Chapter 9

Quin'Thalan tied the reins of the hippogryphs to a large shard of rock, and followed Tamuura in creeping up on Mana Forge B'Naar. She crouched as low as she could, but had some trouble moving with her extended legs. She had to settle for slinking along the ground, stretching one leg out and slowly moving her weight onto it, then repeating the motion with the other leg. Quin'Thalan crept along beside her, trying to ignore her legs and concentrate on maintaining stealth.

At the Mana Forge Sunfury rangers, paladins, rouges, mages, and a few weak underlings crowded around it, some performing repairs, others mining crystals from the rocks, some simply guarding it, but most were hanging around giant mana crystals drinking in so much pure energy from it that they where high on magic.

"No wonder they still follow the prince," he whispered "In that torpor they'd believe anything as long as it have them more magic."

Tamuura nodded.

"This is exactly what draenei mages are trained to avoid."

"And this is exactly what we did for millennia with the Sunwell." He said back.

"We can debate later," she whispered, "Now, who do think is important enough to have that key?"

Quin'Thalan raised his head a bit and scanned the various elves. No one of particular importance seemed to be near the Mana Forge, but a little ways down the path was a tent, hung with expensive, transparent fabric. Nearby a very important looking man was getting ready to mount a hawkstrider.

"Him," he motioned towards the man, "he must be the one, from his armor and bearing I'd say he's a captain."

Tamuura nodded, and together they picked their way across the landscape, over to where the captain was. The elf man rode his hawkstrider at a leisurely pace down from the camp, then up the path towards the Mana Forge.

"We must get him on the middle of the path, otherwise we'll end up fighting either his heavily armed guards or those addled mages." he said.

"Yes, look, here he comes."

The captain was getting close enough for them to see his face, his was disgustingly smug, and his skin had thin lines of arcane tattoos curling over it. Tamuura waited for something to distract him, a large arc of magic being sucked into the Mana Forge made him look up and grin, she used the opportunity to roll across the path to the other side. She back down before he brought his eyes to the path again.

A few more steps from the hawkstrider and the next thing the captain knew a ball of fire had hit him squarely in the chest, knocking the wind from his lungs and throwing him off his mount. He landed on his back, dazed. His hawkstrider bolted forward, not to run away but to attack Tamuura. She frostbolted it and slowed it down while Quin'Thalan charged the captain. The elf man had just gotten air into his lungs again and was trying to perform a spell. Quin'Thalan released a torrent and silenced him, knocking him back again. Within seconds Quin'Thalan sank his blade into the captain's neck.

The elf looked right into his eyes as he died, and for a moment Quin'Thalan thought he knew this man. The captain's eyes glazed over and he removed his blade, forgetting the feeling and rushing over to help Tamuura. He nearly tripped over the corpse of the creature. Tamuura stood, barely panting, looking at him expectantly.

"The key, Quin'Thalan?"

He spun around, went back to the captain's body and quickly rifled through the pockets. As he did so, he looked at the face again. He found the key, and went back to Tamuura.

"I met that man before." He said.

"What?"

"When I came to Out Land, he was at Thrallmar telling all the new pilgrims about Netherstorm."

Quin'Thalan handed her the key. It was a hollow crystal with Naaru engravings all around it. She took the small object, but looked at the paladin.

"How are you?"

He shrugged.

"Perfectly fine. I knew I'd have to kill my own, I can grieve and pray later."

Tamuura nodded, and looked towards the entrance to the forge.

"Heavily guarded, it'll be hard to get in."

"Isn't there a back entrance?" he said.

"Should be, I can port us back there. Grab hold."

He placed a hand on her spaulder. She looked at his hand, then at him.

"I said grab hold, that meant my arm, not my armor."

Quin'Thalan's eyes widened a tad, but he wrapped his arm around hers, and she pulled on her mana reserve to teleport them the small distance. Sure enough, there was a back entrance, and it had far fewer guards.

"I can pull the ones by the door," said Tamuura, "Once they get over to us they don't stand a chance. I just have to try to get in range without them noticing."

With that she crouched down again, this time crawling on hands and knees to stay low. Quin'Thalan did the same. How he hated trying to use stealth in places with no plants.

Once in range Tamuura let lose an arcane barrage, hitting one of the guards, and drawing the attention of the other. The two elfs charged at them thinking there was only the one draenei mage, till Quin'Thalan popped up from behind a rock. One of guards veered off to take him instead, only to get a double blade through the stomach.

Quin'Thalan heard a blood curdling scream, as the guard that attacked Tamuura burst into flames. She did not let him suffer long, one more well placed spell and the elf man fell over, corpse still a light.

"Put him out," said Quin'Thalan, "Or the smoke will draw others."

The mage promptly locked the burning man in a block of ice.

"That do?" she asked with a smile.

