The cell was dark, lit only by the flicker of two torches on the walls; the stale air was dry and warm, but somehow the cell's inhabitant could only shiver. Maiev Shadowsong, beaten and dirtied, sat slumped against the wall, her fingers tracing cracks and gashes on her once proud and polished armor. Beneath her warden's mask, her face was stony, her expression empty.
How ironic that the very being she had been given responsibility to guard as a jailor would have her incarcerated in his own Outland prison, guarded by his hardiest, most-trusted lieutenants, the draenei led by the shrewd and deadly Akama. Illidan was not taking any chances with her; he knew how crafty she was and what it took to keep her in one spot against her will.
Maiev's fingers did not stray from their courses as pebbles and dirt from the cell ceiling fell down upon her and the earth above rumbled. Inside this dusty prison patrolled the draenei - above the ground, doomguard and other assorted demons tromped about, their massive weight and heavy steps making Maiev a very dusty denizen behind her cell bars.
She swallowed painfully. Why had she lived?
The sole survivor of her band of Watchers that had crossed over to Outland, she had outlasted her sisters by her iron will alone. The harsh conditions of Shadowmoon Valley had claimed each of the women's lives one by one, the powerful and hostile creatures of the land sometimes five or six at a time. Maiev had held almost all of them in her arms as they died, their cracked lips and bloodshot eyes fluttering as their last breaths and horrified looks escaped. No one could tell she grieved for them; she was too parched to cry and refused to show any other sign of weakness for fear of the women losing hope, though she knew it had disappeared weeks ago. As the warden closed the eyes of her last surviving companion and lowered the body to the sand, the stress of the past months finally broke inside her. She screamed, her voice cracking; within seconds she was hoarse, but her anguish continued on silently, tears of dust rolling down her face.
Now, she was truly alone.
Her will to find the Betrayer faltered; Maiev finally began to feel the effects of Outland on her body. Her muscles burned, her empty stomach called constantly to her as she gulped the sulfurous air down a parched throat to aching lungs. She could smell her own dried, sour sweat, and felt her wind-beaten armor chaffing under her arms, between her thighs. She suddenly felt very heavy and collapsed onto the ground, coughing painfully as she inhaled the swirling dust. Her eyes closed, her vision a blurry cloud of colors that eventually faded to black as the whistling sound of the wind faded from her ears. There would be no one here to hold her limp body as she expired, as her strong soul finally lost its grasp on her body and mind, the light of determination leaving her once-bright green eyes. She would die alone, as she had always feared, cared for by no one, her body left for scavengers and thieves, her memory and deeds unsung. This realization caused another stab of distress, this one causing her to bite her dry bottom lip so hard that it broke and began to bleed. Maiev bit into it harder, feeling the warm blood flow onto her tongue, her mind eased for a moment. Perhaps dying would not be so bad - there would be no more suffering.
It would be so easy just to drift off here, her cloudy thoughts beginning to shut down, nothing but black swirled with an occasional blood red in her mind's eye... There was a red flash as the tang of her blood trickled over her taste buds...
Suddenly a vision of Illidan's face, twisted in ecstasy, blinded her.
She gasped, suddenly very awake and very aware of herself, and sat up in shock.
The blood red color returned, washing away every other thought in the Warden's mind. I will fucking kill him.
Renewed strength flowed through her as she hoisted herself up and turned toward the distant Black Temple. One foot in front of the other, she pushed on, the need to have her revenge and her hands wrapped tightly around Illidan's throat driving her. In her blind rage, she failed to see the shadows creeping up around her. A few determined steps later, she blacked out and collapsed face first into the sand, even before the black figures reached her.
A tall, statuesque figure with leathery wings and spiraling horns emerged from the darkness, a smug smile on his cruel face. Two eager flames burned where his eyes were obscured by a blindfold, his fingers clenching and unclenching in excitement as he swooped upon the fallen figure of the night elf woman.
"I think she is finally ready for us," Illidan Stormrage growled to his companions, who came forth with ropes and bound Maiev's legs and arms together before bowing to their master and backing away. The former demon hunter slipped his arm underneath Maiev's unconscious body and, in one smooth, effortless movement, hoisted her onto his shoulder. His smile widened to a grin as he rested his free hand on her thick ass and squeezed, giving her a slap before beginning the march toward his personal prison.
Maiev had awoken in pain, propped against the hard walls of the tiny cell she now wasted away in. She had recognized the draenei at once, and knew exactly whose keep she was in. The idea had infuriated her, but she lacked the energy to even move. A tiny, frustrated groan escaped her lips.
The burly, highly-decorated draenei keeping watch closest to her heard her groan and turned toward her. His face was dark and unfriendly, but she could see fairness in his eyes. And a dull sadness. She snorted at him.
"I do not want your pity, draenei," she rasped. He had simply grunted.
She had not spoken and barely moved in the weeks after she arrived. She was kept fed and watered, though very sparingly. Her strength eventually returned, but each day her eyes grew duller and duller - her spirit was failing. No one spoke to her or paid any attention to her whatsoever, and Illidan had not shown himself. Maiev knew escape was pointless and impossible, and, although this meant Illidan was close, as the weeks passed, her angry thoughts changed to merely irritated, then to indifferent. She no longer cared. She was to be stuck here forever with nothing to live for.
It was his punishment for her, and she knew it.
She could swear she had almost bored a hole into the wall opposite her simply by how long she had stared at it.
Maiev didn't even notice as one day, Akama bowed his head to a shadowy figure and stepped humbly aside. Only when the sound of the bars of her cell being moved did she flick her gaze toward the newcomer.
