Larisa Windrunner was very cold. She hated that feeling, all Blood Elves did. That was the reason why her ancestors magically altered the bitter cold climate in the very Northern tip of the Eastern Kingdoms, into a land of perpetual spring and summer, they named Quel'Thalas.
But now, here she was in the frozen continent of Northrend, aiding her Horde allies in bringing down the Lich King, the very destroyer of her beloved home, the defiler of the Sunwell, the slayer of her king, and many of her people, and the torturer of her own mother, Sylvanas.
Arthas...the very thought of him, the very mention of his name caused her blood to boil. How could that honorable, sweet, and caring young man she once knew and loved, turn into a cruel monster who not only slew his own father, but destroyed the very Kingdom he has sworn to protect? She remembered how fiercely he loved his people. And then he tried to kill them all and raise them as undead fiends. It made absolutely no sense to her.
She was now scouting a remote Vrykul village, the last in her list, in the north-eastern tip of Storm Peaks. The fanaticism of these half-giants fascinated her. They worshipped Arthas as a god. An entire village offered to become undead just to serve him...Idiots! They did not realise that they were just mere tools to him, pawns to use however he pleased. Served them right for being that stupid.
She tightened her fur cloak around her and over her head and lower face and moved stealthily closer to the village. Soon, day turned into night and the temperature dropped even more. Larisa was now one step before hypothermia, she could no longer feel her legs and was certain that her ears would just fall off if she dared touch them. No matter how much holy magic and healing spells she kept channeling to her body, nothing seemed to keep her warm. Even the strong ale she was taking swings every so often had no effect on her anymore.
But she was not going to abandon her post. She had promised her mother a full report about all the activities of the Vrykul in Storm Peaks and she was not going to fail her. Sylvanas was in deep trouble with the rest of the Horde and the Alliance leaders after the events at the Wrathgate, and no further failures would be tolerated by them. A full report would appease them a little.
As Larisa approached closer to the village, she noticed a dark hunched figure staggering towards her position. She raised her staff ready to cast Holy Fire at it, but suddenly it collapsed with a very painful groan. Larisa slowly approached, ready to Smite it to oblivion if it dared to move the wrong way.
But that person was too far gone to pose any sort of threat, for it was just a very old Vrykul woman at death's door. When Larisa realised that, she knelt down next to her and started channelling every healing spell she knew on the old woman. The Vrykul opened her eyes and looked at her.
"Save you strength Priestess, I am too far gone, Valhalla awaits" she rasped. "No, ma'am, I can still help you, at least let me carry you to my camp were you can pass away warm and peacefully" Larisa whispered as she started to perform a confession on the dying woman.
The Vrykul shook her head. "There is no time for that my child, just listen to me carefully, for the very fate of the world is at stake." And the Vrykul told Larisa the most extraordinary story.
"The one you know as Arthas, the Lich King, has been manipulated towards this fate for decades. He is not entirely human, he is my great grand son from his mother's side. My daughter was sired by a human sailor, who grew up to marry Lianne's father. Arthas and Calia are part Vrykul and were both destined to become great leaders and benefactors of not only the Vrykul and the Humans, but of all of Azeroth.
Ner'Zhul got wind of that, and saw an opportunity to finally free himself from his icy prison, so he mislead our people into believing that Arthas was the living reincarnation of our death god, destined to kill all the living, and ascend them to a higher state of undeath. Since before he reached manhood, he was manipulated into coming here to claim Frostmourne.
He possessed Arthas, and whispered into mind, since he was a small boy, gradually ripping his sanity away, to pave the way to his eventual complete possession of him. It was Ner'Zhul's constant whispering that led Arthas to consider taking extreme measures against the plague in Stratholme, clouding his mind into thinking that killing every last one of them will stop the plague, and hadn't it been for you to offer an alternative, he would have been forced to commit that atrocity.
Mal'Ganis' constant taunting, and him setting the city on fire became the catalyst that pushed Arthas over the edge, making him follow the demon to Northrend, and finding that accursed sword that claimed the greatest part of his soul. This allowed Ner'Zhul to completely control him.
Arthas, now under Ner'Zhul's complete control, returned to Lordaeron and slaid his own father and laid his beloved kingdom into waste. It may have seemed to everyone, including Arthas, that he was in complete control of his own actions, but it was Ner'Zhul who was pulling the strings. It was not Arthas who destroyed your home, slaughtered many of your people and turned your mother into a Banshee, he was just the hand and not the mind behind these atrocities.
