~*~ Author's Notes ~*~
I usually avoid name-dropping for the sake of credibility
But when moving and shaking is going on in the world
The movers and shakers come out to investigate
~*~ Chapter 31 ~*~
"And here I though I was going to have to look all day for the three of you," The man said. Behind him the Scarlet Mages were getting to their feet. The casters and warriors formed ranks and drove the plagued hounds off.
The Paladin ignored them, steadfast between the lot and the undead child he sought. "Now," he went on, gazing at the little girl under the rim of his winged helm, "I don't want to be mean, but I've told you before to stop killing the Humans. Picking fights with each other is not going to solve your problems."
The child squirmed to get down so much that Kayas released her. She walked right up to the Paladin, staying a good foot away from the pulsing sword. Hands over her mouth Kayas waited for him to slash her into pieces with that impressive glowing weapon. "But she started it!" the child wailed.
The Druid just about broke her neck looking sideways at the pair. They know each other?
"Are you sure?" the man asked looking down his nose at her and somehow keeping his head up at the same time, "You weren't stealing the pumpkins again, where you? Or riling up the murlocs? Or chasing the cats? Or reviving the dead puppies? Did she really start it?"
The child's whole upper half scrunched up with conviction; "She started it by being here! This is our land!" A tiny foot stomped the ground, hands clenched in fists.
The man sighed, "Sylvannas… Your angels are acting up again."
"I feel just awful!" The voice was still not placeable and unashamedly sarcastic. For some reason it reminded Kayas of her dream of the Windrunner sisters drinking stolen wine on the beach in the Ghostlands – in Quel'thalas.
Two sets of giggles sounded as well: the children the Queen took with her when she vanished into the trees. "Scarlet Marmots… Scarlet Marmots... Scarlet Marmots…" they were chanting in the background. Their high-pitched metallic voices sending shivers of every kind down the backs of every living being present.
The Paladin shook his head and let out a breath that sank his whole upper half, "Why ask for my help and then go against my advice, Ms. Windrunner?"
"To keep you out of my way without killing you."
The man wasn't even surprised, "As I suspected. Which is why I've taken the liberty of inviting Bartholomew back to Light's Hope with me. He's packing as we speak."
The Banshee Queen was suddenly in front of him, "What?" The little girl squealed with glee and wrapped her arms around the Dark Lady's legs.
"Brother Bartholomew. You remember him, right? Died defending Light's Hope the first go-round. Yes, he's decided to come back." Behind the mouth guard of his helm the Druid could tell the man was grinning from ear to ear.
Taking several deep breaths to calm herself the Dark Lady put a finger between his eyes, almost inside the rim of the helm, "My most prized citizen-"
"Spare me, Your Magesty. Every time the mortals lose a champion you gain one. You have stables full by now, so we're taking one back." There was laughter in the words, but a cold truth behind them.
Kayas blanched, "Um… can I go now?"
Taking a step to go around them she ended up directly in the line of holy fire. It slammed into her body and sent her reeling over backward. She hit the ground hard and rolled till a dead sapling stopped her. Everything got loud; she had to move the wild black hair out of the way to see what was going on.
Sylvannas was locked in the embrace of the Paladin and was somehow unaffected by his Holy aura. Quickly she jumped away swearing. Her bow and arrow was in hand leveling a shot almost before the man could snatch them away. More holy bolts headed towards the Forsaken Queen and were blocked by the Paladin's cape.
He wouldn't let them kill her and he wouldn't let her kill them. No one was happy about this, everyone glaring at the imposing figure in gold and blue.
"You will move or we will move you!" the Commander was shouting, "We want that Scourge child on charges of murder!"
"And what of my people you have slain? Who will you give me to answer for them?" There was much to say for the Banshee Queens sense of justice and self-restraint on behalf of the Paladin. The child giggled and nodded enthusiastically.
One of the warriors in back scoffed, "One can't kill what is already dead. Find a grave and lie down, Scourge!"
The Paladin blocked the Queen's advance on the arrogant woman. Why she obeyed him the Druid had no idea, though it was very interesting to see a Human Paladin giving the Forsaken Queen 'orders' as it were. More interesting to see how hard it was for the undead elf to rein in both temper and protective instinct. She took her job as protector seriously it seemed.
"Let me slay them all now and be done with it! I'll raise them all up at once so they can adjust together, yes?"
"No." The Paladin said catching himself halfway between an eye roll and adjusted to make the gesture look less obvious.
