A/N - I heavily debated what happens in this chapter within myself, and with a couple of others. I've decided it helps the story too much to avoid it. I've also never been one to shy away from difficult topics. So, with that, there is a warning on this chapter for non-consensual sex/rape. I've put the warning just before it starts, so feel free to read until then. On a personal note, I unfortunately write on this topic from experience so please spare me any ignorant comments about how certain things are and are not possible. I don't normally hide or censor reviews but those absolutely will be.

Chapter 7

The skeletal horse beneath Sylvanas whinnied impatiently and she automatically patted the bones of its neck to calm it. Unlike humanoids, most animals that contracted the plague did not die and rise again. They just became undeath itself, and slowly rotted away to become skeletons. Most of these creatures were killed on sight, but the horses were still useful. No living horse would accept Sylvanas or her kind as a rider, so they saddled up the only horses who would. She didn't mind. Like her, they didn't need to eat, drink or sleep, so they were the perfect mount for the Forsaken. Her mount was probably sensing Sylvanas' own impatience. She was certainly not hiding it.

She snapped irritably at the heavily armoured Forsaken male standing next to her. "Get on with it, Executor. I haven't got all evening."

He nodded enthusiastically. "Of course, my Queen." He turned and issued some orders to a subordinate who hurried off.

Sylvanas resisted the urge to sigh. Her presence had been requested at the small town of Brill, a few hours north of Undercity. Every few months the army held a small parade in her honour to show her the newly graduated recruits. It wasn't much, but they were proud to serve her, and she typically tried to attend personally instead of sending a representative. It was routinely a new recruit's first glimpse of their queen, and she found it helped instil the fanaticism the rest of her people had for her into them. Considering the ultimate mission she was building the army for, it couldn't hurt to show her face every so often. Even if it did bore her deeply.

She heard them before she saw them, their booted feet stamping along the stone road that crossed through the town. Most wore ramshackle bits and pieces of heavy metal armour that clanked heavily against swords and shields, but she noted a few in this group appeared to be robed spellcasters carrying staves. Good, she thought. Those were generally rare amongst the humans as they had not accepted magic as readily as the elves had. Still, she had been pleasantly surprised by how many had embraced their innate magical talent once they were freed from the Lich King's grasp, the cultural shackles of the living by then a distance memory.

As the last rank filed past proudly, she dismounted and walked into a building that had formerly been the town hall. Knowing the way, she led Executor Zygand, commander of her armed forces in Tirisfal Glades, to his own office.

Once there, he beamed at her gleefully. "We've got a good group this time, my Lady! Some have joined the local deathguard, but we'll be able to send most of them to the Bulwark."

She regarded him coolly. The Bulwark was a heavily fortified position to the east that was under constant attack from the Scourge in the plaguelands. It was a position they held precariously, and it had been a big source of frustration for the queen considering her plans to conquer Lordaeron.

"Their armour couldn't hold up against a stiff breeze, Executor. How do you expect them to survive a full assault on the Scourge?"

He hesitated before glancing towards a rack on the wall full of scrolls. "Well … uh … I've put in several requests for new equipment, or at least the base materials to make it ourselves, over the past few weeks. I actually have another ready to se—"

"Who did you send them to?" she interrupted.

"High Executor Derrington, my Lady," he promptly replied.

Who would have passed the requests he couldn't sanction on to Grand Executor Dillard, who was still languishing in her dungeon, she thought angrily. She had yet to select a replacement for him as her faith in her senior officers had been rocked by Alyna's revelations. She realised she should probably promote someone, and quickly. There was no telling what other damage Dillard had done that she had not immediately noticed for herself once she had dug into his records. It would appear her supply lines had been tampered with. She decided to pay Dillard a visit once she got back to Undercity.

"Give your request to my aide, and redo any communications you've made in the last few weeks you've not had a response to." She cursed Dillard silently. She was going to have order every single outpost she had to resubmit in the same fashion. She had managed to keep Dillard's treachery relatively quiet, but some of her outposts had Horde affiliates present, and the resubmissions would raise questions. The last thing she needed at the moment was the Horde's warchief questioning her ability to rule.

