The training yard on Sunstrider Isle echoed with the clashes of a dozen wooden swords. Jesthenis looked over his charges with a stoic face, the noon sun beating down with oppressive heat. A young elven girl tripped as she swung her practice sword, hurtling into the grass at her training partners feet. Jesthenis frowned at him. "Too sluggish," he thought sourly.
"Up girl! Your enemies won't wait for you to recover!" He motioned for her opponent, a boy some size larger, to continue striking. After a moment's hesitation, he did. A chorus of pained shouts joined that of the clattering wood. These young elves were being trained as adepts, to one day become Paladins of the Light. Each one was being trained with the discipline to become dauntless combatants and protectors. Jesthenis took a quick count of his stock and frowned angrily. At the back of the field was an elven girl Inallcia, winning against her opponent. Of this, he wasn't surprised. She was first in the class at swordplay. Across the field from her though, a boy ran through the basic drills on his own, his assigned partner nowhere to be found. At least some of them were being trained with discipline.
"Alright, that's enough!" he barked. Immediately the clamor stopped, and the sound of a dozen feet replaced it as the group of adepts lined up before him. "Break to eat and drink, you have one hour." Jesthenis walked down the line, giving each adept a hard stare. They had been training for six hours and looked absolutely exhausted. He stopped at Inallcia, whose fatigue was apparent only by the light sheen of sweat on her skin. As always, Jesthenis was impressed "You're all dismissed. Except for you, Daydreamer. I'll have a word." The rest of the elves scampered off, glad to be free for the hour.
"Sir?" Inallcia questioned. Eyes forward, posture straight. Jesthenis smirked; she was a perfect student.
"Where is your sister, Inallcia?" He asked quite plainly. The elven girl pursed her lips, finally moving to tuck stray blonde hair behind her ears. Judging by her drooping ears and nervous gaze, she had already known what he had wanted to ask but didn't know what to say. Jesthenis crossed his arms. In the silence that they shared, a lone cicada began to buzz. "I'm waiting."
Her resolve crumpled like a sheet of parchment, and she covered her face with a palm. "S-she's sleeping in the storage shed near the academy. Jesthenis sighed heavily and waved her away. He would deal with his unruly student alone.
"Go then child, take your break." Inallcia nodded meekly and left to join the rest of her companions in Dawnhearth. He felt bad for her as he watched her go. Her sister would blame her for the punishment that Jesthenis was about to inflict; she was lazy, not stupid.
He made his way over to the shed aside the academy, a short five-minute walk to a large building that held all the equipment he needed to train his adepts. He frowned as he stopped by the entryway, already hearing the snoring from within. With a resigned sigh, Jesthenis threw open the door. "GET UP, DAYDREAMER!" The older of the Daydreamer sisters cried out in alarm, leaping to her feet and grabbing a broomstick to defend herself. With black hair ruffled and full of hay, and a cleaning tool brandished in front of her like the Ashbringer, Jesthenis thought she made an amusing sight. "Good afternoon Alatera."
Alatera blinked dumbly as she lowered the broomstick, squinting in the light that filtered in from behind Jesthenis. "S-sir," she croaked nervously, stepping around some training dummies. Jesthenis gave her a large smile, motioning for her to follow him outside. Setting the broom aside, she shuffled out into the noon sun without argument. The scowl beginning to form on her face was the only resistance she offered.
"As you can see, the rest of your compatriots have taken their break." Walking her back to the training grounds of the academy, he waved his hand to gesture at the discarded training swords in the grass, and the others still in the racks that he had ordered brought out this morning. "Return the equipment to the racks, and bring them back to the shed." Alatera raised a single eyebrow and crossed her arms.
"It takes two people to move those racks," she stated flatly. Jesthenis nodded his head.
"I'm well aware it takes two, but one determined person can do it alone." Alatera scowled at him, but decided to say nothing and began retrieving the swords. Jesthenis stood by and watched her walk across the field. The assortment of one and two-handed swords proved difficult to move together, forcing her to make several trips. If she carried back shields, she could only do it two at a time. Fifteen minutes of back and forth, and the easy part was finally done.
Jesthenis almost felt bad as he watched her struggle to drag the racks back to the shed. Depending on what they held, each one weighed eighty to a hundred pounds. Usually, he had two students lift it and walk it out to the yard together. Alatera was reduced to slowly dragging it across the grass. Five minutes later, she had only made it about twenty feet from the start. "Only two more to go!" He called in mock encouragement.
"Shut up!" she yelled back, at last showing some agitation. Jesthenis chuckled and sat in the shade of a tree, keeping a close eye on his student as she carried out her punishment. It took her another twenty minutes to return the first rack to the shed. On her way back, Jesthenis called her over, offering her a skin of water. She keeled in the grass and drank greedily, the water dripping down her chin.
