The orcs were based in a foul-looking fortress to the west of Honor Hold. It was huge and well-fortified in addition to being aesthetically repugnant, and any attack would take a lot of thought and preparation if it was to be successful.
"Soon,” Khadgar told Alleria. "It will happen soon."
It had been a puzzle, at first. Shortly after they had arrived and building had begun on Honor Hold, the orcs had started attacking. That in itself was not surprising. What was surprising was that they kept attacking. Not daily, and not a lot of them. But enough. Also strange was that they seemed not to care about the portal anymore.
"Whatever else you can say about the Horde, they've never been stupid," Turalyon said one evening as he spoke with Danath, Alleria, Kurdran, and Khadgar. "So why do they keep just throwing themselves at us? Their numbers are too small to take the hold. And they're not after the portal."
"I do not think we are too late to prevent Ner'zhul from opening portals to other worlds," Khadgar mused. "Though why he has not done so, I'm not certain. He has the artifacts he needs. He must need something else." Khadgar had leaned back in the rough wooden chair, stroking his long white beard thoughtfully.
"Wouldn't it take massive amounts of power, and some very complex spellwork?" asked Danath. "Maybe he's spent all this time just working out the details."
"Doubtful," Khadgar said. "It's complicated, yes, but I'm sure he was working on it while he was having the artifacts retrieved. Scepter, book, and Eye," he mused, thinking. “And what else? What could he be waiting for?"
They'd tried interrogating a few orcs they had captured, but none of them had told them anything useful. These were not death knights, but peons — cannon fodder, sent only to delay the Alliance while Ner'zhul waited for… whatever.
While knowing the need to travel light, Khadgar had nonetheless permitted himself to take a few items with him. One was a ring that enabled him to understand any language — and to be understood. It was what had enabled them to interrogate the orcs, who spoke only their own, guttural language. Among the other items were a handful of books — spellbooks and one book that had once belonged to Medivh. There was nothing magical about it, just notes about Draenor, its skies, its continents. Khadgar found comfort in gazing up at the skies at night; they were only red in the daylight, and Khadgar amused himself by identifying constellations while letting his mind chew on Ner'zhul's mystery. Comprehension came to him one night while he was so engaged, as if the stars had the answer. And it turned out they did.
"Scepter, book, and Eye!" he'd exclaimed to Kurdran as he rushed out of his quarters.
"Eh?" grunted the startled dwarf "Lost yer mind finally, have ye, laddie?"
"Get the others. We need to talk." A few moments later, the commanders of the various forces were in the tower. "Turalyon — you first. Get out there and look through the telescope. Tell me what you see."
Turalyon threw him a look of utter bafflement, but obeyed. Peering through the telescope, he said, "I see … stars. What am I supposed to be looking at?"
"Constellations. Groups of stars." Khadgar was so excited that the words tumbled out of him. "What do they look like?'"
"Well, one's kind of a square. The other's long and thin. I can't see any other distinctive shapes."
"No… you're not used to looking at them. One of Medivh's many areas of expertise was astronomy. He had books with star maps of constellations I'd never even seen. Constellations of this world."
"That's all well an' gud, lad, but I'm not about tae crawl up there without understanding why ye want me tae," Kurdran grumbled.
"Look at this." Khadgar shoved a book into the dwarf's hands. Turalyon continued to look through the telescope as Alleria, Danath, and Kurdran examined the book Khadgar had foisted upon them. "What do you see?"
"Constellation names," Danath said. "The Staff… the Tome… and the Seer."
"Scepter, book, and Eye," Alleria said slowly, lifting her fair head to stare at Khadgar with admiration. "So… Ner'zhul needed those artifacts because they corresponded with this world's constellations?"
"Yes — and no," said Khadgar, barely able to restrain his excitement. "There's much more. Once every five hundred and forty-seven years, there's a celestial event that involves these three stars. See that reddish dot in the middle of the book? That's the first thing that appears. In about a month you'll be able to see a comet streaking through the scepter. And at the next moon cycle, the moon will be full right smack in the middle of the Eye. Apparently it's quite the spectacle, according to these notes."
"So if Ner'zhul has items that correspond to these constellations," Turalyon said slowly, still peering at the stars, "and he uses the artifacts at a time when something extremely rare is happening in the skies to those three constellations — it augments his power, right?"
"The harmony so established, the sympathetic resonance — by the Light, Turalyon, I'm not sure it'd be possible to fail at any spell using that kind of energy."
Turalyon lifted his head from the telescope. "When?" was all he said.
"Fifty-five days. And the power will last for three."
They waited for more reinforcements, chafing at the delay. At least they knew precisely how long they could wait, and when they would have to attack regardless of their numbers. Khadgar sighed at the ranger who had interrupted his stargazing as he slipped back through the window. "We're one day closer than we were yesterday. I can't rush the stars, Alleria."
"Soon, soon; patience is a virtue," Alleria muttered angrily as Khadgar climbed back into the room. "I'm sick of the platitudes."
"For an elf, you're awfully impatient."
"For a human, you drag your heels. I want to be fighting, not holed up here."
Khadgar's irritation suddenly boiled over. "You don't want to fight, Alleria, you want to die."
She suddenly went very still. "What do you mean?"
"We've all seen it. You rush out there, on fire for blood. On fire for your revenge. You're reckless. You fight badly, Alleria, and you didn't use to. That's why Turalyon keeps ordering you to stay close, and sometimes not even go out at all. He's worried he's going to lose you."
Her gaze was haughty, cold, and angry. "I am not his to lose. I belong to no one but myself."
Khadgar knew he should just shut up. But he couldn't. He had held back all this time, watching Alleria and Turalyon, who obviously still loved each other, circle one another like wary dogs. He could take it no longer. "You don't even belong to yourself. You belong to the dead. Joining them wont bring them back, Alleria. There's a good, kind, intelligent man right here in this keep who could teach you a thing or two about how to live. You should try living for a change — opening yourself to something rare and wonderful instead of slamming doors."'
She marched up to him until their faces were only inches away. "How dare you say such things to me! It's none of your business! Why do you care how I choose to live my life?"
"I care because I don't get to choose!"
The confession burst from him before he could stop it, and they both fell silent, staring at each other. He hadn't realized the truth himself, but there it was, out in the open now, naked and raw. "I know you think of our lives as shockingly brief. Our youths are even briefer. What, ten years to be young and strong, at the most… most alive we'll ever be? I didn't even get that. I became an old man at seventeen. Alleria, I'm even younger than Turalyon! Look at this face. I'm twenty-two — but what twenty-two year old girl would have this old man?"
He pointed angrily at his face — lined, framed by snow-white beard and hair. She gasped slightly and stepped back. Compassion softened her expression. Suddenly embarrassed, Khadgar looked away.
"I just — to watch the two of you throwing away something I’ll never even get to taste — it bothers me, sometimes. And I'm sorry I shouldn't have taken it out on you."