Renewing a dying flame

The gnome priestess grunted as her magical defenses were tested severely, desperate to put an end to the fight quickly before too much time passed and her foe was able to overwhelm her. With a smirk and an evil look, she uttered a word so horrible that none would speak it unless in the most dire of situations. The word conjured forth a terrible well of shadowy power in the air around her target, reality itself weeping drops of shadow power as the force unerringly sought out her foe.

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Biara smirked as the Power Word: Death spell skittered across the skin of her frost barrier and was absorbed by her considerable defensive wards. The gnome priestess was powerful, and it would take much of her magic to defeat the foe. All around her battle raged on the narrow path in the middle of Tol Barad. Horde and Alliance hacked and slashed at each other, and terrible magics were unleashed with booming explosions. Biara chanted a word and pointed at the priestess, her magic reaching out to warp the very leylines of power flowing around her smaller foe. The gnome blinked in shock as her magic temporarily deserted her, and the Magistrix took a confident step towards her.

Before Biara had gone another pace, the gnome shuddered and her back arched upright in agony. Her face grew pale and blood gushed from her mouth as a pair of daggers found her back, striking deeply into vital organs. Behind Biara's target a pair of familiar fel green eyes sparkled as the daggers were removed and again plunged into her back.

Daser Grimm.

Biara paused in surprise to see him there, to see him battling the alliance as he once had. She watched in admiration as he whipped one of his daggers into the air, flipping it expertly so that he was holding the blade and then tossing it right towards her. It spun through the air, tumbling end over end in a deadly arc, but Biara remained perfectly still as it approached, her eyes never leaving Grimm's face.

She didn't flinch as the deadly weapon flew so close to her ear that she could hear its passage through the air, and she didn't turn as she heard it thud into flesh behind her. The grunt of a mortally wounded enemy sounded briefly before a plate-armored draenei death knight tumbled to the ground beside Biara with Grimm's dagger lodged neatly in her throat. The creature gurgled something briefly as it died, and Biara paid it no more attention than she would an insect. Her eyes met Grimm's across the field of battle, and everything seemed to slow in Biara's mind as her thoughts raced. The screams, the fighting and spellduels all seemed distant for a brief moment as their eyes met.

There is your passion Grimm. There is the heat of battle and the heart you have been hiding for so long. There is the assassin who would apply his blades to defend his people, who would risk his life, the only thing he really had, for something greater than himself. Where has he been for these many months? Will he stay and stand beside me, or will he hide again as the battle wanes? Time will tell.

He couldn't hear her thoughts of course, but the hint of a smile on his face as he tumbled off the path and disappeared was enough for her to know that he understood exactly where her thinking had gone. She waited for a moment longer, until even her magical senses could not detect the enchantments he wore, until he was truly a ghost once more. 

Reality snapped her mind back into focus as she realized she was standing in the center of the path with dozens of alliance defenders about to ride her down. She smiled and chanted a few words, making the temperature in the air around her plunge as her magic manifested itself. The alliance would try to ride her down, but would find that they faced a foe far more prepared for them than they anticipated.

The battle for Tol Barad would ultimately be lost, but there would be many alliance who would never live to see the Horde's withdrawal, and none to see the Magistrix as she summoned a portal and stepped through it to the safety of her city.