Disclaimer - The world of Azeroth belongs entirely to Blizzard Entertainment. I make no money from this, and am only a visitor in the wonderful World of Warcraft.

Hatred coursed through my veins. A hatred so intense I felt that I would easily kill everything around me. He had done this to me. The man-child, the butcher. Arthas.

I thought back to the last moments of my life, and my anger peaked as I thought about her. The girl. My girl. The one I'd sworn to protect until the day I died.

Well, I was dead now. And her? Was she dead too? Was she alive? If I were to ever see her again, would she recognize me? Would she still love me? Or would she hate me now, because I was no longer the way I had been?

She hadn't wanted to leave me. I hadn't wanted her to leave me. But I'd forced her to.

She's dead now, you know. Your pretty one. She died a death so painful that it warped her soul forever. She screamed out your name as I killed her.

His words came back to me, and I shrieked, loudly. The thought of her dead and broken had been enough to change me forever. Even after he had raised me, I had retained some semblance of myself, at least for the first couple of months.

But then… the things he had said to me. The visions he had shown me…

I couldn't think.

Around me, my new people, the Forsaken, as we'd called ourselves, were busy trying to make the catacombs under what was left of Lordaeron fit for us to live in. There was a lot to do, not to mention a lot of Scourge to get rid of, but so far, they had done well. I tried to focus on that instead of thinking about Faith.

Faith.

I screamed again, the sound bouncing off the wet stone walls.

How had we gotten here? How had this happened? How had our lives changed so irrevocably?

Dead. I had seen her in my mind. Her face intact, but contorted in pain and horror. Her body almost flayed open because of the torture she had been through before she had died.

Had she been raised? Was she undead too? A member of the Scourge?

A rock I was holding in my hand cracked and shattered because of the pressure I was putting on it. I quivered in rage.

What he had done to me, I might have been able to let go, in time. But Faith. He had hurt her. Killed her, he had said. I hadn't been able to go look for myself, because I'd been tethered to him. But I had my body back now, a body that had been remarkably well-preserved. She had done that. Her last gesture towards me, protecting my body from further harm. I would not rest until I found out the truth.

My anger raged on.

"Your Majesty, the delegation from Orgrimmar has arrived."

Right. The delegation. I'd heard of creatures coming from an odd place called Orgrimmar, in Kalimdor. They were orcs, I'd been told, which did nothing to abate my anger. I didn't care if the orcs had been forced to deal with the Burning Legion. To me, they had done this to us. They had brought the Legion to Azeroth, which, in turn, had created the Scourge.

Created me. A banshee.

I had no desire to deal with them.

But my messengers had told me that the orcs had wanted a foothold here, and we'd be able to use them to fight the Scourge. Maybe I could exterminate them that way.

"There's an elf with them too," said one of my guards, having gone to look at the party and report back to me.

"An elf?"

"A girl."

I felt my body growing colder than it was. "What does she look like?"

The guard ran out of the room I was in, coming back about ten minutes later, the skin on his face dropping onto the floor of the chamber.

"She has blonde hair, my Lady. She looks quite ill, one of the… the tauren had to support her."

"Did you hear them speaking her name?"

"Yes. She has a human name."

"Faith," I said quietly.

The guard nodded.

Had I been anybody else, I would have needed to sit down. Faith. Faith was here, in Undercity. If she looked ill, it meant she wasn't dead. He hadn't killed her. He had made me believe he had killed her so as to drive me out of my mind.

I nearly screamed again.

But all of a sudden, my head was swimming with questions. Why was Faith with orcs? What had happened to her if she hadn't died? Why was she here?

Oh, you know why she's here, you fool, said a voice inside of me that oddly sounded like my sister Alleria's. She's here for you.

For me. Faith was here for me. Why? I was dead. Had she been holding onto me for a year?

I had no time to ponder these questions now. There they were.

I watched as Faith's eyes widened when she saw me. I didn't move a muscle. Her mouth opened as she uttered a sound like a wounded creature, ready to scream.

She fainted, her body crumpling onto the floor.

I'd always known that I'd be able to make her faint. But there was no joy in seeing her again. Nothing. I felt nothing. Except for the despair coursing through my veins.

The End