Chapter One
Charred
Kelset ran her fingers along the edges of a few soot covered stones along the outside wall of the Mage's tower. The older man had went back inside to try to salvage a number of books containing tips and lessons on controlling and mastering the use of fire. His enthusiasm about the whole thing made a smile creep across her lips, but she couldn't help but feel terribly guilty about ruining so many of the things this man had worked his whole life to acquire. With a soft, almost in audible groan, Kelset removed her hand from the tower to push hair from her face. It had been a long day, and she was tired on top of feeling guilty. "Not the first time his tower has been destroyed, won't be the last."
The voice was coming up the small walkway and had startled Kelset, causing her to flinch as it pulled her out of the little fog she was in. She turned only to find a Blood Elf standing behind her, staring down with piercing green eyes that burned with magical properties. His voice was stern and stiff, but also held the sense of life experience, and told that he wasn't very amused by the sight before him. His skin held a very soft tint to it, making him slightly darker in tone than herself. Hair was a honey-golden blond that would easily go half way down his back had it done been tossed in a braid to rest over the left shoulder. He appeared to be somewhere in his mid twenties. In his right hand was a staff, forest green in color, and speckled with areas of gray and black. The tip held a moving eye that seemed to frantically move about. Needless to say, the sight of it made Kelset very uneasy. Her stomach wasn't very strong, and most things that seemed alive, or were bloodied, or just in general any sort of body part just made her stomach turn. The focus on the staff was broken when the Blood Elf spoke again. "You careless mage are going to be the downfall for the rest of us. Some things cannot be tamed, and your kind are always tampering with it."
"It was an accident..." Her voice was soft and sheepish as a soft blush began to color her cheeks. It almost felt like she was being chastised by her own father for a moment.
"That's the problem! It's always an accident." With that, he turned away from her to greet the older, still cheerful Mage leaving the tower with arms filled with books, reagents, and chalk. The old Mage greeted the Blood Elf by shoving everything he could into his arms.
"Oh, good! Just time to help repair. I assumed it wasn't too difficult for you to get here?" The old man beamed as he stooped over to start scribbling runes against the hardened dirt.
"Of course not, don't be ridiculous. I've had more training than the two of you combine between here and Pandaria." The Blood Elf huffed as he set down his staff and the books to organize the things.
Kelset couldn't help but to listen in. Pandaria? That was a place she only dreamed of going! As the troops came back to their families some odd years ago, she had heard many stories of the beauty and culture there. Stories of an island with enormous beasts and Devilsaurs, another island that seemed to be some sort of time anomaly where many Bronze Dragons had gathered to study along with historians from around the world. "Have you seen the Vale?" Kelset chimed in, wedging her self between the old Mage and this Blood Elf. "Is it as wonderful as they say?"
The Blood Elf's expression shifted from less than amused to just plain annoyed and irritated. The man was staring daggers at her, which caused the grin her face to falter. "I've seen it. I wouldn't know about it being a wonderful place. I arrived after Garrosh did the damage. I never saw beauty, nor did I see it as a place to vacation. I was there during conflict, and quite frankly, I hope I never see any of it again."
"Well, excuse me for being a bit curious!" Kelset crossed her arms in a very childlike way and furrowed her brows together. Her teacher couldn't help but to chuckle at the sparks flying between the pair. "Why are you even here? You don't seem to be any sort of Mage I've ever seen. To top that off, you aren't even of the same faction."
The old Mage gentle pulled Kelset and the Blood Elf apart before either one of them could say more. "He's actually here to try to build bridges between everyone, and I rather agree with his effort. We all have faced many of the same struggles together. It's about time we stop fighting pointless battles." He patted both of their shoulders. "Now, I need you two. Travel to Silithus and get these reagents for me." The old man shoved a list into Kelset's hands before she could form any thought on the idea. The Blood Elf just shook his head as he removed a small white stone from a pocket. With a few words muttered to it, the stone quickly shifted into a steed with blue, flaring mane and tail. Gorgeous.
"I can't promise I won't just leave her there." The Blood Elf smirked as he climbed into the back of the large steed. "Get on. I don't have time to just wait around."
