Chapter 7

It happened without warning.

They'd been two days into the storm. Drex had just given a speech to justify his faith in the path he'd chosen.

He told them that the green-eyes (as he called them, which Sel'uen still didn't understand) hadn't been the first pilgrims to pass through Area 52. Apparently, quel'dorei looking for a supposed "Promised Land" had been arriving at regular intervals in the wastelands.

Sel'uen thought it ironic that a place they called the Promised Land would look so, well, unpromising. Just more evidence of how arcane magic warped the mind.

But Drex seemed to believe that the quel'dorei had several points of congregation. "Some of 'em knew where they were going, some of 'em didn't," he explained. "They never wanted me going with them. I don't think they want people knowing where it is. Keeping their little virgin countryside to themselves." He snorted, letting them all know exactly what he thought of that cute little hope. "Anyway, I gotta make a living right? So the ones that don't really know where they're going, I point them in the right direction. I picked up some details when they stopped by our bar. Elves love to drink, I guess." He thought about that comment. "Or at least, these ones did. It looked desperate, really. Kind of sad. Like every last one of 'em was an alcoholic. And I never regret taking people's money."

From that ascertained information, Drex had some good guesses on where the quel'dorei's meeting places were. He was leading them now to the nearest one, the one he'd pointed their quarry to.

"Best I got," he'd said to Ero'then, looking a bit anxious. The druid had just nodded.

The Shan'do's mood had blackened again. He'd snapped at Sel'uen for being too slow to grab her things and gather her tent one morning. She had been near tears.

The first night the goblin had woken up, cursing, terrified, to Ero'then's nighttime screaming. Renarion had had to explain it to him as best as he could.

"Why don't you tell him?" The goblin had shivered, but there was little actual suggestion in his question. He seemed to understand.

Now they walked in their usual order, excepting that the distant between Ero'then and the students and the distance between Ero'then and the goblin had widened. The Shan'do hadn't seemed to notice.

Sel'uen had been fortunate enough to have been looking forward when it happened. At first she thought they were just bigger boulders, battering around in the storm like the others. But they didn't seem to be moving all that much. Then, all of a sudden, they burst through their bubble and came screaming down on them.

Three balls of fire.

All Sel'uen did was shriek. Ero'then reacted better, snapping his arms to the side like he was tearing a curtain. The bubble shattered for a single, horrific moment and then wind screamed at full blast. The fireballs exploded, raining debris down around them. Then the bubble reappeared, now much smaller.

"With me!" Ero'then roared, and Sel'uen - disoriented - scrambled towards him alongside the others. Drex came too. He was swearing, totally panicked. They crowded on each other in a ball.

"How do they see us?" Renarion shouted. The quel'dorei knew they were chasing them, based on the paths they had taken throughout the chase. They had probably known since the mountains. Ero'then didn't answer him, but it was easy enough to guess. Some sort of spell, or scrying. Something.

"They're not far ahead!" the Shan'do yelled. She wondered how he knew that, and if he had known that, why he hadn't warned them. "Most likely, they'll be ready for us. Follow my path exactly! They've most likely trapped the area."

Sel'uen started shaking. The idea of fighting and killing - abstract before - suddenly became very real. They'd fought off wild beasts and monsters before, but other elves… She hadn't known what she had expected to happen once they caught up to the Highborne. A tiny part of her, maybe, had held out hope that the Shan'do could handle them practically alone, or do it peacefully.

It did not look like that was going to be the case.

But the Shan'do left her with little time to devolve into panic. "We go now!" Ero'then shouted, and he sprinted ahead. The bubble stretched the follow him, and they had to run after him or be swallowed by the storm. They formed into a more-or-less serpentine line. Fear drove them to a great speed.

All they could see for a while was the constant purple blur of the storm. But Ero'then didn't slow, so they didn't either. She kept her eyes to the sky as often as she could, looking for more missiles. The shapes of larger debris lodged balls of anxiety in her throat.

Then they entered a clearing.

It was like a breath of fresh air and Sel'uen gasped. The clearing was big enough that she couldn't determine the end of it. The border she had just passed through was glimmering with a translucent bluish color and it was a crisp border. Theirs had been shifting constantly but this area seemed to be held in check with exactness.

Immediately ahead of them was a curving ridge that climbed several dozen yards up into the air. After a moment to get her bearings, Sel'uen realized there were several small figures astride the top of the ridge. They stood stark against the violet storm with their pale skin and their heavy, multi-colored robes billowing in the wind. They were staring down into the valley the night elves had just entered.

They had just entered a killing field.

Terror drove her to an even greater sprint. Her fellow students seemed to have much the same idea. They chased Ero'then who picked a careful, but quickly traversed, path through the valley.

Above them, the Highborne gestured in sync with one another. They raised their hands and a blur of light filled the sky. Thick shards of ice filled the air above them and started hurtling down on the kaldorei.

Ero'then shouted something. For once Sel'uen thought ahead of him.

In mid-stride she went down on all fours, feeling her mouth fill out with elongated teeth and her frame bulk up considerably. She now ran as a saber cat—and much faster. She was also quicker to react, which helped when the ice started landing.

She had to deviate from Ero'then's wild scramble through the valley. If she hadn't, she would have been shredded by the razor-sharp ice. As it was, she had to leap, roll and spin, making her saber cat self look like it was doing acrobatics you would never see an actual saber cat perform. Even with her newfound agility, however, there was a lot of ice. Some of it found her.

