Into the Light

20 | OUTSIDE OF TIME

As Khadgar expected, a heavy silence fell on the room as the others absorbed his disclosure. After a long while, Kalec asked, "Illidan could have been lying, or it may not have even been Illidan. Do you think it was a trap to capture Tyrande?"

"No," Malfurion answered, certain. "I saw my brother in the Nether, when Elune opened a portal to carry Tyrande to him. I saw what Gul'dan has done to him. Illidan's suffering has been unimaginable. None could withstand it . . . none but my powerful, wilful, determined brother."

Kalec looked at Khadgar, sharp. "Elune is a part of this as well? You have kept much from us, too much."

Khadgar shook his head. "Elune's involvement is news to me as well. It is good you have come to us, Malfurion."

Silence fell again. Khadgar gave Malfurion time. It was obvious the druid was suffering. Malfurion brushed his kilt, smoothing down the fur, lost in his own thoughts.

Khadgar decided to move the conversation into safer waters. "You mentioned the Chamber of the Eye. How can you be certain that is what you saw?"

Malfurion looked up at Khadgar from under his brow. "Illidan told Tyrande his body was held there. Through Gul'dan's portal I saw Illidan's body suspended in the air, strung up in fel tethers. His eyes burned a glowing orange. Already he sees with the eyes of the Dark Titan."

Modera shuddered and turned away. Kalec groaned. He pressed his palms against his eyes, murmuring, "There is only one way to stop this. We need to get Illidan's body out of there."

Khadgar nodded. "Which is what Tyrande asked me to accomplish. I have not mentioned it yet because I have not thought of a plan. We will only have one chance to get this right."

The others nodded, solemn. Malfurion spoke up once more.

"There were runes on the wall of the Eye. I memorised them, and as much of the Chamber as I was able to see. I had hoped it might help."

Khadgar nodded, impressed with Malfurion's foresight. "Between the three of us, we should be able to conjure a projection of your memory. But we will need your permission to sift through it. We will also save the images to our archives for further study."

Malfurion took a seat on one of the sofas. "Do whatever is necessary."

Khadgar cast a rune into the air, and held it there while Modera cast another. Kalec waited until they were finished before adding his. The three runes rotated around Malfurion's head until they came into alignment. They stopped and locked in place with a soft hiss. That part done, Khadgar commenced to cast the spell to generate a rune that would temporarily place the mages outside of time and space. Their eyes burning bright, the others added their power to the rune Khadgar cast onto the floor. Khadgar stepped back, panting. It was done.

As one, they stepped into it, careful to place their feet on the intersections of the largest triangle at the same time. They brought their hands up, and aligned their energy. The arcane's blue light glowed bright, thrumming with energy. Khadgar uttered another spell, and Malfurion appeared within the middle of the rune's triangle, levitating.

Under their feet, the rune began to rotate. The walls of Khadgar's office shimmered, turning translucent. The rune spun faster. The walls disappeared, and the floor fell away. Beneath their feet, the city disappeared, building by building, swallowed up by nothingness as time reversed, and space ceased to exist. They were almost ready. Khadgar looked up.

Above the runic platform the massive point of a cone bore down upon them, the cone's vast circumference spreading away towards its base far above; beneath his feet, the same, but in reverse, the circumference of the cone fell away from its point towards its base far beneath them. Within their event horizon between the points of the two cones, arcane energy crackled, gathering. A beam shot out and connected to the runic assembly around Malfurion's head. He juddered as the light probed, but he held still.

They spun so fast, it felt as if they stood still. Silence surrounded them. Slow, like drip of nectar, the images came, jumbled, and in broken fragments as the arcane tendrils searched for the full memory, hidden throughout Malfurion's brain. The fel runes appeared first, then the walls, and finally Illidan, or what used to be Illidan. All of it just as Malfurion had described. It was perfect.

Kalec pointed at the runes against the wall. "I have not seen anything like that since before the War of the Ancients. Those runes are part of an incantation to tear a hole into the fabric of reality. I thought all knowledge of them had been destroyed in the Maelstrom."

"Obviously not," Modera muttered.

Khadgar eyed the thing that was once Illidan, uneasy, noting the glowing orange tendrils writhing from its chest, holding the portal open to Moonglade. "Its powers are already enormous, if it can hold open a portal with just its mind."

They continued to examine every part of the image, discussing details, and recording them into arcane prisms for deeper study later. Malfurion groaned, sweat breaking out on his face, blood dripped from his nose.

Khadgar locked the prisms into an amulet for safekeeping until they returned. "Let's bring him back, we have tested him hard."

Piece by piece, the image disintegrated as the memories returned back to their places in Malfurion's mind. The rune's spin slowed. Dalaran reappeared, building up brick by brick until the floor appeared once more beneath them. The walls returned and solidified. They slowed their channels, until the rune beneath them dimmed, leaving nothing more than a faint actinic scent behind. Kalec removed his rune from Malfurion, followed by the others. The druid slumped, unconscious onto the floor.

Modera knelt and checked his vitals. She stood. "He's going to have a beast of a headache when he wakes up."

Khadgar nodded, and began to open a portal. "Let's get him back to Darnassus where he can rest and his own healers can attend to him."

Kalec lifted his fingers, and cast a counterspell, interrupting Khadgar's portal. "We can't send him back. Gul'dan has taken Tyrande, but we do not know why. We cannot assume he will not take another. It could be Malfurion next, or Anduin, or Sylvanas. We need to keep what leaders we have left here, under our protection, and if Gul'dan arrives, we will be ready for him, with a trap of our own."