Kil'Jaeden aware of all of Ner'Zhul's actions, allowed it, because it served his purpose. He went a step further to stage the Orc ambush, that supposedly killed Lianne and Calia ten years ago, but in reality, they were both abducted and brought to this village so that they could not protect Arthas from Ner'Zhul's influence.
You see, Lianne had realise that someone was possessing her son, and she asked for Calia's help to investigate it, both being very powerful Sorceresses like me, so Kil'Jaeden had to remove them from Lordaeron. He did not kill them, because he needed them as leverage in case Arthas became too difficult to control.
Of course neither Arthas nor Ner'Zhul were aware that Lianne and Calia are imprisoned here, for should they become reunited, Arthas will eventually be released from Ner'Zhul's grip, and that would ruin Kil'Jaeden's plans to invade Azeroth after most of its defenders are either slain or undead.
When I declared that I will no longer be a pawn to that demons plans, they poisoned me. Please kind Elf, find the Lich King and tell him everything I told you, help him save his mother and sister from my mislead brethren.
Now is the time to do this, the plague attack on Wrathgate has greatly weakened Ner'Zhul leaving only Arthas in control for the first time in ten years, that is why there have been no recent scourge attacks or unholy activity. I watched it all from afar with my kin's magic. Find him please, you will be talking only to Arthas, he will listen to you and free his family".
"Don't worry Great Mother, I will" Larisa reassured her. "Thank you sweet girl, may the light always shine upon you" Kyrsa, the Vrykul Sorceress, smiled at her. And with those last words the elder Vrykul drew her last breath and died in Larisa's arm.
Larisa closed the elder's eyes with her left hand and placed her right hand on the old woman's forehead and performed the last rights for her. "Blessed Light please forgive this poor woman's trespasses and accept her in your warm embrace" she whispered as she watched the Vrykul's spirit shoot out of her body and ascend to the heavens.
She wiped her eyes from the tears she did not even realised she was shedding, lifted the old woman over her shoulder and carried her down to the beach were she had spotted an abandoned boat earlier. She gently placed the Vrykul in the boat, covered her with the elder's furs, spilled the remainder of her ale on the dead woman and then pushed the boat in the water and let it float away.
Even though it was highly unusual for a Priestess to carry a bow and arrows, Larisa was Sylvanas Windrunner's daughter, and she could wield a bow since before she could walk. She cast holy fire on the tip of the arrow and shot it at the boat. The boat was instantly set on fire and Larisa stood there and watched it burn away while she chanted prayers and blessings for the Vrykul's soul until well into the early hours of the morning.
"So how am I going to pull this off without Mother noticing that I went AWOL, and how the fuck will I ever be able to approach Arthas without getting killed at the spot and turned into a ghoul or worse.
Larisa saw no point relaying everything she had witnessed to her leaders, since she knew how they would all react. Sylvanas and Garrosh will go into a fit and berate her for actually taking the time to come and and report to them what had transpired last night, and Thrall would dismiss all that as the ramblings of a dying woman.
She could not go to Varian Wrynn, without being killed at the spot by his guards and even is she did manage to get an audience with him, since they knew each other quite well, he would not believe this wild story, and she would be branded as a traitor by the Horde for setting foot at an alliance camp.
Jaina Proudmore would believe her, but she was at Theramore at the moment. So it was up to her to inform the Lich King about the whereabouts of his mother and sister. For the first time in almost a decade she felt elated by the news she learned the night before about Arthas. So he was not a monster after all, he was possessed and forced to commit all those atrocities.
It all came down to the accursed Burning Legion. It was the Burning Legion that corrupted Aszara and Illidan ten thousand years ago, when it first tried to to invade Azeroth. It was the Burning Legion that destroyed the planet Argos, driving the Draenei to abandon their home planet and colonise Draenor much to the Orcs' displeasure.
Ner'Zhul and Guldan got corrupted by the Legion, forcing the first to channel so much arcane magic that tore the planet apart and the second to give the Orcs the blood of Manaroth to drink, turning the relatively peaceful tribes of Shamans and Hunters into savage bloodthirsty killers bent on destruction. The Legion possessed Medhiv, who created the Dark Portal, thus unleashing the Horde on Azeroth and laying the Eastern Kingdoms into waste.
Illidan was eventually forced into servitude by them, and Prince Kael' Thas was turned into a pathetic minion of Kil'Jaeden. And now she learned that Arthas had been their victim as well.
Her mind wondered back to the events that transpired in Stratholme ten years ago.