Chapter 13

The conversation ended there. Karielle didn't speak again, so Ero'then left her alone and she was soon sleep. He did the same soon after.

He woke a couple times, and found her scrunched up next to him. Her skin was freezing—so cold she made him cold—to the touch. He curled himself around her.

When he woke again, feeling more refreshed, he extricated himself from her. She slept like a stone, but certainly didn't sound like one. He wondered if it was her snoring that had woken him.

He cut across camp to check on Drex. He entered the tent silently and found Sel'uen spooning her blood elf. It seemed to have been a trend. He found himself hoping that the girl had done a little more than spooning with the sin'dorei. He would take anything that would grow her up.

Without waking them, he looked over Drex. He didn't like what he saw. The goblin had grown even yellower and lines of dark mucus had begun to run down his lips and cheeks.

He repositioned the goblin to keep him from choking on his own fluids. He rechecked his bandages and did everything he could think of, and even some things he had never tried. In the end, though, nothing helped and he simply laid his hand on his guide's head.

"I made you a promise Master Drex," he said in a whisper that carried through the stale air of the tent. "I intend to keep it."

He left, sparing two last glances. One for Drex. One for Sel'uen.


There was nothing to do but wait. Students woke periodically and sometimes wandered to his tent, asking about Drex. He gave them all the same news. When Sel'uen came, she looked worried. She couldn't help trying to peek past him, to where Karielle slept on his bedroll.

They'd all done it, but Ero'then decided to pick on her. "What is it?"

Her eyes shot to him. "Nothing, Shan'do," she said quickly.

"You were looking to see if the blood elf and I were sharing a bed."

She blushed heavily, but seemed to find no reason to deny it. "…yes, Shan'do." Then she surprised him. "They're very cold, aren't they?" She gave him that look like she was hoping she hadn't erred.

He smiled, and he realized he was a bit sad. "Yes, Sel'uen," he said. "Yes they are."


On the second night after the battle, a blood elf woke him. Her eyes were bulging, and her mouth was half-open in panic.

"What?" she shouted at him. Her eyes were glassy.

"What?" Ero'then yelled back, afraid. Where was he? Who was this?

"You were screaming," Karielle said. Yes, that was her name. "What was it? What did you dream?"

The pieces fell back into place, as they always did. The tent. The howling wind. The uncomfortable, alien earth.

"Nothing," he assured her. "I am sorry I woke you, Karielle. Go back to sleep."

She looked almost scared to. But she did.


The next time she woke him, she didn't mean to.

At first, Ero'then thought that the cold wind had snuck through the tent flap and was tickling him. He muttered and grumbled, trying to cover himself. It took him a moment, but then he realized that he was covered.

He shot to his knees and whirled. Karielle fell back on her rump, her eyes wide, blazing with unnatural green fire. She looked as shocked as he felt. She was trying to mutter out some sort of explanation, some excuse.

He lunged and seized her throat. She cried out, then gargled as he easily closed her windpipe. It was like crushing a winter-stiff oak leaf.

He swung her around and slammed her into the earth. Her bizarre, burning eyes rolled in their sockets. She moaned, or tried to. She was communicating in gurgles only.

Now her hands started to glow. Fire danced on her fingertips.

He hit her once, hard, with an open palm. The fire vanished. Her pale face began to turn noticeably purple, so he released his hold on her throat. She wheezed like a dying animal, then cried out when he hit her again. She rolled onto her side but he dragged her back to her back. He straddled her, his knee cutting into her ribs. He hit her twice more.

"Please" she held her scarred hands out to him, a feeble defense. With her face red and now bruising, and the sickness of her eyes, she did not even look like an elf. "Please…"

He lowered his hands. He let her lie there, coughing, wheezing and sobbing. Apologizing. He pressed his knee deeper into her ribcage.

"If I wake up," he promised her, "with one less student, then you will wish you were back in Silvermoon."

As the tears streaked down her once-pretty, now bruising visage, Karielle's face did something bizarre. It grinned, and it grinned widely. Her eyes burned like miniature fel suns, so bright it was as if they were trying to burn holes in his flesh. Ero'then didn't like it, so he closed a hand on her throat again. The grin vanished.

"Of course," she croaked. "I'm sorry old one. I don't know what came over me. It won't happen again. I promise."

Neither of them slept for a long time. Ero'then lay on his back. His arm was bent towards him, and Karielle's neck rested in the crook of his elbow.