Of Light and Void, chapter 9

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“… you actually read that?!”

Eleazar didn’t stifle a hearty chuckle at his riding companion’s hushed exclamation. “Of course, Miss Tuan. After hearin’ Brother Kristoff’s sermon on Fortitude and its necessity for practicing the Virtue of Tenacity, I thought it’d be a good idea to read the book he ref’renced so heavily to.”

There was a moment of silence on the she-rogue’s part. “So, what’d you think of The Stresses of Iron?”

Eleazar smiled, half-sheepishly and half sincerely amused. “Ain’t no s’prise that I found it a rath’r boring read. Did have some interestin’ tidbits about metals that may come in handy when it comes time to re-forge my kit.” The sheepishness faded into a contented expression of foresight. “I reckon that might come fairly soon, given our destination.”

Tuan’s expression also receded into thought. “Yeah …” She was quick to change the subject, ducking a growth of moss hanging low from the trees as the column of soldiers crossed the border between the unnaturally barren Deadwind Pass and the overgrown humidity of the Swamp of Sorrows. “Besides looking into books used in sermons, what other books do you read?”

Eleazar leaned forward slightly on his mount, and patted Abolition’s armoured head. The charger whinnied lightly, and then shook off Eleazar’s hand with a playful chuff. “Whatever looks interestin’ …” he finally replied, straightening himself. “But I have devel’ped a taste fer history in general. Knowing why a particular people are what they are really helps in unnerstandin’ them an’ their terms when it comes to devel’ping peaceful relations.”

“That makes a good bit of sense.” Tuan paused again. “Any favourites?”

The paladin chuckled. “Miss Tuan. I have little room in my heart and mind for favourites.”

“Didn't think so,” the she rogue smirked. “You don’t seem to be the type to. Any notables you’d recommend? Not a big fan of history myself, but—”

“Company! HALT!”

The captain’s shout brought the whole column to a stop. There was little to no commotion in the ranks, and what commotion there was came from non-military personnel. It took a moment before the initial hullabaloo settled before anyone would dare ask why the dispatch column was halted.

“What would be the problem, captain?” the Draenei Ambassador called out from his mount at last. The elekk he sat upon lowed impatiently in agreement.

“We’re getting very close to the Horde outpost in these parts,” the captain replied, looking around warily. “The locals call it ‘Stonard’, I think. ‘Pain in the behind’ is more apt a name …”

“Sounds like a compliment, comin’ from you, sir,” Eli called out. Tuan seemed amused at the off-the-cuff comment that came from the paladin’s mouth. Eli then quickly added: “No offence, of course.”

The captain laughed. “None taken. I’ve learned to expect that from the agents of the Dawn.”

Eli smiled, amused as much as he was relieved.

It was Theluin’s turn to speak. “Then why have we stopped, sir captain?”

“I sent out a few scouts to check the roads ahead,” was the immediate reply. “They should be back shortly with a report. Last thing we need right now is for the locals to start thinking we’re here to attack them.”

“Sounds like fun to me,” an errant human footsoldier spoke up. A few of his kinsmen laughed at the comment, while the group of dignitaries traded expressions of horror and disgust. Clearly the humans found the comment entertaining, sparking more racist commentary being tossed around much too casually between the rank-and-file.

Theluin gave the Draenei ambassador a deeply apologetic look. Tuan sighed and rolled her eyes, muttering a few less flattering invectives obviously directed toward the uncouth human soldiers.

Eli’s eyes flashed with a bright, silver-blue light, clearly incensed by the men’s behaviour, but he patiently waited a few minutes, expecting the captain to deal with the delinquent soldiers for the sake of the rest of the battalion’s other peoples. When it became clear that the captain’s involvement was going to do little to quiet the rampant trash talk, the paladin decided to take action.

“By the mercy of the Light, men! … SHADDAAAAP!”

The rank and file fell silent and turned their attentions to Eli, the stunned looks on their collective countenances reminiscent of the expression one gets after having a lion roar in his face at point blank range. Tuan glanced quickly over at him, but otherwise her expression and stance betrayed little.

