Under the Light of the World at War: Early Chapter 56

You’ve gotten so much stronger.” Mama said, half interrupting my morning workout, as I hammered through some pushups with far less effort than I ever had before. Divine Strength was excellent for that.

“I’ve been training.” I responded, and finished my rep, popping back up to my feet, as I smiled at her. “You’re up early.”

“I couldn’t sleep that much. I’m used to the constant attacks and disruptions.” She said as if that wasn’t a horrifying answer in its own way. Instead she waved me over. “I wanted to see your training.” She waved at me, and I smiled brightly nodding.

Then I started moving, I ran through my exercises, pushing as hard as I could, all under the proud watchful eyes of Mama.

The fact I would start glowing from time to time as I activate a spell, or ability was eye catching. 

It was as Mama watched, and her smile grew that I realized that maybe I was doing okay. That my preparation was actually getting me somewhere. 

Just a glance at my character sheet told me just how much had changed. 

Alah’Dorah

High Elf

Level 6 [10/600 XP]

Strength 29 +15

Agility 28 +1

Stamina 31 +13

Intellect 23 +106

Spirit 24 +52

My Stats had exploded with all the exercise, and the increased Strength and Stamina were noticeable, but even then, it was only small incremental increases. 

My skills had grown in some ways, I hadn’t gotten much sword training, but that was okay. I’d get more time with a sword and shield eventually. 

That time had gone into other skills. I’d Mastered Spell Refinement, daily work with El’Tela had finally reached the point the skill had become Mastered. W

Which had unfortunately given me a skill I wasn’t getting much use out of just yet. Arcane Subtlety would be useful eventually. Being able to cast Arcane spells with less showy visible magic would be very useful, especially since it did seem to remove the need for some of the normal spell requirements like hand signs, or verbal components. 

That would be useful when in combat to cast without needing to drop my weapons. 

Looking over my skills I browsed through them as I dropped into more push ups. 

Skills Known:

[Swords Lv 52 324/520] [Master] 

-[Parry Lv 40 285/400]

-[Dual Wielding Lv 2 7/20]

-[Mana Enhancement lv 26 239/260]

-[Weapon Specialization One handed-Sword Lv 16 138/160]

-[Precision Lv 5 4/50]

[Shields Lv. 50 432/500] [Master]

-[Block Lv 45 367/450]

-[Ambidextrous Lv 32 256/320]

-[Mana Block Lv 25 107/250]

-[Shield Bash Lv 16 3/160

-[Spell Reflect 1/10]

[Stealth Lv. 5 20/50]

[Bows Lv. 10 68/100] [Apprentice]

-[Rapid Fire lv 3 2/30]

[Arcane Meditation Lv 10 Skill Mastered] [Mastery Benefit Evocation Unlocked]

[Spell Refinement Lv 20 Skill Mastered] [Mastered]

-[Arcane Focus Lv 6 47/60]

-[Arcane Subtlety 1/10]

[Arcane Mind Lv 8 56/80]

[Riding: Hawkstrider lv 6 22/60]

[Maces Lv 8 5/80]

[Divine Strength Lv 7 9/70]

[Devotion Aura 6/10]

Devotion Aura was unfortunately another slow leveler, it worked similar to Divine Strength, in order to level it, I needed to refine it, adding more Light into the crest. Otherwise I could just keep it on forever. Which was good.

So benefit and negative. It would take more focused training to get going.

Thankfully for all my skills hadn’t grown overly much, my spells had. 

[Holy Light Lv. 14 50/140] [Apprentice Mastery] [Mastery Benefit +5 Spirit]

[Conjure Refreshment Lv 18 135/180] [Apprentice Mastery] [Mastery Benefit +5 Spirit]

[Glyph Creation Lv 7 14/70]

[Mage Light Lv 10 Spell Mastered] [Mastery Benefit +5 Intellect]

[Sunwell Compass Lv 10 Spell Mastered] [Mastery Benefit +5 Spirit]

[Timer Lv 10 Spell Mastered] [Mastery Benefit +5 Intellect]

[Float Object Lv 10 Spell Mastered] [Mastery Benefit +5 Intellect]

[Hair Styling Lv 10 Spell Mastered] [Mastery Benefit +5 Intellect]

[Polishing Spell Lv 10 Spell Mastered] [Mastery Benefit +5 Intellect]

[Banish Dust Spell Lv 10 Spell Mastered] [Mastery Benefit +5 Intellect]

[Lock Spell Lv 10 Spell Mastered] [Mastery Benefit +5 Intellect]

[Unlock Spell lv 10 Spell Mastered] [Mastery Benefit +5 Intellect]

[Generate Icecube Lv 10 Spell Mastered] [Mastery Benefit +5 Intellect]

[Spell Steal Lv 6 5/60]

[Mage Hand Lv 5 12/50]