"Thank you, my Lady."

She looked at him emotionlessly before she left him to his work. The building now served as an inn of sorts, though it had been emptied out for the banshee queen's visit. She let her feet automatically guide her up the stairs and down a dark corridor to the furthest room. She knocked softly and let herself in to the empty room, her eyes taking in the dusty single cot, rotting wooden table and rickety chair. Cobwebs hung from every corner, barely visible as the setting sun struggled to shine through the almost opaque window. Cleaning was not a Forsaken trait.

As soon as she closed the door, Kyala dropped out of stealth before her. She had a dagger in her hand which she quickly sheathed before saluting her queen.

Sylvanas would have preferred to hold this meeting in her office in Undercity, but Brill was just her first stop on a tour of Tirisfal Glades that would last a few days. It had already been a week since the incident with the tauren, and her impatience over wanting news of Alyna had won the day. She had met Kyala here like this before, so the protocol was easy enough to arrange.

She opened her hands in a gesture she hoped was inviting as she ordered, "Report." When Kyala's first reaction was to frown, Sylvanas knew she was not going to get what she wanted. Sylvanas let out a sound of frustration and began to pace a few steps before she stopped before her subordinate. She crossed her arms over her chest and glared at Kyala.

"She's not letting me get close, Dark Lady."

"I told you not to let her out of your sight," Sylvanas fired back.

Kyala let her own frustration show in her gestures. "Well, yes, physically we've been close." Her eyes widened as Sylvanas' narrowed and she hurried to expand on her words, "As in, I've not let her out of my sight kind of close, not close-close as in what you and she had close … ahh … shit." Her shoulders dropped. "She's not talking to me about anything important, my Lady." She shook her head slowly. "I don't sense it's out of malice though."

Sylvanas raised a silver-blonde eyebrow. "Explain."

Kyala searched for her words before replying, "Most of her omissions feel as if she just believes nothing is gained by the retelling of it, which gives me the impression that none of it is tactically significant in her opinion. It's just personal information, and she is very much keeping all that to herself."

"It's for me to judge what is tactically relevant to the Forsaken, personal or otherwise."

Kyala nodded without hesitation, "Quite so, Dark Lady, but that is something she does not recognise yet."

Sylvanas looked at Kyala carefully. "Are you saying she does not accept my authority?"

Realising how her words could be taken the wrong way, Kyala corrected herself. "No, my Lady. She has just not fully reconciled herself to the fact she is now starting over again at the bottom, and that her opinion is currently overruled by pretty much everyone else's. Especially yours."

"Especially mine?"

Kyala shifted uncomfortably. "She's always been smart, my Lady. She knows I'm spying on her, and she knows it's for you. I think her general mood has improved as a result of my presence, but will she open up to me? I doubt it."

Sylvanas mulled over her ranger's words. "You said 'most' of her omissions fall into that category. What of the others?"

"Shame, I believe." Kyala looked sad as she said the words. "She's ashamed of something, or lots of things. I could not even begin to hazard any guesses as to what."

Neither could Sylvanas, but then she was not capable of such a thing as shame anymore so she could not even try to empathise with Alyna to figure it out.

The banshee queen growled her irritation. "I don't suppose you have a solution to getting her to open up?" Sylvanas wanted to be able to fully trust Alyna again, but she couldn't if she couldn't figure out what was going on in her head. Kyala gave Sylvanas a strange look and it unsettled the queen briefly. "What?"

"With respect, my Lady, but have you thought about asking her yourself?" Kyala looked like she was ready to duck. It would seem Sylvanas' inability to accept personal advice was well known. She took it badly, for the most part.

This time, she was too stunned by the suggestion to react immediately, and Kyala relaxed, slightly.

"I did ask her," Sylvanas started, "after the incident with the tauren. She lied to me, I'm sure of it."

Kyala nodded her agreement before softly proposing, "Perhaps that was too soon afterwards for her to be able to talk about it? I was also there, and that may have put her off."

