Chapter 27 – Full Circle

Colberthas entered the portal chamber and stretched to his full height, towering over the four humans. He stood there silently for a moment, the fresh blood on his warglaves dripping to the ground. Each weapon was a half-moon of steel four feet long and probably thirty pounds. Then he began circling around the edge of the room, staying close to the tables with their books and beakers of liquid, carefully avoiding the center of the room.

Edwynn slipped silently away from the others, hoping the demon hunter, with his attention focused on the others, would not notice him. Myrista stood next to the mirror, trembling in fear. Mallet stepped forward to place himself between the children and the mad elf. Brogan stepped slightly to Mallet's side to give himself a clear line of sight. He chanted and eldritch blackness began forming around his fingers.

Colberthas's attack was a work of art. He struck simultaneously with both warglaves. The left one disarmed Mallet and then slammed the knight against the wall with the flat of the blade. In the same motion the right hand weapon speared Brogan through the lung. The demon hunter smiled as he lifted the boy completely off the ground, the tip of his blade erupting from Brogan's back. He then swung the weapon and nailed him against the wall, the warlock's feet dangling inches above the floor. As Brogan struggled helplessly Mallet pushed against the weight of the blade, but Colberthas was too strong. With an almost casual ease he held the knight prisoner while he contemplated how to finish Brogan off.

"Stop! Please! Have mercy!" Myrista screamed. She held up the demoness's severed limb. "Take it! Just leave us alone!"

The night elf chuckled. "I will kill the rest of you momentarily human. This felsworn deserves to suffer. Or perhaps I will let him watch while I gut his friends? That would be a fitting last sight for someone who aligns themselves with the legion. I just wish…"

Anything else that he might have said was cut off. Edwynn, having circled behind the demon hunter, leapt from hiding. Catapulting himself up from one of the beaker-strewn tables, he stabbed with both knives, planting each blade at the base of Colberthas's neck. The weapons sank inches into his thick muscles, but provided no more annoyance than a gnat. Colberthas turned his empty, gaping eye sockets towards the rogue.

"Can't wait to die?" The night elf released his right-hand warglave, leaving Brogan pinned to the wall. With his free hand he swatted at Edwynn, who slipped just out of reach. Colberthas growled with annoyance. He then pulled the blade holding Mallet away from the knight. Without looking the giant swept out with one of his tree-sized legs and kicked Mallet. The blow sent the knight to the ground. The demon hunter then turned his full attention to the rogue.

"Come here you annoying insect!" Colberthas pursued Edwynn as the boy backed across the center of the room. With both knives jutting from the Night Elf's shoulders Edwynn had no weapons left. In desperation he began pulling the jeweled rings from his fingers. His nobleman's disguise no longer needed, he threw the useless trinkets at the demon hunter, but to no avail.

"Die!" Colberthas leapt forward, swinging his weapon ahead of him to cut the boy in half. Edwynn threw up his arms to cover his eyes. There was an explosion of light followed by absolute silence. The pain of vivisection never came. Edwynn stood there for a second, and then slowly lowered his arms.

Colberthas stood before him, frozen in time like a statue. He was lit brightly from the floor, where runes and circles used for holding powerful demons glowed brightly. Edwynn blinked at them in stunned astonishment until a noise drew his attention.

Someone was clapping.

"Bravo. Bravo, my boy. That worked better than I dared to hope." The man clapped. He appeared in the mirror next to Myrista, and as Edwynn watched, the man stepped out of it. The glass rippled like water on a pond as he brought both feet out to stand within the room. The rogue gazed in bewilderment at the man dressed in elegant black robes that matched his hair and goatee. His face looked so familiar. But his unspoken question was cut off.

"Father?!?"

Myrista was frozen in astonishment, staring at Nickolas Crownguard. The man she had not seen in over a year. Her expression was unreadable, a mass of confused emotions.

Nickolas's emotions were obvious. The instant he faced her, his expression softened. "My dear, I'm so sorry…" He opened his arms, extending them to his daughter. "I never wanted any of this to happen. I prayed you wouldn't get involved…"

"You've been here? In Stormwind? Among the warlocks? Why didn't you contact us? We were less than two days away!"

"I wanted to, but I couldn't. Any contact would have endangered you. The coven is filled with dangerous people. Men and women who would use any means to obtain leverage against me. Today's attack was itself caused by a jealous disciple who discovered that a fragment of Balba'yorn lay buried in a house in Northshire. How she discovered this I do not know, but if Surena had ever learned about you, I'm certain she would have killed you. I never wanted you involved. I should have taken the book with me when I left. Then none of this would have happened."

