Burden of the Heart
And the final chapter. The board is set. All bets made. I hope you've all enjoyed the first arc of this story. Keep an eye out for the sequel!
Thank you Alzriel, naruto7155, and Storyteller's Dream for the reviews! Also a thank you to everyone that has favorited and are watching this story. As always, Le PommeFinal Chapter: Living
It had taken four days to finally organized his plan of attack at last. Darion Mograine felt it was four days too many but Tirion said it was best to be prepared and time had to be taken to make sure it was done right.
Carefully he sat in front of a mirror, slowly shaving off his new grown facial hair. It was such a chore to do yet he had grown use to his face without the hair. That and it made him look ten years younger easily. It had been nice to bath again and wash away the grim and memory of his loss of control over Taynia's sudden departure. The entire process of grooming and getting ready to meet with his men was one in which he found he could think again. But he had already had plenty of time to think. His mind was made up at last as to what he had to do now.
Darion ran a hand through his hair getting to his feet moving to get dressed and get his armor on again. It felt good to be back in the familiar armor despite how heavy his heart still was. Yet once more the Highlord of the Ebon Blade had a goal to strive for and his confidence had returned. The drive vengeance had given him when the Lich King was replaced with the need to find Taynia and correct his mistake and figure out their relationship. All the questions had to be answered. In all honesty, it felt a much better goal then vengeance had been.
"At least now," Darion mused, "I can just claim I'm on a noble goal,"
It was not just a matter of making sure everything was taken care of before he left.
He moved down the stairs to the counsel room that Tirion Fordring was letting him use for his impromptu meeting of his commanders. Or, at least, all but one.
"Where is Koltira?" Darion asked as he stepped into the room.
Dread Commander Thalanor glanced up at the Highlord and gave a shake of his head, "I'm not sure, milord. I heard that there was trouble at Andorhal..." he looked across the table to the silent Thassarian.
The death knight representative of the Alliance looked at Darion grimly, " Sylvanas has him. We had a truce at the battle but the Alliance went ahead and attacked. She thought him weak and took him somewhere... I've been in Tristfal Glade trying to find information to what that bitch is doing to him," Thassarian let out a slight scowl, his fists tightening, "Damn her. She is nothing but a second Lich King!"
The Highlord put a hand on Thassarian's shoulder, "That she may be but she doesn't represent the Horde as a whole. You know that right?"
"Yes..."Thassarian said letting out a sigh, "I just want to know that he is okay. He is my brother in arms. A friend I could never replace,"
Darion looked up regarding the two commanders, "You might get your chance. I'm going away, why I called you two here. The knights of the Ebon Blade must always have a Highlord...and I won't be able to fulfill the duties of Highlord for a while. I don't know how long. A week, a month, a year?"
The room was silent and Thalanor's eyes widen slightly and Thassarian was staring at the Highlord with surprise. Darion gave a slight smile, "Of all my men, the three obvious choices to replace me for my absence as reagent would be the three of you. Now the two of you though now that Koltira is missing in action,"
Thalanor leaned back closing his eyes thoughtfully, "Hmph. No offense but I'm happy with taking care of security and communication of the Ebon Hold. I'll pass on being named Highlord, milord but I will do my best to maintain things just as smoothly,"
Darion chuckled and turned to Thassarian clapping the death knight on the back, "Then it seems that leaves you Thassarian. You think you can handle it?"
