Hello again, hope everyone is enjoying the story so far.
Scai the Hallowed passed through the gates of Stormwind upon her undead steed. It huffed and neighed as she led it up the ramp from the docks toward the Trader's District. Before the draenei had departed, Zydien still lay unconscious and many of the human's nights were full of fitful sleep. There was nothing else to do but seek help from the high priestess as Trianna cared for the human. Scai felt as if she were running errands for the elves, and she thought more could be done than simply begging for the assistance from some other human. In Scai's eyes, the human race was far too weak to deal with such a curse the demon had put upon Zydien.
Scai passed under the grand archway into the square where many shops and stands were set up before her. The voices of men and women filled the air as they yelled of how fresh and rare their stock was atop their shelves. Hundreds of townspeople and travelers crowded the streets, laughter of children was heard as their bare or black shoed feet ran across the cobblestone. Travelers rode upon their various mounts from different parts of Azeroth. Giant elekks stomped through the crowd, tassels hang from their tusks and colorful tabards and cloth lay on their backs as draenei rode proudly upon them. Humans jerked on the reigns of black bears and gnomes rode their mechanical birds, quickly hopping from place to place, some dripping oil upon the ground. Maidens passed, some eyed Scai with curiosity and some with distaste. They wondered who this draenei could be and why had she traveled to the place they called home.
The deathknight left her steed next to the entrance of the Stormwind Inn. Her beloved horse could cause quite an uproar if she were to ride it through the city. The undead beast grunted and stared at Scai, as if asking if her master would come back.
"It'll only be a bit of time before I return, as if I could abandon you," Scai patted its plated snout and strode toward the canal, venturing closer to the Cathedral of Light.
Fishermen who sat upon the docks of the small canal talked loudly of big fish that had jumped from their lures. Scai looked down at her hooves, watching as they hit the ground, clicking as she walked toward the bridge. Three familiar guards exited from the entrance to the Cathedral Square, laughter erupting from their coarse lips.
"-wench even cried out to stop! She was delirious! Who would deny us, ey?" Hammon laughed, slapping his two fellows on their shoulders.
"That girl at the pub last night did a right denial of our poor lad Quine," chided Jaxon, smirking at the other guard, "Maybe you could use some practice, and learn from the master?"
"Shut it!" Quine called, humiliated at his failure, "I do not call out your mistakes to all who can hear it!"
"Calm yourself, recruit," Hammon chided, but before he could continue Jaxon cleared his throat and pointed out a certain blue haired draenei.
"If it isn't a walking corpse! How are you on this fine day?" Jaxon grinned, "But I do not see your ward following you, where is Zealous Zydien these days? I haven't seen her talking up the drunks at the bar as of late"
"Be gone," Scai growled, walking past them, "I have no time for you."
"No time, ey?" Hammon asked, "spending too much of your time attempting to tame that red headed beast?"
Scai gritted her teeth and continued walking briskly, entering the square. Her hand squeezed her hidden dagger at her hip to the point where her aqua skin whitened.
"I can show you how to make her submit," Jaxon laughed hoarsely, "Just hold her down and ill do the rest!"
Scai's hand found his throat, crushing his vocal cords in her grasp. Her eyes were fire, her smile far too wide with joy. He gagged and gasped for air as the other guards descended on her viciously. Her temple felt a hard blow from Hammon's plated fist, but she was not down. However, her grasp left Jaxon's throat.
"May the Light damn you!" Jaxon coughed as he hit the ground with his hand wrapped around his throat," You'll regret this!"
Quine grabbed her shoulders and rammed his knee into her gut. Scai doubled over with a gasp as Jaxon stood with the help from Quine. She threw her fist outward, knocking Jaxon on the jaw, causing a sickening crack. Jaxon fell to the ground senseless, but Hammon jumped upon her, his arm wrapped around her throat. She coughed and pulled at his elbow, but his arm would not budge. Gasping for air, she attempted to grab her knife, but Quine slammed his fist into her stomach. She pulled harder, but his steel covered arm was a solid vice against her attempts at freedom. Quine's fist contacted Scai's stomach again as the world became dim and then black.
She awoke by her body landing hard upon the granite floor; blood from her cut temple was caked on her forehead. She attempted to sit up, but a foot upon her back thrust her down.