Silently, the Paladin tugged at Abolition’s reins, signalling the horse to pace down the side of the column and back up.

“This is a disappointment,” Eli growled, stopping his horse briefly at the point in the column where the whole debacle started. “I was certain this morning that you men were above such petty things. Did you already forget that your actions reflect upon us as a whole? The Draenei … no … the world watches us, and not just your fellow men who share your ideals and preconceptions of other peoples. Walking at your side are new brothers and sisters in arms, and they are analyzing your every word and move! What will they say about you? Fel … what do you want the very world you’re fighting for to say about you when your life is taken to the Pearly Gates of Light and Nether? Sure, the people who agree with your point of view may call you great, but they are but a few drops of water in the Great Sea!”

Several of the offending soldiers shuffled uncomfortably in their ranks. Tuan kept regarding the Paladin from the back of her stallion.

“I cannot stress this enough: What will the world say about you, brothers? The ones you dismiss so easily today will be the ones you will rely on in the trenches. Persist with your current mindset, and they whom you dismiss will just as easily dismiss you to face oblivion. … alone!” Eli’s eyes narrowed and his sober voice became a bit more intense. “When you walk through that portal, those who were your enemies will become your friends, because to the Legion, we’re all vermin. Trash. A disease!” Eli leaned down from his horse and looked the wayward solder that had started the flurry of slurs dead in the eye. “Are we going to give those damned demons the pleasure of being right? Are we going to allow ourselves to stoop to that standard?!”

“N-no, sir.”

“Didn’t think so.” Eli straightened back up in his saddle and let Abolition pace the column again.

“I’m not much older than most of you, men, but I’ve already known what it’s like to have been slammed into the wall of disgrace and dishonour, to be labelled and given unflattering titles by the ignorant. But if there’s one thing I’ve taken away from being cast out, it is that if you wish to be honoured, you must first honour others! Throwing around harsh words may be funny now, but in the face of doom, they mean jack squat. It doesn’t matter what the colour of your skin is or what the nature of your ancestry is – if you do not treat your brothers-in-arms as you would like to be treated, you will find yourselves in a broken and forgotten place.”

He reined in Abolition sharply and spun the horse back around to circuit the column once more. Most, if not all the men snapped minutely to attention.

“The same is true when dealing with the other side! To them, you’re just another soldier. You know you’re just doing your job, and that you’re just trying to live. Well guess what, boys?! So are they! Greenskins, blueskins, hooves and horns – it don’t matter! They won’t remember you if you act like everyone else – crude and mean. Treat them all with honour and respect, and they will remember you. The kindness you extend to any and all, be it to your sworn brothers or those sworn to the other side, it will come back to you. The opposite is true as well – and believe me when I say so, men, that vengeance, like kindness, multiplies as it changes hands.”

Eli stopped his horse at the front of the column, pulling up next to the dispatch captain. “We all have the capacity to be greater than what our enemies think of us, men. And that greatness must be reflected in our attitudes and our actions toward others. We must not return to Azeroth being remembered as ruthless and ignorant. Do your best to go home triumphant as brothers and sisters in solidarity against an unrelenting foe. This is an unforgiving enemy we will be meeting soon. Save your rancor for those demons, and honour those who will fight at your side. They might one day just save your life … if not, that honour and respect will make you immortal.”

There were scattered murmurs of ‘may it be so’ and ‘amen, preacher’ coming from the ranks as Eleazar prepared to wrap up.

“The Light honours those who honour others, men, and in you the Light strengthens as you learn to live out the greatness that waits in potential within. The world watches. So does the Legion. Make those demons tremble when we walk through the portal, brothers and sisters! Don’t let prejudice darken your greatest weapon against Sargeras and his mad Crusade! Walk with the Light, and the Light will walk with you into battle! LUX ET GLORIAM!”

“FOR THE LIGHT AND GLORY!” shouted the soldiers in return.

