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Chapter Six: Deception

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The difference between the landscape of Shattrath and Netherstorm made my heart sink heavily into my chest. Far from being a harmless enchanted forest, Terokkar forest still yielded us the background of dreamy, healthy blue skies and chubby white clouds lazily traveling through the horizon. Netherstorm had only stormy skies painted in violent hues, from the brightest violet tones of anger to the sickest and darkest deep purple. Lands that couldn’t grow anything safe for consumption. Chunks of land floating around aimlessly, driven by some vestige of magic slowly fading away. But unlike our troublesome march on Shattrath, we simply teleported our small group to Netherstorm and there were no incidents.


We were welcomed and escorted to the city by a group of goblin guards that approached us on sight. I remember being uncomfortable with the way one of the guards smiled at me, showing all his little sharp teeth. He looked a little less like a green imp because he was chubby. Still ugly as hell, the tip of his long, pointy ears brushing my elbows as he tried to get even closer. You see, it’s not that I don’t like goblins; but they always seem almost as interested in my butt as they are in the contents of my pockets. I do appreciate their genius and intelligence. Unfortunately, all those wits are used to pursue their one true love: gold.


And their cities were very different from any I’d ever seen before. Area 52 was a good example of a standard goblin city: it was confined within a stone wall, slightly higher than a regular man, and smelled of oil, explosions and chaos. We could hear the noisy workers even before stepping into the city’s walls, when I almost ran over a small, wandering mechanical device. The chubby guard with a creepy smile guided us to the inn, although there was clearly no need for that: easily recognizable, the inn was one of a few “regular sized” buildings among the many small buildings made up of stone and metal. The background of that unnatural painting of a village was composed of a patchwork of mechanic inventions and trinkets wandering around, dancing to the soundtrack of small explosions and actual spinning wheels. Inventors and engineers, they breathed their technology as elves breathed magic.


We made ourselves comfortable at the inn, where I got myself a room the size of a cabinet, up the stairs. It smelled of mould and something else I couldn't identify - it was better not to think too much about that. I went to the window and opened it. Far away, yet as flashy and jarring as a diamond on the neck of a peasant, Tempest Keep floated by the edge of the continent. The fortress looked like a magnet, as the flux of arcane power mined on the mana forges was directed to the keep, making it shine with a brilliance only mage's eyes could see.


My heart ached from a wound it had not yet suffered, foreseeing the pain it would carry. As I climbed the ladder of command inside Kael’thas’ forces, coming back to that place as a traitor and conspirer was not in my plans. Nor was it to leave my beloved alone, with no answers, waiting for my reasons and only getting my silence. It would’ve been so easy to just take Ala’Nyr and fly over to Tempest Keep, so close it felt by my yearning to see him again, yet made so distant by my own moral compass. I couldn’t go back to the life I was living - not after what I’d experienced.


Eventually reality slapped me on the face again. As night drew closer, hunger made my stomach growl and I went down to the inn to get something to eat. Always show your gold before you speak to a goblin and he'll be nice and helpful, I learned. Before my silver coin hit the wooden balcony, a goblin with a big smile was already running to my side.


"What can I do for ya, beautiful?" the barman goblin said.


"A hot meal. Some... stew, with vegetables, something like that," I said, noticing the coin was already gone. "To be taken to my room."


"How about a good brown beer to wash it down, sweetie?" he asked, with an even larger smile. "I'll make a discount for ya. And because you're so pretty, just another coin and I can add a bowl of raspberries and..."


"No! No beer, no bowl of nothing. Just the meal. And my change," I quickly added, and even managed to see his eye twitch before he handed over a few coppers.


"Room service is extra, beautiful," he said, his smile a bit stiffened. I sighed.


"Fine. I'll wait," I said, sitting as the goblin yelled something to the kitchen and came back to where I was. He probably wasn't done trying to take gold out of me.


"You're new around here, babe?" he started. "I bet you're not. You're with the blue guys, right? You're with the traitors?"


I just nodded, and if he'd asked me for gold to shut up, I would pay.


"How about an update on the activities of your kind here, eh?" he asked, and I hesitated a bit before turning back to him.


"Well... I suppose that could be helpful," I said. We simply stared at each other before I realized he meant to get paid for the information. I returned the coppers he gave me as change with a grunt, and he quickly swept those over.


"Lemme tell ya, beautiful," he started. "Your friends are ruling over almost all Netherstorm. Not even the ethereals stay on their way!"


"Everyone knows that. What kind of information is that?"


"The kind worth a couple of coppers," he answered. "But for a silver, I can tell ya something way, way more interesting."


Damn those goblins. It was one of those times I truly realized how curiosity could be a fatal flaw, one shared by most mages. I took another silver coin but didn’t let go of it even when the goblin grabbed it. Familiar with that small tug of war over a coin, I tried to sound serious to the barman.


