Part 3: After the Battle
They tended to their wounded in silence and set to clearing the battlefield with what sluggish movements could still be wrestled from their bodies now that the tension of battle had passed. They separated the bodies of friends and foe, and formed one large pile for each. The first was set ablaze as soon as it was built, a pyre to burn away the Legion's wickedness. The second burned too, but only after Akilina had administered her butchering of the rites she had once learned at the temple. Usually, her people did not burn their fallen, but with the horned Highbornes' knack for the dark magic of necromancy, military needs superseded their ancient cultural practices.
Hellbourne and his young charge watched these proceedings from a distance. They didn't lift a finger in care or honor of the fallen, which was probably just as well. The few surviving Sentinels were all either smart or weary enough not to take offense at the demon hunter's continuous presence, but Akilina was confident that any conceived desecration of a fallen comrade by his tainted touch would have been more than able to cause that situation to change.
From time to time, Akilina cast glances at the pair. The demon hunter stood still as a statue, arms crossed over his chest, the slight sway of his writhing strands otherwordly and utterly unnatural. His fanged jeer seemed to taunt her every move, as if the sight of toiling for the sake of the dead somehow amused him.
The girl tried to mimic the demon hunter's demeanor, and her face was an uncaring mask as she watched the misery that had been the price of victory. She didn't care at all for the fate of her own people, and emulating the demonic Highborne with his stoic posture soon lost its appeal. Before long, Akilina noticed how her eyes began to wander, seeking more compelling entertainment in the life-starved forests that surrounded them. Maybe it should have enraged Akilina, to see one of their kind care so little for the sacrifice of her sisters. But ultimately, all she felt was an incredible sadness. She couldn't stop wondering what might have caused for a young soul to become so numb to the plight of the suffering of others. Whatever it was, Akilina pitied her for it.
The pyres were still coughing thick plumes of smoke into the air, when Hellbourne at last started to walk towards them. The white-haired girl followed suit. Immediately, the remaining Sentinels formed up around Akilina and Ursalani, their hands clenching tightly around their still bloodied weapons. If the demon hunter was worried by the display of arms in any way, he gave no sign of it. He did stop in a respectable distance, staying outside of melee range. Whether that represented a precaution rather than just a mutual sense of aversion was anyone's guess.
"It is done," he announced, the words passing through his fangs as a ghostly hiss. "The demons have dispersed, sisters. More are roaming the woods further north, but they won't reach you before reinforcements arrive."
His words sent a shiver down Akilina's spine. He might have called them sisters, but up close and personal, Hellbourne looked even more nightmarish than Akilina would have thought. His name was well deserved. Still, Akilina refused to avert her eyes or let them glow in disgust. Whatever the motives or goals of the demon hunter have been, he had come to their aid when they had been in desperate need of assistance. It didn't redeem him from his crimes against their people and his spurning of the blessings of Mother Moon, but in Akilina's mind it should count for something, even though she wasn't sure what that something might have been.
"T — thank you," she said, "but I fear we will not be receiving any reinforcements any time soon. As far as we know, all our messenger owles were intercepted by the satyrs' foul magic. The rest of the Sentinels probably don't even know of our plight yet."
The demon hunter's head twitched once to the side. "They do now. Most likely they are expecting an ambush, so I would suggest not giving them any reason to mistake you for something else when they arrive."
Akilina furrowed her brows. "Why would they expect an — " she began, but then her sluggish mind finally caught on. "Oh..."
"Because the messenger was me." With his fang-filled grin, it sounded strangely comical to Akilina's ears.
She sighed. "We'll await their arrival, then."
Hellbourne made no reply. He stared at her for a while, before saying, "Do you permit a question?"
"I don't see why not."
"What is your name, sister?"
Akilina didn't know what exactly she had expected the question to be, but it certainly hadn't been that. But before she could reply, Ursalani stepped in front of her, hands resting upon her moonglaive.
"She is not your sister, fiend," she hissed. "None of us are!"
"Ursalani!"
