I awoke in her arms. She had come to bed with me, vaguely protesting when I'd gotten into bed naked and pulled her beside me, telling me that I would get cold. But I hadn't cared. We had needed each other and that had been final. Sylvanas had held me tightly throughout the night. I'd woken up three times on the verge of a scream, but she'd kissed me and soothed me back to sleep each time.

I loved her. I loved her still, so much that it left an ache deep within me.

"Good morning," she told me.

I snuggled against her, "Hi."

"You're frozen again."

I did feel cold, but I cared less about that than about being as close to Sylvanas as I could be. "That's okay. I don't care as long as I'm with you."

I felt her giving one of her habitual sighs, even though she didn't need to breathe. She rubbed my side slowly, "You know that when we get back to Undercity –."

"I know." She had to appear strong in front of her leaders. Her needing me like this was a one-time thing, because of where we were, because of the memories haunting us. "I can still love you, right?"

Her hand moved to brush a lock of hair away from my forehead, "Yes, you can still love me. But don't be hurt if I revert back to my usual self when we get home. Right here, I'm a victim of the Scourge, and so are you. When we get back, I'll need to be the queen again." She pulled me closer to her and kissed me, "Actually, I'm thinking I'll have to be that again starting today."

Starting today. I nodded, "Whatever you think is best." This would mean that she would emotionally distance herself from me again, now that she'd taken what she needed. I didn't think I'd ever be ready for the distance that would grow between the two of us.

I began to get out of bed, and Sylvanas came with me, her body displaying the muscles she'd had in life. Suddenly, I felt weak with longing for her, and I guess it showed on my face, because she looked at me shrewdly. "You want to make love to me, don't you?" she asked in a low voice that sent blissful chills up and down my spine.

"You know the answer to that question without my actually needing to say anything."

"I do. But as there's someone waiting outside, I doubt we have the time to indulge."

"We could try," I said, looking at her hopefully.

Her smile was brief, "You're shaking. I'm pretty sure you'll scream if I touch you where you want me to touch you."

"I can be quiet."

"Oh, can you?"

She walked to me quickly and fastened her lips to mine in a dizzying kiss that tasted of chilled death and what I'd come to identify as Sylvanas. She pressed her knee against my groin, rubbing gently, and I gave an unexpected moan of pleasure that was more certainly heard outside the room.

Sylvanas chuckled, "What did I tell you?"

"I don't care who hears me, Sylvanas." I kissed her again, aggressively this time, wrapping a leg around her waist. Her hand came down to clutch at me as her kiss met mine. Picking me up, she carried me back to the bed, and then, right then, I found out, finally, what it was like to really make love to the woman I loved. She was dead, but her movements were alive. She explored parts of me that I'd kept for her, pressing her hand against my mouth to keep me from screaming out her name. I twisted the sheets in my hands as I hit a plateau of pleasure that made me see the stars in a whole new way.

She pulled away from me, looking more than a little proud of herself.

"What was that about you staying quiet?" she asked me.

I sat up and kissed her again, "Do you need me to…"

"Mmm. Maybe when you get home."

"When I get home? You're leaving me?"

"Shh, I'm not going anywhere yet, but I will."

"No…"

"It's all right, Faith. You'll be okay."

"Sylvanas… I can't do it alone." I just couldn't. "You needed me yesterday, I'm going to need you now."

"I know you are. And I'll stay with you as much as I can. But I do need to get back to Undercity, if only to get more troops to send here." She stroked my cheek, wiping away the tears that were already falling.

I pressed myself against her, unwilling to let her go. She let me stay there a while, perhaps understanding that I genuinely felt that I couldn't be without her. If we were going to Southern Quel'Thalas, if we were going home, I couldn't be alone.

After some time, Sylvanas took a sponge and washed my body gently before we helped each other get dressed. We both could have done these things on our own, obviously, but there was something sweet about helping each other. We'd done that all the time, when she'd been alive. Barred from doing much of anything else, we'd always taken our time getting dressed together, lacing each other's boots slowly enough for it to become erotic in its own way.

"Come on," she said to me. "The hardest bit is over."

"What do you mean?"

"We survived coming back here without completely falling apart." She stroked my cheek, "I didn't think you'd be able to make it. And I sure as hell didn't expect to be affected the way I was yesterday."

"I will never allow them to hurt you again," I said. "Need I give my life for it, I will."

"Shh, Faith." She pulled a bit of skin from her lip absently, "You don't need to worry about that."

