It was a lovely day in the capital city of Lorderon, or at least it would be if Willo didn't have to deal with her mother being a bitch.
"I still can't believe you threw away your future for that... Street peddler!"
"Ronald is a talented smith, mother. I would hardly call him a street peddler." Willo rolled her eyes as she once more found herself defending her husband. Willo Pricket, formally Morhouns, was a rather lovely young woman. Her brunet hair was allowed to hang freely, she didn't feel like doing it up fancy for what she knew would be another argument. And she wore a simple yellow dress that only two years ago, she wouldn't have been caught dead in. Her shimmering blue eyes rolled in annoyance as her mother went off on another tirade.
"Do you have any idea what you did to your house when you selfishly broke off your engagement to that nice boy from Gilneas? The wealth our family could have gotten from trad would have finally ascended us from the muck that is lesser nobility! But no! You had to marry for love, bleck, like there even is such a thing! Do you think I ever gave a shit about your father for the twenty-five years we were together? Light watch over his soul." The good Lady Morhouns scolded between stuffing her face with biscuits. Willo didn't know how her mother could stand to eat the vile things. They tasted as if one of the ingredients was rotten, but her mother was a nervous eater, so maybe she didn't care as long as it was technically food.
"Oh, your right. How could I not allow myself to be used as a breeding bitch by some fop I've never met to benefit you? Honestly, this is why I've never brought Hope over to visit."
"Your doughtier ought to know from whence she came and see how much better her life would have been if she had a different father."
"Oh, drop-dead you old crown! It may be a more humble existence than I was used to growing up, but we are perfectly happy to-" Just then, Lady Morhouns grabbed at her chest, gasping as she collapsed onto the ground.
"MOM! Quick, someone get a healer! My mother is having a heart attack or something!" Willo rushed to her mother's side, tearing up as she did her best to tend to her. She felt her grow cold and pale in her arms, then just as quickly, she felt her mother's teeth in her throat. It happened too fast for her to process before it all went dark. But all too soon, she would have a very in-depth understanding of just what happened to her mother.
...
It had taken years, countless favors, and some acts that she would regret one day. But Willo had found her husband, and she waited on the farthest outskirts of Theramore for him. She covered her rotting flesh in what looked like a tattered noblewoman's dress, but with patches of steel armor here and there. She had made a custom silver mask to look like her old face, hiding the deformed and monstrous one she had now. She had almost given up hope that he would come, but then she spotted him. Her darling Ronald was not an overly handsome man, but it was never his face that she loved, but his unusual way of looking at the world. In one hand, he held a torch to light his way in the dark. In the other, he had a small handgun.
"I'm here! Is anyone else!" Willo had never been more scared in her life. The Forsaken were heavily discouraged by the dark Lady against trying to reconnect with living family. And more than her final death, she feared being rejected, feared being seen as a monster by the people she loved most. But she mustered her courage, and stepped out of the darkness and let her husband see her.
"Yes, Ronald... I'm here." She said in as soft and reassuring away as she could. But her rotting lungs and withered vocal cords make her sound like she had just got done eating a bowl of nails.
"W-Willo!? How do I know that this isn't some trap!?" Ronald then aimed his gun at his wife. She didn't blame him for that. In his position, she would do the same.
"Our daughter's name is Hope Pricket. We first met when I bought a clock from you as a birthday present for my brother. I cried in your arms after we made love for the first time, because I knew you had been with other women before, and felt like I must have been disappointing. Do I need to tell you the exact words you used to comfort me, or are you convinced, darling~?" He lowered his gun slowly, tears welling up in his eyes as he rushed over and grabbed up Willo in a hug. It was a good long moment before either of them said anything, just holding one another in a loving embrace.
"Your... cold."
"Sorry, it really can't be helped." They both broke off the hug and just looked at each other awkwardly.
"So your... Dead? Or just technically not alive? I only ever heard rumors. You're going to have to fill me in on... Well..."
"What the hell I am~?"
"I was looking for a gentler way of putting it, but yes, please." Willo waved for him to sit down on a log with her, side by side. She thought of the best way to explain it.
"What interactions have you had with the undead before this?"
"Running for my life with Hope crying in my arms attracting everything flesh-hungry for mils."
"Well, those monsters you ran from. Trapped inside their own rotting flesh, they were aware of everything, but unable to control their actions. Hell, I know a guy that remembered eating his own sister's guts! Only having enough control over his body to weep as he-"
"I don't need any more details than that, thank you. But by the Light... That sounds like the single most horrible thing that could happen to anyone!"
"Thank you for your sympathy, most living don't even want to understand~. I'm glad your at least trying~." Willo reached out her hand to hold his, but he pulled away. That was very disheartening, but she did her best to overlook it.
"What is it like, now that you have control?"
"Miserable. I can barely feel anything anymore. All food tastes like ash. And the worst part is how it affects my emotions. Joy, hope, compassion are muted and distant. But despair, rage, depression, and spite feel much more intense. It's like all the energy that should be going into my positive emotions go to my negative ones instead!"
