My first opportunity to talk to Neph was days after that, and by then I had my speech ready in my head. It happened when I was carrying out a mission in the open area of Netherstorm, clearing a section of some mana disturbances that were roaming the place and collecting the mana residue they left. The mana disturbances in that place resembled the mana wyrms I've seen in our lands; serpentine creatures made out of pure mana, that swam in the air as a snake would swim in water, and consumed arcane power and beings made of it, such as ourselves. In a certain light, their head resembled a dragon's head, and even though that could make them look ferocious, they were no real threat. They were more of a nuisance, not worthy of the time of someone important.
I stopped to rest a moment, sitting atop a rock by the road while drinking some water, when I saw Neph approaching. He was riding a golden dragonhawk, and soon enough landed by the road.
I ran to him and threw my arms around his neck, holding him tight to my body.
"Hello, my love," he said, before he kissed me tenderly and showed me that smile that made me remember why I fell for him. My heart sang the song of hope. Neph was an intelligent man, a reasonable man. He would listen to me, above all.
"Hi Neph. What are you doing here?," I asked as I sat by the spot I was resting and indicated him to join me in my meager snack.
"I heard you were appointed to carry out such a demeaning task, and so I decided to check on you. And bring you this," he said as he sat by my side and showed me a box of my favorite sweetrolls he brought me.
"You know that's why I love you, right?," I said as I gave him a light peck on the cheek and grabbed one of the sweets. "So you heard I got grounded?"
"Hard not to," he said as he joined me in my break and started to eat and drink too. "What did you do this time?"
"Nothing. You know how the world is cruelly unfair to me."
"Sure..."
"I just... suggested, in a very direct way, that... Lord Sanguinar was as boring and plain as his butt," I confessed my crime, making him chuckle.
"And I imagine someone heard it and told him," he said, chuckling, yet trying not to.
"There was no need for that. I said it to his face, anyway."
"Yeah, sure. Why bother being gentle and diplomatic?," he said, now laughing openly. "You got lucky you just got scolded with a demeaning task and not truly punished."
"I know. Like I said, he is boring," I answered, laughing too.
The conversation went on through silly subjects, flowing naturally. His laugh made my heart light and hopeful, and so we just stood there for a couple of minutes, enjoying ourselves, eating sweetrolls and drinking water, appreciating the devastated view of a shattered place. The arcane storm raged wildly above us, but at that place it was as natural as summer rain, and so we ignored it. We spotted some mana disturbances roaming at far distance, aimlessly, confused; but at that place they were as natural as rabbits hopping in the field, and so we ignored it. Since when did such unnatural things seem so normal to us? Since when did such chaotic and disturbed appearances seem ordinary?
As long as I had Neph by my side, I didn't care for the rest. Until then.
After we finished our snack, we just lay back, shoulder to shoulder, staring at the storm above us. The sky was never blue and happy at Netherstorm.
"This place is dying," I said, after a couple of minutes of silence.
"Why do you say that?," Neph asked me.
"Because it is true," I answered. "This place reminds me of an agonizing animal, bleeding to death."
"Well..." he said, lightly. "This place was dying before we arrived. Let's just say we won't let all this arcane power go to waste. You know very well how much power the mana forges are harvesting right now. It is wonderful."
The very land of Netherstorm was imbued with magical power, and once we arrived and took the enchanted fortress of Tempest Keep, we also built mana forges. Those mana forges were now sucking the arcane forces out of the land, but "wonderful" was not the kind of word that came to my mind. I couldn't help but think of a leech sucking blood.
The sheer stability that place had - all that was keeping it from just turning into dust and vanish into the Twisting Nether, I mean - was because of that power.
"We are bleeding this place to death," I said.
"This place means nothing to anyone. It will die anyway. Why are you so concerned about this place?" he said as he got on his elbows to look at me. He was starting to get worried.
"Do you remember home, beloved?" I asked Neph, and he seemed surprised with the change of the subject.
"Of course I do, Ai," he answered, with a light caress up my neck. "Our golden forests, more precious than all the gold in the world. The streams full of silver fish, quick like arrows, the grass always green. That lake..."
"What if we can't stop?," I asked quickly, before his caress could take my mind away. "What if this is to be the fate of our homeland when we come back?"