"She attacked us without reason," Hammon called angrily to his superior, "She could have killed Jaxon."
"Lies!" Scai growled, only to be quieted by the heel of Jaxon's foot dug hard into her spine, causing her to gasp.
"Yes, I was walking by and she pounced upon me like a rabid wolf!" Jaxon exclaimed, his voice raspy, "She's lucky to even be alive."
"This murderous wench needs to be punished fully and put behind the bars of the stockade!" Quine added, "…with your permission of course, Sir."
Melris Malagan knew well of the three men's usual banter, so the captain of the guard decided to give the draenei the benefit of a doubt. Scai looked up at him, her eyes searching his face but then her surroundings as she noticed that she was inside one of the guard towers that surrounded the human city.
"What do you have to say draenei?" His mustache quivered while he spoke as he stared into the deathknight's fierce eyes.
"I only wish for a council with High Priestess Laurena," Scai stated emotionlessly, ignoring her throbbing head, "I don't give a damn about these men or this city."
The captain's mustache wiggled as he thought, smacking his lips soundlessly as he pondered this beings intentions. He knew that Laurena had spoken of a coming visitor to Stormwind who would seek her out. However, could this unruly draenei truly be the diplomat the High Priestess had called upon?
"Let her up, Officer Jaxon," he commanded, "Escort her to the Cathedral of Light, and I do not want to hear of any more of your failed attempts at harassment. Stop wasting my time and find better things to do before I assign you to helping the stable hands clean the muck from the stalls!"
"Yes, Sir!" The three called in unison following a swift salute.
Scai stood with no help from any of them and they marched out the door, her trailing behind.
With mutters of hate and revenge from the three guards, she departed from them and ventured into the hall of the cathedral. Many priests and paladins were running about, but Scai couldn't care any less. She had had enough of human contact for the day, and she could hardly control her fists when she stood before the High Priestess Laurena.
"So, you've finally arrived," she sighed absently, flipping the pages of an unnamed book before her, "wait in the study, I'll be there in a moment."
Scai stood there, staring at her expectantly. The high priestess still continued to search for something between the bound papers. The deathknight's irritation grew, and she began tapping her hoof against the cloth covered stone. The thumping continued until the priestess halted and looked up for a moment.
"Wait in the study," she repeated, staring at Scai glumly.
"I will not wait any longer," Scai's voice was heated and low, "I have been harassed by your guards, stepped on, and tossed upon the ground as if I were a common peasant. I am not going to sit and wait for your damned arse to fit my conversation into your day when it pleases you."
Laurena pursed her lips and slammed the thick book shut in her delicate hands. She drummed her fingers on the cover with a thoughtful expression on her face. Scai flinched as she saw the woman's hand swiftly flick in her direction, and her temple felt warm.
"Maybe if your skull wasn't cracked you could bear to be somewhat polite," the High Priestess exhaled, "Now to address the cause of your visit…Follow me."
Her cloth shoed feet briskly crossed the space to the entrance of the cathedral. A young boy waved to her and ran back behind the corner of the stone building. Scai pondered where exactly this human would take her, but every moment she wanted to leave the city for good. It would be effortless to forget the reason she ventured to this place, well, it would have been. The stable boy returned with a white stallion, and the priestess thanked him sweetly. She thrust herself up onto the saddle, sitting with her legs and robes draping to the right side of the horse. Scai called for her undead steed, but she knew she would get much duress from the citizens of Stormwind about the scourge and the usual insults. Her plan was to avoid all arguments and simply walk the entire way; however, walking had not prevented a confrontation. The undead creature appeared like a phantom as it galloped toward Scai and halted stiffly. She mounted the horse quickly as the priestess had already ventured out of the square.
She led Scai to the Stormwind Keep, and they ventured inward to the royal library. The royal guards watched Scai's movements with fierce eyes, and it caused her nerves to rise to the peak of unease. The deathknight knew well that if she were to pick a fight here it would not end with her alive…let alone her freedom. The priestess paced through the archway and continued down one of the many isles of bookshelves that reached toward the heavens. The deathknight became impatient as the human stared at one particular shelf for a considerable amount of time, talking to herself.
"It was…," she mumbled as she tapped her forefinger on her chin, "maybe here then?"