"You say something good. Something really good. If it is really good, I'll give you another silver," I told him. Taking his eyes away from the hypnotizing silver gleam of the coin, he stared back at me.


"It's a rumor, beautiful," he began. "A hot rumor, that is! I have some really reliable sources, ya know?"


"Focus. What's the rumor?"


He even looked around in a suspicious way and motioned for me to get closer so he could whisper in my ear. He never let go of the coin.


"There's no proof, love. But there's some people whispering the possibility. Some people think that Kael'thas Sunstrider is messing with the higher evils, you know what I mean? Nothing as meager as these warlocks enslaving demons from the Twisting Nether, no," the goblin said. Lowering his voice even more, he continued. "Things are getting pretty weird down here. Some believe your pretty Prince turned his back on the Demon Hunter Illidan, and is now ally with greater demons. Demons... of the Burning Legion."


His theatrical revelation had all the impact the goblin wanted, and I lost the strength to hold the silver. The Burning Legion. The name left the taste of fel in the mouth, and the imagery it brought to memory was only of death and destruction. At that time, we didn't know much of it, only that it was dangerous, bloodthirsty and highly organized. It was a Legion of demons of the most dangerous kind, and while we didn't know of their true intentions, some bit was very clear: they wanted the destruction of our world, Azeroth. The Legion orchestrated the events that led to the cataclysm of this world, Draenor, which was now merely a flat, empty cask floating in the Twisting Nether. Enemies of all living beings, deceivers.


What, by the Light, would our Prince want with the Burning Legion?


I realized the goblin was waiting for the other coin I promised, and so I gave it to him. My meal came, I grabbed it and took to my room, my feet and my hands moving as if they got a will on their own, my hunger suddenly gone.


It was just a rumor, I kept telling myself. Just a rumor. But anything remotely related to the Burning Legion was worth of note, and so I made plans to report to Voren'thal and our group in the morning. There was something that couldn't wait for the morning.


I took some parchment paper and wrote a few lines.


Do not fear, sister. Don't listen to the rumors and gossip of those who can't see the whole picture. Watch over Neph for me, and when you think it's safe, tell him to meet me where we go when we want to be alone in three days, after his chores. Remember the monster from the cave. I have answers.


I hoped my plea would be enough, but now it comes to me it was quite a leap of faith to trust Nalysa in that situation. I never hesitated. It was an act of extreme recklessness, and it was also what saved me.


I folded the note without signing it and went to the window. Whispering a few words of power, a silver mist started to form betwen both of my cupped hands and twisted slowly. The mist grew more dense and shaped a small, spectral dove that took the note on its beak.


"Take it to Nalysa, and only to her."


The dove blinked slowly before taking flight, leaving a small trail of silver mist that vanished quickly. I hoped no one would notice it on the goblin village - it was a reasonably common way of delivering messages among young elves, so it wasn't an unusual sight at Tempest Keep, but it wasn’t that common at Area 52.


Three days. I'd expect those days to be endless hours of complete anxiety, but I had plenty distractions. Scryers and Aldor trying to work together took an incredible amount of self control and diplomacy when we weren't under the vigilant eye of A'dal, but that was no surprise. The bickering never ceased, and while I gathered enough self control to stop some thoughts from reaching my tongue, diplomacy has never been my thing. The next morning was a proof of that.


I found myself, early that morning, barking at other draenei of our group that we should write a report about what I heard from the goblin. He yelled back at me, arguing we shouldn’t take so serious every bit of rubbish the barman said to entertain drunken guests. Our “friendly” exchange of insults was put to an end when Other Aldor members thought it would be wise to warn Shattrath about the rumor. Apparently, other people heard the same thing about our Prince from different sources, so we wrote a report.


Honestly, those days spent at Area 52 were a blur to me, made meaningless by my heart's desire to be whole once again. The wait was the worst, but at least now I knew when it would end and where it would lead. I wasn't in the dark anymore, and that kept me moving forward.


Countless hours and minutes were made as fleeting as a dream that slips through your mind as you try to recall it in the next morning, as the prospect of seeing Neph once again left me sick. Sick of yearning, sick of longing, my heart about to explode both of joy in anticipation and impatience. I gathered enough patience, filled my spare hours rehearsing what I would tell my beloved and moved along the days.


This sickness that took over my spirit, this fever, almost concealed something else. Even though A’dal’s song of hope still echoed in the depths of our minds, his absence left a hole in my heart - a dark pit that threatened to swallow us. I say “us” because I’m sure my fellow Scryers felt the same, not only then but also in our darkest hour. It wasn’t the violent withdrawal we suffered from consuming fel magic, but it was there. That depression, that feeling of being incomplete... It was the same thing we felt when the Sunwell was destroyed.


After all, magic of all kinds is addictive.




