Pix’s Note: Before I jump right into the story today, I want to remind everybody that it’s time for Brigwyn’s Children’s Week Child’s Play Auction! There are a lot of awesome things up for auction, so go check them out and put up some bids – it’s for a great cause!

By the time I had risen to a high rank in the medical squadron with the Hand of Argus, Prophet Velen and Vindicator Boros were planning to assault Tempest Keep. My role was a simple one – provide healing and support to the forward ranks (which included Lelissa among them). I took to my duties with ease and skill, mending even the most grievous wounds with the power of the Light. I watched Lelissa sometimes, worried that her battle rages and headstrong attitude would get her into a situation too much for her to handle.

Somehow, in the thick of fighting, we all found ourselves aboard the Exodar. The pilots rushed to the bridge in order to get the city-ship into the air, while those of us who remained at the entry doors fought back against the Blood Elf onslaught. We couldn’t hold… we were forced deeper into the structure, and enemy companies were able to break off and head through alternate routes toward the bridge, desperately trying to beat our engineers there. Finally, the great engines roared to life and the ship began to quake as it pulled away from Tempest Keep, but once the dimensional engines were activated, they failed. No, failed is the wrong word; the engines were sabotaged, a desperate attempt by the Blood Elves to keep us from leaving Draenor. Prophet Velen and the other leaders of the Draenei were not aware that the Blood Elves had managed to find their way to the engine room. Some prophet. It seemed like we were about to make a successful escape, but the moment we activated the Exodar, we knew nothing but disaster.

The destruction was immense. Fires exploded down passages, killing both Elf and Draenei without discrimination. Room after room burned and smoked, and all those on the ship went from battle readiness to self-preservation in the face of the devastation aboard this fortress careening through the Nether without control.

On board, our only hope was to grab on to something, and pray to the Light we would be alright. Lelissa and I were together in the darkness, and I remember the last thing I could hear her say to me before the Exodar cracked in half and our world ended.

“I will keep you safe.”

Amid the explosions and the deafening roar of wind as the shattered Exodar hurtled toward the surface of what I would later discover as Azeroth, I didn’t get to hear the rest of my sister’s words. It was just as well.

She lied to me, too.

I awoke some time later in chains. I looked at my bindings, and knew that it was cold: I could see ice on the cold iron, but I felt nothing. Panicked for a moment, I strained uselessly against the bonds, unable to gain a hoofhold in the bloodstained stones. Weary and defeated, I slumped to the floor, my head down. Angry, frightened tears forced their way out of me, freezing to my cheeks, another testament to my own inability to escape – even my tears were unable to break free. Suddenly, I realized one terrifying thing: I had expended so much effort, strained against these bonds, clawed and scraped to break free… but where I should have seen the vapor of hot air expelled from my lungs, I saw nothing.

I wasn’t breathing.