"…Aaaugh," said Lucian as he slowly opens his eyes and feels his body aching all over.

Taking a peek around with a stiff neck, he notices beds lined up along each side of the room, a flowering plant on the nightstand next to him, and white linen and sheets on each of the beds.

"Great, a hospital," to Lucian's dismay.

The wooden door opens and in comes a couple of priests.

"Well good morning Captain," said a priest in a yellow and white rob as he looks at Lucian.

"Where am I at?"

"You're back in Stormwind. I heard what happened, and you're lucky to be alive."

"I, I see. And my men?"

"I'm afraid that many of them were unable to be resurrected after the battle, according to Lieutenant Abigail. Only the ones with you at the end of the battle were the lucky ones."

Attempting to seat up, intense pain forced Lucian to lay back down.

"You mustn't strain yourself. Your body hasn't fully healed from the battle two weeks ago," said the female priest in a blue and green robe.

Looking at his bandaged hands and feeling his chest all bandaged up as well, he couldn't believe that he was out for that long.

There's a knock on the door. Entering came Abigail in her blue and brown civilian clothing. She looks at the priests, and they them alone.

"Abigail?"

"Hi…, how do you feel?"

"Like hell."

She chuckles. "If you can complain, you're getting better," she smiles.

He notices something in her hand. Lucian asks, "What's that there?"

Abigail hands two letters to him, giving him a sorrowful frown.

Reading the first one, Lucian became furious that he was renounced as Knight-Captain of the SPB. His anger was short lived as pain was searing through his chest.

"You should be lucky that you were honorably discharged Lucian. I heard that Boltimoore learned of it from Lady Tyche about you're attempt at insubordination, and was the one who placed the charges on you and also asked for you to be discharged for a year."

"Why am I not surprised it was him. The back stabber," was all Lucian could muster as the pain in his chest persists.

As he was taking a look at the second one, Abigail takes it from his weak hands and tells him now's not the time to read it. In sudden surprise and annoyance, he doesn't argue.

Leaving a get-well card next to the flowering plant, Abigail wishes him well and leaves.

Feeling fatigued already, Lucian closes his eyes and sleeps.

Awakening within his dream world, Lucian notices that he's still inside the hospital room, yet the candles are lit and the night time breeze sinks into the room.

An intense pain surges throughout his body. This pain isn't the stiffness of his body, but something he couldn't place his finger on...

"...Ye be cursed young paladin," said a ghost that appeared in front of his bed.

Shocked by the appearance of the ghost, Lucian soon recognizes the ghost.

"What do you mean Rufus? What curse are you talking about?"

"Ye be cursed by thy dancer of death. Now thy eve of living is endanger. Ye must find the Amateria, for only thy blade can vanquish thy curse"

"Ah hell no! You mean to tell me that unless I find this legendary sword, which by the way, I don't know where it's at and no idea what it looks like, I will turn into an undead?"

"Indeed."

"Damn, things sure seem to keep getting worse…"

"More than you already know young Paladin"

Rufus slowly disappears.

"Wait, Rufus! What do you mean?"

The ghost completely disappears.

"Seek allies and find thy blade, if ye are to vanquish thy curse…"

Waking up from the dream and pulling his upper body up, Lucian's heart beat is racing. He almost screamed in fright, but manages to control himself.

"Had a nightmare?" Abigail asked, wearing her blue plate armor set.

"Abigail?"

"You've been out for a week. The priests were starting to wonder if you slipped into a comma or something."

"No, but…" Lucian attempted to say, but a sensation of unnatural fatigue and drainage over powers him briefly.

"Lucian?"

"Damn curse. Rufus is right, I need to find that sword."

"Rufus?"

Lucian looks over to Abigail. He reaches with his hands and clasps her hand.

"The curse from the Undead. I have it, and if I can't find this 'Amateria' blade, then I'll turn into one of them," he said with despair.

"What!? I'm missing what just happened but…what will you do? What is this 'Amateria' blade suppose to look like? I vaguely remember us talking about that with Lady Waters."

"Need to form a party and find it… I have no idea what 'Amateria' looks like or even means, but..if I can further decipher this book I have from the Arathian wall and possibly any other Arathian texts, I hope to find out where and what this blade looks like. Come to think of it, Abigail, why don't you come with me."

Looking away from him, she looks down and says, "I, I'm sorry, but I've been reassigned to be one of Lady Proudmoore's guards in Theramore. After being harassed by the male soldiers and my new male superiors, I can't stand Stormwind anymore. I so miss having you, but...I can't come. I have my parents to support in their old age."

