Warcraft Fan Fiction ❯ Bloodstained Shadows - Chronicles of a Lost Soul ❯ Scarlet Dawn - Chapter 9 ( Chapter 9 )

Chapter 9:

 

 

I've been just lying on my bed for about two hours now. I'm not even thinking, my head is filled by a gigantic void. I feel exhausted, yet I have not been able to sleep until now nor will I be able to after having met with Whitemane again.

Years over years everybody has always just talked about my father, how great he was and that I will become just like him one day to come. And now, from one moment to another everything has changed. Suddenly my mother is far more important than my father, but nobody knows the connection between her and me. What's next? Somebody telling me I am part of a royal bloodline? I just cannot believe this all happening.

Whitemane told me that I can still choose 'my path', but I've chosen to become a priest already, haven't I? I want to make my father proud of me, even though I will never become a paladin. And I don't want to interfere with the arcane, fire or ice.

Damn it! Now I'm even more insecure than I was before.

Whitemane should arrive here any minute now. Even though I think I want to become a cleric, I still want to know what she wants to show me.

But if it has anything to do with shadows, I..., I will reject it. I swear to myself, I will turn her down if she tries to persuade me into the shadows. I want to be a sincere cleric, not something filthy and seductive as she is.

I hear footsteps outside.

It sounds as if Whitemane is among them, those boots give her away easily in these halls.

Only moments later I hear a knocking on my door. I rush to open it.

"Don't take anything with you, young Fipps. We are in a hurry.", I wonder what she means by that.

"Where are we going?" I ask just after I closed the door of my room behind me. "You will see soon enough.", she smiles at me. There we go again, all this secret keeping all the time. I calm myself down knowing that I will know in a few minutes.

"Isillien is already waiting for us there. So we have to speed up. But don't worry, it's not too far away from here.", she keeps her voice down trying not to wake anybody, which I would think is impossible just by wearing those boots of hers.

As we pass through the moonlight for once I notice that she is wearing a full uniform and even has her inquisitorial staff with her. The staff itself is as tall as Whitemane and looks as if it was made of pure gold, in the headpiece there is a red, always slightly glowing jewel. Now I start to wonder even more where we could be heading to.

As we reach the central hall of the monastery, I can already see the Grand Inquisitor waiting for us. He is standing in front of the entrance to the cemetery, next to the two guards. As we come closer, he greets me and Whitemane friendly.

"Good evening, Isillien. Ready for the interrogation?", Whitemanes words sound darker and more disturbing than usual. "It is my pleasure, Sally.", a grim smile is on his face. This does not look like the Grand Inquisitor Isillien I know from Hearthglen. He hardly never smiled, was always calm and thoughtful. "I cannot wait to question that bastard, to press out every little bit of information, even if I have to.." his voice rises, he sounds angry, like in rage.

"That is enough Isillien, you will have your chance to give in to your rage when we are down there with the prisoners, but be careful! Now...", she turns around. "Marc, do not be frightened of what you may see. All those creatures down there are being held secure at all means. None of them will be able to harm you in any way. And if one of the creatures should be able to escape, I will take care of it personally."

Her words frighten me. "Do you understand?" I nod. "Ye...yes."

She takes a step towards the guards and Isillien, but turns around instantly. "One more thing, ALWAYS do exactly as I say. If something unusual should happen and you don't, you will probably die." I swallow hard. Isn't that a bit contrary to the things she said before I ask myself. I have no choice to make. “Yes I.., I will.” She takes me by the shoulder and pushes me forward. “Good boy.”

Whitemane gives the guards the order to let us enter. They open the heavy door. Behind it there is a staircase going down. It is pitch black down there. “The first interrogators are probably already at work. Watch your step, it will lighten up when we reach the end of the staircase.” I still wonder what awaits me down there.

The first gleam of light is already visible. We must be there soon. The staircase is longer than I had expected. We must already have gone down at least two or three floors.

The light on the wall flickers, the flames of the torches feed on the wind coming in, probably through windows down there somewhere.

The stairs end in a large open room. Several columns all over the room keep the structure stabilized. It feels almost as if we are in a cavern.

A man approaches us, he is wearing a black uniform with red highlights and a scarlet hood. “Lady Whitemane, a pleasure to see you.”, he bows upon speaking.

“Cut it out Vishas, just tell us where the new prisoners are and what you have already found out.”, she is extremely harsh to him.

“One of the three is held in a cage next to the iron maiden, so he can think of the things we could do to him, the second one is held in a cell back with the other prisoners and the third is strapped to the rack. That is the one we were questioning until now.”, he holds a notebook in his arm.

