Warcraft Fan Fiction ❯ Bloodstained Shadows - Chronicles of a Lost Soul ❯ Memories of the Twilight - Chapter 4 ( Chapter 20 )

Chapter 4:

 

 

Obtaining the power to summon my first demon wasn't too hard after all.

A single shadow bolt was enough to defeat it. Maximillion was quite impressed by the strength of the spell I had performed. He was angry that I conducted such a strong spell inside the church for I could have damaged the wall severely. He talked to me for a while because it seemed I couldn't control the power level of them, which he was right about at that time.

Yet I was already at a level of strength where Maximillion couldn't teach me any further things. He introduced me to the basics of curses, but that was all and it's not too difficult.

The imp was jumping next to me. This little creature was astonishing, its body was weak, yes even the magic it was able to conduct, yet it was able to store enormous amounts of energy.

The only really, really annoying thing was the fact this little creature just couldn't shut up. It talked and talked and talked the whole time, although most of the time in demonic language. I noticed that after becoming his master the words he spoke in that language didn't hurt my ears anymore.

Maximillion gave me a letter for Kaal Soulreaper and told me that if I would follow the road out of Deathknell and turn right at the road crossing I would eventually get to the town of Brill. As I heard this name I swallowed hard. He raised an eyebrow as he noticed this. In Brill somebody would tell me how to get to the Undercity, it wouldn't be too difficult he told me. He also told me that when I talked to Kaal he would definitely teach me new things and most important, supply me with a new robe and other clothing.

Little did I know at that moment that somebody was waiting for me outside the church.

As Maximillion granted me his farewell, I turned around and left the building. Outside I turned to the left and wanted to go to Brill immediately. I had waited for so long to see this town again without having to fear for my life.

I turned to the grave where I threw Samuel into. I looked into the open grave and to my astonishment there wasn't anything in there. Where on earth did that body go? I backed off from the grave quickly, in fear somebody would blame me that Marla's husband was missing again.

I took two steps towards the ridge of spears when somebody grabbed my shoulder from the left side.

I turned around facing the person, my imp jumping around furiously next to me.

“Kill him! Kill him! Kill him!”, Pipfip squeaked continuously.

“I mean no harm, Hector.” his voice was calm, it didn't seem as if he wanted to attack me, I didn't think he was lying. He wore a long coat with a hood covering most of his head, you couldn't even see his face underneath it. “I couldn't prevent from overhearing your conversations in the church with Sarvis and Dueston.” What was this guy trying to tell me? “I know a few people who suffered just like you did, I believe you that you were a cleric in your former life.”

I wanted to say something, but I simply was unable to speak at that moment.

“Go to the Undercity and search for the Forgotten Shadow. If you find them, tell them Illius has sent you and give them this.”, he took a role of parchment from his pockets and handed it to me.

“Do NOT open it, otherwise they will not talk to you. They will think you are an impostor. The spies of the Nathrezim are everywhere.”

He let go of my shoulder, I just kept looking at him in bewilderment. I understood only about half the things he was talking about.

“I guess the Forgotten Shadow is just right for you, Hector. Now go and find your future.”

Insanity was a trait in these areas I told myself as the hooded person walked away towards the crypt up on the hill were I ascended from. Who was that man? He disappeared as fast as he had appeared. He called himself Illius, but... I didn't know what to think about all this, yet I thought I'd give it a try. But first of all, I wanted to go to Brill. Thinking of my life before, I would even say I had the obligation to go to Brill.

I finally left Deathknell on the road leading to the south. The way was constantly going downwards.

As I passed the camp I heard something that sounded like “Maaarlaaa”, but I decided not to give in to my curiosity to turn around and have a look, I just walked on.

I reached the road crossing after several minutes, although I was eager to go to Brill, I didn't want to rush it. At the crossing several signs pointed into the different ways. I guessed they were still there from the time the Scourge hadn't brought chaos to these areas. The sign pointing up to Deathknell was missing, there was only an arrow left that pointed up the hill. The signpost pointed out that to the west lay a farm, I can't recall the name of it.

To the north the road led to the Mills of the Agamand family. I still remembered that farm, it was huge. The family of the Agamands was rather rich for this area due to their prosperous mills.

The road leading to the east would eventually bring me to Brill, just as the signpost stated.

This part of the woods seemed rather quiet. It was dark just as it was typical for Tirisfal now. But there also seemed to be hardly any animals. Even in the woods around Deathknell there were many bats and small wolves.

