I am so sorry, but I have a little bad news. I have writer's block, but that will go away in time. A more pressing issue is that I had to go to the doctor today. It's not good (Don't start freaking out). Nothing that serious at the moment. But I may be having to deal with that instead of writing. So sorry, Khazinthedark. To be truthful, I did not really know how to do Kel'thuzad very well. I tried my best though this time.
Ethan grabbed the barred iron gateway of Stratholme, and grunted as he lifted it. He ground his teeth, and hoisted it up. Tryg giggled, and ran under the gate. Rot did as well, scrambling over the cobblestone ground. The female plaguehound had been freed from her task as soon as they had reached Stratholme.
Already, the boy could smell the smoke. It filled his nose, and went down his esophagus.
He trotted through the entrance, and stayed in the shadows. He looked out, and gasped. Rot whined, but Tryg ran forward, oblivious.
The boy was expected. Undead stood stationed at the entrance, deathknights, skeletons, ghouls, zombies. One abomination. Ethan skirted slowly around them, hiding behind ruined crates and even a mailbox. He saw a church, relatively unharmed amongst all of the death and fire. Ethan looked around, and saw the undead searching. They knew he was here.
Cursing, he ran to the church and quickly ducked behind it. He dare not enter such a place, but he needed somewhere to hide. This place was unfamiliar, and the boy did not know of anywhere to go. He knelt down, and watched the undead from the shadows, waiting for an opportunity.
Sapphire stood at one of the ziggurats in the Gauntlet. It looked crude, and vulgar to the girl's eyes. She stood in the dress her father had been so disapproving of. Invincible was there, unhappy to be away from Arthas, the man hanging back at the inn. Lethumo stood at her side, arms folded, and fidgeting. He had come back to warn her of Kel'thuzad's arrival, and stayed with her despite her protests. He mentioned in passing that he did not tell the lich of Arthas, and for that Sapphire was grateful. Obviously, he did not trust the lich either. They stood waiting, until Kelthuzad finally showed up.
When Sapphire first saw him, she couldn't believe. The lich was huge, bigger than any other lich she had come across. But that would be understandable, for she had only seen weak ones. And she soon forgot about Kel'thuzad when she saw his companion.
"No..." She whimpered, catching Lethumo's attention. She trembled.
A blood elf, dressed in colors of scarlet and walking with a confident air. Fanged mask, grey skin, pointed ears, and sharp claws. That vile creature, Zyperias. Her father had killed him! Why could no one ever stay dead?
Lethumo looked to where she was looking, and nodded.
"Want me to distract him?" He asked kindly. Sapphire looked to him.
"Yes...Please," She said weakly.
The night elf gave her a reassuringly smile. "At your service."
He hopped down off the ziggurat, and instantly went off to the San'layn. Sapphire tried not to look, and instead kept her attention on Kel'thuzad. When he arrived, he was alone.
Lethumo deserved a hug at the very least. He was not as bad as she thought.
"Greetings, young Sapphire Menethil," The lich said, making a gesture that looked like a bow. Sapphire raised an eyebrow.
"Hello, Kel'thuzad. Where's your cat?" She remembered the cat, remembered playing with it.
"Back at home in Naxxramas. I confess, I am surprised you are still alive, after two years. You had no trouble getting here, I hope?"
At least he was courteous. She would have trouble keeping her temper in check if he was not.
"It was fine. But I think we should continue on from the greetings. I believe Lethumo told you of my powers?"
The lich seemed to grow uncomfortable. He did not like her abrupt attitude.
"Yes, he did. And the fact you still alive despite it remains a great mystery-"
"Oh, I think you have a theory, lich. My father put me in a collar, and put so much necromantic magic in my body that I started coughing up blood. Then, even worse, I cut myself on a shard of Frostmourne, and I was stricken with so much pain, that I had ran into the wilds of Icecrown, desperate to get rid of the pain. Now, I am having dreams about the new Lich King, Bolvar Fordragon? Not to mention I can't walk past a graveyard without waking up every single corpse!"
The lich gestured with a skeletal hand. "Walk with me."
Sapphire scowled, but did so. She walked, but the lich floated instead of walked. A figure of speech of course. They strolled down the ruined city of Stratholme.
"You're father liked to experiment, and I of course relish in it. He wanted to know if it was possible to make someone as equal in power as himself, and tried on dozens of mortals before finally deciding it was time to try on you, child. For some odd reason, His Majesty wanted you to be his equal in every way."
Sapphire was silent, unsure of what to say. She had learned that he had tried out the collar on other people, but she had never really tried to make a theory as to why he was doing such things. She did not really think he had a reason, but he did. He had been attempting to make an equal? It sounded as if he were lonely or something...
She thought of her recently rehabilitated father. She wondered if he felt remains of the loneliness. She could hardly see her old genocidal, dark and evil father feeling lonely.
"And the Frostmourne shard? It made me into this!" She gestured to her white hair and the rest of her body.
"Nothing but a reaction to the familiar magic that was already absorbed into your body. You must have just taken in all the power left in the shattered sword. When he died, the powers of the Lich King must have transferred to you."
The girl did not even notice Tryg come up, holding a cockroach. He saw they were busy, and happily left to eat his morsel. He had escaped notice when Ethan had barged into the city, and was apprehended by undead. The ghoul was quite happy to trot off, leaving the mean deathknight on his own. His master was much nice.
Sapphire was still trying to comprehend the whole thing.
"Wait, then why does Bolvar have power?"
"Because, girl. The Helm! It has great power in itself, but you are siphoning off it. Normally, that would not be a problem, but with you so far away from it, it is overextending its powers. Which is fortunate for us. He is weak, and we can discard him off the throne."
The lich looked meaningfully at the girl. "And put you on the Throne, where you properly belong."
"Gee, thanks..." She said depressingly. He seemed not to notice.
A couple of cultists came toward the two. They all bowed quite profusely.
"Master. Lord Kel'thuzad. We apologize for disrupting your conversation. could we take a sample each of your blood, hair and skin?"
Sapphire scowled, and snapped at them. "Why?"
They all cowered, but Kel'thuzad came to the rescue.
"Don't worry, we just need to see if the magic is affecting you in a negative way."
The girl took a step back, and growled. "Fine. But if you do anything with it that I do not like, I'm turning your bones into dust, lich!"
He had an amused look on his skeletal face. "Of course, Master. I would not dare."
A deathknight walked up the Spire, doing her rounds to protect her Master. It was hard, living in Icecrown nowadays, the Citadel ruined from the war. Huge chunks of the castle had cracked, and spikes of the metal lay everywhere. A frostwyrm, the few left anyway, was needed to go a couple of feet away, because debris hindered all kind of ground movement. Some had been cleared away, but most lay undisturbed, just like many corpses that littered the ground too. No resurrections were allowed, ordered by their Master.
The deathknight, a female night elf, heard a loud banging. She quickly ran up the rest of the Spire to get to the Frozen Throne.
There was her Master, the Lich King entombed in his icy throne. She gasped.
A rotting body stood in front of the Frozen throne, hitting the ice with a rock.
"No!"
The creature turned around, and hissed. The deatknight went running toward it, runeblade whipped out. The undead just smiled with rotten brown teeth, and pounced. She cried out, and slashed at the creature with her runeblade. It shrieked, and then ran off, howling.
