I am suprized that there arn't any Arthas/Kael'thas works on this site. Arthas is in almost zero romance fics and Kael is always with Illidan. Damn you Illi!!
Ok, for this story, the magister's terrace instance does not exist. Kael is not that retarded looking twisted wretched thing with the crystal in his chest blizzard has recently made him. The sunwell plateau raid, however, is fine as it is.
"This is all that is left of our forces?" A booming charismatic voice asked.
A smaller figure looked up at the owner of the voice and replied, "Yes Milord, I'm afraid these are the only blood elves still loyal to you."
The elven prince with his few remaining followers stood on a hidden shore on the Isle of Quel'danas away from the eyes of the Shattered Sun Offensive. A large ship was also present, but it was disguised so the location of the elves was not revealed. "Damn… so Enalder, there are only a hundred of us?"
"Unfortunately, yes. There are exactly ninety-four of us in total." Enalder was Kael's only remaining general and tactician.
For the renegade blood elves, nothing was going right. Few sane elves followed the prince and along the way, many had died, abandoned their prince to join their comrades in the horde, or had gone power hungry and insane.
"My fellow Sindorei," Kael'thas attracted the attention of his group. "Soon, we shall leave this island. I am quiet aware that I have fucked everything up for us. For that, I am truly sorry. I was rash and too blind to see that everything might have turned out well for us if we had stayed on the side of Illidan. We could have been forgiven for working with only him, but I just dug our grave deeper. I was a fool and for that there is no possible excuse for forgiveness. By siding with the legion, even though we failed, we are damned in the eyes of every creature on the face of Azeroth."
"Where could we possibly go now!" someone in the crowd shouted.
"As much as I despise to admit it there is only one force who would accept fools such as us. Many of you may hate me even more than you probably currently do for suggesting this."
"Well? Spit it out!" someone else in the angry crowd shouted.
Kael let out a lengthy sigh before saying, "We must go to Northrend."
The angry crowd only grew more furious. "What? Have you gone more insane that you have already Kael? Joining with the Scourge is contrary to everything we've worked for! Most likely, as soon as we get there, we would all be slaughtered and shaped to fit their bastard leader's will." This was coming from Enalder surprisingly.
"As soon as we sided with Kil'Jaeden, we abandoned our beliefs. He was the creator of the lich king, but you didn't seem to mind teaming up with him, did you? And what other choice do we have… would you rather be slaughtered like animals by the Shattered Sun, or would you willingly submit to Arthas, who might give us a chance." Kael knew he was right. After the failure at the Sunwell, he had been searching for some way to get out of the mess he had made and sadly, he felt this was their only option. "I have given you your chance to decide. If you choose to still follow me, get directly on that ship. If you choose to stay, I wish you luck against every force that would kill you on this isle."
Only four did not get on that boat. Whether it was fear of the Shattered Sun, or a desire for knowledge, the majority rushed to the ship. It did not take long to fill the vessel which luckily wasn't overcrowded.
As they took off, Kael wore a sorrowful expression as the four who stayed behind burst into flames screaming. He couldn't have them reveal his plans to his enemies, who were plenty and quite persuasive. "I gave you your chance to live fools."
Arthas smiled. He had witnessed the entire speech through the eyes of a ghoul he sent over from the dead scar. Secretly, he had always been watching the elf since he returned from the outlands. It was not like he had much else to do lately. Kel'thuzad was controlling his forces in the rest of Azeroth and Northrend's defenses weren't in any immediate danger. The opening of the dark portal had distracted the Horde, Alliance, and even the Burning Legion from the dangers that lay so close to them.
Anub'arak.
Yes, master?
In three days time, a ship will be arriving on our shore. No harm will come to them, understood.
Yes Arthas, they will be brought in safely.
Glad to see your compliance.
I 'live' only to serve you my king. Though, may I ask what is on that ship?
An old friend, a former enemy, and a desperate, lost elf.
Interesting, as soon as you joined with Ner'zul, I thought all of your remaining humanity had been erased.
True, but I still have Arthas's memories and desires.
I shall prepare a harbor then.
He let out a second mental link. For this, he had to search a great distance to find his target. After around 5 minutes of checking the minds of fish, naga, and wandering sailors, he reached the mind he was searching for.
Prince Kael'thas Sunstrider, it has been quite a while.
Arthas, or is it just the Lich King now?
Either is fine. A man in your position Kael cannot deserve to be so snide.
If I remember correctly, you never cared much about that.
True, anyway, I hear you are currently on your way to come visit me. I never expected that to happen.
I am not coming because of want; I am coming because of need.
What makes you think that I would accept you? I have endless troops at my disposal. Why would I need a hundred elves who want nothing more than to see me dead?
It would give you a chance to add intelligence to your mindless army. Think of it as an opportunity to add some magic besides raising those walking sticks you call soldiers. And as for the bloodelves, they seek magic and will do anything to get it .We are addicts to the stuff. Fel energy has abandoned us and if you could offer an alternative, a swarm of elves will be at your feet begging for more.
Interesting, I will have my answer by the time you arrive.
Arthas knew the troops would be loyal without Kael even telling him. As soon as the Lich King's will entered most creatures mind, they would no longer think for their best intentions. Of course there were the few exceptions, that being the forsaken. Arthas just wanted to know if they came for their own willingness, or if Kael had threatened them. He believed it was a mixture of the two, but he was certain they wouldn't leave the scourge when, or if, they joined.
"Are you ok, milord?" Kael's general asked.
