Darrowmere Lake

Rain was falling around Darrowmere Lake.

 Rain in the Plaguelands wasn't a pleasant sensation, although the western shore of the lake was certainly better than its eastern counterpart. Still, the storm coming off the ocean picked up a hint of plague when it rolled over Silverpine Forest, and Miria glared at the water dripping from her helm. All it was doing was making her day worse.

 Beside her, Naru growled deep in her chest. Whether it was at the scent of the rain, the scent of undeath rolling off the small island off the shore of the lake, or the scent of the scraggly old dwarf who had led them here, Miria wasn't sure. She put her hand on the shaggy bear's head to quiet her down.

 The dwarf eyed Naru like he thought she'd look better as a rug on his carpet. He wasn't foolish enough to try anything with her master standing right next to her, of course. "There ya have it – across that bridge is Scholomance. Why ya'd ever go in there is beyond me, but yer people have never made sense to me anyway."

 Miria turned her glowing eyes on the dwarf and quirked an eyebrow. It was true that it hadn't been so long ago that her people sought refuge on Azeroth, and she supposed some people would never get used to it. "Your coin," she said, and handed the dwarf ten gold pieces from the coin purse on her belt. He took them and bit them. "Do you think skeletons, ghouls or banshees most likely?" she asked, but when she turned to look beside her, the dwarf was gone.

 The stone bridge leading across to the island seemed like a trap. This would probably take some fighting, but if she could avoid it, she would. She wasn't here to eradicate the undead on this island, after all – she just needed to get into the dark academy at its center. Besides the fact that her objective was in there, it would get her out of this stinking rain.

She cast the short spell that summoned her elekk. The animal's girth and the thickness of its armor made her feel better about coaxing it into the water. She crept up out of the seat onto the animal's shoulder plating, trying to keep her gear less than soaking wet. At least the rain was still a soft drizzle. The elekk raised its trunk and dutifully waded into the lake, its broad feet churning up the water as it swam to the docks on the east side of the island.

Naru swam along beside it, grunting in displeasure. When they both waded out of the water at the docks, she shook herself, slinging water everywhere out of her thick brown coat. There was a path starting from the docks, leading up through a small circle of ruined houses and around the side of the island. "Stay sharp," she said to the bear, and urged the elekk forward.

 They met no signs of life on the path. Miria dismissed the elekk as they got closer to the gates, clinging to the stone wall. She saw no guards on the gate and no immediate threat in the courtyard, but that didn't mean anything. Silently, she drew her bow from her back and slipped around the corner, slowly moving through the gate. The silence was eerie, the sounds of her hooves and Naru's claws echoing off the crumbling walls. 

"This isn't right," Miria whispered to Naru. "They can't have left their approach unguarded-"

A wave of cold stench washed over them from behind and Miria whirled around, fingering her bowstring. Cobblestones heaved like a mass of snakes as rotted corpses broke through them to the surface. Merciless laughter echoed through the courtyard – that from the lich that now materialized in front of the fountain, chains rattling and fleshless face grinning ghoulishly at her. "Come to join the undead, eredar?"

Miria bared her fangs at it and drew her bowstring back. Naru roared, and as her first arrow flew past her ear and stuck in the lich's ribs, she charged into the undead monstrosity, setting her claws in its tattered robe. The ghouls surrounding the lich shambled toward her like a grotesque pack of wolves, gnashing their rotten teeth. Miria laid a frost trap at her feet and backed away, still firing at the lich as she moved. Perhaps her temper had gotten the better of her – perhaps it would have been better simply to sprint for the entrance, lich be damned, but he'd called her eredar.

 Yes, and now you will pay the price for allowing him to sting your pride, Miria thought to herself. The frost trap slowed the ghouls, but they still advanced on her with single-minded intent. She was forced to switch targets from the lich to them, spreading poisoned arrows among them with a multi-shot. Naru turned her back on the lich and ran into the mob of ghouls, swiping at them with her claws. One fell into a mass of rotted bones and flesh – but to Miria's sick horror, the other ghouls turned their attention away from her bear to devour it, then fixed their attention back on Miria with single-minded purpose. "Naru, I think we need to run," Miria cried. She fired another multi-shot into the mass and turned tail, running for the entrance.

Ghouls were not very fast unless they got into leaping range, and Miria was good at keeping her distance. What she didn't expect was for the lich to vanish from the fountain and reappear here in front of the stairs, too close for her to avoid its icy touch. It pointed at her and she gasped, her blood freezing over from the inside, stumbling. With the lich in front of her and the ghouls at her back, she had nowhere to go but back to the fountain in the courtyard, and he would certainly appear there as well- "I think perhaps the dwarf was right, and we should not have come," she said to Naru. The bear put its shaggy back against hers with a snarl that would probably say 'I told you so' if she could speak. Miria drew her bow again, sighting it on the lich. Her only chance was to kill it before the ghouls swarmed her – without his control, they would fall upon each other as they had the ghoul she had destroyed.