Sylvanas did not move as she held Kyala's gaze. She was not about to admit that the other woman had the only possible solution, primarily because she did not want to have those conversations with Alyna. She had repeatedly told herself the best place to get what she wanted was directly from the source, but there was something about reconnecting with Alyna on such a personal level that deeply unsettled her. She wanted to avoid it, and had hoped Kyala could have acted as a protective buffer between them. That was looking less and less likely with every passing moment.

Not wanting to confront the issue any further for now, she did what she was good at – she changed the subject.

"How's her training coming along?"

Used to her queen's conversational tangents, Kyala took the redirection in her stride. "Erratically, but she should be ready to be assigned to a unit in a week or two. She is picking some things up almost absurdly easy, but struggling with others. There's no real pattern to it, so Talnia is having a hard time planning her training."

Sylvanas dropped her head and allowed herself to sigh with uncontained exasperation. "She's not a banshee, Kyala. Has that not occurred to anyone? She won't be adapting to things in the same way we had to." Kyala blinked in stunned silence, which managed to irritate Sylvanas even further. She snapped at the statuesque ranger angrily, "I'd have expected Talnia not to be able to see past her own arrogance and hatred for Alyna to see that small but significant fact about my latest recruit, but what's your excuse?"

"I … I have none, Dark Lady," Kyala stammered. "I thought Talnia had it all in hand and never questioned her methods."

"And what precisely are these methods?"

"The same as you used on us, my Lady, as far as I can tell." Sylvanas could see Kyala was not quite finished, and waited patiently for the ranger to continue. "Though, there's an atmosphere between them that leads me to believe it was different before I arrived. Neither of them have said anything, exactly, but their visual exchanges and snide remarks allude to something I am not aware of, so it must have happened before I arrived."

Sylvanas gritted her teeth before eventually dismissing the observation out of hand. "They probably had a fight. Or two. I can't say it would surprise me if they did, but that is a discipline issue for Talnia to sort out. As long as Alyna's training has not been adversely affected, I won't interfere. You, however, will bring it to Talnia's attention that Alyna's unique physiology may require her to adapt our basic training techniques to accommodate her."

"And if she dismisses my observation, my Lady?"

"Then you bring it to me. Talnia's not stupid though. She knows you're one of my personal agents." While all of the rangers ultimately answered directly to Sylvanas, the queen had a few select rangers who performed delicate missions for her on a regular basis. All three captains were aware of who most of them were so as not to get in their way if they were actively on a mission, as Kyala was on currently. While the captains out-ranked the rangers Sylvanas used, they were acting directly on their queen's orders, and the punishment for hindering them would be severe.

Kyala nodded her understanding.

Sylvanas belatedly noticed the sun had fully set. It was time for her to move on to her next destination. She gave Kyala a disappointed look.

"I have placed you at Alyna's side to be my eyes and ears, Kyala. I expect more from you the next time we meet."

Kyala stood to attention. "Yes, Dark Lady."

Sylvanas left her agent alone in the room. She had not needed to chastise Kyala, especially as it seemed like there was nothing more the woman could have done. However, she could not reward failure either, even if it was a rare failure for the talented ranger. She knew Kyala would know that, and would go back to Alyna with more determination than ever to please her queen.

Now she just had to figure out if she could bring herself to have a heart to heart with the last person on Azeroth she wanted to have such a conversation with.

Alyna walked slowly through the ruins of the former capital city of Lordaeron. Talnia had ordered her here for the next part of her training, but she was not entirely sure what her captain intended. Normally, she was given a short brief on what she was to do when she got to her destination, but not this time. She was also unfamiliar with this part of the ruins, and she was hot. It was mid-afternoon and the sun was warming her to uncomfortable levels. She would have enjoyed such a warm day in life, but her undead body was better suited to colder climates. It was another reminder of how different she was now.

She didn't even have Kyala to moan to; the constantly animated woman off on some mission of her own. She had no idea how Kyala even felt like being cheerful, let alone maintain the attitude almost indefinitely. She found it annoying and entertaining in equal measure. Most of the time it was refreshing to have someone actually make jokes and smile. Other times she just wanted to be allowed to brood and be left alone. That was one thing Kyala had not done until now – left her alone. As frustrating as it had been occasionally, it had made her training a little more pleasant. Talnia had ceased with her 'black arrows', as the rangers called the painful ability, and with anything else that could be considered physical abuse.

