"Keep going, Amy!" Adam urged her on as he heard the intruder alarm sound. He didn't bother looking behind him as he knew Maggie and Dormir would watch their backs. It wasn't too much farther to the rendezvous spot. Shaw hadn't wanted to meet up anywhere between Tarren Mill and Ravenholdt Manor. And the closer they were to the Stormpike Clan and the headquarters for the Alterac Valley skirmishes, the better- despite the extra danger it posed.

He had followed the locater stone's directions to the building Amy was in. After that, it had been as simple as sneaking in, taking out the troll and entering the room. When Adam had seen Amy lying on the bed unharmed, he had been relieved. He had even felt his eyes sting from emotion as he called out her name. The child had sat up with a gasp and had run to him saying that she had known he would come.

He had wanted to hold the hug longer, but had also known that time was of the essence. He had told her that she was a brave girl and that she had to do what he told her if they were to be safe. From there, he had given her an invisibility potion, provided by Ravenholdt before the team had left, and they had quickly made their way out of the town. The plan had gone off without a hitch.

Amy was tired and he allowed them to pause behind a tree to catch their breath. As she gulped in a lungful of air, he glanced back towards the town in the distance. He hadn't noticed anyone following them, but that didn't mean they were out of danger, yet. How was the other team doing?

…

Ileeya pounced on Gavor, just before he had been able to take Adorei from Jelune, coming out of her prowling state as she did so. Her claws raked through his back as the surprised forsaken fell down beneath her. Transforming out of her cat form, she called for roots to secure the doomguard, then took Adorei from Jelune. Snappers was keeping the two dreadguards at bay for now and she quickly cast a healing spell on her brother as she pulled the arrow out.

"Why do I get a sense of deja vu here, Sis?" he said as he fired an arrow into Gavor's chest to finish him off. He saw the light in the warlock's eyes fade out.

She couldn't help but think of the time they were picking herbs and were attacked by the Horde scavenging party. He had been hit by a throwing knife that time. "This time it's different, Brother. This time we're better prepared."

More dreadguards approached the area, followed by High Warlord Cromush. Ileeya felt her blood drain from her face. Shaw had warned them of him. He looked as dangerous as he had been described. She knew they were no match for the seasoned veteran.

Cromush saw them and ordered the dreadguards to surround the siblings. Ileeya thought they were done for, but she set Adorei on the ground and transformed into her bear form. Intent on protecting her daughter, she stood over the infant and let out a menacing growl. Jelune had notched his bow, ready to fire a volley at the approaching guards. Snappers let out a cry as one of the guards was able to get his sword under the shell and kill it.

Kirlothenin suddenly appeared between the approaching warlord with his dreadguards and the siblings. Jelune grinned as he continued the earlier conversation. "And we have him on our side this time."

Cromush stopped as he spied the blood elf. "Out of the way, elf! I will not allow the intruders to escape!"

Kirlothenin's voice was strong and confident. "You may not allow it, but it will happen. They are after their stolen family, that is all."

Cromush's eyes narrowed. "Who are you, and what have you to do with this?"

"I am Kirlothenin Dawnwhisper, Battle Mage of the Kirin Tor and the Scryers. They are my family."

"Your what?" The warlord roared in anger. "They have attacked this town and I will defend it, Battle Mage! If you are as you claim, then I order you to stand down or face charges of treason!"

Kirlothenin shook his head and spoke with vengeance. "Did you hear me claim any allegiance to the Horde? No. I do not follow your orders, Cromush. My allegiance lies with my family, and I will protect them to the death!" Ileeya heard the resolution in Kirlothenin's voice and tears formed in her large brown, bear eyes. She knew he would do as he said. She also realized from his declarations just now, that he would no longer be welcome in any Horde territory. He would never see his Silvermoon City again.

"So be it, Kirlothenin Dawnwhisper. You are no longer welcome in any Horde territory!" The warlord lifted his axe in preparation to charge towards the mage, but was stopped at the appearance of a human rogue next to Kirlothenin.

"He may not be welcome in your territory, but he'll be welcome in mine, Cromush."

