We went back to Silvermoon a couple of days later, having stood against two other Scourge attacks in Tranquillien. Sylvanas, afraid that I would get poisoned again and drop dead, had ordered me to stay in the inn's tower and to cast from there.

Once back in Silvermoon, and settled back in Sunfury Spire, I watched as Sylvanas got ready to leave.

"I'll send a hundred more people from the First Magi Corps to you immediately," she promised Lor'themar. "Then I'll see how we're doing in Undercity, but I'm sure I'll be able to send you more."

"You should be able to spare another hundred mages from the second line of the Corps," I told her.

She shook her head, "I'll send part of the Second Division over."

The Second Division was an elite warrior unit who specialized in killing the Scourge without the use of magic. They were good, there was no doubt about it, but they weren't as specialized as my group was. Still, I knew that if anything were to go wrong, I'd be able to call on her to send more troops.

A young mage came in, looking at Sylvanas in awe. "The portal to Undercity is ready, Lady Sylvanas."

Sylvanas nodded at her, "All right." She walked to where I was sitting with my arms crossed tightly across my chest. "Hey. Kiss me goodbye, will you?"

I didn't want to. But I'd never been able to refuse Sylvanas anything. After all, I'd come here, hadn't I? She pulled me to my feet and pressed her lips against mine.

"Don't go," I whispered. "Please don't leave me."

"Shh." Her arms came around me and held me tightly. I buried my neck in her shoulder and tried to forget the world around us, shutting my eyes tightly. "I'll see you in a few weeks."

"Five weeks."

"Five weeks. No more." With one last squeeze, she let me go. I gasped when she released me, feeling empty. Her face was impassive, but her eyes kept darting back to me as she walked towards Lor'themar and Halduron to bid them goodbye.

I followed her as she walked to the portal, wondering whether I couldn't just jump through at the last second. I'd be okay in Undercity, wouldn't I be? I'd lived there for four years, and I was okay.

I watched her disappear and nearly screamed out her name.

She was gone. My love was gone.

Panic threatened to descend upon me, and I probably would have given in to it had Lor'themar not put a hand on my shoulder to steer me away from the portal room. "What happened the very last time you were separated from her?"

"She threw me in prison," I whispered. My hands were already shaking.

"She did what?"

I quickly explained what had happened. "I couldn't bear the thought of coming back here where it had all fallen apart."

"You haven't been able to let go of what happened. That's your problem right there. You have to let it go, Faith."

"How? I've been able to let go of what happened to my family – barely – but this, what Arthas did to her, her turning into a banshee… I can't. I don't know how to!"

He hugged me. It was a good hug, a brotherly gesture, and I closed my eyes, letting my tears fall from my eyes. "You haven't taken the time to grieve properly."

"Are you kidding? All I've done is grieve since she died."

"But you went to Kalimdor to fight the Burning Legion, and you haven't stopped since. You've been in Undercity for five years, working like crazy, and this might be the first time you're taking some time off for yourself."

"I can't… I have to keep busy."

"No, Faith, you don't. You have to let yourself feel everything."

"But I don't want to feel. It hurts to feel. It hurts to breathe without her."

"I have something that might help you with that," said Halduron. He had changed out of his ranger-general uniform and was now wearing simple linen trousers and a shirt, if you'll follow me."

I looked at Lor'themar, who nodded, and we went to the third floor of the spire, which I'd never been on before.

"Originally, the Ranger-General of Silvermoon occupied the third floor of Sunfury Spire. When Halduron took over, he said that he preferred the second floor, so I gave it to him. But Sylvanas' rooms used to be here."

Her rooms? The rooms when she hadn't been with me, and when she hadn't been at Windrunner Spire?

"We've kept it exactly as it was since the last time she occupied it. I thought she might want her things back when she was here, but it doesn't look like she came up here at all. Anyway, there's only a spell in place to keep out the dust and leave the air fresh, but otherwise, it's unchanged. Everything in here is yours if you want it. I know she would have wanted you to have it." He opened a curved door made of gold and black wood and I stepped inside.

A scent I remembered hit me immediately, opening the floodgates of my memory. Sweet spices and clean leather, combined with the faint flowery smell of her soap, it was the smell of Sylvanas as she had come to me every time. I could almost see her as she rode in the sun, hair neatly tucked under her hood, so beautiful that she made everything else around her look dull by comparison.

Her bed was made, and I went to it, walking slowly, not having realized that Halduron had closed the door behind me, to leave me alone in this room that had belonged to her, the one I loved.

