Chapter 29
I don't know when my eyes had turned purple. It must've been when I invoked the dead to power the crystal. Or when I had hacked the traitorous bitch to pieces.
I didn't care.
I moved through the Auchindoun, my magic scouting ahead and finding the other stations of power.
"We will have to find the other crystals, to restore the barrier," I spoke in a voice that wasn't mine but was acutely Draenic-a spirit who knew the grounds, good.
The soulbinders were watching me, Tuulani in particular seeming affronted by having a foreigner take control.
"Go!" I shouted, and the force of my voice must've jolted them out of their frozen state, and they scurried to go hunt for the crystals.
I unsheathed my blades, stalking towards the smell of sulfur with fury in my heart.
The demons are making for the hallowed ground.
I reached the front entrance, the light glaring against me, and I felt eyes of both sides turn to me as my power was on full display.
I moved towards the nearest demon, and I skewered it, a series of curses spewing from my mouth as I threw the corpse forward.
The fighting resumed around me, and I took my anger out on the demons.
I could see the line where the ground was hallowed. It was like a golden white line of paint, and when a demon came near it, I would skewer them and throw them away.
I will protect the dead.
I saw Anduin, his eyes burning as he speared hellhounds with the light, and when he saw me, his face changed to one of awe.
That's when I felt it.
It was a niggling presence, but I knew it-
Someone breached the grounds.
I brought my lips away from my teeth in a snarl, throwing my hands into the air with an incantation.
"Maelnau Aranothu.
Dam matad Faelils.
Omashael no Falanore.
Ithr Auchindoun!"
Darkness descended upon the grounds surrounding the Auchindoun, bubbles of light surrounding the demons to make them easy targets, and they were disoriented as the battle raged. I saw it safe to venture into the Auchindoun and purge the impurities that had broken in.
The spirits were in panic, flocking to me in fear, and I tried to calm them, "Show me where the intruder is, beautiful ones," I whispered in the dead tongue.
The dead materialized around me in a thick, choking Mist that reminding me strongly of my own realm Azeroth, and they prodded me forward, pushing and directing me downward.
I could smell the sulfur, and I could smell Orc, but it wasn't enough power to be Gul'Dan.
But it could be Teron 'Gor.
My teeth were bared, and my blades were out as I stalked through the antechambers towards the heart of the sacred ground, and I felt the magic.
Spirits were being sucked inward unwillingly, and it was-
I screamed, he was eating their power.
I turned and saw the immense wall of Mist fighting against the pull, and I threw up a magical barrier, reinforcing it with my strength to keep the dead protected, and I ran through the outer circle, doing the same to each entrance where Mist was gathered, until we were sealed into this chamber at the bottom of the Auchindoun.
I couldn't save them all. I hate that. But I saved all I could.
Now I will cut down a demon.
I stepped into the chamber, and the sulfur was strong here, and so was the magic.
All at once, an idea came to me.
He eats the souls?
I will eat his power.
I braced myself by the blades, digging them into the arch that I stood under, and I opened my mouth wide, glaring at Teron' Gor, and I looked at his magic, greedily crawling about as he laughed.
His laughter died as I began to eat.
It tasted awful, and it felt horrendous. My lungs felt to small as I inhaled as much as I could, the bitter, acrid power turning to power in my veins, stinking of sulfur and burnt flesh. I resisted the urge to vomit as I kept going, my eyes burning and muscles quivering.
"Stop!" I heard him screaming, and I watched as his life magic fell into the flood that was making its way towards me.
I kept Going-I couldn't stop, it was horrible. I wanted to rip my tongue out and dive to the bottom of the Auchindoun and join the dead. I wanted to boil my blood and scald my bones, it was so filthy.
I heard myself wheezing as I continued, my mouth opening wider than should be physically possible. I watched the wisps of spirits free themselves from the flood, allowed to escape by me, and they fled to the edges of the room, until a silvery white ring surrounded us.
I clung to my blades, knuckles white as my legs spasmed, nearly buckling beneath the weight of the magic. Teron' Gor's screams filled the chamber, his skin flaking away as magic was leeched from him, and he clawed at it desperately, abject terror obvious in his eyes as he fell to the ground, vainly trying to save himself.
He was bones in the next few moments.
That last of the magic seeped into me, and I dropped to the ground, dropping my barriers and bringing in my cleaner magic, feeling so ill.
I just inhaled a demon.
I coughed violently, green flecked blood and spittle spewing from my mouth, and I caught it with a blade before it could seep into the hallowed ground.
None of this can touch the ground.
My vision tilted, and I felt myself looking down into the endless void that laid below the central chamber, and I felt my stomach try to expel the vile substance.
I have to cleanse this. Before it kills me.
I let my head rise to the skyward, looking up desperately for an answer. There the dead gathered, their forms ethereal and beautiful.
"Please…" my voice was gruff and torn, and my hand went to my chin as green tinted blood tried to trickle from my bloody mouth.
The dead stilled, watching their Lady struggle for them. My back arced as the vile magic kept moving through me, and I screamed, agony and revulsion pulsing through me.
"Anduin!" I roared, my vision tunneling as I clung to the one blade left in the wall-I must not fall.
"Teir!"
"Kenlora!"
"Thessali!"
I felt hands on me, and I screamed in agony, the green of the vile intruder running across my vision as I desperately tried to control the demon. I watched it try to break through my skin, my veins shining green beneath the paints, and I wailed.
A face swum into my vision, white eyes and pale purple skin and a beard. Hands clung to me as I shook violently, desperately trying not to violently expel the fel.
"Help! Me!" I roared into the face, blood and spittle hitting his face as I brought my other blade and stabbed the floor as the one in the wall slipped, and I clung to it-if I lay down, I will puke.
