Music: THE OTHER SIDE || Ruelle

https://youtu.be/PVJp307TNTY

Bodies lay injured, bleeding. Broken. Still.

The air was filled with sobbing, praying, incantations, crying out of names, orders.  But, she heard no sound, no weeping, no talking or shouting. Nothing.  

She felt - empty.  

All around her, others tended to the injured, comforted the bereaved and helped in the search for those yet unaccounted for.  They were mere phantoms, wisps that floated aimlessly past her, their passage stirring strands of her hair, creating ripples in her shirt, nothing more. Sarah stared at the fallen pillar. Kneeling in the dust and dirt, her eyes looked, unblinking, where she had last seen Khadgar.  Her tattoo's luminescence flickered, slowly fading, puttering out.  Her mind played over the scene again and again and again.

Forgive me...  

His eyes, silver in the shadow of the collapsing stone, his face, handsome and unbearably sad. Gone. Lost. Stolen.  His last smile swept over her inner vision, the ghost of his touch passed through her, a tug, a clinch, a jolt.  

She exhaled sharply as if she had been holding her breath for an immeasurable, impossible length of time.  The expulsion of air caused her to fall forward, her left palm hitting the ground, stabilising her while her right clutched at her stomach. Gulping, her insides ached, pounded, contracted - and burst violently into life again.  

Her eyes looked up through her hair. The portal.  Bernie was clambering over the rubble calling out for Drew, Mel and Mick were helping.  So Khadgar had to be there too.

She pulled her feet out from under her and shakily they supported her as she stood.  One step. Dragging her other foot. Another step. She stared at her feet, willing them to move faster, she had to reach the broken pillar.  Her movements started to become fluid and moments later she was standing in front of a mound of crumbled stone, warped metal and shifting shale.  Looking up, she watched as the three Earthlings tried moving blocks of concrete out of their way.  

"Drew! Can you still hear me?" Bernie was shouting, her voice racked with sobs and fear that her love was injured beyond recovery.  Mel and Mick also called out his name.  A muffled sound responded. 

"Move!" Sarah said.  The three of them looked up.  Her tattoos once more started to flare, the light seeping in through the stone.  Her healing would reach him and she focused even harder to try and levitate some of the surrounding stone.  The excited cries from Bernie let her know it was working.  A large slab, impossible for the three humans to move on their own shifted and slid away, opening enough space for them to see under the sarcophagus of broken stone.

"Drew! Drew!" Bernie called, her voice muffled as she leaned down to look into the gap.  Sarah's light faded once more.  A squeal of relief as Bernie stood, arms out, beckoning the emerging form of a very dusty Drew.  Bernie steered him away from the rubble, back to safety where he would receive more healing and sustenance. 

In his hand he had clutched Atiesh, Khadgar's raven carved staff. The sight imbued Sarah with hope once more. She remained where she was, staring again at the fallen portal. Her mouth formed his name and it spilt from her lips in an agonised whisper.  

She started to climb the mound, slivers and shards sliding down from her feet scrambling up.  "Khadgar!" she said louder. "Khadgar!"  She started to try to shift some of the smaller stones with her hands while once more her flare moved the more stubborn slabs.  Her fingers started to bleed, a nail ripped clean off but she kept delving into the rubble.  The mound shifted underfoot. To her left, half of the remaining pillar started to sway.  "Khadgar!" her voice reached shriek level.  "Khadgar! Answer me. Please!"

Her hands came up to protect her eyes as dust and grit buffeted up.  A huge pair of wings folded around her. Illidan. "Sarah, you must stop!"

"Khadgar!" she fought against the demon-hide shroud.

"No! This is going to collapse more, you must come away."

"No, he must be here! Khadgar!"

"Sarah!" Illidan tried to keep the sorrow from his voice. "He is gone. There is nothing we can do anymore."  He kept a tight hold of her and unfurled his wings.  

The sharp crack of the remaining pillar reached across the mound.  "Everybody! Move!" Illidan shouted.  

