Vesthi’s feet sank softly into the twilight sands. Small mounds pressed outward as her weight settled on each foot. Ten long years. Darkshore had changed so much. So much devastation. The earth had cracked open with a gaping chasm. Auberdine had been obliterated. The dark forests were upheaved. Confused. Chaotic, and in pain. The ravages of war splintered throughout. And in the midst of it all Vesthi thought she had found its source. The heart of all the darkness. A thing she would never witness with her natural eyes loomed far off the shore. Once she’d been told it was a great and verdant wonder. A world tree. Brought into the world as a tribute to the resilience of her kin. A true wonder of the world. Magnificent to behold, she’d been told. Surpassed, possibly, by only the likes of the great Night Elven city that it cradled. It honored all that they had suffered and survived, boasting a gleaming gem dedicated to the splendor of the White Lady herself. More than a refuge of the Kaldorei, it was their home. Darnassus was the center of everything that was or was meant to be Night Elf.
The dark sea splashed over Vesthi’s toes. The waters fizzled and spat around her feet in complaint of the fel of her being. Peering out over the sea Vesthi’s normally ironclad discipline began to slip. Emotion bubbled to the surface. Vesthi hadn’t realized just how much she had looked forward to seeing this new home of her peop… of the Kaldorei. The very notion of its existence validated everything she had sacrificed. All that she had suffered and endured. Not to mention the horror she had wrought. That she might yet experience it’s splendor it with her own senses meant so much to her. She wouldn’t have been welcomed there, as was appropriate, nevertheless she wished to behold it if only once.
The normal sighted would only see a darkened husked looming silently off shore. A charred remnant of a once great people. Vesthi no longer had natural eyes, but instead had very keen unnatural senses. She focused and magically stretched her perception out across expanse. At this distance the details she could gather were sparse, but enough. The pain and horror of the scene painted itself across all her senses.
The heat of the fires that raged across that land. Boiling sap until the very trees exploded. Screams of terror. Loved ones yelling for each other. Brave souls suffering painful ends to allow for just one more escape. So many saved, yet so many more lost. Vesthi’s flesh felt as though it were burning from her. The moist air of the beach fizzled against the fel heat she radiated. The ghosts of that terrible night overwhelmed Vesthi and she had to pull back. The smoldering husk in the distance called to her, beckoning her to come and see. To witness the decimation of her people. Vesthi scrunched her toes in the sands contemplating if she should pay the tree a personal visit. It was unnecessary, she knew. She would only experience what she likely already knew. It was the phantom of a horror she’d already seen played out innumerable times before. Over countless other worlds. Upon untold numbers of peoples. Scenes she’d helped paint while in the service of Illidan herself, more times than she’d care to ever recall.
Vesthi held her bowed head. If only she could have sobbed… or wept. Gradually the well of emotions that had been building faded. Forced down in part by that iron cold facade she’d perfected. Vesthi’s ear twitched. A subtle distant movement from the dark forest behind brought her back to the moment. She had to move. Horde still patrolled these beaches and standing as she was in the dark sands left Vesthi dangerously exposed. She would never feel the winds of Teldrassil touch her flesh. Never hear the great boughs of the tree creak and groan in those winds. Never feel the stones of the streets of Darnassus beneath her feet. Her allowed what anguish remained to steep until that pain had distilled into anger. Once more Vesthi scrunched the twilight sands of Darkshore in her toes, savouring the rise of anger within until it bloomed into rage. She turned from the sea and vanished into the dark forests. There were horde heads to hunt.