Khalysta's Awakening
Summary:
I've played WoW since the beginning and this is only the third time that a character or class moved me to write about them.
This story revolves around my newly minted Demon Hunter, Khalysta, and her long imprisonment in the Vault of the Wardens. It talks a little about who she is and how she came to be. Trapped for what seems like an eternity in the vaults, all she can do with her consciousness as it comes and goes is reflect silently on how she came to be here.
I like writing these sorts of stories as self-reflection gives me an opportunity to focus more on thoughts and ideas as opposed to actions. It's short. It's simple.
Cold. Darkness. Vague shadows and visions. In some ways, being imprisoned in crystal was not unlike aspects of the ritual that made Khalysta what she was. It was impossible for her to judge the passage of time. Time had no meaning. All there was, was the darkness, the cold and, from time to time, whispers in her mind. The whispers, a last remnant of the demon soul fused with her own.
How much time had passed since her Lord and Master, Illidan StormRage had charged her with venturing into Mardum, part of an elite force of Illidari, to retrieve a powerful keystone. Illidan had said it was the key to ending the Burning Legion. Meanwhile he would protect the Black Temple against the fierce siege pounding relentlessly on the gates. A siege laid upon it by small minded people who refused to understand what the Illidari were trying to do.
What good had it done the Illidari in the end? Despite moving with a speed and hunger that saw hundreds of demons fall before her might and that of the forces she fought alongside, they had still been too late. The last thing Khalysta remembered seeing upon her return to the temple was the helm of that hateful Warden, Maiev Shadowsong...and Lord Illidan…dead. The elven bitch then turned on the rest of the Illidari, and encased them in a crystal prison of their own demonic blood before any of them could react. Khalysta hated her. She hated all of the denizens of Azeroth who refused to see what was right in front of them.
The truth. The truth of The Burning Legion.
It was a truth she had learned the hard way. When she saw her village...her parents, her whole family decimated with such ease they all might as well have been lambs to the slaughter. After that, rage was all she felt. It was all she could feel. It drove her from her calling at the Temple of Elune where she once thought to become a Priestess. It was rage that drove her to Illidan. It was rage that drove her to Shadowmoon Valley where she demanded...not requested...demanded to join Illidan’s fight against the Burning Legion. It was rage that allowed her to survive the training and eventual bonding ritual to become one of his new elite force...the Illidari.
Now her consciousness floated in the darkness. Visions of the slaughter of her loved ones, her bonding ritual with the demon, and visions of Maiev Shadowsong drifted through her mind like so many dreams that are hard to remember afterwards. Then the whispers in her mind would come again. In her bonding ritual, it had been a succubus that had been summoned. Of course it had thought to dominate her, but in the end it had been Khalysta who ripped the creature’s throat open and drank of it’s blood in a savage rage. She often wondered if the whispers she still heard in her mind were of it’s demon soul, or merely another side of her mind made more vocal by the demon power within. The whispers would speak of the rage felt at being so imprisoned. Other times they spoke of darker things, sometimes even arousing things. Such was a succubus’ nature she supposed. As the endless eternity dragged on, Khalysta occasionally wondered in stolen moments of consciousness if the voices were teasing her or trying to drive her insane...or both.
It had been a long time after she had become an Illidari that she began to feel anything other than rage. She still felt an eternal hatred for the Burning Legion and it drove her through her intense training along with the others of her kind with a sort of madness to be the very best at what she was taught. But in more peaceful moments within the dark training halls she began to feel other emotions. Ones she remembered feeling when she had just been a simple Night Elf. Once her mind cleared enough to understand that she was surrounded by those who thought as she did...by those who were as outcast from their homes as she now was...and that despite that, would do anything, and sacrifice anything to protect the people that now hated and feared them… Only then did she begin to open up, herself.
In the silent darkness of her prison Khalysta would remember those times. The first few lessons from those who had made the transition before to begin to see in the way that Illidari did. Honing her spectral sight until it was even sharper than any mortal definition of sight could ever be. Training relentlessly both in combat and mastery of the Fel day and night and day again. She even remembered just sitting with others in the ruins of Karabor outside the Black Temple, sometimes speaking of their shared desires for victory, other times speaking of what had brought them there. In those times Khalysta formed...well...she had never been sure if she could call them friendships, but it was certainly a strong comradery. Every one of them knew that they fought for a common goal. Every one of them knew the war they trained for might bring them death. But through and through, they knew they would fight to the bitter end. And the rest of the Illidari would always back them up until their dying breath.
