Fire, Faith, and the Future (Fire and Faith Part III) [Archive]

Fallacy

11-26-2006, 03:56 PM

((Okay, so I'm a lazy bum, but I finally got it done.))

Tirdisar stood on the balcony outside his room, overlooking merchants making their way home as the sun was setting. His shoulder had nearly healed, but, even through his injury, his grandfather had been pushing him in his studies. Tir was already well-accomplished as a mage, having finished training at Sunstrider Island years ago, but the elder Hawkbrand was teaching him to succeed as the head of the household. All the politics, economics, and formalities bored him. No matter the issue, his mind always returned to the one thing that held him for quite some time.

Revenge.

It was the attitude of a large portion of the blood elf population, but it was also directed at several different sources. Most sought to destroy the Scourge; some blamed the Alliance, but Tir was set to seek vengeance for what he thought had torn his family apart, his sister’s ex-husband, Herenth Absalom. They both seemingly disappeared almost five years ago, thought to have died at sea, but Visena was discovered in the care of a farmer in northern Tirisfal. She was heavily pregnant, and had no recollection of who she was or how she had ended up where she had. She was also constantly ill, which made the delivery nearly fatal to both her and the boy who she gave birth to. However, the physicians were unable to explain the reason to why they survived at all, and, to make matters worse, it was only a short time after the Scourge had invaded. Their parents were killed in defense of the Sunwell, leaving them in the care of their grandfather, Colian Hawkbrand. With the destruction of the Sunwell and his old age, Colian began to waste away, and he feared for the future of his grandchildren, especially of that of the ailing Visena and her newborn. He knew his time was approaching, so he began to pressure Tir into studying to become the head of the family.

Tir hated it. He thought it to be the end of their line, as he didn’t care to continue it; rather, he only wanted to take care of his sister. He put his own resources to work as to find the truth of what had happened to her and Herenth. Even according to his mother, however, Herenth was long dead, leaving an empty grave outside of Stromgarde. While investigating in Arathi, he heard rumors of a strange undead wandering the hills. It was said to be the ghost of a soldier who had died in the Second War, but, oddly, many Alliance who came across it wound up dead, but the Horde passed it off as a myth, without any harm coming to any of their members. Those who survived it described it as a skeletal form that called itself, “the Fallacy.” It was a being wrought of flame, and seemingly killed indiscriminately, but the survivors had no idea of the reasons they had been spared. Tir believed him to be nothing more than another Forsaken roaming the land, but he had an instinctual feeling to continue following that trail. Then, as suddenly as it had appeared, the creature had gone. He heard whispers among the orcs that it had gone to Tanaris, and his interest finally culminated into taking action. At Gadgetzan, he payed off quite a few goblins for any information regarding it, and it led him to one just living outside the city who was said to be the one person in the area Fallacy confided in. The goblin, however, refused to curtail any information, despite the large amounts of gold Tir offered. He felt he had no choice to turn to more torturous means. The goblin was barely more than a bloody pulp before he relinquished a name. Tir could hardly believe that such a being could have been his brother-in-law, that Fallacy was Herenth
The very fact sent Tir into a blind rage. He thought Herenth had gone mad, joining the Scourge or something else rather horrible. He blamed him for what had happened to Visena, and devoted all his energy to destroy him once and for all.

He had failed, despite all his effort. Tir had made several attempts to kill Fallacy, but all had gone awry. Even with all his control over the arcane, he had been countered. With his latest injury, Tir had been greatly weakened, and was nearly bed-ridden for a few weeks. Herenth had become such a powerful creature, despite the loss of flesh, and his fighting ability had crushed Tir’s magical prowess. It frustrated him greatly, but, moreso, he felt despair in that he began to believe he would be unable to take his vengeance.

Even though he was more distraught, he could feel the anger within him, like it was causing his mana to boil. He had to bring it under control, or else he could incinerate his entire room. He retreated back to his room and emerged with a lute in hand.

