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| - The green of the land remained. The forest itself seemed unending. How long had they walked? Time here seemed to stretch on into an abyss yet at the same time everything passed in the blink of an eye. As the two of them walked she let her mind wander. Visions of life passed over her like a trickling stream. She saw everything as it was, could have been and also as things might be. Those were the images that she held on to most... the mights. For she felt that if she forgot them some of those mights may never be and the others that she did not wish to see again may in fact come to pass. The further they ventured on the brighter the growths in the foliage above seemed to glow. Larger crystal like formations now sprouted from many places along the ground and let out a quite humming, not constant though, quite erratic actually. The forest wasn't so silent now. Up ahead she could hear a pulse, maybe that was just the sound of her own blood but she doubted that. Her father remained silent and a few paces ahead of her, he didn't appear to be tiring at all. When she looked to him again she noticed that they had finally come to a rise in the land. A steep hill, that she was sure wasn't there before, rose up out of the mist obscuring what lay beyond. She stopped out of instinct rather than fear or hesitation. Her father continued on along a well worn path toward the crest. "What is up there?", she called out. Without turning he replied with one word, "Everything." Always cryptic, always a riddle. But over time, when she had actually believed that she had known him, she came to accept these vague words of his as truths that had been reduced to their most basic meaning. A moment... a millennium... and then she followed. A wisp-like thing flew at her out of nowhere, fluctuating spasmodically both in size and intensity. It paused briefly before her as if studying her being and then zipped pass her head regarding her with little concern. When she turned to watch it go, she saw nothing. "Come on now little spark. Come see your answers." her father called from above. Shaking her head she blinked twice and then continued her ascent. M ore of the tiny ethereal wisp beings appeared as she climbed and faded away just as quickly. The buzzing from the forest floor below grew quiet and the sounds above became clearer now but not distinct enough to make out what they were. It was a truly hollow sound, similar to the wind blowing through cracks. The pulsing sound became a warble and seemed to stream upwards into the sky, pushing at the air like the ripples of raindrops on a puddle. As her line of sight crossed over the edge of the precipice a feeling that would change her forever, and had changed her before, grafted itself into the back of her mind like hammer and nail. A massive valley sprawled out before and below her. The wisp things were everywhere and only seemed to vanish as they neared the very edges. It was a battle ground and she had seen it once before... This battle was at the summit of Mount Hyjal. Spinning around to face her father, who looked down upon the chaos with silent eyes, she made to question what any of this had to do with why she was here... her being here again. Instead she was cut off by sounds coming up the inner hillside. When she looked she saw a dark cloaked figure wearing a cloth mask to cover her face, obviously a night elf leading another kaldorei, this one frail and gasping for breath. Both were women and about the same height but the differences seemed to end there. Where one was desperate and fleeing the other was full of determination and confidence. One near the brink of defeat, the other full of wisdom and clarity. Aerdri remembered this, it was a shadowy memory but it was not forgotten. She remembered it because when she looked again to the exhausted woman she saw.... Aerdri saw herself. It all seemed so long ago, in truth only about 6 years had gone by and that was a blink or a heartbeat to the unending life time of her people, but even yesterday seemed far away to her now. "Father, why have you brought me here? Of all the places you brought me HERE." Turning back to him again, a defiant and confused look welded to her youthful features and challenged this... this new riddle from her father. "Enough! I'm no longer entertained by your words. I never was. I could never get a straight answer out of you, I always had to dance with everything you've ever shared with me... I...." He brought a casual finger to his lips and motioned with a movement of his head back toward the two behind her. The women now seemed at odds with one another she couldn't hear them over the sounds that filled the air but she still knew what was said because this event had actually happened to her. The mystery figure shouted in a familiar yet disguised voice. She told Aerdri how it could not, will not, end here. That she must flee this place and seek her own path. She was reluctant to just run away but when the dominant woman grabbed her by the arm and pulled her toward the path she said something that Aerdri would never forget... "You will see me again... and when you do... you will come here again to this place and know just how necessary it was for me to force you away." Just as she remembered those words the scene around her flickered and returned as something else. The battle was over now, in fact what it became was not even Mt. Hyjal anymore nor was it a valley, it was more forest, completely different from the trees she walked past earlier. In fact she saw four distinct types of flora now and all of them she saw before. Ashenvale, Feralas, Duskwood and the Hinterlands all of them intermingled and even over lapping. At the center was a large circular gateway that rippled and appeared to bleed a darkness, thick like oil. It crept from the opening and whatever it touched shriveled and died. Her mouth opened to speak but she remained silent and the scene changed yet again. No longer were she and her father outside, they were in a stone chamber that sent shivers down her spine. She was wrong before... this was the place she never wanted to see again... but she knew, deep down she knew, that she would return here. In the far corner she saw herself. Bloody and bruised. Exhausted and silent. In her otherself's hands was a book... his book, her book, the book. The silver skull on the cover was glowing but she knew that at the time she was actually in this place it had not done so. "That book...", her fathers words startling her, "That book has secrets little one. I was unable to fully decipher it all but I will tell you what I know." The visions around her froze and with a word and a gesture from him the book floated free of her other's lap and moved to the center of the room where it hung ominously.
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