Although grateful, it had confirmed Alyna's suspicion that Kyala was spying for Sylvanas. While she was most likely there to report on Alyna, Talnia was behaving herself in the event Kyala felt like reporting on her as well. She was happy for her old friend that Sylvanas had taken her into her inner circle, but she hated the chasm it now created between them. The only secrets Alyna had would be those she kept to herself. Any doubts she aired, any uncertainties she needed to talk through would need to be done in her own mind, because as soon as she told anyone within the Forsaken it would eventually get back to Sylvanas.

Alyna ducked into what looked to be a disused bakery to get out of the sun. Small chalk signs sat on a counter advertising various delicacies and their prices. The trays were empty; their contents having long rotted away or been scavenged. She moved around the counter to the back room. Two large stone ovens stood cold and dusty along the back wall, before which were two long wooden tables. Tools of the trade were scattered in seemingly chaotic positions, but she had seen enough of this in the rest of the ruins to understand what had happened. They had been dropped mid-use as their owners had fled from the onslaught of death Arthas had unleashed after murdering his father, King Terenas. Most of the city had been ostensibly frozen in time that day, the stories of the ordinary people of Lordaeron forever paused in one moment of unbelievable treachery and violence. She knew the same had happened to her own nation, Quel'Thalas. Most of the south was still overrun by Scourge after the villages had been rapidly abandoned six years ago as the rangers had retreated north with as many civilians as they could take with them.

Alyna was so engrossed in the past, she failed to notice the shadow behind her before it was too late. The blow to the back of her head was vicious, and she grunted as she fell across the closest table to send a long-handled rusting baker's shovel clattering to the floor. A part of her mind decided to highlight a faint dark-brown stain beneath her where someone else had also been attacked in this spot years before. She tried to gather herself enough to cast a repulsing spell against her attacker, but she was too slow. The next blow came quickly, and she felt the darkness envelope her.

Trigger warning: non-consensual sex

Alyna struggled against her restraints. She had woken moments before to find her hands shackled above her head, and her ankles also bound to posts. She was on an old iron bed, and she was also very naked. A flash of fear had momentarily overcome her and she had tried to teleport herself away, but there was something preventing her from using her magic. Frantically, she tugged her wrists down as hard as she could in an effort to break free.

A low chuckle sounded and she looked down her body to the door to the room. Talnia filled the frame, her smirk widening as she saw the surprised look on Alyna's face.

It took Alyna a moment to get over the shock of who had attacked her, but when she did she was furious. "What the fuck is this, Talnia?"

"Come now, Alyna," Talnia purred as she moved slowly beside the bed, trailing a gloved finger up Alyna's leg and body. "Your naivety was almost cute all those years ago, but even you can't be so dense you don't recognise this for what it is."

Alyna blinked in stunned surprise. "You want to … rape me?"

Talnia laughed at her. "You belong to me, Alyna – I can do what I want. When Sylvanas placed you in my company she gave you to me, body and soul. You serve her, through me. And what I require of my rangers is quite rigorous, in all things." She moved to stand at the bottom of the bed. She made no effort to disguise her desire as she removed her gauntlets, and also her anger at her next words. "We're nothing but implements of war to her, Alyna. Tools for her vengeance against Arthas. I give my rangers a chance to be more than that … to be women again."

"You think sleeping with them whether they want you or not empowers them?" she asked incredulously.

The captain shrugged casually. "It empowers those who embrace what they are, yes. We're dead, but we still have the ability to enjoy our bodies and take back something of what was taken from us."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Alyna was genuinely confused.

