by Milton Garby
As she watched, she resurrected a high elf woman.
" - eredar moving up here," the night elf said, pointing to one of the green markers that were uncomfortably close to Nethergarde. "Seems like they're preparing a large number of infernals."
"Agrees with what our shamans far-saw to the southwest," one of the unimportant officers said. "Infernal meteor stockpiles here and here, they are ready to start launching at any moment. But if we can strike the gateways here and here with bombs, then the feedback should rupture a great many of them. Our position is not yet precarious thanks to Miss Smithers and Stormwind's reinforcements, so we should take this opportunity to strike back at the Legion and begin working on forcing them back."
"What is the Horde planning?" her elf asked.
"I just got finished talkin' with Legionnaire Tral'gok," the old man said. "They've noticed the same situation with the infernals, but they're more interested in sabotaging their machinery portals. Can't blame 'em given how many fel cannons are aimed at them. Either way with our situation stabilizing, it's an opportune time to hamstring the demons while we still can."
"How are we going to reach the infernals though? They are far behind enemy lines and there's too much smog over them to fly high up."
Sara tuned out partially, not all that interested in the specifics of their strategy. However, it was some very good news. They were actually going to strike out at the demons. They weren't just going to sit in Nethergarde and try to beat the Burning Legion in a war of attrition. Though if they really thought her resurrecting soldiers was doing anything they were morons. After all, a lot of her patients were repeat customers. Still, if they could pull off destroying the infernals then maybe they could actually get something done.
Maybe she wouldn't desert quite yet.
Sara's sleep schedule was a mess, but after studying for six years at the Academy, odd sleep schedules were nothing she was unused to.
The demons didn't rest, and that meant neither did Sara since people kept dying overnight. This forced her to take little catnaps in between resurrections, or just power through whenever the demons sent out a wave at night. In the darkness, with visibility impaired and the Burning Legion sieging the walls, Sara got a lot of patients and she half wondered if she could possibly revive them all. Each time though, her magic pulled through. Each time, thanks to her deepening mana pool, it was easier.
She leaned against the stone walls, her pearlescent green shield distorted to let her do so. Her eyes were closed and her breathing was slow. She didn't think she was asleep, but she felt so lightheaded that and faint she wouldn't have been able to tell.
"Another one, Sara," Eric said between yawns.
Sara jolted and blinked furiously, looking at the medics bringing in a man to rest on one of the clean cots. "Oh, right." Not even bothering to go closer to him, she tightened her grip on her staff and pointed her free hand at him. After a little bit of mind altering and soul moving, he was back and better than ever. Then she leaned back against the wall and let her eyes slam shut.
Outside, Sara could hear the thud thud thud of infernals landing in Nethergarde. Every now and then one of them smashed into the barracks she was in, shaking her to her bones. She found herself eager to go outside of the morgue, to go against the infernals and smash them with her Old God magic. To find Doomguards and nail them in the chest with a shadow bolt and then watch them crumple. She could do so much damage, so easily, and she was stuck here reviving these imbeciles! Sure she understood why, her powers were their secret weapon against the Legion, but she could do so much more good out there! Didn't they see that? They'd failed to stop the infernals, they'd failed to stop the breaches, those idiots were going to get her parents killed if she didn't do something!
It would be so easy. Just walk outside, start killing everything in sight.
But no. Sara would just bring 'justice' upon her head for disobeying orders, then they'd - try to - lock her away and everything would just go downhill. Why she oughta -
"Another."
Sara jerked herself back to the waking world just long enough to resurrect the next woman, then fell back into sleep.
Stupid, stupid stupid.
Clip, clop.
Sara almost jerked, but kept herself still and pretended to be asleep.
Clip, clop.
Her first thought was that it was a draenei's hooves, but that wasn't quite right. Draenei hooves had more ring to their clip-clops. Whoever this was, they were not a draenei. It was something else.
It was the sound of demon hooves.
