"Damn dreadlord… Come to finish us while we're weak? You'd be hard pressed to find a dreadlord looking for a fair fight." Plate sighed.
The demon chuckled dryly. "Even were you both to fight me at the peak of your strength, your demise would be assured. No, your deaths will come in due time, but first you'll answer my questions." He said venomously, pointing toward Shadow. Shadow moved as fast as his injured body would allow, leaping toward the dreadlord with his dagger in hand. The demon merely sighed, a sickly green aura exuding from his hand. The aura seemed to flow through the air, striking Shadow in the chest before he'd gone three steps. Shadow completely lost control of his body, and began floating above the ground before being pulled face to face with the dreadlord.
"Tell me, who sent you here?" The dreadlord hissed.
Shadow glared at the demon and said nothing. The dreadlord whipped his arm to the right, sending Shadow flying into the wall. "Speak!"
"Gonna hab to do bedda den dat. Uth undead can' theel pain." Shadow said, his jaw broken from the impact. He attempted to grin, but his jaw refused to lift.
"Oh, you think so? Well, let me show you how wrong you are…" The dreadlord said ominously, the aura dissipating from both Shadow and his hand. Shadow fell heavily to the ground and attempted to stand immediately, dagger in hand.
The dreadlord put both hands in front of himself, dark tendrils rippling from each of his claws. The tendrils snaked toward Shadow's head, slamming into the rogue with physical force and knocking him back to the ground. His arm was wracked by a spasm, flinging his dagger back toward Plate. His vision swam for a moment, before pain exploded behind his eyes. It was the first physical sensation he'd felt since he died, and was the most horrific pain he'd ever remembered experiencing. He opened his mouth in an attempt to cry out, but no sound would escape.
"As you can see, you CAN feel pain. This is but a fraction of my power." The dreadlord said with sadistic glee. "Now tell me, who sent you?" He asked, releasing his grasp on Shadow.
Shadow found himself involuntarily panting, though his lungs had no use for the air. His mind was clouded, his thoughts sluggish. The rogue flipped himself so he was lying on his stomach and tried to push himself up. He found himself lying on his severed arm, lost during the fight with the abominations. "I…I wath…" He stammered, making a show of standing while grabbing his severed arm. "I…" He stammered again, hauling himself to his feet. Shadow had his back to the dreadlord, who was smiling at the shape he'd left the rogue in. Shadow swayed forward, as if he'd lost his balance. Then he turned suddenly, swinging his severed arm at the dreadlord. The audacity of the attack caught the dreadlord off guard, and Shadow managed to strike the demon in the head with his attack. "I wath hobin' I'd lang a hit bethore you killed neh." Shadow said contemptuously.
The demon roared with indignation, the attack having done nothing to him except wound his pride. "Insolent whelp, I will devour your very soul!" He shouted, enveloping Shadow in the green aura again and slamming him into the floor first, before flinging him into the wall and holding him there. The pain returned with a vengeance. The intensity was such that nothing else registered to Shadow. He forgot who he was, where he was or why he was there. All that mattered to him was the pain. The flow of time distorted itself in his eyes. He didn't know or care if it had been seconds, hours, or years he'd been suspended and tortured. He slowly realized his consciousness was fading. He almost welcomed the numbness that was beginning to enshroud him.
"VARIMATHRAS!"
The voice pierced through the pain, and Shadow instantly dropped to the ground. He slowly looked up and saw the demon kneeling before an undead elf by the looks of it. She was wearing exquisite leather armor, and was glaring at the dreadlord. "Milady…" The demon said reverently, dipping his head.
"Explain yourself Varimathras. Why are you torturing this undead?" The elf asked coldly.
"I was looking to the security of the Undercity, of course. These two snuck in through the sewers, I figured they were sent by the Lich King to sabotage…" Varimathras began.
"Silence! Anyone with ears would have heard them stumbling around the sewer tunnels, especially once they blundered into the abominations. Scourge infiltrators wouldn't give their position away so carelessly, and you know that as well as I do." The elf interrupted, turning her gaze toward Shadow and Plate.
