I felt her following me as I ran into the armory. Without hesitation, she picked up a bow and a quiver of arrows, while I grabbed a jeweled staff and a sword. A second later, we ran out, racing towards where the screams were coming from.
A skeleton lay in the hallway, oozing an odd liquid from its skull. The smell coming from it would have made most people faint with horror, but Cara and I pushed on. I did my best not to gag.
I began to hear chanting, and redoubled my efforts to get to where I was supposed to be. The screams had stopped. That either meant that the intrusion had been dealt with or that, most likely, whoever had been screaming was dead.
"What are they saying?" asked Cara.
I stopped to listen for less than five seconds, and my breath caught in my throat. "It's a necromancer."
"Inside?" she cried.
We weren't far. Following the sound of the chant, we burst into a room that had been used as some kind of storage unit. There, amongst the broken chairs and tables, stood a tall figure in a dark hooded cloak. I could barely see his face, only enough to ascertain that I was looking at a human male and that he was extremely pale, his skin almost looking blue in the light of his spell.
There were three dead soldiers on the floor. Around their bodies was a runed circle, which was glowing softly. I didn't need to look twice to realize what the necromancer was doing. I cast my spell immediately, and heard Cara's bow as she strung an arrow and released it with incredible efficiency. Had the necromancer not interrupted his spell to step aside, the arrow would have hit him straight in the chest. My own spell missed because he had put up a barrier to protect himself, but he was distracted enough for me to cast again and actually hit him this time. I pulled out my sword and launched myself at him, barely putting up my arm in time to parry the strike of a bluish blade aimed at me.
The dagger embedded itself deeply into my arm, and judging by the intense burning I immediately felt, the blade was poisoned.
I thrust my sword into the necromancer's throat.
"They're alive!" cried Cara behind me.
The necromancer was struggling hard. Surprisingly strong, he shoved me off of himself, knocking me into a broken table. Pain flared in my lower back as I went sprawling. Through half-closed eyes, I saw him slowly pull the sword out of his neck and stare at it.
Raising my bleeding arm, I sent fire at the necromancer, first orange, then red, and finally, black. He screamed, and struggled, but I realized right away that he wasn't a strong member of the Scourge, because he began to burn almost immediately.
"Cara, get out of here!" I screamed. "Now!"
She obeyed me immediately, and I widened my spell to encompass the three moving figures on the floor. The runes sizzled as the fire hit them, and I quickly staggered out of the room, shutting the door behind me as the fire roared to life. Inhuman screams filtered through the door, along with the smell of burning and rotten flesh.
General White came running over, "What happened? What's going on?"
I let go of the door, as it was getting unbearably hot, and stepped away, pulling him and Cara with me. "A necromancer," I whispered, breathing heavily. "How the hell did he get in?"
"I don't know! What did you do?"
"He killed three soldiers and raised them, so I set the whole room on fire."
"The whole room?" he cried.
"It was either that or release them, General. Don't worry. I made the fire, it won't burn through the mountain, if that's what you're thinking."
He looked at me as if I had completely lost my mind, "But you burned the whole room. With the bodies of the soldiers inside."
"The soldiers were dead and raised, General. Believe me, there was absolutely nothing we could have done for them. And I can tell you who they were. I understand that you might have wanted a funeral for them, and I'm sorry, but it won't be possible." I looked towards the door, sensing that the fire was destroying everything within the room, and that whatever had still been moving in there was now truly dead. Waving my hand, I murmured a few words, and the door opened.
The black fire was still burning strongly, but I extended my good arm, calling it back to me. Tendrils of black flame made their way towards me, and I extinguished them one by one until there was nothing left.
"How… how do you do that?" asked Cara. "I've never seen a mage controlling fire that way."
"I was taught that mages are in control of their own fires. They can't always control a random fire that's burning unchecked, one needs a shaman for that. But a mage's personal fire can be extinguished by the mage in question without too many problems, depending on the fire. I know my black fire inside and out, calling it back to me is easy."