"Oh, love... I don't understand how you can go on like that."
"Well, what other choice is there? As far as I know, there is no cure. And after everything I did as part of the Scourge, I don't want to know what the afterlife has in store for me." There was an awkward period of silence, neither looking at the other for a minute or two.
"H-How is Hope?"
"She is quite the brave little toddler. I even caught her trying to pet a giant hairy spider. Dame near gave me a heart attack!"
"Ha! Sounds like she takes after her father... I would love to meet her."
"That, um... I don't think that is a good idea."
"And why not!" Willo turned to look her husband in the eyes as anger filled her.
"Well, I mean, you said so yourself. It's hard for you to feel empathy but easy for you to get angry. I don't think it would be a good idea to expose a child to that."
"You rat bastard! I have every right to see my little girl! Who are you to stop me!?"
"ONLY THE FATHER!" Both of them stood straight up. Willo was outraged by the insinuation that her own daughter would not be safe around her. She glared daggers at the man she loved, and while he seemed more upset than angry.
"Do you think I want to keep you from her? Maybe when she's older-"
"NO! You will let me see her now, you son of a bitch! I refuse to let my daughter grow up not even knowing her mother's face!"
"Look at the way your acting! If you can't see why I'm worried about you seeing her after this, then your out of your mind!" Willo opened her mouth to retort but then stopped herself. She knew Ronald was right, she just didn't want to admit it.
"You'll... Let me write to her at the very least?"
"Yes, that is more than acceptable... I'm sorry tha-"
"No, no, I get it, really." Willo paused for a moment; she didn't really know what to say. Then, slowly she removed her silver mask. She hardly noticed Ronald's shock at her true face as she turned the mask around and looked at it. At first, seeing her beautiful old face, but soon then only noticed the reflection of what she really looked like.
"Here... Hope should know what her mother looked like."
"I... Are you sure?"
"Yes, I'm sure. I need to get going. You make sure that little girl knows she's loved."
"I will... Goodby Willo."
"Goodby, Ronald."
...
This was the first time she had stepped foot inside of Theramore. She only wished there was something left of the city. Willo had recently changed her look. With a fel powered necromancy, she was able to stitch together a rather attractive form. As she walked through the ashes, she could feel the despair welling up inside of her. Even though she and Ronald had decided to break off their marriage, she still deeply cared for him. And the fact that she might never know if he and Hope were somewhere mixed among the ashes, or lost at sea with the missing evacuation ship ate at her.
"I swear Hellscream... I will make you pay for this... I don't know how I don't know when... But you will wish you could die after I'm done with you!" Willo growled to herself as she crumbled to the ground, moving her hands through the ashes. She wished she could say her family made it out in time. But she knew better than to hope.
...
Willo remembered a time when she would have been horrified by what she had seen. As the Horde rebels stormed into Orgrimmar, everyone else was. Wives and husbands forced to fight each other to the death under the threat of their children being killed. Civilians from both sides tied to posts and used as target practice or thrown into garn pens to be eaten alive. These horrors shook most of the invaders to the core, but Willo remembered seeing and doing just as wrong, if not worse, things when she was a slave of the Scourge. She thought for a moment about just leaving the poor bastards to their fates and going straight for Garosh, but what little good was left in her compelled Willo to help the innocent. As she fought her way to freeing prisoners, she saw a face she thought she would never see again.
"RONALD!" She screamed as she spotted her husband tied to a post, arrows in his shoulder and gut. From the blood patterns in his clothes, he was left to bleed out for a little while. She was only slightly relieved to find that he was alive, but he was fading fast.
"I need a healer over here, now! Oh, Ronald, please speak to me!" He could only mumble as he was untied and the arrows removed from his body.
"No, no, no!" Willo panicked as she franticly looked to see if a healer was coming, only to find an orc charging her. Thinking fast, she used her mastery of fel to suck the very lifeforce from her attacker's body and funnel it into Ronald. His wounds were mostly healed. The unfortunate side effect was that he was now as green as the orc, who laid dead only a few feet away.
"Wha? Where? HOPE! Where is she!?" Ronald said as he regained his senses.
"That is what I was about to ask you."
"Willo? Willo, I'm so sorry! I couldn't stop them! They took her to where they re keeping the women. By the Light, Willo, we have to save her before-"
"No, I have to save her. You go with the other survivors. This is not a negotiation, now go!" Willo didn't even wait for a response before walking off to where the so-called true Horde kept the women. She only hoped that her little girl had yet to suffer at the hands of the filthy orcs. But she was a pretty young girl being held as a prisoner of war; Willo knew better than to hope. As she got to a building simply labeled, the bitch kennel, she heard the sound of a man dying. Walking in, she saw something she didn't expect, her own doughtier standing over a dead orc. The poor girl was dressed only in the skimpiest of rags and chained to the wall by her neck, but she had somehow managed to get her would-be abusers ax from him.
