Chapter 9 - Uprising


Content warning: graphic violence


"Is she your mom?"

"Ysadéan? No."

Soffriel was twice Kinndy's height but somehow he was the one hurrying to keep up.

"She seems mom-like."

He dodged around a pair of orcs that Kinndy greeted by name. "She is chosen family but also... there's no word for it in Common. A spiritual guide, perhaps."

"What's she guiding you to?"

He'd known Kinndy for all of two days. "Er…"

"Is that too personal?"

"No. I'm thinking on how to explain it. She's not guiding me to anything. Think of it as… she's guiding me through. That's what they do."

"The deer druids?"

"Yes. They help people move between things."

"So she's helping you go from Death Knight to necromancer?"

"Not… no."

Kinndy hopped down the steps. "How did you meet?"

Kinndy had already shared the major facts of her life on the way from mess hall to sub-basement. No one had asked Soffriel this many personal questions since- His memory was hazy but probably since never.

"We met while I was still a Death Knight. One of Arthas' Death Knights." He hesitated. "I attacked her."

Kinndy gasped. "That's ter- I mean, you weren't really you, so it doesn't count. Right?"

"No, it counted. I tried to kill her."

"And she got away, obviously."

"Yes."

Soffriel remembered it in blurry pieces- the colours of autumn in the Plaguelands- a deluge of half-remembered rhymes- wicked seeds in sacred ground- and dread when the deer stood up and faced him. He had never met one of her kind but immediately knew what she was.

He urged his death charger after her because he was a Death Knight and she was a woman trespassing. It was his job-

The undead horse spooked beneath him. That was impossible. Death Chargers didn't spook. Except for his, when he tried to ride her down and the horse reared, pawed the air with cracked hooves, then slid on wet leaves and mud. Soffriel pitched out of the saddle. The horse rolled over him, struggled to its feet, and galloped away.

She stood above him, clothed in white like a wraith. Her antlers were coming out of velvet, strips of bloody flesh hanging from the tines, the new bone crimson in the moonlight.

Blood.

Soffriel lunged. She barely moved, turned aside just so, and kept on while he scrambled after her. Whether he swung at her with his runeblade or lashed her with magic, she moved by a hairs breadth and left him stumbling, or gestured and his magic snuffed out.

"What is your name, child?"

"Soffriel!"

He spoke before he processed her question and then, taking only his name, she grew tired of the fight and fled.

"Yes, she got away."

"It's amazing you found each other again."

"She found me. She came to Acherus to find me."

"Why?"

Soffriel halted; he pricked up his ears and swivelled his gaze down the hall.

Kinndy looked up at him. "What?"

"Magic," he said. "Something powerful. But also… muffled?"

They stood in the hallway, perplexed. Then Kinndy squeaked and whirled to face him, pink eyes wide.

"Ohmygod it's the spellcage!"

She took off toward the lab. He followed.

The moment he arrived, he saw what Kinndy meant. There was a dome of wards active in the middle of the lab, a barrier that excluded delicate objects and all of the furniture and books. Inside, Jaina and Kel'Thuzad faced each other in the midst of a complicated mandala of glowing blue-green lines. Jaina offered her hand and Kel'Thuzad took it.

The instant they touched, currents of power exploded outwards, thrashed against the walls of the spellcage, churned around them like a hurricane. Their eyes blazed, bleeding light, free magic running off them in torrents.

Soffriel took a step back. Kinndy gasped and took a step forward.

There was a burst of light and a disc of rotating lines and symbols appeared behind Jaina, where one would carry a shield on their back. The spellcage did nothing to dim the massive power coursing through the slowly spinning array.

They let go of each other and the shield array continued to spin. Power built and built until Soffriel feared the spellcage would shatter, then Jaina and Kel'Thuzad gestured simultaneously and the spell faded.

The wards retreated into faint lines on the floor.

"What! Was! That!" Kinndy was vibrating in place.

"A successful experiment." Kel'Thuzad dusted his hands together.

"What kind of experiment? That was amazing! What does the spell do? It looked like a- like a- hmm. Like the foundation for prolonged spellcasting- no. Not quite. Tell me, please? Please?"

Soffriel watched Jaina. The power had not retreated from her entirely; it flowed down her spine in a faint glow, pooled at the small of her back, looped over her hips, and criss-crossed her legs all the way to her feet. It was passive but not inactive, and it felt familiar. Now he understood his instinct to retreat from the spell.

