1.24
Occam's razor - the simplest solution is most likely the right one.
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"Son, what are you talking about? Are you crazy?" Duke Aldamiel coughed and weakly tried to push the blade away from his throat. Illidan had prepared himself mentally to interrogate his father. He wished that his father had a good reason for everything that he had done. But that was all it was, wishful thinking.
"Father, what did Lanaya ever do that she deserved to be thrown into the Underhollows?" Illidan had never spoken to his father with so much ire. His heart hurt. He wished things hadn't come to this. He wished he could pretend that he didn't know.
A heavy silence weighed between them and ended with the change on his father's face. His facade cracked and crumbled like a clay mask.
"Very good Illidan." His voice was darker, more shadowed. "But your father is no longer alive." He maliciously informed the man that held the knife.
Illidan went still and breathed in with a shudder.
His father was dead?
Yes, his father would never try to kill Lanaya. His hand trembled ever so slightly.
"Then who are you?"
"My name? You know me by the name Fornseor. Does it ring a bell, Illidan? The imposter twisted the features of his father into a manic smile. Not on his father's face, he didn't want to see this.
"Yes I wanted to kill your sister to sow discord and defame the Royal family but that little girl survived and came out stronger than ever." He chuckled and shook his head like he couldn't believe it had happened.
"But how did you suspect your dear father's hand, my son?" He went back to acting like Illidan's father. He was toying with him.
Illidan had wondered how anything could carry his sister away when the mansion was guarded so heavily. Despite his father's assurances back then, he had checked the power runes and found that they were disabled for an hour on the night she had disappeared. He had only found out about this because of the expertise of the same mage he had hired to secure this very room. There were only two people in the mansion who could disable the runes, Illidan and his father. Further investigations had led to no results and he had no proof that his father had been involved. Chalking it up as an oddity, he put it out of his mind. But when he heard about the tree men murdering the Royal couple in his father's presence, his suspicions were once again stoked. The palace was so heavily guarded, how would the tree men lug away a heavy and injured man without catching the attention of the guards? And when Fenrir had failed to catch the culprit at the palace, the explosion and second wave of intruders had been coordinated too perfectly. Like someone had sent out news of the capture of their leader. Even to him, it was so absurd. But Illidan had believed that the simplest explanation was always the right one.
Also, when the Duke had been found, his injuries reminded Illidan of those he had seen on the men attacked inside the Underhollows. Not many were in the know, but hidden cleverly behind those bushes was a well maintained path to the Underhollows. Fornseor had probably wanted to make it look like he had been abandoned by the tree men at the greenhouse. But he hadn't had time to remove the trail of blood from the Roselia bushes before guards stumbled into him. That was the most damning evidence to Illidan. He knew his father best. Duke Aldamiel wasn't capable of escaping the clutches of everything that had left its mark on him, at least not while being 'dragged away' by the tree men. It was entirely too suspicious.
"How long have you been pretending to be my father?" This was the question he was burning to know.
"Oh Illidan, why must you ask such questions and hurt yourself like this?" He laughed again. Fornseor was in a good mood.
"Remember when you left for Tsetenweim? The elf that was captured at the pass was me. Your father had arrived at the pass because of you Illidan. Do you remember?"
Yes, Illidan remembered. He had been injured and his worried father had hurried to the pass so he could personally check on Illidan when he returned from Tsetenweim.
Fornseor's piercing gaze on Illidan turned sinister. "It was your fault that he was there Illidan. When I killed myself, my spirit latched onto your father. I waited and watched in the shadows of his mind for months, learning all his mannerisms. Then when I finally killed him, he struggled so hard. His last thoughts were about you and sweet Lanaya."
A rift began to form in Illidan's mind. And like the explosion of a dam, the waters of anguish crashed into Illidan and swept through his soul. He was the reason why his father had died.
"You can kill me Illidan. It doesn't matter. I've accomplished what I set out to do. How long I've waited and just how many plots were foiled by that Fenrir brat. He came so close to finding out it was me."
Illidan dropped the knife and it clattered to the floor. He had to make it to the end and kill the man in front of him who was and wasn't his father. He silently padded to his father's cabinet and found the strong liquor that the Duke sometimes favoured. The man on the bed was no threat to him. But even if he was, Illidan didn't care. He morbidly wondered if his own death would be a fitting end to this nightmarish reality.
"Fornseor, You must be so proud of yourself, bursting with the need to tell everything."