A group of human and orcish mounted scouts came up the road toward the dispatch column just as Eli finished his impromptu speech. The Orcs just nodded at the human scouts and rode their wolfish mounts to the side of the road, their suspicious glares following their counterparts as the humans approached the dispatch captain and saluted.

“We’re clear to pass through their territory, captain,” the head scout reported. “The Horde’s Warchief was apparently in town, and he demanded his men to let our column pass through peacefully.”

The captain looked a little suspicious of the orcish scouts, and seemed hesitant to give out an order … but Eleazar was quick to squelch any concerns.

“Don’t expect any less from Thrall, captain. He is a Warchief with peace and honour on his mind,” the paladin whispered. “He would rather beset Stonard with storm and lightning before watching his people commit another atrocity.”

The captain sighed. “I’ll take your word for it, paladin.” He turned his attention to the dispatch column. “Look alive, men! FORWARD MARCH!”

As the column lurched forward down the beaten path through the dreary swamp and past the two leering Orc scouts, Eleazar rode back to his spot in the column and had Abolition match pace with Sandy again. Tuan had leaned back in the saddle now, and though her expression and posture were cool and lax, her smile coupled with her faintly glittering eyes indicated that she was impressed with the Paladin.

“One of Tirion’s, huh?”

“A distinction I now carry with pride, Miss Tuan,” Eleazar smiled.

“You’re a completely different person when you’re preaching.”

Eleazar just bowed his head slightly and closed his eyes. “When the Light speaks, I just let it flow.”

“Well, whatever it was, it sure had an impact on the men.” Tuan pointed a thumb to the human infantry as they marched past the two orcish scouts, the latter having suddenly taken on distinctly stunned expressions. As the rows of soldiers passed, each of them saluted the Orcs with respect. Not sure what to make of this sight, the Orcs simply saluted in turn.

As Eleazar’s and Tuan’s part of the column passed the Orcs, Eleazar saluted and said in Orcish: “<Victory and Honour, friends.>”

The Orcs saluted much more genuinely this time. “Hall Lok’Tar!" they returned in unison with a joint thump of fists on armoured chests. This action made the usually unflappable she-rogue arch an eyebrow in Eleazar’s general direction.

Once clear of the Orcs, and making sure they were out of earshot of most of the column, Tuan turned her head toward the paladin. “… Orcish? When’d you learn Orcish?” she asked bluntly.

Eleazar shuffled uncomfortably in his saddle. “I don’t think it’d make much sense t’ lie t’ ya, Miss Tuan.”

Tuan just smirked in response. “I call flattery. So what’s the story?”

The paladin smiled wanly for a moment, then let his gaze idly rise skyward. “An orc taught me th’ language some time befer the Third War. … I was reassigned to an orcish internment camp in Arathi ‘cause of my apparently heretical leanings. There was one very old and sickly orc th’ soldiers were keeping in th’ rearmost barracks. He knew Common somehow, and o’er the months I was there, I managed to befriend him.”

“And that old orc taught you Orcish?”

“Yes’m.”

She raised both her eyebrows. “I thought you picked it up from one of your books.”

The paladin who had looked so sure a few minutes before now glanced around as if though he were keeping a terrible secret. “I’d like other folk to think that, Miss Tuan,” he frankly spoke in a low voice.

A slightly uncomfortable pause followed.

“You still keep in touch with that old orc friend of yours?” the she-rogue inquired at length, softly as to keep their joint privacy. “Shouldn’t be a stretch, given the Dawn’s reach.”

The paladin looked down somewhat, his eyes betraying a moment of reverie. “Dun know what happened to him after I left. It was only a couple weeks after I was called back to th’ Order when that camp in Arathi was taken by an orcish raid coming from Hillsbrad. I can only hope that the meek ol’ fellow is alright.”

“They’re a hardy people, those orcs,” Tuan said in assurance. “I’m sure he’s fine, and you’ll meet each other again.”

After another moment of silence, the small talk about books started up once more, the day moving on like nothing ever happened.

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Originally written by TheKittyLizard