The days at Barrow Deeps didn't differ much from its nights. The same monotone sound of steps in the upper floors, faint murmurs in the distance and the exasperating sound of his own breathing. It was maddening. Lately he has lost his will to live, swallowed by his own hallucinations that brought him to such state of mind to stop caring about everything that mattered, about his love for Tyrande and his will to end Sargeras at all cost.
Coming back to reality was so painful that he ripped off his wrists with his own teeth and lay down in his blood awaiting his ending. This is the state in which Maiev found him on her yet very rare strolls. He remembered the muffled voice against his chest, did she take off her helmet? He couldn't decipher her words but felt the enchantment over him. He knew the cell was enchanted, he hurt himself in the past and always healed in a matter of seconds, this time it seemed he did his job properly and almost succeeded in his attempt if taking his life if it wasn't because she decided to show up that night. How much fun the Goddess must be having with him...
As a punishment he got shackled to the wall, long chains that restrained him from moving widely on his cell. Those 9 steps were maddening but this was torture, pure sadistic torture. Maiev came in a couple of occasions to lose the chains and now he was sitting on his bed, arms up and back against the freezing stone. Her enchantment made him sleep evaded and couldn't miss a moment of his punishment. What a perverse mind she had, how she enjoyed seeing him tied up, hungry, thirsty for all eternity and begging her to let him go, to make a simple imprisonment look like paradise compared to his current situation.
That night it all felt different, he managed to get in a meditative state of mind that renewed his strength and also settled his thoughts. It wasn't like sleeping, his body still felt exhausted and he had lost all sensitivity in his hands from being hanging up for days but his mind found a moment of piece and held on to it.
He sensed her presence behind the bars, she liked blinking into the room to startle him, enjoying her melodramatic entrances. He used his demonic eyes and read her aura. What he saw wasn't something he could have been prepared for. Her usual anger had been replaced by kindness and ... was that pity? But what really claimed his attention were three spots that were a burning fire and to his surprise not finding her armour as a barrier to see her. Has she always felt that way and he never knew? Was it all the pleasure she got from seeing him suffering? He hated her with all his being for having him shackled like an animal and wished he was free to hold her neck sweetly, tightly in his hands and wipe that sufficient smile out of her face forever.
The reality was that he couldn't even stand up without being losing his balance and his position against the wall would leave soreness in his limps for months. But time didn't matter there, all he had was time to get consumed by hollowed, deluded thoughts of a life that never happened where he was loved and free, where Azeroth wasn't at risk of being swallowed by the vile energies of the Burning Legion.
Maiev looked at him with unusual curiosity, she knew he was deep in thought, his frowned expression and bare teeth suggested he wasn't in a pleasant scenario. Illidan had been consumed by his own madness and she has been guarding him while those episodes took place, collecting all the information spilled from his lips. Sometimes he spent days whispering loving words to Tyrande while others he just spit vile and anger towards himself. Nights were the worst part, she used to lay and watch him while trying to sleep, his whimpers filled the room, sobs and uncontrolled spams followed by constant cries were her company. She didn't take any pleasure on seeing him like that she started to care heavily for him to the point of considering sending an owl to Malfurion informing him about Illidan's current mental state but she didn't want to face him and Tyrande making vague questions or simply ignoring her, them altogether. After founding Illidan laying in his own blood she considered spending more time watching him so she permanently moved to the shithole where his cell was, in the deepest vaults of Barrow Deeps, with no light and only vicious, nauseous humid air to breath.
She took a moment to watch how Illidan barely noticed her and got mostly scared when he felt her presence after scratching the floor with her boot to claim his attention. His vulnerable state made him incredibly succulent, her sexual appetite has grown lately and she couldn't release her desire while watching him neither was leaving him unsupervised in his current state so she just did what she always did, forget about her own needs and desires, suppressing her feelings and doing her job.
"Sick" he said, facing in her direction with a disgusted expression. She knew he could see her at times however how was something that scaped her understanding. His powerful magic, arcane and vile, combined and being the destined Chosen boy may have given him some extra abilities to survive his blindness. She moved forward to the bars softly gripping them and resting her body against the cold metal.
"What is it now?" She roughly asked, her concern masked with authority.
"You, disgusting creature, making me feel like an animal while you're perverse enough to feel pleasure passively contemplating my disgrace" he spitted. Her breath caught at his words and Illidan looked arrogantly at her, yes he knew, he knew how she felt and it disgusted him. He might have fallen and be caged like a beast but he didn't take pleasure in people's suffering. "You should be here not me, sadistic bitch".
Maiev turned around and hid in the shadows where the dim light of the oil lamp beside her mat couldn't touch her.
" No matter where you hide warden, I can see you. I can see your filthiness shinning where you're standing." She turned around to face him chanting the words to open his cell. "Yes come here, get a closer look, you will enjoy it" he spitted.
"I'm not torturing you Betrayer, I'm saving you from yourself" she said inches apart from him, looking down at his face, being crashed by his hate.
