Disclaimer: World of Warcraft is copyright Blizzard Entertainment 2005. In fact, so is anything else that doesn’t look like it was invented by me. Gelles is my level 60 Paladin on Thorium Brotherhood. Gelki/Mnemosyne is my mage and Aoni is my other paladin. Please don’t sue me.

This story is rated R for swearing, violence and sexual references

Stand Alone

A World of Warcraft fanfic

By Kristin Renee Taylor

Part One - Complex

Gelki stared peevishly into her empty mug.

Gelki was a goddess. Not just a goddess, but a goddess and Titan, mistress of ice and frost, bane of ten thousand worlds, and the supreme sculptor of that little fjord off the coast of Dun Morogh. And here she was, in this dingy, dirty, disgusting, deplorable...

Deplorable...

"Dep'lor'..." She muttered, and squinted into the depths of the mug, as though the force of her stare could magically summon ale from the ether.

Deplorable little tavern. With no money. And no prospects. And no ale.

"'sh not.... right. I should be... be... the..." Her brow furrowed as she attempted to chain together enough words to figure out exactly what she should be.

"You're not drunk." The chair next to her scraped against the sawdust-strewn floor as it was pulled out and spun about. Metal and leather clattered and squeaked as the paladin sat, one arm braced on the back of the chair.

Gelki didn't look up from her empty mug. "Not drunk... But I... I should be..." Her head bobbled unsteadily upon her neck as she nodded.

"We need to talk."

"..sho? What'sh that... got to do wit me?"

"Because. You're a Titan. Or claim you are." The pad of one pristinely gloved finger ran along the tabletop, drawing a line in the grime and filth. The paladin looked at the dirt on her finger with disgust. "I need the opinion of an ancient one. And you're the only one I can find without fighting through legions of bodyguards and who knows what else."

Gelki made a very undignified snort. "Why should-"

"It's about the naaru," the paladin said curtly.

Bloodshot dark blue eyes finally lifted from the mug to stare through the smoke-filled haze towards an equally bloodshot pair of matching blue eyes.

The beginnings of a smirk twitched Gelki's lips. "So," she said, all traces of slurring gone, "you finally sucked it up and saw one. Well?"

Gelles broke the staring contest first, looking off to her right, a frown of disconcertion making its way across her features.

One brown eyebrow arched. "Oh, come on, you can't be having a crisis of faith. You humans don't believe in gods. Just some lame-brained ideals. You're like samurai. But lamer."

"Samur- no. Nevermind. The naaru-"

"What about them? They're an ancient, sentient do-gooder race that blast beams of feel-good energy throughout the cosmos. And some little mortal meatbags, like you or the Draenei or the paladins, are able to pick up on those feel-good beams of Light and do things like raise the dead. If you wanna consider them your gods, go for it."

"No, wait. That's not what I-"

"Oh, I get it. You want to feel like you're 'special' or 'chosen' by some higher power to be a morally uptight watchdog on the rest of humanity. But now you know that you're powers aren't from being chosen and come from-"

"SHUT UP." Gelles launched to her feet, tense as a bowstring. She glared down at the mage. "Just... shut up."

"-some old aliens that happened to be drifting by Azeroth." Gelki continued blithely. "Any sufficiently advanced race would seem to be godlike to a lesser civilization." Gelki leaned back in her seat, absently smoothing her robes as she did so. "But, in the end, they're just glorified space wind chimes, about as remarkable as you, or me, or any other creature. Belief in them is not essential to anyone's continued existence." She picked her mug back up, squinting into its depths again. "Sorry if I just robbed your life of all possible meaning."

Gelles glanced at her in disgust. "I don't know why I bothered talking to you."

Gelki smirked. "Because you wanted confirmation of what you already knew." She looked up. "You can wield the Light because you happen to be more susceptible to some alien's radiation than other humans. Your faith in the Light is worthless. Your being a paladin is useless. You have a duty to nothing.

"And the guilt over wasting your life towards a meaningless cause is driving you crazy."

Gelles tossed a small leather sack onto the table. "You reek. Take a bath." She walked away.

Gelki grinned. "I've still got it."

End Complex