[WoW] A Tale of Two Keleoshas

Keleoshaa felt like she was falling, and then floating. She no longer felt the grip of Khafras’ hand around her throat or the pain from her wounds. What she did feel was an all-encompassing warmth and peace. She couldn’t see anything but she could feel the familiar presence – the Light. It was all around her, stronger than she had ever felt it. A voice called through the dark. The Light was speaking to her.

“You are alright. I have you.”

The voice sounded so familiar to her. She knew it well. Was it her mother’s? No, that wasn’t it.

“Wake up! Do not die here!”

It wanted her to live? To go back to that nightmare? And that voice…it was her voice! That’s when she felt everything come back. Her back, her face, her neck. The warm grass beneath her, the bright light of the sun overhead, a pair of hands emanating healing light….

During her childhood helping in her parents’ shop, her mother had unintentionally taught Keleoshaa a colorful myriad of curse words. At that moment, she started using all of them.

The priest in front of Keleosha started muttering a plethora of curses as her eyes opened. Keleosha sighed with relief. She was alive. She was angry but she was alive. Angry was good. They needed anger right now, “You swear like Mother.”

“Pigaine ton eafto sou.” Keleoshaa spat back at her.

“Yes, just like that.”

Keleosha looked back at the eredar on the ground a few yards away. When she had arrived she saw him choking Keleoshaa. She struck him with her hammer to get him to drop her sister, then hit him a few more times, knocking him down before healing the priest. He was beginning to stir now. The fight wasn’t over.

“Rest a moment, I will take care of this.” Keleosha put away her hammer and shield and switched to the broadsword she had forged with her mother. She charged at the eredar with the sword overhead, bringing it down to clash with his blade.

“Come to die along with the real Keleoshaa, double?” he laughed at her.

Keleosha broke the clash and side stepped, then backed away to gain a little bit of distance. Khafras had that advantage in strength and size so she wouldn’t be able to parry all of his blows. However, she was faster than him, even in plate armor. And she knew how to be sneaky. She ran forward again to strike, but rather than hitting head on she shifted at the last possible moment, moving around his side and taking a shallow swipe across his leg.

Khafras growled in pain and stumbled, giving Keleosha a moment to place a hand on his shoulder guard. It had worked once before, maybe it would work this time. She focused the light into a touch of consecration, something she had been taught to use on floors and ground to give her enemies nowhere to stand. It was less effective on objects, but a consecrated shoulder guard against light-susceptible skin probably didn’t feel very good, and the howl of pain from Khafras confirmed that.

Before she could celebrate, Khafras spun around with the back of his arm, connecting with Keleosha’s head and sending her flying. She was so dazed she didn’t even feel the impact of the ground when she hit. Taking a moment to regain her bearings, she realized her sword had left her hand. She looked up in time to see Khafras walking toward her only to be hit in the chest with a glowing hammer of light. Keleosha turned her head to see which paladin had thrown the Judgment hammer but only saw Keleoshaa holding another golden hammer in her hand. The hammer flickered, barely able to maintain its form in the priest’s hand.

“Stay away from my sister, asshole!” the priest was defiant, even in her injured state.

The distraction was enough for Keleosha to switch back to her hammer and shield. She charged, shield up bashing the eredar and causing him to stagger back a few feet. With him on his back hoof, she swung the crystal hammer at his head, connecting at his jaw with a loud crack. He hit her once again and she fell to the ground but before she could get back up, she saw something protruding through Khafras’ chest.

It was the end of her broadsword.

Khafras slumped forward and then fell a few feet from Keleosha with the sword sticking out of his back. The green fel glow in his eyes dimming and then disappearing altogether. Keleoshaa was standing there panting from exhaustion. She fell back on the ground to rest, “Are you alright?”

Keleosha did a check, no serious injuries that she could feel, and after the day she had she didn’t feel like getting up to examine further, “I am fine. You?”

“Better than he’s doing. So does this mean he’s dead for good?”

“Eh, I do not know. Maybe? No one has been very clear on that,” Keleosha shrugged but then grinned, “We defeated the Legion though!”

The priest chuckled and opened her eyes to look at the sky once again, “I saw. And how did you manage that?”

“We attacked Antorus, took out many of the Legion’s remaining leaders, and then killed Argus.”

“You killed a planet?”

“No, Argus the Titan. The planet is also a Titan.”

There was a long pause that left nothing but chirping birds in the air before Keleoshaa replied, “I think you’ve been spending too much time with Lei Pan.”

“No, it is the truth! I took a portal here to tell you, that is when I saw…him.” Keleosha shuddered at the sight of Khafras’ lifeless body. She averted her gaze and changed the subject, “You used a paladin technique.”

Her sister smirked, “Well, curse words and smithing weren’t the only things my mother taught me when I was little. She wanted me to be able to defend myself if I got into trouble. I decided the paladin thing wasn’t for me though.”

“It is a shame. You would have made a good paladin.”

Keleoshaa snorted a laugh but winced when it made her throat hurt, “Yeah, well you would have made a shitty priest.” a second later something flew through the air and lightly glanced off the side of her head, “…did you just throw a pine cone at me?”

“You are rude.”

“Sorry. Thank you for saving me by the way.”

“Likewise.” Keleosha got up and retrieved her sword from the corpse, wiping some of the blood off in the grass, “We should get you to some healers who are not so shitty to fix you up the rest of the way.”

Keleoshaa sighed, looking up at the clear sky and the faint glow where Argus had once been, “In a minute. I’d like to enjoy the view a little longer.”