I felt the hatch, somewhere in the back of mind, shake and shudder, as though someone was trying to break it down.
No. Teir can not take this.
I screamed, tears pouring down my face as I tried to house this vile, undeniable evil.
"Damn you Teron' Gor!" I screamed, my voice cracking as my entire body shook.
The hands on my skin kept moving, and I felt magic around me, but I had to focus on not vomiting. If this touches the Auchindoun, we're all doomed.
All at once, I was separate from my body.
I looked down at it, shaking and writhing against my own blades, skin tinted black and purple and green. I couldn't hear my screams.
Velen, and my party were there. Anduin was holding me tight about the waist as Velen and Kenlora seemed to be rapidly speaking spells, white golden magic moving against my skin in the form of hands.
"You are strong."
I turned, all at once falling to my knees-in the air? -in the face of Daenaris Moonfallen.
The first Lady of the Mists. The original lord of the dead.
"Help me my lady…the dead…" I spoke, looking down to see that I wore the same paints as before, and I looked at my ancient teacher pleadingly.
The woman was a sight for the ages. Her skin was nearly white beneath the black and purple paints, and her eyes glowed a vibrant purple, and her midnight hair floated around her gracefully.
"You must cleanse the fel from you before it claims you." She spoke, moving closer to me, and strong fingers lifted me to her eye level by the chin.
"Am I worthy of saving? Have I served the dead well enough?" I asked, feeling all of my fears and anxieties and stresses laid bare before this woman.
"You use the ancient incantations with a mastered grace. You give your soul and your life for the dead again and again. You give them their justice. You took the curse of cold to avenge the dead by going after the traitor." Her face twisted for only a moment, before returning to the serene façade.
"You are worthy, Jadearra Theron. The dead are proud to have you as a champion."
All at once, I was in my body, an everything came into startling clarity as the pain vanished.
The power was there, but it was…cleansed.
Thank you, Daenaris.
I fell to the ground with a groan, and I was rolled onto my back almost immediately to meet the eyes of Velen, Kenlora, and Anduin.
"What did you do, you foolish-." Kenlora shook her head, her face the epitome of relief, for all she tried to come off as scolding.
I was brought into Anduin's arms, his own warmth comforting, "You were screaming so loud, Princessling," he was on the verge of tears as he spoke into my shoulder, "I thought I was going to lose you."
"I'm here," I spoke, my voice croaky, but I clung to him, feeling the paints drain away, fading as my need of the dead disappeared, and the braids fell, feathers turning to ash and flying away on a mysterious wind, and I felt the connection to the dead weaken with a sigh of relief.
"You fucking idiot!"
That would be Teir.
I looked up from where I had buried my face in Anduin's shoulder to see a short, shaking, livid death knight.
"You could've fucking died! You could've-could've-." She descended into gutterspeak, the vilest form of Forsaken, and paced for a good few minutes, going off.
Lucky for me, I got a backdoor translation in the form of the bond, and I felt about two inches tall by the time she had even begun to calm down.
"Thank you, Jadearra."
I turned to see that Velen was looking at me with a warm, kind look. His lips were turned in a smile, and even Yrel looked thankful.
"You saved our dead and our people from the demons, and the orc that is Teron' Gor. You revealed the Sargerai who have embedded themselves in our ranks, and have strengthened our holy place. You have the Draenei's eternal debt." Velen spoke, and my chest felt warm and fuzzy even as I only gave a tired smile in return.
"The soulbinder deserves a statue!" Tuulani had joined us as I was being helped to my feet and my face flamed.
"Oh really, I don't-."
"An excellent Idea, Tuulani." Yrel surprised me, and I gave her an incredulous look, "The dead will rest safer knowing that their bulwark waits outside these walls always. A monument to the woman who destroyed Teron' Gor and saved the Auchindoun."
"I agree. We shall construct such a statue after our war is over," Velen said with finality, and my face was flaming.
No one ever made a statue in my honor before.
"Now go, rest. Eleks wait to take you to Shatrath, which is being fortified as we speak," Yrel said, guiding us out of the Auchindoun, and the sunlight was blinding.
Demonic corpses littered the grounds, but priests were already clearing away the taint, and life was returning to normal around my sacred temple.
"Auchindoun-a temple to the Lady of the Dead. It fits," Kenlora said, smiling warmly when I swatted her arm.
Anduin and I scrambled onto an Elek-large creature, a stampede of them would be nightmarish-and I waved as we left the Auchindoun.
I waved to the dead, who seemed sad that I was leaving them.
"Princeling, they want a statue of me," I said, still shocked by the idea of children seeing me towering above them ages into the future.
"If I live to be King, I will have statues of you built across all the seven kingdoms," Anduin said, and my face flamed even as I grinned.
His words were more than a cheesy line. They were a promise that we would live that long, and that we would remain together.
It was nearing sunset as we moved along, when I first smelled the smoke.
I disregarded it at first, but then I saw it.
The dark plumes marred the beginnings of a gorgeous, starry sky, and they were coming from-
"Shattrath!" Yrel exclaimed, fury and fear alight in her words.
I spurred our Elek on, Anduin coming to behind me and asking sleepily, "whas' goin' on?"
"Shattrath is burning," I explained, and he was alert at once.
We turned a corner, all of us upon galloping Eleks now, and what we saw-
By the Sunwell.
Shattrath was being assaulted, its spectral barrier the only thing holding the city as siege ships of Iron Horde make flooded the harbor, and the roads ahead were swimming in Orc.
"There is no rest for the Wicked," I growled, my fatigue draining as I drew on my power.
I was surprised at its new size-Teron' Gor had been a formidable magic wielder, and now it was added to my own stores.
If I could drain Gul' Dan…
I shook my head. I am not power hungry.
I turned my eyes on the city, and leapt from the Elek, and roared.
