Death Never Dies

by Milton Garby

  "I'll see what I can do," she promised.

  "So, so." Leira turned to Anra. "It's half past 'I'm done with my food'," she said, finishing off the last of it. "I think it's about time we head back or something. Got to do stuff tomorrow, you know?"

  Anra nodded. "Right. I'll help Hammon back. Sara, you mind helping Leira?"

  "Sure," she said.

  They paid for their meal and Anra was the first out. Watching the tiny dwarf practically carry the nearly comatose elf was comical enough, and then Sara found herself in the position of grabbing Leira's wrist and tugging her through the Commons.

  "You are not going to have fun tomorrow," she mused. "This is why I don't drink, you know."

  Leira scoffed. "Sara, seriously." She stumbled a moment. "Old God magic aside, you are the most boring person I've ever met." Sara's heart momentarily stopped, but looking around revealed that nobody had noticed what Leira said about her magic. "You don't drink, until you came here you barely exercised, you pretty much just stay in your room all day and... what? Hell you don't even date."

  "That's because I hate everyone, Leira."

  "Excuses excuses. Hey, I'm thinking of going with Hammon and - "

  " - aaand this conversation's over," she said sharply. "Is the new glyph settling alright?"

  "Hmm? Yeah, if you hadn't told me what it's made of I'd have barely noticed. Gonna punch Huan tomorrow, get into a fight with him and test it out."

  "I'll be sure to revive you in that case," she said with a cheeky grin. By then they'd arrived back in the Military Ward.

  "Pfft, yeah right. You saw me beat the shit out of that obsidian destroyer. I'll whoop his ass with this new glyph you gave me. I mean, like, it's Old God magic. That's seriously strong stuff if you're not gonna cause any drawbacks."

  "No, I'm not," she explained. Sara brought the drunken draenei into the guild hall and helped her towards her room. She even gave Leira what was left of her water skin for when the hangover struck her, and then retired to her own room.

  Over all, the tavern outing hadn't been nearly as unbearable as she'd thought. She'd been able to squeeze Anra and Hammon for some valuable information after all, and they gave her targets to make glyphs for. Of course, she also needed to start thinking of enchantments as well, but it was a start.

  Time passed.

  Sara didn't go on any mission despite there being several calls to battle. Leira was not exactly a senior member but she'd been in the guild for twelve years so she went out. Sara's trial period had only just ended, rendering her a fully fledged member of the guild, but still a new one. All things considered it was better for her to stay in Ironforge, honing her skills and bestowing gifts upon her 'allies'.

  Old God blessings were known for the enormous power they granted, but the power always came at a price. The price of your soul, the price of your sanity, the price of your allegiance, the list went on. The price was always steep so only the really far gone, like the Twilight's Hammer, ever even considered Old God power. But Sara wasn't a mortal asking an Old God for power, she was the one they asked and damn proud of it. So in her past life - and maybe her current one - she'd have asked for lots in return, but this was to stop the Legion from destroying her world. At least for the time being she could give out her glyphs and enchantments without asking for people's souls in return. After all, they had the Old God of Death mostly on their side, she was going to make sure they got their money's worth.

  She kept exercising. Sometimes she got into friendly duels, and more often than not she blew her opponents away with her colossal power. Once or twice, though she ended up silenced, counterspelled, or just generally outmaneuvered and defeated. She practiced Yogg-Saron's spells and dreamed of long-gone days as an Old God, where she'd wake up feeling compressed and stiff, wishing to stretch tentacles she didn't have up to the sky.

  The day started like any other. She got up, ate breakfast, and went over the most recent spell she was practicing, the brain link. She made a few glyphs for paladins and warlocks and gave them out to those that had requested them, then gave a soul-eating enchantment for a rogue to ensure any demons he killed stayed dead. Then she went for her daily jog around Ironforge.

  She went north first, going through Tinker Town. She had to be careful to make sure she didn't trample anyone, because what a shame that would be. After that it was the wide and shining Hall of Explorers, and then into the refreshingly dark but achingly small Forlorn Cavern. But then she got to the Mystic Ward, where Ironforge's Light-wielders and spellcasters tended to gather, and she had to come to a stop.

