Part 5: Farewell
Azia did not receive many visits from her family once they left for Eldre’thalas. Her parents would visit occasionally, but Eure seemed extremely busy with her new place on the Shen’dralar. The two sisters saw each other very sparingly to say the least. These long gaps of time between seeing each other only grew after their parents would eventually pass away. It was not uncommon for years to go by without the twins getting to see one another. This divide between them, left Azia feeling very alone. Eure, had Zuramon, Eure had an entire life to live away from Darkmist. What did Azia have? She was right back where she started. Her title was meaningless, it was just given to her to keep her out of Eldre’thalas. Sure Azia made the choice to help Eure during their final exam, but she didn’t think it would lead to such isolation. It was just frustrating. Frustrating in a way Azia could not get over, no matter how hard she tried.
It was an average morning in Darkmist Village. Azia didn’t have to really worry about waking up at a specific time anymore, but if she wanted her meals prepared at a decent time she would need to keep at least a somewhat decent schedule. She could always make her own meals, she learned how while in Eldre’thalas. She just did not want to. At any rate she needed to head down to the dinning room for breakfast. On her way out of her bedroom, she made sure to pat her grell friend on the head as he slept. At least he got to sleep in.
“Sleep well for both of us lil’ guy, I’ll be back after breakfast, I’ll try to bring you a little something too.”
The grell kicked slightly in its sleep at Azia’s touch. Azia smiled then headed down to the table. Once she sat down a servant brought her not breakfast, but a letter. Azia blinked at the letter before taking it.
“What’s this?” Azia asked.
“A letter from the house of the Shen’dralar m’lady.” The servant replied with a nod.
Azia was curious at this point. She didn’t know many people that would send her a letter. It had to be from Eure or Zuramon. Azia opened the letter right away to begin reading.
Dear Azia,
I would like to meet with you. I plan to head to Darkmist at the end of the week. Likely in the afternoon. I am sorry this will be at such short notice. Hopefully, you will receive this letter quickly enough that my arrival will not catch you off guard. I would say more, but I really must speak with you in person.
Your Sister, Eure
After she finished reading her sister’s letter Azia raised an eyebrow in confusion. Something she had to say in person? What in the world could that be? Azia pondered this for a moment. Really the only thing she could think of that could be that important was… maybe she was pregnant? That might have been a bit of a stretch… but what else could it possibly be? Azia sat at the table thinking for a while before her breakfast was brought to her. Her conclusion kept coming back to Eure being pregnant. If it was something positive at least. “Please let it be something positive.” Azia would think to herself. At any rate, Azia finished her breakfast, then headed to the kitchen to retrieve some breakfast for the grell. After setting the grell’s breakfast in front of it Azia really just stayed in her room until Eure would arrive. She left to go outside and wait only when it became closer to the time of Eure’s arrival. The suspense was killing her.
Eventually, Eure would arrive at her former home in Darkmist. Azia waited in front of their childhood home for what felt like hours. Upon seeing Eure, Azia immediately searched her sister up and down. “She doesn’t look pregnant…” Azia thought before walking up to her sister and giving her a hug. “Doesn’t feel pregnant either… though… not sure how that would feel” Azia continued to think… Eure had arrived alone as Zuramon did so long ago. No servants, no escorts… no Zuramon? That was kind of odd.
“I have missed you greatly.” Eure would say coming out of the hug.
“Same” Azia commented. “Zuramon didn’t want to come with you?”
“Well, Zuramon… perhaps we should head inside before I begin to explain.”
“Suit yourself… I guess…” Azia said, unconvincingly leaning her sister inside to the manor’s sitting room.
“Did something happen to Zuramon? Is that why you are here?” Azia asked.
“Oh no!” Eure exclaimed. Zuramon is fine. “We have just been having some… disagreements as of late.”
“Disagreements?” Azia questioned. “You two going through some martial trouble?”
“You could say that I suppose… let us see… how to explain this.” Eure pondered.
“Are you pregnant?” Azia said bluntly
Eure’s eyes widened. “What makes you ask that?”
Azia shrugged her shoulders “I don’t know I just figured something big must have happened and that was the first thing that came to mind. It is not that you are showing or anything if you are… I swear.”
Eure looked to her stomach, questioning what Azia had just told her. “Um, well, yes. I am pregnant, not very far along. That was sort of part of the disagreement. We can not agree on how to raise our children.”
“That is kinda expected though isn’t it? I’m sure you two can work something out before the little one comes out.” Azia smirked “Till then you can say here until Zuramon admits you’re right.”
