Chapter 6: Descent into Shadow

Many days had passed since Xainia had begun her journey as a priest. The strange voice, that of her master, always filled her head. Through her adventures, Xainia had traveled the Barrens, Ashenvale forest, the Thousand Needles, the Stonetalon mountains, but never the east. She avoided the dark continent of Lordaeron; a place of fear and memory. Xainia was committed to destroying Hakkar, but she would not go near her past until she was strong enough. Now adventuring from Shadowprey village, a great turning point in Xainia's life was coming about.

"You seem troubled, child." The dark voice of Xainia's unnamed master echoed in her head.

"Ah dun know why ah am helpin' these dirty centaurs." Xainia thought in return as she removed several silver pieces from a recent kill made to gain the favor of one tribe or another.

Her master, although strict, was concerned for his pet. It was uncommon for an undead to show such fostering. Despite this caring, Xainia still did not know her master's name; it was not her privilege to know such things.

"You would rather be in Arathi then?"

Xainia paused and shook for a moment. She knew how close it was to Jintha'alor. "N..no."

"As I thought. Now, you will go to the north, the valley of spears. You must prove your strength in the shadow to me. You will have thirty minutes to kill every centaur in the valley."

"But some a dem be really strong, ah've tried dis before, ah just can't go fast enough."

"Then you must learn to move faster. You may not continue until you can do this."

"Yes, masta" Xaina thought of the drudgery of it.

Running up on her raptor as she had many times before, Xaina dismounted infront of the southern entrance to the valley. Staring tiredly at the centaurs in front of her, she saw them look back with the same tired out look. By this time, they did not approach her unless she came near to them first and posed a threat. It was fear perhaps that kept them away from her, but to her she was just going through the motions that her master commanded. Xainia put a hand guard on and looked at it for a moment. The master had given her this device to "allow her to wield the shadows". It made her feel like she was just using these skills she learned; she did not feel any flow of power within her.

"Dirta Horsemen." Xainia commented as she ran up and began attacking them.

Shadow power flowed forth from the hand guard as Xainia called forth the different spells that the priests had taught her. Sometimes she would use holy spells along with them, but her master always preferred her to channel the shadow. Centaur after centaur fell before her, almost never touching her through various shields. Soon she was on the western entrance of the valley, sitting down and breathing heavily.

"Good, my child. You have performed well." Her master's thoughts reached her.

"Ah dun know what dat was gonna prove." Xainia was fed up with killing these centaurs and with traveling through this grey desolate land they dwelled in.

"You have no need to know. You only need to do it." The voice returned somewhat arrogantly to her. "Now. Travel south to the goblin city of Gadgetzan. Many missions await you there."

Sighing at having to travel so far once more, Xainia called forth her raptor and headed for the seedy city in the sands. Having been there a few times to see the local alchemist, she was able to ride through the air to reach it. This time the alchemist directed her to speak with someone else in the city, a surveyor.

"Time is money, friend." The short goblin greeted her as she walked up a small hillock in the city to see him.

"Da alchemist said ta see ya. What ya be havin for me ta do?"

"Oh. Well this is pretty important. A lot lies at stake here, so listen carefully! We're losing a lot of water to these bandits throughout the desert, I need you to go over to Sandsorrow Watch and gather some water for me to see if it's usable. Hurry up now!" The goblin shoved an empty flask into her hands and turned back to his surveying instruments.

"Ok… so ah guess ah'll do it." Xainia said half sarcastic and half bewildered that the goblin would just expect her to accept like this.

Xainia stopped by the local inn for a moment and then walked out of the city, looking to her master for advice.

"Wha's out dere?" she thought.

"Trolls. Not friendly ones either." Her master returned solemnly.

Xainia stopped dead in her tracks. "Do Ah gotta go?"

Dealing with other trolls was something Xainia had a hard time handling. Darkspears were fine, but the other tribes she still did not trust whatsoever. Now that she knew these trolls were not friendly, it brought back the most horrible memories.

"You will go. It is possible to avoid them." Her master commanded.

