My footsteps echoed around the throne room of what had been the capital city of Lordaeron. I had always insisted that this area be kept spotlessly clean, except for a few things.
There was a blood stain on the floor, to the side of the steps that led to the throne, where King Terenas had fallen after Arthas had slain him. The blood was dry, but had retained its original splatter, save for a few smears here and there. A spell had been put over the stain to keep it as fresh as possible.
Also on the floor, but closer to the entrance, were crushed rose petals. The ones the people of Lordaeron had thrown when Arthas had come back from Northrend. They hadn't known he had turned, then, and it wouldn't have mattered if they had. The outcome would have still been the same for me. And for Faith.
A pang of loneliness stabbed whatever was left of my heart. I missed her. I still couldn't believe I'd let her go to Outland. To another planet. Without me. When I'd heard of Thrall's orders, I'd let out a scream so loud that even Varimathras had winced.
If she doesn't come home, Warchief, I will come and kill you, I promise you that.
I was nervous about seeing her again, as ridiculous as that sounded to me. I barely allowed myself to feel anything anymore, but Faith seemed to tear feelings right out of me, even when she was absent.
Especially when she was absent. Because when she was with me, I tried to control myself. I didn't want to give her false hope.
When Arthas had raised me as a banshee, I'd lost all sense of myself. I had said Faith's name as I'd died, and shrieked it as agony had torn through me when my soul had been ripped out of my body.
I clearly remembered the look on her face when she had seen me. I had wanted to cry, to sob and hold her against me, but, being incorporeal at the time, I hadn't been able to do that.
The two of us had grieved for each other alone.
"Oh, my Faith…" I whispered, sitting on the steps, away from the blood.
The sound of hurried footsteps reached me. I looked around and nearly cried out, because there she was. My Faith. My beautiful girl, whom I had fallen in love with so long ago.
"Sylvanas!" she cried.
I saw warring emotions on her face. Happiness at seeing me again, worry, and fear.
"Just once, I wish you didn't come home when there was something horribly wrong," I told her, extending my hand to her. She took it, squeezing it and launching herself into my arms for a hug so brief I barely had the time to blink before she let me go.
"We can celebrate my homecoming later if you want," she said to me before explaining what had happened in the Blasted Lands. I nodded. "You knew," she said.
"I suspected. We've had a big increase of Scourge activity here, which is why I called you home."
We walked back to the elevators, passing by King Terenas' tomb. As always, Faith absently touched the top of it, as though greeting an old friend.
"So you want me to go to the Plaguelands?" For some reason, she sounded a little wary as she said this.
"Not yet. I'd like for you to train additional members for the Magi Corps."
"We got new mages?" she asked, surprise now coloring her tone.
She looked at me for a long moment, not saying anything as the elevator bore us down to the Undercity. Finally, she sighed, shaking her head, "The Scourge has been more active…" she whispered. "How many fresh Forsaken do you have now, Sylvanas?"
I winced slightly. She'd always been able to see through me when I tried to hide something from her, "A few. You've been gone a while, and we've also had mages come from Orgrimmar and Silvermoon. Shaman too, from Thunder Bluff." I put a hand on her shoulder, "I didn't kill them, Faith."
"No. You just raised them from the dead." She sounded stricken, as she always did when we breached this subject.
"It's not the same," I insisted. It wasn't. They still had their minds when I raised them. Sure, they were loyal to me, but I didn't take anything away from them. Their will was their own.
"Of course not," she whispered. She leaned against me briefly, closing her eyes. I put an arm around her, keeping it there until we arrived in the city itself. "So, you brought us back for training."
"You don't like that idea."
She gave a noncommittal shrug, "It's your call, Sylvanas, not mine. We serve you, and since Thrall agreed to it, there's nothing for me to say."
"I didn't like you being on the front lines."
She chuckled, "Yeah, we knew you were going to hate that."
"You were right."
Her face grew serious again, and she fully turned to me, "Will you send anybody to the Blasted Lands? Please? I want to make sure everyone's okay."
"Knowing you, you sent envoys to Orgrimmar and Silvermoon already, didn't you?"
"Sylvanas, please."
I nodded, "All right. I'll send some troops over." I was alarmed by the fact that the plague was this far south, it was true. It wasn't unusual for the Scourge to spread far, but even I had to admit that it wasn't normal for the dead to rise that far south of Stormwind.
