It had all gone downhill
rather quickly, at least to Malandrae's limited memory of the events.
It started in the morning, when she had met with a group of druids on
their way further down the slopes of Hyjal. The two druids had been
assigned to assist her as they found some rogue fire elementals that
were trying to reburn some of the area that had regrown on the slopes,
and together they had tracked the creatures in the wilderness.
Around mid-day, they encountered a band of three other druids, heading back up the slope and the entire group had decided to make camp for lunch. As the three druids passed around their water skins, they told stories of the Twilight's Hammer further down the mountain, and how their power was growing to an unstoppable force. Malandrae found the talk odd, and soon she felt herself tilting over, a drowsy, sleepy feeling overcoming her.
She only became alarmed when she found herself on the ground, lying beside the two other elves that had accompanied her. She realized she couldn't move her limbs, even as one of the druids they'd met grinned down at her, slipping a sack over her head and blocking her sight.
Her last conscious moment was the sound of the druids chattering away about how easy it had been to slip them the herbs, and how useful they would be to the cult.
*****************************
Malandrae awoke in a cage, in the center of a busy Twilight's Hammer camp. The two druids that had been with her shared the cramped space, and all had their hands bound in front of them, with ropes going to their feet. As she blinked the last of the herb-induced sleep from her eyes, she shared a terrified look with the other two elves.
"W-what...?" She began, only to be interrupted as two Twilight's Hammer guards forced their way into the cage. They grabbed one of the two druids and dragged him out, pulling him along through the dirt towards a nearby tent. As Malandrae and the druidess within the cage looked on, agonized screams came from the interior of the foreboding fabric shelter.
It went on for some time, with the sounds coming and going as whatever was happening within the tent continued. Finally, after an hour or so, the druid emerged, his eyes wide with madness. He was unbound, and the guards ordered him off to begin arranging supplies for the camp. He went without question, clearly having been indoctrinated somehow while he was in the tent.
Malandrae's eyes met those of the druidess in the cage even as the two guards headed back towards them. They banged the cage door open and grabbed the druidess. She begged Malandrae to help her with her gaze, but there was little that the Highborne could do with her hands bound together so tightly. She was soon hauled off out of sight, plunging into the darkness of the tent and out of Malandrae's sight. The sounds resumed from within, and the Highborne shuddered as she contemplated what the cultists were doing to the other elf.
She didn't have long to wait; the druidess took even less time to break than the druid had, and soon she was shuffling out of the tent, happily following the commands of her new masters without question. The guards turned, trudging back towards the cage, reaching in to pull Malandrae out.
She was dragged towards the deep purple tent, knowing that something awful was going to happen once she got in it. The flaps were pushed aside and she was roughly ushered in and placed on a wooden stool that sat before a running machine. The device had a number of floating gears with eye-searing symbols etched on them, and pulsed with a dark light. As soon as she made eye contact with it, the device reached out to her, contacting her mind.
She realized in a moment that it was a sentient device, and that was the last thought she had as it plunged deep into her mind with its magic.
*************************************
The device, which called itself Xxsss, had served the Master for a very very long time. It had been used countless times to crush the will of those brought before it, creating servitors for the Twilight's Hammer in preparation for the glorious day when the world would be unmade. It knew its business well, and immediately began the process of assaulting the elf's mind.
The first thing it noticed was that her thoughts were filled with a rather annoying, and repeating, Highborne song that she seemed not to be able to remember all the lyrics to. It looped over and over again in her train of thought, and it took some moments for Xxsss to even get her full attention. It was time to break her, and tempt her into the path of the cult.
"Relax, join with me, and you can have anything in the world that you desire," Xxsss purred at Malandrae, offering her images of gold, precious gems, expensive fabrics and spices. It paused, reading the surface of her thoughts as the images swirled through her.
In her mind, Malandrae was picturing the things she already owned. Endless racks of shoes in her closets, fancy dresses strewn all over her room, piles of imitation jewelry which looked nice but was really quite worthless, and two nightstands full of cosmetics that she had acquired already since she had returned to Azeroth. There was absolutely no interest in obtaining wealth for the sake of wealth in her mind, and Xxsss nearly hissed in frustration as it was shown endless images of the things she owned and liked but which were fairly common and valueless items. Clearly they meant much to her though because they had been given as gifts by her new friends or purchased with money she'd earned; a novel concept to her.
"I can see that you will be a difficult case," Xxsss murmured. "If you do not want material possessions, then perhaps power will be more to your liking."
Her mind was immediately bombarded with images of power, of magic so incredible that she could do anything with it. She saw herself flying, she saw herself defeating entire armies and claiming their lands in the name of the Master. Nothing could stand before her if she would submit and claim the power that Xxsss offered her.
