Magister Luminash Dawnwing

Magister Luminash Dawnwing
2019-11-05 14:41:00

Reconciliation

( Occurs after the events of the Eternal Palace. )

“Get up.”

Lithendras started awake on his stone bench. As he sat up, groggily, he sighed, “You have returned. I suppose…this is it, then? The end we have been awaiting?”

Luminash, instead of confirming the Ren’dorei’s suspicion, however, shook his head, “Perhaps not. We must speak.”

The Rift Warden rubbed his eyes, weary as he was, with the heel of his palms, “What about are we to speak, Luminash? I fear there is little left to discuss.”

The magister shuffled scrolls on his desk about idly, his shoulders and body tense, words coming uncharacteristically slowly, “We breached the palace. The Horde and Alliance, jointly…” He looked back briefly to gauge Lithendras’ reaction, “And we succeeded. Queen Azshara fell.”

Lithendras’ eyebrows rose, and his lips parted, and he spoke, scarcely containing the surprise in his voice, “A joint military action? That, I must say, comes as a shock after all that has transpired.”

Luminash laughed dryly, tapping his fingers on the smooth stone of the desk, “Oh, it does. Proudmoore and the Regent Lord, side-by-side…” He looked back again, before turning and crossing his arms over his chest, “By all rights, she should have paid for her crimes against the Sin’dorei, and yet there we stood. We had no choice, did we?”

“I cannot say, having not seen the situation for myself,” Lithendras replied, “I assume the other option would have been to die down here, at the bottom of the sea?”

The magister only grumbled, beginning now to pace. His motions were growing more frantic, the Ren’dorei noticed, as was his speech, “Yes, yes, but…” He shook his head, “Was I wrong, Lithendras? I do not trust the Alliance, and likely never will fully, but was I wrong to think this must go on forever, until one of us - Horde or Alliance - were ground to dust?”

“I do not see why you ask me, Luminash. You know where I stand. Our people may have suffered much, and fractured, but you know I feel they may be someday made whole once more.”

“In the face of what may yet come, I do not know…” Luminash cursed under his breath, his body beginning to thrum with power as he grew more and more agitated, his pacing growing more urgent.

“And what is to come?” Lithendras asked. He himself had begun to feel uneasy, a knot in the pit of his stomach. He knew now what drove the magister before him: fear.

Abruptly, Luminash stopped in his tracks, turning his gaze directly on the Ren’dorei, “We struck Azshara down. We are free to leave this place. So, too, is her master.”

Lithendras’ eyes grew wide, and he stepped back unconsciously, “No…”

Luminash nodded, “N’Zoth is freed.”

The Ren’dorei shook his head in disbelief, repeatedly, muttering under his breath, speech unnatural, unknown to mortal tongues. He then took a breath, and returned to himself, “What is to be done? We must do something, after all. Left unchecked, an Old God… It could do irreparable damage to the Ren’dorei before any others. The whispers already fray the edges of the mind, but an Old God could elevate them, drown out our own thoughts in a pure cacophony, take from us everything we are, have fought to be…”

“I do not know what we can do, Lithendras. The Void may yet be ascendant. I have seen…” He grimaced, shaking his head yet again, this time as if he could shake away a memory, “On Argus, I saw visions in the darkness, ways the world might yet be swallowed up. It is the reason - a reason, I should say…”

“A reason why you distrust my kind so much.”

Luminash nodded in silent reply.

“They are not truth, Luminash. Neither are they lies, however. I have tried to tell you, the Void speaks in neither, only in…” The Rift Warden waved a hand about, searching for the right word, “Possibilities. They may yet be averted. In fact, they must be for my people too to survive.”

“Yes, of course, for all people. I saw, in the Palace, the folly of our war through the black smoke rising from the deeps. Was I wrong? I…” He sighed heavily, shaking as he exhaled, “I am loathe to admit, but I believe I was. I let myself believe the the Alliance would inevitably strike first, over Azerite. I let my fear of losing the Sunwell blind me to any possibility of reconciliation. I dipped my hands deep into a well only of blood, and relished in it.”

“And I did not? I am sure you need no reminders, Luminash. We Ren’dorei have hardly been kind to those who cast us out. Saboteurs, assassination…” The Rift Warden leaned back heavily against the wall of his cell, such as it was, “There was never a reason for you to believe otherwise, if I may be honest, especially after Nazmir. After I myself let my orders blind me to better alternatives.”

“Whatever darkness creeps up from these depths, the world beyond Nazjatar must know.” Luminash strode, then, to the wall of bent space separating the two elves, and placed a hand upon it. To Lithendras, it felt as if the fabric of the world suddenly snapped, reminding him starkly that it was unnaturally taut a moment before, a coil compressed too tightly, ready to spring back at any moment. After that brief moment, the wall had gone. Lithendras, though, remained still.

Luminash continued, “What other option is there, to die in these depths? Go, Lithendras. Tell your people what has transpired. If it is as you said, they must know, lest they fall victim to a new din within their minds.”

“And you would let me go? Just like that? Why not let us fall?”

“Lithendras. I do not…entirely wish to see the Ren’dorei wiped away. Some of your points have been…less than incorrect.” He huffed, “Another count of my being wrong in recent months. And perhaps there yet exists hope for your pipe dream of unity.”

Pushing himself away from the wall, Lithendras tentatively strode past Luminash, stepping over the runes that had long blocked his magic, towards the ruined tower’s door, “Not mine alone. It was yours once, as well. Maybe it could be again.” He took another step forward, then stopped, “What will you do from here?”

“I will return to my people. There may yet be a reckoning within the Horde itself, as I am sure Alliance intelligence has indicated already. Whatever these next days bring, I will stand with the Sin’dorei. In the face of overwhelming odds, unity is precious.”

“Only among the Sin’dorei, or for the Alliance and the Horde, too?”

“As I said, a pipe dream. It is a question I simply cannot answer, Lithendras. The Palace…”

“May have been an outlier. I understand. Regardless, may we yet meet again, under better circumstances,” the Ren’dorei laughed as he departed, slipping from the doorway and into a waiting Void rift.

Luminash shuddered, despite himself, and nodded, “Until we meet again.”

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