My Life for My Prince
Episode Eleven: A choice between Silvermoon and the Master
Lady Vashj resisted giving the golden lock of hair to Path'raxxis the Seer.
"Ssso enchanting, the Blood Elf Prince. I smell the sweat of lust, the ssweet of magic… and there is bitter ash of flame, the pang of brimstone that sears my nose. How is it that he smells of Lord Illidan as well, as if they shared a life and a bed like lovers?"
Path'raxxis the Seer smiled at his Lady's joke. Wave Commander Scy'thlerin laughed too, nervously.
"You, my treasure." She caressed the male Naga's face with a red-painted claw. Path'raxxis purred at her. "Use your ability once again this night. Let's off into his consciousness as if it were but another sea. I will plant a desire there that Kael'thas cannot resist. Everyone knows that his people are his greatest weaknessss. Then he will fall."
Wave Commander Scy'thlerin slithered up beside her. "My Lady, as your general, may I suggest that you take great care manipulating Kael'thas' dream? He is clever, and knows that you have this skill. And beyond that, you know that another man lives in his mind… we cannot afford to upset the Master."
Lady Vashj smiled at Scy'thlerin. "I will hide myself while I tempt him to his doom. And, as with Saturna," she gestured to the burnt lock of white hair on the floor beside Path'raxxis. "I will not call his name."
The Naga woman took the hands of her soothsayer. When the lock of Kael'thas' hair touched his hand, a jolt of white magic erupted between them. One could see it race up the thick vein in Path'raxxis' forearm. Then, he tossed his head back, snarling. When he faced his Lady again, his eyes were white with the powerful magic. Lady Vashj looked on, mesmerized. Her pupils clouded and then went white too.
Now neither of them saw what was, only what minds feared could be.
The world was white again, and Kael'thas felt cold. He grimaced and covered his bare arms with his hands as he stumbled about. The air was thick and fell in waves all around him. Sometimes it brushed his face and he couldn't breathe. It was like Northrend again…
"Arthas right in front of my face, but I can't see him."
A low hollow voice joined his. It did not contribute to his thought but echoed it. Kael'thas knew that IT felt heavy, sleepy… he dared not wake IT up.
"Yes… you were there with me too. We nearly won that day." The Blood Elf Prince came to a wall of the heavy air, and he slid his hands over it to find an opening of some kind. It was like cloth in his hands, cloth with no end. It seemed that he followed it forever and found no hope of ending the nightmare, no reprieve from all the quiet white. He was trapped. Kael'thas felt his anger rise up.
"No… a Bloodmage is never trapped!" he raged against it, and hurled a fireball into the thick space around him.
The sound of crackling flame made his pulse race. The bright burning red was exciting and seductive. A layer burned away to reveal more layers, but now Kael'thas knew he could end the white, kill it off. He raised up his arms and unleashed more explosions of flame. Before long he heard a woman screaming…
Kael'thas laughed at whatever it was and kept going. The flickering red filled his vision the way that the green of the arcane crystals took over his eyes months ago. It was wonderful to give into that sweet, sweet high…
Kael'thas thrust his arm forward and ignited the next sheet of existence to push the old temptation away. It wilted and died in front of him. The red ate away the white cloth until it was black. It created a hole in the veil and he could see the walls of the golden shrine beyond. Smiling confidently, he stepped through to freedom.
The hollow voice said nothing, but shook its head, disappointed. Kael'thas looked over his shoulder to see why.
Saturna stood there in her white dress, burning. Kael'thas didn't have time to wonder how he had been the one, but he saw the hole in the fabric that he created. The edges were black, revealed her scarred flesh, and she falling to her knees.
"Saturna! No!"
The voice stirred in its sleep. IT wanted to get up, to help too, but Kael'thas lied to IT, told IT that he was not in any danger.
Kael'thas was horrified at what he'd done. He pressed the agonizing Saturna up against him to extinguish the flame. Vaguely, he understood that fire did not work like that, but it fit into this realm of impossibility, that he could burn a woman's skirt from underneath, and then save her by sacrificing his own flesh to the flame.
