Chapter 19
Ero'then was the first to stand. He drew few gazes but he spoke anyway. To Sel'uen, he looked like the same Shan'do she had met all the way back in Teldrassil, and it gave her that tricky but filling feeling she had been desperate for. Hope.
"Archmage Oltharin," he said. His voice was hard. "Get up. We are not dead yet, though we must act quickly. I can't imagine we have much time."
Oltharin looked blearily at the kaldorei, as if wondering if he existed. Ero'then went on.
"First, send your people to free my students. Then, gather your forces to your most defensible location. I imagine that is the main structure? Get anything that could serve us as weapons as well. We'll talk tactics there."
He looked around him and said it again in Thalassian. A small number of heads nodded. One of the guards jogged down to the cells. That seemed to galvanize others to get to their feet. Ero'then turned again to the archmage. He hadn't moved.
"You want to give up?" the Shan'do demanded. "Fine! Throw yourself to the storm. It'll be a mercy compared to what the Legion will do."
Karielle looked up. "What would you have me do, old one?" she asked. Sel'uen couldn't tell if she was mocking. She might have been mocking herself.
"Get them moving," he said, indicating to the blood elves still in shock or murmuring amongst themselves. The archmage chose that moment to stand up, and, without explanation, start barking orders in Thalassian. Blood elves joined his side. Karielle moved to do her job.
When the kaldorei students started joining the bustle in the chamber, their eyes went straight to the demon on the floor. Even Renarion looked frightened. "That's an eredar," he said.
"Your ability to classify common demon types impresses me, Thero'shan," the Shan'do said. "Your ability to avoid stating the obvious does not." He looked to Sel'uen. "Brief them, and get them to the center structure," he ordered. "I have preparations to make." He ran down a hallway.
Sel'uen stared after him.
Not long ago, it would have been her who would have earned that humiliating rebuke and Renarion would have been given the orders. She wondered if this was an improvement.
Soon the complex was buzzing with activity. All manner of weaponry imaginable - and some she hadn't imagined - was being carted and carried to the core of the complex where the defenses were being set up. They were also carrying strange containers that seemed to hold liquid energy. She tried to explain, as best she could, the events that had transpired.
Everyone looked frightened.
"Wait, so Kael'thas has allied himself with the Legion?" Yeshaila asked.
"But why?" Renarion pressed. "Illidan was supposed to be teaching him how to gather arcane power. Illidan hates the Legion. Did Kael'thas betray him?"
"We shouldn't be doing this," Kel murmured. "We should be getting as far from here as possible. Why can't we flee back into the storm?"
"We killed one of the Legion's ambassadors," Renarion shot at him. "If they wanted to, they could find us in the storm. We're better off making a stand here."
"Making a stand?" Yeshaila demanded. "Against the Legion? Are you mad? We don't stand a chance."
Frustrated, Sel'uen had to shout her friends down. "The Shan'do has a plan," she said, hoping she wasn't giving them false hope. But what was so wrong with false hope? It'd do them no good to think about the alternative.
She saw that Karielle had come back. The blood elf stomped towards them. "If all you're doing is playing with yourselves," she said, "go to the armory. If you're not helping grab weapons or mana batteries, get out of here."
"We'll head over in a moment," Renarion said. Hearing how she had so royally fucked up seemed to have emboldened him. "Shouldn't you be there too?"
Karielle turned on him. Far gone was the dried husk that had traveled with them only days before. The blood elf before him was veritably crackling with power.
"Your Shan'do," she said sweetly, "told me to set traps." She flicked her fingers at him, and an arcane rune danced in front of Renarion's face. "You may linger if you like."
"We're going," Sel'uen told her. She glared at Renarion, who seemed to have been cowed. They headed towards the center of the complex.
It was thick with activity. They found Ero'then helping distribute the mana containers. He acknowledged them with a nod. "Help us out here," he told them. "Do what they tell you."
Sel'uen felt like she spent the better part of an hour moving boxes and setting up barricades. She felt like a soldier and didn't like how she couldn't shake the feeling. Karielle eventually joined them, looking taxed. Ero'then offered her a container of mana, which she drained with little hesitation. Renewed - and grinning wickedly at them - she went back out.
Outside, the storm seemed to be growing in intensity. Sel'uen wondered if it was just her imagination. She finished moving a box with Aethellion and wiped her brow. It was amazing how quickly former animosities were forgotten when the threat of the Legion overshadowed.
As she worked, she felt like she was missing something. She ran over to the Shan'do, who gave her en eyebrow. "Where is the archmage?" she asked.
He ran a quick glance behind her, surveying the crowd. He must have seen what she saw, because his gaze became very dark indeed.
"Come," he said. He gathered to him several others. He even grabbed the Mechanician, who had become immensely friendly once the trouble had started. Not even he, it seemed, had known about the alliance. Old hatreds, Sel'uen imagined, would be settled later.
If they had a later.
"Where would he be?" he asked the Mechanician.
The blood elf shrugged. "We can try a few places," he said. "Probably his study first."
It proved to be his study.
As they were moving towards it, Ero'then broke into a sprint. Sel'uen and everyone else - about a score strong - stormed up the staircases after him. A huge door sat in their way. That was when Sel'uen started to hear the muffled shrieks.
Halfway to the door, Ero'then entered his bear form. The blood elves almost stumbled to see it. He roared and charged the door, breaking it apart like it was made of cotton. They rushed in after him.
The room was a comfortable size complete with a bed, a few desks and a small library. However, furniture was overturned and stuffed into corners to make way for an elaborate design on the floor that had been written in blood and was still wet to the touch. The corpses of blood elves were scattered about the room randomly. A few still sat, chained in magical bonds, waiting their turn with wide, bulging eyes. The archmage leaned over a female now. He had a knife and was—
Sel'uen vomited. She stumbled out of the way, so as not to slow the others down.
When she had gathered herself, she looked up to realize that one end of the room was dominated by an inky portal. Its center swirled with green light. All the spilled blood in the room seemed to run towards it as if bizarre gravity acted upon on it. The archmage was shrieking curses at them. Sel'uen understood few of them. He unleashed powerful spells, some of which seemed to threaten to tear reality itself apart.
She wondered if her Shan'do would have been a match for him without the small army behind him. As it was, Ero'then brawled with the archmage until he was overwhelmed. The druid tore the blood elf's body asunder, showering pieces of meat and skin and hair across the room. She was almost too shocked to internalize the gore. Almost. She heaved up more of her stomach.
When she looked up again, the fight was over. The surviving blood elves were exclaiming, exchanging disbelieving shouts. She saw some tears. The portal had fizzled and shut. It was gone.
Ero'then wandered away from the blood elves towards the door, again a kaldorei. He looked almost sick himself. So exhausted he looked sick, perhaps.
"What was he doing?" she asked. Her throat was raw.
He spared a glanced for her. He looked below her eyes, and Sel'uen realized she was probably covered with vomit. If she was he made no comment.
"He said he was brokering a deal with the Legion," he said. "Trying to repair relations. Something like that."
For one insane moment, Sel'uen thought that they had made a terrible mistake. Then she looked around and saw the dead elves, their corpses white as ghosts, blood still leaking from the slits in their arms and legs.
She turned away and heaved again. This time nothing came up.
