The hope we have...

It was the sound of the waves that woke her up a little after midnight.

She lay on the sea weed mattress, eyes closed, listening as the waters rolled relentlessly over the beach, crushing against the few rocks scattered around the harbor.

The soft breeze that entered through the curtains brought mixed odors of salt and algae and fish...and dead shells of creatures scattered in the sand.

She had fallen in love with the sea from the first time she had seen it here, in the Land of Azeroth, at Odessyus Landing, where she had been sent on an errand from Azure Watch.

There was something about the vast surfaces of waters that spoke to her inner self in a way nothing else could.

She got out of bed and dressed quickly, favoring a pair of pants and a blue shirt over the crumpled and weathered mage robe.

The inn was silent, filled with only the small sounds of people sleeping, more or less at peace with themselves. She tried to step as carefully as possible, so as not make too much noise as she went down the stairs and into the central room of the inn.

She loved night elven inns. Opened to the wind, the breeze, the scents of the forest, the overwhelming simplicity, as opposed to the cramped, tight, oppressing interiors preferred by the humans.

From the central room you could get directly to the pier, and that was what she did, walking through the mists, as far as the pier went, until the inn and Darkshore were lost from sight, and she felt totally isolated from the world, just her, and the sea and the starlit sky, suddenly emerging from the shrouds of mists that enveloped the coastline...

Mist's End, she thought, her gaze following small threads of vapor as the wind rushed them over the restless surface of the Veiled Sea.

And there, just beyond the dark horizon, Vaalar's Berth.

Loneliness had never been something to bother her.

Not until recently, at least.

But she missed him.

And that was the reason why she had to go, while she could still breathe without his presence.

Her thought trailed over the events of the past two weeks, trying not to focus on her newly re-discovered memories. It was still blurry in her mind, the same as a puzzle that still missed some small linkages to be complete. But the most vivid images came to her over and over. That night of pain and blood in which she had lost her innocence. That night in which she had killed for the first time, unwillingly releasing that power that only later she learned how to control. That night in which she had lost a part of her soul.

Yet she never lost hope.

for the Light is with me and even if I walk in harm's way, I am not afraid...

...and maybe there was still hope to win the millennia old battle against the demons...

...and maybe there was still hope that the people of this world, so old and so young, so fresh and so scarred, so full of joy and sorrow, light and shadow, could live in peace...

...and maybe there was still hope that in such a world Eireannan and her could sit together, one night, at Mist's End, without fear...

She knelt on the pier, the wooden planks cracking softly under her weight.

Closing her eyes, letting the strong scent of the breeze invade her senses...Tasting the sea water from the powder-like drops the wind carried to her lips. Drifting away, with the ocean that roamed endlessly beneath her. Silently praying, while the night slowly gave into the day and the first stray ray of light fell on her face.

O Light, grant us grace to desire you with our whole heart,
that so desiring, we may seek and find you
and so finding you we may love you
and loving you we may hate those sins from which you have redeemed us...