Warcraft Fan Fiction ❯ Bloodstained Shadows - Chronicles of a Lost Soul ❯ Memories of the Twilight - Chapter 3 ( Chapter 19 )

Chapter 3:

 

 

"Now Hector...", Sarvis made a gesture towards the other 'people' in the room, "let me ask you a few questions, please." It looked as if he was smiling, if you are able to smile without a jaw that is.

I nodded and was awaiting his first question.

"Where are you from, if you can already remember?"

I though about it for a moment. I didn't know if I should tell them so easily. I decided not to tell them anything about my origin.

"I... I can't recall.", I stuttered a bit.

"No problem, Hector. We all know that it is difficult to cope with the situation after waking up again."

He made a pause between his sentences.

"Okay then, do you know what you did in your former life? Your profession for example.", his voice was calm, not too pressing. He was trying to show me that I was safe here. I didn't know if it might only be a trick. I was reluctant. I thought it could be dangerous to tell him too much about myself.

"Are those robes you're wearing ritual ones?"

I looked down at me and saw the symbol on my chest torn to shreds. For the first time in my life I was glad not to bear it.

I took my time to answer

"I..., I was a priest." I left out the fact that I was only an apprentice in my former life.

"Terrific!", he seemed really glad to hear this, "As a priest, please go to cleric Dueston over there. He is in charge of instructing clerics and apprentices in Deathknell." The high cleric Sarvis pointed with his hand to a man wearing a grey and red robe next to the entrance of the church. “Go to him, and talk to him, he will tell you everything else you need to know.”

I turned around and slowly approached the other undead.

Parts of the skin in the face of the cleric were missing, his lips were also almost completely rotten away.

He looked at me with this bright yellow glow from his eye sockets.

The moment I reached him, I wanted to greet him, but he already interrupted me before I could form the first word in my mouth.

His voice was brighter than that of other Forsaken.

“I'm sorry kid, but whatever you did in your former life, you are definitely no priest, cleric or whatsoever...”, his words were reproachful as if he thought I wanted to fool him.

I looked at him in shock. I didn't know what to say. New whispers arose behind my back.

“I don't know who you are or what happened to you but you should consider to talk to Maximillion and Kayla back there that would be suiting yourself better, I can't teach you a single thing.”

How on earth could he tell so fast? The other Forsaken around us overheard what he said of course and were all staring at me somehow.

I turned around slowly to face the undead in the red and black robe with the staff. The robe looked utterly beautiful with its golden ornaments.

“Oh my, oh my. The `priest' finally shows his true self.” The Forsaken named Maximillion started to talk before I even reached him. His tone was mocking.

“I could tell that you are no priest the moment you entered the room. Now, why does an apprentice warlock try to fool us?”, his voice was pressing.

I didn't know what to say, I was no warlock!

“But I...”

“What `BUT'? Tell me, go on... I won't hurt you, not yet at least.”, his words made me shiver.

“I... I can't tell you...”, that was the only thing I came up with, actually it was the truth, I didn't know.

“Well then... that is at least an answer.” the smile on his mouth was grim, yet not as if he wanted to harm me.

Strange people, he accepted a 'I don't know', but was furious when I tried to tell him I was a priest.

"So I guess you are rather inexperienced with the dark arts, am I right?"

I nodded swiftly.

"It would be good if you were able to form a shadow bolt, but I doubt you are capable of that at the moment. Well, well. I see your affliction to the shadows, I feel it... You have already performed a shadow spell in your 'former' life?"

I nodded again.

"Don't always nod at me as if I'm unworthy to hear your voice. TALK TO ME, you insolent worm!" he shouted at me, his words filled with rage. I took a step back without noticing.

"Ye...yes, my..., my apologies. I..., I've already performed this, this magic in..., in my li-life once.” I was shaking. Something about the warlock was terrifying.

“Fine then, I guess you should have no problem with learning spells from me.”, now his voice was again perfectly calm, even gentle, but only moments ago he had such an outburst of rage.

“I have decided!”, his spoke these words loud and clear.

“What... what did you decide?” I had no clue what he was talking about.

“Idiot! I decided to teach you the basics a warlock should know, afterwards I will send you to Undercity, there you will learn the rest. If you do well, I will recommend you personally. And Kaal Soulreaper always likes the students I recommend.”

