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Chapter 15: The Violet Hold Caper

Just as Faltheriel had directed, they went east. Then, after the two of them slithered quickly past several dark cages and a patrol of guards that they hadn't expected, but who were fortunately moving too fast to see them, Kael'thas and Faltheriel made their way up to the second level.

Faltheriel grimaced as he kept slipping backward on the stairs, hissed through silver gills, "Naga scales… on stairs… not ideal."

Kael'thas used several blink spells to get himself up the awkward stairs faster.

"Hey…" Faltheriel rasped, "If we use our powersss, won't we give ourselves away?"

At the top of the ramp, they heard voices. And then it wasn't clear which way they should go. There were three main halls and perhaps dozens of doors.

"This is all your fault!"

Kael'thas blinked gold, vorpal, reptilian eyes, "Honestly, Faltheriel, you're starting to sound like my wife or something and you aren't being fair. Will you calm down when nothing's even happened yet?"

"Yet!"

"Well, we can't go the way the voices are coming from…" Kael'thas slithered off. Faltheriel made a strange sucking, whining sound deep in his gills, then hastened after Kael'thas.

Kael'thas tried to listen at several doors, while Faltheriel felt the sides of his own head wondering if Naga even had ears to begin with. Then, through Faltheriel's nervousness, he of course accepted that since, yes, he could hear all this time, Kael'thas' method wasn't so far-fetched.

Then, Kael'thas suddenly ducked into one of the rooms. It turned out to be the main library. Several prized devices and tomes were set on pedestals and what could only be the vials they were looking for were set under glass on a plinth.

"How'd you do that, Kael'thas? How'd you just… listen for the right room?"

"The strongest arcane spells have a rhythmic hum, haven't you noticed? They give off radiation in pulses."

"Do they?"

"You're a Highborne, you know you do. The Sunwell does, doesn't it?"

"Hrm, I guess it does."

"To me, it kinda sounds like three people doin' it on a squeaky mattress, though low frequency. Do you know what I mean? You never forget it after that."

Faltheriel narrowed eyes at Kael'thas.

"It's just a memory game so I don't forget—"

"I could have gone my whole life not knowing that the Sunwell sounds like a nasty brothel to some Elves. Or… just you."

Kael'thas gave a toothy smile, then moved his muscular Naga's tail to get across the room after a few confident swipes, "Go watch the door."

Faltheriel, still a bit distressed that he was trapped in the body of a silver Naga, lingered by the door as he watched Kael'thas approach the glass case at the center of the library.

Kael'thas' version of being a Naga was golden—of course—and he seemed to enjoy slithering up to the encased spell vials they'd come to steal. Slow, with a real attitude. He even slipped a forked tongue out of his mouth. Really, he was enjoying it a little too much.

"Faltheriel, I'm still amazed the Humans managed to preserve a spell in this form, a sort of liquid stasis. Heh, and pocket-sized."

Faltheriel squinted his green reptilian eyes, getting more nervous.

"Oh, yes. Come to daddy—"

"Stop."

"You've gotta agree, it sure makes them easier to steal, Faltheriel."

"Just stop."

"It's weird. In fact, too weird…"

"I think you're really special, Kael'thas, I do. But you aren't a cool guy. Stop trying to act cool. I mean, we're both practically cosplaying right now…"

Kael'thas ignored him, "What? Do you expect a bunch of Gnomish alarms to go off and an enchanted cage to drop down from the ceiling?"

But then, Kael'thas cringed and couldn't help checking up at the vaulted ceiling. Beautiful, innocent-looking wordcarvings of grapes, coiled vines and gently curling leaves just touched by soft moonlight.

He steadied his voice again, "See? No traps. No tricks." Kael'thas turned and passed his gold claws over the glass case, "Just something wonderful, waiting to be ravished. The Humans' pride is what's going to make this so easy. They can't imagine anyone on the inside defeating their defenses—"

"Or anyone on the inside of their own Alliance being so cruel as to betray them, you know, when it comes to a cure for the Plague."

"Having second thoughts?" Kael'thas held onto the walnut podium beneath the glass, looking up and down for a latch or other opening. His yellow reptilian snout sniffed along the sides.

"I'm with you, alright…" Faltheriel poked his silver crocodilian head through the door to check down the hallway one last time, then slithered over to where Kael'thas was trying to open the thing, "But could we just walk through this one last time? This whole…"

"Caper?"

"Again. Stop." Faltheriel sighed, "So we steal the vials, we take them home…"

"We take them back to my room."

