Okay. So apparently I forgot to update this one as quickly as I had intended. And by that I mean I meant to have had this done by now... Oops! Oh well! To chapter 2 we go!
Raging Archon: Shhh... You saw nothing.
The March of the Damned
Valethria let out a tired sigh as she magically unlocked the door to her room, clumsily fumbling around with the magical incantation in her mind as she watched the spell frizzle out a few times before finally succeeding in dispelling the magical ward placed on the hinge.
Today marked the third time this week.
The third time this week that she had been forced to spend almost all day being reprimanded by some of the more senior for her 'less than conventional' tactics and mannerisms both in and out of the class.
She let the torture of the last few hours of lectures slowly seep into the back of her mind as she gently pushed opened the door and found Varimas there, sitting over a small scroll, reading silently to himself with a frown on his face.
Varimas was certainly an interesting one, Valethria had decided long ago. He had certainly become much more extroverted since the two had become friends, adopting some of her sarcasm into his demeanor.
A negative for some, but an improvement in her eyes.
"Hey Partner."
"Evening Vale." Varimas replied, adopting a smug smirk, though he did not bother to glance over at the female elf, "How'd your chew-out session with the council go?"
"Oh, just Peachy!..." Valethria loudly groaned as she stumbled over to her bed and flopped down onto it like a fish, grabbing up at the air, sparks flying around her finger tips. "I mean come on! Just because I do things differently shouldn't mean I get screeched at for it!..."
Varimas sighed, realizing that her multi hour lecture had done little to drill any sort of lesson into her brain. "Just promise you won't ever set another apprentice's robes on fire ever again."
"Ugh... But-..."
"Promise me."
"Fine... I won't set anyone's robes on fire anymore 'father'..."
"Good."
Silence passed over the room for only a moment.
"...just their-..."
"Vale!"
"What?" Valethria laughed, bringing herself up to a sitting position as she watched as her friend rolled his eyes in an exaggerated manner at her implied comment.
Varimas could only sigh at the young woman's words, though he could not eliminate the smile present on his face, at least until he found it in himself to turn back to his scroll, the unpleasant scowl to his face in a flash.
Apparently, at least according to the scroll that had arrived for him only minutes before, the Undead Scourge had recently obliterated Lordaeron, with some rumors that Prince Arthas himself, long thought to have been lost to the harsh north, was leading the Armies of the Damned.
Granted, these were only rumors, but something in his gut told him that the 'rumors' he now read about were more real, and more dangerous, than anyone wanted to admit.
"So where do you want to go for dinner?" Valethria spoke up, brining Varimas back to his present situation. "I think the Acadamy kitchens are closed for the night since an apprentice's conjuring spell went haywire."
"Which one?" Varimas asked, "Was it the gnome again?"
"Uh... No, I think it was that snooty one who keeps talking about-..."
Suddnely, a loud knock at the door caused the two to snap their attention to the entrance of their room, silencing any further conversation.
"Brightsong! Sorrowsun! Open this door at once!" A voice called out from the other side of the wooden door, sounding none too amused.
Valethria quickly worked to magically unlock the door, though that focus was immediately shifted to stiffening her posture to attention, along with Varimas, who had shot up from his chair.
They both silently bowed before none other than their Prince, Kael'Thas Sunstrider, who stood before them.
He nodded once, and as if by practice, the two stood, gazing at the prince in confusion.
"I bring dire news my friends." Kael'Thas muttered, his voice normal now that he wasn't screaming through the thick wooden door that separated the room from the rest of the building. "Have the two of you heard any rumors coming out of the other human kingdoms? Lordaeron for instance?"
"Yes, your majesty." Varimas replied, holding up the scroll he had just recently been scanning. "I was just reading a missive stating that Lordaeron was just recently sacked by the Undead."
"Correct Sorrowsun..." Kael'Thas nodded, his voice grim, "And they're now headed to Silvermoon at a blistering pace. They've already toppled one of our protective barriers that cut off Eversong from the rest of Lordaeron!..."
"You're..." Valethria nervously chuckled. "You're just Joking right?... Right Kael?"
Kael'Thas could only shake his head solemnly. "I wish I was..."
Varimas seemed frozen in place for what seemed like an eternity, in truth only a few moments, before he snapped back to his senses, beginning to rush around the he room frantically. "I'll get the reagents for a portal ready! Vale, you start casting the initial stabilization spells!"
"Got i-..."
"Setting up the reagents for the portal would take too much time." Kael'Thas interrupted, causing both elves to stop what they were doing in order to glance at their monarch. "We'll just have to do this the old fashioned way."
With that Kael'Thas pulled out a small stone, which both Varimas and Valethria recognizes as a hearthstone, only with the Sunstrider family crest etched into the stone in place of the usual swirling design.
"Kael... I was under the impression that your father explicitly forbade use of that stone excluding emergencies!..." Varimas pointed out, his voice laced with worry. Was the situation truly dire enough for the Prince to consider angering his father? Was the Scourge threat truly that vast?
"And this isn't one?" Kael'Thas asked, answering Varimas' questions before they could even leave his lips. "The Damned are marching, and they refuse to halt their advance no matter what our troops seem to throw at them, be it arrow, spell, or sword!..."
Kael'Thas sighed and strolled past his two fellow high elves, who watched curiously as he walked to the window, staring down at the Mage city below them.