"It is a foundation," he said. "A place for other magicks to attach."

Kinndy turned round. "Oh! Like a notebook."

Soffriel blinked. "...no."

"What? No, it is. Like this." She pulled a little notebook (pink, of course) out of her pocket and held it up. "See?"

He flipped through the pages. Kinndy's notebook was bespelled with a clever cantrip that recorded not only the words and figures that described spells but also the sense of them. It captured a lingering realness, a whisper of the actual magic, even when Kinndy didn't fully understand the components. She described them as scents and flavours but they stood out to him in swirls of light and colour.

"This is beautiful."

"I can show you how to make one, if you want."

He looked from the book to Jaina. "Yes, I would like that."

"Hey, we can figure this out together. We know it's a foundation. But for what…" Kinndy was walking around the edge of the spellcage, squinting at the faint lines.

"It's not on the floor." Soffriel pointed to Jaina. "She's wearing it."

Kinndy chewed her lip in thought. "Okay, it's like... a harness?"

"No," said Kel'Thuzad. "A harness implies that Jaina will be the one doing work when it activates."

"I meant a harness like- I don't know what you call that stuff. Soffriel? The harness thing on your back where you put your sword? What's that called?"

"Scabbard."

"Yeah, a harness for holding a weapon."

Jaina shook her head. "Not quite."

They both studied her in silence for a few moments.

Soffriel saw that Jaina was standing easily without her cane just as Kinndy snapped her fingers.

"It supports! That's why I thought it was a foundation spell."

"Good work!"

"I can't make out the rest of it but I still think it's like a scabbard. It's carrying something."

Jaina rolled her sleeves down. "Not yet. It has the ability to carry something other than myself but we're still testing that aspect. Best not to get ahead of ourselves."

Soffriel caught a quick glance between Jaina and Kel'Thuzad. She was still smiling.

"That's so cool. Can you wear it all the time?"

"There's only one way to find out."

Kinndy's eyes sparkled. "So cool..."

Her babble of enthusiasm and the puzzle of the spell had temporarily distracted Soffriel from the mental tumult that kept him pacing for half the night.

"Jaina? Can I speak to you? Privately?"

"Of course." She waved him toward the corner of the room furthest from the stove, with a soft couch and a stack of books on the floor beside it. "What is it?"

He straightened his shoulders. "I broke my vow to you." He closed his eyes.

There was a moment of silence, punctuated by a squeak of "ew!" from Kinndy across the room and a snort from Kel'Thuzad.

Then Jaina took his hand. "Soffriel, sit with me."

He sat. His hands were shaking. How can that be? The undead didn't suffer the involuntary physical effects of emotion. Except… He flicked his gaze to Kel'Thuzad. Of course.

"There is a difference between killing in defense when you have no choice and killing with malicious intent."

"But-"

"If you want to get specific, you vowed to do no harm to the living with necromancy."

"Yes, but-"

"And you didn't do that. You acted in defense of not only yourself- Soffriel. Look at me."

He met her eyes.

"You could have stepped aside and let that group of ignorant people kill others who did them no wrong. You're a night elf- you're Alliance. That mob wouldn't have touched you. Probably insulted you if you didn't join in, but they would have left you alone. But you didn't even pause. Zaphine told me what you did. You didn't hesitate to do the right thing, even though you knew what stepping into a fight would cost you. You didn't break your vow."

"I feel like I did."

Jaina folded her hands in her lap. "I know a thing or two about misplaced guilt. I think about Theramore a lot. I think about how I could have aided them, how I... I didn't know about the attack until it was over."

Her tone was filled with a familiar shame.

"There was nothing I could do but I will feel helpless if I ever have to look one of Theramore's people in the eye."

Soffriel's gaze inevitably wandered to her scars. Marks of trials overcome. "I should be able to fight it."

"Have you practised?"

"I… No. I don't know how."

"The way to practise is to put yourself in a similar situation and teach yourself a different way to respond."

"That would put someone else at risk of injury."

"There are some who wouldn't be at risk."

Soffriel's eyes widened. "No, Jaina, you-"

"Me? No. Anu'Shukhet."