Surprise held his words for a moment. My questions were odd for him - unnatural. I was bringing annoying and disturbing questions for him, but he never showed signs of anger or being disturbed by them. There was only concern in his eyes. He cared for me so much... But he also loved home the same way I did, and so I thought that would have him worry the same way I did.
"This is nonsense, darling... What have you been dreaming?," he answered, trying to cheer me up with a smile and a small peck on the lips.
"Could you stop if you wanted to?" I asked, and even if I didn't state it clearly, he knew I was talking about that uncontrollable thirst - that insatiable hunger, the need we felt of feeding upon magic.
"Of course, Aiwyn," he answered. The certainty in his sentence was more unsettling than it was comforting. "And you shouldn't bother yourself with such issues. We are doing this to save our homeland. To save our people."
"Neph..."
"I assure you, it won't be long before we go back home and, by the light of the Sunwell or not, crowned by the golden leaves of our beautiful forests, on the glory of our rebirth... we will be married."
That made my heart skip a beat. It is beyond mere words to describe how I yearned for that - how much I wanted to believe him. He left a small peck on the back of my hand - the hand that had my gold engagement ring - before he attacked my lips with passion. I was putty in his hands, my words fell on deaf ears, and even if everything was going wrong, that felt so right.
I should have noticed by then that even though he spoke of saving our people, our homeland, some sort of disdain for life has been slowly growing in him. And unlike me, it didn't seem to bother him.
But that moment of affection didn't last long, since we both felt someone approaching by the road, and so we separated. We started to get up and prepare to leave, when I recognized who was approaching. It was Nalysa, riding a purple hawkstrider, ready to shatter a peaceful moment once again. Recalling our last meeting all of a sudden made the crystal she gave me, still in my pocket, feel heavier. The defeat of my will, still fresh in my mind, still hurt.
"Heya, lovebirds," she greeted us, stopping by the road. She had the gift of being - or seeming - happy all the time. "Isn't this a bit too public, even for you?"
"Nonsense," Neph replied. "But since you're annoyed by it, I'll take my leave..."
"Yes. Go away. Girl's time," she said with the most innocent smile.
I wasn't in the mood for jokes, and so I just bid Neph farewell with a last kiss and watched him as he mounted on his dragonhawk and flew away. I had the feeling I just lost a battle.
"Sorry to interrupt you lovebirds," Nalysa said as she approached, still mounted. I guess she interpreted my newborn bad mood by the fact she interrupted us. "I heard you were grounded by saying something stupid, and I thought I could drop by to laugh at you."
"Very thoughtful of you, thank you very much."
"Also, I thought I could give you a hand on your mission, so you could finish it sooner," she kept on talking, "and help me on my mission. It's an interesting one."
"I'm not about to hear about two giggly girls talking about men's junk while combing each other's hair, right?"
"Why, do you wanna hear about it?" she said. "I'm surprised you managed to stay silent for so long. But if you insist on hearing it..."
"It depends. If you two started making out..."
"You're the worst listener ever, do you know that?"
"Is this important? I'm getting bored. Could you skip it to Shattrath?" he said as he stretched his body, making no attempt of hiding his sailor's chest muscles.
"It is important. You wanted to listen to the story. But I'll try to go faster then. Now shut up and listen."
Nalysa helped me with my mission, and so we finished it in a matter of a few hours, and when we were done, she asked me if I could help her in her task. She told me she was assigned to take care of a situation in one of the mines, where something was attacking the workers. The mine was evacuated and no one knew what exactly was in there. We were supposed to find out and deal with it. Simple. Straightforward.
We were very confident we could take that task easily, and so we headed to the mine, mounted on Nalysa's purple hawkstrider. We hesitated briefly, without even noticing, before stepping in the mine, leaving the hawkstrider behind.
It was a mine like any other in Netherstorm. The air was heavy and wet, stone walls closing around us and echoing our every step. Most of the equipment and buildings the elves had set up there were intact, most of the supply boxes still piled up neatly.
We knew there was something in there waiting for us, preying on us, the moment we stepped in. Every step we took, we felt our heart rate rising slightly, in an agonizing crescendo of tension.
Ba-bum... Ba-bum... Ba-bum...
