jæja hef ætlað að gera þett í þó nokkurn tíma en hérna er allavega fyrsti hluti af sögunni sem hefur verið gangi á litla áhugaspunanum þarna niðri.
geri þetta þó helst til að vekja athygli á sögunni.

Ég veit að þettta er frekar langt og nokkuð yfirþyrmandi but give it a try.

það eru komnir 19 kaflar og það llítur út fyrir að þeir verði þó nokkuð fleiri.
The search

Chapter 1


Snow fell down like it had always done so in the mountains of the fallen high elven kingdom. Dead or dying trees dotted the landscape as a memory of a long forgotten land of green valleys and singing birds. A dying land seemed to be written in every falling leaf and rotting drumb.
Night had fallen two hours before and stars shone upon the snow making look like silver in the rare light of a clear sky. Suddenly and without any warning a shadowy figure tumbled down the top of the hill and stopped just as suddenly as it had began ,after rolling down two and half hundred meters. As the snow cleared, the outlines became clear and the face of a blood elf showed it self. His name was Exen´tor and was a warlock, with all the rage of that profession.

This blood elf was dressed in a black coat with red markings half glowing from various points of it. It wasn’t clear whether it served the purpose of magic or style, or if it was just plainly blood. After all he was a blood elf.
His flaming blood red eyes were focused down and forward, forward where an undead encampment lied in the bottom of the valley.
In that encampment 30 undead warriors were guarding one of Exen’tors kin.Not only his kin but also his friend. Exen´tor and this particular blood elf were once a part of
prince kael´s personal group of warlocks and mages, the „powers” ,later the „lost“. He and this band of warlocks and mages opened the gate to Outland for the rest of the blood elves to flee through. What happened after that, that is another story and the focus should be right now on Exen’tors thoughts.
He was forming a plan. He had to save one person from the camp while destroying the rest of it to prevent any pursuit. To that he needed a cunning, brave and strong assistant, or someone who had no choice but to do it. Exentor closed his eyes and a new star was born. It fell down to earth after 30 seconds of floating around in 2000 feet as if it was uncertain whether it wanted to go down or keep offending the laws of physics. After it fell down with a green explosion, a rather big imp rose from a hand sized green stone.

The mystery of this imp was one that no one could actually solve: When Illidan had taught a handful of warlocks how to summon Infernals, had Exen’tor only achieved in summoning an imp slightly bigger than an your ordinary imp. This had nothing to do with his abilities as Exen´tor was the most talented warlocks in the bloodelf ranks. He himself was sure that this was his curse as this imp he named Mesfer,means stupid, had no real skills and somehow prevented him from ever summoning an infernal. The imp himself had no idea of why and how this happened as he seemed to have been created by Exen’tor rather than being born on the demonic plane where warlocks usually sought their pets.

„Took you long enough“ said Exen’tor as angry as circumstances allowed.
„Well I don´t really like snow you see.“ said Mesfer with a drowsy voice of someone who wuld much rather like to be somewhere else.
„Who cares, that’s no reason to upset Gravity, you are on his blacklist since last time you remember? “
„Yes I of course I do, I died! “
„Yes you did and right now I need you to save mizra“
The imp whitened as if the temperature had dropped drastically. And in way it had.
„MIZRA“!?

Ten minutes later Mesfer was walking away from the channeling Exen´tor muttering something like: damn elf , going to get me killed again, if it wont be the undead it´ll be mizra and if it won´t be mizra he’ll kill me for the fun of it when I bring her to him.

Few minutes later he had arrived to the encampment and was nervously peeking into the tents. While he was doing so he began to think of the stupity of an undead encampment. They didn’t get cold they, didn’t get tired and they didn’t need any sleep. Why stop suddenly in the mountains only to be exposed to a crazy blood elf saving another and even crazier bloodelf.
He didn’t spend much time thinking about such things as he finally found the tent they were holding mizra.she was tied up to a tree, asleep or knocked out. At least her eyes were closed and around her floated five purple stones that were connected to her head with magical lines. Yet again Mesfer whitened even more and was now even whiter than the snow he was standing on. This granted him an embarrassing invisibility he used to its fullest. He ran towards Mizra, took her hand and did the fatal mistake to open his eyes while doing so.

The plan was rather simple in exen´tor’s mind. Mesfer was to sneak to the undead encampment with a kalens dagger of escape and teleport away. When he had landed Exen´tor was to close his channeling and release a massive rain of fire and scorch the undead encampment. Simple plan with three flaws. First Mesfer was coward. Second the dagger was only made to transport one at a time. Third Exen´tor had bought the dagger on retail.

Mesfer opened his eyes to see thirteen and a half faces staring at him. And as is always with the undead, they weren’t happy. Mesfer blinked at the same time the dagger blinked Mizra to Exen´tor that immediately released the channeling and utterly destroyed the tents under a wave of meteors. Including Mesfer that came again few seconds later, scorching from the sky. This time he didn’t hesitate.
„You killed me! Again! “
„I noticed. Damn retails“
„Ohh don’t give me that you bloody blood elf this is bloody enough I’ve had bloody enough,,,“
„Damnations to the third circle of hell! I can’t cure her! “.
„What?!“
The wound is more grievous than mine and my macics can’t heal it.
Well,, well maybe the paladins can. There should be some left in these mountains.
Humans’ damn well I don´t seem to have any other choice if I am to warn kael.
Come’on you pesky imp. We must hurry.

Snow kept on falling and burrowed the dying flames of the undead camp as Exen´tor and Mesfer began striding the mountains of Quel Thalas. Yet all „life“ didn´t seem to be out in the camp. Burrowed between the rubble of earth and burning tents a hand moved and one third of a face somehow grinned.

Second chapter.

In the mountains of the fallen elf kingdom, the snow didn´t fall, raged all around in the most furius storm this land had seen for years. And this land had seen many storms in the past years.

Unfortunately elves aren´t made for bad weather. Even rain gets them down to the level of depression and surrender, and worse weathers make them suicidal.
And blizzards most definitely fall in the category of bad weathers.

