"Kelanas, I am fine!" Not exactly what Harry imagined saying less than an hour after collapsing on the floor Silvermoon City's newly titled 'Needle of Clay', whatever language the Hallows had imparted to him clearly not some fancy form of Latin or other classical language.
The words themselves almost dripped with power and danger, the only time Harry had encountered something even remotely similar being the times he cast spells in Parseltounge, but even that paled in comparison. Thankfully, the combined healing by the Night Elf priestess and High Priest Wavestrider healed the damage using that much Death Magic so quickly had caused to his body, along with the burst ear drums and destroyed voice box that last spell had caused.
"You just took on THE biggest traitor in the history of Quel'thalas! I don't think you understand who Drathir Dar'Khan is Harry? He is the one who gave the Scourge the artefacts they needed to overcome the realm's magical barrier that could have held them for centuries otherwise, and if that weren't enough he used his position and our trust to learn every defensive plan we had, before slaughtering many of our most powerful mages and trying to claim the Sunwell's power for himself. He singlehandedly reduced a strike force of our best Magisters to bones and ashes when we first reclaimed Quel'thalas, without so much as moving from his original arrival point." Coira took a deep breath at this point, though it was clear she wasn't done.
"So if we aren't allowed to worry over that minor 'face-off with a man who could level Silvermoon in an afternoon', how about the fact you destroyed one of the Ziggurats that have been a constant insult of Quel'thalas' fall with a spell that had you spitting blood and bleeding from your ears all over my outfit? Just be glad that we couldn't contact Lady Bones, as none of us can speak your language and she doesn't know Common yet." It was a good, if probably unintentional, point that Coira raised regarding the mirror that Nash'ala had.
But it was something that he could sort later, just because scouts had reported the Scourge withdrawing all their forces from this side of the river didn't mean they were safe yet, assuming that Elf Mage didn't just decide to portal into the middle of Silvermoon and just slaughter everyone. Thankfully Lor'themar had been sending them runners to keep them updated, so Harry could breath a little easier for the moment.
"I won't do anything magic intensive I promise, but I need the gear from those Necromancers we killed to see whether they have the reagents I need for the Dead Scar. If they don't, I will need to talk to the one we capture…" Coira cut him off with a wave of her hand, gesturing off to the right hand side of the fairly expansive room he had been provided, where there were several ragged bags and what looked like the rest of the Necromancers gear.
"Luckily Drathir was too busy fighting you to re-raise the dead we killed, we have a group of civilians piling up the bodies for burning whilst Grand Magister Rommath modifies their siege camp into a forward outpost for our Rangers. Whilst you didn't manage to kill the bastard, you seem to have made him think twice about attacking here." Harry doubted it, he hadn't even so much as muddied the man's cape let alone injured him, but that kind of comment wouldn't be good for morale if it got out so he kept it to himself for now.
"Some of the Ranger-General's men have been talking with the boy, whilst he was heavily traumatised and brainwashed they think it is reversible given enough time and a large number of purifying rituals. And though he didn't give specifics, he inadvertently implied that there are more like him currently being 'trained' or held captive. The only problem is where they are being held, in Deathholme…" Harry had seen a map of the area and knew where Deathholme was, nearly touching the Southern mountains of Quel'thalas almost 200 miles to the south.
Even with the destruction of the two siege camps, and the reclamation of something the Blood Elves could use as a forward base, there were probably hundreds of thousands of Scourge between Silvermoon and there. And that was ignoring whatever surprises awaited them at the Citadel itself, if there were flesh golems and corrupted Elves as there had been in the wall assault then it would be even harder to pull off a rescue, let alone a full on assault.
"And the woman I captured during the wall attack? I assume she is one of these Fallen that you referred to?" Coira nodded, though it was Kelanas that responded with a frown on her face.
