p style="margin: 0px; text-align: center; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;"Chapter 20/span/p
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p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;" The news of the archmage's fate spread throughout the blood elves. Other than murmurings, there seemed to be no ill will over it. It seemed he had lied to everyone. /span/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;" The last of the defenses were set. The mages indulged in the mana batteries to their heart's content. Guards were set and small-time tactics were discussed. Sel'uen had counted a few more than a hundred heads in the structure. The blood elves filled the defenses. /span/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;" She had taken a seat away from everyone else. She thought about meditating, but had decided against it. What would have been the point? She just wanted to be alone./span/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;" Of course, she couldn't even have that. Karielle found her and took a seat next to her. The two elves watched the lethargic activity below them./span/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;" "You hear about the archmage?" Sel'uen asked her./span/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;" Karielle just nodded. She didn't let on much. It seemed she never did./span/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;" "Did you do your hair?" Sel'uen blurted./span/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;" Karielle's orange locks seemed pristine. The kaldorei had only realized it after a few moments of looking at her. It was a braided design. It made her look like a princess. "Did you do it yourself?" she clarified. /span/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;" Karielle grinned wickedly at her. It seemed to Sel'uen that the blood elf didn't have a happy expression—only an evil, cruel-looking grin. Whenever Sel'uen saw it, it made her want to wash herself. /span/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;" "Yes, I did," the blood elf teased. She raised a couple fingers, and a spark shot back and forth between them. Her hair rose, brushed by a breeze. It made it look even better. "Perks of the profession," she said./span/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;" Sel'uen found herself smiling. "Must be nice."/span/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;" "Oh, it is." Her eyes sparkled, rimmed with emerald. "emImagine/em the possibilities," she said, and winked at the druid./span/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;" "Trying not to."/span/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;" "Suit yourself." Karielle pulled her legs up to her. Sel'uen was struck then by how much like a little girl she looked then. She could have passed as the daughter of a middle-aged human without the ears. And the eyes. /span/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;" It seemed like all the blood elves looked like that. She thought of Aethellion. Had the Sunwell shaped them like that? To perfection? And yet, Karielle looked so fragile, despite the power she knew coursed like blood just beneath her skin. Sel'uen wondered how old she was. Her bruises were gone too. She wondered if mages actually could heal flesh or if it was just aesthetic./span/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;" Karielle spoke quietly. "So this is the calm before the storm?"/span/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;" Sel'uen laid her head on the wall. "What calm?" she said, a bit bitter. "The storm's never been louder."/span/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;" Karielle chuckled, and Sel'uen wondered if she had been wrong about the cruelty natural to her. "No, Sel'uen. The storm of the Legion. That great shadow that will one day devour us all. For us, that day has come."/span/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;" "Better to face it than join it."/span/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;" "Is it?" Sel'uen glanced at her. She'd meant it as an assuage to the blood elf's conscience. But Karielle was gazing outside, to the never-ending sea of violet. "I suppose so. Yes, I think you're right. Still… I could've been smarter about it."/span/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;" "Maybe."/span/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;" Another chuckle. "It's funny," the blood elf said. "Back during your Shan'do's time, my people were betrayed by Azshara and her madness. We learned from our mistakes. But then, not long after, your people betrayed us as well, exiling us across that unknown sea. We thought there was nothing for us. We thought you'd sent us out to die in the ocean so that your own consciences would be clean. /span/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;" "Now we've been betrayed again, now by our own prince." She shook her head. "And here I am, stuck fighting next to one who originally betrayed my people. How the cycle turns and turns."/span/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;" "Your prince betrayed you, but not your people." Sel'uen indicated below them. "Your prince wasn't wrong to name you what he did. You are sin'dorei. You're united in that, at least."/span/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;" "Until we are driven to starvation again. What hope is there for us without this?" Karielle gestured around her. "We'll die here at the hands of those who sought to enslave us, or we'll die out there, starved. What other choice have we but that?"/span/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;" Sel'uen leaned over, nudged her. "It's not over yet," she said. "All storms have to come to an end."/span/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;" Karielle remained looking outside. "Do they, kaldorei?" she asked. "I don't think they must."/span/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;" The two fell into what Sel'uen felt was a strangely comfortable silence. They listened and watched the intensifying storm./span/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;" Karielle started humming to herself. Sel'uen recognized it as Brim's dirge./span/p
