The Crystal Vizier

by Lich-Lord Krosis


A Deal with the Devil

With a shuddering, wet cough, Stern Staff awoke, his eyes adjusting to the darkness of the room he was in. His head was thrumming violently, his eyes swimming for a moment before normalizing, the thrumming cutting away to silence.

He was about to call for help when his chest ached, an unknown substance blocking his windpipe. As his coughing spree ended, the hindrance to normal breathing surfaced, the stallion coughing up a sizable amount of a viscous, clear liquid. Shuddering once as he spit up a few more dollops of the tasteless substance, the stallion sighed, resting for a spell, before attempting to sit up.

Failure.

With a groan, his body clattered to the floor once more. Gathering his thoughts, he attempted to at least... remember...

No...

All he remembered was...

Pain. A lot of it.

He was attacked by that... that...

Monster...

At the bar...

Then... darkness. Cold.

"Ah, you're awake. Excellent." an echoing voice he knew all too well droned to his right.

Stern flicked his stiff neck in the direction of his captor's voice, attempting to find where that... that... monster, was hiding. It didn't take long, as the lich was currently floating across the cell from him, seemingly appearing from nowhere.

"Whe-" Stern started.

"He's safe. Your brother is safe." Kel'Thuzad stated, his form moving slowly towards the stallion, whom reacted by attempting to stand.

"STAY AWAY FROM ME!" Stern cried out, his voice cracking as his unnaturally... dry windpipe strained itself. Kel'Thuzad stopped about five feet away, towering over him. Attempting to stand once more, Stern grunted in exertion as his hind legs refused to move.

"Oh, apologies. I must have forgotten to reattach the nerves..." with a wave of Kel'Thuzad's hand, and a snap of magic, he was capable of powered movement once more, his form springing up to gallop to the far end of his cell, the lich staring motionless at his antics. For a few minutes, the stallion caught his breath, eyeing the undead mage across the room.

Of course the lich was lying when he told his captive of the rookie necromantic mistake he made. A scared subject is more likely to listen to propositions.

And the proposition his king had given him to give the stallion was anything but appealing...

To the average being, of course.

"K-Kel'Thuzad, right?" Stern asked, his body curled into a defensive stance. Kel'Thuzad nodded, bowing slightly in a form of respect.

"Correct, Stern Staff."

"H-How do you know my..." Stern started.

"Name? My dear boy... I know a lot more than that, I assure you." Kel'Thuzad stated, his arms folding behind his back. "I know you and your brother were orphaned at the age of six and eight. How you ran away from that hellhole of an orphanage. How a passing mercenary crew took you both in, and trained you..."

Kel'Thuzad took the opportunity to float ever closer as he told the startlingly accurate story of the stallion's life.

"How old were you when you took your first life, hmm?" Kel'Thuzad asked, genuinely interested, as his scrying of their souls only revealed so much.

Stern Staff looked at the lich in a mix of horror and disbelief.

"How old was your brother when he saw you kill?" Kel'Thuzad prodded.

"You... how dare you!" Stern Staff accused, a burst of anger giving him false courage. His form took on a more aggressive pose, and he snorted once, his eyes showing nothing but hatred for the lich and his questioning.

Well... his brother is clearly the soft spot, Kel.

Of course he is, why do you think I mentioned him?

With a snap of his fingers, Kel'Thuzad severed the necromantic bonds lacing through the undead stallion's spinal cord, shutting off movement once more.

With a startled yelp, Stern fell to the ground once more as his legs failed, his face hitting the cold stone floor of the cell.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. Already threatening the man who saved your life."

Heh. Liar.

Shut up, Nightmare.

"What do you mean?!" Stern Staff bellowed, his voice cracking. "I'm stuck in this prison cell thanks to you!"

"If it weren't for me, boy, you would still be in two pieces on the floor of that bar!" Kel'Thuzad growled, wrenching the paralyzed stallion up to his face with one of his soul chains. At that, the stallion's face changed.

Realization flashed across his muzzle, then fear, then understanding.

"I... I'm..." Stern Staff muttered, his eyes wider than saucers.

"Dead. Or undead, rather. Congratulations." Kel'Thuzad stated flatly, his claw waving once to reattach his bindings. "I could have let you rot, Stern Staff. I could've left you to die at the claws of King Anub'arak, which was well deserved, with your track record of a life..."

