1. Murder in Darnassus

(( The name in italics at the start of each post represents the author of each section. ))

Fenuviel

Fenuviel stared blankly at the wooden floor before him of the deck, his hands still working to unconsciously clean the blood from his blades. His concentration was jarred from time to time as the boat rocked back and forth on the waves. Soon they'd be in the Eastarn Kingdoms again, safe. Dleslumenn had been right about one thing: He had no hope of being let back into Darnassus ever again after what had happened.

The elf looked up when he felt Shagrath's gaze on him. The older Kaldorei sat calmly smoking from his pipe at the other side of the table.

"It's never quite the same after the first," Shagrath murmured before blowing a puff of smoke into the room.

Fenuviel smirked slightly.

"I wouldn't imagine it ever could be," he answered. Dleslumenn: the one who had taken everything away from him. His home, his family. And yet he had still cared for him. He recalled what he had said to his brother a moment before he ended his life:

'You took everything I cared for from me. You broke my heart, it's time I return the favor.'

But he had been wrong. Fenuviel had taken the last thing he cared for away from himself. And now, there was nothing left but a comforting emptiness. He had passed his first lesson as Shagrath's apprentice.

Shagrath

”Finish him”, ordered Shagrath looking down at Dleslumenn who was begging for his life and crying hysterically. Seeing the young noble elf cough up blood caused no feelings on Shagath’s face nor in his mind. The person working on the elf however… Shagrath moved his gaze on Fenuviel. The young elf preparing to give his brother lethal payback from his misdeeds wore a mask. Not a physical one but one to keep the thousand thoughts and doubts running through his mind to himself. The determined and emotionless face didn’t belong to the melancholic and beaten elf Shagrath had met in the Smoking Blade some weeks before. But the eyes did. Looking into Fenuviel’s eyes Shagrath still saw the innocence and kindness he knew that had to be extinguished for Fenuviel to reach his full potential. In these eyes he also saw himself, as he once was…

“… cold… so cold…Where am I…?”
Shagrath opened his eyes but all he sees is strange mist everywhere. He fights the pain and reaches his hand. He feels a cold iron bar… and another right next to it.
“A… cage?”
He tries to focus his eyes to somewhere but fails. The drug wears his little strength down fast and he’s forced to put his head against the cold floor again. Then a shadow appears right in front of him.
“…help… please…”
Shagrath’s cry is answered by laughter that makes the earth shake and another shadow appears. Some distant words that mean nothing to Shagrath are said and then one of the Shadows reaches over him. Pain goes through Shagrath’s body like thousand burning blades and he passes out.

Shagrath wakes up with a jolt and glares his surroundings. He’s back in Darnassus and only afew seconds have passed. He feels a sudden urge to draw his sword and run it through Fenuviel for making him remember again but he restrains himself. Dleslumenn is now lying on the bloody grass with his face frozen in a horrific, twisted position. Fenuviel stands still and looks at Shagrath waiting for orders. Fenuviel is now in shock and his mind is free from thoughts. Only most vital information is handled. The state that Shagrath envies greatly, the one that made him so addicted to killing in the first place. But the eyes are still the same. Shagrath plays with the thought of digging Fenuviel’s eyes from their sockets with his knife. “It will die out soon enough… Patience…Once we infest his mind the innocence will never come back…” a voice in his head reminded calmly.

“Yes… I am patient…”

Fenuviel


Before the Journey to Darnassus...

----------------

Fenuviel sat in Ironforge with his head in his hands. Shagrath had called him weak. He knew it was true, but he wasn't sure how to change, how to make up for it and prove himself. He didn't know why it was so important to himself to prove himself to Shagrath, but it was, just as important as proving himself to Ataris or anyone else. Perhaps it was because of that night they had discovered him in Duskwood. Shagrath and Thalon, forced him to make a decision and chose his path. Though he hadn't trusted Shagrath completely then, Thalon had scared him far more than the dark Kaldorei.

He had spoken to Thalon again, though only after he wore the tabard of the Spheres. He found it just as disturbing, just as frightening and saddening. This Elf was a strange being. He followed the Starseekers, and so for all any other Sphere would say, he was a 'Light dog'. But Fenuviel could see he was no fool, this former apprentice of Shagrath's. He couldn't have been to have infiltrated the Sphere, trick Shagrath and them all, and still escape. He gave the feeling of almost being... inhuman. He was far too calm, far too calculated, far too wise. He had an answer to everything, but he was not kind.

Perhaps that was it. Fenuviel possessed traits of calm and wisdom, though perhaps not to the same degree. But he still had kindness, he knew. It was something hard to lose. Thalon must have been the perfect apprentice, and Fenuviel knew he could not match that. But he needed aid, and Shagrath was the only one he was willing to ask, the only one he trusted.

The sting of cold on his cheeks alerted him that he had suddenly stormed out the gates of Ironforge. He didn't let himself stop though until he had walked up to Shagrath.

"Teach me, Shagrath! Guide me. Or are you still too obsessed with your apprentice who abandoned you?!" he blurted out. Fenuviel wasn't exactly talkative, and hardly spoke unless it was needed, though certainly this was the first time he had spoken above a near-whisper. Fenuviel sighed inwardly as Shagrath smirked and nodded.

"Fine..." the other Kaldorei murmured, still staring out over the snow. "Tell me about your family."

*     *     *

Fenuviel sat on the boat back to Menethil staring at the ground, though finally he looked to Shagrath. "Was there ever a moment like this for you? Or have you always been so strong that it was not needed?" he questioned. Fenuviel had many questions, he always had, but whenever he found Shagrath, they caught in his throat. Killing Dleslumenn had been about revenge. Any part of it that had been to please Ataris had also been about proving himself to Shagrath.

Shagrath, the only one he trusted. The only one he could ask his questions, and yet, he couldn't. Shagrath didn't answer, but glared into the distance. Fenuviel bit his tongue and kept his questions to himself. Those questions which ate at him and drove him crazy from lack of answers, but he couldn't bring himself to ask.

Patience. Everything will come in time, he'll teach you.


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