by Milton Garby
Sara stood there with an open mouth as the elven woman threw a hand in the air, vanishing with a flash of arcane light. The man leaning against the portal briskly approached her and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Miss Smithers," he said. "Please relax. Walk with me." She did, following him through the frame held portal - technically it wasn't a portal but everyone called it that - and into the core of the Wizard's Sanctum. He led her outside and down the long spiral ramp, then along the stone streets.
"I imagine this is a shock to you," he said as they passed a few stores.
"A little. Sir, I must insist this is a very grave error. I'm no good in a fight." That wasn't even that much of a lie, considering how she'd spent the entire fight in Ahn'Qiraj either suppressed or getting smacked around by an obsidian destroyer. "My talents would be much better put to work heading to Ulduar, or Pandaria."
"Your talents, I'd like to speak of those." The hairs on her neck stood up. Precisely how much did 'Officer Gurkins' know about her talents? "I've read your profile, I'm extremely impressed. Runner-up of the Mage Quarter Dueling Club, Champion of the Mage Quarter Dueling Club, and ran a little business curing people of procrastination with your magic. You've had the Quarter's eyes on you since you were seven and have progressed through your classes with flying colors, even graduating into your Magister title two years early. Your magical power, mana pool, and magic resistance are off the charts. This is all remarkably impressive, and you also must realize we in the Stormwind Armed Forces understand that spellcasters don't get much time to hone the physical aspect of your bodies, you're too busy training the magical side." He winked. "I'm not going to be expecting you to run suicides or anything, Sara. Can I call you Sara?" Unsure of what to do, she nodded.
"Sara it is then," he continued. "However, there's something else that really got my attention." Don't be my magic signature, she prayed. Don't be my magic signature, don't be - "When you were in the second grade in your hometown, you did a little something that caught Stormwind's attention. You were allowed to come here and train free of charge in hopes of your powers being of great use to the Alliance and to Azeroth." Oh great. He was trying to guilt trip her, make her feel 'indebted' to the Alliance for her free ride.
She wasn't going to let him manipulate her so easily. Steeling herself, she straightened her back and stared him in the eyes. "You mean when I resurrected the frog. Sir, with all due respect it's just a frog." Even though she knew what was going on, Sara wasn't sure what to do. There were too many people around for her to warp his mind into forgetting all about her. She took a deep breath and let it out. "But you're hoping I can resurrect people now, that I can resurrect fallen soldiers. Am I correct?"
He smirked. "Right you are Sara. If your abilities have truly progressed so far, then having you on board would be immensely valuable. Soldiers who are killed in action can come back into the fight, good as new. Medical supplies that are spent on the gravely and terminally wounded can be spared for those less harmed. If we find any mortal supporters of the Legion, they can be revived and interrogated."
Her throat tightened. "I don't have a choice, do I?"
He sighed, suddenly appearing to age rapidly. "I wish you wouldn't think of it like that. Aiding the Alliance in defense of this world is a great honor. But no, you don't have a choice. Your orders are to be back in the Wizard's Sanctum by midnight tonight. Take the time to pack and say goodbyes to anyone in Stormwind." He winked. "Between you and me, I recommend a good book and a toothbrush. There'll be a portal there to pick you up and send you to Nethergarde Keep, where you'll report to Officer Gina Peaceblossom. She's the one currently in charge of the medics there. You'll be operating closely under her given your... unique abilities."
Suppressing a twitch in her eye, Sara ground her teeth together. "Yes, sir. I'll be headed to my apartment to start packing." The leather bag on her back suddenly felt far too heavy to carry.
"Go, and Light be with you."
Sara left Gurkins behind and raced to her apartment complex, her stomach churning uneasily in her gut. Once inside she raced up the stairs and into the suite, then into her room. She slammed into the door, forgetting she'd locked it, then opened it with her key and stumbled inside her room, slamming it behind her.
