Aedri Blightsong: 1- Return to Quel'Thalas

The air shimmered briefly and then turned black as a hole tore open through the fabric of space, a link to the shadow plane briefly glowing purple as it disgorged a Death Knight from the deathgate. The two acolytes waiting in the laboratory came to attention as a figure that would have been a horror in any place other than the Ebon Hold appraised them with malevolent eyes.

Of average height for a Sin'dorei, the Death Knight Aedri Blightsong was anything but typical for an elf. Her skin was slate gray, her hair a bleached snow-white that was artfully arranged atop her head with saronite clasps. Her armor was similar to those worn by lesser ranking acolytes, consisting of a robe with saronite plates sewn into it combined with wraps that covered much of her flesh. It was her runeblade that gave hint of her place within Acherus; the blighted, rusty, diseased looking weapon was atypical even for a death knight, and it was clearly imbued with unholy magics far beyond those used by the newly raised or by the amateurs amongst the living who styled themselves as necromancers.

Aedri paused for a moment, glancing around the laboratory and ensuring that her underlings had performed the tasks she assigned them. Satisfied that the experiments she'd ordered were running properly, she determined that she would not need to discipline the two for the time being. She waved her hand, her black-painted nails dully reflecting the torch-light, "You will prepare two tables for a new experiment in the secondary laboratory. My business in Quel'Thalas has lead to a new project."

The two acolytes bowed deeply and turned, heading towards the exit to an adjoining chamber. All together, Aedri had three small laboratories under her command within the Ebon Hold, along with private chambers set behind them for her own use. Unassigned to any particular company, she served as a plague and disease expert, performing experiments and research for the Ebon Blade where needed to combat their enemies.

With a second glance at the bubbling alchemy equipment in the lab, she nodded in satisfaction and headed towards a sealed door at the rear of the lab. Speaking several words of magic, she unlocked the wards that barred it and slipped inside, closing it behind her. The room within was slowly lit with a blue light as magical torches came to life at her presence, illuminating her personal work space and living quarters.

The room was smaller than one might expect, holding just a large desk, a book shelf stocked with various tomes, and a small cot that Aedri used more for reading than for sleeping, her body being far beyond the need for such mortal concerns. A closet off to the side contained her meager worldly possessions including extra armor and wraps as well as a few dresses and outfits used for mingling with the living when her work required such unfortunate measures.

With a sigh of satisfaction she sank down in the plush chair behind her work desk, reaching out to take a small journal from a drawer and grabbing a fresh bottle of ink and a quill. She opened the book, making several notes relating to her meeting with the priestess Selenthiel Sunfire in Silvermoon City. Her neat, precise script clearly spelled out the details of the experiments that Selenthiel wished her to conduct as well as Aedri's own thoughts and theories on the reasons for the continued contamination of the Dead Scar. When she was finished, she set the quill down and examined her writing, nodding in satisfaction.

"It will be an interesting project at least," she murmured to herself, her voice echoing with a hollow quality not shared by the living. "Although I dare say it will involve several unpleasant aspects."

She sighed again, watching the ink dry for a moment before closing the journal and setting the book back in the drawer where she'd retrieved it. Today had been the first time she'd returned to Quel'Thalas since her raising as a death knight. It had brought with it a mix of emotions she'd not expected, including a certain amount of resentment for some of the living Sin'dorei that she'd seen patrolling the streets.

"And how many years has it been?" she wondered aloud, still considering the strange mix of emotions she felt. She'd died some time ago, just before the Northrend campaign had begun when the Scourge had struck at all of the races of Azeroth. Since then, she'd been freed from a horrible enslavement as an undead creature and then been absorbed in her work against the Lich King and other threats that the Ebon Blade brought her to combat. She'd not even considered returning to Quel'Thalas in all that time; there was simply nothing there for her now.

With another sigh she rose, leaving her chambers and returning to the main laboratory to study the experiments there. Several animals in cages along one side of the room drew her notice, and she walked over to them, still considering what her meeting with Selenthiel had brought up. The animals in the cages appeared fragile and sick, and she smiled as she realized the plagues they had been infested with continued to affect them. It had been twenty-eight days since they'd become sick, and still they lived on and suffered; the experiment to create ever more unpleasant and non-lethal illnesses was going well at least.

She moved slowly about the room, checking each experiment one by one, her mind occupied by her thoughts of her meeting with the priestess. Once, long ago, she had been in much the same position as Selenthiel, albeit without the noble title or authority. It was an amusing exercise to consider what life would have been like if it had continued, although eventually it led her to black thoughts about how that had turned out for her.

"No matter, I will do the research as Selenthiel requested," Aedri murmured, reaching down to pick up a squirrel from a cage. The animal struggled only fitfully, the disease it had contracted much worse than the others and likely not a candidate for her ongoing experiments. "If it provides a boon to the Ebon Blade then it will have been worth my time. If not...well, weakness must be expunged once it is discovered, and if Quel'Thalas is going to make me feel...unpleasant...then I must come to terms with that in some way or another."

She set the likely dying animal back in its cage and shrugged, completing her rounds of the various experiments laid out in the room. In unlife she had achieved something of success, and the struggles of the elves in Quel'Thalas meant little to her now. If seeing people like Selenthiel put her mind ill at ease she would need to force herself out of the labs more and into the field. It would not due to be brooding when there was work to do.

As she returned to her room to perform her regenerative necromantic rituals for the evening a final thought about the matter crossed her mind.

It could be worse after all, she could be a damned Blood Knight. That I do not think I could have tolerated. 

The torches in the laboratory flickered and died out as she closed the door behind her, leaving her suffering experiments in the darkness of the Ebon Hold, much as her black thoughts were trapped within her own mind.