"I…" The dreadlord stammered.
"You have been followed since you left the royal quarter. I personally began following you once you entered the sewers."
The dreadlord kept silent this time.
"You will return to the royal quarter and await my return. You are not to leave the Undercity without my express consent, understood?"
"As you decree, Milady…" The dreadlord fairly hissed, before heading back down the tunnel. His guards followed him, all but one.
"As for you two…" The elf said, turning back to Shadow and Plate.
"Ma'am." Plate greeted her.
"Silence, you speak to the Dark Lady, Sylvanas Windrunner, herself! You will speak when spoken to." The guard called out.
"Anders, you will show them to the Undercity, and thank you for informing me of my advisor's outings." Sylvanas said to the guard, ignoring the outburst.
"Of course. Thank you Milady." The guard said with a bow. With that, the banshee queen walked back down the tunnels.
The guard walked over to Shadow and helped him to his feet. "My apologies, but Lady Sylvanas demands respect and obedience in her presence. My name is Anders, Bartholomeiu Anders."
"Shank you…" Shadow mumbled.
"Warrior, can you move?" Anders asked, looking toward Plate.
"Do you think I'd be lying here like a fool if I could?" Plate asked bitterly.
"Perhaps… Fool enough to speak out of line to the Dark Lady herself." Anders retorted. Plate scoffed, but didn't follow up on the insult. "At any rate, you two are obviously in a bad way. I'll fetch a priest to heal you; I can't carry the warrior down the rest of the sewers. Please stay here, I'll return as quickly as possible." He asked, before hurrying back down the tunnel the rest had taken.
It was a long while before either of the two undead spoke. "Well, seems like we will be getting into the Undercity after all." Plate said as enthusiastically as possible. Shadow remained silent, glaring at the warrior. "Oh come on, it could have been worse. Sure I'm completely paralyzed and you were tortured by a demon, but that's all behind us now."
"Thut ub…" Shadow growled, sounding far less threatening than he'd hoped.
Plate let out a guffaw. "What tub? I don't see any baths around here. Like we need one anyway, we're dead now remember?"
Shadow was contemplating grabbing his dagger and finishing the warrior off, but just then Anders showed up with the priest. "That's them. Please see to their healing."
"As you wish, Anders." The priest said, bowing his head.
Walking over to Shadow, the priest dipped his head. A shadow pulsed from him, enshrouding the rogue's head. Suddenly, Shadow felt his jaw crack and lift back into place, the muscle reweaving to what it had once been. The priest motioned for Shadow to place his arm back where it belonged. Shadow held his arm near the shoulder where it had been severed. The priest dipped his head again, and Shadow saw the darkness enshroud his entire body. He felt his strength renew, and his arm fixed itself back to his body. Shadow reached out with both hands and flexed his fingers. "Huh, can't say I've ever had that happen before. Reattaching a severed arm…" The thought would have struck him as unnerving if he had been alive, but as it was he simply accepted it as another part of his new life.
The priest walked over to Plate next, and repeated the procedure. Due to the more grievous state of his wounds, the priest took a bit longer to mend the warrior's body than he did with Shadow. A few sickening pops and crunches later, the warrior was on his feet. Plate extended his hand to the priest with a jovial smile on his face, but the priest eyed him with disdain. "May I take my leave now?"
"Of course, the Dark Lady thanks you for your help." Anders replied.
"Mmm…" The priest grunted before turning to leave.
"Happy sort of fella…" Plate sighed, picking up his sword.
"He was pulled from his research. I imagine he wouldn't be happy." Anders responded. Motioning for Shadow and Plate to follow him, he headed down the tunnel. "Our priests spend much of their time trying to find new ways to use the shadow arts to help the Forsaken."
"I noticed that he was using the Shadow to heal us, shouldn't he have been using the Light?" Plate asked absentmindedly.
