I've seen the wicked fruit of your vine Destroy a man who lacks a strong mind...
Her screams echoed... her screams were frightfully loud in the eternal dark that blanketed the Cleft of Shadow.
There were few about the Cleft this eve... only those who sought to quell the screams, and the screamer herself.
She screamed in the tongue of the demons, her flesh scarred by fire and shadow magic. She screamed, and demons screamed around her.
It was all they could do to hold her down.
"Keep her still!" The one on the right hissed in hushed tones. "Keep her limbs down"
"I'm trying!" The second, near her head growled in return.
Their voices were hushed. They didn't want to alert Neeru Fireblade anymore than he already would be.
"Inside.. from the inside... from the inside, the inside... from the inside, burning..." The female orc panted, still thrashing about madly. Her voice echoed with something sinister, something she had tried to shed, tried to flee.
And failed.
This was what happened to those who ran from the legion.
"Inside, from the inside, burning from the inside. We are burning from the inside, from the inside, burning from the inside. We are burning..." She thrashed more wildly, and a shadow fell over the three.
The one on the right looked up in terror.
"Neeru." He whispered. "She... she came out of the Chasm... we tried to stop her! Her screams..."
The female orc was silent for a moment, then a shriek of horror escaped her, her eyes wide, white and blank... wild.
"Nooooo! Burning! BURNING! We are burning from the inside! Orgrimmar is burning from the inside. Orgrimmar will fall! Orgrimmar is burning! ORGRIMMAR IS BURNIN-"
Her scream cut short as her head was cleanly separated from her body. A bellow of rage escaped Neeru's throat, and he turned quickly, the sword he held slamming through the chest of the Orc who had held her head. Neeru's blade ate through flesh and bone, cutting cleanly through... cleaving the third in half before the second could finish falling.
His bellows faded, and he took deep breaths to calm himself.
"Fool." He growled.
"You cannot hope to desert us."
Human pride sings a vengeful song.
"Do it." The voice was harsh, little more than a growl. The girl sobbed hoarsely, shaking her head. Her red hair hung in dank ringlets, filthy, reaching her chin and no further. She sobbed in protest, but her master lashed out again, striking her across the face.
"I SAID DO IT!" He howled, and she begrudgingly obeyed, too weak to fight anymore.
Her body flickered fire... fire chased itself through her hair and flew from her fingertips. It burned her skin but felt as though it were part of her. The fire quickly leapt forward, eating the straw at the base of the house away with hunger. Everything here, everything in these plains was dry. The building caught fire easily.
"Summon them." Her master demanded. Again, she tried to protest... again, he persuaded her with a well placed fist. "Summon the Succubus! Summon the Voidwalker! Summon the Imp! Summon them all!"
"Master, I cannot control more than one!"
"No need to control them... they hunger for the flesh of humans! Release them! Release the demons!"
She wanted to disobey... she wanted to say no, she wanted to run, to escape...
But again and again, he would find her. Again and again, the demons would guide her back to him.
There was no hope to escape now.
Inspired by the times you've been walked on.
The corner of the tiny building was like home to him now. The bodies had long sinced stopped moving, stopped breathing... they had long since started stinking... but still, he couldn't move if he wanted to.
The shadows were like shackles. Slowly, he was becoming a hollow version of himself.
Rocking... rocking...
The blood had long stopped flowing. His eyes had stopped seeing color days ago. His fingertips no longer felt, and as he watched, his flesh had long since begun to rot away.
His joints were exposed, his hands deformed into claws, shadows of their former selves.
Even as his body rotted away, his mind stayed sharp. It helped him see them...
They wouldn't leave him.
They were all around him.
The whispers of the demons were so different, though, than the ones of the people who's bodies lay rotting here. They had taunted him. They had called him weak. They had told him he was a waste of air.
He didn't agree.
He proved to them, proved to them that he was not weak. He was far from it.
He killed them all to prove it. Now, in this undeath, the demons by his side...
He was invincible.
My stage is shared by many millions Who lift their hands up high because they feel this
She didn't know there were so many of them... she didn't know that things like this existed.
She was sure not all of them were like her... still fresh, still untouched by the taint of the shadows. But they were all like her in a way. All of them here.
All of them were the same. Brothers, sisters... friends. They were warlocks.
"Let this meeting come to order!" The one at the front yelled, his voice commanding, yet soothing all at once. "We have much to discuss. There is much rooting out to be done. We must find the ones who have fallen and make sure they make their way back to us. Back to where we are." She remembered this man's words well.
He kept telling her that no matter what... she had to remember who she was. She had to remember that the demons couldn't hurt her so long as she didn't let them. She had to believe that she was in control, but not give into the arrogance that most Warlocks fell to. She saw this man like a brother, like a father almost... she loved him.
"We must make sure that the foul taint that has fallen on our numbers is washed away and that the rumors of the Evil Warlocks are halted. We are not evil... we may have chosen this path, but it was NOT because we wanted to use our powers for evil. Not all of us, at least." He sighed gently and gazed around at the empty chairs. Others in the room fell silent and somber.
She hadn't known or met the fallen ones. She didn't know how many there had been or how many there were now.
"The stand is open for suggestions and stories... please, brother, sisters... help us find the others. We must band together! All of us know of the demon wind... we will use it to find the others!"
We are one, we are strong...
"They said that there were people trying to make you leave." She tried despretly to speak to him as he moved about the room in a fury, packing his things into his pack and blatantly ignoring her. "Please say something. Why are they trying to make you leave? They've never asked a priest to leave the Cathedral before!"
