Defender of the Light

Today was–so different.  It was–I don’t know.  It’s hard to explain, so very, very hard.

I’ve been stationed in Westfall lately, mainly to act against members of the Defias Brotherhood that have recently been more active.  Also, there have been reports of mechanical harvesters that have run amok, ruining crops and driving away what livestock and farmers weren’t slain.  They don’t seem to be actively targetting the livestock and farmers, but I can’t be sure.  I was raised on a farm, yes, but all the work was done by hand.  I’ve known these things exist, but I’ve never had much personal experience with them.

Anyway.  I arrived back in Stormwind on a weekend pass, and not but twenty minutes after I arrived, I met up with my friend Arthy.  He was as chipper as ever, if distracted, and he and I, along with a tailor acquaintence by the name of Albrekt, chatted for the better part of an hour.

I had to tend to, ah, personal business, and when I had returned from freshening up, Albrekt had taken his leave.  Arthy and I walked around Stormwind for a while, and we even took hippogryph rides around the harbor, just for kicks.  The harbor is beautiful.

When we landed, Arthy mentioned that he’d seen the boat that went to Northrend.  He asked me if I’d like to see it, and I readily said yes.  I’m curious about his home–or, at least, what was the start of his new “re-life”.  We took the boat and chatted along the way, and I noted how cold it was getting.  This makes sense, of course, considering where we were going, but I still wished I’d put on something warmer.

We arrived at a harbor city, and I was dismayed to see that this city was apparently dealing with a war right on its front door.  Arthy and I watched, with something of a mixture of awe and dismay, as men ran against large, winged demons, and larger insect-like creatures, only to lose their lives without the enemies seeming to be injured one whit.

We walked around, and came across a section of wall that was on fire, as it was then under attack by winged demons.  We were about to hurry away–when one of the winged demons spit a ball of fire at me.  From what I was later told, the impact sent me flying back against the wall of some building that was a good twenty yards behind me.  I don’t remember that, though.  What I remember is far, far worse.

I opened my eyes to find that I was laying on my back.  The sky was so–strange.  Grey, sort of, with swirls of energy dancing around some center point so far away I couldn’t really see it.  Then I got to my feet, and that’s when I noticed the screaming.  Awful, awful,, screaming, so loud it hurt my very soul.  The din of combat was a whisper in comparison.  I fell to my knees, clutching my ears–and I realized I was kneeling over my own body.

I was shocked, horrified, aghast–I can’t even begin to describe what I was feeling right then.  For just a brief moment, the soul-piercing shrieking took a back seat as I looked around, seeing Arthy squatting over my body, lightly touching my shoulder and telling me to get up.  I spoke his name, and he, well–he nearly jumped out of his armor.  He looked at me, then back to my body, then back to me.  This went on for a few minutes, as he sputtered and stammered, tears forming at the corners of his eyes.

All I could do wa sbeg him to help me somehow, some way.  The screaming that filled me was so intense I couldn’t think of much else.  He paced for a bit, trying to form a plan.  Finally, he pointed a hand at me and prayed to the Light to save me–and I actually felt a small twinge, for wont of a better word.  I felt–something–tug me toward my body!

I implored him to try again, try harder.  He must have tried the hardest he had tried at anything in his life, for when he prayed again–I was actually pulled back into my body.  For just the briefest of moments, there was nothing, at all–a true void.  Then I was opening my eyes and seeing him stare down at me.  I hurt, oh Light did I hurt, but I had to smile.  He did it.  He saved me, but–far more importantly, he proved that though he was in Shadow, the Light still touched him.  I don’t remember much, until sometime later waking up in an inn.

I was told by the young girl who broought me food that I was dragged (literally) by the Gnome, who was beaming all the way.  He as so proud, and I couldn’t blame him.  I’m still here, in the inn.  I’ve apparently been tended to, though I know not by whom, but I’m still very sore, and very, very tired.  Thank the Light I keep my diary in my backpack, and take my backpack wherever I go.

This–has given me so much to think about.  I knew, intellectually, that Death Knights and other re-living beings were once dead, and, through whatever means, had their lives given back to them.  I just never even had a clue what death was like.  All I could feel was that screaming, that unending torment as my soul waited to be taken to wherever it would be–the embrace of the Light, or, in this case, back to the shell of flesh that housed it.

I half-sit, half-lay here, now, seemingly dozens of blankets on and around me to ward off the cold, peering out the window to the white sky beyond.  I have gained the smallest, smallest inkling of understanding–and I’m not sure I really want it, if only because of the sorrow I now feel for the re-living.  My heart aches, knowing that all that I experienced was the tiniest of motes in comparison to what most of them have endured.

Thank the Light for its boundless mercy and grace.  Praise to the Light for it touching anyone and everyone, no matter how dark the Shadow that surrounds them.  I know I was changed by what I experienced, but I also know that Arthy was changed even more.  Hopefully he now more fully believes me when I tell him that the Light does touch everyone.  He’s done terrible things, yes, before he rose against the Lich King.  And his very existence is anathema to the Light–yet that does not stop the Light.  Just because he was created against the Light, that doesn’t mean the Light will refuse to shine on him.

Praise to the Light for guiding us all.

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