Loose Tongues

Senior Apprentice Lisarah smiled as she walked through the camp. Everything was in perfect order, and the experiments were going as planned. When Biara Dayfire had left her in charge of the research camp established near Andorhal, Lisarah had been honored. It had been an excellent opportunity to prove herself to the mistress of House Dayfire, and gain favor, and possibly power, in the process.

Their research into the use of arcane crystals to control the undead had gone well, with the exception of a few minor mishaps. One of the ghouls had gone missing, and there had been a few injuries, but otherwise the camp continued to function as originally set up by Biara. Of course, Lisarah wasn't sure if Biara even remembered that they had been set to the task of conducting this research, as she hadn't returned in many weeks, but this was not necessarily a bad thing; it left Lisarah with plenty of time to continue her own research into scourge magic.

Even as the thought crossed her mind, a magical ward set at the exterior of the camp activated a warning. Lisarah had designed the wards herself in order to detect any scourge threat that might be crossing the boundary of their encampment. Even the slightest hint of necromantic magic would cause the alarm to sound, and she heard the guards arming themselves as she walked over to investigate the cause of the alarm.

As she arrived at the edge of the tents, she saw a single Sin'dorei standing there, alone and apparently unarmed. The elf had dark black hair, neatly styled and looked to be of noble birth based on her clothing and the expense that had gone into the fine jewelry she wore. The Sin'dorei smiled at Lisarah, and something about that smile made her feel chilled, as if something were very very wrong.

She had, after all, set off a ward designed to detect necromancy.

"I don't know who you are, but you have entered the boundaries of an encampment owned by House Dayfire. Remove yourself at once lest you be injured," Lisarah commanded.

The Sin'dorei's smile only widened, and she took a step towards Lisarah. With a curt gesture, Lisarah directed the guards within the encampment to attack and seize the elf. "As you wish, you've made a foolish choice though."

The guards rushed past the Senior Apprentice, weapons raised. When they got within a few feet of her, they paused, several falling to the ground in front of her, some of them shaking, unable to bring their weapons down on the Sin'dorei. One of them fell to his knees, staring adoringly at the intruder and murmuring, "Command me mistress!"

With a shock, Lisarah realized that the Sin'dorei's eyes were suddenly completely blue, and free of the fel taint that marked her people. A Quel'dorei. Here. But why?

The Quel'dorei spoke, her voice a whisper in the quiet night, "Kill yourselves. Now."

Within seconds of the words leaving her lips, the sounds of swords leaving sheaths followed by the sounds of metal plunging into flesh could be heard, and one by one the guards toppled over. A few less taken by the power of the Quel'dorei tried to flee, only to be cut down by their companions before they in turn stabbed themselves. In less than a minute, over twenty Sin'dorei guards belonging to House Dayfire had died to magic. Lisarah stood staring in disbelief.

The Quel'dorei turned and looked directly into Lisarah's eyes, and the Senior Apprentice was struck with a blast of shadowy magic that pierced the very fabric of her mind. The last thing she understood rationally was the pure malice of the mind that was assaulting hers.

"Speak," The Quel'dorei said. "Tell me of your purpose here. Tell me of your research."

Lisarah's mouth opened, and out tumbled all of the secrets of the encampment. She spoke at length of the research into the scourge, of Biara's personal dealings with a death knight nearby, of the necromantic and arcane magic combined to make crystals to control ghouls.

The questioning lasted for almost an hour. When it was done, the last thing Lisarah felt was the cold steel of her own spellblade as she plunged it into her own heart.

****************

Seluna looked at the bodies surrounding her in disgust. Pathetic creatures. Your whole world was shattered by the scourge, and here you are, toying with their powers. This is why you failed. Your weakness, your lack of understanding about the very forces you could control, caused our city to falter and fall into darkness.

She shook her head in anger, bending down to snatch up Lisarah's spellbook.

Thousands of years of magic, all fallen in a moment of failure, and you DARE think you can still meddle with these forces? So be it, if you wish to see scourge magic, allow me to show you.

She chanted words in the language of death, dark magic swirling in the air around her. The very night seemed to bend to her will as she cast her spell, pointing at the bodies lying around the camp. One by one they were infiltrated with shadowy tendrils of power, and with inhuman moans of despair the spirits that once inhabited the corpses rose from them, damned to eternal undeath as wraiths. Their bodies crumbled to dust as Seluna finished her incantation. She watched the mindless undead wander off, no doubt intent on feeding off the living humans in nearby Andorhal.

"Such is the price you pay for failing our people," She whispered to the departing wraiths. "To stand in my way, to thwart me, is to deny your path to the future. My daughter should never have sent you here, and you should have refused to partake in such magic. Your pride has undone you."

She looked at the encampment, empty and quiet now except for the distant sound of wraiths in the night. A spoken word sent a black wind flowing across it, leveling the tents and equipment. When it ended, the entirety of the research camp was leveled, looking as if the scourge had overrun it in the night.

"So daughter, you wish to dabble in darkness still?" Seluna purred. "I will show you the darkness you so eagerly wish to see, when the time is right. Until then, only those worthy of our people, those who obey ME, will be spared."

With another whisper, Seluna was gone, melded into the night as if she had never been there.