Prologue – The Cataclysm: World Asunder

3 months after the end of Book 1

It was a cool day in Darkshore. It was spring and the rains were beginning to warm. Everything was green and new. The air was crisp. Rhenn sat side saddle on her mount as she, King Varian, Grekko, and several members of the court waited for the boat from Stormwind that would be arriving soon.

Varian looked at Rhenn and leaned toward her. "Rhenn!" He said more firmly than he had before. Her head snapped up to him. His face softened. "Are you well Lady Marquise?"

Rhenn nodded her hand resting on her belly lightly. The swell was and had been large enough for more than a month that she no longer could hide her condition in the fluff and frills of court clothing. Though in a travel habit, the Marquise was dressed better than most. She shifted seeing Varian gaze on her. "I am well." She said.

Rhenn's half elven ears caught a sound. A low sound. She looked to the humans about her and they seemed not to have heard. Hartley stepped forward and touched the mane of her mare. "You heard it as well?" He asked softly.

She nodded. "What was it?"She asked.

"I know not." He looked toward the shore.

Rhenn waited. The humans about her were making ideal conversation. Grekko had been sent to Dalaran by the King at the request of Rhonin to help with a snobald problem that had arose in a mine near the great floating city.

Something caused the whole group to hush as an eerie feeling settled over the group. Rhenn was not sure what was going on but the hairs on the back of her neck stood up. Varian looked about and Rhenn knew he too sensed it.

Suddenly the planking beneath their horses' hooves began to ripple. The horses whined and their riders fought to control them. A great crack was heard followed by the sounds of stone against stone. The group watched in horror as Auberdine, the Darkshore's largest town was split in two by a great shift in the earth. The buildings shifted and crashed down on themselves crushing night elves, humans, gnomes. and dwarves alike who could not flee the sudden sundering of the very earth.

"What is happening?" The King cried.

"Earthquake!" Someone shouted and then pointed as molten lava flowed from the crack. Trees were engulfed in flame, survivors of the earth's furious shaking suddenly found themselves surrounded by molten rock.

The rocking had seemed to stop, but a violent snap knocked Rhenn and her mount from the pier. The horse recovered quickly, but the pier itself fell falling onto Rhenn's leg and pinning her. She tried to pull herself free even as Varian dove from his mount after her. Rhenn's leg was trapped between two posts. The King pushed the fallen piling away from her even as she worked with him.

The King looked back and saw Rhenn had stopped helping and was limp floating in the sea water. If he did not free her in moments she would drown. Using all his strength he shoved the piling away freeing her.

He grabbed her and surfaced. He gasped as he saw a darkening storm over Darkshore with a whirling funnel of destruction swirling along the earth and lifting trees, people, and animals into the air. He tore his gaze away and looked at Rhenn who was pale and not breathing.

Two hands reached and pulled him onto the deck of a ship. He got his bearings and nodded to the night elf crew that had pulled them from the water. They were searching for others of the cataclysmic event. He looked at Rhenn beside him. He quickly pressed his mouth to hers and blew. He knew sea water could be dangerous. Once revived they would have to dilute the salt else she would drown on dry land. He breathed again feeling her heartbeat slipping. A third time and she coughed back into his mouth. Jumping backward and spraying the seawater from his lips he rolled her over and put the heels of his hands against her back and pushed upward. Rhenn coughed spewing the water from her lungs. "Good. Good girl. More!" He ordered pressing harder trying not to bruise her or the babe she carried.

She coughed and he pressed until she collapsed in exhaustion and no more came from her lips. He pressed her hair away and saw her shivering. He wrapped his cloak about her. Though sodden, it would warm her. He bent to look her over as she panted for breath, her eyes closed. Her ankle was purple and swollen, but she looked no worse for wear. He pressed his canteen to her lips. She refused for a few moments and then took a sip. He pressed it to her hands. "Keep drinking." He ordered. She could only nod weakly.

