Wind howled in pain as it swept through the dark halls. Once pristine and filled with dread, the halls now only spoke of neglect. Ice grew along the walls like moss. Very few noises pierced through the eerie atmosphere. So when the armored figure did his rounds, his metallic boots caused a cacophony of noises to echo and announced his presence to any of the few that remained.

The deathknight looked around at the empty spaces and made his way down a winding staircase until he made it to the main entrance. A large construct of bone lay scattered at the base of the pillar of ice that ran through the entirety of the Citadel. A scythe lay by its side. The deathknight looked at the giant monster, almost hoping for signs of life. But Lord Marrowgar did not move. He had not moved for well over two years. The deathknight moved on.

Bodies littered the floor, some encrusted in the encroaching ice. Some were bones. Some of them were dessicated and hardly any of their individual features remained. A few fresher corpses still had not been covered by the ice and snow yet.

The deathknight stood there quietly. He listened for the faintest of heartbeats. There were none.

I sensed no intruders within the lower Citadel, Captain Marwyn mentally announced.

It's been around five or six months since the last of the fools. A shame really.

Marwyn raised an eyebrow, though his companion could not see it. This is a good thing, Falric. This might mean they took the hint and have decided there is no treasure or adventure to be found here. Only death.

I am bored...If there is nothing to maim and torment, then come back to me.

Marwyn smirked. Bored AND lonely. You poor miserable creature.

With nothing further to do, Marwyn started to ascend up the Citadel again. He bitterly regretted that there wasn't a single cultist left. They had fled to who knew where and without them or even a lich, the teleportation runes scattered throughout the Citadel had not been maintained and soon each had died out. It would have saved a lot of time, but time was what undead had plenty of.

It seemed that Falric had been too impatient to wait and they met in the middle of the Citadel. The older deathknight lunged at Marwyn and forced him into a headlock. Marwyn growled in annoyance.

"Get off!"

"No. I want to do something. I'm sure the frostwyrms are equally bored. Let's fly!"

Marwyn yanked himself out of the headlock and shoved Falric aside. To mortals it might have been seen as aggressive behavior between two people that disliked each other but that was the furthest thing from the truth.

Marwyn nodded up toward the ceiling. "He won't like it."

"There's a lot he doesn't fucking like." The other deathknight hissed rather immaturely. Falric hated it when Marwyn spoke of the ever present yet paradoxically ever absent master. It was the only thing that got between them. Between the two of them, Marwyn was the responsible one. Falric acted childish if he didn't get his way and his way usually involved a lot of blood and gore.

"Look...We are all that's left and we have our orders. Keep mortals out and keep undead in. Riding frostwyrms into the open sky contradicts that."

Falric growled and looked away petulantly. Then he sighed.

"Fine. Can we at least go back home for a while?"

Marwyn hesitated, but relented. With that, Falric punched him. The two of them made their way into the inner most parts of in the middle of the Citadel. Painful memories started to reappear in Marwyn's mind as they went to the room leading into the Halls of Reflection.

At least Sword's Rest and the Shadow Throne itself had little signs of...her. He would have stopped at Sword's Rest, but Falric kept walking.

"Hey, Fal...Where are you going?" Marwyn asked.

The deathknight waved his hand nonchalantly back at him.

"You really need to face it. She's not coming back. Go to her room and clean out her stuff. Toss it out into the snow. It will make you feel better."

Marwyn immediately grew enraged and yelled out. "You fucking asshole! I'm not doing that!"

He fully expected Falric and him to come to blows. There were no cultist to put them back together again, but maybe that would be the best. Instead, Falric removed his helmet. He looked back at Marwyn. To his shock, Falric looked remorseful.

"I hate hearing you cry. Deathknights don't cry!"

Marwyn glared at him. "I know. I'm weak. My parents used to tell me that. Arthas used to tell me and you still tell me. Sapphire was the only one who thought I was strong."

"You are strong for a weakling," Falric pointed out viciously.

"Love you too, Fal. But I'm not going to give up on Sapphire."

With that, Marwyn went forward and past Falric. As he walked, it heartened him a bit to hear Falric follow. The two of them made their way into the Shadow throne room and into the hidden hallways that made up Arthas's private quarters, which included Sapphire's small room.

Here there was the obvious signs. Sapphire's ice skating boots were lying just near the entrance, encrusted with ice just like everything else. Marwyn had taught her how to ice skate when she barely knew how to walk. They had been planning on going ice skating in the Court of Bones before...everything. He never got to see Sapphire after he died at the hands of adventurers and Arthas brought him back. Both he and Falric had been punished severely.

After Arthas was defeated, Falric and him both got out of their cells. Marwyn had rushed to Sapphire's room to find her. She had not been there. She had been missing and later the new Lich King had informed them that she had a piece of Frostmourne as well. Falric had gone off to hunt her down and bring her and the shard back without sucess. That was over two years ago.

She would be taller...if she was still alive. Sapphire was so fragile, Marwyn had to wonder if Falric was right. That somewhere in the wastes of Dragonblight lay her tiny body amongst the bones of dragons.

To call it a bedroom was being very generous. The small room that Sapphire had lived in was more like a prison cell. She had a bed and a shelf and a chest for her clothes. The two deathknights almost felt crowded in the room.

"Her voice was so fucking irritating," Falric commented. Marwyn allowed himself to smile. Despite his rough nature and his insistence that they were better off without her, Falric missed Sapphire too.

Marwyn reached into the shelf and pulled out the books. Most of them were children's books with fanciful tales and unrealistic situations.

"What was that creepy little lullaby you would sing to her?" Falric asked curiously.

The deathknight looked away from the books and back at his companion.

"Oh, that silly thing. It's just a song from my childhood in Darrowshire. All the kids sang it. Of course a boy from Capital City wouldn't know it!" Marwyn teased.

Falric hissed at him, but Marwyn ignored him. He reminisced both on Sapphire and his own childhood in Darrowshire. Marwyn had been a little terror in his town, stealing bread from the baker and pranking the elders. That was all in the distant past and parts of his memory seemed to have faded, but that song had stayed with him.

"Besides, even if it is creepy sounding, Sapphire loved it. Maybe...Maybe if she is out there and grows up, she'll have kids of her own and sing it to them."

Falric could see the man was being sentimental.

"How did it go again? Something about chains and having to be quiet?"

Marwyn looked at the deathknight in shock. He would never in a million years think that Falric would ask him to sing a damn lullaby. He wasn't even sure if he wanted to. Already he was feeling upset about all these memories. Falric gave him an annoyed look.

"If you don't want to, that's fine. It is a stupid song."

He always did that. Whenever he showed interest in something that made him look more human, he'd quickly turn to ice and pretend that he never had cared in the first place.

So, Marwyn sang. Falric liked his voice, which is what led to the strange request anyway.

Hush now little ones,

Rush now into the dark

Quiet your soft cries

Silence your fears now

Darkened wings follow the Banished One,

With his risen kingdom of metal and bone,

Death comes for all

Hide now, lest your laughter turns

into screams of horror as

everyone is chained and broken.

So don't you breaks the chains

of the Banished One,

Or all of reality will come undone.

His voice echoed out of Sapphire's room and throughout the Halls of Reflection. Sitting forlorn on the bier in Sword's Rest, a piece of Frostmourne had been placed there by Falric. The rest of the sword lay in pieces in various spots in the Citadel. If the two had been near any of them, they would have noticed that the shards started to glow menacingly.

Across the mountains, the forests, and the oceans on a completely different continent, Sapphire woke up with a start.

Back in the Citadel, something else stirred at the top of it.