In need of a name - Prologue (Patreon)

• AN: So, for a bit of time, I've been working on another project. It's a Warcraft 3/World of Warcraft Fanfic, and the first book covers the events of the Warcraft 3 campaign from a single point of view. The only issue is, I have no idea what to name the fiction. Ideas and suggestions for a name are welcome.

• The protagonist is a reincarnator named Cassandra (I originally planned to give her some knowledge of Azeroth but decided against it; thus the name, Cassandra, as her 'predictions' wouldn't be believed by anyone). She starts out in Lordaeron and becomes the first human Shaman from Lordaeron.

• Enjoy

With a groan of exertion, Lady Jaina Proudmoore made the magical trap she had prepared between volleys of ice snap shut. Her battle against the lich leading the Scourge against her base had taken a lot out of her, maybe too much. Still, since her foe had been content to hang back behind the wall of ghouls and monsters, no one but her could have pushed the monster back. But now she was paying for it; much of her mana was drained, and her head already pounded with exhaustion. 

“Lady Proudmoore, we won’t be able to hold them much longer,” one of the few footmen still able to fight said, sounding as tired as Jaina felt. 

“We need to pull back,” Jaina decided, knowing that her forces wouldn’t be able to hold much longer. If their last line of defence fell, their wounded would die and replenish the Scourge. If that happened, everything would be for nought, the numerous deaths an utter waste.

“We can hold for a few more minutes, but they will simply keep coming,” Arlo, one of the few Paladins of the Silver Hand who had decided to join her expedition west, warned her. The rest of his brothers had remained behind, fighting a desperate battle against the endless forces of the Scourge, trying to protect as many of Lordaeron’s people as possible.

“Can you do anything?” he asked, only to curse quietly when Jaina shook her head. At most, she could buy a few minutes by conjuring a massive blizzard, but that would leave her wiped out and easy prey. It wouldn’t be enough time to get her people behind the next fortification.

“At most, I can evacuate a small group, but that won’t help us,” Jaina admitted, knowing that her ability to teleport, no matter how prodigious, was limited. 

“I might have an idea,” another voice broke in, causing Jaina to glance at one of the other human women who had joined the desperate battle, doing their best to keep the monsters at bay. 

“Cassandra,” Jaina greeted the younger woman, noticing the tell-tale signs of exhaustion and mana potion overuse. Signs Jaina knew she showed herself, as did pretty much every human in their camp, at least when it came to exhaustion. “What do you have in mind?” 

For a moment, the younger woman looked her age, no matter how tall she was and how mature she carried herself. Now, she was nothing but a girl barely out of her teens, tired, with filthy clothes and some blood still matting her hand from her efforts to keep the warriors of humanity standing, no matter their injuries and exhaustion.

Then, as quickly as the impression of vulnerability appeared, it faded, replaced by the iron will Jaina had seen in the girl since they met, shortly after one of the worst days of her life.

“If we can hold the gap down there, we have a chance,” Cassandra suggested, her simple spear pointing towards a relatively narrow opening on the path the Scourge took up the mountain. Only a few such paths existed, and this was the one closest to the mountain’s base. There was a reason why they had chosen this position, why they had built their fortifications here. The terrain favoured them, allowing them to hold the Scourge back for hours, despite the vast numerical advantage the Undead commanded. 

But even now, the Scourge pushed against the last remnants of their defence, the endless horrors too much to stem by mortal hands. No matter how strong the rock, the tide would wash it away eventually. 

“We can hold for a few minutes,” Arlo reiterated, “But that will be it for us.” 

“You said you can get us out?” Cassandra asked Jaina, getting a nod in return.

“Arlo, your knights hold while everyone else retreats. Jaina, the moment they get overrun, you pull us all out,” Cassandra ordered, only to receive looks of disbelief at the idiocy of that plan. 

“The undead will catch the wounded long before they can get behind the next line,” Jaina told the younger woman, thinking it would shatter the plan.

“I know,” the other woman replied. “But I have my part to play, too. They will not get past us,” she assured them; the sheer confidence in her voice, and some of the things both Arlo and Jaina had seen from her, were enough to convince them. 

“You’ll know when to pull us out,” Cassandra added, her voice a mixture of fear and determination. 

The small party made its way down the slope, the knights calling orders to the different sergeants and pulling back in a reasonably coordinated fashion. Jaina’s earlier defeat of the lich had bought them time, as direct control over the Scourge had briefly faltered. It wouldn’t last, but it was their best chance to slip away. 

As they walked, Jaina felt rhythmic surges of magic flowing into the young woman she called friend. That alone wouldn’t be problematic; Jaina had seen enough of the other’s abilities to recognise the influence of a Water Elemental, but what worried Jaina was that Cassandra started to sway as if drunk, her body clearly unable to withstand the powers she was drawing on. 