"The term the guards used was 'Wretched', and they wanted to kill her when it became clear she wasn't going to talk, which surprised me given she is essentially still a Blood Elf. She is currently being held in a modified cell near the wall, they didn't want to risk bringing a 'potential murderer' further into the city, though given the number of Civilians in the area I don't understand how it is any better…" Harry did unfortunately, and would be having words with Champion Vranesh, who he guessed was probably behind that particular bit of elitist snobbery.
"I will go and speak with her then, I have my own methods that might be able to make her talk somewhat, and then I will arrange with Lor'themar to have her transported to Terra's Point. If the Blood Elves just want to kill her then they shouldn't mind, and her condition will be something that our medical teams can look into when they get across to Azeroth." The mention of those still on Earth brought Harry to his next point rather handily, something that he had somewhat forgotten about given the events of last few days.
"Nash'ala, are we having any luck with information on Portals?" The Naga looked up from where she was pouring through a scroll and shook her head, which was pretty much what Harry had unfortunately been expecting.
"Sorry Harry, the Grand Library of Quel'thalas was sacked by the Scourge when they took the city, most of what remains is either what the Blood Elves managed to hide or flee with before the Scourge attack. Whilst there is some information on basic portals, these seem to be restricted to travel around Azeroth itself, many referring to documents that we don't have for more advanced instructions." Pretty much what Harry expected, though if the Scourge had sacked the library rather than merely destroying it then perhaps some useful tomes were held somewhere in enemy territory instead.
And if he wanted to go on the offensive again, first he had to make sure that Quel'thalas was well defended enough that he wouldn't need to worry about leading the Scourge away from it again.
"Right, we will go speak to this Fallen, and then I think we need to find Storri. I need his opinion on some things…" This Dar'Khan guy would blow through anything that Harry would be able to set up, but the normal Scourge he could do something about…
!"£$%^&*()_+
"More Scourge in front of us!" The call from their Ranger Scout, who had taken residence up on the battlements of the Western Ruins of Silvermoon City, made Lor'themar grin grimly as he removed his blade from the last of the undead his force had just overcome.
With the withdrawal of the Scourge from the outskirts of Silvermoon, as well as the establishment of a Ranger outpost on the bank of the River Elrendar, for the first time in two years there was a little bit of breathing room for the Blood Elves. But just because the threat wasn't as overwhelmingly present didn't mean they could begin to relax, and the efforts of Lord Potter had gone a long way to reminding Lor'themar that being the Blood Elf leader meant more than being the figurehead for negotiations.
"Alchemist Thaeron, your group is to burn the Scourge attacking from the front. Halduron, your Rangers are to clear the buildings on either side of the street, I want every corpse shot or stabbed at least twice before moving on. Farstriders, you are with me." So Lor'themar decided to follow Lord Potter's example and be proactive about restoring Silvermoon, leading a sizable strike force into the Western part of the city to reduce the number of the Scourge that remained lurking in the ruins, as well as creating a safe zone from which Civilian Blood Elves could tear down the ruined buildings.
The extra materials would be vital in constructing the additional wall defences that Halduron and the other Farstriders had come up with, whilst the stone was something that Lord Potter had requested for his work restoring the Eastern city wall. It would mean extra re-building when they eventually reclaimed the entire city, but even then it would be years before the Blood Elves would be short of living room, so it was a very handy short term victory for his people to claim.
A moment later Lor'themar saw the Scourge his scout had informed him of, obviously there was still at least one Necromancer hiding in the City as it was a swarm. Dozens of ghouls, zombies and skeletons pouring forth from what had been a Church dedicated to the Light. It still made Lor'themar see red when he thought of what so many dead in the Church meant happened during the Fall, but he managed to control his urge to charge forward to extract vengeance as the wall of decaying flesh and bone came hurtling towards them towards them.
"NOW!" Almost a dozen bottles and vials of a golden substance were thrown over the prepared lines of Farstriders, impacting in and in front of the Scourge forces in a conflagration of flames and heat that would have made Prince Kael'thas proud.