The device peered into her thoughts, it's soft voice whispering to her, "And what would you do, if you could have all of this power little elf?" It paused, watching as her mind formed thoughts of what she would do with endless power, ideas racing past her until her entire consciousness clamored for the single thing she would do with such power.
She would heal Chelody Smallwing's eye and face.
Xxsss actually did hiss this time, it's displeasure at the elf growing by the moment. It could not possibly tempt her with power if her only plan for the use of such endless might would be to selflessly heal someone else with it! It gathered it's energy around itself, prepared to assault her mind directly.
"If you will not take possessions or power, than perhaps you need to learn true fear!" Xxsss spoke to her. It began to press its will in all around her, bombarding her mind with images of the Cult as it overpowered her friends and allies. She saw the people she had recently met and befriended assaulted by fire elementals, burning them alive as they stood powerless again the tide of destruction. She saw cities burning and continents covered in burning flames.
Xxsss snarled at her, "Submit, and your friends will be allowed to join with us and will not suffer this fate." It paused, waiting for an answer from her thoughts, still pressing her with the images. The response was not what it expected.
"At least they will die cleanly," Malandrae's voice floated outward.
"What was that..?" Xxsss pressed. It peered into her mind, puzzled. How could she dismiss such images of violence and death so easily? As it searched her memories and thoughts, it came upon a portion of her mind that was sealed off, even from herself. The answer had come from there, from within the black, dead part of her mind that she dared not look into. Xxsss pressed it's energy against it, trying to see what lay beneath it that would allow her to shrug off the destruction of the Twilight's Hammer. Malandrae's mind resisted, and Xxsss pressed even harder, trying to force it's way in.
A moment later it realized that it had made a fatal mistake as Malandrae's subconscious reflexively defended her mind from having to experience again whatever was within that dark chunk of her mind. Arcane energy flared in her brain as a part of her mind that she didn't control called upon her magic to shut out whatever was trying to tamper with that mental block.
Light flared, and Xxsss felt the full force of a Highborne Sorceress as her magic lashed out blindly all around her.
**************************
Malandrae blinked and shook her head, opening her eyes. She felt dizzy and she smelled smoke. As her vision cleared, she saw the device that she had been placed in front of. It hissed and sparked and small fires flickered from it. In the air around her, a song was playing over and over again. It made Malandrae shiver as she realized the song was being sung in her own voice, and that it was coming from the machine. It was a simple Highborne melody, one she had been thinking of earlier.
"So THAT's what the words were!" she said after listening for a moment. She shrugged her shoulders and leaned forward, pressing her bound hands to the flames on the machines. The fire chewed through the ropes around her wrists and she was soon free, rubbing the limbs to restore circulation.
Rising, Malandrae slipped from the tent, and then paused in shock. All around the camp's perimeter, the previously enslaved men and women that the cult had captured were lying on the ground, shaking and holding their heads as the power of the device that had controlled them failed. Even as the guards in the camp tried to bring things under control, several fights broke out.
The two guards near the tent shouted and began running towards Malandrae as she emerged. In a panic, she reached to her belt, only to realize she had been disarmed and that her things were in a box beside the nearby cage. She didn't have her buzzbox to call for help! Fortunately, she kept a backup on her at all times, and reached up to remove one of her earrings. The moonstone on it glowed brightly as it powered up with magic, allowing Malandrae to speak into it like a buzzbox.
"Hello?! Can anyone hear me?! I need help! I'm at a..." Malandrae yelled frantically. Unfortunately one of the guards reached her before she could continue, backhanding her and knocking her down.
The moonstone sailed through the air, landing near the tent that contained Xxsss, and the second guard walked up to it. He smirked and brought his boot down on the stone hard, shattering it.
For a brief moment in time, Malandrae's gaze locked with the eyes of the guard who had crushed the moonstone. The air became thick with arcane energies as the shattered magical device catastrophically failed from the pressure on it. Power arced in the air and Malandrae threw herself on the ground, knowing what was coming next.
The moonstone exploded.
The guards, the tent, Xxsss, and ten feet of soil in a ten foot radius were instantly vaporized in a brilliant flare of light that was almost blinding to those not even looking at it. Everyone in the camp was hurled to the ground, and many took a few moments before they got back to their feet. Cultists and freed prisoners alike stared at the center of the camp, gaping at the sight.
There, where the tent and evil device had been, was a smoking crater with a rather perturbed looking Highborne standing in the middle of it, her hair in disarray and soot covering her clothing. On the wind, the sound of her wailing something about her 'shoes being ruined' was carried to the furthest corners of the camp.
The cultists took one look at the devastation and the now angry and free slaves and decided that it would be wise to withdraw. They ran for it, followed quickly by an angry mob made up of people from every race on Azeroth. Within moments, a fully functioning Twilight's Hammer camp was left barren and ruined, with only Malandrae left in it, picking her things out of a scorched box on the ground. She smiled as she found her pink buzzbox in the pile, holding it up triumphantly.