Thassarian shook his head running a hand through his hair, "This is...this is no doubt a great honor. If this is your will, then so be it," he gave a heavy sigh, "Until you return I will take up the mantle of Highlord,"
"Then in the presence of a witness, I hereby name you Highlord Thassarian, leader of the Ebon Blades and official emissary to both the Horde and Alliance," Darion said clapping him in the back again, "I have no doubt you will do well. If you need to get in contact with me, I'll send word of what area I will be in. I might be leaving on an extended journey to fix my mistakes but I won't leave you to the wolves,"
Thassarian smiled putting his hand on top of Darion's, "Thank you High...er...Darion," he said with a small smile, "hopefully I won't abuse the position to go and strangle that Banshee bitch,"
Darion chuckled, "It is so much more rewarding to get her tongue tied and fuming. Use this time to find Koltira and formerly recall him back to the Ebon Hold. No doubt he would be eager to help advice you,"
Thalanor chuckled, "Don't say that Darion. Those two will end up doing all sorts of crazy changes in the Ebon Hold but perhaps not as bad as the changes that I've had to talk Amal'Thazad out of making. The damn lich nearly painted an entire wing a salmon color with flower trim!"
Darion snorted and shook his head, "Next time I consider putting a lich in charge of interior decorating, you have my permission to ignore the order,"
"Consider it done!" Thalanor said with a laugh getting to his feet.
Thassarian sighed, "It is going to be weird to be called Highlord Thassarian. You better hurry back quickly Darion from whatever business you are handling. I don't enjoy paperwork anymore then you do,"
"I will as soon as I find her," the former Highlord said with a smile, "I just have to find Taynia and fix this mess I made,"
"Oh?" Thassarian said arching an eyebrow, "What did you do to make her run off and why are you chasing after her anyways if I may ask?"
Darion was silent for a while before he answered carefully, "I may have given the impression of using her for just a physical reason but the truth is I love her so I'm going to track her down and get all the questions answered..." he paused and turned to look out the window and leaned an arm against the pain lightly, "then who knows what will happen? Marriage, just be friends, friends with benefits...I don't know,"
Thalanor looked on in surprise and Thassarian let out a laugh, "So we are going to have a Highlady of the Ebon Blade when you return eh?"
"Highlord and Highlady Mograine..."Thalanor said with a shake of his head, "I thought I would never see such a thing in a million centuries!"
Darion fought the blush gracing his face glancing over his shoulder at the two, "Shut up, the both of you! You are talking a lot of nonesense. Besides, I don't think we can marry. Death already did us part, remember?"
"There are some crazy cults out there now and days," Thassarian said with a smile, "She no doubt had feelings for you. I just hope you can figure things out. Good luck Darion. I'll hold down the necropolis with Thalanor. Between the two of us, we should manage to keep things running smooth until you return,"
"You better. I don't want to return from this fiasco and have to be attending to your mess and having to spend months organizing it," Darion growled, "or so help me Thassarian, I will ship you to Sylavanas as her personal massage boy,"
Thassarian laughed, "your punishments are getting more cruel and usual! Shall I build a honeymoon suite for you while you are out?"
"No thank you. If I ever did have a honeymoon it sure as hell wouldn't be at Ebon Hold around you morons," Darion said with a snort turning to the two. He reached out a hand to Thassarian who clasped it, "Good luck Highlord,"
"Don't remind me," Thassarian said with a smile, "Good luck Darion. Light's speed on your hunt,"
The former Highlord gave a nod and one last smile before turning to leave. He felt like a weight was off his shoulders for the moment. At least he knew the Knights of the Ebon Blade were in good hands now. He could concentrate more on finding Taynia. Finding her again and finally doing what he should have done before. He would find the answers to the questions of their relationship and this time without falling flat on his face.
There was just one last formal stop before he left on his journey.
It did not take long to arrive at the ruins of his childhood home. It brought a real pang of nostalgia to see the place after so many years. Renault had burned down most of it in his madness. Only the barn had been unscathed and the skeletal, overgrown remains of the home.
The death knight dismounted from his deathcharger and moved into the ruins of the place. There was were the kitchen used to be were his father always made a formal attempt to cook and ended up only able to make sandwiches, porridge and grilled chicken. The rest, to say the least, would not have been out of place in Corpulous's kitchen.
