Chapter 11

Once he had set up Drex inside his tent, Ero'then marched to the group.

His students waited for him to finish counting heads. The Highborne were almost all sitting up now, and they watched their captors with largely blank expressions. They knew they were powerless. They were just waiting for their doom to be pronounced on them. There were seven of them, including their leader.

"My students," he said, in Darnassian, so the Highborne couldn't hear. "You told me that we lost Brim today. I am sorry."

Nods. Renarion had explained what they had found after the battle. One of the Highborne's magical traps in the valley had claimed Brim's life.

The loss of Brim made Ero'then angry, angrier, in fact, than he allowed himself to show. He could still see the after-images of tears in Yeshaila and Sel'uen's eyes. Xallon looked shaken.

Ero'then next explained the situation with Drex. They took the news well, despite its implications.

"We cannot move with him as sick as he is," Ero'then said. "So we will make camp here." He looked at the Highborne. "As for our guests…"

He then began to switch in and out of Thalassian, so that both his students and the Highborne understood what was about to happen. Almost as soon as he started talking again, however, the leader of the high elves interrupted him.

"We are not Highborne," she said. "We are children of blood. We are sin'dorei."

Ero'then let her speak. He watched as his students exchanged glances. She spoke in broken spurts of Darnassian, and Ero'then was impressed. If she was so young, where had she learned to speak a language her people hadn't heard in millennia?

He let her words sink in to his students. Then he said, "What is your name, sin'dorei?"

The girl straightened and stood. Compared to a night elven female, she was tiny. Sel'uen had a whole head and a half on her. But she still bore herself with the pride that had damned her people so many times to tragedy.

"I am Karielle Sunstrike," she said. "A mage of the Kirin Tor. I speak for my brothers and sisters."

Ero'then smirked at her. "You are a long way from Dalaran, mage of the Kirin Tor," he said.

Her green eyes smoldered at him. "Circumstances have led me to discontinue my studies," she said.

"Ah," Ero'then said. "Your studies." He walked towards her, entering the small ring of Highborne. "How long did you study in Dalaran before these circumstances intervened?"

"Many years," Karielle said. Her gaze was locked onto Ero'then. "Both my father and mother were archmagi."

"I see," Ero'then said. He paced around the Highborne, circling Karielle. He knew he was being watched closely, both by the sin'dorei and his students. "What circumstances were these that drove you from Dalaran, mage of the Kirin Tor?"

"I was not driven from Dalaran," she corrected him. "I left of my own will."

"Did you?" Ero'then mused. "So you are no longer a mage of the Kirin Tor."

Up until then, she had been answering his questions without hesitation. Now she paused. The silence was heavy in the air.

"I left with the Kirin Tor's blessing," she said.

"Indeed? Then only one of these can be true: You are no sin'dorei at all, or you were in Quel'Thalas when the Scourge came."

She stood straighter. It was as if he had a rod rammed up her ass. "I was in Quel'Thalas," she said.

"Is that so? Then you are a liar."

She was taken aback. Eyes turned on her. "What do you mean?" she said.

"If you are a sin'dorei, and you left Dalaran before the fall of Quel'Thalas, then you would know what became of your prince."

Now she knew where he was going. "Our prince was turned away without cause!" she suddenly shouted. "Our people built that city. The humans would not know a cantrip without us. We need not the Kirin Tor."

"So you are not Kirin Tor," Ero'then pointed at her.

She knew she was trapped. She gritted out a smile for him and his students. "We need not the Kirin Tor," she repeated. "We are sin'dorei. What business do you have with us, druid? You've hunted us across this world. We have done nothing to you. What do you want?"

Ero'then smiled again. "You have asked that, sin'dorei. I have but one question for you." He held out his arms. "Why are you here?"

She matched his smile with a grin. "Paradise, kaldorei," she said. "Paradise."

He asked her many more questions, but she was apparently finished speaking. She simply grinned at him now, and he had to admit that that wild grin unsettled him greatly. He guessed that was the point of it.

So he stopped asking questions and started giving orders.

"I do not wish to be cruel," he said to the blood elves. "If you are fair to us, we will be fair to you. We will not bind you. We have tents, and every sin'dorei will stay with a kaldorei. Renarion and Kel will take two each." He glanced at Karielle. "You will stay with me," he said.

If possible, the mad grin grew wider.


Once all the tents were set up, Renarion snatched a moment alone with Ero'then.

"Shan'do," the student began. "Do you think this arrangement wise?"

"Are you questioning my wisdom, Thero'shan?"

"No, Shan'do. Never. I simply fear for the younger students." Ero'then could see the same fear in Renarion's eyes.

Ero'then laid a hand on his eldest student. He looked him directly in the eyes.

"Renarion, the Highborne are greatly weakened. They have used up their reserves of arcane energy. Their physical bodies are exhausted. If you need to, you should be able to overpower them easily. Besides," he said, as his student looked like he was about to say something else. "They know they are trapped here. I've taken the burden of the storm on my own shoulders. If something were to happen to us, they would be helpless."

Renarion was nodding. Still, Ero'then saw the anxiety in his eyes. That was good. He was right to be afraid of sin'dorei. They had little power, but they did have one thing going for them, one that blood elves were known for.

Desperation.