Her voice grated on him... he didn't want to listen anymore.
"Was it because you made the choice to embrace the shadow magic instead of the Light? Is that why? Because if it is, it's wrongful for them to ask you to do this! There is no need! Many have followed that path before!"
He tried to block out her words, closing his pack and slinging it over his shoulder.
"The elves have been whispering about you, too. They say Elune has even turned her back on you! Why? Why are they saying these things!"
She followed him out of the room, her hands clasped nervously in front of her. The diamond on her hand gleamed in the dull light filtering through the windows.
"Speak to me, please! Tell me what is going on! Don't leave me!"
"You could never hope to understand. " He said at last, turning to look at her. Her eyes widened. "You... it would take years to explain it to you in a way to make you understand. They asked me to leave... because that place is no place for someone like me."
"Someone like you. What do you mean?"
Why don't you just show her? He asked himself. No... no... he couldn't do that. Not here. Not in front of her.
"What did you do? Did you do something awful? Something you shouldn't have? I told you to be careful! I told you!"
"You did, over and over. Told me to be careful, told me what to do and what not to. Over and over and over again. And I'm tired of it. Just... go." He waved his hand at her dismissivily.
"NO! You can't just walk away from me like that! Come back here and explain!"
"I don't take orders from you anymore... Light tainted bitch. You wouldn't understand in a million years if I tried to explain it at all"
He turned angry eyes to her and she startled. For a moment, she thought she saw fire in his eyes... fire... priests didn't weild fire.
"Don't leave." She pleaded again.
"If I were to stay... then you and everyone there would fall into shadows and fire."
The more you hold us down, the more we press on...
What if you did? What if you lied?
What if I avenge? What if eye for an eye?
The sound of weeping had drawn him from his light sleep, and being a warrior, he quickly donned his armor and set out to search for the source.
It was quiet near the guard tower tonight... quiet and still save for the weeping.
His footsteps were soft on the grass leading away from the tower, the pace of his heart quickening as he neared a figure crouched in the shadows near the base of a tree. She wept almost bitterly, slumped over so he couldn't really see her shape at all.
"Miss?" He called, his voice sounding slightly strained. He thought he saw something move in the shadows nearby, brushing it off as a forest animal.
She didn't look up, trembling in the darkness, her weeping slowly fading to silence.
Then, to his shock.
She laughed.
Slowly, slowly, she stood, stretching up on her long legs, her hooved feet set apart for balance. A long, thin tail curved around one of her calves, horns rose from her head and she spread wings behind her. Another laugh escaped her, and she reached down to her hip, letting a whip uncoil.
"What in the-"
From behind him, came another laugh, followed by a strange, gutteral growl.
Then the whip lashed out, and his vision was red... he was blind!
Screaming, he tried to stumble away, falling backwards, head over heels, down a hill.
When he finally struggled onto his hands and knees, something hot lashed across his back. The laughter kept coming... the laughter wouldn't stop...
Both of them were laughing at him.
"That's enough." She spoke in soft tones to the Succubus, who lowered the whip slowly, pouting. She examined the body of the soldier with satisfaction, crouching on creaking bones to loot his pouch. There, she found what she had been looking for...
Snatching up the ring and the small locket from the contents of his pouch, she let out a long, hissing breath of relief.
"Yesss... now, let us go hooome." The man who had been her husband in her former life, before her life of undeath, lay a crumpled, bloodied figure on the ground. She was content to let him lay there and rot... after all, he had done as much to her before.
I know I can't hold my head inside my mind.
Cause what consumes your thoughts, controls your life
Blue eyes opened slowly in the misty darkness of the Twilight grove. Water moved beneath her...
Her robes were soaked with it. The gentle hum of the portal nearby, the slow chirping of the crickets and the calls of the night birds... none of that had been what had woken her.
Her wet robes whispered against her skin as she slowly sat up, her cheek red from where it had rested on the rocky shelf surrounding the moonwell. Her crimson hair tumbled over her shoulders, and she reached down to her hip in instinct, finding both her wand and her sword were not there. They were nearby, with her pack.
Nothing to worry about...
She was alone here...
She couldn't beleive she had fallen asleep here.
But now she was awake, the the startling visions that had woken here...
It was all she needed.
Clearheaded and for once in her life, completely in control, Constanse Al'varay stepped out of the moonwell, dripping the enchanted water onto the ground. She stood for a moment, silent, looking around her. Her lips were parted, her breath soft, and her blue eyes held a fire of determination.
"That will not be me." She swore. "That will not be me."
Her first vision in a long, long time. She wasn't sure what had made her see those things...
But she was sure someone had done it for a reason.
A smile touched her lips and she threw her arms out, summoning Lazpit in a glow of purple light. The Imp looked up at her curiously.
Something was very different about his mistress' demeanor.
"You... you called, mistress?" He asked softly. Constanse smiled again and nodded, reaching down to him and catching him by the arm. She hauled him up into the air and stared at him, into his eyes as he dangled there in mid air, unmoving. Lazpit stared back, wide eyed...
There was no question about it. She was one of the rare few...
But from that moment, with that look in her eyes, he couldn't question it. Constanse Al'varay truly WAS in control of her demons.
"Let's go." She said softly, dropping him. He bounced along the ground, then flipped to his feet, scurrying after her as she started up the path, out of the Grove.