At first I thought of taking the road to the north, for the sake of the old times, but I made up my mind rather quickly that I should go to Brill first. Sooner or later I would have the time to go to mills one more time.

The road was long and the imp walking and jumping by my side was constantly complaining. He asked me several times why he had to walk with his short legs and why he was there in the first place because we were not fighting anything. What an annoying little demon.

The road made a turn slightly to the left and was rather even from that point on, without any remarkable turnings or crossings.

In the distance I could see a wooden bridge that led over a slope in the countryside.

As me and my demon approached it, we heard a heavy stomping coming from the woods next to us. I turned round trying to make out where this was coming from.

A abomination made its way towards us. What on earth? Why was such a strong minion of the Scourge in these woods?

The giant lump of undead flesh came closer quickly. I was paralyzed for a moment, a moment too long. Until I focussed again that thing already stood in front of me.

But... nothing happened.

It grunted once.

"Gordo picky picky Gloom Weed. Gordo good.", the Abomination said and turned to the left leaving me standing where I was.

That was an irritating experience. So I guessed the Forsaken have their own abominations on their side.

We crossed the bridge fast for I feared the flames covering the body of the imp could set it on fire. At that time I still didn't know that demon flames are cold as long as the creature is calm.

A mounted deathguard came towards me.

“Greetings warlock.”, I returned his salute and stepped to the side so he could pass easily. His horse was as dead as he was. I had never seen such a creature before. Probably he was patrolling this part of the road.

Somehow it felt strange to walk through Brill again. The last time I was there I was almost killed by an assassin of the Forsaken. That was the moment the shadows claimed part of my soul. I still knew where the place was, but I thought it would be better not to go there. I wanted to leave that part of personal history behind me.

I passed the huge graveyard of Brill.

Somebody on the other side of the fence was wildly shouting around.

“THAT IDIOT! Gordo is such a useless lump of flesh.”, the voice was furious, “He only picks Gloom Weed - I need DOOM Weed. Go get me some - NOW! To the north!”

A robed figure came running through the gate and turned to the right, he then took the short cut to the northern coast passing between the fence and the town hall. That poor bastard had to do the things that giant lump of flesh messed up.

I walked on trying to remember where I had lived with my father in Brill. Yet apparently it seemed that some of the houses had been destroyed during the time the Scourge was here.

There was another Forsaken on a skeletal horse in front of the town hall. I approached him carefully.

“Good day, may ...”, I wanted to ask.

“Speak only when spoken to!”, he interrupted me. “Kill some of the Scarlet Crusade, afterwards we can talk!” I swallowed hard.

I walked away from him backwards not saying one further word.

On the other side of the road there was a stable. I drew closer to find it full of those undead horses. Another deathguard was also standing there looking at the undead animals. Some of them even had a pair of horns on their skull, those few also emitted a glow from their body. I wondered if they were magical. Majestic creatures, I had to admit, I liked them more than living horses from the first moment on I saw them. My imp complained the whole time why I didn't have one of these. That it was a shame that he was stuck in this world with probably the poorest warlock ever.

“Do you want one? The horned ones 40 pieces of gold, the smaller ones only nine pieces.” The guy trying to sell his mounts smiled at me in a friendly yet disturbing way. I shook my head and turned his offer down due to a lack of gold and riding skill.

I asked the guard which way I had to go to get to the Undercity. It took a moment until the Forsaken answered me, I mentally prepared to back off again if he asked me to kill something beforehand.

To my surprise he told me directly without any further `go kill this' tasks.

'Follow the road to the south, then you already see the city gates, go though the courtyard and inside the building directly to the south of you. Inside you will find elevators down to the Undercity', those were about his words.

I thanked him and said farewell.

If I had had enough gold, I would probably have bought one of those steeds. I envied everyone who had one of these. I had to smile at myself as I had these thoughts, the imp next to me squealing about how cruel destiny had been to him in the last few days.

I listened to most of the things he said during that time although it took a lot of nerves to cope with this ever-complaining little being.

I followed the road around the small hill.

I didn't realize until that very moment that the Undercity had to be inside the ruins of the capital city of Lordaeron. A blue banner was hanging from the walls outside. It showed two arrows crossing, one horizontal, the other one vertical. A third, yet broken arrow lay diagonally underneath the other two and on the crossing of the three there was a shattered white mask, about half of it was missing. The face was clearly female, somehow elven-like. The look on her face was grim and she was shedding tears of blood. Underneath all of this there was a shield with a picture of a raven.