"Saturna… I'm so sorry." He realized that he was apologizing for something else. "I never meant to hurt you… I was so angry at you for calling me a failure, after everything I endured. I wanted to make the fire, to see it… Do you really believe that I am some villain, someone so evil…"
But she was dying. Kael'thas could feel her heart fading. He prayed, to anyone at all, that this wasn't real, that he hadn't killed her. The hollow voice that echoed his own seemed to understand. IT was amused at his distress over the woman.
Saturna died. Time and space twisted and ripped apart as Kael'thas struggled to hold onto her, to comfort her. The floor fell away, and the ruined temple ceiling… though it was early morning, the night sky poured in. Stars appeared everywhere, above and below him. Kael'thas was vaguely aware of this as he tried to hold onto Saturna. Her fingers slipped from his whenever he reached for her, like fate was playing some game with them. Finally, her flesh went cold and his fingers slipped over hers. He lost her forever. The Nether claimed her body. The white dress flickered like a dying star as Saturna was pulled away from him and into the horizon. Kael'thas floated weightless in the other direction.
This was life without Saturna, Kael'thas realized. A desperate dark nothingness.
The pain of that void was horrible. It was worse than coming down from the green-blind orgasm of arcane crystals, than the lethargy that lingered after the adrenaline rush of casting a fire spell from your own hand. Kael'thas covered his face with his arms, squeezed his eyes shut against the burning tears. What she thought of him mattered most, meant everything... and now he'd let her down. She was gone. When had Saturna Whiteblade become the sun in his sky?
When Kael'thas again opened his eyes, Silvermoon City was burning. Saturna extended a hand to help him up.
"Saturna!" Kael'thas went to embrace her. She pointed a finger at his chest, and stopped him short. The woman's fingernail felt like a claw. The eyes flickered, yellow and reptilian for a moment, and then the head cocked to the side, primitive.
"I am not Saturna." She told him.
"What! I thought you were dead... I don't undersrtand—"
"Look how it burns." Saturna said, and swept an arm out over the shining white towers consumed in flame. Bits of plaster fell, blackened. Ash sailed through the air. Red glass exploded followed by billowing columns of black smoke. Then, Saturna swept her hand out low in front of her, in a curtsey. "Look how I burn."
Kael'thas looked on, horrified. At her beckoning, the skirt caught fire again. "We are one in the same, Silvermoon and I." Kael'thas crawled forward, and tried desperately to put the fire out with his own hands. Saturna laughed at him. "Know this Blood Elf prince: If you abandon me again, If you let me fall prey to another, who does not understand me, does not deserve me, I will suffer. You will lose me all over again." Saturna looked to the blackened sky. "Daughter of the destruction. Initiated in blood when the meatwagon passed through my cotillion… I am a beautiful symbol, aren't I? I became a woman on that day when Silvermoon fell. I took up my blade in your name."
Saturna gave him a clever smile, and continued, "Have you never thought of me this way? Your own race, flesh of your flesh, I was made by your ancestors for you. And like this city, that restored itself after the invasion, I remade myself into a Bloodknight for you. I am the reborn Silvermoon City and all its glory. We have re-incarnated together. It lives in me."
Kael'thas grabbed fistfulls of the burning hem of Saturna's white skirt. Unbidden, the fire returned to his palms and made the blaze even worse. "No... that's impossible. You are just a woman, and I already sacrificed that life. Even if I wanted to, I can't have you. It would be too painful to go back, too dangerous to undo the bond I sealed with IT, in blood."
"You must have me." The Saturna who was not Saturna insisted. "You saw how you are lost without me, and I am surely lost without you. That is why I came to the Black Temple to find you. Let not another villain defile this threshold, Kael'thas. It is your sworn duty to honor Silvermoon, to honor me."