"Oh Daddy!" Myrista rushed forward into her father's arms, tears of joy steaming from her face. For his part Edwynn still couldn't believe the demon hunter had actually been stopped. Carefully stepping backwards, the boy crept to the edge of the room and then began to circle back around to where Brogan remained pinned to the wall. The young warlock was barely conscious. His lips were moving, but not sound escaped. His eyes however were open, locked onto Myrista's father. Edwynn gripped the handle of the warglave with both hands and pulled. It wouldn't budge. Again and again he tried without success.

"Um… a little help here guys."

Myrista broke away from her father at the thought of Brogan. She turned to rush towards them but Nickolas held her arm.

"Not so fast child. We are not out of danger yet. Give me the arm."

A loud crash of metal drew everyone's attention to Mallet. He had dropped his shield, and stood now staring at his brother. The old knight's face was cold and hard as mountain stone. His blue eyes seemed to shimmer with wetness, but his jaw was set in grim determination. He held his hammer across his chest with both hands as it silently returned to full size. The paladin drew a deep breath before speaking.

"I had hope. Even here, in this black place, I had hope. Hope that it wasn't you. Hope that someone else was leading the coven. That someone else had set this evil in motion. I would have given my very soul to be wrong."

"Father?" Myrista glanced back and forth between the two brothers. "Father, what's he talking about?"

"The arm daughter. Give it to me." Nickolas did not look at Myrista. His eyes never left his brother.

"What?"

"Give it to me. Now."

"Why? Father, what…"

"Stand away from him Myrista." Mallet lowered himself into a fighting stance. "The demon has corrupted him completely. He's not…"

The paladin never finished his sentence. Nickolas raised his hand and uttered an evil spell. The air was filled with an inhuman scream and a sickly green bolt of magic flew from the warlock's hand. Mallet dodged aside, but the magic twisted like a living thing to follow him. The green hellfire enveloped the paladin. He cried out in fear and agony. His mind assaulted by unspeakable horrors while his body was drained of its strength. As he fell to his knees, his skin withered and paled. Nickolas seemed to breathe in his brother's pain and gain unholy strength from it. The warlock straightened his posture, and flexed his fingers as they filled with the stolen life-energy.

"You should have heeded me back in Lordaeron. I warned you to stay away from MY family. The family you abandoned so many years ago. You were always off fighting your wars. You never married, never had children. You never knew what it was like to sacrifice for your family. But I do. I know what must be done to keep them safe." He turned to his daughter. "Give me the arm."

Myrista shook her head violently "No. You're not my father. No!"

Nickolas looked at her with solemn disappointment. "I have no need of disobedient children." He released his hand from the priestess and drew a tiny purple gem from his vest. It was an identical match to the one Brogan had created earlier. He held the soul shard in one hand as he pointed at her chest.

"Father, what are you…"

Nickolas Crownguard spoke a word. There was a crack like thunder, the gem shattered, and the girl fell to the ground, dead.

Nickolas looked down at the corpse of the daughter he had just murdered. "A pity. I had such high hopes for you." Without any sort of feeling or ceremony he reached down and retrieved Balba'yorn's arm. Mallet struggled to rise. His hand gripped his chest as his face contorted in pain, and then he collapsed face down. He did not rise again.

"I hope my deathcoil has not finally caused that ancient heart of yours to fail, brother. Colberthas is only half-demon. The ritual to enslave him to my will is complicated, and requires a very specific sacrifice. One of my blood-kin. Now that you are the only other Crownguard left I… Oh, but I'm forgetting something."

Nickolas looked up at Brogan and Edwynn. The rogue gave one last futile attempt to pull the warglave free from the wall before giving up. Nickolas half smiled at Brogan. Unable to speak, barely conscious, the young warlock glanced from Edwynn to Colberthas and then back to Edwynn.

The rogue backed away from his friend. Weaponless, exposed, and a full fifteen feet from Nickolas, he was out of options. He looked around for anything he could use for a weapon. There was nothing he could do unless he wanted to throw a beaker at his enemy.

Or at something else.

Without giving a thought to the consequences Edwynn ducked under the edge of the nearest table. Getting his legs under him, he pushed up with all his strength. The heavy wooden surface heaved unsteadily and then capsized towards the center of the room. Bottles of dragon's blood, vials of acid, and the Light knew what else slid off the tabletop and shattered on the floor. The liquids ran together and flowed across the center of the room, obscuring the runes.

