That Which Eludes Their Eye

That Which Eludes Their Eye.

High Priest Thel'danis squeezed once more the cloth that he had dipped into the bowl of cool water and placed it on the forehead of the woman, who in her dazed state mumbling once in a while incoherently stirred restless. The mere sight of her pained face, which seemed so fair even for a Human, made it hurt inside him. The Night Elf glanced at the tabard that lay with the armour nearby, and wondered how it could be that one who seemed so pure could have joined that which it represented.

A whimper escaped the woman as she stirred. The way she turned her face suggested that she was waking up. Thel'danis eyed her for a moment, but she stilled. Nightmare perhaps, he thought and rose, casting a glance at the bandage that covered her eyes. Horrible...

A horse whinnied outside and made him turn his attention towards the entrance of the building he was within, and he rose up, walking carefully, a torch shining with unearthly light at the ready. Yet there was nothing but two members of the Argent Dawn outside who were walking towards him - they were looking over at the warhorse, which stood tied by a pillar near the entrance, apparently alarmed by their presence. Thel'danis smiled and greeted them. "Well met, friends," he said and bowed.

"Ah, Thel'danis. We came as fast as we could. All is well?" one of them said.

Thel'danis nodded. "Yes, they do not come too near, Ungard. And if they did, I should be able to repulse them."

The two men smiled and Ungard nodded towards him as they began to approach the Night Elf. "How is she?" the other asked.

Thel'danis' face darkened. "She is...alive, but not well. Her wounds suggest she has fought Undead, but..." He halted his speech for a moment.

Ungard and his fellow eyed him questionately. "But...?"

Thel'danis winced slightly. "Her eyes... Someone removed them by force, and I doubt it to be the work of the Undead. It seems too surgical... Her face bears no mark of a sword or claws having removed them. They have been stabbed out."

Ungard and his fellow both grimaced as the image struck them, and their expression signalled that they were apalled. "Do you have her here at Uther's tomb, Thel'danis?"

The Night Elf nodded and gestured that they should follow him. He had barely turned before he stopped - and the way his body acted Ungard thought him to be surprised and moved up to his side to see what it was.

By the statue that rested upon the stony shelter of Uther the Lightbringer's remains sat a woman clothed in a blanket with her back turned to them - her one hand half stretched up as though she was reaching out to something, trying to grasp something unseen. Ungard frowned and looked questioningly at Thel'danis, who in turn merely gazed in wonder.

"Thel'danis? Is this her?" he asked.

The Kaldorei's only response was a nod, and Ungard turned his face towards the woman again. "Lady?"

The woman put down her arm, and slowly turned towards them.

Ungard gasped in almost terror as he beheld a face on which two empty sockets had once held eyes. In her hand she held a piece of bandage, which from the blood stains suggested that it had covered her loss.

"Who...who is there?" she asked, a trinkle of fear in her voice.

"Peace," Thel'danis finally spoke. "We are friends and mean you no harm. I am Thel'danis. I have tended to your wounds. Be not afraid."

Ungard almost felt himself at ease by the voice of the Night Elf, and wondered a short moment how Thel'danis could have such a soothing effect on even him. He eyed the woman, trying to see if it had the same effect on her.

The empty sockets beheld them as though eyes were there, and her face seemed distraught - not that it surprised Ungar, considering her loss. Yet the way she 'looked' at them made him frown.

"The Light..." she whispered and turned towards the illuminated statue of Lordaeron's finest hero. "It shines so...beautifully..."

Ungard was partly stunned by feeling the hand of the Night Elf on his shoulder, as the High Priest walked past him. "Huh?"

Thel'danis replied not, and knelt beside the woman. "What...did you say, lady? What is it that you see?"

She turned her face towards Thel'danis and Ungard thought he could see the discomfort in the Night Elf's face - clearly it was the lack of eyes - and he frowned at her response.

"The Light, Kaldorei," she answered. "It shines... It's...beautiful..."

Ungard turned towards his companion, his face puzzled, but he only received an equally puzzled face staring back at him. He blinked and decided to approach. Walking carefully he stepped up beside the woman and crouched. "Miss, can you tell me your name?"

The woman turned her face towards him, and his stomach churned as sadness and a slight trace of nausea washed over him as the empty sockets of a fair face gazed in his direction. Her voice was a mixture of calmness and sadness as she answered his question.

"I am...Sister Elizabetha Istro."