"How nice of you, warden" he said sarcastically " but there's no one else here you don't need to pretend being my savior." She pondered giving him what he wanted, what he was actively asking for, a single strike in his temple would have make him silent for hours, nobody would question her about her decisions. Not there.
"You have lost your mind and that will kill you" she stated. Illidan faced the truth in her words but how did she know? She was never present, was she? Had he been skipping reality to the point of not seeing her mat on a corner? Where did she install here permanently? She followed his gaze to the mat and then to her. His confused look only reinforced her suspicions that he hadn't noticed her all along.
He growled, struggled with the chains and finally himself being defeated in his inner battle. " When?" When did I lost myself completely? When did I stopped being an elf and became a rotten animal? "When did you move here?".
" 3 weeks ago". Silence fell between them.
"How long have I been shackled?" His voice was barely audible, too scared to ask.
" 2 moon cycles". His head started spinning, his hands closed into fists and a deep growl echoed in the room. His body was shaking, a mix of anger and disbelieve, unable to accept that he was losing his mind, unable to be consumed by his cell, his darkness. Illidan started shaking his head and crashing the back against the wall praying to Elune to end his life or give him the resolve to finish his plans.
Maiev stood there observing his every move, seeing him break into pieces before her and silently wished she wasn't there to witness it. Her silent steps weren't caught by Illidan's perked ears who kept swearing and praying all at once and knelt before him. Cautious, she lay a hand on his knee bringing him back to reality, trying to bring him back to the present but she didn't considered his imprisonment an attractive destination.
"Mount Hyjal" she said out loud squeezing his knee "remember Mount Hyjal on its glorious days". He lowered his head exhausted of battleling himself. She even doubted he heard her "Illidan, Mount Hyjal. Remember Elune's light blessing its lake, the blooming flowers, the ethereal surroundings" he straightened his posture remembering a time before the War of the Ancients, before his decisions teared Azeroth apart, when they lived forever before everything was fated to perish. He was absorbed by his vision, he remembered the smell of flowers and the power that emanated from the wild, the druids changing forms and the cracking electricity of the arcane coming from the Well. He must have lost time again because he felt her sitting beside him and a tear rolling down his cheek. The vision faded away slowly consumed by darkness, Illidan lowered his head and closed his eyes tightly feeling empty wholes where his amber eyes used to be.
Maiev said the words to close the cell. She considered her next step carefully but she felt tired of the whole situation, tired of seeing herself in the eyes of others as a sadistic jailer. Her next move would cost her reputation and her life but she would take the risk.
"I need you to behave" she ordered him before getting hold of his wrists and setting them free. Illidan's arms felt soundly at his side but he didn't seem to register it instead he kept facing down lost in his mind. Maiev took one of his arms and started massaging it making it easier for his corrupted blood to circulate normally. As soon as it went back a normal colour she did the same with the other. She fixated her eyes on his fingers, flexing its joints and hearing its cracking sound. There was a time in which all of this was familiar to her, in which her fingers were the ones that needed to be fixed after days of being shackled. She blinked forcefully shaking her head, she buried that part of herself in the past and worked hard of distancing herself from it all, she was not an innocent young novice anymore who would easily succumb to handsome males and empty flattery, she forged herself out of the shattered pieces that were buried in those times.
Illidan began feeling his arms again, carefully treated by Maiev's expert hands on him. He payed attention to her ministrations and to his amusement she knew fairly well what she was doing, terribly well. She lay his hand on his lap and remained there, shaking her head and fighting with herself. He flexed his fingers, rolled his wrists and bended his elbows accommodating his joints to its normal state. Her breath was frantic, murmuring things that he couldn't understand, bracing herself for a moment. Suddenly she turned her eyes to him, he has been staring trying to understand her, perceiving her in a different shade and doubting his judgement that he so freely verbalized.
"You did a good job" he said lightly shaking one hand.
"No need to thank me, I was amending the problem." She looked blankly at her front, letting her arms fall limp at her sides. "I got used to it" her face was covered by a shadow.
"Care to elaborate? Who was the poor bastard that got smashed by the fiery warden?" He chuckled thinking how knowing about other's disgrace made him feel lighter. How miserably low he had fallen...
"I was" her answer a whisper. She turned her face away from him and he was left taking her words. He knew about her past enough to know she belonged to Elune's Temple of Suramar for many centuries, she achieved great notoriety for her hard work and healing powers. She was blessed by the Goddess and the second in line for High Priesthood until his beloved Tyrande entered the order. He lost track of what happened next, his personal aims consumed all of his time and lost interest on anything or anyone who wasn't a means to achieve his goals. He couldn't deal with the idea of her being tortured, who among the night elves would dare lay a hand on a Goddess' priestess? They were a fundamental part of the religious core of their society.
"Elian Shallowtree" she answered as if she read his thoughts "a general of Suramar troops, he was Jarod's subordinate and most faithfull man" he could taste the bitterness in her words as if they were his "We were going to marry. I was young, naïve and scared for Jarod's downfall. I did what I had to." After all these years she really considered her brother's safety a fair prize for her suffering.
