Dear Sylvanas,

I haven't written a letter to you in so long that I'm unsure of what to say to you. I guess that, back in the day, I never knew what to say to you either, not without sounding like a complete idiot.

I miss you. It doesn't hurt as much anymore, not every day. Is that a good thing? I'm not sure what to make of it. Hamu says that I'm getting over you, but we both know how likely that is to happen. Besides, I still have the nightmares.

About thirty death knights arrived here yesterday, most of them from the Alliance, although there was a troll with them. He's been isolated because nobody wants to talk to him, so I've been trying to be nice to him. But so far, he's been cold and distant. Normal, I guess.

We're still trying to figure out what to do about Andorhal. Someone had the idea to firebomb the city, but that could just make them spread out while only killing a hundred of them. Don't worry, I'm not going near it. And they're going to be sending people to Northrend. I wonder what that will be like, if I'm ever called to go there. Part of me wants to go, but I'm scared, Sylvanas. We couldn't touch Arthas at Light's Hope Chapel. How are we going to defeat him on his territory?

I wish you were here with me. I don't know, just to hold me in the night when I'm afraid to go to sleep.

I love you.

Your Faith

P.S. – We just got this from Silvermoon. Apparently, a paladin has been missing for about three months, and they're wondering if anybody's seen her. Her name is Cindera Bloodstorm.

I looked at the sketch Faith had included with her letter, committing it to memory. I hadn't seen the girl, and if she'd been missing for as long as Faith said, there was a good chance that she was dead.

A smile came to my face as I reread Faith's words. Idiot indeed. I remembered the letters she and I had exchanged, when things had been much simpler for us. She'd been more flowery than this, and I cringed when I thought about some of the things that I had written to her. Words of love and hope. And of course, I'd proposed to her, but I'd never given her that particular letter.

My Faith.

We'd been writing each other for a couple of weeks now. It was never anything fancy, just a few words here and there, to update each other on what was happening. She sent me official reports every other day, but she hadn't mentioned anything about Andorhal, and I began to worry immediately.

Faith,

Do I have to tell you again how much I don't want you to go near Andorhal? I'll bring you straight back here and lock you up if you keep mentioning it. I know it's your job to take care of the Scourge, just like it's my job, but we can't think about an assault on that city. Not now. As for you going to Northrend, I don't know. If the Argent Crusade asks you to go, I guess you'll have to, but if it's up to me, I'll keep you here a while.

You're getting over me? Really? After nearly ninety years, it would be something, wouldn't it? It would be best for you if you did. Although, I have to say that the idea of you with anybody but me fills me with rage, so if that does happen… please warn me.

I know you're scared. It's okay. But for as long as I've known you, you've never let the fear overpower you. And you won't this time. You're better than that. Stronger.

You're still having the same nightmares you've had ever since I died, aren't you? Try this, maybe it'll help.

Love,

Sylvanas

I folded the letter and put it in a thick envelope, into which I also dropped something else, one of the bracelets I usually wore on my right wrist. It was a tarnished silver band with a black semiprecious stone at its center, and words engraved inside in Thalassian. A song Faith and I had sung together before my death.

I stood up and left my office, handing the letter to the courier who would be taking it to Hearthglen the following day. I wanted Faith back. She and I had been separated long enough. But we still needed time. Time for what, I didn't know anymore. I missed her touch, her kiss, her voice, and I didn't believe for a second that she wasn't hurting, being away from me.

What a fool, you've become, I said to myself.

"You know, it's perfectly natural for you to miss her," said Ambassador Sunsorrow to me. The only reason he was ambassador was because he had known me, very briefly, before the Scourge's invasion.

I glanced at him, silently daring him to say something else, but he seemed to lose his nerve.

For the next couple of days, I went about my business. I received a missive from the warchief regarding Northrend and how we were going to have to go there sooner rather than later. There had been Scourge incursions in Orgrimmar.