"Your room, fine. I don't want the evidence sitting around at my place anyway. But then we…?"

"Experiment on them. Make them stronger."

"Stronger. Okay. Of course. Wait… we make the memory loss… more potent? Is that what you're saying? Uh, that sounds dangerous?"

"Making zombies forget that they're zombies and serving the Lich King is the whole point of a memory deterioration spell, Faltheriel."

"I know that—but how do we even test it?"

"We simply test our altered spells on a likely subject, the sort of creature that would be a target."

"Well, the Humans are the targets for now."

"Right."

"We won't get a Human to sign up for our weird trials that aren't even supposed to be happening with vials that have obviously been stolen from Violet Hold, Kael'thas."

"Look, will you stop worrying? Just come over and help me with this thing!" Kael'thas moved around to the side and placed his hands on a metal latch. It was embedded in dark silver filigree, and so it was hard to see that it wasn't just a decoration at first. Faltheriel moved to the other side, and tried to mimic what Kael'thas was doing, clicking the metal leaves and what turned out to be jeweled buttons.

"Faltheriel, I've already thought of everything, anyway. We'll use my succubus like the last time, it'll be fine."

"What last time? I wasn't there the last time? What spell did you use on your succubus as an experiment?"

"…Oh."

"Oh? Kael'thas? What 'Oh?' What are you talking about now?"

"Nevermind. We don't have time for cocoa and a chat right now. I think if you press down on your end and I hold down mine… it's a two-person lock. Funny, it would be easier with Human or Elf fingers."

Faltheriel tried, but he kept getting distracted with whatever Kael'thas had suggested, about his 'other experiment.'

Then, Kael'thas' rich voice intruded on Faltheriel's worried thoughts again, "Damn! The thing is, Faltheriel, I really think this isn't even Human. They didn't use a lot of security in the room, because it's all in this box. Some other… magical context is being used. Perhaps… silithid or demonic."

"Silithid! As in, those bug monsters in Silithus?"

"Anything to protect the most important spell in the hold. I should have guessed. We both should have guessed-damn!"

"Well it's still not working and we both heard voices when we first came up here, so let's just go. We're in enough trouble for beating up those guards." Faltheriel turned to leave, "Heh, though it did kind of feel good."

"No, Faltheriel."

"Are you crazy? We can't get further than this. I don't actually want to get caught or expelled, Kael'thas."

Kael'thas grasped the side of the wooden podium again, with his gold claws, "I said no! Come on, come on…" he kept fiddling with it, but his hastiness made no difference, "What the fel-I need this!"

Then they both stood there, feeling like idiots. Faltheriel raised a hand and pointed, beginning to understand.

"Kael'thas, you never answered me before. What was the other experiment?" Though Faltheriel asked it as if he already knew.

Kael'thas grit his pointed Naga teeth and gave Faltheriel a threatening look, like he'd be shouting at him to shut up if he could yell and not alert the whole place.

Faltheriel got angry back, he seethed, "Look. After this is all done, once we get back to your room in one piece, sun-willing… I want you to tell me everything that's been going on. Because I'm starting think… it's starting to become very, painfully obvious to me that this has nothing to do with fixing the Plague. Does it, Kael'thas? You're so intense about it—this isn't about scholarship, is it! Oh my gods, how could you still be so obsessed?!"

Kael'thas hunched his scaley shoulders with annoyance, rather than answer.

"Kael'thas! Is this about Jaina somehow? Again?! What else would involve a female test subject—who's romantically inclined?!"

Kael'thas made a low growling noise that seemed to surprise even him, then he shook his head and turned back to the glass case. "I don't… have time to explain, but yes, you were right. The ring was pathetic, I admitted that back in your room. This is different, though."

"How?! How is this different than coercing Jaina Proudmoore to marry you?"

"Keep your voice down. Look, it's like this, okay?" then, Kael'thas really hesitated, "Faltheriel, when people get finally over romantic relationships, that's when their hearts are open to love again, right? It's a natural process."

"We are so about to get stabbed by many Violet Hold guards, Kael'thas. And all while you stand here being as pathetic and nerdy as you've ever been in your entire life, and bound to be for years to come if we even survive this! Because of Jaina Proudmoore?"

"Natural process! Yes or no? Hey, I thought you'd play along, since you love life and want to live and all that…"

"Yes, Kael'thas! Yes, getting over a breakup, with time, is a natural process."

