Chapter One

My name is Nerissina Moonshade. I was born the only child of a wealthy merchant family in Gilneas city and had a privileged and happy childhood. I wanted for nothing and I should have been content. I wasn't; I wanted more from life.

My parents always told me I was too strong willed for my own good and maybe they were right. The day they told me they were arranging a marriage for me with the son of a close neighbour was the day I rebelled against their authority. I couldn't stand the man and I wasn't ready to be married anyway. When they refused to listen to me I packed my bags, signed on in the army and never went home again. Maybe I could have done; maybe they would have accepted my choice and supported me; but I found I enjoyed the freedom life in the army gave me and I was not willing to relinquish it.

At a ceremony in Dawn's Light Cathedral I became a paladin, a warrior of the Light. My parents did not attend. I may have lost my family by my actions but I made new friends and found a new home with the army. One of the closest friends I made in my regiment was Gillaen Bearheart, a big but gentle man who lived up to his name. He was like a brother to me. We spent every waking hour working as a team.

When after a few months service we had some leave and he learned I had nowhere to go he invited me and some others to join him at his family home in a village outside the capital city. Rather than be alone I accepted.

His parents, both druids who lived close to nature, made us welcome. His brother was not there when we arrived but I met him later. I had gone to check on my horse when a large strangely marked cat bounded out of the forest and stopped a few yards from me. It stood watching me for a moment as if it were sizing me up. Alertly I watched it, wondering if it was going to attack. I was unarmed; I'd left both armour and weapons in my room; but I'd still give it a run for its money. Then without warning its outlines blurred, rising upward, changing into a man. I'd forgotten about this druid ability and it startled me.

The man apologized with a smile. I looked into his grey eyes and was lost. He could only be Gillaen's younger brother, they were so alike. He was slenderer and his hair which he wore long and braided was more gold than Gillaen's pale brown; but that was the only difference.

"I'm Arrentai," he introduced himself and asked my name.

As we walked back to the house he told me of the work he'd been doing in the forest, tending and healing the plants and creatures. We joined the others and he poured us glasses of wine before sitting next to me.

"Maybe you'd like to join me tomorrow," he said softly.

I saw Gillaen watching with an amused grin, but I chose to ignore it. I wanted to get to know Arrentai better and no amount of teasing from Gillaen was going to put me off.

I went with Arrentai the next day and all the days after that. I had come here to avoid loneliness and instead had found my soul-mate. For a short while I was able to forget about the fighting and danger that was my usual life and enjoy the peaceful forest and pleasant company. Before a week was out we had become lovers and I would gladly have stayed with him had I not owed my loyalty to the army. When we left at the end of our month's leave it was with sadness I had to refuse Arrentai's proposal until more peaceful days.

We returned to duty, patrolling in Silverpine, keeping the Scourge in check. And all the while I held a secret close to my heart for I found I was carrying Arrentai's child. I told no one because I wanted him to be first to know; maybe if I had I'd have been given safer duties and not met the fate that I did.

The worgen that plagued Silverpine and Gilneas were becoming bolder and attacking patrols as well as civilians. One night as we rested a pack of worgen attacked our camp. Before we could drive them off several of us were bitten by the beasts, myself included. We bound our wounds and carried on. Foolishly perhaps I ignored the burning that I felt growing in my blood until Gillaen noticed that I was unwell and expressed his concern. But it was already too late. A few nights later they attacked again. Calling upon the aid of the Light I drew my sword to help defend us and remembered no more.

I awoke in a dank gloomy cell smelling of mould and decay. In the distance I could hear low sounds and muted voices. My senses seemed strangely heightened. In the dim light I could see a shadowy figure crouched in the opposite corner. I moved, attracting its attention, and it arose and approached me. I shrank back in fear as I saw what it was; a worgen. However it made no effort to attack me.

"Who are you?" it asked hoarsely.

"I'm Nerissina." My own voice sounded just as hoarse. "Where are we?"

