Amidst the corpses in a dying glade an emaciated young woman stood over the body of a dying man. The pallid blonde did not stand over him to comfort him in his final moments, or to mourn the destruction left in the wake of the scourge. Blood seeped from his wounds dampening his violet robes as his muscular form jittered with pain. Arcane energies flowed up from him as the lean scavenger ripped them from his being.
"That's enough, Cassie, you've got what you need" The burly unkempt man firmly gripped her arm and pulled it away from the dying wizard. She jolted, shoving him away. Her face twisted with fury and desperation. Her green eyes glared angrily into his, and she snapped, "Mind your own business, Stephen."
Sternly, he repeated, "Cassie. That's enough." She ignored him and stuck her hand back out over the wizard, attempting to draw once more from his arcane power. Stephen, grabbed her wrist once again, more forcefully and barked, "Look at yourself Cassandra! This isn't you! Have you really fallen to feeding off dying men just to get your fix!? These were human beings, with lives, and families that they died fighting to protect. Is this how you treat them? Have you forgotten that you were one of them once!?"
She stood frozen in terror as the imposing man held her in his grasp, his breaths labored and furious. She snapped free of his grasp and turned away, breaking into sobs. "I'm sorry, Stephen! I'm sorry, it just hurts so much. I couldn't help myself!"
He lowered his outstretched arm, his hazel eyes filling with regret. He approached her, gently placing his hand on her shoulder. In a soft, tone he sympathized, "Look Cassie, I know it's tough. I can't imagine what you're going through, but this is killing you. If we make it to Quel'thalas the elves can help you, but for now you just have to fight it. I don't want you to lose yourself to this addiction."
She fell to her knees and bawled, "It's too late Steve! It's taken too much. Alex, Garus, Jamie, and all the others... and you, it's even taken your magic away." He knelt down and wrapped his arms around her, whispering into her ear, "We're still here Cassie. As long as we're together it's not too late."
She tilted her gaze to him tears still running down her cheek, "But what if the elves can't help us. What if they can't fix what we did? What if we're stuck like this?"
"Don't be silly," he scoffed, his tone belying his concern. "The elves have Towering spires which they built on millennia of arcane knowledge. They have vast wells of magical power and sprawling forests teeming with fey energies. How could you even begin to imagine that something we silly humans could contrive in our short time here could possibly defy their power?"
"We've done it before." She spat back. She turned away from him and murmured, "And you know as well as I do that what we did," she paused, "What I did, was hardly, 'silly.'"
He frowned, gazing silently down at he muck and twigs beneath them. It had seemed like it had been an age since the events that had taken them here. Once upon a time they had been wizards, students of the arcane, researching temporal magics years before the rest of the wizard world had even realized their potential. That quickly changed when they were called into action by the magocrats of Dalaran.
Anyone who could throw a fireball or pick up a sword had been conscripted to fight the scourge. They had been stationed out in eastern tirisfal in a small fort to the west of Darrowshire. Officially they were there serving as ward keepers, but in their off hours they could be found discussing magical theory with a couple of mages they had met while on tour. It was during just such a discussion when the attack had begun.
"Look, I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm just saying you're not right." Cassandra derided, "If you accelerate a limited area in space time it's going to create asynchrony when you eventually decelerate it. You do it enough times and BAM! You've created a rip in the fabric of reality." Cassandra waved her arms in an arc in the middle of the study as she talked, animating her point. The bodacious Alex, who stood leaned up against a bookshelf adjacent the wall giggled at her as she spoke. Cassandra's face flushed red as Alex' curly brown hair and flowing white robes jiggled in synch with her chuckles. "Cassie, you're so lively when you talk about this stuff!" Cassandra scowled at her as she continued, "But you're also assuming that space-time is static."
Cassandra harriedly barked, "Well show me the evidence that it's not!" Alex shrugged, riposting, "Well our experiments haven't broken the universe yet, so I'd say that's a good sign." Cassandra froze, flustered and clearly unable to come up with a counter, and blurted out, "Well, fine then! You go right ahead and blow up the universe! I'll be out there," she pointed through the study's wooden doorway, "not doing that thing I just said!" and stormed out of the study. Stephen, leaned up against the wall opposite the room from Alex, sighed as she stomped down the hall. The lean, meticulously neat, black-haired Garus looked up at him from his seat at the desk and asserted, "You really should teach her some to have some composure."
Alex looked over at him and chimed, "Oh don't be silly. She's just a kid." Garus returned a sardonic glare and rebutted, "She is also part of our research team. Perhaps if you treated her more like an adult we could actually get some work done." She chuckled nervously, "Maybe you're right. I just can't help myself though," she contested, " sometimes she's just too adorable!" Stephen pulled himself up off the wall and sighed, "She is right though. We don't know the implications of trying to bend time on a large scale." Alex shifted her eyes away chiming, "Well..."
Stephen shot her a questioning glance. "What?"
She turned, gazing off down the hallway and half-heartedly dismissed, "Eh, nothing."
