The Burning

Chapter Eight

Aerai found Arrwynn in the run-down church of Tarren Mill. She had to step over the books lying on the ground before the building, and gave a cursory glance about the area. Pews were broken, or flipped upside down, or moved out of the way against one wall or the other. Only a few remained where they belonged, and were intact. There was little light within, but what there was showed that there was none of the ornamentation present in many churches, as anything of value had been stripped away long ago either by looters or by the Forsaken who now held this outpost. Arrwynn's hood was down, her white garments smudged with dust from sitting on the disused pew near the altar. Hair of silver was held in a bun by a jade pin, and Arrwynn's staff was propped against the side of her seat, next to her, the multi-colored feathers draping over her right shoulder.

Arrwynn's long ears twitched at the sound of the other Mage's arrival, and she turned her head to see who it was. Recognizing Aerai, the silver-maned Blood Elf gave a weak smile before turning her gaze forward again. Aerai strode up the aisle at a sedate pace, taking her time, and trying to put her thoughts in order. Fatigue gnawed at her from her efforts mere moments ago to bind the fragment of Sargeras' essence that dwelled within Arsika, but she knew that left unattended the issue of Arrwynn could become as great a problem as Arsika. Finally coming up beside her friend, Aerai paused momentarily, and then spoke into the still air. "There's a few things we need to discuss." Aerai startled herself somewhat with the seeming loudness of her words when contrasted with the quiet within the church, but as Arrwynn looked up at her, making little effort to conceal what she was suffering, she pressed on.

"We both know what happened in that cave, and what's present inside of Arsika now, so there's no point in dancing around the subject, nor should we restate what we are already aware of."
Arrwynn curiously regarded Aerai, but answered, "Alright." Nodding her head, Aerai moved over to Arrwynn's other side, and took a seat next to her. The wood was uncomfortable, as the padding had been cut off to be sold or used as materials for clothing. People were that desperate. Aerai ignored the cold hardness of the bench and decided not to dally any longer. This had taken enough time already.
"What is your current opinion of Arsika?"
"H-huh? My opinion?"
"Yes," Aerai nodded. "How do you feel about her right now?" Arrwynn was noticeably uncomfortable, shifting around in her seat as she looked away and answered.
"She's my friend."
"And don't friends look after each other? Don't they care about each other?"
"Of course!" Arrwynn responded in a slightly insulted tone. Aerai put a hand on Arrwynn's shoulder, and the other woman jerked as though stung, as her head turned to face back in Aerai's direction. Looking into Arrwynn's eyes, Aerai asked a question.
"So do you want to tell me why you're so scared?"

Arrwynn stared at Aerai for several seconds, her mouth open slightly before her lips pressed together tightly and she said, "I'm not scared."
"Then what is wrong?" Aerai asked. When Arrwynn didn't answer, but instead looked down at the dusty wooden floor, Aerai squeezed the other elf's shoulder a bit, trying to show it was alright to talk. Arrwynn began to speak.
"That's the power of Sargeras in her, you know? It's an evil power. It ought not to exist. The Burning Legion ought not to exist. All those creatures bent on destroying all of creation, and so many have died already trying to fight them, and now... Now their leader is sitting over there in that inn, and I should do something before it's too late. But I don't think there's anything I CAN do. Compared to that power, if I tried to fight, I might as well be doing card tricks. That energy is so strong, and so dark! And I don't want to throw my life away fighting some evil god!"
Arrwynn's words spilled out of her. They had begun slowly, but they just tumbled forth as a torrent of thought and emotion she had kept pent up inside of her head. She wasn't talking just to Aerai, but also to herself, laying bare her own ideas and worries that had seemed so uncertain, and so abstract in her own mind, but now as she heard them issuing from her mouth, they took on a cold certainty, a tangible form that she now knew was not unclear in the least, but a hopeless absolute. She really had no choice. She would have to flee. There was nothing she could do against Sargeras. As she came to this decision, her thoughts were interrupted by Aerai speaking, and Arrwynn realized she had finished talking to her friend quite some time ago, and had been sitting in silence.
"There's a problem with what you just said, though," Aerai said, and waited for Arrwynn to look at her, but when the other elf did not, she continued. "You are working under the assumption that Arsika and Sargeras are one and the same. You are so caught up in worrying about the danger posed by the Dark Titan, that you have forgotten the most important part. Arsika is our friend."

