Eflea watched in an almost detached manner as her mother collapsed into the chair behind her, her hand over her heart as she takes in the news. Her mother's shoulders slumped as if the weight of the world just came crashing down onto them 100 mph.

Eflea wanted to grieve for her sister, wanted so hard to feel the sadness that was no doubt sweeping through her mother, but for the life of her she couldn't. She felt a strange nothingness as if her emotions were sucked away altogether. She wanted to cry and scream and sob like her mother was doing now.

I'm sorry, Eflea thought, I'm sorry your good child died. Her eyes fell to the floor, her mind filled with self deprecating thoughts. I should've stayed, I'm so useless.

"Eflea..." Her mother sobbed out, "I know that look," she sniffed loudly, "Do-don't blame yourself, not your fault." She repeated the last part deliriously a couple of times before breaking back into tears.

Eflea hugged her mother and was held in turn.

And that's how Fandris found them. His feet stopped at the doorway, taking in the scene in front of him with great concern. He rushed to their side and joined the hug with no hesitation, his hands rubbing both of the women's backs in soothing circles. He could wait to hear what happened. In the back of his mind he dully noted that Nylilaeth wasn't here. Probably running errands, he thought before dismissing it to deal with the weeping women.

When the sobs lulled into quiet crying Fandris deemed it a good enough time to ask what happened. The only response he got was a violent sob from Fylaina, Eflea's mother. Elea turned her head away from him.

"Eflea, what happened?"

Eflea said nothing and refused to look him head on. Shame welled in the pit of her stomach.

"Eflea." He stated, his voice carrying an oddly gentle forcefulness.

Eflea flinched and looked at him. Her eyes shined with tears.

"What happened?"

"Nylilaeth isn't coming back... She's not gonna... I'm sorry." Eflea covered her eyes, the tears finally flowing freely down her face. "I'm sorry, you... you..."

Fandris looked shocked before sadness quickly overcame his features. "Oh..." He ran his hand down his face, intent on not crying in front of the people that served as his family for so many years. Now wasn't the time for crying, they needed someone to be strong right now and by Elune that would be him even if it killed him with grief.

He looked at both the women closely, noting how both looked exhausted. The light of the sun crept in through the window.

"Does your father know?"

Eflea shook her head no.

"I'll tell him, you two need to go to bed."

"But you! You..."

"I'm fine, I'll be fine. You look like you haven't slept in ages, and Fylaina needs her sleep right now."

Eflea nodded and slowly took her mother and herself to bed.

Fandris sat back for a moment, allowing himself a second of grief before delivering the news to his mentor. It seems his little surfas* won't be returning to him in this life...

"Elune-adore, Nylilaeth*," he muttered, "Kene'thil surfas.*" With that he got to his feet, ready to deliver the crushing news to his mentor. To Nylilaeth's father.

–

"Who's that?" Nylilaeth asked, pointing towards the figure standing tall on a mountain overlooking the scourge encampment.

Tom looked to where she was pointing. "Ah, him. Just a weirdo that's been watching us for a while. Not very stealthy isn't he? He hasn't shown any signs of being a threat thus far and The Big Bad Boss said to just leave him be so he's just there now. Kinda creepy isn't he?"

"Yeah, if you're getting called creepy by a guy that's died twice that's saying something!"

Tom glared at her, "Do you want to die twice?"

"No."

"Then shut your mouth."

Nylilaeth frowned and crossed her arms. She blew a raspberry at the back of Tom's head.

The walk to the prison house was quiet, neither wished to bring their horse as it was pointless to for such a short walk. Tom walked ahead of Nylilaeth, his short bony legs moving fast so that they could pass up Nylilaeth's large strides.

Tom likes being in the front, it's a simple fact.

Knight Commander Plaguefist was waiting for them there. As soon as he saw them he supplied an almost mocking salute.

"Tom, nice to see you again. See you got stuck with one of the brainless ones."

"Oh, she's got a brain, it's just beaten like an old horse."

"That's what you get after being dragged over mountains by a ghoul." He made a shooing gesture at Tom and turned to Nylilaeth, "You, I've got a task for you. Walk with me."

Nylilaeth kept pace with him as he walked towards the prison house. She looked around at the dark environment around her. She saw an elevated platform with trap doors on the floor and nooses hanging from a bar on the top and she suddenly hoped she'd be able to use one of those one day. Her attention snapped to the Commander as he started talking.

