fter returning to Los Angeles, Aiden instructed Ophiel: "Please invite Garrison Commander Maraad over."
"As you command, Commander."
After the angel left, only Aiden and Garona remained in the reception room. The other heroes had already retreated.
Garona's weapons had been confiscated, but before returning, Lissandra had released her from the frozen ice. Her injuries had also been treated by Aiden, and she had essentially recovered.
Now that there was no one else here, the legendary assassin, who had been constantly frustrated today, became restless again. She was considering whether to subdue the human before her and hold him hostage to escape; or to knock him down and then quietly sneak out.
In any case, she was unwilling to stay here any longer.
Her son Med'an was still being held hostage by Deathwing, and the thought of the Destroyer's previous threats made her uneasy. Every second she spent here, Garona feared that he would tear up the ticket.
Based on this thought, Garona's eyes flashed, and she stared at Aiden's back with ill intentions. Especially when she saw that Aiden was completely defenseless against her, even turning his back to her while focusing on a piece of information, she couldn't help but become eager to act.
Garona held her breath, quietly slowed her pace, and silently grabbed a fruit knife from the fruit plate beside her. Although this weapon was not handy, it was better than Aiden being unarmed.
Just as she was about to enter stealth, Aiden's voice suddenly came: "If I were you, I wouldn't do such a stupid thing."
Garona's eyes became fierce, she roared and rushed towards Aiden without even trying to stealth.
As the top assassin of Azeroth, she would never allow herself to do nothing! No matter how low the success rate, she had to try! This was the pride of an assassin, and the persistence of a mother.
The fruit knife in Garona's hand was still not to be underestimated. This strike was almost a reaction of her peak ability, integrating speed, accuracy, and ruthlessness—it was just a pity that she had chosen the wrong target, so it was useless.
Just like her repeated assassination failures today, even if Aiden didn't turn around, this knife couldn't stab him. The fruit knife stabbed into a layer of spacetime barrier, and then it was difficult to advance an inch. Garona didn't believe it and stabbed a few more times fiercely, while Aiden just sat there, not even lifting his head.
Garona was almost going crazy, she already understood that she could not possibly kill the human man in front of her, she shouldn't even have harbored any lucky.
Although Garona had been living in seclusion for the past few years, she had still heard of Aiden's reputation—it was truly thunderous, and his legend was spread wherever there were intelligent beings. In recent years, he had defeated too many powerful enemies, and even the Lich King of the Scourge was not even ranked.
Listen to the names of the enemies who died at his hands—the master of the Burning Legion, Archimonde the Defiler; "Nightmare Lord" Xavius; Thousand-Eye Demon C'Thun; Death God Yogg-Saron… Any one of them possessed the ability to destroy the world.
Compared to these names, Garona was insignificant, how could she possibly defeat such an enemy?
Perhaps even Deathwing did not have such ability. She had heard some time ago that Deathwing had emerged from the Barrens, flying north to destroy Los Angeles, but unfortunately, he was defeated above the Land of Justice and fled in panic.
It was after this that Deathwing kidnapped her son Med'an.
Garona shouted hysterically: "Don't think you can get any information from me! I'd rather die!"
She suddenly pointed the dagger at her throat.
Aiden turned around and asked in surprise: "Have I shown any intention of interrogating you? I don't remember?"
Garona questioned excitedly: "Then did you invite me here as a guest! Although I failed, please don't insult my intelligence!"
"Smart, correct answer—we really invited you here as a guest," Aiden said with a smile.
At this time, Ophiel brought Maraad here. The Draenei garrison commander noticed Garona at first glance, this half-orc with extremely special physical characteristics.
He was shocked and asked in a trembling voice: "You, you are Garona?"
Garona looked wary, frowning and questioning: "Draenei?" She turned her head and stared at Aiden: "What are you up to!"
Maraad cast an inquiring look at Aiden, who nodded in confirmation: "She is Garona."
"It really is you, my poor child!" Maraad suddenly lost his voice, he walked a few steps to Garona and said excitedly, "Let me see you, Garona, I have been looking for you for many years, we finally meet! Holy Light bless, this is truly the guidance of the Naaru!"
Garona didn't appreciate it, she took a few steps back and gestured with the fruit knife in her hand, and whispered: "Back off, Draenei. I am not your child, my father is an orc!"
Maraad's hands, which were preparing to embrace her, suddenly froze in the air, his lips trembled, and he said with guilt and regret: "You have suffered a lot, child… It's all my fault for not protecting you, for not protecting your mother. It's all my fault, my fault…"
The elderly garrison commander fell into the memories of the past, his eyes revealing deep sorrow. The memory took him back to Draenor decades ago, and a history of blood and tears of the Draenei people was slowly told from his mouth.