"Fool," the lich said. "One hunter is no match for me. I am Ras Frostwhisper of Scholomance, and you have come to my home seeking my destruction. I will take you to undeath first!"

"Not likely," Miria said, firing an explosive arrow at him. It caught the ragged fabric of his robes and set them ablaze, but it didn't destroy him like she'd hoped. He pointed, not at her, but at Naru. "No!" Miria shouted, leaping in the way of another frost spell. It hit her in the bones and she shivered all over, her fingers going numb. She couldn't shoot like this.

"Compassion. A ridiculous weakness." The lich raised both of its hands, and Miria leaned against Naru, glaring at it. If this was how she was to die, she would die standing.

"Tor ilisar'thera'nal!"

The warcry came from the path behind the ghouls, and the lich turned to look. Miria recognized Darnassian when she heard it and didn't bother – whoever it was, it was an ally against the scourge, and she would take advantage of the momentary distraction it offered. She reached inside of her for the gift of the Naaru, bringing the Light down on herself. It chased the numbness away from her fingers and she drew back on her bowstring again, firing a volley of arcane shots into the lich until its ribcage was peppered with arrows. It howled in fury and vanished – not falling to pieces as it would when it was dead, but gone in the same way it had vanished from the courtyard. "Revolting coward!" Miria shouted to the thin air, and turned to help deal with the ghouls.

The night elf was returning his sword to his back when she finally turned to look, a pile of scattered ghoul bodyparts surrounding him. Miria, still bathed in the Light, felt steadier on her feet with every passing second. "Good fortune," she said. "I did not expect to meet an ally here..."

Her greeting trailed off as she finally got a good look at her rescuer. He was a night elf, that much was plain by the ridiculous length of his pale blue ears, but he was far paler than any night elf Miria had encountered. He had the bluish glowing eyes of a kaldorei, but they were colder and paler. He paced closer to her, and Naru growled at the undead chill he exuded. He stopped a couple feet away from her, watching the bear with a passive expression.

"Your beast is uneasy," he said, and the otherworldly echo to his voice confirmed her suspicions.

"Death Knight," she said, trying not to spit it like it was an insult. He had saved her life.
His chill blue eyes turned to regard her, his face still almost expressionless.

"Yes," he said. "The Ebon Blade has kept close watch on this place, and it has become infested again. I have been sent to find Frostwhisper's phylactery and put a permanent end to him. And you – what foolishness led you to come here alone?"

Miria's eyes narrowed. "I am a hunter – we operate alone."

"Not always," the death knight said. He looked her up and down like he was measuring her, taking in the mismatched, wet mail she wore and the worn bow. "You will slow me down. You should return to Andorhal."

"And what, lie about uselessly? That is where I have been for weeks," Miria said. Still, perhaps she should go, and come back when he wasn't here. But then, she might be swarmed by ghouls again – and who knew if the place would still be standing after he was through with it.

He must have sensed her reluctance. "If you have a problem with death knights, perhaps I should have let you die. It would have removed the problem." The night elf set his feet on the stairs up to Scholomance, apparently dismissing her.

"I could have handled myself," Miria snapped, following him without much thought to what she was doing. "I was doing just fine."

"You were about to be swarmed by ghouls. It is an unpleasant way to die." The death knight's smile made him look like a ghoul himself – there was no humor in his eyes. "I am going into Scholomance. If you wish to follow me, you will need to keep your wits about you. I will not save you again – this time was merely convenient to my own goals."

Miria gritted her teeth. This was why she hated death knights; they behaved like they were superior to everyone else on Azeroth, and not the abominations they were. "I was sent here to recover a property deed, nothing more. I am going in to complete my task whether you want me or not."

The death knight paused in front of the locked door and snorted. "Very well then," he said.

"My name is Miria, and my bear is Naru," she said. Death knights had no manners.

"You may call me Necrothirst," the death knight said, and then drew his sword and hacked into the wood of the door, opening it with a hard kick from his booted foot. "It is close enough to my name."

"That's no kind of kaldorei name," Miria said.

"I am no longer kaldorei," Necrothirst said with a snarl to his voice. "If you pry into my past I will kill you myself."

Miria's mouth thinned. They descended the steps into Scholomance, Necrothirst slightly ahead with his sword drawn, Miria behind him to the right with her fingers on her bowstring. So that's how it was going to be. Very well, she would stay with this death knight only long enough to complete her goal, and then she would leave, and good riddance to him.