Note: This is a work in the same vein as Doom: Repercussions of Evil Mark II.

Chapter 1

A hole in the ground.

That was all Anchorite Ranith had at the moment. A hole in the ground where she hid from the rain that poured down over Zangarmarsh. Where she hid from everything that had happened over the last four days. Ever since she had left the safety and security of Shattrath City.

But then, Shattrath wasn't safe anymore. The blood elves had come to destroy it, as the orcs had before them, and they were succeeding. Both of her parents had stayed to defend the city, sending her away so that some part of them would continue on. "For if you are to die," her mother had said, "it will be as if we never existed." Ranith had turned to her father, hoping to see some reticence, any chance for her to stay in the city of her birth. But there had been none.

And so she fled. She recalled the stories she had heard of her people's history. The story of the draenei was one of pilgrimage. They wandered constantly, seeking a place to call home. Each new place, each new city they built, was only a temporary reprieve from this. And now, Ranith reflected, I have become like so many draenei throughout the ages; born to a home that I will never see again.

She took a moment to take stock of her surroundings. It was perhaps more than a hole in the ground, but it was not deep enough to merit being called a cave. It might have been the den of one of the strange fungal creatures of Zangarmarsh, but it was currently unoccupied. As the cooling of the air signaled the coming of night, Ranith prayed silently that any prior occupant of the den find someplace else to bed down.

The young priestess had finally let herself relax enough to doze off when a noise outside the den brought her instantly to full alertness. She looked to see a large dark shape approaching, backlit by the glowing mushrooms of the marsh. She reached into herself, feeling the darkness within. The priesthood had taught her to use that darkness as a weapon, and it was a practice at which she excelled.

Its movements were heavy and accompanied by the rattle of metal on metal. Ranith noted the glint of phosphorescent light reflecting off of a sword. She marshaled her strength, readying a bolt of Shadow to hurl at the shape.

Suddenly, the sword lowered and a booming laugh rang out. "Don't worry. I'm a friend."

Ranith halted her attack and focused her eyes on her target. As she adjusted her eyes to the dim light, she was able to see what it was that approached her. It was a male of her species. He wore plate armor that was not brightly polished, but well maintained. Heavy pauldrons rested on impossibly broad shoulders. His expression was full of youth and energy, but the tendrils that grew from his chin gave him the look of a bearded sage.

He took stock of her as well. She was slender and willowy, the slightly blue light of the mushrooms behind him brought out the red in her purple skin. Her long brown hair had not been brushed in several days, and the silk robe she wore was caked with mud.

"Where did you come from, girl?" he asked.

"I left Shattrath four days ago. And my name is Ranith."

This inspired another booming laugh from the male. "You must have been traveling in the swamp this whole time. I left Shattrath three days ago and only today was my path forced into the mud of the swamp."

This was true. Prior to this exodus, Ranith had rarely wandered past the walls of Shattrath and knew little of the world beyond it. When she was told to leave for the Harborage, her parents had little time to brief her on geography. A few simple directions and her faith in the Light were all she had to guide her.

Which would have been enough, if her "as the crow flies" route hadn't carried her into the marsh. Her small, delicate hooves penetrated deeply into the soft mud, throwing her off balance several times. Between falling down, cursing herself for falling down, and being extra careful with her footing, she could easily believe that she had wasted a full day.

"I'm Alexei, by the way. Are you hungry?"

Ranith nodded eagerly. She hadn't eaten in days. What provisions she had brought with her had not lasted long.

Alexei slung a small pack from his back. He drew out two of his rations, passing one to Ranith. As she ate, she felt Alexei's eyes studying her. There was no interest in his eyes, only study. It was a healer's gaze, assessing her for illness or injuries. She had learned the same technique herself as part of her anchorite training. That gave her one more piece of information about her visitor.

"Why didn't you stay to defend the city, Vindicator Alexei?" Her tone was accusatory.

"I was ordered away. My commander told me to report to Orebor Harborage, and he's someone it doesn't pay to argue with." He sighed. It was clear to Ranith that he would have preferred defending Shattrath to running through Zangarmarsh

She was reminded of her parents. How she had argued with them, begging to stay and fight. She had shouted, ranted and raved, but her mother refused to budge. She simply stood, letting Ranith spend herself, and then calmly explained the situation again. "Draenei do not fight for their past. We remember our past. We fight for our future. Now go. Be our future."

The young priestess was brought back to the present by Alexei's voice. "You are tired. Go ahead and sleep. I'll keep watch. I'll wake you when it's my turn to rest." He pulled a small blanket from his pack and covered her with it.

A few hours before sunrise, he roused her. "Wake up, Ranith. It is your time to watch over me."

