Chapter 10:
The way back up the stairs seems endless despite having travelled into the opposite direction not too long ago. As we finally manage to reach the upper level, the head of the guard is already waiting for us. He is a tall grown man, probably in his beginning thirties. He has short black hair and a chin-beard. A scar marks his right cheek as battle hardened.
"It's good to see you are capable of following your given orders, lieutenant Narval." Whitemane greets him not too friendly.
"And it's good to see you too, Sally, even though I would prefer other occasions." He smiles at us ignoring the harsh intro.
"We need people for a small field trip to Brill immediately! I'll be leading it personally. It is of utmost importance for all our sakes! Do you understand?" The tone of voice is urging and relentless.
"I didn't expect it to be this dramatic... Well, I will gather some men for you. I'll see what I can find..., give me twenty minutes, Sally." His words are strong, showing no sign of being dominated by her.
"You have ten, and don't you dare to take any longer!" She on the other hand lets everything sound like a threat. The lieutenant bows briefly and heads off with quick steps to call some of his soldiers to arms.
Not even two minutes have passed when Whitemane crosses her arms and starts tapping her foot. I feel even more uncomfortable standing next to her now, especially as she is impatient like that.
A muzzled scream travels to our ears from downstairs.
"To hell with that fool! Why must he kill the last surviving one too?" She almost starts shouting at me. When I first met her I could have never imagined her to become this furious. Usually she's calm and most of all things, as cold as ice with every fabric of her being and now? I'm standing here right by her side watching as she starts walking around in circles like a cages animal.
"Sometimes I wonder how anybody like him can be in the leadership of the Crusade... He always overdoes it!" She mumbles into the darkness around us, anger clearly driving her words.
I didn't know this side of him, in Hearthglen he was always rather quiet and reserved, but hearing Whitemane talk like this it seems that stuff like 'this' happens rather often. How couldn't I notice?
And Whitemane keeps on talking to herself, probably a reaction to the sudden distress.
"Sometimes I hope he'd die because of his recklessness. We don't need such an idiot in one of the top positions. Give me one good reason not to kill him!" It sounds as if she is talking mad due to a fever.
"Now now Sally, calm down again, everything will be fine. We just have to recover that one little book from the undead and those bastards won't get a chance to strike at us..." Luckily for me she actually calms down a bit.
Still the minutes pass uneasily, but now I can already see the lieutenant again and I am pretty sure he made it prior to the end of the deadline set by Whitemane. The moment she spots him, she stops walking around dead in her track.
"Here we are, Sally. Ten of my finest men ready to go out into battle." He bows slightly upon returning.
"Finally! Then follow me, men." She speaks whilst offering the warriors a strict look.
"Should I join you, Sally?" Narval asks out of the blue.
"No!" Her answer comes immediately, "You stay here and watch over Isillien. He let his rage take over again. Go down there and settle him! Restrain him if you have to for all I care! We can't afford him to kill any more of the prisoners... "
"Aye, milady. As you wish." He takes the stairs downwards at once.
"Now, for the rest of you, follow me and be prepared to have to fight against heavy resistance once we leave sacred ground." She takes the lead as we hurry out of the Monastery. "We will go by foot, horses would track too much attention. Nevertheless we have to be swift!" She announces and we head on out into the silence of the night.
Whitemane continues her briefing as we reach the small road that leads down from the hill the monastery is built upon.
"Our main objective will be a book of the Apothecary Society of the so-called Forsaken. It is currently situated in a rather small house in the middle of the city formerly known as Brill." As I hear the name of the city, my heart figuratively jumps up to my throat. "Because we captured three of their men yesterday, they will probably be on their guard, so be careful and do not underestimate them!"
Wow... I'm going to be in Brill again... I'm going home? This is the only thing my mind can come up with at this present moment, shutting out most of Whitemanes words completely.
"If the book is recovered, we leave the town immediately! There shall be no unnecessary hostilities and I don't look forward to filing any casualties on side either..., so tread lightly!"
We now slowly leave the grounds of the Scarlet Crusade and go deeper into the dark forests of Tirisfal.
