Hey everyone,
I finally turned my attention from publishing my novels long enough to finish another part of the Ulduar arc. Sorry for leaving you on such a cliffhanger last time.
On the subject of my novels I've got all 5 of them up free this Friday and Saturday, Apr. 3rd-4th. If you want to check them out the link to my author page where you can find them all is on my profile, along with the links to each individual book. If you enjoy reading them I hope you'll review and recommend them, and thank you all again for the support you've given me over the years.
NT
Ulduar Part Four
Nova's offhand dagger whipped up to jam into the wrist of the gauntleted fist closed around his throat, aiming at the chink in the armor between bracer and glove. It severed the artery, but there was no corresponding gush of blood.
Undeath. Small surprise Montfere wouldn't bleed. It did, however, also sever the tendon, and that was a mechanical feature of the arm that even undead needed to keep their grip. He felt the crushing grip on his larynx ease and dropped to the floor gasping for air. Even so, as he fell Nova hurled the smoke grenade in his other hand down between them.
He landed in a crouch at the same time as the grenade detonated, billows of white vapor fountaining around them. Nearby the death knight snarled, not in pain but in irritation, and a saronite-plated greave appeared out of the smoke heading right for Nova's head. He hurled himself backward, landing on his back on the ground as the heavy blow passed just inches above him. Then he curled his legs up over his head and did a backwards summersault, coming up on his knees and barely to his feet before he was darting to the side.
He got two steps before spectral blue chains, seeping puffs of frosty mist and cold as ice, burst out of the smoke to wrap around him. If it had been normal chains he could've shrugged them aside or slipped out of them, but these chains had a sentient will of their own, curling around his arms, torso, and legs like so many pythons and constricting tight. He managed to hobble half a step, muscles straining against an icy chill that sapped his strength, and then toppled over onto his side.
The smoke gradually cleared, and the stone rang with the heavy clump of Montfere's saronite boots as he approached. "A smoke grenade?" the death knight asked in the same flat, emotionless tone. "Didn't I just get finished telling you I could find you with a sense beyond sight?"
Nova went still in his bonds. The cold was becoming almost painful, and his muscles were cramping from it. "Force of habit," he said. It was an effort to keep his tone light. "All things considered you can't blame me for trying, can you?"
"Oh yes, I can." Montfere loomed over him, pale as death in his dark plate armor. One hand hung limp, tendon still severed, while the other raised his heavy runeblade high, contemptuous of its weight. It was a flamberge, double-edged with a thin wavy blade, the dark red runes glowing livid on its black metal. The sight of it made Nova distinctly uneasy, remembering their last encounter.
Then, abruptly, the blade slipped back into its sheath. "But I won't. Even if there are no witnesses and I find it sorely tempting, not to mention pragmatic when I consider the slaughter you've wreaked on everyone who posed a threat to you back during our days with Lokiv, I am bound by my oaths to harm no ally of the Ebon Blade." As if to prove his point, Montfere reached down to offer him a hand up.
Even knowing the intent behind it Nova had a hard time not flinching at the approach of that heavy gauntlet. On the other hand, if he couldn't breeze out of a tough situation on sheer balls alone he would've died decades ago. He accepted the hand and nearly yelped as he was whipped to his feet.
"This is a nuisance, though," Montfere remarked, holding up his injured arm. To Nova's horror the death knight ripped the gauntlet off his good hand with his teeth, nearly wrenching a few out it looked like, then used it to yank the other gauntlet off. With his wrist fully exposed he was able to reach into his own dead flesh, not seeming aware of pain or the reality of what he was doing, and root around until he found his severed tendon. He yanked it back in contact with the other end and for a moment the fingers holding it glowed an icy blue.
Once he took his hand away the tendon remained frozen in place, although just to test it Montfere made a fist a few times and twisted his hand through a few full motions.
"Handy," Nova remarked. "Most warriors would be thinking about amputation right about now."
Icy blue eyes locked with his. "Yes," Montfere hissed quietly. "You always did like to end a fight before it starts. Not that I minded with Redcrest. What are you doing here, Nova?"
"Not looking for Lokiv, that's for sure." Nova shrugged sheepishly. "I'm here for porn."
The half-elf's brows furrowed. "I'm not familiar with that term."
"That's because it doesn't really exist yet. But I'll have a corner on the market if I can get a few of these holographic units out. Or at least a solid chunk of the market, since I hear the goblins have started mass producing naughty pictures around the clock. You can get them for a few coppers apiece." Nova took in Montfere's disapproving expression. "Not that I'd know from personal experience."
"Fuck the goblins," Montfere snarled. "You infiltrated a titan complex to steal portable projection hardware? Aren't you also with Bronzebeard's raid on Yogg-Saron?"
"Technically," Nova said with a shrug. "This is more of a detour. Although considering what you were up to this is a bit of a pot calling the kettle situation."
"Perhaps." The death knight's eyes glowed a bit brighter. "Don't let me keep you from your duties to Bronzebeard." He reached over his shoulder to pat his flamberge. "By which I mean if I see you away from the main group again I'm not going to be as considerate."
"Fair enough," Nova said, backing towards the door. "I'm happy that in spite of any past, ah, encounters, our affiliation to organizations mutually aligned in purpose prevents any need for unnecessary violence. I'll just, ah, be going."