"Can't have you getting heatstroke." She glared at him and shoved the water skin back into his hands.
"Yeah well, if you didn't want that then you could have just had me clean the shed or something."
Jesthenis sighed as he resealed the skin and regarded Alatera with a critical stare. She was sweating profusely, and a light red hue on her skin spoke of sunburn to come. "I'm afraid having you clean the storage shed doesn't teach you anything anymore." Her ears went back and she stared at the ground sullenly. His punishments until now had been pretty mild. When she did show up to training, she did a very average job, well enough for him to go a bit easy on her when he did have to reprimand her. She had been coming less and less lately, however. Even her parents hadn't been able to get her to show up.
"The world isn't going to wait for you to grow up Alatera. Your lack of discipline isn't going to help you in the future." She peered at him, the look of understanding in her eyes overshadowed by hesitation.
"I know."
Jesthenis nodded solemnly. "Then get back to work." She stood and walked over to the next rack, a thoughtful frown muddling her face as she dragged it through the grass. He had known the Daydreamer family for some years now. Popular blacksmiths, inventors, and engineers littered their family. Alatera had shown no skill in any of those trades, and so her parents pushed her to join the Church of the Light, knowing Jesthenis would make an exception for their family. Inallcia had joined soon after, something that seemed to anger Alatera to no end.
As he pondered the sister's dynamic, Jesthenis lost track of time. He was brought back into reality by his rowdy adepts coming up the road. He glanced to Alatera, who was walking back to get her third rack just as the group made it to the training field. Inallcia locked eyes with her sister, who scowled at her in return. He frowned as Inallcia made her way over, intending to help Alatera with the final weapon rack, only to be rebuffed.
"I didn't ask for your help," Alatera snapped, slapping Inallcia's hand away. The younger Daydreamer gave her a hurt look, which earned a scoff. "Don't give me that look, I'm doing this because you couldn't keep your mouth shut in the first place."
"You're doing it because you didn't come to training again actually," Inallcia retorted. "I was just doing as I was asked." Alatera let go of the rack suddenly to shove her sister as hard as she could. Inallcia grunted as she flew backward, landing flat on her back with a loud thud. At this point, the other adepts had begun the timeless cheer of 'fight!' as Inallcia stood. Jesthenis sighed as the Daydreamer sisters went at it, and prepared to go break up the fight.
"Energetic, aren't they?" Jesthenis was startled. His heart jumped wildly as he turned to the newcomer. He nearly lost his composure as Sylvanas Windrunner and Lor'themar Theron walked up beside him.
"General, Lieutenant." He jumped to his feet and greeted them with a salute. Sylvanas motioned for him to at-ease, her eyes trained in the brawl happening a few feet away. Lor'themar looked openly bothered by the lack of discipline being displayed by the future paladins but said nothing.
"What is that about?" Sylvanas asked. She seemed amused. Inallcia had Alatera in a headlock now, the other struggled fruitlessly, yelling profanities as she flailed wildly. Jesthenis sighed for the millionth time.
"Spat between sisters, unfortunately." Sylvanas nodded and stepped forward. As the adepts began to notice her, the cheering stopped and they cleared a path, starstruck as the Ranger-General herself approached the feuding sisters who remained blissfully unaware. Alatera finally managed to free herself from the headlock, maneuvering behind her sister and pushing her over again. Inallcia landed face first in the grass.
Alatera threw her arms up and backed away, proclaiming her victory. "That's right, eat my grass!" She taunted. When she backed into someone, she turned around quickly, thinking Jesthenis had come to stop them. "Okay listen, she star-oh." Sylvanas looked down at the young elf in curiosity.
"Oh?" Sylvanas questioned. "I wasn't aware that 'oh' was how one greeted their Ranger-General."
Alatera looked around, the rest of the adepts had already formed a neat line as Jesthenis' request. she whirled around, pulling Inallcia to her feet and brushing grass off of her face. Inallcia grabbed at Alatera's hands, trying to move them away from her.
Alatera forcibly turned her sisters face towards the Ranger-General, trying desperately to speak but only sputtering nonsense."What the heck are you doi-oh." Inallcia let go of her sister's hands, and both of them stood straight as pillars. Sylvanas regarded their wide-eyed looks with a smirk.
"Another 'oh'? You two are very much siblings." Sylvanas put a hand on each of their shoulders, leaning in close. "I will give you a single bit of advice since I was once in a very similar position." Alatera and Inallcia glanced at one another nervously, then back at Sylvanas.
"Don't let petty arguments come between you. One day you may no longer be together, and you'll wish you had been better to each other." Inallcia took her words to heart, but Alatera frowned and averted her gaze.
