Of Light and Void, chapter 26

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Once again the delegation moved steadily along the gently creaking causeway through the shimmering swamp, this time headed back south. Once again they rode mostly in silence, although the return trip was a great deal less uneasy – the Exarchs apparently deep in thought over their extended stay at the temple, while Theluin and the Ambassador exchanged the odd, discreet small talk regarding various details in Draenic history. Eli found himself once again fairly content with keeping an eye on his incorrigible kinswoman, who was distinctly more accustomed to the spectacular landscape around them this time and rode along in Sandy’s saddle with a much more conspicuous degree of jaded abandon.

Eli didn’t turn his head much, wise to the she-rogue’s razor reflexes, but he could still notice out of the corner of his eye how her expression kept shifting ever so imperceptibly. She was about to start getting belligerent, and he resolved to stifle the outburst before it would explode out somewhere awkward.

“Miss Tuan, if I may …” he ventured carefully. She immediately snapped her head around, arching an eyebrow at him in her typical ornery fashion.

“You did spend quite a lot o’ time chattin’ it up with that Conall fellow back thar,” Eli continued in a low but casual voice. “Didya manage ta help ‘im at all?”

“… oh. Yeah.” Tuan adjusted her seat somewhat, leaning a hand against Sandy’s armoured rear. The stallion didn’t even twitch his ears by now at his owner’s careless riding style. “That one … well, I did manage to get one of his little pests outta the way.”

Eli raised his eyebrows lightly. “Can’t recall you draggin’ any huge trophies in. When did ya pull that off exactly? … what kinda critter did’ya even go after?”

“Such a firestorm of questions. I’d almost think you were being interested, if that didn’t flatter you too much.” She shot a rapscallious smirk at him, which he repaid with a simple, jovial smile.

Of Light and Void, chapter 25

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The thick, sturdy logs of the causeway creaked quietly beneath the wide, soft soles of the elekks, in stark contrast to the distinct footfalls of the humans’ steel-shod chargers. The elevated boardwalk had obviously been dimensioned for travellers on foot, forcing the Draenei delegates to proceed in a line, trunk to tail. The Exarchs were arranged in front of and behind the Ambassador, though there was still enough room for Theluin to continue riding alongside on soundless Saber paws while the adjutants covered the edges of the boardwalk. Conversation was kept to a minimum, however, in order to not attract unwanted attention from any potential rogue parties.

Once more bringing up the rear, Tuan and Eli rode side by side in silence. The Paladin stared ahead with unseeing eyes, letting the natural sounds of the marshland suffuse his senses. The she-rogue in turn kept craning her head around, often leaning back and bracing a hand against Sandy’s armoured rear to catch fleeting glimpses of the imposing mushroom heads far above the perpetual swamp mist.

The journey was uneventful; apart from a few tense instances when the local wildlife would suddenly appear out of the shimmering underbrush to take a closer look at the travellers out of curiosity or territorial instinct, there was nothing to impede the travelling company’s slow but steady progress.

Eli found himself staring with unmitigated fascination at a particularly striking specimen: a towering entity akin to a gargantuan tripod striding gracefully along the shallow water channels on tall, slender tentacles, crested by a small, peculiar body like an organic-looking ellipsoid disc with a single, luminescent head peeking out. Another pair of limbs, ending in broad leaf-like appendages, hung partially tucked-up like feeder tendrils in front, trailing a floating, phosphorescent dust behind the creature, which continued along its path paying little to no attention to the mounted delegation.

Of Light and Void, chapter 24

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With little else to impede their progress, the delegation crossed through the pass and into a world that seemed a planet away from the barren wasteland they had just left. The first indication was the thorny brambles gradually giving way to giant fungi (thoroughly dried out and deadened, but giant fungi nonetheless) and the bluish dusk continued to grow in intensity until an entire forest of towering mushrooms – as thick as the oldest Ashenvale oaks, lit from below by their own phosphorescent spore sacs – spread out before the travellers, watery channels winding in a labyrinthine fen between the massive stalks. The road led straight into the hauntingly beautiful swamp, and it wasn’t without effort that the non-Draenei kept themselves from gawking openly at the dramatic change in scenery.