How long had it been since he had come here? Darion didn't know, only leading his mount past the ruins of his childhood home coming to a pause at the restored grave of his mother, the added one of his father, and one dedicated to his brother. The death knight had no ill-will against Renault...perhaps he should for the man could be blamed for all that was wrong in his life. Instead he pitied Renault more then he pitied his own situation. At least he would die some day knowing he didn't get beheaded by his own father for such terrible crimes...
"I think it is time for me to move on," Darion said out loud kneeling down in front of the graves, pulling the few weeds growing about, "I'm the last one now and I might be undead, but at least I draw breath to keep up the fight so no one else will have to go throw what I did," He began slowly closing his eyes.
The light seemed to become stronger and Darion could almost feel like his lost family was there, watching him, proud of him even despite all his dark thoughts and brooding for so long. The death knight got to his feet, "...I'm going to move on now. I'll answer the last questions, figure out things,...but I think I'll be okay from now on, light willing,"
Darion let himself smile a bit, "But damn if the paperwork won't make me crabby when I return to it!"
he opened his eyes, feeling lighter, feeling better, feeling like he had a better goal for once. He had to go. He had lingered in this place, in the past even, far to long. Now was the time for action.
With a lighter step he headed back to his mount. He then mounted the snorting deathcharger and gripped the reins pulling them tight. The beast let out a whinny and reared up, "Lets go Fury," he said with a wild grin, "We've got a long road to ride,"
Then rider and mount were gone in a cloud of dust charging headlong along the road as the hunt began.
…...
The Banshee Queen, Sylvanas sat back on her throne, a frown curling across her face. Things with Koltira's "training" had not been going as planed. It seemed the Death Knights of Acherus could endure a lot of pain and refused to give up their own will to anyone. Briefly she wondered how that cynical moron Darion Mograine managed to keep the knights loyal to him. From what she knew of him, he was ill-tempered, disagreeable, a vicious warrior, and a snot-nosed brat that liked to believe he knew more then others. At ever meeting he would sit back, scowling silently and rolling his eyes at the disputes of the Alliance and Horde. He had no care about events.
Yet the knights of Acherus followed, no, idolized the Highlord. People respected the bastard in ways that she had to struggle to achieve. Even Tirion Fordring expressed deep bonds of brotherhood to the Knights of the Ebon Blade even though they represented everything the light was against. She despised him. She despised him even more when he cut through her defenses and snarled at her pride. Sylvanas had plans to bring the death knights in the Horde under her sway yet they denied any sort of kinship and turned away from her charity.
It seemed it was time to stop using the carrot to make the mules go and more of the whip.
Smoothly, she rose from her throne and strode towards the dungeons of the Undercity where Koltira was being made comfortable. She stepped without making a sound ignoring the groans of Alliance scum and whimpers of prisoners that had displeased the Banshee Queen. She paused at one cell and gave a nod to the forsaken who bowed low, "My queen," he began in a breathy rattle, "no changes to report. He is refusing to cooperate. Torture is not doing a thing to bind him to your will,"
"I figured as much," She said with a frown, "But we may have found a way to ...change his mind as it were Blacklake,"
Claus Blacklake looked up at the queen staring somewhat. If he had an eyebrow left on his smooth decaying face, it no doubt would've been raised in question, "Oh?"
Sylvanas gave a smirk, "They accuse me of being like the Lich King due to my methods so why not just go along with their foolish assumptions? It won't blacken my reputation any further, " she gave a shrug and slight frown, "I sent and expedition north some time ago looking for ways in which to further our own ranks. In the ruins of Naxxramas...we found the methods used to break and control death knights..."
The forsaken chuckled darkly as he got the hint of the dark lady, "I see now, my queen. I take it you are looking for a...uh...suitable first volunteer to test the method?"
