Death Never Dies

by Milton Garby

  Was there any sense to this? Was she going to be stuck here, witnessing the full extent of -

  It had figured something out. All minds needed a certain group of pathways to work. It could take several forms, but there was a formula that could be used. Using that formula, it could create madness spells that would work on absolutely anything. Elementals, other forming organics, itself -

  A formula? A way to affect anything? How much magic did Yogg-Saron know? How much could she learn -

  Yogg-Saron bit down on Aman'thul and, with a flick of its head, sent him flying through a mountain. It bent its head down and, with the armored plates on its head, absorbed a lightning bolt from Golganneth. But it could feel itself weakening. The Titans were strong, so strong, and though it could shatter any one of them on its own, the six members of the Pantheon together were more than six members of the Pantheon apart. Where was -

  It was too much. Her head hurt. There was just too much -

  Trapped. Trapped under so much stone and dirt. It couldn't extend its magical sensors, but in time it would. Then it would find the details of its prison and work to subvert them. Those metal mongrels thought they had any right to come to its world and take it away?! It would show them... and their creations would pay dearly for -

  Of course, Yogg-Saron had wasted no time trying to escape. But where would she store all these memories? Her brain was too -

  So it was still too weak to defeat the mortals. It would not have the mana to cast the life extinguishing spell in time. Instead, it needed to do something drastic. It would need to humble itself, in the hopes that its feeble echo would find out what it was and -

  No... it couldn't be. That was impossible. There was no way -

  The five of them had grown bored of the terroragk and effortlessly wiped them out. Yogg-Saron fleshcrafted a new race of servants in an instant, adding and removing body parts on a whim. The first of the faceless were created. It wondered how long it would be before they grew bored of the faceless, and wiped them out -

  The faceless... weren't always their servants? It made sense, if they were chaos gods, but -

  Hope that its echo would find a way back to its body. It didn't have the magic or the time to set up a forceful transfer trap, but it COULD give the echo every memory it would lose. No more time to waste. It was about to die -

  But how could she be? All her life... but how could she not be? It explained -

  N'Zoth's faceless clashed against Yogg-Saron and C'Thun's, while Tsa'Thannon fought Y'Shaarj and C'Thun, and Y'Shaarj fought Yogg-Saron and N'Zoth, and C'Thun's own forces fought -

  Was anything sacred to them? The lives of the other Old Gods seemed to be, but other than that? Other than that was everything subject to -

  Time and patience had made it strong. Now, Yogg-Saron was going to pit itself against Neptulon. Once it wrested control from the water lord, it could feast upon the chaos with impunity, and in time subjugate the rest of the elemental lords. They needed to understand that their rule over the world was over. Permanently. From then on -

  Her head burned. Her entire body burned. Her magic squirmed. The vision flashed by almost too fast, sometimes focusing on a memory on an overlay -

  In time the mortal reincarnation would return. One day, it would return to its true glory. Yogg-Saron said its last words to the mortals, and ejected its soul.

  Sara gasped and stumbled back. She lost her balance and tripped, falling backwards. She caught herself on her arms, but still ended up sitting in the pool of saronite, staring at Yogg-Saron. She scrambled back through the viscous, pulsing fluid.

  No... no she couldn't be.

  There was no way.

  It was impossible!

  Finally getting up on both legs, she backpedaled out of the liquid saronite, which slid off her legs and back into the pool. Her head throbbed, eons of memories magically burnt into it, ready for her to examine whenever she wished.

  She was -

  She could -

  She'd cause -

  Her breathing sped up. She had to get away. She had to get away!

  Sara turned around, gripped her distraction gem, and ran as fast as she could.

  She had to get away.

  Talgath the Inexorable

  Standing in the ruined base of Dreadmaul Hold, Talgath could only grin. They had finally, finally broken through the Blasted Lands. Lord Kil'jaeden would be pleased.

  The eredar lord walked towards Argolash, who was busy stomping on already-pulverized bones with his forelegs. "Ahem," he said, grabbing the annihilan's attention.

  Argolash whirled around with a snarl that did not relent when he saw Talgath. "What is it?" he growled.

