~*~ Author's Note ~*~

WARNING: Ambiguous descriptions of torture, toned down significantly for those that don't get their rocks off on that kind of stuff.

Rating Changed: T to M in lue of themes I don't think young teens should be subject to.

~*~* Chapter 35 ~*~

The Commander drug his prisoner around the grounds showing her each and every contraption and explaining in detail how each was used. The explanations were not necessary as each and every instrument was currently in use. Some of them had lines.

"Now," He intoned over the screaming of one woman who insisted she didn't know where her daughter was, "you will tell me truths or I will put you on that one over there and see how you like having your arms and legs pulled out of their sockets one tick at a time."

The little Druid, drained of all emotion and blankly staring strait ahead as he spoke, said nothing. She had shut down halfway threw the tour, turning inward on herself and hiding in her own mind. He could make her walk but he couldn't make her see. Or feel.

His gloved hand connected with her cheek hard enough to send her flying into the table with the woman. When she touched the woman's bare and bloody leg the pain she was feeling shot threw the Druid, causing both of them to cry out. She couldn't not feel if she were touching; she hadn't learned how to do that yet.

Sitting down roughly on the ground she glared up at him, hatred burning in her glowing yellow eyes, "You're as bad as she is," The Commander growled at her to hear himself being compared to the Dark Lady, "Smacking me around and commanding that I do again what I did in Quel'thalas or you'll do horrible things to me. I cannot do it for her and a I cannot do it for you either!" The Priest betrayed me when he left me in the Undercity but I cannot betray him in kind. The look on his face…

"And what exactly have you done? Planted some trees? Healed some sentinels? Nothing that your tree hugging kind don't already do."

In the back of her mind a voice mocked …I'm a Druid and I plant maaagical seeds… It did not surprise her that the Dark Lady had no respect for the ways of the Druids, being a former High Elf, but that these Humans, who by all rights should be her allies, seemed to mock her kind as well made her think ill of their upbringing. Would that your mother could see you now. Though I'm sure the woman is long dead and on a glacier in Northrend somewhere.

A voice floated across the field, over the screaming of pain and pleas for mercy, "Did you ever think, Lord Commander, to offer sanctuary?"

There, over by one electric torture machine borrowed from the Scourge in the Plaguelands who used it to reanimate abominations, were some of the cages of prisoners lined up for interrogation. Barbed and ugly cages to be sure. Not all of the prisoners were alive and amongst the undead captives were more than a few mind-lost zombies that were scattered all over Tirisfal.

The Commander grunted and hauled her close as he went to see who was talking. The two guards from earlier followed as they had been following the whole time. The woman seemed to want to put the Druid down rather than show her around what had been dubbed The Field of Agony. The other guard spoke overly loud for some reason, as if he suspected the Commander of being partially deaf. He kept adding commentary about each device on display.

Behind the table was a fair odd sight. Half a dozen little children in red, very much alive, formed a half circle in front of one of the cages. Between them and the bars sat the biggest black cat non-mount that must exist and inside the cage sat Serz Huzad on a little red cushion and sipping a cup of tea.

The Commander glared at the children, who scattered like the four winds when he bellowed, "Which one of you half-useless runts gave that thing amenities?"

From half a dozen hiding places half a dozen giggles went up. It struck the Druid as odd that the Commander let children around people being tortured and at the same time condemned the Dark Lady for letting her own charges kill. Hypocrite. Not that she condoned children being used as weapons of war, dead or alive.

The Commander walked as close to Serz Huzad's cage as he could manage and glared down at the man. The enormous feline between them hissed and lashed his tale in a warning. "And you would be Serz Huzad" A statement of fact, not a question.

Standing on bony legs the undead man stuck his hand threw the bar and said with a smile, "Quite right."

The Commander didn't take Serz hand, but was looking him up and down. Bloody, torn, stained, ragged. Barely clothing at all. "Warlock," he spat on the ground, "Demon filth. Even your name reeks of the Fel. But I have heard of you; even Fordrin has heard of you."

Serz took a sip of his tea, "I'm a paltry excuse for a Warlock. My teacher, poor thing, spent more time telling me that I'm useless than anything, so that is what people started calling me."

"Your name is Demonic for 'you're useless'?" The man grinned, crossed his arms, "I can see that. Very few of the Scourge who actually call themselves Forsaken has a price on their heads set by their own Queen."

Serz Huzad beamed like it was the highest compliment to be called a traitor to one's Queen. "I do try."

The little Druid blurted out, "If she wanted you dead then why didn't she kill you back there in the clearing? She had more than a chance."