When the day of the meeting finally came, a strange state of nervousness and higher awareness took over me, as I prepared to see Neph. My hair received extra attention as I brushed it until it was soft and shiny; I put on some nice, practical clothes and, after a moment of hesitation, I put on the Scryer’s tabard. Those small treats for my vanity made me feel like myself and so, for a moment, everything sounded good.


I took certain precautions. Ala’Nyr draws too much attention, so I’d left her outside the goblin city that afternoon. Before leaving Area 52, I shrouded myself with an invisibility spell. My small night walk could lead to some complicated questions - for any answer I could think of, it would be a tricky situation. It was already late at night, and even the restless goblins were sleeping when I cast on myself the invisibility spell and left my room.


Now I barely remember my small journey in face of the events happened after it. The gods must favor the children, drunk and fools, for I was a fool and fate cleared my way to our meeting place. No one saw me. No one followed me.


Like I said, there’s a ring of pieces of land, stone and earth surrounding Netherstorm. These pieces ranged from small rocks and pebbles to portions of the continent big enough to have a house perched on it. Neph and I used to go to one of those fragments of land that was regular enough to build a campfire on and large enough to safely dance around it. With about 30 feet of width, it was a portion of the plains Netherstorm once was, now floating aimlessly somewhere in between Tempest Keep and Area 52, if you’d follow the edge of the continent. It was only accessible by a flying mount, so I got there on the back of Ala’Nyr, my most trusted friend.


I sat on a rock by the vestiges of our last campfire, built what seemed hundreds of years ago, and filled my time by patting Ala’Nyr in silence. I got there knowing I’d have to wait for Neph, but I couldn’t have known that it would be a long and terrible waiting. I waited for hours, days, weeks - or so it seemed - and in that period all kind of unwanted, awful thoughts spread icy roots into my head.


From up there, my great foolproof plan started to look absurd, reckless and even childish. It was only luck that had brought me there with no incidents, but not even the choice of our meeting place felt right now. At first I thought it was a safe place for no one tended to go there, but if anyone had spotted me on my way or even flown over me, I would be discovered. I was so sure of my superiority in the skies that none of that even went near my mind.


Ala’Nyr felt my restlessness and grew impatient, so I tried to calm her down by pulling her head to my lap and stroking her feathers. I also had to consider it the other way around. Should Neph be followed, a whole flying squad could be on his tail as he arrived - if he arrived at all! Could I have put the life of my beloved in danger?


Time behaves oddly in situations like that, I learned. Not only were my fears thriving and suffocating my heart like bindweed, but there was no way I could actually see time going by. There was no sun or moons running through the skies, no shadows growing taller, and my mind was so trapped into a circle of bad thoughts that my head couldn’t understand my body’s needs for warmth, comfort, food and water.


If my message, for some reason, had not reached my fiancé, I would languish there, insensitive to hunger and cold. My ears were sharp, though, taking the flapping of a moth's wings as the mount of my beloved. I couldn’t tell how much time I spent there, but when I heard big wings, loud as a thunder, I stood up quickly and ignored my tingling legs. My heart tried to get out of my chest, beating so fast it hurt.


Nothing could have prepared me for that moment. In one second the world was still and silent and empty, and then life breached out abruptly. Following its noise, a golden dragonhawk rose from the edge of the land I was at, and to me it looked like the rising of the sun. Those icy claws of hopelessness dissipated as the rider slowly dismounted, and my feet even tried to run to him before I had them stop and wait.


As Neph slowly turned to face me, I knew there was something wrong with him. There was something different, but it didn't take much for me to realize he only mirrored my own change. His fancy dark robe looked larger on him, and somehow his beautiful golden skin seemed paler. But above discrete dark circles, his eyes had a strong brilliance, green like the grass, shinning like emeralds so bright, so intense...


So much like fel magic.


For a couple of seconds we stood there evaluating each other as two strangers, and I didn't like it. I didn't like the way his eyes wandered through my own beat-up looks, or the way he frowned at my tabard. Nor did I like the way he looked mistreated himself, as to imagine his suffering made me suffer.


Did he still remember my kiss? The feeling of my arms? Did this time made us strangers to one another? Did he still love me? Those questions had haunted me for so long, but not as fiercely as at that moment that felt like an eternity, compressed into a few seconds.


And then it all vanished. We were fatefully drawn to each other, and before any word could be uttered, his arms were wrapped around me and I nested myself on his wide chest. He hugged me so tight I couldn't breathe; listening to his heart beating wildly, feeling his warmth enveloping me brought me the certainty that, at that very moment, everything in the universe was aligned and just... well, right. That moment, everything was where and how it should be, and I was happy. I felt I belonged there, in his embrace, our hearts beating at the same beat and singing the same song.


No tongue has the proper words to describe that feeling, but I can try. It's the feeling of relief a drowning man has as he takes his first gulps of air. We only separated enough so we could press our mouths together, and drinking from his lips filled me with warmth, more delightful than warmth spreading through every inch of your body after you escape an icy blizzard and find a cozy fireplace. It felt like...


