Memoirs of Light- Part 5

"One of the things I find most difficult to wrap my mind around is how greatly life can change in such a short time. My people have a relatively long lifespan, and before the fall of Quel'Thalas there was some stability to our lives that gave one the impression that things would go on unchanged forever. We had our moments in history where this was not the case, mainly when the Orcs first came and our battles with the trolls, but even considering these, there was little expectation that things would be so vastly different.

Why do I mention this? Because I am a prime example of the change that has swept through our people. If you had told me a mere twenty years ago that I would be wearing armor and bearing weapons or that I would be wielding the Light to assault the most horrific evils ever imagined, I would have laughed at you outright. I spent my days at my crafts, raising my children, and seeing to the needs of my family. My husband and I both worked at our forge, him with his blacksmithing and myself with the artistic pieces that I produced. Sometimes we would work together side-by-side to make a magnificent piece, while other times we would focus on our own tasks.

Nothing in any of this normality would lead me to ever conceive of what I am now. If my past self met my current self, she would imagine I had come to perhaps have some armor made and wonder only idly where I'd been and the things I'd seen. It is bittersweet to know that the last time I prepared a meal for my family was the evening before the Scourge came. When was the last time I cooked anything that was not roasted over a campfire? What was the last thing I mended because a child had ruined it playing too roughly? I cannot even recall that now.

I believe, truly believe with all of my heart that the Light has chosen this path for me. It has done so not so that I could seek vengeance for those I've lost, but so that I could ensure that such normality is not torn from the grip of others, so that they do not suffer the losses that I and my people suffered. I am a questing Knight now, a crusader seeking to bring justice where it is missing. I look to put to right the things that have crept into our world and befouled it. 

In a way, the memories of the past bolster my every step. Rather than letting grief overwhelm me, I use those captured moments of time to remind myself of all that I fight and will eventually die for. When I don my armor, when that white tabard rests over my chest, I know without a doubt that I will never falter, never relent in my quest to bring the Light to those places where it has been expelled. This is why I fight, for those little moments of family and life that I know others possess. I will be their armor, their shield, their sword. 

This is what it means to be a crusader. A paladin. A knight."
~An excerpt from the memoirs of Britanielle 'Britany' Dawnblaze, Paladin of the Argent Crusade.