She was screaming my name. Screaming so loudly that it was physically painful for me to listen to her.

I should have gone to her. I shouldn't have let her go there on her own. But when I tried to follow her, Thrall forcefully held me back.

"You can't. She must do this alone."

I had done this to her. First by getting killed, and then by reminding her of what had happened to me.

Wordlessly, I left the portal chamber, going back to my old room and beginning to pack Faith's things.

As I picked up one of her robes, something fell out. It was a necklace, one I'd worn in life. How Faith had come to have the necklace that Alleria gave to me was a complete mystery, but I noticed in my daze that it was clean. Faith had cleaned it. Had she found it while she'd been at Windrunner Spire?

"Belore," I whispered. I needed to see her. I had to make sure that she was going to be all right. But she was with Rhonin. He would make sure that nothing would happen to her. That she would be okay. That she would stay safe.

I closed my eyes, trying to calm down. I pictured her carefree and happy, the beautiful Faith I'd known my entire life. My golden ray of sunshine.

Two weeks. It had been two weeks since I had last seen her, and I hadn't been able to get her screams out of my mind. I had to know that she was all right. I hadn't heard anything from anybody about her. For all I knew, Faith had died.

I went to the mages. They seemed very reluctant to give me a portal to Dalaran, but obeyed my order, probably afraid that I would kill them if they didn't. Come to think of it, I probably would have killed them and used their parts to make new abominations.

I got to Dalaran to find the city at peace, with scholars walking around in long hooded robes. It was freezing outside the city, I could tell that, but the magic within the Dalaran walls kept the temperature pleasant for every living being there. People looked at me oddly, knowing who I was but not understanding what I was doing there, but nobody stopped me.

That is, until I got to the clinic itself.

Rhonin was waiting for me at the entrance.

"Hello, Sylvanas," he said to me.

"Rhonin," I replied.

"What are you doing here?"

"I should have thought that was obvious. I'm here to see Faith. And you're not going to stop me."

"Oh, but I am, actually. Never mind the fact that Faith, as a very strong mage, belongs here with us and now in the bowels of Undercity with the undead, but she's never going to get better if you don't allow her to get over you."

"Over me? Is that what you're trying to do? You're trying to get her to stop loving me?" Admittedly, I saw why they were doing it, but I was outraged at the thought. I didn't think I could live in a world where Faith wasn't in love with me. "And what's this about her belonging with you? She belongs where she wants to belong."

"You're wrong about that, Sylvanas. She can't stay in Undercity with you. It's not healthy."

I couldn't argue that point. I'd wondered about that myself a few times since Faith had come back to me. "It's her decision, not yours," I said.

"That may be true. But Sylvanas, you have to let her work it out by herself."

"Oh, because you're not going to try to influence her in any way? What is it that you're telling her exactly? That I don't love her? That I'm dead and that she should forget about me? Because I've been trying to do that."

"She's finally realized that the Ranger-General she loved so ardently is really dead. But you're still physically here, albeit looking dead, and she won't let that go. It's been a difficult process. She's been so traumatized by the entire experience that I don't know if we'll ever truly get her back." He led me away from the clinic.

"What does that mean?"

"She's been through a shock. I mean, all of us did during the Third War, but she took it worse than anybody. Losing her family, then losing you, it was traumatic. It's a disorder, you know."

"Yes, I know what post-traumatic stress disorder is, thank you," I told him. I'd seen many soldiers in that condition after a particularly bad battle.

"Good, then you understand. Those nightmares she had, she relives the day you died over and over again."

I closed my eyes, "I know."

"She tried to commit suicide, Sylvanas. That's… she's not doing well."

"I know that! Why do you think I let you take her away from me?" My temper was rising so fast I could barely keep it in check. "You promise me that you're not hurting her?"

"Hurting her?" Rhonin looked at me in surprise. "Why would we ever hurt her?"