Everything was exactly like she'd left it, albeit with a little more dust. There was her bed, with the sheets made. Her closet, slammed shut. Her desk, covered in papers where she'd plotted out her expedition - all for naught - with pencils both broken and whole littering the floor around it. With weary shoulders she sloughed off her bag and let the conscription paper flutter to the floor. Throwing herself onto her bed, Sara twisted around and brought her face into the pillow where she screamed profanities for as long as the air in her lungs would let her.
Everything was going wrong! All at once too! First it was the Legion invading, then it was Higris attacking, then her discovering Fardol had gone around her back, and then when she'd gotten so close to C'Thun and hopefully to learning why she had faceless magic, the Old God's dead brain had just said 'Hah no, you need to go to Ulduar for that' and now she was being forced to go to the damned Blasted Lands?! Nothing about the situation was okay!
Okay. Calm. She need to calm down.
Flipping over onto her back, Sara took a deep breath and began to sort things. Alright, first things first. She'd gotten a tremendous amount of data from the trip to C'Thun. It was all written into her notepad and she had that with her. She had lost nothing. Second, everyone she had with her was gone. Leira and Fardol were off to fight the Legion, as were the mages and warlocks she'd brought with her. The Hammer had been chased off by the qiraji and were probably in cocoons or whatever those bugs did.
Third, she had been conscripted into the Alliance army to serve as a medic/reviver. She had until midnight to prepare to go to the Blasted Lands...
... or until midnight to run away and go to Ulduar on her own.
Sara rolled off her bed and fell onto the floor with a yelp, but pulled herself up and scrambled to her desk. She leaned down and opened the drawers and sure enough, there it was. The little blue gem she had enchanted with her own custom-made distraction spell. Sara reached in an pulled it out, turning it over and over in her hands as she sat on the floor.
It would be so easy. Pathetically easy. She hadn't considered all this little gem could do back when her only goal was to get her hands on her magic signature. With this she could get anywhere, so long as there were no magic wards. Nobody would be able to stop her. She'd stow away on the next boat to Northrend and be in the Storm Peaks by next month, winter be damned. She'd be hunted for being a deserter but so what? Nobody would find her and even if they did, with her little gem they wouldn't notice her if they were standing right next to her. And nobody knew of its existence, so nobody would think to create countermeasures for it.
All she had to do was slip it into her pocket and activate it. Then she was free to go to Ulduar at her own leisure. Let those other losers deal with the demons. She had no interest in lending her magic to the cause and resurrecting soldiers left and right. Her magic was much better used blasting demons anyway since resurrection cost so much mana and those idiots would probably just get themselves killed again at the earliest opportunity. She had no interest in going to Nethergarde to battle the Legion and keep them from advancing north into the Swamp of Sorrows, into Duskwood, into Elwynn, into Greenvale...
Had Greenvale evacuated? Odds were they hadn't since the Blasted Lands were still some distance away. And really, if she didn't go help in Nethergarde then there was no way they'd be able to hold on. Maybe even with her help they wouldn't, but at least Sara would be able to delay the Legion and that might just be enough for her parents to get out in time, if worst came to worst.
She could desert the Alliance and make a break for Ulduar, but could she really live with herself if doing so put her parents in danger?
Clenching a fist around her gem, she let a frustrated growl escape her throat and then
began to pack for the Blasted Lands. She put away clothes she wouldn't mind getting ruined by sand and heat. Her notepad and a pen. Her gem, obviously was stored away in her pocket and she was not going to let anyone find it. Hmm, though maybe her pocket wasn't a good idea. She opened her notepad and, at the very back, used her magic to carve a little crevice in the paper and popped the blue crystal inside. Nobody would think to look for it there.
Damn it. And it was already afternoon too, due to the time zones. How much time did she have until midnight? Not enough. Damn it all she didn't want to go to Nethergarde but she didn't have a choice. Though, at the very least she'd be getting a lot of practice with her resurrection magic.