Saturna reached down to him, "Take my hand. Let's away from this madness you've fallen into, this fire you started when you refused to take the throne." Kael'thas was afraid to look up, now that he knew the truth. The hollow voice seethed and waited.
"Betray IT!" Saturna hissed. "You know that is why I have come to the Black Temple, to take you back. Forsake IT and cling to me. Return to your people." A forked tongue licked his ears. Kael'thas felt IT's breath on his neck as if he were there with them. He knew IT was watching… he couldn't betray IT now, even if in a dream.
"She's just a woman… she's no threat." Kael'thas tried to lie and reassure the voice. He dared not call IT by name and summon him forth, a make the final blow to his innocence. But even as he lied to IT, Kael'thas was sickened to merely stand by and watch Saturna Whiteblade burn, to watch Silvermoon City destroyed. This time he was there. This time he knew the exact nature of the threat and how to end it... But because the voice in his head was wide awake now, and watching to see his reaction, there was nothing Kael'thas could do to save the people he loved. Not even in a dream...
"My Liege, please! Wake up!"
Kael'thas sat up in bed immediately. The golden shrine was enormous and cold. The lone bed they were able to salvage from the fire was hardly enough to make him feel at home in this cavernous place.
Advisor Sorn bowed to Prince Kael'thas. "Your Majesty, I'm sorry for waking you, but we are under attack!"
"What? Another raiding party? Just send Saturna out to meet them, with her white blade." It was meant to be a joke, a show of confidence in his army, but Kael'thas realized how precious her name was to him now. He felt a pang of guilt for joking about ordering his Saturna into the heart of bloody conflict.
"No, my Prince. It is an official Sha'tar force from Shattrath City. Aldor and Scryer together, in armor, with Arcane constructs and Elekks..."
Advisor Sorn said more, but Kael'thas didn't hear him. His eyes searched as the battle plan formed in his mind.
"Tell General Blaize to get the Sunfury to the gate now! Send a runner to the Naga, and the Demons. Tell them of our position."
"And what of the Bloodknights?"
Kael'thas was half out of bed. Thinking of Saturna now broke his concentration.
"Your Majesty? My Prince? Are you alright… should I send for a physician?"
"I want Saturna with me." Kael'thas flared at the look of indignance Advisor Sorn gave him, "What? Are you going to disobey a direct order! Send the Bloodknights to me! Don't dare let General Blaize get his hands on them…"
At that same moment, a few leagues beyond the Black Temple…
Grand Marshal Almarrin scratched the ringed tentacles underneath his chin, then put his helmet back on. "So, Anchorites, is there anything else that you need from me, before I give the order?"
Anchorite Romulus stepped forward in his shining plate. They called him the Illuminator. It covered the tall Draenei, head to hoof. The Paladin heaved his violet jeweled hammer up onto his shoulder. "They are four and we are five. You have also given us a small force to pave the way directly to Kael'thas. I believe that is sufficient."
Grand Marshal Almarrin stalked away proudly a few paces. "What an idiot… did he really think that we would ignore an opportunity to assassinate him, while free of Tempest Keep? And the gall of him, to send rogues into the Scryers' Tier and exacerbate conflict when he's already so exposed."
Anchorite Xarsha the Swiftmender, one of two female Aldor Paladins stepped forward as well. "Kael'thas is a fool, indeed. He dies this day for every sin he's committed against the Light and her children."
Grand Marshal Almarrin arced an eyebrow. "A lofty goal, I think… though his trespasses are far too many to count in my opinion. Are you five really sure that you are equipped for—"
"Bloodknights! Pah!" Anchorite Uxmal the Thricemade spat. "Perhaps there were no Bloodknights for us to spar against among the Sunfury, but we asked them about their recent guests... we know the secret powers of Pyorin the Tank, Sunthraze the Sly, and the healer Fennore. 'Most powerful Bloodknights in existence... pah!'" he mocked. "Burn their Scryer tongues, and their cowardly warnings! No matter what, at the end of the day, those four Molesters of the Light are a but an abomination."