“So? What did you find out?”, Isillien interferes.

“Not too much, honestly. I'm afraid they are a bit stronger than the others before them, they're not as easy to break as the ones before. What we know is that one of them was carrying a basket with mushrooms and herbs around...”

“Which one was that?”, Whitemane speaks in a hurry.

“The one in the cell, he wore a strange robe. We think he is part of this strange alchemists guild that has been formed by the undead. The other two wore a guards uniform as we have already collected several others. “

The Grand Inquisitor is standing uneasily, his fingers twitching nonstop.

"What do you think about the purpose of their venture?", Whitemane remains calm in contrast to Isillien.

"Well the one with the robe was definitely gathering herbs, but the two armed guards with him suggest that this could also be a small assault group. We do not know if one of them had potions or chemicals with him so they could mix something to poison us in our sleep. It is possible they swallowed it before taken captive.", the explanation of him does not seem reliable.

“Were there more except from these three, James?”

“Possibly, we don't know if more escaped. What we know is that none of them died. The guards only found these three and took them all in.”, he is looking through his notes while he speaks.

“I WANT TO SEE THEM!”, Isillien bursts out.

“Shhh, calm down for another minute.” Whitemanes voice is smooth and gentle.

"Did you already use the rack, or is the prisoner strapped on it just for intimidation?”, she asks the interrogator.

“Just as an intimidation so far. But we couldn't get anything out of him so we intended using it sooner or later.”

“Well then, take us to him, I want to question him personally, if he still doesn't speak afterwards, use the rack or whatever is necessary to make him.”, she ordered.

“As you wish, milady. The prisoner is this way.”, he bows slightly and points out the way with his left arm. “Follow me, please.”

We pass through under at least three archways supporting the underground structure. I look to the ceiling. It is completely covered with frescos. But due to the weak lighting I'm not able to make out what the pictures show as we walk below them.

I hear a strange uttering from around the corner. “We are almost there, as you can hear.”, Vishas states. We turn around a corner behind a column. We stand inside a small cubicle room, the huge rack taking up most of the space in it.

On the rack there is a creature as I have never seen one before. It is clearly undead, but it certainly is not a mindless ghoul. It's, or better, his eyes are glowing in a bright yellow. He still has most of his teeth and hair. His skin is grey like ashes. The body is also completely intact. If there wouldn't be those parts where you can see his bones or where bigger lumps of flesh and skin are missing, you could actually think that he is still alive. I swallow hard.

“Marc, focus! This is an enemy. He may not be from the ranks of the Scourge, yet this breed is intelligent and therefore even more dangerous than the blundering mindless ghouls of the Lich King!”

Whitemane tries to talk me into it.

“Now, do you remember what I wanted to show you?”, she asks.

“Ye...yes of course I do.”, I respond instantly.

“Fine then, I can only show you such things here, because I wouldn't want somebody `unprepared' to see it or I would not want to use this on anybody from the Scarlet Crusade in order to demonstrate it.”

She steps closer to the creature. “Come on, it's strapped to it, it won't be able to free itself.”

I hesitate but Isillien pushes me closer from behind. As I stand directly at the rack I smell rotten flesh.

“Now, part two of your lesson today. I introduced you to holy magic today and I assure you, at the current state you will not be able to use it.” Isillien in the background nods silently.

“This time I will show you the opposite and I assure you, you will be able to control this type of magic to its full extend, even now. I will show you, well you could even say I will teach you, three spells. They all use shadow magic and all are used by clerics in Azeroth. So you could call them basics.”, she smiles at me. I don't try to think to much, I just listen to her words. I'm unsure if I even want to hear what she wants so teach me.

“Shadow magic works pretty simply. Usually you have a word or the name of the spell to help you focus, you do not need this when doing shadow magic, although you can use this as a kind of backup for your mind and focus, but that is all a matter of practise and personal style. For performing the spell itself you only have to focus on what you want to do. That is all you have to do. Yet this sounds easier as it is.”, she raises her right hand into the air over the rack.

“The first spell is known as the 'Shadow Word: Pain', it does just what the name states. It inflicts pain to the target. Other than holy magic, shadow spells inflict their damage on the spirit AND the body. Somebody attacked with `Holy Fire' won't show any remains of physical damage. `Shadow Word: Pain' on the other hand can cause old wounds to open, twist flesh or if performed by somebody very powerful, even shatter bones.”

Isillien clutches his fists and reopens them. He can barely control himself. Whitemane also notices and offers him an annoyed look. She takes her hand back. “Isillien? Don't you want to have a look at our new prisoner in the cell?”

His eyes show an unnatural glare. “Oh I do want to, Sally.”