"Huh, oh yes. I am fine. Why do you ask?"
"We where trying to speak to you. We tried asking you why you think the scourge would be so quick to accept us, but you just sat there staring off to space."
"Ah, I am sorry for that. And I am certain we would be accepted among Arthas's forces."
"Why? You are putting all of our lives in your trust! At least trust us when we are afraid something will turn out terrible." The raven haired tactician was practically screaming drawing several worried glances from his crew mates.
Kael was growing angry. "Why, you ask? Because I just know so. You did not have to come with me, any of you! I gave you a choice. Also, you are trusting me of all people? I'm the bastard who led us to this decision."
"We are neither stupid, nor blind milord. That was no choice you gave us! We saw and knew what would happen if we had stayed. You burned them alive from the inside didn't you? Personally, I would rather freeze to death than to face that insane torture."
"Does that mean you will continue following your crazed leader? I swear that if you had stayed behind, you would be tortured. Not by me, but everyone else. The rest of our brethren harbor a great deal of resentment toward us. After you helped me abuse our former source of life, the Sunwell, you became an outcast. Unfortunately, that includes all of you. Because of that, you are just as foolish as I."
An archer spoke this time. "Aye my Prince. We must all pay for our crime. We defiled our home and if bowing before the Scourge is our punishment, than so be it."
Kael let a tiny grin escape upon his face. "Glad you see it my way finally. This commotion has me restless and this damned ship is making me sea-sick. If I am needed, seek me in my quarters, I will be meditating. If I am not necessary, do not call me until we arrive on the icy banks of Northrend." The royal elf started to stride to his room. "By the way, if this ship gets turned around, I will know. That will also cause me to become quite irritable, if you know what I mean."
Much worry was brought on by his last comment. So much that no one noticed Kael'thas pulling someone from the crowd into his room.
It was rather comfortable for being on a hastily built, yet sturdy ship. A medium sized bed dominated the area. Upon a small desk next to the bed, a burning lamp lay. The light it released illuminated the windowless room.
After shutting the door, one of the prince's hands cupped his captive's cheek stroking it with a clawed thumb.
"Enalder, you were the last one whom I thought would defy me." A look of fear washed over the general's face.
"Mi…milord, I didn't mean to defy! I only wanted to point out that our lives our in your hands. We are simple ssssheep following their shepherd."
The cupped hand pulled the general closer to the prince. "I won't hurt you poor Enalder. I merely want to play." Kael's formerly tiny grin morphed into a seductive smile. While the thumb that was petting Enalder's cheek moved to caress his lip, Kael's other hand ran through his tactician's short black hair. Under all this seduction, Enalder froze.
"Prince Kael, what are you doing? I… I am not that kind of elf. I understand you might be but, ppplease stop this."
Kael put his index finger to the other elf's lips to silence him. "Shush, you'll ruin it. I haven't been with anyone since that pathetic Illidan, and I have a lot of tension lately to release." Much to Enalder's dismay, his captor shoved him down on the bed quickly pinning him so his 'pet' wouldn't escape. "Unfortunately for you, you are the only one on this god-forsaken boat who can arouse me."
"Why me, Milord?" The elf was struggling below.
"Because, you're the only person here who still cares somewhat for me." Kael stood up releasing his general, sorrow filling the prince's eyes realizing his error. "Oh god, I'm so sorry Enalder. I've just been feeling so alone, I don't know what came over me."
"It's fine, you didn't do anything terrible."
"No, it isn't fine. I know how loyal you were to your wife and I shouldn't ruin that."
As he spoke, Enalder felt a tear roll down his cheek. "Please don't bring her up. Arthas personally killed her and sent the corpse after me. Because of that, I despise going right to that fucker's doorstep."
"Then why are you still traveling with me?"
"To be perfectly honest, I don't really know." The general began walking toward the door.
Two and a half days later, the elves' voyage ended. Soon, the ship docked upon a white harbor allowing its inhabitants to exit on something solid. One elf looked downward wondering what type of wood in Northrend appeared white, but upon closer inspection, he discovered he was walking on a field of bones that were hastily tied together. The curious elf barely suppressed vomiting.
A large crowd of walking corpses was present at the arrival of the vessel. In the middle stood a huge hulking crypt lord surrounded by several of his nerubian guards.
"Blood elves, where is your leader? The Lich King wishes to speak to him personally."
"I am here Anub'arak." The prince walked forward. "Direct me to him."
"Ah, Sunstrider was it?"
"You would be correct beetle."
"Good. We shall take off. As for the rest of you, there are tents prepared just up ahead. For food though, you must hunt it your self if you don't like the idea of eating long dead corpses." The elf who noticed the bone harbor then fainted. "Hah, that one won't last long then." Anub'arak formed sort of a deformed smile.
"Beetle, If we are leaving, than let's get this over with." And with that last comment, the pair went away.
After the crypt lord and Prince were out of sight, the skeletons on the shore ran up to the ship swarming inside it. Sharp claws easily penetrated the wooden hull and their gruesome teeth shredded the patchwork sail with no effort. Soon the ship gently floated to the bottom.
The elves said nothing, too surprised at what their 'welcoming party' did. Screaming would do nothing, for they would be yelling at the mindless that would just ignore them.
The eighty-nine elves left on the snow shore felt a deep depression consume them as they realized, there would be no going home.
First part of the story down! This will have probably around 2-3 more parts in it so don't expect an epic .
I'm going to be gone for a few days cause I'll be at the Orgins gaming convention in Ohio.