NOTE: Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne was one of the first RTS games I have ever played (alongside Command & Conquer) and Maiev was one of the first characters that I actually admired given that the campaign was immersive at the time.

So I was a little let down when I read on the Warcraft wikis that she ended losing it at some point. So I decided to make a story about her.

Now, I have never played WoW or any of its expansions. So when I was looking back the decade since The Frozen Throne was released and by God, the Warcraft universe has grown so much that I could barely comprehend who is who and why Jaina is so pissed at the Horde and why Thrall is...

So I said, let's escape the canon (or "lore" as some call it). So some references or areas or whatever may feel a little out of place because I wanted it that way. And also because I just did not have the patience to study the Warcraft world. (I'm still stuck in 2004, apparently.)

Anyway, I hope you enjoy. And feel free to critic/criticise/critique.

If there was a purpose that a soul was bound to, Maiev found none for herself. The Betrayer was dead and she had been his executioner. The very moment that Illidan Stormrage had ceased to breath had been the pinnacle of her life. And she relished it, savoring the second that the fel green light beaming through his folds faded and his mouth ran dry, blood pooling down his lips.

There was joy, yes. In her zeal, she had finally fulfilled her purpose, her very reason for existing... She was, to say the least, very happy. But, in truth, her heart was cold still. She thought that by dealing the final blow, she would be free of this anger, this rage, this hatred that she carried since the end of the War ten thousand years ago.

Alas, she realized to her horror that she was wrong. And her elation faded as easily as it came.

It was a rare feeling, elation. She had not felt in millennia. The very feeling of happiness itself...was so distant, harkening back to her days as an eager priestess hiding under silken robes. When she was still young and innocent and, like many Kaldorei, unwary of the Burning Legion stalking outside the realm of Azeroth...

Those days had long faded into memory, receding to the back of her mind as she trod along the roads of this dry and desolate wasteland. The cooked coals that served as gravel under the red sands of Outland singed through the leather of her boots though she had already grown accustomed to the burn.

She did not have anything left after leaving the holdings of her cell. Akama had not spoken to her since her release. When she passed by him on the way out, though, she could read the contentment in his eyes and she felt a twinge of guilt at the thought though she knew not why. There were no words exchanged between them and she left his temple without any direction at all.

Now, dragging herself blindly across the dry red sands, all she could do was look back at the events that had shaped the climax of everything in her life. She recalled the once proud gates of Suramar, the wondrous capital now forever a remnant of the evils of demons. The warm silken gowns of the priestess, the calm of the moon, the joy of living with nature... And the War... From her timeless years spent under the Barrow Deeps to the numerous nights that lapsed over her vigorous search for the Betrayer...

The Warden nearly tripped and staggered.

"Your Watchers are dead. There is no one to heed your orders, Maiev. There is no one out there who would listen to you...for they are all dead! Do you hear me? Dead!"

Maiev nearly choked. She pulled her helm free from her head, letting her face finally bask under the dry sulfuric Draenor air. She coughed and wheezed.

"What are you trying to achieve for killing me? Do you think they will welcome you back home after what you did to Tyrande? Do you think they could so easily forgive you for your blind zeal?"

His words rang forever in the hollow caverns of her mind. They bounced back against the fragile walls of her now empty heart.

"You may have killed me...but know this, Maiev..."

She could not resist the painful truth any longer and it stung her throat hard enough to force tears. She broke down and crumpled herself against the foundation of a forgotten obelisk. Her broken whimpering was all that she could hear amid the howling winds.

"The huntress is nothing without the hunted."

"Goddess, forgive me..." she wept.

She was nothing without him.

The Traveler found her asleep under the canopy, hidden behind the thick bushes that dotted the side of the road. Clad in the filthiest of mail and clothed by a singed, ripped mantle, he was surprised that no brigand had taken advantage of this bountiful target. Or perhaps he was the first person to come across this unkempt elf.

She was a night elf as was glaringly obvious. That made him uneasy as he did not want to earn the ire of the Kaldorei. The other elven races he could get along with but the Kaldorei...would have wanted his head if they knew his history. He hoped he would live long enough for them to forget his idiocies during his last visit to Darnassus two years ago.

That did not make him immune to pity and as such he set down his pack and settled close by, biting down on a ham sandwich he prepared in the last town over the hill.

When she finally did wake up, he braced for the end of the glaive that was brilliantly hidden under her. Not that his flesh would taste it though. She looked very volatile.

"It took you long enough," he greeted just as the umbra crescent sliced through the air and stopped inches short of his bare throat. He still swallowed the parcel of chewed meat in his mouth.

"Trouble me not or you will regret it," she hissed. Tiredly, he could hear.

"There is a tavern just beyond that hill if you want a place to lay your head," he said, completely ignoring her glaive by circumventing his arm under it to give himself another bite of his snack. He felt the blade edge away from his neck. When he finally looked up to rest his head, she was gone.

"Night elves," he muttered to the sky. "Wasn't my fault I pissed in the fountain in Darnassus... I was contributing to nature..."

ORIGINALLY WRITTEN: June 2, 2015

LAST EDITED: June 11, 2015

NOTE: The Traveler is a guy I made up. I don't even play WoW so I'm going with the skill sets from The Frozen Throne.