Sometimes it was the simple things in life that made your day good after all.
Around mid-day, they encountered a band of three other druids, heading back up the slope and the entire group had decided to make camp for lunch. As the three druids passed around their water skins, they told stories of the Twilight's Hammer further down the mountain, and how their power was growing to an unstoppable force. Malandrae found the talk odd, and soon she felt herself tilting over, a drowsy, sleepy feeling overcoming her.
She only became alarmed when she found herself on the ground, lying beside the two other elves that had accompanied her. She realized she couldn't move her limbs, even as one of the druids they'd met grinned down at her, slipping a sack over her head and blocking her sight.
Her last conscious moment was the sound of the druids chattering away about how easy it had been to slip them the herbs, and how useful they would be to the cult.
*****************************
Malandrae awoke in a cage, in the center of a busy Twilight's Hammer camp. The two druids that had been with her shared the cramped space, and all had their hands bound in front of them, with ropes going to their feet. As she blinked the last of the herb-induced sleep from her eyes, she shared a terrified look with the other two elves.
"W-what...?" She began, only to be interrupted as two Twilight's Hammer guards forced their way into the cage. They grabbed one of the two druids and dragged him out, pulling him along through the dirt towards a nearby tent. As Malandrae and the druidess within the cage looked on, agonized screams came from the interior of the foreboding fabric shelter.
It went on for some time, with the sounds coming and going as whatever was happening within the tent continued. Finally, after an hour or so, the druid emerged, his eyes wide with madness. He was unbound, and the guards ordered him off to begin arranging supplies for the camp. He went without question, clearly having been indoctrinated somehow while he was in the tent.
Malandrae's eyes met those of the druidess in the cage even as the two guards headed back towards them. They banged the cage door open and grabbed the druidess. She begged Malandrae to help her with her gaze, but there was little that the Highborne could do with her hands bound together so tightly. She was soon hauled off out of sight, plunging into the darkness of the tent and out of Malandrae's sight. The sounds resumed from within, and the Highborne shuddered as she contemplated what the cultists were doing to the other elf.
She didn't have long to wait; the druidess took even less time to break than the druid had, and soon she was shuffling out of the tent, happily following the commands of her new masters without question. The guards turned, trudging back towards the cage, reaching in to pull Malandrae out.
She was dragged towards the deep purple tent, knowing that something awful was going to happen once she got in it. The flaps were pushed aside and she was roughly ushered in and placed on a wooden stool that sat before a running machine. The device had a number of floating gears with eye-searing symbols etched on them, and pulsed with a dark light. As soon as she made eye contact with it, the device reached out to her, contacting her mind.
She realized in a moment that it was a sentient device, and that was the last thought she had as it plunged deep into her mind with its magic.
*************************************
The device, which called itself Xxsss, had served the Master for a very very long time. It had been used countless times to crush the will of those brought before it, creating servitors for the Twilight's Hammer in preparation for the glorious day when the world would be unmade. It knew its business well, and immediately began the process of assaulting the elf's mind.
The first thing it noticed was that her thoughts were filled with a rather annoying, and repeating, Highborne song that she seemed not to be able to remember all the lyrics to. It looped over and over again in her train of thought, and it took some moments for Xxsss to even get her full attention. It was time to break her, and tempt her into the path of the cult.
"Relax, join with me, and you can have anything in the world that you desire," Xxsss purred at Malandrae, offering her images of gold, precious gems, expensive fabrics and spices. It paused, reading the surface of her thoughts as the images swirled through her.
In her mind, Malandrae was picturing the things she already owned. Endless racks of shoes in her closets, fancy dresses strewn all over her room, piles of imitation jewelry which looked nice but was really quite worthless, and two nightstands full of cosmetics that she had acquired already since she had returned to Azeroth. There was absolutely no interest in obtaining wealth for the sake of wealth in her mind, and Xxsss nearly hissed in frustration as it was shown endless images of the things she owned and liked but which were fairly common and valueless items. Clearly they meant much to her though because they had been given as gifts by her new friends or purchased with money she'd earned; a novel concept to her.
"I can see that you will be a difficult case," Xxsss murmured. "If you do not want material possessions, then perhaps power will be more to your liking."
Her mind was immediately bombarded with images of power, of magic so incredible that she could do anything with it. She saw herself flying, she saw herself defeating entire armies and claiming their lands in the name of the Master. Nothing could stand before her if she would submit and claim the power that Xxsss offered her.
The device peered into her thoughts, it's soft voice whispering to her, "And what would you do, if you could have all of this power little elf?" It paused, watching as her mind formed thoughts of what she would do with endless power, ideas racing past her until her entire consciousness clamored for the single thing she would do with such power.