Stephen adjusted His jacket over his blue and violet garb and said, "Well I'm off to-"
He was cut off as the stone floor shook beneath their feet. The rumbling of an explosion emanated up from underneath the keep. Garus stood up from his seat at the desk of their makeshift study, adjusted his spectacles and stated, "Prepare yourselves." From the corridor they heard the echo of rapid footsteps. They all tensed awaiting the approachee as the footsteps grew nearer. When Cassandra clad in her grey jacket and orange dress emerged from the stairwell into the corridor they breathed a collective sigh of relief. She shot them a puzzled glance and asked, "Uh, did you guys feel that?"
As she entered the room they exchanged glances, all eyes turning to Stephen. Firmly he decreed, "You guys gather up the gear, I'm gonna go find out what's happening." They nodded at him, and then he rushed out the door. As his footsteps echoed off down the corridor the rest of them gathered up their equipment. They could hear the clamor of blades clashing, the shouting of soldiers and the rabid cries of the undead swarming in off in the distance. If there was an attack coming they should've been warned, and mustered, but they had received no such notification. Armed with their elaborate staves, reagents and blades they formed up and moved out.
As they approached the sound of the fighting through the corridors they came to the realization that the sounds of the scourge approach were coming from beneath them. "Nerubians." Alex declared. Cassandra gulped back her fear. Though officially she was here in a military capacity, she had never actually been in combat, and she had only heard of the monstrous, eight legged beasts in tales.
As the group exited the stairwell a grizzled blonde woman, wearing plate armor embossed with a silver fist, emerged from a side corridor. She fell in with their formation, questioning, "What's the situation?" Garus turned to her as they walked and stated, "We don't no for sure but we believe we've been attacked by..." He was cut off as a blood soaked Stephen backpedaled around a corner ahead of them, arcane energy crackling in his hands, shouting, "Nerubians!"
Wordlessly the paladin charged ahead of them drawing her warhammer and taking up her shield. Blasts of arcane energy erupted from Stephens hands and bug guts exploded out from the victim of his magic. He motioned with his head for the others to follow as he charged back down the corridor out of their line of sight. Garus looked at Cassandra and Alex, who then nodded at each other, and they all began sprinting after him.
When they finally emerged into the main hall Stephen and the Paladin were already in the midst of the battle. As Stephen unleashed devastating blasts of arcane energy the paladin danced around the weapons of the undead, countering with smashes from her light-imbued hammer. Garus rushed forward and threw a wave of fire towards the oncoming scourge and then parried a strike with the well-timed conjuration of an ice barrier, joining up back to back with the paladin.
Alex cast up her hand, freezing solid a ghoul as it rushed Stephen. Surveying the hall Cassandra could see that total chaos had erupted. Soldiers and scourge were everywhere, she would have to be careful with her magic to avoid friendly fire. Even amidst the mass of undead she could see quite clearly as a massive, arachnid creature tore a soldier in half with it's forelegs. It tossed aside his broken corpse and rushed forward, trampling or knocking back everything in it's path. Anyone or anything unfortunate enough to wind up underneath it was impaled by it's spike-tipped legs as it barreled towards the paladin.
Alex threw up massive spiky colonnades of frost to block its path. The paladin raised her shield imbuing it with holy energy to bolster her defense. Garus unleashed a volley of fireballs and ice lances at it, and Stephen bombarded it with magical lightning. It barreled through Alex' frost pillars and emerged unscathed as Garus' flames and Stephens arcane lightning enveloped it. As it crashed into the paladin's light-imbued shield, a wave of holy energy exploded outward knocking her back through the air.
Cassandra took a deep breath and raised her hand to the creature. The rest of the world fell silent to the sound of breath flowing into her lungs. Arcane power crackled in the air around her. Clamor and tumult cascaded back down upon her as she exhaled. A massive boulder of flames flew out from her oustretched hand. A wave of heat radiated outward from it as it flew by her compatriots. As the boulder collided with the beast's mandible it exploded outward in a torrent of crimson, incinerating the creature instantly.
As the flames dissipated yet more scourge flowed over the corpse of the arachnid monster. The soldiers of the keep fought valiantly but after a short while it was obvious that they were overwhelmed. The mages themselves were almost enveloped in scourge when Cassandra heard a shout come from Alex' position. She could just make out Garus standing over Alex through the horde of undead, his lips motioning the words, "fall back." She conveyed the order to Stephen and the Paladin, motioning them back. They charged through the undead marauders to find Alex lying in Garus' arms a pool of her blood spreading beneath them.
She was still conscious. Mustering her remaining vigor she shouted over to leave her there. Garus shook his head as he scooped her up and tossed her arm over his shoulder. The Paladin cried out,"Get her to a corridor! We'll provide cover!" By now Cassandra could see the fatigue setting in on her comrades. They all had scrapes and gashes, their robes tattered by blade cuts, their flesh marred by bruising. The paladin's armor was dented and falling apart. There was sweat and blood caked to each of them. Some was their own, some was spray from their enemies. Their sluggishness was evident as they retreated to the corridor.
