[Kiraleen]

"If your claim is true, I confess I find it disturbing," Lor'themar Theron said.

"It is," Kiraleen replied. No mitigating phrases, no hedging of words. They wouldn't work. "The Grim are holding a captured member of the Alliance here in Silvermoon."

Lor'themar pushed away from his office's desk with a deep exhale of breath. "It wouldn't be the first time such a thing happened."

"During a truce?"

The Regent-Lord waved a hand. "Point taken. This truce seems to be rapidly becoming a matter of ink on paper and little more. "

Then make it more. Kiraleen bit back the words. This meeting with her people's leader wasn't going as well as she had hoped. Sharp words wouldn't help. "Regardless, the truce exists. Returning Skylah Mackenize to the Twilight Empire would be a show of good faith."

"The Grim are heroes to many -- "

"So was Garrosh Hellscream. How well we sin'dorei fared under him." The last sentence rose to her lips unbidden and uncontrollable. Idiot, idiot, idiot!

Theron turned on her. "Lady Starvale," he said softly, "are you questioning my decisions during that time?"

"No, Regent-Lord. Merely a reminder that a hero on the battlefield can be a disaster elsewhere." She might -- might -- have repaired whatever damage her hasty words about the late warchief.

"The Grim serve a purpose --"

"The Grim serve nothing but themselves!" Kiraleen cast control and caution to the winds, letting her words roll forth like the tide. "They broke the truce in capturing Skylah -- a truce Vol'jin our warchief agreed to! And if I've heard the stories, you have as well. They picked fights with Alliance troops on Draenor, costing the Horde battles and lives. They've killed other Horde for disagreeing with them. Do you honestly believe anything they do is for any reason but to satisfy their own egos?"

They glared at each other across the desk. The Regent-Lord rubbed his temples.

"Lady Starvale... what exactly do you want me to do?"

Be better than them. "Search their quarters here and free Skylah if they still have her."

"And if they don't?"

"Warn them not to use Silvermoon as their den. The Twilight Empire aren't the kind to strike back directly. Others of the Alliance wouldn't be so particular."

The look Lor'themar gave her was a mix of disgust and disbelief. "Why are you so eager to defend them?"

Because some of them are my friends, my daughter's family. "Because we need the Alliance, Regent-Lord. This other-Draenor can no longer invade our home, but Gul'dan was whisked away by one of his Legion masters, so I heard. He may be dead. He may not be. But if the Legion comes for this world -- " She tapped the desk with a finger. "-- the Horde cannot defeat them alone. We've lost too many people." She paused. "You wanted our people to be part of the Alliance again."

He snorted. "Proudmoore stopped that. And with Hellscream gone, we're not in that great a danger from the rest of the Horde anymore."

Kiraleen gestured, conceding the point. Lor'themar rose. "I will do what I can, Lady Starvale. As a favor, you understand."

Kiraleen stood and curtseyed. "Of course, Regent-Lord."

[Kiraleen]

The scroll had arrived shortly after Kiraleen returned from seeing the Regent-Lord. No name was written on its back. Sitting down in the front parlor, listening to Iantha talk to her dolls, Kiraleen untied the grey ribbon binding the scroll. It was written in orcish.

The Twilight Empire recently learned of atrocities committed against a Tauren village near Stonebull Lake. The attacker named their rationale as one of retaliation and vengeance in response to the kidnapping and brutal torture of Skylah Mackinzie, Chancellor of the Twilight Empire, and declared their desire for The Grim, as Skylah’s captors, to face them directly.

We have since discovered this individual to be one of our own, Brinnea Velmon. We seek peace, yet gird ourselves for war; the attack in Mulgore was neither, but instead was a reprehensible act of terrorism that can never be forgiven nor forgotten.

Knowing that her horrendous actions were not in accord with the tenets of the Twilight Empire, Velmon willingly parted from Imperial ranks before action could be brought against her.

The Empire thus disavows Brinnea Velmon and her actions. We hereby declare her stripped of all Imperial rank and exiled from the Twilight Empire.

The sigil of the Twilight Empire was at the bottom. Beneath that were two words, and two initials.

Do something. L. R.

Stonebull Lake. Mulgore.

We promised to protect them.

So the Outriders had, against poachers and troublemakers who used the Southern Barrens and Feralas and Desolace's mountain ranges as entryways. But there had never been anything like this. And of course it had to happen now,when Kiraleen had been called away to Silvermoon for her duties to the Convocation, and Neheon and Thaldis and the rest out on long patrols or their own business.

When Iantha very reluctantly went down for her nap, Kiraleen retreated to her own office and took parchment and ink. The notice was brief. Addressed to all Outriders, it gave Brinnea's name and a description of the woman called from Kiraleen's memory. It ended with a sentence and a signature.

KIll on sight.

Kiraleen Starvale
Field Marshal

Her fingers moved in the gestures of one of her mother's spells, awkward and stiff -- it had been a long time since Kiraleen had used it. Within a heartbeat the missive had duplicated itself. Another series of gestures, a string of words that ended in a name, and each disappeared, on its way to the proper person.

Her head ached.

Kiraleen rested her arms on her desk and buried her face in her hands.

[RiktheRed21]

((I've always wanted to have someone issue a KoS on me. This is the best day ever.))