The room had grown silent as the last of the Death Knights fell to John’s blade. Blood was everywhere, on the floor around him, the armour he was wearing and the sword he had used to slay them.
‘I feel my doubts in you were unfounded, John. You have proven to be just as brutal as you were designed to be.’
With a stunned look, John stared up at Arthas who was standing above him, looking down upon him as a bird looks down upon its prey. This made him feel very uncomfortable, despite the fact that he had just slain eight Death Knights on the Lich King’s command.
‘You see it now, don’t you? There is no escape John, you will become one of my Champions of Death, and you WILL fight for me. There is no escape.’
The doors opened again and several ghoul servants hurried towards John bringing chains and cuffs. The cold metal cuffs made his blood freeze even more as the servants attached them to his hands and feet. As they lead him back into his cell, he could see several other Death Knight initiates. They were all pale, their faces filled with sorrow and remorse. The ghouls shoved John into his cell and removed the cuffs. A cold breeze flowed through the room as they shut the door. Complete darkness filled the room, he couldn’t see, hear, or speak. As his hopes faded, Arthas’ will took him over more and more. John lay down in his coffin and closed his eyes having only one thought pass through his mind, “Save me” as the lid closed shut.
--- o ---
The crashing sound of a house collapsing awoke Loreena, dazed and confused she looked around to see where she was. Her memory gradually returned, the brutal massacre that had befallen the villagers of Adalaine’s encampment and their lucky escape flashed before her eyes. But of John’s whereabouts, she knew nothing, this fact lay heavy in her breast, as if a blade had pierced her heart. She gathered her strength and stood herself up.
‘Do not lose hope, my child’, one of the other priests said, gently placing his hand on her shoulder.
‘We need to be strong, for the others. It is at times such as this that our faith is truly tested.’
She turned around, tears flowing down her cheeks to look at her fellow priest.
‘What God would let this happen? Why must we suffer?’
‘There is always a plan, my child’. He closed his hands around hers and said, ‘Right now we need to keep our faith strong, the villagers will be looking to us for comfort, guidance and support. We can give them that, we WILL give them that’, He emphasised.
‘If I do that, I will be lying.’ Her head had tilted forward, she felt her gaze dropping down towards her feet.
‘Maybe, but it will keep them safe. Faith is a powerful thing, my child. You’ll learn in time what is best, for now, trust in me’, he said. The words flew through her mind, she could see the logic in keeping up the morale in such dark times.
‘I will, for our people.’
He nodded to her and repeated, ‘For our people.’
--- O ---
John drifted into a dream state, passing through past memories. He sees Loreena and himself, sitting in the grasslands, a memory. He could almost feel the warm winds that whirled around them, throwing Loreena’s hair around, as if it had a life of its own.
‘Why do you fear the darkness, John? What has made you so scared?’, Loreena said, laying her hands on his.
‘I fear what it may turn me into, my love. I fear that I will lose control of myself once again, that I will harm you. I couldn’t bear to lose you, my love. Without you, I would have been lost long ago.’
‘I have faith in you, John. You are a good person and you can free yourself from the darkness. I will help you, protect you.’
‘I do not know why I have been blessed with your love, Loreena, for it is more than anything I could ever wish for.’
‘As long as we’re together, we will keep each other safe, nothing will keep us apart, together forever, my love.’
John picked an Arthas’Tear from the grass and placed it in Loreena’s hair. Its ocean blue colour almost glows in her black obsidian hair.
The images fade. Both he, Loreena and the lavish grasslands were no more, he awoke back in his coffin once again.
He felt nothing, nothing for his beloved. The Lich King has taken his emotions away, no fear, no love, no hope at all. All that was left, was hatred. The dark blue fire raged within his eyes.
--- o ---
‘Lady Loreena, are you ready?’ A young squire asked. She broke her trance, with a sigh.
‘I can’t find him’, she said.
‘Find who, My lady?’ The squire looked confused. ‘John, I fear for him. All I can feel…Is a dark presence, we are being followed.’ The squire’s eyes widened with fear.