A stray arrow pierced into Cassandra's shoulder staggering her backward. In the opening left on the paladin's flank an enemy blade found it's mark, leaving a deep gash in her torso. Stephen fended off the attackers with an arcane blast before any more damage could be done, but Garus still had to yank Cassandra and the Paladin back into the corridor. Alex groaned with effort, lifting her arms and shutting off the entrance with a frost wall. Panting and exhausted Stephen turned to Garus and questioned, "What happened out there? Is Alex gonna be okay?"
Alex barked up at him, "If you're gonna ask someone about me, ask me, jerk!" wincing as she finished her exclamation. "Sorry Alex," he laughed nervously. "It's fine, can't be that bad," she laughed anxiously, clearly in pain. Alex slowly peeled back the blood-soaked cloth covering her wounds. Underneath were two perforations, both going through her stomach and out of her back. "Dear light," Cassandra gasped, unable to muster any further words.
Stephen and Garus exchanged grim glances. "Paladin, can you heal her?" Garus demanded. She shook her head, "No, but if we can find my squad they've got someone who can."
"Where can we find them?"
"By now they'd have secured the armory, if they've managed to regroup."
"Damn! That's no good." Stephen burst. Cassandra looked expectantly at him. "It's in the basement, through the main hall."
"Oh." she remarked.
"We couldn't hold the scourge at bay with all of us fighting, let alone fight through them a man down." Stephen summarized.
Garus remarked, "What other option do we have?"
The paladin shot back, "Well you're all mages, can't you conjure up a portal or somethin'?"
Garus dismissed "Portal magic isn't that simple, we need the proper equipment to establish one."
Stephen fumed. "This just doesn't make any sense. We have scouts, we have guards, and external fortifications, why the hell are there scourge in our keep?"
Cassandra burst out suddenly, "I could make one!"
Garus shot her a questioning glare. She sputtered, "Uh, I... If we could get back to the study, that is. It would only be one-way though."
"What are you talking about Cassandra?" he demanded.
"A portal!" she chimed. "I can make a a portal!"
"How?"
"If I can hack the core of our temporal distortion field generator and rewire the ley-circuits it might to move space instead of time we might be able to do," she paused, shaking her hands in exasperation, "Something!"
Stephen expounded, "Cassie you know that won't work. The field generator was only meant to produce small distortions, if you try to overload it by reaching any sort of distance it'll de-stabilize."
She spat back, "Well that's only because it's programmed to treat space-time as being static! If I modify it to account for fluid space-time it would only take a miniscule amount of energy to create the effect!"
She froze realizing her tacit admission. An awkward silence hung in the air and she grumbled, "You don't need to say it."
They exchanged smug glances. Alex grinned at her, silently savoring her vindication for a moment before exclaiming, "So you admit it! I was right!"
Cassandra seethed, "I said you didn't need to say it."
"Anyway," Stephen declared, "We should probably get moving. Paladin, what's your name?"
"Jamie," she replied.
"Alright Jamie, are you still able to fight?"
She nodded, patting the gash on her torso, "I've taken worse than this, what do you need me to do?"
Stephen looked back at the other mages and ordered, "Garus, you take point, in these corridors your close-quarters magic will be the most effective, I'll follow right behind you with support fire. Cassandra you take Alex, and Jamie you watch our backs"
Lifting Alex up, Cassandra whispered to her, "Look, I.. I'm sorry about earlier. You were right, it's just..."
"I know, Cassie. I know that when I treat you like a kid you don't feel like I'm taking you seriously, but I am. I admire your childlike wonder, it's part of what makes you perfect for our team."
Cassandra blushed as they marched onward, "I guess I'd never really thought of it that way, but I still feel like I have so much to learn, so many books to pour through, so many spells to cast..."
Alex interrupted her, "You should, Cassie. You should always feel like you have more to learn, because the instant you stop, that's when you stop being exceptional. It doesn't matter how many scrolls you've mastered or how much power you've accumulated, if you don't have the drive to learn, to create, or to explore you might as well be nothing at all. Unlike all these magocrats who are content in their wealth and their power you don't look at magic and see a dim, dusty old room full of books and rules. You look at it and see a realm of infinite possibilities where the world is just a playground."
Cassandra gave her a sad smile, "Jeez, Alex you're getting all gushy on me, talking like that you might worry a girl." Alex chuckled a little. "I suppose you're right, but I've just had this gut feeling that now's the time to tell you." Cassandra chided her, "Oh you're terrible! One day you're gonna look back on that one and not laugh."
The solemnity of the moment was shattered abruptly as Jamie cried, "Everyone, we have incoming!" The clamor of metal on stone cascaded over them and filled the corridor as a wave of undead rushed up behind them, spearheaded by a nerubian. Stephen looked back and shouted, "Cassandra, give Alex to Jamie and take 'em out!" Alex latched her arm around Jamie's shoulder as Cassandra inhaled a deep breath, lining up her outstretched palm with the Nerubian's torso. She felt the familiar crackle of arcane power, and the radiant heat of her magic as she wove the pyroblast. Finally, with an exhalation she fired the attack.