"Okay. We're getting somewhere." Kael'thas kept feeling along the runes by the glass case. He continued to explain while he worked and conjured small spells, "Jaina was freshly dumped by Arthas after graduation—"

"Well, he wasn't there. I'm not sure if he dumped her. She's still properly his fiancée."

"Arthas dumped Jaina and she's free and clear!"

Faltheriel flinched, "Okay, okay! She's single if you say so."

"Good." Kael'thas let out a breath, "Anyway, the only thing left for her to do now is mourn the loss of the… idiotic partnership they had and then get the fel over him. Right?"

Faltheriel made a face.

"Right?!"

Defeated, "Whatever. Sure."

"So. I have her forget that part."

"Wait a minute…"

"I erase Arthas from her memory so that the last four years with him never happened, and then Jaina and I can finally have a proper chance. It's organic, it's natural."

"Flaw."

"No flaw. I've mapped this out several different ways. I was up hours before I went over to your room. I have a flow chart. It's holographic and in five different colors."

"Still flaw."

"Fine, what stupid flaw did you imagine in my perfect plan?"

"If Jaina forgets about Arthas, and then if Arthas comes back to claim Jaina because it was, as I said, a couple's tiff… she might just fall in love with him all over again. You know, because they're destined?"

Kael'thas straightened. "What the—?"

"Or, Dean Sweeney."

"Why him?"

"…Or anyone else that she might come across who's cute, blonde and brooding. Even me."

"Even—oh, so you're just pulling my leg. Har har."

"But we don't have legs right now, Kael'thas."

"Shut up!" Kael'thas threw his hands up in the air. Well, claws.

"No, you shut up, my prince! Well, I don't care whose prince you are—are you even being serious right now? You're so obsessed with some Human woman you can't have, you're going to throw your academic career away? And this will surely damage our relationship with the Humans whether you succeed or fail—where did this dumb idea come from all of a sudden, anyway? You were so invested in that ring. The ring meant something to you. Kael'thas, before, you were content to wait for that ring of your mother's to work."

"I thought of the memory spell thing myself and it isn't dumb. Well, it was inspired. Here, stand on that side again. It's in demonic, I think I figured it out… by being a competent conjurer unlike you in this situation. Now, put your hand, or whatever it is, on that set of runes. Follow my lead. This time, get it exactly."

Faltheriel began to mimic Kael'thas. It wasn't hard to figure what Kael'thas was doing, igniting the runes in ascending sequelae. It was the prerequisite skillset for arcane ascendancy and the master's degree on that subject. Or, at least the concept was the same. Something both Highborne had taken at university. Faltheriel muttered something that it was the first class they'd taken together, where he and Kael'thas had first met. Kael'thas was annoyed that he'd been insulted, so he didn't say anything.

They worked quietly for a while.

"…Okay, so the Naga woman gave me the idea. Her name is Lady Vashj. Do you think that's even a problem, though? Like what's the worst that could happen, it's just an idea that she shared with me. Illidan Stormrage is the one who told her to come find me."

"Illidan… why does that name sound so familiar? Eh, it sounds pretty cool, though. Wait, is he some kind of singer?" Faltheriel played at air guitar during a pause in their conjuring, " 'Eh, I'm Ill Dan, lead singer of Level 30 Elite Tauren Chieftan. Time to rage the storm… yeoooow! Dananana naaa naaa!"

Don't laugh. They couldn't tell the future.

Kael'thas took his claws off the podium as well. "Last round. You ready?"

Faltheriel nodded. Then, "Wait, mine's locked out. How did it happen-Gods, Kael'thas! I can't get back in. Now it's all on your side…"

"Crap…" Kael'thas tapped his fingers faster across the colorful panel. "This is so stupidly hard without fingers. Oh, come on!"

Faltheriel came over to Kael'thas' side, watched the magical lights race ahead of his friend's fingers. Kael'thas, even with his talent and the gift of the Sunstrider line, going back to Dath'remar himself, simply couldn't keep up.

Then, Kael'thas indulged an evil grin. Vashj's power throbbed at his fingertips. Pure Naga magic like this was so ancient and so potent that it seemed to have its own sentience. It knew what it was about. It was even so sophisticated that it could school those who had never before used it, and it was beginning to guide Kael'thas' thoughts, his body now. It was exhilarating. Somehow, Kael'thas knew to raise his arm. Then, he felt a rush against the bottom of his sleeve, as if Queen Azshara herself was holding just there, whispering warm against his cheek, directing him. No, it wasn't Vashj at all. All that Vashj had, clearly, she got from her queen. The voice speaking to him now was almost… silver. It did not hiss at him, it was nearly… a silk.