We were prepared to face some sort of mindless beast, at least three times our size, with long and sharp claws. But something like that makes noise; something like that leaves trails, marks. Leftovers.
The mine was completely abandoned. There were some disturbing blood smears and scratches here and there along the way, and we saw bags, cups and tools laying on the ground, abandoned, no doubt by the desperate need of escape. But other than that, there was no trail or mark from a big beast. At some point I realized I was holding Nalysa's hand.
We moved on. All corridors were almost exactly like the one before. Sometimes we emerged on a larger chamber, but they were so similar I had the terrible impression we were walking in circles. And all the corridors and chambers were empty, not even a soul to haunt them. Not even a squealing rat.
It wasn't pitch dark most of the way, some crystals placed on the ground still emitting their soft light. Maybe it would be better if it was darker, since the faltering light of the crystals played tricks on our minds. Did something just move there? Weren't there too many shadows on the wall?
...ba-bum, ba-bum, ba-bum...
Silence. It was an oppressing silence, disturbing and suffocating, and it also played tricks on us. Was it just the echo, or was there an extra set of steps? Was it just me, or there was another raspy breath in the back of my head? I glanced over my shoulder more times than I can count.
None of us had the instincts of a hunter, but it was hard to miss the feeling that we were being followed - maybe it was the chill crawling up our spine. We weren't trying to be stealthy either, shedding light over our way with our magic. We wanted to draw its attention; we wanted to force it out of its hideout. It wasn't a very good strategy, now that I think back on it.
Whatever it was that lurked there waited for us the reach the depths of the mine. My first idea, that it was some sort of large brainless beast that would pursue any sign of life, or maybe an aberrant and wild mana disturbance, seemed ridiculous by then. It was a crafty predator, and we entered its lair just like that, with no plan in mind whatsoever - our arrogance and lack of caution dictated our steps.
Then came that fateful moment when we let our guard down. We reached a big chamber in the deepest place of the mine and stopped to take a look at it. Nalysa quickly turned her attention to a map hanging on the wall, and I went over some crates by the other side of the chamber. I was starting to get more worried than my pride would allow me to admit and hoped to find some sort of provision in those crates. Otherwise, what exactly was that thing feeding upon? We've seen no bodies so far, and the idea was starting to make me sick.
We spread several balls of light made out of magic along the chamber. We were hoping to attract the thing, but for a minute we got distracted, and that was enough. I was rummaging through the crates when I heard this sucking sound, and all my hair bristled. The magic of the balls of light faded and we dove into darkness.
...BA-BUM-BA-BUM-BA-BUM...
A second of trembling silence, and then the fight exploded around me. Nalysa started to scream, and her screams echoed a hundred times along the corridors, deafening to elven hearing. It seemed like something just sucked every fiber of light contained by the room, even from the crystals, and so the overpowering darkness made it nearly impossible to attack without risking hurting Nalysa as well.
"NALYSA!"
Panic froze me for a moment, and it took me some precious seconds to understand something was attacking Nalysa, her screams stabbing my brain and scrambling my thoughts. I could barely hear the noises of the struggle, but I started to cast another ball of light. Nalysa bumped around, hitting tables and tripping until she fell to the ground. Some flashes of light indicated she was trying to cast a spell, but failing. I imagined a hand must have closed around her throat, since the gagging sounds took the place of her screaming. But there was still something screaming, yelling, and I realized it was her attacker, and it was yelling in thalassian, murdering our beautiful tongue with its guttural, rasping voice:
"...give it to me... give it to me, give it, GIVE IT TO ME!"
It all happened in a matter of a few seconds, and I was afraid I would be too late when I finally threw the ball of light into the direction I thought the fighting was happening. Nalysa's attacker was on top of her, one hand on her throat, but shrugged when the light hit the wall behind it and then turned to me - I was ready to cast another spell but then I froze in place.
For one second I had an unveiled view of the thing, as it turned its attention towards me, in a surreally slow movement it would seem - and that image imprinted on my retinas as if burned with hot iron. The eyes that starred back at me were bulged and frantic, filled with madness. It was humanoid, thin and pale, although mildly distorted. Bony, it seemed to have a hump and deep sucked-in chest - I remember thinking of it as little more than a skeleton. The hair that remained on its head looked like straw, and its moves were graceless - but it moved fast, and in a matter of moments it left Nalysa and was in front of me.