The expanding flames ripped through the corridor igniting the rafters and doors along the way. Upon finally reaching it's target it consumed the tide of abominations in a blaze of brilliant light. Behind her, up ahead she could hear the clatter of bone on steel as skeletal warriors approached Garus. As the flames of her spell cleared she could see that yet more of the undead flooded toward them. She could just hear the sound of Stephen shouting to them, "Run! Run!" The air crackled with energy and heat as the wizards unleashed volleys of magic upon the encroaching horde. Garus and Stephen plowed through the undead before them with vicious precision spell strikes. Cassandra evoked torrents of fire which cascaded down the narrow corridors consuming dozens of undead. Jamie and Alex staggered forward as quickly as they could, pressed between the trio of wizards.
They pushed up the staircase to find the path to the study mostly clear. As they raced down the corridor through the the familiar stone lumber doorcase the clatter of bone and steel drew nearer. The scourge was welling up through the other stairwells. Through the study windows they could see that outside the keep a horde of undead surrounded the keep, swarming into the courtyard through the main gate. The soil was red with the blood of the soldiers who had died trying to defend it. Lordaeron's forces were scattered throughout the battlefield being picked off by the overwhelming undead army. Bodies, both living and scourge, were tossed into the air like ragdolls as cannon fire rained down on the battlefield. Magefire and arcane lightning crackled throughout the sprawl beneath them. Resistance was futile.
Cassandra set to work immediately, fixating upon the intricate hourglass framework sitting in the middle of the chamber. It stood about three feet tall, a network of jointed rods protruding from it, connecting it to several ornate stands that were each laden with multiple crystals of various color.
Setting Alex up against the desk, Jamie took up guard with Garus just outside the doorway. The rattle of bone and steel echoing down the hallway, growing louder the less time they had left. Stephen came to Cassandra's aid, helping her reconfigure the connections between the stands and the mechanism. A ghoul retched it's death cry as Garus carved it apart with an icy blade. The undead were upon them.
"Hurry up you two," Garus cried. The rattling of Jamie's hammer smashing a skeleton rang through the chamber. Cassandra barked, "Damnit this takes time! I still need to reconfigure the crystals!" She pointed Stephen to two rod connectors that she needed joined while welding another two together with a small conjured flame. Alex reeled up, blood gushing from her wounds and shot two ice lances at the window a as gargoyle burst through the glass. It's body slammed into the mechanism, sending all the parts flying through the room.
"Damn it!" Cassandra shouted. Alex huffed, "Sorry Cassie," collapsing to her knees in pain. Cassandra flailed her arms about cursing frantically as she scattered to grab the pieces. A blast of cannonfire flew through the wall sending debris everywhere. Cassandra and Stephen were blown back by the explosion of force. The scourge forces had converged on Garus and Jamie. As they bore the full brunt of a writhing mass of undead crashing upon them, Cassandra and Stephen furiously dug through the wreckage to find and reconstruct the machine.
Garus cried,"We can't hold them back any more!"
Cassandra exclaimed, "I can't find the focusing crystal! I need the bloody focusing crystal!" Over by the desk Alex gritted her teeth as she snapped her crystal pendant off her neck. "Use this, Cassie!" she commanded, tossing it to the girl.
Cassandra hollered back, "What is this!?"
Alex proclaimed, "Just use it! Now!"
Cassandra jammed the crystal into the focusing socket and then pumped all her magical energy into the device. "Stephen roared to Jamie and Garus, "In! Get in!" No sooner had they entered the room than did the Whole chamber dissolve into a wash of magical energies. The keep vanished beyond the event horizon, the sounds of battle drowned out by the droning of nether energies. Then, as though waking from oblivion they collided, slamming into a floor made of onyx marble.
The floor, walls, and ceiling were a three dimensional labyrinth of crevasses, plateaus and slopes. The surfaces were inscribed with intricately carved arcane glyphwork which illuminated the chamber as it pulsed with light. Holographic runes flickered in the air. Objects clung to the ceiling and floated through each other. An elaborate clockwork of complex piping and machinery filled the chamber. Various magical implements, inscribed furnishings and tomes of magecraft were scattered throughout the chamber. As they looked about in awe Stephen mused, "Alex, what the hell is this?"
Alex collapsed to her knees. As she knelt there, bleeding upwards laboring just to draw breath she exhaled, "You know those rumors? About the guardians, and the council of tirisfal?" He stared at her in disbelief as the others gazed wide-eyed about the chamber. "You can't be serious." He exclaimed. She nodded. He glanced over the chamber once more and inquired, "How did you get mixed up in all that?" She shook her head. "You misunderstand. I'm not actually involved with the council. I don't even know if it really exists. But the implications of giving one wizard the power of many..." she paused, "I was curious."