A perfect smile graced her lips and a vicious light blazed in her eyes, "Of course Blacklake," she said in a near purr, "After all Koltira Deathweaver is a strong and attractive man. He would be perfect to take in as an addition not only to the Horde but for the Forsaken as my consort, I believe,"
Blacklake gave a dark chuckle and a bow to his queen, "No doubt he would a pretty gem in your crown my queen but it seems a formal recall from the Highlord has arrived,"
Sylvanas scowled crossing her arms, "That idiot Mograine again-"
"No, not Mograine," Blacklake interrupted with an apologetic bow, "Highlord Thassarian for now. Seems Darion Mograine has left the knights on some sort of personal mission,"
The Banshee Queen frowned even more, displeased with the news. Thassarian would no doubt be sticking his nose further into her business then Darion ever did. The fact that Mograine had left the Highlord position to him Thassarian and had left was also, however, an opportunity and an item of curiosity.
"I'll deal with Thassarian and the knights of the Ebon Blade. It is easy to use political theocracy to mire down the process. I doubt that Thassarian would be as rash as his predecessor to just barge in at his leisure," Sylvanas said, "But this mission..."
"I'm going to look into it personally milady, "Blacklake said smoothly with a bow, "After all, it shouldn't be to hard to figure out what is bothering Mograine. I'll report back as soon as I find out and will then await your next orders,"
Sylvanas gave a predatory grin, "Excellent. Now excuse me, I have a death knight to...welcome to the Forsaken," she said smoothly.
Blacklake gave another low bow and shuffled off to leave his queen alone to her work. The fallen ranger stepped into the room, eying up the chained death knight with a smirk, "Well Koltira, I'm surprised you haven't been more amiable to my lenient treatment of you,"
The death knight gave a contemptuous glare as he watched Sylvanas move around the room to a covered table. Whatever was on the table seemed to be of interest to the Banshee Queen for she treated it with loving adoration. Koltira sneered, "When Highlord Mograine hears of this-"
"He won't do a thing," Sylvanas said, "Highlord Mograine is no more. The Highlord of the Ebon Blade is now Thassarian, your dearly devoted compatriot. He had asked for your recall, but if all goes well, you won't answer," the Banshee Queen said with a devious smile.
"If I'm called to Acherus, you can bet your life that I will go, banshee bitch," Koltira snarled struggling in his bindings, "Loyalty to the knights of the Ebon Blade comes before your petty wishes for power! If I don't report, Thassarian will break down the doors of your city to find me,"
The Banshee Queen laughed, "Oh Darion would have. He tends to act like the world is his personal high throne and he can walk in whenever he wants. Thassarian has more manners then that idiot Mograine," She idly lifted the covering off the item on the table, "But even if Thassarian follows in his predecessor's footprints, you will tell that Alliance scum to leave you alone,"
"Never. Thassarian is my comrade in arms and I would never do anything to hurt or endanger him," Koltira growled.
Sylvanas laughed again tossing the covering to the side revealing an odd looking device. It was inscribed with runes similar to those on a runeblade and clearly of Scourge design. It was raised slightly resembling a small ziggeraut in shape with a crystal clasped to the top glowing slightly with a sickly green color. Koltira felt his blood run cold.
"I see you recognize this, yes?" Sylvanas said with a smirk, "If not, let me bring back memories. This device was used by Kel'Thuzad to help break death knights and enslave their will to the Lich King if they were less then willing,"
The vicious smile returned to her face and her eyes held an air of triumph as Koltira's eyes widened and then narrowed. He thrashed in his bindings and cursed her loudly but she ignored it activating the device, "Of course I had my men tamper with it slightly to suit my own needs. I don't want to enslave you to the Lich King, I want to bend you to my will. You will love me more than life itself. You will worship and follow my orders as if it was air,"
She smiled as the device turned on and Koltira felt the pull of the power and the nightmarish visions return as he was subjugated to the breaking of his spirit all over again. Sylvanas leaned forward and held his chin, "Now, Koltira...Who do you love?"
…...
Shattrath City had been a quite place ever since Illidian had fallen and a semblance of peace had descended on the Outlands. Already children could play in the streets again and there was a general migration back out to outlying villages and establishing new ones as well about Shattrath. The World's End Tavern was not as active as it use to be, but it was far from dead.