"I'm Tomas; and we're in Shadowfang keep."

I remembered his name as that of a patrol member who'd disappeared a few weeks ago.

"But you're a worgen."

"So are you now. Look at yourself."

I looked down at my hands; where not concealed by my armour they were covered in smooth silver grey hair and ended in claws. He handed me a bundle of material.

"Take off your armour. Put this on," he said. I hesitated; without my armour I would feel too vulnerable. "Do it, woman. They won't let you wear your armour here."

"Woman!" How good that word sounded at that moment. Here I was transformed into a creature that was less than human, yet he still saw me as I should be. He understood how important it was to retain that illusion of humanity no matter how we appeared.

Obediently I removed my armour and pulled on the coarse loose robe over my undergarments. Then I replaced my tabard. It wasn't armour but it was part of my identity and I wasn't about to give that up. Tomas shrugged as he bundled the armour into a sack and stuffed it out of sight under the bed.

"No one will bother with it if they don't see it," he explained. "And one day you may need it again."

"What happened to me? I remember the worgen attacking the camp then nothing."

He explained. When we'd been bitten by the worgen the poison in their saliva had triggered a change in our bodies, until we had become like them. Then they'd brought us to Shadowfang keep; to Archmage Arugal who kept worgen like us prisoner and experimented on us. We had the freedom of the keep because he believed we could not escape. Over the following weeks I was dosed with Arugal's foul potions and suffered his torture until I felt reality begin to slip away. Only the power of the Light within me held me together. I began to pray for death until the night I felt my child move within me. Against all the odds it was still alive, though how it had been affected by my transformation I had no way of knowing. Now I knew I had to escape for its sake. I had no idea how long I'd been at Shadowfang but now time would be measured by my growing child and the need to protect it.

I confided in Tomas, the only one I could trust, and we began to plan. At night when we were alone he taught me how to shapeshift into my former self. By day we explored every last corner of the keep but could find no way out. I began to fear that time would run out and my child would be born there and in its turn suffer Arugal's torments. Then at the last moment our luck changed. Arugal was hated by pretty much everyone around; and just when I feared my time would run out the keep was attacked. Under cover of the all out assault we retrieved our armour and headed for the main gates. One of the attackers saw us and turned his sword on Tomas. Unarmed as he was he'd have been cut down had I not tackled the man from behind. Between us we knocked him to the ground and I wrested the sword from his hands. It was a good weapon so I held on to it. I would not kill the man; after all he and his companions were providing the distraction we needed. After that we managed to slip out of the keep un-noticed and flee into the forest. When I heard later that Arugal had been killed I could not feel sorrow; it was a just punishment for his crimes. A small group of attackers pursued us and, slowed by the pain in my belly, I would have been taken had Tomas not led them away.

I crouched in a sheltered spot at the base of a tree and there alone in the gathering darkness I gave birth. My child was tiny, perfectly formed and unquestionably human. As the chill air hit her she gave a weak cry. Ripping off the remains of my tabard I wrapped it round her and held her close to my breast, careful not to harm her with my claws. I couldn't believe the strength of the love I felt for her. For some moments I just gazed at her, taking in every detail; her pale blue eyes, smooth fair skin, the hair that was somewhere in colour between mine and Arrentai's. How I wished he was with me; he was her father and he didn't even know she existed. Maybe, if Gillaen had told him what had happened, he now believed that I was dead.

I knew that I needed to move away before any predators smelled the blood and came looking for an easy meal. Wearily I stood up and looked straight into the muzzle of a gun. I'd been so intent on my child I hadn't heard the hunters approach. I can't imagine what they thought when they saw me. In my filthy blood stained robe I looked no different from any of the feral worgen that roamed these forests.

"Put the child down," the one with the gun said. "Filthy animal! Where did you steal it from?"