The storm seemed magically imbued or even conjured. The flakes were as big as Exen’tors palm and stroke him as thousand tiny swords.
He knew the story of this land enough to know that this storm was relentless and eternal. Conjured by the lich kel’thuzad to forever make the homelands of the elves unhabitable. But there was obviously another power playing along and exen´tor had terrible hunch what that power was. But that was not of any importance as of now.
He was breaking down, and every step was a mortal pain.
At first he had aimed to outlast the Imp Mesfer and continue without a stop.
But long ago had the imp had enough and returned coughing to his considerably warmer plane.
And now Exen´tor , holdin Mizra in his hands was falling away. His concentration done for and his legs simply moving out of habit in a direction he believed to be forward.
He was walking, no running ,on draenor, he and his companions.
They were running through a portal their roars shaking the earth as they ran and attacked , and suddenly it became cold so cold.,
NO he screamed in his head, NO I must continue, cant lose it now there must be someone left alive here.
I must continue, must go on , I must save Mizra, without her this whole thing is meaningless.
He continued for while courageously taking a few steps.
But then the world became a consuming darkness and Exen´tor and Mizra were nearly buried alive under the killing snow.

Nearly.

He was fighting the undead, the dwarfs were falling around him. Batter lay there before him, his head twisted in the most unnatural way.
And he was alone, so alone.
So alone in this big chamber made of stone. So alone, so angry, so heavenly angry. The hate flowing from him, flowing and flowing and flowing and flowing in every direction he nearly escaped , he nearly escaped and barely escaped the looming death. The laughter he ran away from. This terrifying laughter, that screeched through his bones.
The laughter. He ran away.
Far away , anywhere but here, anywhere. He couldn´t catch him, he wouldn´t.
he would warn the others. He would warn them, he´d stop the invasion and save his prince. He´d tell them the truth.


Exen’tor woke up with the laughter still in his ears. Howling echoing as clearly as the day it first sounded in his head.
He blocked the sound and became aware how incredibly warm he felt.
He was not in the snow anymore. He was under what seemed to be an unreasonably thick bear skin, as thick as his head he assumed.
He tried to move around but noticed then that over him lay the biggest dog he had ever laid eyes on.
He tried to form a plan but as disoriented as he was all managed to come up with was a weak and soft: „shoo, go away boy“.

The dog ,predictably, ignored him completely and simply waggled his unnaturally big tail around.
Stupid he said to himself , „stupid“, and banged his head to the pillow under his head.
For a time exen´tor did nothing, letting his senses come to him.
Finally with a sigh and some effort he pulled his hand from the hide and pointed it to the dog.
Sorry about that boy he said and a sudden lapse of blue energy spun from his hands to the dogs head.
he fell down straightaway, snoring like an ogre.
Then with a move of his hand ,exen´tor moved the dog magically away from the bed.
As soon as the dog fell on the appearantly wooden floor exent´tor threw the thick hide away only to reveal Mizra´s body next to him in the bed.
Her breasts fell down and raised high in a respectable order clearly showing she was breathing.
But her skin was so white and cold that under normal circumstances exen´tor would have believed her to be dead.
But she was alive and as exen´tor studied her vitals he praised the light for this blessing.
He noticed dark marks in her palms, on her forehead and between her waggling breasts akin to his own marks in those places.
Exen´tor sighed cursing the bloody light for this misfortune when he finally came around and noticed
BREASTS!
Mizra was completely naked from top to bottom. And at that moment he realized his own lack of clothes and felt his cheeks blushing irredeemably.
He heard a door crack open and went to desperate measures to at least save himself from this embarrassment.
He reached for the hide and threw it over himself and Mizra but somehow got tangled up in the most peculiar way and rolled down on to the floor with the very much naked Mizra on top.
And thats how they lay ,tangled in bear hides and Mizra´s breasts nearly suffocating Exen´tor, when an unnaturally big dwarf walked in the room and looked upon the couple with an unpleasant and judging look in his eyes.
The dwarf held a pipe in his right hand and stuffed it in his mouth as he scanned the situation for a few seconds.
He took a puff and and then said with a certain laughter in his voice:
„Well i´ve got to say me boy , I usually don’t let the ladies take the top, but hey, i´m an open minded person, no judging here.“
Exentor ,breathing in short turns, only managed to grumble: its not *gasp*what it looks like .
„Oh of course it isn´t my friend, ye were only protecting her, I see that clearly.“ The dwarf was obviously enjoying this enormously and took another puff from the pipe.
Exen´tor admitting his deafeat in the situation,decide to reason with the dwarf:„ I tell you this my possible savior, if she ever finds out about this *gasp* you will find yourself dying in the quickest way possible ,*gasp* by my hand *gasp* before she kills me ,in the most horrendous way.“
Th dwarf only laughed


After mizra´s body had again been covered by the thick bear hide and the sleeping dogs body, Exen´tor ,now fully dressed, sat down in with the dwarf in the living room of the cabin they were in. The cabin was built out of strong logs with windows on every side , but they weren’t of much use for now as the storm shook the house like twig in the wind. A well was placed in the middle of the room , filled with warm water. In the corner exentor and the dwarf had sat down was a fireplace where a blue flame burned with great warmth.
Exen´tor wondered why the dwarf lived in a cabin in the mountains while most of his kin lived in harmony inside the mountains, and also noticed that the dwarf was not wearing any of the usual bear hide or any other normal dwarfish cloths.
But he decided to let it slide reminding himself that anyone living out here in these plaguelands had to be at least on the strange side.
The dwarf tossed him a mug and said:„ just name the drink ye want in that mug and it will be full of it, but burning hot though mind ye ,unless ye want yer mead steaming.“


