The Story of the Norj'Hal Elves (Act II)

I'm posting this here in response to Anitarf's request that I take conversations about the storyline off of the archive thread. I'll be periodically updating this thread over the next few days, hopefully until I have a finished story, word-for-word.

The Story of the Norj'Hal Elves
Act II: The Dark Night of Ezune

Aszune crouched over her spellfire, perched steadily with one knee in the powdered snow as her lithe, steely fingers coursed through the blue wisps of flame.

Serenity.

There would be more of these conscious pyres, the relentless luminence sparked by Eredar magic and fueled by the Waters of Eternity. Within the heart of every Norj'Hal had Aszune prepared these eternal flames, but before she could bestow unto them her most precious sacrament they waivered in their faith. After thousands of years she had finally begun her work anew; now she would bring unto her kin a peace and silence unlike any they had experienced before.

First came fire. Fire consumed the heart, then the mind, and then the spirit. Then came serenity--transcendent of anything the Norj'Hal could experience in this living world of endless struggle. Futility would then be broken--the curse of constant hunger, strife, bloom and wilt came to a tranquil and somnolent end. Kil'Jadeen's own ill-begotten Ner'Zul could not achieve in undeath what Aszune could make of the Norj'Hal essence.

Her living kin would not go so willingly, and even then Aszune would not be strong enough without her heart. But these wisps were willing. Eternity was theirs forever.

Wisps neve spoke in the way that elfkin did, but as absorbed by Eternity the wisps beneath Aszune's hands resonated differently than they had only an hour ago. Aszune listened patiently to their song. Soon it would fall in perfect harmony with her own. "Now, my kinspirits," she breathed. "Show me the land and lay of Dahj'Onnar."

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The Norj'Hal capital glistened under the light of a full moon. Stark onyx towers rose above shale cartways and granite foundations. The raised stoneworks at the core of the city presented the magnificent Bahr'Tan temple, with four equal entryways to the North, South, East, and West.

So tall they seemed to prop a great starlit canopy over the city, the towers were original to the civic design, unchanged after more than seven thousand years. The obelisks and marble statues around the towers bore gold and mithril placards stating that they had been replaced following the stone-withering torrential rains of the Ahn'Lluvian. The houses filling the rest of the city aged as the rest of nature surrounding the city, replaced every two or three human generations according to a slowly but inexorably evolving design.

Aszune gazed deeper into the minds of her wisps to see clearly her path, from the moonlight-speckled, snowy forest over the cut rock roads, through the entrance least marked by Norj'Hal footsteps. Her new servants at Galh'Dun had not remembered her well, and even Csaal'Kahn had not obtained perfect meaning by reading her scrolls. Still, she would have to enter Dajh'Onnar carefully. for if any of the Bahr'Tan elders were to keep in memory the hiding place of Taralgana and her heart, they would certainly recall the truth about her as well, and rally all the city's guards to stop her.

Nice intro...but where's Act 1 again?
Anyways good stuff.

Act I is a playable campaign over in the maps department--it's got a light blue icon with a snowflake and white / gold lettering.