The sky was a morass of dull green and turgid brown. The fel craft hung heavy over the Barrens disgorging its demonic forces and hellish artillery. Aelfrik was walking towards it through the waist high grass of the plain. The locket he held was battered and tarnished. The damaged shell protecting the pair of images inside. Aelfrik’s finger ran across the one on the left. The haughty, ethereal image of Illenia in her finest dark gown stared imperiously back.
“Simple man…” she sighed as she checked her appearance in the standing mirror. Turning to and fro to watch how the dark silk settled around her with a perpetual look of not being quite pleased. Aelfrik yawned from the bed, choosing not to inform her of the patch of ebony hair on the back of her head still ruffled from the pillows. He smirked and replied, “I’m simple for enjoying a single day off?”
She made a show of giving him a pitying look. Her eyes had gotten brighter again. The magistrix had grown even stronger since starting her studies of the Burning Legion. Stronger in service of their people. And their Prince. It was easy to forget the ruins of Draenor outside when he was here with her. Her eyes reminded him. She looked briefly distraught when she noticed her own patch of bed hair and grabbed a brush while chiding him, “Some of us are very busy. Some of us are very important. Too important to have the luxury of a holiday. We’re not all…” she cut herself off, looking a bit guilty. Aelfrik laughed however, “We’re not all just some big dumb brute? Or were you going to go with ‘more muscle than brains’ this time?”
She laughed. And look relieved. She lapsed from time to time. To a time before she had fallen, kicking and screaming in denial, in love with a no-name warrior like himself. It had become a joke, but he could tell it worried her still. As though he had never let his own thoughts on her social status slip from time to time. The stuck-up assholes. She set the brush down and sniffed, “The latter. Don’t think you can just lay in bed all day dearest. Taliah won’t stand for it.”
She left and he let his grin fade into a frown. Familiar joking or not, she looked worried.
The younger, though mature beyond her years, elf in the second picture looked out at him as well. Delicate in features like her mother, but with the strong edge and sharp eye of her father. Like a filigree egg made of iron. The wayward lock of blonde hair she had struggled with in childhood hung loosely over one eye even in the portrait. She had hated that he insisted the painter capture it.
“I haven’t even formally finished my training father. When I’m ready I’m sure mother will be more than happy to guide me. It’s all she talks about when we work together.”
Aelfrik watched lightning crackle across the purpled sky as he and his daughter walked one of the crystalline balconies of the Naaru fortress. It hovered above the ragged, shattered edge of the land they had taken to calling Netherstorm. The smell of ozone was sharp in his nose. He grimaced, “Is it now?”
Taliah stopped, crossing her arms and narrowing her eyes at him. She was a bit shorter than he was but he still felt smaller. She raised a brow, “You don’t approve.” It wasn’t a question.
He shook his head, “It’s not approval. Bleeding sun Tali how can I approve of something I don’t even understand? All I know is when something smells demonic I’m used to sticking a damn sword in it. And now it’s something great?”
“I’ll make sure to tell mother you think she smells.” she tilted her body and head briefly with the joke before letting it pass. She gestured over the edge of the balcony, the wide pastel sleeve of her robe trailing behind her, “You might not understand magic like mother and I do, but you’re not as clueless as you pretend to be. I’m on to you. If there’s power available we have to use it don’t we? After what happened to…” she had to pause, the memories too fresh. She gathered herself, “…it’s just us now. You, me, and mom. His Majesty is doing his best to save what’s left but there’s still so much danger. If using the Legion’s power keeps us safe then why wouldn’t we? And stronger mother and I become the better position we’ll be in when we finally get home.”
Aelfrik didn’t like it. He understood power. And status. And even safety, which was in short supply since the Sunwell fell. He’d just done his best to avoid getting embroiled in the first two for so long. His fault for marrying above his station it seemed. He ruffled Taliah’s hair. She hated it as much as she loved it. So he did it as often as possible, “When’d you grow up and start trying to look after me huh?”
She looked about ready to blast him with flame or freeze him solid. She glared at him instead, “About a century ago father. You should be grateful. Once you’ve gone dumb from one too many head wounds I’ll make sure to set your rocking chair up somewhere sunny.”
“You’re too good to me.” Aelfrik said wryly. He nodded towards the door.
An acrid smell warned the demon hunter of the incoming mass of felfire. It crashed into the ground with a muted roar a distance in front of him. Large, muscled shapes moved in the crater. Gripping weapons and growling orders to one another. Aelfrik snapped the locket shut but hesitated. The hand holding it tightened around the metal keepsake. The arm grew tense. He should throw it. Or drop it to the ground and be done with it. The damned, fucking thing…
“You’re out of your mind!”
“You’re not this stupid dearest! You have to see the obvious truth!”
“It’s the damned magic! It’s making you…act different!”
“It’s power idiot! It doesn’t make me do any…can’t you understand reason?!”
“Father…she’s right. What we’ve seen…”
“I’ve seen it too Tali! Closer! They’re fucking monsters! There’s no future there!”
“It is our only chance at a future dearest. They have never been stopped. Whole worlds have failed. What can a mangled Kaldorei and the remnants of our people do in the face of that? Nothing. Please. This is for us.”
“Bullshit. It’s for the power.”
“Dearest one..”
“It’s always been for the fucking power!”
“Father you’re being…”
“You think I can let you do this? Betray us? Betray me?!”
“Fath..”
“Taliah. It’s time.”
“Time for what? Neither of you are taking a damn step out of this room!”
“I’m afraid we are dearest. I’m so sorry.”
He felt the spidery tingle across his body and smelled the sharp odor in the air. Then nothing.
Sharp pain rolled down his back and arms and the tips of curved spikes began to puncture the skin. Flame flickered, ignited, and sputtered along his body. The demons had noticed him and welcomed his approach with bared fangs. His grip loosened on the locket, and he stowed it away. The reminder was needed. The memories were fuel added to the fire that was his strength. He hated the Legion. And he hated them.