"I will take care of the protection of the civilian in our ranks personally, yet if the group should be separated by whatever means, protect him at all cost." She seems to be referring to me, "If he should die or be taken captive, I will take care personally that everybody responsible will hang by noon tomorrow! There will be no excuses! And take my word... I will have your head for it!" Her words are colder than usually, she really means what she says.
We reach the end of the forest and currently we are standing on a hill overseeing the town of Brill. It looks very much the same as it did before the plague and the Scourge started to wreak havoc in the lands of Lordaeron. There is maybe only one or two houses missing from the picture in my memory.
Whitemane quietly raises her hand signalizing everybody to stops and get down. We all crunch down without delay, those directly at the edge lie down completely. From up here I can see two lights moving around within the town, both probably coming from torches. I guess those are from guards on their duty. But I guess two guards are not that much compared to ten warriors of the crusade, plus Whitemane herself.
She points out with her hand that we should back off from the edge of the hill. As we reach a short distance, she starts talking again.
"As I have seen, the house is almost in the middle of the town, opposite to the former town hall and next to the stables." No, that is not where I lived some time ago. Our house was much nearer to the blacksmith and the inn. "We will try to go around the city as far as possibly. The main problems will be: if we go around south of the village, we will have to pass the watchtower behind Brill and if we go north, we have to go through the whole village most likely, yet we don't endanger ourselves attracting more attention from the ruins of Lordaeron. And that would most likely be the worst case scenario."
Whitemane thinks on her own words for a moment.
"We will take the risk and approach from the north. Head back the way we came, there should be a small passage down the hill up north."
The men do as she says without any further reaction - it is complete compliance on display.
"We will try to lie low as long as possible and take out guards by surprise. No falling out of line! So watch your steps as you walk through the village and be careful should you pass the stables. They keep their undead steeds in there and they are no less skittish than their living counterparts!" Quickly we descend down the path to the foot of the hill.
Undead horses...? I have never seen or heard of any of those. Makes me wonder what they might look like, though this is hardly the time to be thinking about something like this.
"Once you can see the cemetery of Brill, nobody says a single word. Don't dare to make one sole sound!" These are the last words we all hear from her before reaching the end of the small passage.
We are standing on a wide road to the north, a connection from the City of Lordaeron to the seaside built by fishermen and the farmers living up further north. Later that region was infested by murlocs, such dreadful creatures, fish on legs with terrible apparel. They are pretty dangerous even. They have teeth sharp as razors, a good sight and most worrying of them all: they socialize. So be careful if you attack one of them, probably the whole 'family' will try to ambush you in return. Some of them are even able to cast simple spells.
In the meantime, as I was drifting to my thoughts, Whitemane quietly finished the last bit of the briefing for the warriors.
We follow the road to the north for a while, then we turn off left into the forest to the west. The graveyard of Brill is already visible. We want to take the small opening between it and the town hall to breach the perimeter. Whitemane and probably three or four guards will rush into the house on the other side of the main street of town and get what we are searching for. The rest of us will secure the passageway out of the city, making sure we are able to retreat without any disturbances.
The closer we get the slower and slower we continue our way, careful not to make any sound that could give us away to the enemy.
Everybody is silent as we reach the backside of the town hall. Continuing onwards we sneak to the western side of it. I can just hope nothing will happen or go wrong, that we can do this easily without anybody having to die.
At the corner of the building Whitemane briefly stops, pointing at three of the guards just before she heads around it first, the three chosen ones following directly after her. The rest of us stay put. We are the backup and we have to make sure we can retreat safely.
I can't really hold back and take a peek around the corner. Whitemane and the others are already at the street. They hesitate to go on, which makes me wonder what they are seeing.
Suddenly she gives a sign and Whitemane herself as well as the three guards, dash towards the house on the opposite side of the street. As they have made about half of the way to the building, I hear a dull sound very close.
I spin around quickly. One of our men is lying in black grass with a dagger dug deep into in his back. What on earth? Blood is pouring out from the open wound. For a second we all stare at the body in shock, even the hardened warriors.
"An ambush!" I hear Whitemane yelling from the other side of the building. I take another hasty look around the corner finding one of the guards fighting with an undead. Another one is lying on the ground with the creature sitting on top of him lifting its weapon, ready to plunge it into the back of the warrior. Whitemane barely manages to cast smite on the creature knocking it off before I would have been too late, sending it flying some meters. No need to keep it quiet any longer.
