Conquest of the Horde

-Redemption-

Splurt. The umbra crescent of the Warden glowed in a reddish-black, the entopic energies surrounding it gathering before a talon dug into Mave's left temple. The paralysis upon her body lifting as she fell down, the other Kaldorei interrupting her fall by catching her, removing the crescent in her skull beforehand.

"The things you face out there... May Elune help you find a path."

Darkness. A horrific darkness surrounded Mave in her time of slumbering. Dwelling, terrifying memories which had been long dwelling within the woman had been churning up as she passed from this world, it was as the Warden described it, the Goddess would not greet her with open arms, instead she was plagued with memories of wars, destruction and personal loss. Reminiscences of bloodcurdling images torturing the former Sentinel.

"Loose!" Her commander yelled throughout the training grounds for archery, the lined-up Sentinels bending their bows and shooting their arrows at the targets ahead, they were skilled archers by now, most hitting their targets with ease. Memories of training during the later years as a Sentinel came through Mave's mind, albeit they seemed twisted, distorted. Many familiar faces from back them seemed to stare at her, directly at her, even while they were shooting. Judging her, observing each and every of her steps. With each and every second lingering longer in her time in the after-life, these became more horrific, the Sentinels soon turning into Demons, Orcs, Silithids and Undeads, rampaging against another. She saw the slaughter again and was unable to act, she seemed ghastly, physically inexistant, yet visible for the other presences. Maimed, rended and gutted Sentinels, she saw them in their last seconds, fighting for their lives before inevitably dying, their judging gazes always falling on Mave, in their dying seconds. And she could not act. Nothing, none of her actions could affect anything, she reached for glaives, her bow and her swords, nothing could harm the wretched beings which slaughtered her sisters. The camp was left empty, slaughtered remainings of fellow Kaldorei remaining on the bloodied field, shady figures invading the camp as they performed necromancy upon the corpses, raising the dead bodies into unlife. Trembling, she was surrounded by these beings, curled into a ball, sobbing in terror.

"It was you who betrayed, who did not act. You were the cause all of us faltered, all of us died..."
"Your fault, your actions were our undoing..."

Whispers pierced through her protective barrier of wailing, of no avail. These and similiar nightmares repetively ran through her head, accusing her of everything which had gone wrong, everything which had been happening. This was definitely not Elune's gentle embrace, it was nothing but hell which was greeting her, her memories twisted and mutated into horrific nightmares. There was nothing she could do to assist, nothing she could perform to cure herself of these petrifying, plaguing nightmares, but to endure. Endure the hell which she currently roamed in, an endless, twisted vision of what is long past.

(( Confirming that Cela Shadowstar did the rezz. ))

It was night when Sylvandre brought the body to the wastes. Tanaris, in its dryness, still roused certain emotions in the Warden. Here, Elunite bolts had pierced Sagi Nightwhisper. Here, she had spoken to the first of her redeemed - the first to live again after she'd slain them. Among the bones, near the skull of a great dragon, a white-robed, white-haired Kaldorei woman, bathed in a dim silver glow that blurred her outline stood.

The Priestess affixed her silver eyes to the Warden, a smile on her lips that goaded the mind into answering in kind. "What have you brought this time, Sylvandre? More heartache to mend and lives to tear back from the jaws of death?"

The Warden raised the body in her hands, dried gray matter on her taloned fingers. "This one goes through their maw of darkness, their... longest walk. It is a purifying torment, but a necessary dark night of the soul, that she may understand the sheer error of her ways. When it is time, I would ask that you bring her back."

"Of course, Sylvandre..." the Priestess stepped forwards, her hands slipping under the dead Kaldorei - though not touching her, instead the corpse floating just above her hands, and brought her to one of the dragon skulls, shaped like a slab and sunken mostly into the sands, and set Mave down just as effortlessly. "But do not let this become a habit..." she cautioned quietly.

"You know me too well, Priestess." the Warden inclined her head and watched, stepping for the slab after Cela. "She was so far gone... But she can come back. She must."

"Ah-" Cela smiled. "She has someone to anchor her to the world, hmm? I suppose if such exists, we shouldn't leave them waiting..." her hand raised to Mave's left temple, tracing a finger along the coagulated blood and spilled gray matter, removing it in a silver glow. "You really don't give people any chance of survival, do you? First decapitations, now holes in their heads..." The white light then seeped into the hole, healing Mave's head from the inside out, leaving it awash with divine energy.

"I exist for efficiency in doing my duty. I proved so with your student, didn't I?" The Warden shook her head and fell silent, watching. Cela's left ear twitched and she nodded. "...You did." the Priestess sighed and ran her fingers down from Mave's healed temple, a silver glow bathing the downed Kaldorei's entire body.

Sylvandre took a step back and watched from near Mave's feet. The Priestess raised her hands towards the sky, smiling at the Moon. For a short moment, it was as though a gentle chime was shaken by the cool breeze of the desert night and the silver rays of the Goddess came down upon the scene, leaving it awash with a white light.

Despite the sensation that one was drawn in by the maelstrom of now blinding light, the Warden took a couple of steps back, as the forms of the Priestess and Mave's body alike became diffuse and indistinct in the beacon at the heart of the desert.

Life... What happens truly when the soul is returned to its newly-repaired body? Who can tell? A few minutes of the blinding light passed, and Sylvandre was none the wiser. Though as the light dimmed, she heard the Priestess say a single word:

"Awaken." - and Cela raised Mave to a sitting position. Sylvandre walked before the newly-reborn Kaldorei and peered at her for a reaction.

The nightmares which kept Mave in their lock seemed neverending, it must've been days since she had died and entered the realm of afterlife, horrific creatures and hellish beasts torturing her souls, images piercing through her incorperal mind like a sharp knife through a femoral artery. It was...-this- dream again, many had sought her soul but this seemed to stand out, training with the bow, her later years...

The depicted nightmares burned into her, seemingly leaving scar-tissue with every assault upon her soul. Cowering, she wailed in this realm, unheard were her pleadings for redemption, for rest. Or for a second chance... death held her in its lock. With hazardous steps, she roamed through this realm, an endless road seemingly always going ahead. The pitchblack darkness, save for the images which sought her mind always present. Light was nowhere, not the moon, not the stars. Nothing would watch over her during this trip, she had found where the dead dwell, the sinners who are not embraced by Elune, held in her grasp.

Slowly. The path she walked on seemed to take a shape, a proper figure. Nightmares which had plagued her for the past days had stopped for these moments, she was not able to think clearly, to large were the assaults on her mind, she followed the path.

Light.

Shimmering, it illuminated a path in front of her, yet her steps became slower and more difficult, it seemed a massive weight was pulling at her as she attempted to run forward, of no avail. She struggled against the weight, desperate prayers rolling over her lips, carrying on. Embracing, the light slung around her as the path continued, she seemed to be floating in pure-moonlight before her sight was blinded with the light.

Her eyes opened, stirring and peering at the pair of feet ahead of her.



Killer: Sylvandre.
Resurrector: Cela.


Permament Drawbacks;
Complete loss of the smelling sense.
Complete loss of tasting sense.
Complete loss of memories for about 600 years of her first years.
Scarring at the left temple, minor.


Long-term Drawbacks;
Extreme questioning of one's own actions, whether they go against any of Elune's teachings or not.
Nightmares.
Inability to speak common.


Short-term Drawbacks;
Slight paranoia.
Forgetful.
Constant-trembling.

...And that's a wrap.