#aethera

 The woman leaped off her perch with her arms spread wide at first before clasping them together above her head.as if she were diving into a raging ocean. Moments would pass, but without fail a black, wicked plaguebat would catch its mistress upon it’s back. She held loosely onto the reins as it soared through the vale towards the place she so frequently worked. “That’s far enough, Malice.” She’d say, as she stroked the creatures fur, cautious of the distance she covered as to not catch any eyes. She crouched atop the creature’s back and drew her bow as it reeled, sending it’s rear into the air and catapulting the woman who jumped off its back through the air towards the side of the keep’s upper echelons. She had calculated every second, planned her approach during a shift change, and covered her back embraced in the dark of night. She landed with a dull thud against one of walls of the keep using her bow as a hook of sorts to latch onto one of the spikes that lied below the steel-barred window.. As she pulled herself up onto the small landing. She glanced into the room for a solid moment, but she had no time to waste. The guards would return quickly as was the routine nature of Blackheart. The dark ranger focused intently on the small, closet-like room before her. Once she had the mental picture, she closed her eyes as she raised a palm to the steel that barred her entry. She raised her hand flat against the steel bars, fingers spread wide as she coalesced dark magics from her finger tips to the center of her palm and within a moment, there was silence. She counted, one, two, three and it was then, sound returned. Though it was only the roar of torches and the subtle flipping of pages. No, not just flipping, but a book closing.

She opened her eyes, and when she did she was inside, looking at the window from within rather than from outside where she had been perched at mere moments ago. The deep violent red of their glare pierced out of the corner of the room she had pictured herself in moments before. The shadow's embrace brought her this close, the light mere meters away wouldn't stop her now. It was her, she could tell. Drawing her acidic poisoned blades out of their special sheaths, she stepped once forward into the doorway that led into the study before her. A step she had prepared for, ready as ever. A step out of the shadow, and into the light. 

Aethera knew the sensation. Something off in the direction towards the room’s door-less closet was offending her aura and magic. The subtle clash of the two energies was like the warmth of soft, cotton blankets and hugs crashing against metal spikes, rust, and itchy wool. Aethera closed the early edition copy of Ysrathil’s biography and set it down on the table before her as the torches in the room flickered, being swatted at by dark magic Not long after, the room’s locks clicked behind her. Aethera stood from the couch she sat at, tensing as the sound of her being locked in registered in her mind. She glanced from left to right ahead of her trying to identify whatever it was in front of her. She was in simple clothes, her armor hung up for the day, though she always kept the gladius she was gifted by her side, and in this moment, she found herself grasping for the hilt. That’s when the shadowy figure stepped from the room into the study proper standing in the doorway before her. She swallowed, taking immediate notice of the glaring red eyes that peered at her from the shadows, though their form was mostly difficult to make out. “Pyresong? What’s the meaning of this?” She called out to the figure. No answer. Aethera waited around for something, anything, but she didn’t get it. “I’m not playing games.” Aethera said aloud, the light of the blonde’s eyes flickered madly against the growing darkness within the room. Again, no answer.

Aethera paused, squinting at the figure, she opened her mouth to shout this time, but she was cut off by the shadowy figure who spoke. “Summerlight.” They greeted, rather, stated. They spoke through dry cracked lips, her voice cold and heartless, like Weleria’s, though completely different in its own right. Aethera’s eyes squinted slightly more as she tried to make out just exactly who was in front of her. “Wha..” She started, but not before she could eke out her first complete word, the shadowy woman spoke again. “Pride. You wield that name with an arrogant pride that makes me sick. I hate you, and that damn forsaken name.” The figure said, crouching into a low stance, the faint glint of the torches that still breathed air within the room shone off the woman’s daggers in hand, dripping in a viral dull red that looked almost like blood. Aethera shrunk slightly, getting clear of the couch that was behind her, drawing the gladius from its sheath, the blade gleamed faintly in holy light as she held the blade with one hand in defensive posture, holding her free hand up in front of her as if by miracle, her assailant would stop. “Wait!” The blonde woman exclaimed, trying to make heads and tails of what was happening. “Die Aethera.” The shadowy figure growled before she darted towards her, daggers primed like the fangs of a hungry wolf, dripping with anticipation to be sunk into their prey.

