*shivers* .. please .. more ..

-III-

Illithio had been gone for far too long. Taiev sat, putting on the bravest face she could, holding Amana and Fayiana and Gythio, holding their faces close to her, trying to keep them from hearing the stacatto cracks and blasts that had begun to ring out over the city. Something monstrous was happening, and Illithio had been gone for far too long.

Then, as suddenly as it had started, the tempest ended... replaced by an heavy, oppressive silence weighing down over the city. She knew she should stay with her children, but it seemed to be over, and Illithio had been gone for far too long. The thought rolled over and over in her mind, sick terror blotting out rational thought.

And then she heard his voice... outside the lodge, out in the opressive darkness.

"Taaaayv... Taaaayyyvvv... come to me... Taaaayv"

aaaaaaah stop with the short stories!! .. MORE!!

I love it, but I already know this is all going to end in tears

Ps. If anyone says "tele tubbies" or "ally mcbeal" once more im going to murder someone!!

Ps2. The only moonlit terrace thread you spamm is the Keeper's one. Great going Silvereyes, I'm so proud of you *hugs all around and gives them a collective Congressional Medal of Honor"

Sad..too sad.

-IV-

Amana looked up, looked over to Taiev, her mouth half open, already rising to run to Illithio. Taiev grabbed her arm, pulling her back, "That is not Illithio" she hissed. But even as she spoke the voice came again, "Taaaayv... Aaamanaaa".
"Thats not Illithio" Taiev shook her head slowly. She stood, moving quickly across the room. Amana stood too but Taiev gestured her back with a quick motion of her hand, "Stay here, Amana. Stay with Githio and Fayiana."

Taiev took a single measured breath as her fingers touched the smooth curve of her bow - she did not know what was out in the darkness, but she knew it must be lead away, or killed. Illithio was not coming back now, somehow she realised that. And now she had to make sure that whatever was out in the fog whispering to her, would never get to her children. A sick pulse of anxiety rolled through her body, gathering in her full belly, making her rock on her feet for an instant, before she could force her vision to clear once more, and step out of the house and into the night.

A creeping fog had begun to gather, slicking about the city, turning the familiar into the nightmarish. Taiev closed her eyes for a moment to clear them, and looked out into the gloom. Strange lights cast roiling shadows, as if great fires were burning... but burning with a ghastly greenish light. The air was heavy, muffling sound, but the voice was clear, "Taaaayv" somewhere just out of sight in the fog.
"Illithio... where are you?" she murmered, slipping an arrow from her quiver and silently notching it.
"Here... Taaaayvv... out here..." came the reply, echoing strangely.

"Where have you been, Illithio? We were worried." Closing her eyes, Taiev listened for the reply, drawing herself up, feeling the cold grass beneath her feet, and the flow of tension in the bow as she drew it.

And then the demon stepped out of the sickly fog, its armoured hide glistening in the light of the burning city. Taller than a Kaldorei, and heavyset, its over-long arms ending in gory talons. It opened its mouth, a forked tongue lolling out over its teeth. "Come to meee... Tayyyyvvv" it lisped.

Taiev let fly. The shaft flew true.

And with heartstopping speed, the demon snatched the arrow from the air and snapped it...

And then it smiled, licking its gruesome teeth...

*sits in quiet awe of Taiev and awaits the next installment*

oh noes! .. *sits with open mouth looking for more*

-V-

It was close. Too close infact. As fast she knew she could notch another shaft and let it fly, the demon would be on her before she could fire. The heavy dagger at her belt would be all but useless.

Its long tongue roiled in and out of its maw. Fingers of clammy heavy fog drifted between them, lit by the fires of the burning city.

Her unborn child stirred again - she breathed out slowly, letting the bow drop from her fingers, her hand darting to the long-bladed silversteel dagger at her hip.

The demon lept at her, its maw gaping open to sink its bladelike fangs into her flesh.

A sudden flash of silver cut through the fog, and the song of arrows followed. With the shattering-crack of paving stones smashing under its weight, the demon crashed to the ground barely a pace from her feet, a half-dozen black and silver-fletched arrows protuding from its back.