Those who searched atop the mound and below started to run for safety.  Illidan extended his wings and lifted Sarah just as the pillar slid, pulling the remainder of it down to cover where she had just been trying to excavate. "Khadgar!" she wailed as the demon hunter carried her away. Her heart folded. 

He was gone.

Music: THE WORLD IS SAFE by Audiomachine

https://youtu.be/2v0X6i7hJd0

Landing a safe distance from the obliterated pillar, Illidan steadied Sarah, holding her gently by her arms.  Her eyes were vacant, still staring towards the rubble.   "Sarah," he said, his breath hitched.  "I'm so, so sorry I didn't reach him in time."  

There was no indication that she heard him, or that she was even aware of his kneeling beside her.  She seemed lost in her own thoughts.  After checking she was not physically hurt, other than a ripped nail, Illidan moved to those nearby needing aid.

All around, people were tending to the injured and the grieving.  Others moved back to the crumbled pillars, pulling out those who lay trapped beneath stone and metal, searching for sounds of life from all around the heap that was once the dark portal.  

Sounds of weeping and pain mingled with incantations of healing and prayers of the Light. Shamanistic totems,  runes and nature's healing circles were in abundance. Druid healers, some having adopted their tree form moved between the masses, their healing following in green and gold wisps, finding those in most need.  Deep wounds, cuts, grazes were all being bound and cleansed.  

Illidan's gift of the Naaru spread out over small pockets of people huddled, giving each other comfort and words of hope.  Others, not so fortunate, were lain to one side, readied for transportation home and burial.

Blinking slowly, Sarah looked up. Birds circled the area, some were druids on the lookout for strays who wandered, stunned and injured from the scene of carnage, others were carrion hoping for a free and bountiful meal, others still were simply those disturbed by the noise and destruction from minutes before. One, caught her eye. 

A raven. "Khadgar!" she breathed.  She watched as the bird soared above, back and forth between the mound of rubble and the field of injured people. "Khadgar!" her voice called, finding its strength. She pushed up on her knees. Pointing to the bird in the sky she started shouting. "Khadgar! Khadgar!"  

She glanced round for someone to hear her, for someone to see where she was pointing.  Again she called out his name.  The bird swooped overhead and back towards the ruined portal. Her eyes never left it. She kept shouting his name.

Atiesh landed beside her and a pair of hands grabbed her shoulders.  Drew, shook her, not unkindly, but enough to drag her eyes from the sky. "Sarah!"

"Khadgar!" she said pointing to the bird.

Drew looked up.  There were many ravens, as there were many other opportunist birds. With a heavy heart, he shook his head. "No. It is not Khadgar," he said. "Sarah!" He shook her a little more vigorously until she looked at him.  He fought to keep his own tears at bay, but on seeing the haunted look of absolute loss in hers, he gulped as a single droplet escaped. 

He quickly wiped it away, not wanting her to see his pain when she was obviously suffering so much of her own. "If it was him, Sarah, he would be down here, reassuring you and helping others. Would he not?"  He stared, wide-eyed at her, refusing to let her eyes reach back to the sky in search of a false avian hope.  

The veil of grief slid over her face and the tears began to trickle.  Beside them, Bernie knelt and took Sarah's hands. Drew nodded to the redhead, indicating he would help tend others if she stayed with Sarah.

The searches for loved ones continued, as did the healing.  The Kirin Tor aided with portals, ferrying people back to the cities.  

From a distance, Modera watched Sarah.  She could not contain her own sorrow at the loss of her leader and wiped the tears from her eyes with a dusty hand.  The woman who she had so readily accused of not caring for the man, sat in a pool of the deepest sorrow she had ever seen.

She wanted to reach out to her but decided it was best to leave her alone, for now.  There would still be raw wounds and no doubt animosity awarded her from the woman, and she would need time to heal emotionally.  

Modera had never felt such overwhelming sympathy for anyone, as she did for Sarah at that moment. Another wipe at her eyes, and she continued with the business of portalling people home.

  ☸