At that time, Ner'zhul and Gul'dan, this master-apprentice pair, were lured by "The Deceiver" Kil'jaeden, transforming the primitive and simple orcs into a raging and savage war machine. The draenei became the biggest victims.
The Orcish Horde launched an unjust war, almost completely slaughtering the unprepared draenei.
Maraad was a draenei defender, one of the highest commanders of the army. He had been leading his people in a tenacious resistance, but unfortunately, he failed to protect his family—his beloved sister was captured in an orc ambush.
After Gul'dan captured this pitiful draenei woman, he ordered one of his orcs to rape her.
She later gave birth to a girl and died of illness not long after. This girl was trained by Gul'dan to become a ruthless assassin. Her name was Garona Halforcen—"Halforcen" meaning "half-blood."
Garona's father did not have this surname; Gul'dan gave it to Garona specifically. It meant that only half of her blood belonged to the orcs.
Unfortunately, Garona herself never knew where the other half of her blood came from. She had no impression of her mother at all, let alone any knowledge of her mother's background.
"So... you're my uncle?" Garona looked at Maraad suspiciously.
Maraad nodded. After he learned that his sister had given birth to a girl, he had been searching for news about her for decades. Now he had finally found her!
"It's true, Garona," Aiden said. "Actually, if you think about Med'an's features—he has fleshy tendrils under his jaw, which are the most obvious characteristics of the draenei."
Garona fell silent. She threw the fruit knife aside. Meeting her relatives, she should have been happier, but she couldn't be happy at all.
"But what does it matter? Med'an has already fallen into the hands of Deathwing. Once he knows I'm here with you, he will definitely kill Med'an." Garona's tone was mocking and indifferent. "Knowing this background is useless to me. I just want to save my son. Staying here will only backfire!"
Aiden shook his head and said, "I don't think so—are you so sure that we don't have the ability to rescue Med'an? Besides, I can be sure that Med'an will be safe until they achieve their goals."
Maraad and Garona immediately stared at Aiden upon hearing this. Now they both needed some confidence and encouragement—now that Maraad had finally found his niece and learned that his niece already had a son, the thing he wanted most was to hear Garona call him "Uncle" and then hear Med'an call him "Great-Uncle."
Now that his great-nephew was in trouble, the old defender was immediately furious. No matter who the enemy was, he would let them taste the power of the Naaru's hammer!
Aiden was about to explain when Ophiel brought another person in. He glanced at them and immediately smiled, "What a coincidence today!"
The person who came was holding Atiesh, Greatstaff of the Guardian, and wearing that familiar dark cloak. Wasn't it the Guardian Medivh?
Come to think of it, he hadn't seen Medivh for a while. The last meeting was even before he went to Outland, when the Burning Legion was about to arrive.
"Your Excellency," Medivh raised his head and touched the brim of his hat as a salute. "Long time no see."
"Long time no see, Prophet," Aiden said with a smile. "Your timing is perfect!"
At this time, the other two turned around and saw the mage who had just walked in.
Maraad didn't care much; he didn't recognize the other person at all. But when Garona and Medivh saw each other, they were immediately stunned in place.
"Garona?" Medivh recognized this special half-orc at a glance.
"...Medivh? Aren't you already!" Garona almost lost her voice.
She couldn't believe her eyes. Twenty years ago, she, along with Khadgar and Sir Lothar, led people to raid Karazhan and personally killed Medivh—or rather, Sargeras, who occupied Medivh's soul. Why would this dead man reappear in front of her?
Garona was terrified. She didn't have a good impression of the man in front of her—although she had given birth to his child.
Back then, this man had attracted her, who had never been in love, with his extensive knowledge, elegant conversation, and mysterious temperament, so that she eventually merged with him. But later, Garona realized that there was an incredibly terrifying, incredibly evil, and incredibly dark soul hidden in this body.
Simply put, she felt like she had been deceived. For this reason, she did not hesitate to raid Karazhan later and kill this guy.
Medivh said with a hint of nostalgia, "That was a painful past. Thank you for this reunion, and thank you for everything you did back then. Because of this, I have the opportunity to make up for the mistakes I made in the past."
Garona didn't know whether the person in front of her was Medivh or Sargeras, who had been reborn through Medivh's body. She retreated a few steps in suspicion, until she hit the coffee table behind her and accidentally knocked over the cups and saucers on it.
Aiden couldn't help but laugh and said, "Don't be nervous, Garona. This is the real Guardian, not the one from more than twenty years ago. I can vouch for him!"