Chapter 4

"...taking all the mana I've got just to sustain him!" said one rather hoarse female voice.

There was a long pause. "He needs to be in Silvermoon. What were you thinking bringing a Sin'dorei to a place like this?" This voice was assertive and beautiful. I wondered if perhaps Lady Sylvanas had found me in Corin's Crossing and was preparing to transport me back home to tend to whatever injuries I may have.

"Brill was getting too risky." the first voice replied. "The Undercity Apothecaries wanted to start jamming him full of needles and probes to see what kind of curse he was under. So I moved and brought him with me. Silvermoon really isn't my sort of city. No offense to you or anything."

"You shoulda contacted me, Magethra. I would've retrieved him for ya. You know he's probably got family back home who think he's dead." The informal speaking patterns of this second voice were my first clue that it couldn't be Lady Sylvanas after all. When I abandoned the hope that it might be her, it began to sound less and less like the voice that I remembered. Still, it was a lovely sound to hear after all that my dreams had put me through.

"Yes, I suppose so. I just so enjoyed having him near me. He's a nice bit of eye candy if nothing else. Besides," the voice of Magethra said with a bemused inflection in her hoarse voice. "It isn't as though he's ever going to wake up." I tried to open my eyes but the lids were heavy and my best effort only managed to push my eyebrows up into a vaguely surprised expression. I heard a gasp followed by the sound of a bottle breaking against the floor. "He's waking up!" Magethra's voice cried out. "That ridiculous potion of yours worked, Sin! He's coming to!"

As I finally managed to force my eyes open, blurry images began to come into focus. Looming above me was a dead woman standing upright. Her boney hands were clasped together, her sunken cheekbones made it appear that she was grinning broadly and her glowing yellow eyes peered down at me with interest. Her hair stuck out at all sort of chaotic angles, further terrifying me.

A scream of horror burst forth from my throat. If I could have moved easily, I would've been across the room in that instant, managing a bow to strike down this living corpse once and for all. As it happened, I could barely move at all. My muscles felt as though they had forgotten how to command their own movements and every effort seemed laborious.

"Sin!" the corpse lady yelled. "I think you should come see him. My exquisite countenance is a bit much for him to bear!"

"I'm coming." came the reply. "I was just finishing up a salve that should speed his recovery along." I never even heard the approaching footsteps but before I knew it, the dead woman was gone and I was gazing up at a beautiful female High Elf. Something about her was disturbingly familiar. She began to rub a strong-smelling salve onto my skin as she spoke. "Don't worry. My name's Sin and I'm a doctor."

The memory of my last vision rushed back into my mind and my eyes grew wide. She was no mere doctor. She was the assassin that had murdered that human in cold blood. I could feel my muscles tightening and regaining a bit of their strength, the tingling salve taking effect rapidly. At least, she did seem to know how to heal as well as she knew how to butcher the unwary. "What's your name?" she asked me simply.

"S-Shandor... ow..." it hurt to talk and my tongue felt lethargic. "I'm a ranger."

"Well, Shandor." Sin's tone was conversational as she worked to cover my hands with the salve, Magethra the corpse lady scooping up a handful and covering my legs with it, inducing a shudder that ran down my spine to each of my limbs while Sin continued to speak. "You've been unconscious for a long while now. Not sure exactly how long but things have changed. You'll need to keep an open mind and try not to have a mental breakdown. Your muscles are weak from extended bed rest and chances are that you'll need significant rehabilitation before you can return to the lifestyle to which a Ranger is likely accustomed. Stay calm and we'll have you walking in no time."

I tried to clench my fist, but I could barely do it. My fingers seemed as though they had trouble coordinating well enough to meet each other. She was right. "I... I can't fire a bow? It feels like I can barely squeeze a trigger."

"You may be looking at some permanent nerve damage, deary." Magethra interjected. "There's no guarantee you'll ever improve well enough to go around shooting people. Besides, there aren't any rangers left in Eversong these days unless you count the Farstriders. I think you're out of luck there."

I sighed deeply and tilted my head back. I couldn't believe this was happening to me. "Well, what am I supposed to do then!?" I asked, becoming frustrated.

"Well," Sin began with a grin spreading across her face. "The Blood Knights are always looking for new recruits and that doesn't require any coordination whatsoever."

"Blood Knights?" I asked.

Sin and Magethra spent the next few hours catching me up on the changes that had taken place during what I now understood to be a Persistent Necromantic Coma. Over the past couple of years, all hell had broken loose. My dreams were not merely flights of fancy after all. I had been somehow observing these changes from outside of my body. Magethra explained that she represented a portion of the plagued Lordaeron populace that had broken free of the Lich King's psychic control and were now living under the ruins of Lordaeron in a place called Undercity.

I felt all returning strength leave my body as she informed me that Lady Sylvanas had fallen in battle against the traitorous Prince Arthas and had also been denied a clean death. She was now their Banshee Queen and had sworn vengeance on behalf of her kingdom, its people Forsaken by their former allies due to their appearance and misconceptions held by a fearful and closed-minded human populace.

I learned of the Burning Legion, of the destruction of our beloved Sunwell and of Prince Kael'thas' betrayal at the hands of the Alliance as well as his subsequent descent into villiany fueled by desperation to save his people.