Sara waited. The sound came closer. It was faint, too. If she wasn't focused on it there was no way she'd be able to pick it apart from her own breathing. Clip, clop. Clip, clop. Then it stopped, in front of her and a little distance away... probably right in front of Eric.
There was the sound of tearing, muted struggles, and Sara snapped her eyes open.
The demon in question was a succubus. Two massive horns sprouted straight up from a head of black hair, and her teal eyes glowed brighter than even a draenei's. Around the demon's neck was a choker with a blue gem, and a pair bat wings - with sharp spikes adorning them - sprouted from her back. She wore scandalously little on her sinuous body, but what little there was was deep blue like the sea with faded gold lines, and her pinkish skin had red tattoos here and there. Below her knees, her skin changed into rough demon scales with spikes on the back, all the way to her hooves. A lithe, fleshy tail swung behind her. The demon's right hand clutched a serrated leather whip and the fingernails were talons, talons which had slit Eric's throat, muted his struggles, and lowered him to the ground.
Sara narrowed her eyes, and growled. She was going to have to bring him back too?! That demon was going to fry!
Eric was already dead, or would be soon enough from blood loss, so friendly fire wasn't an issue. She summoned cataclysmic shadow magic to her hands and thrust them out at the succubus. A cresting wave of unfocused shadow magic blew outwards from her like a hurricane. The demon tried to move out of the way but it was much too late for her. Despite the natural shadow resistance demons had, Sara's magic lifted her up and blasted her against the wall, where she then dropped to the ground with an erotic groan.
Wait... she had a better idea. She wasn't going to kill this demon. Oh no, far from it. Hands glowing dark purple, Sara forced her magic into the succubus's mind. Like it did with people, she saw a complex framework of mental lines connected with each other. To her surprise, it was very similar to that of a regular person. Maybe succubi used to be mortals and were corrupted into demons, their essence burnt into the Twisting Nether? It was a fascinating idea, but the practical application was that she could mind control this monster easily.
Snip, paralyzed demon. Snip, magicless demon. Then she began her real work. Initiative, that could go. There it was, loyalty! The speech center, hearing center. Just a few snips and... now the succubus was loyal to anyone talking to her. Perfect. Then she directed her magic into Eric. He was only freshly dead, so it was relatively little effort to bring him back, and repairing his injuries was simple. He sputtered back to life and clutched his throat, kicking himself away from the motionless succubus with a noise not unlike a choking mouse.
"Relax," she said tiredly. "You're fine. I paralyzed her, we're all fine. How the hell did she sneak up on you? Were you asleep, Eric?" she growled.
He grabbed a cot and used it to push himself onto two feet. "She just... appeared in front of me, I think she was invisible. Can they even do that?"
Sara considered that. "Hmm, they actually can. While you were dead I mind controlled her. Let's just see what she has to say for herself." She directed her magic back at the succubus and undid the paralysis. "Stand, but make no move to harm anyone," she ordered. The succubus did, looking past Sara with a thousand yard stare. The demon's whip laid on the ground. "What was the meaning of your attempted assassination?" she demanded.
"I was sent by my superiors to infiltra
te Nethergarde Keep, eliminate any key individuals, and report back with knowledge of the interior layout," she said in a silky but hollow voice.
Interesting. But as Sara was thinking of another question to ask, two priests with a stretcher held between them came in.
"Another one miss - oh dear WHAT is going on?!" the lead medic asked when she saw the succubus trying to impersonate a statue. "Why is there one of them in here?"
Without waiting for them to bring the dead dwarf to a cot, Sara began to revive him. "This one was a Legion assassin, turned invisible and killed Eric. I mind controlled her. Maybe someone higher up will be interested about this?" she asked. "If that's the case, one of you run along and get whoever would be interested by this." She finished up the resurrection and the dwarf jerked. He looked up at her and grinned before hopping off the stretcher and making his way out.
"I'll get Marshal Aloric," the priest further back said. "Keep the succubus here!" He darted out of the morgue, leaving just the three of them and the one demon.