He sat up and looked at the others on the boat. Men, women, children, many injured being attended by the boat's medic and some dead being covered with cloth to be identified later. He swallowed went to help the two young night elf men pull people into the boat. As they drew closer to shore more and more people they pulled in were gravely injured from burns or cuts.

Another boat arrived to aide them. After two hours of fishing people and bodies from the surf the other boat sent out a rescue party to search for survivors among the toppled buildings whom could not escape. The boat the King was on was carrying more than one hundred people. They turned and headed to Rut'theran Village. There were druids there with makeshift litters to carry the wounded to a makeshift medical camp in Darnass as well as many night elves and other races waiting nearby for signs of loved ones arriving.

The King quickly told the druids whom were the most injured and then lifted Rhenn in his arms. She looked up at him and blinked as a soft rain began to fall. She shivered and he held her close as he walked off the boat. The people called softly to loved ones that were missing.

Rhenn coughed softly. Varian gently looked at her. "We must get you to drink fluids Rhenn. The salt in your lung is not good." He took a breath. "I will settle you into the inn and fetch Hartley, when I find him to help and…"

She gripped his shoulder hard enough to get his attention. She shook her head. "There are much more pressing matters." She whispered. Weakly she pressed his cloak away and revealed her dress before her hips was crimson. His eyes widened in horror. "The baby…" She whispered. "I…I think it is coming…" She gasped.

Varian gasped holding her close. The child was well before its time. The stress of Rhenn nearly drowning must have caused premature labor. She had survived once from cold, but drowning appeared to be too much for it.

"I need a healer!" He cried. He found a druid who was in the middle of healing a small child. The boy's legs were crushed. "Please…I need a healer. The…Rhenn is…"

The night elf woman looked at him gently. "I know she is hurt. But I must attend this boy or lose him." She said softly.

He nodded and looked about for someone free to help Rhenn. "King Varian?" A voice behind him said. Varian turned to see Nebyuleh. She was covered in blood, but from the look of her it was not her own.

"Neb!" He said happy to see a familiar face.

"Do you know what happened?" Neb asked as he came to her.

"No there was an earthquake, then fire, then Rhenn nearly drowned, and now…"He showed her the blood.

"By Elune!" She cried and helped him ease her to the ground. "Rhenn?" She asked. "Can you hear me?"

Rhenn nodded lightly. "It hurts. Where is Grekko?" She asked. "The baby?"

"He was sent to Stormwind to help with the problems there." Neb said softly as she looked over her friend.

"So this is not just here? This is in the Eastern Kingdoms as well?" Varian asked.

"We were summoned in Dalaran to go to our home cities to treat casualties." Neb said. She took a breath. "Grekko was sent to Stormwind." She lifted Rhenn's dress to her knees and looked at her. She closed her eyes and whispered a prayer to Elune. "KAMON!" Neb barked.

Varian normally would have been amused that her faithful bloodhound mage was nearby, but he was too worried for his friend. The mage was carrying bandages and thread for stitches. He saw Neb looking at Rhenn and froze. "So much blood there..." He asked. "By the Light, so much…" His knees crippled and he fell earthwards landing in a heap.

Neb rolled her eyes. "Varian see to him. He will revive in a few moments." She sighed softly. "I had to amputate a leg, he was fine there."

"This much blood from a woman there is not normal and few men have the stomach because they know what it means." He looked up at Neb and caught her gaze. "Can you save the baby if you deliver it?"

"I will try." She said. She met his gaze. She leaned toward him and he leaned to her. She pressed her lips to his ear. "I am more concerned about losing Rhenn to a hemorrhage. Grekko can father another babe on her." She withdrew and pressed a hand gently into Rhenn to check her station. She found the child was turned the wrong way. She lifted her hand back from her friend. It was wet and crimson. She lightly shook her head at the King and sighed. She turned back to her charge to save her.

He swallowed hard and looked down. It meant the babe was already dead or was too small to survive outside Rhenn's body, though he still had a flicker of hope. If anyone could save the babe, it was a night elf. "I will do the best I can, but it is turned." She said in a soothing tone to Rhenn who was looking up at her.