"Yes, that should do." He smiled back.

They carefully approached the door, and looked inside. Sunfury elves were everywhere within the forge, patrolling the structure and working with the various controls.

"At least 8 out in the open," said Quin'Thalan, "and about 2 by each of those alcoves and by the other door."

"We will have to take out all those in the open, and those closest to the control panel." Said Tamuura.

"A tall order." He cracked a smile despite himself.

"A direct approach would be best." She sighed.

"I'll try to keep them from getting to you, just hammer them with everything you have."

"That's goes with saying."

Quin'Thalan lifted his shield, steeled his nerves and looked to Tamuura. She nodded, and without any delay Quin'Thalan burst into the chamber, screaming a war charge.

"FOR ANASTERIAN!"

He scared the living daylights out of every elf in earshot, and in the few moments that they spent collecting their nerves, Quin'Thalan turned his blades on the nearest guards. He spun his blade and took off the head of one, then sent the weapon trough the chest of the other. Before the two had even hit the ground the rest were baring down on him.

Two bolts of arcane energy brought down two of the six elves now charging. Tamuura continued throw powerful spells at the elves Quin'Thalan was fighting, freezing their limbs, melting their weapons, even summoning a small blizzard. All through it Quin'thalan kept their enemies at bay, cutting, hacking, slashing, kicking them back, throwing them off his shield. And yet he was not desperate, they were the desperate ones, not one blow they managed to land seemed anything more than a feather to him, and with Tamuura weakening them he quickly felled them all.

It was over with a minute, perhaps, and after their enemies lay around his feet Quin'Thalan took a few breaths. There were still at least two or three they needed to take down to get to the control console safely. He and Tamuura downed the remaining elves quickly, and Tamuura took a look at the console.

"This is almost completely Naaru technology, I can shut it down easily. And even better than that," she turned to him, "once shut down it cannot be re-activated, no matter what."

"Good, do it then."

"Many elves will probably notice what is going on."

"I'll take care if anyone who tries to stop us, just shut it down."

Tamuura nodded, and inserted the key into the console. An artificial voice began speaking in Naaru language, and Tamuura gave it orders in the same. Quin'Thalan heard the whole machine begin to slow down as the process began. Sure enough, several elves came running in screaming. Quin'Thalan cut them down easily but before he could even turn around more came charging in.

"Tamuura, any way to make that thing go faster?" he said as he took on one of the new arrivals.

"I will try, but I don't think it can." She said, trying to channel more energy to the process.

"Every bit helps." He said, slicing through another guard's armor.

The voice said something else, and Quin'Thalan heard the machinery shift.

"Five minutes till shut down!" yelled Tamuura.

"Five minutes! We'll be lucky to get out of here at all!" Quin'Thalan stepped up his pace as yet more elves poured in.

"Don't talk like that!" she yelled back.

They didn't have much time for chit chat after that and has Quin'Thalan went into a near frenzy keeping the elves away from the control console, and Tamuura tried everything she could think of to make the shut down happen quicker. After what felt like an eternity the voice announced that shut would take place in five seconds, and began countdown.

"Ok, Quin'Thalan! Time to go!"

She spun around and saw Quin'Thalan, one elf holding his neck from behind, one clinging to his shield, a corpse stuck on his double blade, and a dying elf clawing at his boot. There were at least 20 bodies piled up around him. Tamuura summoned another spell and blasted everything around her. The two living elves on Quin'Thalan were knocked off, and he managed to get the body off his weapon before she came up to him, put her hand on his chest and teleported them out to their mounts.

Just as they got outside, Mana Forge B'Naar' shut down, the siphon stopped and the area went eerily quiet, with exception of the wails of the elves outside as all the crystals began to release their energies back into the Nether.

Tamuura looked away and leaned against Quin'Thalan, her forehead against his. With fatigue setting in and his adrenaline cycling down Quin'Thalan didn't even really notice the rather affectionate gesture. Slowly Tamuura noticed an overwhelming scent coming from the elf. She lifted her head and saw that his crimson armor was soaked with blood; it even spattered his face and hair. It wasn't a surprise, in fact it seemed fitting for a blood elf to be covered in blood.

"I know, I can smell it, I can feel it." He wiped some of the red spots off his goatee, but really only smeared them.

"I'm used to it. But you have got some on your head now." He reached up to her forehead with a dripping hand. She pushed it away, and rubbed at the spot with the sleeve of her robe.

"A little better?" she asked.

"A little."

"Let's go, we need to send a report and talk to those consortium fellows again." She said.

"Yes, not good to stay here any longer." He looked back at the now dull and lightless structure and the ill-fated Sunfury elves as they scrambled futility to restore the machine. He mounted his hippogryph, the beast ignored the smell of blood, and he followed Tamuura back to Area 52.