The warrior orc was more cautious now as he looked at what the rogue held in his hands. "Mathias Shaw," he said with venom. "I thought I eradicated all your kind from the foothills nearly a year ago."

Mathias' voice was a low growl as he responded. "You may have landed a devastating blow, but it was not enough to clear my agents, nor Stormpike's Clan from the area." He held up one of his hands that had some sort of device in it. "Recognize this?"

Ileeya didn't recognize it, but Jelune did. "A goblin pocket-nuke," he said quietly. It seemed Cromush had recognized it as well. The orc's brown skin turned a bit paler.

"I've set a number of these around Tarren Mill, just as you had set them on Sofera's Naze and the other four fingers of the foothills last year. But I'm going to give you a choice. Leave us alone. Let us leave unharmed. And I'll give you ten minutes to evacuate before I blow the place up! A choice you did not give my men!" he added with a growl. "If you refuse, I'll blow it up now." He held up his other hand which held a triggering device.

Ileeya didn't like this. If he blew the place up while they were still there, wouldn't it kill the humans and elves as well? Apparently, Cromush thought the same thing. He grinned maliciously and said, "I call your bluff, Shaw. You'd only kill yourself and those you protect in the process."

Mathias gave a soft laugh that made Ileeya shiver, even in her bear form. The man could sound very dangerous when he wanted. "Do you really think I'd be as stupid as that? Why do you think our friend here appeared when he didn't have to? While he was busy keeping you lot chatting away, I set the explosives in just the right places where they'll do much damage to the buildings and those in them, with very little damage to us here."

Cromush looked from Shaw to Kirlothenin and back again, with uncertainty on his face. Shaw's back was to Ileeya so she couldn't see his face, but Kirlothenin was standing sideways so as to keep an eye on Cromush and Ileeya. She could see the self-confident smirk he wore when he knew he winning. Still, the orc wasn't going to give up so easily. "You didn't have time to plant that many explosives. The conversation wasn't that long."

"Do you really think I'm working alone? Not only is the Stormpike Clan involved, but some others who you might be familiar with. I have many Alliance races working for me, Cromush; including Gilnean rogues."

As if on cue, a worgen's howl could be heard above them. Ileeya looked up to see the man-beast crouching on the roof of one of the buildings. "The worgen are more than willing to help decimate this place." Shaw continued.

The orc looked angry, but suddenly smiled with a knowing look. "Melisara! How about a song for-"

Kirlothenin cleared his throat and gave a small point to where the banshee was. When Cromush looked, he saw her standing in a circle, encased in ice. She was unable to let out her piercing banshee cry. "Ten minutes isn't a long time, Cromush," Kirlothenin said. "I'd suggest evacuating now."

With a loud roar of frustration, the warlord gave the order to evacuate Tarren Mill. Ileeya transformed into her elven form and picked Adorei up as Shaw and Kirlothenin backed up to them. "Let's get out of here!" Shaw said.

…

Maggie appeared in front of Adam. "All clear so far. Dormir is still keeping an eye out for the others."

Adam nodded his head. "Do you know Shaw's plans should they get caught? I can only guess the alarm we heard earlier was them being discovered."

Maggie shook her head. "All I know is that he always has something up his sleeve." She saw the worry in his eyes. "Trust him. He'll get them out." They both fell silent and the only thing heard was a bird singing in the branches of the tree they were by. She looked down to where Amy was sitting, looking tired. The poor kid had been through so much the past few days. Maggie berated herself as she realized she was getting a soft spot for the girl. This whole adventure will be over soon and the kid can get back to worrying about school and chores.

Maggie looked out to where the others would be coming from. If they didn't show in the next five minutes or so, they were to go on ahead to the Stormpike headquarters and arrange for transportation home from there.

The bird stopped singing and Maggie stiffened, her senses on alert. In her peripheral vision, she could see Adam pause as well. They weren't alone. The smell of decay reached her just before she felt the sharp blade enter her lower back. Maggie cried out in pain, her limbs losing strength. She fell to the ground as Amy screamed in fright.