I managed to put my staff in front of me to avoid the flying drool coming out of that disgusting mouth, but I could still feel its sickening breath and a claw-like hand closing around my neck. Everything started to get blurred and muffled as it pinned me against the stone wall, but I clearly remember I noticed that moment the thing had pointy elven ears.
Not only was the air abandoning my lungs, but I felt my arcane power being sucked out of me and with it my hope. Maybe it's hard for someone who's not a spellcaster to understand how much despair that can bring, but think what you'd feel if your muscles wouldn't answer in the middle of a battle. Or if the hand you use to wield a sword was cut off. If a swordsman is all that he can do with his sword, I was only what my magic allowed me to be. A swordsman need his sword, I need my magic - that's how it works. And that thing was cutting me off of my mana supply, stealing away the source of my power. I started to scream.
And for something so thin and bony, it was stronger than it looked. I was incapable of casting, both my breath and magic power slipping through my fingers. Unconsciousness would soon hit me, but then I noticed movements above the thing's shoulder. Nalysa managed to get on her feet and was casting another spell - with the ball of light I casted before, she would be able to hit the beast. With the strength I didn't feel I had in my shaky arms, I ended up succeeding in pulling my attacker to the side, which was enough for Nalysa. She hit it with a blast of ice that froze the beast against the wall, and I tripped to the side. Taking large gulps of air, I desperately dragged myself away from the thing and Nalysa helped me up.
It never stopped struggling, and we heard the ice crackling. The incoherent grunts echoed loudly, punctuated by some understandable words, and for a moment I felt we were inside of the head of a mad person and the madness was sinking into me. All that came out of that creature's mouth was disgusting, sickening, and made me feel tainted just by hearing it.
We only took a glance at each other, and at the same time, casted fireballs to fling at the thing. The explosion shook the whole mine and when the echoes started to slowly fade away, although still there in our minds, we noticed our attacker was reduced to a large splatter on the wall.
There was no sense of achievement. The tension never dissipated.
"What the fuck was that?" the man asked, after a while.
"It was the first time we encountered a Wretched."
"A Wretched? But..."
He stopped, with the words ready to jump from his lips again, when she threw at him that "fuck off" look and continued. Surprisingly enough, the man remained silent without further persuasion.
We headed out swiftly, eager for fresh air. We left that thing burning to the bones and spoke nothing until we reached the entrance of the mine. We sat, only drinking water and recovering, with matching bruises on the neck, incapable of doing more than that for a moment. I could still feel my heart trying to climb up my throat, and as the adrenaline rush started to fade, I began to really feel the pain in my neck - and I was sure Nalysa was experiencing something similar.
"What was that?" she finally spoke, the first words uttered in a while.
"I don't know," I said.
Nalysa visibly hesitated in continuing, and I flinched because I knew what she was going to ask next, and I didn't want to think about it.
"Was... was it an elf?"
"No!" I answered, too fast and too loud, trying to prevent her from saying such horrible and unthinkable words that could not be unsaid. Too blunt, as if trying to force myself to believe my own words.
"Was it?," she asked weakly, turning to me those big round eyes, begging with her gaze for me to say that all the monsters in her nightmares weren't real.
"I... I don't know..." I answered, avoiding eye contact.
But she insisted.
"Aiwyn, it was wearing elven clothing," she said, making me face her and looking at me as if hoping I would give her a reasonable explanation for that. "It was wearing our tabard!"
But I had no reasonable explanation for that. I just lowered my eyes and got up. I didn't want to look so distressed in front of her, maybe because I always felt I was the strong one. She always came at me with the questions and doubts, and I always helped, or, if not, at least soothed her spirit. I had no soothing words now.
"Let's go. Leave me out of your report."
That night, I went back to my chambers, anxious, seeking only advice of my Master. He would have the answer I needed, like always.
Neph was stuck in his work till late again, so I could speak freely with my Master. I kept calling for him, in front of the mirror, for about fifteen minutes without stopping. He must have felt my haste, since I saw a slight wrinkle of worry when he finally showed up. Upon seeing the unchanged grimness of his face, I felt relief flooding me. He was my compass, the voice of wisdom, and he was always there for me - the same old Master who had steered me right in the past, and into the future.