"That is what you monster's get when you try to mess with a Pricket girl! So any of your beasts want to try and avenge your friend!?" Hope was a head taller than her mother, sharing her hair and figure, but everything else she got from her father. The other orcs in the room were closing in on her. Willo took the opportunity to blast the bastards in the back.
"Have no fear ladies, your rescue is here~." Willo said in her usual tone of voice, only for Hope to raise the ax to her. It didn't surprise Willo, she never sent a picture of what she looked like in any of the letters she had smuggled to her.
"Stay back, Horde scum! I won't fall for any of your tricks!"
"Now, now, relax~. I am a part of a rebellion that is here to bring Hellscream to justice~. Lower your ax, please~." Hope didn't move from an aggressive stance, but she did lower her ax.
"Fine, but if you try anything, I'll put you back in your grave, corps!" Willo made sure that Hope could see everything she was doing, not wanting to spook her. She considered just telling her that she is her mother, but odds are, she would just think it was a Horde trick and attack. When all of the women and girls were freed, some picked up the dead orcs' weapons and formed around Hope.
"I cleared a path to a safe place where the other survivors are holding up. You should meet minimal resistance on your way there."
"I don't take orders from you, Horde! I'm also not going to run away hiding like the scared little girl you seem to think I am. I will make every last orc I see pay for what I've seen them do here!" Willo just rubbed her eyes. Hope certainly was the brave girl the letter made her out to be.
"I'm not telling you to run~. I'm asking you to keep the other's safe while they get to safty~. You think you can handle that, kid~?" Hope was about to argue, but then looked back on the other women. While some looked like they were just as ready to spill orc blood, most looked terrified and helpless.
"Sure... I can do that. But call me a kid again, and I'll give you the exact lesson I gave that orc, got it!?"
"Understood, now get going~." Willo watched as her daughter boldly lead the others to safety. She could never have been more proud of how Hope turned out than she was right then and there. But she got her head in the game and turned her attention to bringing Garosh down, rejoining the assault.
...
Ok, Willo, you got this." She told herself as the gathering took place. She had no idea why the dark Lady allowed any of this, but decided to savor it while it lasted. Willo looked over the crowd, seeing both happy, and not so happy, reunions everywhere. But the people she was actually looking for didn't seem to be anywhere, that is until one tapped her shoulder from behind.
"YEEP! By the endless dark! If I were alive, you would have given me a heart atta-" Willo froze the moment she saw that it was Hope who startled her.
"Sorry ma'am, I just wanted to say hello. My name is Hope Pricket, you might not remember me, but a few years back, you saved help free me from Garrash's true Horde. I didn't exactly thank you back then, so I wanted to fix that."
"No problem..." Willo was stunned for a moment, feeling rather awkward that her own daughter stood before her.
"Sorry if this is rude, but I was hoping that you could also help me find someone. My mother was one of the first turned Forsaken, and all I have to go on is this mask that looks like how she did when she was alive. Do you know where I could find Willo White?"
"Um... Ya... Right here..." She awkwardly smiled as she pointed at herself. Hope's jaw dropped as the realization hit her like an avalanche.
"You're... My mother is the..."
"Champion of the Horde, yes. I understand that this is a little much to take in, so breathe."
"Ya, ok..." Hope took in a few deep breaths before trying to talk again.
"So... I've only ever known you from letters... And your not, sorry is this is offensive, but I expected you to be more like the other Forsaken."
"Well, I certainly can't blame you for that. I used to, but with a little bit of necromancy, you can be surprised how well one can maintain themselves~. It's hardly cheap. Otherwise, everyone would do it~. Hell, because of the fel magic holding me together, I'm even a little warm~!"
"Is that rare for the undead?"
"almost non-existent, actually~. But enough about me, I want to know everything you couldn't fit in a letter~!" Hope shifted a bit nervously. Something seemed to be troubling her.
"Well... Recently I've joined the Alliance military..."
"Oh... Well, that is unfortunate."
"I mean, only if another war starts... And it might not be Alliance vs Horde. It could be like, I don't know, a Merlock uprising?"
"Oh, my darling daughter~. I dought it~. The most likely thing is a Naga invasion, but who knows where the next threat will come from~."
"I'm just hoping that- Wait, what is going on over there?" Willo looked over at the crowd; it seemed to be gathering around a priestess, then she heard it, Menethil.
"Hope, be a dear and go back to the Alliance side of the field. Mommy has a feeling that things are about to get hairy."
"Ya, I'm getting the same vibes. I hope we meet under better circumstances."
"Same, tell your father I love him, oh, and I love you too."
"Right back at you, ma." Willo and Hope then made themselves scarce, and just in time, it seemed. The gathering ended in a shit show and a massacre. Willo only found out later that it was Arthas's sister of all people that started the mess. Trying to run off with some traitors only to be shot down by the dark Lady herself. Willo hoped that the messy end to the gathering didn't mean that she would never see her daughter again, well, outside of a battlefield.