"I will get the book! Just keep those damn monsters off of my back! Then retreat immediately!" She yells at all of us.
As soon as the words left her mouth she starts rushing towards the building in question, one of the wretched creature already tailing her. The third warrior she took with her tackles the undead from the side, taking it off its course.
By now another of the men standing right next to me has a knife in his back. He gargles on blood and falls to the ground right to my side. I press myself to the wall in shock, slowly sliding down onto my knees.
One of our men in the front of the building screams out in agony, giving away how another one of the creatures had been successful.
The five remaining guards behind the building with me are looking around hectically. No sign of an undead monster anywhere close by to be found
For a moment I think I can hear a faint voice uttering something. It sounded distantly like 'fools'. I can only pray to the light that this was merely a byproduct of my imagination.
Then all of a sudden another three undead come leaping out of the shadows of the trees around us. They are far more agile than the ghouls of the Scourge could ever become. How can this be? One of them carries two swords and easily holds two of our warriors at bay on his own. A second one even has a shield, and is blocking most of the attacks from the remaining fighters.
But where is the third? Only a moment ago there were three of them!
The guard right in front of me looks down upon me, checking if everything is still alright. Just in this moment the third undead appears behind him. I try to warn him, but it's already too late. The creature slits his throat instantly, a spray of blood covering everything in front of him, including parts of my robe and face. The undead is grinning, foul teeth showing in is lipless mouth as the expression on me distorts in horror and disgust. The other two are still keeping back the rest of our warriors with ease.
"What are you doing here, frail little worm?" The voice is crooked, it is hard to understand, but he definitely speaks in our language, though the dialect seems off. "This isn't the right place for you to be in... and you sure don't look like a healer to me..." That thing has the same glowing eyes as the one I saw earlier this night within the dungeon of the monastery.
I barely manage to utter in fear. I've seen three people die right before my eyes and I couldn't do a single thing about it!
Desperate I try to get away by slowly crawling sideways until I reach the corner of the building, the undead following behind me with light steps.
My mind is a mess! I can't think a clear thought. What should I do? Why did Whitemane take me here? Why me? Those questions are the only things that come up in my mind, leaving me without anything that would actually help.
Out of the corner of my eye I can already see the weapon of the undead, a short sword resting firmly in his grip. Not fully clear to me why I turn onto my back, staring at my follower.
Dammit! I want to live!
Fear is everything I have in my heart right now. I want to live, but I'm overwhelmed by doubt.
"Just kill him! You have the intention to! Use your fear!" A well-known female voice yells from somewhere not too far off behind me.
I have too much doubt in myself. I utter it too quietly. "D-d-die. Just die."
"Just do it, idiot! We both know you can! If you want to survive, it has to die!"
I want to live. And she is not close enough to help me yet. The others are barely standing a chance against the two other undead by themselves. The one with the short sword is standing above of me. Closing in. Raising the sword. Only seconds left in this world.
"DO IT NOW!" She yells again.
I just don't want to die today.
The creature has to...
I don't want to harm anybody, but... I have no choice.
"D...DIE!" I say it out loudly, but I'm not able to scream anything at the creature.
At first everything feels warm inside of me. Then everything drops and turns cold. I scream in pain, my eyes closed. Everything hurts, every little thing of my body.
Am I dying?
Didn't I make it in time?
How could I...?
Then from one moment to the next the pain is completely vanished.
I hear metal falling to the ground next to me, maybe inches away.
And as I slowly open my eyes again, a short sword is lying in the grass to my right. The creature is still standing over me, but the glow in its eyes is fading rapidly. It finally loses its balance and reels backwards. With a damped sound it falls to the ground without any further movement.
"Smite!"
The undead with the two swords is plunged away by the cast hitting it from behind and off guard.
Whitemane and one surviving warrior of the crusade have just arrived. Barely in time I guess...
"Pain!" Is the second thing she cries out after arriving just in the nick of time. Quickly I am pulled to my feet by one of the warriors who is still left. "We have to get out immediately! Prepare yourselves that they will follow us!" The undead with the shield winces in pain.
