Sin: The Last Death Knight
Chapter 1 The Lost Brother
The day had finally come, the truth exposed out from the blind zealotry of their cause. Some had feared that victory in that bloody war would mean their end, though even fewer cared to believe it to be true. They fought day and night, with casualties almost too much to bear. Yet still they pressed on, turning their misery, their fear, and their pain into a weapon against the greatest foe of their time. But even so, just as their oppressor had met his fate, so too was their own destiny unavoidable.
They were once heroes who fell from grace. They were once monsters who fought to extinguish the light of life itself. But after the grotesque reality of their sins had betrayed them, they sought a sort of redemption in the utter destruction of he who created them as they were. In the end they were, as all were on that fateful day, heroes all the same.
He had been missing since the truth of his fate was revealed unto him. Yet with death so closely following his ever fading existence in this world, he still sought what would save the once immortal lives of his fellow knights. For days his brothers and sisters in arms, even his own blood-related sister, searched for any sign of his whereabouts. His strength and force of will was of great importance in the war, and to leave him to perish alone in those unforgiving wastelands would be traitorous in the eyes of his comrades.
Just as the expedition to find him was ready to give themselves to exhaustion, the young woman who was his sister looked to the south, of which lay the ruins of the infamous Icecrown Citadel. For years it had been disastrous to even notion venturing into that forsaken place. Now it simply lay there, a shell of its former, vile glory against the pale dusk of morn. The human who accompanied her on their quest to find her brother noticed that her gaze was fixed upon the fortress far off in the distance. He leaned over to her and whispered in her ear.
"What troubles you, milady? Is something amiss?"
"I can feel him…"
Her words cut through the ears of the others present. They stared sternly at her, following her gaze to that place of dread and nightmares.
"You know of his location, Lady Leryssa?" spoke a pale kaldorei woman, her beaming azure eyes fading as were the others.
The sister, of whose name was Leryssa, nodded her head.
"Very well…" spoke her escort. "Dethek! Fainrel! We ride to the Citadel!"
The human escort, along with the kaldorei and an equally pale orc, immediately mounted their winged, skeletal steeds with Leryssa leading the way on her own ebony gryphon. Within moments they were nearly at the walls of the ruined fortress. But something was not only amiss with the way Leryssa's eyes gazed blankly at the structure as they approached. There was something down there, something that was out of place.
"The silence is not becoming of this place…" spoke out the kaldorei named Fainrel.
Suddenly the orc named Dethek caught a swift glance of the light of the sun reflecting upon the blade of an arrow below. Its origins were from the faded balcony of the citadel itself, although much debris lay upon it with only a sole support beam to hold it in place. It was at that moment that he knew he must act.
"We must find the low ground! Now!" he ordered.
At that moment a volley of black arrows drove through the dawning sky from the balcony of which Dethek saw the arrow drawn. Fainrel was immediately struck down, along with her skeletal steed, by the onslaught of saronite arrows piercing their forms into ribbons. Dethek too fell from the barrage, but not before launching a massive death coil at the support beam with what minor power he held. The beam gave way under the strike, allowing the balcony to crumble along with the small battalion of vrykul that had positioned themselves upon it. Perhaps they were there to protect the final resting place of their death god, but now they lay dead at the bottom of the ramparts.
Leryssa and her escort called Jethero had safely landed at the foul entrance of Icecrown Citadel. The camp where the battering ram had been placed had long since been abandoned, although the stench of death still lingered heavily in the air. Many souls, both good and evil, lost themselves in the siege to take the malicious gate into the citadel. But in the end justice and retribution won, albeit at a heavy price. Before they could even begin to take their first steps into its tainted halls, a dying groan could be heard resonating from just beyond its entrance doors.
"Thassarian!" exclaimed Leryssa as she heard the familiar voice of her lost brother.
Just as she had called out her name a limp figure showed itself from the citadel doors. He crawled every inch using what little strength he held. The azure glow of his eyes were fading fast, but not as quickly as his sister running to his side. As his muscles gave way to fatigue she held him in her arms, tears trickling down her young face.
"I thought… I thought you were… dead…" she said.
"Not… not yet…" he grunted as he coughed blood from his mouth. "It looks like, however… that I cannot return to you… dear sister…"
"Don't leave me again!"
"Enough with those tears, Leryssa… I want you to take this from me…"
Gripped tightly in his right hand Thassarian held the shard of a blade with the same menacing azure light that once filled his eyes. In it Leryssa could feel a deep seated evil laying dormant within, although it remained passive in her brother's grasp. Leryssa managed to take her eyes from the shard to once again look into her brother's eyes.
"I know that look in your eye… I suppose this is it… Isn't it?"
"Not quite… I am afraid this war is far… from over. Even in defeat… the Lich King still holds some form of… power. Keep this close to you, dear Leryssa… and perhaps one day your children… will know of peace…"
With great sorrow weighing heavily on her heart, Leryssa reluctantly took the shard from Thassarian's hand, its aura fading as it touched her own hand.
"I'll keep it close to my heart, dear brother…"
Just before his last breath left him, Thassarian managed to hold a smile upon his pallid face, the likes of which Leryssa had not seen in years. The young woman tightened her embrace upon him, a final farewell to the only family she had left. Just as her brother's spirit left her, Jethero approached her with a similarly grave expression on his face.
"It is still not safe here, milady. The most we can do is collect the fallen to give them a proper burial."
"You are right, Jethero. Let us leave this place…"
Jethero carried Thassarian's corpse to his skeletal steed as Leryssa mounted upon her gryphon. As they fled that horrible place, Leryssa held the shard close to her heart, knowing full well of the great, dormant evil that resided within. As the sun set upon the bleak wasteland of Icecrown, so did the resolved light of the world's greatest heroes fall into darkness. Perhaps the world would one day again know of such redeemed warriors, but for now their names would only echo in the annals of legend.