"Leave me there? I can't promise I won't push you off the horse..." Kelset grumbled, climbing onto the back of the steed and loosely gripping the Blood Elf.
"You might want to hang on a bit tighter than that." With a laugh in his voice, and mischievous grin on his face, he spurred the horse forward. Translucent wings sprouted from the steed's shoulders. As quickly as the Blood Elf gave the small warning, they were up in air and going higher by the second. Kelset ended up throwing her arms around his torso, clinging tightly with her face buried into the robe against his back. Her body trembled, eyes shut tight, and jaw clenched as the wind rushed past them, chilling her body. It wasn't so much the heights that bothered her, but rather the idea of falling off was what bothered her the most.
"Please, can go a little lower?!" Kelset's voice was filled with tension and fear as she fought back the urge to cry in the presence of a man who seemingly couldn't care less.
Unknown to Kelset, the Blood Elf did feel a twinge of guilt. He may be hardened, but he wasn't completely heartless or ruthless. "Or you could just get used to this." He shrugged his shoulders, barely glancing back at the human girl clinging for dear life to him. Ultimately, he would never let her fall off, nor would he have the steed perform outrageous stunts to freak her out even more.
"Damn, Elves..." She murmured, inching forward and pressing her self against him to try to feel some sort of safety or comfort. What she really needed now was solid ground beneath her feet, and perhaps coffee or tea. "I think I might get sick!" She yelled in hopes to make him slow down.
"This Elf has a name. It's Lucen." He paused for a moment, "If you puke on me I really will incinerate you, I swear to it."
The entire trip was nothing but Kelset belly aching about every thing she could think of. Too cold, too fast, too slow, how much longer until they arrived, and especially about the occasional bird they would nearly kill as it refused to move out of the way. Lucen was extremely relieved to finally land, but no one appeared more grateful than Kelset. As the steed disintegrated back into a small stone, she laughed, and nearly cried as she threw her self upon the sandy ground of Silithus. Lucen covered his face in ensnarement as a Cenarion Druid came to greet the odd pair.
"Yes!" Kelset sang. "Finally! Oh, earth, how I missed you! Lucen, bury me in the sand. I need this warm embrace." She joked, not noticing the female Tauren Druid giving them odd looks.
"Get up! We came here for a reason, and it wasn't to goof off in the dirty sand. Do you have an idea what has crawled through there?" Lucen turned his back, not entirely sure he wanted to watch this display.
"Welcome, travelers. I'm guessing she doesn't travel much?" The Druid extended a hand to Kelset, offering to help pull her up and out of the sand.
Young Kelset had no regret about being caught that way. She took the Druid's hand and brushed the sand from her face and hair the best she could. Most of it did get stuck in her clothes, but that was okay for now. The Druid was so calm, and the clothing was something that caught kelset's full attention. Leaves and vines intricately woven into leather. Their garb nearly seemed to come alive! It was beautiful, especially in contrast with the dull colors of a desert. The human and the Blood Elf followed the Tauren obediently, trudging through sand, occasionally seeing a rock, or scorpid of sorts. Many parts of the world was beginning to recover from many tragedies. Flora was blooming in the most unlikely of places, especially areas that were decimated by Deathwing. Silithus? Not a whole seemed to have changed here. It is still just as barren and lifeless as she read about in many books. The only inhabitants were air and earth elementals, scorpid, sand worms, and the most frightening enemy - spiders. Nothing frightened Kelset like giant spiders. Not even the still looming threat of Silithid. In fact, she would rather face a whole slew of gigantic beetles, and even wasps, than spiders.
Kelset shook her head slightly, needing to shift focus off the idea of spiders as the ideas were causing her to make foul faces. There was already enough negative attention from the romp in the sand, no need to add to it.
"I will take you to Cenarion Hold." The Druid started to explain, "Once there, we will explain the current status of the area and ask what business you could possibly have here."
The tone of the Druid wasn't threatening, but rather more curious than anything else. Kelset wouldn't blame her. A young, most inexperienced Mage running around with a stick in the mid Blood Elf. She was questioning her self why she willing went along, too.
