Beckyann glanced to her right and sighed, rolling her eyes, "Please don't squeeze the heart."
The man standing beside her blanched, his face as pale as snow as he took a step back and dropped the stick he had been using to prod the corpse, "W-what...? T-that's the heart...? It's so small though..."
Beckyann nodded, looking away from the man so he couldn't see the judgmental expression that passed over her features. She tried to keep her tone neutral when she replied, "Yes, it's his heart, or at least the right half of it. It seems that it may have been damaged in the magical discharge that killed him, but either way we need as much of it intact as possible for the spell to work. Please keep back so that I can do my job, sir."
"Right. Of course. I wouldn't know a thing about this sort of work anyway," the man grumbled. His mere presence was irritating to Beckyann, and the tone of voice when he discussed the project they were working on further increased her distaste by the minute. It's not like she had asked to be dragged off her normal patrol route through Durotar to come assist the Kirin Tor. It wasn't her problem that they couldn't figure out what kind of spell the Dark Shaman had used to slaughter half the men who were stationed in the ruins of the encampment all around them.
The fact of the matter was, the Kirin Tor needed Beckyann and her men there because they couldn't get the answers they sought through normal means. No matter how much they might look down upon the magic that she commanded, none of them had any way to tear an unwilling spirit from the hereafter to question it, and that was what was called for in this situation. She knelt down beside the corpse, placing her hands on it as she tried to puzzle out the best way to perform the ritual. The corpse had been badly damaged when it had unleashed some final, suicidal spell before the orc had perished, and the trick would be to find a large enough piece of it to anchor the spirit to.
"Are you sure you're going to be able to do this?" the Kirin Tor mage asked, his shadow falling over her as he peered over her shoulder.
Beckyann rolled her eyes again, mentally forcing herself into a state of calm before she replied, "Yes sir, I have the skills necessary to perform the ritual. If you would please take a step back so I can finish, we'll have the answers you seek."
The man complied with her request, although only just barely. She grit her teeth and returned her attention to the corpse, placing both hands around its fire-blackened skull. The irritation she felt made her consider the course her life had taken; perhaps joining the Kirin Tor when she was younger had not been a good idea after all. It was the snooty, holier-than-thou attitude and confining rules and social constrictions that many of the Archmages displayed that had caused her to progress only so far amongst that esteemed organization. Although she'd ultimately found a good position and gained enough magic to call herself a mage at one point, she had not enjoyed the tutelage nor had she made any friends amongst the spellcasters. Those memories combined with the Kirin Tor's dim view on necromancy made working with them a difficult task indeed.
Satisfied that the man was standing sufficiently far away that he would not instantly die when she began her spell, Beckyann began to chant in the Language of Death, the words harsh and biting. Black magic began to swirl around her fingertips as she pierced the veil between the living world and the shadow world, seeking out the spirit of the fallen orc and forcibly yanking it back to its corpse. A cold wind blew around them and a howling shriek could be heard as the spirit was trapped, a blue glow surrounding the corpse and rising into the air, taking on the form of a ghostly orc.
"Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyy....." the spirit moaned.
Beckyann stood up, rolling her eyes at it and then turning to look at the Kirin Tor mage, "There we go. We can ask it any questions we want, but we want to make sure that we don-"
The mage barged past Beckyann, nearly brushing her aside as he pointed an accusing finger at the orc, "You! You will demonstrate to me what spell you used to slay our men here at once! We will not have such dark magics being used on our forces and next time we'll be prepared."
Beckyann's eyes widened and she reached out to grab the mage as the spirit began laughing, magic swirling in the air around it. "You fool! You don't command a spirit like that to 'demonstrate' anything! What kind of moronic request was th-"
The spirit's eyes flared with fire as it glared at the mage and Death Knight. It pointed, beginning to chant. Beckyann recognized the beginnings of a spell and knew that she had only a second to either banish the creature or protect herself. She dragged the mage beside her into an awkward embrace and shouted, an anti-magic zone appearing around them as a deep purple bubble. The spirit's raging magic was unleashed less than a second later, the burst of flames searing the ground all around the bubble. For a moment, the two within could see nothing but fierce fire howling around their confining protective field before the spell died down.
With irritation in her voice Beckyann pointed at the spirit, freezing it in place with a a shouted command. She stepped forward, slashing it with her runeblade and cutting it in two. It howled as it was sucked into the weapon, runes along the flat of the blade glowing balefully as it was empowered. Beckyann whirled, glaring at the mage and jabbing a finger in his direction, "Next time you call in an expert to help you, how about you actually let them do their job eh? You think you're so much better at magic than everyone else, then do this yourself! I hope you got what you wanted, because I'm not summoning another of the dead if you're going to act like a complete...a complete imbecile when I do it!"
The man looked down sheepishly as he was chastised by the rather annoyed Death Knight. When she had finished, he shuffled his feet in the dirt like a scolded child and nodded, "S-sorry. I uh...yes well...I b-believe we've seen e-enough of the Shaman's magic to u-understand what happened here. F-fire wards will h-help against this. T-thank you very much..."
Beckyann rolled her eyes for the third time and turned, heading towards where she had left the rest of her squad, "Whatever."
"Yet again I see why the living and the dead should not mix," she thought to herself.
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