He definitely talked like a mad man. And who was Kaal Soulreaper?

“Now listen carefully. I will make it brief.”, he made a gesture with his staff almost hitting me on the head. I focussed on what he wanted to tell me again.

“A strong and proficient warlock will be able to control three core aspects of magic. First of all, the shadows, which I can tell you have already made contact with. This basically is our trademark. You will be taught curses and other harmful spells to torture your enemy as well as the commonly used shadow bolt, which basically is a jet of dark magic. ” He made a short pause to think of words. “The second type is fire magic. It is rather easy to control, for it is just as wicked and chaotic as shadow magic. You will learn everything so that you will be able to set your opponent on fire in every particular way. And the third thing...”, he turned around and pointed at the little imp that made squealing sounds behind us, “... will be summoning. Kayla will teach you how to summon your first pet-demon. If you grow stronger and more potent as a warlock Kaal will show you how to summon other creatures from the twisted nether. There are four demons every sophisticated warlock is able to summon, but that still is a long way for you.” he turned back at me.

“Now... are you willing to learn?”

This question inherited all the fears I've ever had in my life before I died. I stood there for quite a while, completely silent. What should I do? All the questions from my former life arose one more time. But then I realized, that there was no turning back. I had lost everything and I won't get it back. Then again, this is my chance to make a new start. Life, or the 'Un-life' granted me a new chance. The only thing I had seemed to have kept was my potential for magic. In my former life, every important choice I had to make was taken from me and somebody else decided what I should do, where I should go. Now I had the chance to make my own choices...

“Are you actually going to answer my question, or do you plan on standing there 'til tomorrow?”, the impatient words of Maximillion snapped me out of my thoughts.

“I.., I'm sorry.” I lowered my head for a moment. Then I looked up into his eyes. “Yes, I want to learn from you.”

“You don't sound too confident, but I'm fine with that.”, what an arrogant bastard. “It's not about the words, but about what you are able to do, right? But, well... I am not going to fool you. You know how shadow magic works so you should be able to conduct your first shadow bolt on your own. Kayla will teach you how to summon an imp if you bring her the skulls of three skeletons from the lower part of the village. She needs them for the summoning ritual. Now off you go...”

“But...”, I tried to say something before I headed off, but he interrupted me a soon as possible.

“No `but'-s, just go out there and don`t come back without the skulls! Oh and talk to Elreth, she wants something from you too, telling from the way she looks over here.”, after he had spoken these words he instantly turned around to Kayla and the imp, standing behind him. I stood there for a moment in bewilderment still waiting for some more instruction what to do. I realized that the Forsaken won't turn back around again so I took the few steps to the right and faced the undead women called Elreth. She did not hesitate to start talking to me.

“Hello, Hector.", her voice sounded friendly, even a bit pleading as she went on talking. "That is a very strong name.” She didn't ask me right away to do things for her, instead she wanted to have some small talk before, yet I wasn`t so easy with that and hardly answered her. I tried to smile at her, I don't know if I was able to smile properly anymore. I guessed I would have to live with the name Hector, at least for the moment.

“I may only be the novice of shadow priest Sarvis, yet I am concerned about the safety of Deathknell. So I beg you, when you go out there to collect skulls, bring rest to as many of the mindless ones in the lower part as possible.”

“I will do my best.”, those were my only words.

“I am sorry to bother you even more. But for the sake of my friend Marla I have another thing to ask from you.”, I didn't know what to think about all this asking.

“Her husband died because of the plague the Scourge brought here. He killed her with his own hands. Her last wish as a Forsaken was that somebody would bring him to rest and bury him next to her on the graveyard of this church. He wanders around a little camp south of the village with three of his former friends.”

I nodded to show her that I agreed with what she had asked me to do. I said farewell to her and left the building. I felt an inner reluctance towards fulfilling everything as they wanted me to do.

Not really knowing what to do I made my way towards the ridge that divided the village.

There was a slope in midst of Deathknell, the part filled with mindless minions of the Scourge being significantly lower than the rest.

I stood at the ridge looking down. The remains of the village were infested with zombies, ghouls and skeletons. Yet they didn't seem too aggressive , otherwise they would be attacking Deathknell without further hesitation. They clearly outnumbered the Forsaken up here. It would have been a massacre.