The Commander looked at her like she was the thickest thing he had ever seen. "Even amongst my own troops I have the dim-witted and downright stupid. How do you think we came to hold him if she valued his undead life at all?"

"You traded?" Kayas was more than a little miffed at being called stupid but she genuinely did not understand what was going on. She had assumed Serz was as Forsaken as the rest though, how did the healing woman put it? Ah yes… civilian.

"This one is more use to us than the other one is to the Dark Lady. A foot soldier for Serz Huzad? You bet your Scourged ass I traded!" He motioned to the pleading victims around him, "The information he's going to give us is worth gold to the copper were getting from this lot!"

Serz took his hand back the same time the great cat growled deep in his belly, "You will get nothing out of me, Commander. I have been tortured before, and by those far more skilled than you."

The Commander grinned, "Want to bet?"

For his part, dirty and in a barbed cage, Serz stood up strait and looked the Commander in the face. In her mind's eye the little Druid could see the man he had been once… almost. Medium build, broad shouldered, fair brown hair and … green?… eyes. She could almost see his green eyes.

"Yes, Commander," the Forsaken man said, "I will take that bet. Have you hard about the Monastery?"

The Commander went stiff, cheeks reddening in a rising tide of rage, "Yes, Scourge, I have heard news of the Monastery. Commander Mograin… High Inquisitor Whitemane… Even the Houndmaster!"

"The Dark Lady sent her to the Monastery seeking to replace men lost in the Undercity." It seemed he didn't have to elaborate on who her was, or what exactly a Monastery had to do with his history of torture. "Men killed because the Dark Lady laid a hand on this Druid. Harm her or me and the Warlock will come here next. And I promise you there will be no sheath for her this time, with her keeper fair spent."

Several things clicked at once in the Druid's head. Someone had said something about what the Priest did in the Undercity but it didn't matter to her at the time and she had not though about it. Now she had time to think and the pieces of fact and information presented themselves and lined up in a neat little row:

The Priest had killed the Forsaken for some reason. The Dark Lady had needed to replace them. Being as the Warlock had been hurt in the fight, the Dark Lady had an excuse to keep her in the Undercity… to separate her from the Priest so he couldn't – as Serz put it – sheath her. She had sent the Warlock to the Monastery … and the Dark Lady had tracked Kayas down to deliver the message. Had made the cause of it all deliver the message.

The Priest had to go into the Monastery and drag the Warlock out, threw whatever destruction she caused knowing full well all those deaths were his fault. No wonder so many emotions had warred inside him when the Druid had delivered the message.

Why do I feel guilty?

The Commander took a deep breath, wanting nothing more than to reach threw the bars and rip the undead man into pieces with his bear hands. "The Dark Lady will lavish me with praise," the fuming man spat, "if I but present your head to her! You tell me lies if you think she will send her Warlock here for the likes of you."

Serz smiled and tilted his head, "No, Commander," He leaned in towards the Scarlet man, something slick shimmering threw his gaze and for a moment Kayas saw darkness in this Warlock's soul. "Corrosa is a weapon the likes of which few have seen. Every weapon has its sheath though. This one's sheath happens to be the owner of this Druid here. Corrosa will come here to get me; she cares little for the Druid. But she will not be stopped because he will want his Druid back. Do you understand? She will not be stopped."

For her part the Druid looked back and forth between the Warlock and the Scarlet Commander. She didn't know why the Warlock would come to Serz' rescue, or how she would know that he were hurt to begin with. Behind her the screaming had all but died out. Every inquisitor was cleaning their instruments or adjusting their tables, double-checking written facts their victims had claimed, all in pretense to hear the conversation going on over by the abomination reanimator.

For a moment the Commander looked to just walk away and let the Warlock finish waiting his turn in line. Finally he quipped, "I know about the Priest the Warlock travels with. You all call him her sheath." He looked absolutely disgusted at some though in his head but did not elaborate. "If he is spending his time pulling her back from a murderous rage right now than I do not want to give her reason to attempt to break the leash again and come here." His voice dipped low, "They say Whitemane's corpse is the only one missing from the Monastery…." He shuttered.

"Which is why it would be very beneficial for you to give the Druid sanctuary and not harm her. Or me." The undead man looked as if this were the best idea in the world and to disagree would mean one was either insane or being contrite on purpose. "As long as we are safe and unharmed then you can rest assured Corrosa will not come for us. At least not for a few days till her keeper is rested."