The young priestess sat up and stretched, wiping the sleep from her eyes. Even though she hadn't slept for the full night, she felt remarkably rested. Just being able to sleep knowing that there was someone preventing the monsters of the marsh from eating her was a significant boon.

Alexei took a moment to look out over Zangarmarsh. No one and no thing seemed to be paying any attention to the small enclave. He turned back to Ranith. "Help me with my armor, will you?"

He unlatched the buckles that held the heavy shoulder plates onto the chest piece. Ranith lifted this gingerly over his head and set it down beside him. Already he was at work freeing himself from his breastplate. It took both of them to manage it, but the bulky chest piece finally came free and was set down next to the pauldrons. He then slipped off the thick cotton padding, revealing a broad muscular chest.

There were few scars. Alexei had clearly used the healing powers he had been taught as a vindicator to ensure that his wounds healed cleanly and swiftly. What commanded Ranith's attention was an unusual pattern of welts and bruises that were imprinted across the pale blue skin of his torso.

"Have you been sleeping in your armor?"

"No choice. Take it off and I become a much easier target for beast and bandit alike. Keep it on and I'm uncomfortable but alive." He grunted as he pulled off one of his greaves. As he handed it to her, she touched him and called upon the small spark of the Light within her to cast a healing spell.

He finished his undressing procedure and stretched out his newly healed muscles. Pulling the small blanket over himself, he quickly fell asleep.

For the first time in days, Ranith did not feel like a fragile leaf left to the winds of fate. She now had a companion, an ally. She prayed to the Light for fortitude and resolved that nothing would harm Alexei while he got his well-earned rest.

She spent the next several hours contemplating her situation. A number of times, she thought of trying to wake the vindicator to see if he had any news of her parents or the fate of Shattrath. But each time, she realized that his news was only slightly fresher than her own. As she looked upon him sleeping soundly, she could not bring herself to rouse him.

Finally, the light of the morning sun began to filter through the marsh foliage. It took barely a touch to awaken Alexei. After sharing a quick, simple breakfast with Ranith, he set about the ritual of putting on his armor. Ranith tended to her own rituals, thanking the Light for the new day and renewing her prayer for stamina. She then took an extra moment to grant this gift to the vindicator as well.

Emerging from their den, Alexei pulled in a deep breath of marsh air. Glancing around cautiously, he waved Ranith to him. "Come on. If all goes well, we can be to the Harbor by nightfall."

Ranith stumbled several times as she tried to keep up with her companion. "Is this your first time away from the city?" Alexei asked.

"No," Ranith replied defensively. "My father once took me to see the teromoths outside the gates."

That was just a mere step outside of the city, Alexei knew. The fact that she had made it as far as she had had required both willpower and sheer luck. He found himself simultaneously pitying her lack of experience and admiring how far she had gotten in spite of it.

The vindicator walked through the mud with a slow and careful rhythm. Keeping his weight on his rear foot, he pointed his front hoof downward to spear into the mud. He slowly shifted his weight forward until his hoof encountered something solid enough to stand on. Repeating this process allowed him to make slow but steady progress through the muck of the swamp.

"I trained at Orebor. If I remember rightly, there's a road a mile or so in this direction. We should make better progress if we can reach it as soon as possible."

He reached out to Ranith as she slogged through the mud to catch up with him. Now that she had an example to follow, her progress through the mud was much more stable. She still couldn't match Alexei's pace, but she was able to waste less time with her face planted in the bog.

Once Alexei saw that she had a good grasp of the technique, he risked conversation. "Were you close to your father?"

She paused for a moment, trying desperately not to imagine her father's bloody corpse rotting on the streets of Shattrath. Finally succeeding in that, her face became wistful. "I don't think close is really the word for it. He always made time for me, made sure that I was taken care of, but I cannot say that I knew his heart. He was so devoted to his family, his troops, everyone around him. With all that he gave, I don't know if he had anything left of himself at the end of the day."

"Troops? Your father was a fighting man?"

"A vindicator, like yourself. He joined the Peacekeepers as a young man. My mother was a combat medic attached to his unit. It's where they met."

"Do you have any brothers or sisters?"

"No. I'm an only child. What about you?" Ranith was getting tired of being reminded of her parents. She greatly feared that she might never see them again.

"Only child as well," he replied. "My mother died when I was quite young. I never knew my father."

"Oh, my." An image flashed through her mind. She imagined her newfound friend as a small boy living on the streets of Shattrath, stealing for his food, sleeping in the storm drains.

He must have seen the look on her face. "I was raised by my grandmother. She worked very hard to make sure that I had all that I needed," he explained. "Ah, here's the trail. Right on target."