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p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;" The news of the archmage's fate spread throughout the blood elves. Other than murmurings, there seemed to be no ill will over it. It seemed he had lied to everyone. /span/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;" The last of the defenses were set. The mages indulged in the mana batteries to their heart's content. Guards were set and small-time tactics were discussed. Sel'uen had counted a few more than a hundred heads in the structure. The blood elves filled the defenses. /span/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;" She had taken a seat away from everyone else. She thought about meditating, but had decided against it. What would have been the point? She just wanted to be alone./span/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;" Of course, she couldn't even have that. Karielle found her and took a seat next to her. The two elves watched the lethargic activity below them./span/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;" "You hear about the archmage?" Sel'uen asked her./span/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;" Karielle just nodded. She didn't let on much. It seemed she never did./span/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;" "Did you do your hair?" Sel'uen blurted./span/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;" Karielle's orange locks seemed pristine. The kaldorei had only realized it after a few moments of looking at her. It was a braided design. It made her look like a princess. "Did you do it yourself?" she clarified. /span/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;" Karielle grinned wickedly at her. It seemed to Sel'uen that the blood elf didn't have a happy expression—only an evil, cruel-looking grin. Whenever Sel'uen saw it, it made her want to wash herself. /span/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;" "Yes, I did," the blood elf teased. She raised a couple fingers, and a spark shot back and forth between them. Her hair rose, brushed by a breeze. It made it look even better. "Perks of the profession," she said./span/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;" Sel'uen found herself smiling. "Must be nice."/span/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;" "Oh, it is." Her eyes sparkled, rimmed with emerald. "emImagine/em the possibilities," she said, and winked at the druid./span/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;" "Trying not to."/span/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;" "Suit yourself." Karielle pulled her legs up to her. Sel'uen was struck then by how much like a little girl she looked then. She could have passed as the daughter of a middle-aged human without the ears. And the eyes. /span/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;" It seemed like all the blood elves looked like that. She thought of Aethellion. Had the Sunwell shaped them like that? To perfection? And yet, Karielle looked so fragile, despite the power she knew coursed like blood just beneath her skin. Sel'uen wondered how old she was. Her bruises were gone too. She wondered if mages actually could heal flesh or if it was just aesthetic./span/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;" Karielle spoke quietly. "So this is the calm before the storm?"/span/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;" Sel'uen laid her head on the wall. "What calm?" she said, a bit bitter. "The storm's never been louder."/span/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;" Karielle chuckled, and Sel'uen wondered if she had been wrong about the cruelty natural to her. "No, Sel'uen. The storm of the Legion. That great shadow that will one day devour us all. For us, that day has come."/span/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;" "Better to face it than join it."/span/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;" "Is it?" Sel'uen glanced at her. She'd meant it as an assuage to the blood elf's conscience. But Karielle was gazing outside, to the never-ending sea of violet. "I suppose so. Yes, I think you're right. Still… I could've been smarter about it."/span/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;" "Maybe."/span/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;" Another chuckle. "It's funny," the blood elf said. "Back during your Shan'do's time, my people were betrayed by Azshara and her madness. We learned from our mistakes. But then, not long after, your people betrayed us as well, exiling us across that unknown sea. We thought there was nothing for us. We thought you'd sent us out to die in the ocean so that your own consciences would be clean. /span/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;" "Now we've been betrayed again, now by our own prince." She shook her head. "And here I am, stuck fighting next to one who originally betrayed my people. How the cycle turns and turns."/span/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;" "Your prince betrayed you, but not your people." Sel'uen indicated below them. "Your prince wasn't wrong to name you what he did. You are sin'dorei. You're united in that, at least."/span/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;" "Until we are driven to starvation again. What hope is there for us without this?" Karielle gestured around her. "We'll die here at the hands of those who sought to enslave us, or we'll die out there, starved. What other choice have we but that?"/span/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;" Sel'uen leaned over, nudged her. "It's not over yet," she said. "All storms have to come to an end."/span/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;" Karielle remained looking outside. "Do they, kaldorei?" she asked. "I don't think they must."/span/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;" The two fell into what Sel'uen felt was a strangely comfortable silence. They listened and watched the intensifying storm./span/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;" Karielle started humming to herself. Sel'uen recognized it as Brim's dirge./span/p
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