Faith kissed my cheek, "Thank you."
That small gesture would have made me gasp if I hadn't practiced such self-control. As it was, I nearly shivered in pleasure and almost dragged her into a hidden alcove. I wondered if she knew how much I'd missed her. I wasn't going to tell her, but I hoped she could realize it.
We arrived in the Royal Quarter's throne room, where the First Magi Corps were waiting, "Is that all that remains?" I cried out.
"Oh no. I sent one hundred of them to Orgrimmar and Silvermoon."
"Overkill for just a warning," I told Faith, accepting the written reports from some of the lieutenants there.
One of them looked towards me, then back towards Faith. She shook her head briefly.
"What is it?" I asked.
"It's nothing," she replied quickly. She glared at the lieutenant, "Nothing."
Which meant that it was something bad. I frowned, "Faith."
"You don't need to worry about it, Sylvanas. It's already been taken care of."
"And what precisely is it?"
"Just something petty that happened. It didn't affect anything, I promise." She looked at me, and I almost saw her face growing paler, "Would you mind if I went to change?"
"Go," I said. I waited until she was out of sight before turning back to the corps, "You have three seconds to tell me what happened."
"There was a night elf. A female druid."
"And?"
They told me.
"She did what?" in a flash, I had stormed out of the room, and fairly run to Faith's chambers, banging the door open.
Evidently, she'd been waiting for me, because she was sitting on the bed, not looking wholly surprised to see me there.
"Sylvanas, is was nothing."
"Nothing?" I was so angry I could have hit her.
"Look, she was just flirting with me, and didn't understand the concept of the word 'no'."
"Flirting with you. She touched you without your permission, and you say it's only flirting?"
"It's dealt with."
"What's her name?"
She didn't answer.
"Her name, Faith."
"What are you going to do?"
"I will not ask you again."
"Shaladyn. Her name is Shaladyn."
I committed the name to memory and gave Faith a once-over. She appeared unhappy to have me know this information. "Did you like her, Faith?"
"What? No! Of course not!"
"It's just that you're looking at me as though you're afraid of what I'm going to do to this girl."
"I am afraid of what you're going to do. I don't want you to do anything crazy. She didn't do this to hurt me, Sylvanas."
"I don't care why she did it. Nobody touches you with your permission, except maybe for me." I stepped towards her until I stood between her legs, "Did you tell her you were mine?"
"She knew. I told her I was spoken for, and she knew I meant you."
Spoken for. I nearly laughed. "You belong to me, Faith. All of you, belongs to me."
She looked up at me, her expression guarded, "I know," she whispered. "I've been yours since I was twelve years old." She backed away and I climbed onto the bed with her, sitting inches from her. "You were riding down the beach when I fell in love with you."
For once, I let my guard down, just watching her.
She began to take her armor off. First her shoulder pads, then her boots and socks. I noticed that her hand seemed to be bothering her, and caught it in mine, gently looking at it while she spoke.
"We were all at Windrunner Spire, and you said that your horse needed a workout. It was the one who was golden bay, I think you'd called her Erendal."
I shook my head in wonder, "How in the world do you remember that?"
"I'll never forget the day I fell in love with you, Sylvanas."
Getting up, I quickly grabbed a bandage and went back to the bed, beginning to wrap Faith's hand securely.
"You were riding down the beach, and my brothers and sister were talking to your sisters and not paying attention to me. So I watched you. You weren't wearing your cloak, and the sun shone on you. You were so beautiful, my love… so beautiful."
She leaned over, and I was aware she was going to kiss me. But before her lips touched mine, she pulled away slightly and looked up at me. She was asking for my permission. I didn't answer, figuring, hoping, that she would kiss me anyway, but she moved her face away from mine, simply looking down at what my hands were doing.
"Do you remember that day?"
I thought back as I fastened the bandage around her wrist, "You were wearing a light pink tunic and black trousers, I think, because you were at the stage where you thought you were gangly and didn't want to wear dresses. Your hair was in a braid, and you asked me to let you ride Erendal."
She nodded.
"I thought that you wanted to ride because you were bored." The moment seemed to click into place for me as I remembered it.
"The saddle still held your warmth when I climbed on. My heart was beating so fast I couldn't even swallow."
I looked at her, taking in the blush on her cheeks and the sparkle in her eyes. She scooted off the bed and took off her robe right there, revealing muscles I hadn't previously noticed on her.