As we get going I come to wonder how I'm not injured at all, leaving me with nothing more but assumptions to take on where the pain came from for now.
The seven of us fall into running as we enter the forest north of Brill. "Stay together! If somebody is lost now, he will probably fall to the undead!"
We reach the road to the north coast fast. Carefully we look around. No-one to be seen here, therefore we head onwards to the small passage way. All of us only have minor injuries, in contrast to the ones lost.
We have already reached the forest in front of the hill of the Scarlet Monastery.
"Don't slow down, we are only safe once we manage to reach the walls of the monastery! Not a single step earlier!"
I try to keep as much distance to the trees around us as possible after having seen how those undead could hide in the shadows, though it proves difficult indeed.
I don't know where we take this energy from, but we speed up our pace even further from the moment on when we are able to see the monastery on the hill.
As we finally reach the way up to our safe haven, we are already greeted by Scarlet Soldiers. "So Narval put up guards out here? For once he did something useful...", Whitemane mutters to herself with a strangely disapproving sound to it.
She slows down the moment as we are past the first guards.
"Go to your quarters now and rest, you all have a day off tomorrow. I will send healers to you as soon as I reach the cathedral." Whitemane announces in front of the monastery.
The warriors stop and salute her. None of them ever spoke a single word. Is this blind obedience or were they just drowsy? On the other hand, I can't complain... they fought well.
This type of authority is another reason I wouldn't want to join the military.
"You can slow down now, Marc..." Whitemane's tone is a bit mocking and I didn't even notice how I was still rushing forward like this. "No need to hurry anymore. The monastery is less than a hundred meters away and we are already in an area overseen by guards. Everything's fine from on out." For the first time since we've left to the dungeons earlier this night she calms down a bit. As advised I also slow down. I can't deny that she is right - we should be out of danger for now.
"Not everything went as it should, but at least I have the book we were seeking. It will be worth the lives lost." She takes a heavy breath tightly clutching onto the book in her arm.
"What...what is it for, if I may ask?" I stutter as I try to catch my breath for the first time this night.
"It's a recipe book full of alchemical formulas. The undead seem to be gathering the resources to try and create another plague. By losing this they should suffer a heavy setback. Hopefully long enough so the Ashbringer will be able to clean the areas here before they can attack us with their new weapons." Her words are filled with a certain tone of relief, though hardly reliable.
I clearly didn't expect this to be something this valuable.
My thoughts are still a bit messed up. I still don't know where the pain came from earlier and how I managed to survive the attack of the undead at all.
"So you were actually capable of killing that thing?" Whitemane asks me.
"I... I don't know." I respond honestly to her question.
"Well..., there was no one near you that time and I had enough trouble getting along myself. So, it must have been you. Call me a liar if I said I wasn't completely unsurprised." She runs through her hair with her fingers. "To be honest, I didn't expect you to be able to do something like that... This was the first time you performed a spell successfully. How was it? Tell me! Did you feel that tingling sensation when the effect on the target kicks in?" The smile on her face looks awkward, a bit gruesome, but still in a happy way.
"Feel... what?" I just ask her straight forward.
"Usually you feel something the first time when you perform shadow magic." She tries to explain.
A tingling sensation she calls it? The only thing I felt was pain.
"I... don't know. I was paralyzed for a moment due to the pain I felt." I answer quietly and carefully.
"Oh, is that so...?" She raises an eyebrow as her words seem to be trailing off.
"What? What's about this pain?" I immediately pick up on it, she knows something! She always knows more than she would tell me.
"Oh, it's nothing silly boy, just don't think about it." Her excuse sounds as if she wants me to keep asking her. Damn it, she wants me to question the things she is saying.
"Come on, tell me!" I try to push it a bit more. I want to know what this is all about.
"I told you, forget about it! It's nothing..., really!" I still can't believe her.
"Tell me! Five men died tonight to recover that book and you told me about it so easily, now you don't want to talk to me about ... THIS?" My words are surprisingly demanding - how unusual for me.