Alchemical fire was not as popular as it used to be when it came to choice of equipment on the battlefield, but it was something his men were able to make with the meagre supplies they had, and it allowed him an effective form of area damage without relying on his mages. He had two of Rommath's best students with him, but they were merely there in case of emergency or to support their withdrawal if they needed it, and this freed up the other Magisters to be used elsewhere.
The flames did a lot of damage, but they were not strong enough to fell all of the undead, more than twenty of the monstrosities using the fallen and charred corpses of their fellows to continue their charge. Three more fell as the Rangers in the surrounding buildings added their fire, and then it was time for the gruesome work to commence.
"Now Blood Elves, for a reborn Quel'thalas!" Lor'themar was moving even as he gave his cry, ancestral blade decapitating the nearest Scourge in a single powerful sweep.
Three more tried to grapple him to the floor as he cut down a second, but Lor'themar danced backwards from their grasp, removing one's arm as he did so. The sounds of combat filled his ears around him, and Lor'themar was glad he had insisted on bringing some of the most skilled Farstriders on this reclamation effort, the men and women cutting down the remaining undead without incident in less time than it took for Lor'themar to look around.
"Is that all of them?" His question was answered a moment later by several affirmative calls from the watching Rangers, which was greeted with several small cheers and smiles from his gathered forces.
Whilst it was barely a strategic victory, as they had cleared less than a 500 m square section of their once glorious city, the morale boost was substantial to say the least. Even better than that, from Lor'themar's point of view at least, it was clear the Scourge hadn't actually done much looting in the houses and homes of the Blood Elves when they looted the city. Everything from clothing to jewellry was being recovered by his workers as they cleared the buildings, and though some of it had degraded with the poor conditions, most of it could be repaired or reworked into usable items easily enough.
Whilst the basic clothes and furniture would be distributed throughout the City to his citizens, Lor'themar had insisted on the rather unpopular measure of confiscating anything that was valuable enough for trade in the name of the City itself. Whilst it would mean that families would lose access to ancestral jewellry and precious gems, unless they had enough money to pay for them at a reduced price, these items would allow him to restock the almost empty coffers of the City treasury without relying even further on the 'Noble' Blood Elves in the Court of the Sun.
"Farstrider Fallowbeam, head back to the reclamation zone and notify High Priest Wavestrider and Quartermaster Allerion that they can send a reclamation party to strip the corpses and prepare them for burning. Make sure to inform the High Priest that we have nearly reached High Beacon church, as I imagine he will want to search it for artefacts, and check whether there has been any news on the other two expeditions." The Elf nodded without hesitation and took off back down the street towards the Western Gate, which was currently in the progress of being repaired.
It wouldn't hold against a prolonged assault, but if they were clearing the city of Scourge Lor'themar didn't want to have their efforts thwarted in the next Scourge assault, even if Lord Potter kept hinting that he had a plan to deal with the issue of the Dead Scar. It probably had something to do with his Necromancy powers, though Lor'themar had decided to save himself the headache of asking for specifics.
He wasn't sure how the general populace would react to the Terran's powers, even with all of the things Lord Potter had done so far, there were very poignant and deep scars within every Blood Elf related to the dark magic. It would take one hell of an act for his people to accept such powers, and though Lor'themar had belief that Lord Potter would be a force for change, he wasn't sure if the Terran could pull off something of that magnitude just yet.
"Lord Regent!" The call came from his left, and as he turned to look Lor'themar saw a bloodied Ranger being supported by two of the Guardians he had brought along to help protect his flanks.
Striding over as quickly as he could, Lor'themar was glad to see that the nearest of the 3 priests accompanying them had already started chanting, Light surrounding the Ranger and beginning to heal his wounds as Lor'themar reached him.
"What happened Ranger, Scourge ambush?" Halduron was already advancing the way the Ranger had come with twin swords drawn, three Rangers covering him with bows half drawn.