"Even Dawnblade's forces are struggling..." He admitted, clenching his fists. Dawnblade had been one of their best warriors, and now even he was missing. "The last anyone has seen of him he was rushing to meet up with the Ranger General, Sylvanas Windrunner, so that they could evacuate the outlying towns."
"Sylvanas-..."
"Wait. But why come to us? It's not like we're anything special," Valethria interrupted, giving a small shrug. "Especially considering the circumstances. We're only two elves, you'd have better luck in fighting off the Scourge if we-..."
"Untrue Brightsong." Kael'Thas interrupted, turning around to face she and Varimas. "While your methods tend to be 'unorthodox' none of us can deny that you are one of our best pyromancer trainees, even by elven standards."
Kael'Thas turned to Varimas.
"And while you have little to offer in terms of raw power, I find your eye for strategy and coordination admirable." He explained before holding out the hearthstone towards the two training magi. "I'll need you both fighting by our people's side right now... While we still have a people to fight for..."
Both Valethria and Varimas turned to each other for a moment, nodding once before turning back to the prince.
"We understand," Valethria spoke up. "We're ready to go, my Prince."
The moment that the three high elves found themselves on solid group once more Kael'Thas immediately sprung to action.
Without waiting to see if Varimas and Valethria were conscious, the elven Prince leapt to his feet and called back to them while making a break in the direction of Silvermoon City, "I'll go ahead, you two check in the village and see if there are any survivors hiding in the ruins!"
"Yes sir!" Valethria saluted, before turning to her partner, "Let's go Vari-... Huh? Hey! Varimas!"
Varimas is already headed towards the nearby village, which Valethria quickly recognized as Fairbreeze Village, a determined look etched on his face. His posture was rigid and practiced. A sign that he was only barely bottling up his emotion.
"Hey, wait up!..." Valethria called out as she ran after him, blinking a few times across the scorched ground in order to catch up.
When she finally was able to reach him he had already pushed in front of the door to the inn, charging in with a small knife drawn, presumably in order to counter any ambush.
When his eyes adjusted to the light of the inn he noticed that instead of the ambush of undead he had been expecting, he instead found multiple elves, civilian and merchants alike, all crouched down in corners, looking up at him in fear.
Valethria entered the inn just as Varimas began speaking, his tone loud and authoritative. "I need to speak to a solider at once!"
After a moment of tense silence a soft cough came from across the room.
"...Over here sir..."
Varimas glanced over to see a male elven soldier leaning against a wall, clutching a bandaged wound that seemed to still be open, at least if the stain on the back of his hand was anything to go by.
"Good, I need you to tell me where Dawnblade and his men are!"
"Dawnblade? No idea..." The solider grunted, bringing himself upright, though it was obvious such an action only intensified the burning pain in his side. "As far as I know he's missing in action..."
"What do you mean he's missing?!" The blonde haired elf yelled as he brought his fist against a wall, nearly knocking an expensive looking painting from it's perch in the process.
"I-I'm sorry sir!... He lead the remaining defenders along with the Rangers in a last stand against the Scourge forces." The shaken soldier cried, nearly bringing his arm up to block whatever the other elf was capable of. "They were escorting a group of civilians to safety, that's all I know!"
Varimas suddenly cursed loudly and brought his hand against a vase, knocking it across the room, the fragile ornament landing in several different pieces across the room in a small pile.
Valethria meanwhile, could only watch in worry. Sure, she had known that Varimas had been the best of friends with Dawnblade and Windrunner, but she still had not been expecting this reaction from him, the usually calm but clumsy soul that barely had the ability to conjure a decent fireball.
Of course it was fair however. Hearing that a childhood friend is missing in the midst of what seemed like the apocalypse would stress anyone to a rather large degree, especially if that someone happened to have placed themselves between a group of civilians and the hordes of the undead that threatened to overtake them all.
Just then a shrill cry came from outside, bringing all elves in the inn to full alert. "Survivors! Survivors at the town gates!"
Varimas ran out of the room in a moment. By the time the soldier and Valethria had caught up, the Varimas had already found the group, charging up to the leader of the group, a beaten and bruised merchant.
"You!... Were you being escorted by a band of warriors led by a Paladin?!" The blonde elf asked as the merchant, who appeared as if he had already seen more than enough hell in his his life, visibly shrank back.
"No sir... We found a way to move behind the Scourge's main force..." The merchant explained, pointing at a small path down the road that was nearly completely concealed in the shadows of the trees, running parallel to the main road. "We took the back path there."
"But... Never? You never saw any other living elves during your escape?" Varimas asked, the hope draining from his voice with each and every word he uttered.
"No... I'm sorry..."
Just then, as Varimas seemed to deflate at the news, a hushed gurgling noise from behind the group startled the elves, causing them all to turn around, some letting out loud screams as their eyes fell upon the hordes of walking corpses shambling towards them, flesh hanging off bone, jaws missing, and skin rotted away.
The Scourge had found them.
"Damn... Guess we're fighting our way out of the village." Valethria muttered as she let bright flames envelop her arms, a look of determination crossing her features as she stared down the encroaching horde of the Damned. "You ready Partner?"
"Yeah..." He whispered back, a look of murder settling into his eyes as he let out a breath, channeling arcane energy into his palms, raising his arms up to meet the Scourge. "Ready."