As the woman quickly closed the distance, the last of the torches within the room began to die out as she passed by them, though for a brief second the woman’s face was visible and offered a hint of what she was up against. Stone-cold, unmoving features, alongside an icy glare unmatched by anything she had ever witnessed. It looked like her long dead little sister. Aethera went white, as if she had seen a ghost. “..Aythress..?” Aethera mumbled. Her sister’s long white-yellowed hair danced excitedly behind her as she ran with a deadly purpose at her elder sister. Aethera tensed, her instincts wouldn't fail her in this moment. “...No..” was all she could say before the two siblings clashed. The sound of metal clanged through the air, a drop or two of her sister’s poison of choice splashed at the blonde woman’s face, which promptly began to sizzle and burn. She winced at the substance that graced the blades of her sister. Only a drop or two was painful.. she didn’t wanna know what might happen if she got a true blow in. Aethera had grasped the woman by the wrist with her outstretched hand as she deflected the other dagger with her sword, struggling in the relentless onslaught being put up by her sister. With Aya’s free hand she thrusted at her elder sister’s stomach repeatedly, and Aethera deflected it blow after blow. At this point the dark ranger had given up on the hope of ending this in fair fight, she knew her sister was stronger than her, but Aya knew she was smarter. She took aim at her sister’s arm as it was locked in an iron grip with her other wrist. She was going to end her sister’s life one way or another and she wanted to make it as miserable as possible. Though, Aethera was a master of defensive combat, angling the blade more towards herself, the flat of her Gladius rested on her forearm with impeccable timing, deflecting the strike yet again. Aethera attempted to strike with the pommel of her blade now primed to slam itself into her assailant no matter who it was and she tried taking the opening. Though, her sibling was all too eager for the opportunity, Aya was colder and more calculating and hers wasn’t a strike she expected to land in the first place, but simply put was to create an opening. Stepping forward with plenty of power in her stride, ducking under the pommel strike that had been aimed for her forehead, the dark ranger struck with a powerful kick between her older sister’s legs, wrenching her arm free as Aethera fell to a knee with a small crying yelp, her gladius too fell and clanged to the stone floor though it hurt, she wasn't about to give up on her life just yet.

On the contrary, the dark ranger sought to end it here in this moment as she brought her hungry blades to bear towards Aethera’s neck. Aya smirked in the delicious moment of what she thought was her sister’s demise.Though, it was then the kneeling woman raised a palm to her little sister's stomach in rapid response. It was then, a flash of light blinded the undead woman alongside an overwhelming burning sensation and within milliseconds before her blades could strike, she felt herself sent flying back across the room. She let out a yelp of her own as the light seared her flesh and overwhelmed her senses. Crrrackk. She then heard the sound of her own old bones smashing against the stone wall of the room and she fell to the floor but mere seconds afterwards. After the dust settled the woman groaned and staggered back to her feet albeit not easily. The undead woman growled extremely dissatisfied, meanwhile the blonde on the other side of the room was in pure shock, but she still managed to maintain a sense of tact, staring down the forsaken woman from across the room as if she were analyzing any other enemy. She wouldn't let her mind cost her her life, she had let her mind get the better of her before and she bore the scar to prove it.

"Who are you!?" Aethera shouted, though the answer was so deceptively simple to her it couldn't be true. Her sister was buried in Quel'thalas, to her this was little more than a monster of nightmare sent to torture her. A challenge that she would have to triumph over. That's when the forsaken woman figured she couldn’t triumph in strength alone. She had to play dirty and underhanded if she was to succeed. In this moment, there was only her and her sister, locked in mortal combat. There was no war, no orders, no Dark Lady, no Warband, just an old score she wanted to settle. In the break of the heat of battle, she spoke in a sickeningly sweet voice. "Oh Aetha.. sister dearest, have you not figured it out yet?" She asked, drawing two throwing knives, though they couldn't withstand the acid that coated her combat blades, they served their purpose time and time again as effective weapons. Her bow would be too obvious of a move, so she had to resort to blades. Unfortunate. Arrows would've done the trick a little faster and a little better.

Aya reeled her arm back within the shadow of the far wall, letting loose her dagger as if she were skipping stones and then a second one in rapid succession slightly off the first mark. Aethera wasn't blind, but she was taken aback by the voice of her sister, the one she had never expected to hear again, it stung her heart. Though unconsciously, she was taking note of the other woman's offensive stance, she darted quickly stepping to the left, the shadowy woman's first dagger missed her by a wide margin, it was the second she hadn't accounted for as it struck her in the right shoulder embedding itself deep within her muscle. The woman allowed a gasp of surprise to escape her lips, as she grasped at the shoulder the dagger had pierced through, she felt the blood running down her sides, but beyond the burning sensation of a wound, she sighed relieved, not recognizing any hint of whatever liquid poison the other woman had dripping off her main blades.