"No Lord Regent, we were traversing a side street to return here. Suddenly Aris goes down with no warning and they are all over us, I managed to avoid being captured, but Malefius…" The man was rambling, and Lor'themar knew he wouldn't get any more from him right now.
Leaving him in the care of the other three, Lor'themar began to follow the blood trail down the street, two elite Farstriders falling in behind him as was their duty. They didn't go far, barely two hundred yards through the twisting backstreets before he found his Ranger-General stood by the two bodies the injured Ranger had mentioned, both of which caused his previously mollified concerns to multiply rapidly.
"Lord Regent, the girl was hit by what looks like a crossbow bolt at close range, probably dead by the time she hit the floor. The Farstrider put up more of a fight, judging by the amount of blood on the floor around his body. I can't say with any certainty yet, but judging by the pallor of his skin I would say he's had the mana drained out of him, quickly too given the speed at which the Ranger reached us." Both deaths ruled out the Scourge, which left only one possible enemy, one that every Blood Elf hated/pitied even more than their fallen comrades amongst the Scourge.
"We have a Wretched problem, double the size of all patrols and call for reinforcements from Champion Vranesh to support the salvage teams. They've gotten behind us and that puts the Civilians at risk." Grabbing the female Blood Elf's body and hefting it over his shoulder Lor'themar remained cautious as they moved back towards the Main Street, given the success of one ambush the Wretched may well be planning another one anytime.
Thankfully it seemed that the Wretched weren't prepared to push their luck just yet, the four of them returning to the main body of the assault force without incident, though the bodies of the two fallen Blood Elves dampened the mood significantly. If it hadn't been for the Wretched, this would have been the first assault into the Western Ruins that hadn't had a single casualty.
"We shall perform the full Rite of the Blaze when we fall back this evening, for now our comrades rest with us. Ranger-General, take ten men, find how the Wretched got behind us and where they are hiding. There are enough of our treacherous kin who think that the Traitor will return them to their former decadence amongst the Scourge for us to deal with, we deal with this splinter group here and now. The rest of us will continue our advance to the Church, which we can establish as a secured outpost if Lord Potter comes through with his offer to reclaim some of the Dead Scar from the corruption that is embedded there."
Gone were the smiles and buoyant atmosphere from before, now there only remained grim determination and resolve, to make sure that their kindred did not die in vain...
!"£$%^&*()_+
"That battlement needs reinforcing, the damage to the wall beneath it has caused it to buckle, but the Elves can do the battlement when you've fixed the wall itself." It had been a long few days for Storri, though the fight on the first day had been fun, being stuck around this many Elves had not been conducive for his usually jovial mood.
The mental joke about his own character did make him smile slightly, something that was only enhanced as he watched Harry morph the wall in front of them. Rather than extracting the minerals he needed from the ground itself now, Harry had been using the masonry and materials that the Blood Elves had been digging out of the Western Ruins of Silvermoon to 'reinvigorate' the City's Southern Wall. It meant the walls weren't quite the perfect white of the Needle, but they were still far stronger than the original wall and according to Harry it was far easier for him to do magically.
"I think this will be the last section for now Harry, you can't rely on Mage water too heavily otherwise you might become addicted." Given they had already remodelled almost three miles of wall at this point, and the fact that the sun was about to set, Storri merely shrugged non-committedly as Harry looked over to him in response to Nash'ala's polite but pointed instruction.
"I don't mind continuing a little longer lad, but that's merely because there's nothing else for us to do around here other than work or fighting the Scourge, these people won't swap what little alcohol they have for any reasonable amount of gold. I have booked passage on a grain ship returning to the South in the morning, though I will tell King Bronzebeard that you will probably be delayed with your visit. I have no idea how the Banshee is planning on getting here, but from the sounds of it she isn't coming by sea, so you should be prepared for a rough trip back if you are planning on travelling to the Undercity with her when she leaves."
