A Purpose

Biara sighed and rubbed her aching temples. Her headache had come on as she returned to her spire, and given the events of the evening it was no surprise. Difficult negotiations in Thunderbluff followed by a hunt for an elusive pair of criminals and a missing Sin'dorei, all leading to a battle that had left her feeling drained and rather abused both mentally and physically.

There had to be more she could do, some way she could at least make one of the tasks she'd set out to accomplish tonight go well. Perhaps another look at the portal before she returned to her slumber? It was worth a shot, and at least a flight might clear her head a bit.

Biara chanted the words to a spell, and a portal to Shattrath opened before her. She stepped through it alone, and within seconds was in flight on her hippogryph towards Netherstorm. The wind in her hair and the sight of the odd landscapes below her helped ease the headache that had been building, and the feeling of DOING something made her feel like maybe the day wouldn't be a complete waste.

As she neared her destination, her eyes caught sight of the burned out manaforge, the landscape charred and still crawling with demons. Before it a bridge stood over a chasm, near where her enemies had summoned their portal during the battle earlier that evening. She headed towards the spot, bringing the hippogryph down nearby and allowing it to fly back into the air while she performed her examination. The ground around where the portal had been was charred, and she sifted the dust with the toe of her boot, looking for clues. As the purple dust of netherstorm shifted, it exposed the edge of a glowing metal rune, connected to other runes by burning hot cords of magic. It was a trap left behind by her foes as they fled.

Biara's eyes widened as her boot connected with the runes and they began to flash, activating the spell. She berrated herself mentally as the magic built up. Idiot! What did you do now?!

It didn't take long for her to learn as a fel symbol burned in the air before her. Distantly she began to hear the snarls and cries of demons, growing steadily louder as the spell summoned the creatures lingering in the area to the runes, encircling the Magistrix with an ever growing ring of foes. Biara looked around her in alarm as the hillsides around the end of the bridge filled with over a dozen demons comprised of felhunters, wrathguards, and even an infernal. The trap was well sprung.

Lovely...

As the first demons raced towards her, Biara shouted and a ring of glittering runes appeared on the ground around her. Instantly they solidified into a burning ring of freezing cold, and several of the demons halted on the edge of the ring, hesitant to cross it. One felhunter hurtled through the ring, freezing into a solid block of ice as it did so. Biara had to dodge as the dead, frozen body of her foe flew past to shatter into pieces nearby. A second felhunter sprang, this one resisting the icy cold of the ring and slamming into Biara while she was off-balance. It's weight bore her to the ground and she struggled violently to get it off her.

Her dread rose as the creature plunged one of its feeders into her shoulder. The pain was excrutiating, but would become a million times worse if it got a second feeder into her and began to draw her life energy into itself. In a panic the Magistrix reached down, grabbing a wand from her belt and blowing two large holes in the side of the demonic hound, hurling its body off her. She scrambled to her feet, purple dust flowing off her robes as her eyes took in the situation.

The icy ring had faded as her spell ended, and dozens of demons surged forward. The infernal amongst them battered its companions aside, lunging at Biara. It was all she could do to dodge the massive flaming fist as it tore a hole in the ground. The impact shook her, and in desperation she shouted a word of power, lashing it with a cone of freezing cold air. The spell extinguished the demon's burning flames, and it fell into a pile of rocky debris. Its demise didn't phase the rest of the creatures, and they surged towards Biara.

Hope faded in her heart as she saw the sheer number of creatures lunging at her. I'm sorry Eluneaira. I should never have come here alone. I should have told you I was leaving. I should have said so many more things to you before this.

A wrathguard hurtled through the air towards her, two of its swords extended to decapitate her when it landed. She watched as it moved, time seeming to slow to a crawl as the creature's flight took it inch by inch to deal  out her fate. She raised her arms, as if to ward away the swords with her flesh, as if they could stop the sheer power of the creature as it bore down on her. Moonlight sparkled on her robes and skin, played across her hair and shined in her eyes in a faint glimmer.

Netherstorm has no moon. It has only endless storms...

It was there though, in that second of time she had left, and the realization of it dawned on her like a slap to the face.

Moonlight...Elune. Elune IS with me. She DOES want me to look after her priestess. Our love is blessed. It means something not only to us, but to everyone we hold dear. I can't give up. I have to live for Elunearia!

The lower of the two swords reached her, and Biara lept. The blade flashed beneath the bottom of her boots and she rolled in mid-air. The higher of the two blades sang as it passed an inch before her face, and then the demon had tumbled past her, its deadly attack missing. She landed in a crouch in the soft dust of netherstorm as the demon fell into a heap beside her. A tiny lock of fire red hair drifted lazily through the air; the blade had sliced the strands free from her bangs as it passed in front of her. Demons howled all around her as the deathblow missed.

I won't let them part us, not like this. I have a purpose now, a reason to live forever. I will NOT let them end that, not after I've just found it!

Power flared in the Magistrix, and the very air around her shimmered with freezing cold as she summoned all of the magic at her disposal. An orb of flaming frostfire appeared next to her, spearing into the demons standing closest. Other demons lept at her, only to be caught in mid-air and obliterated by piercing, razor sharp shards of ice. The ground froze and cracked as her magic washed over it, and demons froze to death by the dozens, cracking to pieces from her spells.

The battle raged on for what seemed an eternity, but when it was over, there was only Biara and a pile of frozen, shattered and dead demons. She stood amidst the carnage, her chest heaving as she tried to draw breath. Her robes were torn in a half-dozen places from the claws of enemies that had gotten close, and at some point one of them had cut her face, leaving  a thin line of blood to tricle over the wards on her cheek, but she lived and her foes did not.

She stood silently for a moment as calm claimed her, her eyes not seeing the wreckage she'd created, hearing instead only the pulse of her blood in her veins and feeling the joy of one who had believed their time was at an end, only to find they were wrong. For a moment, moonlight glittered on her again, in a place where no moon ever shone.

For as long as I live, I'll keep fighting for this, for YOU. I swear it Elunearia.

She walked from the field of battle slowly, leaving nothing but destroyed demons and her own fears behind her.