"And what of the white blade? Our scouts saw her destroy half a raiding party with that move… and I've never seen any of you do it." Almarrin was skeptical.
Old Tyrannus, with his white beard got up from where he was seated on a stool in the Grand Marshall's tent. "A Bloodknight is a perversion. A disgusting twisting of the truth, as are the Sunfury, as are the lies Prince Kael'thas is telling the Blood Elf people. They all deserve death." He raised his golden mace and slammed it head first into the dirt. "And the woman Bloodknight, Saturna Whiteblade, is perhaps the worst of them all. She will die for her crimes against the Light, for turning a sacred Lay on Hands spell into something so vile." He walked out of the tent, but his full voice could be heard beyond the mere folds of blue cloth. "This day we are judge, jury, and executioner for the Prince of Quel'thalas, and those sworn to protect him. I pray the Light have mercy on their dark souls."
Xarsha looked at Anchorite Paelan the Whitewell, the other female Draenei Paladin. They shared a confident smile.
Prince Kael'thas Sunstrider waited in the golden shrine. He stood directly on the convergence of ley lines, surrounded by his Bloodknights. He watched Saturna's even breathing, noted when she flinched or started. She mostly fidgeted when she noticed his eyes on her, and not because of the battle.
"Saturna..." he whispered. She did not turn around to face him. "I... feel badly about the other day."
"It's alright, My Liege."
Kael'thas rarely apologized to anyone at all. That she took his gesture so lightly, made it even more uncomfortable. "Is it true... that your cotilion was on the very day that Arthas invaded Silvermoon? And that a meatwagon passed right through the ceremony--"
"Where did you hear that!" Saturna whirled around, shocked. Her three Bloodknights were surprised by the news too. Kael'thas felt uncomfortable. Clearly, it was supposed to be some secret. But how could his own dream, a manufacturing of his imagination, reveal something to him that no one knew about Saturna Whiteblade, except for Saturna herself.
"Woah. I finally see your point, Pyorin. Our commander is jail-bait." Sunthraze let out a low whistle.
"Hey... I didn't know she was just a kid, Sunthraze. That was because of my military training..."
Fennore, who was the oldest member of their group, began to look very concerned. "There is something morally wrong with... training a mere girl to become a Bloodknight. What was Lady Liadrin thinking..."
"I am still your commander, and this is not the time nor the place!" she thundered at the three of them. Kael'thas flinched with the others. He'd never observed Saturna to yell at anyone like that before. She had murder in her eyes.
"Do you see what you've done!" she accused Kael'thas. But Saturna's voice was weighted by desperation. Kael'thas realized that being chosen to command these Bloodknights after losing everything, despite her age, was an unheralded personal achievement for Saturna. Clearly, being a Bloodknight was all she had left in life...
All five of them were disciplined enough to make their way back to matters at hand. Pyorin stood across from Saturna, who was on Kael'thas' left. The tank had his shield in one hand. The other had a handful of Darkmoon Faire cards that he kept spinning between his fingers. Kael'thas kept looking for Saturna to admonish Pyorin about playing with his deck at a time like this, but she didn't. Sunthraze was whispering to himself, and Fennore kept casting small healing spells on the three of them, exercising his talent. Kael'thas waited, impatient, for Saturna to counsel all of her Bloodknights and put a stop to the compulsive behavior, but she seemed lost in her own thoughts, or else… she empathized with them and indulged their idiosyncracies.
Kael'thas got a strange feeling then. They appeared so acclimated to each other, like a family.
"Why are we waiting in here?" Saturna sounded especially irritated now, in addition to the wait.
Kael'thas blinked. "This is my strategy. They expect me to be out there… if I were, I'd be a target. Why should I make it easy for them?"
"But you have exceptional skill. You could turn the tide of the battle, My Prince." Saturna replied. Kael'thas hesitated. Clearly, he'd misread this as a compliment. Saturna sighed aloud. "My Prince, we are tools, not treasures. We are meant to fight, especially Bloodknights. We need to be in the maelstrom, giving support, not cooped up in here."