Exen´tor snorted gleefully and whispered into his mug, accustomed to this kind of artifacts in his old home:„brown tea“.
And as soon as the last word had left his mouth the mug was filled to the brim with strong and burning hot brown tea.
The odor from the dwarf’s mug was sweet and reminded him somehow of the forest in his home, but he couldn’t really remember how so.
They sat there quiet for a while. Sipping their drinks and looking into the magical fire, until exen´tor finally broke the silence by asking the dwarf thoughtfully: „I guess we owe you our lives master dwarf, I thank you graciously. “
Pleased the dwarf swiftly replied , „just call me ankthar, a priest of the light“.
„greetings then ankthar, I am exen´tor windrunner , a warlock of my own“ Exentor replied with haste and then continued carefully, „Might I ask you as of how you managed to find us in the blizzard the ravages your house even now?“
Without looking away from the blue fire pointed ankthar behind his back to the well.
“Yer dreams woke me and through that well of scrying I found ye buta few strides from me home.„
Exen´tor was puzzled. His dreams may have been “broadcasted” with his concentration and alarm down, but for a dwarf to pick them up and find him through the use of a magical well seemed unlikely in the least.
Skeptical and growing increasingly wary of his savior exen´tor asked with great care:
„Surely there are not many dwarfs that know those arts are there?“
Ankthar looked at him as he had said something incredibly funny: „Dwarfs?“
He mimicked sarcastically. „No there aren’t many dwarfs that are capable of such a feat, but then again it helps that I am no dwarf.“
The statement caught exen´tor off guard. Surely the accent , the small statue and the big nose were those of a dwarf, but as he scanned the features of ankthar he realized that the nose had nose had severely diminished and ankthar was now only barely smaller than exen´tor .
Wide eyed exen´tor saw the dwarf changing into an elf, just like himself.
Eyebrows grew,facial features smoothed and the hair changed from brown to a brilliant blond and ankthar reached exen´tors full size.
Ankthar shook his body as if shaking away a chill and grinned exen´tors way.
„I´m a dwelf“ ankthar proudly proclaimed, „and probably the only one left mind ye.“
Exen´tor could do nothing but gape for a few moments until he realized his awkvardness and closed his mouth.
„A ,, a dwelf ?“
„Yes. half elf half dwarf, they say I got me mothers beard“.

Surely exen´tor had heard of such hybrids but those had always received either races features and specialities. Never had they been able to shapeshift from a dwarf to an elf so easily as this one here.
„But a dwelf, you ,how can you change so easily? That’s hardly possible by any normal standards?“
„Nahhh not really but me parents never really finished a sentence without arguing with the other one. So their heritage was bound to continue fighting in me.“
Exen´tor still looked at the dwelf with a tremendous doubt in his eyes.
„That’s hardly enough to cause such,, such,,, anomaly.“
Ankthar sighed ,„ allright I fell in the sunwell when I was young would that be ample enough proof?“
Exen´tor looked as satisfied with that reason as he could get so ankthar snorted loudly, „wizards, blame it on magic and they´ll always be satisfied.“Letting it slide that he wasn´t really a wizard exen´tor silenced himself.

Long time paseed until they spoke again. They simply drank their drinks and stared into the blue flames.
Finally when the dwelf was finished with his drink he clapped on his dwarfen belly and as unusual it was for an elf (or an half elf for that matter) burbed.
Then he turned exen´tors way.
„I have never seen such wounds that both of you carry. Might I inquire ye ´pon that matter?“
exen´tor knew this was as much of a friendly question as an investigation. A servant of the light knew undoubtedly that the marks mizra and he carried were no normal wounds of the scource.
„You might as well, but I don´t really think you want to know the tale behind it.“
Ankthars visage dimmed. „Listen ´ere boy i´ve been in the three of the so called great wars. I ´ought in sylvans army and ´ealed the fledgling resistance in lorderon. Ye might think that healers have it good standing in the back waving their arms basked´n light´n all. But let me tell you. every wound I heal I have to do myself, it is no automatic trick. Every cell ,every muscle, everything I must replace with but a small help from a light in the sky.
So don´t ye be telling me what I want to hear,boy i´ve never seen such a taint of the scource as in you two.“
Ankthar was pretty much steaming at this point but Exen´tor simply shrugged and smiled weakly.
„Very well then , I suppose I do at least owe you this ,my savior.
Mizra´s tale is her own to tell and mine will be fileld with loops of my mind and of my choosing. it is a dark one I warn you and only a prequel to the great mission me and mizra have at hand.“

Exen´tor looked up as in looking back in some memory long past redemption.
„Once me mizra and three others were the elites of the blood elves. Special guards of kael and disciples of illidan.
We saved the entire blood elven host in northrend although no one will never truly know or care. We were friends once and team. Stronger than any you can imagine. When illidan had taught us his ways he gave us a name in a joke that in the end stuck on us:

„The gatekeepers“


Third chapter

Do you have any idea what kind of a feeling it is to be taught by a living legend?
It’s a bit like being hypnotized the entire time and every second is being pressed into your long term memory.
Illidan only taught those that had the power to keep up with him. Sometimes he´d levitate for hours with relative ease , and only the strongest of the hundreds who followed him made it through that time.

Me and Malvanas were friends long before the war and the war only strengthened those bonds.
We both followed illidan so rigorously that at times it bordered on fanaticism. We were more than happy to act as powerpools for him to drain powers from to channel greater spells of destruction. I guess that should clarify as of how devoted we were to him.
And every day brought some new piece of information, new spell or an improved use of an old one. Every day was spend on the battlefield so every days lesson number one was simple: learn, do or die.
Slowly the numbers of his followers dwindled, some died, some were injured, some simply couldn´t accept his view on the world and others simply weren´t skilled enough.

In the end it was only me,manvalas and three others.
And then as he himself put it: „let the real teachings begin“.
Mizra he taught the greatest secrets of the frost spells. So furious in her rage that she could have single handedly taken Magtheridon by herself.
In fact he´s supposedly still frozen , somewhere in the black citadel, his bones turned to ice.
Sira´dreth he taught the ways of the phoenix and how to gain unimaginable hights in her fiery power. Ever since, her eyes were quite literally ablaze from the inside, like two little suns.
Manvalas he taught to summon the greatest servants, doomguards and infernals. Given time the walls of the black citadel would have been broken by the sheer rain of infernals by manvalas hand.
Wisim, the oldest of us , he gave a book. The book was empty but could be filled with answers only by thinking of the answers you would want to know. The book supposedly had answers to everything one could ask for.

At first he was going to teach me the same power as manvalas. But for reasons unknown to all of us it didn´t come out as planned.
From the sky came but one small stone Holding only the slightest imp, now eternally replaced by my old „faithful“ one.
I can still remember his first words and punishment on that day: „where am I and who´s the ugly one over here“
Even after the somewhat aggressive interrogations of the imp no reason was found for his binding to me. Somehow the imp was stuck on me and my every summoning spell. And he hated that about as much as I did.