General White stepped into the room, placing a gauntleted hand over his mouth. The furniture that had been stored there was gone, except for half a chair that hadn't burned completely. There were still faint traces of the necromantic runes on the floor, but of the four people who had been in there, not much remained except for some ash.
"I have to say, Captain, you do good work. Don't worry about the room. I have no idea what was in there, anyway."
"Just some broken furniture. I didn't really have time to look around, you understand."
He nodded, and glanced at my arm, "Should you go get a look at that?"
I looked down, "I should. Sylvanas is gonna kill me."
"Why?" asked Cara.
"Maybe because the blade was poisoned."
"Poisoned? What do you mean it was poisoned?" Cara's gravelly voice took on a squeaky tone, causing me to glance at her.
"I should probably get some healing done before the poison works its way deeper into my body."
General White came closer to me, examining my wound, "That looks pretty deep, Captain."
"I've had worse," I told him with a grin. "All right, I'll take myself to a healer. Is the rest of the fortress secured?"
"Yes. In all the time I've been here, we've never had a necromancer infiltrate us. I guess it's a good lesson for Cara here, to never relax security measures."
"I never thought that one could ever be too careful when dealing with the Scourge," she said.
"You're right. We can't. But it's always good to have a reminder." He grew grim, "I'll write to King Varian about the losses. Cara, please help Faith get to the healers. Don't leave her side until they give her a clean bill of health."
Cara nodded, "All right."
I didn't want Cara to have to babysit me, but she followed me to the infirmary, even when I told her that she could go find the other Forsaken while I got healed.
"Really, I don't mind," she said to me as we walked there. "I'm a little curious to know what they do with poisons around here. I used to dabble in spider venom when I was alive."
"This is Scourge poison. You'll find that it's a little more powerful than normal spider venom."
We reached the infirmary, a sterile white room in which six beds rested, facing each other. Four of the beds were occupied when we walked in, with the healer working on one of them while his assistant, a tauren druid, worked on another soldier.
"Oh, Captain Everstone," he said, looking at me. "I'm sorry, I can't get to you immediately. Can your injury wait a while?"
"I think so, yes. It's not urgent."
Cara turned to me, "Of course it's urgent!" she said in a shrill voice that was quite unlike the normal voices that belonged to the Forsaken. "She's been poisoned. Sylvanas will have all of our heads if anything happens to her."
I took Cara's hand and pulled her down with me as I sat down onto one of the beds, "Sylvanas doesn't know about this, nor will she know about it until I've been healed, is that understood?"
"But she –."
"She sent you here to spy on me, I'm aware of that."
"That's not what she told me to do…"
"What did she tell you?"
"That she couldn't come here herself, so she was sending me instead. I'm supposed to send her reports every few days. If she finds out about this and realizes that I didn't tell her, she'll have me killed."
"I will tell her about it myself, after I've been healed. Knowing her, she'll have herself teleported here faster than I can blink the moment she finds out."
"Is she that impulsive?"
"Over me, she can be."
"She's very fond of you."
"Fond of me, I hope so," I replied. "We're close."
"That's the impression I got," said Cara. "She would die to keep you safe."
"She's already done that," my voice was low.
"Are you angry with her for it?"
"For her sacrifice? No, of course not. I thought my life had ended when she died. I didn't have anything else to live for. Almost everyone I knew was dead, and I was alone in the world. I had pledged to stay by her side for the rest of my life, and I failed to do that. But after a while, before I realized that she had come back, I found that I was still able to go on. It still hurts to breathe sometimes, knowing what he did to her, but I can deal with it better now."
Cara studied me for a minute, as the medic came over to us and began to examine my arm. He had me take off my armor and get into bed, which I did just to humor him, and spent the next few minutes gritting my teeth as he cleaned the envenomed wound.
"Sylvanas is proud of you," said Cara after a while.
"She told you this?"
"Not in so many words, no. But when she talked about you… she misses you when you're gone."
I didn't say anything, waiting for the medic to finish wrapping my arm in clean bandages. He ordered me to stay in the hospital for the rest of the day, saying that I'd be fine as long as I didn't get poisoned again.
