*Feralas, near the broken city of Eldre’Thalas*
Braeth’el nodded at the apprentices
that were gathered around him, the circle of Sin’dorei standing in a complex
magical symbol that had taken shape over the last hour. Wearing form fitting
leather combat armor and festooned with daggers, he looked ready to go to war,
and in a sense he was. From the studded metal on the knuckles of his gloves to
the leather headband that partially protected his head, he was prepared for
battle.
On the other side of the magical
circle, Rayleth nodded back at him, the now-senior mage taking a deep, shaky
breath as he prepared himself for the task to come. He’d grown in his craft
over the years, no longer the weak and easily startled apprentice he had once
been. But then, Biara’s influence on people tended to harden them against adversity,
or kill them outright. It wasn’t surprising to Braeth’el that the mage had
agreed to the plan today. Rayleth wanted closure, they all wanted closure, and it was time to put past debts to rest.
“Begin,” Braeth’el said in a calm
voice, his authority keeping the mages from giving in to their fears. It was
not every day that one assaulted the sanctum of a powerful sorceress after all.
On the command, Rayleth brought his
hands up, the others following suit as they began to chant. Magic began to
sputter and flare in the center of the circle where they stood, the power of
each Sin’dorei adding to the growing spell and creating complex patterns in the
air in eye-searing colors. The was an audible groan as the magic began to
pierce the veil between where they were standing and their secret, hidden
destination.
It had taken weeks to prepare this
spell. Painstaking days of carefully studying the residual magic that Biara’s
spells had left behind. Being intimately familiar with her, Rayleth had lead
the effort, going through all the belongings she’d left behind to try to find a
way to trace that which could take on different forms and shapes at will and a
person who had been using magic for untold centuries. Finally, though, they’d
had a breakthrough, and with that breakthrough they had set forth on this plan
to trace the faint hints of Biara’s old magic in the place she had last been
confronted so they could follow her wherever she had gone.
So they could find her hidden
sanctuary.
The spell flickered and flared as
it encountered wards defending the destination point. They had accounted for
this though, had expected that Biara would not have prepared her strongest
wards in a place that was physically inaccessible. They had gambled, and by the
grin on Rayleth’s face, Braeth’el could tell they had won that bet. There was a
loud crack in the air as a spell countered another, and suddenly the space in
the center of the circle exploded into the shape of a glowing portal.
“Quickly! We need to attack before
she prepares her defenses!” Braeth’el shouted. He drew a dagger and darted into
the glowing magic, Rayleth and several of the apprentices following quickly
behind.
Light flared and then suddenly they
were in the center of a highborne sanctuary, somewhere deep within the ground.
The antechamber where they found themselves was large and circular and clearly
designed as a central portal room for the elaborate sanctum. As Braeth’el
blinked away the dizziness from the teleportation spell, he immediately laid
eyes on a Draenei woman who was staring at them with her mouth agape, her light
gray skin contrasting sharply with her red hair. Her voice was musical as she
spoke, her tone shaky, “I-I am Sunii, welcome to-“
Braeth’el gave her no time to
finish, one of his daggers flying out and burying itself in her throat. The
apprentice mage gurgled and slumped over, and Braeth’el stepped over her dying
body. He felt bad that he’d had to kill her, but none of Biara’s apprentices in
this place could be allowed to live; they could set off deadly traps and wards
that would kill the Sin’dorei raiders. Behind him, several of his own
apprentices stumbled through the portal, Rayleth trailing after them. The dark
haired Sin’dorei blanched as he saw the dead Draenei, but they had little time
to contemplate the situation as the sanctum was already coming to life in
defense against the intruders.
Rumbling could be heard coming from
several of the openings, the sound familiar to Braeth’el and likely signaling
the approach of arcane constructs. They had only minutes to kill Biara and get
free of her sanctum before they were overwhelmed. “I want two apprentices at
each opening. This passage over here looks like it heads deeper in and we’ll go
this way first. We’ll pull back if the defenses prove too strong.”
The apprentices did as Braeth’el
instructed, and he and Rayleth darted down a corridor, two additional
apprentices following after. Behind them the sound of spells flaring could be
heard as the first of the arcane constructs tried to retake the portal chamber.
Ahead of them, the corridor wound onwards, the elegant marble stones lit with
magical lights. Rayleth murmured the words to a spell and a lattice of blue
magic flowed over the ground ahead of them, instantly coalescing on warded
traps built into the passageway. Braeth’el grunted his thanks as he adeptly
jumped past them, heading onwards.
