The Mage's Knight in Cold Armor: Apprentice to The Betrayer

I waited for him to arrive here at the garden where we slept together for our first time. It was also the only time I ever had sex outdoors, too! But thankfully I'm not doing that again. Before I came here, I had let Jaina know that I will have to tell Ludwig about Illidan and about why I left Marenus behind for 5 years after his father's death. It'll probably be a shitty excuse, leaving behind Marenus, but Ludwig deserves to know that he hurt me so bad that I couldn't look after our child without feeling guilty! I heard footsteps come near me and I looked up to see Ludwig. His once undead expression was more lively and he had a concerned look on his face.

"Ludwig..." I shivered.

"During our flight here, I've wondered what I missed for the last 5 years." he sighed. "When I realised Marenus was our son, I actually wished that you didn't kill me! But I know you had every reason to. Then when I saw you, I could tell you've changed. You're not as timid and bubbly as you were when we met. You've become more...serious and you want to get straight to the point of things. Even though you threatened to kill me so many times already in one day, I don't have a grudge against you at all."

I did feel a bit better that he didn't hold anything against me, but I had to keep my guard up. I don't know when he'll suddenly turn on me so I need to be cautious. "I suppose Varian told you about what happened to me?" I asked him.

"No, he told me that I should ask you about it actually." he mentioned, taking a seat across from me.

"Very well, ask away." I replied.

"When you said to Marenus that you 'have a lot to make up for as well', what did you mean by that?" he asked the first question.

"After I gave birth to Marenus, I was able to stay with him for a while, but I couldn't bear the thought of telling him that I killed his father." I clarified. "So after a week or so of taking care of him, thanks to Norwell, I was able to find him a home."

"Norwell?" he gasped when I mentioned his best friend's name. "Is he still around?"

'Oh great. I thought he was going to ask this later!' I thought to myself.

"Lie to him! He doesn't have to know! Lie!" I heard Illidan's voice in my head.

"He's...deceased." I lied. "He died in Outland trying to find me."

"I see." Ludwig concurred with an expression of disappointment. "Well, why were you in Outland to begin with?"

I felt my heart skip a beat when he mentioned Outland. I suddenly became afraid of telling him but deep down, I shouldn't really care about what he thinks, it's my life!

"I went to Outland to defeat the Betrayer." I began, trying to work around another lie, but then I was interrupted by Ludwig again.

"I've heard rumours that you went there to be with some guy named Illidan." he claimed.

With a strong nose sigh, I growled. "At first, I went there to bring him down! But things changed when I failed."

"You failed to defeat him?" Ludwig gasped again. "How are you still alive?"

'Alright, here we go, time for the show everyone! Grab your friggin popcorn! At least I know Jaina is somewhere listening in to this. In all seriousness, there's no use in lying to him now about it.'

"He took me under his wing, literally and figuratively, to help me become better at Arcane magic and to be his ally." I started to explain, watching Ludwig's face slowly turn from cocky to an expression of gobsmacked. "Not long after, we found that we had an attraction towards each other."