Perplexed but still wanting to teach me some of his magical power illidan drew me aside and gave me maybe the most powerful gift of them all.
And as a final lesson he taught us to make together a portal between Azeroth and outland.
„Your job is to be a backup plan if I can for some reason not make a portal between the worlds. To have the gate ready at all times. Heh I guess you can be called the keepers of the gate. Yeah that sounds about right. The gatekeepers“

After illidan lost to arthas on the steps of the frozen throne, we were suddenly caught in the most terrible retreat. Everyone fled, not really knowing where to, simply running in the easiest way possible.
And at that moment our job suddenly became clear. Illidan barely had power to
breath and most surely not to make a portal to another world
So as instructed by illidan we formed the five sided channel ring and opened the portal.

Have you ever been responsible for thousands of lives? and by that I mean that if you do one mistake they´ll chase you into the afterlife?
That’s the way it was, when we held the portal open for hours it seemed. At last the final survivor escaped and we were left alone in the cold northland.
And at that point we discovered the flaw in our plan. We would not be able to go back to outland as we were the ones holding the portal open.
But with the undead fast approaching we had no other choice but to desperately try to escape. We threw ourselves into the portal hoping that it would hold together long enough, that its power would last , that we would somehow make it through.

I could hold many hours of the description of what happened after we released the portal but it would all sum up to four words: the portal didn´t hold.

I was sent somewhere far southwest but I was still in northrend.
Until recently I thought I was the only one to survive the „sundering“.
But then again until recently I thought the world made some minor amount of sense.
I ended up near an encampment of dwarfs. The final remains of Muradins party.
They took care of me for nine days and nights, somehow nurturing life back into me with the limited herbs and bandages they had.
I was lost in my mind while I was unconscious. A lot of my memories faded away or were taken over by thoughts that were not my own.

I traveled to hell and back and when I finally came back to life I found myself in the frozen hell Northrend really is.
But in this frosen land of death, the dwarfs had made a thriving camp to an extent.
The dwarfs had become experts in killing the undead, no shot missing its mark ,no slash without a meaning.
There were only about 100 of them left but those hundred were not going to go down easily. Every day, hordes of undead assaulted their camps and every day they defeated those hordes, sometimes without a loss of their brethren.
Alliance ships would sometime come to their aid, often to evacuate them but they denied any escape from the lands. Many of their comrades had fallen on this soil and this was where they would also fall, in the memory of their leader muradin.

I stayed there too, at first to repay for my life but then because I realized I didn´t have any other place to go to. And so over the years this place became home to me,an all but abandoned dwarfen camp on the outskirts of the world . I was truly happy there, the existence was simple and straightforward: fight for your life or die. I made friends there, better friends than I could have thought possible. When you´re always on the edge of death you begin to appreciate every moment you spend breathing and every friend you spend a night with.

But nothing good ever lasts does it?
When I had been there for more than four years there all that remained was a score of dwarfs , me and mesfer and all the gunpowder one could imagine.
Endlessly besieged we formed a desperate final plan.
The plan was to dig our way under the frozen throne and place large amounts of gunpowder under vital parts of the structure of the frozen throne.
It almost worked.

Almost, one hell of a word.

When we had put most of the charges in place we were assaulted by the lich kings necromancers.
It wasn´t a fight it was a slaughter, the dwarfs had no answers to their magic without their gunpowder and the battle was soon over for them.
Me and mesfer fought on while they fell around us, but in the end, fatigue and weariness brought us down.
I was sure I was going to die ,that this was the end of it all and surprisingly it didn´t feel as bad as I’d thought.
But they didn´t kill me, they kept me alive. And what happened in the frozen throne and how I managed to escape is really not a matter which we shall discuss here.
But I shall tell you what happened, to me and to mizra.

It is a way of getting information, interrogation if you will.
Believe me, the undead have horrible ways of getting what they want out of people without resorting to the ways they´ve corrupted me and mizra.
But there are information which lies deep beneath the consciousness of our minds and the lich king wanted precicely that kind of information.
And that is only a possibility by becoming one of the scource .

But the normal process destroys the mind and the soul. Nothing that the victim kept in its mind is left in there. That’s why the necromancer evolved a secret way to assimilate victims t o the scource without killing them and without destroying the mind. The soul is of course shattered to pieces but that matters not to them.
They tried this on me , tied me to a pole and placed four darkened purple gems that slowly but surely sucked the life out of me in certain key places.
I managed to stop the process. Don´t ask me how, I do not wish to destroy your view of the world but I did.

While I was there I was told what was happening, why I was taken and why we are being hunted. What I found out is that each and every one of the gatekeepers have in their mind a piece of a relic beyond the power of mortals, power of the aspects of this world and the power to make portals. And what the lich kings intends is something more grander than anyone could imagine .
So now I search for my friends in a race against time and the undead.
But they found Mizra before I did and had begun the transformation.
I don’t know how long they had been keeping her, but her marks are more clearer than mine and the aura of darkness surrounds her even more than ever.

Ankthar hadn’t said anything the whole time. He recognized the obvious loopholes in the story and decided to let them be.
But two thing puzzled him.
No one escaped the lich kings grasps unless he wanted them to, and as cunning as the lich king was ,it was more than unlikely that the only reason Exen´tor stood there before him was because the lich king wanted him to.
Which gave way to the other thing that puzzled him.
For the first time in seven months the storm had calmed.


In the closed room beside the living room Mizra suddenly woke up with wide open snow white glowing eyes and gasped:„they’re coming!“

Fourth chapter

þetta eiga eftir að verða svo margir kaflar að ég ætla að koma upp system þar sem kaflarnir eiga alltaf að koma á föstudögum.

Enjoy!

Mizra gasped and her bare chest panted, moving frantically up and down. The dog went flying for the second time this day as she threw away the hide and ran towards the door.
Or tried to run ,would be a better description. As soon as her feet touched the floor they failed her and she fell silently on the thick hide on the floor.
Mizra tried to move but all energy seemed to have gone away from her.
Even her voice was gone. Her head, her hands and her chest throbbed painfully.
The pain was so excruciating that she almost succumbed to the pain and unconsciousness seemed a fair choice.

NO! she protested with the little amount of voice that was left in her.
She ignored the pain as hard it seemed and recited four lines of a poem that had been singing in her heads for the last four years, and had always helped her in situations like this.

When she first finished it she felt the power in her feet return.and she recited again. And again.And every time she finished the poem she felt better.
Every word made her stronger and soon she could talk with her full voice. She kept on and her feet were strong enough to walk on.
But she didn´t stop. She repeated the words until it seemed as though the words themselves lifted her up.
She stopped for a second, only utter under her breath: they´ve come.