"What now?" he asked, short and blunt.
"Something happened," I replied quickly.
There was a moment of silence as he just stared at me, without even blinking. He then just turned his upper body back and, with a large gesture of his hand, the window jumped on its frame and shut eagerly, as did the door. When that was completed to his satisfaction, he turned to talk to me.
"Talk," he said.
In times like this I was extremely grateful for my Master's blunt and practical way. He realized I was troubled and made no questions. He always supported me the way I needed, and he was actually more caring than he let others realize. In a matter of seconds, he was ready to absorb anything I was to say and ponder over it, serious.
"There was something attacking one of the mines over here, and Nalysa was charged of taking care of it," I began, trying to make it short and simple. I realized I was talking too fast. "She asked me to help her, and so I accompanied her. Maybe it was for the best. I mean, I'm not questioning her abilities, but..."
"What did you find there?" my Master interrupted me, trying to keep me focused. He knew me enough to realize I was nervous. But then I hesitated a moment to answer that, since it was the question that's been bothering me.
I started to narrate the scene in what I meant to be a quick and coherent speech, ending up a verbose and nervous monologue of facts, filled with unnecessary pauses after long minutes of intense narrative, when breathing seemed secondary. At least the reasoning required for that calmed me down a little. My Master just stood there, without moving, the only indication I had he was listening was the deepening grimace.
"I'm not crazy, okay?" I said, after the frenetic narrative. "It... it seemed like an elf! But... he was so... deformed."
Master remained silent for a moment, and then started to walk up and down the room, his eyes lowered. His silence was making me nervous again.
"And it was trying to feed on us," I continued. "It attacked us and tried to steal our magic from us. If either of us had been there alone..."
"That's bad," he finally spoke after a while, without stopping or looking at me. "It's worse than we thought, then."
"What are you talking about?" I asked, impatient.
He stopped walking around and returned.
"I don't need to say that what I'm about to tell you is not to leave this room, right?" he said, and as I nodded, he continued. "Sometime after the Sunwell's destruction, there have been sightings of... things... very similar to what you just described."
"And what are these things?"
"Isn't it obvious?"
Of course it was obvious, but I didn't want to say it out loud. I didn't want to acknowledge it, since pretending I didn't see it was more comfortable. But my Master was devoted to the truth, and didn't like me to run from it either.
"They are elves, Aiwyn," he said. "At first, I thought it was just a transformation due to the absence of the Sunwell's power. Some sort of extreme withdrawal crisis. Some people are trying to take a closer look at it, and I heard... Are you okay?"
As he started to explain, I started to wander away from the mirror and felt the blood abandon my face. Withdrawal? Was that to be my next step? Was that... transformation going to happen to me? Were my shaky hands going to become claws? Was my beautiful hair going to fall off and would madness consume me? In my head I still saw that thing turning its mad eyes to me, and when its blackened and disgusting mouth opened, drool dripped from it and it let out the most incoherent grunts in that horrible guttural voice. I nodded to Master and weakly said I was listening and he should go on. I felt my mouth dry.
"I guess I was wrong," he said, and I faced him again, hopeful. "I heard another theory. They're calling these things 'Wretched'. They say it's possible they're elves who succumbed to addiction. They always seem to be trying to get more and more arcane power... Just like you said."
My faint hope vanished as I just stared at him. It took a while for the information to sink in, and when it did, I found myself numbed.
I understood then that when I looked into those bulged frantic eyes, I was looking into our own future. That was the fate of the sin'dorei, should we stay on that path. In our desperation to restore the glory of our kingdom, we started to trail the path of our doom. We became parasites, leeches, sucking the arcane power of this world to our own content. To our Prince's content. And so, because of that, because of our disgusting actions we were to become disgusting creatures. We should have known; we should have noticed before that we couldn't just try to mine hope, we couldn't just try to harvest glory. Our need for the magical powers drove us, and we readily masked it with nice words such as "hope" and "glory", but there was none of it there.
But my Master was a practical man, and he wouldn't let me just fade into numbness and lethargy.
"Don't despair. You can trust Voren'thal. Follow him."
And there was Voren'thal too. What did he say, again? When I asked him if he thought our attack to Shattrath city would bring us closer to our purpose, he said...