"I am here, and so you are here!" Kael'thas stubbornly declared. He wouldn't meet Saturna's offended look.
Pyorin and the others bristled at Kael'thas who'd just chewed out their commander.
The door opened and a scout ran in. The noise of a battle going on at the temple gates far south along the Main Causeway rose and fell as the Sunfury guards pulled the doors closed.
"Your Majesty," he knelt at Kael'thas' feet. "The Shatar are making their way into the temple proper. General Blaize is being pushed back."
Kael'thas swore.
"The Naga spellcasters are doing what they can, but it is not enough. The Demons are sending league after league of footsoldiers into the enemy, but their forces simply eat through them. The Sunfury are taking heavy casualties." The young Sunfury Soldier paused to catch his breath, or perhaps he hesitated with what was coming next. "General Blaize requests that… you send Mistress Saturna and the other Bloodknights. He says they are desperately needed."
"What! Do you expect me to believe that four Bloodknights will really change the tide of battle? This is personal. How dare General Blaize abuse this opportunity."
"Nate is right, Kael'thas!" Saturna urged him. "You've never seen us in a war. We can do a great deal of good. Our auras, our blessings are wasted here."
"Is it not your sworn duty to protect me? Isn't that why you came here, Saturna? Or were you lying?" Kael'thas flashed a protective look at Saturna. Perhaps he was being irrational, but he wouldn't dare to risk her... "Blaize is not using all of his resources. Tell him to call on the Demons and their powers. Have the Naga shaman go into the fray."
"All due respect, My Prince, but he anticipated that you might say that. The General says the Demons and the Naga will not heed his call."
Saturna stood directly infront of Kael'thas, blocking out the messenger. "Send us, or I will have to commit treason here and now! Weren't you the very one who asked my men to smooth over good relations with the Naga and the Demons? Would you waste your resources now, Kael'thas!"
The Prince sent the scout away with very choice words for General Blaize. The young man protested strongly to have been put in such a terrible position as the messenger but Kael'thas yelled at him to get out.
The Bloodknights resumed their nervous brooding. Kael'thas watched a vein in Saturna's neck tighten. In their black plate armor, the four Bloodknights looked like molten revenge contained in metal… that they just stood and waited was beginning to feel like a waste.
The messenger came asking for the Bloodknights again. This time, Blaize had observed that the Aldor and Scryer forces had trouble working together, but the greater disharmony of Illidan's forces heartened them. If only ones could be sent who would unite the three factions, or the champion of the Blood Elf people could come to make the Sha'tar hesitate… Perhaps that alone could turn the tide of battle.
"Tell Blaize that if he asks for Saturna again, this is the last day he serves as my General."
"Kael'thas!"
The echo of Saturna's voice was drowned out by the slamming doors of the shrine. The four Bloodknights looked at each other once the scout had departed and drew weapons.
"It's only a matter of time now," Sunthraze slyly observed about Kael'thas' poor judgement.
Sunthraze was right. Within the hour, shouts in Thalassian from beyond the door rose up. The door was rammed in and splinters of wood flew everywhere. Five tall Draenei Paladins emerged, wielding massive maces and shields. A small company of Aldor soldiers was with them. These went directly for Kael'thas.
The Blood Elf Prince lashed out a hand and an instant fireball exploded at the soldiers. To his surprise they resisted a great deal of it and kept coming.
"To Kael'thas!" Saturna shouted to her men and boldly raced up to the Draenei paladins alone. She leapt into the air, twisting her body gracefully. Then the fairy woman unleashed her horrible sword, turned the Corrupted Ashbringer white. It turned exactly thrice in the air, went flying into the line of Paladins…
Old Tyrannus, with golden mace and white beard shouted a command, and all five Draenei called up Divine Shields at once. The Light from Saturna's sword filled the room, expanded… killed two stealthed rogues that Saturna hadn't known were there. But when the white dissipated, the five Draenei stood proud, and unscathed. Saturna crouched low on the ground, recovering from the spell. Five alien faces looked down and laughed at her.
