Chapter 4

Present Day…

The fierce light of the sun above him beat down on his head hard and relentlessly that late morning. The heat had seeped slowly through the simple linen rag he had tied around it as a head covering until it was doubtful there was any benefit to it at all. Every step he took, his bare feet, hard with thick callouses and scarring to where he might as well have been wearing leather shoes after all, felt heavy and cumbersome. The irony was not lost on him that he, born of the Light itself, might die from too much exposure to it.

He had been searching near the clefts and dusty tan rock outcroppings for some shade or shelter he could rest and sleep in or under during the soon to be noon heat of the wasteland, but so far he had come up with nothing since the previous night's travels. His meager water skin which had been one of the few provisions he had carried on his long trek had already run dry, and he saw no bodies of water, and no friendly outposts in which to refill it.

Water itself had been scarce since leaving the water rich fishing town of Lakeshire at the foothills of the Redridge Mountains to the south. Food had been non-existent. The Alliance town had been the last friendly settlement he had seen for… how long had it been? A week? Two weeks? Longer? He had lost count.

The hellish, volcanic landscape he had traversed through had been controlled by the Blackrock clan of Orcs and what few remaining Dark Iron Dwarves that still clung to the beliefs of the fallen Twilight's Hammer Cult. How they managed to survive and even thrive in this land was a mystery to him. Both groups, he knew, would attack a human, virtually any human, on sight. There had also been the dragonkin, Ogres, and earth elementals which wandered the barren wastes to avoid. There was a good reason it had been told him that no sane person of any race attempted travel north through the route he had taken if they could help it, and certainly not barefoot and with hardly any provisions.

It was a road to suicide.

But this is the route my sire wanted me to travel. It was the truth, as uncomfortable as it was. He felt no peace about any other path but this one, and the Holy Light would not grant him any other direction.

It was a familiar form of guidance to him that he had become accustomed to over the past seven years, beginning with the bandits and his Pandaren rescuer. The Light rarely, if ever, sent him down the easy path, but in so doing, he had been taught to rely on his sire all the more, and his own faith and relationship with the Light had grown in the process. His journey now through what was known as "The Badlands" was not unusual in this regard.

The Light had taken him from the gentle rolling hills and farmland of the Valley of the Four Winds in Pandaria, to the monasteries in Kun-Lai. The great towering mountains of Pandaria which were arguably the highest in all of Azeroth. He found, however, that could not stay there for long either. Instead, he found himself drawn after two years to Dalaran which still hovered over the Broken Isles, several years after the Burning Legion's defeat, and the disappearance of the shattered world of Argus from Azeroth's skyline. As a young man of only fourteen or fifteen years, he had seen the horrors of the aftermath of the demonic wars firsthand. It was there that he discovered, and then lent his natural talent for healing to those soldiers in the Armies of Legionfall still mopping up the remaining Legion hold outs. The Light had led him to tend to the injuries of both Sindorei and Draenei, Orc and Dwarf, Paladin and Warlock it made no difference to him even as they sometimes hurled profanities at one another, and sometimes at him as they disparaged his youth and lack of experience. In spite of it all, he could feel the great compassion and peace of his sire flowing through him and into all those he sought healing for, and the Light never failed to respond to his call no matter the injury or the individual.

The Light had always provided, not what he thought he needed in the moment, but what he actually needed. And so there were times in his travels he would be able to work for a meal or coins doing simple woodworking he had learned from Joseph. There were others, when a kind person might have, unasked, taken pity on him and invited him to share a meal in an inn, or their home. Still, there were others where he went without physical sustenance, and, though his stomach rumbled, it was in those times that he found himself relying on the will and the strength of the Holy Light more than ever to sustain himself and keep going. It became a food that no one else but he knew about. What coin he earned or was given, when not spent on his own needs often found its way into the hands of another beggar like himself freely given.

He had, weeks before, maybe even a month before, returned to Stormwind by way of ship from Rut'theran Village at the base of the great Night Elven shaped tree Teldrassil. Teldrassil was the home of the Kal'dorei, and high in its branches was harbored a growing landscape of lush forest and ponds, and their wondrous capital, Darnassus. It had been Jeshua's final stop before returning home. He knew that this was the first place his mother and he came after the fall of Gilneas, and it had been something of a pilgrimage for him to see the place where his mother and adopted father first met. There also, as he did in the other parts of Azeroth he had visited, he sought to learn from and understand the Night Elves' philosophy, and their understanding of the Light and its relationship to their goddess Elune.

But the more he heard, the more he felt compelled to correct what internally he knew to be misunderstandings and deviations from what his sire taught him was the truth.