Storri chuckled as Harry gave him a pointed look in response to the way he referred to the Leader of the Forsaken, just because Harry had to play nice with the 'good' undead didn't mean he had to. Though there hadn't been any official conflicts between the Alliance and the Horde, the number of Alliance caravans and scouting forces 'ambushed by the Scourge' in areas that the Forsaken were known to hold was high enough to have people talking rather mutinously at the best of times.
"Here." Harry seemed to decide that he had in fact had enough repair work for the day, three of his little magic trinkets flying through the air a moment later, Storri grasping all of them with a single swipe of his meaty hand.
"I imagine that the Blood Elf traders will be far more willing to trade you some booze for these, I've heard that some of these are going for almost 50 silver on the less than legal markets, though if you do find someone trading in them commercially let me know. All of the trinkets I've given out should only have been used by the Elves I've given them to, if the Guardians aren't shutting down the black market then I will."
As much as the idea of the trinkets being stolen/extorted from poor Blood Elves was distasteful, Storri was more amused by Harry's overly noble attitude, if the Terran was any more righteous then he would probably end up leading what was left of the Silver Hand in a few years. It would probably do the group good now that Storri thought about it, after the fall of Prince Arthas and the death of Uther Lightbringer the group had fractured into so many factions it barely had an inkling of power and influence in Azeroth any longer.
"I'll have a look lad, but you can't do all the work for these greedy bastards… Don't look at me like that, you know I don't mean all of them, but that noble represents the view of more of these Blood Elves than even Coira would admit to." It had happened early on the second day, when Harry and Storri had been up as dawn broke, the two of them heading through the Court of the Sun to try and find some food.
Given the speed that they had been confronted, Storri had no doubt that they were being watched by at least one group, a very opulently dressed Blood Elf blocking their path with a small group of bodyguards and servants. The Noble tried to be subtle about his demands, which merely meant that Harry lost track of what he was talking about almost instantly, but it effectively turned into 'stop giving out your trinkets, or else'.
It had taken a couple of tries, Storri wasn't the best at doing hand gestures to describe words after all, but Harry seemed to understand judging by the glare he threw in the Noble's direction whilst drawing his sword. Despite being outnumbered Storri hadn't been worried, just because he didn't have his crossbow didn't mean he couldn't fight, and that was ignoring the fact Harry could crush them all without much help.
"And the fact that the Noble is still walking around like an affronted peacock after the Guardians 'arrested' him makes that very clear Storri, I am more than aware that I can't solve every problem in this city, especially as some of the people are the problem." Huh, Storri was surprised by the level of pragmatism that single statement displayed the Terran had been hiding from him, even if he had no idea what this 'peacock' thing was.
"Good, but don't let that change your attitude lad, just because I can be a little pessimistic at times doesn't mean I can't see how much you've already changed for these people. Now if you could stop them joining the Horde…" Harry's rolling of his eyes made it clear that Storri wasn't going to get anywhere with his attempt to rehash the conversation they had muddled through several times already, so he let it rest and bid the two of them farewell.
Whilst the 50,000 Blood Elves in Silvermoon City wouldn't completely unhinge the balance of power between the Alliance and the Horde, the additional strength of their Farstriders and Rangers would be something that would make the warmongers on both sides all that more vicious in their efforts to bring about the war they sought. Whilst Storri didn't think of himself as an ambassador of the Dwarven people, not that he would have been able to stomach the pomp and bureaucracy that came with such a position even if it was offered, the chance to prevent a potential war was something that he couldn't just ignore.
It was actually the reason that he was leaving so early into their stay in Silvermoon, when he had originally said he would stay for the full week with Harry and the others. Whilst there wasn't exactly a negative relationship between the Dwarves and the Blood Elves, there definitely wasn't anything remotely related to a positive relationship either.
He wasn't sure whether King Magni would listen to him, which was why Storri would sort the arrival of the Terran ambassador first, but as far as Storri could see there were only two reasons that the Blood Elves would ally with the Horde. The first was the fact that many of the Forsaken were fallen High Elves themselves and therefore shared a level of kinship with each other, and there was nothing that the Dwarves would be able to do about that.