‘I shall tell the others to pick up the pace, we can’t fight, but we can run’, he dashed off to alert the rest of the group.
The group gathered at the foot of a mountainside, in a cramped cave leading into a narrow path that runs deep into the mountains. One of the priests, Brother Richard, assembled everyone around a fire.
‘We can stay here for the night’, He said. ‘We’ll be safe here’, another one added.
Most of the villagers lay down to try and get some sleep, the priests and strongest in the group decided to keep watch for the night. Wandering around the camp site, Loreena found herself longing to be with her beloved. Her eyes searched the horizon, but nothing could be seen.
‘Where are you John?’ She whispered, but she got no answer. Snow began to fall, covering the ground with a white blanket. Then in the distance, a small figure began to take form, still too far away to see what or who it was, she went closer, leaving the safety of the cave. Could it be? ‘John!’ She called out, ‘Is that you?’
The group had heard her yelling and had speedily rushed to find out what was going on. What they saw frightened them all. The figure had not been John, it was a scourge scout. It lay, knocked out, in the snow. Loreena has bashed its head with her stave.
‘They found us’, She said, ‘They are here.’
Winds whirled wildly, winter was coming. ‘Follow me, we have to keep moving!’ Loreena yelled to her followers. The Lich King’s armies couldn’t be far away. After their escape from Adalaine’s encampment, the villagers had turned to Loreena for guidance. Being a priest she did what she thought was right, and fled. They weren’t fighters, barely a handful of them were capable of wielding a sword, and none of them had ever had any real combat experience. Their best chances were to flee, flee far away.
The winds grew stronger and fiercer, forcing them to slow down, slower and slower.
‘Come along people, we cannot rest until we find somewhere safe to hide, the storm will only get worse if we wait’, she said, trying to rally them.
‘We’ve got no more strength left, my lady, the old can barely walk at all, and the young freeze.’ ‘We have to make camp here’, one of the younger men responded. ‘What are the chances of The Lich King finding us here?’ ‘In the middle of nowhere?’, he quickly added.
‘I found one of their scouts yesterday, if they can find us, then so can the rest of the Scourge. You can not hide from him, no one can.’, she answered.
‘Then why are we running m’lady, If there is no hope of survival?’ He questioned. The entire group had now stopped moving and heard their conversation and everyone’s eyes had turned to Loreena.
She took a deep breath before speaking again, ‘Because we must not give up, there is always hope, there’s always a chance to survive, there are people out there fighting for us right now, I have no doubt about that. But we will NOT give up!’
‘Hope, heh?, there is no such thing as hope.’ A dark voice echoed as if it came from within their very minds.
The storm calmed, making it possible to see, although what they saw was not what they had hoped for.
‘Arthas…’
The earth began to rumble as corpses crawled out of the ground all around them
‘You, priestess, you will come with us’, Arthas said pointing at Loreena with his sword, Frostmourne. ‘We’ve got plans for you.’
‘Never. I’ll never go with you, murderer!’ she gripped her stave close to her chest, preparing to attack, but for nothing. Arthas dashed forward and caught her by the neck and threw her aside.
‘Take her away!’, Arthas yelled fiercely. The villagers, scared, just stood there, frozen in fear. A hungry looking ghoul scuttled over to Arthas.
‘Master, what about the others?’, the ghoul spat out. ‘Feast upon their flesh!’, Arthas bellowed.
As they dragged Loreena away, she witnessed the ghouls clawing, ripping the defenceless villagers apart. Blood sprayed everywhere turning the white winter snow to a dark shade of crimson red.
Within the Necropolis, time passed by silently, although completely oblivious to John. His perception of time had been lost along with his will. He looked more and more like the other Death Knights he had seen, pale, dark, much like the Necropolis they were in. An absence of happiness filled the quiet halls.
A flickering light approached as the coffin opened and the heavy metallic door slid open. A small figure, about half of John’s height, came towards him. John slowly recognised him as Cedric, who had been there the day before. As the ghoulish figure came closer he reached out his hand, in it was a note. John began to read it.
