Chapter 18

She dozed a bit, but when Ero'then finally unfolded his legs and stood up, she was wide awake. He glanced at her. He was wearing a rare, roguish smile.

"It is time," he said. "Do not speak and do not react. Above all, do not fight back."

"Yes Shan'do," she said. As she stood, her hands shook.

Don't fight back?

Slowly, the guard outside their cell came awake. His armor clattered as he tried to - in a daze - pull himself together. He blinked and looked around, then settled on Ero'then. The Shan'do made no reaction.

The blood elf was white as sheet. He tore out of the hallway.

Above her, she heard the sound of many feet and boots. It sounded like the room was filling, and filling up fast. Agitated voices echoed their way down into the cells. Then one voice reached them that was filled with the kind of rage that will gladly kill. More voices echoed him, some less intense, most more so. People ran to and fro.

"Shan'do…" Sel'uen whispered. Ero'then gave her a harsh look and she fell silent.

The mob stormed down the stairwell like a flood. They were led by the archmage and the guard. Karielle was a step behind them. All of their faces were as hard as the adamantium bars that caged them. They were murmuring and yelling.

"Get him out," the archmage said, his voice cold enough to stick to.

The guard fumbled with his keys and got them in the lock. The door swung open. Ero'then didn't budge until the archmage grabbed his arm and yanked him towards the exit. Sel'uen cringed away, but Karielle saw her and grinned a wicked barbed grin. The blood elf snatched her too.

Her grip was strong as iron now, and her skin fiercely warm to the touch.

Other blood elves got their hands on the Shan'do. The archmage started shouting in Thalassian.

"What are you doing with us?" Sel'uen whispered. She couldn't help herself.

Karielle laughed at her. By the sound of it, Sel'uen thought she had gone completely mad. "His slut wants to know what'll happen?" She squeezed her arm and pulled her close, hissing venom in her ear. "What'll happen? What won't happen little bitch?"

Ero'then's voice now: "Good morning everyone!" He had to shout to be heard over the din. "Pleasant dreams I trust?"

He was almost lynched then and there. Sel'uen was almost glad she couldn't understand what Karielle and the others were yelling and crying out for. The hellish noise had gotten to her by the time the archmage's booming voice finally got a hold of the crowd. They were ordered upstairs. Sel'uen was dragged with her Shan'do up the staircase. The rumbling of the storm followed them.

The chamber above the cells was vaguely circular and bare except for a few crates and miscellaneous debris. Ero'then was shoved to the center and surrounded. Karielle's vice-like grip held Sel'uen in place with the crowd, near the center. The archmage advanced on the Shan'do, arcane light dancing across his fingers.

Ero'then fell to the floor, and his limbs spread themselves. Manacles of burning red energy encased his wrists and ankles. His body formed a star, and the archmage stalked around him.

"I am not cruel by nature," the archmage murmured. "I had planned to deal with you civilly. You are our cousins, after all."

The crowd hooted, forming a circle about the two. They were still calling out. Sel'uen was horrified. It was a spectacle; like some sort of barbaric entertainment, something a race like the orcs or the trolls would participate in. Not Highborne.

Probably acting against wisdom, and feeling like she already knew the answer, at least in part, Sel'uen stammered out, "What did he do?"

Karielle's eyes were wide and bright. It was like she was incapable of drawing them closed. The night elf felt like her forearm was going to pop out of its sockets in her grip.

"We had dreams," she said. "He sent us nightmares and locked us all in them. He sent us back. I couldn't wake up. I told him my story and he locked me in it. It went on and on and on. He sent us back to Quel'thalas." She looked on Ero'then. "Gods. Let me have a chance with him. I'll… I'll…" She seemed unable to be unable to express herself. She yanked Sel'uen and dragged her to the center of the ring. When she was brought out, the blood elves roared again.

Karielle's grin dancing in her eyes Sel'uen fell on her back, and stayed there. Her ears rang, and she tried to look around her. In the crowd, she thought she saw Aethellion yelling something at her. His gaze was beyond cruel. She also noticed the face of the Ambassador, probably the calmest of the group, though he also had an anticipatory smirk spread across his immaculate features.

There had to have been over forty blood elves, and more were coming in as time went by. Cutting through her terror, she realized Ero'then was talking.