The Ambassador breathed out in a slow sigh. “Zangarmarsh,” he announced quietly. “The only refuge and sanctuary that the Orcs of the Dark Horde could not penetrate in their hunt for Velen and what remained of the Draenei. We learned to move with the swamp waters, slip away like the wind, lay unmoving like the earth while the fires of vengeance tore at our hearts.” He lowered his head and shook it slowly, and it was obvious that he was fighting tears. “It was here that those unfortunate ones afflicted by the Orcs’ fel taint began to … change.” He drew a slight breath to recompose himself. “Those we now call Krokul – Broken – and worse.” Theluin, as always keeping pace with the Ambassador, looked up at the Draenei without a word, but with deep compassion and sympathy in his glowing, turquoise eyes.

Eli threw a wary glance at Tuan, halfway expecting an obtuse retort from the temperamental woman, but she appeared to be quite occupied craning her head around to take in the spectacular flora – if ‘flora’ was an adequate word for a forest made entirely out of tall-stalked, alien fungi, interspersed with a marshland replete with every form of natural phosphorescence imaginable.

Silence fell among the travellers, but it was amply filled by the sounds of the swamp. The buzz of insects, the distant chirps and calls of strange bog creatures and predators, and the constant gurgle and trickle of swamp water being filtered through iridescent, literally outlandish tubers growing in open air like semi-transparent balloons of organic, bluish crystal. The ethereal atmosphere was reinforced further by a light mist that suffused the air, reflecting and refracting the red and turquoise glow from the broad mushroom heads high above into the strong purple-aqua nuance that pervaded the marsh’s colour palette.

Of Light and Void, chapter 23

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The delegation continued at a leisurely but controlled walk along the road, which was honestly little more than a broad, packed trail in the red earth. The two Exarchs, resplendent on their towering War Elekks, headed the group with stoic complexions and wary gazes. Behind them came the Ambassador on his own travelling Elekk, not nearly as heavily armoured but nevertheless suited with a lavishly embellished harness; Theluin consistently kept pace on his dark-spotted Stormsaber, making light conversation to pass the time. Finally, Eli and Tuan brought up the rear on their respective steeds, the Paladin intent on staying around the she-rogue in the event she would start getting insufferable. The Exarchs’ adjutants – four athletic, platemail-armoured Vindicator acolytes – covered the flanks on foot, keeping up with their mounted masters with little more than a light sweat coating their foreheads. Their role was to keep an eye on sideways movements, and to act as scouts and guards in the event the delegation would have to make camp in the open.

Tuan leaned back somewhat in her saddle, bracing herself with one hand on Sandy’s rear armour, and peered behind her. Far away at the horizon, the tell-tale dust cloud rose from the carrier column powering back to the Hold. “Took them some sweet time to get back on the road,” she muttered.

Eli glanced at her. “I dun think it woulda been terribly tactful to have us leave th’ temple grounds walkin’ through a giant exhaust cloud, Miss Tuan,” he replied with a degree of reprimand.

Tuan rolled her eyes and straightened herself again. “Whatever.”

Eli stole a quick glance forward. Thankfully the others hadn’t noticed – or didn’t indicate that they had heard. He sighed inwardly, likely for the umpteenth time so far. Still, he kept reminding himself that the she-rogue had all the potential to get much more intolerable if she would feel like it. The fact that she wasn’t could just as easily be a sign that her inherent discomfort was slowly receding, or that she simply wasn’t bored enough – yet.

They came over a natural ridge in the burnt-out, barren expanse, and found a wide, shallow basin stretching far before them. At the furthest edge of visibility, one could just make out a great mountain chain that apparently was the western-most section of the semi-circle that encapsulated that entire half of the peninsula. The road continued onwards into the basin, sloping downwards gently but noticeably.

Of Light and Void, chapter 22

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It was the next morning; if ‘morning’ was a thing that could be attributed to such an unearthly place.

“That was you?!”

Theluin smiled modestly at the flabbergasted Draenei Ambassador. “After a fashion.”

The Ambassador blinked, clearly struggling to regain his usual composure. “Surely you must have had a score of warriors accompanying you – that Citadel is the epitome of lethality!”

“Actually, t’was jus’ th’ three of us,” Eleazar interjected lightly. “Danath Trollbane wanted a scouting mission, an’ that’s what we went in ta do … an’ then it kinda got outta hand.”

The Ambassador looked back and forth between the Priest and the Paladin with a new, tremendous respect in his luminescent eyes. “… I do not think there are enough words in any language on Azeroth nor Draenor to properly express what a fate-defying deed it truly is that you have been part of,” he finally said in a quiet but resonant voice. “The Citadel is the dark heart of all of my kin’s sufferings in this shattered land’s past. To think that we are so much closer to finally wiping its twisted countenance from our present, and all thanks to you …!”