I picked up her pillow and lifted it to my face, inhaling the scent of her. My heart raced. My hands shook. My throat tightened. Her very essence was in this room. She had spent so much time here, time I had only guessed at, and it felt as though she were still here, as though she could have walked into the room at any moment, looking stunned to see me there.

Something caught my eye.

A picture, much like the one I still carried of Sylvanas, had been tucked under the pillow. I saw myself, young and carefree, looking healthy and happy. She had captured me sitting in the sun, wearing my favorite light blue dress, the look in my eyes suggesting that I was very much in love with the person I was looking at. The picture was slightly crinkled at the edges, evidence that she had handled it often.

"Oh, my love," I whispered. Had she longed for me as much as I had longed for her?

I put the picture back under the pillow and smoothed the covers down again after unsteadily getting back to my feet. There was a desk beside the window, and I went there next, feeling like I was going to collapse with every step.

I sat down, running my fingers over the wood of the desk, closing my eyes and imagining Sylvanas there getting ready to go through the countless bits of correspondence she'd had. There was a framed picture on the desk, and I felt another jolt to the system. It was the two of us, sitting by a campfire at twilight, firelight reflected on both our faces. We were sitting close together, almost touching, but not quite daring. Her hood was down, and I appeared to be entranced by her hair, while her eyes had been focused on my hand, on which glinted a silver vine ring.

A tear fell. I wiped it away, and reached out to open one of the side drawers. The first one was locked, but I murmured a small spell, which wasn't really a spell at all, more like a collection of words that rose to my mouth, Sylvanas' name being amongst them. It opened as a I passed my hand over it.

There was a small chest inside, made of polished dark wood. I picked it up and unlocked it in the same manner as I had the drawer. It didn't occur to me until later that the contents of that drawer had been protected by spells that only I could lift.

The inside of the chest was lined with blue velvet. On the velvet rested a rolled-up scroll and a small box. I picked up the box first and opened it, revealing a beautiful and delicate silver ring with a glistening moonstone at its center.

My stomach dropped.

I knew the ring for what it was. A ring for a bride.

I began to shake as I reached for the scroll, untying the black ribbon that was holding it together.

Sylvanas' handwriting greeted me. I swallowed as I began to read.

My dear Faith,

My love,

I don't really know how to begin this letter. I should really be saying this out loud, but I'm having difficulty breathing as I'm writing this, so I'm imagining that actually saying these words will result in my fainting.

I love you. I think you know this, and you've known it for as long as I have.

Don't ask me how much I love you. I can't quantify it. I would die for you, if the world required it.

But I love you. I love you so much it hurts. When I have to ride away from you, my heart tears and my soul cries. Prince doesn't obey me anymore whenever I have to leave Everstone Village. It's funny to think that my feelings for you have filtered down to my horse.

Our families, specifically mine, would probably drop dead of shock at what I'm about to do. But I don't care what they think anymore.

I want to be with you forever. I want to make love with you under the stars and on the beach behind the Spire. I never want to be parted from you again, from this moment on. You are my soul mate, Faith, and I know that you love me as much as I love you. Don't think I never notice the look on your face when I come home to you. I do, Faith. I do.

I promise to love you and cherish you all the days of my life. In sickness and in health, you and I will be one. My final heartbeat will belong to you, and even in the afterlife, I will continue to love you.

Faith, my love, will you marry me? Will you be my wife? My bride? My everything?

I love you. All my life, I have loved you. And I will always love you. Always.

Your Sylvanas

My Sylvanas.

Putting the scroll down, I stood up, only to collapse to the floor. Sobs racked my body as I called out Sylvanas' name over and over again. The door opened, and someone picked me up, carrying me to the bed.

"Shh, Faith, it's okay. It's okay." Halduron's voice trembled and he stroked my hair softly as someone else put a blanket over me.

I screamed into the pillow, an incoherent sound of grief that caused Halduron to wrap his arms around me and rock me back and forth for a while until I calmed down a little and only sobbed.

I must have cried for hours. Every time I thought I was done, I began again, sobbing and shaking uncontrollably. But finally, finally, the crying subsided. I fell asleep, tears still coursing down my cheeks.

It was night when I opened my eyes again. I had one of the worst headaches I'd ever had in my life, but I also felt oddly calm, as though I'd gotten rid of something that had been festering inside of me for years.

I wasn't alone.

Sylvanas stood by the window, looking out at the moon. She stood utterly still, and I wondered what she was doing there.

