Dormir flew next to the SI:7 agent leading him to this Ravenholdt Manor place. He rarely traveled to the Eastern Kingdoms and unfortunately didn't know his way around. It was good that Maggie had left him her marker that ensured the cooperation of SI:7. He was sure they would have at least told him where this manor was even without the medallion, but also knew they went the extra mile by accompanying him because of Maggie.

He saw the Manor in the mountain from the air, but noted how the agent was heading for the base of the mountain. Apparently, this Ravenholdt person didn't like others just flying into his manor. He shifted from his stormcrow form just before he reached the ground. The agent dismounted his gryphon and led him up the practically hidden path and into a tunnel. The agent made a hand signal and told the two guards that the night elf was with him then continued up the path to the manor.

He wasn't quite sure what to expect here considering the little information provided to him from Agent Strome. The agent with him made an inquiry and they were led upstairs to a room. The door was opened by Maggie. Seeing him, she said something quietly to the agent who stepped into the room, and Maggie stepped out. "Find something out?" She seemed to be wide awake for it being late into the night.

Dormir nodded his head, but felt a bit of a disappointment. He had allowed himself to hope that Ileeya was here, despite the fact that Maggie hadn't contacted him to say so. "I was able to trace her to the Eastern Kingdoms, northern region. But something blocked me from zeroing in on her exact location. I had hoped..."

"That she'd be here?" Maggie shook her head. "Baros is here, but no sign of the others. I'm afraid the disappearances are not connected."

…

The blindfold was removed from Lord Aron and he glanced around, seeing that he was once more in Jerold's laboratory. To his dismay, the other night elf, Jelune, was now strapped to the table, unconscious. "What did you do to him?"

"It doesn't concern you, Boxley. He wasn't part of the deal."

Lord Aron steeled his emotions. He wanted to help the night elf, but he had to keep himself focused. Saving Kristie and Amy was of topmost importance to him. He silently apologized to Jelune as he dropped the backpack in front of Jerold. "There's the gold, all of it! Now release the humans."

Jerold glanced at the bag and then at Aron. He ignored the gold and walked over to a table with various vials on it and picked one of them up. "I assume you still want the antidote...?" He didn't look at Aron, and the nobleman paused just long enough to wonder if the forsaken had figured out what he had done.

"Of course!" He held out his hand to take the vial from the forsaken. Jerold seemed slow in giving it to him and he grabbed it as soon as he could and drank it down. Well, at least the forsaken had kept his word on the antidote, though he didn't like the smile on his face. "Take me to them."

"As you wish."

Lord Aron forced himself not to fidget. The undead man was acting too...calm. He followed Jerold down the stairs and into the prison room where torches were lit to light the room once more. The women had been asleep and awoke from the sudden noise and light. Jerold pulled out the keys and unlocked Kristie's cell. "There's been a change in the deal, Mr. Boxley."

Lord Aron glared at Jerold, tensing up as he waited for Jerold to say what the change was.

"I've decided to start a new study on living...children."

A gasp was heard from Kristie as she shuffled over to where Amy was still waking up, rubbing her eyes. "I've paid for her release, Jerold!" Lord Aron put on his most authoritative voice.

"We are not in a political meeting, Boxley. You have no room to negotiate. Now take the woman and we'll escort you out of my home."

"I'm not leaving Amy!" Kristie's voice sounded adamant. "I don't care how much you paid, Lord Aron, I am not leaving her in the hands of that..that...creature!"

Aron spared Kristie a quick glance. That was his mistake. When he looked back at the forsaken, he saw only the vial with the yellow gas inside. His body relaxed and his mind seemed to retreat as things around him faded away.

…

Jerold pushed Aron into Kristie's cell and locked the door. "I'll give you time to think about it. I left an experiment running that really needs my attention. I'll be back in half an hour and you can let me know your decision." Jerold left the prison room with quick steps.

