Chapter IV
Come morning, rays of sunlight peeking through the curtains woke Elencia from her light slumber. Apathetically climbing out of bed and looking at herself in the mirror, Elencia could clearly see that her hair was a mess, her eyes were still red and worse of all, she had fallen asleep in her clothes from yesterday, too distraught to even change.
"First things first." She said to no one in particular. Brushing her hair proved to be harder than she first thought it would be when she realized the brush she was using just happened to be a present from her husband, dredging up memories and sending tears down her distraught face once again. Once she had managed to get her hair into a reasonably presentable ponytail, she got changed into fresh clothes and decided to skip on the makeup, considering that this day would be far from easy for her. She even found a new chain for her Ana's charm, making it a necklace once again. The rest of the morning pass uneventfully, but just as she had finished cooking and eating breakfast in silence, someone knocked on the door, which she guessed would be Gavrin.
As she opened it, she saw Gavrin standing there, looking solemn.
"Are ya ready lass?" He asked gently.
Elencia did not reply but nodded instead, signifying her answer. They left together, walking in silence.
A few hours into the journey, Gavrin slowed and turned to Elencia.
"The clearing is just up ahead lass," he hesitated "are ya sure yer ready?"
Elencia took a deep breath. "I am." Her hand unconsciously slipped into her pocket and began to caress the charm she had taken with her, as if it gave her some unseen strength to continue.
Gavrin grimaced. "Alright then."
Pushing aside a stray branch hanging down, Gavrin cleared the way for Elencia. As she gingerly moved past him and into the clearing, a great sense of foreboding washed over her. Her feet refused to keep moving ahead and her hands started to shake, almost imperceptibly. A reassuring hand on her shoulder from Gavrin gave her the strength to keep moving forward and face her fears.
As the clearing opened up before her, the first thing she noticed was the battered body of Soulbane, who was still in the same position where Anadelias had left him. Not surprisingly, the wild animals in the area had steered clear and left the body alone. Even the scavenger insects dared not touch the corpse, almost as if they instinctively knew no good would come of it.
The only other visible sign that anything had transpired here was a dark patch of bare dirt near the centre of the clearing. Elencia instinctively gravitated towards it, somehow knowing it was where her husband was last seen. Upon reaching the discoloured dirt, she saw it was dried blood as she slowly lowered herself down onto both knees and gingerly put her hand to the ground.
Gavrin slowly walked up behind her and put his hand on her shoulder for support. He could hear her beginning to sob softly and thought about saying something, but decided to keep quiet and let Elencia have this moment to herself.
When she finally did turn to look up at him, what he saw put him slightly off balance. Instead of a distraught woman dealing with the loss of her husband, he saw the face of a woman with a renewed hope and a smile that felt strangely out of place.
"Are ya okay, lass?" He asked hesitantly.
As the tears of joy swelled in her eyes then trickled down her soft cheeks, she stood and faced the bewildered paladin. "My Ana, my beloved Ana is alive!"
Gavrin's heart sunk as she said this. Clearly, bringing her here was a bad mistake, as delusion had sunk its dark tendrils into her mind.
He started to try to explain to her that Ana was dead but she merely interrupted him and pointed to the pool of dried blood as if it would explain everything.
"Look lass, I don't know what -"
"There, look!" Elencia interrupted excited, pointing again.
Gavrin looked toward she was pointing and to her credit, there, at the very edge of the pool was a footprint of blood. How in the Light did he miss that the first time?
He could clearly see that there were several more bloody footprints leading away from the clearing. "Elencia, lass, those tracks lead towards Stratholme." Gavrin said with a grim face. "If he is still alive, it's more than likely that he is a prisoner of the Scourge."
Unperturbed, she would not waver. "That may be so, but it still means that he is alive, somewhere."
Gavrin looked at her and could not fault her logic – as misguided as it was. Several minutes of silence filled the air as Gavrin considered his options and finally came to his decision.
"Elencia, lass, I'm going to take ya home so ya can get some rest and something to eat. I will take care of things here."
She eyed him closely. "What do you mean?"
Gavrin's face took on a stone hard look. "I mean I've failed you once and I won't do so again. Even if it takes me the rest of my life, I will find Anadelias and bring him back. I swear it."
"Oh Gav, I couldn't ask you to do that - "
"You don't have to ask." Gavrin interrupted, "I need to do this for both of us. I owe it to him…and you."
Elencia smiled softly. "I know when Gavrin the Stout has his mind set on something, not a thing in all of Azeroth will stop him. This means a lot to me."
"I know lass, I know." He hugged Elencia with his thick arms and then started to walk away from the clearing with her.
"Thank you Gav." She said looking up to him as they headed back to her house.