A single one of the zombies stood quite near to the ridge. I didn't want to head out too far, so if something happened the guards of the village could save me, at least for the time when I tried to kill the first one.

I approached the creature. Suddenly it turned around. I instantly made a step backwards.

It had noticed me!

Nothing... it just stood there doing nothing. Should I attack, I asked myself. I guessed I had to try at least once. Maybe the teaching of Whitemane had its use after all. At least I knew how this kind of magic worked. He called the spell shadow bolt, alright, so I thought this spell would probably do exactly what the name said.

I stayed at a fair distance to the monster.

I focussed on what I wanted to do, a bolt of fell magic striking down the zombie. I focussed on killing it, laying it to rest. I focussed on the creature.

I thrust my hands towards it as they started to emit a dark violet glowing. The jet of dark magic flew directly towards its target, seemingly unable to miss its destination.

It hit the undead body piercing through the right side of its chest. The right arm of the creature was blasted off due to the impact, scattering splatters of blood near the zombie. The creature fell backwards and lay there without any further movement.

I stood there not knowing what to think after I saw what I had done. I was capable of doing such things? I guess I stood there in disbelieve with my mouth open for a few seconds.

Then I noticed it.

No pain.

The spell didn't inflict pain to myself. So I was able to cast it right. Still astonished by the effect of this shadow bolt I decided to try another target.

The undead here seemed to be rather passive. I was able to pass by at least three of them until I reached the forge. From the upper part of the village I had noticed skeletons near this building, so I thought it would be a good idea to go there. One of them was standing besides the building next to a small dip. I decided to cast another shadow bolt at the creature. The jet of energy flew and hit its target. The skeleton fell into its parts upon impact. Unluckily for me, the skeleton was hit in the head, sending its skull off flying into the woods. Damn it, me and my bad fortune.

Maybe I was too focussed on getting the skull so that the shadow bolt was driven to the head as a target.

Magic isn't easy to handle, I understood that by then.

If I think back from the point at which I am now, I have to say it was ridiculously easy for me to control shadow magic. I didn't notice that at that time, I was too focussed on my situation back then. I was told later that about one third of all warlock apprentices get killed while trying to perform their first shadow bolt because the cast goes wrong and the shadows demand their price.

Being able to conduct such a powerful spell made it easy for me to achieve the items that undead women wanted.

I had decided by then not kill too many of the zombies, as the guards of Deathknell should be able to do that on their own if they really wanted to.

I left the village to the south following the road in search for this encampment Elreth mentioned. The forest around me grew denser, letting almost no light to the ground. The road went slightly downwards.

I didn't have to search for long, as it was at the next turn of the road.

I saw four undead roaming the area.

Damn that women! She didn't tell me which one was Marla's husband.

I drew closer to them. They seemed to be rather passive as well, a ghoul from Andorhal would have started to attack me the moment I left Deathknell.

I guessed that they were just as mindless and none aggressive as the zombies up in the village. I took my chance and approached them. It seemed I didn't stress my luck too far, for the four undead creatures didn't show any sign of aggressiveness.

So I stood there in between them wondering how I could find out who of them was the one I was searching for.

Then I heard a faint sound, it sounded strange. I listened carefully. One of them was saying something!

The uttering came from the right, so I turned towards that direction. A skinny zombie was standing a bit off the side. I got closer to it.

"Maaarlaaaa....", that was his word, nothing more and nothing less. He kept repeating it over and over again. I guessed I found myself the right one there.

I took the creature out with a shadow bolt to the chest. The jet of dark magic passed right through the body and hit the tree behind him.

I turned around ready to fend of any of the other three, but they just stood there without the smallest reaction.

“Some friends you got there, buddy...” I mumbled to myself whilst dragging the dead body behind me towards the city. He was too heavy to carry.

I passed through the zombies of the lower part of Deathknell easily, just as before.

After passing the ridge of spears I looked around searching for the graveyard that women meant. I spotted a gravestone between the church and the ridge and decided to go there, this should be the right place. It turned out that this `graveyard' that Elreth women was talking about were three graves, two of them without a headstone. The other one was still open, I threw the undead body into the hole assuming that this should be the grave of this bastard.

