Eyes opened.

Solcien lay on his bed; sunlight streamed through his window. Rolling to the side, he saw her. Lulaa lay beside him. Her skin was bright red and eyes bright green. As soon as Solcien noticed her, she jumped up, startled and fully awake.

“Lulaa!” he exclaimed, sitting upright. “What are you doing here?!”  Lulaa smirked and put her finger to Solcien’s lips.

“Don’t talk,” she said.

When she touched him, a vision flooded his mind.

As his consciousness returned, a great crystalline structure revealed itself deep within the reaches of the Great Dark Beyond. His vision continued to wander, giving Solcien a bird’s eye view of the great ship, light from the stars reflecting against the smooth surface. He then noticed himself at the head, seemingly controlling the vessel. Velen stood beside him, and his intuition told him Suurath was asleep. Suddenly, his vision switched to the Solcien he was watching.

“Agh!” He stared at the control frame before him, suddenly clueless.

“High Astronomer, what is wrong?” Velen spoke. His hair was grayed significantly, and his skin was scarred. Solcien searched for an answer, but his mind escaped this vision and went to another one.

He was on land. Not anywhere on Argus, but lush savannah-like planet he didn’t know of. He saw many eredar lined before his village, weapons raised, but he himself had none. He wondered why he was not fighting.

“Please, help me…” Looking down, he noticed an injured woman lying at his feet. He was a healer.

“What happened?” Solcien asked frantically.

“They...cut me…” She sputtered with every word sounding like it caused incredible pain.

“Who is ‘they’?” Before he could say anything more, he heard a ravenous battle cry.

With the grass rustling harshly and a battle horn blaring, great creatures flew from the shadows and laid siege to the village. They were not eredar, as they had neither hooves nor tails. Their skin was brown, and they fought on great fur-beasts with reckless abandon. A particularly large one approached Solcien, raising her axe.

“Draenei scum!” she roared. “Prepare to die!”

Draenei… that was Eredun for “exiled ones.”

“Please! I have done nothing!” But before the creature could hurt him, Lucien jumped out in front of him, showering the creature in many arrows. A muscular man came behind her, cleaving his way through the cacophony, his long pure white hair blowing around him.

“Are you okay, Solcien?” Lucien said, concerned. The second man who accompanied him looked impatient.

“Keyurk is still in the village, we must go.” Solcien opened his mouth to respond, but his mind once again left his body.

Now he found himself writhing on the ground. A smell of smoke and burning flesh filled the stagnant air.

“Solcien! You’re alive!” Suurath crawled toward him. He looked...different, however. Plants grew through his horns, and buds flecked his skin. He was so pale…

“We crashed...the Exodar crashed...so many dead…” Suurath cried, gesturing toward the destroyed mass of metal and crystal. “You’re alive…”

Solcien awoke in the bed once again. Curiously, he looked to see if Lulaa was still there. Instead, he gasped at what was in her place.

The Naaru A’dal stood before him.

“A’dal! Is it you?” Solcien said in awe.

“Yes, Astronomer Solcien. I’m sorry I must show you this future for you, but you must know you are going to survive. I have but one more thing to show you, then you will awake, because they are coming.”

“Who?” Solcien could not say it before the Naaru disappeared. He found himself in the sky, though it did not look like any sky he had been under. The air swirled in a green vortex, and before him stood a massive demon almost looking like that of an eredar. He looked as Lulaa did, except many times larger.

He found he stood beside many different creatures. Suurath was there, still in his botanical form. Lucien and the unfamiliar man stood tall and confident beside him as well. Two other teens were there; one fought valiantly with his hands and the other had fire dancing in hers. The creatures varied in size, and some held their weapons while others had minions, some even demonic.

The hoofless woman stepped forward, her armor clanking against her body. Another man stepped forward. He looked like a beast, though he stood on two legs.

“Kil’jaeden...your time has come to an end.”

Kil’jaeden? Solcien looked the demon over. He bore no resemblance to his old self. He wondered if this was the fate of Lulaa.

He noticed the Prophet was there. However, he had aged many years. His hair now was long and coarse. Suurath also had changed. His plant growths were withered and scarred. He looked almost dead, yet still his soul did not come to the Light. It stayed within him, fighting to remain on this plane of existence. Velen surveyed the apparent team, smiling a bit. His eyes met Solcien’s, and he nodded at him in approval.

“I am so proud of you. I always knew you would achieve great things.”

-Alexa Gabor