“No choice,” the younger woman reminded Jaina the moment she noticed the more experienced magic user's worry. But there really was no other choice but to do it now, or far too many people would die, something even Jaina could recognise. Jaina herself was well aware that she would take another Mana Potion, even if she had already overdosed and any additional dosage would send her into an immediate coma, if it didn’t kill her outright. She saw similar symptoms in Cassandra, a reminder that they had all been fighting hard, pushing themselves to their limits and maybe beyond.

Finally, as another wave of ghouls and skeletons shambled up the slope, the small party reached their destination: the smallest gap in their defences, where even a small number could hold. At least for a time.

The Paladins, filled with righteous anger and the determination to hold the line, stepped forth, calling on the Light with a single voice. The Light answered their prayer, and the ground around them began to radiate with consecrated energy, harming every undead that dared to challenge them. It wouldn’t be enough; it wouldn’t last forever, but Jaina knew it would buy them time. That the Knight of the Silver Hand would buy them the time they needed, even if they had to turn their bodies into shields to ward off the Undead for just a second longer. There was a reason why the Knights were seen as the epitome of bravery; they would not falter. Especially not now, not here, not with everything on the line.

Next to her, shielded by the armoured Paladins, the young woman, dressed in a mix of mismatched armour and simple, sturdy clothes, planted her feet, giving Jaina the impression that she became one with the ground, if only for a moment. Then, her entire body started to shine with ochre mana. It was dim at first, visible only to those sensitive to magic, but that quickly changed as Cassandra channelled more and more power. Too much power, Jaina would have said, maybe too much for any human to survive.

And yet, despite her faint misgivings, Jaina started her own work, focusing on the arcane formula needed to twist space to her will, allowing their small group to disappear from one point and reappear in another. It wasn’t a simple spell, far from it, but Jaina had been chosen as apprentice of Archmage Antonidas for a reason, a reason that had little to do with her family connections. 

But no matter how experienced and slightly jaded Jaina was, she couldn’t help but be impressed by the feat of magic a younger woman was performing right next to her. The ochre light wasn’t just radiating from Cassandra; it spread into their environment, seeping into earth and rock. Behind them, the camp was rapidly clearing, the uninjured and walking wounded helping those who couldn’t move, comrades carrying friends, a collective mass of humanity unwilling to leave anyone behind.

However, the Paladins, for all their bravery and valour, couldn’t hold forever. The Scourge was unending; the tide of dead bodies was impossible to stem without giving ground. They tried, but eventually the Undead simply pushed their destroyed brethren before them. No matter how strong a Paladin was in the Light, they didn’t have the power to incinerate hundreds of dead bodies. No matter how hard the rock, the tide would eventually win. As was the case here. 

Suddenly, Jaina felt the ground beneath her shift. For a moment, she was gripped with terror, fearing that the Scourge and their masters had some other trick to play, something beyond the endless waves of horror and death they had been throwing at them. But then Jaina noticed the tremors beneath her seemed to match the tremors running through Cassandra, who was now swaying on her feet, barely able to stay upright.

“Let’s go!” Cassandra gasped out, slowly pulling her hands up. Until now, those hands had been clenched at her sides, but now they rose, as if she were trying to lift something incredibly heavy. And it wasn’t an empty gesture; the ground shook in tune with her movement, the rumbling intensifying to match the power concentrated in the younger woman’s hands.

Finally, Cassandra raised her hands high above her head, the mauve power between them blazing like a star, then suddenly ripped them down, almost falling to her knees as the power surged into the ground around them.

Lady Jaina didn’t need to see more. She didn’t know what the younger woman had wrought, but she knew they had to get out of here as fast as possible. With practised ease, she pulled the prepared spell together, letting arcane energy flow around their group and latch onto each member, pulling them away, even as the ground started to groan beneath their feet.

For a second, the world turned into a swirling blue vortex as the arcane magic whisked them away, depositing them just a short distance from their point of origin. Short, at least on the scale this magic was usually used; it would have taken at least a few minutes to walk the distance, not to mention the elevation. Amusingly, the small group arrived at the hill before their allies’ camp before any of the others who had fled their own encampment, though only just.

Then, Jaina realised what the younger woman had actually done, what those tremors had been. The mountain below them was moving; the valley they had fortified against the Scourge was collapsing as a mind-boggling amount of earth and stone was following a magically induced call to move. Their fallen, the destroyed undead and hundreds of active Scourge were buried alive; the forces involved were simply too great to be denied.

“We did it,” Cassandra gasped out, just as the younger woman’s legs gave out beneath her. She would have tumbled to the ground if not for a different hand catching her. 

“That, you did,” a solemn voice said. “But now, it’s our turn. You can rest.” The suggestion sounded great, not just to Cassandra, who might already be beyond words, but to Jaina, Arlo and the remaining Knights of the Silver Hand, too.

Their part was done, at least for now. Others would hold the line for a time, and they could rest.