"Oh. Uh…" He thought back to his one embarrassment of a fight with the Nerubian commander. It lasted about twenty seconds and that was only because it took him nineteen seconds to get within reach of her. "Good point."

"In the future I want you to be able to fight at my side, or Kinndy's, without fear of yourself."

"I will."

"You will." She smiled. "May I ask- do you feel that you must put yourself to rights with Elune?"

"Ysadéan said the same as you- that I did not break my vow. But I feel… You understand. Meditation helps." He paused. "Elune has a place for me."

"Good. I'll arrange for a proper introduction between you and Anu'Shukhet. Tell her what you need. She gives good advice."

"Advice?"

"Good advice."

"She speaks?"

"Yes, she speaks."

"Then I will listen."

Jaina nodded. "Now, shall we go save Kinndy from whatever your teacher has chosen to horrify her with today?"

Soffriel looked over. "Ah. The jar of rats."

"It says something about my life that I'm more surprised a jar that big exists rather than the fact someone filled it with dead rats."

"Well. You do live with… him."

"Yes," she sighed, "yes I do."

When she stood, the support spell glowed briefly around her knees and flickered as she crossed the room.

Kinndy scampered to her side. "What're we doing today?"

"That depends. Right now, we're waiting for Archmage Khadgar."

"Khadgar's joining us?"

"Not exactly. Unfortunately, Azeroth cares nothing for our studies." Jaina straightened her robes. "I am joining Khadgar, the Regent-Lord of Quel'Thalas, and the Horde rebels to re-take Orgrimmar from Hellscream."

"You're- I'm sorry, what? Are we- can we come with you?"

"That is up to you."

Kinndy clenched her hands into fists. "Yes! Absolutely!"

"If anything goes wrong, I will send you back to the Citadel. And you must go. No arguments."

"I promise. No arguments."

Jaina turned. "Soffriel?"

He shook his head. "I am not ready to face battle as anything other than a Death Knight and I don't want to do that."

"All right. Kinndy, Khadgar will meet us at the eyrie. You'll go with him."

"I can't go with you?"

Jaina hesitated. "I don't want to put you in undue danger."

"And you're doing something unduly dangerous."

"Potentially."

Soffriel looked to Kel'Thuzad. "Will you be joining Jaina?"

"Only if things go desperately wrong."


Khadgar was punctual. He hummed with magic and had the look of someone who drank one coffee too many that morning.

"Lor'themar has rallied an invasion fleet and brought an army of willing fighters with him. King Anduin has returned from Pandaria and brought part of the Stormwind armada. He sends pleasant regards. Unfortunately, though Vol'jin's people have pressed forward to the city gates, Hellscream's soldiers have them stymied. They've been unable to take the harbour so our ships can't deliver back-up. We're sitting just outside cannon range."

He unfolded a small map and they studied it together.

Jaina remembered the shape of the Durotar coast, the docks of Bladefist Bay, the red dust.

"I will go alone through a portal to scout the best approach. Once I see what we're up against, I'll place a series of portals to get the armies to the beach."

Khadgar pointed to an area on the map. "It'll be a rough fight once we're through. The beach is held by Dragonmaw orcs and, as you might expect, they have a flock of stunningly ugly proto-drakes with them. There's also some enormous mechanical thing near the gates. It hasn't moved yet but when it does, I expect it will be a problem."

Jaina let her gaze unfocus into the distance for a moment. There were two frostwyrms clinging to the towers of the Citadel, idle and bored- and Caligion, napping in the mountain cliffs nearby.

"What are you thinking?"

"My strength is positioning our allies with portals but I can also bring some air support."

"Excellent!" Khadgar folded the map. "Let's not keep our King and Regent-Lord waiting."

Jaina took a moment to mentally prepare the portal spell and raised her hand to begin casting.

"Pardon me, Lady King-"

Jaina turned to find Zaphine, dressed in robes of layered black and gold, a staff in her hands.

"My father fights wi' the Darkspear," she said. "Please, let me come and find him, to fight at his side."

"Of course."

"I'd like to be there as well." That was Kagra, eyes narrowed, barely holding back a snarl. "I didn't die for Hellscream's Horde."

"Okay." Jaina squinted toward the eyrie entrance. "...who else wants to come?"

A group of about twenty people, led by the tauren paladin, walked out onto the platform.

"All right then."

Jaina called Caligion to the eyrie, climbed aboard his neck, and opened the first portal.