I said her name and she turned around. I couldn't see her face, but her eyes glowed softly in the night.

"How are you feeling?"

It took me a while to answer her. I thought I was going to cry again, but I seemed to have cried myself out. As I watched her, she turned on the lamp on the desk, dissipating the gloom. She came to sit on the bed, brushing my hair away from my forehead in a soft gesture.

"Drained. Sad. Tired." I touched her face, "What are you doing here?"

"Lor'themar sent for me. He said that he'd never heard anybody make the sounds you'd made when he found you earlier." She reached over and picked up a goblet from the nightstand, "Here, drink this."

I took the goblet from her and drained it, grimacing a little. The potion was bitter, but had the instant effect of getting rid of my headache. "Are you angry?" I asked her. "For coming in here?"

"No, I'm not angry." She felt my forehead, and the feel of her cool hand on my hot skin was blissful. When I sat up, she accepted my hug, holding me for a few moments. "So… you found it."

"You… you wanted to propose to me."

She closed her eyes for a second, "I was so nervous when I wrote that. I was going to bring you back here and propose to you in this room. I had everything planned. I was going to make love with you right here in this bed and you would be mine forever."

"I am."

"What?"

"Yours."

She smiled, "I wish I'd gotten to do it."

I got out of bed and climbed onto her lap, wrapping my arms around her and resting my head where her heart should have been beating. She put a blanket over me and held me close.

"Where would you have wanted to get married?" I asked in a whisper.

"Somewhere in the woods, I think, just as the sun began to set."

"Would you have worn a dress?"

She chuckled, "You know full well that I wouldn't have worn a wedding gown."

I did know. She would have been wearing her silver general's uniform. My favorite. "You would have been so beautiful, my general."

"And you, my sweet love. You would have been breathtaking." She kissed me gently, then looked around, "I can't believe they kept it like this. I thought they would have gotten rid of everything."

"I'm glad they kept it. It was like walking into your life." I traced a pattern on the leather leggings she wore, "Do you want to take back any of it?"

"No. You can have it all."

I stared at her, "You're… what?"

"Ah, Faith. Surely by now you've realized that you were the most important person in my life? Everything here belongs to you now. I have no more use for it."

"Not even this?" I pulled out the picture that had been under her pillow.

A genuine smile came to her features as she took the picture from me and examined it. She ran a finger over it lovingly, "It's only now that I see how much you've changed."

"You're one to talk, Sylvanas."

A soft laugh, "Mmm, I guess I have."

"Sylvanas?"

She looked at me, her eyebrow raised.

"Do you still want to get married?"

The look on her face changed from a loving one to one of horror and anger. It was fleeting, but I saw it.

"Never mind," I said quickly. "I was just wondering."

Sylvanas took my hand gently, caressing it, "I'm dead now, Faith. I wouldn't marry you if my life depended on it." She put a finger to my lips, "You deserve to marry someone who's alive. Someone who loves you."

"You love me."

Another small smile, "Yes. But I'm a corpse. And you shouldn't be with a corpse."

I wrapped myself around her again, "I don't care. I'm your soul mate, remember? And you're mine."

"My soul is –."

I kissed her. Deeply. My tongue stroked hers, and she kissed me back, pulling me closer, if that was even possible. I began to undress her, and she froze, but let me go on.

We made love that night, slowly, taking turns. Her body warmed at my touch, or perhaps it was just magic, but it almost felt as though she were alive. She climaxed in my arms, whimpering against my neck and raking her fingers down my back. And me, I said her name softly when she brought me to the edge and back again, looking into her eyes.

I fell asleep in her arms, and for the first time in years, no nightmare came to plague me.

She was gone by the next day, but she had left a note for me on the pillow.

My Faith,

My feelings for you haven't changed. We cannot get married, for the simple reason that I will not, under any circumstances, kill you and raise you as a Forsaken.

But you belong to me now. In every sense of the word. And I belong to you. I love you.

Your Sylvanas.

I stayed in bed for a while, clutching the note in my hand. But after a while, I noticed that I was hungry. So I washed myself and put on my favorite black dress before braiding my wet hair into two fishtails and going downstairs.

"Thank you for asking Sylvanas to come back," I told Lor'themar as I sat down.

"You sounded so broken, I figured that the only one who could fix you was her. Did she? Are you feeling better?"

I nodded, "I was feeling better before she came, though. But we had a good talk." I put some pancakes on my plate and began to eat.

