The high orc tossed and turned in his sleep. Through the darkness of his nightmare he saw a pair of glowing red eyes staring out of him. Then he saw the staff, it was crafted from the black metal formorium. Then the robes of a Queen. The darkness peeled away and he saw the embodiment of rage. He was surrounded by high orcs who were dead or dying. The very earth having risen up to impale them creating a macabre forest of death and blood. The elf spoke, her rage filled eyes boring into Gur’thak.

“I am the Ruby Lady, I am the impotent rage of every woman who has ever suffered and watched her children suffer at the hands of unkind men.”

Gur’thak blinked his amber eyes at her and she spoke again.

“She will come with fire.”

She reached out her hand and fire belched blue flames and his Emperor became a pillar of ashes and drifted away. She spoke again.

“She will come with storm.”

The elf reached to the sky her silver hair began whipping around her in the gale force wind that threatened to knock Gur’thak down. He fought against it and through the arm he had raised to stop the debris from getting into his eyes he saw bolts of lightning rain from the sky and a thousand orcs died in an instant. The elven woman clenched her fist and a thousand more orcs exploded in fountains of gore. She continued to speak in the calm unnerving tone he had only heard when someone was past the point of all rage and all reason and only wanted to spread the misery they were feeling.

“She will come with rage, She will come with Death.”

She continued to meet Gur’thak’s gaze. The absolute emptiness in her eyes told him his end would come by her hand. Her eyes flashed red, and the remaining living orcs started to scream and clutch at their necks and clawed at their skin. Gur’thak could feel the blood inside him starting to sear his veins from the inside. The elf spoke again.

“She will boil our blood, She will burn us to Ash.”

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The orcs that remained save Gur’thak who for some reason was spared, perhaps to witness the end that this elf had envisioned, burst into flames and their ashes blew away in the hurricane wind. Gur’thak’s flesh was burning from his blood but still he remained alive.

“She will slay us to the last.”

She slid her staff through two invisible rings, so it appeared to float in mid-air and looked into Gur’thak’s amber eyes one final time and drew a silver holy blade, a weapon of the gods.

“The world will end in fire.”

She swept the blade downwards and Gur’thak watched in horror as a ball of energy started to form. Time paused in that instant. The ground started to crack beneath his feet as if the world was splitting apart. Lava was spewing upwards and he could feel it starting to melt his legs. She spoke one final time.

“Beware the wrath of a mother denied. Beware the Ruby Lady.”

Gur’thak awoke with a start. His golden hair was soaked with sweat. He could feel it falling down his back and chest. He was almost hyperventilating. Never in his entire career of being an oracle had he ever once had a vision so real, so physical. His chest was burning and the symbol of a staff and two eyes were still glowing from where it was seared into his grey flesh. He would need to tell the Emperor immediately…the elves meant to destroy everything.

*****

The high orcs attacked the elves with no warning. They had been allies for three thousand years. Ten thousand elves died in the night they called the great betrayal. Their response was swift and uncompromising. One hundred elven circle high mages sacrificed themselves the next dusk. And in an instant the world was scarred forever. What used to be the high orc empire was razed and became the ash lands. A hellish landscape. For each elf that was killed the great sacrifice killed ten high orcs. Decimating their population. The greatest alliance since the times Imperial Golden Age was broken. The Arcanum was no more. The other races were left lost in this new sundered world having no understanding of what caused the two races that were often called the children of the gods to go to war. The fighting was over three days, but peace was never brokered. The high orcs retreated to a human kingdom and conquered it. The immortal elves vanished overnight leaving the now broken known world to the young races.

The only hint was a prophecy whispered in the shadows:

She the immortal elf, She the ruby lady,

She will come with fire, she will come with storm,

She will come with rage, She will come with death,

She will boil our blood, She will burn us to ash.,

She will slay us to the last.

The world will end in fire.