Yes. Though maybe not the way our Prince believes.
"How do you know about Voren'thal?" I said after a moment.
"Just trust me."
And so I trusted him. I was used to have the feeling my Master knew more than he would say, but it was always for my own safety. He always protected me and cared for me. And so I trusted him.
But I kept wondering...
Could it have been different? What if I told Neph about the Wretched? What if I told Neph about my Master and Voren'thal? What if I insisted and made Voren'thal accept Neph in the army?
But I guess I'll never know. Next day, Nalysa looked for me and we talked about what we saw. It was one of those rare situations where her happiness faded and she turned into a quiet and thoughtful woman. I could almost see the seeds of doubt in her mind being born, but I couldn't say much.
Once again, we met at the library, but this time we didn't utter a word to each other as she approached, much less excited as usual. She reminded me a withered flower. With a parchment paper at hand, she sat by my side and we started writing:
"Are you okay?" she wrote first, the silence feeling particularly deep and worried coming from her, usually so expansive.
"As much as I can be. And you?" I wrote the second line.
"Not so much. I couldn't sleep that night," she wrote and I raised my eyes to her. There were, indeed, dark circles beneath her eyes. "It seemed like an elf," she continued writing, insisting, begging me to deny it.
But I couldn't. I'd always spared her from the nightmares I'd had, but the same way my Master tried to open my eyes to the truth for my own safety, I felt it was time to try the same for her. I couldn't keep on lying to her or else she would keep on following on that path I now deemed wrong.
"It was," I wrote, after hesitating a moment.
She faced me, eyes wide-opened, surprised I could tell her the horrible truth, and not some soothing, convenient lie, as she was used to hearing. I shouldn't have lied to her - ever. But she was so eager to accept it, begging for those harmless lies. "It's all gonna be okay", or "Don't worry about that, it's nothing" or even "Trust me".
"I'll tell you all I know about it when I return from Shattrath," I kept on writing. After a second of hesitation, I added: "Trust me."
She swallowed hard, her big and sweet eyes searching for hope in mine. Weakly, she nodded. When I reached out for her, she readily fell into my arms and I hugged her close, hoping that it would be enough to protect her.
She wasn't recruited by Voren'thal, and we would be leaving the next day. When we burned the paper that day, after exchanging some more words, recalling our encounter with the Wretched, it had a different feel to it. Those lines didn't contain a silly secret, but yet doubts and unsettling questions. Doubts we shouldn't have.
I wrapped my neck in some bandages to conceal the bruises and told Neph I was careless, that a Mana Wyrm bit me. It was the first thing that came to mind, and he accepted it, since he had no reason to doubt me.
Blindfolded, the golden mist of promises, hope and pleasure that covered my eyes was brutally ripped by the Wretched we encountered, and I felt the ground opening beneath my feet. It wasn't for me I feared, but for Neph. I tried to talk to him again, but I failed just like last time.
I found him chilling on a couch located at the depths of the library. He seemed so relaxed, with a satisfied smirk upon his lips and a thoughtful sparkle lighting up his face, I just wondered what sort of thoughts were traveling through his mind. Something good, I guessed. Something to bring such light and beauty to his face that could make my heart skip a beat. There seemed to be a hint of sweet malice upon his lips, which made me wish to be the center of his daydreaming. I just finished the thought and he noticed me approaching, giving me a warm smile and pulling me to sit with him.
"Hello, Ai," he said, giving me an affectionate kiss. His eyes seemed brighter than usual. "I'm just waiting for Il'than. We have to discuss some things, but I guess he won't show up so soon."
His hair fell from his shoulders in a cascade of gold, a golden halo or crown. Some of the anxiety I carried with me dissipated before such relaxed aura, before I realized what was wrong. It was not my love that made my fiancé look more handsome than usual - that light in is face could only mean one thing...
He brought me closer to cuddle, but between his lips and arms, I noticed with my peripheral vision some sickly moves and turned to see what it was. As a warlock, Neph had the power to summon directly from the Twisting Nether different types of demons and subjugate them to his will. It was not unusual to see an Imp on his heels, since he never managed to get rid of it, as he said. I already saw the Imp as a pet - a very ugly one, but still always present, like a dog lying on a carpet in the background of a family portrait. He looked like a small demon, long and pointy ears, razor sharp teeth and long arms that nearly touched the ground and ended up in claws. Ugly, disgusting, fiendish, but still... ours.