"You claim to honor and worship Elune, but you do not heed her voice or follow her teachings." He had told the group of Kal'dorei with whom he had spoken. He felt no need at the moment to challenge the worship of their goddess, even though he knew she was something else entirely, in service to the Light herself. It would have been a pointless addition to his argument. "She doesn't cause harm, or return evil for evil. Instead, wherever she goes she brings peace, and calm to the fighting as the Light itself wills. How is taking up arms and slaying your enemies following her ways? How does hunting and persecuting Orcs and Tauren, or even your own kin the Quel'dorei and Sin'dorei, simply because of their race reflect her will and teachings?"

There had been several who appeared to listen and even nod their heads in agreement as he had continued, "The will of the Light is to love those who would be your enemies, and do good to them. To heal both friend and foe alike, and so remove the dividing line between them. The Light cares for both Elf and Orc alike."

But there had been many more there who sought to silence him, especially among the sentinels and the priesthood.

"You know nothing of what you speak, human!" A priestess had shouted at him. "You haven't seen anyone die at their hands. You didn't lose friends or family when those monsters bombed Thal'Darah!"

"And what about Gilneas?" A worgen woman who had come to listen spoke up. "Should we just forget with those undead bastards did to us? What that banshee elf bitch Sylvanas did to Prince Liam years ago? How dare you suggest such a thing!"

In truth, he had recently seen the crater that had once been Thal'Darah in his travels through the Stonetalon mountains before making his way to Darnassus itself. What had been a great center of learning and school for Night Elves of the Druid discipline. It was not long after he had also seen the remains of a once proud Tauren village on a clifftop not far from it, bloodstains from some atrocity still visible in the dirt and splattered on the ruined wood of the structures. There had been two sides to that story, and though he did not know both of them for certain, he knew within himself that it had not been so black and white as the pain of those who disagreed with him lead them to believe. Few conflicts ever were.

A shouting match had begun between those who agreed with him, and those who ardently did not, though it hadn't been his intention. He had been sitting discussing these things with them on a wooden fishing dock within sight of the Temple of the Moon. More priestesses became involved, and then sentinels had been called, and he had then been asked to leave the city not long after. He was told in no uncertain terms his ideas were not welcome among the Night Elves in Darnassus.

Upon returning to Stormwind, he stayed in the city only briefly, no more than a few hours. Wearing only simple clothes; a pair of undyed linen breeches with belt, a similar shirt, and a woolen robe to cover himself with to keep out the chill, he looked like any other homeless pauper which might have found their way into the metropolis. His strawberry blond hair had been allowed to grow past his shoulders, though he always kept it tied back neatly in a relatively tight braid. His beard of the same color had grown in full across his chin, cheeks and upper lip. But his green eyes, and shape of face had changed little except to mature into full manhood since he had left at twelve years old.

The Light within him insisted that it wasn't time yet for his family to see him again, and being in Stormwind for any length of time held that very real possibility. He knew himself that he wasn't ready yet for that encounter. There had been a reason for his letting them go, and his purpose still had not come to full fruition yet. While the Light had taught him many things over the years, and he had drawn into a fuller, and richer relationship with his sire, there was still something eluding him which he needed to experience and comprehend for him to truly begin his calling in Azeroth.

And instead, the Holy Light had drawn him to head north, but not by any conventional means. Having given his last few silver coins to a poor old man who had sat begging by the dock as he stepped off the ship, Jeshua had no money with which to hire a gryphon to take him north. Neither still did the underground tram which connected the human city with Ironforge feel right, even though it was safe and free of charge. Instead, the Light insisted that he take the longer, harder route along the road east and then north through the Redridge Mountains.

Two hours out of Stormwind, as he walked the road in the late morning, he saw the old cart path leading up to the house he grew up in. The temptation had been strong to stop and follow it, to just see how they were doing, but he had stopped himself. What he now understood as his mission hadn't come to completion yet and he couldn't risk it being waylaid altogether.

He kept on walking. South down the road, through Goldshire, and continued to walk, only stopping to rest much later that night in the house of a kind couple who lived near the Eastvale logging camp near the eastern provincial border. As it turned out, their son had taken a bad fever earlier in the day and they were in desperate need of one who could heal, the illness progressing too rapidly to get him to a town with a physician of any kind in time. He had been in the right place at the right time once again to save the boy's life and banish the sickness.