It felt like a drug, taken in the middle of a violent withdrawal. It eased my pains, my fears, numbing everything else and bringing me complete happiness and enchantment. But such a feeling can never last for long.


As I pulled him closer I noticed he had lost weight, as my arms enveloped his torso more easily. That was the most desperate exchange of caresses I remember, and as we finally pulled back to allow our lungs some fresh air, I took a good look at him.


"Aiwyn..." he whispered softly, and I realised how much I’d missed his voice. He took my face in his hands, his bright eyes hungrily devouring every detail of my looks. "My love... I missed you so much. I feared for the worst, but everything's fine now. What happened to you?"


I felt his face with my hand, and couldn't help but notice his skin wasn't as lush as before.


"I'm fine now, Neph," I answered. "Sorry for the silence, but I couldn't send you a message."


"I understand, don't worry," he said. "You're safe now. What have they done to you? What happened to your eyes?"


My joy in meeting with him was so great I didn't realize there was something wrong right there. As for my eyes, I knew what he was talking about. The more time we spent without feeding on fel magic, the more that bright green glow abandoned our eyes. Mine were already turning back to their original blue hue, as I hadn't fed on fel magic for long. I tried to comfort him with a smile.


“Don’t worry about me, my love. There’s so much I need to tell you,” I started. “But what about you? Are you okay? You look so pale.”


“I’m as bad as you, because our affliction is the same,” he said. “But it must be worse for you. How long since you last fed?”


“I haven’t tapped on anything since I left you. But listen...”


“My love, that’s really cruel. What did they do to you? Here,” he replied, and I knew what he would do before he took his hand to his pocket. It was that scene all over again. He took out a mana crystal, glowing green, bright, temptation swirling inside. Our favorite drug.


I took a deep breath and turned my eyes to him. It was time for that serious talk, the one I’ve been rehearsing the days before. As I tried to think of a way to start, I tried to smooth out the front of his robe.


“Neph...” I started, hesitantly. “There’s so much I need to tell you. There’s so much I’ve seen. So much that tells me that this isn’t right,” I told him.


“’This’?” he asked confused.


“Our way of life. Our deeds. This,” I answered, indicating the crystal.


“What are you talking about?” Neph remained puzzled.


It was so hard to tell him, yet during my mental monologues it felt so easy and straightforward - I weaved an argument so full of logic and perfect in my head, so why was it so hard to explain it to someone?


“You should’ve seen what I saw at Shattrath, Neph. There’s a being they call A’dal, and he feels like a being of pure light. He felt like the Sunwell, he...”


“I know,” he interrupted me. “It was supposed to be ours by now.”


“For what? For us to corrupt him as well?”


Never had our different points of view clashed so hard - or so openly. He even widened his eyes at that, silence taking him into a brief, pensive state. When he got out of that, he smugly slipped the crystal to my hand, wrapping his own hand firmly around mine, so I wouldn’t let it go.


“Take this. You’re confused. You don’t know what you’re talking about,” he whispered softly by my ear, an order so seductive I almost took it as a plea.


It wouldn’t take much more than that to make me do it, but on top of his silky voice in my ear, a ridiculous thought crossed my mind. If I took that fel magic, he would see I wasn’t delusional because of a severe withdrawal crisis. He would be forced to see I was reasoning and well without it - he would believe me.


And so I took it, draining the magic contained in the crystal, feeling it running inside my veins and filling every inch of my body. I almost forgot how sweet and numbing fel magic felt, making me feel my heart start beating once again, after so long in its state of death. Neph seemed satisfied with it, showing me a glowing smile right before leaving a light peck on my lips. And it seemed as potent as fel magic, perhaps my personal favorite drug - his warmth, his breath and his love were as intoxicating and addictive, and that’s what I’d been truly missing those days. It seasoned my blood with fire and lust, making me wish for his body and warmth even more. It was a narcotic so subtle you don’t feel it as you drink from it - but once it’s taken from you, there’s no other drug or vice or person that can replace it and cure the terrible withdrawal that sets in. There’s no cure, no turning back.


“Feeling better?” he asked me, that satisfied sweet smile upon his lips, those bright eyes shinning proud of me. So bright, so shinning, glowing fel green...


“This is going to ruin us all, Neph.” I spat it out bluntly, my reasoning somehow stronger than his allure. “Voren’thal foresaw it. We can’t keep on going like we are. Voren’thal says our only chance to survival-“


“Voren’thal?” he asked, frowning to me. “That old man is a traitor, Aiwyn. He led you all to this, ignoring our Prince’s orders to take the city. He tricked you. Tell me: What truly happened at Shattrath?”


Why wouldn’t Neph believe me? I staggered, but only for an instant.


“We laid down our weapons,” I answered, and noticed there was pride in my voice. My chin was high, and hesitation fled my speech. I was certain that was the right thing to do, and so it shown off.