Whitemane turns to the head of the interrogators and orders him to escort Grand Inquisitor Isillien to the new prisoner. They head of immediately. It's not far from here, after they've passed three or four archways. Isillien and the other man enter the cell.

She turns back to me. “Where were we?” She thinks for a short moment. “Ah yes. The only thing you would have to know about shadow magic is that power always comes at a cost. The shadows seek for blood, pain and agony, they don't care from who it comes, but every shadow spell will have its cost.

If it is performed in the right way, the target or victim will pay the cost for you. But if the spell is deflected or improperly cast, you will have to pay the debt. The strength of the spell will also be influenced by feelings you inherit, if you feel rage, restlessness, agony or hatred, the shadows will feed upon the feelings and the spell will be cast with much less effort and the effect will be far more devastating.”

So that is the reason for the awful lot of scars on her left arm?

“I will demonstrate the first cast.”, she raises her hand back into the air over the rack.

Her lips move without a sound, her eyes closed. As she opens them the undead in front of us starts withering in pain. He screams out loud, his voice sounds dark and strangely hollow.

“This will now keep on for approximately a minute or two. I didn't put too much effort into it.”, her words are again as cold as ice.

I see the undead in front of me screaming in pain. I develop a form of disgust inside me, although I don't know if it is because of the undead or this type of magic.

It feels as if these few minutes last ages until the undead comes to a rest.

“The second spell I want to show you is called `Mindflay'”, she just goes on without paying any attention to the undead lying in front of her, “the characteristic of it is a blue beam emitting from ones finger to the head of the target. Especially for interrogation it is quite useful due to the effect that you can literally read the memories of your target. But you have to be careful, as long as you perform it the vital functions of your victim will slow down increasingly, so if you do not want to kill your target and just question him or her, handle this spell with care or the target might die because its heart simply stops beating.”

She gives me a short look checking if I'm listening and watching, then she turns back to the undead, pointing with two fingers at the head of the prisoner. A light blue beam emits from her fingertips for a split of a second. During this brief moment the room is filled by a cold blue tone.

“You see...”, Whitemane is a bit out of breath, “... it is difficult to retain this spell in motion. I saw something important in the mind of this creature, so I stopped right away.”, her voice is shacking a bit. I'm not really sure whether she speaks the truth or if this is just an excuse for something.

“The third spell I wanted to show you is simply called `Mind Blast'. To keep it short, the spell can `blast away' memories of the target. It actually erases them. Partial and even severe damage to the brain can also occur, depending on how much effort you put into it. To cast this spell without harming the target you have to be absolutely concentrated. So please be quiet for a moment, Marc.”

I nod, although I've been quiet the whole time we have been down here until now.

Whitemane points both her hands at the undead, again she is mumbling something with her eyes closed.

As she opens her eyes and the spell is ready, we both flinch because we hear a horrible scream. Due to the loss of concentration the spell goes wrong. The undead winces in agony. This stops abruptly. Now he is lying quietly on the rack without any further movement. A dark liquid is coming out of his nose and ears.

"Goddamn him! ISILLIEN!", Whitemane seems furious.

Another scream is emitted from the cell with Isillien and the other prisoner, followed by a fierce, mischievous laughter. The voice sounds like Isillien, but can this really be the calm and gentle man that I got to know in Hearthglen?

"Wait here!", Whitemane orders me. "That fool."

She hurries to the cell with the other prisoner. I see from a distance how she opens the door and vanishes inside the room. I don't understand what they are saying, but Whitemane is clearly yelling at him. It sounds as if Isillien is still laughing.

I see how Whitemane leaves the room heading towards my direction. She seems furious. I don't have the heart so ask what happened.

She walks right past me to the interrogator squad. "I need to talk to the head of the guards immediately! I want to meet him upstairs in five minutes." One of the men nods and rushes to the staircase.

Whitemane turns back at me.

"Come with me. We are undertaking an emergency field-trip right away.”

“What?!”, it just bursts out of me.

"We need to get something from the undead urgently. But Isillien, that fool, killed the one of the group that knew most about it. And due to the interruption, I accidentally killed the one we questioned. That idiot should learn to control his rage.”, she increases her pace. “You are coming with me.”

I don't know what to be shocked about more, that person that seems to be Isillien, who I know as a gentle and caring person, or Whitemane telling me to go with them onto a field trip in the middle of the night. “Bu... but I won't be of any use?” We reach the staircase.

“Stop talking like a fool, just come with us. Remember what I told you earlier..., you have to do everything I say.”, I think I shouldn't annoy her any further, she is still furious.

I stay quiet for the rest of the way up.