The Answer.

((This one's a bit graphic! Just a head's up :D))

This time, Elvae stood in the Hellfire Peninsula.

The harsh winds ripped at his cloak as he stood in the desolate, red wasteland, staring down at five sharp spires of stone. He knew what they were. What had been placed upon them. 

"So you do remember," said a feminine voice from behind him. He turned to lay his eyes upon its owner.

Ceyel stood there, clad in crimson robes, her eyes nothing more than pockets of bright red energy. Elvae clenched his jaw, turning to face her fully. "Of course I remember, Ceyel. I will carry that burden with me for the rest of my life."

Ceyel scoffed, crossing her arms. "Burden, he says. No one placed that burden upon you, but yourself, father," she spat, her eyes flaring. Elvae shook his head, standing up straight. 

"Ceyel, you have to understand that it wasn't me. Vorinclex took control of my body when I destroyed his. He hid his soul within mine, and struck when he thought the time to be the most opportune."

A mad grin broke out across her face. "He said that you'd try to lie to me, like that," she said, placing her hands on her hips. "But I know the truth, father. He showed me. I know that it was you," she said, pointing a finger at him accusingly. "You brought me to this place and ripped me apart. You never did change. You always have been a demon."

Elvae's shoulders bristled, and he took half a step forward, staring at Ceyel sternly. "Ceyel. Daughter. You have to listen to me. Whatever he showed you was false! I wasn't in control! Vorinclex has filled your mind with lies!"

Ceyel stepped forward until she was chest to stomach with him, glaring up at him threateningly. "Then why would he have brought me back?"

Elvae clenched his jaw, his eyelids fluttering. ". . . so you really are alive," he said quietly. Ceyel rolled her eyes, reaching up and grasping Elvae's beard, yanking him down to be face-to-face with her. 

"After you slaughtered me, he came to me. He found me, broken, wondering why-oh-why my FATHER had just ripped me limb from limb! And then he told me the truth. You betrayed your people on Argus and took up the mantle of warlock. A Man'ari warlock. You'll never be anything else, you monster!" she spat, shoving him backwards. 

He stumbled back half a step, before shaking his head, tears forming in the corner of his eyes. "I have changed Ceyel! I threw that life away thousands of years ago! I cast aside the man I had become, and sought atonement. I've been trying to atone for my sins for thousands of years, and when I adopted you, I saw the chance to give you a better life. Perhaps it was for myself as well, the feeling of helping mold a young mind to grow up strong. Grow up right. But that doesn't change the fact that I loved you! That I still love you!"

Ceyel snarled and raised her hand, a bolt of necrotic energy whizzing through the air and smacking him in the chest. He winced, stumbling back, holding his smoking chest, gazing up at her with bleary eyes. 

"You sure have a funny fuckin' way of showing it, old man," she said through gritted teeth, more necrotic energy blooming to life in her hand. "Ripping me apart. That's love?"

Elvae grit his teeth. "You are my daughter! I could never relinquish my love for you, Ceyel! I will do whatever I must to prove to you that Vorinclex is lying!" 

Ceyel loosed a shout, her voice cracking, as a tendril of necrotic energy flew from her palm to his open mouth, worming its way down his throat. Elvae let out a choked gasp, and clawed at the tendril, though it moved out of the way each time. 

"Vorinclex told me what you were. What you specialized in during your tenure with the Legion," she said, urging the tendril further down his throat. "You relished in people's suffering. Men, women, children, it didn't matter. As long as you could make people feel terror, pain, and anything else horrible, you were happy." 

Elvae gurgled, as the tendril seemed to grasp something, before ripping itself backwards. A chunk of blue flesh came with it, along with a fountain of blood from Elvae's gullet. He fell to a knee, gasping, his blood soaking into the red dirt beneath his hooves. 

"Love," Ceyel spat again, lifting her foot and kicking Elvae in the crest, sending him tumbling backwards, until he landed on the sharp points of the spires. The largest went through his chest, while the others went through his arms and abdomen. He lay there, spitting up blood, staring up at Ceyel with fading eyes. 

Ceyel sneered down at him as his vision began to fade. 

"I'll see you soon enough, old man."

............................................................................................................................................................

Elvae awoke in his office.

He had set up a cot in the corner of his office, so that if he had to sleep, he could do it somewhat more comfortably than in his chair, and on campus. He brought a hand to his throat, opening his mouth in a silent cry of pain, before his eyes focused on the ceiling. He then slumped down onto his cot, staring at the ceiling, panting.

He had his answer.