Hey all! I finally got around to editing the beginning chapters. Don't worry, I'm also writing the next one, so there'll be a new update soon!
Heh, it's funny. I bought myself Cata for christmas, was in blasted lands, and what do I see? Clarya and Rohan SUNVEIL. Damn you, Blizzard. DX
Anyway, this chapter is mostly just grammar fixing, but as I continue to edit the story, tiny details will change, so please feel free to R&R
Prologue: Meeting Melu.
Silvermoon City, the dystopian eden of the Horde. In the spectacular garden of elven lords, ladies, knights and magisters of the sin'dorei society, Melusina Sunveil was the lone wallflower.
Melusina grew up on the Sunveil estate. A château standing proud and glorious on it's own little island large enough for the three generations of Sunveil to live comfortably. An ornate red and gold bridge floating serenely above the sea, leading straight to the winding, ever-blooming gardens filled with patrolling lynxes and curious dragonhawks.
The château was off the coast, east of the city, and easily within walking or riding distance. However none of the adult Sunveil's left their sea-borne sanctuary for anything less than a call-to-arms or an extravagant social event. Melu was the black sheep of her white-collared family, where the men were boastful, glory-addicted paladins, and the women- priestesses- were all vain gossip-mongers.
She was generic, as far as blood elves went, though a little more curvy than the average sin'dorei woman. Which, among the Sunveil's exceptional beauty and narcissism, meant she was downright ugly and her voluptuousness simply written off as fat. Rich brown hair always pulled back in a simple ponytail, wispy strands framing her face. Her peachy skin smooth and unblemished, except for a single scar that ran from the joint on the left side of her jaw, to the right corner of her hairline, cutting across her eye. The girl had gotten it mysteriously when she was young, refusing to tell anyone how it had happened. Whoever sliced the poor child's face had used a lethal poison to make the healing process nigh impossible. After three weeks of bed nursing, Melu's mother finally managed to repair the wound with only a thin scar and a mostly usable eye as a result.
As a child, Melu was endlessly teased by her age-mates, singling out both her people-pleasing personality and her inability to stand up for herself. She was a very bright girl with a deep curiosity for things. She spent most of her time either reading or begging one of the servants to teach her their trade, quickly becoming enamored by skills of the Sunveil family's personal tailors and jewelers. None of this lessened the verbal abuse she found herself subjected to by the other children, and eventually, as time went on, everyone else in the city who knew of her. With the exception of her brother Remiel and her cousin Haphaestus, the other Sunveil's did nothing to ease her suffering.
Her family consisted of three generations of blood knights and priestesses. The adults had very strict views on what their children's futures would be like. The children were allowed to have hobbies as long as they didn't interfere with their studies. The men became paladins, the women became priestesses. Any and all deviations from this path would be dealt with harshly. The Sunveil's lived liked prized birds in a showcase. They were the vain trump card that the city left untouched unless their commanding officers were willing to deal with their over-the-top self-righteousness. Of course, even trump cards can fail. So when half the family was lost in the Third War during Arthas' attack on Silvermoon, the remaining survivors' confidence were shattered. They mourned for years, rejecting the sight of their once beloved sea-rimmed estate and instead hiding themselves in the inns and bars of the city until eventually the chaotic combination of anguish and magical overdosing warped the last of the adult Sunveil's into Wretched. They were met with a quick and merciless execution by the city guards.
The Sunveil name was now balancing on a blade's edge between the lifelong respect they fought to earn and the utter shame that their quick and complete annihilation brought them. Melu certainly didn't help matters. She never felt any urge to bring attention to herself nor did she carry herself with pride like any good Sunveil should. After the fall of the family, there remained only four Sunveil's who had neither gone to war nor succumbed to their magical addiction. Melusina, at the tender age of nine, her 14 year old brother and their cousin, Remiel and Haphaestus, and their grandfather, Champion Balderius Sunveil.
Though the despair he felt the day his wife and children were lost was unquestionable, Melu recalled his face a different day so much more clearly. It was the day Haphaestus had told him he wouldn't become a paladin. In fact, Haphaestus had absolutely no intention of learning any sort of fighting skill whatsoever. Instead he planned to stay safely tucked away inside the walls of Silvermoon City and become a blacksmith.