"If I find out that you've damaged her more than she already was –."

"You'll kill us, I know. She's going to be fine. It's just… it's not something we can do in a couple of weeks, Sylvanas. These things take time."

And with that, I had to be content. "You're not going to tell her I stopped by, are you?"

"She needs to get used to living without you."

"You know she'll come right back to me the moment you release her."

"She probably will. But maybe she won't be so dependent on you."

"She was never dependent on me. She just doesn't like to be away from me. But she can function without me just fine."

"Not from what we've seen so far. She's a mess. It's like she's reverted back to those few weeks after you died."

It took all of my self-control to keep myself from elbowing my way past Rhonin and finding Faith whether he liked it or not. Knowing she was alone and in pain tore at me and made me want to kill anybody who was keeping me from her.

"You really do love her, don't you?" Rhonin asked me. His eyes looked sad.

I just looked back at him, not answering.

"It's too bad the two of you didn't get a real chance at love. You would have been happy together."

Yes. We would have been. An image flashed through my mind of Faith and I sharing a home in Eversong Woods, away from busy villages and cities, and just being together. We would make love every day, first slowly, then rapturously, screaming out each other's names. We would raise a family. There were so many children out there without parents.

Sylvanas, you fool, I said to myself, shaking my head and coming back to the present with a start. My throat was constricted and I was on the verge of tears, so I turned away from Rhonin, "You'll let me know if there's any progress with her."

"Of course."

I nodded, arriving back in Undercity a few minutes later and immediately going to the War Quarter and taking my frustrations out on a training dummy. I screamed out my rage, and only noticed later on that nobody was around me. They had left me on my own, probably to avoid becoming innocent casualties.

Another couple of weeks limped by. Things in Undercity went on as usual, but I barely paid attention to them. I heard nothing from Dalaran, and just when I thought that I was going to lose my mind, she arrived, crashing through a portal and landing on the floor of the throne room on her hands and knees.

"Faith!" I screamed. I ran to her and caught her before she completely fell to the ground. "Anar'alah belore, what happened to you?"

She was emaciated and looking worse than I had ever seen her in my life and death. Her beautiful hair was matted and dirty, the skin on her face looking raw and tortured. The thumb on her right hand looked broken, and she had at least three fingernails missing. I didn't need to look much further to know what had happened.

"They tortured you?!" I screamed. "Is that what they did?"

She flinched away from me, whimpering.

"I will kill him. I'll go to Dalaran and rip the damned flesh from his bones for doing this to you!"

"Sylvanas…"

I could barely hear her voice. She must have screamed herself hoarse because of what they had done to her.

"I'm here, baby. You're home." I picked her up gently, telling Rotvine to get me as many healers as he could. He disappeared from my sight as I took Faith to my chambers and laid her slowly on my bed.

"You… love me?"

"Do I love you? Is that what you're asking me?"

She just looked at me. One of her eyes had a thick discharge coming from it, and had I been alive, I would have probably been sick at the sight of her looking like that.

"Of course I love you." I kissed her forehead. "What happened to you, sweetheart? What did they do to you?"

She began to cry, but didn't answer.

"Shh, baby, it's okay." I kissed her cracked and swollen lips. "I'm going to undress you now, all right?"

She nodded slowly, once.

She wasn't wearing shoes, and I saw immediately that the soles of her feet were injured, the wounds dirty and infected. The robes she wore were of a nondescript shade of brown, and were soiled with all sorts of waste. I slowly peeled them off her body, having to force myself not to shriek at what I saw.

Faith had been beaten. I couldn't be sure whether the beating was magical or whether someone had used fists on her, but the result was the same. Her skin was black and blue, almost looking mottled. Oozing cracks and sores covered her arms and legs, and I saw ligature marks around her wrists, scraped raw because she'd struggled so hard.

I braced myself and looked between her thighs. The skin there was bruised too, and my skin crawled.

"Faith… honey, were you raped?"