But if he could get the Council to set up a trade route for things like building materials and construction craftsmen, which the Blood Elves were sorely lacking in given their previous reliance on the Sunwell, then there was a chance to attack the second need which was support and assistance in their fight against the Scourge.
Whilst it would be a tough sell, Storri imagined that even the staunchest of blowhard relics that made up the Dwarven Council would be able to argue against preventing the Horde from gaining even more military forces…
!"£$%^&*()_+
"Please, I need to feed…" The cries of the Fallen Blood Elf were audible from the moment Harry stepped into the Southern Holding Cell building, where she had been placed by the Silvermoon Guardians.
Judging by the looks of frustration and annoyance on the faces of the three Guardians based in the entrance room, this pleading hadn't been a recent occurrence.
"Has this been going on long?" Harry didn't feel the need to expand on what he meant, the two of them had only been gone three hours after all, after his first attempt at getting the Fallen to talk had ended in a temporary failure.
"About an hour after you left Lord Potter, though it started with threats and screaming for twenty minutes or so first… Thank the Sunwell…" The Guardians relief was easily visible at the pause in the Fallen's pleading, for the whole of five seconds before her voice returned, this time softer and far more respectful than it had been when Harry first spoke to her.
"Is that you human? Please, let me have some of the magic and I will answer any questions you ask!" Harry grinned before nodding to the Guardians and striding through the main room to the cells, Nash'ala following closely behind him.
There were a dozen large cells, obviously intended to hold potential criminals in large groups rather than individually, and in the furthest cell from the door was the Fallen. She had been extracted from her earthen confines whilst he had been healed, and instead chained to the far wall, on a chain so short she could barely extend her arms above her shoulders.
"My Lord." To Harry's surprise she dropped into the best kneeling position her restraints would allow.
"I apologise for my earlier behaviour my Lord, the hunger, it pulls at my mind. It is all I can do not to give in and become that screaming mess I was before. Please, your artefact, let me taste it…" Harry could only assume the Fallen had been listening in when he had been speaking to the Guardians, as he had never mentioned his lordship in his attempts to speak with the Fallen earlier.
And though he could tell the desperation was real, how much of her willingness to talk after sating her hunger a little he wasn't so sure, though the special modifications he had made to the cell would definitely make her more compliant in the long term. Runes littered the walls and bars in a specific pattern, absorbing any magic that attempted to pass through it into the area inside the cell and feeding it into the goblet that Harry had left about three feet from the Fallen, just outside the distance she could reach even with her feet.
It was an interrogation tactic that worked brilliantly against the demons they captured on Earth, who also hungered for magic in a way that Harry had found disturbing at the time, the anti-magic field as well as the temptation of the concentrated magic just out reach in front of them a very tempting proposition to say the least. The fact that the goblet was literally glowing with magic showed Harry how much more ambient magic Azeroth had than Earth, especially with the Death Magic in the air lessened by his Hallows spell when he was fighting Dar'Khan.
With a flick of his wand, one of the pebbles he had in one of his waist pouches floated in front of him before turning into a small ring, Harry consciously putting as little magic into the spell as he could. Seeing the Fallen's eyes fixed on what he was doing, Harry levitated the ring into the cell and into the Fallen's reach, the Fallen grabbing it and pulling it to her mouth. To his surprise she didn't immediately devour the trinket's magic entirely, though as she finished taking a deep breath of sucking the ring's magic into her, the ring's surface looked distinctly more stone-like in nature.
"Clever, for a human, and not foolish enough to give me a lot of magic just because I begged for it. This will sate me for a few minutes, and I know if I want to survive beyond the next few hours I need to keep you appeased and happy with what I tell you." Harry cocked his eyebrow at the fact she thought he would have her killed if she didn't answer her questions, the Fallen's smirk widening for a moment before she gestured back up the row of cells towards the guard room.