[Slow Poison Lv 2 7/20]

[Heat Water Lv 10 Spell Mastered] [Mastery Benefit +5 Intellect]

[Create Tiny Fire Lv 10 Spell Mastered] [Mastery Benefit +5 Intellect]

[Strength Surge Lv 10 Spell Mastered] [Mastery Benefit +5 Strength]

[Mage Armor Lv 18 73/180] [Apprentice Mastery] [Mastery Benefit +5 Spirit]

[Arcane Intellect Lv 20 16/200] [Journeyman Mastery] [Mastery Benefit +10 Intellect]

[Inkromancy Lv 8 12/80]

[Mana Bolt Lv 10 Spell Mastered] [Mastery Benefit +5 Intellect]

[Silence Lv 10 Spell Mastered] [Mastery Benefit +5 Intellect]

[Evocation Lv 24 48/240] [Journeyman Mastery] [Mastery Benefit +10 Spirit]

[Arcane Arrow Lv 7 10/70]

[Resurrection 1/10]

[Blessing of Wisdom Lv 21 35/210] [Journeyman Mastery] [Mastery Benefit +10 Spirit]

[Animate Object Lv 10 Spell Mastered] [Mastery Benefit +5 Intellect]

[Create Mana Gem Lv 26 213/260] [Journeyman Mastery] [Mastery Benefit +10 Spirit]

[Feather Fall Lv 2 4/20]

[Mirror Image Lv 15 15/150] [Apprentice Mastery] [Mastery Benefit +5 Intellect]

[Power Word: Fortitude lv 8 47/80]

[Cure Disease 1/10]

[Heal Lv 4/40]

[Seal of Righteousness Lv 8 4/80]

Although some of the spells had been left far behind. I’d tried to focus on my training skills, and my new Light skills, to better understand what I was working with. 

Either way. My abilities had grown by leaps and bounds. 

Yet for every moment I had a bit of pride for my growth, I had a moment of realization that it wasn’t enough. 

That if I was going to be ready I needed to push more.

I wasn’t even ready to make my own armor yet, mostly because my body kept changing, but I was training hard to be ready.

Some day I would hammer a suit of armor into form, ready to go out and do battle.

Profession Known:
[Enchanting Lv. 42 137/420] [Refined]

-[Apprentice Enchanting: Reduce cost of Enchanting] 

-[Journeyman Enchanting: Minor improvement in enchantment power]

-[Expert Enchanting: Use more reagents for an improved effect]

-[Refined Enchanting: Improve power for Enchantments placed in lower flow areas]

[Tailoring Lv. 9 30/90]

[Skinning Lv. 4 3/40]

[Fletching Lv. 2  19/20]

[Blacksmithing Lv 32 164/320] [Expert]

-[Apprentice Blacksmithing: Increased speed of smithing]

-[Journeyman Blacksmithing: Improved quality of Work]

-[Expert Blacksmithing: Improved awareness of material Damage]

Some day.

“Dorah?”

“Huh?” I stopped the push ups, realizing I had been doing them for a bit as I looked over my character sheet, and then laughed a bit. “Sorry, got a bit in the zone.” I said as I stood up, my arms aching a bit.

“So I see… You’re so dedicated.” Mama whispered as she walked over, and put a hand on my cheek. “It’s okay Dorah. The Trolls won’t be able to defeat us.”

“I still need to prepare.” I decided to say instead of arguing directly. Was there any point in saying the Trolls were a great danger and we really needed to be ready?

No. Instead just prepare, and things would turn out okay even without my interruption, but things would go better if I helped. That was something I knew, something I was absolutely sure of. 

So I just smiled happily at Mama cause she was proud of me, even if she didn’t want me to put myself in danger.

“You’ll have to show me all the spells you’ve learned since I’ve been gone.” Mama said, and I smiled brightly, cause that was definitely her trying to appreciate her weird little daughter. 

“I didn’t learn that much, but sure! I can show off!” I said brightly, as my body started glowing as I activated my Seal of the Righteous and my fists glowed gold.

“Ooh!” Mama clapped at me, and I laughed as I offered a little bow. “Your new friends must think that’s really great, right?” Mama asked, smiling happily at me and I just shrugged. 

“Well I haven’t really made new friends. Unless Sha’Narin counts, but he’s more like a minion to be honest. He’s nice though.”

Mama’s smile fractured and then her lips twitched.

“Dorah.”

“Yeah?”

“Have you… Not made any new friends since coming to the city?”

“No? I still visit Kimi, and she made friends with lots of kids, but I don’t really like most of them.” I went flat when I thought about that particular pain in the but. Elin’Kor was not my friend.

Mama looked sad for a long time as she looked at me, before taking a deep breath and letting it out. 

“I wish you would have made more friends. I guess I can’t blame your father, but El’Tela, honestly should know better.”