Saturna shook. She hadn't expected this… the warm flood of Fennore's power washing through her brought Saturna back just as the five Draenei Paladins were ontop of her. Saturna summoned her own Divine Shield, judged with a Seal of the Crusader and then called up the Seal of Blood. Fennore continued to heal her, and this helped to regenerate some of the mana she sacrificed. With time, the two female Draenei became irritated with Fennore and peeled off to attack him directly.
That, of course, had been the strategy all along.
While Saturna struggled with the three angry male Draenei Paladins, Fennore used a Hammer of Justice to stun Xarsha whom the Draenei called the Swiftmender. Fennore guessed that she was a healer by the armor she wore. Then, Fennore called up a Divine Shield and turned to heal Prince Kael'thas who was methodically pyroblasting through the soldiers who'd come at him. Next, Fennore used the last few moments of his shield to turn and preemptively heal Sunthraze who charged in and cast a Repentance spell on Anchorite Xarsha to keep her incapacitated. The outrage on her face was captured perfectly as the Bloodknight and abuser of the Light forced her into a state of meditation, to think over her wrongdoing. Sunthraze turned to Paelan the Whitewell who called up a Seal of Command. Sunthraze laughed when he recognized the earmarks of a fellow Retribution Paladin, and then judged immediately with his own Seal of Command. Each summoned another beautiful golden spell. Sunthraze reared up with his enormous blackened spear and Xarsha raised her gigantic golden sword. The clash of Light against Light was unexpectedly harmonious. It was clear that the magic wished not to rage against itself; it was being forced.
Fennore turned his attention back to Saturna, who needed a heal badly, then dashed forward and cast a Seal of Light on the old white-bearded Tyrannaus. Fennore whistled for Pyorin, who came charging out of the throng and threw a molten gold shield of Light at all three of Saturna's attackers. It gave the woman just enough time to fall back and heal herself while the tank Consecrated the ground and made the three male Draenei very angry at his display of self-righteousness.
"Why aren't they using their talents?" Romulus the Illuminator attempted to stun Pyorin with a Hammer of Justice spell but the lithe Blood Elf tank dodged it.
"I have no idea…" Uxmal the Thricemade answered. He then lowered his shield and rammed into Pyorin, trying to knock the Blood Elf off his feet. Pyorin blocked simultaneously and their shields crashed, bleeding spurts of gold Light.
"They saw how we bested their commander… they don't dare take another tactical risk." Old Tyrannus informed them. He swept Pyorin aside with his large mace and charged forth, but the tank used the opportunity to gain more distance and snared them with another flying shield spell. The three Draenei swore and returned to Pyorin. They did not speak the same language, but his threat was obvious. Pyorin wouldn't let them through to his friends, unless they killed him first.
"Give the bastard what he wants, boys!" Old Tyrannus bellowed, and they raised their hammers to cast a Seal of Justice all at once…
"Fennore… this isn't good." Saturna shouted as she ran past to get at Kael'thas' side. Now there were Scryer soldiers coming in through the ruined door. They took one look around the room, recognized it, and began shouting orders for their spellcasters to get directly on the powerful ley line.
It enraged Kael'thas to see them. He shot a massive fireball directly at their commander. The Scryer leader cried out in agony, and Kael'thas took his time putting curse after curse on him. Every Scyrer healer tried to regenerate their commander's life, but Kael'thas kept casting through all the de-curse and cleansing spells. Any normal warlock would have given up by now, to save mana. Kael'thas Sunstrider was ruthless, insisting with each effort that his curses were more powerful than conventional magic, than even healing. He eventually overwhelmed them, as he knew he could. The Scyrers were demoralized to see their efforts fail. Fennore had to go above and beyond restoring their Prince since he'd made himself into a target with all the showing off.