Neph read me well enough to perceive that, and so the certainty I held must had counted for something. He took half a step back, gripping both my arms - gently, but firmly - and taking a good look deep inside my eyes. What he was looking for? Perhaps confusion, delusion - the looks of a misguided child. But he found none of that. In a reasonably logical speech, I started to narrate what happened after we laid our weapons by Shattrath’s defenders, hoping it would be enough to make him see truth in my beliefs. It wasn’t the same coherent and strong argument I’ve been rehearsing in my head the last days, but things are never how we plan them. I told him about A’dal and Voren’thal, the Scryers and the Aldor. I told him about Shattrath itself, the Terrace of Light, Lower City. I told him almost everything - I just didn’t mention anything about Azlun. I’m not sure why, I just didn’t feel like talking about him to Neph, for I knew he was jealous and would see it all the wrong way.


Neph listened it all patiently, silent, speaking only when I took a break.


“Aiwyn,” he started, speaking slowly and never turning his eyes from mine. “That was an act of treason. You followed them against your will, to survive, to-“


“I’ve seen it, Neph,” I cut him right there. “I’ve seen what happens to one of us that loses control over the addiction. We will turn into deformed things, disgusting mindless creatures-”


“So you’ve seen a wretched. Is that what you’re afraid of?”


“So you know it?” I replied surprised, widened eyes.


“That only happens to the weak of mind; it won’t happen to us,” he said, and the certainty in his voice was as strong as mine. “I will never let that happen to you, my love. I promise. I’ll keep you safe from everyone... Even from yourself.”


His belief was as strong as mine, even though we were pulling on opposite directions. There was some sort of logic in his speech - the sort of logic my heart wanted to follow. Just a few of his words touched my core, even though my whole speech filled with logic and reasoning wasn’t enough to sway his. If I accepted it, I could be by his side as if nothing had happened.


But there was Voren’thal. There was Azlun and his brother.


There was my Master. And Kirin’Var.


“Neph, this is wrong, can’t you see? Just look back at what we’ve done. Kirin’Var! Why Kirin’Var had to be obliterated?” I said, pleading he would understand.


“Kirin’Var was in our way,” he said softly.


“So were we,” I said. “Do you remember? When Silvermoon fell, when the undead raided on our lands to get to our sacred Sunwell. We were on their way.”


“Are you comparing us to the Scourge?” he asked, at the same time amazed and shocked. “We deserved all we claimed after all we’ve been through!”


“We are no better than monsters if we keep on doing this,” I began. “We...”


My ears caught a flapping sound. Wings. There was someone approaching, and I felt Ala’Nyr restless behind me. Someone found us, I thought. I tried to take a step back and look around, but Neph held me in place. His arms were a safe place for me, and he was calm, so I tried to calm down, even if my gut told me something was off.


An instant longer and two more riders appeared by the edge of the land, right where Neph landed. I felt paralyzed, growing tense as I realized who dismounted the two dragonhawks. The first thing I noticed was Nalysa’s golden head and purple robes. The other rider was Il’than, with his permanent grimace and dark robes.


An awkward feeling nested between us all, but the thought took a while to set in my head, as I couldn’t understand what was going on. I looked to Nalysa, Il’than, and then turned to face Neph once again, my eyes making the question I wouldn’t say out loud. Neph smiled at me.


“Don’t worry, love. They’re friends, they’re here to help,” he said.


“Help? Help with what?” I asked, growing even more tense. “Neph... My love... Don’t you believe me?”


“I know you’re not lying to me,” he answered, assuring, patient. “But that only means you’ve been misguided. Voren’thal is a deceiver, Aiwyn. A liar. You should not trust the words of a traitor.”


“But... Neph... It’s not only Voren’thal, it’s-“


“Do you remember what happened the last time there was a traitor between us?” Neph asked me.


“We all remember,” Il’than said, stepping up and approaching us. “We fell. Silvermoon fell. Dar’Khan Drathir pointed out the way our defenses worked to the undead, and for his greed for power, we all paid the price. The traitor himself got rewarded with something worse than death.”


“I don’t need to be reminded of that. It’s not like it now. What are you doing here?” I hissed at Il’than, but he didn’t even blink.


“Aiwyn...” Nalysa approached as well. She had the looks of a tormented child, torn between mother and father, her confusion clear in her face, her hands betraying her and making her nervousness more evident. “What is happening? Why didn’t you come sooner?”


“She is confused, Nalysa,” Neph answered before I could. His eyes never left my face. “They must have done something that left her this way. You see how she cares for you, Aiwyn? We all do. Now let’s go home.”


An ambush. The word hit me as sudden and certain as an arrow. Neph didn’t seem surprised by Nalysa’s and Il’than’s approach. Had he orchestrated it? Was my beloved trying to ambush me? The thought made me breathless. No, it couldn’t be... Not Neph...