"Karielle Sunstrike!" he shouted. "Did you like the details I added? Will you let the archmage have the first bite of me?"

Sel'uen stared at her Shan'do, eyes wide in horror.

Had he gone mad as well?

The blood elves seemed to quiet. Not much, but enough for singular people to be heard. They had heard the gauntlet hit the floor. They wanted to hear.

"Oh, old one," Karielle said, nipping up the bait. She stepped in front of the archmage, ignoring him completely. She began pacing. "I have not known you long, but I feel like I've wanted this all my life. I must consider my options."

"While you consider," Ero'then said, "you should also consider some other things. Some things greater than this one revenge."

"Oh? And what distraction would that be, old one?" Karielle mocked him. Tension quieted the air as the blood elves waited to see how Karielle would make her first cut. No one seemed to be paying attention to Sel'uen, which was more than excellent in her eyes. She should have gone back to her cell while she had had the chance.

Damn her for her pride.

"Consider your master," Ero'then said. "Consider you allegiances. Honestly, I am surprised and disappointed at you. I would not have thought you a girl to subject herself to slavery."

Karielle's smirk bloomed. "Let's try this first," she said. She knelt beside his leg and touched his toe. Sel'uen craned to see. Her fingers were on fire, the same fire that had lit the mound of demon corpses. Her Shan'do foot caught like dry wood.

"No." Ero'then shouted now. "I am surprised indeed. The dream may have been cruelty to the others, but to you, it was a reminder." He gritted his teeth, and Sel'uen wondered how he could take the pain—if he was using some sort of power to protect himself. As the moments slipped by, it didn't seem likely. "Your parents would be proud!" Ero'then snarled. "Karielle Sunstrike, the Legion's whore!"

Karielle scrunched her hand till the fire on Ero'then's foot (it had reached his knee) tuned white. Veins stood out on his neck and hers. The blood elves around cheered and applauded.

"Do I look like the whore here, old one?"

But Sel'uen saw it. For just a second, the mage's cocky, cruel grin had slipped.

Ero'then must have too. "Tell me, mage of the Kirin Tor," he cried. In his voice, the pain was mixing unrecognizably with his need to be heard. "How do you figure this forge and battery remains hidden, so close to the Nether? How does it function without the consent of demons?"

Her Shan'do had always been so calm, no matter the situation. The extremeness of his situation made him almost unrecognizable to Sel'uen. His voice had risen to a scream, but it wasn't all agony. He wouldn't have been able to speak if that were the case. There was a strong will keeping him speaking, though he had to scream to do it.

"There is no Promised Land!" Ero'then roared at Karielle and anyone who could hear him. "You've doubted it all along. All of you!" He waved his head around like a madman. His hair flapped on the floor. "Your prince has betrayed you! Look at him, mage of the Korin Tor! I know you've sensed it, but are you're too cowardly to look closer? Look at him! What do you see? Answer me, Karielle Sunstrike, you rutting BITCH!" His voice crescendoed in a scream of purified agony.

Then the fire vanished and Ero'then, whose body had arced there in the end, collapsed. Sel'uen whirled to look at Karielle.

She was still staring at Ero'then. There were no words for the hatred she saw in the sin'dorei's eyes.

"My turn," the archmage growled behind her. He pushed forward. Karielle stopped him with a hand. She didn't move. Sel'uen couldn't read her like she could the others.

The chamber tumbled into a deathly silenced.

"In a moment," Karielle said. "First, I want an answer to my question." She turned her burning gaze on the archmage.

Ostrasan glared at her. Sel'uen got the feeling that this was the continuance of an argument that had been started elsewhere. "This is hardly the place, young one," he said.

Karielle grimaced but spoke on. "I cannot think of a better one," she said. "I am not alone in my curiosity, I think."

Sel'uen looked around the room, and saw a wide variety of reactions playing off the blood elves present. Curiosity was, in fact, there. Then Drex's words popped into her head.

Pilgrims come by all the time. Never want me to go with 'em, though. They just want me to point 'em where the others have gone.

She realized that there were pilgrims in the crowd. A lot of them. How many had ended up here, and been put to work? How many had been told that paradise was near?

"Speak, Oltharin," Karielle said. There was violence hidden just beneath her words.