Ursalani glanced at Akilina. "I apologize, sister," she said, "but I am not going to stand by idly and allow this ... this consorting with this creature to continue! He is an abomination, and unworthy of both your mercy and your pity."
Hellbourne started to laugh. It started as a mere chuckle, but he couldn't contain it, and a full-blown cackle broke through his lips. This was nothing like the mad laughter that Akilina had heard echoing over the battlefield. There was no arrogance in it, no sense of gloating or thirsting for the enemy's demise. This was honest, if gleeful laughter. In a way, it was more frightening than the other one. Madness was a thing the Sentinels learned to expect from those outcasts meddling with forces that should be left alone, but joyous laughter was not. It seemed utterly out of place, both in regards to where they were and to who it was coming from. This in turn made Hellbourne appear even more crazy, but in an unexpected and much more terrifying way.
Ursalani felt it too. Akilina could see it in the way that her body tensed up. She felt taunted and threatened, and as always she dealt with it in the only fashion she knew how; by taking a step forward and confronting it.
"What are you laughing about?" she shouted at him. "How dare you mocking us!?"
Hellbourne's laughter died down gradually. "'Us', sister? No, not 'us', just you."
Ursalani rushed forward before the sentence was even finished. Akilina's frantic cry for her to stop passed unheeded. The other Sentinels would have rallied to Ursalani's cause, too, had she not been stopped dead in her tracks by a blade pointing at her throat long before she had reached the demon hunter.
The girl's white hair was still hovering in the air in the aftermath of her dash, settling only slowly as she barred Ursalani's way, ready to pounce. Her face and voice still did not betray the slightest of emotions.
"You want me to kill this one, master?"
As if to make her point, she pressed the edge of her glaive against Ursalani's neck, strong enough to draw blood. Ursalani gulped, but refused to back down. Her brow started to twitch, and she looked down on the girl in her fighting crouch with a mixture of hatred and disgust.
"You've just sealed your fate," she promised. "You better kill me now, girl, for I will not rest until I've hunted you down. There will be no resting place for you, no unholy sanctuary where I will not find you. Your life from here on out will be a living hell."
The impact of her words on the girl was considerable, but not in the way Ursalani had intended. Madness grew and bloomed in her as it was nurtured by the Sentinel's hatred, and it broke through and blossomed onto her face in a crazy smile that came rivaled even her master's demonic grimace. She pushed down harder upon her blade, forcing Ursalani to take a step back.
"Done," she said, then glanced back over her shoulder. "Master?"
Hellbourne looked pleased, and not for the first time, Akilina found herself annoyed by not being able to read the demon hunter's face. Still, she instinctively interpreted his bared fangs at every opportunity as something amounting to a smile. In actuality, she had no idea what the demon hunter's answer would be, and even though she wasn't aware, she was holding her breath. It wasn't what she should have been doing. A small part of her was dimly aware of that. She was still in charge. She should have gotten involved, backing Ursalani up or at least trying to defuse the siuation by appealing to Hellbourne on her sister's behalf. And yet, she did none of these things. The voice of duty was nothing but an incomprehensible murmur floating around in her sluggish mind, and she merely stood by and watched in a weary stupor as things unfolded, nothing more than a passive bystander. She had reached her personal limit many times over.
Hellbourne took his time. "Leave her be," he said eventually. "We're here to slay demons, not fools. Besides, nothing will irk her kind more than a show of mercy and restraint."
The way Ursalani's face darkened, Hellbourne might have had a point there. Still, the girl did not lower her weapon straight away. She was tempted to defy her master, the longing to cut and spill the Sentinel's blood apparent in the tension putting her entire body on the verge of quivering. She wanted to hurt her, and badly, and Akilina could not help but wonder why. Then, without further warning, the girl lowered the moonglaive and turned her back to Ursalani, walking back to her master's side. Hellbourne didn't comment upon her hesitation. He merely nodded, totally ignoring Ursalani and the other Sentinels who were glaring daggers at them.
"Come. Our work is done. You have done well today. I believe it is time."
The girl's face lit up a little at the received praise, and then a weak smile appeared on her lips. "I am ready?"