He was nearly there when he spied a rack filled with intricately carved stone plates with a hole in the center mounted with a complex lens apparatus. The mobile projection unit that had brought him here in the first place? He altered his sidling to take him past the rack and slipped one of the heavy things out, grunting slightly as it fell into his arms. Mobile his ass: the thing had to way at least twenty pounds.
An overly patient female voice made him nearly jump out of his shoes. "Checkout of Projection Unit 13 approved. As a reminder, protocol dictates weekly accounting of all borrowed items. Is there anything else you needed, Overseer Togglesprocket?"
Nova quickened his sidling, fighting panic. He'd almost made it to the door when once again ethereal chains of ice rose up out of the floor surrounding him, swayed in the air like serpents, then snapped into a twisting spiral around him and pulled tight, leaving him trapped in their frigid grip from neck to feet. Those chains untwisted slightly in a way that rotated him 180 degrees.
Montfere had straightened from the console and was staring at him keenly, an almost frighteningly intent expression on his face. "You have passcodes to a titan facility," he stated, almost a question.
"Of course not. How the hell would I get those?"
The death knight's eyes strayed to the mobile projection unit Nova held. "Computer," he said abruptly. "Confirm the clearance level of the room's other occupant."
A recproachful clang sounded before the overly patient female voice answered. "Request denied. You are not authorized to request the clearance level of facility administrators."
"Am I not?" Montfere asked quietly, almost to himself.
Nova groaned. All things considered he didn't bother to struggle with his icy chains. He had tricks to play, but almost all of them involved his enemy not knowing he was there or, failing that, not knowing exactly where he was. Most of the rest involved them underestimating exactly what Nova was capable of. Ilinar Montfere knew most of his tricks and could guess the others, and in terms of raw power easily outshone Anette and possibly even Saire herself.
If it came to it there were one or two things he could try, but at least he knew Montfere and could attempt to talk him around again. His familiarity with the undead half-elf didn't leave much hope of that, but it was at least a non-zero amount.
Before he could open his mouth to try Montfere, leaning back against the console, spoke in that same quiet voice. "The simpleminded and the innocent often hold the misconception that death is the worst thing that can happen to them."
Nova swallowed.
Icy blue eyes locked onto his. "However you like to present yourself, you only pretend to be a fool and you're certainly not innocent. You must know that there are far, far worse fates than death. Or failing that, worse fates after death. And knowing who and what I am, you must know there are few on Azeroth more capable of inflicting such a fate on you."
Nova opened his mouth to speak, then strangled as an invisible fist clamped around his throat. Montfere turned back to the console, ignoring his struggles to draw in a breath. "Would you like to live a long life in Silvermoon?" The deceptively tempting offer was actually a threat, Nova's gut told him, and Montfere's next words confirmed it. "As I envision it you would be without hands or feet, ears and nostrils plugged with tar, tongue cut off, eyes put out. Now while there's nothing most mundane enemies could really do about the sense of touch short of skinning you or burning every square inch of your flesh to numbness, luckily I have powers at my disposal to ensure you never feel anything again. And it's a given I'd castrate you, removing both organ and testicles."
Nova suddenly discovered he had a more pressing fear than magical strangulation. If as an experienced adventurer he didn't regularly void his bladder he would've pissed himself right about now.
Montfere idly toyed with the display, running his fingers through the projection and watching how the projected light rippled across the dark lobstered saronite plate of his gauntlets. "Would you like to live to dotage like that, utterly helpless and dependent on the charity of others, not even able to effectively take your own life?"
Air suddenly flooded into Nova's lungs, and he spent a few seconds gasping in huge, shuddering breaths. Even after his breathing had calmed his attempts to speak produced only feeble croaks, so he contented himself with shaking his head frantically.
Montfere nodded at this expected response. "Good. Then, Overseer Togglesprocket, use your proficiency with this system, and more importantly your high level access, to find me the information I seek."
"Or what?"
Nova would've groaned again if he could get the noise through his crushed vocal cords. Standing in the doorway with one hip cocked out and a fist planted on it like a scolding runway model, full lips drawn into a pout that somehow managed to look threatening, Anette glared at Montfere with her large dark eyes.
Montfere turned his full attention on her. It was obvious he was no fool to be taken in by her girlish appearance or ditsy tone. "Or I inflict untold pain upon him, and if you mean anything to him upon you as well."
Anette vanished, reappearing right in front of Montfere with her belt knife pressed to his throat. "Care to say that again?" she asked cheerfully.
The death knight showed no reaction to this sudden threat. "Or I inflict untold pain upon him, and most certainly upon you as well," he said in the same flat, emotionless voice.
Nova's maiden sweet suddenly looked a bit uncertain. "Um, Hiezal?" she asked, keeping her eyes locked on Montfere. "Normally this gets through to people."
"He's not people, dear heart," Nova croaked through his recovering throat. "You have to have noticed he's undead, right? If you cut his throat it would be at best a minor inconvenience. Just look at the tendon I severed in his sword hand."
