The intermittent-yet-ongoing chronicles of Shandala Truesong, priestess of the Kal’Dorei….
She woke groggily and with a sense that some goblin tinkerer had toyed with her during sleep, leaving her head filled with bolts and cogs that grated mercilessly with the slightest of movements, “Stars above, I’m dying…” she groaned as she drug herself from the cool tiles and stood a moment, swaying in the ambient light.
“Are you well, sister?” A solicitous voice immediately from the left, followed quickly by another from the right and it registered at last where she was…. she chuckled and waved them away as she somewhat bitterly murmured under her breath, “Home.”
This was not the first time she had awakened in this fashion, tossed like a broken doll against the cool marble of the Moonwell, a stained square of silk the only evidence of the previous night’s emotions. She stood more firmly in the quiet calm of the Temple and let her thoughts coalesce and her emotions turn as they would.
Twice before, this odd amnesia that snapped reality like a dry twig and indicated some oddness of change in the world. The first time had been less traumatic, the bridge of fire appearing to carry her from a world of nightmare and horrors to a place where homes were tranquil, not traps.
She remembered how she had smiled to think herself saved and the dreams of her spirit, given succor. She shook her head slowly, how foolish she had been! Not all nightmares arrive in decaying flesh and horror… some smile in your face and give every appearance of gentility and delight, only to slide those poisoned blades between the ribs when one isn’t looking. Some grovel and plead and attend only until their presence has drained every ounce of strength from you. Only then do they shift form and reveal toothy smiles and a decidedly less patient visage.
She stood in the peaceful presence of Elune and pondered it all… the manner in which her tireless efforts had brought only envy and disdain and how, in the end, those she had given body, mind, and spirit to support had set their backs to her, or, worse yet, glibly revised history so as to ingratiate themselves with the politicians and popular, not even having ethic enough to blush for such lies, given right before her, as if reality itself could be warped and shifted by the weight of pretense.
She remembered the feelings of dismay and despair to watch it all crumble and realize the only reason it had lasted this long had been her own foolish stubbornness. But you could only breathe for something else so long… and eventually even she had to accept the difference between something that could or would breathe for itself and something that could only live so long as another breathed for it. The priestess bowed her head briefly, a last, lone tear slipping quietly down her cheek…. it had died long, long ago and it was time to let it rest in peace.
She looked down briefly at the silken tabard with it’s sunrise, the perfection of the blue silk marred by splotches of brine, and sighed heavily. Turning to the casual fire and nodding politely to the Sentinels who relaxed there, she leaned in and dropped the cloth into the flames. The Fire will tend its own, as it always had, and she was willing to admit, finally, that some things just weren’t of interest to a world that thrived upon suffering, loss, and pain.
Turning quickly from the campfire, she departed, strolling through the twilight eaves of the capitol city, she pondered her path… so much had changed, but only within her. The world itself was as it ever had been, and she realized that, this time, there was no amnesia… just an emptiness in relation to it all that seemed somehow comforting. The names and spirits change, but the world and its nature never do… while it may be impossible to shift the world upon its axis, or to find others who would be committed to such an end, she understood that within the sphere of herself, there was a smaller, more manageable world… and perhaps within its boundaries, she might yet find her dreams.
A sigh and a light touch upon the softly pulsing stone and the winds took her… far, far from Azeroth and memories of the past….. and she smiled.