"Then this is..." he trailed off. "My research. So far." she panted "I'm sure you have a great many questions, but what you need to know is that we don't have much time."
"What do you mean?" Garus inquired.
"Cassie, you explain it." She ordered.
"Well," Cassandra began, "When all those parts were scattered and buried by the debris we lost some. I had to," She paused thoughtfully," Improvise. Essentially I tried to create a wormhole, rather than a conventional portal. The problem is I didn't have enough power to, 'punch through,' so instead we're temporarily interspersed."
Temporarily?"
"Well yes, unless you fold it paper has a tendency to flop back to it's original position."
Garus scowled and inquired, "How long do we have?"
"A few hours."
"Well can we make a portal from here?"
"That... wouldn't be the best idea. There are too many criss-crossed ley lines. 'Convergence,' remember?"
"Well," he sighed, "It looks like we've run out of options. Now all that's left is to wait, and die.
"Not necessarily." Alex dissented. "This whole place was constructed for the purpose of creating a 'guardian.'"
Garus countered, "You said that this was only, 'research,' though. Have you actually tested it?"
"No, but this is really a, 'now or never situation,' isn't it?"
He leered suspiciously at her, "Just who, do you propose should be the recipient?"
"Well," she pondered, "I'm no good. Even if I were to be more powerful, I'm still dying. Not to mention the strain of all that energy would probably finish me off before I ever benefited from it."
"I see," he replied."If we're to mow through a horde of undead there's only one choice." He turned to Stephen.
Stephen shook his head deterrently at him. "No, Garus, she's just a kid!"
"Stephen. You've seen her fight. Our magic isn't nearly as potent as hers. You know we're not suited to the type of fighting that'll need to be done."
Stephen fired back, "We don't even know what it'll do. You heard Alex, its experimental. It could kill her before the scourge gets a chance to!"
"Well that would be best then, no?" Garus questioned, rhetorically.
The two glared with silent intensity at one another when Cassandra butted in, "If it'll get us out of here alive, I'll do it."
"Cassie..." Stephen trailed off. "You don't know what it could do to you. There's no need to take that risk. We could come back to the keep to find that the Alliance has won!"
"No, you know that we won't." Garus resolved.
After a moment of silence Alex exclaimed, "That's it then! Lets get to it!"
"So how do we-" Alex cut Garus off before he could even ask the question. "You," she pointed at him, "are going to want to stand there." as she pointed at a circular rune inscribed on the ceiling. He gazed up at it quizzically. "No point wondering about it I think you can see that the gravity isn't normal here, love." she commented. He shrugged, and put his foot against the wall, stepping cautiously onto it. When he seemed confident that he would adhere to the surface he moved his other foot onto it. Then, having not fallen, walked up to the ceiling and repeated the process. As Garus moved into the circle she directed Stephen into a three dimensional web of holographic runes.
"Now for you, Cassie," Alex pointed to an orb of moving, holographic runes at the 'center' of the complex, "You get to sit in the captain's chair." Cassandra nodded at her. Moving towards the orb she turned back to Alex and asked, "So what exactly is this supposed to do?" Alex pursed her lips before responding, "Ideally, it'll drain our powers and use them to bolster yours. My math shows its a multiplicative increase in magical potency, but that's all based on untested theory." Cassandra pondered for a moment, "But doesn't that mean-" Alex nodded, "Yeah, but at least you three will be alive. If this works, that is. As intended, that is."
"But what about you?" Cassandra questioned. Alex frowned, "You know what." She suddenly perked up and chimed, "But that doesn't matter. Cassie, you're the new me now. Better, stronger smarter," she paused locking eyes with Cassandra and smiling widely, "with an even more insatiable curiosity! And don't you ever forget that!" Cassie choked up, trying to hold back tears, whimpering, "It's too bad this thing doesn't fix holes in your gut."
Alex paused grasping her chin ponderously, then prattled, "Actually it might very well have the opposite effect, but for your sake lets hope not." Alex contemplated the impropriety of her comment for a moment before deflecting, "Anywho, off to your spot!" She nodded, wiping a tear from her cheek, and turned back to the sphere. As she stepped into it Alex shouted, "All right, start it up!" Within the sphere a single rune flickered to life before her, a blank ring with a hand print. Touching her fingers to the floating mark, the whole chamber began to hum with energy.
The holographs floating about the chamber locked into formation with one another and began to speed about, orbiting around her. Barely audible over the sound of magic in the air Alex shouted, "You might want to brace yourself, Cassie!" The glyphwork around her compatriots lit up brighter than all the other lights in the chamber. Alex began to glow with a golden light which poured out from her wounds into the looked on wide-eyed as lightning shot through the room, creating a dancing web of sparks. The machinery occupied the crevasses of the chamber exploded flinging the three wizards about.