She would heal Chelody Smallwing's eye and face.
Xxsss actually did hiss this time, it's displeasure at the elf growing by the moment. It could not possibly tempt her with power if her only plan for the use of such endless might would be to selflessly heal someone else with it! It gathered it's energy around itself, prepared to assault her mind directly.
"If you will not take possessions or power, than perhaps you need to learn true fear!" Xxsss spoke to her. It began to press its will in all around her, bombarding her mind with images of the Cult as it overpowered her friends and allies. She saw the people she had recently met and befriended assaulted by fire elementals, burning them alive as they stood powerless again the tide of destruction. She saw cities burning and continents covered in burning flames.
Xxsss snarled at her, "Submit, and your friends will be allowed to join with us and will not suffer this fate." It paused, waiting for an answer from her thoughts, still pressing her with the images. The response was not what it expected.
"At least they will die cleanly," Malandrae's voice floated outward.
"What was that..?" Xxsss pressed. It peered into her mind, puzzled. How could she dismiss such images of violence and death so easily? As it searched her memories and thoughts, it came upon a portion of her mind that was sealed off, even from herself. The answer had come from there, from within the black, dead part of her mind that she dared not look into. Xxsss pressed it's energy against it, trying to see what lay beneath it that would allow her to shrug off the destruction of the Twilight's Hammer. Malandrae's mind resisted, and Xxsss pressed even harder, trying to force it's way in.
A moment later it realized that it had made a fatal mistake as Malandrae's subconscious reflexively defended her mind from having to experience again whatever was within that dark chunk of her mind. Arcane energy flared in her brain as a part of her mind that she didn't control called upon her magic to shut out whatever was trying to tamper with that mental block.
Light flared, and Xxsss felt the full force of a Highborne Sorceress as her magic lashed out blindly all around her.
**************************
Malandrae blinked and shook her head, opening her eyes. She felt dizzy and she smelled smoke. As her vision cleared, she saw the device that she had been placed in front of. It hissed and sparked and small fires flickered from it. In the air around her, a song was playing over and over again. It made Malandrae shiver as she realized the song was being sung in her own voice, and that it was coming from the machine. It was a simple Highborne melody, one she had been thinking of earlier.
"So THAT's what the words were!" she said after listening for a moment. She shrugged her shoulders and leaned forward, pressing her bound hands to the flames on the machines. The fire chewed through the ropes around her wrists and she was soon free, rubbing the limbs to restore circulation.
Rising, Malandrae slipped from the tent, and then paused in shock. All around the camp's perimeter, the previously enslaved men and women that the cult had captured were lying on the ground, shaking and holding their heads as the power of the device that had controlled them failed. Even as the guards in the camp tried to bring things under control, several fights broke out.
The two guards near the tent shouted and began running towards Malandrae as she emerged. In a panic, she reached to her belt, only to realize she had been disarmed and that her things were in a box beside the nearby cage. She didn't have her buzzbox to call for help! Fortunately, she kept a backup on her at all times, and reached up to remove one of her earrings. The moonstone on it glowed brightly as it powered up with magic, allowing Malandrae to speak into it like a buzzbox.
"Hello?! Can anyone hear me?! I need help! I'm at a..." Malandrae yelled frantically. Unfortunately one of the guards reached her before she could continue, backhanding her and knocking her down.
The moonstone sailed through the air, landing near the tent that contained Xxsss, and the second guard walked up to it. He smirked and brought his boot down on the stone hard, shattering it.
For a brief moment in time, Malandrae's gaze locked with the eyes of the guard who had crushed the moonstone. The air became thick with arcane energies as the shattered magical device catastrophically failed from the pressure on it. Power arced in the air and Malandrae threw herself on the ground, knowing what was coming next.
The moonstone exploded.
The guards, the tent, Xxsss, and ten feet of soil in a ten foot radius were instantly vaporized in a brilliant flare of light that was almost blinding to those not even looking at it. Everyone in the camp was hurled to the ground, and many took a few moments before they got back to their feet. Cultists and freed prisoners alike stared at the center of the camp, gaping at the sight.
There, where the tent and evil device had been, was a smoking crater with a rather perturbed looking Highborne standing in the middle of it, her hair in disarray and soot covering her clothing. On the wind, the sound of her wailing something about her 'shoes being ruined' was carried to the furthest corners of the camp.
The cultists took one look at the devastation and the now angry and free slaves and decided that it would be wise to withdraw. They ran for it, followed quickly by an angry mob made up of people from every race on Azeroth. Within moments, a fully functioning Twilight's Hammer camp was left barren and ruined, with only Malandrae left in it, picking her things out of a scorched box on the ground. She smiled as she found her pink buzzbox in the pile, holding it up triumphantly.
Sometimes it was the simple things in life that made your day good after all.
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