~*~ Author's Notes ~*~
Epic long chapter. Six pages in wordpad document (most are three or four), and then some extra lines. I didn't want to break it up because it all needs to be read at once to have the full emotional impact (that I hope it has) and I only upload a chapter every week or so (if that).
"Goodbye to you,
Goodbye to everything I though I knew;
You were the one I loved;
The one thing that I tried to hold onto
"Goodbye to You", Michelle Branch
~*~ Chapter 16 ~*~
Kayas dreamed.
There was a spire. A tall needle like building that rose hundreds of yards into the sky against a backdrop of thick white clouds and a clear blue. It was flanked with two smaller spires. Architecture in beautiful reds and golds was topped with an onion shaped dome. Crowning the monuments were huge flacon wing with a green crystal floating between them.
Around the outside of the tower wound ramps and stairways. Some covered, mostly not. A long, elegant lane passed threw a white torii gate topped with matching golden wings.
Along the lane, children played in the lush fields of green grass, chasing each other or chasing the wind. A pair of white ponies, thick horns protruding form the middle of their foreheads, walked side-by-side up the lane. Two High Elf girls were deep in gossip, nodding quickly and firing back gasps at appropriate moments. Both had long platinum blonde hair characteristic of the High Elf race and shining blue eyes. One's hair was pulled back into a thick braid while the other's hair was curled and left hanging.
They giggled, hands over their mouths, as they passed a man on a bench of scrolling ironwork. He was a Night Elf with light blue skin and clean-shaven face. He smiled to notice them notice him and went back to peeling his fruit.
Behind the spire the ocean rolled against the rocks, bringing waves crashing around the base of the cliff side. The two girls continued up the path. Along the edge of the cliff were the beginnings of a prominent and flourishing village. Huge white and gold trees towered over everything, shading the scores of children who played beneath. What looked to be silver fish-like creatures twirled around the children, avoiding the immaculately clean hands that snatched at them. In the distance clusters of parents watched, occasionally going over to dust off and clean up any child who got a spot of dirt on them.
This place was beautiful.
The girls spurred their horses up the lane, racing to their destination. As they arrived at the ornate wooden doors of the spire, another girl raced up to join them. She had the same white-blonde hair, hanging strait and lose with no curls and blue eyes. All three were dressed in flowing skirts of red, blue and white with tight fitting bodices laced down to points in the front and back and elaborately embroidered with gold and silver.
Though they spoke in the High Elf tongue, Kayas understood them perfectly.
The one with strait hair was smiling from ear to pointed ear, "I can't wait for you to hear the new song I've been learning, it's just beautiful!" She handed up a harp-shaped bag to one of the other High Elves and then was helped up on the horse. All three were giggling as they rode off over the hills.
"Wait till you see this spot I found, it's by the ocean!" The one on the single-person horse said, braid swinging in the breeze.
"It's not more pretty than that spot Sill found last week, now is it?" The one with curls asked. "The lynx there spoiled our picnic!"
"I took care of them for you, didn't I?" Braid laughed behind her hand. The better to keep bugs out of your mouth, my dear.
"I don't have your flare for animals I suppose."
Sill said, a proud gaze on Braid, "No one has her flair for animals. She's going to be Ranger General someday, you watch!"
The two on one horse laughed as the single rider blushed. "As if papa would allow it! 'Music and theater for you!' he says. Besides, I'm not the genius in the family, Sill."
"Well I'm am the smartest-" she neatly dodged and elbow in the ribs, "but you two are close contenders. The three of us will rule these lands some day. It's in our blood!"
"Anu'balore delena!" All three shouted, rounding a corner when Sill pointed.
More directions were pointed out till they came to a shady cove on the stretch of beach. The sand shimmered golden in the sunlight, water glittering like glass. Small sand crabs skittered back and forth. Braid and Sill took to using one as a hockey puck and kicked it between them as Curls unloaded the picnic.
All three girls sat down to a picnic, two of them huffing from their efforts to keep the crab from coming out of its shell by keeping it moving.
Curls was unloading the basket, "Look what I snuck out of the cellar." Slowly, dramatically she pulled a wine bottle from the basket. All three girls squealed. As younglings of the race they were denied spirits until they had learned the arcane arts as best they could. Otherwise it could make their magical addictions worse before they learned to control it fully.
The bottle was uncorked and passed around, each girl gagging at the taste. "This stuff is disgusting!" Braid said, handing the bottle back to Curls.
Sill nodded, "Downright nasty! I don't understand the appeal at all."
"Maybe," Curls said, "we're suppose to 'let it breath'. I hear ma'ma talking about it all the time. 'Let it breath for another few min' she says. You remember? While entertaining someone important."
Sill nodded agreement with Braid.
"Look what I foisted!" Braid clapped, drawing the other two's attention to her. She sat up taller, enjoying the show.
Kayas got the feeling these girls were quit privileged among High Elves and used to seeing what they could get away with.
Braid reached down her bodice and slowly pulled out a golden flute. The other two gasped, great blue eyes going wide in amazement. "That's Master Fallringer's flute! Ally, How on earth did you get it?" Curls asked in amazement, eyeing the flute up and down.
Ally reveled in her moment of triumph before explaining. "I just flashed him a little…" she leaned forward and pushed her shoulders forward to create cleavage. "… and slipped it off the stand he had a good gander."
Sill blushed roots to toes, earning her the howling laughter of her companions. "Really, sister, it's only a matter of time," Ally said, trying to shush Curls with one hand and console Sill with the other, "before you figure out how to use your feminine wiles to disarm any man you come across. They arnt a bright lot, you know."
