This is the fifth piece of Sedrai's tale, thus far, following a few weeks after the events of "Stolen Moments". Part 2 will be added to this thread in a few days.
Part 1:
There are few places in the two worlds where the Light truly fears to tread. Few places where goodness and honor shrivel like malnourished flowers beneath the sheer, inescapable magnitude of fel corruption and disease. Few places where the Naaru and Elune and whatever other deity of order one might place their faith in seem... pale and empty, promises of salvation that have no chance of coming true.
The Throne of Kil’Jaeden is one of those few places.
Nestled high atop Hellfire Peninsula on the ruins of Draenor, the Throne is a crater blasted out of the crown of the mountain, vast and deep and volatile. It burns with sickly, fel-tainted lava and belches ghastly gasses into the torn sky, as if the dying mountain struggles against the demonic poison that flows through its very heart. A futile struggle, for clearly, the mountain is losing the battle. The dirt is grey and foul, rocks and pebbles strewn amongst the ancient, dried skeletons of enemy and friend alike, all of which crunch jarringly underfoot with each step. It is the seat of death. The seat of damnation and destruction. It is the seat of the Doom Lord Kazzak and all who serve him in the name of Kil’Jaeden the Deceiver.
Sedrai strode confidently among the demons and twisted blood elves, the fallen and falling scions of the Dark Lord, her spine rigid and her glare cutting. Time had shown her that they were much like a pack of feral dogs, these half-mad servants of the Burning Legion, with the tendency to growl and test and nip at anyone who showed weakness. Thus, she never showed weakness. She walked among them as if she were a Doom Lord herself, looking dangerous in the scarlet and titansteel armor Brandig had crafted for her, a runed polearm strapped to her back. When they looked at “Xonath’s toy”, they saw frostbitten rage and blood and danger, an ally who was at least as deadly as an enemy.
It suited the death knight just fine, their fear and mistrust. They are the only currencies of any value in the Burning Legion, and with them, she had bought to right to wander the Throne at will, to peer into its nooks and crannies without being questioned. Only Xonath and Malfias and Doomlord Krazzak himself dared question her.
As it should be. As she had carefully ensured it would be against this very contingency.
Sedrai kept her “hard face” in place as she let her mind slip back to the previous hour, to a risky meeting with Tharion Greyseer and his senior students in an attempt to finally understand the nature of the nathrezim Xonath’s manipulations. None of them could have guessed the dire consequences of their eventual success: Tharion’s abduction by the spider eredar, the one called Malfias. With his game exposed beneath their careful analysis, the demon had spirited away the Netherbane shan’do in a flash of light and magic, snatching him in the space between one breath and the next.
The draenai attributed her frustration at that thought to the uncertainty that now dogged her mission. If Tharion were killed or otherwise corrupted, her duty would be done, left unwhole and unfinished, a failure. The thought sat very ill with her, making her stomach turn. Failure was not an option.
Additionally, if Malfias exposed her activities to Xonath, the dreadlord might very well decide she was working against him. That, too, would destroy her mission. But until she found herself faced by a murderous nathrezim or his angry army, she would have no way of knowing if her careful collusions with the Netherbane had incurred the demon’s wrath or not. She could do nothing to remedy what Malfias had seen and heard except to ensure that he was destroyed... hopefully, before he could damn her in Xonath’s eyes.
Thus, there was only one path for the death knight: she had to help the Netherbane recover their shan’do from within her demon-aligned role, guiding and informing without compromising her place in Xonath’s order. A challenge, to be certain, and one at least as likely to end in death as success.
So be it, she thought, climbing nimbly up a small rise on the outer rim of the crater, her titansteel boots digging deeply into the dirt. “One to the next until there is oblivion or peace”. We will not be deterred from this path; not by the demons or the mortals are any combination thereof. It is what we chose. It is who we are. And so we will persevere.
Resolve tightening her grip on the blackened stones, Sedrai pulled herself up over the crest of the rise and stopped short, blinking in surprise at a rough-hewn stone door that had not been there on her last visit to the area, mere days ago. Huge and wide, it loomed against the cliff face, its edges marked by a ragged line that looked as if it had been cut with a dull blade, ripping chips and gouges away from the rock in numerous places. As she approached and placed her palm against the unmoving stone, the death knight fought a shiver of dread, imagining a spider’s skittering touch against her mind.
Malfias. And, undoubtedly, a captive Tharion Greyseer.
Clenching the fist she pulled from the door, the draenai forced away the odd reaction, knowing that touch to be an echo of a memory not her own. Logic ruled her, and after a moment’s consideration, logic drew her to the same conclusion. She turned to look over the entirety of the Throne, strategically visible from this vantage. They were massing in numbers she had never seen before, the demons of the Legion and their followers, carefully arranging themselves in a defensive posture she knew well. They expected an assault on this very rise, and they had at least four cadre hidden in the best ambush positions in the crater.
If the Netherbane attacked the doorway, this crystal-clear invitation to come and find their shan’do, they would be slowly and systematically slaughtered. Xonath would stand unopposed.
As Sedrai circled the rise, searching for the best place from which to keep watch on the demon’s lair, she wondered idly whether or not, in the end, that would be for the best...