Now Arrwynn looked up, as she stared at Aerai, not fully registering what was just said, but being affected by it nonetheless. Aerai pressed on. "You already agreed that friends look after each other, and care about each other. You weren't just saying that, either. You know that to be true. That's why you're still here, isn't it? Why you haven't run? Why you haven't tried to fight Arsika?" A look of confusion warred with surprise on Arrwynn's face, and much like with the red-haired elf presently sleeping in the inn, Aerai knew she was succeeding in her objective of showing her friend the truth.
"Sargeras is a dread power indeed, and not one to be taken lightly, but what Arsika absorbed was not Sargeras himself. It was just a fragment of his essence, and though it was corrupting her mind, she is still Arsika. Even more so now, as the evil energy has been sealed away and she has regained her own thoughts, her own feelings. You were so concerned with the obvious threat posed by Sargeras, so caught up in worrying about the possibility of death if you were to fight him, that you didn't recognize the obvious truth before you."
"What truth?" Arrwynn whispered, her pure-green eyes wide.
"That even if all of Sargeras' power were present in Arsika, even if she had been consumed by it, we would not abandon her, we would not run away, and we would do everything we could to help her come back to her real self, regardless of what hardships we might face, regardless of the danger. Necause that's what friends do, and Arsika is our friend."

Arrwynn's face showed her dawning realization of the truth in what Aerai had said. The rightness of it. It was the knowledge she had already possessed inside of her, but hadn't been able to perceive beyond her concern for her own life, and her belief in her inferiority. Now that she could see it clearly, she was ashamed that she had ever thought of running away instead of doing everything within her power to help her friend. But she could feel bad about that later. Now that she knew the truth, she had to do what she could to help.
"You said that the essence of Sargeras has been sealed away? So it's gone?"
"Yes, it was sealed, no, it's not gone. It's still inside of Arsika. It's just bound, so that it can't influence her anymore."
"It's still there then..." Arrwynn looked down at the floor thoughtfully.
"Yes, and Arsika is still Arsika."
"I know that now. But how was it sealed in the first place?" Aerai went silent at this question for a few moments, before answering with a question of her own.
"Has anyone ever told you about the Guardian of Tirisfal?" Aerai didn't expect Arrwynn to know anything about this, but she had to ask anyway.
"No, though I recognize the name 'Tirisfal'. Like Tirisfal Glades, right?"
"Yes, the two are connected. Well, let me tell you a little about the Guardian, the power of the Tirisfalen, and the Order of Tirisfal..."

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Meanwhile, as the night waned, four teenagers were sitting and standing around a campfire at a collection of large stones in the grassy hills of the Arathi Highlands. The stones marked the location of the Circle of Inner Binding and there was much magic to be tapped from it by those who knew how. Unfortunately for those in the Arathi Highlands, the four young adults were in possession of that knowledge. They were Mages -- or at least student Mages -- from Dalaran, who had either been expelled from the magic academy there, or who had dropped out to go along with those expelled. They had been very promising students, seeming to have great potential. There had been high hopes initially for the ones known as Aeric, Lars, Juli, and Melodice. But then the teachers had found out that they were trouble makers.

All four were delinquents, exceedingly cruel, and took great joy in tormenting other students and the teachers. It was rare anything could be proven, but much havoc was wrought while these four were supposedly studying in the academy. The ringleader, Aeric, was found to have stolen a valuable tome from one of the instructors detailing a number of magical principles that were not only highly advanced, but also highly dangerous. They thought that they had caught him before he could get anything of value from the book, but though he was expelled, he took with him a few leafs from that book he had torn free of the binding and concealed on his person. He had promised to share his stolen knowledge with the three others, so they left the academy stealthily to accompany Aeric.

Among the forbidden knowledge obtained from the study of those pages, were methods for controlling the minds and bodies of others. Lars had proven to be the most talented in this department, and he and Aeric were constantly at odds, as Lars sought to supplant the leader of the group, and Aeric sought to deny him leadership. Juli and Melodice had a different sort of rivalry. While the competition between Aeric and Lars was typical of young males, and only taken to the level it currently was by the nature of their individual personalities, the friction between Juli and Melodice was due to their mutual feelings of hate for each other. It was an odd relationship. Juli came from a poor family, and had suffered much, and always looked upon those better off than her with envy and loathing. Melodice came from a well-off family and made much of it, looking down on most people she did not consider to be of the same station as herself. Rather predictably, Juli and Melodice had learned to hate each other within the first five minutes of meeting.

