Chapter 4

A cool and moist touch on one of her many cuts brought Laina back to awareness. She flinched and whimpered inadvertently, and the touch withdrew.

"I'm sorry, Laina. These must be cleaned, or you may take infection." She heard a voice she recognized… ah, right, Jerlis. She must not be dead just yet.

"Clean, with what?" she managed to gasp.

"He must have liked you. When our captors tossed you back into the room, they tossed in an entire roll of netherweave bandages with you." There was no need to ask who He was. "I've got plenty of water at least. If it's not warm, at least it's clean. I don't think I can do anything for… the places where they hurt you inside, but I can clean the surface wounds. You've got many cuts all over." She could hear the rending pity and worry in his voice.

She sat up, hissing in pain as her body protested. She felt filthy and sore, in desperate need of a shower. It hurt to move, it hurt to think. Unbidden and unwelcome came the remembrances of the last time she was awake. With awful immediacy she remembered her treatment at the hands of the demonic horde, and… Kiazoth's terrible mind. She felt desolate, silent sobs wracking her. Jerlis sat facing her, one hand with bandages, the other with a flask of conjured water. He must have seen something in her face that brought his own traumatic memories back, for he flinched, and she saw an echo of her own suffering in his green eyes.

"Kiazoth did that to me too," he whispered hoarsely. Their gazes met for a moment, and for a moment they knew each other's suffering, and there was some comfort in shared grief and pain. Then his gaze dropped. "We should get you cleaned up and bandaged." He said. Laina nodded.

She tried not to gasp in pain as he tended to her wounds. The cold of the conjured water was a balm on her tender skin. Though it was no comparison to a real shower or bath, between his ministrations and the gentle healing magic infused in the bandages, she felt much better, and much cleaner. When he finished, last of the bandages dissipated as their magic was used up, Laina caught the elf mage's hand as he started to return to his spot, and looked him in the eyes.

"Thank you," she said.

Jerlis smiled a tight smile, and gave a little half bow. "I could do no less, Laina." He said, then handed her a scrunched up bundle of something soft with his other hand. Laina examined it, and was surprised to discover the tattered remains of her clothes.

"If you'll pardon me…" she started, and Jerlis politely averted his gaze as she dressed. She'd kind of expected that she'd be forced to spend the rest of her possibly short life naked, and she was a little amazed to discover that she was permitted her clothes back. Then she recalled the succubus's words… something about being faster next time… and shuddered.

Staring at the wall, Jerlis spoke to her. "Why do you have magic clothes?" His tone was somewhat incredulous.

"Self cleaning clothes that don't wear out are real handy when you're miles from a shower and weeks on the road," she stated dryly, finishing fastening her breeches. "How did you know they were magic?" she asked.

One of his long ears twitched, and he chanced a glance back at her. Seeing she was now sitting clothed and comfortable (more or less), he faced her again. "I'm a blood elf. We're addicted to magic. It's only natural that we can feel it when it's near." Which made sense, she thought.

"Jerlis, do you mind if I sleep? I feel awful." She said quietly, after a few silent moments.

"Of course. Do as you need." He sounded somewhat puzzled that she asked, but she would have felt rude just rolling over and passing out, especially after the kindness he had shown her. Her kind and his were supposed to be enemies, she knew, but right now she just couldn't think of him or the dying troll as enemies. They were fellow beings who also suffered at the hands of the demons, and that made them allies of a sort.

"Laina, wake up, it's only a dream!" Jerlis's voice accompanied a gentle shake of her shoulder. Disoriented from the nightmare, Laina screamed and lashed out in the darkness. Her arm connected with something soft and warm, and she heard a yelp of agony.

"What? Huh? Why can't I see?" She demanded, confused.

She heard someone gasping for breath, and a rasped reply, "Calm down, Laina. It was a dream. You can't see because it's dark. And you just hit me square in the—."

"—Sorry," she interrupted sheepishly.

Catching his breath, Jerlis spoke a little easier. "I supposed I should have known better than to wake you from a nightmare."