The archmage regarded her with exasperated anger. "We are building paradise here," he said. "Manaforge B'uuru is just one among many of the Sun King's manaforges. We are collecting enough energy to feed our people for generations. Our salvation is here and it is at hand, young one. Now step aside—"

"Salvation?" Ero'then piped up. "By who's—"

But Karielle raised a hand at him without turning. Ero'then fell back and let out a single long scream.

"The kaldorei is stupid, but here he is right," Karielle said. "What sort of spell could hide us from the Legion out here? Not even the prince could do that."

"The Sun King," the archmage emphasized, "has taken steps to ensure our safety and our future, young one. You may have questions, but you have no respect. You ought to mind your place."

Karielle turned her head. Sel'uen looked to see. She was staring at the Ambassador, who looked bemused at the dramatic proceedings.

When she spoke next, Karielle sounded very tired, almost conversational. "Do not make me look," she said.

The archmage didn't. "Our king has secured our future, young one," he said. One or two in the crowd gasped. "He—"

But he was interrupted. A cool, silken, ebony voice rolled out of the mouth that supposedly belonged to a blood elf. The Ambassador gifted Karielle with a grin of his own.

"Your king has chosen wisely," it said.

An explosion blinded Sel'uen. She cried out as heat seared her. She screwed her eyes shut, and yanked at her bonds to get away, but she still couldn't move. She realized that among those shouting, Ero'then was the loudest and he was in Thalassian. Sel'uen recognized Karielle's name.

The young mage had erupted.

Sel'uen's bonds suddenly released. She threw herself to her feet and scrambled away on the backs of her knees and elbows. But her vision was returning now, and she hesitated just long enough for the scene to clarify.

The crowd had scattered. The crater of impact was centered around the Ambassador, who was flat on his back, his eyes wide and his chest steaming where a noticeable cavern had been carved. He cocked his head, confused. Karielle was on top of him, the female blood elf burning like a torch. The other blood elves were all about the room. A couple bodies moaned that had been unfortunate enough to be near the Ambassador when Karielle attacked. The archmage had somehow gotten near the Ambassador, and he was scorched a bit for it. He looked absolutely horrified, staring bug-eyed down at Karielle. His mouth was moving, but only intermittent sounds were coming out.

Ero'then had also been freed of his bonds. He had made it halfway to the Ambassador before giving up. He fell to his knees and hacked a cough. He slumped, and put his head to the metallic floor, his fists clenched.

The blood elves around them were murmuring. They stared in shock, awe and horror at the sight. Sel'uen wished she could have understood what they were saying. They didn't seem outraged by Karielle's attack. They must not have known either.

The Ambassador gave his body one last look over, like a tailor inspecting a suit, and snickered. It was high-pitched. "Well!" it said. "It has been a treat negotiating with you fools. One day, perhaps, I'll be able to visit your scattered, broken souls. Until then…" his head fell back with animated drama. The sound of his skull hitting the floor boomed through the chamber.

The archmage fell to the ground. He was covering his face. "What have you done, child?" he whispered.

Karielle whirled on him. Sel'uen realized she sounded more scared than angry. She fell to her knees and grabbed her own shirt.

"What have I done?" she screamed at him. "What have you done? Would you see us damned again?"

The corpse started to change. Karielle scrambled to get away from it. It elongated and thickened as the enchantment vanished. Sel'uen held back a gasp.

A tall, bulky, and well-muscled humanoid creature now lay where the Ambassador had been. Its shape reminded her of a draenei, but…

Eredar. She heard the word exchanged around the room.

The archmage hung his head. Karielle continued screamed at him. When he didn't respond, she looked wildly, desperately to Ero'then, who had taken a limp seat. He hardly looked better than the archmage. His gaze was vacant.

"How could you do this to us?" she shouted at him, wildly, illogically.

Ero'then glanced at her, like he could barely see her. "I am sorry child," he said.

The apology seemed to shut her up, though she still shook like a sapling in the storm. Her gaze fell to the floor, like it was the only sane thing in the room, and it was going to tell her that everything was going to turn out all right, just like she had always thought, that her hope and dreams hadn't been foolish.

A void of sound filled the room as everyone seemed to process, at his or her own level of understanding, what had just happened. The void was filled only by the occasional rattling of the storm, which now sounded suspiciously like mocking laughter.