“It’s okay.” I waved my hands in front of me a bit as Mama was definitely getting the wrong impression. “I’m happy! I got lots of fun hobbies, and stuff. I’m sure I’ll make more friends with people my age when they get a bit older!”

“Dorah, you need to get out more. My weird little daughter.” Mama said, reaching out and dropping a hand onto the top of my head and ruffling my hair wildly.

I just laughed and batted at her hand until she stopped and I could feel how messy my hair was. 

“I’m busy training to stop the Trolls. I’ll make friends later.”

“Hmm. Maybe I should see about Ranger training? Would you like that? A lot of the trainees your age are going through training her in Silvermoon now.”

“Eeeh. I’m kinda focused learning my Light magic Mama. Look what I’ve come up with already and just imagine what I can do in a few years! I’ll be ready to cut down Trolls.” I told her firmly, and she once more gave me that look of a woman not wanting to agree.

“I wish you would at least try to make some new friends. Would you try? For me?”

“E-a-eaaaugh.” I sighed. “I’ll try?”

“Good. That’s all I can want for you.”

—--

With Mama’s return, months passed as things settled back into a new routine, only it was better, cause Mama was there.

Other than when she bugged me to try and make friends though, that part sucked.

I’d tried a few times, going out with Kimi, but most kids my age were still little children, and the ones a bit older than us were usually in that early teenage era where they were jerks.

But I still tried. 

Which is how I got into this situation.

“This is your fault!”

“How is it my fault?” Elin'Kor asked, but she was smiling like a bandit, as we both ran away.

She was quick, but despite being a bit faster than I was, which was actually impressive, she had zero stamina and I quickly pulled away, until we turned a corner and came up on a fence.

Crap.

I looked behind us. We’d mostly left the group of kids behind us but…

Grumbling, I turned slamming my back against the fence and cupping my palms.

“You first!”

“You got it!” She cheered wheezing a bit as she raced up and I threw her up, easily getting her to the top of the fence.

“Now haul me-up.” I finished lamely seeing her disappear over the fence…

“Hey!” I yelled out and grumbled as I heard nothing.

Great.

The sound of running steps raced up, and I felt my fists clench.

This was so dumb, but it had been for Kimi. Even if this had turned from an easy task into a mess.

Fine, if I had to fight off a bunch of kids, I would. I was wearing the equivalent of some armor, and I would make every punch hurt.

The kids ran around the corner, although really they were older than me. Most of them were fully grown, although they still had the baby fat, all awkward limbs not quite settled into their bodies. 

The teenagers of an alley a few blocks from Kimi’s home. They’d taken something from her, and once I had found out. I promised to get it back.

Then Elin’Kor had offered to come along, because of course she’d been sneaking around while I talked to Kimi.

The teenagers slowed to a stop and they wheezed, but looked angry.

“Give it back!”

“You took it from a friend of mine. So we’re returning it. Get lost.” I said, doubly angry because I’d almost had them return it before Elin’Kor had zipped out of the building with two of them on her tail having just stolen it back.

Ugh.

All this over a toy.

My fists clenched as the group looked like they were going to come in, and then something nearly smacked me on the head.

“Hurry!” I jolted surprised that Elin’Kor hadn’t just left, but I grabbed the ladder and hauled myself up racing up the steps as she held it over, and the moment I reached the top of the fence we hauled it up, and threw it over, just avoiding the first teenager being able to grab it, and then I quickly slipped over.

“You thought I abandoned you!” She called out to me, as I caught my breath a few kicks against the fence and the yells from the kids on the other side made me step away and get jogging.

“You did!”

“Nah, I can’t haul your butt up. You’re heavy!”

I didn’t comment, she was a scrawny thing. All I needed was a bit of extra help though.

Either way, we kept running until we reached her area, where the kids waved to her, and she slowed into a confident strut.

“Give me the toy.”

“Nah I got it.” She denied me, and I grumbled. I knew what she was thinking just from her smug look. She was going to hand it to Kimi, and take all the credit despite her being the reason we had been running around!

Ugh. Whatever. “Ellliiiiiin!” The voice made me halt, because that wasn’t right. 

Kimi came rushing over and smashed into Elin’Kor, nearly knocking the girl over, and I felt myself look away. That was what Kimi did to me. I was the one she shouted the name of and ran into.

It wasn’t right that Kimi did it for Elin’Kor.

“Here is the Princess’s stolen item.” Elin’Kor offered once she’d managed to regain her feet from nearly getting knocked sprawling.

“You got it!” Kimi screamed happily, grabbing the wooden duck toy.

It was literally like a rubber ducky, and Kimi had apparently fallen in love with it only to run into some jerks that had snatched it from her.

Elin’Kor sent me a smug look and I just looked away.

Dammit.

“Dorah!” Kimi cried out and slammed into me, and I barely jolted, as she wrapped me in a hug. “Thank you!”