The orb seemed to protect her as the three scrambled up to get back to their posts. Electricity poured forth from them flowing in toward her. Alex screamed in agony as her body was torn apart at the half, her blood and severed legs disintegrating into light. Garus writhed as the electricity overwhelmed him, making him unable to move. Jamie charged in toward him. "Cassandra couldn't hear, but she could see the decimated Alex screaming urgently at the paladin to get him back to his post. Stephen gritted his teeth and pushed back to the corner as another round of explosions went off.
The sphere of runes shattered as impact waves bombarded cassandra from all sides, crushing her in a prison of force. The lightning arcing through the room converged on her completely obscuring her visage in a human shaped blaze of energy. The sensation of it was unimaginable. Her muscles shredded themselves from wild contraction as her flesh burned off her bone. Her eyes popped spewing blood, which was instantly evaporated by the lightning cloud. Her bones had snapped under the force of the explosions. Her mind was filled with pain. In her last moments of consciousness she felt a hand reach out to her, touching her chest.
Upon reaching the cusp of unconsciousness her vision snapped back to her. With her new eyes she could see each individual twitch of the lightning cloud, her perception quicker than the flow of time. For the briefest instant the shadows of Alex' realm tore open casting her back into their study, then snapping shut casting her back into the machine in the blink of an eye. Standing before her, his hand on her chest was Stephen. As the lightning continued to recede he vanished before her eyes, reappearing where she had seen him just moments before. He collapsed to the floor as the as the machine's arcane storm ripped the energy from his body and incorporated it into itself.
She tried to reach out for him only to find that while her perception had become quickened her body had not, her arm moving almost not at all to her eyes. A sensation like the stabbing of a billion tiny needles ran over her skin. From every individual prick she could see blood and lightning ooze forth from herself, joining into the retreating cloud. The mana ran through her blood like an inferno as her form crackled with energy. Alex chamber was slowly disintegrating back into their world. Cassandra watched helplessly as her friends were deconstructed by this device. She could feel their pain as their essences were forced through her. She would've screamed but her body wasn't responding to her consciousness.
Above the screaming pain she mustered but one thought, "Help."
Staring at Stephen she thought again, "Help!"
She visualized herself reaching out to grab him, to pull him out of the storm, but her body didn't respond. The thought ripped again through her mind overwhelming her senses, blocking out the pain. A bolt of lightning shot out towards him parting the shadows of Alex' realm and casting him back into the study. He reeled to his feet, free from the constructs grasp as the mutilated remnants of his comrades fell through the veil back into the must room. Lightning rippled out from her as Cassandra materialized amidst the books and carnage, striking a scourge footsoldier and blowing it to pieces. Her visage completely obscured by the enveloping energies, she appeared to him as a being of living electricity
She trudged toward the oncoming attackers, screaming incoherently as a wave of intense heat rippled through the chamber. He stared wide-eyed as a section of the keep wall vanished, simply atomized by her thermal magic, the stone around the hole molten and drooling down. She ripped holes in the ceilings and the walls as her arm snapped out toward the undead. They too were atomized, washed away in the tide of her rampant power. She reared back in an agonizing roar. He flew backward, slamming into a wall as a blast wave emanated from her.
The as the electricity surrounding her stabilized, revealing her emaciated body. He stumbled toward her as she took a knee. He groaned "Cassie, are you okay" She snapped her head up toward him, hastily declaring, "We need to move, this isn't going to last." The hole she had punched in the wall opened up into the keep courtyard which had filled with scourge. Standing face to face with a writhing wall of ghouls, skeletons, and nerubians he clenched his fist and prepared to call forth his arcane energies. As a trundling horror rushed toward him he realized that his magic wasn't working. As the creature was upon them, Cassandra turned about and disintegrated it, the intense, flameless heat singing them both as she did.
He began to move out toward the horde but Cassandra grabbed him before he could step away, catching him just as the tip of his nose dissolved into the air. "Don't" She commanded. She was met by a stare of confusion and fear. "I surrounded us with a thermal shell, it'll move with me as I walk." She stumbled as she attempted to move forward. "Cassie, give me your arm," Stephen commanded. She grimaced as he lifted her onto his shoulder. As they trudged through the horde of undead the creatures quickly realized approaching them was futile. After watching their compatriots disintegrated the beasts simply elected to surround them in a wide circle.
A ghoul reached in to test the ward's boundaries. She widened the barrier just a bit at that very moment taking its hand clean off, leaving a cauterized stump where it had been. She choked out a sadistic laugh as It jerked it's arm back. The heat flickered as her laugh turned into a cough. Sensing the change in the air the scourge began to close in. Regaining her composure she quickly reestablished the field, mutilating those who dared to close. She shot Stephen an ominous glance. "They're not going to just let us go. They'll follow us."
He could still hear the clamor of fighting filling the air as he contemplated her words. He reasoned to her"There are still men fighting in there. We can help them, we can turn the tide-" "Stephen," She interrupted "This isn't going to last. It's unstable. Volatile. These men are dead anyway." He argued, "You don't know that Cassie, you can't know that!" She gazed pleadingly into his eyes. "I don't wanna die, Steve, not after what happened to the others, not after all that. If we die here their deaths will have meant nothing." He shook his head at her, tears welling up in his eyes. Her expression hardened as she turned out to face the undead horde. With cold resolution she declared, "Look around you. Even if there were a chance for these men to defeat the scourge, it wouldn't come before this power fails. It's them or us. It's not going to be us."