“Stop it, Neph. I’m not confused!” I nearly screamed, which must had look bad for me, so I lowered my voice. “My love... Listen to me... There’s been rumors... The Burning Legion?”


His indifference before that seemed just out of place. When the Legion was mentioned, indifference was the least expected reaction, and so his coolness left me apprehensive. He bended over and once again gave me the lightest peck on the lips.


“Sometimes,” he started, whispering softly, “the only way of getting out of hell, is by becoming a demon.”


Blood fled my face, I could feel it. My head started to spin ever so lightly, some sort of dizziness messing with my senses. No, that was wrong. He wasn’t denying it - he wasn’t saying it with all words either, but I knew him enough to acknowledge he was a skilled player. When I tried to take a step back, afraid of his certainty, of his calmness and unsaid words, he kept me in place. His hands tightened around my arms, and the light-headedness got even worse, calling from the depths of my mind for another scene where I felt that before. There was an urgent feeling attached to it, something warning out for danger and fear, for hopelessness, for despair...


The scene of the wretched in the cave just jumped in front of my eyes. Neph was absorbing my magic, feeding on my pool of power. Softly, so I wouldn’t notice it right away, he was trying to cripple and weaken me, turn me into a docile maiden.


Or a docile lamb.


I fled his deceivingly caring embrace by using a blink spell - a sort of lower teleportation spell, quicker, that could only transport me a few yards at time. One moment I felt his hands tightly clasped around my arms, and then his grasp was gone. I moved a few yards away, closer to Ala’Nyr, but still facing Neph. Now my beloved’s understanding smile was gone, even though his voice was still contained and soft.


“Aiwyn, my love...” he called out, rolling my name around his tongue. “Be reasonable... Let’s go home...”


“Tempest Keep is not our home, Neph,” I answered, taking one more step back. “Our way of life will destroy us.”


“I told you,” Il’than told Neph. “It’s too late for her.”


I turned to Il’than. Something turned around in my stomach, scorching, as I heard Il’than’s voice. He always gave me the feeling of an old spider, but perhaps a viper was more appropriate. He’s been poisoning Neph against me, I realized, and his tongue might be the one responsible for his doubts, for the way he didn’t trust me. My beloved probably saw the anger growing up inside me, and when I was ready to turn that rage at his friend, he acted quickly.


Neph tried to cast down a curse on me. It was not a game. It was not a rougher caress or play. He raised his hands and quickly whispered words of power so obscure they often sent chills up one’s spine, a dark mist gathering around his fingers before he threw it at me. It all happened so fast I couldn’t believe I was quick enough to react. I raised my own hands in an instinctive defensive gesture, raising a sheer arcane barrier with them. My shield was pierced, but managed to deviate his curse - and as I felt that dark wind of death almost brush my face, all the hairs of my body bristled. It was a torture curse, one intended to harm and cripple and hurt. Ala’Nyr was alarmed by the chill of the dark magic and took flight. Even Nalysa seemed paler than usual, widening her eyes at Neph.


Was that truly my fiancée? I couldn’t believe it. My fiancée never hit me with the intention of maiming - my fiancée never tried to weaken or strike me to bend me to his will. My beloved never tried to suffocate my Flame, and the more I thought about it, the more evident it was that he’d been changing for some time now, and I was the one who didn’t want to see it. My beloved was already trailing a darker path long before that. Even so I widened my eyes at the attack, shocked by his actions, but most importantly, by how he seemed to think that was okay.


“Neph! What happened to you?!”


“Come on, Aiwyn,” he called me softly, tempting. “If I tell them you were confused and forced to remain there, they will buy it. I just want us to be together.”


Oh, and how I wanted that. How I yearned for that, for so long, so desperately. But something’s changed. Not only on the scenario, the background, but on my fiancée. For a long time I believed the day I would willingly step away from my beloved would never come. How absurd! What was happiness, if not to grow old by his side? What was the sunset, if he wasn’t there with me? What was my bed, if it’s cold? What was I, without him?


The answer came quickly. I am a mage. I’m an alchemist. I’m a sky-rider. I was not to crawl through darkness, when I could fly close to the sun. I was not a leech, to feed on other’s strengths. I would shine with my own brilliance, I would be a sun myself, flying with my own wings. In our journey for glory we’d left a trail of ashes, and I didn’t want to be the queen of ashes. And if it depended on me, I wouldn’t allow my people to destroy our world too. So those words, the ones I thought I’d never say, came out lighter and easier than I’d ever think they would, even though I still felt my heart crushed.


“Not like this, Neph,” I started. “Not if the world has to burn for our glory. Not if it means we are to become like the monsters that broke us.”


He squeezed his eyes, and for a few seconds there was silence.


“Very well,” he said after that, and while his voice remained silky, I could feel icy shards tainting it. “I tried, Aiwyn. Someday you’ll thank me for taking you by the hand and showing you the way. Maybe not now. Nalysa, Il’than, help me take her back to Tempest Keep. She is obviously confused.”