"Do you mock me?" She could still remember how red Balderius' face had been, and how the entire château seemed to shake with his rage. The young red-haired blood elf merely smirked and shrugged nonchalantly.
"Well," he hummed, "I figured I'd learn some jewelcraftin' on th' side, if that's alright with you, Baldy?" At the sound of his less than respectable nickname, Balderius snapped. Not even bothering to correct Haphaestus' slurring speech which had always annoyed the elder elf, he called for the nearest servant. He had his oldest grandchild banished from both the estate and the Sunveil family in less than a minute, despite Remiel's loud protests. Melu couldn't bring herself to mention her cousin- the one who had practically raised her- in front of her grandfather after that day.
When the day came that Remiel finally admitted to Balderius that he wanted to learn the ways of the mage instead of the paladin, it went over surprisingly better than either sibling expected. Remiel was promptly removed from Sunveil property, but he wasn't disowned like Haphaestus. Despite having nowhere to live, he was able to take out a limited supply of money from the bank to rent a small apartment in the city. Balderius forbade Melu from contacting either her brother or Haphaestus.
"You are the last heir to the Sunveil family, so you had better shape up and prepare for your studies as a priestess," Melu's grandfather had said to her on her 11th birthday. After Remiel's departure, Balderius began watching the girl like a hawk, dictating her every move, nitpicking every flaw, hoping to instill a little obedience and seriousness in her. "By the Sunwell, start with that atrocious body of yours, you are not a tauren."
Melu had honestly believed she was going to be a priestess. What else was there? Everyone in their family had been paladins and priestesses. Just as Balderius would always say to her, Remiel and Haphaestus were just being foolish, they would realize what little glory there was in their chosen paths, and come back begging for forgiveness. But as time passed and the more she thought about it, the less sure she was. Two years later, Melu could remember sitting in a sullen, candlelit silence across from Balderius on the anniversary of the Wretched Sunveil. Melu hated that day with a passion. Balderius ordered everyone on the estate from using magic and the day long withdrawal left Melu prone to anxiety attacks. She was always sent to bed early where she would toss and turn and not get a wink of sleep. However, before she had retired for the night, she spoke. Melu finally found the strength she had been searching for all those years.
"Gra-Grandfather, please, I beg of you, I don't want to become a priestess-" Melu watched as Balderius' fork slowly lowered and her courage escaped her with a cruel, mocking whoosh of air. She stuttered, "I-I... I want-"
"I do not care. Remove yourself from my home."
She hadn't even been given the luxury of packing her belongings. As if she were a child whose pranks they had grown weary of, she was thrown out. Sitting on one of the magically conjured steps that lead up to the floating bridge, she had spent the night watching the lights of the city glitter in the distance, confused and hurt.
Needless to say, Melu never told anyone what she truly wanted ever again.
A year later, and the young girl found herself under the tutelage of the same magister as Remiel, mostly because he was the only blood elf in the entire city that didn't look at her as if she were some kind of annoying vermin. For that same reason, she tried her hardest at everything she did, even if she didn't necessarily like it or agree with it. Even if her peers, out of jealousy, boredom, or pure cruel intent, tried to hinder her progress.
Remiel felt proud and confident in his sister the day he received orders to leave for Undercity. She had begun to bloom into a beautiful young woman, unfortunately all the teasing she endured as a child blinded her to any of her good qualities. When Melu found out her older brother was leaving, she cried so hard she lost her voice. After losing half the Sunveil family on some distant battlefield, and watching the other half wither away to nothing, it was easy to say her greatest fear was the loss of the two people in the world who had cared for her most. Melu locked herself in her room with her brother's traveling bag. Remiel and Haphaestus had tried for several hours to coax the girl out to no avail. It finally took the siblings' teacher, Magister Dawnwind to threaten to transform Melu into a furbolg for her to finally relinquish the bag.
As she watched her brother mount his hawkstrider, she remembered wondering to herself, would she ever leave this hateful city? Did she really want to? If her own people treated her with that much disdain, how would the other races of the Horde look at her?
Melu decided she didn't want to know. She didn't feel ready just yet. Maybe tomorrow, or the next day, if she was feeling brave enough.
Maybe.
But only if she felt brave.