The door went flying under what seemed an ice blast and out of the door walked mizra ,naked, in all her majesty with white glowing eyes and blonde majestic hair.
Prepare yourselves she said magic in her voice, they´re coming to get us all.
Exen´tor and Ankthar were still sitting in front of the fireplace and were as stunned over this sudden appearance and declaration as they could get.

Ankthar was the first of them to reply, quite calm and as cynical as ever: „not that i´m not panicking ove tha´possible invasion in me home mam, but shouldn´t ye be gettin dressed ´fore they„come and get us all“
Mizra only looked at him,about as furius as shocked over her sudden realization of her appearance.
She closed her eyes and an inch tick ice covered her skin as much of a part of her body as her hair.
„Happy now you snotty little dwarf?“
Ankthar rose out from his chair and increased in size as he did.
„Happy? yes i´d think so, snotty most probably, dwarf? Nahh.“ Ankthar had now reached the same height and was walking to a cabinet behind mizra.
„Aware that there are 13 ghouls and two unknown bastards approaching me home? not until now,“
he opened the cabinet and drew forth a large blunderbuss.
„Ready to smash their heads open by any means necessary? Why do ye think I live out here?“
He now held an axe as big as himself in his dwarf form over his shoulder.
„Do I think we can take ,,,,“
„Ehm sorry to interrupt“, exen ´tor interrupted, „but can your ceiling take a pound from an infernal stone dropping to earth with unrecognizable speed?“
„Ahhhrr probably not , why?“
„Ahh then i´d recommend moving about 2 meters to the left.“
„Errr why should I,,“
A green stone as big as Ankthars head suddenly smashed through the ceiling making a big hole as it went through.
It landed on the floor in front of Ankthar with a loud crack.
„Or not“ Exen´tor commented as Mesfer climbed from the green stone.
„Hiya bastard,“ mesfer irritatingly shot at Exen´tor, „what you got yourself in this time ehh? Another way for me to die an excruciatingly painful death for your skin perhaps? maybe even,,,,,, oh noes.“
It was at that moment that Mesfer noticed the ice covered, naked woman standing in front of him.
„Oh noes , oh noes not her, not her again please anything else! Hang me up on my buttocks over a fiery pit of lava while parasites eat my face and i´d rejoice, please not her!“
Mizra stared at him intently and assured him that: „after this is over I will freeze your tongue to cheeks if you go on like this.“
Mesfer peeped and ran up to Exen´tors shoulder where he hid behind his head.

„I cant believe you still haven’t got rid of him.“
„Believe me mizra I would if I could.“
„Poetic as always, Ex.“

They didn´t have much time to chat however as the door was blasted open by a sword probably wielded by one of the huge abominations.
After the smash at least a dozen ghouls charged through the broken doors.
The first was finished off quite quickly, with a shot from Ankthars blunderbuss.
The second was engulfed in green devilish flames and the third fell down as a statue of ice, breaking in pieces on the floor.
But with numbers, they got in and charged the defenders.

Three ran straight to Exen´tor ,quite literally jumping on his head ,maws open and ready to bite.
Experienced beyond measures in the tactics of the undead Mesfer and Exen´tor knew how to avoid the impending doom.
Exen´tor ducked down low , and shot with his right hand a dark energy of such power that nothing remained but the charred remains, and out of his right came yellow sand that engulfed the ghoul and instantaneously left nothing but a fine white dust.
Mesfer however was in heavens as he commenced his most favorite technique, ghouling.
Ghouling meant that Mesfer turned himself on fire and jumped into the ghouls gaping mouth. The fire that engulfed him was so hot that it burned the ghoul as he „swam“ through its body.
Mesfer was without a doubt the only one that thought this technique was stylish beyond comparison, but it worked and that was all that exen´tor cared about when fighting the undead.

Ankthar threw away his gun and jumped at three ghouls,the axe swinging at a near impossible speed. In his original charge he cleaved one in half.
The remaining two faltered for a second at the sight of the peculiar creature that had changed from an elf to an axe wielding dwarf before their, well eyes or whatever counted for eyes in their physiology.
Ankthar used that falter and continued the cleave and smashed on of the ghouls head . The last ghoul charged at him with the sharp cutting nails on its hands. Ankthar jumped right at him with his bulky body and drove him to the floor.
„Bleeding ghouls“ he spat and ripped the head from the ghouls body.

Mizra had slightly more difficulties as she fought two ghouls. She had covered her hands with with ice as hard as steel turning them into frozen swords that sliced through her enemies with deadly accuracy. But her hands felt weak and her spirit was uncertain. why was she fighting them? Was she not one of them.why was she doing this?
her eyelids felt heavy and she fell for but a split second out beyond time and space.
She was falling in the darkness and felt voices in her head ,shrieking,cutting,echoing endlessly one command to her: „kill the dwarf! Get the elves and don´t harm them.“
How easy it felt and obvious to simply let go, to just do what the voice told her to do. And she almost did.
What saved her was the poem that always sang in her head: five symbols ,,
Five symbols,,,five symbols,,,,and the meaning,,,,
And Mizra snapped out of it ,suddenly standing in front of the ghouls,no longer unsure as of what to do nearly singing out the poem and cutting her enemies with every syllable:
Five symbols of power
Five symbols of fall
Five symbols of magic
And the meaning of it all

In the end of the poem the ghouls were torn to pieces and Mizra herself was shining with blue flames coming from beneath her skin. Her eyes, even whiter than before shone of pure rage and ultimate fury.
Three ghouls tried to get in but turned to ice so fast that they imploded by pure cold leaving nothing behind but little ice cubes scattered on the floor.

The sudden change of their comrade left Ankthar and Exen´tor mesmerized.
Exen´tor began to approach Mizra carefully, when a creature walked through the blasted remains of the door. A creature it could only be called, for it resembled nothing exen´tor nor the others had seen. A human in many ways, for it walked on two legs had two hands and one head.
But that’s where the resemblance ended . the creature seemed to be made of multiple bodies, not sowed together but rather unified together by some power.
Fat snow white arms ,that seemed in no way connected to the bearlike torso, moved unceasingly around its misshapen head.
By the creeatures side lay two greatswords ready.

The human-like creature was only dressed up in a bear hide jacket that he dragged after him. On its many coloured face it wore a sleazy grin.
Its mere presence seemed to overpower both Exen´tor and Mizra as they collapsed to the floor, Mizras flames dying out and they barely had power in their arms to keep their faces off the floor.