There were no screams, she gave them no chance to react. The hordes of men and undead alike were dissolved before they felt the heat of her magic. With the wave of her arm she could erase a line of matter reaching out beyond the walls of the keep. Lightning crackled from her flesh violently as she channeled the attacks. Seconds turned into minutes. Minutes seemed to turn to hours. The more power she evoked the more unstable her attacks grew. An ocean of soldiers swept into oblivion by her magic the battlefield virtually emptied before her eyes. Her spells devolved back to wild flames that ignited friend and foe without discretion, and still the lightning of Alex' magic crackled about her.
A former comrade, seeing her mow down their own allies indiscriminately rushed her with a sword. Stephen saw her eyes go wide as her magic fizzled and burst of electricity exploded from her arm. Instinctively he ripped a sword from the ground and intervened to her defense, impaling the bewildered soldier. Horror washed over him stared into his victim's face. He had spoken to the man that very morning. They had shared a conversation about their mutual distaste for the watch captain, and now here they stood, Stephens blade lodged in his gut. His jaw agape he as he stared into his comrade's questioning eyes he whispered, "I'm sorry." With that the solider tumbled to the ground.
Gazing out past what bodies there were he saw only a charred heap of rubble where the keep had stood. This was not the work of cannons, or bombs, and no wizard amidst the confusion had done this. It had been Cassandra. The sound of electricity pulsing behind him and a tug on the tattered collar of his robe caught his immediate attention. A frantic Cassandra screamed at him as the arcane energies seared a split through her chest, just below her neck. She tried to throw a fireball at an oncoming nerubian but the spell sputtered, producing only a vibrant plume of sparks.
She cried out again in pain. As the flames erupted from her palm the magical lightning that had enveloped her before bit into her flesh, searing open a long, gaping wound down her forearm. Stephen ripped the sword from his unfortunate victim and raised it up, preparing to strike at the lumbering black beast. The nerubian lunged at him, slashing with it's scythe like forearms. He countered with a sidestep and a thrust. The blow glanced its neck opening a gash and infuriating the creature. With it's powerful foreleg it swept his feet from under him knocking him down next to the corpse of the soldier.
The creature reared back preparing to go for the kill. Thinking quickly Stephen snatched the soldier's shield, covering himself just in time. A metallic thud rang out as the creatures venomous fangs punctured through the shield. Venom dripped out from the fangs splashing onto him, burning him like acid. As the nerubian's immense weight let off of him, the creature rearing back for another strike, he scrambled backward trying to get away from it. Just as it began to lunge he heard Cassandra scream and unleash a fireball that incinerated it's torso.
The decapitated arachnid body toppled to the ground beside him and he scrambled to his feet, turning his attention back to her. Bleeding profusely from a gash in her flank and badly burned by dozens of sear-marks she was crumpled down onto her knees. The battlefield around them virtually empty, he glanced over her injures and insisted, "It's time for us to leave." Taking one last glance at the decimated keep he mourned the loss of his companions, and shed a tear for the innocence of the excitable young girl he had adopted in Dalaran.
Epilogue
Tormented cries echoed through the gloomy pine forests of Tirisfal. Amidst a clearing underneath the overcast sky the witch, Cassandra had captured her quarry. She was a lanky blonde woman, clad in the down of a firehawk. Before her, bound and suspended by thick ropes of ice, stood a dark haired rogue clad in black leather. Magical fire emanated from her toward the frostbound thief.
"The crystal, where is it!?" Cassandra Hissed. The slinky man writhed against his icy restraints as tendrils of her arcane fire bit into his flesh. He roared, "I'll rip your guts from your soulless corpse, forsaken whore!"
She extended her hand toward him and wrenched her fingers, boring deeper into him with her magic. He released a gut wrenching cry.
"I asked you a question," she proclaimed, "I suggest you answer it."
He hurled curses and insults at her, struggling against her magic. She cocked her head at him, glaring into him with jaded eyes. "I suppose I didn't make myself clear." With a sudden jolt she thrust her hand into his eye socked and tore the bloody sphere from it. His jaw stretched open to release a bellow, but she shoved a tendril of ice down his throat before the sound could escape. "You took something from me. You're going to give it back to me. What do you not get about this?"
He shivered with rage. His one remaining eye teared up, fixated on her. With a last wrench shadows enveloped his body and the ice around him shattered. He vanished from her sight, cloaked by his stealth magic. "Damn it!" She howled. She stomped her foot down on the dirt in frustration, sending a wave of flames radiating out from her. As soon as she felt the slip of wire on her throat she encased herself in a boulder of ice, enveloping the dagger intended for her back.