They constantly picked at each other verbally, did countless little things out of spite that drove their detestation for their counter-part to new levels. And yet, the two girls often worked together, schemed together, and shared the same joy in their works of cruelty coming to fruition as they were perpetrated on others. This seemingly impossible relationship of hate and companionship had boggled Aeric and Lars initially, but they eventually decided they didn't care enough to worry about it, and allowed the twisted rivalry to serve as a form of entertainment. That was all in the past, however. Now the four of them were joined together in a sort of magical gestalt, drawing energy from the Circle of Inner Binding, and using it to dark ends. They slept during the day and travelled by night, trying to avoid being caught by anyone from Dalaran who might be coming after them, and they had spent much of the night tormenting every living thing they could with their new spells and powers, learned from the pilfered pages of that mystic tome.

They used their control magics to force random animals to duel to the death for their enjoyment. They inspired boundless fury in the predators so that they fought with such savagery that the grass was slick with spilled blood, and ichor, and littered with limbs, entrails, and corpses. They had manipulated spiders, and raptors, and buzzards, and even a few kobolds to fight and kill. Juli and Melodice had tired of this after a few hours, and were now spending their time alternately bickering and discussing what to do next with their powers. Aeric and Lars were switching back and forth between duelling animals, and having sex with a female Syndicate Mercenary that they had caught away from the rest of her organization, stationed near Northfold Manor.

It was one thing to control wild predators, and quite another to control a sentient being, and even with their enhanced magics, it took both Aeric and Lars to break down the woman's mind enough to influence her. Now, however, she was being controlled like a puppet to act as a sex toy, her body doing as the two teenagers told it to. To appearances she was willingly engaging in all forms of intercourse with the two boys and allowing them to do any perverted thing they could thing of to her, but her blank, glassy gaze, revealed she was not really in control.

Despite the power boost from the circle, the two student Mages were nowhere near skilled enough to actually control the mind of a thinking person, or to do anything sophisticated, so they had had to improvise by suspending the Syndicate woman's awareness, magically rendering her a mindless toy for two hormonal males. It required actual magic and verbal commands to manipulate her body, rather than her doing what they wished because she thought that it was her idea. Aeric waited impatiently off to the side while Lars finished spurting his seed into the Syndicate Mercenary's mouth for the third time that night. "Hurry up! You can't concentrate enough to fight while you're getting sucked off."
"Shut up. I just finished," Lars answered petulantly as he pulled out of the woman's mouth, and replaced his pants. As he started to head towards Aeric to begin another gladiatorial match of animal against animal, he paused momentarily, and then as an afterthought, looked back to the nude brunette kneeling on the grass with a mouth full of sperm, and said, "Swallow it." She obeyed immediately, gulping down the substance, and then waiting in place for the next order. Satisfied, Lars walked up next to Aeric and said, "Alright, what'll it be this time? Raptors? Spiders? Birds? Kobolds?"
"We're out of Kobolds, and the birds are boring." Aeric answered as he began focusing his mind, searching for something they hadn't killed yet in the surrounding land. His senses were directed further out, away from their camp, so it was a wonder he managed to stumble upon the presence of another person that wasn't clustered together in one of the farms, or towns. It was a brief "bump" in the mental map he had of this region. Someone out of place. 'A traveller?' he thought momentarily, then dismissed that possibility. It was almost morning. No one in their right mind would just be travelling at night across territory filled with all manner of dangerous beasts and people. Not unless they were very sure of their capabilities. Aeric scrolled back his mind, trying to focus on the presence he had felt, and see just where it was. He tensed when he realized it was only a short distance away and approaching on a straight line to their camp.
"Alright, spiders or raptors then. Hmm... We just did spiders, so let's do the lizards--Hey, what's wrong? Not still angry I got to do that Syndicate slut's ass before you did, are you?" Lars smirked for a moment, but then realized that the tensing and the narrowing of Aeric's eyes was not directed at him, but instead in front of the two. Lars turned to face forward, and then swore quietly when he saw someone in purple robes coming down from the road to the north-east. At first he thought it was someone from the Violet Citadel, some magical enforcer come to drag them all back to face punishment for their misdeeds. Then he realized that the figure did not bear any of the markings of one from Dalaran, nor any weapons, or signs of jewelry, or anything else. The figure was also short. About as short as Juli, the smallest member of the four wayward students. This was either a tall Dwarf, or a child, then, he imagined. And the lack of a beard precluded the former possibility.