Kael'thas steadied his breathing while his scholarly mind raced with fascination and worry at that prospect. Perhaps tonight, in a small, even convoluted way, Queen Azshara, the very source of the Naga's vile pact with the Burning Legion, had woven her own tendril into him.

And, perhaps, if Kael'thas was a better man, that wouldn't have turned him on.

"So is this what it feels like, to be a real Naga?" A chill went through Kael'thas. Yet, he did not want to stop.

Kael'thas watched as bright aqua light budded between his fingers, then raced down his whole arm to make it glow.

"What are we about to do?" He whispered to himself next. But then again, he already knew. Just as he'd asked it, the power had answered.

Kael'thas knelt down, smoothed a hand over the vile metal. Then, reptilian eyes slipped shut. Wisps of shadows slipped away from his Naga face. The magic began to pull apart, just a mask, revealing his Elven features beneath. As the colors on the panel raced back and forth and several alarm lights began to threaten above their heads, Kael'thas reverently bowed and kissed the foul-looking runed stone.

"Kael'thas! What the hell did you just do—is that even sanitary?!"

Kael'thas turned around, his face covered by the magical Naga mask again. The glass box opened behind him. Then, he gestured absently for Faltheriel to go get the vials.

"It wasn't about getting the right sequence at all. We just needed to apply the right amount of pressure." His voice was low, his gaze far away, "Thank you, Azshara."

Faltheriel whipped around to look at Kael'thas with real dread. His nervous hands were trying to grip four spell vials. Kael'thas swore and dove when Faltheriel dropped one.

It was a dumb thing to do. Whether it shattered or came open in his hand, Kael'thas would face a terrible fate. Both men had closed their eyes, terrified of the result. Kael'thas looked at the icy-looking liquid racing up and down inside the clear vial, still stoppered, and balancing at the edge of his palm. He carefully cupped it with both hands. Faltheriel leaned down to help steady Kael'thas while he uncoiled himself and stood upright on his Naga tail again.

"Kael'thas, this is madness."

"I don't regret it."

"We will, though."

"Here, take this stand. Put them in your bag and make sure they stay upright. Can you do that?"

"I'll be tempted not to so I can forget this night with you ever happened, Kael'thas."

"You get sloppy and you'll forget that you're even a Highborne. You'll end up wandering the countryside and married to some Amani Troll or something."

"Blech."

"Though, I hear Zul'jin is pretty fetching…"

"He's a Troll, he only has one arm that he probably ripped off himself, and uh, that's a pretty outstandingly disgusting joke for the Prince of Quel'thalas to make."

Kael'thas silently went to the door and checked down the hallway. Kael'thas gestured and then he and Faltheriel made their way to the stairs.

Faltheriel whispered, "I wonder what happened to those voices?"

"Never look a gift Hawkstrider in the mouth."

"What?"

"I'm almost sure Sunthraze said that to me once, when we were kids-"

"Aw…"

"I don't know where else I would have got it from." Kael'thas smiled over his shoulder, "Would you believe I've been saying that for years?"

The reason you don't look a gift horse in the mouth is because you'll see how old the teeth are and get why the horse was free in the first place. Old Human saying. But the reason why Highborne say never to look a gift Hawkstrider in the mouth is because Hawkstriders don't have teeth. Keep pushing your luck with them, and they'll snap a few fingers off.

But Kael'thas wasn't a proper rancher like Sunthraze. He couldn't have known all that.

When they entered the stairs, it seemed there were angry Hawkstriders everywhere. At first, the color assaulted them. Violet, red, gold. Violet Hold guardians, mages in crimson robes and an archmage with a yellow spell conjured and at the ready. All of these Humans were focused on the two Naga men carrying a satchel of the most dangerous spell created thus far by the Kirin Tor.

Kael'thas and Faltheriel shared a look. Of course, it had been a silent alarm. What were the guards going to do, bust in there and scare the wits out of the intruders while they had handfuls of the stuff? No. They would wait for the Naga to leave, wait for them at a choke point. There was nowhere to run on the stairs. The magical doors swept shut and locked behind Kael'thas and Faltheriel.

Faltheriel, speaking in Naga, "This is not… anything close to good, Kael'thas."

"Don't call me by my name, just in case. You never know who understands."