Of course even then the demonic thoughts of the succubus would whisper in her mind to take such relationships a step further. There had been a time, long before the Burning Legion had destroyed her life, that pleasures of the flesh were not unknown to her, and it was something she quite enjoyed. But Khalysta refused to do anything that might give the demon soul bound to her, if indeed it still had it’s own consciousness, even a moment to push her over the edge, even as her powers grew stronger.
As her training progressed, first her trainers, and then Illidan himself had begun to see the power within her. It was almost as though she had been destined since birth to be one of his demon hunters. When their first taste of combat came at their infiltration of one of the burning legion’s own homeworlds, Khalysta had carved through the masses of demon hordes alongside her fellow Illidari as though they were nothing. But not only that. She also aided and helped her brethren where she could, as they returned the favor for her. She had become part of a unified fighting force of common purpose. As the months passed and the Illidari continued to wage war against The Burning Legion across the face of Outland, she garnered more power and respect. Soon after she was able to count herself among the most elite demon hunters of all the Illidari. And so it was in the Black Temple’s most desperate hour Illidan had dispatched her and the rest of the Illidari to bring him the keystone...the key to the end of the Burning Legion.
And she had failed. Certainly they had recovered the artifact and it had allowed her and her forces to return to the Black Temple. But it was too late. Illidan was dead. And yet the Illidari had just been imprisoned. Why? Perhaps imprisonment was the worse torture. How many years would she spend in the darkness cursing herself? Cursing The Burning Legion. Cursing Maiev Shadowsong and her ignorant wardens. How long would it be before the demon within her drove her to outright madness? Presuming, of course, she wasn’t already there.
Then, after an eternity in the cold darkness where time had no meaning… ...she heard a crack.
Truely? There had been no sound before. Should could hear nothing. Even the whispers of her demon soul were inaudible thoughts and impressions upon her mind.
There it was again...and another...and another…
And then...words…
“Illidari. I’ve spent my entire life as keeper of the wicked…”
Maiev. Would there be no end to Khalysta’s torment? Must she now endure her jailer’s voice as well?
“Thousands of years, my only solace, knowing the world is kept safe from your kind!”
One shot, Khalysta thought to herself, feeling the rage swell within...just one opportunity to strike…to avenge her Lord and Master and to avenge all Illidari... Even as the thought passed through her mind, she felt the demon power within her begin to stir.
She could see Maiev now. Slowly, her spectral sight was coming into some sort of focus as she became slowly aware of herself beginning to draw breath again, slowly becoming aware of her own physical body once more as her spectral sight focused on Maiev’s visage beyond the emerald wall that separated them. Was that really what Maiev was here to do? Awaken Khalysta only to torment her. But...no...there were cracks in the emerald prison that surrounded her. It was then that she saw Maiev draw back her weapon to strike.
“But I would do anything to save Azeroth!”
Khalysta would do the same...had done the same. Perhaps finally Maiev saw the truth as well…
In mere moments came the crash as Khalysta’s prison shattered around her and she found herself falling forward, collapsing onto the floor of the prison as she breathed in the fresh air and felt all her senses awakening rapidly, her demonic power swelled within, her soul demanding vengeance...a vengeance Khalysta was only too happy to unleash.
Maiev walked to a nearby rack of weapons and tossed Khalysta’s own warglaives onto the floor in front of her.
“Even if it means releasing you,” Maiev finished.
A moment of silence hung in the air as Khalysta stopped dead and looked up at her, disbelieving. Had the elf gone mad? Or was she actually trying to side with the Illidari after all this time? If it was the latter Khalysta wasn’t prepared to give her the chance. Not after Illidan’s fall. Khalysta was moments from taking up her twin blades and attacking the warden with a savage vengeance when she felt the entire vault shake. Maiev looked up at the ceiling before speaking.
“The Burning Legion is at our gates. Will you help us, demon hunter?” Maiev asked, almost challengingly. Khalysta could tell Maiev didn’t like this any more than she did.
In the end, Khalysta stayed her blades. Despite all that had been done to them, the Illidari always fought relentlessly against the truth that was the Burning Legion, sacrificing anything and everything, even the love of the people that had once bore them. Khalysta could tell nothing had changed in Maiev’s heart. Had the Legion not come, Khalysta would still be locked away.
But they had come. The Burning Legion was her enemy before all others. The denizens of Azeroth were only her enemy when they foolishly tried to interfere. And in those times she would strike them down just as viciously. But this was not one of those times. There would be time to deal with Maiev and the wardens later on for what they had done, but for now…
“The enemy of my enemy….” came the soft whisper in her mind, and she took up her blades.
“Yes, Warden Shadowsong,” Khalysta said, a hint of contempt dripping into her tone. Nevertheless she nodded “I will help you.”