“I… Didn’t do much.”

“She was a great distraction! Couldn’t have done it without her!” Elin’Kor said, giving me some credit which only annoyed me.

“I was trying to talk to them, when she just took it.”

“Yep! You distracted them all. It was great.”

I wanted to throttle her when suddenly we all jolted.

A horn sounded out, long and loud, and more and more of them took up the call throughout the city.

“What?” I asked looking up, not sure what the horns like that could mean.

“I don’t know. Let’s go find out!” Elin’Kor cried out, and grabbed Kimi and started running off. I rolled my eyes, she was already out of breath after just a bit of jogging. I easily caught up and along with many others we raced to the main streets.

It felt like many in the city were suddenly in the streets and sidewalks. People were everywhere, and we quickly got pushed into the crowd, where even as much as we wanted we couldn’t make any headway in.

Then we heard it, a magically projected voice.

A voice I’d heard only once before. When the King himself had come out and done a speech in the Court of the Sun.

“Do not fear my people! Citizens of Quel’Thalas! Do not fear the enemy that has come for us, because now they face what can not be broken! Soon the great Ban’Dinoriel will show the Trolls the pointlessness of their assault! Have no fear! We will destroy the enemy that has come to siege our gates!”

That… Was all nice sounding, but it was all a fucking lie.

I understood what was happening, and others did too. Many looked pale, and afraid. Finally I managed to break through enough to see the street, the main road coming up the east gate. This wasn’t the main gate, it was in fact the only gate that still existed during World of Warcraft. Arthas had destroyed the central main gate during that time. But even so soldiers were marching in. Rangers, and Spellbreakers, and City guards, and even more. 

Warriors in more unique or slightly mismatched armor. 

The soldiers that had been fighting.

They were coming home. And behind them, as this part of our forces came into the city the massive gates, slowly inched closed.

Mama had mentioned how things hadn’t been going overly well at the Elf Gate. 

She’d thought we could hold them though. But for the King to return, for the forces to come here…

For the Ban’Dinoriel’s final gate to be closed?

The moment the gates shut, there was a shudder, and it felt like my ears popped. A flinch ran through the crowd, as the sky above us shifted minutely. A shield had been activated, a bubble that covered us entirely. 

And suddenly the entire city was cut off.

So this was it.

The final gate, the final barrier between us and extinction had been activated, and it was likely the Trolls would never overcome it. But until we pushed them out. 

We were trapped.

Every High Elf alive now lived inside the city.

It felt suffocating already.

A tug on my arm and I looked over seeing Kimi pressed in by the crowd, and I rushed over pushing a bit on an elf that was nearly bowling into her, to give her some space.

“Come on! Let’s go!” I yelled out, as the crowd was loud enough I could barely hear myself think.

I tugged her along, and to my irritation noticed Elin’Kor, on Kimi’s other hand. Either way I pushed my way through the crowd away from the streets towards an alley, towards anyplace free of the press of bodies.

Stopping as we finally broke through the press of bodies in a dingy alleyway, but Kimi hurried further away gasping a bit for air.

Yeah that had been a sudden and pressing crowd for sure…

“What does that mean?” The question came not from Kimi, but Elin’Kor.

“It means the King failed at the second Elf Gate.” I said simply, and she looked at me with googly eyes like she couldn’t understand. 

Kimi did though.

“W-Where do we go now? Is it safe?” Kimi asked, the realization hitting her hard.

“It’s safe.” I said with utter finality. “The Ban’Dinoriel over Silvermoon is a completely different beast compared to the Elf Gates. It’s okay. We are completely safe.” I said walking over and pulling Kimi into a hug which she definitely needed as she hugged me back.

“Wait wait wait… Are you saying the Trolls are here!?”

“Probably not far behind the King and the army, but yeah. You’ll be able to see them from the walls soon.” I said confidently. 

Elin’Kor looked lost, for all her swagger and confidence, this wasn’t the normal back alley roguery she was used to. 

“It’s okay. The Trolls are strong, but stupid. They have numbers, but can’t do magic, and so they can’t break the Ban’Dinoriel. We’ll just need to whittle them down until they finally can’t fight anymore.” I said, even if that wasn’t what would happen.

And there was risk but that was just life. Even if I knew what would have happened, it doesn't mean I’m going to put my feet up. 

“Come on, let’s get you both back home, and then I need to get home too. Mama will be worried, and I need to start preparing.”

“Preparing?” Kimi asked, and I nodded. 

“Course. I’m not going to just let the Trolls keep messing with us. I can help.” I said and Kimi sniffed a bit her fear vanishing a bit as she nodded. 

“If anyone can help, it’s Dorah.” She said with such utter confidence, I actually felt my ears redden a bit in embarrassment. 

Thanks for the vote of confidence Kimi. Now I just needed to get to work.