Post by Morec0
(( Be sure you have read
Page 50 or what you are about to read will spoil and confuse you. ))
He trudged through the snow, tirelessly, relentlessly. It had been many weeks since the death of Arthas and the crowning of Bolvar. Yes, he had seen that; but he wished he had not. There was something dark at play with the fallen paladin’s rise to the Frozen Throne, something that he knew would one day bring Azeroth to war again, and this time maybe eternal slavery. But, for now, William Morec was free.
These mountains had been his home once, where he had lived and thought he would live forever. But… things had changed, many times over. Events he never could have expected had unfolded and, now, he knew he could never call this place home. There were too many dark memories for him here, in the Alterac Mountains.
Ogres and bandits alike watched him as he walked towards Strahnbrad. Once this town had been his home, but now it was just a charred hideout for highwaymen and thugs. The dark power he radiated, not the most he had ever possessed but still considerable, kept the mobs of potential foes around him at bay with fear. This was perfectly fine with him; he did not want a battle. He wanted time to mourn.
He stopped at the front of the burnt husk of the house that had once been his dropped to his knees. He had cremated his wife in this place, saved her from servitude to the Scourge, but, in the end, he had not been able to save himself from the same fate. He lifted his hand and looked down at his palm; in it rested the shattered remains of the sapphire-inlaid gold and silver necklace that had once belonged to his wife, his dearest Julia; the one that he had so idiotically shattered on the steps of Icecrown while under the Lich King’s control. He brought it to his unbeating heart and wished with all of his soul that he could cry. He then placed the shattered remains on the floor of the burnt remains of his former house and stood. “I would give anything to have you back,” he whispered, then turned to walk away with his eyes affixed on the ground.
“You always had a heart of gold, William, that’s why I love you.”
William Morec’s head shot up at the sound of the feminine voice, and he looked upon his wife’s smiling face. “J-Julia?” he only dared to whisper her name, in fear it was some trick meant to break his heart further. How was this possible? Was there any way she could be… alive? The Light worked in mysterious ways, he had known it to do that, maybe- no, no; he now saw how transparent she was. Julia was here, but she was still very much dead. “Julia… I’m… I am so… can you ever forgive…” He tripped over his words, remorse and guilt consuming him bit by bit.
“Forgive you?” she said, surprise on her face, “after you’ve killed me and countless others, including my brother? After you’ve committed atrocities of the worst possible kind? After all of that you think I would love you again because you said you were sorry?” William looked away, unable to bring himself to so much as look upon her now. She was right, he was stupid to think- “William, I never stopped.”
“What?” he said and thought, felt, breathed this one single, confused question.
Julia smiled as she walked towards him, her ethereal form disturbing nothing as she moved. “I never stopped loving you, William. Everything you did, all of the murder you committed, they were not of your own accord; you were being used, your arm was simply an extension of another to carry out their dark will. I cannot forgive you because I have nothing to forgive you for because of that, you have nothing to be sorry for because of that.”
“But it was still my hand! Still my blade which cut down so many innocent! That… that killed y-… I.. I may not have been in control, but I-.”
“But you were being controlled,” Julia stated again. “You may not want to accept that, your misplaced guilt may not let you accept that, but it is the truth.”
William just shook his head. No, he was not innocent of the action he had preformed, and for that he could not simply let go of his guilt. Julia smiled sadly at him, reading his thoughts on the expression of pain and sorrow on his face.
She looked over her shoulder, as if she had heard someone calling for her. “The Light is calling me back<” she stated, looking back at him. “William… it’s beautiful there, a paradise unlike anything else.” She looked over her shoulder again. “I have to go, William, but… I think we have time for one last dance.” She held out a ghostly hand.
William gently kissed the air where her hand would have been, where is
should have been. “No matter what I have to do,” he whispered. “I
will join you there.”
Julia smiled sadly at him again. “I know… but don’t.”
And then for a brief moment in time, for a fleeting minute that both wished could have gone on forever, Julia and William were reunited. And neither one could have been happier for it.