She looked at me, terrified, "I… I don't know…"

Elven priests and tauren druids came into my chambers, stopping in their tracks when they saw the condition Faith was in.

"Faith, they're going to look after you, all right? I'll be back in just a short while."

"Don't leave me…" she whimpered.

"I love you," I said in her ear. "I'll be right back." I looked at the head priest, "Look after her."

"Where are you going?"

"To Dalaran."

"My Lady, that's not a wise thing to do. It looks like Faith's been tortured in every possible way, she needs you right now."

"I agreed to let her go!"

"You agreed to let her get help, not to be beaten half to death. This isn't your fault. Please, stay here until we've healed her. She'll handle it better."

I couldn't. I couldn't stay there while she was hurting like this. How? I looked back at her, and she said my name.

"All right, I'll stay." I didn't think I'd be able to stand knowing what they had done to her. But how could I leave her? I went to lie down next to her, gathering her in my arms gently. She held onto me tightly. She didn't even feel like my Faith anymore, because she was so skeletal. I'd never felt her bones before, and I found I really didn't like it.

"She'll need to be healed in stages, my Lady," said one of the priests.

I nodded, "Just do what you have to do."

Faith was breathing heavily in anticipation of more pain. Tears streamed down her face.

"Faith, honey, look at me," I said. "Look at me. There you go." I kissed her again, gently, "Do you remember that day when you were at the lake close to Everstone Village? I think you were reading, and I surprised you when I came to you. You hadn't even expected me."

Faith's eyes cleared a little, even as she gave a gasp of pain as the priests started working on her with the druids, cleaning her wounds with a potion before they could begin to use spells on her. She nodded and even managed the tiniest of smiles.

I leaned my head against hers, "I had only been away for a month, that's why you weren't looking for me yet. I came up from behind you and wrapped my arms around you, and I think you knew right away, without looking around. You started crying, and you leaned back against me. You whispered my name."

"D-Dream," said Faith.

I chuckled, "Yes, you thought it was a dream, at first."

Faith cried out once, and one of the druids murmured an apology. I saw him gently lay his hand over her calf and continue the gentle cleaning job he was doing on one of the many cuts there. Faith looked at me, her injured eye still leaking pussy fluid. I took one of the cloths the healers were handling, dipping it in water and beginning to clean the eye gently.

"When you realized I was really there, I thought you were going to faint. You were so happy to see me that you hugged me for five minutes, nonstop." I gently pressed on her eyelid, and more pus came out.

"I've got something for that, my Lady," said a druid, coming to me with a bandage that had been soaked in what appeared to be a deep red potion, "It's mageroyal and peacebloom infusion. It'll help with the infection, although it might burn a little. Just leave the bandage on her eye. We should really do both eyes at the same time but… I think she wants to see you."

I nodded, taking the bandage from him and draping it over Faith's right eye. Through her other eye, she still looked at me expectantly, wanting me to finish my story. I smiled, "That was the day I knew I had to marry you." I pressed my lips to her forehead, "I started looking for a ring after that, but I couldn't find anything I liked."

Faith fell asleep. I stayed with her, resting against her and making sure that she wouldn't be in any more pain.

"Was she raped?" I asked the healers after a while.

One of the priests made a sad noise in the back of his throat, "I can't really be sure… but it looks that way."

Rage. That was what I felt. Slowly, I got up, leaving my cloak draped over Faith's body and kissing her forehead, "I'll be back in less than an hour. If she wakes, have someone get me in Dalaran."

The mages made a portal for me immediately, as though they'd been waiting for me to arrive. When I landed, I immediately made my way to the Kirin Tor headquarters, my sword drawn.

One of them saw me coming, and walked towards me. He looked like an elf, but I knew a dragon when I saw one.

"Lady Sylvanas. What can the Kirin Tor do for you?"

"You can tell me where my brother-in-law is if you value your life."

