Chapter 9

Five Hundred and Ninety Days.

Kenlora's hair was soft in my hands as I ran my fingers through it, breath hitched as she turned me into a puddle.

Six Hundred Days

The Summery lights of the Sholazar Basin lit her skin as she laughed-she had found what she was looking for, a cradle of life.

I smiled as she moved through the meadow, observing the different things that waited.

I felt...happy. I didn't remember the screaming well, and I knew my name.

My name, and Kenlora. That was all I needed.

Six Hundred and Fifty Days.

We had found a cave within the basin that had become our den, with furs and specimens of all sorts lined up neatly, with a sleeping area and a food storage in the back. It was home.

It was laying there that my mind shattered.

I opened my eyes, eyebrows furrowed, and looked around the cave. It was still, spare for the slightly shifting light of the early dawn beginning to come through the leaves. Kenlora was fast asleep, her heart slow and her breaths even. Her arm was strewn across my waist possessively, her fingers curling into my side.

Something was off...

I felt it niggling in the back of my mind. Like a buzzing bug, and I rotated my head, straining to hear what could be causing-

Harbinger.

I cried out, hands going to my temples as I rolled away from Ken, who woke at my cry. Oh Azeroth help-

Come to me.

I screamed, the presence in my mind so overwhelming that I wanted to bash my head into the wall to shake it out.

"Teir! Teir!"

Harbinger.

I slammed my fists into the stone, the skin immediately cracking open as I writhed, and when I looked at Kenlora-

The pain was like nothing I had ever felt.

My vision was tinged as she tried to come closer, the agony worsening with each step.

"I-I-My King-!" I turned and fled.

I heard her calling after me, but the pain was so great, I couldn't be near her. It killed me.

I heard the familiar cawing outside of the screaming, and looked blindly into the sky for my gryphon-there it was, soaring down like a day hadn't gone by since I was abandoned.

"Teir!"

"I-I'm-."

I don't know what I was, because my gryphon soared down and took me onto its back, ripping away from my love and life, back to my King.

"Save me from this pain, my king!" My face was oozing, cracks having formed from pain, and I curled into my gryphon, burying my face into the spine of the beast, and cried.

I felt savage when we landed.

I ripped into everything between me and his throne, my blades-hungry for souls-feasting on unsuspecting soldiers.

I stormed to the throne, the screaming so vicious that my vision was lopsided and I growled my speech.

I made it to the top of the citadel, and there he was.

My King, in all of his glory. Awake.

"Harbinger. You have come."

I bared my teeth, dropping heads of the ghouls and necromancers I had slain on my way up here.

"You haven't killed in some time. This is what pains you so." I realised that he wasn't speaking, but that his voice was cutting through the screaming.

"They come for me. In the Tundra. In the Fjord."

I thought back to what Ken-I snarled as pain lanced my mind at her name-to what she had taught me about the mortals.

"I know their ways. Give me the necromancers. I can destroy them."

He laughed. It was a scary noise.

"I have faith in you. Crush them."

The Valiance Keep looked so nice. I will enjoy crushing it.

I flew above, circling, watching as the nerubians assaulted under my command-they assaulted the Warsong Hold as well-and the necromancers slid their way in amongst the chaos. No one would know my cult of the damned had taken root, twisting and perverting them until they were all mine.

I felt pain lance through my skull, and instinctively looked down-

There she was.

I felt oil on my face from the pain, but I watched as she healed the wounds of the living, barking orders and looking more haggard than I'd ever seen.

It hurt.

I looked away, biting my lip as the screaming intensified at the movement, before beckoning my bird to take for the Dragonblight-we will have the dragonshrines, and all of the dragon souls resting there.

The nerubians were ravaging the coast, and I smiled as the pain faded, until it was all just screaming-I can live with screaming.

I glared at the stupid floating city. Of course they had to rebuild Dalaran. I spent so much time getting into that stupid place.

So, like any logical commander, the skeletal flight of dragons at my command were sent to bring it down.

I looked out towards the citadel, just barely in view from here, and felt the pull towards my King, urgent, like a cry for-

I called the dragons, the nerubians, I directed them all to My King.

It was a cry for help.

I flew low, unsheathing my blades and ripping through mortals and raising them in the same swing.

"Take out the mortals! Protect the king!" I snarled, screaming the orders over the wind to all of my forces, and I pushed my gryphon faster-we have to protect him.

My blade cut through a night elf, and I froze for a second-

Her hair was black, and she had markings all over her face.

I felt momentary relief in my panic, and continued on.

I pushed over the borders into the glacier, and screamed.

The undead Vrykul struggling to hold the line grew stronger. The mortals within ear shot died.

"Fall back! Protect our King! Let the dragons have them!" I ordered, and they got the fuck out of the way as the dragons roasted whatever hadn't died yet, and the necromancers aboard those dragons rose the dead to keep going.

"If it's living it dies! Do not let them take the citadel!"

They're already inside, my Harbinger.

My insides boiled.

How dare they?

I shot for the citadel, screaming as the banshees, and I ordered every force I had to destroy the mortals. I want them all dead! Kill! Maim! Rend!

I landed at the doors, racing inside with blades unsheathed, letting a wail fitting of the former banshee queen loose on the living inside.

Then I snarled, furious.

Sylvanas...

"How dare you enter these halls!"

"How dare I?" Her voice was like mine, but meaner, "I could ask you the same questi-." She stopped, staring at me, "...Teir?"

I rocked back a moment-she knew my name.

Kill the banshee bitch.

I lunged, and she disappeared. I landed on stone, cursing, and running for the throne.

I raced up the stairs, waking every failsafe within the place, killing everything in my way. His cries were more urgent.

They're reached my throne.

Protect the Harbinger.

Keep her alive.

I roared, saying fuck all and hitting the walls with blades, climbing up the citadel frantically.

I nearly reached the top when-.

"Harbinger!"

"Forget me! Go to my king!" I snarled, kicking when I felt hands on me.

"He said to keep you alive!"

"PROTECT MY KING!"

The wail sent him off the gryphon to his doom. I didn't care.

Suddenly, I was yanked from the wall by one of the San'layn, "We will keep you alive, Harbinger."

I wailed, and wailed, and roared as the gryphon we were aboard flew farther from the citadel, into the Naxxramas, and I was locked in my waking cell, after trying to leap the necropolis.

I have to get to my king!

I slammed myself against the bars, screaming as I felt the necropolis move beneath my feet.

"We will drop you off on one of the continents-they necropolis will surely be targeted," Kelseth was talking, and I felt oily tears burn my face.

"Let me protect my king." I ordered, the pain taking me to my knees.

He frowned, "We follow his orders."

I screamed again, reaching out to claw at him, but he was out of reach. The pain was so much-

Snip.

I screamed, seeing the blood prince fall to his knees as well, and indeed the entire necropolis shuttered.

The snip of the connection.

His life.

It was...

I wailed and roared and screamed.

"My king!"

The pain was so great, so terrible-

My eyes rolled back in my head, and I knew no more.