Chapter 14:
I have only one place left to go to.
I don't want to become part of the Horde, yet no one else would accept me as I was clearly once a member of the Forsaken.
Seeing the ruins of Lordaeron after such a long time gives me a certain feeling of coming home, strange nonetheless.
The blue banner with the white mask on it welcomes me as it continues to shed the single bloody tear.
Although I deny making a vow to the so-called Warchief, Thrall, I assume that I would still be welcome here no matter what.
I make a brief stop in the throne room of the ruins above Undercity. The curdled blood of Terenas Menethil is still visible on the cold stone floor. A remnant never leaving this world behind...
Arthas is the one who took everything away from me. My father..., my mother..., my own life and the life of the only two real friends I have ever had. My hand wanders again to the bag tied to my belt on its own. I decide to travel by foot from here on out. And so I get off my deathcharger and dismiss it to the realm of shadows. Armageddon and the other nameless axe are fastened to my back crosswise.
The Forsaken of Undercity look at me with distrust. All they know is that I am an enemy to them, but even if they knew who I was before becoming a death knight, they would still not be too pleased to see me. Either way I can't blame them.
Yet something is different this time. My name is now Malevolence. It is the name the Lich King himself has given to me. And I will keep it to make it my own. I will not bail out again. This time I will accept what has happened and live with it.
This way the Lich King already knows the name of the person who will bring an end to his reign!
As I enter the Apothecarium on my way to the Royal Quarter, I hear how some of the Forsaken giggle in the typical mad fashion as they chat about making good progress with a new plague. Betrayal and deceit lurk everywhere...
Closing in on the destination I had been following for now I bluntly enter the imperial chamber where the Banshee Queen stands high upon her pedestal, keeping watch over the undead of Lordaeron.
The guards want to charge at me as soon as I enter the hall their queen reigns in, but she instantly raises her hand without a single word signalizing that everything is fine just how it is.
I take the right staircase up to get closer. On my way I pass by her advisor, the dreadlord Varimathras. The Nathrezim eagerly follows every step I take with his small eyes. I dealt with his kind before and I would never trust such a creature in any form.
The moment I stand right in front of the Banshee Queen my mind is cleared of any thought, no matter it being of my dead family or friends or the atrocities I had committed in the course of the last days or maybe even months.
Carefully I take the axe off my back and lay it down on the floor to my left. On the way over to Tirisfal I had decided on a worthy name for the blade it being Shadow's Edge.
Then I continue to take Armageddon off my back and use it as a support for a couple of seconds as I look up to the queen of the Forsaken.
Turning a bit to my right, I then raise the mighty weapon over my head as good as I can, the tip of the blade still pointing to the ground.
With a single powerful thrust downwards I drive the sword halfway into the stone floor.
The guards almost charge at me again for this sudden outburst of violent strength, but the Banshee Queen instead stops them with yet another brief gesture of her hand.
She is the only person in Azeroth that hates Arthas just as much as I do.
She is the only one that can comprehend.
The faces of Keira and Corren come to my mind as I look at my weapon. Taking a step away from it, I turn back to face the empress of the Forsaken.
She raises an eyebrow in anticipation of what to come. Still she hasn't spoken a single word since my arrival here.
Between my two weapons I fall onto my knees and bow to her.
Apparently she is pleased with the things she is seeing.
I know what I have done to myself and the people who were closest to me. I am also fully aware that I still have to grow if I want that day to come when I will have the chance to face and bring down the Lich King.
She knows how I don't have any intention of becoming part of the Horde as such, that I would never pledge my soul to an orcish warchief.
The Forsaken were the ones who once promised to be a new family for me and I turned them down in all my foolishness.
A cunning smile comes to the lips of the Banshee Queen.
She will be the last person that I will ever bow to.
Sylvanas Windrunner.