"The next portal I open will take you to battle. Prepare yourselves!"

Caligion spread his wings and they sprang through into chaos.

The air was full of proto-drakes, arrows, fire, balls of burning pitch flung into the swarm of dragons and against the walls of Orgrimmar. From her vantage, Jaina saw the line held by Vol'jin's rebels, stoic but unable to advance against Hellscream's black-armoured Kor'kron, and another group she guessed were the Dragonmaw clan.

Caligion made a deep growl. Jaina patted the back of his skull.

Soon enough. Portals first.

They swooped along the coastline, lower and lower, and some of the Dragonmaw changed targets. Jaina put up a pair of shields to either side of herself; spears and arrows ricocheted harmlessly off of Caligion's skeletal form. She marked a line along the beach, tiny spells waiting for a trigger, placing them behind the cannons and catapults that threatened to assail the invasion fleet. Three of the proto-drakes broke away from the flock swirling above the battle and winged toward them.

Jaina gauged the distance to the waiting fleet.

Ready...

Caligion circled once above the masts of the frustrated invasion and Jaina marked the deck of every ship.

Among the fleet, she picked out Lor'themar's green eye among the up-turned faces on a crowded ship. Caligion hovered, buoyed by the unnatural magic that animated him, and Jaina jumped the short distance to the deck.

Go have fun.

He pushed away with a gust of wind from tattered wings and made for the trio of proto-drakes with a roar of challenge.

Lor'themar, the crew, and the small army gathered on deck all stared with mixed caution and impatience.

"Lady Proudmoore. A pleasure to see you again."

"Likewise, Regent-Lord."

He raised his hands, fingertips sparkling with expectant magic. "Allow me to join your casting."

"Much appreciated."

Jaina wove threads of magic between each marker on the shore and the deck of each ship; one pull and they would flare to life. She waited a heartbeat, glanced at Lor'themar, and remembered she needed to offer him a hold on that thread so he could participate in the spell.

"Ah. It's been a moment since I cast in tandem with someone." Someone other than Kel'Thuzad. This is much easier with telepathy. "Ready?"

They pulled.


Everything happened so fast it felt like one busy moment. Suddenly, Kinndy was on the deck of a sailing ship- a Horde sailing ship!- with Khadgar on one side of her, Jaina on the other, and a whole assembly of angry strangers with weapons.

Jaina's eyes were lit with an eerie blue glow and a handful of portals burst open in quick succession, snapping into existence with a sound like a string of very loud firecrackers.

Before Kinndy's brain caught up with the last three seconds, more armed figures- adventurers, of course, and soldiers too- boiled up from the lower decks and rushed through the portal.

Jaina put a hand on her shoulder. "Stay with me."

A roar and clamour rose up from the beach and Kinndy realized it was the noise of frenzied battle, weapons on weapons, on shields and armour and flesh, and the snarls, curses, screams of the people wielding weapons.

Then there was a much louder roar, an animal cry of fury, and Kinndy looked up. One of the proto-drakes swept down toward the battlefield and for a second Kinndy thought it would breathe fire on everyone below, friend or foe. But there was a rider on its back and Kinndy saw them tug the reins. The drake roared in what seemed like protest and turned, snorting bursts of flame, toward a siege tower bristling with glints of steel. Kinndy saw a flash of silver dart out from the tower- an arrow or spear- which the drake dodged and then it was on the tower with teeth, claws, and weight. The structure collapsed beneath it, amid muffled screams.

"There were people in there!"

One of the other towers fired, but the drake shook off the projectile and rose back into the sky, turning toward the offending tower.

"Oh no-"

Another roar cut across the battlefield, almost like the drake but rattling with the hoarse rasp of undeath.

A frostwyrm came out of the sun, not in a full dive, but steeply enough that it quickly overtook the drake. The two dragons collided, claws first. They grappled in mid air, a thrashing ball of tails, wings, and bursts of fire- red and blue- until the frostwyrm's speed carried them to the ground. A plume of red sand mushroomed up from their impact and then there was more thrashing, roars and snarls that turned to screeches, then yelps, then silence. The dust settled. The frostwyrm reared up and bellowed in triumph.

Kinndy took a deep breath. "Tell me what to do."

"Place your shields. Take your time- I have us protected. You'll learn to do it faster with practise."

