I was thoroughly confused. Why did we need to go south now? I trusted Aelana and flew off as she jumped on me so I could carry her. I mentally chuckled at the thought of her throwing herself into my arms but didn't waste time as she seemed serious. Whatever had happened, it was urgent, I could read it in her eyes. Not too long after I initiated our new journey she started explaining what she figured out, or rather, what she thought was going on. She told me about me being targeted on purpose so I wouldn't be able to give their disguise away. The reason why we were flying to the south now was to meet the paladins head on.
"Aelana?"
"Yes, Angel?"
"I was thinking, do you think they have some spy with the forces marching our way?"
"I was actually thinking the same."
"If they do, wouldn't it be better to now show myself? You know, they know I can sense them. If I show myself, they will most likely turn themselves against us to inflict as much damage as possible in a last ditch effort."
"You're right, stay away from the path and keep low, if we see them approach, we hide. We should also make a plan to take them out without anyone getting hurt."
I couldn't think of a good plan before we could already see the paladins from Light's Hope approaching. I quickly landed and hid behind a hill with Aelana, obscuring ourselves from the marching band of soldiers.
"What do we do?" I asked, "you got a plan?"
"Maybe," she responded, "are you able to check from here if any of them is fake?"
"I'm not sure, let me try."
I carefully raised my head over the top of the hill to get a look at the warriors of the light. They had about fifteen men and women with them. I could vaguely make out a scourge aura coming from them, I just could not pinpoint who it was.
"There's a scourge among them, I do not know who however, the distance is too great."
"Then we need to get closer," she looked around for a bit, "They will reach that ziggurat soon,"she pointed to one of the foul scourge buildings," from the hill it's positioned on, we should get a closer view on them when they pass."
We ran as silently as we could downhil, then I picked her up and started flying to the ziggurat, carefully planning my route to stay out of sight. Because of the detour we barely managed to be in position on time as they passed us no more than ten seconds later. I carefully looked over the edge, no one could see me here or they would all be in serious danger. I pinpointed the scourge taint down to an avarage built human. He seemed to blend in nicely as he was having a conversation with some others.
"I found him, its the human male third from the front to the right. I made sure Aelana saw him well and we mentally wrote down a few details about this man. He wore a blue shirt under his plate harness for example and he had a small dent in his helm on the left side. There were not too many details that really made him stand out, so we would have to be careful and precise. Not only that, we needed to be swift as well, before the guard from Tranquillien got here.
If Aelana were to suddenly appear here after he informed them of us going to Zul'Aman he might see us through. I saw Lucas walking not too far from the back, he was talking with Estelle again which made me smile a little.
"Aelana," I whispered, a plan forming in my head.
"Yes?"
"I will drop you off further down the road, tell them of the plan of us going to Zul'Aman, go with them, tell Lucas of what's going on, we need his assistance in this matter. I hope he trusts us enough to kill a disguised spy."
"I should have learned shadow magics shouldn't I? I love helping people, but I dislike having to continuously rely on others," Aelana sounded doubtful.
I smiled. "I don't think using shadow magic here is a good idea, it would give him the time he needs to attack us. Also, the path you have chosen fits you well."
She smiled back. "Ok let's go."
I picked her up and quickly but silently flew towards Tranquillien, staying out of sight all the time. I dropped her off at a crossroads and whispered her to be safe. I then went into hiding in the hills next to the scar. She walked into the direction of the paladins from there. I made sure to stay as close as possible while following her from a distance in case anything went wrong.
I was so tense the moment she met the small army head on. I feared for her life and that of the soldiers. She talked to the man walking in front who had been identified as the leader of this group. I couldn't make out what they were saying but I didn't need to. Aelana pointed in the direction of Zul'Aman and I knew what was being said. The human male at the head of the group shouted to his followers, loud enough for me to hear. They were changing course to the fallen troll capital.
I saw Aelana walking past the spy, not showing any signs of suspicion towards him. She merged with Estelle and Lucas at the back while they changed direction.
So far, so good.
I could see her talking to Lucas, trying not to let anyone besides Estelle hear what she had to say. I paid close attention to the spy, he didn't look back at her once and it untensed me a little, knowing that he didn't know. At some point I saw Lucas drawing his sword, he very silently unsheathed it and walked to the front, the blade hidden from view from the others.
A cry pierced the air as Lucas impaled the spy from behind.
"Lucas what are you doing?" the leader said as he drew his own blade.
He then noticed the green blood oozing down from the wound, "Scourge!"
He prepared to behead the scourge fiend when everyone around the impaled man was pushed away by a dark force.
I quickly flew down to assist.
The undead laughed, an evil laugh that woud have made me freeze from fear had I still been in my previous life.
"You think me defeated so easily?"
He stood up, his flesh had disappeared as he was now a living skeleton. Lucas's sword fell to the ground from between his ribs.
"You think I didn't know? I just wanted you to be here as I kill your allies, he looked at me.
I drew my own sword and brought it down upon him. He unleashed another blast of energy and I was pushed away.
"Weak!" he taunted me.
I conjured a combination of dark and light energies and unleashed it at him. He didn't even deflect it as he looked at Lucas who was looking worried.
"You will pay for backstabbing me."
He shot a large ray of dark lightning from his hand which narrowly missed Lucas but hit the unexpecting Estelle full on. She was thrown to the ground and I knew she would be in bad shape from that.
I focused my rage on my sword and empowered Heaven's Descent with holy light to counter his magic. I impaled the skeletal warlock from behind and then unleashed all the power stored within. A flash of light was the result, and the next moment, he was gone, but not for good.
"He escaped," I clarified for Aelana, who seemed surprised at the fact that he would die so easily.
I walked over to Estelle who lay motionless on the floor, I didn't quite like the look of this. I kneeled down and placed my hands on her to heal her from whatever just hit her. When I placed my hands on her skin after removing her chestplate I could feel no warmth from her. Lucas had come to sit next to me, but I just couldn't look at him. I forced Estelle's eyes open only to see that the familiar green glow had left her eyes, the spark had gone out.
I heard Lucas sobbing beside me.
"You did like her, didn't you?" I asked him.
"Yes, of course, what did you think. She always made me smile, she would make me laugh again after I lost half of my arm, when I thought I would never laugh again. She is the one who made me stay instead of going home to Stormwind after the incident."
I didn't tell him, but from what he told me and from what I saw earlier it seemed like Estelle liked him back.
He convinced me, I didn't want to have to do this but it seemed like I had no choice in the matter, two more lives destroyed because of the scourge was something I could not handle.
"I am so sorry Estelle," I whispered when I placed my right hand on her head, and my left to her side.
I began channeling dark magics into her, I tried adding some holy magics as well to make it as easy on her as possible. Lucas didn't say a word, not even when I was done.
Estelle opened her eyes, revealing the now glowing blue ones behind the lids.
"What happened? Is he gone? I am so cold," she shuddered.
"I am so sorry Estelle," I apologised again.
"For what?" she asked.
"For bringing you back like this."
"Wat do you mean bringing me ba-," she stopped.
"No, no, I am not dead, I can't be!"
"I'm afraid so," I answered.
"It's okay," Lucas tried soothing her, "you're still with us"
"But I-," she started crying, Lucas hugged her. It made me feel even more horrible about what I had just done, but I had to, for both of them.
The other soldiers said nothing and stared at either Estelle or me. They didn't even notice the guard coming from Tranquillien.
Aelana sat down on my other side and rested her head on my shoulder.
"You did the right thing," she whispered.
"I know, but I hated having to do it."
"They will be all right in time."
"I hope so."