Kristie stayed with Amy and glanced in Jelune's direction only to find he wasn't there! She looked over at Ileeya. "Jelune's gone! Where-?"

She saw Ileeya's face pale. "Jerold must have taken him while we were asleep." Kristie had to wonder how the forsaken had managed that without waking any of them.

Kristie continued to hold Amy until Lord Aron came back to himself. She then gave Amy's hand a quick squeeze as she checked on the nobleman. "Lord Aron? Did you happen to see-"

She cut herself off when the nobleman looked around and did something that left Kristie flabbergasted. He took off his jacket and tunic, leaving his chest and arms bare. He thrust his arm towards Ileeya. "Can you read that?"

Kristie saw that on his upper arm, near his shoulder, were some words written in a slightly smudged ink, as though he had been in a hurry and put his tunic on before the ink had properly dried. Ileeya looked at the words with a frown. "I've not read words like those in a long time. It was part of my basic training. I think I can read them, though. Why?"

"Just do it. Read it out loud. Hurry, we don't have much time to find out if this will work." She read the words and a flash was seen briefly overhead. Ileeya gasped. "Did it work?" Lord Aron watched her intently. "Can you use your magic now?"

Ileeya muttered a spell and transformed into her cat form. Kristie grinned from ear to ear. "How in the-"

Lord Aron cut her off. "No time for explanations now. We need to figure out how to get him to open Ileeya's cage." He glanced at the night elf. "Can you fight in that form?"

She shifted back to her elf form and nodded. "It's not my calling, but I've learned enough that I think I can incapacitate Jerold." Kristie could hear a small bit of self-doubt in Ileeya's voice. They discussed options until Jerold came back. He seemed a bit distracted.

"Time is up. What is your decision?" Jerold watched the human woman intently.

Kristie glanced at Amy with worried eyes, and then at Lord Aron, who by this time had put his tunic and jacket back on. "I- I'll go with Lord Aron." She turned back to Amy, knowing the child understood that Kristie was playing a role, but needed to reassure her anyhow. "I'll be back for you. I promise. Be strong." She gave Amy a hug through the bars of the cell, then approached Jerold.

As she arrived next to Lord Aron, she noticed his blank face and she quickly stopped her breathing, refusing to breathe in as a flash of yellow moved by her face. This fast reaction was all that saved her from succumbing to the stun effect of the gas. But she hadn't been able to take in a deep breath before it, so she couldn't hold her breath for long. She also realized that she was going to have to attempt this without Aron's help.

Saying a quick prayer to the Light, she slapped her hand in front of her, smacking the yellow vial out of Jerold's hand. It went crashing to the ground, dissipating quickly. Even though he was dead, she could see the look of surprise on his face. His yellow eyes glowed brighter as he let out a growl, ready to say something, but she didn't let him. She grabbed his arm, that was still in the air from the slap, and pulled him into the cell and off-balance.

That's when she spotted the keys that he had dropped from his other hand. But she had to get closer to him to get them. She risked it. In a dive for the keys, she reached them before he could snatch them back up. But he was quick to react as well. He grabbed her wrist and his other hand reached to pull the keys out of her hand. She switched the keys to her other hand and shoved herself forward, knocking him off-balance again. He took her with him this time as they both fell to the stone floor.

She knew that despite his undead condition, or maybe because of it, he was stronger and she was going to lose the fight. But she wasn't about to let him have the keys. She tossed them in Ileeya's direction a split second before his elbow smashed into her face. Pain exploded as she could hear the sickening crunch of cartilage and felt blood flow from her broken nose. Black spots appeared in the corners of her vision as she fought not to lose consciousness.

But he was no longer fighting her. She could hear the jangling of keys. Did he get them? Or did Ileeya? A roar from a saber cat told her that Ileeya had transformed. She heard a thud and a scream as she was able to sit herself up just in time to see Jerold amazingly throw Ileeya's cat form off of him. He stood up, searching for something on the table against the wall. He found it, but had no time to use it, whatever it was. Ileeya had switched into her bear form and bashed him against the far wall. Then mangled him until he moved no more and the yellow glow in his eyes dimmed to almost nothing.