"You just talked?" he asked, raising an eyebrow at me.

I cleared my throat, "It was long overdue."

He looked at me for a moment, as I ate slowly, tasting the food for the first time in what felt like a long time, "So, will you… I mean, are you going to…"

I put my fork down and smiled, "You saw the scroll."

"I didn't mean to read it, it just seemed to jump out at me. I didn't know she felt that strongly about you, Faith. She never said anything. I mean, I knew she loved you, but to the point of risking everything…"

"Our families would have never allowed us to get married," I said. "I'm not sure if she would have asked me in the end, but if she had, I would have accepted her in a heartbeat."

"You didn't think of asking her?"

"Yeah, for the past twenty years. Every time I started to, I got scared. I was afraid she'd say no, afraid she'd accept. I asked her last night."

Lor'themar had obviously not expected me to say that. He choked on his juice for a second before regaining his composure, "You… you asked Sylvanas to marry you? Faith… she's dead."

"I don't have anything to lose, then. But don't worry, she said no."

Several expressions crossed his face, surprise and sorrow being the two dominant ones. "She refused you?"

"She doesn't want me to marry the dead."

"She really does still love you."

I nodded, finishing my breakfast. Sylvanas still loved me. Even after everything she had been through, and what Arthas had done to her, she still had the ability to love.

That thought was the only thing that sustained me during my weeks in Silvermoon, as my need for Sylvanas reached a peak and nearly drove me out of my mind. I had relocated to her old room, and spent most of my time there, reconnecting with the ranger I had loved since I'd been twelve years old. I found little treasures everywhere: her makeup in the small bathing room that was connected to the bedroom, a vial of her spicy-sweet perfume, a few dresses she'd had been forced to wear on occasions that didn't require her general's attire.

An old bow.

I recognized the bow the moment I saw it. It was one I had made for her fifteen winters before the Scourge had attacked, for Winter's Veil. I had crafted it from a dark and pliable wood with the help of an expert bowyer, and had imbued it in protective magics. I remembered now that Sylvanas had carried it for several years before having had to change bows. I would have thought that she'd have thrown the old one away, but she had kept it polished and hanging on the wall.

Sometime during my stay, Sylvanas sent additional troops to Silvermoon, and I began to train them. I was feeling a lot better by then, and was even able to fight the Scourge at the Dead Scar a couple of times with the new recruits, using a pair of Sylvanas' long knives, instead of my spellblade. The knives worked better for me, being shorter and more slender.

It felt good to fight again. Felicity, who had never been far from me, commented that my form was better than before, and that my spellcasting left everyone else speechless. The mages of Silvermoon even taught me how to use a burst of arcane magic that froze my enemies in place, which allowed me to easily take care of several of them at once. Under their tutelage, I flourished.

We went to the Ghostlands during the final week of my stay. Numbering nearly two-hundred, we had no problem crossing the Scar several times as we marched, making sure we dispatched as many members of the Scourge as we could.

The people at Tranquillien were stunned to see so many Forsaken forces with me.

"We won't know where to house them all!" said Magistrix Aminel to me.

"Oh, that's all right," said Felicity. "We don't need to be housed anywhere. We just need a place where we can be, um, pieced back together if you will, if we lose a limb or something. We're here to fight the Scourge, not to be mollycoddled." She winked at me.

"Where do you need us?" I asked Dame Auriferous, who was the leader of the band of elves at the village.

"Everywhere. We need people at Goldenmist Village and Suncrown Village, and at the Windrunner place… I can't spare the manpower here due to the Scourge incursions."

I nodded, "I'll take fifty of my troops to Windrunner Spire to see what's going on, and will report back to you in a few days. Felicity, you're with me. Mavren, I'll leave you in charge of the others."

He nodded to me, saluting, "I'll clear the Scar in this area."

I replenished my food and water supplies, which I tied on to Prince, who was also looking much healthier than he had since we'd first arrived. A few minutes later, we were riding.

We moved south for a little over a day. The woods I had known were still there, but they were mutated, turned into a source of evil by the Scourge in the area. We killed dozens of rabid bats, burning their corpses to keep the disease from spreading to other creatures, and started to see some of the monstrous spiders that had terrified me. I still hated them, but after having fought nerubians, I had to say that regular spiders scared me less.

At least something good had come of this nightmare.

We crossed the scar at a relatively empty area. There were gargoyles up ahead, and we geared up for a fight. But before we reached them, something enormous came towards us.