The purple robed figure had long sleeves, so long that they went past its hands, and a face-concealing hood pulled up over its head. The stranger paused only momentarily when it came across the scene of what appeared to be a slaughter, with gore and bodies strewn about the Circle at various places, then the robed individual came closer to the camp, and the two girls behind the boys finally picked up that something was wrong and stood up, eyeing the new arrival. The stranger finally stopped, at the point just before Aeric was going to order that they do so. There was silence for a time as the robed figure and the four student Mages regarded each other. Then a young voice, that could have been male or female, issued from the stranger.
"What an awful mess you've made here. 'Twould be best if you had not done so. It will be quite a chore to clean up for those who come after you." At this, Aeric and Lars glanced at each other, before Aeric said, "What are you doing out here, kid? Shouldn't you be with your parents?"
"And you've made a mess of her, as well!" The child-voice continued, as though Aeric hadn't spoken, as it seemed to be looking at the Syndicate woman, kneeling on the grass, with semen leaking from her orifices, and coating her body. "This is all quite heinous, these deeds you have done. Might've you chosen a less objectionable way to have your fun?"
Growing annoyed, Aeric said, "What do you know, kid? Get out of here before something bad happens to you." He tried to look as imposing as he could as he glared at the hooded figure. Lars then whispered out of the side of his mouth to Aeric.
"Hey, wait a sec. I don't know if this is a kid or not."
"What are you talking about?" Aeric whispered back.
"What kind of kid talks like that? What kind of kid would be wandering around alone at this hour? There's something wrong about this guy."
Aeric was tempted to mock Lars for being worried about what was obviously some child that had run away from home, to tell him he was jumping at shadows, but he took another look at the robed figure. Though short of stature, and young in voice, no actual features had yet been seen. The darkness inside that hood was total, with no hint of what was within, even though the stranger was facing the camp fire. It reminded him, somehow, of a story he had heard in Dalaran. It was not a nice story, and it involved someone very much like what stood before him. He considered Lars' words while Melodice spoke up in the background.
"Do run along, you silly simple child. We do not want your dirty peasant rags befouling the air," Melodice sniffed haughtily.
"Shut up, rich girl. This isn't the time for you to show us all what a spoiled brat you are." Juli snapped at the other teenager. Melodice glared venomously at Juli but didn't get the chance to retort, before the stranger spoke again.
"I will depart, but not before my business here is completed. Thrice you have taken what does not belong to you, and now you must be brought to task." The bizarre preciseness and formal manner of the child-voice did nothing to ease Aeric's concerns, but the words themselves were what bothered him the most.
"How do you know about that? Those geezers at the academy were so concerned about their precious book but they didn't even notice I'd taken anything from it. Were you sent by them to take their spells back?" Aeric demanded angrily, prepared to vow that this person or creature, or whatever it was, would never get those pages back. Then it registered that the stranger had said he had taken what did not belong to him three times. He had just jumped to the conclusion that the thing he was most concerned about having done was what was being referenced. "Wait, three? What else did I take?"
"Have you not eyes in your head? The first of that which you have taken lies before you." The stranger swept one arm, still concealed by a long sleeve, over the dozens of bodies on the ground. "You have taken Life. The second of that you have stolen is there." The arm came up to point at the woman behind the boys. "You have taken free will. Finally," the stranger took a step forward as its voice seemed to possess a more menacing edge to it. "The third of the things you have taken, which does not belong to you, is all about us." Both arms spread wide, gesturing at the Circle. "You have taken magic. Magic, the lifeblood of the planet. The power to bring change upon the world. The power to shape destiny. This does not belong to you. And I will not abide by your thievery of this one most sacred of things." The arms dropped down, and the stranger took another step forward as the child-voice repeated what it had said before. "You must be brought to task."

The threat was clear. Whoever or whatever this stranger before them was, it intended to do something to them that they would probably rather not have done to them. Aeric sneered out, "Magic? What do you know about magic? The power we have now is more than you can imagine." Confident in the boost to his abilities gained from the Circle of Inner Binding, Aeric off-handedly said, "Lars, hit him." Lars didn't worry about being ordered around at the moment, and instead grinned as he focused his mind to the job of punishing this short little jerk for his arrogance. Lars sent a bolt of mental power at the stranger, trying to slam his pain receptors, and cause him to feel pure agony. The stranger stood and showed no signs that Lars had done anything at all. Frowning, the tall teenager put more energy into it this time, thinking perhaps he had just tired himself out with all the controlling he'd been doing all night. This time his mental jab noticeably deflected off of something. There was some barrier against attack around the robed figure, but after examining it, Lars decided it was simple enough that he could crack it if he used his full abilities.