"I don't find pleasure in your suffering"
"I misinterpreted the signs then..." He fell silent, he didn't know how to continue, how to apologize after what he saw in her aura. He looked again, the spots had a dim light and he looked confused. She felt his gaze and turned to him, begging with her eyes not to question.
"I don't find pleasure in your suffering" she repeated pronounce every word slowly "I am not him. I can't be him" she squeezed her hands nervously "but all I see is him smiling back at me from my own reflection". A tear rolled down her cheek " I tried to save you, you were dying." A sob scaped her lips "please, I'm not him". She took his hands in hers, fighting back tears, trying to fix everything she did wrong not to him but to everyone, specially to herself.
Her mind twisted and saw Elian in Illidan's place in a second she was straddling him and squeezing his throat with her bare hands " YOU DID THIS TO ME!! BASTARD YOU DID THIS TO ME!! "Illidan tried to let himself free but was too weak to fight back " YOU MADE ME A MONSTER. I AM NOT LIKE YOU." She squeezed even tighter, Illidan was losing his consciousness. She lay forward, her menacing figure over him, her breath on his mouth "I WILL FIND YOU AND I WILL KILL YOU" and as she blinked again Elian was gone and Illidan's anguished expression replaced it. Instantly she let go of his neck still shaking out of anger and collapsed over his shoulder.
Illidan was trying to catch his breath coughing violently. He didn't feel Maiev's body over him until his senses were back and by then she was far gone. Hesitantly he encircled her waist with his arms and held her not being able to move and not wanting to let go. In his years he had been called many things and others may have suffered for his mistakes but never he would have torture a female elf and it was a sacrilege to even consider speaking to her without her permission. Imagining Maiev being tortured in countless ways by the one who was meant to cherish her was unthinkable, seeing was that had done to her over time, unbearable.
She was whimpering, coming back to consciousness, her hands roaming lazily trying to hold around his neck. Illidan's fingers started circling at her back, her thin vest barely covering her form. Why was he doing it he had no idea but in his current situation he preferred keeping her content. He used his gaze on her and those dots were set alight. He stopped his fingers only to feel she had already started rolling her hips. He tried to shake her but she was still whimpering and felt her lips on his neck. Illidan couldn't let her do it, hang on him, a disgraced male, after everything he knew he needed her to leave that place and find a better life. She might be his jailer but the woman who was kissing him didn't deserve all that suffering.
"Stop" he said but his hands betrayed his true intentions, caressing her form from her tights to the base of her neck. She was barely holding herself together, consumed by a haze that clouded her senses, she just wanted to taste him and kissed, licked and sweetly bite his skin, too lazy to shift her position Maiev kept her attention to his left side while caressed his right with her fingers.
"No" her voice muffled by his soft skin "I've wanted you for too long" she lay on the side and took her leathers off. He mimicked her actions and was left naked with her returning to her position.
"You're crazy" he chuckled pulling her vest revealing her breasts, taking one nipple between his sharp teeth. Her cries were the sweetest melodies he ever heard.
"So are you" .He took her face in his hands kissing her sweet lips with fervour then rested his forehead in hers. Maiev was overwhelmed by his feelings, the taste of his lips a promise of what was yet to come.
"If I ever get out of here I'll bring you his head". Her hands travelled down his cheek and up to his hair, then pulled, biting his lip and sinking into him. Their loud moans the only sound in that cage.
"If" she added before starting their slow pace. Maiev forgot about who she was, where they were and their natural roles. She lidded her eyes at him and started riding him senseless.
The humid atmosphere of the room matched with their sweaty bodies, Illidan flipped them laying her on the bed and leaving him standing, his thrusts more powerful. Maiev was unable to contain herself, her panting was frantic, her skin on fire. Illidan grabbed her sides to keep her in place, their hips crashing forcefully, Maiev's hands trying to hold the stone bricks scratching the hard material with her nails. She felt some nails cracked but it didn't care, she closed her eyes focusing on what Illidan was doing to her, his shaft hard and hot finding its place within her, reminding her what it was like feeling that good, sending her wave after wave of pleasure.
Illidan took her legs from circling his middle to his shoulders, holding tightly to them. He heard Maiev swear under her breath and brought his lips to her leg, sucking and biting, living marks with his teeth and muffling his own moans. The change of angle was bringing them closer and closer, her walls were contricting around him and he felt his balls tightened.
"Maiev" he said, but she was already there, she was already being washed away by her climax, a indiscribable tone scaping her lips and he tensed and spilled inside her unable to stop pounding forcefully into her.
Illidan let go of her legs gently and put his hands on both sides of her head. She was glimming in her afterglow, languidly looking into his demonic eyes, saying a million things and nothing at the same time. Her words hushed by emotions that couldn't be voiced. He took her lips, kissing slowly and gently as a painful farewell of that moment. Instanctly she felt him withrowing from inside her and stand, only to collapse on his knees, head resting on her thigh. Maiev lowered her hands and caressed his hair. Whatever the future may bring them that moment would remain theirs forever.