Chapter 16

They only had to share tents once more. Renarion had offered to take on Aethellion in his own tent, even though he already had two blood elves of his own to look after. Sel'uen hadn't been able to decipher what had happened in his tent over the past few days, though he seemed to have it well in hand.

She knew it was because of her black eye that he offered. Renarion seemed more upset about it than even the Shan'do.

She talked him out of his masculine protectiveness. She told him that she could handle herself, just as she had before. He eventually relented, though he didn't look happy about it.

She was more anxious about spending another night with Aethellion than she let on. They shared a bed again, though that was only because she was uncomfortable with not knowing where he was. As it was, sleep didn't come easily. They barely spoke.

It was early the next day when the storm abruptly thinned, then began to clear. Sel'uen almost stumbled in surprise as the winds began to clear and the violent, swirling fog dissipated before their very eyes. Then the way opened up and she gasped, her heart leaping.

The clearing was huge. It was bigger by far than the battlefield the blood elves had chosen. The land was mostly flat, but there was a portion of it that was sloped. Centered at the top of these slopes was a gigantic complex.

That was the word that fit it. Sel'uen had seen many things and exotic places on her journeys with the Shan'do, but the building before her was huge and sprawling, and seemed to be sectioned off into wings. What looked like mechanical tubing as thick as a full-grown bear criss-crossed the open ground and wound into and around the structure. There were pathways that appeared to have been carved out of the landscape, with sturdy-looking fences lining them. Sel'uen's gaze followed the structure up and further up still. Pristine spires and rises jutted into the sky until their bizarre-shaped tops reached their zenith. There the clouds from the storm circled tips of the spires like the nuclei of a whirlpool.

Populating the grounds were blood elves. They were everywhere. Some looked like soldiers, outfitted with blood-red and black tabards and armored with scarlet armor. Others looked like gnomish mechanics with goggles and engineering tools hanging from their belts, going from place to place checking the tubes and other paraphernalia the functions of which Sel'uen could only guess. They looked busy as could be, even rushing from place to place. She thought of Dolanaar and the ants at the base of her tree.

A small troop of blood elves approached them. They were carrying crossbows, though there were a few blood knights on the flanks. Sel'uen was struck by how well organized and well-disciplined they appeared. They were led by an important-looking mage with a staff taller than he was. Flanking him were two others. The one on his left was a finely-dressed, bored-looking male without a weapon or staff. The one on his right she immediately picked out for an engineer of some sort, probably the head of the operation.

The blood elves stopped just before Ero'then and Karielle. The Shan'do had stopped moving, so everyone else had as well. They had waited for the blood elves' approach, their necks craning to take in the sight. Even the Highborne they'd brought with them looked baffled at what they saw.

Was this not what they had expected? Sel'uen was hardly one to judge. Out of all her imaginations of "paradise," this reality hadn't been one of them.

The blood elf who looked like a mage greeted them in Thalassian. Karielle responded. The two talked until Ero'then cut in. He was also speaking Thalassian. He drew a glare from both mages.

The mage with the tall staff called an order. Karielle waved to accentuate it, and the blood elven pilgrims gave one last look to their night elven captors and filed in behind their leader.

"Can you speak the old tongue?" Ero'then was asking now. He didn't look phased by anything that had occurred so far. "My students would benefit from hearing."

The mage regarded him. "Some," he said. "These are your students?"

"I am Ero'then," he said. "Shan'do to these young ones."

"I am Archmage Oltharin," the blood elf said. "Servant to the Sun King. This is our Chief Mechanician Astranasor and the honorable Ambassador Kaladen." No one bowed. Sel'uen wondered if they would have been better off fleeing back the way they'd come.

But then what? Wander the storm until we starve?

The archmage spoke again. "You are a far ways from the Moonglade, Shan'do," he was saying. "What business has brought you so far as this? And why have you taken hostage these pilgrims without provocation?"

Sel'uen saw her Shan'do smirk. "Curiosity," he said. "And, now that I've assuaged that, enlightenment."

"Enlightenment?" the archmage said.

"Yes. Enlightenment for these desperate and innocent souls before it is too late." Sel'uen stared at him. It seemed everyone was.

What was he talking about?