“You do not understand Azia.” Eure interjected.
“What don’t I understand? You two can’t agree on how to raise my future nephews and nieces, so you just need to say here until Zuramon realizes how good he’s got it and begs you to come home.”
“Azia… I need to explain. The highborne have been banished from the lands that are primarily run by the lowborne. They do not think we should continue to practice arcane anymore, because of this Dath’remar Sunstrider has been suggesting that we leave Kalimdor. In order to find a better life, in order to form our own kingdom where we can practice magic freely.”
Azia did not understand what her sister was trying to explain. “What does that have to do with us? The lowborne can not force the Shen’dralar to stop practicing magic. They don’t have any say here… and what does this have to do with you and Zuramon having kids?”
“I plan to go with them….” Eure said quietly.
“What?” Azia said in disbelief.
“I said I plan to go with them. That is what Zuramon and I could not agree on. Zuramon wants us to stay here… continue living as we have been. I do not think it wise. I think it would be better for us… for our children if we went with Lord Sunstriker. The inner workings of the Shen’dralar, it has just been so dangerous. I do not believe I can in good faith continue working for the house of Shen’dralar when I know there is potentially a better life out there.”
“Are you crazy?!” Azia exclaimed. “You can’t just up and leave everything you have ever known for some wild goose chase! Especially not when you’re pregnant! What are you thinking?!”
“That is basically what Zuramon said as well… Azia, I hoped you would come with me.”
“Go with you? You shouldn’t be going at all!”
“I thought about this for awhile now… Please would you think about it at least?”
Azia did not know what to say. This all came out of nowhere for her. Could she really leave everything here for a place she knew nothing about?
“I can’t…” Azia said with her head down, calming down, she explained.“Eure, I might not have the greatest years since our apprenticeship ended… but I’m not ready to leave everything I know. I’m sorry, but I don’t want to leave. This is our home, you should stay here.”
“I understand,” Eure nodded. “I plan to leave very soon, within the week should preparations be complete. Will you at least come see me off?” Eure asked.
“Of course… I may think you are crazy… but I do want to see you as much as I can.” Azia explained.
The day finally came for Eure to depart with the rest of the highborne that decided to leave with Dath’remar. After giving Eure one final hug, and pleading with her one final time to not leave at all, Azia said her final goodbyes to Eure and the two went their separate ways. Azia would watch the ship begin to sail away wishing… hoping that one day Eure would return. However, while watching the ship sail away in the crowd, she noticed a familiar face. She saw Zuramon, watching the ship leave as well. Walking over to him she asked.
“What are you doing here?”
“Is it not obvious? I was waiting over Eure to come to her senses. Still waiting I suppose, to think she would carry one with this asinine behavior long enough to actually disembark, it is ridiculous.” Zuramon explained.
“You should have gone with her moron!” Azia screamed.
“Please, I have a duty to the house of the Shen’dralar. I can not afford to take time off for some, flight of fancy.”
“I don’t care if it’s a flight of fancy, you should have gone with her. What if she doesn’t come back? Did you think about that?” Azia continued
“If you felt this way, then did you not go with her?” Zuramon asked.
“Don’t change the subject! I’m not the one that got her pregnant! You were, you should have gone with her!”
“To think you actually had more sense than her regarding this, surprising. Perhaps you have learned something after all.”
Azia glared at Zuramon. “I’m not going to have this conversation with you anymore…” Azia pushed past Zuramon and made her way back home. She was frustrated. At Eure for leaving, for Zuramon for not going with her, and at herself for… she didn’t even know anymore. She wanted to go with Eure, but at the same time she didn’t want to go anywhere. Azia just didn’t know what to feel, and that just kept eating at her.
Over time Azia would try to forgive Zuramon. It wasn’t exactly his fault that Eure left. She wanted to go and neither of them could stop her. Both Azia and Zuramon would hope that Eure would return one day. Unfortunately, she never did, and for Azia things would only get worse.