I took a closer look at the inscription on the stone. It read that this was supposed to be the grave of a Marla and Samuel Fipps. Had I just killed a relative?! I was a bit staggered by the fact that this could have been the brother my father sometimes had talked about. I always wanted to meet my uncle, but not in this way.

I decided to go into the church and afterwards to have another look at the grave and the body inside it.

I checked once more if I really had all three skulls that this Kayla wanted for the ritual, then I entered the building. Luckily for me I had found a little bag on one of the undead as I was collecting skulls.

All eyes lay on me as I came through the door.

I walked directly up to Elreth telling her that I did as she had said.

“It's good to hear that you put him to rest, I hope he can find peace this time.” I nodded in agreement.

She thanked me once more then I turned around and made my way to the other side of the room where the warlock and his assistant were waiting.

“How did it go, apprentice? Do have everything we wanted?”, Maximillion asked me right away.

“Yes, of course...”, the tone of my voice sounded probably a bit annoyed, the warlock offered me an angry look for that.

“Hand them over...”, he extended his right arm so I could give the skull to him while he already turned around. I gave all three of them to him and he handed them to Kayla instantly.

“So... Kayla will take a moment of two to prepare the ritual...” she put the skulls on the floor behind us in a triangle. “Then she will start to summon an imp from the twisted nether, the home dimension of all demons. If she does well, an imp will appear. If not, maybe something worse smashing us all into tiny bits.”, I looked at him in bewilderment. He said that all as if it was nothing. I wondered if all warlocks were like this.

“When the imp appears, you have to demand from him to tell you his name. It is essential that you do that because if somebody else does that, this demon will be bound to the other person and I don't want to be a master of another imp. I already have eight or nine due to worthless apprentices...”, he looked over his shoulder to see whether Kayla was already set or not.

“After you spoke to the demon, he will most likely refuse to tell his name and start to attack you. If that happens you have to defeat him in combat. An imp has not too much stamina, so just hit him two or three times. When he surrenders, he is bound to tell you his name. Sometimes old demon-rules come in handy after all.”

Kayla started summoning after she had prepared everything.

“Oh and beg that the demon refuses and attacks, if he tells you his name willingly, you got a wimpy. Those demons are no use at all.”, he smiled at me whilst saying these words.

I still didn't exactly know what to expect.

A dark portal appeared in between the three skulls, it was rather small, but I guess an imp should fit through it.

Only seconds later a little yellow glowing creature stood in the middle of the skulls making squealing sounds and talking in a language that was not friendly to one's ear. It actually hurt hearing the creature talk.

“By the way, that is the demonic language that little bugger is talking in. Actually not too hard to learn and understand... but every demon knows the common language. They are more intelligent than they look.” Maximillion whispered to me. “Now... go on... this could be your demon!” Maximillion made a few steps backwards.

The imp jumped around furiously. I imagined how the words he was saying were demanding to let him go.

I took courage and stepped forward to the squealing demon.

“Tell me... your... name!” I stuttered a bit, this all felt rather strange. “I will be your new master.”

The imp turned around jumping up.

“My naaaame? YOU waaaant to hear my naaaame? SET ME FREEEE! I will never tell you my naaaame!”

The little creature started waving his hands letting them emit a fiery glow. Only seconds later a bolt of fire flew past my head and hit the stone wall behind me.

From the corner of my eyes I saw how the warlock behind me shook his head.

I thought for a few seconds but seeing no other way I wanted to end this quickly. I concentrated on the imp, but without the intention to kill him. I cast a single shadow bolt at the creature. The jet of light was glowing in a strong dark violet as it flew through the room. It hit the creature directly in the face sending it flying backwards and hitting the wall.

“I said defeat it, not kill it!”, the warlock behind me screamed out loud, the others in the room looking towards us. Yet most of them were staring at me, I wondered whether that was because of the spell I cast.

The imp slowly got back to his feet. I looked at it awaiting it to speak again. But it only sat down on the floor holding its head. I decided to take this into my hands before Maximillion interfered.

“Now tell me imp! What is your name?”, saying these words somehow felt good, but it is hard to describe the true feeling of it.

“Baaaastaaaard! You aaaalmost killed me!”, the creature made a few unidentifiable squealing sounds before standing up again.

The demon was surrounded by flames again.

“My naaaame you seek.” The demon squealed.

“It is Pipfip...”