Anette paused, obviously confused about what to do, then brightened. "Okay then. I think we got off on the wrong foot. Hi!" she chirped in a friendly tone, although her blade against Montfere's throat didn't budge. "I haven't seen many half-elfs like me before. You're gorgeous! Aside from the one human ear and one elf ear, but I can get used to that. Or make sure you're only showing me one side of your face at a time. It would be fun, like I can pretend you're human or elf depending on which way you're facing. And you're a member of the Knights of the Ebon Blade! How romantic! I bet a-"
She gave a slight shriek of alarm and danced backwards as the death knight slapped her blade aside and drew his runeblade, extending it the full length of his arm to bridge the distance between them. It stopped a hairsbreadth from her nearly flat chest, runes glowed in soft menace.
"Do you think I can't see danger hidden in feigned affection?" he whispered. "Me, of all people? More importantly, do you think such a feeble attempt could turn me away from my hatred of your friend?"
Anette stepped back another pace and planted her hands on her hips, small round face scrunched in exasperation as she turned to glare Nova's way. "M'uru Redeemed, Hiezal! Have you found another person who's trying to kill us? We're in the middle of a titan facility that hasn't been breached in ten thousand years!"
Montfere stared at the girl blankly. "Is this child sick in the head?" he finally asked.
Nova bit back a sigh. "She has unfailing faith in the inherent goodness of people. Which is about to end badly for her."
"That's right," Anette said, flipping her hair in a huff. "And I've had people trying to kill me my entire life. What's your excuse, Mr. Points A Sword At Sweet Little Girls Who Are Just Trying To Give You A Hug And Possibly Get In Your Pants?"
The death knight glowered at her as if suspicious that he was being mocked. Mocked mocked, that is, on some deeper level than the cutesy name calling. "I was the ward of Nex-thanarak," he finally said softly.
Nova bit back a snap response that would've probably got him magic-strangled again. Lokiv had been a piss poor guardian, sure, but Montfere had been a little shit in spite of anyone's attempts to do right by him. Blaming the human for how he'd turned out was a whiny and pathetic attempt to duck responsibility for his own choices.
"You knew Lokiv?" Anette asked, indignation disappearing into curiosity. "Everyone always talks about him like he's either a hero or the most despicable person on the face of Azeroth. Or both. But they always do it in oblique references, as if even after being dead for over a decade they're still afraid to talk about him."
"Nex was no hero," Montfere spat, eyes blazing lividly. "He used everyone who'd ever treated him with the slightest decency and ultimately destroyed their lives. He wasn't good or noble enough to inspire loyalty, or callous and determined enough to inspire fear, and worst of all he wasn't powerful enough to protect those he'd sworn to see home. He never created, only destroyed, and everything he destroyed made Azeroth a worse place. He was a pathetic failure who pretended to be more. And he's not dead. I know it, because I'm going to be the one who kills him!"
Anette glanced Nova's way again, and he bit back a groan. Since that first ill-fated campaign to Northrend he'd held some unpopular views about Nex, mostly to the effect that maybe the human wasn't as big a contemptible bastard as everyone made him out to be. After all, if anyone knew what it was like to have an undeserved reputation, it was Hiezal Nova.
Montfere was the last person he wanted knowing how he really felt about the human. And Anette was just audacious enough to let it slip thinking they could charm their way out of the consequences.
The death knight caught her glance and slowly turned his head to pierce Nova with his dark glower. "Something to say, Castaway?"
"You're not going to find anyone disagreeing with you about Lokiv," Nova said, throwing up his hands in a placating gesture.
Montfere was about to answer when his nostrils suddenly flared as he breathed in, and the cold blue light in his eyes brightened dangerously. "You," he hissed, turning back to Anette. "Speak of the demon and he appears. I smell your blood. I recognize that scent."
Anette squeaked and dropped her hand protectively to cover between her legs, blushing prettily. "Hey! My menstruation is something private!"
"Firedge," the death knight snarled. The runes on his flamberge pulsed. "I recognize that hot flavor. And human. What human?"
Anette hesitated, eyeing the blade warily. "I don't know."
"WHAT HUMAN?" Montfere suddenly thundered, raising his blade to strike. He turned wild eyes to Nova. "Is she his? Is that why you've been butchering anyone who might have a grudge against him? Why you tried to kill me before and would have again this time around?"
Nova activated his Northrend special forces insignia and the icy chains melted away. For now. As soon as he was free he hurled the projection disk he held at the death knight's head. "Anette, run!" he yelled, drawing his swords and sprinting forward as Montfere idly ducked his head aside from the flying stone plate and reached out to close his free hand around Anette's throat. Just before he caught her the tiny half-elf blinked away, reappearing on the other side of the room.
But she didn't show any sign of running. "I want to know who you're talking about," she said, raising her hands in front of her. Purplish light began to twist in the air around them.
Montfere frowned in irritation and curled in on himself, and a scream tore from Nova's throat as he suddenly felt as if his insides were on fire. He heard Anette screaming as well as her blood also boiled, a favorite spell of the death knight's even back when Nova had known him last. Thankfully his ward was as quick on her feet as ever and countered the spell.
The death knight only staggered slightly at the backlash of his countered spell, and green runes pulsed from his sword to surround him protectively as arcane missiles flew from Anette's hands in a torrent to pound at him. "You've made a very stupid mistake, girl," he growled.