"You spoil my grandest plans." Taking up the child in her arms she made to walk out of the golden circle. Several more bolts of holy energy were sliced clean in two by the Paladin's sword.
"Why do you protect her?" The Commander's face was red with anger, "Let us kill her and be done with it!"
"One cannot explain rationality to a zealot," The Paladin answered, slicing threw more holy bolts. The warriors were circling in to attack on the other side, casters on the left. "No, no. You'll only make her angry." He kept eyes on both casters and fighters, "Trust me on this; you can't outmaneuver a Ranger General of Silvermoon."
The words slapped Kayas in the face: a Ranger General of Silvermoon. That is why she allows him such liberties; he has her respect because she has his. The little Druid at once wanted to know this man's story. Why was he here? Why was he not being attacked by the Scarlets or the Forsaken? Why did his Holy energy not burn the Scourged High Elf?
These toughs were just a flash of electricity threw her mind, but still not as fast as one warriors retort of, "Arthas did." Nor where they as fast as the Banshee Queen's attack. The screeeEEEEeeee that silenced the casters erupted from the Forsaken woman's small mouth.
The Paladin was yelling at the rest to flee, was yelling at the Dark Lady to stop her assault, and yelling at the cowering warrior to shut up as he screamed in terror at being pursued by the undead Queen. "Lady-Lady! Please, this will not solve the-"
"But it does make me feel better." So much venom could not be spoken if one were a snake that spat it. A swift movement of one clawed hand and the warrior was on the ground holding gushing purple ropes that a moment before been guts.
Kayas' stomach lurched and she fell to her knees. Sick, she vomited into the dead grass watching the horrified man trying to push his own guts back into his shredded abdomen. He pleaded with is fellow Scarlets to help him as the Banshee Queen stood over him smirking. Her hand was red with blood that pumped out onto the ground. The other arm still held the grinning child whose head was laid on her shoulder innocently.
The Scarlets tried to advance towards him, the medic of the group winding up his healing spells.
Turning her hooded head towards the lot the Dark Lady said softly, "Go ahead and touch him; I'll raise you all together." They all stopped, understanding the promise. They wept and wailed to see their friend drying and not be able to help. The poison of the Lady's touch was smoking in his innards even as he was trying to save himself. Where he a Paladin or a Priest he may have been able to … but not a warrior with no such skills.
The Paladin was slumped over his sword handle, praying to the Light for the man's eternal soul. He did not try to help nor hinder any events. In his mind the man had played with fire and lost. It had been his decision to ignore the warnings and goad the Forsaken Queen in exactly the right way to set her off no matter the outcome.
The rest were caught in moral dilemma, so to speak. The poison would spread to anyone who touched him, yet he pleaded for help. There was nothing they could do to save the man and yet he was unwilling to accept that. With hands out towards them in supplication they were forced to look him in the eye and shake their head.
This was the intended purpose the Dark Queen had in mind the second he opened his mouth. He didn't get a swift death and then being raised up and forgiven for the slight as a re-born Forsaken. No, he got to sit there and have his people turn away from him as he pleaded for help – to fully understand what it meant to be affected by the Plague and have your wits about you. Kayas knew from seeing it that it could take hours, days or even weeks for someone to die from that kind of gut wound. He would live long enough to truly regret what he had done, but die alone. Even now they saw him as dead and were planning how to destroy him when he rose.
The Paladin made a move to leave; the band of Scarlets mounted an organized assault on the Banshee Queen; the Druid, deeply in denial that the man's suffering was necessary, ran to him and dove to his aid; the wall of holy energy blinked out. The child was dropped like a hot stone and ran off into the bushes to find her friends.
The Scarlet Commander cursed, seeing the child get away but ordered the band to attack the Dark Lady instead. Lashes of Holy energy whipped threw the air meaning to catch the undead woman off guard as she drove sideways to catch the Druid who ran past. If she tried to exercise her control of the Plague then the Druid would not be able to move and possibly get killed by the Scarlets.
Kayas hit the ground and never in her desperate existence called on the vines to come to her aid with so much willpower. Instead of a shield to protect the child from assault she made a living one now for herself to defend against the Dark Lady. The woman was going to be furious with her but the Druid didn't care; there was no way this man deserved to lay here and languish. Either he would live or he would die, but it would happen in the next few moments if the Druid had anything to do with it!