  Normally, Ironforge was very racially diverse. Dwarves and gnomes were, of course, a majority, but there were plenty of humans, worgen, night elves, draenei, and pandaren. But the absolute last thing she expected to see was hordes - no pun intended - of blood elves and forsaken in the Mystic Ward, pouring out of the portal room and making rings around the pool of water in the middle of the room. She paused her jogging and, panting lightly, approached the nearest guard. The guard in question, even under his helmet, was eyeing the Horde members warily.

  "Sir, do you know why, um, they're here?" she asked as respectfully as she could bear.

  "Yeah, I do," he explained. "So after Silvermoon fell most of the blood elves evacuated to Kalimdor places, but a fair amount also went to the Undercity cause it's, you know, close. Just recently Undercity's been captured, so now a good number are here as refugees. That Sylvanas lady is speakin' with the Council right now actually, dunno why. We should just shunt them through the portals to Orgrimmar. They're with theirs, not with ours, everyone's happy. Least nobody's givin' 'em trouble."

  "So the blood elf and forsaken army is in Ironforge?" she deadpanned.

  "Oh no, not the armies. These are the civilians."

  Hmm. Sara had an idea. She could even knock out her 'good deed of the day' that she so detested forcing herself to do. She reached into her memories and started organizing the spell. Over long minutes she pieced together the spell, and when she was sure she had a good framework to work on, she strode confidentially towards the sin'dorei and undead.

  Sara had learned Orcish in school. She hadn't forgotten any of it despite her lack of use, but she also hadn't learned much to begin with. The Horde members near her were starting to take note of her. The forsaken were all in regular clothes and despite the rot and exposed bones looked as scared as any human would be in the reverse scenario. With the blood elves, it was much easier to see the worry. There were even some kids huddled around their caretakers' knees. Some played with toys, some talked in rapid-fire Thalassian. But as she grew closer, the chatter of Orcish, Thalassian, and Gutterspeak died down.

  She picked out the closest one, a blood elf man about a head taller than her with spiked blonde hair and freakishly long ears even for his kind. "Hello," she said in Orcish, trying to remember how it went. "I can magic," she forced out. "Speak bad, but magic good. Can teach Common with magic my," she explained.

  There was some shuffling, and then a forsaken woman pushed her way to the front of the crowd. Like all of them, her eyes were a blank sulfurous glow, but aside from the ashen skin and exposed bones along her elbows, she could have passed for a living person in hideously contrasting blue and orange. "I can speak Common," she said in a painfully scratchy voice. "From the looks of it, better than your Orcish."

  Sara relaxed. "Oh good, that makes this easier. I can cast a spell that will teach Common permanently. It's not water or shelter, but it'll reduce the need for you to go back and forth as translator." She wiggled her fingers, letting dark purple magic drip from them for emphasis.

  The undead smiled, briefly showing off rotten yellow teeth. Sara didn't flinch. "That would be very useful indeed." She turned back to the gathering crowd and spoke in Orcish far too fast for Sara to understand, then turned back. The blood elf Sara'd first approached raised his hand. "Alright, we have your first volunteer. Do your best, human."

  Grinning wryly, she approached the man
and extended her magic into his head. Like always, a dense forest of interlinking purple lines, with bright magenta pulses flashing along them almost too fast for her eyes to track, and she got to work.

  A few months ago, something like imparting the knowledge of an entire language into someone's long term memory would have been beyond her. But she was getting better at this. It took a few minutes to get past the personal variances and then a few minutes longer to truly cement the knowledge in, but then she stepped back and turned off her magic.

  "Alright, does this work?"

  The man felt his head, then blinked hard. "I... yes," he said with a heavy accent. "This is remarkable. You actually did it." He broke into a grin and gave a short bow. "Thank you, miss."

  "Yeah yeah. Alright, who's next?"