By this time, Lord Aron had come back to himself and he just stood there dumbfounded, watching the end of the fight. Ileeya transformed back into her elven form and grabbed the keys from her cell door. She went to Amy's cell and unlocked it as Lord Aron helped Kristie up. Amy and Kristie hugged as Ileeya ran to get Adorei and the group made their way upstairs.

Once upstairs, they found Jelune strapped to a table and immediately set him free. Ileeya cast a healing spell on him, unsure if he was injured or not. The spell revived him. He said that the forsaken had injected him with something, but had no idea what. Ileeya started to give Adorei to Kristie when she noticed the broken nose and blood on her face. She placed her hand over Kristie's nose and began a slow spell to fix the injury.

"Thank you." Kristie said, wiggling her healed nose, then took Adorei from Ileeya who now focused a cleansing spell on her brother. As Ileeya was doing this, Kristie turned to Lord Aron. "Do you think we're too late to save Kir and Adam?"

Lord Aron had a concerned look on his face. "We have no idea where they are. They may even be in Undercity by now."

"What about the stones?" Amy's voice broke the silence.

Kristie blinked as she had to think about what Amy was talking about. "Stones?"

Amy pulled a stone out of her pocket. "Is it an emergency?"

Kristie couldn't help but smile at Amy. "It is. And it's a good thought, Amy. But I'm afraid the stones don't work that way. We need to find him, not Adam find us. If you activate yours, his stone will only lead him to us." Kristie took out her own stone. Apparently, no one thinks stones are of any importance since they weren't taken from them. "Activate your stone."

Amy rubbed her stone. It glowed red and grew warm. Kristie stepped away from Amy and showed the child her stone. Kristie's stone glowed red as well. The woman turned and it's glow dimmed a little. She turned back to Amy and the glow grew brighter. Then she activated her own stone. It changed from red to gold. Amy's stone turned gold as well and grew brighter as it neared Kristie's stone. "See? There's no way we can get Adam to activate his stone..." Her voice trailed off as she began to get an idea. "Unless..."

…

"Duck!" Adam's voice could barely be heard over the noise. Just a few moments before, the forsaken mage had been attacked by a group of worgen. Unfortunately for them, three dreadguards were on patrol and had come to help the mage fight them off. A worgan had been slammed into the cage by one of them. Adam had to wonder if the worgen had scouted out the Sepulcher. This attack seemed planned. It started almost as soon as the road that lead into the Sepulcher had disappeared.

The fight continued as Adam felt an odd warm sensation against his hip. Had he been hurt somehow? His hand went to his hip and felt the hard stone there. He had forgotten all about the stone and pulled it from his pocket.

"What is that?" Kirlothenin's voice drifted over to him.

"A locator stone." It was red. That meant Amy was in trouble! But they had to know he couldn't get to them. Why would they activate it? Were they that desperate? Adam's grip tightened around the cage bar he was holding as it rocked yet again from Worgen crawling over it. The stone suddenly turned from red to gold.

"A what?"

"A simple device Lady Proudmoore and Mehlumis came up with when we were searching for Kristie and Prince Anduin in Tanaris. If one of our party found her he'd activate his stone and everyone would know to head in that direction. I gave Amy and Kristie their own stones before we went to Moonglade." He spoke absentmindedly. Now Kristie was in trouble? He had to get out of this cage! What could they be going through? The stone changed to red again. Now it was gold. Back to red.

"Is it supposed to do that?" Kir's voice was cut off as he had to shift position inside the small cage from a dreadguard's sword poking through the bars. In a flash, he used the chain between his shackles to force the sword out of the dreadguards grasp, who was busy trying to fend off a worgen's claws and fangs. He picked up the sword and buried it into the dreadguard's back.