I shook my head. "She's mine," I protested but he didn't seem to hear. Too exhausted to think, to shapeshift, my one instinct was to protect her from these strangers who threatened us. I made no effort to reach for the sword that stood nearby, fearing that they would see it as an act of aggression and attack me. I backed away against the tree and held her close as she began to cry with hunger. With my claws I tore at the front of my robe and crouched down to let her suckle. She fell silent as she fed hungrily and for a moment I let my guard down. A second hunter, thinking no doubt that I was hurting her, stepped quickly forward and snatched her from my arms. Deprived of her comfort she began to wail again. With a howl of anguish I leapt at him to take her back. Too late I sensed the one who had circled behind and felled me with a blow to the head.

I awoke with a headache in yet another cell, lighter and less foul than the last, yet still a prison. There was no sign of my child. The hunters had handed me and my armour over to the army and left without mentioning her. No one I asked could tell me anything or indeed would believe that I had a child. For days I was examined and questioned relentlessly. Then I was told that as I obviously had control over myself I would rejoin my former regiment and was ordered to keep quiet about what had happened to me. Those in authority showed little surprise over the fact I had become worgen. It seemed this happened quite often; but it was being kept secret from the general populace.

Tomas too had returned as had quite a few other former soldiers who'd escaped from Shadowfang. A lot of the other soldiers didn't feel comfortable around us so we tended to keep to ourselves. Tomas asked me once what had happened after we were separated but he accepted my decision not to talk about it and never asked again.

Gillaen accepted us readily; but then coming from a family of druids he was used to people becoming animals; and I supposed he saw our change as similar in some way. I never told him that I could shapeshift; I never bothered doing it. As I had to fight in worgen form it was easiest to just stay that way. Anyway he was happy enough to serve with us; but he and I never regained our previous closeness. I knew that he would tell Arrentai that I had returned so, although it broke my heart, I told him that I no longer loved his brother and did not want to see him again. I had no choice; there could be no future for us now. What man would want a worgen for a wife? I resigned myself to the truth that I would never see my child again and buried her memory in the deepest part of my heart. Worgen can't easily weep; there's too much of the beast in us, but, by the Light, we can still feel the pain and grief of loss.

We continued our patrols against the Scourge, frequently engaging them in battle and maybe I was a little reckless sometimes; but I was stronger now and my worgen ferocity a bonus. The Light was still strong in me and I could still call it to my aid although not in the same way. It seemed that worgen could not follow the path of the paladin. My recklessness, however, was my ultimate undoing. We were in battle against a large Scourge force and things were going badly. I saw Tomas fall wounded and went to his aid. The Scourge warrior turned to defend itself from my attack allowing my friend to escape. I wasn't so lucky; beaten to its knees the Scourge creature thrust its sword upwards under my breastplate and into my heart. Dying, I fell before the undead monster. I felt coldness as my life ebbed away; then nothing.

I awoke in a vast empty barrack room. I didn't understand how this could be; I should be dead. I had felt that icy Scourge sword pierce my heart, draining my life and soul away. Oddly enough I felt no fear only a vague curiosity. I could remember nothing else, not even my name. Around me I could hear others stirring. I sat up and looked around. The whole room was filled with others like me, men and women bearing the scars of wounds that should have killed them. Close by me was a bearded bearlike man who seemed familiar; had we known each other? I couldn't be sure, but I could sense a bond between us.

There was no time to talk. A huge abomination of a man entered the room and began to address us. We learned what we now were; death knights. We had indeed died in battle but our soul-less bodies had been raised and brought here to the Ebon Hold to serve the Lich King. The awful hunger we now felt was not for food but a need to kill, to sate ourselves on the blood and pain of others. So long as we served and obeyed the Lich King that hunger could be controlled. If not it would control us and send us into madness. And so we served. Given new dark armour and rune-forged weapons that would draw the life from our victims we became a new army for the Lich King. I will not detail what we did, the numbers of people we killed or tortured. With no souls and consumed by that terrible endless hunger our deeds were too awful to describe.