Nova was inclined to agree. Montfere likely had plenty of experience butchering mages, considering the unlife he'd lead. Anette likely would've had plenty of experience fighting death knights as well, but Nova had done his best to keep her away from those situations. Hindsight was 20/20, right?
Oh well. If she could distract Montfere and offer some magical support, Nova just might be able to win a one on one fight with the bastard. He'd certainly been doing well enough right up to the point that magical ice chains trussed him up like a chicken ready for plucking.
Unfortunately Montfere was no fool. Trusting in his runic shield for the moment he suddenly whirled and turned his full attention on Nova, whirling his runeblade into a dizzying array of lunges and cuts. Nova was used to fighting all types, and between his quickness and wielding two swords he should've been able to handle the attacks easily, but Montfere was putting a lot of force behind a two-handed weapon. Not to mention Nova's muscles were still sapped from the icy chains earlier.
An arcane blast exploded against Montfere's runic shield, quickly followed by a barrage of arcane missiles, but the death knight had the discipline to ignore a mage going full bore on him and focus completely on the enemy in front of him. His attacks became, if anything, even faster and more powerful as he got into a rhythm, and before long Nova found himself backing away on the verge of open retreat.
About that point Montfere's green shield abruptly winked out and the tail end of Anette's barrage of missiles hit him twice. He flinched slightly, and Nova took full advantage of that opening and swung both swords at the death knight's head from opposite directions, going for a clean decapitation.
Montfere released his sword with one hand and caught Nova's main weapon in his saronite gauntlet, ducking and yanking at the weapon enough to throw Nova off balance so his slash only opened the skin on Montfere's throat without hitting anything vital. While Nova was recovering from the unexpected move the death knight brought his sword into position for a one-handed lunge.
Nova froze as the runeblade's tip tickled his skin right above his heart. "Enough!" Montfere thundered, turning a cold blue glare Anette's way. "Finish that spell and I skewer him before it reaches me." The tiny half-elf froze, and the glow around her slowly faded. Satisfied for the moment, Montfere turned to glare at him. "Now, you slippery little bastard. Help me find Lokiv using this device and tell me who the bitch's father is so I can decide whether or not she deserves to die. Neither of you is walking away from this otherwise."
"Fuck you, Montfere," Nova replied as diplomatically as he could. "I wouldn't piss on you if you were on fire. Although I'd piss on you if you weren't on fire. But only if you didn't get some weird kink out of it. Because, you know, I want pissing on you to be a bad thing for you, and-"
"You'd probably do yourself a favor by shutting up now, Hiezal," Anette said. "I think you jumped the gun attacking him anyway. Why don't we just talk this out, starting with you telling me who my father is?"
"Because Montfere's a murderous lunatic and he already thinks he knows!" Nova shouted. "It doesn't matter what name I gave him, he'd still want to kill you."
"True enough." Montfere casually turned towards Anette, holding a hand out with cold light gathering around his fingertips. Nova immediately moved to hack at Montfere's neck again, taking advantage of this unexpected opening, and was so focused on his own attack that he barely noticed that his attempt to dodge was too slow.
A soft feeling came, almost as if he'd been punched in the chest, and it took him a full second to realize why. He looked down blankly to see blood spurting from his heart as Montfere yanked the runeblade free. The bastard had distracted Nova with the lowered defenses combined with the threat to Sair-no, Anette, it was Anette. Inky black hair, big dark eyes, scream of horror as he slumped bonelessly to the ground . . .
Her screams were for him. She knew he was dead as much as he did.
Montfere walked calmly across the room towards her. Anette sent an arcane barrage his way, but he casually flicked his runeblade into the path of the spell and sent it swirling uselessly away. She tried to freeze the ground around his feet, but he just laughed contemptuously at her trying to use frost against him.
Nova felt his vision fading to black and weakly scrabbled to draw his dagger and jam the tip into the wound Montfere had left in his chest. He felt his heart trying to beat around the weapon and it seized in a heart attack, but it was better than bleeding out.
"Anette," he tried to say, but no sound escaped his lips. His maiden sweet had backed into a corner away from the approaching death knight and her eyes were frightened, desperate in a way he'd never seen from her before. Her Persona had vanished and she wasn't even trying for the cutesy girl image she usually maintained as second nature.
Just before unconsciousness took him he caught a flicker of motion out of the corner of his eye, and turned to the projection screen Montfere had been working at. The screen was displaying the full sized image of a short, slender human wearing dark clothes and a . . . blindfold. The sight was so unexpected that Nova almost forgot to fall unconscious.
No fucking way.
. . . . .
Hiezal, no! Oh no, no no no! No no no no no no nonononononono!
Her world was falling apart around her, her heart an agony as if this monster had stabbed her instead of her beloved guardian. It was almost enough to make her forget that a death knight was trying to kill her. Montfere, one of the names from the past her beloved spoke with the most venom.
As a last resort she tried to encase herself in a block of ice in the very corner of the room, only to scream again as her blood boiled and the ice shattered. The death knight smiled grimly and raised his flamberge over his head with both hands, and Anette felt her heart lurch in her chest as it began to descend.
Just before it reached her it went dead still, not even quivering, as if it had hit an invisible barrier.
But it wasn't a barrier. Montfere was shoving his sword back into its sheath on his back, completely ignoring Anette as he turned away to stare at the projection display across the room. "You," he breathed, sounding like a boy on Winter Veil morning.