Before my eyes, my lover became by enemy, and I clung to the hope that this was a nightmare - I hoped sometime I would awake from the horror of that turn of events. Being so close to Neph I never noticed how he’d been changing, but that sort of change didn’t happen overnight. And what pained me the most was that even though he started to cast what I knew to be a deadly spell, even though he branded me as an enemy, as someone to be taken as prisoner, I still loved him. Even though he ambushed me with two friends, I still loved him. I couldn’t do anything against him, even though he apparently had no restraint.


But I had to. Nalysa and Il’than surrounded me on either side in a clearly planned strategy. As they also started to cast, I knew things couldn’t turn out good for me, but I tried to catch up. Four casters prepared their spells, three against one, the odds mocking me. The first to finish the cast would be the one in advantage, and since most powerful spells took more time to cast, I was doomed. Ala’Nyr was flying in circles above us, crying out in anticipation.


No matter the direction, if I tried to run, someone would hit me. If I hit someone - as if I could hit Neph or Nalysa - there would still be two left to strike me down. But Fate loves its jokes.


The air seethed with the arcane power being gathered and revolving the fabric of reality. The tension was unbearable, and for a few terrible seconds the world around me was muffled, as I could only hear my heart beating hard in my chest. Power flowed through my veins like liquid fire, gathering in my palms in a powerful fireball, sparkles dancing around my fingers. Nalysa finished her cast first. With her hands outstretched in front of her body, a cone of ice and snow was released from her palms and hit Neph right by his left side. He cried out in pain and I almost joined him; when he fell on one knee, my instinct was to run for him and tend to him, but I held my ground.


For the first time I saw a different expression on Il’than’s face: for a fleeting instant, he widened his eyes and looked surprised at the treason, turning the spell he was preparing towards her. A deadly shadowbolt jumped from the palm of his hands and tried to hit Nalysa, but once again she was faster, protecting herself in a barrier of ice that shattered upon collision, showering the place in glowing ice shards. When the barrier was destroyed, Il’than was already trying to cast another spell, but then Nalysa whispered a few more words and ice claws reached out for him and froze him in place, grabbing his ankles and ruining his focus, making the spell he was preparing fizzle. Nalysa held an advantage over regular spell casters: her spells might not be as powerful and destructive as mine, for instance, but they were faster to prepare.


“I knew it...” Il’than began. “We shouldn’t have trusted you. Were you planning this all along?”


Il’than tried to buy time for Neph to recover and strike, but Nalysa saw it and ignored Il’than, turning to the other elf. An outsider would have said Nalysa and Neph were mortal enemies as they started a small duel, exchanging deadly curses and blizzards, making the air crack with such amount of power. A caster’s duel tended to be very dangerous for anyone around, for the missed and deflected spells could find other unaware targets to hit. Nalysa knew how to use her strengths, and as a result Neph was having a hard time finishing his casts, constantly forced to deflect or dodge her faster attacks. I’d been Neph’s partner in the battlefield countless times. I knew his power, I’d counted on it. I’d been protected by it. Seeing such power turned at someone I cherished felt simply wrong.


They got so involved in their fight that they forgot the rest. It even became a possibility for Il’than to attack Nalysa and help Neph, and he did start preparing a cast, but it ended there for him. I launched towards him a big ball of fire so powerful that the collision sent him flying a few yards away, shattering instantly the ice that kept him in place. He growled in pain as the flames tried to consume him, and even though I knew it wasn’t fatal for him, he was seriously wounded.


I couldn’t think of what to do but prepare another spell. Things went so wrong I could have never predicted such ending. Underneath the battle stance we all had to take in face of the events, I could still hear my heart crying in despair. All I wanted to do was to tell them all to stop and go back in time. Why were they fighting? Was it because of me? In the end, Nalysa remained at my side and promptly attacked to keep me safe, the same way I did for her in the past. In the end, no matter what, Nalysa remained with me.


Neph didn’t. And eventually he breached through Nalysa’s defenses and casted down on her a torturing curse, one that would make her feel as if all of her bones were ablaze, burning inside, crippling and disabling. The air was filled with screams of pain as she fell to the ground writhing - and the world seemed turned upside down with my beloved ones battling because of me.


Il’than seemed to be recovering, and seeing Nalysa wasn’t a threat anymore, Neph turned to face me. My spell was ready for the release, but...


“You can’t,” Neph said, and I noticed he was a little out of breath by his brief duel with Nalysa. “You can’t hurt me, Aiwyn, I know it. I see it in your eyes. Let’s stop this before anyone else gets hurt.”


I knew I couldn’t hurt Neph. Staying away from him was painful enough.


“Let’s go home,” he kept on trying to seduce me. “I love you.”


“I love you too, Neph,” I answered, before letting go of my spell - not at him, but to the ground.