"What do you want...?" She asked aloud, in slightly labored breath. "Sister sister... I want your life." Aya said flatly, with a cold and dark, and twisted tone. Aethera was quick to rebuke her claims, growing restless and angry. "You are NOT my sister." She growled, though the other woman fired back just as quickly. "Tsk tsk, oh but I am. Unfortunately." She sneered, as she began pacing around the right of the room keeping her cold red eyes ever present on Aethera, never once blinking. "Enough of this charade!" Aethera spat angrily, her eyes lit up, a small halo of light faded into existence above her head as she summoned a bubble of light surrounding her form. She concentrated all of her magic into the shield, far more than she needed to protect herself as her little sister froze. She could've thrown more daggers but she knew the light would protect her sister at least for now, so she'd wait. Drawing her bow now, she nocked an arrow, awaiting the moment her shield began to falter, though she couldn’t have predicted what happened next. Aethera let loose a holy nova of energy, the built-up light magic exploding in a mix of pure light and holy fire, sending waves upon waves of pulsing light and white hot fire into the room. The torches once burnt out along the walls now roared to life in golden flames. Aya winced and hissed as she let her arrow fly, but it burnt up as soon as it got close to her elder sister. If it hadn't been obvious before it was now, Aethera could tell the woman certainly looked like Aythress, in a twisted sort of way, it sounded like her too. Could it actually have been true?

"Why do you come to torment me ghost?" Aethera asked quietly, an unspoken test that would prove once and for all if it truly was her little sister. The elder blonde woman was clearly disturbed and pensive at the sight of her sister’s ashen features. Her freckles, even the triangle three at the corner of her left eye alone convinced her that the worst had indeed come to pass. Her sister was never buried, despite her hopes, but in fact raised by the scourge. "You abandoned me." She barked, her skin sizzling in the proximity to the light. "I'm a corpse walking, rotting away above ground because you were too much of a coward to take me with you. You're the reason I'm dead and I'm going to return the favor!" Aya hissed as the waves of light put her through agony, though they subsided as she spoke words of truth. Aethera frowned, saddened by the words that stung her ears.. The holy energy that radiated from her form subsided. Her little sister slumped to the ground, still attempting to recover from the searing pain of the light, though her eyes never left Aethera. The blonde woman paused to speak again."It's true.. And you're right.. I froze... and I failed to protect my dear sister.. and l left you because I couldn't bear to face the pain I inflicted by my inaction. Apologies won't fix a thing, not now.. but for what it's worth, I'm sorry it came to this."

Aya squinted as she stood back to her feet, though her body ached. She couldn't necessarily feel it, but her movements were sluggish and she knew her striking against a stone wall with such force left injuries that had inhibited her at least slightly. Her rationality returned if for a moment. If she tried to keep this up, there was a chance she might risk exposing herself, she’d always have another chance. "You can't hide from the shadows of your past, Summerlight.." She groaned, as she circled the room again back to the open closet. "You did this to me, remember that. This is your fault." She glared, sheathing her bow upon her back. Aya quickly flashed a glare to the door behind Aethera before looking back at her sister and squinted. The frown that rested itself upon her little sister’s features told her everything she needed to know. She felt the pain, the demand for revenge, her willpower, and her dedication all at once emanate from her little sister’s form. This was a punishment, to her even for a moment, she felt she deserved it.

That’s when she heard the banging of a fist on the door leading to the hall behind her. "Centurion Summerlight, what's going on up here?? Open up or we're coming in." She heard an orcish voice ask outside the door. She instinctively turned at the sound of her name, but aware of the enemy.. no.. assailant present within the room, she turned back quickly, but her sister was gone. The shadowy embrace, their ashen skin, those glaring red eyes. Only Weleria’s stare had ever come so close to making her feel as those pair did moments ago. She looked around frantically for her, but she sensed the offensive magic had disappeared completely, her aura told her that much. She rolled her shoulders, taking a deep breath and sighed, though she winced as she did. "I'll be right there. No reason for concern, soldiers." Glancing down to her shoulder, he eyes went wide in surprise. She grabbed the hilt of the knife and pulled the forsaken throwing dagger from her shoulder, breathing deeply as she did, groaning at the momentary pain. Ideally she'd keep it in until treatment, but she couldn't be seen with that in her shoulder, who knew what sort of mess it would cause. Not to mention explaining it on paperwork. She tucked it into her shirt, letting it rest just above her breast as she walked to the door.

Aethera unlocked and opened the door outside to the hall, a tauren and an orc woman dressed in standard issue armor looked at her with weapons drawn, but more importantly past her into the room. "Captain Snarlfang." The orc introduced herself. "Is something wrong? We heard shouting and several reports of light magic were seen from outside the window from this room. Aethera glanced behind her, taking note of her gladius that still rested upon the ground. "I'm.. okay. I was just attempting some of the tactics and swordplay in Ysrathil's biography." She lied outright, something she had rarely felt the need to do. "There's this one part that incorporates a roll in addition to several blasts of light magic at a time. It's an extremely advanced technique, cut myself trying, that's when I called it quits." She explained attempting to laugh it off, doing her best to keep what really just happened quiet. "Oh.. Well, I suppose that's fine, I'd appreciate if you take it out to the pit next time, would’t you? There's a lot of good men and women you had concerned. The last thing I need is a bunch of grunts moaning about potential threats that aren't real." The Orc said, clearly tired and ready for a shift change of her own. "It'll be done Captain, my apologies, I should be getting home anyway." Aethera explained, placing a fist softly over her chest as to not aggravate her wound. The orc and the tauren saluted her in return. "Be safe, Centurion. Have a good night." The two said before walking off.

