Chapter 10
Jalane, the woman with the blackened hands, escorts me out of the pub, warning me several times that under no condition I am to tell anyone that I am a warlock. 'As long as the people do not know, you can live a free life among the people' so she tells me. After that, I will be forced to hide or flee for my life. This all still seems so unfair that I have no choice.
"Nobody ever has much choice, girl. Does a prince really have much choice but to rule a kingdom in his father's absence? Can priests choose to give in to temptation and taint their aura in the process? Does the Horde have any choice in being pursued for crimes their ancestors committed?"
"But the Horde destroyed my village!"
"So you will judge them all on account of what a few did? Yes, there are evil Horde, but the Alliance is not a saint either. They seek and destroy as well, but they keep it hidden from us, so they can blame attacks as Horde rage. I am sorry your village is destroyed, and you have the right of thinking this way, but I just want you to realise that the kind of Horde that destroys is only a small part of the entire population."
She has a point, I grudgingly admit. But as she guides me through the different districts I start to worry about her safety.
"As I said before young one, we are tolerated as long as we do not openly cast magic. And besides, it is night. None will notice my presence besides the rats."
"Let her go, NOW"
The both of us turn around surprised and Jalane lets go of my shoulder quickly, her expression turning a lot less friendly. Creton is standing a few steps away from us, sword unsheathed and growling.
"All right, sir paladin, I was merely returning this lost girl home. But if you prefer to take care of her, I'll be on my way."
She starts to move away from the swords range, but Creton speaks again.
"Not so fast warlock." I hear him pronounce the word like it was something nasty. "Whatever you cast upon the girl, get it off her now. She will never join your ranks."
What in Elune's name is he talking about? But then I realise paladins can sense stuff too. I must reek of demons since I spent quite a while in their hideout.
"No, Creton, you got it all wrong. When I ran away, I stumbled into her. I was so confused that she decided to see me home. I didn't even know she was a warlock. Please Creton, don't harm her. She was only trying to be nice."
Two pairs of eyes look at me surprised. Jalane because I know the paladin and Creton because I just defended a person he seems to hate. But seeing my pleading look, he gives in and sheathes his sword. He gives the warlock one more menacing growl.
"You will be spared, for now. But if I see you near the girl again, I will have your head, is that clear?"
"Transparently, sir paladin. I bid thee a good night."
Once she leaves, Creton motions me to follow him, his face still settled in anger. We walk to his house in silence. I really don't know what to think. Creton actually tried to protect me. Probably because he's still thinks I'm under his protection, but still, I didn't think he wouldn't kill Jalane because I asked, he seemed so eager to do so. When we get inside he rounds on me.
"I never ever want to see you near a warlock ever again girl. The priestess in Goldshire told me you were able to pick up auras, then why didn't you sense theirs? They're vile enough to smell. What were you thinking running off in the middle of the night anyway? You had me worried sick. I've been up and about for 2 hours looking for you, and then you come up in the middle of nowhere like nothing happened? If I fall asleep during guard duty tomorrow it will be your head, understood."
I wanted to tell him that I'm not deaf, because he was screaming right next to my ear, but his state of anger shut me up good. He looked just about ready to kill me. Yet a part of me finds it funny. How can I never be near a warlock, when I'm going to be one? But another part gets angry, how dare he tell me off like that? What I do is my business and none of his concern.
"It's hard to know what a warlock senses like if you've never met one you know. And I'm sorry ok?"
Angry I sit in one of the couches. The sorry had come out a lot more meant than I intended to. Probably because he had said he had been worried about me. Seemed like a quaint sentence between all the accusations.
"You've really never met a warlock?"
"I have never gone out of Eastvale until yesterday. And it's not like the warlocks happily frolic about there. All my life I was raised to think that they were mean and treacherous."
"Well they are, and you'd be best not to be seen with them. They're trouble."
"Maybe only because you never bother to get to know them."
…shit, I shouldn't have said that. Now Jalane and her friends will be in deep shit because of me.
"You did know she was a warlock? Why didn't you tell me? Why did you defend her?"
Since the cat was out of the bag already, it would be better if I fessed up the whole story. But he had to promise me something first.
"Promise that you won't go looking for her, that you will not attempt to kill me or her and that you will listen to my entire story."
He frowns at the comment of not attempting to kill me, but sits down and promises, he even puts away his sword. Not that that makes me feel any safer, paladins can cast some nasty magic.
"I had a nightmare, in my dream I saw shadows, they were laughing at me, and I could feel pain, a lot of pain. When I woke up I just wanted to run. I didn't even know where I was going. Until I ended up at the mage's tower. I thought that maybe I could find me a trainer and I wanted to go up but then I sensed this other aura. It's smelled so nice, and I wanted to know where it came from. I ended up disrupting a meeting; I thought they were going to kill me at first." Upon that I saw Creton glare and wishing he could throttle something. "But it turns out they were only joking. Making fun of the way most people thought about them. They're really quite nice, no harm at all. Just a little…disappointed in the way people feel about them I think."