Getting up and out of his bed, Lucian walks to the closet in the corner of the room, across from the door.

"Lucian?"

Searching for his regular cloths, he puts them on behind a screen while saying, "I can't blame you there, and who knows, I might die trying to find the Amateria. I wouldn't want you to die, but I have to go now."

Finished putting on his cloths, he looks for his armor set. All he found was several dented silver and faded gold armor pieces, a headband with a blue gem, and not the sword and shield he last remembered.

"What happened to my armor set?"

"…The horde attacked us after we did the consecration. Asterian and I were conscious enough to fight back, but you were knocked out from the blast. We retreated back to Menethil Harbor and regrouped before walking back to Ironforge, before taking the tram back to Stormwind. Your armor set was beyond repair, and I bought what armor and weapon I could find on the Auction house for the past month or so, but even with officer pay, I didn't have enough to repair the set. Sorry."

He notices her looking down at the ground as if she's regretting something, but he thought it was probably best not to ask. Taking out the sword and looking at the blade, Lucian sheaths it. The blade's good at least. Dressing into his dented armor set, he soon accompanies Abigail, as they leave the hospital and walk onto the streets of Stormwind.

Passing by the Cathedral, Lucian and Abigail walk south and arrive in the trading district. The lively noise coming from humans, dwarves, elves, etc. seemed so surreal. They were all happy, he noticed. Happy and unaware of what the Scourge is planning to do to humanity…no, to all of life. And here he is, a survivor of a massacre, and cursed by one of the Death Knights. Well a Death Lord he soon remembers.

"Here," said Abigail, as she hands him a letter. "It's the one I took out of your hands earlier."

Lucian takes it and reads it. In despair, he couldn't believe it. His family died in a fire, leaving him the only survivor of the family with no copper to his name.

Abigail tries to cheer him up while they walk down through the Trade district.

Walking by the Auction house, a female Night elf stops them.

"Excuse me, are either of you interested in going on a journey with me and my small band of companions? We plan on traveling around the world," said the light-blue skinned night elf, wearing a red and blue guild tabard, a blue background with a red outline of a stack of coins, blue pants and black boots, and tan gloves and bracers with spiked pauldrons. Her long blue side-bangs hang gently down to her cheeks, amber eyes wondering in hope.

"What quest is your guild partaking?" asked Lucian.

"Whatever quest each guild member personally has. The guild is but a small one, and we need one or two more before we depart. So what say you?"

Thinking for a moment, Lucian looks at the night elf and says, "The Light has made my life easier, for I was seeking for such a group. With nothing left for me here, I shall join you."

"Great, welcome to the guild, Servants of Lord Meilian. My name is Sylvanne, a druid and guild leader. May you be a warrior?"

"Pleasure to meet you Sylvanne. I'm Lucian, but no, I am a Paladin."

"Splendid. I didn't think our group would be fortunate enough to recruit a paladin from the Holy Order. Welcome."

Lucian looks back at Abigail.

"I guess this is where we part, hope the job over in Theramore works out."

"Thanks Lucian. Good luck with your journey. And, please be careful."

"You got it."

"If you will follow me, I'll introduce to you to the others," Sylvanne gestures a walkable path for Lucian to follow.

Checking the mailbox first, Lucian finds a letter, and takes it with him. Following Sylvanne into the tavern in the old section of town, the small guild talked for quite a while and soon decided to head north. Later, as the guild members went to bed, Lucian takes out his letter and reads it.

"Hmph, the last passage Lady Waters wants deciphered. Kind enough of her to request for its translation," a smirk forms across his lips as he sarcastically jokes to himself.

Reading the last passage, in horror, Lucian discovers that one of Rufus's friends was cursed and turned into an undead within two years. They couldn't find the Amateria blade in time, and still don't know where the blade can be found.

From that moment on, Lucian's fate has been decided. Having found the allies he needs, he just needs to find Amateria blade, where and whatever it looks like. According from the last passage, Rufus had searched all over the lands from Stormwind to Lordaeron with no luck. That leaves natural caves out of the question in the Eastern Kingdoms he concluded. But where is it…?

The next day the small band left Stormwind, and the long journey to solve life's mysteries has just begun.

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Chaudew: Thank you for reading this story. This is part one of the "Light's Twilight" trilogy that I'm working on, with "For Love and Honor" being part two, and "Redemption's Light" the final short story. If you have time, please review and tell me what you like and dislike. Thank you again.

Contributions: I like to thank my friend Shim for giving me character rights to portray Sylvanne (who will be seen again in "Redemption's Light").