"Pappa is bright." Sill said.
"Aye." The three girls all nodded in unison. Their father had wanted girls; that way they would be ambitious and unsusceptible to the wiles of the other gender. Instead of spending their time letting their hormones lead them around, they would be the ones getting pursued. More time to study; more attention for advancement. Their mother had agreed but had insisted on some boys to round out the lot some day. Amongst the High Elves male children were not as valued.
Ally took up the flute and started a tune. Recognition set in and Curls took up the harp and added to the song. "Common, Sill, lets hear it!"
Sill was still blushed from earlier but yielded after a moment, "I just done have your skill, Vessy"
"Sylvannas Windrunner, if I don't hear you singing in the next three seconds I'm going to beat you with this harp!"
Cringing, Sylvannas smirked. She knew how to get her audience going. At a shaded picnic spot on the golden beaches of a beautiful foreign land two elves played the music of angles. And then a note broke lose… The voice of an angel rising threw the trees, spreading down the beach, engulfing everything it touched.
Sylvanans sung.
The scene changed abruptly.
The trees were dead now, the shoreline no longer glimmered. The sky was dark and overcast. Murlocs fought Scourge troops, spreading gore and ooze threw the sand. The girls, in their beautifully embroidered dresses and flowing locks of soft hair sung as if there wasn't a war being waged around them. As if the very ground they sat on wasn't turning green with the spread of the plague.
Kayas was sucked backward, down the winding paths the girls had used to get there. She wound up at the Spire again. There were Rangers there, armed and ready. Up what had been a beautifully manicured lane marched scores of undead troops, abominations, giant undead spider creatures and ghouls of every shape and size. In the air the remaining light of day was blacked out with thousands of gargoyles and plague-carrying bats.
A figure in plated green chain mail sat astride an older version of the same horse that had once bore her to the ocean that day. Her hair was still set in flowing curls, though the lack of sunlight sucked out all the color making it look bone white.
"They advance quickly, Lady Vereessa!"
Screaming in rage, Vereesa Windrunter set her white horse into a full gallop down the hill towards the advancing army. The hundreds of rangers behind her did the same.
"Make them pay for every life they have taken!" She called.
A cry went up amongst the rangers, sweeping down the hill and into the maw of death.
The scene changed.
An older Sylvannas was arguing with an older Braid – Ally. "You can't go! You can't. Not when we need you most!" Everything the older girl took out of her chests to pack was quickly replaced the moment the taller woman's back was turned. The house looked human, though the architecture was unfamiliar to the little Druid.
"I am serving my people as I am sworn to do!" The other girl said, pushing her sister out of the way when she realized why her packing was taking so long.
"Your angry, I understand-"
"They killed our brothers! Our cousins! Our grandfather had to fight his own son!" More things were shoved into a trunk, "They have to die, and this is how it has to be done!"
"You're abandoning us!" Sylvannas was in tears, her weathered young face stretched tight in grief. "Alleria, please… Don't leave me."
"Sill, don't make me choose. I have to do this." Walking to the adjoining balcony, Allerian Windrunner scanned the sky for something. Making a sharp whistle, she held up her gloved arm. From the rooftop swooped an enormous buzzard. It landed on her upraised fist-
The scene changed.
Alleria had turned into a statue now. Standing over 5 stories tall she was one of many lining the causeway into what Kayas recognized as Stormwind from the picture books she had seen in at her history lessons. And deep inside she knew that after that day Sylvannas had never seen her sister again, nor ever would.
The scene changed.
Vereesa was there, staring at a figure shaded in the night. Only the red of its eyes showed. The High Elf's blue eyes were streaming tears, ears folded over in anguish. "What did he do to you? What did that monster do to you?"
From the shadows Sylvannas Windrunner spoke, "It is better I did not answer your question. Let me keep these memories for us both." Something was wrong with her voice. It had a strange metallic echo to it.
Vereesa fell to her knees, "He took everything. Alleria, Qual'thalas, and now you! Is everyone dead? Am I all that's left?"
The red eyes in the shadows blinked, "Listen to me well my love, for after today we are no longer sisters. The Alliance whom you hold so dear has turned me out. Your husband and your unborn children – yes, I know the life that lies in your womb – would destroy me on sight. Think no more of it. 'Sill' died when the Elfin Gates fell. Now I am Queen of the Forsaken. I remain to see the monster who did this to us fall."
"And then what? What will you do when your revenge is taken? The Scourge needs a ruler, we know as much!"
"That is not my destiny. My people hunger for revenge. I intend to see them well fed."
"Sill-"
The Banshee Queen was already gone.
The scene changed.
The girls were sitting on the beach again. Flooding blue skies, thick white clouds, shimmering sand. One played the stolen flute, one sipped the stolen wine. One sang a song stolen from the angels. Instead of the gentle washing of the waves, the cry of the seabirds, or the spirited song the child Sylvannas was singing, Kayas heard a dirge playing in her mind sung by another voice.
Where at the tip of the pass,
Threw the Elfin Gates;
Lies the land of Qual'thalas,
Where forbidden powers they partake.
Alleria grimaced, "Mother and Father guzzle this stuff – it's disgusting!"
You'll never see your home again;
Say goodbye to Qual'thalas
The Elfin Gates have fallen now;
All your hope is lost.
The other two girls laughed in their agreement, rosy-cheeked already from their turn at the bottle.
Flee from here, sweet child,
To be feral and be wild!
Please don't misunderstand;
For they would all destroy you,
Who walk across your land.*
* Tune of "The Stolen Child", a poem by William Butler Yeats (Irish Monthly, Dec 1886)