  Sara worked. And she worked and she worked, casting the spell over and over again. Her mind buzzed as she worked through the slight differences in each person's mind. She got faster, and she got more efficient in terms of mana, but something she hadn't accounted for soon came into play. There were just so many people. The crowds around her didn't seem to diminish even after an hour. People in the Mystic Ward apparently heard of her efforts and came to her with mana potions and water, and her own mana pool was very deep, but there were just so many people. Thousands of them. Each with different mind links. About half and half were undead; not many blood elves had gone to Undercity, but not many forsaken were civilians either.

  First she developed a tickle in her throat that grew to full-blown thirst before long. Then her head swam and her knees shook, forcing her to do the casting while sitting down with her target. Then she got hungrier, she got dizzier, with an increasing burst of spots flickering in her vision whenever she cast, and Sara had to call it quits after having only helped a few hundred people. She rested a bit, and helped a dozen more after she could, but then she simply had to give up and leave the rest of them disappointed.

  Well, that's my good deed for the day, she thought. Sara finished up her jog and went about the rest of her day in the sort of agonizing repetitiveness she'd come to tolerate. Noon came, and with it lunch. Then she worked on the mind malady spell. Then came dinner, and she stayed up long into the night working on making another soul-eater enchantment.

  Scritch, scratch went her pencil.

  Abyss crystals, spirit dust, and sha crystals flowed together, forming the soul-eater enchantment. After a little more preparation, it was ready to be added to a weapon.

  Knock knock knock!

  "Oh now what?!" she muttered, standing from her desk and sliding to the door. She opened it and...

  Another succubus. Probably the same one too, but her choker glowed purple this time.

  "Not this again," she growled, preparing her soul destruction spell. How had she even gotten through the invisibility wards?!

  Then the demon sucked in a panicked breath and, closing the door with her tail, tackled Sara.

  Of all the possible things the demon could have done, that was absolutely the last thing she'd expected. Sara went down on the ground, and her magic flickered out. The demon was laid against her, scrambling for purchase, but before she could slice her throat or anything similar Sara cast her shadowy barrier. It wasn't total immunity yet but it did protect her from non-projectile spells like seduction magic.

  She rose to her feet and turned her head to the succubus, who was still on the ground, pushed into a corner. The position bent her bat wings at an odd angle, and she looked at Sara breathlessly. "Wait wait, just hear me out!" she pleaded.

  "Oh I think I will," she intoned ominously. Her magic glowed bright purple and she forced it into the succubus's mind...

  ... nothing happened.

  She tried to start mind controlling the demon again. Nothing happened, and Sara stared at her glowing hand in confusion.

  Meanwhile, the succubus fingered the band around her throat in shock. "Wow, I can't believe that worked," she whispered.

  "Oh, so you've got mind control protection." If that was the case, then not only was this the same succubus she'd killed a while ago, but it was also the same one she had mind controlled in Nethergarde. This was interesting, and the demon was scared to death and powerless to stop her, so what was the harm? "Alright, spit it out." The demon made to rise but Sara held her right hand at her along with a pulse of death magic. "Stay there."

  "Alright gorgeous, fine. So I'm guessing you remember me huh?" She growled. "I certainly remember you back in Nethergarde. Shame you slipped out when we smashed the keep, but that's beside the point. My lord retrieved me and had a dreadlord fix me. It took a long time sweetie, but I'm right as rain now. But what my lord found very interesting is that you." She pointed a clawed finger at Sara. "You used Old God magic." Her eyes widened, and she instantly started casting the soul destruction spell, causing the green light of her magic and the pain of over channeling to flare up. "Wait wait wait!" the succubus begged.

  A demon, begging. That was good and right. Sara relaxed. "Go on."

  "Okay listen. You're in this guild. You've been fighting us, so you know how well it's going. Your Kingslayers are useless. Your dragons are occupied. And this little continent? Oh ho, things are going swimmingly for us. Lady, you've got to have figured it out, right?" Sara frowned. "Oh yes, I see that look on your face, hot stuff. You know we're going to win."

  "You haven't before," she said, but Sara couldn't force confidence in her voice despite the fact that swirling violet magic still held the succubus against the ground. "Every Legion invasion before has gone poorly at first before we won."