The silver-clad figures emerged from the fog, the noissome vapours slinking away from their armour, their bows held at the ready, lithe bodies and narrowed eyes scanning the fog. Their leader, double-bladed sword held ready, bowed shortly from the waist, "For'are Taiev" she said, "We came as swiftly as we could."

Taiev nodded, taking up her bow. "What of the Court?"

"The Queen has ordered the High City sealed, and the gates barred against entrance... or exit. All of our attempts to enter have been turned back with violence."

Taiev narrowed her eyes. "And the Guard?"

"We have gathered as many as we can find. For'are Tyrande and Shan'do Stormrage are gathering forces, and we have joined their entourage. Word has been sent to the Aspects, and they have sworn to aid us. But we must move, before the outer districts are completely lost."

Taiev looked up through the fog to faint light of her terrace-home, acid fear rose in her throat, and her child kicked again...

-VI-

The dull silence was everywhere. The fog somehow swallowing any sound save for ominous cracks of something that was not thunder. The flat air smelled like brimstone now, with a oily aftertaste of burned rock. The Sentinels set a blistering pace, and Taiev understood why - several times they had passed gruesome corpses - warriors and refugees cut down and butchered... and eaten.

She kept trying to keep Githio or Fayiana from seeing the carnage - but it was impossible - Githio and his sister were ashenfaced, clinging to each other as Taiev tried to hurry them along. With each step they fell a little further behind, and the dull aching grew - soon it would be unbearable, the terror would break her - she could not stand it a moment longer. Then Amana looked back at her mother, and somehow Taiev found the strength to smile and whisper "We will be fine".

And then the lie was true.

The leader of the Sentinels, Taiev recognised her as Imyira Whisperblade, slipped back through the fog to whisper "we are at the postern gate, For'are - take your family to the southern docks - ships are leaving for the provinces".

Trying to keep the sick relief out of her voice, Taiev whispered "And you, Imyira?"

The Sentinel smiled wanly, her face streaked with ash, and her armour battered. "There are other families to find, For'are - I cannot rest."

The silver patrol vanished back into the city as Taiev stood with her family on the docks. The moon was rising now, casting a hopeless wan light over Zin-Azsheri. The city was enveloped in roilling fog now, slicking outward from the Queen's Court in the heart of the city - untouched by the fires and destruction burning in the orchards and the terraces. Behind her collumns of refugees, carrying what little they could manage to carry with them, where filing aboard slim graceful ships, weighing them deep in the water.

And there, standing on the docks as her life burned around her, the fear began to twist inside Taiev. Becoming a blade, cutting up through her.

Becoming anger.

Becoming hate.

Damn you, T. You're ruining my will to write. *shivers* Damn fine work.

-VII-

The screams of a woman giving birth are not unlike the screams of the wounded. And the tent was full of screams.

The smell of blood and burning was everywhere. The Aspects had come to fight, as they had sworn, and then Neltharion had turned. What had been meant to be a counterattack turned into a rout. The dragons had fought amongst themselves, burning and destroying everything in their wake - friend, foe, refugee fleet...

Deathwing, the Demonsoul burning like a sun in his blackened grasp, drove the other aspects away, and the assault failed. And all the while the terrible energies gathering around the Inner City had grown stronger. The Kaldorei counterattack had broken, and retreated, and Taiev had gone into labour.

For her the pain ended with the birth of her last daughter. The pain ended for others, too. For the briefest moment, Taiev held her newborn daughter - but even that mercy was transient. Her armour lay beside her bed, the breastplate already replaced, a quiver of arrows, many of them scavenged from the battlefield. Soon, those too badly injured to fight would leave, perhaps they would have more luck than the refugees caught up in the dragons' madness.

Those who could fight, Taiev amongst them, would take up arms again. While they could still fight, they would. Tyrande had promised that there was a plan, a way to penetrate the impentrable defences of the Inner City and end the Queen's madness before it was too late. Perhaps.

Taiev had already spoken with someone who might bring her daughter to safety, but she would not let herself think of that now. Now there was only time to hold the child, eyes closed, listening to the tiny sounds. Trying to remember times that were gone now. Everything that she had wanted. A life that had been perfect. Ended.

So..beautiful.

Envy..so...strong...

I told you it was going to end like this