The display had been taken over by a full sized, three-dimensional image of a human that might have been a girl from its size, aside from the black stubble growing across his face, tipped with red that flickered as if on fire. He wore black clothes and a black blindfold, and belted at his waist was a longsword with an ornate grip. Aside from that he had nothing else, no armor or gear or even a cloak.
Anette had never met him before, but she knew him all the same. Knew him from half-whispered conversations eavesdropped in on uninvited, from veiled references and old stories of grief. Nex, also known as Lokiv.
The image wavered slightly, then seemed to focus on Montfere. "You called?" he asked wryly.
Montfere slowly smiled. "How did you know to be here?"
Nex shrugged. "I have the titan systems set to inform me if anyone does a search for anything I might find relevant. If the search is about me I put it at highest priority, and I'm happy to come and personally see who's prying into my affairs."
The death knight snarled and charged the projector, sword raised. Just before reaching it he swung a vicious short chop at Nex's knees. The fearsome runeblade passed right through, and she thought she saw amusement flit across the human's face. Montfere halted his weapon's swing and twisted it to slam into the stones between his feet, leaning back slightly to regard the translucent image.
"So that's it," he said with a harsh laugh. "You're just a projection, transmitted by these devices from another location. Some other titan facility no doubt. I'm once again robbed of my chance for vengeance and taunted by your face." His grip on his runeblade tightened until Anette could hear the squeal of metal on metal. "I'll find you, never fear, but at the moment I've got some unfinished business to take care of."
With that the death knight turned, yanking his weapon up to rest on one shoulder, and started for Anette once more. Anette squeaked and shook herself out of her stupor, desperately scrambling for a spell, any spell, that could save her.
On the projection table Nex wavered in his place, just like a projection would, and vanished. A few moments later he reappeared blocking Montfere's path, standing calmly with his arms at his sides. The death knight stared right through him and didn't slow, and Anette felt an uneasy sensation like her insides were getting hot, and not in a good way. Just like the other times Montfere had tried to boil her blood.
Just before the death knight was about to walk through Nex's projection the human abruptly lifted both arms and caught the undead half-elf's wrists, shoving the runeblade high and bringing them face to face.
Blindfolded face calmly met Montfere's shocked expression. "Again you prove yourself sadly mistaken, Montfere," the human said, his tone no more animated than before. Between him and Montfere it was like listening to two gnomish automatons have a conversation.
The death knight heaved frantically, at least until Nex abruptly released him and he staggered backwards in a way that would've been comical had the situation been different. "How?" Montfere hissed.
The human shrugged. "I did travel here from another facility, as you guess. And while I could have come as a projection, again as you guessed, I came here physically. I have a debt that needs settling with you."
"But Sanguinity passed right through you!"
"Yes." The human smiled unsettlingly. "I've long possessed the ability to banish demons and elementalkind to another plane of existence for a short while. With my second sight I am able to see the world down to the very basic elements which connect all things, and what lies between them. Once I fought a banshee who was able to phase herself out to become immune to physical attacks, and following her example I've discovered a way to phase myself onto another plane whenever I am in physical danger." That unsettling smile widened. "Since you're primarily a user of physical attacks that must seem terribly unfair, doesn't it?"
Montfere's shock turned to grim purpose. "You're wrong. I've grown in power you can hardly imagine, all for the purpose of killing you."
"I don't need to imagine. I see everything." Nex calmly drew his longsword. "But I will admit that now that I'm here I can complete the task of killing you that I failed long ago. I did make a promise, after all. And if you really have made killing me your life's work it would be churlish of me not to let you give it your best shot. I'll even avoid using my phasing technique on myself so you can hit me. If you're able."
The death knight wordlessly raised his flamberge overhead in both hands and charged, hacking brutally.
Nex calmly sidestepped the blow, then leapt backwards when Montfere tried to slam his heavy saronite shoulderplate into his face. Montfere halted his greatsword's downward swing and reset into a flat sideways slash at chest height, which the human calmly deflected high and ducked beneath. With another snarl the death knight kicked out, again forcing Nex to dodge as he reset his flamberge for another swing. It all happened in a flurry within seconds, and their furious battle continued as it took them towards the other side of the room.
Anette used the opportunity to bolt over and fall to her knees beside her guardian.
He'd used his own dagger to stop the bleeding, the crazy fool. It had probably saved his life, but he wasn't doing so good. She had no skill at healing and her limited knowledge of first aid wouldn't do much for a wound to the heart, so her only hope was to keep him alive until she could find Anasar.
Assuming the druid was still alive. And for that matter where the hell was Deepnotch? They could've used another pair of blades against the death knight.
That reminded her, and she tore her eyes from Hiezal's horrible state long enough to glance over at the two fighting men. Nex was still backing away, although nothing about his posture suggested he felt concerned by that, while Montfere continued to furiously attack him with the untiring strength of an undead.
The death knight's wrist was frozen where Hiezal had severed his tendon. Anette wasn't an expert on frost but she thought she could take a page out of Montfere's book for Hiezal. Preparing the spell as carefully as she'd done anything in her life, but quickly as possible, Anette took a deep breath and clasped the hilt of her beloved's dagger. With careful timing she simultaneously wrenched it free and pressed her finger into the wound, freezing the blood that tried to gush out into a hardened plug to stop the wound, then binding it to the flesh around it with arcane ties.