With one final bend the corridor
opened onto a study, the chamber filled to the vaulted ceiling with racks of
books. There were reading desks and chairs, comfortable couches, and a cheery
fire going in a grand fireplace where one could relax while reading. Four more
passageways led off from the first, and Braeth’el nodded to the apprentices,
“Burn the books. We’ll continue this way and see if we can find her.”
The two Sin’dorei nodded, beginning
to conjure fire spells and flinging them at the books as Braeth’el and Rayleth
continued. They found doors lining the corridor they entered, and Rayleth
pointed ahead at one of the doors, “I sense her magic from that door there!”
Braeth’el didn’t hesitate, a boot
coming up to kick down the door as he charged into the room. He was met with a
shriek as he stumbled into a…bathing room? He rolled his eyes, realizing he’d
just barged in on Malandrae Moonwhisper as she was about to bathe herself. At
least she was wearing underwear. Immodest, unbelievably sheer underwear, but it
was something…
Quickly he charged across the room,
grabbing the panicking Highborne by the neck and slamming her against one
elegantly tiled wall. She squealed as he held her in place, her breathing rabid
and frantic. Braeth’el’s voice was a growl as he threatened her, “Where is
Biara? Our quarrel is not with you, but you will
tell us where she is!”
“I-I don’t know!” Malandrae
squealed. “S-she left weeks a-ago and hasn’t come back! Sometimes she sends
messages! P-Please you’re hurting me!”
“Liar!” Rayleth nearly spit in
Malandrae’s face. He charged up next to Braeth’el, jabbing the Highborne with a
finger, “Tell us where she is! This is her sanctum.
There is no way she didn’t leave without telling you where she was going!”
“Ray…” Braeth’el cautioned. He knew
enough about Malandrae to know that pushing her like this was not likely to
yield results. The fact that she had just stopped struggling and seemed to be
in a daze was not a good sign.
Rayleth didn’t heed the warning
though, seemingly taking delight in finally doing
something about the Biara problem. Finally appearing to be useful to House
Sunfire. With a growl he yanked a dagger out of his belt and before Braeth’el
could stop him, buried it in Malandrae’s ear, pinning the highborne to the
wall. “Tell us NOW!”
Malandrae shrieked in agony,
thrashing again for a moment before suddenly jerking and becoming completely
still. Blood ran freely both from the wound on her ear, and from her nose now.
When she spoke, there was a subtle hint of threat that made Braeth’el’s skin
crawl, “You seek the Highborne, but you will find only death. She will come for
you. She will not tolerate this slight on her domain. I’d flay your skin off if
this was my home…”
Rayleth sneered and reach up,
slapping Malandrae hard across the face. Her head rocked to one side, but she
made no other move. Her eyes stared blankly ahead, and there was a hint of
dangerous ozone building up in the air around them. Braeth’el opened his mouth
to say something, but there was a crack in the doorway as an enormous arcane
construct attempted to tear the wall apart to enter the smaller bathing room.
Eyes wide, Rayleth turned, sending bolts of magic into the animate stone
creature. Bits chipped off, but it seemed not to mind overmuch as it continued
tearing at the wall.
“Her defenses have activated!”
Braeth’el shouted, “We need to get out now. If she was here, she would have
confronted us already. I believe Malandrae!”
Rayleth nodded, his face going pale
at the ferocious arcane being attempting to get at them. He stepped away from
Malandrae’s pinned form and touched Braeth’el’s arm, the two teleporting
themselves into the hallway beyond the construct. Together they began to run as
a roar of unleashed magic followed after them, the defenses on the hunt now.
They ran back the way they’d come,
finding one of the two apprentices in the library dead from a ward he’d
accidentally triggered. The other looked pale, but otherwise unharmed, and the
room itself was in flames. They gathered up the living apprentice and then ran
for it, wards beginning to explode out of the walls behind them.
“Shit! She had this better prepared
than we’d thought!” Braeth’el growled as they dashed over flickering and deadly
runes on the floor. Behind him, Rayleth said nothing, the un-athletic mage
barely able to keep up with Braeth’el’s hardened body as they ran for their
lives.
The portal room beyond was much the
same as the library, with several apprentices dead or dying and the rest quite
ready to leave. With a gesture from Braeth’el they all broke from their
positions at once, each darting into the flickering portal and disappearing a
moment later. While they hadn’t killed Biara, they had damaged her sanctum, and
had given her a black eye that she would long remember. House Sunfire was not
to be trifled with.
***********************************************************************
Malandrae groaned in pain as the
air before her shimmered and a portal tore through space and time. A beautiful,
golden haired Sin’dorei stepped through, the portal closing behind her. Her
eyes widened in shock as she saw Malandrae pinned to the wall with a dagger, as
she smelled the fumes from the burning library beyond. She rushed to
Malandrae’s side, her form shifting and taking on the appearance of a highborne
with long, flowing silver hair.