Nalysa widened her eyes at me, and even Neph's mask of self assurance and confidence fell at the last second, as a shadow of doubt crossed his eyes. As the power I gathered was released to the ground in it’s most raw and destructive nature, it pierced the land and caused all of that floating block of rock we stood on to collapse. I literally felt the ground open beneath my feet, and then we were falling, as big chunks of land were thrown in every direction in a violent explosion.


We were falling into the Twisting Nether, for I couldn't hurt my beloved. Now I'm not sure if that was a wise decision, but I decided to let Fate determine the result of that encounter. And I couldn't win Neph in his own game of seduction and soft words, so I turned the board to the ground.


As the land exploded, something unusual happened. "Unusual" happens often in places bubbling with arcane power and magic, so to be fair, it wasn't such a shock. For an outsider it might have looked as if that land was immersed in a viscous liquid. My spell made it explode from the inside, as if a bomb was placed deep inside it - but the fragments didn't simply fly away and fell. They were pushed away by the spell's strength but remained floating around.


And in the air, without knowing what was where and where was up, my superiority was undeniable. A whistle was already in my lips as I began to fall, and before long I saw what appeared to be a fireball piercing the skies and comming to my direction. Ala'Nyr came to my aid like an arrow, beautifully waltzing through the suspense rocks; more wings were flapping as more whistles filled the air, certainly the rest of the group calling for their mount's help. In a moment like that, the link Ala'Nyr and I shared could be decisive, since we've done that maneuver so many times before it felt like child's play. She slowed down perfectly as she approached, so that as I twisted my body and outstretched my arms, I took the position to fall directly on her saddle. I mounted and then we became one.


Quickly turning to the direction Ala'Nyr came from, I located Nalysa. After what she'd done for me, I couldn't abandon her. Her dragonhawk was already coming to her aid, but it wasn't as fast as Ala'Nyr, so I cast on Nalysa a slow-fall spell. The spell slowed down her falling speed, making it look like she was sinking into the sea, and not into the air. That allowed her mount to reach her in time - Nalysa was a reasonably good flyer, so she mounted quickly with no further problem and I led her out of the pit of the Twisting Nether that seemed to be calling for us. I flew to her and beyond, and Ala'Nyr breached the air fiercely, making it easier for Nalysa's mount to follow.


With the corner of my eyes, I saw more pairs of wings. One of the dragonhawks had had its wing smashed by a flying rock during the explosion, and so now it sank heavily into the abyss. I got the glimpse of one rider through the scattered floating remains of the land, but couldn't tell if it was Neph or Il'than. Perhaps that was a glimpse of his golden hair, or perhaps it was just my mind playing tricks on me.


We headed for the continent as fast as we could. I didn’t look back. I couldn’t. Was it Neph or Il’than that managed to avoid the fall? Whoever it was, would he be helping the other? Was their bond strong enough to risk their own lives for the other? I don’t know. I don’t know...


My heart was racing, fighting the urge to surrender to that overwhelming feeling of despair and hopelessness. There was no turning back. I would never see Neph again, for either he would be an enemy, or Fate had chosen that his journey would end that day. I would never see him again. Never. My beloved.


“Aiwyn!” Nalysa yelled to me while holding unto her mount with all her remaining strength. The wind muffled our words, but still I was able to hear her. “Neph left a flight squad waiting should anything happen!”


My brain barely processed that information when I saw it. As we reached the continent, a small flight squad was waiting for us, already in the air, with arrows and spells ready. It was truly ambushed by Neph, betrayed. But my heart would have to wait - there was no place for tears at the moment. I cast an invisibility spell on Nalysa, hiding her and her mount from them before they took an interest in her.


“Go to Area 52,” I yelled back at her. “I will handle this.”

...and so it continues! (Finally *cough cough*)
Yes, I got a bit worked up about this chapter... So it took quite a long time for me to finish it. Luckly, because of this, the corrections were rather quick =) Yey!
Anyway... Hope you enjoy it! The story is moving towards the end now.


PLAYING WITH FIRE - Of loss and grief
Prologue: Start here
Chapter One: Denial
Chapter Two: Anger
Chapter Three: Bargaining (Part I)
Chapter Four: Bargaining (Part II)
(PREVIOUS) Chapter Five: Depression
Chapter Six: Deception
(NEXT) Chapter Seven: Redemption
Epilogue: The end

COPYRIGHT
I do not own World of Warcraft and no copyright infringement is intended.
World of Warcraft and all its related material belongs to Blizzard Entertainment.

Original characters Aiwyn, Neph'Alor, Hector, Ala'Nyr, Azluun and others belong to me.
:iconphrase-maker: beta-reads and takes part in the creative process of the stories.
© 2016 - 2024 TheBlindAlchemist
Comments2
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Kertae's avatar
Sad how the events turned. Happy for Nalysa's reaction, though.