The draenei watched as the human searched back and forth across the shelves, her thin fingers gliding over the many leather bound books. The shelves were stuffed with many exotic texts, many of the titles appeared in an unknown script to Scai, and many of them seemed to not be bound in leather but of different skins. After standing for quite some time as the human pranced about searching for the book she desired, Scai heard a distant whisper. The draenei turned her head slightly, peering out of the corner of her eye, but there were no nobles speaking softly behind her. The shrill voice whispered again, but this time Scai realized it spoke no words but only garbled sounds. Scai turned around, her eyes searching, but still found no source to the strange voice. However, as she turned, the voice grew louder in the direction of the bookshelf. Without a command, Scai's hand reached out quickly to grab a cloth covered book. The human smacked it hard with a book she had in her offhand.
"Don't touch anything." Laurena scolded, "Ah, There it is!"
"But, I-, " Scai spoke, shocked that for a moment she had lost control of her own body.
"This library is full of unknown things," her voice betrayed her annoyance, "Do you truly wish to unleash it upon yourself?"
The human strode away as Scai was silent, eyeing the strange book that whispered to her and many other books seemed to shiver. The spines on a few glowed with newly appearing runes, and some seemed to vibrate. The shelf began to quiver with the growing movement from the many texts; dust flaked from its mahogany frame. The bookcase groaned in protest, but even more books were beginning to awaken and whisper to Scai. The deathknight found herself backing up quickly from this eerie contraption, very few times had the deathknight felt fear, but she had never seen such a thing!
"Enough!" Laurena commanded and the books halted, all returning back to their normal appearances, "You had to rile them up, I absolutely hate cleaning up all the dust."
The ladder creaked as she wheeled it closer to the bookcase, and the human quickly hopped up it to pull out a very large and obviously heavy book.
"Take it," and the book was tossed in Scai's direction, landing in her plated arms, "I knew it would happen one day."
"Did you now?" Scai asked, staring at the tome with caution, its cover was a solid black, blacker than any ink she had ever seen.
"Her power was growing much too fast for the young girl, and her mind is rather unstable," Laurena spoke, taking the book from Scai's hands, "With such power leads to either righteousness or depravity."
Scai listened as she followed the priestess to the back of the library. The human dropped the huge book upon a table and began shuffling through the pages. Scai took a step back.
"With the help from wicked influences," the high priestess said, flipping a few more pages, "One can find themselves very far from the path they chose for themselves. They see that this one influence has caused such a catastrophic change there is little they are able to do to reverse it."
The human stopped flipping pages and pointed at the text. The image drawn in black ink upon the page depicted two humans, silhouettes, one hollow and one shaded in. They were touching each other's hands, facing one another. They were mirror images, and beneath the two figures there was script that Scai could not read.
"Kial Ptrogehin Ixlan." The priestess's voice quivered with the strange pronunciation, "It reads in demonic 'The shadow within'. Each priest or priestess has a completely divided soul. Due to our service to the Light, the two extremes separate each other permanently."
"What does Zydien's soul have to do with the being we encountered in the forest?" Scai growled, "I came here to ask you how to revive her from her continuous nightmares, not for you to waste my time."
"The caster must decide which path they will follow" the human continued, ignoring the deathknight, "Zydien chose the Light, as a healer to those in need. However, there is a terrible prescience inside her mind that remains."
"Well what can I do to remove this supposed 'prescience'?" Scai asked, her impatience growing, ever so tempted to simply walk away. She never had anyone to truly care for other than herself, and this new feeling of care for another was clashing with her normal mentality.
"You cannot remove it," she answered, "There is nothing you can do for Zydien, only wait for her to wake form her nightmares."
"Nothing?" her furious yell caused two guards to dash into the royal hall, but the human priestess waved them away.
"Are you aware you are in a library?" Laurena glared, closing the book containing the strange depictions, "Zydien is now trapped, and the sinister side of her soul is active. As I have stated, her soul has been tainted and it cannot be undone."
"What if I were to determine who caused this emerging darkness?" Scai asked, wondering if she would regret speaking any further, "I...may know of who attacked Zydien."
"I see," Laurena raised her eyebrow, she paused but then her voice was frank, "You could try, Scai the Hallowed, but I know not whether it would help your dear Zydien."
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