Illidan smirked as he looked down at her defeated form. They had allowed her to retain her armor, though he had considered keeping her here naked to add insult to injury. The blemishes in her ensemble made him swell inside with pride.
He caught sight of her dead, dull eyes and actually shivered. She was a broken woman. How delightful.
"Mistress Shadowsong," he uttered in a low voice.
She gave no indication as to whether she had heard him. Illidan kicked at her leg with a dusty hoof. "Maiev," he said sternly.
She flicked her eyes up at him, old unwanted feelings welling up in her chest. The anger, the bitterness, the hot lust… They were the first emotions she had experienced in weeks. And yet they were still smothered by a heavy blanket of apathy and, what she had begun to suspect, insanity.
Illidan sank to a crouch before her, his "eyes" on level with hers. "You are in a house with new rules now, woman. You will speak when spoken to."
Maiev's eyes never faltered from her imaginatory crevice in the wall.
Illidan's hand whipped swiftly to her neck, causing her helm to scrape against the hard wall. "You will at least acknowledge your new master when his attentions are on you, whether or not a dirty, filthy cur such as yourself deserves them. Do you understand me, slut?" He bit off the last word with a fierce snarl.
The warden's head turned toward him. "I am not your servant," she rasped, staring him directly in the "eye." "I will not bow to your will as these helpless creatures have. I may be broken, but I will never be broken enough to submit to you, foul child."
He stared at her for a moment, caught offguard by her declaration, as he had figured she was not fit to make such a statement. Quickly recollecting himself, he spat back, "I will give you no such choice." With a quick, angry murmur, Maiev's hands flew magically above her head while the rest of her body spread out form her normally huddled position. She gasped and coughed as she was moved against her will. The sparse light in the cell dimmed further as she saw Akama's huge bulk move directly in front of the cell door, blocking most of the outside from view. She felt strong, angry hands tugging at the straps and buckles of her armor – only a tiny gasp of objection escaped her throat as Illidan tore at the bodysuit she wore beneath her plated garb and put his hands on her curves.
She felt a jolt of electricity up her spine as his fingers made contact with her bare flesh. She sat in shock as he continued to unclothe her til she sat stark naked on a pile of her attire, feeling his rough, unmerciful hands roving her body – up her breasts, down her hips. She felt him pushing her gradually down, felt dirt and dust in her greasy hair, felt him mount her and-
Maiev found the air to gasp in pain as he pushed his cock into her dry delicates and began to fuck her furiously, attempting to drive her into the ground with his hips. He covered her mouth with a hand, instinctively avoiding sharp bites, and smiled at her as she began to squirm beneath him. He fucked her until he felt he could go no longer, and came unceremoniously inside her, silent and smug.
He rose off her, pulling his pants up around his waist and smiled down at her still form, sinking to a crouch. "I am the master here," he said softly, then muttered her release, continuing to smile evilly as she collapsed to a fetal position, her arms hugging her chest. The once-proud, broken warden glared up him.
Inhaling a great amount of dust and gathering her saliva from the past unpleasant 5 minutes, she launched a forceful wad of spit at him.
It somehow managed to land on his face.
Time seemed to stop for a few moments as they stared at each other, the heavy snorting breaths of the warden stirring up clouds of dust from her cell floor, the demon hunter frozen as a dirty gob of saliva dripped down from his cheek.
"And here I'd thought you'd lost your spirit," he hissed, the flames of his eyes boring into her. He saw a violently bright flash of light in her eyes as she bared her teeth and lunged at him. He caught her effortlessly and smoothly slung her around his shoulder, much like he remembered doing to her when he had first brought her to this hellhole. This time was slightly more difficult as she was huffing and writhing and digging her jagged nails into his back, trying to escape his clutch.
Illidan winced as her sharp teeth caught hold of his back where his wings had grown. He felt a trickle of blood run slowly down his torso, which made him laugh. "Always the violent one, hm? Loves the blood and visceral pleasures…" He gave her a hard slap on her still-bare ass. "I'll take you to my new home… I think you will enjoy it there."
The draenei and demons paid him no mind as he marched out of his little prison with a struggling naked night elf woman in tow. He braced himself, crouching low, before spreading his wings and taking flight. Maiev, who had never experienced flying before, screamed and clung tightly to him.
"Take a good look, Maiev," he sneered at his terrified captive as the figures below became tiny and disappeared in the smoky distance. "You will be wishing I'd left you there."
The warden stared down at the barren landscape, wondering how many ravaged bodies of her band of Watchers they passed as Illidan bore her across Shadowmoon Valley. She chanced a look toward their destination.
The Black Temple loomed eerily on the horizon. Below them, Maiev could already see broken artillery from long-extinct Horde and Alliance military efforts, and, if she looked hard enough, broken bodies and skeletons of the operators and soldiers.
"My trophies," Illidan murmured, looking down at the wreckage fondly. "My home." He landed gracefully on the stairs of the Temple, past three or so reinforced, guarded gates. He bellowed a line in ancient tongue.
The doors of the massive edifice slowly, magnificently swung open.
"And the home of my newest and most precious slave." Maiev winced as she heard a bloodcurdling scream erupt from the bowels of the Temple. She did her best to stifle oncoming dry tears as Illidan hauled her into the dark entrance hallway of his bastion, his hand planted firmly on her ass, his nails digging into the flesh. Maiev welcomed the familiar taste of blood in her mouth and closed her eyes as the massive gates slowly closed behind them.