"I'll not have my healer indulge your revenge!" Saturna shouted at Kael'thas. The Prince ignored her, gave his own warcry in Thalassian, and sent a final Incinerate spell at the Scryer commander. White hot flame writhed like a snake through the Draenei Paladins and the Scyrers to find its victim who screamed in horrible pain, then died.
"My mana is low!" Fennore shouted to his comrades. Saturna glared at Kael'thas before sheathing her sword. She called a Divine Shield upon herself and began healing Fennore, so that through his spiritual attunement, the better healer would regain mana, through restoring his life.
Incensed by Kael'thas' show of brutality, the Scryers focused all fire on him. Saturna shouted to her men to drop everything and heal their prince. The Draenei Paladins were again thwarted by a series of Divine Shields, and turned their anger on Kael'thas too. Every Bloodknight there attempted to heal Kael'thas with their mana, but it was running out. Finally, three Lay on Hands spells were given to the Prince as he casted. It drained everyone's mana. Saturna would have given her own, but her teary eyes met Kael'thas'. She had turned her blade white. She had no Lay on Hands spell to give.
"My Prince… I'm so sorry…"
He saw her raise her arms above her head, ready to cast the Divine Intervention spell that would take her life to save his own.
"No!" Kael'thas thundered. I can't be the cause of her demise... not like in the dream... He raised his arms and purple energy licked up at his sides. In mere moments, an inky blue Voidwalker appeared.
"Sacrifice yourself to me!" Kael'thas ordered the Voidwalker to take its own life. It looked Kael'thas in the eye and tossed up its smoky claws in the throes of death. In exchange, the Bloodmage gained a shield from his Demon pet. Saturna turned and picked up her sword to parry the mace of a Draenei Paladin who'd strayed in too close.
"When that fails… none of us will be alive to save you…" Saturna told Kael'thas as she fought off the tall Draenei as best she could. Kael'thas took a last glance around the room. Pyorin, Sunthraze, and Fennore were faring no better. She would die. He would burn her to death like before, and her Bloodknights fall with her...
I want you with everything that I am, Kael'thas. I need you badly, as if it were in my loins… and now you need me too. Call me! IT spoke in his mind.
"I know… I know what I have to do now." Kael'thas bowed his head, resigned. He raised his arms, began conjuring. Déjà vu seized Saturna. The shield Kael'thas sacrificed his Voidwalker for was golden, and the horrible fire he conjured was golden as well. It pulsed and writhed like his Voidwalker summoning spell, but it blazed out of control, consumed everyone who was right ontop of Kael'thas. Saturna blinked and saw Kael'thas naked like in her dream, opened her eyes, and saw him in full red regalia again. The force of the power he brought on pushed his robes back, revealed the glowing red Mageblade he carried. Saturna was caught up in the sight of him, the gravity of what he was doing… she knew what he was conjuring, and that he could actually summon IT at all was more terrifying than anything else. It was just supposed to be a dream... how was it coming to life?
Yes, the need rises in me also. I can deny it no longer... come to me, my Illidan.
Saturna knew this was why she had come to the Black Temple, to stop Kael'thas from going so far. She saw now that it was too late. That The Betrayer could turn to her Prince and say,
"What is your bidding, my Master?"
"KILL THEM ALL!" Kael'thas screamed above the terrified gasps that rose from the Scryers and the Aldor gathered there. The horror of it seized them. They knew that Kael'thas was a warlock, but still… it should not have been possible…
Lord Illidan Stormrage threw his head back, exposing the green demonic runes carved into his dark skin. The Twin Blades of Azzinoth glinted in the morning light. He opened his tattered dark wings that seemed to drag a black plague of demon magic with them through the air. Illidan soared up, high to the ruined skylight, sneering at them all. Saturna turned to Kael'thas, heartbroken. He did not see her pleading eyes. Kael'thas was transfixed by the vision of his newest Demon pet. His hands trembled, and a sick, lustful smile stretched across the Prince's handsome face. Kael'thas was in ecstasy. The Demon Lord that owned his soul was magnificent.
He blotted out the sun.