"Only if you wanted it to burn your flesh and destroy you utterly. Have you forgotten what we are? The Light shuns such monstrosities." Anders responded sourly.
"But the Shadow is pure destruction. How is it made to heal?" Shadow asked.
"That's what our priests spend time working on, bending the Shadow to our will. Suffusing the Shadow with a small amount of the Light."
"But I thought you just said that the Light burns us!" Plate interjected, confusion clear on his face.
Anders turned to look at him as he continued walking. "I never said it didn't hurt our priests to do so. They have conditioned themselves mentally to work through the pain. Progress is being made every day to find ways to rely less on the Light and more on the Shadow, but the fundamentals will never change. The Shadow destroys, and the Light heals."
The three of them remained silent for a while. It wasn't long until they started to hear the bustle of the Undercity ahead. After a few more turns they wound up at the top of a staircase, overlooking a large circular path bisected by a river of green goo. A large number of undead scurried in both directions along the paths on either side of the river in the middle.
A huge smile broke out on Plate's face. "I finally made it…" Shadow couldn't help but smile himself. He had to admit that this was both the most infuriating journey he'd ever been on, as well as the most interesting.
"You're no children, so I'm not going to hold your hand. To our left is the war quarter, where our warriors train. Beyond that is the magic quarter, where our mages practice their arcane arts. To our right is the apothecarium, as well as Our Lady's throne room. You aren't going to be exploring either without good reason. Past that is the rogue quarter. I'm sure you can guess what's there. If you head more inward, you'll find the commerce center of the Undercity. Auctioneers, the inn, weapon and armor merchants, etcetera. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have business to attend to." Anders explained, and with a small bow headed off toward the war quarter.
Plate started to follow. "I'm heading to the war quarter. I want to spar with a few of these Forsaken. Where do you want to meet up?" He called back.
Shadow scoffed. "If I want to find you again, I will…" With that he headed off toward the right. Plate shrugged and hurried toward the sound of barking undead and clashing steel.
Shadow walked forward, no particular destination in mind. He looked around, noting that it wasn't only undead that occupied the Undercity. He would occasionally spot orcs and blood elves busying themselves with various activities. He found himself in the rogue quarter he presumed, merchants selling poisons and other such things lined the walls. He found himself wanting solitude, and this seemed to be the quietest place he'd thus far encountered. He looked up and found he was standing underneath a balcony. He didn't see any doors or stairs that led to it, so he clambered up the wall. The wall was slick, and difficult to get a grip upon, but he enjoyed the challenge. When he finally managed to get a hold on the floor of the balcony, he pulled himself up. He sat down against the wall, facing the rogue quarter. He looked out upon what was happening below and sighed. Drawing one of his daggers, he tossed it idly. He allowed himself a moment to reflect on everything that had happened recently. How he'd come from common cutthroat to a member of the Forsaken.
Unease welled within him. He wasn't sure what to do. He longed for the simplicity he'd once enjoyed, and yet he enjoyed the company of others like himself. He realized now that he'd been alone and hopeless so long, and now he'd finally found comrades. They shared his anger, his hatred of the Lich King, his envy of those whose lives hadn't been taken from them. Perhaps he could get along here, find a cause to lend his blade to. He didn't know how long he'd been sitting there, thinking, but when he opened his eyes he spied Plate wandering around the rogue quarter. Waiting until Plate was below him; he leapt down, knocking the warrior to the ground and putting his blade to the back of Plate's neck. "You're dead, warrior."
Shadow stood up, helping Plate to his feet. "I guess you finally got the better of me. I got a bit careless in the wake of my excitement. I find myself surprised though, it doesn't seem like you to joke. Are you okay?" Plate commented.
Shadow shrugged. "A moment of weakness, if you will."
Plate grinned. "I put a few of those 'warriors' in their place, though a few of them certainly shut me down. I think I'm going to like it here."
Shadow allowed himself a smile. "Me too." He said, and allowed himself to laugh, really laugh, for the first time in a very long time.