79. A Pomegranate, Blood, and Happiness

On the eve of Cris' departure, things not only get complicated, but life begins to clear up for him as well.
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            Memories, thoughts, racing at a million miles an hour all in one evening and to still be aware of where I am and who I am is enough to say that I have survived the worse. The past few months have been beyond chaotic. I wonder how on Azeroth I survived a severe, emotional break up, a massive tidal wave, and an assassin organization.

            Luck. Luck… and love. Those are the two forces that keep me going and alive. If it weren’t for luck and love, I wouldn’t survive the blows that life has for me, and believe me; they’re out there, waiting to strike at any given moment.

The Pomegranate

            A symbol of fertility amongst many societies, I decided to get a pomegranate the other day that I was passing by an inn. The red, hard skinned fruit was tempting to me at the time. I didn’t really connect it to fertility, but when Tia saw them in my bag, she chuckled and said, “Yu traying ta be a father?”

            That wasn’t exactly why I wanted the pomegranate, but it did make me think of Niela and the wait we both have to endure to see if, well, I will become a father. However, yesterday, as I ate seed after juicy seed of the fruit, another thought came to mind, and that thought grew bigger and bigger, until I saw her standing near my ship.

            Rain.

            I had asked her to come aboard so that we could talk about the past. Although she refused to, I needed to. Call me selfish, call me arrogant, but if she wants to block life from her mind, that’s her problem. I need to be clear headed. Not for me, but for Niela.

            We talked, but her responses were still the same immature responses I had heard when she attempted to take her life that day in Stranglethorn. My attempt was pointless. Fruitless. Perhaps that is when the pomegranate in my hand lost its flavor.

            “At least apologize for wanting to kill me. That will be the only thing that will satisfy my rage,” I told her. I lied. I wanted more answers, but I knew she wouldn’t say anymore than what she already had. Our conversation was an attack on her character in her mind, and I knew I was losing her attention.

            Rain grabbed her charcoal and wrote “Sorry” on the wooden steps of my ship. As she wrote, she began to smile and once again, she was no longer Rain, but some crazed woman. It didn’t occur to me what was going on until I heard her puppet master’s voice. That’s why she changed. Because he was near.

            With a wicked grin and a snide comment of, “Nice ship. I hope she treats you well,” she walked away from me. Back to him. It was then that I realized that I was completely over her. Not that I wanted her back romantically, but her friendship would have been enough. However, following that scumbag was not going to cut it. She was a different woman around him. She followed him like a puppy in need of a master, and she had him.

            I looked down at the black words on my step and my eyes shifted toward the pomegranate I had set down while I spoke to her.

            Fertility. Strength.

            I wasn’t going to chase after her. She wanted to make her own choices and she had to live with her own consequences. I chose to move on and have a beautiful life with my wife. The possibility of having a child with her both scares and excites me, but in case we do, I wanted to have a heart clear of remorse and rage, for the sake of my child.

            I grabbed the half-eaten pomegranate and ate one more seed before noticing that the asshole that controlled Rain was still near my ship. She made her own choices and I saw the consequences she received as the pomegranate fell from my hand.

Blood

            The sound of the plate gaunt hitting her facial bones resonated throughout my body. For a moment, I could feel the cold metal against my own face and when I saw Rain stumble, my legs seemed to weaken. Not because I wanted to go help her, but because I could feel her pain. He hit her twice in his controlling, asshole way.

            And she took it.

            He called her a liar, a pathetic drama queen, someone who took advantage of him. I couldn’t help but laugh inside upon hearing those words. A death knight calling others pathetic? Such hypocrisy.

            But Rain simply let him. I didn’t move to help her. I couldn’t. This was not my fight. What did irritate me was that she seemed to beg him. That wasn’t the woman I once loved. She was gone, as were all the feelings I had for her. My eyes fell to the blood on the ground and fear rushed through my veins.

            The previous day, a death knight commander who works for the Blood Knights was interrogating everyone on Quel’Danas about a murder on the island. I don’t know if he knew whether it was me who committed the crime, but the idea that there was blood on the pavement beside my ship was not going to look good. I told them to leave once more, but my words meant nothing. If he wanted to continue attacking her and if she wanted to continue receiving the abuse, they could do it elsewhere. Not near my ship.

            As they left, I walked toward the bloodstains and sighed. That’s what she wanted. It had to be or else she would have picked better company than that asshole. No one deserves to be abused like that, but sometimes, the choices one makes have dire consequences. I hoped that the choice I had to make involving the death of that SSO agent does not have extreme consequences. I would like to go back to my wife in one piece.

            Oh, and good luck to Rain, and what not.

Happiness

            I longed to be in her arms after dealing with all this chaos. I asked her to join me on the cliff where we usually sit and stare at the sea ahead of us. As suspected, she wasn’t too thrilled about my meeting with Rain, but at the same time, I think she understood why I did it. I did it so that my heart and soul belong to her entirely.

            Her. Niela. The woman I vowed to love, honor, and protect until my dying day. My wife. I needed her approval about not getting involved with Rain’s beating, and she gave it to me. I needed that peace of mind that reminded me of my existence, and she gave it to me. I needed those arms that comforted me in the only way she knew how, and she gave them to me.

            After all was said and done, we both realized that without our past problems, our relationship would be non-existent. Grateful for what we had, we held each other throughout the night. That’s when it hit me: This is my life. Yes, I sail and I take what I need, but when it comes down to it, I will come home to a wife who loves me and wishes for nothing but the best for me. She will be there when I return, that I don’t doubt.

            And when I do return to her arms, I will return an honest husband with the yearning to hold her once more, kiss her sweet lips, and simply drown in her scent. She is mine and I am hers. That’s all there is to it.

            And the pomegranate? Well, we’ll just have to wait to see if it really means fertility. After all, what else can we do but live…and wait?