The road was much firmer than the swamp mud they had been traveling in. Now Ranith only sank hoof-deep into mud, instead of down to the hock as she had previously.

"So you followed your parents into serving the Light?" Alexei asked. Conversation would help pass the time, he decided. Also, she would be easier to protect if she trusted him. The fact that she was a beautiful female and a captive audience didn't hurt either.

"No. It was my own decision. If it had been otherwise, my parents would have counseled me against it."

At that moment, one of Ranith's hooves slipped out from under her, seating her firmly in the mud of the trail. And she cried. She cried four days of fear, anxiety, humiliation, loss, and pain. It flowed down her cheeks in small but steady rivulets.

Alexei turned, reaching to help her up. When he saw that she was crying, he grunted. He was preparing to give her a dressing down for giving up, but then he reminded himself that she was not a vindicator. She was a girl who had been forced into extraordinary circumstances with no preparation at all.

He knelt down in front of her. He reached out with a hand, gently lifting her chin so that she could look him in the eyes. "It is difficult, I know, to lose so much in so short a time. To be thrust into the unfamiliar, pulled away from the comfortable with no warning whatsoever. But we are alive. The fact that we can feel the pain should give us hope. Each day is a blessing, we are told. And so it is. Even today."

Somewhere between the sobs, Alexei could have sworn he heard a chuckle. He rose, keeping his hand extended so she could pull herself up. "Come. Should either of us live to see tomorrow, it cannot be worse than today."

She took his arm and lifted herself. Her hooves dug into the mud as they resumed supporting her weight. A few nervous steps followed, but soon they were making good time towards Orebor Harbor again.

Suddenly, Alexei held out a hand, signaling Ranith to stop. "Be careful," he said. "We are very near Serpent Lake. There may be nagas about."

"Nagas?"

"You've never seen one before, have you?" Ranith shook her head. "Of course you haven't. Pray that you don't. They are quite vicious when provoked. And they're easily provoked."

Although they couldn't silence the squelching sounds their feet made in the mud, they made sure to walk on the side of the road farthest from the lake. Ranith looked toward the lake warily, hoping to catch sight of these creatures while hoping that they did not see her.

She got her wish. Some distance from the road, a male naga was sunning himself on a rock. The sunlight made his scales glisten. His head was tilted back and his mouth was open, which made Ranith think of a dragon roaring. The naga's torso was narrower than a male draenei's, but still well formed. Pleasurably so, she thought, until Alexei broke her reverie with a tap on the shoulder.

"Let's not spend any more time here than absolutely necessary," he reminded her. "Our objective is to make it to Orebor Harbor in one piece."

She blushed, her blue blood rushing to her cheeks.

"Besides, a girl like you probably has better things to stare at than nagas."

"What do you mean by that?" she asked, her tone defensive.

"I'm sure a belle of the ball such as yourself probably had a hundred suitors back in Shattrath. If you were close to choosing a favorite, a Peacekeeper commander like your father could probably ensure that he was spared, as we were."

Ranith's face turned to stone. "There was no one," she stated firmly. Her mother had always been trying to fix her up with one eligible male or another. She never liked anyone that her mother approved of, and her mother never approved of anyone she liked.

"What about you?" she asked, trying to deflect attention away from herself.

"No one," he admitted. "Sure, there were many females who would like to be attached to a vindicator, but very few of them were willing to see beyond that."

The priestess found this amusing. "There is more to Vindicator Alexei than simply vindicator? I'm surprised."

"There are many things that would surprise you about me."

The sun had just gone behind the Blade's Edge Mountains as the Harborage came into view. "Let us hurry!" Alexei called behind him as he ran. "You might even be able to sleep in a bed tonight!"

That inspired Ranith to dash as quickly as she dared over the mud of the path. Soon, they were close enough to see the guards patrolling the outskirts of the town. A bit of shouting and waving managed to attract their attention.

"Alexei, old friend. It's good to see you!" came the greeting. "The Prophet told us to stop expecting newcomers after today and we were giving up hope."

"Haruun! I didn't think I'd ever see you again. The Prophet, you say? He still lives?"

"Come, you must be tired. A bath and some rest and then you'll hear all about it."

The bath was a simple tub and a bar of tallow soap, but Ranith savored it as if it were a spa with rose petals in the water and perfumed oils. The bed was likewise unadorned, but felt luxurious after days spent sleeping in varying types of mud.

She awoke with the dawn, for once looking forward to what the day would bring. She borrowed a linen shift from one of the other females and set about washing her robes and setting them to dry in the sun.