From his seat, Orlon had a good view of the comings and going of all the visitors that still trickled into Outlands. The old Broken One sat back enjoying the calm of the city. He was a long retired mage now, getting on in age and cared more about the growing of his ample stomach then of rushing about on adventures anymore. It didn't mean that at times he longed for the old excitement to tickle at his life again more or to listen to the travelers that passed by and trade a yarn or two. It was why he liked to come to the World's End Tavern. It was a place to gather, talk, and listen to the going ons in the world.
The Broken One looked up as the doors to the inn opened and a priestess of the light moved in, lowering her hood. She was a pretty woman despite the grime of the road that clung to her clothes and face. What stood out the most was the faraway sad expression. The thick robes were stained with blood that wasn't her own probably coming fresh from a mission outside the city for some gold. What was truly alarming was he notice a swell of her stomach that indicated she was most likely with child.
The woman slid into a booth far from the others hunching over, one hand trailing over her stomach. She ordered a hot meal and a drink . Orlon took a pool from his own mug before getting to his feet and moving over to her. She looked like she need an ear to listen to her or just someone to be sitting with her.
"You look like you've had a rough travel," Orlon began giving a small bow, "I've seen travelers come through with a weight on their back but yours looks the heaviest I've seen in a long time,"
The human woman looked up giving a faint sad smile, "You could say that, but it was my own mistake in a serious of rash mistakes," Her hand moved from her swelling belly back to the table, "I commited a terrible mistake just six months back...and tried to fix it in the worse way,"
"Oh?" Orlon slide into the seat across from her slowly feeling his old bones protesting somewhat, "Well I may be a stranger, but you can consider me a friend. I'm Orlon, just Orlon. A retired mage enjoying a quite life here off what I've saved up. Still love to hear stories that come in from the outside,"
"I have a story," She said lightly her smile becoming a bit more warm, but still distant, "One of a girl with aspirations to be a great and wise priestess like her mother who turned out incompetent coward. A girl who found love and then cheated it, found it still there, and then ran away from it again. A mistake she can't confront out of her own fears and bears the marks of that day to the world. I.. I am not a good woman nor role model, that I can assuer you, "She laid a hand on her stomach, her eyes downcast.
The waitress came back and set down the food and drink and Orlon took out a few coins to cover the cost, "This meal is on me. You are hard on yourself, tell your story and I'll tell you if you deserve all this self hate and regret,"
She quietly picked up her fork taking a slow bite of the meal. For a long time she remained silent. Orlon patiently awaited for her to speak again. Eventually she set the fork down and let out a soft sigh, "I thank you for your kindness. I can tell you the story, I owe that much to your kindness although I hope only that my story will not make you hate me,"
"I hardly know you, how could I hate you?" Orlon said sitting back, "After you speak about a burden, sometimes it makes it easier to let it go and move on,"
She smiled again and closed her eyes, "My name is Taynia Fieldstron. I'm just a traveler for now doing odd jobs, but also a mother to be," she began running a hand over her swelling stomach, "I don't know where to begin really...the beginning, the end, the middle...I don't know how much I can tell to a stranger so I'll just tell you what I can get out for now,"
Taynia opened her eyes and looked at Orlon sadly, "There is so much to say, I just hope I can explain this burden on my heart..."
Then she began to tell her story and he leaned in to hear her trembling soft voice. Around them the World's End Tavern continued about its business.
…...
Duh, duh, DUUUN!
So I end this story with cliffhangers and everything in place. I bet you are all ready to throttle me. Just please wait until I finish the first chapter of the sequel before you do so. It is not officially time to say this story is complete and start on the second arc. We get to see how all of this is going to play out what with Thassarian being the Highlord and Taynia having trouble brewing in her belly. And questions will be answered like What was the gift and how is Taynia's new predicament is even possible, and what Sylvanas is up too.
Thank you all for reading, reviewing, favoriting, and what not. It is indeed the fuel that keeps me writing.