The table fell, blocking Edwynn's view of the room. He did not need it to know what happened. The light dimmed as the mystic bonds holding Colberthas were washed away and the air was split with a terrifying roar. Then there was silence. After a half-dozen seconds Edwynn risked a peek over the edge.

Nickolas stood with his back to the mirror, Balba'yorn's arm clutched in his hand. Colberthas stood with a single warglave held before him, ready to strike. The two faced each other poised like cobra and mongoose. Slowly the night elf began to circle across towards Brogan, always keeping his blind eyes towards the elder warlock. Finally arriving at the boy, the demon hunter reached out and retrieved his second blade. He pulled it from the wall with disturbing ease, then shook it once to dislodge its unwanted human passenger. Brogan collapsed limply to the floor.

"A pity." Nickolas said at last. "You would have made an exceptional tool."

Colberthas rushed forward. The coven leader gestured at the night elf and spoke a single word before jumping backwards into the mirror. Colberthas's blade landed a split-second later and the enchanted glass shattered into a thousand pieces. The warglave buried itself into the wall beyond, striking no one. The demon hunter pulled it back with a curse.

Edwynn rushed from behind the table to Brogan's side. The young warlock coughed blood and tried feebly to hold the gaping wound in his chest together. Edwynn leaned across to try and put pressure on it. Brogan was loosing a lot of blood.

Before he could do anything else there was a clatter as Colberthas dropped one of his twin weapons, and a great hand grabbed Edwynn and lifted him into the air. Suddenly Edwynn was slammed into a wall and the bladed edge of a warglave was pressed against his face.

"The mirror." Colberthas growled. "Where does it lead?"

"I... I don't know."

The demon hunter adjusted his blade slightly and Edwynn felt the weapon cut into his cheek. Hot blood ran down his face and neck.

"Choose your next words carefully human. They must have value to me or you will die."

"I… theres…. There's something on your forehead."

The demon hunter paused. His eyebrows knitted together in confusion. He released Edwynn and stepped away. The boy landed with a grunt and pressed his hand against his bleeding face. Looking up at the demon hunter, the rogue wondered if his eyes had been playing tricks on him. But they weren't.

Floating in the air two inches in front of Colberthas's brow was a symbol. An arcane rune. It glowed faintly, but was growing stronger by the moment. With a flick of his wrist the demon hunter sliced it in half with his blade, the weapon passed through it like it was mist.

"No. NO! This is impossible!" The symbol was glowing brighter now. And the edges began to shimmer and flicker, as parchment being consumed by fire. Very slowly the rune started to disintegrate. Colberthas dropped his remaining warglave and began scanning around the room, searching for something.

"What… what's wrong? What is that?" Edwynn asked. Colberthas ignored him and instead was rummaging through the tabletops franticly.

"He is… doomed." Brogan coughed feebly. The rogue looked across at his friend. Brogan's magical black skin was slowly closing the wound in his chest. But the young warlock was staring at the demon hunter.

"The curse of doom. The most horrific spell in the legion's arsenal." Brogan coughed and spat up blood. Edwynn went to his side and tried to help him up into a sitting position. Brogan winced in pain but kept watching the demon hunter. Colberthas was in a pull panic now, searching tabletops, throwing aside books and wands. He would pause occasionally to run his hand over a scroll but then tear the paper in disgust.

"The symbol… in the air. That is his true name. All living creatures have them. Written invisibly above our third eye at the moment of our birth. The curse of doom, it erases the name, and thus erases your life. Worse, it shows itself to you, taunting you with the knowledge of your inevitable death."

"LIES!" Colberthas smashed the table he was currently searching. He leapt across the room and landed directly before Brogan. Terror was written across his face as he grabbed Brogan and lifted him up off the floor.

"Remove it!" Colberthas screamed. The rune was almost gone now. All of the edges had burned away and only a tiny glowing spec at its center remained.

"I can't" Brogan said. "Nothing can save you."

"I'll kill you! I'll kill all…" The last glowing mote of the rune vanished and suddenly Colberthas collapsed. His body fell lifeless to the ground and Brogan landed on top of him.

There was silence then. Edwynn alone was still standing in the summoning chamber. He glanced around, puzzled and shocked that aside from his face he was unharmed while surrounded by so much death. Quickly he pulled Brogan off of the demon hunter's corpse. The warlock was alive, but in massive pain. His wound would have killed a mortal man, but the cavernous hole in his chest was perhaps halfway close. "You'll be okay buddy. Just hang on."

