Disclaimer: World of Warcraft is copyright Blizzard Entertainment 2005. In fact, so is anything else that doesn’t look like it was invented by me. Gelles is my level 60 Paladin on Thorium Brotherhood. Gelki/Mnemosyne is my mage and Aoni is my other paladin. Please don’t sue me.

This story is rated R for swearing, violence and sexual references

Stand Alone

A World of Warcraft fanfic

By Kristin Renee Taylor

Part One – Complex

For a single, terrifying moment, as Thoundith pulled her closer to kiss her, Gelles' mind went absolutely blank in fear. How could this be happening? How could this be happening to her? How could this be happening to her again? She and Enrik had been careful; the ring she had worn to bind her soul to Thoundith's had been completely destroyed. The barriers erected her around her mind were intact, as sound as the day she had meticulously built them.

There was no logical, spiritual, or magical way Thoundith could have forced entry into her mind again.

Which meant...

Fear vanished in a rising tide of white-hot fury. As their lips touched, she pressed a hand against his chest. He mumbled something in a low growl of approval, a growl which quickly scaled to a yelp of pain as she shoved him off.

Thoundith dropped her and staggered to his feet, staring at his chest. The fabric of his shirt was scorched, the hairy skin beneath blackened and smoldering. "You little bitch! What have you done to me?"

Gelles stood slowly. "You're not Thoundith at all." Facing him, her hands and eyes blazed with pure, cleansing Light. She let the white and gold fire spread down to the floor, rippling away from her to lap at Thoundith's feet.

Thoundith backed away as his boots started to smoulder. "Think you've got it all figured out, don't you, darlin'?" He hissed at her, circling the boundary of fire that separated them. His tongue, slender and forked, darted out to taste the air. "Lil' Gelles Magain... always knows it all, don't she?" He laughed. "Except when's she beat. She don't know that at all."

"I beg to differ."

"Oh, you'll beg all right." Snake-quick he lunged at her.

She let him come, and as he reached out grab her neck she slipped to one side and caught his wrist in her flaming grasp. Thoundith howled in pain and fury and tried to pull away, but she had him, and he knew it.

Gelles' voice dropped, becoming quietly lethal. "What are you?"

"Sniveling witch! Coward!" He spat at her, clawed at her grip with nails like talons, screaming obscenities as he tried to get away. "You can't get rid of me. I'll be there; I'll [i]always[/i] be there!"

Gelles watched impassively for several seconds more. And then she let go.

Thoundith, the white fire, all of it vanished and she was standing alone in the tower bedroom.

The darkness was gone.

Gelles examined her fingers as the last of the flames died. "You always said I held on to things too long." She turned towards her bed.

The blue-haired elf smiled. "I also told you to lighten up." Farahl sat on the mattress, examining the room with interest. "I didn't expect you to do it so literally."

Gelles sighed heavily. "It was all some sort of vision, wasn't it?"

Farahl's gaze flicked to her and then away. She shook her head. "Wrong question to a right answer."

"What?"

The elf stood in one fluid motion, her armor making not the slightest bit of noise as she moved. She approached Gelles. "You know the answer. Ask the right question." Her fingers came up, brushing the human's cheek. Gelles turned her face against that warm, familiar touch.

Her eyes closed. Softly, she said, "Thoudith's wasn't the only memory I've been holding on to. When I... When I had to choose between you and Enrik... did I make the right choice?"

When Farahl didn't answer, Gelles opened her eyes and discovered she was alone.

End – Rise Above