The flimsy first layer of the vines was quickly shredded by both Scarlet and Forsaken. When they realized they were working together they bickered amongst themselves long enough for Kayas to get a really good connection with the energies laying dormant in the fouled Tirisfal fields and forests – and pulled them all to her, as much as she could take in. Not having had anyone summon the power in so long time… they answered.
The first flush of power went to the vines that held his hands and feet down. He cursed and swore at her, trying to call powers he didn't possess and threatening things he could not do even if he were in perfect health. Holding down each limb was easy; she was far stronger than a Human. The vines up and wound themselves till he was pretty immobile.
The second flush of power went to fortify the shield. The third flush was a rush – the land was waking up from a long slumber – that sent her mind reeling with the enormity of the untapped power. As it flowed into her from the ground it flowed also from the moon and the sky and the very air she breathed. Absorbing everything that Elune and Cenarius would lend her she called forth what healing spells she knew and wound them around the man.
So many vines encircled his form after just a few seconds that his armor creaked and broke apart as the vines swelled with power and pulsed in a healing rhythm with her breathing. Moving herself with precision she set to work with the real healing that needed to take place. Outside the barrier everything had gone quiet. Either they were all dead, fled or waiting. Whatever it was didn't concern her at the moment.
~*~ Outside the Barrier ~*~
Sylvannas
As soon as she had seen the barrier go up the Dark Lady had tried to break it down. She didn't want her poison removed; it took quite some time to brew something so potent, not to mention the difficulty of finding plaguebloom. The Scarlets on the other hand were after her Druid to kill it. She wouldn't let this happen. Even if it meant waiting until she came out and killing the Scarlet Warrior all over again. The Druid's punishment would come after, when the Paladin and the Scarlets were all gone home to their warm beds or her apothecaries.
Placing a hand in the air she indicated a truce with the spell flingers and fighters. Their Commander recognized her intentions and called his troops to a halt. "This won't be pretty." He told his men, but not bothering to keep his voice down. They backed away and waited. "We wait till they come out. The boy's dead, he'll possibly come out Scourge. Be ready to take him out first so she cant get him."
You kill that bastard all over again if you want, the Dark Lady though, so long as I get my Druid out of here in one piece. Rising out of your grave and realize than the Forsaken were sentient after all was a shocker to each Scarlet she raised, but this one would realize it in time to have his friends hack him to pieces. A fitting punishment for his last words.
The Paladin alone noticed the changes before anyone else did. Slowly he asked, "Have any of you been to the Elfin Gates lately and seen the trees?"
The Dark Lady tried not to show her stiffness, "Yes." As soon as word had gotten to her, born on the lips of that ill-gotten runt Lore used to ferry his messages, she had taken the newly established portal and went to see for herself. The raw emotions that had erupted after so many years of exile from Quel'thalas had almost done her in. Shutting off her heart was something she had great skill in, and a skill she called on once again to tear herself away and come back to this dead wasteland where her own now resided.
The Paladin indicated the ground around the vine-y covers: the spreading green circle where the life in the long dead grass was reviving. The protective vines were becoming greener as the moments passed, soaking up purified waters from the ground and pulsing with rejuvenation. "I'm actually on my way to Orgrimmar to hunt down a Druid to explain this phenomena." Turning back to the Dark Lady he said, rather formal, "I wish to question her when she comes out. Is that understood?"
"My Druid, get your own. There are plenty in Thunder Bluff; I'm sure Hannumal will not deny you all the assistance you want." In truth she didn't want this Paladin getting it in his head to try and spirit her Druid away. The little she-cat would surely not put up a fight, still convinced in her own childish mind that her fate was not intertwined with the rest of the Forsaken now. If she only knew what the kaldorie did to the undead she would not be so quick to want to return to them.
The tip of the sword came out of the ground, "I think I'll take this one actually."
Ass, the Banshee Queen though at him – something she would never say aloud – and realized he still had her preferred weapons. She glared. He had her respect and she his but she found him a difficult non-ally to stomach at times. Maybe she could best him in a fight, maybe she couldn't, but she would not even dare try with only her twin blades between them. Not with the Scarlets so close.
"I hate you Tirion Fordring," she hissed. "I hate you and your entire race and one day when you too will serve at my feet. And with you at my side I shall cut down these Scarlets once and for all and rule all of Loarderon."
The Scarlets were horrified to hear this, but Tirion just laughed, "I cannot be at your side and at your feet at the same time, my dearest Queen, but if you are going to dream then dream big!"
Does my overly confident Paladin want to bet on that?