Aethera closed the door, slumping down to the floor as tears began to well up in her eyes. All the emotion from the evening had all bubbled up and over as she let tears silently fall from her face, the blonde woman trembled as she tucked her head into her knees, terrified of what would happen next. She didn’t know what to do. She felt waves of guilt wash over her. Not only were all of it true, but her sister languished and suffered in undeath as well. There was no peace it had seemed, for either of them. Although she had tried to take her life that night, did she really have the right to blame her? She would’ve tried to do the same thing if she were in her shoes. She had only hoped, eventually maybe, she could find her peace without trying to kill her sister. She doubted she could do it alone. The woman seemed to hold a flame within her that roared to life in passion as they fought. She felt everything her sister felt in that battle. Every raw, unchecked emotion, the pain, everything. Only time would tell what lie ahead for her.

The Warband was briefed and informed of our mission at the crossroads at sundown. I, accompanied by Champion Dusksong beside me led the 2nd scouting expedition into the Overgrowth as the sun broke below the horizon in an attempt to bring light  to what exactly was happening within that jungle. Our mission statement was clear, and although discretion was advised, I believe we failed to maintain our advantage of surprise due to both the size and makeup of our expedition. 

We stopped not too far from the forest edge, stabling any mounts far enough as to not draw any attention to our presence. Assuming a practical scouting formation, we entered the jungle. It was not long before we encountered plenty of corruption, in addition there was an eerie silence within this place now, unlike before. A lack of natural fauna was apparent, no birds, no crickets, not a single creature stirred. This leaves me to believe either the corruption of the void has entrenched itself so deep, the wildlife has either fled or fallen to it’s vile nature. Local flora was not spared either, plenty of experimentation was evident within the vegetation, some of which had become violent. We happened upon an overgrown weed that lashed out, ensnaring one of the locals, a Sin’dorei woman, we cut the abomination down, freed the girl and sent on her way to the road where she was promptly escorted back to the Crossroads safely. 

We pushed forward, in an attempt to discover more and happened upon a growing darkness. Several of the Warband attempted to purge the darkness from the area, however it did little to shed light on the situation we were walking into. In fact, it’s my belief that this act may have led the expedition’s presence to being exposed to the enemy. We entered the darkness anyway, against better judgement. Within our visibility was reduced, to that end I personally kept Initiate Karis Sunseer close by my side as we walked tentatively into what came next. I cannot confirm, but we believe whatever darkness was nearby, it began to whisper to her. Her inexperience likely leading her to be the most susceptible to this. It’s my belief whatever it was that took notice of us was exploiting that fact. Despite that, she was in the safest spot of the formation, she refused whatever offer the void in a defiant rebuke. 

A whisper into the open air sounded off, warning us to give up Karis. We absolutely refused and it seemed as if whatever was asking begin to approach from the north, It was not long before we were struck, it started with Champion Dusksong, a cowards strike from behind, we learned they were using void rifts, but the darkness made it difficult to tell where they would appear. Warbringer E’risse was struck next, in the same manner. Before I could react, Karis was against my back, a safe bet, I thought, they couldn’t attack us if they couldn’t reach our backs without risking exposing themselves to attack. I loosely held onto the Initiate with the hand that held my blade. Before I could even react, the Initiate was ripped from my backside, out of my hand, as I turned I could see the faint shape of a rift closing. Karis had disappeared into the darkness with the likely Ren’dorei threat. 

Our two trackers in the party immediately set out to track Karis down, I changed the mission priority from gaining information to retrieving the Initiate as  best we could. There would always be another day, but we had been discovered, that much was obvious. We followed the dire wolves, they tracked her scent down to the western border of the Great Divide.Several of her personal affects were scattered throughout the Overgrowth, we retrieved her shield, alongside her gladius, a limited edition copy of Ysrathil’s biography, and a set of prayer beads. We can only assume she was putting up some sort of a fight, either that or she was trying to lead us to her. However, as we stopped at the last of her affects, 4 Ren’dorei riftblades exited out of the darkness of their disgusting portal magic, surrounding us. They were elite soldiers, that much was apparent by their armaments and armor, however the Warband did not falter and we dispatched three of them, the last of which attempted to flee back into a rift, however with the aid of Stone Guard Aenarion, we managed to prevent her escape.