Lor'themar cleared his throat, gaining the Ranger-General's attention. "Sylvanas, we have pressing matters to attend to." She nodded, turning away from the siblings.
"Right. Jesthenis, we need to speak in private." Jesthenis dismissed the adepts to read scripture for the time being. "You have a rack left to put away Alatera," he called back as he led Sylvanas and Lor'themar up the arcway into the Academy, and they disappeared.
Alatera and Inallcia stood in silence for a long time, the only noise being that of the others chattering among themselves. A gentle breeze brought some relief from the heat of the day, and Alatera kicked at the grass.
"I'm sorry." Inallcia was the first to break the silence. She sat down tiredly and wrapped her arms around her knees. Alatera could tell her sister was still tired from the training that she herself had skipped today. She sat cross-legged next to Inallcia and shrugged.
"I shouldn't have pushed you."
Inallcia rolled her eyes but smiled anyways. That was as close to an apology that she was going to get. Alatera had never been good at saying sorry. She looked up at the sky, admiring the clouds drifting by lazily. "I never expected to get personal wisdom from the Ranger-General herself." She glanced at her sister. Alatera was still staring at the ground.
"For someone whose name means 'to fly above earth,' you sure seem pretty focused on the ground."
"And for someone whose name means 'All seeing" you're pretty focused on me for some reason." Alatera retorted.
Inallcia frowned and stretched out her legs. "Why is it a crime to be worried about my sister?" she asked. "I've never done anything but try to help you."
"Yeah, help me get into trouble."
"You get in trouble because you don't come to training."
"I don't want to come to training."
"Why not? Mother and Father pulled a lot of strings to get us accepted into this after you failed out of your Architectural studies, your smiting classes, and the inventors' course!" Inallcia counted her sister's failures with her fingers as she spoke them, much to the other's displeasure.
Alatera shot up to her feet, blue eyes flashing with anger. "No, they pulled strings to get ME accepted into this training. You could have done anything you wanted, but no, you had to follow me here and remind me of how awful I am at everything." Inallcia sputtered angrily at the sudden accusation. She stood up and jabbed a finger into Alatera's chest.
"I followed you here because I didn't want you to be alone! I don't know where you get this illusion that I'm out to prove that I'm better at everything than you are." She threw her hands into the air, exasperated. "How do you even know I'm better at this than you? You haven't even applied yourself to the training!"
Alatera's face hardened, and for a short while, she was silent. Inallcia could see the rage boiling beneath the surface. Then finally, she said what Inallcia had known all along.
"I don't want to be a light damned PALADIN!" She screamed, face turning red from anger. "I didn't want to be a blacksmith, architect or inventor either!" At this point, the other elves in the field were all staring at them, and Alatera became self-conscious. She crossed her arms, gaze returning to the ground.
"What do you want to do then?" Inallcia asked gently, placing a hand on her shoulder. Alatera scoffed and shrugged her off.
"It doesn't matter. They wouldn't accept me anyway." She turned away from Inallcia to find Jesthenis looking at her with pity, and Sylvanas and Lor'themar close behind him; impassive looks on their faces. Alatera spared Sylvanas a glance, more accurately, a glance to the bow on her back, before storming off.
Lor'themar broke the silence after she had gone. "She wants to be a ranger," he determined. Sylvanas watched the elder Daydreamer go and nodded her head in affirmation. The sun was beginning to set, and twilight had begun to fall over Sunstrider Isle.
"We'll make the appropriate arrangements for her when I get back from the front-line," Sylvanas said after lengthy thought. Lor'themar gave her a questioning look, to which she replied with a shrug. "She seems passionate. There is no harm in letting her try." Jesthenis nodded his agreement and went about rounding up the adepts. The look on his face worried Inallcia. He was attempting to mask his fear from the rest of them. She approached Lor'themar and gave a bow. Sylvanas had already begun to walk away, the last remnants of light following her as she left. When Lor'themar gave her his attention, she spoke.
"What did she mean by 'the front line'?"
Lor'themar regarded Inallcia with a grim expression before turning to follow his general. "You best prepare young one," he said gravely. "The Scourge is at our doorstep."
Just a bit of added info for anyone who might be wondering.
- Jesthenis is an actual character in the game. He's a paladin trainer in Farstrider Square and a convenient plot device since he has no actual lore of his own.
- The starting area for the Blood Elves doesn't have an official name aside from Sunstrider Island. Dawnhearth seemed appropriate since it's where your hearthstone is initially set, and because of the whole sun theme that the Belfs got going on.
- There will be a fair amount of time skipping. Most of what I write about will be major developments in the character's story.