“There is still a lot left to do, Ambassador,” Theluin remarked with gentle urgency. “The Bladefist chief still lives, as does the pit lord chained in the Citadel’s depths.”

The Ambassador nodded soberly. “Nevertheless, we and our Alliance comrades are now in a position of opportunity that hasn’t been seen in years.” He bowed smoothly to the Moon Priest, who returned the gesture graciously. “You are truly exemplars of your kind.”

As if on cue, Tuan chose that moment to emerge from the temple’s interior, hustling down the broad stairs with backpack slung over her shoulder. She glanced up, spotted the Ambassador, and threw a sloppy salute with a lopsided smirk. The Draenei merely smiled in return, and inclined his head politely. Somehow, it had become a collective, unspoken agreement not to make any overt mentions of the she-rogue’s reckless but indubitable prowess.

Of Light and Void, chapter 21

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Eli walked out of the temple, carrying a small bowl of steaming, thick soup with him. The tall tales of the trio of friends and their exploits in the ravaged peninsula had lasted them well into the supper hours, and he was now headed outside to check on Tuan. The she-rogue had managed to stay out of sight the entire evening, and the Paladin was admittedly beginning to feel a mite concerned.

He gave himself a moment to peer up at the sky. Here, at the north-western outskirts of the peninsula, the incessant nether aurora sweeping back and forth from one horizon to the next was weaker, leaving the firmament open for what lay beyond. Eli realized that he was looking up at images of alien planets – were they really just images? – and a sky so speckled with diamonds that it felt like he was literally gazing into the great cosmos itself. A single, small yet unnaturally bright sun sat unmoving high above his head, but it didn’t seem to carry the same kind of warmth that the Azerothian sun possessed. If anything, it felt like he was standing on a small, air-vacuumed satellite somewhere in outer space, staring not at a sun but at a naked star, bereft of atmospheric blurs.

He drew a deep breath and lowered his head, blinking to fight off the momentary nausea that had washed over him. No wonder she hates looking at that. Remembering the temple elder’s directions from earlier, he easily found his way over to the open-air smithy.

There wasn’t much of a difficulty finding it anyway. The steady, light ringing of metal being bolted out guided him well enough.

As he came up to the free-standing forge and anvil, Tuan had apparently just finished sealing up whatever she was working on and had plopped herself rakishly on top of the anvil, one foot over the opposite knee, something unidentifiable but obviously mechanical tucked in the crook of her lap and her hands deftly manoeuvring thin engineer’s tools in the tiny contraption’s metal guts.

“Whaddayawant,” she snapped in an even, neutral voice as he stepped close; not so much her usual ornery attitude as simply being thoroughly occupied by her tinkering.

Of Light and Void, chapter 20

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The gryphons soared high above the fel-scorched wasteland. Most humanoid and humanoid-sized creatures were reduced to little more than dirt specks crawling across the reddened earth, and the air rushed past in their ears. The siege tank carriers ferrying the delegates’ and their escorts’ steeds had already rumbled out of Honor Hold by the time Theluin, Eleazar and Tuan had mounted their travelling gryphons and been joined by their flying escort, but they would overtake the transport column swiftly enough as it trundled onwards with ponderous urgency on the dusty road below.

The trip itself was largely uneventful. Eleazar kept trying to keep an eye on Tuan, but with the gryphons alternating positions in their flight formation to throw potential snipers off target, there was little he could do. The she-rogue continued to clench her hands hard into her gryphon’s mane, keeping her head down and never looking up.

The temple wasn’t hard to miss; the peculiar, alien architecture of the Draenei, embellished with glowing sigils and crystalline structures – even in its paltry appearance, the temple was a sight to behold. The gryphons touched down smoothly on a flattened hilltop, the temple’s resident guards holding the great beasts’ harnesses with trained firmness while the new arrivals dismounted. The War Gryphon riders that had accompanied them circled the premise once to ensure no immediate ambushes, and with a departing flourish they wheeled around and vanished back into the sky, returning to the Hold.

The Ambassador was first to greet his erstwhile escorts, reaching out a hand to Theluin who grasped it in kind. “Praise the Naaru, you are well!” The Draenei’s voice and face were as carefully balanced as ever, but his eyes betrayed his relief.