  "Oh darling, you know as well as I do how flawed that is. I mean, it's like saying 'nothing has killed you yet, so therefor you're immortal'. We only need to win once, you know. And when we do, you're gonna die, darling. No skin off my back, but my commanding lord thinks you can do better than an early, painful grave. And hey, even if we don't somehow win, then you're only mortal right? Sooner or later you're gonna die anyway no matter how much magic you beg the Old Gods for."

  So they knew about her magic, but they were dead wrong about its origin. Not that she could blame them, how could they possibly know? She certainly hadn't suspected. "Get to the point," she snarled.

  "Okay look. Whatever you wanted to get from Old God magic, we can give you more. Like, those old creeps are done for! Titans came by and roasted them, and if they haven't taken back Azeroth in sixty thousand years, pfft! What makes you think they ever will? So, my lord has a good offer for you. Like, come join us and all. Sure sure, Azeroth's been a real stumbling block for us, but we've got it figured out now. We've learned from our past mistakes, we can leverage our strengths and cover our weaknesses. After that we'll just do what we've always done: move on to the next world. And the next, and the next. And you could be part of that!"

  "Really now?" she said calmly.

  The demon nodded. "Oh you better believe it," she said flirtatiously. "You could really put that power of yours to the test. You could use it to turn mortals inside out and make them scream in agony, or mind control them and make them do whatever the hell you want! Oh, or raze villages to the ground, or mind-magic your way into a city and slice their leaders. That's always a favorite of mine, you know."

  Sara blinked hard, trying to pretend she hadn't liked what she'd just heard. In the back of her mind she thought about the images of the Old Gods' rule. Of rivers of blood drying up under the heat of volcanoes. Screams, torture, all sorts of horrible things that could be done that sent a tingle down her spine and butterflies into her stomach.

  "And it wouldn't be just like a sixty year deal or something. You could do it with us forever."

  She was immortal anyway but... that really put it into perspective didn't it? A hundred years. A million. A billion. Ravaging and pillaging worlds, growing stronger and stronger until she matched her past life's power, on and on as much as she wanted. Sara began swaying from side to side, but caught herself. "My friend," she protested. I should have just kill
ed this succubus again, she thought. "My family."

  The demon flicked a wrist and rolled her eyes. "Pfft, you've got Old God magic and you're worried about that?" Sara's magic pulsed. "Okay okay! Easy there. I'm sure you could make a deal with my lord. Your allegiance to the Legion in exchange for the lives of your friends and family. Find a little unintelligent garden world out of the way for them to live on, give you visiting rights and everything to make sure we've kept our end of the bargain." Sara's gut clenched. Suddenly she was so tired and compressed. She wanted to let loose her magic and let it flow like a river, return to Ulduar and remake this world in her image as it should have been. And with the Legion's resources it'd be so easy. Her body ached and tingled. Damn it, she wanted it so badly.

  "And in return you get everything! Power, prestige, the popularity of being the only wielder of Old God magic in the entire millions-strong Burning Legion. You could even have some fun with my kind, you know. Or the incubi we keep locked up on our home world if that's your thing. All you need to do is - "

  Sara shook herself out of it. Forget it. Forget it! Even if she did want any of that she wasn't about to trust demons to do it. They could fabricate some trick to make her think her family was alive. "Forget it. Not interested." Her magic grew brighter and brighter, and the succubus gulped. But before Sara could erase her soul, the demoness actually brought her hands above her forehead, winced, and drove her claws deep. She collapsed limply and both her body and blood blew away as demonic mist moments before Sara's spell was powered up enough.

  "Damn it," she said. Sara moved to her bed and sat on it, resting her head in her hands. "Damn it damn it damn it."

  So now she had demons trying to corrupt her into joining them. It wouldn't even be that bad of an idea, for her sake. She could, if she really tried, guarantee Leira and Mom and Dad's safety. She could even make it so they weren't aware of what was going on in the real world, and then she could travel from world to world, destroying and dominating unrestrained, until eventually her magic grew greater than Kil'jaeden's, greater than Sargeras's, and she took command of the Burning Legion. But...