She should've seen it coming, honestly. She'd been accepted to the Mage Quarter because she had demonstrated her ability to bring the dead back to life. It was only a matter of time before people came poking and prodding her to bring people back. Loved ones, pets, her talents could go to much worse use than bringing back fighting soldiers.
Sara finished packing her belongings and went out for a late dinner at the Blue Recluse. That ate up another two hours, and she found herself again in her room with nothing to do for another three hours. She took out her notepad and began flipping through the data, interpreting it.
Opening her desk's top drawer, she pulled out a few sheets of graph paper and began. First things first, ley line friction as they approached C'Thun. They'd only traveled there in a relatively straight line, so they didn't have completely conclusive data, but it seemed there was a sort of 'pinch' in the ley lines beneath C'Thun. Readings from under the Old God confirmed they were being funneled upwards through a series of incredibly subtle yet complicated spells. She took a few new sheets of paper out and began writing the details of those spells that she could interpret. Unfortunately the spell was utterly beyond her ability to comprehend, so she forced herself to instead write down an approximation of it. However, the details of the spell and the subtle hints as to its design indicated the spell was of Titan make rather than Old God creation. There was no reason for C'Thun to create a spell with the line 'imprison single entity of great power' after all.
She spent the rest of her time analyzing the data. Most important was graphing C'Thun's own magical signature. Like the faceless and Sara alike, C'Thun's magic signature formed rising and sharply-falling triangles, which grew in size one after another until at one point shrinking back down and repeating, a sawtooth pattern. Like the faceless and Sara, the third axis's colors were in the high range, and like both of theirs the fourth axis was seemingly random, though C'Thun's values were closer to Sara's than the faceless.
She had more in common with an Old God than with the faceless ones. That was worrying.
Propping her elbows on the desk, Sara rested her head in her hands and sighed.
Great. So she didn't have faceless magic, she had full-blown Old God magic. And C'Thun had expressly shown her Ulduar, and she had death magic. It wasn't hard to figure out that somehow, somewhy, she had some connection to Yogg-Saron. But what? And why? The only way she could figure out was by going to Ulduar, but she'd made her mind up to go to Nethergarde because if she didn't her parents were probably going to die! This was all happening so quickly and honestly it wasn't the sort of surprise she appreciated.
Oh well. Nothing she could do, and it was close to midnight so she needed to get moving. Stuffing her research back inside her leather bag, she hoisted it onto her back and left, locking the door behind her. A few flights of stairs later and she stood outside in the dead of night. The moons hung heavy in the sky, but there were too many lanterns glowing for her to see anything but the brightest of stars. Already, she missed the clear skies of Silithus. Practically on muscle memory, Sara headed towards the towering Wizard's Sanctum at the heart of the Mage Quarter. She took a good look at all the passing houses and stores as she walked, the innumerable blades of grass and cracked stones of the path.
Who knew when she'd be able to see them again?
Up the familiar spiral ramp, through the shimmering portal again, and into the tunnel room again. This time however it was far more crowded than before. The same dozen people she had returned with were already there, standing in three rows of four. In front of them was the same nameless archmage that had welcomed Sara back to Stormwind, as well as Gurkins. In between them roared a three yard tall, hungry looking portal with the faintest glimmers of a castle, of red stone, within its depths.
Standing at the back, Maria glanced over at her. "So Sara, I'm guessing you're pretty upset about this?" she asked innocently.
"Shut up."
"That's a yes then. Relax, it's all going to be fine. We're not going to be like, wading down and fighting with swords. We're the ones who stand in the back setting stuff on fire." Maria suddenly looked uncomfortable. "Or... whatever it is your magic does."
She crossed her arms and huffed as Gurkins raised his voice. She tuned out as the idiot barked orders at the other mages and warlocks. She had her assignment in paper, she already knew where she was going to go. Blah blah Nethergarde Infirmary blah blah Gina Peaceblossom. Got it. It wasn't brain surgery. According to her internal clock though, she'd been going over day without sleep, and she was starting to feel it by the way a nauseous pit settled in her stomach. After a few minutes of him explaining in more detail what was going on, he ordered them through the portal. Like a river flowing downhill everyone filed through, entering the portal one after another. Maria gave her a nervous grin before vanishing, and then it was Sara's turn.