"Maggie!" Adam's voice reached her and then the sound of fighting. Maggie tried hard to focus herself to move beyond the pain. She knew she was losing blood, yet could do nothing about that. A light touch on her side caused her to open her eyes that she didn't realize she had closed. Sitting next to her was Amy. The child's face was red, puffy, and full of worry and fear.

Maggie forced herself to sit up and look at who Adam was fighting. It was an undead rogue, the same one she had seen at Ravenholdt's. This must be Mason. The rogue was skilled, but so was Adam. Maggie pulled out her throwing star. Her aim might be off from her injury, so she had to make sure there was a safe opportunity to throw it at the forsaken who had stabbed her.

Maggie felt her back grow warm and sticky with blood. "Amy. I need your help. You may not like it." This will get the child's attention off Adam, as well as help her. When the girl nodded, Maggie pulled a bandage from her small hip pack. "Take this and put strong pressure on my back where I was stabbed. It'll slow the bleeding. Don't be squeamish about it. You can do it."

Amy took the bandage, and with only a slight hesitation, pressed it against Maggie's back. Maggie hissed in pain and had to shut her eyes until she was sure she would not black out. She could feel perspiration forming on her forehead. "Good girl. I'm going to try and help Adam-"

She stopped talking when the pressure fell away.

"Amy, you need to-" Amy's cry of alarm caused her to stop what she was saying and turn, despite the pain it brought. There, with a dagger to Amy's neck, stood Lara. Maggie growled. This forsaken woman was causing way too much trouble for them.

"Drop your weapon, human!"

Maggie looked at her partner and saw he had just finished delivering a killing blow to Mason when he heard Lara's demand. When he saw Amy's predicament, he glanced at Maggie briefly before complying, tossing his dagger aside. "Let her go," he said with heavy breaths from his fighting. Adam moved slowly to be next to Maggie.

"No. This one is too much a distraction to Jerold. He has lost his focus all because of this little one." The mage cast a spell and Maggie heard bleating. Adam had been polymorphed. Lara turned her eyes to Maggie. "You'll watch this little one die, then I'll finish you off."

Maggie saw Amy struggle to get away, but was not strong enough. The child stomped on Lara's foot, but the mage merely winced and hissed as she lifted the dagger. But that was all she did before her face almost cracked from surprise. Maggie didn't hesitate at the opening she saw. "Amy, duck!' The child did as told immediately and with the last of her strength Maggie threw her star, feeling her own wound open more as she did so.

Lara fell over and didn't move as Amy crawled over to Maggie. With Lara taken out, her spell on Adam was canceled and he resumed his normal shape. He made sure Amy was okay before Maggie felt his hands on her. She couldn't move. "DORMIR!" Adam yelled for the druid in a desperate voice. Maggie figured her injuries must be really bad for him to call out like that.

She didn't know how long she had lain there when Dormir's face came into view, already muttering his healing spells. Not long after, Ileeya's face appeared, adding her own stronger healing spells to Maggie's wounds. When they were done, they moved away and the only face she saw was Mathias'.

The man's normally masked face told her more about his feelings for her than words ever would. "Hey," he said.

Maggie gave him a weak smile. "It must be bad."

He gave her a half smile. "You lost a lot of blood, Mags. But you'll pull through." His voice was gentle and quiet, but he cleared his throat and spoke louder now for the benefit of the others. "I expect you to report for duty in three days, Strome. A little cut is no excuse for missing work."

Maggie grinned full out, glad he wasn't going to coddle her. "Yes sir."

He then stood up and walked over to Lara's body to make sure she was dead. When he came back, he had Maggie's throwing star. He also showed Maggie and Adam a dagger that neither of them recognized. "I found this in her back. You three had a guardian angel looking after you." He tucked the dagger in his belt to be examined later.

He then sat her up, supporting her since her back muscles were too weak and she saw everyone gathered around, including a new face, that of a worgen. Maggie barely had time to wonder where he had come from when Shaw put something into Maggie's hand. "Feel the button?" She nodded. "You have the honors, Ms. Strome. Push it."