The dragon frowned, "My life? Lady Sylvanas, there's no need to be that adamant. What is this about?"

"Tell me where he is!"

A look of alarm crossed his features so quickly that I would have missed it had I not trained for decades to recognize it, "He's been ill. As far as I understand it, he's been at home in bed for the past two weeks. Vereesa's been worried sick about him."

"And he wasn't worried about Faith at all, was he?"

"Faith?" he blinked. "Faith Everstone? What has she got to do with this?"

"She's been tortured, that's what!" I exploded.

Now, the dragon laughed, as if listening to a joke, "That's not possible. Faith is in the clinic, being looked after. We've been getting regular reports from one of the priests about her. He said she was eating normally again and doing well."

"Then you won't mind showing her to me, will you?"

I must have really looked like a banshee at that moment, because he didn't even hesitate to nod, "Certainly, come with me."

We walked quickly through the city, reaching the clinic ten minutes later. We walked inside, and someone immediately came to meet us.

"Lord Krasus! I'm sorry, but she can't come in here!"

"Under whose authority?" he asked.

"High Priest Reven, my Lord!"

"Ah, well, you can tell Reven that I'm countermanding that order. We're here to see Faith Everstone."

"She's fine! She's just fine!"

I stepped forward, "We. Are here. To see Faith."

The younger human girl, who must have only been in training, burst into tears, "She's not here! Two weeks ago, they took her away and told us that she needed to be in another area. But I don't know where she is!"

"Who's 'they'?"

A gnome with red and black-tipped blonde hair hurried towards us, "Lady Sylvanas, Lord Krasus! I saw High Priest Reven taking her out of here. She was asleep on a stretcher, and she looked all right."

I turned to her, "Did you see where they took her?"

"It was dark, my Lady, but I thought I saw them go towards the sewers."

"You didn't think to report this?" asked Krasus.

"I'm sorry, my Lord, but I didn't. We were told to let every visitor for her know that she was recovering."

"She returned to Undercity emaciated, raped, and tortured," I hissed. The gnome's eyes widened considerably and she let out a cry that was part anger and dismay.

Krasus knelt in front of the gnome, "Harlee. Please. It's vital that we find out what happened."

"I didn't see anything more than that, Lord Krasus, not that day. But…" the gnome thought for a moment, "I did see him talking to someone suspicious a few weeks ago."

"Someone suspicious?"

"It was a woman. She was very pale, but I couldn't see her face because it was hooded. But I heard something about sacrifice."

"Sacrifice?"

"Yes. I wish I knew more, I'm sorry."

"We need to talk to Rhonin," said Krasus. "Thank you, Harlee."

"I have to get back to Undercity to check on Faith. Will you come with me?" I asked him.

"Of course."

We went to see Rhonin first, knocking at his door. Vereesa answered, looking rather ill herself. She had circles under her eyes, and her skin was pale.

"Krasus!" she exclaimed, seeing him. "Sylvanas… what are you doing here?"

Krasus explained quickly about Faith. Vereesa had known that she'd been at the clinic, but she hadn't gone to see her, because Rhonin had taken care of it.

"When he got sick, I'm sorry, but I didn't even think about Faith."

"How is Rhonin?" asked Krasus. "I didn't know he was that sick. I just got back to Dalaran two days ago."

"Reven was here several times, but he couldn't figure it out. I've been thinking of asking someone else at the clinic to come over. Reven was supposed to come by yesterday, but he didn't."

"Where are the boys?" I asked.

"Next door. I didn't want them to see their father like this."

Krasus and I walked into Vereesa's home. Right away, I smelled the sickness in the house, but it wasn't the smell of any normal illness I knew of. It smelled of…

"Poison."

For the first time, Vereesa looked directly at me. "What?"

"It's poison. I can smell it."