"We got here, tore the place apart, and headed toward the prison house. We weren't expecting what we found in there, Nylilaeth. Seems the Crusade's been real busy. That whole thing is full of Argent Dawn prisoners. Most of them were already dead by the time we arrived, but a few were still breathing.

"I was about to go in there and execute the rest of them, but I think you should have the honors. In particular, there's a real feisty night elf in there that I think you'll take great pleasure in executing." He spoke rather dully, a dry kind of humorous tone in his voice.

They stopped at the front of the prison house, near the door but not quite. Plaguefist hit Nylilaeth on the back hard, urging her forward.

She pulled her hood down as she walked into the building. Her pink hair fell to her shoulders in a mess of knots and dirt, and in some places it even stood up. The walls of the prison house were lined with uncomfortable looking cots with dirty sheets that looked itchy even from a distance. A prisoner resided in almost each bed, some favoring the floor instead. The stench of feces and death made her smile widen, it reminded her of Ebon Hold, that was the first thing that entered her nose when she woke up and now it seemed to be her favorite scent. Her eyes swept over each occupant before landing on a night elf female, the only night elf in the building to be exact. It seemed they only imprisoned one of each race.

The night elf didn't look up when she heard the death knight enter nor did she twitch when dark plate boots entered her vision. She leaned onto the bed and stared at the floor, glaring at the death knight's dirty boots.

"Come to finish me off?" She heard the death knight unsheathe the sword on her back and barely restrained herself from growling. Her head whipped up as she stared her future murderer in their cold, lifeless eyes, "Well I'd just like to-" Her speech died off as she stared up at her former friend's pale face.

"Nylilaeth? Is that you?"

Nylilaeth stared down at the elf with a smile on her face. She cocked her head as the elf said her name. How'd she know her name? Tom probably told her, she thought, Tom does weird things he did it, I know it.

"Elune, what have they done to you? You probably don't even know my face... We used to cause so much trouble in Nighthaven, you loved terrorizing the druids." Her words were quick and quiet, urging Nylilaeth to remember something. "You were the town terror, I looked up to you so... I heard you became a hero, saved countless people." Her lips pursed as she watched Nylilaeth grow more and more confused with each sentence. "You can't let the Lich King do this to you, he's not your master. Fight him, don't let him use you to accomplish his goals, he is wicked and evil. Fight! Fight for your family! Fight for poor Fandris! He wouldn't wish this fate upon you, no one would! Not even you!"

"What's taking so long? I told you to kill her, short and sweet, not dragged out and sour!" Knight Commander Plaguefist yelled from outside.

"There's no hope for me. Remember your family, remember you! Don't forget our home, our people! Now kill me, kill me now!"

Nylilaeth shrugged and put her foot on the elf's chest, pushing her back to the floor. She put her full weight on that foot and smiled when she heard the faint cracking of ribs. Her sword came to stab into the wooden floor next to the elf's neck, she applied more pressure to her chest when she felt the elf struggling. All at once she pulled her sword to the side like a lever. She watched with fascination as blood ran through the cracks of the wooden floor beneath them, listened excitedly at the gagging and horrified gasps from the other occupants. She sheathed her sword once again and went to take the elf's head as a prize of sorts. She grasped the elf's white hair and pulled it upwards, the neck clung to it's other half stubbornly. It held together only by a small piece of flesh that was slowly tearing.

The body finally fell to the floor with a thud. Nylilaeth smiled and grasped the end of the messy, dirty white braid and swung the head around much like a guard would do to keys. Her boots thumped loudly against the creaky floorboards. An inconsistent trail of blood followed her.

Plaguefist frowned at her from behind his mask. "It doesn't take that much time to cut off a head, now does it?"

"She was telling me stories!" Nylilaeth pouted. "I wonder what I'll do with her head... I could tie her braid together and make her a necklace! That'd be really big though..."

Tom piped up, "Shave her head and skin her, make a meal out of it."

Nylilaeth got an excited gleam in her eye, "Tom! I got dinner!"

"Good job."

I forgot to put the translations in last time for the darnassian words I used. :P

Surfal* - Loved / Beloved one

Elune-adore* - Elune be with you

Kene'thil surfas* - I love you