102Disclaimer – Most of the characters depicted here are the property of Blizzard Entertainment. I am merely a visitor in the wonderful World of Warcraft.
"Faith, hurry up and finish getting ready! Your transport will be here in twenty minutes!"
"I'm ready, Mom!" cried Faith, brushing her long honey-colored hair and fastening the little silver hoops to her ears. She was wearing a long navy blue dress with white accents and flat navy blue boots, wanting to make a good impression on this first day of school. On the fourth finger of her right hand, she wore a single silver ring – a thin forest vine that twisted prettily in three layers and was dotted with a single crystal flower in the middle. She'd had that ring for years, and loved it.
These were the only items she would bring with her to the Academy of Azeroth. Everything else, she would leave at home, even her undergarments. Everything would be provided to her at the academy.
She looked at her room for one last time, knowing that she wouldn't see it again until Christmas, or Winter's Veil as it was called in the circle she belonged to.
She was an elf, a blood elf, or Sin'dorei. Her parents, Pellien and Velariel had been to the Academy before her, as had her sister Ravenna, who was in her final year at the University of Dalaran.
"You look beautiful, sweetheart," said her mother, smoothing both her eyebrows. "Are you ready?"
Faith nodded. She was a little nervous, now that the time was here. "I wonder what it will be like. You know, to be there and study."
"I think you're going to have a great time. And don't worry about tomorrow's exam. It's just to figure out which field of study you'll be assigned to."
The academy had nine different fields of study, which were also called tracks. Her mother had been in the Priest track, while her father had been a Paladin. Her sister had followed in their mother's footsteps, and had studied to be a priestess as well.
Faith, for her part, didn't really know what she was better suited for. She had always felt magic surrounding her, both light and shadowy. She felt she would be a very good mage, and hoped that she would be suited to that track. Then again, she knew how to use a bow and arrow very accurately. Would she be chosen as a ranger?
"Now, sweetheart, there are a few things I want you to remember. You've never really been outside of this town, where we live with other Sin'dorei."
"Hidden from 'normal people'." Faith's tone was less than amused. She hated to be reminded of the fact that we had to be hidden from the rest of the world.
"Well, normal humans don't like to be reminded that the rest of us exist. Even the humans who possess otherworldly abilities have to hide from them."
Faith looked out the window, seeing what appeared to be a perfectly normal neighborhood: pretty houses surrounded by oak trees, neatly organized in blocks, so that anybody passing through wouldn't notice the abnormalities. In their front yard, for example, a beautiful red hawkstrider was grazing for worms, occasionally preening his feathers. Normal humans didn't notice things that were so obviously magical in nature. But they noticed elves if they looked very carefully. They were apt to see the an elf was taller, more beautiful, and had longer ears than a human. Not to mention the glowing eyes, which were generally blue for elves, but sometimes, that was different.
Faith's eyes were a softly glowing honey-amber color, almost the same color as her hair. Her mother had the same eyes, while both her father and sister's eyes were a dark blue.
"What we mean is that you've never really interacted with other races before, other than humans."
"What about Valrek?" she asked, referring to the orc who ran one of the shops they went to on a regular basis.
"Okay, yes, and Valrek. But you're going to see all sorts of different races at the academy. You're going to see gnomes and dwarves, and draenei, and night elves. Probably some goblins as well."
"You might also see some worgen, trolls, pandaren and tauren," added her father.
Faith knew about the different magical races of people on the planet. It was difficult not to. Earth had always had more humans than any other race, but, living amongst them, most of them hidden from view, were the other, "lesser" races. "What about them?"
"Well, we don't want you to be alarmed by them, honey. Most of them are nice, although, of course, you have your bad apples in every race. So we want you to use your best judgment when making friends."
"Just be careful."
Faith nodded again, going into the front hall of their home to wait for the transport that would take her to the academy. She was fourteen years old, the age every child was when going to school for the first time. Most of the children remained in school until their eighteenth year, after which they moved on to the university of their choice – generally the University of Dalaran, or Farstrider University if they were fighters – or ended up as apprentices.
"You're making me nervous," she told her parents.
"There's no need for you to feel nervous about anything. You're going to be fine. Oh, just… please stay clear of the warlocks, all right? They're a bad influence on everyone."
Faith had heard this before. Her parents had always distrusted warlocks, claiming them to be worse than rogues because they summoned demons and performed what they called dark magic. She'd never met a warlock before, but she had read about them. Sure, a lot of them seemed like shady people, but she'd read of some warlocks that had done good in the world, as much as mages and druids.
"Don't worry," she said. "I'm sure I'll find myself a nice group of friends once I get there."
"There's something else we haven't discussed yet. And we were hoping to not have to talk this over with you, but…"
"What is it?"
"Dark elves, honey."
Dark elves. Faith felt a shiver coursing down her spine. She'd never even seen one in real life. Elves who had been like her, Sin'dorei, but to whom something had happened, either dark magic, or poison.
The dark elves were known as the Tal'dorei, or death elves, had a horrible reputation. They looked dead because of what had been done to them, and because of that, they turned into something dark and twisted. Some of them were sent to the academy, but it didn't always end well.
"Your father and I went to the Academy with a Tal'dorei, sweetheart, and we don't want you to have the same experience we did. His name was Dar'Khan, and he was vicious. He was forced to leave in his third year because of the kind of magic he did."
"It was terrible," said Faith's father. "He nearly killed someone, and had fun while he did it."
"Was he a warlock?"
"No, but he might as well have been. He was a mage, and he took his magic down a dark path, sweetheart."
"Why are you telling me this now?"
"Because we heard that a dark elf would probably be starting school today. And I know that with your curious nature, you're going to want to see what that elf is all about. Please don't."
A dark elf in school with her. Chances are that she would have very little to do with such a creature. "I'll keep what you said in mind."
Her parents hugged her, just as some kind of shiver seemed to go through the air. The transport was there.
"Be good. See you at Winter's Veil, all right? Write to us to tell us which track you got into tomorrow!"
Suddenly, Faith was scared. Terrified. What would it be like for her? Away from her parents? What if she failed? What if something horrible went wrong?
Taking a deep breath, she opened the door to her house and stepped outside.