"The murdering of an entire village of Gryphons just to avenge ONE of your mercenary comrades..." Kel'Thuzad began, his claws waving through the air for dramatic emphasis. "The hiring of a guide that graciously offered to take you to a sacred and hidden temple in the Saddle Arabian desert, only to murder him and steal the gold and silver offerings within." Kel'Thuzad continued, his tone softening slightly.

"OKAY! I get it! You could have left me to die, but why didn't you then?!" Stern spat, his hoof coming up to wipe away a bit of the substance that he had coughed up earlier from his mouth. "What is this shit, anyway?"

"Embalming fluid. I trust you'd rather not have rotted any while I worked on you?" Kel'Thuzad stated with a smirk, his eyes darting to the puddle of the substance nearby. "I can see that it didn't agree with you very well, however..."

Stern Staff gagged again at the information, dry heaving twice to attempt to rid himself of the substance. The lich chuckled over his antics.

"The reason for you resurrection, however, is far simpler than you think." Kel'Thuzad stated, wiping away the excess formaldehyde pooling around the stallion with a burst of arcane power. Stern Staff glared at the necromancer, scoffing once.

"What, to serve you? To be your... your... puppet?!" Stern laughed, stomping the cobblestone floor once. "I'd rather rot in Tartarus, freak."

Biting back an insult, and a murderous outburst, Kel'Thuzad chuckled darkly.

"Well, half of both of your predictions are true, boy." Kel'Thuzad sneered. With a slightly exaggerated retrieval of Bloodsurge from it's sheathe at his hip, the lich sliced a portal into existence before Stern Staff.

Showoff.

Shut up.

Through the portal, the harsh and biting cold of Northrend blew into the cell, chilling even the undead stallion's bones. With several, heavy hoofsteps, the Lich King entered the room through the magical doorway, a heavy cloak of black wool flapping around his gargantuan form. Frostmourne was pinned to his side, the blade seeming more... sinister, for some reason to Stern Staff.

"Hello, Stern Staff." Shining spoke, a gentle, if sinister smile decorating his muzzle. Stern Staff scrambled to his hooves, before bowing quickly to the stallion, his form still shivering from the influx of winter winds.

"Greetings, your majesty..." Stern Staff spoke, his head looking up slightly. Shining nodded once, turning to the lich behind him, who's form was also bowed in respect. After a moment, Kel'Thuzad rose, his portal closing behind Shining with a magical 'snap'.

"How is he?" Shining asked, eyes glancing back towards the stallion, who's body was still prostrated before him. Kel'Thuzad chuckled slightly.

"Decent. Still a little feisty with me over the whole bar incident." the mage turned to the corner of the room, expecting his accomplice to make her appearance at any moment...

With a snap like a whip, and a brief wind that blew out the two torches in the cell, the shadows in the corner of the room moved towards the floor, bending and warping. With a sigh of appeasement, Nightmare Moon stepped away from the shadows billowing around her, Stern Staff yelping once in alarm at the sight of her. Smirking, but ignoring the stallion's... delicious fear at the moment, she instead bowed respectfully to her... master.

Shining snorted, but kept his composure. What possessed Kel'Thuzad to resurrect her was beyond him, but he also stated that since her soul was currently under their control, she had little choice in the matter. Regardless, while she was obviously best known for her past deeds, he had picked up a few things on diplomacy from Cadence.

Provided she did her part, and assisted in Equestria's greatest interests, he was willing to let her walk amongst the living.

Unbeknownst to the living, of course.

Her reputation for terror was well deserved.

Even her very presence seemed to permeate the very air around them with darkness.

The only non-common sense condition were that she stay within eyesight of Kel'Thuzad, whom had fashioned her small 'prison' onto the robes Rarity had made him for Hearth's Warming. It actually looked pretty good, too. A small blue crystal, accentuated with what Kel'Thuzad told him were Nerubian markings of power.

Shining had to give it to Kel'Thuzad for his ingenious plan on trapping her, though. As furious both he AND Frostmourne initially were about being tricked with the fake soul Kel'Thuzad had placed within Celestia for Frostmourne to steal, having an alicorn that could tell them the innermost fears of others seemed...

Well, too useful to pass up, really.

"Good evening, my king..." Nightmare spoke, a small echo accompanying her voice as she rose from her bow, a surprisingly gentle smile across her muzzle.