"Come here, Faith," I whispered.
She obeyed me and I took her uninjured hand, pulling her towards me so that I could trace the new line of muscle on her abdomen. "You were around twenty when I realized that I had feelings for you. I didn't pay attention to them at first, because I was Ranger-General, and you were still a girl."
Faith was barely breathing, her eyes focused on my fingers. I moved my hand to her outer thigh, and she hitched in a breath, her lips parting.
"But I was already there. You took my heart, and I don't really know how it happened. Every time I saw you, it got a little more difficult for me to breathe. More painful to leave you." I pulled her closer to me. "All I know is that, all of a sudden, I was yours. And you were mine." I pulled at her hand again and she put a knee on the bed, straddling me.
"Sylvanas…" she whispered. A tear was running down her cheek. "You n-never told me."
"You didn't either."
We had just known.
Putting both my hands on the backs of her thighs, I maneuvered her so that she sat on my lap. "You belong to me. Nobody can claim you, but me. Nobody can touch you, nobody can kiss you, except for me."
She nodded.
"What did you feel when she kissed you?"
"I felt… wrong. It wasn't you."
I put an arm around her waist, placing the other one on her cheek. Slowly, I drew her closer to me and kissed her. At first, it was soft. I felt Faith's shock, because for a second, she didn't respond.
When I started to pull away, she wrapped both her arms around me and began to kiss me back. Her tongue touched mine tentatively, and she trembled.
The kiss intensified. I felt almost alive for the first time in a long time. Something that could have been blood coursed through my veins, and I felt myself warming up at my close proximity to Faith. Our bodies pressed together. I fell back on the bed and brought her with me, never breaking the kiss.
She pulled away a little, looking down at me. She brushed a lock of hair from my face and leaned towards me, kissing my forehead, both my cheeks, and my lips. She moved down to my neck, and I felt her tongue on my skin, making me make an unusual sound.
The top of my armor ended up on the floor.
We'd made love before – not often enough – but I supposed this was the first time we were really looking at each other.
Faith took her time, exploring me with her fingers first, then with her mouth. I let out a completely unnecessary gasp when her tongue found my nipple. I hadn't expected that feeling, an electrifying feeling that left me wanting more. Needing more.
She kissed me again before pulling away one more time, her hands moving down to my hips, to the waistband of my leather leggings. I nodded, and she pulled them down slowly. Her eyes widened. I don't think she'd expected me to be completely naked under that.
"Oh, my love…" she whispered to me.
She started to kiss her way down my body, and I tensed in anticipation of where she was going to end up. I needed her there, but at the same time, I was appalled at the fact that I was letting her do this.
Her tongue touched me. Right there. I hissed to keep myself from screaming, biting my lip. She kept going, and I couldn't help it, I cried out.
"Oh, Faith… come here."
She did, immediately pressing her mouth to mine. I could taste myself on her, which was the weirdest thing ever, and a little disturbing, considering what it was that I could taste.
I was about to say something when I felt her fingers and gave a completely incoherent cry that would have brought people running over had Faith not had the presence of mind to put a spell on the room.
I sat up as Faith moved her body away from mine, keeping her hand where it was. She wanted to watch me, but I wanted her against me while she did this to me.
Wrapping an arm around her waist and grabbing the side of the bed with my other hand, I kissed her again, hungrily. She moved faster. I cried out into her mouth, only to fall back down onto the pillows as she relentlessly went on, nearly making me lose complete control of myself when my pleasure crested, and then began to ebb.
Had real life been animating me, I think I would have been shaking after that. But Faith was shaking enough for the two of us, looking at me as though she couldn't believe what she had just done.
She was about to speak, so I pulled her down to me, kissing her again, softly this time. My hand was on her thigh, and I was about to pull her underwear down when she gave a cry and climaxed right here and then.
Well.
I had to laugh, dropping my head down to her shoulder. She smacked my side lightly, "It's not funny!" she cried.
"Yes it is." I kissed the hollow of her neck, "I didn't know I could do that."
"You didn't. I got worked up."
I smiled, "You got worked up over me being at your mercy for a few minutes." I kissed her, "You're adorable."
"That's exactly what I was going for," she muttered. "Adorable."
I wasn't one to give high amounts of praise, but this was Faith. "I love you."
Faith's eyes opened wide, "I love you, too."
"Yes, I know." I kissed her, "Welcome home."