"I miss her," I said. "Every day. As soon as she and I are apart, I miss her. It's almost like it was when she was alive, but worse now. I miss the times we spent together, I even miss the times I waited for her at the window of my room. I still have dreams about her riding over to me on Prince. He was her horse."
Cara nodded. Her eyes were focused on me, "You've loved her for a long time, haven't you?"
"For as long as I can remember, to be honest. I can barely remember the times I didn't love her."
"Did she know you were in love with her?"
I smiled, "I think she knew I loved her long before I realized that she was aware of how I felt about her."
"How did you not realize it?"
"I didn't want her to find out. I was just a mayor's daughter, nobody special. She was Ranger-General of Silvermoon, one of the most important people in all of Quel'Thalas after the royal family. I thought, like her family, that she deserved someone better." I laid back against the pillows, turning on my side to face Cara. "She loved me back, but I chose not to notice until I had no choice in the matter. Even then, I didn't realize she'd perceived just how much I loved her."
"But she did."
I nodded, "She did. She never misses anything when it comes to me."
"Do you think that she loves you?"
"Do I think that… why the interest in our queen's love life, if I may ask?"
Cara looked down, "Oh, I was just wondering. You know, it's Sylvanas… everyone wonders about her feelings."
"Do you like her?"
"What do you mean?"
I sat up a little, "Sylvanas. You like her, don't you?"
"Everyone likes her."
"No. Everyone's afraid of her. Everyone respects her, but very few people like her in the same way I do."
"You don't love her?"
"Of course I love her, but that's not the point. Is that why you've been asking me all these questions about her? Because you care about her?"
"No… I just want to know what you think about her, that's all."
I bit my lip, hiding a smile, "She's a bit flawed, to be honest."
"I don't believe that for a second."
I began to laugh, "Trust me. I might think that the world revolves around her, and I will avenge her death by killing Arthas somehow, but she's not perfect by any stretch of the imagination. And it's not because she's dead, although I'll concede that her death most probably unhinged her a little."
"You think she's crazy?" For some reason, Cara sounded hurt.
"I think that whatever happened to her at the hands of the Scourge destroyed the good person she had been before she died. A lot of Forsaken retain a good portion of their personalities after they're raised to undeath, but the ones who went through some particularly violent deaths lose their humanity, if you'll allow me that concept."
"And that's what you think happened to her."
"I'm positive that happened to her. She was never this violent before. I'm not saying she was a kitten before she died, but she was kinder towards others than she is now."
Cara looked down, "You don't think she's kind?"
"I've loved Sylvanas unconditionally my entire life, so I have a bit of insight into her than most people, even though a lot of them thought me very simple minded back then. Sylvanas wasn't above sacrificing a few for the greater good. It's what she did in Quel'Thalas, although in that case, it completely backfired. She died to give us a chance to escape. More specifically, she died to save my life, and keep to Arthas from turning me into…" I gestured towards the window, out of which we could barely see the spires of Icecrown Citadel.
"She did that out of love, though, didn't she?"
Tears sprang to my eyes so quickly I was powerless to stop them falling, "Yes… she did. The anniversary of her death is tomorrow, actually. It's been ten years."
An odd look crossed Cara's features, "Has it been? I'm sorry…"
I shrugged, "Every year, I think I'm going to be all right, and every year, it ends up hurting just as much as the first time I found out that she'd been murdered."
"Do you want me to leave you alone?"
I shook my head gently, "I think I've done enough grieving alone, to be honest," I told her. "I'm all right."
"Do you think it would have been better if she'd really died? You wouldn't have the chance to talk to her anymore."
Would it have been better for me to lose her completely? A lot of times, I thought that it would have been best for her to really die. I knew how much she suffered living the way she did now, even though she never admitted it. As for me…
"Yes. Yes, I wish she had really died, rather than come back the way she did. She's not happy."
"What if she were happy? With you, I mean."
My laughter sounded bitter to my ears, "I can't make her happy. We're together because we love each other so much that we can't stand to be apart too long, but don't mistake that for happiness, Cara. Neither of us have been happy since that butcher destroyed our home."
