The Venomous Fang and The Nurturing Mother

Darnassus! At last! I cannot believe I am resting in an inn in my beloved home. And how strange was the way I got here. I feel like crying out of happiness.

Yesterday I was pondering the course of my life in a strange desert in an unknown part of the world. The sun was burning my brains and I lied down in a shade of a tree. I must have fallen asleep, because I saw a familiar sight in front of me. My friends and loved ones had gathered around a pillar of moonfire standing in the middle of a field of white roses.

One by one they approached the pillar and vanished inside it. Eluoren hugged her mother Alenjye, as they stepped inside... vanishing together. I felt like crying.

Once they were gone, I felt the pillar drawing me closer. As I approached it, I saw it changing shape. I saw the moonfire pillar turning into a beautiful woman. She looked fierce and frightening, yet loving and caring at the same time. The same woman, I realized, had saved me from the demons.

"I am glad to see you again", she smiled at me. "Do you not know who I am?"

I nodded. I knew her. I know her still.

"I am a venomous fang in my enemy's flesh. I am the burning fire of truth. I am the guarding armor protecting my servants. I am the nurturing mother of my children. I am your destiny, Amarïs Amaranthine!"

She looked me into my eyes. Her eyes were burning with intense white flames.

"Are you ready to choose?"

Her hands grabbed mine, and my head exploded with visions. I saw worlds born and die, I saw my friends burning and battling. I saw my sister dying and Eluoren being slain. I saw horrible abominations cutting Iani in half, and him resurrecting as an undead. I saw my parents falling asleep and never waking up. I saw a temple of Elune crumbling down. Not all I saw, I understood.

"You have been purged by pain and fire", the lady said. "You have fought with shadow and moon. You have been healed by time, and sharpened by the sun."

She raised her hands in front of her face. In each of her fingernails, I saw my own reflection. It was me, yet it wasn't. The images were all different.

"Do I have to choose?" I asked. "I don't know the consequenses of my choises."

"Nobody know the consequenses, yet everyone makes choises every day."

"But I feel I shouldn't make this kind of decisions without giving it more thought."

"Are you sure you haven't made bigger decisions already in your life? Decisions you cannot reverse..."

The reflections I saw were so different. I saw a fatherly Amarïs growing up four children. I saw a warrior Amarïs slaying orcs in a battlefield. I saw a wounded dire bear whom I recognized as myself... Ten different me.

"I will choose none of these", I said. "To make that decision I would first have to know what I'm giving away. And I do not know myself well enough to be someone else."

The lady lowered her hands. She laughed and smiled. She put her arms around me and kissed me on my forehead. "Just what I wanted to hear..." she whispered.

Everything started fading away around me. "Will you help me find myself?" I had to ask. But everything went black around me.

I saw and heard nothing.

"I will be with you, with every step you take", she whispered.

And then I woke up because someone was poking me.

That someone, was the same gnome mage. She had appeared in my dreams, and she had bumped into me once in the desert.

"Finally you woke up!" she said. "Now let's get you home", she opened a portal to Darnassus. Without any more words I was taken home.