Sin took great pride in telling me that we were now members of the Horde under the command of the Warchief Thrall and that the Alliance was now our enemy. "Don't worry though," she added cheerfully. "All the friends you had in the Alliance have been dead for a long while. You won't have to face any of them in battle."

I learned of the Naaru and of the blood knights. The subject of the Draenei came up. "They crash-landed here recently." Magethra explained. "Well, not right here, but on Azuremyst Isle."

Sin nodded gravely. "And, of course, they've joined with the Alliance. You'll notice they look a lot like some of the Legion's leadership. The whole 'Bipedal Goat from Outer Space with Squidy Neck Tentacles' look is something they share in common because two of their three greatest leaders joined with the Burning Legion in exchange for power. The one who fled after the offer was made is now the leader of the Draenei. Naturally, the Alliance believes that their mutual trust in the Light gives them a common ground upon which a relationship between their respective people can be built."

I heard tales of Outland, learned of the infestation of Scourge up and down the Dead Scar and felt at times as though my head would burst from all the information that I was absorbing. Luckily, none of this information was brand new to me. All it seemed to do was solidify my disjointed dreams into a cohesive experience that I was beginning to understand much better.

Soon, I was able to move with much greater ease. I slowly climbed to my feet as they caught me up on current events and I spent several moments steadying myself. Looking around, I realized at once that I was in Gadgetzan. How I got here was a mystery to me, but it became readily apparent that my presence was of little concern to the populace.

While my muscles were slower than they used to be, my eyes were as keen as ever. As I stood by the doorway and peered outside, I spied a rapidly descending crystalline object of minuscule proportions glinting in the bright Tanaris sun. The object fell silently into a bowl of porridge being consumed by a hapless male goblin who was lazily tending a cart full of miscellaneous wares.

He lifted the spoon to his mouth, the object shimmering within the utensil, cradled by the soft mash of boiled oats and milk. I yelled a warning to him, but it was muffled by the bustling crowd traversing the streets between our respective positions. He swallowed the item, completely oblivious to its existence, and continued eating.

I spent some time discussing my plans now that I had awakened with Sin and Magethra. I discovered that Sin had been asked to come here by Magethra to determine if I could be awakened and that this was the first time she had seen me. They told me of the rise of numerous heroes, some of which I recognized from my vision. I was informed that Klaive had become an exceptional blood knight but he had been lost in battle some time ago.

It turned out that Sin and Shakaku were close friends and had been since childhood. As we were getting into the finer details of this, a commotion arose outside.

A trio of adventurers approached the goblin vendor with a pulsating orb in their possession. "He has the crystal." accused an orc dressed in bulky plate. "Take it from him!" A comely troll woman, one of his traveling companions, approached and frisked the unwary goblin. A great deal of awkward sounds resulted from this onslaught of petting until finally the troll girl announced, "'e ain't got it on 'im. Me t'ink 'e 'idin' it, mon. We cut 'im til 'e tell us where it be."

The goblin shrieked. "I don't know anything about a crystal, lady! You've got it all wrong!"

I'm still not sure how she got past me unnoticed that day but the next thing I knew, Sin was standing behind the group of adventurers and talking. "He doesn't know nothin'. Whatever you're lookin' for fell out of the sky into his bowl. I watched him eat it not ten minutes ago. So... I guess you'll have to wait." She smirked to herself, likely imagining as I was the adventuring trio following the goblin around with a bag and a scooper.

"We don't have time for that." said Namshiel, the third member of the group. "We must collect that crystal and get back to our base camp before nightfall or there will be hell to pay. I believe that I can apply the same principle employed by my imp's phase shift ability to pass my hand harmlessly into this goblin's stomach and retrieve the crystal."

"Really? You can do that?" the orc warrior asked, impressed.

"Well," Namshiel began, slowly approaching the cornered goblin. "I've never tried it before, but the theory sounds plausible. I can't guarantee it will be painless for him, but one way or another, we'll get our crystal." The troll girl and the orc seized the goblin and pinned him to the ground as he writhed and struggled in vain. Namshiel drew closer to his victim, his hand shifting in and out of transparency as he worked to stabilize the effect.

"Help!" yelled the goblin. "They're detaining me for no reason! I haven't done anything! Somebody help me! Somebody help me! Help! Help! I'm being repressed!" No one paid the goblin any mind. Namshiel, now satisfied with his control over his phased hand, knelt beside the goblin and prepared to plunge his fingers into the plump green belly before him. The goblin cried out again in vain. "Don't phase me, bro! Don't phase me, bro! AAAHHHH! Ow! Ow! Owwwwww!"

"So," Magethra suddenly said to me amidst the cries of anguish going on in front of us. "You said you'd be returning to Silvermoon, correct?" She retrieved a strange device from the cabinet and placed it on the floor, turning it on and waiting as it powered up. Abruptly, a rift appeared in the center of the room and beyond that rift, I could see the spires of Silvermoon. "There you are," she said with a demented grin. "These goblins have some amazing technology. Take care of yourself."

Dazed at how suddenly all of this was happening, I stepped through the rift and found myself standing before a Blood Knight recruiter in Silvermoon City. The sensation was incredible. The relief I felt to be home was beyond anything that I can describe to you. I was back... and there was much to do.