Ripples of Shadow
Prologue - The Beginning to an End

“Y-you…h-how could... I didn’t even…” Moria’s tongue grew thick in her mouth. Words evaded her. Her eyesight was rapidly dimming. Who thought it could end like this…a knife from the shadows. Rash, please hurry…Mitsume must know…

...........

The assassin looked down on the fallen woman, and from her, to the boy. The boy looked up, his brown eyes flared a brilliant red and nodded, then vanished. The assassin bent down to wipe blades free of blood on the woman’s skirt, and re-sheathed the daggers. A missive or letter was to be found on the woman but searching her body turned up nothing. Searching her belongings provided the same result. It was not here anymore. She must have sent for a messenger already. Perhaps the man leaving just before….of course… The assassin slipped back into the shadows and left the room. A new objective suddenly became clear.

...........

Mitsume sat at a small oak desk, on a rather comfortable chair with supple cushions. Reports and notes littered the desk, and books lined the floor almost everywhere, but there was some semblance of order. Mitsume was a respected mage, quite powerful and strikingly beautiful. Her soft golden curls framed a young face with brilliant green eyes that held wisdom that belied her years. Ink stains marred her otherwise gorgeous green silk dress, but she seemed not to care. She had come to Aerie Peak to study in relative peace after all. These were tumultuous times, and the Wildhammer Clan provided the safety and comfort she needed to carry out her work.

“Pardon, Mitsume m’lady, but Commander Baelof requests your immediate presence at the peak of the tower.” The dwarf who addressed her had a gruff voice, although that wasn’t saying much for a dwarf. Dwarves seldom rushed about, as humans did, but this one seemed to be in a hurry.

“Of course Hendrig, I’ll be there quick as the blink of an eye.” The dwarf’s frown did not fade. To suite action to words, Mitsume stood, gathered her staff from beside the desk and nodded to the dwarf…then she was gone in a flash, literally. One moment she was standing in her apartments deep within Aerie Peak, the next she was atop its tallest ramp, which had an incredible view of the land below. Most mages could only teleport from city to city, those that they’ve trained their mind to remember, but Mitsume had trained herself to be able to teleport to any spot that she could visualize: Quite a useful tool. Commander Baelof stood just a few paces to her left, he turned his head to her and nodded.

“Punctual as usual. I do like that in you Mitsume, aye. But seems we have a problem.” He waved for her to come join him. In front of the dwarf stood a looking glass. Baelof motioned for her to look through. Mitsume barely held in a gasp. The looking glass was able to see far into the distance, and from her present vantage point high atop Aerie Peak, she was looking some two or three leagues, a several thousand paces, to the east. Just to the south of the Quel’danil Lodge there were hundreds, no thousands of soldiers amassed. Now, normally any army marching on Aerie Peak would have caused enough of a stir, but this was no ordinary army. Its soldiers were not among the living.

“Arthas!” Mitsume hissed through her teeth. Doing a fair estimate mentally, she quickly calculated that the Dwarves would be outnumbered almost ten to one…not the best odds. Her skills could tip the tide somewhat, but if there were any Death Knights in the ranks below… “Commander Baelof, I fear this army sent by the Lich King has come for me. I do not wish for any harm to come to your clan, but I am afraid they will not stop at killing me.”

“Hmmmfff. You’d do well to remember who we are lass. I will not go back on my word to protect you, and neither will any of my men. We will fight to the last for you.” The Dwarf beside her chuckled dryly. “Besides, we’ve faced far worse than this.” He smiled grimly and turned from her to an aide to his side. After a few quick words the aide dashed off, deeper into the mountain. A moment or two passed while Mitsume mentally prepared herself for the battle to come. A horn blared, deep within the mountain. Orders shouted back and forth for a time, and Mitsume heard hundreds of feet clamoring in the armory below. The Dwarves were preparing for war. They were preparing to fight for their homeland. They were preparing to die…for her.

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