Night had finally set in over Silvermoon, and a have filled the air with the scent of incense. It was a recently neglected talent of his, but Tir was secretly renowned for sneaking out late and playing at local taverns. He began strumming, testing the strings to be correctly tuned, before he started to fully play.

He had barely begun before he felt cold metal against his neck.

“Hello, again, Tirdisar.” The voice gave away Fallacy without Tir having to see him. “We need to have a little talk, you and I.”

Tir’s hand began to slide off the lute, but the sword was pressed against his neck, forcing him to stop his movement. “Oh, no, you can’t use magic to escape this time, I’ve made sure of that.” Tir felt something prick against his upper back, finding that another weapon was pointed at him.

“Forget it. Just kill me already.” Tir knew he could not break free of the hold, and he cared little for a discussion with Fallacy.

“Now that I know it was you who had been following me, you pose no threat. All I need from you is information.”

“Like I said, I’m not telling you shit.” Tir spat on the ground to show his disdain.

“Such coarse language for a kid like you.” Fallacy’s voice went from soothing to demanding. “Just tell me why.”

Tir shuffled, but little enough to avoid getting himself cut. “You know why, you bastard, for what you did to Visena.”

Tir found himself pressed face down on the floor, underneath Fallacy’s foot. “Fool! You know nothing of what happened that night!” He leaned forward, placing more of his weight on Tir’s back. “You want to know the truth, Tir? Your sister killed me, and threw herself into the ocean afterwards.”

Tir unexpectedly began laughing, struggling to do so under the pressure. “You’re a damned liar, Herenth. How can that be when Visena’s just in the next room?”

The foot was removed from Tir’s back, making him cough as he pushed himself to his knees. Once he had recovered, he raced to catch up to Fallacy. He could feel the rage again, and let the fire run over his hands, but he knew could not make it to the room in time. He burst through the open door, only to be stopped by Fallacy holding out his arm towards him.

“Leave me alone, Tir. I will not harm her.” Visena was still sleeping tightly, oblivious to the ruckus the two had caused.

Tir strained against his arm. “You actually expect me to believe you? Hmmph!” However, he then noticed that Fallacy no longer held his sword, but had let it drop to the ground.

Fallacy walked to her bedside, not taking his sight off of her face. “How can this be? She said she could not live without me, and yet here she is, after so many years.”

“She… has no memory of what happened. She hardly remembered her own name after we found her.”

Even though he drew no breath, Fallacy seemed to sigh. “I guess it was never meant to be. We both had to become completely new people to continue to exist.”

Tir was astonished. He started to think that what Fallacy had told him was true. “There’s one more thing you should know…” He pointed to a crib not far from the bed.

Fallacy shifted his face from Visena, to Tir, back to Visena, and then to the crib. He slowly began to walk to it. In it, he found a sleeping toddler, with pointed ears and brown hair, so unlike the blonde hair of his mother.

“Can this… truly be real? He is…” Fallacy gripped the edge of the crib tightly.

“He is your son.” Tir turned away from him, looking to the open door.

“What is his name?”

Tir shook his head. “Diandro’ei. Diandro’ei Absalom.”

As Fallacy looked down upon the child, he saw a drop of liquid fall onto the sheets. He reached up to his fleshless cheek. “Impossible, that was…” But he dared not question it again.

Fallacy and Tir walked out together. Tir shook his head, not daring to look directly at him. “I… want to apologize. I had no idea what you had gone through…”

Fallacy waved him off. “Do not bother. I am no longer Herenth. That life is long gone, and there is only this being left. I need you to do something for me, however.” Fallacy grabbed his shoulder. “Watch them. Keep them safe. I can no longer be a husband or a father as I am now, so the task of protecting them must fall to you.” He let go of Tir and stepped towards an open window. “Also, don’t tell her that I was here.”

Tir nodded, not wanting to say anything else. He did little more than blink, and Fallacy had gone.