"Of course I do. People who love each other worry about each other."

"Yes, but you don't need to make yourself sick with it." She kissed my forehead, "Let's go."

The sun had risen while we'd gotten dressed, and most of the rangers were sitting down to breakfast. Halduron looked at us once, then back down at his plate. I could swear I saw him blushing.

I took a seat, and Sylvanas handed me a plate with buttered toast, scrambled eggs, and sausage. I wasn't really hungry, but I didn't want a debate, so I took the plate from her and began to eat. I hadn't eaten the previous evening, and with the exercise I'd gotten with Sylvanas earlier, I did feel distinctly faint. She watched me as I ate, ready to say something if I showed any inclination of stopping before she was satisfied.

I managed to eat most of what was on my plate. It was the most food I'd eaten in a long while. I'd lied to her before, when I'd told her that I was all right. I hadn't been eating normally. The bit of food I'd been able to ingest since she and I had come to blows had been minimal, and my body had rejected it almost every time.

"How far are we intending to go today?" asked Sylvanas to Halduron.

"Tranquillen, at least. We'll get to Windrunner Spire by tomorrow, unless we get badly held up by the Scourge."

"Is that likely?" I asked.

"They're very active in the Ghostlands."

I shook my head, "How many do they kill a day?"

"Too many. They have necromancers and liches, as I said before. They've raised a lot of them as shades in Goldenmist Village. Oh, and we heard there are banshees at Windrunner Spire."

I felt Sylvanas freeze behind me. "Banshees?" she asked.

"Fallen rangers," I said, running a hand over my eyes. I wanted to hold Sylvanas' hand, but knew she wouldn't let me now. "Has anything been heard of the rest of the Windrunners?"

"I'm afraid not, Faith. I'm afraid that Vereesa is the only one who survived the Scourge."

I risked a glance at Sylvanas, but the expression on her face was unreadable. Suddenly, she left the room, going outside.

"Excuse me," I told Halduron, getting up and following her. She was inside the tower again. From the sounds I heard, she was pummeling one of the walls inside. "Sylvanas."

"Get out Faith. I don't want you to see me like this."

"No." I put my arms around her and she screamed, fighting my embrace tooth and nail. I stood my ground, accepting a blow or two to the abdomen until she calmed down. "I'm here, Sylvanas. Please don't shut me out when you're grieving for your family."

She sagged against me and I rubbed my cheek against hers, not caring about the dead skin that was remaining stuck to mine after such a struggle. Her hand came up to rub the back of my neck.

"Did I hurt you?"

"I'll bruise, but that's okay. Look at your hands."

She did, and saw, like me, that the skin of her knuckles had been ripped away by her fight with the wall, exposing white bone beneath. "I'll live."

"Let me take care of that, come here." I led her out of the tower and had her sit down on the grass with me in front of her. Taking both her hands in my lap, I murmured a few spells, shooting tiny darts of white light at her wounds so that the skin of her knuckles fused itself back together. "There you go." I kissed her fingers.

She looked at me, her eyes wide, "Thank you, my Faith."

Her Faith. My heart began to pound, and my hands shook. I was hers.

Someone cleared his throat, and looking up, I saw Lor'themar standing next to us, looking at us with concern.

"Is everything okay? I heard you screaming."

All of Eversong Woods had heard her screaming, but I didn't mention that.

"I'm fine," she said icily, taking her hand away from mine.

"We're ready to go then."

We both nodded and got up to get our bags, which we then fastened to Venom's saddle. Sylvanas climbed onto him with her bow on her shoulder and made space for me so that I could get into the saddle in front of her. The moment I was seated, she wrapped an arm around me and held me close while holding the reins in her other hand.

We were on our way, riding hard for several hours. Crossing the Dead Scar again proved to be a challenge because of the numerous undead there, but we took care of them easily enough. Sylvanas kept her arm around me the whole time, keeping me steady throughout the ride into what had been my home.

I remembered a wood that had been lush with vibrant green life, the colors bright and fresh. The woods we entered were still green, but they weren't fresh anymore. Despite the eleven magic that still permeated the area, everything felt sick, evil. I let out a low moan of dismay when I saw the change. Sylvanas held me tighter, kissing my cheek discreetly.

"It even smells different," I said quietly.

Feral lynxes and bats that looked rabid roamed the area. In the distance, where I knew Suncrown Village to be, I saw cobwebs in the trees.