Heading west with a wide loop to the south away from any structures, Xainia headed towards Sandsorrow Watch. As she looped around to the south, she caught sight of some of the trolls in the distance. They had strange colored skin and fire-colored hair; the Sandfury tribe. Known for their worshipping of strange old deities and for savagery, Xainia wished to avoid them, complete her mission, and return to Gadgetzan as soon as possible. Quickly heading to a nearby pool of water, she dipped the vessel in, filled it, and capped it.

"Scrrrrrrreeeeeegggggggchhh" A high pitched noise split the air as she stepped away.

Xainia turned back and saw two very large bugs charging out of the water at her. Quickly raising her shield, she didn't put her glove on and simply called down the forces of the holy light to destroy them. The bugs fell somewhat easily, but left Xainia shaken nonetheless. She looked around and then took the shell off of one of them, hoping it would fetch a price somewhere. Xainia was ready to return to the town, but it seemed that not everyone had the same plans for her.

"You not supposed to be 'ere." A deep voice spoke from behind her. Before Xainia could react, the butt of an axe hit her upside the head and knocked her out.

Having been knocked out so harshly, Xainia's mind swam in a sea of fear and memory. Trolls were the oldest most enduring race, and yet they were able to exhibit such terror and pain upon each other. Their ability to hate and destroy each other while enduring as a race matched only that of the elf races which grew from the same root as they did. The voices of the spirits that once troubled her danced around her prone form in her mind.

"You be doomed now! Finally out of da safety wit da orcs!"

"You musta got hit by a Sandfury. Ya know dey worship Hakkar too, ya failed us." A now almost skeletal troll visage plagued her.

Other voices mixed in with the spirits, ones that sounded new; her captors.

"You keep an eye on 'er."

"Wha? I dun get ta roll on da fun?"

"Ya be too young." A deeper troll voice returned.

Xainia slowly awoke; it was nighttime now. Nearby she saw three male Sandfury trolls arguing nearby her.

"Wazzat matter? She's young too."

One of the two older trolls hit the young one that just spoke.

"Know ya place welp. Watch er."

The younger troll slunked over then noticed Xainia was awake and called back.

"Ey, she be awake mon, whatcha wan me do?" He readied a stone to knock her out again.

"Jus keep her there. We gonna decide soon. It be more fun if she awake." The deeper voiced troll called back.

The young troll drew his sword and held it close to Xainia's neck. "You dun be movin till da othas get back."

Xainia began to regain her senses, still deeply depressed by the visions that had just come to her. She knew her holy power was not enough to kill these three, but her hand guard was just in her bag if she could only reach into it without alerting this troll.

Had it been that simple, she would have escaped no doubt. She looked over at the other two and saw one of them holding her hand guard and a few other possessions in his dirty claws; there was no escape for her now. Starting to tear up, Xainia just stared on at the other two trolls.

"Roll dem bones, mon" The other older troll spoke up.

"Ah done more than ya. Ah shouldn't have to do dat. Besides, Ah captured her." The deeper voiced troll argued.

"But Ah spotted her. She's nothin special, doin tings only work for really rare stuff."

"Fine." The deep voiced troll pulled out some crude dice and rolled them out on a piece of wood that the two had on the ground between them. "Thirta five"

The other troll grinned and rolled his on the same board. "A hundred. Ah win!"

Looking suspiciously at his compatriot, the deep voiced troll looked closely at the dice. Suddenly, his eyes lit up with anger. "Dese be cockeyed! Ya lousy cheat!" The deep voiced troll picked up the rolling board and bashed the cheating troll upside the head with it.

"Ah no be cheatin, ya gave me dose dice yestaday!" the other troll spoke groggily as he drew his weapons and charged the deep voiced troll.

"Noboda calls me ah cheat!" The two trolls said almost in unison as they began wrestling and fighting each other.

By this time, Xainia had figured out what they were planning to do. They were rolling over her. This filled her with fear beyond the worst dread, she curled up and tried to shy away from the knife that was held ever close to her throat. The younger troll looked at the two fighting each other and grinned.

"Dey be fools. Dose be mah dice."