Bending his will to the task, Lars channeled part of the Circle's power into a great push against the invisible barrier, trying to smash through it and hurl the mind of this upstart into hellish torment. The barrier held. Not only did it hold, it PUSHED BACK. Lars pushed harder, having to put more and more energy into his assault, until he realized with a start that he was losing ground, and that a counter-force was being exerted by the stranger, trying to attack his own mind. He drew upon all the power of the Circle he could, trying every trick he could think of to regain control of the situation, but as his breathing became more and more labored, and sweat poured down his reddened face, he knew that he was up against someone stronger than him. Still, the other three were watching him, and he didn't want to admit defeat, to show weakness, so he kept trying. Eventually, the pressure on his mind became too great, and as he felt pain starting to fill his skull, in desperation he gasped out, "Guys... Help me... Use the gestalt!"

To their credit, the other three teenagers did not hesitate, and added their own minds to Lars'. They all put their portion of the Circle's power into the war of minds, through the magical gestalt they had formed, before flaring with mystic strength, and pressing back against the diminuitive stranger with all the might they could muster. They managed to stop the stranger's advance, but it was not until each of them not only put their stolen magic into the attack, but also their personal Mana reserves, pouring all their concentration, all their focus, all of their twisted souls into rending this mysterious assailant's mind to shreds, that they started to gain ground again. And then the stranger spoke, sounding not at all strained, but rather amused.
"It is sad. So much effort you four put forth, only to accomplish so little." Then the voice turned serious. "You spoke of power. I will show you power." Then the robed figured stopped holding back. Even as potent as the magic wielded by the gestalt was, compared to what came next, the strength of the four student Mages was as nothing. The tidal wave of mental force being thrown against the stranger was pierced by a bolt of power the width of a single thought, which blasted through any mental defenses the four teenagers possesses, and tore all their mystic abilities right out of them.

Before they could recover from the loss of their magic, the four were immediately subjected to a control far more masterful than the crude brute force method they had used on the animals and Kobolds and the woman that Aeric and Lars had raped. The two boys had their minds rewritten, so that their only desire was to kill each other. Lars was first to act, as he pulled a knife and lunged at Aeric, trying to slash his throat. Aeric caught the blade with his forearm, and though he was badly cut, he retaliated by tackling Lars to the ground and biting one of his ears until it tore, while trying to wrestle the knife from Lars' hand. Not noticing the pain, the two teenagers continued to brutally assault each other as they rolled on the grass, until their own blood mixed with that of the animals they had killed.

Juli and Melodice, meanwhile, had fallen to the ground, tearing each others' clothes off, and fiercely kissing, as they prepared to make love to each other. Unlike with Aeric and Lars, the two girls had not had their minds completely rewritten, and they were aware of everything their brains were telling their bodies to do. Being forced to be so intimate with another girl, when neither was a lesbian, and not just that, but with the one they hated most above all others, was a humiliating experience, as their emotions and their thoughts warred with each other for control, and all the while they were licking and sucking and stroking and fingering, as they rolled on the ground, writhing in pleasure and the embrace of each other.

The stranger merely stood and watched its handiwork in silence, waiting until the maimed Aeric struggled to his feet, having plunged the knife into Lars' heart and twisted it until the other boy stopped moving. Then with a thought from the stranger, Aeric took the knife and turned it on himself, stabbing into his brain through the empty eyesocket that was the result of one of the now-deceased Lars' attacks. As Aeric's body collapsed, the Syndicate woman was suddenly released from her stupor, and she blinked into awareness, wincing at the soreness of different parts of her body, and wrapping her arms around herself, as the cold air moved over her bare skin. She looked around in confusion, seeing the corpses of the animals, the Kobolds, and of Lars and Aeric. She saw the two teenage girls rolling on the bloody grass, coating themselves in the red fluid as they cried out in pleasure, while simultaneously weeping. She saw the stranger. The robed figure turned its hooded head towards her, and said simply, "Go home." The confused, semen-covered brunette got to her feet and did just that, running in the direction of the Syndicate's base as fast as she could, and not looking back.

Finally, almost as an afterthought, once Juli and Melodice had driven each other to orgasm repeatedly, the stranger tossed an idle whim in their direction, and they got up, and took turns slitting their own throats with the same knife which had killed Lars and Aeric. Leaving the dead student Mages lying on the ground, the robed figure departed, heading towards the Hillsbrad Foothills. "I hope I arrive in time. It would be most unfortunate if I had dallied here overlong. There is work to be done."

---------------End Chapter Eight---------------