  "We're done here, Argolash," he rumbled to the equally tall demon. "Take a squadron of doomguards and start clearing out the Swamp of Sorrows. And stay on track. We aren't interested in the Sunken Temple, we're interested in getting to Deadwind Pass."

  "Rargh, fine." Argolash pushed past Talgath, making sure to stomp a troll's corpse to paste as he did. "Just don't take too long," the pit lord muttered as he walked out of the ruins, lashing his tail angrily.

  Talgath huffed. Pit lords were strong and useful, but so ungraceful. But at least he was gone, with only smoking rubble surrounding Talgath. The rest of the Legion forces had already left, gathering their strength to follow Argolash, but Talgath took the time to investigate the damage. Bodies everywhere. Craters in the ground. Buildings crumpled like parchment. It was good work.

  Clip clop, clip clop. He turned around and beheld an approaching succubus. Talgath peered quickly at her magic signature and identified her as the one that had been compromised by the Alliance. He crossed his arms and looked down at the sayaad woman. "What is it?" he asked.

  She giggled flirtatiously and gave the whip in her right hand a flick. "Lorthiras finished fixing me up not long ago," she purred. "Figured now would be a good time to come let you know what I found and who slammed my mind."

  He breathed out harshly through his nose. "Let's hear it."

  "So, I spent some time running around, learning a bunch of weaknesses that, heheheh, don't really matter any more. But I did hear a delicious piece of gossip," she said, licking her fingers sensually. "You know the reason we were having such a hard time making progress for so long against them? They'd found a way to bring their dead back to life, minutes, hours, or even days after we killed them! Some mortal woman with shadow magic that allowed her to bring the dead back to life, good as new. So I figured, I have to find her and kill her, put a stop to that."

  A mortal woman that could bring the dead back to life. Mephistroth had reported something in the north...

  "I found their morgue, there were two humans inside. One had a magic shield around her so I ignored her, and she was sleeping anyway. I killed the other one and hey, it turns out she was just pretending to sleep. Cute little thing. Her hair was dark brown and straight, went down around to her shoulders. A little less pale than me, she was wearing brown robes. I think she was in her... twenties, yes. I got a very good look, because she knocked me down with a shadow nova and started doing... something to me." The succubus laughed in nervous distress. "I couldn't move, I couldn't access my magic. I could feel her rummaging around in my brain but there was nothing I could do, and then for a while I just really wanted to do whatever anyone told me."

  "Then we retrieved you and undid the damage," Talgath surmised. "Go report to Fel Lord Vakul, see what use he has for you. I will ruminate on what you have told me, little sayaad."

  She shifted her weight and saluted. "For the Legion," she said with not-quite sarcastic emphasis, before sauntering off into the camp.

  Once she was gone, Talgath summoned angry fel energy to his left hand and extended his arm. A random boulder the size of a doomguard shifted, surrounded by hissing green magic, and flew towards him. Still casting his magic, he gripped it and began whittling it down, piece by piece."A human girl, hmm?" he purred to himself, blasting off chunks from t
he boulder until it was only about two yards across. "A human girl, with the power of the Old Gods." His magic turned more focused, slowly but quickly sheering the boulder into a thinner shape. "A human girl, with brown hair, with the power of the Old Gods, who can bring the dead back to life." His magic finished making a sculpture of a human girl, with no face and few features, but she had robes, and fingers, and hair.

  "Just like the one that fought with the dragons in Northrend," he growled. Talgath was over twenty-five thousand years old. He did not believe in coincidences. This was the same person.

  He made the statue float a little distance from him. Then, Talgath flicked his red hand and the stone exploded into gravel.

  This was something he'd have to handle. However... maybe outright killing her was too harsh a method. What would Kil'jaeden do?

  Hmm. It was of little consequence of what to do with the girl. Until she was sighted again she could've teleported to the Eastern Kingdoms for all he knew. Talgath still had an invasion to lead, and as for the girl? If he wanted to do anything to her, he'd have to find her first.

  So he'd find her.

  Leira

  Cooking was difficult with her right arm in a sling, but at least it wasn't her left. She lifted the tray and slid it into the dwarven oven. Once that was done she recoiled from the infernal heat and closed the door, ready to wait for the bread to rise.