The rogue was blinded by the flashing light of a teleportation spell. The berg vanished, freeing his dagger as she reappeared across the clearing from him. Waving her hand across the laceration on her throat she scowled at him. A line of flames following her hand cauterized the wound shut. She thrust her arm up and conjured an envelope of flames which coalesced on him. He vanished in a puff of shadow, reappearing behind her poised to strike. In the instant before his dagger bit into her flesh a shell of arcane magic flickered into existence around her, vanishing as quickly as it had appeared.
With the blade embedded in her she whipped around and bombarded him with dragonfire. Disoriented by the heat of the flames he grasped a small alliance insignia, unleashing a ward that dispersed the flame. Unimpaired, he thrust his other dagger into her jugular. With her glare intent on him, she didn't seem to notice the blood gushing from her wounds. She extended her grasp toward him, and in a puff of arcane magic he found himself polymorphed into a turtle.
She was enveloped once more by the flickering arcane shell, emerging without the injuries he had inflicted. Frantic and desperate, he tried to bite at her ankles. She scoffed at him, punting the hapless reptile away from her and stomping her foot on the ground. A radial torrent of frost cascaded out from her, wrapping him once again in a frozen lasso. As he reverted to his human form she thrust her arm toward him causing the frost to expand, encasing all but his head in ice.
"Ready to give up yet?" she condescendingly mocked. Glaring furiously at her he hissed, "You'd better kill me now, witch. I'd sooner see the burning legion return than see you and your ilk finish your work."
She cocked her head and him and sighed, "You still seem to think you have a choice in the matter. How tiresome." Thrusting a hand into her pouch she walked up to him and pulled out a syringe. He cursed to himself as she jammed it into his neck and pushed down the plunger. As his consciousness faded she whispered to him, "You're going to give me what I want, one way or another."
Passing through a decrepit stone arch ornamented with grisly gargoyles Cassandra was greeted by the familiar face of her colleague, Vamachara. The warlock, clad in dark purple robes swept her shaggy black hair from her face as she strode toward cassandra along the glowing green canal of the Undercity. "Fresh meat?" she jested, indicating the bound and incapacitated rogue following close behind on Cassandra's horse. "This one's not for you," Cassandra dismissed, "not yet anyway. You can have your fun after I've gotten what I need."
The warlock scratched her chin ponderously. "Ya know, I'd be remiss if I let a mage dabble in warlock magics, Cass."
"Relax," she replied, "It's information I need. I don't find your basal magics that compelling anyways."
Vamachara frowned at her, "Hey now, that's a bit of a low blow, dontcha think? This rat must've taken something important for ya to be this cross."
"Sorry," Cassandra muttered dispassionately, "But yeah, he took a keepsake of mine."
"Just a keepsake?" The warlock probed with an arched brow.
Cassandra shot her a beleaguered glare. "Don't push it. It doesn't concern you anyway."
"Alright," the warlock began, turning to walk off, "Let me know when you're done with him, I could use the fresh soul. Oh! A package arrived for you from Silvermoon. It was moving, so I may have taken a little peek."
Cassandra rolled her eyes and sighed. "I wish you'd stop getting into all my stuff, it's not like we're sisters, Vam."
The warlock glanced back, cocking her head at her, "We're sisters of a kind, whether ya like it or not!"
Cassandra mumbled curses to herself under her breath as she walked off toward her home in the mage quarter.
Upon arriving in the small stone dormitory she shackled the rogue to the wall and set to work open the half torn package on the counter. A frightened mana wyrm darted from the box as soon as she lifted the lid. Cassandras eyes were already dilating as she fixated on the shimmering blue serpent. She beckoned to it with her fingers, releasing a small cooing sound to soothe it's shaken nerves. The creature slowly floated toward her cautiously investigating the lanky figure before it. It swam in a little loop around her arm, traveling back up around to her shoulder.
That was when she pounced, never physically touching it, instead trapping the hapless creature in a magical field between her clawed hands. A blue glow streamed out from it into her as she ripped the magical energy from the creature, tearing apart it's body in the process. She quivered with pleasure as the mana flowed through her form. She savored the intoxicating rush of raw, arcane power coursing through her body. Her mind raced with the sudden jolt of energy. She felt like she was awake, truly awake for the first time in weeks.
She grinned wickedly as a second wyrm fluttered out from the box, whispering to herself, "Oh, this is gonna be a good day indeed."
The rogue stirred in time to witness her feed on the second serpent. Still delirious from the pain and the drugs he had just barely processed his situation when she turned to him. "You'd better be ready for some pain, rat. I haven't had mana this pure since..." she trailed off, glancing ponderously toward the ceiling, "Man that Stephen was a real buzzkill." She glanced back at her captive, "Anyway the point is there are two things you don't mess with; my fix, and more importantly my research. You did both. Perchance, do you know what a temporal rebound is?"
The rogue glared at her, shaking with labored breaths and fuming with hate. "No? Well it doesn't matter," she chimed, "All you need to know is that its a wondrous little magic trick I picked up that lets me torture you to death over, and over, and over again. You know, fun for the whole family."