"Okay, got it."

The spell on Jaina's back glowed faintly; the lines and symbols turned in languid circles and Kinndy got a sense of patience. "We're acting in a support capacity until Khadgar calls on us."

Kinndy watched Jaina's hands. She was so fast. Sigils flickered on her fingertips, single figures that each described a waiting spell, pre-written, and aimed with the smallest gesture. They were mostly shields, cast over injured soldiers helping each other rise, between a priest and an orc bearing down on him with a raised axe, and one beneath Brok's hoof to steady his balance as he took a blow on his armoured forearm.

The thick of the battle moved towards the huge black gates of the Horde capital and it left carnage in its wake. Kinndy remembered the animal carcasses placed in the room where she was learning battle magic and swallowed hard, trying not to look at anything for too long.

A group of people joined them; Kinndy recognized several of them from the eyrie, including Zaphine.

"Have you found your father?"

"No, Lady King. I expect he be in the very heart of the fight." There was pride in her voice.

They followed the changing battle lines and Kinndy realized they were helping the rebellion push forward by providing a safe rearguard. Support!

Without warning, the line of defense in front of them broke. Both Kor'kron and the invasion force scattered as something huge plowed a rut in the dirt. Jaina spread her arms wide and a series of overlapping shields appeared in front of their little troop.

The disturbance was a writhing mass of snarling dragons. Kinndy counted three of the proto-drakes and the biggest of the frostwyrms in the brawl. The drakes grappled, bit and hung on, jaws fracturing icy bones. The frostwyrm thrashed, turned its fangs and talons on one then another of its assailants, tearing furrows into their scaly hide. One of the drakes attempted to drag itself out of the melee, bleeding from too many wounds, but the big frostwyrm pulled it back in even as the other two began prying bones free from the skeletal monster.

The injured drake shuddered and fell still, but the other two tore into the frostwyrm, yanking out chunks of misty magic and splinters of bone.

The spell on Jaina's back flared. She brought the heels of her hands together, fingers crooked toward the fight and three concentric circles of cold blue light appeared within her grasp.

The mandala opened, the outer edge now studded with one sigil repeated over and over, and just as Kinndy recognized the spell, the frostwyrm gave up its struggles and flattened itself against the ground. Jaina made a sharp inhale and the outer ring spun, spitting frostbolts in a repeating spiral pattern that tore through flesh and bone. The two remaining proto-drakes were reduced to chunks of red muck.

The spell wound down, the rings closed between Jaina's hands, and vanished with a twinkle of ice.

The frostwyrm sat up, shook itself, and made a cheerful bark.

Jaina lowered her arms. Her hands were trembling and the support spell glowed up and down her body, pulsing like a heartbeat.

"Lady King?"

"I'm all right. It's a new spell. I'm not quite used to it yet."

Kinndy dropped her gaze to the ground. Jaina was lying. Even with magic to help her stand and move, her body was in the grip of the Lich King's power.

She didn't lose control of the shields though. They never wavered until the group was ready to move forward again.

Khadgar appeared in front of them in a bolt of light.

"Remember the big machine I mentioned that might be a problem? It's a problem. Come on."

And all of a sudden, they weren't the rearguard anymore. They were part of the battle. Kinndy stuck to Jaina's hip like a burr. It was all too fast to follow. This was why mages prepared spells to activate with a single sigil or gesture before going into battle. Kinndy couldn't keep up with the flurry of light and spinning arrays, in the air, on the ground; Jaina and Khadgar were casting separately, then together, then separately again.

The battle was beside, in front, all around them. Flashes of blades in the corner of her vision, the smell of shattered spells- Kinndy held her own shields steady, though she was aware that both Jaina and Khadgar were protecting their small group. The shields abruptly expanded and the blood elf from the ship joined them. He was drenched in high elven magic, bitter scarlet and honey gold, and if Kinndy hadn't been surrounded by a whirlwind of death, she would have clapped with glee as the three mages plunged into a triple cast.

And then, as quickly as things turned manic, they returned to relative calm.

They had pushed through and divided Hellscream's defenders. It was more the legions of adventurers around them than Jaina's group who deserved the bulk of the credit, Kinndy admitted, but three awesome mages certainly helped. She couldn't tell friendly orcs from enemy orcs, so she took her cues from those around her. The Horde people didn't seem to have any trouble knowing who was who and since none of them were fighting each other, Kinndy cautiously dubbed this pause a victory.