As the spell washed over him Hiezal gasped and his eyes fluttered open, with effort focusing on her face. "Ah, maiden sweet," he whispered, barely audible. His voice didn't sound bubbly, which she hoped meant his lungs weren't punctured. "I'm glad I got to see you one last time."
Anette tried to hold back the tears stinging her eyes as her hands fluttered over his wound. Her spell was a start, but it wouldn't be enough. "Don't be silly, Hiezal. We'll have you healed and back on your feet in no time."
"No, you won't." Her beloved coughed weakly. "I'm not long for this world."
She leaned forward to kiss him on the mouth, a tear slipping free to drip onto his cheek. "Oh I know, Hiezal, I've seen it. But you're plenty long enough for me."
He laughed at that, which turned into an agonized wracking cough. "Bitch," he wheezed when he'd managed to control it. "You don't tell jokes to a dying person and make him laugh." A particularly ferocious clang rang out across the room and his eyes darted frantically, trying to locate the source of it. "Maiden sweet, you have to get out of here. I couldn't bear it if you died when you could have lived."
"Shh," Anette whispered, kissing his mouth again. This time her tears landed on his lips as she straightened purposefully over him, closing her eyes in intense concentration.
These days, with battle raging across Azeroth, most mages focused their study on the schools of frost and fire. In depth study into the deeper mysteries of the arcane were a luxury most mages couldn't afford when they were all that stood between their people and annihilation.
Anette disagreed. The school of pure arcane offered as many offensive and defensive options as frost or flame in most situations, and being able to cleverly manipulate it allowed her to do far more than simply blast enemies apart. Her studies had been rather sporadic of late, with a lot more emphasis on the experience of surviving, but she'd still been tinkering with a few spells she thought could be incredibly useful.
The most difficult one she'd ever attempted would be perfect for this situation. Since she couldn't heal her beloved time stasis would be the next best thing.
Hiezal passed out again as she began weaving the intricate web of arcane energy around him, inverting the matrix in on itself, then inverting it again, then shaping it to mold snugly around his body like the most supple skintight leather. Which she wouldn't mind seeing him in some day. Then she inverted the spell once more and steadily poured every trace of mana in her reserves into it. Since she'd recently evocated it was all she had and would leave her desperately vulnerable, but losing her beloved would pierce her heart anyway so what did it matter?
The spell resolved and Hiezal's ragged breathing froze. His eyelids froze as well, mid flutter so they were partway open and stared blankly upward. It almost looked as if he'd died rather than being caught in suspended animation. Anette tried to control her alarm as she pressed two fingers to his wrist, feeling for a pulse. Nothing, but he was still warm.
It had worked. It had to have worked. Now she just needed to find a healer.
Was . . . she looked over at the two fighting men once again in time to see Nex vault over a swing aimed for his knees as if he weighed nothing, swinging his longsword at Montfere's throat and forcing the death knight to stagger backwards.
Was the human a healer? He had incredible power, that much was certain, and she seemed to recall overhearing mentions from Hiezal and her mother about a healing artifact he possessed. She'd stuck around banking on the hope that the legendary figure could defeat Montfere as easily as he seemed to think, but would it be wiser to wait for him to finish the death knight, or go after Anasar after all? Could she even reach Anasar through Ulduar's defenders, which had to be swarming the area after the chaos they'd caused and were probably coming this way?
With an inarticulate bellow Montfere yanked his sword up and around to bring it down in another two-handed overhead chop aimed directly for the leaping human's exposed neck. As it sang through the air hoarfrost gathered along its wicked wavy edge.
Rather than dodging, as Nex landed from his jump he dropped his longsword and his hands came up in a blur so quick Anette almost couldn't track them, which was saying something since she was used to watching Hiezal. She heard a loud clap and the flamberge stopped dead less than an inch from the human's head, the flat of the blade trapped between his palms.
Montfere strained, muscles bulging, and his lips pulled back in a wordless snarl. Staring at him past the blade Nex smiled lazily. "You always did cling to your irrational beliefs, even in the face of reality. It might explain why you were so prone to making stupid mistakes. You should have waited another sixteen years to come for me, Montfere. Although with my head start I doubt you could ever catch up."
In answer the death knight's saronite boot came up to slam into Nex's gut, throwing him backwards. That sort of heavy blow should have crushed internal organs, but the human tucked into a roll as calmly as if he'd intended to get kicked flying all along.
Montfere gave him no chance to recover, chasing him and swinging his runeblade in short, vicious chops at the human's head, neck, and torso. Each blow was accompanied by a soft snarl growing steadily louder, as if the death knight was only at the start of his unholy frenzy and it built with every passing second.
Nex stopped dodging completely, but he didn't even try to retrieve his sword. Instead as he came to one knee he slapped aside Montfere's weapon with his bare hand in another blurring move, then smoothly rose to his feet in time to slap aside the next slash with his other hand. And the next, and the next, with nothing but his bare hands. Sometimes when he slapped the flat of the blade aside it only narrowly missed hitting him, and once it even sliced his black shirt along his shoulder, but that was the closest Montfere ever came to a hit.