I take a deep breath, I have to tell him sooner or later, seeing as he'll be my guardian, but if that means that he'll behave the way he did towards Jalane, I'm not really sure if I want to. I see him sighing.
"You need to know Merrilynn; the warlocks did a lot of bad things. They were a great cause that the Burning Legion nearly destroyed everything."
"She told me that because of the acts of few, their entire kin is seen as traitors, even on the Horde side. But she also told me that the majority of the warlocks are not evil, and most importantly did not choose to become one. The magic choose them, because they cannot handle the pureness of the fire that mages cast."
"That's a lie, everyone has a choice in life in what they wish to become, even them."
I stare at him, surely he has seen my burns, and how can he be so close-minded. My anger rises and I need to vent it out. I stand up and nearly scream.
"How do you know? You don't even know a warlock personally. They have NO choice, I HAVE NO CHOICE."
It seems like anger was not the only emotion in my system. I let myself drop back into the chair, exhausted for some reason and depressed. Out of the corner of my eyes I can see him sitting there, baffled and unsure. After a moment he asks, no more determination in his voice.
"What do you mean, you have no choice."
I show him my hands, blackened in parts and scars adorning them. In a tired voice I tell him what Jalane told and showed me.
"The warlock you nearly killed was even worse; it was hard to believe she could still use her hands. They were shrivelled and black. She told me that she too had once been a mage, but where true mages had no problem casting fire and ice, hers burned and scarred. And she also told me that when she finally learned to cast shadow, the pain stopped, and her hands lightly healed. She told me this after seeing my hands. She knew immediately that I was going through the same thing as she had gone. Don't think I like the idea; it's so unfair that I have no choice in this. Do you think I want to be hunted for the rest of my life, just because the dark magic chose me?"
I can't handle it anymore and I start to cry. I just wanted to be a mage and serve the army like my mother had once done. But now it was all so messed up. How much more cruelty do I have to go through? I suddenly feel two arms encircle me and shush me. Looking up I see Creton hugging me. Maybe he wanted to take me by surprise and kill me.
"I never knew that. I just thought they were fallen mages. In a way, they are. I always thought they handled dark magic because they wanted too, not because the fire burned them. Sure, I had seen the scars, but I thought that they would disappear once you completed your training."
"You're not going to cast me out?"
"Of course not. Benjamin appointed me your guardian, and I intend to follow his command."
"Then why did you look so nasty when you found out?"
I see a blush forming and if I had been in a better mood I would have laughed at it.
"Well you see, you are only half-human. And I had some bad experiences with half-breeds in the past, so I thought you'd be just like them. But after I heard you scream and run, I realised that you were more than that. You are a victim, a survivor and still a person. And you being a warlock doesn't change much of that. And besides, maybe you do have a choice."
Even though the whole half-breed, victim speech makes me a little mad, it doesn't really matter much as the last thing.
"Like I said, I don…."
But he interrupts me with a small smile.
"I never said that you had a choice in being chosen…I meant you had a choice in being a warlock."
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I had a lot of answers ready for mister advice, but after a lot of rethinking, I realised that he probably only reviewed on the base of my summary! Thanks to that I realised that I had written the wrong age in it. She is 17, not 18 :p. So I spose I should be grateful for that. Even though the rest of his advice was useless. Yes I know elves hate humans, it's written in my fic that they tolerate them, that's it, but there are oddballs. Yes I know the Burning legion happened 4 years ago in WoW, I watched the cinematic enough thank you.
And you sir, have a HUGE contradiction in you review. When elves don't know humans, how can they find them disgusting. HA, HA HA.
To everyone please ignore this ranting, I just hate it when people want to break down a story in form of rude 'advice'. Nobody says hon when they mean the best for a person.
Then again, judging a story based on its summary is just wrong. Just to defend it though, I say in chapter 4 or 5 that the war with the burning legion happened long ago, and 4 years does not count as long ago in my opinion. . I think people can place this story about 20 years after the Burning legion, but the Outlands do not exist yet. Since I don't have the expansion :p. So Merrilynn can exist Not that I think he'll actually read this
If being threatened with a sword is what Jalane calls being tolerated, I'd hate to see what happens if they weren't. Anyhoo, Creton thinks he's got a plan to get her out of the warlock life. But will it work. Another thing bout Creton, he's nothing but a hard shell really. Once he heard the nightmare, she really got to him. Go Merri.
Btw: when I said at least every two weeks, that means that there might be times that I update every two days, like now, but no later than two weeks after a chapter. But don't worry, I'm on a roll, I don't think it will take that long… I hope
Thanks to all kind reviewers and hope you liked this chapter
Read, review, flame…ur choice.