What You Mean To Me

Silver eyes that had almost never seen the light of day in thousands of years looked out into the night, scanning the distance cautiously. With the moon and stars obscured by cloud cover, only the dim distant light of the dying Wicker Man bonfire gave off any illumination. Most would be completely blind, unable to find their way, but then most were not Highborne who had grown up living only in the night. Malandrae could see just fine.

What she saw gave her pause and made her once again reconsider the wisdom of her plan. What she was doing was considered stupid even by her own standards, but in order for what she was doing to mean something, risks had to be taken. She nodded grimly and set her mind to the task, looking for an approach route to the ominous ruins before her. The spot was the ruined city that once was the shining capital of Lordaeron; an area now held by the Forsaken and known as the Undercity. A place where she most definitely should not be.

This late in the night, most of the orcs and forsaken were drunk and either sleeping or continuing their celebration by the dying bonfires near the entrance to the city. Malandrae had carefully approached the ruins from the rear, with the lake behind her as an escape route if need be. Now she just had to find a way up. Her sharp eyesight had already found the object she sought.

She would have to climb. It would be annoying, but she was fit and due to her gift of dancing quite used to physical exertion. She should be able to scale the crumbled ruins of the wall without too much difficulty. Without giving it another thought, she darted forward, her slender fingers finding handholds as she began to hoist herself up and onto what were once mighty battlements protecting the city.

She had spent much time studying the history of Lordaeron after Professor Knox told her that this is where she originally lived, and the tale of the city's fall stayed in the back of her mind as she pushed herself the final distance to the top. She smiled in triumph as her feet steadied on the narrow stone walkway, proud that she had come so far. It had taken her a long time to find a gryphon rider who would bring her anywhere near the city, and even longer to build up the courage to do what she was now doing, but her goal was in sight!

Quickly the night elf moved along the stones, careful not to make noise and attract any forsaken guards within the ruins. She found the spot along the wall she had spied earlier and knelt. Beside the spot she'd chosen was a crumbling old stone gargoyle which she wrapped her legs around. Using them to hold herself in place, she leaned far out over the edge of the wall, a dagger in her hand as she pried something loose from the masonry. It took several agonizingly long minutes with her body exposed in the vulnerable position, but finally she had the prize clutched tight to her body as she brought herself up.

Her triumph and pride would be short lived though when a hiss came to her through the night.

She had neglected to think of the fact that Forsaken might be able to see just as well as she could in the darkness, or at least some of them. As her head darted up she saw the gleaming yellow eyes of one of the creatures, even as it raised a crossbow to fire at her and gave out a shout, alerting others.

She had little choice in the matter; it was flee in a radical fashion or die. She hurled herself from the battlements.

As the air whipped her cyan hair around her, Malandrae frowned and realized that she'd forgotten the words to her slow fall spell. She began to panic, loosing the calm that would be needed to bring the spell up. The ground hurtled towards her, a painfully high fall to a rough impact below if she didn't think of something.

Fortunately a tree branch slowed her. Unfortunately, it was followed by approximately eight more as she bounced from limb to limb, being swatted by pine needles as she plummeted through the foliage to crash in a dazed heap on the ground. She sat there for a moment, looking stupidly at the bark of the tree and nodding at it. "That's a good tree...."

Her joyous communion with the tree was cut short as three crossbow bolts whispered through the pine's boughs and stuck in the ground around her. She gave off a little 'eep!' of fright and jumped to her feet. Seconds later another bolt struck the ground where she'd been laying. Clearly the Forsaken did not appreciate her presence, and she had no desire to fight with them; that was not her intention here! She shouted the words to a blink spell and was teleported forward, away from danger.

Into the lake.

Freezing cold water surrounded her, and she gasped as her head went under. Not being very good at swimming, she again began to panic but managed to bring herself under control a moment later. The black water around her chilled her utterly, and with shaking hands she reached into her belt pouch and pulled out a rune, muttering the words to a spell. Seconds later there was a bright flash in the lake, and Malandrae Moonwhisper was gone.

The mages in the Mage Tower of Stormwind didn't ask the apprentice why she had suddenly appeared, looking panicked and completely soaked in the center of the teleportation room. Having seen her several times now and spoken with her, none of them really wanted to know the details...

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

Ilhedith Knox awoke in the morning to find a small package sitting on the end of her bed, tied with blue ribbon. As she blinked sleep from her eyes, she studied it carefully, wondering what it could be. After giving it a good visual inspection, she reached out and took it carefully in her hands, propping herself upright in her bed and leaning against her pillows.

Her fingers carefully pulled at the ribbon, opening the package. Instantly wards began to activate on the wrapping, and her eyes widened as she realized they were going to attack her! She shouted the words to a counterspell, silencing the deadly magic before it could activate further. She sighed and shook her head; there was only one person who would put wards like that on what was clearly a gift. Especially since the wards that she could now see clearly were ALMOST drawn correctly to NOT deliver a lethal effect.

Malandrae REALLY needed to study non-deadly ward application.

With another sigh, Ilhedith pulled the ribbon the rest of the way, loosening it completely and letting the wrapping paper fall to the side. What she saw inside the wrapping took her breath away, and she gazed at it in awe for a time.

Nestled in the wrapping paper was a beautiful crystal made of mana. The structure of the crystal was completely clear, allowing one to see through it. Embedded in the center of the solidified magic was a small, highly polished piece of bronze bearing the original Lordaeron emblem on it. Lovingly restored, it glittered brightly in the magical essence that it was suspended in. The piece had been taken from one of the decorative end stones of Lordaeron's capital and carefully placed inside the crystal as it was formed.

Ilhedith reached out to touch the crystal, and gave off another gasp as a beautiful display of magically glowing light formed around it, hovering in the air and sparkling with color like a work of art. Tuned to function at her touch, the Professor found that she could turn the effect on and off simply by running her hand over the top of the crystal. It was an amazing piece of art crafted from magic, and something that had clearly taken much time and effort to craft.

She looked down and found a note within the wrapping paper, almost overlooked in her awe of the beautiful gift.

Professor Knox,
You have taught me many things, and will teach me many more things in the time to come. One of the most important things you have taught me is that our past is a part of who we are, but it is not the entirety of it. While we will always remember it, we can move forward into the future, because it does not bind us or weigh us down, but instead shapes us and helps us to prepare for tomorrow, to appreciate the new life we are blessed with each day.

Through the kindness of your heart, you have taken in two elves who have lost everything, whose lives were the past to everyone else. Our world may sleep beneath the waves, but we are born into this new world and can live here thanks to you. You accept our flaws and the things we do wrong as part of the experience of teaching us, never judging us for what we cannot understand.

You have told me only a little of your past, of your family. I know though that they would be proud of you. They would see the kindness that you give to people whom you own nothing to, and they would smile and bless your actions. We will be eternally grateful to you for helping us, for guiding us, and for giving us the most precious gift of all; your friendship. I will never forget you or the things you teach me, for all of the centuries of my life. I can only give you my thanks from the deepest well of my heart.
Your apprentice and friend,
Malandrae Moonwhisper

Ilhedith set the letter down with a shaking hand, reaching out to touch the  wonderful gift again. She knew how much trouble Malandrae had probably gone through to obtain that little piece of bronze within the magic, and how long it had taken her to craft it. She suddenly found the need to wipe one of her eyes.

She could never have imagined, that day in Astranaar, that the two odd Highborne would become friends, or that they could enrich her life as much as she could help them find a new place in the world. She ran her hands across the little mana crystal again, watching the beautiful magic play in the air above it.

Sometimes fate gives us gifts rather than disaster.