Handing over a glass of liquor to the imposter, Illidan sat beside him again. One last time he could watch him drink and pretend it was his father.
"So what's the grand plan night elf?"
The man began to laugh again. He was in very good humour. His plans had all fallen into place and soon Eternal Heart would fall. He raised the glass to his lips and drank with satisfaction.
"Do you know what powered the massive barriers that have protected this kingdom for so many years?"
Illidan didn't know. He had always wondered about that. "Tell me." He replied after taking a drink. He would need to be drunk when the time came to take the life of this man. It would have to be him. He didn't care about the consequences of it. That would come later.
"Son, you've heard about the Grandmaster Orin, haven't you? The architect of the Eternal heart, the mage that started it all. So powerful." Forster spoke with a hushed reverence when he began talking about Orin.
"When Orin passed, your elven brethren preserved his body and hid him in the Underhollows. It was Orin's magic that created the barriers that protect your kingdom. And only his magic would sustain it. Isn't it interesting that the barrier also accepts the mana signature of the Crown Prince?" He peered up at Illidan and raised his brows in a knowing look.
"I digress. Orin's mana core continued to stay active through a strange artifact. It fed from the lives of the creatures underground. But there's also a line all the way down from the temple where the priests meditate and gather power for it."
"I destroyed that artifact." Fornseor confessed with a smile. "I had to torture the Queen just so I could get a confession out of her husband about it's whereabouts. The entrance was hidden in the Royal study, a staircase that went all the way down to the crypt in the Underhollows. It was quite unfortunate though that the king deceived me and I triggered a trap inside there. I had to use up all my bag of tricks to escape. Even my loyal tree men, torn to shreds."
"I see," Illidan replied. It was a revelation to him.
"Why all the effort to lower the barrier Fornseor? What's coming for Eternal Heart?" He asked cradling the glass of liquor to his chest.
"A terrible weapon." He answered with a strange smile. "MoonFell will fall first. And then it will burn this kingdom down."
Illidan remembered Lanaya right then. She was at Moonfell pass. How she cried when he had left. Would he not see her again? The numbness he felt was beginning to fade away. He hurt when he thought of sister dying.
"I know what you're thinking Illidan. Don't worry. You'll all die. Each and every one of you. Just like how my mother Empress died."
"Your mother Empress?" Something clicked in Illidan's mind but he dared not believe it.
"Illidan my boy, I've lived hundreds of years in so many bodies, perfecting the art of body snatching. I have waited so long for this. My mother died unjustly at the hands of your old elf King who lusted after her beauty. She found no justice. I had to take matters into my own hands." Fornseor had a glazed, faraway look in his eyes as he relived that day again.
"My beautiful mother. No man deserved her Illidan, not even my father. And especially not Eternal Heart's wretched King!" He snarled in anger that was as fresh as it had been the day he found his mother dead.
Illidan felt revulsion at the look of worship and fervent desire in the man's countenance as he spoke of his own mother. The fact that we wore the Duke's face while doing it so multiplied the loathing within Illidan. He couldn't fathom how this ancient creature had blended in so well as his father, so much so that nobody had noticed. Such convoluted plans, all for his dead mother. But the madman had succeeded. Illidan had listened enough. A distant part of his mind reminded him of the baby in his mother's stomach but he refused to acknowledge it lest he lose the threads of his sanity.
He shut off the thinking part of his brain and picked the knife off the ground. Illidan looked right into the serene eyes that held an odd gleam in them. With a swift movement of his arm, he brought the blade down with a force that speared it right through the Duke's heart. The life in the man's eyes bled out and his hand released the liquor glass which rolled to Illidan's feet.
Illidan watched the crimson stain spread through the sheets beneath the body.
Finally, he allowed himself to feel every emotion he had suppressed. Falling to his knees, his tears dripped slowly onto the sheet where his father's body had begun turning cold.
It hurt so much he couldn't breathe. Illidan clutched his chest and his breaths came out in hot gasps. His world had shattered and it would never be the same again. As he lost himself to grief, a black mist began to swirl in Illidan's eyes.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
winterblossom
winterblossom I'm so sorry guys. It's quite the dark turn of events, I know. I intend to keep my arcs lighter if that's any consolation to anyone. Or, I could make it darker if y'all want to suffer more. One more thing, I tried to not explain too much because I don't want to hold the reader's hand through the plot. You're smart. Fill in the blanks. But if you have trouble understanding something, feel free to ask. Also, dear reader, love ya! ;-)
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