It was a towering abomination, so foul that its stench penetrated my spell. It dripped acidic ichor as it walked, tainting the land further still. In unison, we mages cast our spells and were able to stop it in its tracks before the warriors rushed at it. It wasn't an easy fight. That thing was as strong as it was ugly, and when the gargoyles saw what was going on, the fight turned into a battle.

We made it – barely. I began to see why Lor'themar and Sylvanas had been so adamant about my staying in Silvermoon to get my strength back. I doubted I would have been able to hold my own against those things beforehand.

"Good job, everyone," I said as we burned the copses. We had managed not to lose anybody, a miracle, and almost nobody had been injured, except a warrior who had lost two fingers. He didn't seem concerned.

"I'll just get some from those things over there when we get back to Tranquillien. I'll be good as new afterwards."

I smiled, "Good man." I performed some magic on him and the others to keep them as fresh as possible before we moved on.

The woods were becoming very familiar. Too familiar. I didn't realize where we were until a memory hit me so hard that I nearly fell off of Prince. His neigh told me he knew exactly where we were too.

Home.

Or what was left of it. Almost nothing remained of Everstone Village, except for a few foundations and the ruined fountain that had stood in the center of the main square. Poisonous red ivy clung to the marble fountain and dozens of green and yellow mushrooms had sprouted where the foundations of the inn still stood.

A broken column, which had been a part of my father's office, lay on what remained of the road, and that was all. The rest of the village was gone. As Lor'themar had said, it had been completely wiped off the map.

"I'm sorry, Faith," said Felicity.

"I didn't expect to see anything here," I told her. I didn't fall apart as I had expected to. I felt enormous sadness, but for the time being, I was able to deal with it. "We'd better move on. We have at least another day's ride before we reach Windrunner Spire."

Our travel to the village was uneventful. Most of the wildlife was terrified of anything that moved, and even the lynxes didn't come anywhere near us. But when we reached what had been Sylvanas' home, we stopped, staring. Banshees were everywhere, almost coming out of the very walls. Here and there, I saw members of the Cult of the Damned, casting what looked like random spells.

I cursed under my breath. Even with fifty of us, we wouldn't be able to make a dent in those numbers, and trying to attack would most probably result in all of us being killed.

"Can we do nothing?" asked one of the warriors.

"Fifty against two hundred is suicide," I replied. Still, we had to do something. I hadn't come all the way back here to leave my lover's home to the Scourge without lifting a finger. I began to chant in ancient Thalassian that was closer to Darnassian than to our modern language. A series of lights appeared in the air, slowly weaving themselves between the bushes and attracting the attention of several of the banshees.

"The moment they're clear of the entryway, attack them," I said.

Felicity nodded.

Four banshees followed the lights to us, and we killed them with little difficulty. Their features were barely recognizable, but we did infer that we were looking at dead rangers.

"Sylvanas' troops," I murmured. To know that they'd been left there was horrifying. I wondered where their bodies were.

We were able to kill a few more banshees in this manner, but not nearly enough to make a difference, and I didn't dare get too close to the spire, lest I be seen.

"Look, what's that, walking about?"

I turned my head towards where one of my mages was pointing. The figure was solid, and clearly an undead elf. It was female, judging by the torn robes it wore. Its long hair, which had probably been blonde once, was now a dirty gray-white. It turned towards us, and, with a shock that rocked me to my core, I saw its face.

Sanalla Windrunner. Sylvanas' mother.

My eyes burned. I had hoped to find her alive, but I hadn't really let myself believe that it would happen.

"Faith? Who is that?"

I told her. "We have… we have to kill her and bring her body back to Silvermoon for a funeral."

"A funeral? She's Scourge."

"We hold funerals for the people we care about."

I treated her as I would have a necromancer. I froze her in place and began to chant, but it was over with quickly. She hadn't been raised for any other purpose than to inflict pain on the people who were looking for her. She fell to the ground, her corpse no longer animated. Just a dead body that couldn't harm anybody.

"I'm so sorry Sana," I whispered. "I'm so sorry…"

Wrapping the body in arcane magic, I stood straight again.

"Are you okay?"

I nodded to the warrior who had spoken, "Yes, thank you. We should go. There's nothing more we can do here." I levitated the body, noticing something falling out from between the folds of its robes.

It was a necklace. More specifically, a golden pendant with a blue stone in the center. I sighed. It had belonged to Sylvanas. Without a thought, I pocketed it, my heart feeling heavy again.