Maggie glanced at him with a question in her eyes, but didn't ask. Instead, she pushed the button. A split-second later a loud explosion could be heard from the direction of Tarren Mill. Looking in that direction, she could see a large plume of smoke billowing up from the forsaken town. A few seconds later, the shockwave hit them, and they had to brace themselves against it. Yelling voices could be heard in the distance as fire began to burn some of the buildings. She looked at Shaw with a little surprise. "Where'd the explosives come from?"

"Remember when I disappeared the other night?" She nodded. "We've had a team hiding out near here. I had gone there to check on their progress and to have them keep an eye out for Adam and the others who had been missing even though it was a long shot. The explosives were something that we had been planning anyhow. Then as Kirlothenin and I were coming out of the building earlier, I ran into Whitmore here. From there it was merely a matter of the elf distracting Cromush while Whitmore got the explosives and his team placed them. His signal to let me know they were done was howling atop a roof." Shaw grinned. "He had impeccable timing."

Maggie glanced at the worgen who was standing next to the blood elf. The mage wasn't paying attention to them. He was looking off to the side. Maggie looked in the direction of Lara, who was the object of Kirlothenin's attention. The elf stepped over to her body, though did not touch it. He said a few silent words as though he were at a funeral. After a few minutes silence, he muttered a spell and a large pyroblast shot from his hands, engulfing the forsaken's body. Everyone remained quiet as they watched her body slowly turn to ashes. "Lara will never bother us again," he said quietly. Then added, "May N'Lar finally find her peace." Ileeya moved to stand next to Kirlothenin and Maggie felt her eyes burn with tears, the aftereffects of what they had gone through.

Maggie blinked her eyes. She hardly knew this elf. It was unlike her to feel so empathic towards another, much less cry. She put it down to her weakened state as Dormir and Adam dragged Mason's body over to the fire to burn as well. "We can let Baros know we've kept our promise," Shaw said to Kirlothenin.

Kirlothenin nodded his head, then was silent for a minute before glancing around. "Jerold is still unaccounted for. We need to return now." As he created a portal back to Ravenholdt's, Mathias picked Maggie up in his arms to take her through the portal. The look he gave her ordered her not to protest. She didn't. She couldn't even stand. Okay, she thought, just a little coddling is acceptable.

…

Baros wiped his forehead again and tried to focus on his work. After getting a brief explanation of what Jorach wanted done to his manor, he had set to work right away in order to stop thinking about trying to find something his body could not have. Of course, it would have been easier if he had his measuring tools with him. Instead, he had to do rough estimations.

Baros glanced at the door. He wanted to leave the room in search of something. He wasn't sure what. It was as though his body wanted something he couldn't identify. Baros figured it had to be this addiction to magic. He hadn't realized how strong this desire would be. The mage had said it would not be the full force of his addiction, but a shared feeling. Was the elf really this close to losing control of himself?

He had to stand and move around. It felt as though he were full of adrenaline. Baros wouldn't admit it to anyone, but he felt weak. When Kirlothenin had drawn upon Baros' strong will, it had drained Baros of part of his will. Apparently, this was shared between them as well.

He sat back down and tried to work again. It worked for awhile and he felt himself get lost in his work until another desire to leave came to him again. He stood and walked over to the door.

"Where do you think you're going?"

Baros glanced at Jorach with annoyance. "I just need to go for a walk." He rubbed his sweaty palms together.

"Why?"

Baros muttered a "Nevermind" and went back to his desk. He hadn't really wanted to go for a walk. It was almost as though his body was trying to go in search of something. He then noticed that Kristie wasn't in the room with them. "Where's my daughter?"

"She and Narine went to the privy."

"Mr. Alexston. Our promise has been kept." Kirlothenin's voice spoke in Baros' head.

"Good, just a sec..." he thought back to him. Baros stepped outside the room, ignoring Ravenholdt's objections. The privy was located at the end of the hallway. He saw Narine standing outside the door. "How long has she been in there?"

"Who? Been in where?"

Baros frowned. "I messed up this stupid telepathy again," he thought to himself. "Uh, Kristie went to the privy. Narine is standing outside on guard. Must not think there's a danger, she looks quite relaxed."