One day, Azia would hear screaming from outside her manor. As her village’s guardian mage it was Azia’s responsibility to check on this disturbance. Even if that were true, that was not the thought that went through Azia’s head when she rushed outside to check on what was going on. Her thought process was more. “What in the world could be causing that?” Darkmist was not the type of village that one would hear blood curdling screams in vast quantities that often, or really ever. Once outside, Azia saw what had looked like other elves at first, but with horns, hooves and tails. Some of them even had wings. Not all the invaders looked like elves though. Some were smaller and looked similar to grells, but again with horns, others could get larger crawling on all fours, they almost looked like dogs with tendrils coming out of their necks, a few even had two heads. These creatures were throwing green flames, fel fire she recognized. Did that mean these things were demons? She had only read about demons before, occasionally hearing about them, but she never actually saw any before. Upon realizing what she was dealing with Azia ran back inside to grab herself a weapon. Without really thinking about it too much she grabbed a staff with an arcane focus to channel her spells at a longer range as well as a sickle blade in case the demons got too close to her. Together, the two made a makeshift scythe. With her weapon in hand Azia rushed back outside firing off spells as fast as she could. Demons that crossed her path some erupt into flames, disappearing into ash and smoke.
Azia was able to take out a large number of demons on her own, she tried to draw the demon’s attention to herself so that other villagers could escape. For a while, this seemed to work, but the demons just kept coming and coming, until a much larger demon appeared before her in a swirling twister made of green mist. This one had a much different presence than the others. It stood about ten feet tall, while the other humanoid demons at least were around five to six feet. Out from the creature’s back where two leathery bat like wings. While a few of the other demons had similar wings, the span of the creatures’ wings was massive, each wing looking like it could stretch out to that of the creature’s height. The creature’s skin was pale, naturally so, it looked as though his skin was that of bleached bone. When Azia got a look at the creature’s face she saw the creature’s fangs and sunken in eyes, and horns. Of course it had horns, two jet black horns curving up to only add to its impressive height. Azia was stunned before she could even process the demon completely; it loomed over her then with the back of its hand launched Azia into a stone wall. Landing on her hands and knees, her body was swore. She looked around and saw green fires all around her. She thought back to the time she got a taste of this power back in Eldre’thalas. In Azia’s rage she channeled what energy she could from the flames then she screamed. “I am Azia Shadowmoon, guardian mage of Darkmist, and I will banish you back to the hole from where you came from!” With that she launched an enormous emerald ball of flames at the creature. The impact created a huge plume of smoke that once cleared only showed the demon’s smirking face. Her attack did nothing. The demon took pleasure in beating and bruising Azia’s body. She did not even have to cast any spells, no its fists were more than enough to deal with Azia. Before long Azia’s body laid on the ground beaten and broken, and once again loomed over her. Then… it spoke.
“You, thought you would be able to stand against us for long?” The demon laughed. “You never stood a chance my dear.”
Azia once again tried to raise herself to her feet, only for the demon to fly above her and slam its hooves onto Azia’s legs upon landing. Azia could hear the loud snap of her legs, the sharp pain as the demon continued to grind its hooves into Azia’s broken legs. Azia grit her teeth glaring back at the creature, fighting back any tears she felt from the pain.
“You are rather resilient though…and you have shown some talent… perhaps I could offer you a deal. The creature pondered. “It is a rather simple deal… you could stay here broken as you are and burn with the remains of your home, or you could live. Not only through this tragedy, but forever. Azia did not know what to say. She did not want to die, what choice did she even have? A pair of the elf like demons came to her holding her up to the large demon so that she could look up at it.
“I-I…” Azia could barely speak. “I don’t want to die.” The demon smirked as it raised one of its hands. Azia recognized this movement as the same she would do when casting a spell. This was it, this is where her life would end… the two smaller demons dropped Azia to the ground as she closed her eyes tightly expecting the worst when an eerie green light enveloped her body. Azia felt as though her very soul was on fire. Her heart began beating faster and faster as she heard the bones in her legs cracking again as they molded and shifted into hooves. She held her knuckles to her eyes, trying to fight back the pain, when the bones in her hands began cracking as well. Her nails grew into claws in a split second, so fast that they dug into the bottom of her eyes. With that Azia could no longer fight her tears, no crying bloody tears as her pain continued. A tail would jolt out of the base of her spine, wings spread out from her back, and finally horns began sprouting from her skull. The green glow faded and Azia now looked like one of the flying creatures in the invaders’ forces.
“Wonderful,” the large creature spoke again. “Allow me to properly introduce myself to you. I am Malaxar, and you, well we will need to think of a more fitting name for you, you will not be Azia Shadowmoon any more.”
“Nah Azia?” Azia muttered, it was even harder to speak now, as she found her mouth had grown large fangs.
Malaxar pondered for a moment looking over Azia’s newly transformed body; he had two of the elf-like demons pick her up by the arms once more.
“Nazxia… Great suggestion, from now on your name shall be… Nazxia.”