"Don't thank me yet lass. Ya can do that when I bring Ana back." Gavrin replied looking straight ahead so Elencia wouldn't see the doubt in his eyes. In the back of his mind, there was a tiny niggling thought that told him he wouldn't succeed. Yet try as he might to pay no heed to it, he could not help but know it was a doomed endeavour.
When they arrived back at the cottage, Gavrin broke the silence that had hung over them like a lethargic cloud the entire walk back.
"Lass, I don't know how long this'll take but I will bring Ana back, one way or the other."
Elencia smiled and took one of his huge hands into hers and patted it. "I know Gav and I want to help you."
Gavrin shook his head and sighed. "There is no way you are coming with me, it's too dangerous. I do not want to find Ana only to have to tell him that his wife is dead because I couldn't protect her."
"No, no, I mean I can help from here. Tell you what, come back tomorrow and I will show you what I mean."
Gavrin hesitantly agreed when Elencia promised that it would keep her out of harm's way.
After they both said their goodbyes and Gavrin left, Elencia rushed inside and went to the kitchen table and cleared it. She then went to the bedroom cupboard and retrieved a rolled up parchment of considerable size. Unfurling it on the kitchen table, it was an extremely detailed map of Azeroth. The continents were all labelled and each had their own regions outlined and almost every known village, town and city was marked and named on the map regardless of their affiliation with the Horde, Alliance or even the Scourge.
Along with the map, Elencia had also gotten a small leather bag from the same cupboard. Carefully opening it, she pulled a seemingly average spool of thread and a tiny crystal needle. From her dress pocket, she gingerly took out the repaired necklace, still stained with the dried blood, and placed it on the table. Turning her attention towards the needle and thread, she delicately threaded the head of the needle and unwound a hand span of thread before breaking it off from the spool. Upon doing this, the thread glowed with a faint haze of purple for a moment before returning to normal. The spellthread, when combined with the crystal needle, made an excellent scrying tool for finding people, places or objects.
"Right, here we go." Elencia said to her self. She picked up the bloodied necklace in her right hand and the end of the spellthread in her left and held it over the table so the needlepoint was mere centimetres from the map. Closing her eyes and concentrating deeply, words of power began to roll off her tongue, and her fingers gripped the necklace more tightly, turning her knuckles white. When she opened her eyes, the needle was moving about, but it seemed to stagger as if it was drunk. It would start in one direction and then veer off into another before randomly wobbling around and stopping altogether.
Elencia frowned, disappointed with the failed scrying. She huffed and put down the necklace and needle. The map was clearly defined and she had always used it in the past, so that wasn't the problem. The crystal needle and spellthread came from Dalaran itself and had never failed her previously, so it couldn't be them either. Her gaze then fell upon the necklace on the table.
Of course! That had to be it, she thought. The necklace was connected to Anadelias, but not as strongly as she has first thought it was. What she needed was something to act as a stronger focus, something with a better connection to her Ana. Elencia leaned back in the chair, deep in thought. As she went through a mental checklist in her head of the contents of the cottage, she came to the conclusion that there wasn't anything here that came close to what she needed. Crossing her arms in frustration, Elencia sighed and looked out the kitchen window. It was starting to get dark, which meant she would have to start lighting the candles soon. All of a sudden, like a bolt of lightning striking a metal flagpole during a thunderstorm, the answer struck her. Elencia rushed to the front door and grabbed her travel cloak and lantern, which she lit before she left and headed out to a place she cherished very much.
Moving through the forest like a grey-cloaked banshee, she glided around the trees and never wavered as she followed a route she had traversed many times before, so many in fact, she could probably do it blindfolded. At dusk, the forest was a different place altogether though. No golden rays of sunlight breaking through the canopy, no birds happily singing their tunes and no forest critters scurrying about. The sun was replaced by shadows, the birds were replaced by hooting owls and the scurrying critters were replaced by glowing set of eyes peering out from the shadows. When it was full and not impeded by cloud cover, the moon cast an eerie glow over everything like a faint, ghostly blanket. As she moved through the forest, shadows flickered and danced around the trees at her passing, slightly obscuring the path from the one in her memory. Nevertheless, she continued onwards, holding her lantern in front of her for guidance.
Ahead, her eyes could make out a faint glow and Elencia knew she was heading in the right direction. The glow became stronger the nearer she was and before long, it nearly rivalled the lantern's light. Knowing she had reached her destination, she smiled and put her lantern down. Elencia slowly approached the tree before her, remembering its beautiful lines and curves; it was unmistakable. This was the tree that her beloved, Anadelias, had carved for her to symbolise their undying love for one another. The light that tree gave off emanated from the two candles placed in small alcoves in the tree. Memories started to flood back to Elencia, walks through the forest, picnics by the lake, the times when Anadelias would playfully 'chase' her through the trees. All were of happier times and all of them strengthen her resolve to find her beloved Ana and to do what must be done.