On her way to breakfast, she encountered Alexei again. The differences between "clean" Alexei and "dirty" Alexei were slight, but noticeable. His armor had a slightly brighter sheen to it. His hair was pulled back in a tail, rather than the loose mop he'd had when she met him. He no longer smelled of sweat and mud, but now oil and polish.

"Enjoying life among the refugees?" she teased.

"You haven't noticed, have you?" he smirked.

"Noticed what?"

"Look around you. Look at these people. Where are the wounded? Where are the children, the elders? Only the able and the strong are here."

"What are you talking about?" Ranith's brow furrowed.

"This isn't a refugee camp. This is a war camp. The refugees were probably sent to Telredor, which is much easier to defend. Anyone who could still fight was sent here."

Ranith could not argue. The simple dress she wore was borrowed from a fire mage. Nearly everyone in the camp was wearing some kind of armor. Even her priestly robe incorporated secrets of the tailor's art that were useful for defense.

They entered the inn, which had been converted into a mess kitchen. Ranith and Alexei picked up plates and walked down the line as a variety of stewed vegetables and meats were unceremoniously served. Exiting the inn, they sought a small patch of ground to sit upon.

Halfway through their meal, Haruun found them. In the morning light, Ranith could see him much more clearly than she had the previous night. His skin was a pale blue, made paler by the sheen of his armor. Dark brown hair was tied in a topknot that was visible over his well-developed forehead crest. A glimmering broadsword was strapped to his back.

"Good, I have found you. And together, even. The Prophet wishes to speak with the two of you."

Ranith was shocked. Throughout her training with the Aldor Priesthood, she had always thought of Velen as a distant figure, beyond the concerns of ordinary draenei. And now this legend was asking for her. Even Alexei needed a moment to catch his breath after the news.

They hurriedly finished their breakfasts, eager to learn what this great figure had in store for them. Although there were some permanent structures at the Harborage, they were now outnumbered by tents, lean-tos and other temporary placements. Haruun led them to a tent that was slightly larger than the rest.

The first thing that struck them as they entered the tent was the light. As their eyes adjusted the realized that it was not simply light, it was the Light. One of the crystalline entities known as the naaru occupied the tent. Cosmic emissaries of the Light, they had protected and guided the draenei people for millennia. Both Ranith and Alexei knew that the divine powers they wielded were granted by these enigmatic beings. They bowed their heads reverently.

"So good of you to come."

It took the pair several seconds to realize that the voice had come, not from the naaru, but from the tent's other inhabitant. An imposing elder draenei stood to the side of the crystal form. Prophet Velen. Again, both of them bowed.

"I am told that you are the last people to arrive at the camp last night," Velen said, breaking the somber silence.

"That is true, Prophet," replied Alexei.

"As soon as I heard the news, I knew I had to meet you." He paused for a moment, collecting his thoughts. "Prophecy is a gift, it is true. But it is not a map of the future. It is visions, feelings, and intuitions. I had one such feeling last night upon hearing that we had late arrivals. Meeting you two personally has only confirmed this feeling."

"What is this feeling?" Ranith implored.

"Each of you has a destiny awaiting you. A thread of fate pulls each of you through trials and troubles. These tribulations will only be ended when your threads are woven together."

Both of them were stunned. Ranith was first to speak. "Are you saying I'm supposed to marry him?"

Her mother playing at matchmaker had been bad enough. To have Prophet Velen take on the same role was beyond comprehension.

"Of course not. Your hearts and your minds belong to you. You have the power to heed my words or ignore them. Simply know that they are true."

"Prophet?" Ranith asked. Velen simply nodded his assent. "Does this destiny involve retaking Shattrath?"

"No, my child. The Burning Legion has drawn too close. It is not our future."

"But surely we must make some effort. All the lives we have lost!" Alexei exclaimed.

"Which will have been wasted if we throw even more lives away on their behalf." Prophet Velen spoke quickly, cutting him off. He paused and his voice became thoughtful. "We must again seek a new world, a new home. A more heroic task I could not wish for. Will you join me in making a stand for the future of our people?"

"I will" Ranith stated firmly.

"I am yours to command, Prophet," said Alexei.

"Make preparations for battle. I fear another clash is unavoidable and we must be ready for it."

With a final bow, they took their leave of the elder draenei.

"It's not right," Alexei muttered through gritted teeth. "So many good people dead and we run away."

"There's nothing else to be done, Alexei. If the Burning Legion gets their hands on us, then we are all dead. We must have faith." Ranith ran to keep up with his angry steps.

He shook his head angrily. "We stand on the eve of battle against an unbeatable foe and you seek to placate me with homilies you learned in seminary!"

Ranith leapt in from of him, stopping him cold. "We were also taught that our faith is most important when it is challenged. It is challenged now, Alexei. Is your faith faltering?"