"And to you as well, Nightmare. How did his brother take the offer?" Shining inquired, turning once more to the stallion before the three immortals. Nightmare chuckled darkly, her form gliding towards the revenant before her, wisps of shadow and jet-black smoke billowing away from her lithe, imposing body.

"He responded surprisingly well, Shining." Nightmare spoke, her predatory gaze sizing up her next victim.

"Has he agreed to the conditions, though?" Shining asked, turning to his archmage to see if he knew. Before Kel'Thuzad could speak however, Stern Staff interjected.

"What have you done to him!?" he barked, Kel'Thuzad raising his hand slightly, his gaze turning deathly cold as he stared down the disorderly stallion. Like a dog being threatened with a whip, Stern submitted, returning to the floor in a bow.

He had learned his lesson.

"He suffered little, Stern Staff." Nightmare spoke, barely above a whisper. With a nearly lustful purr, she was next to the revenant's ear in a flash, her movement through the shadows faster than the eye could see. "And if you're a good little colt, you want have to either..."

"Nightmare, enough." Shining ordered, sitting down before the still prostrated stallion. With a slight growl, Nightmare retreated, Stern letting a breath he didn't know he was holding leave his chest.

"My prince... I... I don't know..." Stern Staff started, only to be interrupted by Shining, the prince holding his hoof up to silence him.

"Stern Staff, I’ll be perfectly transparent with you." Shining spoke, his voice more... plain, than anything else. "The Gryphonian Empire wants you and your mercenary friends dead. While Anub'arak may have finished YOU, your party is still out there somewhere."

"So... you want me to give up my friends?" Stern spoke, his head looking up, only slightly. Shining chuckled gently, his smile becoming more and more... sinister.

"No, Stern Staff."

"I want you to lead a small force to them..."

"And kill them."

“All of them...”

.........

The unicorn shook at the thought, his former comrades shooting through his mind for a split moment.

"And if I refuse?" Stern Staff asked, his form shaking slightly, the cold that was somewhat absent returning quickly.

"Hehehe..." Shining chuckled, his voice... deeper.

"A hundred years inside of the Frozen Wastes within Frostmourne, Stern." Shining got up, chuckling still, before walking over to the stallion nearly half the size of him. "If you thought the stories of Tartarus were bad... imagine this."

"No light."

"No sound."

"Just dark..."

"Dead..."

"COLD..."

Shining withdrew from the stallion, whose eyes were wider than before, his entire body refusing to stand still.

"In return for your service, you will be rewarded with the prestigious honor of being the first of my Royal Guard, and be allowed to 'live' until you decide to end your contract." Shining spoke, returning to the recently made portal to the throne room, Kel'Thuzad already sheathing Bloodsurge.

“You have twenty-four hours to decide, Stern Staff.” Shining spoke, his form turning to aknowledge the stallion for he last time.

“Think about it...”

.........

"Your majesty!" Stern blurted out, the alicorn turning to acknowledge him, his first hoof already through the portal.

"Yes?"

.........

"I... I accept."

“I... I will serve.”

Stern Staff shook as Shining’s features seemed to... darken.

Or maybe it was just the room...

"Very well, Stern Staff."

Shining, in several long strides, had drawn Frostmourne from his side, and had placed it upon the shoulders of the stallion before him, it's azure runes glowing brightly.

.........

From this day forward, you shall wield the unyielding and brutal power of the cold...

Arise, my chosen knight...

And serve your lord and master...

.........

Shining shook his head, a sinister grin decorating his muzzle as he sheathed Frostmourne, the stallion before him rising to his hooves. Stern opened his now permanently blue eyes, blinking the foreign chill from them in the process.

"We have work to do, my Death Knight..." Shining spoke, his voice more... gentle, now.

As if he were a father guiding his son.

With a hoof gesturing to the portal, which Kel'Thuzad had modified to move them to the Armory, Shining followed the Death Knight through, nodding once to Kel’Thuzad as he passed him.

He... he did it himself...

Kel'Thuzad closed the portal as they disappeared through it, Nightmare looking at the lich inquisitively.

"Kel?" Nightmare asked, her hoof waving in front of him, trying to snap him from his daydream.

"I... I was supposed to change him, Nightmare." Kel'Thuzad turned to the alicorn, his face and tone... worried.

Something the alicorn was, up until this point, quite sure that the archlich could not physically show.

"We have to hurry, Nightmare." He spoke, moving towards the cell's door.

"The Helm can't wait any longer..."