Orgrimmar? The Scourge? I couldn't think of a place less likely to hold the Scourge, but it was possible that Arthas had sent minions there. He was certainly showing his activities with the weather. We'd had a continuing snowstorm for the past three days that was making it difficult even for us to get around.

A courier came to me, handing me a letter. I recognized Faith's handwriting and went to my office to read it in peace.

My dear Sylvanas,

No, I'm not getting over you. I can't. I've tried, but… no. You don't ever need to worry about me being with anybody else. You caught me, and now you're stuck with me.

Things have been bad here since the last time I wrote to you. The weather has made the roads impossible to travel, so we haven't been able to patrol, which is how a troop of Scourge fiends was able to walk into Hearthglen. I think we would have lost a lot of people if we hadn't acted as fast as we did. And we lost several of them anyway.

I'll stay with you as long as you want me to, my love. I hate being away from you. I know why you sent me away, but hasn't it been long enough now? I won't crowd you, I promise. I'll even move out of the Royal Quarter if you want me to, but I need to be with you.

Thank you for giving me your bracelet, my love. It's beautiful. Like you.

Ah, sorry, I promised myself I wouldn't write anything like that.

But I love you, and I want you to know.

Love,

Your Faith

I immediately grabbed a piece of parchment and scribbled a quick note to her, not caring how weak I sounded right then.

Faith,

Come home. Now. Immediately. Take a portal and get here.

Sylvanas

I hailed the courier, who seemed surprised because I usually took a little longer to compose my replies, and ordered him to take a portal to Hearthglen, since the roads were so bad. I included an official order for Faith and the Forsaken troops to get back to Undercity right away.

Half an hour later, Faith stepped through a portal and into the Royal Quarter, where I'd been waiting for her. She wasn't alone, so I wasn't able to do anything, but she was here. My Faith.

"I called you back because the Warchief has begun making preparations to go to Northrend. We've been getting ready for that as well, and have already built bases in Southeastern Northrend. I'd like for you to help train some of the new arrivals here in the ways of the Argent Crusade. I believe some of you are qualified trainers for them?"

"Faith is, your Majesty," said Hamu, who had materialized out of the portal with the others.

"Of course she is. Well, see to it that it's done, and reintegrate the First Magi Corps as soon as possible. I'll give you a couple of days to get back into the swing of things here, but Captain Rotvine will be expecting you after that."

They all saluted me and walked out of the Royal Quarter, except for Faith, who stayed put and stared at me, as though hungry for me.

I made my way towards the hall that led to our chambers, knowing that she was following me. Her footsteps were quick behind me, and I took her hand before walking into my room. I pulled her inside, closed and locked the door before pushing her back against it. I wanted to kiss her so badly that I could taste her.

"Never," I whispered, looking into her eyes. "Never leaving me again."

"Okay…"

"I won't let you. You're staying with me, and that's final."

"Whatever you say." She reached up to touch my face, "I love you."

Love. "Do you?" I asked, suddenly needing to know.

"Sylvanas…" a tear slipped down her cheek, "I do."

I closed the distance between us, not knowing whether I was going to hug her or kiss her.

"Are we ready?" she asked me, timidly, smoothing one of my eyebrows.

"Three months apart, what do you think?"

"Too long," she whispered. Her lips almost touched mine. "Too long without you."

I almost smiled. She needed me so badly that one touch could have done her in, "We should wait," I said. "Maybe until we're not this needy."

"You…" she swallowed, pulling at the collar of her robes, "you want us to make love when we don't want to make love?"

"We should wait," I repeated. "Just a little while." I was afraid I was going to ravage hurt and physically hurt her if I took her for myself now. "How long did we wait before we first made love?"

"About eighty years, give or take," she told me. Her lips were parted, and I backed away from her, but she hooked her fingers into the waistband of my leggings and tugged me back to her. "Could you please kiss me?"

"Shh," I put my finger to her lips, and she kissed it tenderly, almost making me shiver. "We waited so long before… I think we can wait a little longer, can't we?" I pressed my forehead to hers, "Shh, Faith, it's okay."