The archmage with them shouted an order. The main stairwell was an exotic, enchanted affair, with stairs running in a few directions. Impressive, intimidating and beautiful, just like anything at the university or in Dalaran. It was like the physical plane had been shifted for kicks, like sliding a fancy omlette right from the frying pan onto a plate, for show. Kael'thas noticed that the way the mages were arranged on the two flights of stairs going up on either side, the two going down, and the last staircase running north-south, they were all standing, coincidentally, along the ancient Elven rune for 'chaos'.

Kael'thas became offended in an instant, "We showed them how to use magic to begin with. Bunch of show offs…"

"What?" Faltheriel was too frightened to notice anything like it.

And then there were those rows upon rows of narrow, throbbing purple stained glass windows, like a giant spider's many eyes, glinting at you from the darkness. Blue arcane candelabra cast oddly straight slashes of light across everything.

Faltheriel snatched Kael'thas' elbow, "Someone's coming."

"It would have to be someone with an ego the size of the Titans, to set us up like this." Kael'thas was far less intimidated now. More annoyed. And when he saw the man who'd planned it all, he was practically disgusted.

Dean Sweeney stepped gingerly down the flight of stairs to the northwest. Every stair case joined on the landing where Faltheriel and Kael'thas had been stopped short. Sweeney had long, blonde hair done in a single braid down his back, and a flanged black hood that he liked to wear pushed down, so that it settled over his shoulders, the tooth-like edges framing his neck and jaw.

Like he'd hatched out of a spoiled, bad egg.

He was a good-looking man, and for his dislike for Elves, he had a strange way of mimicking their hair, enjoying their magic, and everyone knew Sweeney always had a woman Elf or two assigned to shadow him in his personal laboratory.

Prince Kael'thas was the one Highborne Sweeney hadn't managed to completely humble while under his purview in Dalaran. Intimidating King Anasterian Sunstrider showing up on Kael'thas' first day at university, demanding that his son be given the dean's apartments instead of a simple dorm room had ensured that. So, Anasterian had protected his son. Whether Anasterian had heard the rumors about Sweeney and done it on purpose, to flatten him at the outset, or whether Anasterian had simply enjoyed embarrassing his son in the process of getting him a better room was an ongoing argument between Kael'thas and his father.

Now, Kael'thas was forced to see the wisdom in his father's rough way of handling strangers, pulling out of the Plague crisis with the Humans, all of it.

Being stuck in a Naga illusion, holding something that you felt you needed desperately, and while surrounded by the angry Humans who didn't want you to have it in the first place, was worse than terrifying.

To balance and step down the last few stairs, Sweeney clamped a hand with many rings over the shoulder of the mage nearest him. The younger mage grimaced in pain, and his knees buckled. His friends had to help hold him up. Sweeney's didn't care. His gray eyes locked on the tall, gold Naga at the center of everything.

Sweeney lifted his chin, as well as an eyebrow, "How now… Naga. Quaint, ain't it? How foreign ta everything that's been happening here in the Eastern Kingdoms, and so mind boggling of a distraction. It is," he lifted a finger, and looked around as if they were all in his lecture hall, "therefore, and obviously… a disguise." Sweeney snatched his hand closed, "Remove that! Somebody decurse those two."

Kael'thas spread his claws, crouched, but there was nothing else they could do.

Two, and then four and five mages threw their hands up, attempting to pull away the Naga forms Faltheriel and Kael'thas were wearing. But Azshara's magic held.

"Well, we have years and years to undo all of it, don't we? And just like there are rouges out there who love playing with locks and daggers and things, torturing prisoners until they get the secrets they need—there are mages who are just as astute and gruesomely inclined. They'll love a chance to pick apart a Naga or whatever you are, bit by bit, just to see inside. How about that?"

It wasn't a question they could answer.

Faltheriel looked over at Kael'thas. In Naga he said, "You know… up until now, all we did was take it out of the room. We haven't used it and you're… very important. Sweeney wouldn't be able to lock you up, not really. If we give up now, we could say it was a prank. And there's no harm done, so—"

"No!"

"I'm not getting tortured by Sweeney's dogs over this!"

Over their hissed and growled conversation, Sweeney clasped hands together, "Have the two of you boys made up and decided yet? Ready ta give up the goods? I may be a simple, country mage from little ole' Elwynn Forest, but I'll try and explain to you big city university kids how serious this matter here is and how it's got to go down now." Sweeney arched his fingers and tapped them against his mouth moment, studying them.

He paced, "You boys must understand, and I do say boys because real Naga, agents of an old god, the Burning Legion or the vile Lord Illidan Stormrage of Outland himself—"

"Wait? That Illidan? That's the guy who wants to meet you?"