She took a deep breath. She could still go. All Sara had to do was let loose a shadow nova and kill the Officer and Archmage while they were down. Then activate the gem still with her, and run.
Sara did none of those things, and instead mechanically approached the portal. There was nothing for her to worry about, she reasoned. All she had to do was keep her shadow barrier up twenty four seven, and nothing would hurt her.
Again, the portal's shimmering light slammed shut around her, throwing her down an invisible pit of roaring power. Then just like before, the flowing lights of the Twisting Nether fell down from around her and Sara landed hard in the Blasted Lands, already throwing up a green magic shell around herself.
Heat instantly blasted her face and withered at her skin. She blinked and looked around. The ground beneath her was bare and ragged stone, colored like rust. The air wasn't as bereft of moisture as it had been in Silithus, but there was a little tang in the breeze she couldn't quite place. All around her, Nethergarde Keep sprung up. Towering stone walls encased her on all sides, though looking closely she noticed that some portions of the wall were much newer than others, and in still other places were gaping holes into the outer world being patched up by furious masons.
Not just in the walls either. All around Sara were massive, scorched craters blown into the ground, most only half filled in. The Legion was attacking Nethergarde, so were those infernal craters? Could her shadowy barrier withstand a hit like that? She glanced to the sky and relaxed when she saw there was no smoke trailing through the sky.
Nethergarde Keep had three main structures. Two of those were castle-like barracks on either end of the keep and between them, pushed near the back, was a wizard's tower. Various smaller structures dotted the area to take up the space. A forge. A stable. A gryphon master's roost, though there was no master nor were there any gryphons about from what she could tell. Sara had arrived in the middle of the keep facing away from its gates, and already the others were headed to the left barracks.
Sara however, turned right with not even a goodbye to the others. They certainly were not alone either, as soldiers and masons and many more people whose occupations she couldn't identify meandered around on some pointless tasks, filling the air with the white noise of their inane chattering. As she approached the keep she swallowed the lump in her throat, then stepped onto the white bricks leading into it. The portcullis was up, and she didn't even consider it might slam down on top of
her. She had her barrier for that anyway.
Inside torches lit the scene instead of the moons. Sara pressed deeper, turning a few corners and getting lost a few times as she searched for 'Gina Peaceblossom'. Her bag still on her back, Sara peeked into room after room, went up and down stairs. Once or twice she had to be turned around from places where the injured rested by shushing medics, who also helped steer her in the right direction.
After about half an hour of hopeless wandering, she found Gina Peaceblossom doing paperwork in what Sara could only describe as a large closet. There were no windows, and the walls had nails hammered into them with white robes hanging from each. The ground was covered in countless sheets of paper, but to her dismay the sheets were organized into piles. Some of the piles were knee high. Gina herself was clad in white form-hugging robes with blue trims that fell to the ground. The woman was hunched over a desk facing away from Sara, a pencil scribbling furiously onto some more paperwork. Despite the abominable creak the door made when Sara opened it, she remained unresponsive.
"Gina Peaceblossom?" she asked.
"BY THE LIGHT!" the woman shouted, throwing herself back and upending the chair with a calamitous slam. Sara smirked as the redheaded woman smacked into the ground and sent her carefully arranged stacks of paper flying, but then she adopted a concerned look.
"Um, I'm sorry. I knocked but you were kinda in your own world." Sara hadn't knocked. "I am Magister Sara Smithers, I was told to report to you to help with the injured and dead."
Peaceblossom collected herself and righted the chair. "Phew. Right, sorry about that. Let me think..." She closed her eyes for a moment and nodded. "Ah yes, the wonder girl. So can you actually bring back the dead or are you just blowing smoke out of your ass?"