"Sorry…" she said again. "I don't suppose you could make a light?"

"I'd prefer not to. I don't think the troll will last longer, and I'd spare him the agony, if I could. I managed to get him to drink while you were away, but it was not enough."

Laina sighed. Then she thought of something. "Jerlis, how long have I been here?"

"Well if the light and dark cycles are any indication, this will be the third day. They dropped you in here during the middle of a 'day', you slept mostly through the dark until the next day. Then they took you…" his voice trailed off for a moment before continuing, "A few hours later they brought you back. I've never known anyone to be gone that long. I woke you up a little while later. It's night now."

"I figured that last part out, thanks," Laina said slightly sarcastically. She lay on the cold stone bench, hands under her head, staring off at the blackness above her. "Jerlis?" she began.

"Yes?"

"How did you end up here?"

He was silent for a moment, then she heard him take a deep breath. "Foolishness." He said. "I was accompanying an undead priest and a tauren hunter. We were on a mission in Shadowmoon. It sounded fairly simple, even fun – just go through this teleportation device, find some unattended machine, and gain control of a fel reaver. Do as much damage as we could, then get the hell out of there.

"Well the first part went more or less as planned. And we found the machine that allowed us to control the fel reaver alright. But we were having so much fun wreaking havoc with it that we neglected to post a sentry." The elf's voice dripped with self-hatred and recrimination. "If only one of us had thought. I should have thought of it. I'm supposed to be the smart one.

"But I didn't. And we were surprised. They knew what to target too, our first warning was when they hit the priest with a silence spell. They killed him before we realized what was going on, then they attacked me and the tauren. We fought, as much as we could, but we're no match for well armed, organized demons, not when they outnumbered us three to one and had the element of surprise. They caught us and brought us here, and then they gave us… well, a treatment similar to what you experienced.

"My tauren friend they didn't even wait to let die, they started eating him while he was still alive, after they'd finished molesting us. They forced me to watch." Jerlis's voice choked up, "Gethun did not deserve to die like that. It was terrible to watch.

"After that they put me in this cell. At that time there were two draenei, a male and a female. The female just cried and cried until they took her away one last time, but the male, he told me what I'd gotten myself into. I outlived them both. I've outlived everyone here so far." His voice was bleak. "You're the first who even asked. Maybe it's because they didn't break you first before they tossed you in here. I don't know. But Laina, thanks. You remind me that there is still a world out there, beyond the portal, where people talk to each other and laugh, and even exercise in the mornings." A hint of amusement crept into his voice at the last. "If it's not too horrible a tale, would you relate how you ended up here?" He asked.

Laina told him. When she mentioned the dwarf who gave her the mission, she heard him inhale.

"Dwarf, huh? Little bald guy, with coal-black skin and grey hair? Mouth full of gold teeth, and a scar over one eye, down in that skuzzy little bar in Lower City?" he asked suddenly.

"Yeah, how did you know?"

"He's the one who gave Gethun, Laric and me the assignment to destroy the fel reaver."

Laina considered this for a moment. "Something doesn't seem right here."

"You're telling me, there's something foul about all of this. I think the little bastard is working for the light-be-damned demons. Yes, it fits." Jerlis said. "How elegant. Hire adventurers no one's going to miss, mercenaries who work for gold, or glory seekers. Send them off with inadequate instructions for a task that is seemingly worthwhile. Then tip off the demons that an attack is going to come. Should the adventurers somehow survive, well then no one will catch on to the façade. Should they fail, he gets rewarded by his demon masters. I wondered how he could offer so much gold."

"We walked right into a trap." Laina growled. "If I ever get out of here, the first thing I'm going to do is paint Shattrath red with that little fucker's blood."

Jerlis laughed bitterly. "You'll have to be content with haunting him, Laina. No one gets out of here alive.

Jerlis's harsh words seemed to put an end to the conversation. Laina lay in silence, until she finally drifted off to sleep again, this time mercifully free of nightmares.