"So Sara..." Eric began. "I never knew you could mind control demons."
"Yeah well," she muttered. "Now you do. It's not even real mind control, I just changed what she likes to do. If she decides to attack us she can, I just made that very unlikely." She wondered if it was permanent. If she killed the succubus, would she reform with the changes still in place? Probably.
Conversation petered out. Sara was reluctant to ask more questions from the demon, since she didn't want to repeat herself once 'Marshal Aloric' arrived.
She had time for two more resurrections and two more brief naps before the Marshal arrived. He arrived in full uniform with a fair amount of badges on his vest. Not as many as the old man she'd seen through the night elf, but enough to be impressive to other people. He was bald, far too bald for his mid-forties, and looked past her at the succubus with the sort of disdain usually reserved for cockroaches, or people who got between her and what she wanted. She hesitated, but reluctantly stood up straight to face him.
"Is this the one?" he asked.
"It is, sir," she said as respectfully as she could manage. "She came in here invisibly and killed Eric. I mind controlled her, revived him, and here we are."
"I see. How much longer can you maintain control over it?"
"Permanently, so long as no outside force reverses what I did," she said. "It should also be noted the changes I did to her renders her without much initiative, and loyal to anybody who talks to her, including other demons. I highly recommend keeping her isolated. You may question her at your leisure. Sir."
"Interesting," he hummed, facing the succubus. Sara couldn't help but smirk when his gaze briefly dropped lower from the demon's faces. "Demon. What were your orders for coming here?"
"Assassination and reconnaissance. Memorize layout of barrack interior, identify and kill key personnel. Should I fail to eliminate and was eliminated myself, then upon reformation I would report to Doomlord Ku'rozal of what I learned, and afterwards await further orders. Should I succeed, I was to return and inform Doomlord Ku'rozal of what I accomplished and afterwards await further orders."
"I see. What rank does this Doomlord Ku'rozal have in the Legion?" he asked.
"Doomlord Ku'rozal is the leader of the southern Eastern Kingdoms invasion. He is tasked with moving upwards while the forces in the north move downwards."
"And what plans does he have in the meantime?" the Marshal asked, pacing around the succubus.
"I do not know, I was not informed," the demon droned.
"What attacks are planned for tomorrow? Where are they coming from?"
"At sunrise, a contingent of doomguards is to fly around your perimeter and drop in near the mess hall. In the distraction, gan'arg are to place fel cannons near and, if possible inside your walls. Following that there is a planned pause to regroup our forces, followed by a larger attack force the day after whose details I was not privy to."
"Damn it!" the Marshal swore. "Smithers, if this demon of yours is telling the truth then you may have just done us a world of good! I'll take it with me for further interrogation."
"Sir, if I may make a request?" she asked.
"Speak," he said with a nod.
"I believe I should - oh, excuse me," she said, trying to hide a yawn. "I believe I would be able to do much more good fighting demons directly than resurrecting soldiers. My shadowy barrier is impenetrable, and in the amount of magic it takes to bring someone back I could destroy a great number of demons. My powers are being wasted in here."
"Hmm, I can certainly see how you may think that, given that you don't leave this place. Rest assured miss, you are doing wonders. You are our secret weapon. While it may be true that for individual soldiers you could do more with your magic than resurrecting them, your continued efforts have gone a long way towards reinforcing our position in the Blasted Lands. Medical supplies are far less strained, and morale is through the roof since nobody truly needs fear death so long as you are here. I know it may not seem like much in here, but rest assured you are doing a tremendous amount of good, far more than if you were to go fighting the demons and, Light forbid, get yourself killed."
She nodded. Maybe if she had more sleep she'd try harder to convince him, maybe even tweak his thoughts a little, but at the moment he seemed to make a lot of good points. "I understand, sir," she said, returning to the wall. "I'm just worried that it seems all we're doing is delaying the inevitable."