The Commander spat on the ground and rubbed a hand up and down his scared face, "The last time I made a bargain with the Scourge it cost us Lordaeron Castle and the Princess. Give me one good reason to think anything you said is true."

The Forsaken man stuck his hand threw the bars again and smiled a smile that lit up his corner of the Field of Agony, though his voice remained low and no one but the three – or more if you count the children – could hear, "Hello, Commander Hillburn, I'm Sean of Darrowshire. Lovely to make your acquaintance."

The Commander spun from the cage, releasing the startled Druid and began kicking and cussing anything or anyone who got in his way. "By the Light, that ignorant Paladin! What was Fordrin thinking?"

Serz stood watching the man, a smile as feral as any she had seen and eyes glittering with darkness she was sure he kept caged otherwise, hand still threw the bar. "If you please, Commander, I think your guest would like some better accommodations; as would I."

The red-faced commander returned shortly, "And what reason would you have for remaining here and not trying to spirit her away?" He pointed to the Druid.

"Why, I should think it is rather obvious. Sanctuary is sanctuary. She has great cause to join you in your pursuits."

Kayas shook her head vehemently; "Join… the Scarlet-" don't say 'marmots' "-Campaign? I don't think we'll get along." Hard as it was to block out the suffering around her the Druid could never, ever condone torture. There were just better ways to get information; ones that did not leave permanent mental and physical scars.

"We don't let Scourge into the Campaign." The Commander was very, very angry. Though she felt the scarred man didn't mean just her, the why eluded both her and the great cat. Mr. Meows made an inquiring noise and sneezed into his paw. Serz reached down and stroked him behind his hears and the large eyes folded with a pleased rumble. Claws as long as Kayas' hand was wide raked into the ground softly as big paws flexed, a non-verbal warning.

"And doesn't that just burn you up?" Mocking was not a tone of voice the Druid liked on the Warlock, Fel-damned as he was. She wasn't used to hearing him talk like that, even if she had only known him a couple days. "You would throw away the very thing that will be your salvation just because it contains the Plague? Have you truly become that much of a zealot that you will gouge out your eye to spite your face?"

"Shut your rotting jaws, Scourge. I'll not hear that talk from you!"

Serz took his hand back, "Give her a babysitter then." For a third time his hand came up threw the bars, a perfectly manicured nail pointing directly at the Scarlet Warrior woman behind the commander. The Woman stiffened even as the words were being said, "Let that one keep an eye on her, keep her close. She's female so your young ward here wont mind he being there for the bathing and such."

The Commander was silent for a moment. The Druid chanced a look over her shoulder at the woman. She looked hostile: ready to breath fire and enflame the Warlock, Commander and all. Her refusal was pending her superior's agreement, but already on the tip of her tongue.

The Warlock was coxing as the one-eyed man considered, "Plague tainted yes, but still a Druid. Her counterparts in Thunder Bluff have already made great advances in fighting back the Scourge and the Plague. Lend her your support and your protection from the Dark Lady and she may yet grace you with advances of her own."

After an excruciatingly long silence in which everyone and everything had fallen silent the Commander relented, "I will try. Fordrin had gone to find the children who had killed my guard and would have brought them to justice had the Dark Lady not been there, I'm sure."

Kayas disagreed, but kept her peace.

"Yes," the man stroked is beard stubble, "This may very well work out. Assuming you can keep up your end Warlock, and not bring that damned other Warlock down on us." He moved to take a key form his belt and unlock the cage, "Get out of here and send Fordrin my regards."

The woman looked as if she would rather turn Serz' head into pulp with her two handed mace than guard a Scourged Druid. "I think not!" The woman spat. "Make one of the mages guard her. Better yet one of the Priests!"

"You'll do it, Salira," her superior dismissed her suggestion like so much steam from a kettle, "See to it that she doesn't go anywhere she's not suppose to. That is," and he turned back to the Druid, "if you accept sanctuary here in return for whatever services you might provide us."

Sinking and rising feelings both warred inside the Druid till she could get to her feet shaking. "I – um – that is. Ok." What choices she had were between the racks or the seething Scarlet woman. Talk about a rock and a hard place, as the Humans liked to say.

The Scarlet woman was fuming inside her dented metal helmet, streams of gray-brown hair shifting in and out as she tried to control her breathing. Surging forward she grabbed the Druid by the back of her top and hauled her forward, almost dragging her away. "By your leave, Commander." She snapped, though she was already past him with the Druid when he gave it to her.

"Common, don't drag your feet. The Commander has a place where he puts… guests. I think the straw and feces have even been swept out sometime this year."