Casting aside the sword, he grasped Xainia's neck. Stripping off some pieces of his armor, the troll continued to grin luridly at her. Xainia was almost in shock from the horror flowing through her mind. She hated that she had come out here, she hated that she had been captured, but most of all she hated these trolls and anyone who would act like them.

"It be mah turn ta get what ah want!" The young troll grabbed Xainia in a very violating way.

The fear and hate poured through Xainia's body as the young troll closed in. Suddenly, something within her snapped. She felt time frozen around her as she saw no longer what was going on, just herself surrounded by blackness.

"Masta… Masta where are ya?" She said in a bewildered fashion.

"I am here, my child." The image of her master appeared from the blackness.

"Why, Why dis be happening?"

"Only because you allow it to." The master replied.

"Ah can't stop dem. Ah got no powa."

"You have proven your power before. You only must wish to truly use it, to embrace the path you have chosen, and your enemies will perish in ash and torment." The image faded back into the blackness.

Xainia was awoken back into the time stream as the young troll tore a sleeve off of her robe and grabbed her arm. He grabbed it just in the place she had been bitten so many years ago. In her state of shock, the plaguing spirit of the one-tusked troll appeared to lean out of her captor, grinning and gnashing its teeth.

"No… No. Nah now! Nevah in dis lifetime!" Xainia said and suddenly let loose a bloodcurdling scream that echoed through her mind and the young troll's mind too.

Jumping off of her and beginning to flee in terror, the young troll tried to regain himself. Xainia felt the power flowing through her and she stared at her captor with eyes full of scorn and hate. Looking at her arms, Xainia saw them fade into flames of violet and dark blue while they became partly translucent. Her very vision changed; the sands appeared the same violet and blue shades as the ethereal flames raged across her without burning her. The troll began to return towards her, over his fear, but he was not ready for what the young priestess had in store for him.

"Ya gonna die now." She said very simply.

The young troll was about to laugh when he felt the most massive headache he ever had felt, it was as if his mind was being blasted to pieces by something.

"Pain!" Xainia whispered in a dark voice as the young troll in front of her began to feel cramps and pinpricks all across his body.

Already looking very beat up, the young troll coughed out among cries of pain. "What you be?"

"Ah be Xainia, Ah am da one who be killin ya now."

Xainia reached out her hands and beams of blue burning energy shot from them to hit the young troll in the head. The skin began to crackle and boil on his face as he screamed in agony. Slowly the tissue and muscle dripped off of his face, his eyeballs turned to cinders, and he collapsed on the ground dead.

Distracted from their fighting by this sudden outburst, the other two trolls stared at their comrade and at each other. They were already badly injured from fighting. Xainia didn't even drop pace after downing the young troll before she was among them whispering words of pain and wreaking havoc on their minds. Falling even faster than the young troll, the other two collapsed in death. Feeling stronger from obliterating them, Xainia looked around for more of these horrible trolls to destroy.

The laughing voice of her master echoed in her mind. "Ahahaha. Good. You feel the power! This is why you must destroy endlessly as with the centaurs. Each life the shadow takes brings power to you. You have chosen it, you have chosen to rise up and be strong."

Xainia ran to the nearest group, still enveloped by the shadow, and began to lay into them, easily felling them and satiating the shadow. In nearly no time, the camps were clear, dominated by the Xainia's newfound strength. Calmly and coolly, feeling no remorse in the shadow, Xainia walked out of Sandsorrow Watch and headed towards Gadgetzan. Slowly, she regained her normal form as the bloodlust faded from her mind. Checking herself for injuries, Xainia kept walking. She had lost the hand guard from her master, but she no longer needed it. The power of shadow ran through her body. Pausing for a moment she thought of her past actions.

"Do you regret your actions, my pet?" Her master questioned.

Xainia thought for a moment, she had found the power to overcome those who would harm her and more importantly to attack the visions that had once plagued her. She had slain many that night, but she felt no remorse for them. They had been evil and she had repaid them tenfold.

"No." She decided.

"Good. Now you know the way. Use it as you please." Her master stated simply as Xainia walked slowly on into the cool desert night.