"No." Adam wasn't paying attention to the fight outside the cage now. Why were they activating their stones back and forth so fast? Were they separated? Maybe they were trying to find each other? Or...they were trying to find him? There was only one way to find out. Adam activated his stone. It glowed silver and he waited. If it stayed silver, then he knew that they were coming for him. If it continued flashing red and gold, then his assumption was wrong. It stayed silver.

…

"The cloth we found, could it be from a forsaken?" Maggie's green eyes flashed as their search for the missing families was narrowed. Most of the northern part of the Eastern Kingdoms was inhabited by the forsaken.

"Possibly. But what would-"

Maggie glanced at Dormir when he cut himself off. There was a look of recollection on his face. "Forsaken! She was sold to a forsaken when Kir had-" The night elf stopped himself from saying anything more, but Maggie knew what he was going to say.

"When Kirlothenin had kidnapped Ileeya." She waived off his questioning look. "SI:7 had a file on him. I read it before I came here. If this forsaken had-" Now it was her turn to cut herself off as she felt a warm sensation against her hip. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a glowing stone in confusion.

"What is-"

"Shh!" She held up a hand as she watched it change from red to gold. She had to recall what Adam had told her which one of them had which color. Red was...Amy. Or was it Kristie? It didn't matter. They now knew how to find them! After bouncing between the two colors, it finally settled on silver.

Maggie started to walk down the hall, then stopped and glanced back at the room. "Baros." She formed a fist in frustration, then glanced at Dormir's confused face. "I can't leave my position. Shaw is counting on me until he can get back. Here..." She gave him the stone. "It'll lead you to Adam. It glows brighter when pointed in the right direction and the closer you get to him. May the wind be at your back, Dormir. Bring them back here."

…

The group exited what they now can determine was a house. They must have been kept in the basement. None of them knew where they were. There was a small mountain between them and the direction the stone was indicating where Adam and Kirlothenin were. There was one skeletal horse in the small barn and the group looked at each other. "Ileeya can use her travel form to move quickly." Jelune was the first to speak. "I can ride this...thing and go with her."

"You're still weak, Jelune. And you have no weapons." Ileeya looked apologetically at her brother.

"Neither does anyone else," he growled back.

"No, but it's dark out and humans cannot see in the dark as we can. If we are to be separated one of us should be with each group. And... I'd rather you protect Adorei while I'm gone." This time she looked at Kristie and Lord Aron, not meaning any offense to them.

...

Kristie spoke up. "I'll go." Lord Aron was about to protest, but Kristie was adamant. "I know how the stone works, you don't." It was true, but the stone would still work in anyone's hands. He didn't have to know that.

She glanced at Amy. "Jelune, please protect my... daughter." Tears filled Amy's eyes as Kristie gave her a hug, her own eyes moist with tears. "You're a very brave girl, Amy. Do what Jelune tells you. He's in charge." She avoided looking at Lord Aron. She didn't want to give him any opportunity to protest and claim himself to be in charge. Jelune had more fighting experience than Lord Aron. She then threw a saddle on the skeletal horse, buckling it with an experienced hand. She and Ileeya took off around the mountain. Jelune, Lord Aron, and Amy would follow at a slower pace.

…

Scritch! Kirlothenin's stolen sword finally weakened the hinge on the cage door so that the bolt holding it together came out. Now to loosen the other one and they could escape! His arm was beginning to cramp from its awkward position. Adam couldn't position the sword due to the way his wrists were bound together still. But the human had kept an eye out to watch if the forsaken mage or one of the dreadguards had noticed their efforts.

One dreadguard went down with a scream as a worgen finally got hold of his neck between his jaws and broke the neck with a bone-crunching snap. But the fight has taken it's toll on the worgen pack. The wolf-men were dwindling in numbers and soon will have to either succeed in their attack or retreat. This didn't leave much time for Kirlothenin and Adam to escape.

