Disclaimer: I do not own Diablo II or any of its affiliates. So there.
Chapter 5: Sorceress's Awakening
Now, Sir or Madame Adventurer, we look upon the Sorceress, a woman by the name of Lauria, being trained by, may the fates have it, a famous sorceress, unnamed, who helped the Hero get to the bottom level of the Labyrinth with her twin brother, a great Vizjerei mage. She was sent back before the battle began, greeted by many people, such as Cain and Griswold, wondering if the hero was all right. She sobbed out her answer, which was, "He's with my brother, so he'll be able to defeat Diablo." So she said, so the Hero was able to. But the sorceress, who dressed up as nothing more than a town peasant, never saw her brother, so full of life, exit the labyrinth with the Great Hero. Undoubtedly, she held a grudge, but this is not her story. This is the story of Lauria, the younger sorceress.
A fire bolt flew through the air, scoring into the hay man on a stick for practice. A young woman walks up and looks at the dummy, which was fairly on fire. She smiled at her ability to finally cast a perfect Firebolt without it losing cohesion and just fizzling out before hitting anything. The dummy immediately disappeared, and she sees it reappear next to her teacher. The teacher looked the dummy over, then smiled at her student. "You're starting to catch up." She said, looking at her student. "Thank you, ma'am. I've been practicing hard to actually catch up with my fellow sorceress's." Lauria told her teacher. The teacher, known as Master of Elements, smiles at her young student, reminiscing of when she herself was a young one.
"Teacher? Are you ok?" Lauria asked, knowing that her teacher would disappear into the depths of her own mind for hours at a time. MoE smiled at her, immediately out of her mind and back to the current world. They began to walk back to the huts where the sorceresses lived, and as they walked, they talked of many things, including what the Master knew from the past about her largest fight ever.
"People underestimated sorceresses before, in the first fight against the great Prime Evil, Diablo. I fought alongside the great hero, but he sent me back, fearing for my life. I am still grateful, for the battle shook the foundation of the worlds. I remember it so easily, which is scary, considering how everything else is clouded up. You were only 6 or 7 at the time, so you may not remember much, but I'm happy to tell my diligent student about it."
The hero walks down further into Hell, with MoE right behind him. He turns around to face her, and she can tell he's been troubled about what he's going to do now. "I can't, in all good conscience, let you go further. If you die, most of your knowledge will die with you. Go now and teach more in your ways." "No! I won't leave you to fight, and maybe even die, alone!" The hero sighed, then waved his hands. A portal appeared right next to him. "Go now. Go or I will force you to." "How can you force me, a master of elements to go?" She felt, suddenly, a hard staff smash against her head and she fell straight into the portal. Before she lost consciousness, she saw her brother, standing with the hero, preparing his spells and looking right at her while she fell.
"The tragedies in this world number as many. The hero brought back my brother's body, but the hero was never the same. He became brooding...almost entirely withdrawn. That's the way he's been for the past few years in Tristram. I hope, one day, to visit -" She stopped talking as she felt something, a shock wave almost, come from the West, near Khanduras. Her eyes immediately widened, and Lauria looked over worriedly at her master. "What is wrong, Master? What do you feel?" The Master turned her head, looking at Lauria with empty, haunted eyes. She muttered something, then fell to the ground.
The only reason why Lauria didn't stop her from falling was what her Master had said, which was, "Diablo..he has...returned!" She looked down, noticed her master and started to bend down and pick her up. Suddenly she heard a shout from the direction of the village and saw three of the Sorceress's Guard looking at them. "What have you done?" One of the sorceresses said, her hands glowing with lightning-like energy.
At that moment, Lauria ran, just hoping they'd leave her alone, and her wish was granted. She heard the steps stop at the body of Master. Her tears came then, both for her Master and for herself. She felt around in her pack, and felt the standard thing that any of the gifted children were given whenever they left the village. A scroll of Town Portal, a scroll of Identify, a Minor Mana Potion, and a Minor Health Potion. She sighed, realizing that her fate would probably be worse than death whenever the Sorceress's Guard found her. She had heard hushed whispers among her sisters in the art, horrible things, about how the leader of the Sorceresses punished those who killed fellows by taking the power, leaving a hollow shell of the person before.
She cried again, her tears renewed by the images her imagination put in her head. She slowly fell asleep while crying, and dreamt slow, seemingly laborious dreams. First she saw what she knew as Tristram, only the sun was shining, not at all like the dark place that the Master had described to her. Next, she saw her master, and she saw her fruitless effort at seeing her brother come out of the labyrinth, and she could feel the hatred that MoE felt toward the hero, who had walked out with not only his blood, but the blood of another splattered all over him.
She would've asked him a question, but she saw the troubled look in his eyes, then decided to just leave him alone for the time being, realizing that she would've most likely looked the same. She walked over to Cain and Griswold, smiled at them both, not understanding how she was able to smile when her brother, her dear, sweet brother, was dead. She just continued walking and made it over to her hovel. Soon after, she asked the old witch outside of town for a teleport back to the Sorceresses Guild. Once she got back, she felt the town slowly fade from her view, as though it were moving further and further off of the Earth.
Lauria opened her eyes, realizing that nothing had attacked her that night. She soon arrived at a port near Kurast, a now-defunct city. She payed her way on a boat headed to Lut Gholein. Once she got there, she saw a man in a blue shirt getting ready to leave town. She asked if she could accompany them partway to their destination. She could not afford to tell him more than that, but he gladly let her accompany him. As they traveled into the more grassy domains of Khanduras, she could feel evil growing stronger and stronger. Finally, one night, an angel appeared in her dream.
"My name is Hadriel, and you are here to help the forces of Good stop the three Prime Evils. Stay with this man for the rest of his trip and you will meet up with others who have been chosen." She woke up from that dream in a cold sweat, wondering how the angel could command her to do such as that when she controlled the elements that the Prime Evils mastered immediately after arriving in the human domain.
Oh, well, she thought, I guess I might as well go along and see what I can do to help. She smiled and fell back to sleep, looking forward to meeting her new companions.
AN: That took a lot less time. I hope to have the next one done quickly, as well.