The creature walked in, looked for a moment on Exen´tor and said with innocent sarcasm: „why hello again“. It then sat down on a chair by the door that seemed not have been affected by the battle.

Ankthar who had been reloading all this time, aimed briefly at the creature and fired, hitting it in the left side of the head blowing a big portion of the it away.
But the creature only grinned and said with certain cynicism in its voice:„ you can spare your bullets ,dwelf, they don’t hurt a man who cannot die.“

Ankthar was most certainly not going to relent his attacks and wasn´t going to listen to yet another undead claiming invincibility
But then he froze , uncapable of moving a muscle.
“I told you to spare your bullets and you should listen to superior creatures, you mongrel„ the creature commented.
Ankthar fell down an his knees unnaturally stiff and hardened.

„Now its good to see you two again, especially you mizra, I can´t say i´ve missed you but I´ve definitely not liked your absence. Kelthuzaad can be cruel when his plans fail.“
„I´ve ,,never ,,,,seen you,,,,,, before“, Exen´tor gasped barely able to breathe.
„Ohh maybe not , but your pesky little imp most surely has. I´m one of the fellows you burned to the core in the mountains not more than a day before the last.
What you see before you is the remains of those fellows, held together by sheer force.“
„What ,,are,, you? Exen´tor demanded weakly.“
The grin kept on, as if taunting them.
„I´m a more perfect version of you, more „corrupted“ if you will. I actuallt went through the entire defilement , but didn´t chicken off and away, like some people here.“
Mizra fell to the floor , her strength gone and done with.
„My soul is broken but held together by the lich kings´ will, therefore as long as he holds his bonds over me I cannot die.“
he stopped here for a second as if contemplating what he had just said and whether it had been a little too much.
„But I prefer the question, who I am, I like it much more. Back in the days when I had an identity they used to call me a devil. Heh they should look at me now.
The devil of swords, was my nickname, Sworddevil for short.“

He meant to continue but was rudely interrupted by mesfer who landed in his head and started tapdancing on what was left of it, while squeaking sarcastically:
„Sworddevil? Hah devil of swords? Couldn´t you find something more cliché? Like the ultimate svordsman, or deaths advocate, or even the super ultimate super swordsman! Or even gahhh,,,,.“
Mesfer was himself rudely interrupted when thrown at Exen´tors head by the „sworddevil“.
„As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, I am more corrupted version of you, which is why you lose your power by the mere sight of me. Control3ing Corruption oozes from me and takes hold of your petty corrupted bodies. Now enough about you. Let me tell you about ME.
I used to be a human with powers beyond,,,,,,“
„Hey Ex“ Mesfer squeaked in Exen´tors ear,„ hey you listening stupid?“
„What!?“ ,Exen´tor whispered back ,angry and irritated.
„You know what we have to do. You know the gargolyles are coming, We have to act,“
„No! I will not do it! We will find another way“
„But it’s the only way and You know it. The only way to win a great corruption like this is with a great purity or greater corruption , and lets face it, you can find a child murdering acocalyte of the death cult with greater ethics than you.
You know what we have to do.“

Sworddevil kept on chatting, now talking about his childhood in some monastery or the other. Exen´tor wasn´t sure whether he didn´t realize that no one was listening to him or if he simply didn´t care.

„All right“ exentor spat, anything but listen to that conceited sleazebag until the gargolyles arrive.
„Huh? What did you say? I was simply mesmerized in his beautiful story of how he killed his first raccoon.“
„All right , we´ll do it but don´t let her see it and it must only be my left arm, understand?“
„yes yes fine okay lets do it before his jaws fall to the floor from overuse.“

„And that’s when I became a knight of the silver hand, what glorious deprivation of logic and life that was. When I was 17 I,,“ Sworddevil kept on talking nonstop it seemed, so conceited in his self proclaimed perfection that he didn´t even notice the change in Exen´tor.
„Hey!“ Exen´tor interrupted with a dark green flame in his eyes and a dry rowdy voice, „shut up for one second will ya, that’s about as long as it will take to knock even more senseless than you are right now“.
„What could you“,, Sworddevil began but was then crushed by Exen´tors hand which had suddenly turned to shadowy green, as big as tree.

„I told you to shut up “ Exen´tor proclaimed as he crushed his body.

Fifth chapter

„I told you to shut up !“ Exen´tor proclaimed as he crushed sworddevil´s body.
„You cant do that, i´m, gwahh“ Sworddevil yelled as exen´tor drove his body through the wall and threw him to the nearest tree, knocking the tree down.
„I´m ,kaff,i´m superior“, sworddevil demanded, „i´m the greatest being who´s ever walked this land.“
He fell face down on the snow, pitiful and pathetic.

„Stop mesfer, its enough!“ Exen´tor insisted, „he´s gone away for now, we have to hurry, we have to run away from here, the gargolyles are coming.“
„But i´m having fun here, come on we can take a bunch of gargoes. How many did we take in northrend!?“ a voice said in Exen´tors head.
„I said stop!“Exen´tor grunted forcefully
„Fine fine you´re no fun at all you know“ The voice complained and Eexen´tors hand slowly yet surely changed from the devilish gigantic hand to his own.

As the greenish shadow was confined to one spot, mesfer jumped out of it, obviously irritated.
„Damn elf“ he grumbled, „never any fun“.
Exen´tor ignored him, and ran to Mizra where she lay on the cabins floor.
Life seemed to be returning to her and she raised her head staring at Exen´tor as he ran to her.
„What happened?“ she asked weakly, „did we win?“
„Yes, in a way we did ,but we cannot linger here,“ he replied hastily „they’re coming and they know how to find us“.
„But where should we go? we cant go anywhere to safety, the alliance has disbanded us and,,“
„We’re going to ironforge“ was Exen´tors answer as he hoisted her up
„Ironforge?“ She asked puzzled: „But why should we,,“
„I´ll explain later, right now we have to hurry.“
He half dragged her out of the cabin when he realized that Ankthar was still there unconsciousness on his own cabin floor.
He couldn’t just leave him there, after all he had done! Exen´tor sighed, let Mizra slide on the floor and grabbed the dwelf, now in his elven form and placed a simple lightweight enhancement on him.
„MESFER“ he yelled.
„WHAT!“ The imp yelled back, busy looting the dwelf´s silverware.
„You´ll carry him until he wakes up“
„Carry who?“
Exentor threw the incredibly light dwelf on Mesfer and replied: „him“.
As one would suspect. Mesfer was sure that this was it, once again, his death would com now in the image of a big assed half breed elf.
He closed and averted his eyes and raised his hands for a futile protection ,and grapped the dwelf as easily as if he had grapped a stick.
He looked curiously at the scene as if wondering why he was still alive, and then snapped at Exen´tor: „oh ha ha ha very funny. Bloody blood elf“.