All of those memories came back to him as he walked, being careful to keep close to the hills and cliff faces and not be caught out in the open in the wasteland. He had seen not a few feline predators stalking the scrub grasses and cracked dirt ground all that night and morning. Jeshua kept as far away from them as he could, as well as the more dangerous things. More than once, a small, black and rust scaled creature with bat like wings and fire for breath flew close to the ground looking for small rodents and other prey it might be able to take. Dragons, he he had discovered in his travels, were dangerous at any age, but especially those either not intelligent enough or not mature enough to know when something wasn't a threat. There had also been a Horde outpost that he had managed to avoid much earlier in the day. While he had no quarrel with them, he knew he couldn't risk the chance they wouldn't feel the same because of his race.

The long hot valley between the jagged hills and cliffs seemed like it went on forever. His legs began to feel heavier and heavier. No matter what, he knew, he would need to stop for the rest of the day until the sun started dropping in the sky again. If nothing else, his body felt like it was going to force him to. But he could see nothing close by that might have held any real shade, or anything to at least fully shield his head from the relentless sunlight.

Finally, finding an outcropping of rock not too far up the hill, he managed to climb it and position himself sitting under the outcropping so that it just barely came over his head. It was something, but once the sun moved again, what relief it provided would disappear. Drawing his legs up underneath himself, he closed his eyes to rest them and commune with the Light.

"Why do you put yourself through this?" A strange, almost ethereal voice asked him, there was a musical quality to it, but it was discordant and melancholy, like chimes that had cracked and broken.

He opened his eyes in surprise to see who the owner of the voice was, but there was no one there that he could see. There was only the sunlight, and the few shadows around the boulders and rocks along the cliffside, but he had seen enough about the world he lived in to know that meant nothing.

"Where are you? Show yourself." He spoke out loud, his tone of voice expecting a response.

He wasn't disappointed. The shadows not far from him which had been formed by one of the larger boulders pooled together and coalesced into what appeared to almost be a dark, human shaped hole which stood upright and came before him. It gestured with its hands of shadow, and repeated its question. "Why do you put yourself through this?"

"It's the will of the Light." Jeshua responded. "The Light guided me here, and the Light will see me through it."

"Foolish mortal, it will be the will of the Light which kills you." The shadow creature told him.

He had been about to argue when something within him acknowledged what the creature said as true. He would die if he continued to follow the Light's will as he had done. He didn't know how, but he would.

"How?" He asked.

"Does it matter?" The creature questioned. "Look what the Light has taken from you; your family, your people, and your future. You haven't eaten for over a month, and you're about to die of dehydration. No one will find your emaciated body out here. And for what? You don't even know if there's an end to all this, do you? Pathetic."

Has it really been over a month? He wondered to himself. Has only the Light really sustained me for that long? The days and nights had blurred together so much he had lost count. As he really began to think about it, however, he realized it had been a long time since his hunger pains had stopped altogether.

"There's a Goblin settlement just over that rise. The Goblins are Horde vermin anyway. Use the power you know you have and take what you need from the little scum. No one would fault you." It then laughed, "Not even their Horde allies. It's the only way you're going to survive this." The creature taunted him.

Suddenly it was as if a switch had been thrown and his whole body began to spasm as his stomach cried out in pain for food. Added to it came a thirst which seemed magnified a hundred times than it already had been. He turned his head in the direction which the shadow creature had indicated and saw in the distance a gaudy arrow lit by electricity pointing up a steep path.

Jeshua found himself facing a horrid choice that his own body fought him on desperately. Follow the path his sire wanted for him and surely die, or abandon that path and live. His life, or the Light, which would it be?

What are their lives in comparison to mine, after all? The thought that ran through his mind felt so unnatural and alien. He didn't know the Goblins in question, though he had met a few. They weren't always a particularly pleasant people. Most, it seemed, would sell their own mothers if they would fetch a good price. Gold was their god. Materialistic and greedy they deserved judgment, didn't they?

"But then what is my life in comparison to theirs?" He asked himself wordlessly, mouthing the words. "If all were given the judgment they deserved then no one would be spared damnation without the mercy of the Light."

"The Light is life." He then responded, quoting the Tome of Divinity. "In the Light, there is no death. Even though I should perish, the Light remains."

Death then to him appeared not a thing to be feared, but a closer union, unfettered by the frailties of mortality. He then accepted his death, letting go and choosing to put his trust in the Light which had guided him and been his greatest companion.

"Fool!" The shadow creature nearly screamed at him, but it dissolved into the sunlight as though it were never there.

The peace of the Light washed over him, and gave him a renewed calm and energy that he hadn't had just minutes before. The sunlight above suddenly wasn't threatening to end his life, but became a welcome friend.

Jeshua stood up from where he had sat, and continued on his way, all traces of the physical distress he had been in having left him. His legs no longer felt heavy, and his feet no longer sore. The sense of his direction grew stronger within him, and he felt as though he was being called forward. The sun rose higher in the sky until its apex point as Jeshua walked across the rock strewn desert, his bare feet moving with purpose and strength.