"We're returning, Mr. Alexston. Expect us in one minute."

…

Kristie closed the door behind her after entering the privy. She paused at the mirror hanging over the water basin and saw for the first time the bruises on her face and neck. She reached up and touched her short-cropped hair, remembering Stavron's attack on her earlier. She pushed that memory to the back of her head and let her hand drop. The door opened and Kristie sighed. "I'll just be another minute, Nar-"

She stopped when she saw who had entered the room. Kristie backed up. "Jerold!" In his hand was a vile with the yellow gas. She figured that was how he had gotten past Narine. But how did he get this far without being seen? Kristie answered that herself when she remembered using invisibility potions to hide her travels from her home to Lord Grayson's house.

"Everything is ruined," was all he said. Kristie felt her heart pounding against her chest. Her eyes darted between his face, the vial, and the door which was now closed behind him. "I will not finish my project." He took a step towards her and she grabbed the water pitcher. It wasn't much of a defensive weapon, but with the water in it still, it was somewhat heavy enough to maybe knock him out.

"We are not things to experiment with!" Her voice was gruff, but she could hear the fear in it.

Jerold waved a hand dismissively. "We are all experiments, my dear. Take your relationship with Amy. It will be an experiment to see if she fits within your little family, whether you acknowledge it as that or not." He stepped forward again, but Kristie didn't back up any more. She was only a few inches from the wall. The privy was rather small. She could only hope to keep him talking until that stuff wore off on Narine.

"Where's Amy?"

"Oh, they were successful in rescuing her." He paused and tilted his head. "She was a puzzle to me. A puzzle I needed to unlock and decipher. And just when I was ready to solve it," his voice became spiteful, "the puzzle was taken from me."

At this news, Kristie felt relieved that Amy was safe. But why was Jerold here, now? "What do you want, Jerold?"

"All things come to an end eventually, Miss Kristie Alexston." He put a cork in the yellow vial and put it away, pulling out another one in the meantime. "She said she wouldn't be happy unless she was with you and Adam." Kristie swallowed, not liking the tone in the apothecary's voice.

"Kristie?" Adam's voice came through the door.

Faster than she would have expected him to be able to move, he grabbed her and pulled her to him, spinning around so they were facing the door, his hand at her throat. This movement made her drop the pitcher and it broke on the floor. "Adam!" She cried out and a second later, the door slammed open.

Adam stood at the doorway. Kristie could see Kirlothenin and Narine behind him. "I am unarmed." Jerold's voice sounded oddly calm to Kristie. "Well, except for this vial." He waved the sealed vial with pale green liquid inside. "Now what could be in here, you wonder?" With his thumb, he pushed on the cork at the top of the vial and pushed it off. "Shall we find out?"

"No." Kirlothenin cast a spell and was suddenly standing directly in front of them. He grabbed Jerold's hand that held the vial and Jerold let go of Kristie to frantically try and keep the mage from taking the vial from him. She used the opportunity to duck past Kirlothenin and quickly run to Adam. He paused only long enough to make sure she was okay then turned his attention to Kirlothenin and Jerold who were locked in a struggle.

Kirlothenin managed to turn Jerold around so that his back was towards Adam. The rogue didn't miss this opportunity and stepped forward, stabbing the forsaken in the back. As the undead fell to the floor, Kirlothenin wrested the vial from Jerold's hand. Adam moved over the fallen apothecary only to pause as the man began to mumble almost incoherently.

"See...white trees. White. Fire. Laughing. Warmth. Arrow." His voice had an almost mad cackle to it. "The arrowhead! I see it! I- I understand. The key. The ...arrow is ...key. I …remember."

Kristie felt an arm wrap around her shoulders and she glanced to see Ileeya standing there with her. Together they watched the yellow orbs that were Jerold's eyes extinguish. A shiver went through her body. She wrapped one arm around Ileeya's waist as Adam came over. Her other arm wrapped around his waist. Kirlothenin joined Ileeya and together the four of them silently regarded each other. It was over.