What a fearsome symbol to have on his banner.

I entered the courtyard through the giant stone gate of Lordaeron. The once so proud statue in midst of it by then lay in ruins.

The imp next to me squealed once more, that time it sounded like laughter, “Stupid humaaaans.”

I walked along and passed the bell tower. I knew those corridors very well.

Next came the thrown room, in the back of it two more doors were standing wide open. As I walked up to the right I noticed it. The stain of blood still on the floor. All this had happened several years before and yet these drops of blood won't perish.

As I passed through the doors behind the thrown room, I entered a crypt. There was nothing unusual about that, yet I heard grunting noises coming from literally everywhere.

The light in there was gloomy so I noticed the three smaller hallways only after several minutes. The fire of the imp hardly emitted any light. Slowly I started to wonder if one could really call the things covering the body of the imp flames.

I looked around the corner leading into one of these corridors. For a moment I stood there paralyzed as I saw two abominations, both of them emitting a green glow. They both turned their heads and looked at me. Behind them a door opened up leading into a circular room.

I took all my courage and walked towards them. A small space was left in between those two giant ripped open bellies. The stench was overwhelming. I hurried into the room behind them, in there I relaxed for a moment. A bump went through the floor and the whole thing moved downwards. That thing was astonishingly fast. It slowed down as we reached the bottom. This elevator shaft was really deep. I made quite a way down. A door opened in my back. I hurried to get out so that I would not be taken to the surface again.

I followed the turning gangway and ended up in a circular room. That place was gigantic!

On the level I was at that moment I could see small shops all around the room. Two large staircases offered a way down to the centre of this hall. In the middle of the room there was a thing that looked a bit like an obelisk, but in its middle part there were also small windows with Forsaken behind them. I stepped to the edge of the floor on this level and looked down. The staircases led to the bottom level, a moat filled with a viscous looking green fluid surrounded the floor of the great hall. Four bridges crossing it were probably leading to further areas.

From a pipe far to my right the green fluid slowly flowed into the moat down at the bottom of the room.

It was hard to comprehend that something that spacious was located underneath the former capital city.

And it was a busy area, I heard voices coming from all around me. Forsaken were talking and trading everywhere, it was just like a market place.

I turned to my left and followed the upper ring towards the staircase leading downwards. I knew I would have to ask someone where I had to go to get to this Kaal Soulreaper guy or how to get to the... how did he call it - Forgotten Shadow.

Although I hated doing things like this, talking randomly to strangers, in my former life, I wouldn't get over with this if I didn't get myself together. So I just walked up to the next best people and asked them.

I decided to find out more about the Forgotten Shadow first, after all I had all the time in this world.

I talked briefly to about four or five people, every conversation ending approximately the same way, except for one with a guy who persistently wanted to sell me mushrooms instead of answering my question no matter what I said.

The innkeeper was the first one to help me out. He also didn't know where exactly I had to go, but he told me that the war quarters were the home of the cult in Undercity. He also described me how to get there. I thanked him and took the stairs down to the bottom level of the hall.

I crossed the green fluid over the bridge to my right.

I ended up in another rather big hallway, it followed a bent course, I guess it also was a giant circle around the inner hall. This city seems to be built fairly symmetrically. I turned right just as the Forsaken had said. Only a few metres later a smaller hallway turned off to the left from my point of view.

Following this one led me to another even bigger hallway, I guess another circle around the city. In the midst of it there was a wide moat again filled with that green slime. The ceiling in this part of the city was even higher than in the middle hall. I saw how an abomination was patrolling these lower areas.

The innkeeper told me, that if I turned left there, I should be directly in the war quarters.

All around these two circular hallways were pennants like the one on the outer wall. The look in the eye of that female face let the blood in your veins freeze. I tried not to look at it anymore, yet the eye of it seemed to follow me everywhere I went. That emblem was just terrifying. My imp jumped besides me squealing. I think that little creature was laughing at me.

I followed the path on this side of the moat to my left and entered the quarter through a smaller doorway. The first thing I saw was a blacksmith. By then I knew I was right.