“Malandrae!” Biara said with pain
in her voice. “Oh Malandrae, what have they done to you…”
Gently she reached up and pulled
the dagger free, catching her friend as she slumped forward and holding her for
a moment, keeping her in her embrace. Tears ran down Biara’s face as she
realized how close she’d come to losing her friend once again, “Malandrae, who
did this to you?”
Malandrae stirred, her voice a
choked sob, “P-pink elves did it… T-they hurt my ear. They wanted to find you.
There was one with black hair and glasses. H-he stabbed me and used magic…”
Fury began to pulse in Biara’s
veins as she realized what had happened and who had done this. Her home, raided
once again by her enemies. Her loved ones wounded by violence for no reason.
Things could have been left well enough alone, but they hadn’t wanted to put it
to rest, and now Malandrae was bleeding and who knew how much had been lost.
Gently she sat Malandrae down on the edge of one of the bathing pools, using
warm water to wash her ear. The hole was clean and neat, almost like a
piercing, and wouldn’t pain her for too long thankfully. The experience on the
other hand might stay with her for months, knowing poor Malandrae’s innocent
state of mind.
“Sweetie, I need to go and make
sure they can’t do this again. I need to stop them from ever coming back here,”
Biara said gently. “Once I do, I’ll take you to another place, a safer place
than this that they’ve never seen, okay?”
“Please don’t go…please…” Malandrae
whimpered.
“It will not be long, and then I
will stay with you, I promise,” Biara said gently. She patted her friend on the
knee, “Why don’t you clean yourself up, and I’ll set the sentries to taking
care of this place okay? I’ll be back in an hour, two at most.”
“O-Okay…” Malandrae said
dejectedly. She began to wash her ear again, murmuring to herself.
Biara studied her for a moment, her
fury rising further. She stalked from the room, passing over the damage from
the arcane construct and through her ruined library. The still form of a
Sin’dorei laying amongst her wards told her all she needed to know as she
stormed towards her portal room. She passed damage to priceless spells and
artifacts, ruination brought to her home while she’d been away. And then she
reached the portal room, and saw the still, silent form of her new apprentice,
Sunii.
Her blood ran white hot, and magic
flared in the air about her, her shriek echoing down the long corridors. Rage
the likes of which had not flowed through her in years took hold, and magic
enfolded her, blazing hot as she changed her form again and disappeared through
a gaping portal.
******************************************************************
Kyliska was lying in bed, reading a
book when her bedroom door suddenly burst open and Astariel ran into the room.
The little Sin’dorei was in tears, and she hurled herself into Kyliska’s bed
and into her arms, crying hysterically. It took many minutes to get the child
to stop crying, soothing and patting her back as she got her sobs out. When she
finally calmed a little, Kyliska whispered into her ear, “Hush now child,
what’s gotten you so upset.”
The answer, when it came, made
Kyliska’s blood run cold.
“Mommy is so mad, it’s scaring me…”
******************************************************************
Braeth’el sighed and shook his
head, his tone strained, “All we did was make the situation worse, Rayleth. You
should have let me handle things. We’re after Biara, not her friends and family
members. We’re not beasts like she is. I appreciate that you wanted to take
initiative, and that you wanted to take part in a battle and overcome those
fears, but what you did was a major mistake.”
Rayleth straightened his glasses,
looking deflated, “I’m sorry…I’ll try harder next time to keep it in check. She
just made me so mad. How could she
sit there and stupidly tell us she knows nothing?”
“Malandrae is a lot of things, and
stupid is potentially one of them, but she’s not someone to underestimate and
certainly not worth harming. It’s like kicking a puppy, so please restrain
yourself next time, okay?” Braeth’el said.
“Fine...I’m sorry.”
“Good. Now then, I’m going to go
report in to Kyli and let her know how this worked out. We’ll talk again in the
morning to discuss our next steps now that we know you can track her,”
Braeth’el replied. He turned, walking out of the conjury room where they had
been discussing the raid. The surviving apprentices were all present, each
resting or tending to minor wounds. They had lost a few, but Biara’s sanctum
was no longer secure and was heavily damaged. Not a complete loss at least.
As he entered the hallway beyond
the room, the entire tower seemed to rock for a moment, arcane energies pouring
into the structure all around them. He spun, eyes wide as he locked glances
with Rayleth.