"What is wrong with your Imp?" I asked as I bended over to see him better. Usually so agitated - too agitated - his Imp was cowering, trying to drag himself beneath the couch, but apparently too weak to do so. "Seems like he's dying. Is he ok?"
"He's... tired," Neph said, and the absence of concern in his voice made me stare at him inquisitively. Just then, before his bright green eyes, I made the connection.
"You fed on him," I said, as understanding sank in. Imps are known to have a large pool of fel magic, and wield it ferociously. We had already fed on him many times before, previously, but in none of those times did the Imp seem to get so weak. He seemed dried out of strength, cowering under the couch, where the sweet darkness could embrace him.
"So?" Neph asked, perplexed by my concern. "Do you want some too?"
"It could kill him," I answered, even more confused. Why would he bring such pain to a creature under his rule? And just to sate his thirst?
"No need to worry, beloved," he said, with that sweet smile enlightening his face as he cupped mine with one hand. "If it dies, I'll get you another. Would you like that?"
I've seen it before, that disdain for life, but never have I really paid attention to it. Without that golden mist covering my eyes, I saw it for what it was, and it scared me.
"My love... Don't you think you're overdoing it?" I tried to ask him softly, afraid he would find that hidden doubt that I have been keeping from him.
"Nonsense," he said, secure and without the smallest hint of doubt to bend his words and thoughts. "Why are you worried? It's just an Imp."
A new wrinkle of concern was born in my heart before those words. Not only did I fear about his future if he surrendered to the addiction, but I also started to worry that his inner demons, the ones that paid their visits eventually, were actually lured by the sweet temptation of his addiction in fel magic, and that my sweet, gorgeous and beloved fiancé was starting to get corrupted by them. I feared his demons arrived and intended to stay.
I lost my words for a moment, and soon enough Il'than appeared, almost as if he popped out of the bookshelves. Il'than was a warlock, just like Neph, but the similarities stopped there. He made me think of an old spider, always lurking around with his unchanged peaked face and silent steps, covered in all shades of gray and pale purple. Taller and skinnier than Neph, he also had none of that beautiful golden aura my beloved carried. He kept his black hair short, his dark and elegant robes neatly kept, and even though he seemed always polite and respectful, there was something about him I didn't like. But he was Neph's friend, colleague, and I put up with him the same way Neph put up with Nalysa.
"Neph'Alor. Aiwyn," he greeted us, bending his head discretely. No emotion bended his voice though, as if his soul was empty, and maybe that's what bothered me about him. He was cold, and even if his stern looks could remind me of my Master, they were as different as winter and summer: they were both smart, severe, but my Master was a passionate man, filled with fire and anger and anguish. Il'than seemed empty.
But he was also incredibly intelligent, which was the reason he was Neph's colleague, since they were both equally talented.
"I thought you would be late today," Neph said, making a gesture for his friend to sit. But he didn't.
"Someone exploded something on the alchemy laboratory again, so my meeting with one of the alchemists had to be postponed. I wonder what happened..." Il'than continued as his icy gaze slowly turned to me. Suddenly I broke free of the bewilderment that was holding back my words.
"It was not me. Not this time," I quickly replied, but as he just narrowed his eyes to me I finally understood he thought of me as nuisance at the moment. So I stood up. "I guess you two needed to talk, right? I'll take my leave than."
I bid Neph farewell and left, feeling Il'than's eyes on my back until I got out of sight. I knew he didn't like me, but I never put much thought into it. That also proved to be a mistake, but at that moment I just left them so they could talk about their research in peace. Defeated, once more, I retreated.
And when I thought I could try to talk to Neph at least one more time in the end of the day, when we returned to our chambers, I was wrong. When I entered our room, I felt the scent of roses. Neph prepared me a very special farewell. He gave me roses and made me smile and laugh like I hadn't in a while. He made me giggle and shiver, sigh and pant. He made love to me desperately, and I loved him so deeply and completely, that the very thought that the next day I would be away from him, made my heart ache.
But morning came despite of my feelings. It was with a heavy heart that I took my place among Voren'thal's army, with my mind still on the last night.
And so we marched.