. Sonna was far too intent on finding Tabetha's hut to worry about a reptile, so she just kept running, assuming eventually the crocolisk would get tired and go away. What she didn't consider were the next two crocolisk that the first stirred up. The blind warlock heard the loud crashing of multiple pairs of scaled legs chasing them but only stopped when she came to a small, abandoned camp, thinking it was Tabetha's. It was not, but there was a night elf druid using it, he looked up in shock as the blind warlock stumbled into his camp, her hands smoking black magick and her voidwalker rather dumbly pounding on the rear end of one of the reptiles. The elf watched in shock as she fought the fierce reptiles, not moved to action for the young Forsaken woman.

Sonna badly wanted to yell at the elf, but she had all of her concentration on her magicks and blade, on controlling 'phog and trying to sense all the curses and effects she'd cast on the beasts attacking. The scent of cooking meat was on the air, one of the crocolisks had been successfully immolated and died. One down, two to go. There was a familiar sound, suddenly, nearby, so nearby.

It was a cry, a loud shout and the crack of a blade through the air, accompanied by the screech of an injured crocolisk. Another combatant had entered the fray, a warrior from the sound of it. The warrior's shout finally spurred the surprised druid into action and he cast, a beam of celestial fire finding one of the still living beasts. It didn't take long for the three of them to finish off the remaining reptiles. Sonna crouched down, panting as she drank a bit of juice to ease the thirst using so much magick always caused her. The warrior blinked, seeing only the elf and not Sonna's slight form.

"Well, damn, I've saved an elf," he said, annoyance in his tone. Sonna stood, laughing though still a bit breathless. The elf bowed to both warlock and warrior, then quickly left, looking for a more peaceful place to camp.

"He was trying to save me although he was taking his good old time with it..." Before she could say more, the warrior gasped.

"And elf and...Miss Sonna!?"

"He really could have started to fight earlier, but I did just kinda run into his camp and--" Sonna went quiet, the voice saying her name, in such a way...

The warrior sank to his knees in front of her, ignoring the bleeding, still smoldering crocolisk corpses. "Miss Sonna."

"It can't be!" She exclaimed, shaking her head. But she pulled off her gloves, gently running her fingers over the warrior's face. Her skin was warm and smooth, and his features were perfectly familiar.

Jakob Balthasar took one of Sonna's hands and clutched it close to himself, squeezing it nearly convulsively.

"You are a Jak! I mean, that is, you are Jak, well, of course you are...oh, Jak," Sonna murmured, throwing her arms around him in a hug. They embraced quietly for a long moment before Jak straightened his back, giving a cough to hide the catch in his voice.

"I...I was very worried when I'd heard you'd disappeared from the Brotherhood," he said, still not able to give up her hand.

"Oh, I didn't really disappear. I mean, I left, but I said, they were...well, the Brotherhood was...very kind to me," she replied, slightly evasively, not wishing to insult the guild both warlock and warrior had once held dear.

Jak's face went dour as usual and he gently let go of her hand, finding a spare piece of silk to clean the edge of his blade with. "The Brotherhood is not what it once was."

Sonna shook her head slowly in agreement. "It...it's really not."

"Lady Kaylia is gone. She would not allow me to go with her or tell me where she was going..."

Sonna's smile faded away into a frown. "I...I had heard. Master Raiston's gone, too." The loss still hurt, her original teacher had done so much for her.

"He followed her," Jakob told her, to which Sonna wasn't the least surprise. Raiston had been truly loyal and stalwart to only two things in the world, the Dark Lady, and Mistress Kaylia.

Before Sonna could say anything more, Jakob spoke up again. "She...she knighted me, though, before she left."

"Oh!" Sonna clapped her hands together. "Congratulations, Jak - I know that's what you wanted so very much."

The warrior was silent while he finished cleaning his blade and slide it into the sheath. "It was. And I thought I would be happy when I was..."

She smiled faintly, and Jakob took a moment to realize there was empathy and understanding in her smile. He couldn't remember ever seeing that on the blind woman's face before. "I...I know how you feel. I thought I would be so happy with Master Raiston's training, and being a powerful warlock and controlling demons and in the Brotherhood. But they...I couldn't...I mean...I couldn't be so...so..."

Jakob let a rare smile slip over his visage. "So...Sonna."

They laughed quietly together. "You wear new colors."

Her bare fingers glanced over the blue-and-red of her guild tabard. "Oh...yes. I'm in the Sidewinder Band. Which...is a silly name."

Jakob raised his eyebrows slightly. "Yes it is. But...that's alright. The world needs a little laughter."

She nodded heavily and quickly. "Mister Loche was very kind enough to invite me to join after I left the Brotherhood. He...he said I'd always have a home with the Sidewinders. He's, um, teaching me engineering, too," Sonna's voice was careful, wary of disapproval. Even after so long, Jakob Balthasar's opinion meant the world to her.

"That was very kind of him. I met the man once. He seemed..." Jakob paused. "...a good engineer. I'm sure he's a good teacher for you."

The amount of other things he could have said, and the tone in which he said what he DID say, totally escaped Sonna's capacity. Speaking of Loche and speaking of engineering were two things that generally took away most of her focus. She smiled happily. "He's better then just a good engineer, really...here, feel this again!"

Sonna thrust her hand out to Jakob, who inspected it at first. Her skin was pale, nearly gleaming in the murk of the Duskwallow. He took her hand in his own and had to blink. Her smooth skin was soft and warm. There was even the suggestion of a faint pulse below her delicate wrist.

"What do you feel?" She asked, voice excited.

Jakob's tone was a mix of awe and horror as he spoke his realization. "Life."

Sonna smiled calmly. "We're engineers, not gods. But it's...kinda like that."

Jakob released her hand, his voice still tinged with respect and concern. "It's...amazing. That he would dare to do something like that and succeed."

"He's pretty fearless, and sure of his skills and..."

Before she could start to babble, Jakob interrupted her, "But! You have a good teacher and will be well taught, that's what matters. Now what brings you out to this miserable mirkland?"

She paused, trying to remember herself. Then she explained about the Infernal Orb and her luckless search for Tabetha. "I've never even been here before and they didn't even give me a hint of directions!"

Jakob smiled faintly and looked over Sonna again. She was his only link to his living life, and he was her's. Neither could remember much of each other, just that they'd known each other, and apparently known each other well. She was different then the last time Jakob had seen her, he realized - even besides the touch of life Loche had given her, she held herself steadier. Her clothes were well kept and very finely made, her dagger sharpened and much more impressive then the staff she used to carry. Most of all her confusion and her tendency to loose her focus, while both still evident, were no where nearly as bad as they'd once been.

His next question was almost hesitant, though he said it with forced casualness. "Hmmm. You would not mind if I accompanied you?"

"Jak!" Sonna exclaimed, her shoulders straightening in surprise. She shook her finger at him, and he couldn't help the small, rather sheepish smile that crossed his lips.

"That's a silly question, isn't it?" He asked, sounding embarrassed.

"Well, yes, it's a silly question! Of course I wouldn't mind. I have a mind because you're here to mind it and always have been and...yes, yes it really is a silly question. C'mon!"

Sonna grabbed Jakob's hand and started dragging him along.

He smiled. "Alright, then."