With all of his strength, Kirlothenin forced the blade of the sword in between the hinge and the bolt holding it there and pulled. The bolt scraped slowly at first, then a loud 'pop' was heard as it finally came out. They were free! Kirlothenin and Adam quickly exited the cage, being careful to avoid the fighting. They didn't know if the worgen were friendly to them or not, but they didn't want to take any chances.

"Give me the sword, Kir!"

"You can't use it bound up as you are."

"I'm still better skilled than you are with a sword!"

"In this case, I doubt that!" The two stood back to back, watching the fighting going on around them. "Human, I was a battle-mage of the Kirin Tor before the third war! And I was a battle-mage in Prince Kael'Thas' magorial army before joining the Scryers in Shattrath! Believe me when I tell you, I know how to use a sword!"

Adam decided not to argue. He quickly spied a dagger in a dead worgen and pulled it out. The shorter blade was better anyhow for having his wrists bound together as they were. "I got your back, elf."

"No. I got your back, human."

Adam allowed himself a glance at the mage and saw amusement in the elf's eyes. He shot a grin back at him. "We got each others backs."

…

The grey rat scuttled into the room in it's search for food. When it saw the body, it paused. It was a rotting corpse. It didn't care that it was rotting, but it wasn't what the rat had expected to find. Still, food was food. He slowly approached the corpse and sniffed. The smell wasn't all that great, but it ignored that fact. It opened its mouth and jabbed its sharp teeth into the flesh, intent on taking a bite out of it.

Something grabbed it around it's middle and the rat let out a loud squeal of surprise. What had grabbed it? It didn't see dim yellow eyes growing closer. It merely continued its squeals and thrashing attempts to free itself. But all things come to an end, including the rat. Just as it had sunk it's teeth into the flesh of the corpse, so too, did the corpse sink its teeth into the rat.

...

A quick freezing of their feet told Kirlothenin and Adam that the forsaken mage was well aware of their escape attempt. She cast a fireball into a worgen, who ran off, trying to douse the flames that exploded all over him. The downside of being a worgen was the flammable fur all over their bodies. The mage now turned her full attention on the escapees. "Do you really think it so easy to escape me?" A worgen pounced to attack her, but quickly found itself polymorphed into a sheep. The rest of the attackers were busy with the last dreadguard and a ranger who had come upon the fray.

"Do you really think we'll just sit around and let you turn us into pincushions for your apothecaries?" Kirlothenin's voice was just as sarcastic as hers. "I may not have my magic, forsaken, but I know how mages fight!" He swung the sword down in just the right spot to break the ice holding his feet to the ground. He knew better than to charge the mage. He freed Adam who then vanished the way only rogues could do. Kirlothenin knew automatically what to do. He hoped the rogue did, too.

With a quick dash to his left, Kirlothenin distracted the mage, who was casting a frostbolt towards him. Kirlothenin dodged and rolled and did all he could to keep her focused on him. "Is that all you got, forsaken?" He taunted her for as long as he could.

"I haven't even begun to fight, traitor!"

Kirlothenin could feel himself tiring out. Neither he, nor Adam had eaten anything for a day and a half at least. There was limited energy available to him. But he also knew that the forsaken had been fighting for awhile now and she had to be low on energy as well. He calculated how fast it should take Adam to get behind her. Any second now...

...

The forsaken's face grew wide in surprise as Adam appeared behind her, his dagger in her back. The mage fell to the ground, grabbing for something out of her pack. She found it just before Adam kicked the pack away. There was just enough time for her to drink the red potion before Adam stood over her with his dagger raised. But before he could make the final stab that would kill her, he was knocked to his side. Adam quickly recovered and turned into a defensive crouch when he saw who had attacked him. Kirlothenin!

Had the blood elf double-crossed him? Kirlothenin stood there, pale as a ghost, just staring at the mage, whose cowl had come off her head. He looked like he had just seen a ghost. The sword fell from his hand as he whispered one word. "N'lar."