"The trolls were affected by the Scourge too," said Lor'themar.

"They were raised?" I asked.

"I'm afraid so, yes."

"Undead Amani trolls," said Sylvanas. "Fantastic."

We crested a hill, immediately seeing that Tranquillen was under attack by two dozen undead creatures. A guard lay on the road, his neck clearly broken. Yet, he was stirring.

"Not another necromancer," I hissed. I didn't think I could handle another one.

But there was no choice. Sylvanas kicked Venom and he reared before charging. I sent out my black fire in every possible direction, catching the rising guard in the chest. His rattling cry was cut off as he turned to ash before me. I leapt off the skeletal horse and began to fight. Felicity and Halduron already by my side. The undead didn't care. To them, we were just more things to fight, and they took as much pleasure in fighting us as they could.

Suddenly, I felt a sizzling pain on my arm as a Nerubian bit me. I shrieked and stumbled to the ground. Before I knew it, something had leapt on me, and I heard Sylvanas scream my name. I called out the first spell that came to my mind, an arcane spell that shot bright white magic into the nerubian's eyes. It froze. A moment later, I saw a blade slicing through its neck. Sylvanas looked almost panicked when she reached me and pulled me to my feet.

"Tell me you're fine!" she cried.

"Don't worry, love. I'm all right."

It was another thirty minutes before we'd taken care of all of the undead and found the necromancer, who was a nerubian of enormous proportions. It took me and three other mages to bring him down, because by then, the poison from my bite had begun to leech my magic away little by little.

"You keep getting poisoned," Sylvanas told me, taking off my tunic slowly afterwards.

"What, you expected me to fight the Scourge and come out of it completely unscathed?" I hissed as a priest applied a bandage that had been soaked in healing potion to my wound.

"Is that so much to ask?"

"Ah, my Lady, if you don't want me hurt, I suggest you keep me in a glass case in your chambers."

"Do not tempt me." She checked me for other injuries, then looked at the priest, "Will she be all right?"

"This is her second poisoning in less than three months. You need to be careful or you might end up dead."

"Dead?" Sylvanas' shriek made me wince. "What do you mean dead?"

"Sylvanas, you're hurting us when you use your Banshee's Wail like that," I said, putting a hand on her knee.

"I mean that she could develop an intolerance to the poison, which would be very bad for her. You need to keep her out of battle."

"That's not going to happen," I said. "I'm here to fight the Scourge."

"Look, I'm just telling you what I know. You're drained, and you're too thin to be performing the kind of magic you have been. You need to take better care of yourself before you can even think about helping others against the Scourge."

"You see, this is what we were telling you," said Lor'themar, coming into the room where I was being healed. He didn't seem to care about the fact that I was naked from the chest down. "We told you that we needed you at your best, not at your weakest."

"I'm not weak!" I cried, standing up. I felt dizzy, but I didn't care. "Look, I'm perfectly fine. It's not like I try to get poisoned, you know, it just happens that way."

"Sit down," said Sylvanas, taking my hand.

I wrenched it away, "No!" I took my tunic and put it on again, "I'm fine. I don't need to be babied, so stop treating me like I don't know what I'm doing!"

Sylvanas looked at me with hurt in her eyes, so I sat down again, as close to her as I could without actually sitting on her lap. "We're not treating you like a child," she said to me after a while. Her voice was a trifle cooler than it had been towards me lately. "But we don't want you to die."

"You sent me here," I reminded her. "So let me do my job."

"If your job's going to get you killed, I will get in your way, I promise you that."

"So, what, you want me to go back to Undercity?"

"Actually," the priest looked highly uncomfortable, especially when I turned my head to glare at her. "I don't think that her going back there would be good right now. She should stay in Quel'Thalas for a while and get away from all of this. You know, undeath, the Scourge."

"You are sadly mistaken if you think for one second that I'm going to be away from home for –."

"How long?" Sylvanas asked her.

"Are you hearing me? I won't!"

"Five weeks, at least."

"No!"

"Done." Sylvanas didn't sound pleased at all, but I recognized the determination on her face.

"Done? What do you mean, done?"

"Would you excuse us?" said Sylvanas to the priest and Lor'themar. They both nodded and left us alone, and she turned to me.

"I am not staying away from you for five weeks, Sylvanas!"

"Now, you're going to shut up and listen to me."

"Syl –."

"Not a word." She put a hand over my mouth. "Are you listening to what they're telling you? You could die."

I opened my mouth, but she clamped it shut again.