Even in his frenzy the death knight was starting to get desperate, and Anette could see his swings become more and more clumsy as he tried to speed them up and put every once of strength he possessed behind them.
After about half a minute of this the human seemed to tire of the game, and rather than slapping aside a high swing he dropped low and kicked out. The human's booted foot came to rest just beside Montfere's heavy saronite boot, but not to kick the death knight. Instead Montfere gave a strangled grunt and stumbled, boot disappearing through stone that was suddenly as incorporeal as Nex himself had been before. The death knight sunk in up to his knee and just as suddenly the stone solidified, trapping him. A scream of agony tore from his throat, which must have come from having his flesh and bone fuse with the rock that had reincorporated in the same place.
Nex calmly pulled his leg back under him and rose, stepping a safe distance away. "Making inanimate objects incorporeal is orders of magnitude more difficult than doing the same for living things," he said emotionlessly. "But it is also very, very difficult to defend against and devastating when it goes off. Isn't it?"
The death knight kept screaming.
"You've seen, Montfere," the human said solemnly. "And you've persevered even knowing it was futile, as I continued to give you example after example of the gulf that separates us in power. Say it's finished already."
Montfere grit his teeth and brought his runeblade around, hacking his own leg off at the knee just above where it fused with the ground. For a moment he stumbled and nearly fell, and then he straightened on one foot to face his enemy.
"I'm at your mercy," he hissed, bowing his head and smoothly sheathing his flamberge on his back. "Let me return to my brothers in disgrace and redeem myself from this humiliation in the battle against Yogg-Saron."
Nex glanced over at Hiezal, or at least turned his blindfolded head their way. Anette felt her flesh crawl at his regard. Then, as calm as he'd ever been, he stepped forward to kneel at Montfere's side, pressing his fingertips to the stone beside the death knight's severed leg.
The undead half-elf laughed raggedly. "Giving me back my leg? Do you honestly think it'll be any good to me now that it's been meshed with ancient stone? You might as w-"
His words ended in a sudden horrified scream as the stone went ethereal under his remaining good foot. The death knight fell to his knee, jerking what remained of his severed leg out to catch himself even as he flailed his arms to cushion his fall. But everywhere he touched the stone refused to support his weight, and in an eyeblink he'd sunk up to his neck. At that point the stone went solid once more, leaving him trapped with only his head above the stone and not even able to scream now that he no longer had lungs.
Although his mouth opened wide and his face twisted into a frightening visage of utter torment.
The human calmly stood. "Did you honestly think I'd let you go, Montfere? Even if I hadn't sworn to kill you for your desertion in Northrend all those years ago, you remain a threat to Nova and this girl. So stay entombed in stone as long as the undeath which animates you remains potent, or until someone comes along to give you mercy. Or until you learn to off yourself by magical means, which is well within your abilities."
Without a backwards glance Nex turned on one heel and started for her and Hiezal, leaving Montfere behind.
Anette wanted to shrink back at the approach of such an intimidating presence, but Hiezal couldn't afford for her to be weak. So instead she wrapped her Persona around her like armor, made her expressive face lively and mischievous, widened her eyes until they were dark mysterious pools, and danced to her feet to dart over to him and throw her arms tight around his waist. She started to kiss his cheek, which didn't even require much stretching since he wasn't too much taller than her, but not even her Persona would give her that kind of audacity. Instead she buried her face in his cloak.
"My hero!" she said breathlessly. "Oh thank you, thank you! And now you must save Hiezal!"
To his credit the human hadn't stiffened warily or tried to defend himself at her sudden approach. In her embrace his muscles remained loose, and when she looked up at him hopefully his face remained cool and expressionless. Anette had kept up her Persona in the face of outrage, insult, and even anger, but somehow under his empty stare she found herself stepping away and letting her arms fall to her sides.
As soon as she did Nex seemed to forget about her entirely and went to Hiezal. As an adorable girl blossoming into a sexy young woman with all the best features of human and elf Anette was used to being the center of attention, especially once she started showering affection in her Persona, but the human seemed immune to her charms. As if to emphasize how few shits he gave about her he actually became ethereal so he could pass through her, like he didn't even consider her an obstacle worth stepping around.
It was probably the most devastating thing Anette had ever felt, and she'd had people try to kill her. Still, she gathered her dignity and her courage and turned to kneel beside the human as he crouched motionless beside her guardian, taking in Hiezal's wound. "Oh please, sir, can you save him?"
"You know who I am," Nex said coolly. Anette stiffened in shock, and he nodded as if that were confirmation of some sort. "You're smart enough to know that hiding your feelings entirely is impossible, so instead you mask them behind false feelings and even perhaps a false personality. But your body cannot hide its heartbeat or its changes in temperature. Nor, for that matter, a female's natural hardwired responses to male displays of dominance and raw power."
Anette felt her face turn scarlet with mortification, although she tried to convince herself that was her Persona's response. She had not become aroused at watching the human utterly destroy Montfere! "It's very perverted to use your second sight like that!" she exclaimed reproachfully.