Exen´tor hoisted Mizra up again and started running, Mesfer running behind him with the dwelf on his head.
„Where are we going“ he shouted at Exen´tor.
„We go south, I have a feeling I know where Sira´dreth is.“
„Oh thank the blissful eternity of pain and death, finally someone nice, came mesfer´s answer curiously unsarcastic. “
Exentor held mizra in his arms while she was still recovering, later on she needed to hold him up because of his frostbite. She seemed completely unaffected by the cold.
Mesfer was forced to hold Ankthar the entire time, grumbling, swearing and cursing Exen´tor in ways only demons can think of.

For a night and a day they ran. Without delay and without a stop ,always moving south. South to the warmer climates of the fallen Lordaeron.
They encountered nothing in the dead land for that time, except for the shadows that always seemed to lurk beetwen the trees.
But by the fall of the second day, they could run no more. Their strength was gone and even Mesfer who always seemed ready to snap insults at Exen´tor lumped forward as if ready to fall in every step.
In the end the party could run no more and settled in a cave where a bear had undoubtedly nestled in the years before the death of the land.
But now there was nothing except the four companions, three after mesfer cursed his way back home.
There was no fire, they couldn’t risk it, no way to keep them warm except themselves
And mizra seemed to feed on the cold.
So Exen´tor huddled in one corner of the cave with Ankthar wrapped around himself in his elven form.
„H-hh-ho-o-wwww ca-can you no –no-not be co-o-lld-d-d?“ exen´tor asked Mizra his teeth clattering.
„Oh that, it´s really simple I just don’t get cold.“
„Bu-bu- but h- ho-ow.„
„You spend all your might trying to keep the heat within you to preserve it. I don’t.
I let the cold take over and control as I want. Very easy actually.“
„Ea-as-sy for y-o-ou to say.miss k-k-know it a-all q-u-uen of ice. “
„Blahh just because you don’t know how to do this ,there is no reason to be jealous of my art.“
That’s mizra for you, Exen´tor thought, always so conceited.
He sighed, shook his back and sad dully: „We-e-e-ll us me-e-r-re-e morta-a-als c-a-a-an´t survive w-wi-ith-out he-ea-eat. I will tr-tra-tra-avel dee-e-eper. “
At first mizra wasn´t at all sure wthjer to follow her clattering companion but decided to move further inside for defense´s sake. But also becauses she needed answers from Exen´tor, and clattering teeth and longtlae was not a good combination..

They walked for several minutes into the cave that seemed to go on forever.
Finally when Exen´tor had decided that this was far enough they sat down and conjured a magical fire that spewed no smoke but let out great heat.
Slowly yet surely Exen´tors voice thawed and his teeth no longer clattered echoes upon the walls.
But Mizra gave no mercy. He had to explain to her in full detail what had happened after their sundering , what had happened to him and how he had known where to find her.
When he finished the tale his mouth was not only fully thawed but seemingly exhausted from overuse.
But Mizra didn’t care about that.
„Why are even bothering looking for us ? what is the reason?“
„You mean beside saving you from certain doom?“
Mizra´s eyes were clear as crystals and they both frowned in exen´tors way.
„Allrigt “he sighed, „you truly want to know why? While I was held a prisoner I was visited quite often before they tried to,, you know,, change me.
I never saw his face,and his voice only echoed in my mind.but it was always clear as of who he was.
Arthas, or what was left of that being,
He tried to persuade me to spill my secret in as many number of ways one can imagine. But what he wanted was nothing of my knowledge, but simply something that was etched in my mind.
In his persuasions he once told me of his plans.
Why he was torturing me, what he was going to do with my knowledge and would happen to us all.
Later that day he triede to change me, and later that day I broke my way out of the enchangement chamber and out of the fortress.“
„What is he planning then?“ Mizra asked out-of-character excited.
„Draenor“, Exen´tor said, „and every other world beyond that.
He wants to use something that is in our minds to create portal to Draenor, to take control of the black citadel and to use the weakened world as a jumping point to every other world out there.
He feels that the burning legion has failed and that they are now nothing but pawns in the battle for survival.
He plans to inhabitate all the worlds with the undead and create an multiworldly empire that would be ruled by him and him only.“

Mizra was silent for a moment, „but he can’t do that can he? Even if he’d manage to make a portal to draenor he probably couldn’t take on Illidans forces could he?“
„No probably not but he will hunt us, the gatekeepers, and try to. And I’m trying to prevent that. In the end he will manage to make the portal but then I’d want our people to be forewarned . After we’ve gather up the group we will portal us to Draenor to report this to Illidan.“
Again Mizra was silent. „But there are other ways of warning them she quickly replied, quicker than finding all of the gatekeepers whom we don even know if are alive. And why would we,,.“
„Believe me they are all alive “Exen´tor cut her short. „but this is not about contacting our people, this is about our friends that are in grave danger and that we must help them. If not for our people, the at least for our friendship.“
„Always so bleeding poetic aren’t ya’ well I guess its better than being hunted day and night by the undeads in the plaquelands so yeah I guess i´ll tag along“.
„What about this guy“ she said and kicked in ankthar side, „now in a half elf half dwarf mode.“
„When he comes around he’ll be able to make up his own mind. but since his house has probably been burned down, I’d guess that he’ll come with us for the time being“
There was silence for a moment before Mizra asked once again: why ironforge?
„Don’t ask me why but I get the feeling that sira´dreth is somewhere underground. In a city of some kind.“
Mizra raised an eyebrow
„Hey don’t look at me like that. That’s how I found you, you know.“
Mizra kept her eyebrow raised up high, let it slide.
Ironforge wasn´t a worse place than any anyone else.
„But is the lich king really planning,, this whole thing? I mean it just seems to grand. Even for him.“
„Nothing is too grand for him blood elf“ a murky and assured voice snapped hastily.
Sworrdevil came in view rising from the shadows, with new body parts but the same smug smile on his face.
He raised his two swords and pointed them towards the pair.
„His plans always succeed, they always have and always will.“


