How Can One Have It Both Ways?

Suddenly, Tiffany felt Malone move.

The girl, who had just been thinking about all sorts of nonsense, panicked.

—Mr. Malone couldn't have figured out what I was thinking, could he? How embarrassing!

But Tiffany was relieved to find that Malone hadn't noticed her little secret. He only wanted to speak with Teron Gorefiend.

"Teron..." Malone murmured, his eyes full of earnestness.

"Help me leave this place!"

At Malone's request, Teron Gorefiend glanced at Tiffany, then said in a deep, muffled voice, "If you leave now, this girl might end up a cripple."

"I know. I didn't mean right now," Malone replied.

"But once Tiffany's foot has healed a little, I'm taking her away from here. Help me, Teron. I'm begging you." Malone pleaded.

"Where will you go once you leave?" Teron Gorefiend asked. "If all you want is to get this human woman out of here, I won't stop you, but Maicomarlon..."

As he spoke, a cold glint flashed in Teron Gorefiend's eyes—so briefly that Malone almost thought he'd imagined it. How could those pupil-less eyes hold any emotion?

"But Maicomarlon, I think you want to leave this place yourself. Leave our people, our home, and me... Why?"

Teron Gorefiend's voice was low and unpleasant, but Malone heard a jumble of emotions in it: confusion, anger, and even hatred.

"I... No, you're right. I do want to leave. Tiffany's arrival only disrupted my plans. Even if she hadn't come, I would have found an opportunity—perhaps much sooner—to leave this camp."

Malone answered honestly.

"Sometimes... I really wonder whether you're still my brother, Maicomarlon." Teron Gorefiend's words made Malone's heart skip a beat.

Had he grown suspicious? Well... given how unexpected my behavior was, even if I really were his brother, Teron Gorefiend would have reason to doubt my identity. He wasn't stupid.

"Would you like me to prove it to you?"

Malone's thoughts churned like a storm, but he put on an unconcerned expression.

"Your smile is stiff. That's not the kind of smile Maicomarlon would wear," Teron Gorefiend said.

"I..."

Malone thought Teron Gorefiend really had begun to suspect him. His body stiffened, and for a moment, his blood seemed to freeze.

What if Teron Gorefiend stopped helping me? What if he suspected I wasn't Maicomarlon, but someone else? What would happen then?

Teron Gorefiend could kill Tiffany on the spot. Perhaps Malone could survive a little while against him, or even defeat him, but there was no way he could stop Teron from hurting Tiffany.

"Never mind. I'm the same. Forget a stiff smile—my jaw's become like this, so I can barely smile at all." Teron Gorefiend shook his head.

Malone's heart eased. Things didn't seem to be as bad as he'd imagined.

"I don't need you to prove anything, Maicomarlon. I was a warlock when I was alive, and I became a Death Knight after I died. I can sense souls. I know Maicomarlon's soul is inside your body, though there's something else there, too."

Teron Gorefiend spoke in a hoarse voice.

The Death Knight's words made Malone's heart tighten again, but what Teron Gorefiend said next seemed to carry boundless sorrow and grief.

"It's not just you, Maicomarlon. I'm the same. We were born to die, then brought back to life. We occupy human bodies, yet carry Orc souls..."

"Something has been added to us, and something has been taken away. That's war. But for the future of the Horde, we all have to make sacrifices."

Teron Gorefiend's words seemed profound, and for a moment, Malone couldn't fully understand them.

"But if you insist..." Teron Gorefiend rose, moved closer to Malone, then crouched beside him again. He met Malone's eyes and gripped his shoulders firmly.

"What?" Malone felt the astonishing strength in Teron Gorefiend's hands.

"If you insist, I'll help you," Teron Gorefiend said, each word deliberate. "We're brothers. One of us sacrificing himself for the Horde is enough."

"Teron..." Malone hadn't expected the Death Knight to give him that answer.

"I'll be the one who fights for the Horde. And you, Maicomarlon, my brother, can go after the life you want."

Teron Gorefiend's voice was hoarse and mournful. For some reason, Malone's eyes grew damp, too.

People weren't plants or stones; how could they be without feeling?

Malone didn't like Orcs. He disliked their brutality, their love of fighting, and their savagery. And, of course, he didn't like Orc women, either.

Yet in that moment, Malone suddenly felt that staying here and fighting side by side with Teron Gorefiend—whatever happened to the Horde, whatever became of his own fate—might not be such a bad choice.

This was Teron Gorefiend, Malone told himself. A different Teron Gorefiend.

Perhaps this Death Knight had human blood on his hands. Perhaps humans considered him utterly evil.

But right now, as Malone's brother—as Maicomarlon's brother—could even the most virtuous human have done better than Teron Gorefiend?

"I know there are Orcs who possess the honor of the noblest knights. I also know there are humans as evil as the most ruthless Scourge."

Malone suddenly recalled a famous saying from the world of Azeroth.

When Tirion Fordring was rescued from beneath the collapsed tower wall by Eitrigg, had he felt as conflicted as Malone did now?

How could one have it both ways, satisfying neither the Buddha nor one's beloved?

Malone didn't know how he could have it both ways. Tiffany was so fragile that she needed his protection, while his own ideas of right and wrong clashed with those of the Orcs. On top of that, he had long planned to distance himself from everyone to avoid the Bronze Dragon's interference.

No matter how he looked at it, Malone felt that leaving this Orc camp was the choice he should make without hesitation.

But if he repaid Tiffany—kind-hearted Tiffany, who had urged him to run even in the midst of danger—for saving his life, what could he offer in return to Teron Gorefiend, standing before him now?

Malone didn't want to face such a difficult choice.

Especially when he thought about how, if he simply walked away, the Horde would ultimately be defeated if events followed their current course.

Teron Gorefiend would escape the Battle of Blackrock Mountain, but before long, he would lead the Horde to launch another invasion. Then they would be driven back again and again, until finally the Paladin Meralas Turalyon killed him at the Black Temple.

He would be resurrected several times, and die several times more. Malone didn't want Teron Gorefiend to suffer such a twisted fate again.

But what could he do?