But in the end the Lich King went too far and lost us. In his never-ending war against the forces of Light he sent us against first the Scarlet Crusade, then the Argent Dawn. We defeated the Scarlet Crusade at their enclave at Tyr's Hand, virtually wiping them out and enabling them to become undead. During that time my loyalty to the Lich King was tested yet again. We had captured a building where several captives, members of the Argent Dawn, had been held prisoners by the Scarlet Crusaders. I was ordered to go there and kill one to prove my loyalty. I thought nothing of it; I'd killed so many in cold blood; what was one more? But this was different; my hunger had been sated by recent battles and I was able to think clearly as I entered the building. There were several prisoners there of different races, all of them weak, injured, not capable of putting up a fight. The one I had been ordered to kill, a worgen male, was resigned to his fate yet determined to look me in the eye as I killed him. He looked up at me as I stood over him, sword in hand, and claimed to know me. He begged me to remember him; the time we had spent together in Shadowfang Keep; the friendship we had shared; the person I had once been. He was so eloquent, but in vain, I could remember nothing. However it was the beginning of the turning point for me; for the first time I began to doubt what I was doing. Nevertheless I had to kill him; I had no choice; it was him or me and I wasn't ready to surrender my life such as it was. With one stroke of my sword I ended his life and walked out of that building full of lost souls.

Then just days later we were sent en masse against Light's Hope Chapel and the Argent Dawn. It was to be the Lich King's undoing and our salvation.

There were thousands of death knights against just a few hundred of the Argent Dawn. The battle was fierce and we should have prevailed by sheer weight of numbers but they stood on holy ground with the Light on their side and we could not beat them. The ground was covered with dead, both theirs and ours.

At last we were ordered to stand down. Then Highlord Tirion Fordring appeared and spoke to our commander Highlord Darion Mograine. By some trick of the land every one of us heard what was said, that we had been sent on a suicide mission. We saw a vision of a spirit that was Mograine's father telling him he was not yet ready to wield his sword, the Ashbringer. It obviously had a profound effect on him for when the Lich King appeared and admitted that we were merely bait to bring Fordring out of hiding Mograine turned on him. He was not strong enough to prevail but he threw his corrupted sword to Fordring who cleansed it with his powers of Light and drove the Lich King back. Realising that he could not win this battle the Lich King fled. The power of the Light that filled the land that day was enough to restore our souls and free us from our servitude. As the shame and guilt of the terrible things I'd done filled my heart I sank to my knees weeping. Others around me did the same. My memory returned; I knew once again who I was; Nerissina Moonshade, once a paladin of the Light in the army of Gilneas. I heard Fordring and Mograine pledge to continue the fight against the Lich King, pursuing him even to his stronghold in Northrend. I vowed that when I was strong enough I would join them. I could never fully atone for my crimes, but I would devote my life to doing what I could.

I felt a hand on my shoulder and looked up into a face I knew well. Gillaen, battle weary, scarred, bearing fresh wounds, stood there beside me. His face too bore traces of the tears he had shed as his awareness returned. In silence I arose and with my friend at my side I walked into the tiny ramshackle chapel. I knelt there in prayer and repeated the vow that I had made outside; that I would help make the Lich King pay for his crimes or die in the attempt. Gillaen knelt beside me, and I believe made a similar vow.

Under the command of Highlord Mograine we returned to the Ebon Hold, cleansed it of the Scourge's abominations and made it our headquarters where any redeemed death knight could receive the help and training they needed. Mograine renamed us Knights of the Ebon Blade. Instead of serving the Scourge we would once more champion the Light. I could no longer draw on the power of the Light, channelling it through my body as I'd once been able to; I had to learn a new way of fighting; but I was once again aware of it there supporting me. We kept our rune-forged blades and the abilities bestowed on us by the Scourge, and we had to learn to balance those needs against our consciences if we were to be accepted once again. As each of us was ready we were sent to the leader of our former faction. Having once been human I was sent to Varian Wrynn, king of Stormwind and leader of the Alliance.