"Based on the fact you took me alive, I do not think you would kill me so quickly, especially given your rather inventive way of denying my thirst for magic. It is my own kind that would kill me without a second thought, and they have implied that if you didn't have plans for me they would have killed me hours ago. Despite my 'Wretched' status, I have no plans on dying to fulfill my eternal hunger for a few moments, so I plan on making myself as helpful to you as possible." The sheer venom that the Fallen managed to inject into the word many Blood Elves used to describe her kind was impressive if nothing else, and what she was saying made a lot of sense.
Her demeanour had changed almost completely, both from the almost subservient manner she had addressed him just now, but also a far cry from the uncontrollable fury that she had exhibited when he had first captured her. This new demeanour was probably the closest to her real personality as he was going to get for now, so Harry conjured himself and Nash'ala chairs and sat himself down.
"Incredible, such an inventive use of magic, I don't suppose I could earn a similar chair or something similar? Even before you sucked the magic from the area, I have been here for at least two days at my best guess, and putting all of my weight on my arms isn't conducive to maintaining my... friendly demeanour." It was said so sarcastically that Harry wasn't surprised when Nash'ala gave a short giggle from his left, though the Naga then proceeded to to raise her arm and show the pair of bracers that had been used to prevent her from using magic.
"We have questions, but we also have a proposition for you, if you complete both tasks to our satisfaction, then we might arrange some more suitable lodgings for you." Nash'ala's rather stern response obviously confused the Fallen, before she looked at Harry and smiled wickedly.
"And here I thought you were meant to be the harsh one in this interrogation, if this is you being nice then you and I might get along after all. But it's not exactly like I am in the position to walk out of here if I don't like your demands, so ask away." It was more cooperative than Harry expected, but if she was telling the truth about the other Blood Elves wanting her dead, then getting on his good side was almost her only choice.
"Before I start asking you actual questions, what's your name? I don't want to keep referring to you as 'Fallen' or worse if I can avoid it." The Fallen's gaze turned almost calculating at his initial question, before her smile returned almost sincerely.
"The names Harzlen Quintellen, you are the first to ask me that since I became...this." Harzlen gestured at herself almost mockingly for a moment, before continuing before Harry could ask another question.
"I lost control shortly after our people returned to Quel'thalas, I had a little sister and couldn't afford to pay for both of us to get the manastones we needed. When it started to happen I locked myself away and told my sister to run, as I couldn't control myself as the hunger started to take hold." She looked him straight in the eye at this point, and Harry could see the glint of madness deep inside those deep brown eyes, before she took another gasp of magic from his trinket, the ring returning to it's original pebble form as she almost sighed in relief.
"I was given a choice by the Guardians, not that death or exile is much of a choice, and I fled into the ruins of the Western districts. I survived off rats and other vermin, as well as the occasional looter or Necromancers. I am not claiming to be a Paladin, I did feast on the occasional Blood Elf scout as the hunger worsened, but I always managed to stop myself before I killed them, and I left them as close to the Eastern Gates as I dared." It would be possible to confirm that with one of the High Guardians, as Harry didn't particularly feel like dealing with Champion Vranesh if he could avoid it.
"But even that wasn't enough, and I started to lose more and more of myself as the hunger deepened. Do you know what that is like? To feel your mind, your personality being ripped away from you and there being nothing you can do about it?" Before Harry could respond, Harzlen continued in a far happier tone.
"And then, just when I was thinking of heading out into the Ghostlands to try and take out as many of the undead as I could before they killed me, I met him…" Harzlen's voice almost took on a dreamy tone as she trailed off, and only when Harry coughed did she continue.
"He wasn't like the rest of us, he hadn't become a Wretched, and when he spoke he was so confident and accepting…" Harry had a sinking feeling about who she meant, doing his best to not sigh in disappointment as Harzlen suddenly snapped out of her daze and carried on in the same dreamy tone.