Her voice was doubtful, but Hellbourne nodded at her.
"You are ready," he repeated. "It is time to meet the Glaive-maker."
Akilina watched the conversation as if in a trance. The smile had been the first childlike gesture Akilina had seen in the girl, and witnessing it tore at the very fabric of her soul. She was sad beyond her ability to describe. It was just wrong; wrong and unnatural and wrong, so utterly wrong. She was sure the girl had endured enough. There was no other reason to explain how a person so young could have been driven to choose the path of the Betrayer. Yet despite her suffering and madness, she had somehow found the strength to fight, and with that strength she had today saved the lives of many. Akilina could not help but to respect and admire that. But rather than earning her peoples gratitude, she would go with a cursed half-demon, and fully embrace his dark ways, turning her into a traitor within the eyes of her people. Not only would she have lost whatever dear person whose loss drove her unto this path, but she would lose every chance of ever being accepted and cared for by her people. Without noticing, tears brimmed over in Akilina's eyes, and one thought shifted to the forefront of her awareness with striking clarity.
She would not allow it.
The rest of her people might have already considered the girl to be lost. They might not approve, but Akilina was beyond caring about social and cultural stigmata at this point. If not for the demon hunters, she would have died without ever questioning how thoroughly her true self had been buried under layers upon layers of doctrines that were not her own. They had taken the temple away from her, made her a warrior and turned her into a weapon for her people to wield as they saw fit. After what she had just been through, she thought she had earned herself a moment to be herself.
She had had tried to follow and do what was expected of her. To look for guidance towards those people society deemed the most fit to lead, but she was too worn out to pretend to be something that she was not. Just this once, she would not allow hate and disgust to guide her actions. Just this once, she would follow the Goddesses' true tenants, and nurture and protect instead of judge and smite.
The demon hunters had already turned to leave when Akilina suddenly rushed at the girl. Immediately, her glaives flashed to meet her, but when she saw that Akilina was coming at her unarmed and with a face of desperation, the white-haired girl hesitated, and Akilina crashed into her form and threw her arms around her. Surprised, the girl tried to fend her off, but the Sentinel's grip was iron and she hauled the younger kaldorei off the ground and pressed her tightly against herself. Then she backed away, almost cradling the flailing girl like an infant in a futile attempt to shield her with her own body. As the staggered backwards, her tear-streaked eyes stared fearfully at the monstrosity that was Hellbourne. Akilina was sure he would try to reclaim his lost charge. Yet nothing happened. Hellbourne had turned halfway as Akilina had grabbed the girl, but he gave no indication of going after her or attacking the Sentinel. He just stood there, grinning.
"How intriguing, sister," he said. "Please, do enlighten us. Just what is it you are attempting to do?"
Akilina backed further away. A few of her sisters moved in to support her, but even they exchanged unsure and confused glances. Akilina did not seem to notice. Right in this moment, all she could think about was saving the girl.
"You can't have her!" she shouted. "She is still one of the kaldorei, and I'll be damned before I let a demon like you take her away. She deserves better."
Hellbourne did not so much as flinch. "True," he answered. "But then life is rarely about what a person deserves. Whatever the case, it is not my decision to make. Nor yours."
Akilina wanted to ask what Hellbourne meant by that, but before she could an elbow hammered into her stomach and left her gasping for air. She tried to hold on, but the elbow thundered into her once more, and the girl slid from her grasp. Akilina slumped to the ground, her vision blurring in and out of focus. Above her she saw the shadowy silhouette of the girl. Akilina raised her hand, desperately trying to reach her. A merciless kick exploded against the side of her head and sent her face into the blood-drenched mud. Akilina groaned and fought against the unconsciousness that was threatening to overcome her. A wave of nausea washed over her. She heard the girl moving away.
"Why," Akilina whispered and coughed violently. "I was only trying to help you."
The footsteps stopped. Akilina could feel the girl's eyes resting upon her.
"I don't want your help."
The irony of the words were not lost on Akilina. Still, hearing them brought forth a new wave of anguish. When the blackness came this time, she welcomed it with open arms.