Rayleth looked panicked, his voice
cracking as he shouted, “Something’s breaking our wards! I-it knows how to
unravel the underpinnings of the estate’s defense spells! We need to-“
There was a crack and suddenly a
figure was standing in the room with the apprentices. Braeth’el felt his breath
catch in his throat as he beheld her, the impossibility of it slamming against
his mind. There, in the center of the room, stood the dead Draenei they had
just killed in Biara’s sanctum. Only she wasn’t dead now, and she didn’t have a
single wound on her. Her eyes blazed with arcane magic as she met Braeth’el’s
stare, and a malevolence the likes of which only one person could have stared
back at him.
“Oh shi-“ Braeth’el started to say
before an arcane force slammed the double doors to the conjury in his face. He
ran up and began to batter them with his fists, but something held them fast.
And then the screaming started.
*****************************************************************
Biara had chosen her form well,
mirroring the appearance of her dead apprentice, Sunii. All of the Sin’dorei
around her stared in shock, taking in her unwounded gray skin and red hair. As
was common, a scar was still visible under her right eye but there was little
she could do to change that; her real form was scarred, and thus the scars
would be seen when she shifted forms using her magic.
The few seconds of shock that the
appearance of the ‘dead’ Draenei brought were all Biara needed to begin the
slaughter. Arcane magic lashed out, and two Sin’dorei died instantly from
Biara’s spells. Another tried to prepare a shield and her magic tore the
Sin’dorei’s defenses to shreds before hurling the elf across the room and
impaling her on laboratory equipment in the conjury.
With three of them dead, the others
put up only a minimal fight. Rayleth managed to hurl a fireball at the Draenei,
but his magic flickered off perfectly prepared arcane wards. The creature had
come prepared for a fight while his Sin’dorei were recovering from one and had
not expected to fight again so soon.
Bolts of ice lashed out, and two
more apprentices fell, bleeding on the floor. Biara stepped over them, her hooves
crackling on the frozen and debris covered ground as she stalked towards
Rayleth. He attempted another spell, and she casually batted it aside with a
wave of a hand like a cat playing with a ball of yarn. She brought her hands
up, and Rayleth was hurled across the room, slamming against a wall and pinned
there by arcane force.
With a smile, Biara stepped closer,
coming within inches of Rayleth’s face, “Why? We had something special for a
time. I’ve not harmed any of you, and yet you came to my home and killed one of my people. You stabbed that innocent creature who would do nothing to hurt a fly
if she could help it. Did you think I would let it go? That I’d not come for
you?”
Rayleth coughed, the pressure on
his chest making it hard to catch a breath, “We did what we had to do. You
betrayed Quel’Thalas!”
Biara snarled, her draenei face
leaning forward and whispering into Rayleth’s ear almost sensually, “I am older
than Quel’Thalas. Older than this tower. I decide what is right and wrong, what
needs to be done with my heirs. Not you. Not the Sin’dorei. No one but me. But
you couldn’t leave well enough alone. You had to be a hero and invade my home.
This has been done to me before. Let me show you what happens when people take
my sanctuary from me.”
Rayleth opened his mouth to speak
but it turned into a scream as a dagger slammed through his ear, pinning it to
the wall behind him. Blood ran down the side of his face as Biara twisted the
dagger, still grinning at him through the guise of a relatively innocent
looking Draenei.
“Now, unlike you, I finish the task
when I start. You will be an abject lesson to Kyliska not to trifle with me
again, Rayleth. I’m sorry it had to be this way, but sometimes heroes don’t
come home from battle,” Biara said, releasing the hilt of the dagger and
turning to stride towards the center of the room.
Rayleth began to wiggle his
fingers, preparing to send a spell at her back when she turned and gestured. He
screamed again as arcane forces snapped each of his fingers, “Ah ah. None of
that, lover. You had your chance when I first arrived and you failed, just like
you failed at everything else. Perhaps if you had been better at pleasing me,
you’d be able to live longer than this. A pity.”
With that, she turned again,
murmuring the words to a spell. An orb of energy appeared before her, the spell
gaining power as it sucked in the mana from the equipment and the bodies in the
room. It began to sputter, becoming dangerously unstable.
Biara looked back at Rayleth one
last time, her hand slipping into the pocket of her robe and then dropping a
small ring on the floor of the conjury. It was gold and red, and glittered in
the light of the growing spell, a signet ring of House Sunfire lying on the
broken ground of the conjury.
A moment later, Biara faded away,
her magic whisking her far from that place.
A second after that, her spell
detonated, and everything in the room was turned to ash instantly. Hours later
Braeth’el and the guards would manage to tear down the warded doors, only to
find burned ruination and a single, perfectly undamaged ring sitting in the
center of it all. A clear declaration of war in no uncertain terms.