An hour later, he paused where he was. The sense of direction had left him, and he sensed the need to wait. To his left, high up in the rock cliffside, a dark stone structure of ancient dwarven architecture loomed silent like a tomb. There were no dwarves present however, and it didn't look like there had been for some time. Closer inspection of the landscape revealed small, sturdy bleached dwarven bones and ruined armor scattered around as though scoured by the sun and occasional dust storms. To his right in the distance was what appeared to be heavy beamed wooden scaffolding around a large pit in the ground which had been dug. It looked to him like one of the many archaeological digs dwarves were known for, though this one appeared as abandoned as the cliffside fortress. It seemed the diminutive but sturdy, stocky people were forever obsessed with the past and their ancestors.

Then, in front of him, what shadows there were coalesced again into the same humanoid form devoid of all light it seemed.

"The remnants of a powerful kingdom." The shadow creature told him, gesturing to the dig, and the dwarven fortress in the rock. "Much like the one your ancestors ruled."

"What ancestors?" Jeshua asked, not knowing what the creature was talking about now.

"Let me show you." The creature replied, then threw its shadowy void arms towards Jeshua and suddenly, the scene around him changed.

He and the shadow form were standing in front of the immense, ruined gates of what had once been a great, walled city. Even now, though they were crumbling, he could see what had been magnificent keeps beyond the walls and a domed Cathedral that would have rivaled Stormwind's own easily.

"Where are we?" He asked.

"Behold, Lordaeron, the city of your ancestors. Or at least it was, before the Scourge attacked it. Look at them." He motioned towards what looked from a distance like human beings, but bent and malshaped. "This bunch rebelled against the rest, but they're all the same undead monsters, aren't they?"

"I don't understand. I was born in Gilneas. My mother was from-" He protested, confused.

"Look at yourself, fool." The shadow produced a hand mirror and showed Jeshua his own reflection. "You've seen those flea bitten mongrels when they choose to hide as humans. Did you really think you were one of them without the fur and fangs?"

The shadow waved its right arm again, and the scene changed once more. They were standing in a ruined stone hallway. The once carpeted floor was now scattered with small bits of debris and dust. Directly in front of Jeshua however was a painting of a clearly royal family. An older man with greying blond hair and beard standing next to a beautiful queen with strawberry blond hair. In front of them sat two teenaged children in fine apparel, a boy and a girl. The boy was handsome, almost elvishly so, with blond locks and clean shaven face. The girl though, as Jeshua looked closer he recognized the hair, the eyes and the shape of face very, very well.

"Behold the last king of Lordaeron and his family. Your family, Jeshua, or at least they used to be before the boy there joined the Scourge, slew his father, and then destroyed this kingdom in one fell swoop. You were born to rule… your highness."

"But the people…?" Jeshua felt as though he had been physically struck as he tried to digest this new information.

"Those that survived scattered to the four corners of Azeroth, some to Northrend, some south to Stormwind. The rest..." the shadow pointed to a humanoid shape down the hallway.

As it came closer, bright moonlight coming through cracks in the hall revealed it to be one of the "Forsaken", undead creatures whose souls had been bound to their decaying bodies by dark magic, but their spirits having long fled. Their wills and minds were their own, but they could no longer be called truly human. Jeshua felt the gorge rise in his throat as he viewed the creature's dead, glazed over white eyes and greenish, rotting skin. Bits of bone poked through its fingertips and around its joints. Maggots occasionally dropped haphazardly as it walked.

"They would sooner feast on your living flesh than hear anything you have to say. They're damned, Jeshua, even unable to tolerate the Light itself as it burns away at them, threatening to send their souls to Helya's eternal darkness." The shadow replied.

"There has to be something..." Jeshua said. "How could these be…?" In his twenty years of life, he hadn't known, hadn't seen any of it. But within himself he knew once more, the Shadow spoke the truth to him.

"My people." He finished his sentence, the realization dawning on him. "These are my people."

"Not any more, but you could rally the remnants of your people in New Hearthglen in Northrend, and the Scarlet Crusade which still controls the Monastery in the north of Tirisfal Glades. You could bring them under the banner of a true heir of Lordaeron, and lead them to destroy these pathetic monsters, burn them all away with the Light and cleanse the unholy scourge from your lands once and for all… your majesty. There are paladins and priests just waiting to take up your cause." The shadow told him, his voice deferential, even reverent as he talked of using the Light to strike down the undead.