"He works for some guy high up in the Scourge, and for the next 6 months we did simple things like intercepting certain Scourge caravans, hiding caches of supplies and in return I got enough mana to sate my hunger and I got to spend all my time with him." Harry resisted the urge to frown, the way Harzlen was speaking made it sound more like whoever she was talking about was working for Dar'Khan, but the jobs she was describing didn't sound like something the man would do if he was merely leading the Scourge forces to retake Quel'thalas.
"Who is this 'him' you keep referring to Harzlen? And where can I find him?" Harzlen suddenly snapped out of her dreamy expression and looked slightly panicked.
"You really don't want to meet him, he gets in your head and can make you do things you would never have done without a second thought! When he told me we were leading an attack on Silvermoon City and I would have the chance to turn my sister into a Wretched like me, do you know what I did?" Her tone became harder and she almost ground her teeth, reverting more to the vengeful creature she had been when Harry first talked to her.
"I smiled! He was talking about me subjecting my sister to this same fate that I am suffering, and I was excited about it. I don't know whether it's your wards preventing whatever magic he has working on me, or whether it's because this is the first time I have been away from him for more than a few hours in over a year, but all of a sudden I can actually see what he has done to me…" It was almost like there were two separate people stuck in the Fallen's head, as the tone suddenly changed back a moment later, a sickly smile appearing on her face.
"But I would do it of course, for my Magister J…"
A/N: This isn't going to actually be the Joker appearing in the story, sorry to disappoint, but the fun little 'cameo' helps explain two important points that would help explain a lot about what Dar'Khan's actual plans were. He talks a big game, but even with some of the power of the Sunwell (as all of it would have fried him), he would not have been able to defeat the Scourge and storm Icecrown by himself.
So, rather than kill all of the Blood Elves and raise them as Scourge which he does not command by himself, Dar'Khan has traitor Blood Elves 'recruiting' and turning the Wretched to his cause. These Wretched would then be the cannon fodder he needs for his plan to unseat Arthas as Leader of the Scourge.
It also shows another dirty side to the Blood Elves desperate attempts to survive, casting out those who turn as they cannot risk the magic depletion the Wretched cause in the local area, if they don't kill them straight out. They gloss over it in the game, but you spend the first 10 levels of being a Blood Elf killing those who were once your friends and family, and then you spend the next 10 levels killing them again when they are raised as the Scourge.
I have also tried to use this chapter to show this isn't all about Harry, the Blood Elves are doing their own parts to re secure Silvermoon, though of course most of them aren't the force of nature that Harry or Rommath are.
Some people were unclear as who Dar'Khan was, and others who knew who he was were surprised that a lvl 20 was giving Harry such a hard time. To explain both points, Dar'Khan is the traitor High Elf that sold Quel'thalas out to Arthas by providing him with the items he needed to bypass the barrier the Elves had erected defending their territory. He then tried to claim the Sunwell's power for himself but was then forced to withdraw after being injured.
The important point is that before the end of the Sunwell Trilogy (which will probably happen in the next chapter), Dar'Khan is a badass who fights DRAGONS for amusement and even ignoring some of the more ridiculous lore is probably a challenge for Kel'thuzad in terms of base magical power and ability. Without revealing any spoilers, the power difference between before and after Sunwell Trilogy Dar'Khan is the equivalent of comparing Lord Voldemort to a muggle.
On a different note entirely, I have finally played World of Warcraft for the first time! :P Not entirely sure it is something to be pleased about, but it helped me get a better understanding of Silvermoon and Eversong Woods, as well as giving me names of some of the Wretched named characters to use going forward.
Finally, this is the last chapter that will follow the rather nuts once a week schedule I have managed to set recently. I am having to do some adulting now in buying a house, which all of a sudden means I have to work out how to spend my free time earning some more money. So unfortunately for you guys, not as much time on this or my other stories.
Let me know what you think guys!
Defias out