Lanaya didn't expected to spend her life in battle. She was born a scientist, an scholar, itching for knowledge and wisdom, yet the world needed her to be a warrior. And she was a fine one.

As she ran towards the enemies, arrows and fireballs approached her. With some heavy manipulation of the psionic energy that surrounded her, a circular, almost invisible shield covered her, as the projectiles smashed against it and missed their target. There was a little sadistic pleasure in watching the panic that engulfed the wretched dire foot troops that were about to die. Her fists were wrapped in psionic blades, and she jumped at the small group of demons, arching her body backwards to maximize the power and energy collected from the veil, and flung a massive burst of energy at her targets. The first one caught it right on its face, shrieking at the last second at the fear of dying, and the blast parted in several ways, hitting every single one of them, almost killing them all in a single hit.

Only one survived, a frail looking lowly magician, the kind that was used as ranged support by the Dire legions. The blast hit him and cut an enormous slash in his stomach, dropping him to his knees as he tried desperately to keep his innards from flowing out.

Lanaya approached him. She knew - or rather, suspected - the Dire commander could see from the eyes of every single creature on its army, so she pulled the little man's head up to meet him eye to eye.

"I will find you soon enough and what this creature is suffering won't even be close to what I plan to do to you"

Violently, she dropped the man down, and he desperately reached his staff and tried to quickly gather some energy to hit the Templar Assaasin, but she flung a burst of psionic energy at the hands of the mage, prying the staff off his hands, and stomped the man on his throath.

"Very brave of you. Very stupid as well."

Rhasta stood silent as he watched the Templar Assassin step on the mook's neck and send a bolt down his face, messily killing him. He was somewhat concerned as the elf was becoming more callous every day, but still, he wasn't there to lecture her on mercy. She was a perfect killer, a beautifully modeled figure of death, and it was a waste to know that behind that lied one of the greatest minds he had known. Lanaya had laid down, crouching in the middle of the massacre, perhaps reflecting on what she had done, so the Shadow Shaman rose and with a flick of his arms, the two staves he carried lit on fire, and approached her.

Then she vanished out of sight.

"Very funny of you, Lanaya. Please come out, we need to talk."

The strong, thick arabic accent of the shaman was irritating for most of the people, but Lanaya was used to it. He often acted as her support during most recon missions, and was wise beyond his years. She could as well describe him as repulsive, but she had never seen his true face, though his body was a sickly mix of muscularity and malnutrition. Physically, he wasn't particulary able, but he was an apt wielder of magic, and a frighteningly smart tactician.

"You don't really have to look at me to speak"

"I would rather look at you."

"Wouldn't you? Pervert."

That reminded him why she was so complicated to get along with. She was mischievous and spoiled, and the war had warped that, to the point she apparently couldn't help herself to act like, well, a jerk. Finally, and much to his relief, she appeared.

"What is it, Rhasta?"

The Shadow Shaman put out his staves, now that he was sure the place was secured, and sat down on a log. He started to speak slowly, as he always did, to make sure she understood everything.

"Lanaya, we have a mission to go to. Ezalor was very agitated today, and he insisted the tips of the war have been thrown against us. He couldn't make out why, but he felt as if the balance of power had been broken. He then gave me this. Take a look."

Rhasta handed Lanaya a scroll. She opened it to take a look, but she couldn't really understand the language or glyphs engraved within. She could make out though a figure that looked familiar.

"A water elemental? Is this all about water elementals? I thought the elementals refused to take part in the war."

"That... isn't a water elemental. Have you heard of the Morphling?"

Her eyes widened "I've read enough legends to know that it doesn't exist"

"And you are right, Lanaya... " and Rhasta smiled "... until now..."

There was a moment of silence, and Rhasta started explaining.

"The Morphling is this sentient meteor that wanders through the universe. You know that part. Morphling is just a nickname, as it is supposed to be an ever changing life form of sorts. This creature is real, Lanaya, and it is about to strike Silverglade. We need to find it and recruit it before the Dire legion finds it. It would be disastrous. And with that power, we could finally end this war and stop all this nonsense bloodshed."

"And we could have... revenge" she said, spitefully.

"You could, Lanaya. We're not all into this for that. I don't want my life to end in the hands of these demons. I got a lot more to live for."

Lanaya looked at him, slightly annoyed. She respected him, but it always made her mad that her allies would wave away her reasons for battle as selfish. They couldn't understand, they did not have their houses burned to the ground, they didn't lost the only thing that made them be real.

She always remembered that day vividly and painfully: the screams, the flames engulfing the library of knowledge she had grown to call home. The corpses and the wounded, tears rolling down their faces as they realized they weren't coming back. The day she took on arms and left the place she knew to join the ranks of the Radiant army, to drive away and exterminate the menace. For her, it wasn't about defense, it was about eradicating the Dire legion.

Still, she knew it was pointless to argue.

"That's irrelevant. What is your point then, Shaman?"

Rhasta smiled and replied "Why, we're gonna find it. The Crystal Maiden and the Stone Giant will join us. The time might be just near to turn around the tides of darkness, Lanaya. I need you to focus."

The Templar Assassin turned and started walking while saying loudly "I always do, Shadow Shaman." Rhasta couldn't see, but she was smiling.