Varian slapped Kamon causing the mage to blink dazed. "Get up, lad." Varian barked as he helped him sit up. "You are no use to us fainting at the sight of blood. Fine some burns to attend and send a druid initiate who is more competent.

Blinking the mage got to his feet and walked away, confused, hurt, and unsure.

Rhenn passed out, her head in Varian's lap after Neb had given her a mild sedative to try and relax her enough to try to remove the child so she could attend to Rhenn. When the baby came there was a rush of dark blood that followed and Varian felt ill as he watched his friend's lifeblood seep into the earth about her. He looked about at the other victims and then bent down and whispered to Rhenn to not die. She had her twins, Grekko, Stormwind, and Azeroth to save…

The King then did something he had not done in some time, longer than he could remember. He prayed.

Please…Rhenn…Please…by all that is Holy to the Light…please save her! Varian said in his mind over and over again.

Varian stood in the cabin of the ship that had taken him from Darnasses to Stormwind. Many were getting off the ship and finding loved ones waiting to embrace them. The King could hear the voices and calls to them as he looked down at the litter bed before him.

Rhenn was sleeping peacefully having been given a sedative and herb to ease her pain as well as stem the blood flow. He took a breath. The babe she had born had been stillborn and so small. Neb had removed it from her and wrapped it in a sheet. Varian looked at the small basket on the chair near him. Such a sad burden to carry. So tiny and so much a reminder to what life could have been for her, for the child had been a female.

When Rhenn was no longer bleeding he had come to help Neb wash and prepare the child for burial in the makeshift morgue. The tiny being was like a human in miniature. She could fit within his large palm, but she had hair, fingernails, and toenails. Her little ear was the mark of her maternal side as it formed a tiny teardrop against the side of her head. Neb washed the tiny body reverently. To Elves all life, no matter how small, was sacred. She then wrapped her in clean gauze and a clean sheet. They put the small body into a basket to take her home since no coffins existed for a being so small. Often when such babies died they were buried with their mothers when a fever or hemorrhage took them as well. Rhenn had been lucky, once again. The Light truly smiled on the young half elven woman.

Crispin and two of the Home Guard came to him. The two guards lifted the litter and carried her up to the deck and out into the harbor area. The King himself carried the basket in his hands as he walked behind the litter. As they came to the top tier of the terraces overlooking the harbor the King noticed the Earthquake damage to the walls of the city.

Grekko came out of the crowd awaiting word followed by Hartley. The priest gently lifted the pale hand of his wife in his. He kissed the cool flesh and took a breath. He looked up at the King as he walked with the litter. Hartley walked next to the King. "Is she well?" He asked.

"Well enough to travel home." The King said. "She sleeps now."

Grekko nodded. "And the babe?"

Varian paused as he looked down. The priest took a breath. Varian could not meet the gaze that burned into him from the husband of the Marquise. "She nearly drowned after falling into the sea from the earthquake. The babe…it…she…died in her womb." He took swallowed hard. "She was stillborn."

Grekko took a shaky breath himself. Unable to look at anyone he instead focused on his wife's dreamy face.

"It wasn't your fault Grekko." Varian said gently.

Grekko snorted making it clear he thought otherwise.

As it neared sunset and Rhenn again slept in the comfort of her own bed, Grekko, Hartley, and the King walked to the graveyard. Grekko paid the gravedigger some coin and they were shown to a freshly dug grave. Grekko took a breath fighting back the sadness he felt as a father losing his child. He laid the small basket in the grave and bowed his head gently.

Varian looked about feeling the pain of the loss as well. He saw and heard man families weeping over fallen loved ones that were being buried. The young girl joined more than ten thousand dead and missing people from the cataclysm.

Shaking his head he led Grekko away from the sad little grave. They would visit often and place flowers to remember, but for now Rhenn needed them and they all had to be strong for her. Not having a baby to hold after she carried it for months would break her heart.