"I understand there is still work to be done here, just tell me if there is anything we can do to help during our time here." Lucen offered, wearing the usual unreadable mask, void of most emotions. Unless he was annoyed. It was very clear when that happened.
The trip to Cenarion Hold was rather pleasant. As pleasant as a trek through the desert could be, honestly. The way sand seemed to pull Kelset down, slowing her walk and making her work more just to take a step had Kelset tuckered out. The day was exhausting, and frankly, she just wanted to stop for a while and not leave Cenarion Hold until morning.
"We are not staying. I really do not want to be here any longer than we need to." Lucen crossed his arms stubbornly as Kelset gave him a pleading look.
"Seriously? Pretty sure I have sand in some very private places." She whimpered, shifting around uncomfortably to dislodge the small grains irritating her beneath the robes.
Lucen just cocked a brow. One thing he noticed is when Kelset complains, her eyes get a wonderful shimmer. It wasn't natural beauty he was so focused on, but rather the mana and magic properties she kept so bottled up. They wanted out, and a small part of him wanted to just force them out for his own personal gain. "Not my fault. You are the one who decided to go rolling in the sand." Lucen turned his back and started Northwest. That way, the pair would reach the Earth Elementals holed up in the rocky areas while avoiding the bigger Silithid Hives and Ahn'Qiraj. While that temple was supposed to be abandoned, he really didn't entirely believe that as the Silithid were only increasing in numbers as of late.
Kelset often saw the stare Lucen gave. It made her uneasy, honestly. It wasn't a look of admiration, or perhaps a small glimpse of a crush. It was a very hungry type of look that made her question every word he ever uttered about building bridges between the two Factions. "Yep, well, I blame that on you."
"Of course you do." Lucen rolled his eyes as they started the trek out.
"If we had just stayed on the ground, I wouldn't have been deprived of being on the ground, and would have never felt the need to reassure said ground that I love it, and appreciate it." Kelset followed behind by a step or two. Around one shoulder was the small pack they were to use to carry the reagents the Old Mage needed.
"Right. Not the first time you've mentioned those exact words."
"Not the first time you've mention those words, too, Lucen." Kelset mocked the elven man while shifting her gaze towards the mountain border in the distance. "I'm formally ended my relationship with sand. Dirt is fine, but this sand is just horrible."
It only took a few hours before they were nearing the destination. For the most part, there was little trouble getting there. A couple of worms and scorpid, but nothing that Kelset wasn't able to blast away. The good part about being in an area where nothing could catch fire is that she was allowed to exercise fire without concern of burning the world down around her. Confidence was building in her self until she heard an odd hiss coming from behind. She turned, just in time, to catch the largest spider she had ever seen lunging at her. The sight caused her to shriek. Instead of running, her body was frozen in fear, and her mind was numb. In that moment, Kelset resigned to fate as food for a horrible creature that was pure evil.
"For the love of..." Lucen sighed, snapping his fingers to set the arachnid ablaze. For the next few moments, it squirmed, panicked, screamed and hissed until its insides boiled. By the time it died, there was nothing there but a charred, tough husk. "You could probably crack open a leg. Sort of like a crab."
"So..." Kelset turned to face Lucen, freed from her paralyzing fear once the creature had died. "You're a Warlock? That explains a lot."
"What's that supposed to mean?" He asked the Mage suspiciously. What was wrong with Warlocks? He could think of many things wrong with her, and Mage in general.
"Most Warlocks I have ever met are weird people with this gross fetish for demons, or just flat-out assholes." Kelset shrugged apologetically as Lucen shot her a sharp glare. "You're only reinforcing the stereotype." Kelset laughed.
"Really? You are pretty much the embodiment of Mage. Careless, not the brightest, accident prone, always dipping into things you can't control. Oh, and just for the record, they used to call me Soulburner. I want you to think about why or how that came about."
Miss Mage just rolled her eyes as she smirked at the Blood Elf, finding his attempt to threaten her sort of cute.
A little note.
Thank you all so much for the positive reinforcement! Also, thank you for pointing out for the wrong word being used! I do proof-read, but things are missed sometimes. I will add more to this throughout the day for the next day or two, so check back and something new may be here!