With trepidation, she stepped forward to the alcove that held her husband's candle. A tear ran down her cheek as Elencia reached out for it and her fingers clasped around the candle inlaid with golden filigree. Millimetre by millimetre she slowly took the candle from its alcove and held it in front of her reverently with both hands, it's orange flame never flickering or showing any signs of extinguishing. For a few minutes, Elencia just stared at the special candle, enthralled by its never-ending, emotionally fuelled flame. Shaking her head and breaking the trance, she went over to the lantern and licked her thumb and index finger and put out the flame. Taking the extinguished run-of-the-mill candle out of the lantern and replacing it with the filigreed candle, it shone with an even brighter light than before. Her task done, Elencia set out back home using the well-traversed path through the forest.
Upon reaching the cottage, she rushed straight to the kitchen table where she had left her scrying material. Sitting back down and again closing her eyes in concentration, she gripped the candle of undying affection and held the spellthread above the map and began to recite the words of power again. Almost instantly, the crystal needle started to vibrate and spin, more wilder every second - then as soon as it started, it came to a dead standstill. Opening her eyes, she dropped the spellthread as her hand covered her gaping mouth and she let out a gasp.
"Oh Ana…" Elencia remarked as she looked down at the crystal needle which was sticking straight into the map directly above the Scourge fortress of Stratholme.
The next day, Gavrin did come back and he and Elencia went for a stroll around the lake near her cottage. She was the first one to start the conversation.
"I scryed for Ana last night."
Gavrin looked at her with raised eyebrow. "And how did that go?"
Elencia smiled as she told him that it went better than she thought it would, but left out the details oh how she managed to do it.
"So ya found him then?" Gavrin inquired.
The smile vanished as Elencia's voice went deathly quiet. "You were right Gav."
Gavrin frowned, a habit that was becoming more common these days. "What do ya mean lass?"
Elencia's eyes dropped to the ground as she told him where he was.
"Stratholme?!" Gavrin exclaimed. "So they did take him prisoner. They must have a reason for keeping him alive." Gavrin could think of several, but he wasn't willing to mention any of them in front of Elencia.
She mumbled only an 'I guess' in reply.
"Don't worry lass, I'll find him and bring him back." Gavrin said, his voice resolute.
Elencia seemingly perked up and looked up to him. "I know you will Gav."
In response, Gavrin gave her a smile, though he suspected she knew it was just a façade.
The two of them finished their walk around the lake, idly chatting. When they completed their circuit and made it back to the cottage, Gavrin said his last goodbye as he set off to find and bring back Anadelias.
Elencia watched him leave down the path and went back inside. Sitting on the end of her bed, many thoughts were swirling around in her head. Her faith in Gavrin was strong, but there was no way she could just stay here, cooped up, for however long it took Gavrin to accomplish his self imposed task. She needed to do something, anything, to actively work on getting her husband back and keep her occupied. But he was a prisoner of the Scourge in Stratholme. There was no way she could do anything except scry without coming to harm herself. The only things in Stratholme were Scourge, Cultist and the Scarlet Crusade – and there was no way the Crusade would take her in, she had no combat training whatsoever. Besides, they were crazed zealots her husband had said and not to be trusted for they were just as bad as the menace they fought. The city was under the control of the Scourge anyway, the Crusade was losing ground and probably wasn't a viable option – no reason to join the losing side so to speak. Maybe an invisibility potion could work. The Dalaran merchants were always selling those kinds of things. No, the Cult would have wards in place, otherwise it would have been done already, she concluded. Then a dangerous thought began to coalesce in her head. What if she could get into the city without using a potion or a magic? What if she could walk among them freely? What if the Cult of the Damned thought she was one of them? She would have the freedom to move about the city and look for her beloved and – No! What was she thinking? Join the Cult of the Damned? It was madness! She got up to go outside and clear her head but as she did, her eyes fell upon a picture of her beloved Anadelias on the mantle. Rather than dissuade her train of thought, it had the opposite effect, giving her the strength the commit to this decision. She would join the Cult of the Damned to gain access to Stratholme and secretly find her beloved and get him the hell of out that city, and then they could finally be together again. To do this however, she realised she would break her promise to Gavrin to stay out of harm's way. But…if it wasn't Elencia that left, technically she wouldn't break it. A new name and identity would be in order then. Packing a few spare clothes and some bread along with a skin of water into a backpack she readied herself for the journey ahead. That day, she entered the house as Elencia, dedicated wife of Anadelias and left it as Ammet, an ambitious aspirant of the Cult of the Damned.