But Jeshua continued to gaze at the Forsaken man in front of him. He had seen them before in his travels to be sure, but always from a distance. Never as close as he was now. The man's eyes were dead, but they seemed filled with sorrow and pain that wouldn't end. Jeshua looked deeply into the man and saw what had been a father as well as a husband once with a family and children. He hadn't asked for his fate, it had been forced upon him and now he was just playing with the hand of Hearthstone cards he had been dealt. He saw a man loyal to his monarch, and loyal to his people trying to make the best of a horrific situation. He saw a man who had given up hope on redemption and salvation because he had been told that they were beyond his reach.

"These are my people, and they need to know that I haven't forsaken them." He said aloud, gesturing to the Forsaken man, a conviction growing inside of him that he hadn't known before as his calling began to crystallize within his heart and mind.

"The Light has forsaken these people!" The shadow yelled at him. "It's better to just put them out of their misery! Do you realize how many good Alliance men these monsters have slaughtered and then brought back to life as one of their own just to fill their ranks? Those men deserve justice for what was done to them!"

A steely resolve ran through Jeshua as he began to reach out to touch the undead man. "The Light abandons no one. All are welcome in its embrace."

"NOOO!" The shadow shouted forcefully, and once more the scene around him changed and Jeshua had been returned to the desert alone as though no time had passed.

The shadow vanished, he then began to march forward towards the north now as though pulled by an unseen force.

A few minutes later, a swirling vortex of darkness erupted from the desert floor in front of him, barring his way. Around the canyon, echoes of misplaced laughter and maddening screams rattled off the cliffs and rocks.

"STOP! I forbid you to go forward, mortal! Bow before me and behold the power of the Void! All worlds, all people, all will eventually fall to the Void's embrace!" The darkness commanded him as great tendrils of shadow erupted from its sides like twin pythons. "Face limitless power and become one with the Shadow!"

Another realization came to the man as Jeshua drew himself up before the shadow creature. The display was awesome and terrifying to behold, but within himself Jeshua knew only peace, and the increasing awareness of who he truly was.

"You have no authority to command me." He told it calmly, serenity and compassion welling up within him.

It felt as though an awakening was happening within Jeshua, a light was dawning within his mind and heart.

Yes. The small, gentle voice within him spoke clearly. We are one, my son.

"I am darkness! I am shadow! I am the void, mortal! You will be consumed by all that I am!" The void creature bellowed.

Jeshua smiled. "What is darkness but a need for the Light?" He replied, and then reached out to the creature to lay his hand on it.

The Void god, as Jeshua now knew that it was, recoiled back, "No! I am destruction! I am chaos incarnate! I am madness and death!" Tendrils of void energy shot out from the monstrosity in all directions, threatening to consume whatever it touched, almost as in a panic.

Jeshua's voice spoke quietly, just above a whisper, but his words struck the creature like powerful blows with a paladin's hammer. "I am the Path. I am Truth, and I am Life."

"NOO! KEEP AWAY FROM ME!" It screamed in panic as Jeshua stepped forward towards it, his hand outstretched to touch the creature.

"I am the Light." He finally said as his hand made contact with the living, solidified darkness.

Brilliant radiance flowed out from Jeshua into the creature's form and it screamed a terrible, seemingly endless cry. The dark tendrils of void drew back writhing in pain as the whole creature's form shook with holy shining glory. The shadows around it burned away, being purged as with sacred flames.

Jeshua held still, his eyes closed, silently communing with his sire as he did so. Pure, Holy Light overflowed up within him and kept building in pressure and power as though from a geyser, and through his hands into the fallen creature. He however continued to feel only peace, and renewed strength of purpose. From the Void god he felt pain, loneliness, and a madness which had gripped it for millennia he knew. It had, itself, once been a creature devoted to the Light before the darkness had overtaken it. Like the Forsaken man, it too had long been in need of redemption and restoration.

When he could sense no more shadow within it, Jeshua withdrew his hand. He opened his eyes to see a being seemingly composed of crystalline shards of pure golden light hovering above the ground in front of him. From it he could feel waves of peace and gratitude radiating out towards him.

"Welcome back, my friend." Jeshua told the reborn Naaru.

"You would have been right to judge and end me, my lord." The Naaru told him, its voice genuinely deferential.

"I didn't come to judge anyone, but to redeem and save them; to restore them to the Light." Jeshua replied with a passionate conviction. Truly, he now knew for certain, this was why he was born.

"My sire, and my Light." The Naaru responded reverently, and then bent itself in half, bowing to the mortal man before it. "What would you have of me?"

"Tell your brothers the reign of Shadow is ending. The Kingdom of Light has come." Jeshua replied. "I go north to Lordaeron."