Two bridges were leading over the trench to the other side. On this side there were merchants and trainers for warriors, on the other side there was a rather large building, I can't describe it if I'm honest. That was the first of the two or three times in my undead life that I went into the war quarter. In front of the building I saw a group of Forsaken forming a circle. Two of them standing in the middle were fighting weaker minions of the Scourge. All of the viewers were cheering and shouting wildly.

I crossed the bridge and entered the building. I found myself in midst of clerics all giving me strange looks, wondering why a warlock would come to these areas. They told me I should rather go to the Temple of the Damned in the mage quarters. They clearly wanted to get rid of me, they didn't like my presence amongst them.

What a strange feeling that was, some time ago I aspired to become one of them, now they already wanted to disown me.

I just asked blindly into the room whether somebody knew anything about the Forgotten Shadow before anybody could start pushing me out of the door again.

In a single moment everyone was quiet, there were about eight people inside the room, none of them spoke another word, they didn't even move. I wouldn't have expected that a warlock asking this would be this shocking.

One of them stepped forth. “How do you know of the Forgotten Shadow?”, he asked me.

I told him the truth, that a man named Illius had sent me here. The moment I finished my sentence laughter broke out amongst some of them, others only smirked. I took out the role of parchment from my pocket and handed it to the Forsaken who had asked me how I knew of the cult.

He read through it, with every word he opened his eyes further and further, the glow from the eye sockets becoming stronger and stronger.

“Call me Garner, come with me...”, he stepped forward and pushed me outside. “So I see, you were telling the truth.”, he led me behind the building. “You don't seem to know that Illius is our leader. But besides that, I'm astonished that a warlock wants to join us... yet again these words of Illius state that you wanted to become a priest during the time you were alive. Is that correct?” I nodded, I guessed that was a rhetorical question.

“I don't know why he sent you here, if I'm honest, the centre of the cult is in Deathknell after all.”, that was something surprising to hear. “This is more of an outpost, but well, I guess it doesn't matter. Do you know anything about the Cult of the Forgotten Shadow already?”

“No, not really if I'm honest...”, I looked down to the floor for a short moment.

“I will make it brief for you as a starter. There are three virtues we follow and respect in this cult. Respect, tenacity and power. Everyone of the Forgotten Shadow always seeks to become stronger and develop their personal power, therefore respect towards other is necessary or you will challenge a foe that is too strong bluntly, it is a measure of self-protection. You have to be tenacious to reach your goal whilst every Forsaken around you will probably want to do the same thing. And power as the last virtue, the most important one as many of us say. A Forsaken not longing to become stronger is not more worth than a ghoul of the Scourge. You said you wanted to be a cleric in your former life?”

“Yes, that is true.” I responded briefly, the imp by my side squealing in agony.

“Then you shall find many who are just like you in the cult.” he looked around as if he was looking for something.

“I'm sorry to end this conversation so quickly, but I have important things to address to right now... You are welcome as a member of the cult, be sure that you always strive for more power and never be disrespectful towards members of the cult. Farewell to you.”, he disappeared inside the building again.

That was strange. He was in quite a hurry explaining this to me, he even welcomed me to the cult in an instance. This didn't really answer all my questions about the cult, but I had to live with it, at least for the moment. I made up my mind to go and find out more about them later on.

 

If I think about what I've found out since that day, well it isn't too much all in all. I became a high ranked member of course, but I turned to follow my own goals as usual. Although I have to admit I still follow the virtues, yet respect is something you have to earn from me. Transcending death. That is something to pursue throughout your life. Their believes about this divine humanism are also appealing, that you by yourself can shape the universe around you. Being able to become a god... yes...

This cult offered me salvation. I longed for freedom and for that I had to become stronger. I wanted to walk my own path, without being dependent on someone else. The things they teach offered anything I was seeking for. It showed me that my soul was just too weak in my former life. Don't get me wrong, I'm not glad about the curse of undeath, but I accepted it. After all it offered me a second chance. And I was clearly stronger than before, the magic I was able to control already at that point was astonishing. The shadows offered me their aid and I finally embraced them, if I look back at my former life, I start to wonder why I rejected this power in the first place. I would even go so far to say that I would probably have never died if I had given in to the shadows.

But well, it was too late to be thinking about that now, mourning my death wouldn't bring me any further. It was the cult and Kaal Soulreaper that gave me a new perspective on my existence.

I left my former self behind and I didn't want to look back. Everybody I met after my death was only looking forward. Therefore I tried to leave my old self behind as good as I could. I guess my imp approved of that too.