She made a small sound in the back of her throat. I felt her breath on my face, and the way she trembled against me. "Just… please tell me we're not going to wait another eighty years before making love again."

"How about you give me until you get to bed?" I asked.

"Okay…" she pulled away, briefly, "Suddenly, I'm overcome with fatigue."

I began to laugh softly, the sound echoing across the room. Had I not known it was me, I think I would have been terrified by the sound of that laughter, which was sinister to my ears. "Don't tempt me, Faith, please."

"You know, this whole time that we were talking, you could have been kissing me."

I was only too aware of that. I kissed her forehead, and she emitted a strangled gasp, "Okay, go. Do you want your old room back?"

"Unless you want me somewhere else…"

"I barely use these chambers. It would be a shame for you not to occupy them."

"Why, Sylvanas Windrunner, are you asking me to move in with you?"

"Too soon?" I wondered, knowing it wasn't.

"Well, I don't know," Faith's voice was teasing. "First you banish me from Undercity, then you come to Light's Hope Chapel because you're scared I'm going to get killed, then you say I can come back, but not to come back too soon, then you order me home… and now you're asking me to move into your chambers."

"You know you're just going to say yes, so why don't you spare me your excuses?" I asked her, putting a hand on her ribcage.

She hitched in a gasping breath, "Well, yeah, I guess you know me better than anybody. I'll say yes if you give me a kiss."

I narrowed my eyes at her, "Excuse me?" Was she making demands?

"Sylvanas. I'm kidding. Of course I'll move in here, if it's what you really want."

I saw the humor on her face, and calmed down, "Sorry," I whispered. "Yes, it's what I really want. More importantly, I know that it's what you want."

"It is."

"It won't make much of a difference anyway," I reminded her. It wasn't like she and I had spent much time apart while she was in Undercity.

"Well, we'll just be together all the time."

"And that'll be different how?"

She chuckled, "Why did you ask me to come home? Was it for Northrend?"

"Yes. Yes it was. It was the only reason that I asked you to come home." I tried to keep a straight face, but couldn't, and Faith smiled at me, leaning close to me and whispering that she loved me.

"You owe me a kiss," she said right before moving away from me and leaving the room.

I stared at the spot she'd been in, resisting the urge to burst into laughter. It wouldn't do for people to hear me like this. So I composed my face into its usual countenance and followed Faith slowly.

Would it be different living with Faith? I'd thought about it a lot before. I'd imagined waking up next to her every day, smelling her hair and feeling her body against mine. I'd wondered what it would be like to hold her hand as we walked through the woods, how it would feel to make love to her in the shade of a tree…

I shook my head, clearing it from distracting images. I passed Faith as I stepped back into the throne room, and she only nodded to me, aware that there were other people around.

"Be back here in thirty minutes, Faith," I told her.

She was, with her hair soft and down a little past her shoulders. She wore a new dress of heavy black cotton with a high collar and long bell sleeves, looking more like a queen than I did at that moment. I could see my bracelet on her wrist every time I moved. It matched the one I wore on my left wrist.

"You're not supposed to be more beautiful than me," I told her afterwards, as we moved to my office to discuss a few things that we would be needing for Northrend.

"I'm not!" she said, genuinely surprised.

"Of course you are. You're alive."

"That's your fault entirely," she said to me. "You keep saving my life."

"Yeah, I guess I do," I whispered.

She came to me, putting her warm hand on my face, "Hey. Are you okay?"

"Yeah. Just being maudlin."

"You? Maudlin? Even when you were alive, you weren't given to being syrupy."

"True. You did that enough for the both of us." I cleared my throat and looked at the first item on my list, wincing, "We need a fleet. A real one."

"I was thinking about that." She took a sheet of parchment from her dress and handed it to me, "I designed that while I was in Hearthglen. I didn't have much else to do during my downtime."