Sixth chapter
End of first part

Ankthar had been falling in and out of unconsciousness for a long time now.
He´d been carried by something smaller and much more irritated than him. He had been thrown to the ground in a rocky cave and been wrapped around someone like a carpet.
But that was all that could remember. Next thing he knew he was laying by the two blood elves too entrenched in their conversation to notice him.
He caught only a glimpse of the topic but realized that Exen´tor was explaining to Mizra what had happened to him.
Ankthar didn´t seem to be able to move a muscle so he decided, as much as being forved to, to just relax and listen to Exen´tors tale, again.
At first it was the original tale he had heard from Exen´tor the first time but then it changed. A lot. What was this about Arthas? And his plans? How could
Something so big be happening around the two stragglers he had found in the mountains.
Ankthar tried desperately to move his feet ,just to be able to move some part of his body.
But he couldn´t no matter how hard he tried. He was about to give up and try to sleep his way out of the troubles when something happened.
A fourth man appeared out of the shadows.

„No one can fault his plans, no one ever has.“ Sworddevil seemed even more confident(if possible) in his master’s excellence than his own.
„You will come with me out of this cave and you will commit your minds to our cause .“
Exen´tor and mizra felt the same tug in their hearts as before. The binding of corruption in their minds and the overwhelming feeling that if they followed him, everything would be allright.
But they resisted it all, as hard as it might seem and managed to hold their ground after the first initial shock.
But the corruption just kept on leaking from sworddevil and his conceited grin became wider and smugger by the second.
„Feeling a bit dizzy are we, yes I suppose such a perfect excellence such as mine would without a doubt disturb unbalanced creatures like you.“
Exen´tor stood up and said harsly: „listen you bastard“,,, but was abruptly interrupted by sworddevils ongoing monologue:„oh yes I can see how you tremble by the mere sight of me. pray do not look upon me if it kills you. After all ,we need you alive.
Now , you will move , you will walk out of this cave and you will“ ,,
„We will do no such things, exen´tor shouted angrily.“
„Shut your mouth demon breed, without your little impy dimby you’re nothing more than a trembling leaf in my presence.“
„Demon?“ Mizra asked, her voice hoarse, „what demon?“
„Don’t mind him or what he says, its all a lie! Exen´tor shouted back eyes fixed on sworddevil.“
„Oh really? So I can assume you haven’t told her of the demon blood that´s flowing through your veins.“
„You! stay silent!“ Exen´tor roared, suddenly gleaming with yellow energy.
He lunged forward, insanity in his eyes and yellow sand bolt in his right hand.
Sworddevil dodged the enraged assault easily,spun around himself and slashed whith the broader side of the sword on exen´tors head.
Exen´tors body was slammed to the wall.
“Guess he didn´t tell ya“,swordevil chuckled confident as ever , „heh oh well far from me to destroy your lovely relationship“ sworddevil claimed sarcastically and raised his swords mizra’s way, „as long as you do what I tell you that is .“
Mizra’s body had begun to walk slowly away and out of the cavern although she seemed to be resisting every movement.
„Damn you“ she cursed „damn you to the fiery abyss of hell.“
Sworddevil seemed to be going to answer that with yet another conceited comment of his excellency, but was as shock as anyone else in the room when a gunshot was heard and a part of his head was blasted away. Again.
In the back of the cave stood Ankthar on uneasy feet with his trusted blunderbuss which had seemingly appeared out of nowhere.
„I´ve shot yer ‘ead two times nah, get that picture will ye!“, he raised the blunderbuss again,„ we dan´t like ye!“ And shot, this time blowing sworddevil’s right arm off.
„Impudent mortal!“ sworddevil shrieked as his right arm fell off.
He charged towards Ankthar with his left sword raised high and for a moment it seemed as the faltering dwarf was finished as sworddevil jumped towards him, only two paces away.
But he never landed.
He was held up in the air by ice and yellow sand that slowed his movement down to nothing.
Mizra was chanting the poem that had been stuck in her head and exen´tor seemed to be doing something likewise. They both held their right hands towards sworddevil, Exen´tor laying on the floor and Mizra standing straight and seemingly proud.
Exen´tor finished his poem, stood up, looked harshly at Sworddevil with dark green gleam in his eyes and roared in anger: „leave him alone!“
The sand began to dissipate sworddevils body, somehow eating him away.
„What? Whats happening?“swordevil screamed frantically, panicking „My body,, my ,, my its ROTTING! Gahhh its rotting away? How? how? I´ll get you for this blood elf, i´ll take every,,. “At this point his lungs and throat had rotted away and all that remained was the slowly dissipating head screaming something silently in pure and utter hatred and rage.
The second time, sworddevil was no more.

Anktar fell down on his knees, his newfound strength withered away.
„Arrr ´e mus´ave done somethin´ta me „he groaned.“ „i´m ‘uite accurately ´orn out.
He could have put some curse on you, the dwarfen priests of ironforge will know what to do.exen´tor said with hope in his voice“
„Yeah but how are we supposed to get there? “,Mizra asked,„ outside is just too dangerous in this land and I don’t think we have the strength to run all the way south to Ironforge.“
„You got another idea?“
„Aye we use those artfully ‘arved tunnels o´course “
„The tunnels?“
„Ye people, ye pride yerself in all yer cultures and yet ye can´t seem ta be able ta read a ‘uite simple message. Look at tha´ wall next ta ya.“
And behold on the wall stood in a well written manner, mostly covered ice:

E,ca,,,,,,,unnels to be used for .. ing enemies
No littering
No loitering
Be a,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,gentle man,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
to the,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, beast,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Ohhh the blood elves echoed each other.
„bloody blood elves“ Ankthar grumbled
They gathered what little things they had, lit a magical torch and began the descent into the long tunnels.
When they came out little more than a week later on the northern side of the Arathi highlands, they weren’t as sure the security of the tunnels as they once were.
When the ice finally melted in the tunnels many years later and the sign became once again legible it clearly read:

Excavating tunnels to be used for decapitating enemies
No littering
No loitering
Be aware of the seemingly gentle man-eating monster
and give tribute to the invincible beast least you become food.