  Of course, closing the oven didn't mean none of the heat got out. The tiny room that she got for being in the Chimes of A'dal was homey, but it also meant the furnace's heat roasted the entire area. She didn't have much, but nor did she want for anything. A simple bed with a soft mattress, white pillow, and cozy covers was pushed against one wall. On another was a shelf that contained some of Leira's belongings: cookbooks, romance novels, adventure novels, and a few puzzles.

  Next to the shelf was a wardrobe brimming with clothes, and on the wall opposite that was the dwarven oven, blazing away. For some reason, the dwarves had decided everyone needed their own personal cooking oven. The last door was nothing but a locked door, with a stopped clock over it.

  With nothing better to do, Leira grabbed the latest book that had grabbed her attention and flopped onto her bed to start reading. In no time she found herself immersed, but had to stop reading because the oven was burning her room up. After stripping down to her undergarments, she found a comfortable spot on her bed and began reading.

  The book was... okay. She would have been enjoying it more, but she couldn't really get into it while she was on leave. Honestly, one mangled arm and she was 'unfit' to go into a war zone. Wimps. If it had been her dominant arm she could understand but come on! She was stuck in Ironforge with nothing to do except sit in her home and read, instead of being out there fighting the sworn enemies of her people.

  Bleh. What did they know?

  On a calm, intellectual level she understood. The war was going piss poorly, and everyone needed to be in tip-top shape to have a chance of driving the demons off-world. If she went back out with only one working arm she'd be a liability. She was strong enough to heft her two-handed swords in one hand each, but she couldn't hold two in one hand.

  But damn it! People were dying out there and they wanted her to just sit around in her bedroom reading books and cooking bread?! She was a warrior, a hero, saving the world was in her job description and instead she was lazing about all because some stupid fucking infernal had gotten a cheap shot on her while she was busy hacking at a -

  Leira took a deep, calming breath through her nose and let it out through her mouth. The bread smelled delicious, even if the burning furnace made her sweat.

  Focus. Back to the book. The main character was about to fight the villain, pushing his wits and skills to the -

  Knock knock knock!

  Her tail twitched irately. Leira swore in Draenic and tossed the book at the wall. She put on some pants and a shirt - which was tricky with just one arm - and opened the door. "Coming!" Who the hell could it be? And at this unholy hour of the night? Leira stepped out into the hallway.

  Leira's room was attached to a hallway in the Chimes' guild hall, in the residence area. She'd leave her room, turn a corner, and arrive at the corridor. She wasn't sure who would be trying to get her attention this late, maybe Stephen or Kaledo, but she was going to give them a thrashing they'd not soon forget.

  She closed the door behind her, walked forward and turned to come face to face with the next door.

  KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK! By the Light, they sounded serious. She threw open the door and leveled an unamused glare at whoever was on the other side. "Alright, what is... it?" she asked, trailing off.

  Sara?

  What was Sara doing here? In Ironforge? In her guild hall? She was in the brown shirt and brown skirt getup she liked so much, but her hair was tangled and dirty, her face was as white as a sheet, and her eyes were red like she'd been... crying? Sara never cried. "Hey," the shorter human said faintly. "Do you have a moment?"

  She blinked. "Um, yeah." She stepped aside. "Yeah, come in, come in."

  Sara nodded meekly and shuffled in, hugging herself and shivering. "Thanks. Are you okay?"

  "What this?" she asked, gesturing to her broken arm. "Yeah I'm alright. You should've seen it before healing magic, hah." Once the human was inside Leira closed the door and took the lead, bringing Sara to her room. She opened the door and gestured inside. "Well, welcome to my home. Sorry it's so cramped, I don't spend a lot of time in here so I don't have a reason to get larger quarters."

  "It's fine," Sara grumbled. "Thanks."

  Leira directed Sara to sit on the pillow side of the bed, while she sat on the other end. While it was good to see Sara's skin getting some color back from the oven's heat, it'd probably get uncomfortable soon. She and Sara stared nervously at each other.