"Except befriend death knight trolls," I said, looking down at what she'd handed me. "Oh, Faith…"

It was the design for a battleship, a beautiful one, from what I could tell. It was built along the lines of the other ships in the Forsaken fleet, such as they were, but had something extra. Magic. Faith's touch. She had called this one The Windrunner.

"It's beautiful," I said quietly.

"I've… already commissioned the materials to begin building it."

"You what?"

She held up a hand, "With my money, don't worry. I wouldn't empty the Undercity coffers on something that didn't have your stamp of approval."

For the first time in a long time, I was truly speechless. She was building me a battleship? With her money? "How?" I asked finally. "Where did you get that kind of money?"

"Well, I've been living in Undercity for nearly eight years, and since I belong to your military, I've been paid for my services. Don't think I didn't notice that my share of the pay is higher than other people's."

I didn't comment on that.

"Anyway, a few months ago, I realized that I had a lot of money put aside, and I wasn't really doing anything with it, so this seemed like the perfect thing."

"The perfect thing for you to do with the money you've accumulated for the past eight years was to build me a battleship."

"You don't approve?" she sounded apprehensive.

"No, I approve, I just don't think I should let you do this."

"It's just one ship. You're going to have to get the rest of the fleet yourself, I'm afraid."

I smiled a little, "Come here." I took her hand and pulled her to me until she practically fell into my lap, where I trapped her. "Thank you." I leaned towards her and caught her lips with mine, softly.

She blinked once. Twice. "I… I should build you ships more often. I'm going to go get right on that."

"Don't you dare move," I hissed to her. "But I mean it, Faith, you didn't have to do this."

"Don't think of it as my buying you the most expensive gift I can think of. Think of it as my contribution to the Northrend campaign."

"You didn't even know we were going to Northrend."

"I had an inkling. It's where the Scourge is based. We both want Arthas dead and the Scourge eradicated, so I figured we would have to go there eventually."

"Mmm, did you now?" I leaned in, about to kiss her again when I heard footsteps outside my office. Faith neatly, if reluctantly, got off my lap and positioned herself next to me, looking over the battleship plan as though we'd been thoroughly discussing it.

"I was thinking of adding an extra cannon there, but I thought it would make it too heavy."

"I think it's fine the way it is, Faith," I said, sounding as though I had very little interest in the conversation as Ambassador Sunsorrow walked in along with a couple of other people, all of them looking worried.

"What is it?"

"Scourge, my lady."

"Where?" Faith sounded instantly alert.

"Inside the city."

"Inside? How is that possible?" I got to my feet, carefully placing the battleship plan into the drawer under my desk.

"Through the sewers, we think."

"What about the Scarlet Crusade that's patrolling the exit to the sewers?" asked Faith. "Were they all slaughtered and raised?"

"We don't know, Captain Everstone."

We rushed over to where there had obviously been a commotion, but nothing of worth had happened. It had just been a few minions who had somehow managed to get through the sewers and into the city. Varimathras didn't seem worried, but the look on Faith's face told me more than I needed to know.

"How did they get past the guards in the sewers?" she asked.

"They might have been lax in their duties," said the dreadlord.

"They're abominations. They have no purpose other than to serve the Banshee Queen."

"What are you saying?" Varimathras asked Faith, staring her down.

It was a credit to her that she didn't quake under that look, but I stepped between them, "Calm down, both of you."

"I'm saying that something let them in here. There's no way they would have made it past the guards and gotten so far into the city without alerting some serious suspicion."

"The Scourge has gotten inside the city before."

"Inside the ruins, maybe, and maybe even at the entrance to the sewers, but not this far inside as to get to the Canals." Faith sounded firm on this point.

"I have to agree with that," I said. "I've never seen them in here like this before. I got word from Thrall about the same thing happening in Orgrimmar."

"The Scourge in Orgrimmar?" Faith sounded disgusted.

"I wouldn't be surprised if the Alliance were having the same problems we're having now."

Varimathras looked at us, "So you're saying that Arthas is actively sending the Scourge to attack us. For what?"

"A message," said Faith. "He knows where we are and he's watching us."