She caught a couple glancing blows which stung but didn't do much damage. But one large shard found purchase in the back of her back, tearing a huge gash in what she considered her hips. She exclaimed in pain and it came out as a roar. The ice, lodging part of itself in her, flooded her feline body with extreme frigidity. She felt her muscles and bones grow slower, like their hinges were thickening with ice.

She pushed herself on anyways. However much it slowed her, she was too scared to stop. Ahead, she saw a reddish saber cat do much the same thing she had just done. He was dodging, deviating from Ero'then's path.

The earth under him detonated and a thick geyser of fire shot up around him. He was sent - flaming - across the valley.

She thought she screamed, but it couldn't find its way out of her throat. Her mind scrambled to think, even to feel. Had that been…?

More ice formed above them, scattering her thoughts. But then, suddenly, it dissipated and came down as small, harmless pieces. Sel'uen looked up and saw that the quel'dorei were dispersing in light of a thick cloud formation gathering around them. One had been knocked prone and the others were getting drenched with water trying to regain their focus.

Sel'uen looked to her Shan'do. He hadn't even slowed.

He scaled the rocky ridge. He was still in the form of an elf, something she found strange. The angle wasn't too difficult to climb, so they made good progress up its side. One high elf actually ran towards them, her robe heavy with water. She raised a hand and shouted words.

A huge structure of fire - more a blob than a ball - streaked towards them. It was then that Ero'then changed, and he changed into the form a towering bear streaked with runes and markings and scars. He roared and, instead of avoiding the fire, ran towards it and let it envelop him.

The impact knocked him off his clawed feet, but only barely. He stumbled, and it was enough hesitation for Sel'uen and the others to finally catch up to him. When they got to him, he had regained his footing. The front of him was still burning, but he charged forwards, roaring like a demigod.

The high elf, seeing the huge, burning creature coming towards her, looked like she might have soiled herself and fled to her comrades. When she ran, Ero'then changed shape back into a kaldorei. Sel'uen realized he was mending his own burning flesh. He was running up the rest of the ridge. Sel'uen didn't have the time to be impressed.

The Shan'do's storm had been largely dissipated by the Highborne. So when the night elves finally crested the ridge, the Highborne were stretched out before them in a line, their staves drawn up for a fight. They were veritably crackling with power, but Sel'uen thought they looked tired. They were clustered together, drenched by the rain…

Then she saw what Drex had meant.

Each of the Highborne's eyes were glimmering a dark emerald. Their eyes themselves were not emerald, but rather there was an aura of emerald-like color that leaked from their eyes. The bizarre sight made them look sick, like the green was some glowing, intangible puss that darkened and yet enhanced their eyes. They pulsed in sync with the soft crackling of the rest of their bodies.

Green eyes. Pilgrims.

They attacked again, as one. They surged forward, throwing spells of varying potency and composition.

It was hard for Sel'uen to see what happened then. She didn't have the mind or reflexes for combat, but she did her best. When the Highborne attacked, the night elves responded in kind. One of the students summoned wind gales, throwing them at the enemy. Most leapt towards the mages in their own shape-shifted forms, seeking to get a handle on them. The mages did little damage, throwing spells that singed and froze and hurt to keep them back. They were yelling at each other in Thalassian. Dimly, Sel'uen realized that one of the mages—a pretty-looking female with long, now wild, orangish hair—seemed to be trying to give orders.

Above all this, Sel'uen became more aware of Ero'then's contributions. He was gathering a darker and more powerful storm to himself, one that seemed ripped from the netherstorm itself. He was hurling it at the quel'dorei, and soon all the Highborne could do was keep him at bay. The one with the orange hair alone stood her ground and fought Ero'then, her face drawn in a grimace of rage and power, while her companions drew further and further back, retreating slowly down the back of the ridge into a small valley.

Then their leader herself had to fall back—but not before throwing another burst of power that sent Ero'then's storm rolling away.

The kaldorei gave chase. In the heat of battle—Sel'uen had gotten a good chunk of one of the males, enough so that he was favoring his left leg now—Sel'uen had not heard much. But now, in the lull, she realized that her Shan'do was yelling at the quel'dorei, almost having to scream to be heard over the netherstorm. She couldn't understand what he was saying, but then she realized why. He was speaking Thalassian.

The kaldorei, deep in the thrill of battle, formed up for another charge at the Highborne. Sel'uen thought that they couldn't last another round. Victory was about to be theirs. The Shan'do must have been demanding their surrender.

But then she saw the streaks in the sky.

More debris? No. More fireballs then, and she tensed, trying to get a read on where they were going to land. Each had a trail behind them like a comet. A trail like a tear—colored like the Highborn's eyes.

Then another thing caught her eye in the valley below. Out of the pristinely drawn perimeter the mages had created for the battlefield, a few figures exited the storm. Misshaped things whose appearance choked Sel'uen with shock, and then black horror.

She looked to the sky again. The others, even the Highborne, now had seen what she had seen. The comets rained down on the battlefield, shaking it with their thunderous arrival.

The cry rose up from everywhere. The Highborne turned their backs to the night elves. The night elves ran towards them.

Ero'then's roaring voice cut through the storm.

"LEGION!"