Krasus hurried to the second floor, where I assumed the bedroom was located. Vereesa and I followed. The smell of the toxins were stronger here, but they seemed diluted. Whatever the poison was, Rhonin was leeching it out of his system on his own.

"Reven wouldn't have known about this?"

I went to Rhonin and touched a foul grayish green liquid seeping from a sore on his arm, "This is a Scourge poison. Reven would have known it immediately for what it was."

"The Scourge…" Krasus looked at me, "So you're saying that Reven is a member of the Scourge, and, what he kidnapped Faith out of the clinic and tortured her?"

"Most likely. They probably kept her alive so that she could suffer as much as possible before they turned her. The more one suffers, the more savage one is afterwards."

"And where do you suppose Reven is now?"

"If he was supposed to come here regularly, and didn't show up?" I asked. "I think he's probably dead. I'd look in the sewers if I were you, just in case. I'll go back to Undercity and update the healers who are tending to Faith. You get him," I pointed to Rhonin, "to the clinic."

"I'll alert the Kirin Tor too," said Krasus.

That was when I realized who he was. Korialstrasz, one of the red dragonflight, prime consort to Queen Alexstrasza. Faith had spoken to me of him once or twice. He was one of the Six, the magisters who ruled the Kirin Tor. "All right. If you want to come to Undercity, we'll be waiting for you."

He nodded, and we parted ways quickly.

I hurried back home, finding that someone was looking for me because Faith had woken up. I went to her room, seeing her wide awake and panicked to not find me there. The priests were trying to restrain her.

"Let her go," I said loudly.

They released her immediately and she leapt from the bed limping towards me as quickly as she could. I caught her and picked her up as she wrapped her arms around my neck, trembling. "You left…" she whimpered.

"I know, I'm sorry." I kissed her before turning to the healers, "The Scourge had her."

"Again?" asked one of the tauren.

"Again. They poisoned Rhonin in Dalaran so that he wouldn't come nosing around, and they took her."

I carried Faith to the bed. "Do you remember what happened? Where did they take you?"

"I… I don't know, Sylvanas. Please don't make me remember."

I put an arm around her, holding her close and checking her eye with my free hand. It seemed to be doing a little better, and I applied a fresh bandage to it. "We need to know, baby," I said.

She began to tremble against me, "It… there was a passage through the mountains… I-I don't know."

"Icecrown? Is that where you think they took you?"

A low sob. She nodded and refused to say anything else.

"We've healed all we can for now, my Lady," said a druid.

I looked at him, "Thank you… what's your name?"

"Temulo, my Lady."

"Temulo. Thank you."

He bowed, "She should rest tonight and maybe wash up. And she needs to eat something. Some broth to begin with."

Undercity was not the best place for the living to get food, but I nodded, "I'll ask around."

"I can make her some turkey broth, my Lady. I will bring some by later."

"I'd welcome that, thank you."

They left me alone with her, and I began to heat water so that I could give her a bath. I anointed the water with peacebloom essence to soothe her sore skin, something she had done for me once, long ago.

She watched me, and after some time, I went back to the bed and picked her up again, gently setting her in the tub, and putting another container close by so that I could wash her hair.

It took some time. Her hair in particular was so matted that it took me an hour to untangle all the knots. I must have hurt her, but she didn't say anything, letting me wash her slowly. It was a very tender and intimate experience, and I felt, for the first time since I'd died, just how much I would have suffered had she been killed.

Temulo came back with a pot of turkey broth just as I was putting Faith into bed, having changed the sheets for her. She looked better, now that she was clean, although the state of her was still appalling.

I fed her, little by little, coaxing the broth down her throat. I could tell she was hungry, but her stomach was bothering her, which I'd expected. At some point, she went so pale that I thought she was either going to faint or be sick, but she kept the food down.

"That's my girl," I said once she had finished eating.

"Thank you," she whispered to me.

"I love you, Faith." I tucked her back into bed, and she fell asleep in my arms, holding onto the shirt I was wearing.