Daughter of Azeroth

78 | OUTSIDE OF TIME

Her Light tugged on her, guiding her. She moved away, Khadgar's hand capturing hers, ensuring their tenuous contact. He followed after her to the end of the tunnel, waiting as she pressed her hand against the solid stone blocking the way out. Through the residue of its wards, she saw the tunnel let out into a large cave, half-filled by the ruins of an ancient elven temple. The wards blocking the way were layered, complex, and dangerous, crafted to ensure there could be no way through apart from using the magic made for them—the magic the Council needed her to decode, magic only someone belonging to the Legion could see and use. Or someone like her. It took her several painstaking, time-consuming tries to work out its order: seven layers, designed to change over time and reassemble into a different order to further ensure no one but one of Gul'dan's inner circle could use them.

Can you take us back in time, slowly, over the past three days? she asked.

Yes, of course. Khadgar began to scroll back through time, stopping at various intervals whenever she asked him to, so she could check the patterns. Satisfied she had learned all she could, she asked him to take them into the future: perhaps there might be hidden wards awaiting them, she wanted to be certain she had checked all the possibilities. He moved them forward in time, the wards clicking into place just as she suspected they would. They had progressed into the afternoon of the next day when she felt a lurch, as though hitting a wall.

Strange. He said, and tried again. A bubble of resistance pressed against her, heavy with the weight of time. She shoved hard, using all her will, fearing a hidden ward. She burst through, a flash of her Light blinding her as she stumbled out alone on the other side.

A woman, the same woman she had seen on the sabre cat in the Violet Citadel, stood before her in a large circular room, the floor blazing with fel runes; a massive portal to the Nether gaping like a festering wound in the wall, its edges framed by more glowing runes, the colour of pestilence. The woman spoke, with the voice of a powerful male. No longer beautiful, the elven queen's face and body had been ravaged almost beyond recognition, only her eyes remained intact, flaming with fel fire. Idira watched, horrified, realising she was looking at her future, when she would confront Sargeras's avatar.

She watched, horrified, as her future self, wearing her full regalia, reached out and touched the titan's avatar, her fingers glowing, brilliant with her Light, consuming the power imprisoning Tyrande, freeing her. Tyrande fell, and the being Sargeras emerged, hovering at the threshold of the portal to the Nether, enraged, a flaming entity of pure energy. His burning eyes met hers. He hissed one word: Azeroth. In response, a brilliant flash of violet light flared out from the torso of her future self, the entire room pulsating with Azeroth's blinding, cleansing Light. The Light faded.

Wounded and bloodied, Khadgar crawled across the ravaged room to a metallic object laying on the floor. He picked it up and clutched it against his chest, over his heart, his face twisted with anguish. She stared, disbelieving at the item in his hands. Her silver circlet. Of her and Sargeras, there was nothing. The runes on the floor lay dormant, extinguished; the portal to the Nether gone, replaced by the ashlars of the stone structure. She looked around, frantic, it had to be a mistake, her future self was somewhere else, thrown aside by the blast.

Tyrande, the night elf woman, still remained, her ravaged, bleeding body caught up into the arms of a male night elf, also bloodied and injured, who wept over her limp form. Two more bodies lay on the floor, mutilated beyond recognition and the crushed remains of something made of glass lay scattered amongst the debris. But of herself, there was nothing. It was as though she had never existed. She sank to her knees, disbelieving. No. It couldn't be. This was not how it was to end. To defeat the Sargeras, Azeroth's Light would need to consume her, obliterate her? Her whole existence was meant for this? To cease to exist? She staggered, unable to comprehend why she had been the one chosen for this horrible destiny. What had she done to deserve such a terrible end? She wanted to scream, but she had no voice, her heart stuttered as she caught sight of Khadgar's desolation, his eyes haunted, disbelieving, stricken, her name on his lips. She screamed, in total silence, her soul rending in two, shorn apart. She reeled, plummeting into darkness, riven by loss and despair.