"No, just forget it... I won't tell you a single word!" She is smiling again. I'm sure she is planning something and I wonder what. "I'm glad you did not die tonight..." She changes topic instantly not leaving me the slightest chance to go on questioning her about it. "You performed quite a dangerous spell back there, you know? I've never had any doubt that you could kill that thing, but using the 'Shadow Word: Death' is quite remarkable for a rookie like you."
I'm not sure how to respond for a couple of moments. Shadow Word: Death? What...?
"I... I don't know a spell like that! I..., I never knew any more than you showed me earlier this night..." I stutter, hectically trying to put the sentences together.
"I know, idiot... But that means you are a natural!" Hearing this as an answer feels a bit like running into a brick wall blindfolded. "Your intention to kill was strong enough to finish that thing off. After seeing that, I'm quite positive if you really wanted to, you could perform anything I showed you tonight with ease and on top of that with far more efficiency than I did." Those words are as if she is slapping me right in the face over and over aging. That's not me! I never could do such things.
"Stop making that face! You know that you killed that undead monster back there. You killed the one that murdered three of our men! You're a hero for all that counts..." Her tone is pressing, "You definitely have to learn to have more faith in yourself..." She shakes her head with a frown.
"I..." I want to respond, but just don't know what to say. Meanwhile we reach the entrance to the monastery and I feel glad to reach this place still alive.
"Now, tomorrow or well... today you have a day off. But in the evening I want an answer from you! Whether you want to have class with Isillien, me as a private tutor or study on your own until the old man returns, which should be in roughly two to three weeks."
Did she really just offer me I could study on my own? She was the one who said a person like me needs a teacher?
"Just keep in mind that neither the mad man Isillien, nor the old man Fairbanks can offer you the same amount of things that I can." She winks at me with yet another alluring look.
She might be right on that one. I am sure the High Inquisitor Fairbanks would never try to teach me something as reckless and dangerous as she did. And Issilien? I can hardly trust him anymore after tonight.
Her boots give us away as we enter the main hall of the monastery. The echo is tremendous in here.
As we pass the door to the office of the head of the guards she turns to me. "Wait here for a second."
I nod silently before she heads off into the room.
Did I really kill that thing? I had no help at all, had I? Was I really able to cast such a strong spell all by myself?
It doesn't take too long for Whitemane to return. I only had to wait for two minutes or even less, my sense of time is somewhat screwed up.
"Now we can move on..."
My quarters aren't far anymore. Fatigue is finally catching up with me. I want to sleep, but it still bothers me that she wouldn't tell me what that pain was about. And I can clearly tell that she knows something about it.
We enter the hallway were my room is in too.
Together we walk up to my door, it's the same way for her anyways.
"Rest well, Marc." She says as I open the door.
"You..., you too." I'm not sure what would be an appropriate answer concerning she is still a Inquisitor. Not able to worry too much about it though I enter my room. Whitemane already wants to walk away before I speak up a final time for the day. "Wai...wait." I utter into the night.
"Yeees my dearest?" She turns around, now leaning against the frame of the door, offering a seductive look as her chest bulges out at me.
"Tell me..." Are the only words I could think of.
"You're repeating yourself too much, honey. Don't you think that is too monotone when talking to a girl?" She is trying to get out of the situation by mocking me.
"Just say it..." I plead to her.
"You really want to know, huh? ... Alright..., alright..." She looks to the floor for a short moment, probably thinking of what to say. I already assume she won't tell me the truth. Or at least not all of it.
"To put it as simple as I can: You lost a part of your soul to the shadows today." I raise an eyebrow, probably now staring at her. "Purists would most likely say you were tainted." She makes a short pause before continuing. "But this only proves me right... You are a natural talent with this type of magic." She smiles at me again, blows me a kiss, than turns around and walks off with quick steps.
I wouldn't be able hold her back even if I wanted to, so I slowly close the door, walk over to my bed and basically just collapse onto it.
I didn't expect such an answer. I really did not...
Now my head is overwhelmed by thoughts and questions yet again. Just when I thought I had achieved a bit more clarity, a few things answered, an endless new array of questions arises.
How did it come so far? I wanted to become a priest, skilled in the holy arts, not something like..., like... her!
She was the one who told me I could choose what I want to become. Now it's taken from me just like that!
I don't want to be like this...