There were still a clutch of proto-drakes overhead and the remains of the splintered Orgrimmar defense were regrouping, but the invasion force seemed to be gaining the upper hand.

"Oh hell," said the blood elf.

Kinndy peered between the crush of bodies.

The machine looked like a giant, armoured scorpion. It was spanned the breadth of the city gates, belched fire and smoke, and as Kinndy watched a group of adventurers cautiously provoke the thing, it razed one of them to cinders with a focused beam of fire.

There was a pause, then yelling from the frontline, what sounded like a shouted conversation between two furious voices that Kinndy didn't quite catch.

"That went well," said Khadgar.

Jaina leaned closer to him. "You know, we could just…" She made some covert threatening gestures toward the gate. "...from here."

"I think you'd have to get to the back of a rather long line for the opportunity."

Khadgar's words were endorsed by a variety of things hurled toward the top of the gate by the closest adventurers.

The armoured scorpion sputtered and raised itself up. Blades whirred. Black smoke began to obscure the gates and adventurers threw themselves into the new battle.

"We must get to the gate! While that thing is distracted!"

"We have no weapons to open the gates- Hellscream was right about that part."

"I'll pry those doors open with my bare hands if I have to..."

Orgrimmar's defenders were recovering, drawing new lines against the now-divided attention of the invasion, and Kinndy realized that by pushing through Hellscream's army, they had only bought themselves a two-fronted battle.

Kinndy tugged Jaina's sleeve to get her attention. "What about the frostwyrms? Can they go over the walls or bust open the gates?"

"They're busy with the drakes. And they're outnumbered."

"You or Khadgar- or you and Khadgar could bust the gates."

"Yes, but this is a siege. We don't know how long it will take or what else Hellscream has waiting for us once we're inside. A long, uncertain battle is as exhausting for a mage as it is for a physical warrior. We get tired, lose focus, our responses slow, and prolonged casting wears down the effectiveness of spells."

"Right, entropy. I forgot about that. So… what do we do?"

Jaina gestured to the people around them. "Work together. It's why adventurers are so successful at their business. They overlap their strengths until there is no weakness."

Kinndy glanced toward the smoke-swamped battleground in front of the gates. The metal scorpion was missing a claw now, though there was another singed corpse in the dust.

"What are you best at?"

Kinndy looked up. "Figuring things out. Magic is like- well it's like that-" She pointed to the mechanical scorpion. "It has parts that fit together and make bigger things. I'm best at figuring out the parts. I don't think that's very useful here though."

"It is. If you can figure out how something is put together, you can figure out how to take it apart. Taking things apart- be that spells or physical objects- is incredibly useful in battle."

"I never thought about it like that." She looked around them. "We, uh, we do need to do something though."

Khadgar incinerated something with a blast of arcane magic and rocked back on his heels. "Do something we shall. That machine needs to die."

"Kinndy, do you feel confident using that fireball spell?"

"Really?! Now? Super confident!"

For the first time in her life, Kinndy raised her staff in battle.


The group of adventurers had hammered and taunted the mechanical nightmare until it was backed against the city gates. They had nowhere to go but forward until Khadgar shouted them back.

Jaina gave the feedback loop spell just a nudge and readied herself. She glanced down to Kinndy.

"Ready?"

"Give the word."

The machine jolted forward, either pursuing the fleeing adventurers or perhaps piloted by someone with the awareness that adventurers did not flee without good reason.

"Jaina?"

She nodded and Khadgar grabbed her hand.

Jaina closed her other hand into a fist. It felt different casting with Khadgar than it did with Kel'Thuzad or her brief touch with Lor'themar and it was more than just the lack of telepathy. Khadgar's magic was different; arcane but a little bit alien, an undercurrent of otherness.

A taste of Outland.

Alien or not, they shared a basic understanding and when she forced the heat out of the air around the machine's legs, his strength supported hers.

What must I feel like to him?

Frost rimed the mechanical joints. The scorpion creaked. Jaina pulled the spell tighter, snuffing all heat out of the air, out of the metal. With an object so hot it was physically draining to maintain the spell and, inevitably, her memory flashed back to the last time she had wrung the living heat out of metal.