Paranoia gripped him and Edwynn went to the night elf's corpse. Pulling his two knives from the demon hunter's back made him feel slightly more secure. He then turned and went to where Myrista's body lay. The youngest Crownguard was dead. Here eyes frozen open in panic, her face still wet from the tear of joy. Her right hand clutched the air instead of Balba'yorn's arm. Looking at her, Edwynn felt himself go numb inside, as though he could not rationalize that she was actually dead. He pushed her eyelids closed and moved away from her.

Mallet was face down near the center of the room. Edwynn stepped closer to him and saw his body give a small shudder. Grabbing the big man's shoulder, Edwynn pulled with as much strength as he had left. He managed to turn the old warrior over on his back. The knight was unconscious and his heartbeat was erratic. His breathing was shallow and his eyelids fluttered like someone dreaming… or having a nightmare.

A noise caught Edwynn's attention. From the hallway outside voices could be heard. The rogue's hear leapt at the idea that it might be Mythril, coming to save the day. But it wasn't. It was the sound of many men. Armor clanking, voices calling out with military precision. It was the Stormwind guards. The rogue shot a panicked glance at Brogan. There was no hiding his black skin now. The guards might recognize Mallet as one of their own, but the warlock would be put to the sword at once.

"Brogan. Hey Brogan where's that…" Edwynn stopped as the paladin suddenly grabbed his arm. For a man at death's door, his grip was like iron.

"M… Myrista." The old man's eyes were closed. He was shaking.

"She's gone. Edwynn began trying to pry Mallet's hand loose. His fingers squeezed so hard the rogue felt the blood start pooling in his hand.

"We've… we've got… to stop him…" the old man's voice was raspy, just louder than a whisper.

"He's gone. He escaped. With the arm and the book. I'm sorry. We failed." Impossibly the hand's grip tightened. It was actually painful.

"F…find him. You have to find him. Promise me…"

Edwynn didn't know what to say. The old man was giving up. The only family Mallius had ever known was dead, or had betrayed him. There was nothing left for him to live for except to pass his duty on. Then he could die in peace.

"Promise me… Promise me you'll find him." The dying man begged.

"I… No! No I can't do it!" Edwynn finally gripped the paladin's fingers and pried them open. Twisting and squirming, he managed to free himself of the paladin's death grip.

"Promise…" Mallet grasped feebly at the air.

"You'll have to do it yourself you old coot! You'll have to live!" Edwynn scrambled to Brogan and started to lift him. The voices of the guards were closer now.

"Leave me." Brogan coughed.

"No way! The guards will kill you!"

"Ed, you have to get away. The dock. Two halls down on the right. Swim for it"

"I can't leave you! Everyone else is dead or dying. I have to save someone."

"No choice. Just…" The warlock looked at Edwynn and then down at his belt. Brogan reached forward and grabbed Edwynn's dagger. He drew it from its scabbard.

"You can't fight them. By the shadow you can't even walk."

"One spell… left." Brogan spoke a demonic word, and then reversed the knife to a stabbing position.

"What are you…"

"Find my body." He said. "Don't let them burn me." And with that Brogan stabbed the knife into his wounded chest.

"BROGAN!" Edwynn screamed.

"Did you hear that? This way men."

Marcus Jonathan entered the summoning chamber with a scowl of disappointment. More bodies, and still no answers. Not one prisoner. Not one living soul in the entire coven. His men had found the escape tunnels, and he knew now that the warlocks had been expecting the raid. Dark wizards were like rats, they would always survive in some form or another. Rumors abounded that Lady Prestor knew about the coven and was secretly supporting it. The general ignored these rantings. He needed facts, not hearsay. His city had been attacked. Someone needed to answer for the deaths.

"Sir! This one's alive!"

Marcus crossed to the white-haired corpse. Without his breastplate it took the general a moment to recognize the paladin. His face had aged visibly, looking ten years older than he had an hour ago. Older, and thirty pounds lighter. It was a though something had literally sucked the life out of him. As he watched, Mallius groaned and tried to stir, but he didn't even have the strength to lift his own arms.

"Not dead yet Crownguard? Too bad for you. Captain, check the rest of the bodies."

"This one's dead." One guard nudged a woman's corpse with his boot.

"This one's not breathing. Looks like he fell on his own knife." A second guard stated.

Something moved in Marcus's peripheral vision. A shadow's shadow, back near the door. The general looked hard in that direction, but whatever had moved was gone now.

'I doubt it was my imagination though…' he thought to himself.

"Grab the traitor. We'll send someone for the bodies. Whatever happened here, it's over now."