Kael'thas looked at Faltheriel with great annoyance, hissed and shushed him.

"…Would those kinds of Naga wouldn't come in here sloppy like this? No. They would have had an army, tried to take the place. I even doubt they'd come for the vials, when there are a lot of more interesting, more valuable characters here in this very hold for them to rescue. And I hear the Naga have worse spells than even those memory deterioration vials. They've got the kind of stuff that'll curl your spine. In fact, I know because I studied it. I, in fact, masterminded it and based our Kirin Tor memory spell off of those very same Naga spells that have kept those monsters safe for millennia! You wouldn't come out of your big ole' ocean ta steal a watered down version of something ya'll already got, in spades, already in your wet home. Am I right?"

Kael'thas set his teeth. "Dammit…"

"And ya'll should also know how precious the spell vials are to us citizens of Dalaran now, like our own children. Please, for your own sakes, play nice and hand them over gently. You know what happens if big ole' papa bear sees his cubs in danger, dontchya?"

Kael'thas went out of his way to say this in Common, "Male bears sssire their children, they don't care for them. Sssomething callous Sssweeney himself would get confused."

Sweeney's smile sharpened after that, "And now, I know for certain that I'm dealing with a bitter student. Or… graduate, perhaps? So my list of suspects to expel or turn over to the city guard just got that much shorter." Sweeney then waited, to see if there'd be any more smart comments, "Now. Hand those over. If you decide to throw them, we'll also manage to throw you in about ten different directions down these pretty stairs, I'm sure."

Faltheriel made a whining noise through his gills, "We have to tell them. Now."

"Did you even hear him? We're screwed no matter what we do. Fal—Well, this isn't about not getting in trouble any more, or coming clean. We're past that. The only thing that matters now is our survival."

"But we deserve to be punished. What we're doing is wrong, the vials don't even belong to us—"

"It's us or them. There is no right or wrong right now, only survival. And I won't let some Human who's always had it out for me get his chance to rip me, my father or my kingdom limb from limb because I decided to do something… well, stupid. Maybe I'll pay for what I've done later, but I won't do it on his terms. Get ready."

Faltheriel was already shaking his reptilian head, No. But the air began to tense, in a way not even the Human mages could describe. In fact, the soaring enchanted stairs, the needle-like points of blue light, they began to bend…

Sweeney surely had his suspicions, that only a few Dalaran University students could make it to the top of his short mental list of infiltrators, and a certain Highborne prince Bloodmage would be at the top. But even Kael'thas having the power to transform himself into a Naga and do what Sweeney himself had only studied in books, was beginning to force Sweeney to accept was about to happen, that was so very hard to imagine. The air began to spark, in a particular way. For any Human to dare dream, or perceive in his nightmares… Naga magic, combined with Elven.

Sweeney went red, he shouted, "Get down!"

"Do you know… how much I hate you, Sweeney? Arthas! Jaina! How much I hate all of you for what you sat there and watched me and laughed at me for enduring?! For once, I will survive. I will overcome it. I WILL HAVE MY WAY!"

"Kael'thas! No!"

Kael'thas unleashed a searing red spell that sliced, like a sharp hot wire through butter. Except that it went through the stairs, the walls, and the necks of any Human standing on those stairs who hadn't obeyed and got down fast enough.

It had been simple. It was powerful enough to destroy everything as savagely as a Naga would, but without obliterating, and so elven efficiency was also imbued with it. A thin, blood-red line of hellfire. Anyone might have missed it. The most powerful mages would underestimate it, perhaps just stand there and swat it away, like an annoynce. But that was the point. And it had been borne of the imagination of vengeful Prince Kael'thas Sunstrider. He could have only been fantasizing about doing that, many, many times over the years. Perhaps sitting at the back of class. Eyeing the entire room, wondering how he might do the most damage without anyone seeing it coming. No, don't go big, go small. Go infinitesimal. And one day, make people afraid of delicate, expanding red circles in their sleep… With the power of Queen Azshara herself coursing through Kael'thas, he finally had the spell-power to execute one of his favorite scrawlings in his old lecture notebook perfectly.

Sweeney was on the floor, arms covering his head. He began to get up, slowly. His eyes fixed on the golden Naga, mere steps away from him, who'd done it.

Sweeney's eyes, wide. His mouth, once horrified, now edging almost into a smile, "I wonder… did you just singlehandedly rip the Highborne out of the Alliance?"

Kael'thas froze. Fennore grabbed him and ran.