"You're nothing compared to Deathwing," she whispered and slivers of ice crept under layers of armour and between the teeth of gears.

The scorpion ground to a halt. The chimney coughed a tiny jet of ice fog.

"Now."

Beside her, Kinndy launched a fireball that had a respectable amount of heat and mass. She was joined by dozens of adventurers and the moment that the volley contacted the frozen scorpion, it exploded. Between the invasion force and the machine, a line of priests and paladins laid their shields. The shockwave rebounded off the glowing wall back onto the wreck, which, being goblin-made, erupted in secondary and tertiary explosions that blew it against the gates of Orgrimmar with a resonant bang, followed by a creak, and a ray of light between the doors.

Kinndy squealed and jumped up and down. "That was amazing! That was amazing! Oh, I could really start to like blowing things up!"

"We'll probably have more opportunities. To the gates!"

The Kor'kron and Dragonmaw pursued them but the invasion force had a single, collective goal. Nevertheless, Jaina whirled, flicking shields between as many moments of disaster she could see.

She caught a glimpse of gold and blue, blond hair, and the radiance of a priest. She smiled. Anduin!

The vanguard of the invasion slammed into the gates and if there were defenders resisting their strength, it wasn't enough. The single ray of light between the doors spread, became a flood of red afternoon sun, and the army raised their voice in one cry of triumph.

Jaina checked that Kinndy was at her side and ran.

There were defenders, of course, but the combined might of the army outmatched them. A hundred small fights broke out around them- before and behind- frantic on the part of Hellscream's troops, fueled by victorious fervor in the invaders.

Orgrimmar was a city but it was also a fortress and the doors swung open onto what had once been a common area, now more like the bailey of a besieged castle.

A bailey filled with Kor'kron, with archers on the walls, heroes of Hellscream's order rushing to meet them with weapons and corrupted magic, and a hundred unexpected horrors. Ahead of her, Jaina saw a group of adventurers sprint to the aid of a fallen figure with black and white fur. Pandaren! They're here too!

"Jaina! Jaina, stop! Stop! Oh god! Stop!"

She slid to a halt and turned at Kinndy's quavering voice. "What-"

"I know him," Kinndy whispered. She was pointing to the fresh corpse of a man tied to a post, stuck with half a dozen arrows.

Jaina's breath died in her throat. She knew him too. She'd seen him a few times, walking the Theramore streets, hand in hand with a little boy who looked so much like his father. Eventually she found him working on the deck of a ship, stuffing the spaces between planks with pitch.

"Oh…"

She turned in a circle and found more, and more, and more. People in cages, the floors black with old blood. People bound to targets, knives and arrows and spears and axes… People slaughtered, weapons gripped in their blackened hands.

Humans and trolls.

And somehow the first coherent thought that welled up in her was, I hope none of them are Zaphine's father.

Kinndy grabbed her robe like a child and hid her face in the folds.

"No…" Jaina turned again, and again. "No…! No! Please, no…"

She had learned to see past decay and identify individual people; she could tell a person's species, sometimes sex, even specific features if the undead retained enough flesh. The Scourge became people.

And everywhere she looked she saw faces she could identify, flashes of memory that took her back to humid days, to moments in passing, guards, shop owners, citizens strolling home after a night at the tavern…

Her legs gave out. The weight of grief or horror was too much for the support spell and she fell to her knees.

"No…"

She stared into the cloudy eyes of a woman who sold her pastries almost every morning.

There are too many. They didn't get away.

Jaina drew one breath and collapsed onto all fours, retching. She felt Kinndy still clinging to her skirts. She felt the rough grit of the red soil between her fingers. She felt waning sun on her neck.

And then she felt a gentle touch on her back. Beside her, another person knelt in the dirt, with the click of jewelry and the creak of leather armour. They said nothing. Moments passed and then Jaina sat back on her knees, reached across her chest to grip the wrist of the person with their hand on her shoulder. She couldn't break her gaze away from the woman.

"There are too many…"

"Fah too many."

She turned and so did the man beside her. Even kneeling as he was, the troll was unusually tall. He held his head at an angle to keep his curving tusks out of her face and without introduction she knew this was Vol'jin.

"I'm so sorry," she whispered. "Your people are so brave."

"Your people did notin' to deserve dis."

Jaina took a deep breath and let it out.

"We are going to kill this bastard."