World of Warcraft®

Ten years ago...

Taeril'hane Ketiron sat by the fire in a camp high in the hills southeast of Silvermoon, near a troll village that was strangely abandoned, quiet. He didn't blame the brutes for choosing to hide away from what had come.

Silvermoon burned, the path of death cutting the city in twain even as the march of the damned continued on a frozen bridge from there to the Sunwell. Though he was no sorcerer, he felt a void in his soul that had not been there before. He had originally thought it was just the sight of all those slaughtered by the Fallen Prince, either bereft of their souls and left to rot or marching along with the rest of the dead.

"A copper for your thoughts." Telanis Sunblade, House Whitehair's chief priest, handed Ketiron a cup of water. "At least the dead and the damned have not befouled the waterways...though I do my work to ensure its purity nonetheless."

Ketiron accepted the cup gratefully. "At least the Light is still with us, in this dark time."

"Indeed so. Though there are some we wish still stood with us. The Guard lacks with her gone."

"That it does," Ketiron agreed. A month earlier, Captain Kaleris Skyfire, commander of the House Guard, had fallen to the Scourge. Ketiron had been her second-in-command, as captain of the Phalanx - the personal bodyguards of Lord Kel'theris - and she had charged him with getting the lord to safety before joining the defenders. Though she was probably the finest warrior Ketiron had ever known, Arthas had cut her down like a sickle through wheat. "Has Lord Kel'theris decided on her...successor?" He had been about to say "replacement", but knew no one could replace her.

"Not yet," Sunblade replied. "Teren is agitating hard to take over, though. His family has held that role for millennia, and with his sister gone, he's the only one left...so he thinks it must be him, because who else can it be?"

"Even now, he thinks only of himself," Ketiron snarled.

"He does, but he also knows it's Lord Kel'theris' decision. The lord decides, the Guard obeys. That is how it has been, even now." Sunblade looked up. "Speak of the lord and he approaches."

Kel'theris Whitehair looked quite pale, even for an elf, and he leaned on his staff slightly more heavily than usual. At his right hand was Teren Skyfire, looking quite smug. Ketiron stood from his place at the fire and bowed deeply. "My lord."

"Taeril'hane." Kel'theris smiled warmly. "I am glad to see you are still with us. The Guard has lost one exceptional leader; I do not think it could stand to lose them both." He paused. "I have decided on Kaleris' successor. It was not easy, I will confess...but we need a man of strength to command what remains of my warriors." Kel'theris looked over at Teren for a moment, then back at Ketiron. "I name you, Taeril'hane Ketiron, to command my House Guard."

"What?!" The near-shriek had come from Teren. "My lord, this must be a joke."

"Taeril'hane well deserves this honor. He has proven his bravery and his loyalty in battle many times, both to Kaleris, and to myself. It was her counsel, when the Scourge came, that led me to this decision."

"No! Kaleris would never choose someone outside our family...and I am all that remains of it." Teren looked to Kel'theris pleadingly. "Have I not proven my loyalty and courage to you, my lord? Have I not bled, as all my ancestors have bled, in service to your House?"

"Indeed you have, Teren, which is why I will name you captain of the Phalanx in Taeril'hane's stead, to offer him your experience and counsel."

Teren was outraged at the suggestion. "Second to him? Never! It was only his toadying father who allowed him to become captain of the Phalanx. Kaleris wouldn't have named him to oversee latrine duty, let alone command the bodyguard of a Councillor of Silvermoon!"

"Then you may stay in the ranks. I have made my decision."

"And I choose not to accept it!"

Kel'theris glared icily at him. "You dare challenge me? Now?"

"You dare to insult my family and its long service to yours?" Teren sneered back. "Perhaps it's well that you name this fool to command your guard, for you are just as much a fool as he!"

Kel'theris tapped his staff once into the ground. A wave of power knocked Teren off his feet, tumbling down the hillside. As he came to rest, he heard the mage-lord speak. "I have tolerated your attitude for the sake of harmony, Teren, but you have gone too far. I allow you to live, but if I see you again, I will destroy you. Now, begone!"

Teren stared hatefully up at Kel'theris and Ketiron, and spat into the earth. "So be it. But do not be so sure of your victory. I swear to you, when we meet again...I will destroy you."

Then he turned and walked away.

The present day - Saavedar Garrison, Frostfire Ridge

Ketiron felt uneasy. Since the artifact had been retrieved, he had not been sleeping well. But it was not the dark power that had killed one of his House arcanists that troubled him. He had been having the same recurring nightmare every day.

Normally, dreams and visions would be the province of Farseer Thek'la, the shaman from the Echo Isles. But Thek'la had disappeared some time before, "chasin' visions of da future" as he had put it. Nearly everyone with some hint of precognition could tell something was on the horizon, and that it involved the events that had gone down in Tanaan Jungle. But Ketiron's nightmare had taken him elsewhere. To the "first" Draenor...to Outland. To the war against Illidan - and Kael'thas, who had first served Illidan, and then the Legion...

Ketiron had not been a Blood Knight then. At least, not at first. He had shunned Liadrin and her order, appalled at the idea that they thought they could take the Light. No one could. The Light gave, of its own free will, and on its own counsel. That was the way it had always been. Yet the powers they siphoned from M'uru made them just as strong as "real" paladins, but devoid of the moral center that would make them so. Kael'thas had changed that later, by taking M'uru from Silvermoon and openly declaring his loyalty to Kil'jaeden. Liadrin had awakened to the truth, and Ketiron had followed her ever since, becoming a Master in the new order of Blood Knights...an order empowered by the Light-infused Sunwell.

He had not thought on the "wilderness years" - the time spent in the ruins of Quel'Thalas after the Scourge - for ages, yet he found himself thinking back to when he had watched Kaleris Skyfire fall to Frostmourne, and her brother Teren campaigning for his own advancement even when their entire world had collapsed around them. He wondered what had happened to Teren; rumor had it that he had gone with Kael'thas to Outland when he had aligned with Illidan, but Ketiron had never seen him in the Illidari blood elf bases in Terokkar or Shadowmoon, or aligned with Kael in Netherstorm and Tempest Keep, or on Quel'Danas. Perhaps he had simply died alone in the wilderness.

What has got me thinking on this? he wondered. It's not the tablet. This thing has nothing to do with our people at all, that much I know. Yet why are my dreams now haunted by those days?

Ketiron headed over to the garrison's tavern, feeling exhaustion come over him. He would have a drink and then try to sleep. He was not particularly "old" for an elf, but the pain in his body from more than a decade of wounds and worry was becoming unbearable. Yet, he carried on.

Somehow.