“Greetings John Flame,
The ghoul I have sent to you will be your servant. In time, you will see ghouls have their uses in more areas than mail delivery.
You are to follow my instructions to the letter, if you do not, then a fate worse than death awaits you.
M.S.”
After staring at the letter for what felt like an eternity, John got to his feet and put the letter into his right pocket. His servant, Cedric, stopped gnawing on his nails as he noticed that his master had finished reading.
‘So you will follow my orders, ghoul?’ John said with an agitated voice.
‘Yes sir, anything you say’, Cedric answered with a surprisingly clear voice for a ghoul.
‘Well, I guess its time we paid a visit to the Scarlet Crusade and showed them what fear truly is!’
The doors to the cells opened and the Death Knights, now ready for their trials, lined up in two columns and headed to the armoury. It was time, time for war.
--- o ---
Below the Necropolis, all kinds of ghouls, ghosts and abominations were charging towards the Scarlet’s bastion, Tyr’s Hand. As the Necropolis hovered into view, fear gripped their souls, hardly any of them had ever seen anything like it. The gigantic machine dropped off monstrous abominations all over the town, in a matter of minutes, the whole city was overrun by the scourge.
The Death Knights rode on Skeletal Gryphons and started clearing out the houses as the Necromancers began reanimating the dead. Death had rained down upon them and rendered the city helpless in a matter of minutes. Led by John, the Death Knights cleared out the houses one after the other, their goal was to find any higher-ups and hand them over to one of the San’layn who would extract any information the Lich King demanded and afterwards, slaughter them.
As they approached the inner sanctum of the scarlet bastion, a voice yelled, ‘John, Come here.’ John let his group move on and left to see who had called for him.
John knelt down as he spotted one of the overseers. ‘Yes, Master, How can I be of service?’ The overseer looked down on him. Their eyes both glowed with the ice cold blue. He seemed angry, after several minutes he spoke. ‘The Lich King wants you to slay the prisoners in the barracks, the torturer is done with them. Once they’re dead, the Necromancers will turn them all into ghouls.’ John, confused, pondered why he had been given such a simple task. ‘Why don’t you just have one of the Necromancers slay them?’
His question didn’t please the Overseer. ‘Because the Lich King has…’, he paused for a moment as if making sure he won't reveal anything. ‘He has something, special, planned for you John.’
The barracks weren’t far off, he marched on with his sword held high, what was left of the kind man who once occupied his mind was gone, what was left was a murderous killing machine.
--- o ---
The actions of the scourge flashed before Loreena’s eyes, the people, her people, cut down, eaten alive. A loud scream awoke her, she hung in shackles, her dress dirty and ripped apart. She opened her eyes slowly, looking around the room, she wasn’t alone. Several others hung along the walls, bound by their hands in manacles. They all seemed so lifeless, hanging there, without hope. Light-headed, she looked up again, as she tried to determine where she had been taken.
Loud footsteps came closer and closer, a tall figure had entered the room. They all hung there, staring at door. Loreena lifted her head once more to see what it was, who it was. At first her vision was blurred, she blinked a few times, she dug deep to find some energy left in her and cleared her sight. It was a Death Knight, his sword tightly gripped. Shocked, she saw who it was through the helm, with the little strength she had, she spoke, ‘J…John?’
He took off his helmet, She could see clearly that it was him. ‘John, what are you doing?’, she spoke again, a little louder this time.
He gently lifted her head and looked into her eyes, she saw the burning blue glow from his. She tried again, ‘John, it's me, help me get out of here.’ But he just stood there, as if he didn’t recognize her. Taking out the Runeblade from its sheath he raised it high above her head.
Loreena was now panicking inside, ‘John, what are you doing? Don’t you recognize me? It's me! Loreena! Your wife!’ He lifted the sword up high preparing to strike. ‘I must… Obey!’ He said, and swung the blade.
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