"I know you could die every day when you go out to fight the Scourge. So could I, so could we all. But I don't want to willingly risk your life."

I disengaged myself from her, "That's funny, sweetheart. Because I know that you'd risk your Forsaken's lives without a thought."

"I told you to be quiet," she said. She looked at me, her red eyes almost translucent because their glow had dimmed in her worry, "I don't want anything to happen to you."

"I hate to break it to you, love, but nothing can happen to me that'll be any worse than my losing the woman I love."

"You didn't lose me."

"You died and I wasn't there. You died, and I want those responsible to suffer for it. Don't take that away from me."

She pulled me on to her lap, "Faith… honey. I would not make it if anything happened to you. I'm a stubborn bitch and I don't like to admit that kind of thing but… why do you think I let you go in Fairbreeze? I couldn't bear the thought of you… I don't want you to die, Faith."

"So for me not to die, you're going to leave me here for five weeks?"

"I would rather know that you're in Quel'Thalas and healthy than have you in Undercity with me and sick." She looked like she was on the verge of tears, "I should have been taking care of you, but I haven't."

"I can take care of myself."

"I know you can. But instead of looking after you, I…" she stood up and left my presence quickly, but I went after her, catching her hand.

"I told you I forgave you for that," I told her.

"Do you? Really? Do you forgive me for dying and leaving you alone?"

"Anar'alah Belore, Sylvanas, I've forgiven you for having ever been a part of the Scourge!"

"You shouldn't forgive me for that."

"I forgive you. Arthas, on the other hand, I will see dead, I promise."

She turned away from me.

"Sylvanas, don't go… please don't leave me."

"I was Ranger-General of Silvermoon," she said. "I protected these lands until I drew my last breath. But I failed to protect the one person who meant the most to me in the world."

"You died to save me, Sylvanas!"

"And what's my excuse now?"

I jumped on her, "You are not even going to consider putting yourself in harm's way to save me! I was an innocent girl when the Scourge invaded, but I'm not innocent anymore, my love. And I'm certainly not helpless. You saved my life so many times, the least I can do now is honor your sacrifice by killing the fiends who did this to our lands." I gestured around.

"You… you have to get better first."

I gave a sigh, wanting to cry, "Okay fine. I'll stay in Quel'Thalas… I w-won't come back to Undercity for now. You could send troops to Silvermoon and I'll train them from there, is that okay? Before we send them out here?"

She nodded, touching my face, "Yes."

"Should we still go home in the meantime?"

"Will you be able to go home without fighting the Scourge? Because I know you won't manage it. And I don't want you exposed to that before you're ready for it."

"If you want to me to spearhead the campaign against the Scourge here, I'm going to have to see what's going on. You can't shield me from it."

The expression on Sylvanas' face suggested that she was going to do everything she could to try and shield me, whether I liked it or not, "Maybe we should leave it for a while. I think we've seen enough as it is, and we can get an overview of what's going on here in the meantime."

"You're also going to want to make sure that people can differentiate between the Forsaken and the Scourge."

She smiled at me, "That's easily done, Faith." She put an arm around me, "Come on, you need some rest."

"But I don't."

"What if I stay with you while you rest?"

"Promise?" I asked.

"Yeah, I promise."

We went back to the inn, where everyone else had already gotten settled for dinner. Not being very hungry again, I nevertheless ate some chicken broth with vegetables, and started a discussion about where the hot spots were for Scourge activity.

"You're supposed to rest, aren't you?" asked Halduron.

"That doesn't mean I can't know what's going on."

"Well, as we said, Goldenmist Village and Suncrown Village are the closest beds of Scourge activity outside the Dead Scar. The further south we go, the closer we get to Deatholme, where there are worse fiends than anything we've encountered since Arthas came."

I made some notes on a piece of parchment. "What about Windrunner Village?"

"It's overrun with gargoyles and wraiths, as far as we can tell. Windrunner Spire is full of banshees and the Cult of the Damned."

"So that's five spots to cleanse out," I said. "Not to mention the rabid bats and the trolls, who I assume are giving us as much trouble as they did before the Scourge attacked."

"The gnolls too, they're at the old mine."

"The gnolls are the least of my worries." I smiled a little, but I didn't feel reassured, knowing that all of this was going on, that I would have to stay in Silvermoon for a time, and that Sylvanas would be going back to Undercity without me. It took all of my willpower to not burst into tears and beg her not to leave me alone.