"You're not happy at all?" she asked me. "Never?"
"My happiness used to be very simple. All that had to happen was for Sylvanas to come to my house completely unexpectedly. I remember thinking that my heart would explode in my chest because it felt as though light filled me whenever I saw her. Now that I think about it, I guess she felt the same way, which I suppose is why she came around so often. She'd come and see us before she went home, almost every time."
"What about now?"
"When I'm around her, I feel calmer for a while. At peace. But it doesn't last long. Because when I open my eyes, I see that her skin is gray instead of the pale peach color it had been when she was alive. And it all comes flooding back. Everything that happened. Everything that we lost."
Cara looked at me then, finally seeming to be out of questions. Her eyes flickered to my face several times, before resting over my bandaged arm.
"We used to dance," I whispered.
"Excuse me?"
"Sylvanas and I. We used to dance sometimes. Once, during Winter's Veil in Windrunner Village, there was a group of people playing the tune Snowfall, and she and I danced to it. The mages of Silvermoon had enchanted the woods to make it cold, but her skin was warm against mine."
Cara smiled to the best of her abilities, "That sounds like fun. I used to dance too at home."
I smiled back, remembering the particular celebration when Sylvanas and I had danced for well over an hour together, both in front of people, and in a more private setting, behind a thicket of tall bushes. "I should have known back then that she loved me."
"I think that she's loved you for a very long time." She paused, "What was it like? To know that you had her love?"
"Like I wasted an opportunity. If I could go back in time, I think I would marry her immediately, as soon as the thought crossed my mind. But to know that she loved me, that she really loved me… it's an amazing feeling." I felt my eyes closing, and knew she was looking at me. Cara.
I left the hospital the following afternoon, and immediately wrote a letter to Sylvanas, explaining what had happened, and telling her that Cara had stayed by my side, which had been why she hadn't been able to update her right away. I avoided mentioning the anniversary, for I had a feeling that she felt it as keenly as I did, and besides, she hated talking about it.
Trying to appear strong, I kept myself busy throughout the day. Cara shadowed me, helping me polish weapons and mop the floors, keeping up a semi-constant chatter of her life in Lordaeron.
"Your life sounds a lot like the one Sylvanas led when she was alive," I commented as I wrung out the mop and set it aside to dry at the end of the day.
"Really? I wouldn't have thought that. I mean, I wasn't a ranger or anything, just a hunter."
"So was she. She was fond of saying things like that when some people got flustered around her. She told them to remember that she had started out as a lowly hunter who liked to chase rabbits."
Cara began to laugh, "How do you remember stuff like that?"
"It's Sylvanas. There's not much I don't remember when it comes to her."
"What's your favorite memory of her?"
"From when she was alive?"
She nodded.
I thought about it. The memory came over me gently, like warm water when sinking into a bath, heating me from the outside in. I had been ill because of a bad batch of berries and had spent a very bad night. I had woken up from a fevered nightmare to see Sylvanas standing at the window, leaning against the windowsill and looking over at me with a very worried expression on her face.
When she had seen me awake, she had slowly come to me, the rays of the rising sun making her look like a vision come straight down from a slice of paradise. She had put a hand on my face and had kissed my forehead, immediately making me feel better.
"Are you real?" I had asked her quietly.
"Only sometimes," she had whispered, smiling.
The memory was short, but sweet.
I told my story to Cara, who looked at me with her head cocked to the side. "She really is precious to you," she said to me. "I can't imagine what you went through when you lost her."
"Except that you can, having lost everyone you loved as well."
"But I've never loved anybody as much as you love Sylvanas."
"Maybe that's a blessing." I put a hand on her shoulder and went back to my room, not feeling hungry for any dinner. I put on my nightclothes and got into bed, holding my pillow tightly. The tears came as I began to sob, my head under my blanket.
I heard Cara coming into the room. She didn't say anything, but just stayed close to me, watching me. Finally, after a few minutes, she put a hand on my shoulder. It was a cold hand, a familiar hand.
Sylvanas.