  "I found out - "

  "I'm sorry for - "

  They paused. "Sorry," Sara whispered, gesturing at her. "You go first."

  Leira sighed. "Alright. So, hey, nice to see you," she said, cracking a smile that Sara shyly returned. "Guessing we've both been busy since I last saw you." She rubbed the back of her neck. "About that. I was a real ass when you told me about your faceless magic." Sara winced. "I shouldn't have acted like you were a time bomb waiting to go off." She punched Sara with her left hand, gently. "I've known you forever, right? If you could keep a handle on your magic when you were six then I should've just trusted that you knew what you were doing. I'm sorry for treating you otherwise."

  Sara laughed bitterly. "Apology accepted." She shook her head. "If that's how you felt about me having faceless powers, then you are really not going to like this." She grimaced. "Should I explain it in the order it happened, or in the order I found out about it?"

  Leira waved. "Whichever you feel best about," she reassured.

  The warlock nodded. "Alright. So, I already told you about the whole 'faceless powers' deal. After you left Silithus and I went back to Stormwind, we all got conscripted almost immediately into the army. Can't really blame them. I was being sent off to Nethergarde to resurrect the fallen. But, I did have some time to go over the, um, data I got from C'Thun. So I looked over it, and I found that my magical signature is closer to C'Thun's than the faceless. I figured, 'oh, I don't just have faceless magic, I have full blown Old God magic'. Not that there's much, well, practical difference between the two."

  Leira shivered. Old God magic. "Wow, that's... quite something. Then what?" She was not afraid of Sara. Sara had never used her magic against her in her life. There was no reason to believe she'd start now.

  "I got shunted into Nethergarde for a week or so." Sara shrugged. "I... lied when I said C'Thun didn't show me anything. It showed me lots of things. Most of it didn't make sense, but it definitely showed me Ulduar."

  Leira almost choked on her breath. "What?! Sara, whenever something happens with an Old God you talk about it! Not talking about it is how they turn you insane!" Sara wilted under her shouting and Leira wi
nced, quieting down. "Sorry. You're okay now though, right?"

  Without hesitation, she shrugged. "I guess. Nothing's wrong with C'Thun it's just... let me keep telling the story." She took a deep breath. "So, I spent some time in Nethergarde doing nothing but bringing people back to life, aaand then one day the Legion smashed us. I think I'm the only one who got out alive. I ended up escaping to Dalaran and from there I headed to Ulduar. Had a little run in with the dragons but that's all squared away now." Leira opened her mouth, but Sara cut her off. "No Leira, I did not kill any of the dragons," she assured.

  "Good."

  "Anyway. So I was going to Ulduar, and I'd put a few things together. I have Old God magic, and death magic. I can bring people back to life, or rip their souls out of their bodies. At the time I guessed that, when it died, a fragment of Yogg-Saron's power got lodged in my soul." She laughed bitterly. "Wouldn't that be interesting? I got to Ulduar and slipped past the Titan constructs and ended up in Yogg-Saron's prison. I walked towards it and I... I touched its head. The moment I did it showed me all sorts of things, mainly from when it ruled over Azeroth but also from when the Kingslayers were fighting it. It was all much more solid than C'Thun's visions."

  Leira scooted over to Sara and, despite the uncomfortable heat, laid an arm across her shoulders. "Are you okay?"

  "I don't know. The big thing about what it showed me is, well, okay. It gave me all its memories. Not like I remember them now, it's more like I have a book about Yogg-Saron's life story that I can just read whenever I want." She tapped her head. "The big thing is the last part of its memories. When it fought the Kingslayers it was preparing a spell to extinguish all life in a colossal area. It took a lot of mana, and it was only seconds away from being able to cast it before dying. It knew it wouldn't be able to do it, so it decided it needed a, a sort of back up plan. Yogg-Saron ejected its soul from its body right before dying, and, well, well and at the same time my parents had just conceived me so its soul floated over there and entered the embryo. I was seconds old so I hadn't developed a soul yet, so so um, so Yogg-Saron's soul was the only one there and it'd cast a spell over itself so that when it returned to its body it would get all the memories aaaaaand - " Sara trailed off and started shaking nervously.