Talnia cocked her head slightly as she assessed Alyna's question. "I suppose you've not felt it yet, then." She gave Alyna a smirk, "No doubt because of your 'unique physiology' Kyala so subtly brought to my attention." She moved up the other side of the bed, her bare fingers tracing patterns along Alyna's body as she spoke. To Alyna's horror, her body responded slightly. Her body's idea of sensation was normally dull but the nerve endings in her skin now practically sang at Talnia's attention as the other woman spoke. "The Lich King has the ability to manipulate different aspects of our souls, as you know. He likes to enhance our more negative traits, at the expense of positive ones. But it seems he cannot remove everything he considers undesirable, and what he cannot remove, he suppresses with his considerable will. The Scourge have no use for procreation, but our baser instincts are inextricably linked to our sex drive. Now you're free, it will return to you. Nothing comes from denying it."

"I'm not denying anything!" Alyna cried, panic now rising in her chest as she struggled again against the manacles around her wrists. Even as she said the words she realised they were now false. She had not felt any physical need other than her hunger, but what Talnia was doing to her was kick starting her body into other ideas. Her nipples were already hard.

"That won't do much good. The manacles are enchanted to stop you from using your magic, and the bed is quite solid." She smiled slowly. "It's been tested on others as strong as you."

She continued to manipulate Alyna's body with what the restrained ranger recognised to be considerable skill. "You're a hypocrite, doing this to me," she spat.

It made Talnia pause briefly as she tried to place the comment. "Because of how I felt about you and Sylvanas?" Alyna's glare was enough to confirm the guess. Talnia chuckled. "You really are naïve aren't you? I have nothing against fucking women." A self-satisfied smirk found its way onto her face. "As you can no doubt tell, I'm no stranger to the concept." Her hand was trailing slowly down Alyna's abdomen towards the juncture between her legs. Alyna tried to shrug the other woman away but could not move enough to do so.

Talnia ignored her, continuing her explanation, and exploration. "I had nothing against either of you when it was just you two romping around every dark corner of the forest. Trust me when I say, most of us would have loved to have been in your place." Her features creased into a scowl. "What I could not tolerate was your blatant disregard for Quel'dorei tradition when you both turned your back on your family obligations. You both could have married others and maintained your little tryst in the shadows, but what did either of you care about the stability of our society? You threw it all selfishly back in our faces!"

When the violation came, Alyna managed not to cry out. She had wanted to glare at Talnia as she did what she wanted, to let her know what she was doing was unwelcome. Instead, she had closed her eyes and turned away. She cursed herself. She was no stranger to coping with having her body used, but somehow this was different. Her body was responding to the woman's attentions against her own will. She tried to fight the rising tide inside her, tried to push it down and ignore the increasing need for release.

It was not enough. When Talnia forced the orgasm from her, she rode it silently, not giving Talnia the satisfaction of hearing her moan. It was bad enough the woman could do this to her. She was not going to give her anything else.

Talnia chuckled so close to her ear it startled her, but she kept her face away from the woman as she listened to her words. "Now, that wasn't so bad, was it?" She heard an almost wistful sigh. "Still, you're not as fun as your former fiancée."

That got a reaction from Alyna. She turned her head to stare at the woman who had just violated her.

Talnia laughed. "Oh? You don't know?" She trailed wet fingers across Alyna's abdomen, tracing the scar Frostmourne had left in its wake. "After we freed ourselves from Arthas and regained our bodies, we were all quite overcome by our new found desire. As, I might add, you will be when your time comes." She smiled hungrily. "Don't worry, I'll be here to help you through it." She chuckled at her own thoughts. "Anyway, most of us tried to control our lust but it was all consuming. Sylvanas was also affected … and your beloved came to me to sate her needs."

Alyna had no reply, even as Talnia began to remove her leg armour, boots and leggings. It wasn't until when the other woman straddled her that Alyna was shocked out of her thoughts. She could smell the woman's excitement and she turned her head away.

"You've had your way, but I'm not going to service you," she growled at the captain.

Talnia grabbed a handful of Alyna's white hair and jerked her head up so she could make eye contact. "Oh, but you will if you want me to say you're fit to serve as a dark ranger." Her smile was cruel. "There's more than one way to serve, dear Alyna, and this is one test you absolutely must pass to get my recommendation." She tapped the side of Alyna's face mockingly. "And don't get smart with those fangs of yours. Not … yet, anyway." She winked at the dull black eyes staring up at her.

Alyna closed her eyes and felt her body go limp as she gave in to her despair.