The archmage was just shaking his head. "You are enemies of our prince; you have treated his people with barbaric contempt," he said in a monotone. "Hardly surprising for your savage people." He indicated to one of the guards. "Take them to the cells. One druid to a cell, you understand?"

The blood elves moved forward. Sel'uen felt a growl building in her throat. She tensed to transform into her saber cat form. But the Shan'do shot a look at his students, and its meaning was clear. A fight here would be foolish.

A blood elf took her arm, and she looked at him. His face was hard and his grip was harder. The glow in his eyes was there, but dull.

These blood elves were healthy. Very healthy. She couldn't have shaken his grip if she had tried.

No, there was no fight here. She let the blood elf lead her alongside the other students. Ero'then was looking at Karielle.

"Open your eyes, young one," he said. "You are not like your prince. Do not let your hunger blind you."

In response, Karielle gave him a smile. Sel'uen's blood ran cold at the sight of it. The mage walked towards him, like she was going to say something.

She slapped him. It turned the Shan'do's head. It might have been comical, if it weren't for that smile. It hung like a twisted ornament on her black and blue face. It was filled with far more promises than just a slap. She spoke to him in Thalassian - threats, probably - but Ero'then didn't respond. She kept at it, her voice turning to wild shouts until the archmage's expression turned annoyed, and ordered them again to be taken away.

"Once they are secure," he said to Karielle. "We will speak."

They were led inside and the dried earth turned to a cold, metallic floor. The tubes that ran like blood vessels throughout the place hung on the walls and the ceilings. Sel'uen blinked. Was something moving within them? She hadn't thought so, when she'd been outside. But now it looked like they were transporting something, some sort of gas. Were they siphoning the storm clouds?

No, not the clouds. She saw it with more clarity as they moved throughout the complex. A purplish gas - punctuated by some form of lightning! she saw - was traveling through the tubes, looking like it was moving towards the center of the complex. They were near that - one building over actually. However, they were being brought down a level, to what turned out to be an extensive underground chamber. Big cells punctuated the cordoned off rooms, which slid open and shut by magic with their passing.

Sel'uen hardly paid attention as her companions were locked away in separate rooms, behind heavy, runed bars. She was busy following her own conclusions.

Was this their paradise? It didn't seem so, at least from the mages' reactions. They looked as surprised as she had been. Even Karielle, who acted with such arrogant confidence, had seemed lost staring at the spires. And yet the archmage had acted like he knew they had been coming. Well, in retrospect it actually was obvious that he would have known they were coming. An archmage surely made regular use of scrying to protect his facility. But he had known they were pilgrims.

Once they are secure, we will speak. What did that mean?

She was pushed into a cell. It was smaller than the ones she'd seen, and she made the effort to growl at the blood elves as she was locked in. She was left with one guard, who she glared at, seeing if she could get a response. When she didn't, she took a seat on the cool metal wall and returned to her thoughts.

This wasn't the paradise the pilgrims had expected. Maybe it was further on. Maybe it was as great as they believed it was but this place wasn't it.

I'm here to enlighten them. The Shan'do was convinced that the pilgrims had been duped in some way. In fact, this whole facility screamed to her that something was wrong. It must have been drawing on the energy of the storm…

Servant of the Sun King.

Sel'uen stared ahead, at the bars. Aethellion's words came back to her.

Kael'thas had promised his people a cure. He had first gone to Dalaran but had been turned away. The naga, allied with Illidan Stormrage, had then offered to have his people join them—an offer he accepted. Aethellion had said Illidan promised the Sun King a cure for his people. Had the Betrayer ever delivered?

Was this place a fulfillment of that promise? They were close to the Nether here, as the Shan'do had said. The Twisting Nether itself, she had been taught, was the realm of magic where demons lived and all arcane energy came from. Could it be that Kael'thas had set up here to draw on the magical energies of the nearby Nether? That's what this place seemed to be. A gigantic mana siphoning battery.

But that couldn't be it either. Spells wrought on this scale, for that purpose… this place would be crawling with demons. This place had to have another purpose. But for the life of her, she couldn't figure out what.

Her wondering was exhausting her, but it killed her not knowing what was going on. Her Shan'do obviously knew. He had brought them here for a purpose. What was that purpose?

She fell asleep wondering.