The human finished his inspection of Hiezal and rested one hand on her guardian's chest over the wound. She wouldn't have expected anyone but a fellow mage to understand the time stasis she'd placed Hiezal under, and few even then. But somehow Nex managed to work around her spell as if it wasn't there, tending her guardian even while the elf remained frozen in time. Soft golden light began glowing between the human's fingers. "You'll have to forgive me. I wasn't terribly interested in social mores even before I left Azeroth for over a decade of near solitude."
She forced her Persona to pat him on the shoulder. "That's okay. People expect creepy old hermits to do and say perverted things."
Nex hissed through his teeth, and she almost wondered if he was laughing. "You're very effective, girl. And your sincerity isn't as much an act as you seem to believe. I almost find myself liking you in spite of your brazen attempts at manipulation."
Anette closed her eyes, taking a calming breath. "If you've been gone so long you must have needs that haven't been met. Maybe you'll like me more if I help you with them. The least I can do to thank you for saving Hiezal."
For the first time the human showed more than a hint of emotion, as something akin to shock crossed the features beneath his blindfold. She didn't think it had to do with being offended or surprised by her indecent proposition, not considering how casually, almost clinically, he'd talked about her arousal before. But something about her offer seemed to have spooked him.
"That would not be a good idea," he said, almost too quickly.
Before Anette could ask what he meant Nex casually unraveled her stasis spell, and Hiezal stiffened under his hand and sucked in a sharp breath. Anette squealed joyfully as her guardian's eyes flew open, and she immediately began showering his face and hair with kisses, leaving behind a few more tears as well.
Hiezal accepted her affection stoically, blue eyes darting around past her face and hair searching the room as if he wasn't quite sure where he was. Then his eyes fell on Nex and he stiffened in sudden fear which he smothered in an eyeblink, replacing it with his usual insolent amusement.
"Since when were you a healer?" he asked, coughing slightly.
Nex's lips quirked upwards in a brief, insincere smile. "I once told an old enemy that the Light is a whore, giving its power to any who call upon it. Like the blood elves after the destruction of the Sunwell I'd assumed that didn't apply to me, but it turns out I was wrong. I just needed to not turn away from it, same as your people."
Her guardian laughed, which in spite of his improved state once again devolved into agonized coughing. "You're probably the only wielder of the Light in existence who can get away with sincerely blaspheming it."
"It's good to see you too, Nova." Nex took his hand away from Hiezal's chest and leaned back slightly.
That let her guardian finally turn his attention to her, and alarm once again flashed across his features as he glanced between her and the human. "Anette, sweet girl," he said lightly, coughing a bit of blood afterwards. "Perhaps you could go find our companions?"
Before Anette could protest the suggestion the human laughed. "Trying to talk her into getting far away from me without either of us realizing it, Nova?" Nex asked, sounding amused. "I thought you'd finally accepted that I wasn't the type to murder innocent girls."
"Wasn't?" Hiezal asked with a soft laugh, somewhat forced as if he was trying to distract her from the fact that he'd been trying to get rid of her with banter. Or maybe distract Nex. Or them both. "And Anette, innocent?" His words turned into a sudden sharp gasp of pain. "False gods, man, you call this healing?"
"You got stabbed in the heart, Nova. I'm surprised you're still alive."
Hiezal shut his eyes slowly. "Still, you could give it another shot. I still can't believe you can use the Light. Am I crazy or didn't you used to hate it?"
Anette clapped her hands in sudden surprise and delight. "You're friends!" she squealed. "I've eavesdropped tidbits about you, Mr. Nex, but nobody ever told me you and Hiezal were friends!"
Nova darted a warning look her way, and Anette suddenly found it much harder to calmly keep up her Persona. It wasn't his usual "shut up you mouthy little squirt" look. It was his "I'm laughing on the outside and shitting myself with terror on the inside, and you should be too" look. "Maiden sweet, please go find the others."
She slowly stood, stepping away from Nex and checking her reserves. Still empty. If the human wished her harm she probably wouldn't even have enough to blink away, but you didn't survive by assuming you were just going to die, did you? "I can't leave you like this," she protested. By which she meant she couldn't leave Hiezal with him, if the situation was that dangerous.
It was only when she saw the return look her guardian gave her that Anette finally understood. Nex wasn't a danger to them, he was somehow a danger to her. And it had to do with the secret everyone was always trying to kill her for. Did Nex want to kill her too?
Nex had been helping Hiezal into a sitting position, but at this he paused and his expression sharpened. "Maiden sweet," he repeated. "Your love song to Saire."
"Don't pretend you're just now putting two and two together because of a chance phrase," Hiezal said, voice more on edge than Anette had ever heard him outside of when he was getting ready to kill someone to protect her. "Even without eyeballs you see everything." He suddenly yelped as the human's hands on his arms tightened enough to bruise. "What, do you think I'm fucking her? I'm not!"
Anette had been doing some putting two and two together of her own, and now she stared between the two of them in mounting disbelief and exhilaration. All her lifetime of questions, all her vague suspicions, were finally confirmed.
No wonder Nex had reacted so strongly to the prospect of making love to her. It wasn't like he was her adoptive father like Hiezal, where you could get away with tweaking your nose at social conventions on a technicality.
"I knew it!" she shrieked, cutting their conversation off through the sheer volume of her words. They both turned to stare at her, and Anette lifted a shaking finger to point at the human. "You're him, the one everyone refuses to tell me the identity of. You're my daddy!"