"Your worries are noted, but rest assured we are doing everything we can to repel this invasion. You don't need a degree in magical education to know what these creatures do. Demon, follow me." The Marshal turned around, with the succubus on his heels. After they were out of sight Sara let out an anguished groan.
She'd been hoping he would see reason but no. She was going to be trapped here. And sure they kept talking about repelling the Legion but that sure as hell wasn't happening! She'd give them another three days to get something done, but after that?
After that, it was time to go to Ulduar.
Sara
The next day passed with no progress against the Legion.
The day after also passed with no progress.
On the third day, Sara's eyes kept wandering to the book she'd hid her distraction gem within. She had spent a lot of her free time figuring out how she would go about leaving Nethergarde for Ulduar. After all, it was an abominably long trip across some fairly inhospitable terrain. It was quite a puzzle, unfortunately. She desperately did not want to have to slog back to Stormwind through the Swamp of Sorrows, Deadwind Pass, into Duskwood, and from there get a gryphon ride to the city. The obvious solution was to take a mage portal, but where was she going to get one of those?
She sighed, keeping her left hand extended over the most recent corpse. The hole in the sergeant's chest sealed up and he came back to life blinking. Right away he swung himself off and grabbed his weapon, muttering, "Stupid doomguards, that cripple spell is such a piece of shit, gonna use their wings like toothpicks... "
Sara forced herself not to laugh. Oh, she was certain there was a story behind that.
Time continued to tick, tick, tick past. Sara spent more time in the eyes of the night elf, watching the ongoing fight through his body. Though there wasn't much fight at the moment, the demons seemed oddly quiet. That could only be an ill omen. But, there wasn't much she could do. All Sara was capable of was thinking and thinking of a way to get out of the Blasted Lands, preferably without being caught. With so many mages around to counterspell her magic, she couldn't force the issue either. If they were in one place where she could just blow them apart with a shadow nova, maybe.
Her eyes turned to the bag she'd brought to Nethergarde, and her thoughts went again to the distraction gem still hidden inside. Maybe if she...
... no, that wouldn't work.
There wasn't even anyone to resurrect, given how the Legion had seemingly backed off for the time being. That, at least, left Sara with plenty of time to
scheme. Or, as she was currently doing, time to analyze the data she'd gotten from her expedition to C'Thun. Sara found a seat on one of the cots, brought the paper to her and, with a board as a table, was busy throwing math at the data. Eric had gone to get them both breakfast, so at the very least she was alone, safe behind the shadowy barrier that had already kept a succubus from assassinating her.
She yawned, scribbling down more equations on her sheet. Carry the one... invert the cosine... blah blah blah, she'd gotten through the hard part and now all she needed to do was plug in the values in the formula. After some easy but time consuming arithmetic, she got her answer of twenty eight years.
Hmm.
That meant the traces of C'Thun's magic that had wafted as far as Desolace were a relatively recent phenomenon. The whole of Kalimdor hadn't been contaminated for millennia, and more likely it was C'Thun's rise to the surface in recent years that had released its magic so far. That was, by far, the best case scenario.
Eric came by and, like the good little servant he was, brought her the slop that passed for breakfast in the Alliance military. He took a seat across from her and they both started to choke it down, during which Sara kept working. There was a lot to do to detect any hint of the spell the Old Gods used to link to Azeroth. A tremendous amount of comparing, contrasting, so on. She didn't think C'Thun itself had cast the spell, but she needed to prove it mathematically. It was exactly as difficult as she thought it'd be, and ran herself ragged trying to figure out which theorems to use when. Eventually, Sara gave up on it and decided to wait until she had data from the other Old Gods.
"So," Eric said at length. "What are you working on?"
She glared up at him from the papers. "Stuff for being an Archmage, none of your business." She turned her attention back down and scribbled down the spell decay equation.
The door opened and two medics came in, carrying a dead night elf woman between them. "Miss Smithers, apologies for disturbing you but - "