I woke up a couple of hours before dawn, from what I could tell. The sounds I'd heard when falling asleep were louder, which meant that the battle was closer. I got up and quickly put on my clothes, simple black robes lined with warm black fur, which were stamped with the Undercity crest, sturdy black leather boots and black fingerless gloves along with my hooded cloak.

Deciding to pass on breakfast, I quickly went outside. It was snowing rather heavily, the air bitterly cold. Forsaken soldiers were running, but they seemed to be moving with a purpose, not panicked.

"What's going on?" I asked one of them.

"Oh, Captain! It's nothing too bad, you shouldn't worry. Just a few Scourge who tried to infiltrate. We've pushed them out of the town."

I followed him towards the sounds of battle. Despite the fact that he had said that it wasn't anything to worry about, there were a lot of Scourge zombies at the gates. Immediately, I called for the Forsaken to pull back as I sent out tongues of orange fire that circled the fiends. Trapped, they couldn't move as the fire inched closer and closer to them. I muttered a spell, and the fire turned hotter, melting the snow and causing the first zombies to begin to smolder. The overpowering stench of burning decay reached me, and a second later, the circle of fire exploded.

I was shaking. The soldiers were looking at me in surprise. I noticed that some of them were holding green containers of what I could only assume to be New Plague.

"Did she kill them all?" came a voice. It was Putress and he sounded disappointed.

"Yes, Master Apothecary. I'm sorry. There was nothing we could do once she got into it."

"Sorry?" I asked. "You wanted to keep them? As what, pets?"

"Test subjects," said Cindera, looking none too happy. "Had you paid attention, you would have noticed that we didn't need your help. We've been testing the New Plague on them, or did you not know?"

"None of you told me. I was sent here with orders to kill the Scourge, so here I am. But hey, if you want test subjects," I pointed to the tree line, beyond which I knew floated the huge necropolis of Naxxramas, "they're just over there."

"Go get us some, then."

"Do not attempt to give me orders, soldier!" I said to her, drawing myself up to my full height. Something scary must have shown on my face because, for a moment, she backed down.

"I'm sorry," she mumbled.

I left her where she was, going towards Putress, "You should have told me you wanted test subjects."

"I apologize, Captain, but Lady Sylvanas asked us to keep you away from the Plague."

"I understand that. But Sylvanas isn't here. If you need help with anything, you will let me know, understood?"

"Yes, Captain."

I nodded and began to walk away from him. But when I glanced back at him, I saw an ugly look on his face that sent chills down my spine. Was that directed at me? Or was there something else that was bothering him?

Days went by. I worked at New Hearthglen for a while, killing members of the Scarlet Onslaught who had established themselves there, and bringing some of them back for Putress to test the New Plague on. Part of me hated doing that – it went completely against everything I believed in, but it was better to use them than Alliance soldiers.

Things seemed to be going well. I spent a lot of time with the First Magi Corps, trying to help them improve their fire spells the way the red dragons had taught me. Scourge body counts went up, and we didn't lose a single soldier in those first two weeks I was there. Sylvanas seemed very happy with the reports I was sending her.

But while things were going well for us at Venomspite, for the Alliance, it was another matter entirely. We knew that Wintergarde Keep was in trouble, as they fought off continuous air raids from enormous frost wyrms, not to mention that they had lost a village, called Wintergarde Village, to the Scourge. We had heard of hundreds of dwarves and humans being slaughtered by the undead.

"We need to help them," I said.

"Why should we?" Cindera sounded disgusted with my idea.

"Because our alternative is to see the ranks of the Scourge swell in these parts."

"You have an obsession with helping the Alliance," said Putress to me. "You shouldn't think about them."

"Of course I should!" We can't just let them die out there, not like that."

"But you…"

"Not another word," I said. I stood up, beginning my preparations. I didn't exactly know how we were going to help the Alliance from our vantage point. We were closest to the south side of the Carrion Fields, while Wintergarde Keep was north of us. "We should bring them here and try to get them back to Wintergarde afterwards."

"You're playing a dangerous game, Captain," said Rotvine to me. "Trying to help the Alliance, we should let them die."

"If they die, they rise. Is that what you want? Three thousand more Scourge to have to worry about?"

"Well, no. But we can take care of that."

I shook my head, "We are fighting a common enemy right now. As long as we keep doing that, I will not have a problem with the Alliance. And I will not let them die. Are you with me or not, Rotvine?"

He looked at me for a while, shaking his head, "I must be losing my mind, but yes, I'm with you, Captain. You know that the Magi Corps will follow you anywhere."

"Good. And besides, don't think about it as us helping the Alliance. Think of it as us killing the Scourge, which is exactly what we'll be doing."

A group of fifty agreed to come with me, including Hamu, who was determined to not let me out of his sight. I wondered whether he'd gotten a note from Sylvanas about me, but I didn't bother to ask him. He was with me, and that was all that mattered.

We skirted the hills around the Carrion Fields, approaching from the west. It took us over an hour to get there on our mounts, but we had plenty to do while we went. The Scourge had posted guards at strategic points, one of which nearly got me. Gargoyles attacked us from the skies, as did horrible undead carrion birds, whose putrid feathers showered down on us like curtains of decayed dust, making those of us who were living cough and cover our faces.

"We have to get out of this, Faith," said Hamu, waving a small axe and catching one of the birds in the neck. Black blood splattered all over him as the bird fell.

"Stand back, everyone!"

"You can't set any fires here, Faith, this whole stretch of Dragonblight will go!"

"Not with this snow," I countered. "Keep advancing! I'll cover you all with fire!"

Staying at the back of the column, I set fire to everything that we had slain. I used a milder version of my normal fire so that the trees wouldn't be damaged, but there was no danger of that, even with the wind. After a few minutes, I rode into an open space, catching up with everyone. We had killed about sixty of the scourged guards and carrion birds.

"Those were just guards?" asked Rotvine. "I've never seen the Scourge set up so many of them for a town like ours."

"We're lucky they didn't post more. Let's keep going. I don't want to stay here like that. Who knows what else may fall on top of us."

We reached the Carrion Fields just as an enormous black cloud covered the pale sun that was attempting to filter through. The snow had stopped, but it began falling again, much more intensely. It was magical weather, I was sure of it, sent there to impede us from doing what we wanted to do. The temperature dropped sharply as we advanced, and in the distance, I saw a stout form fall. A dwarf.

"Hurry!" I cried. I sent out fire balls that exploded in the air to give us some light, as well as a modicum of warmth, but it wasn't enough. Anybody who was alive in there would probably not survive very long with the cold.

"Are we supposed to get them to Wintergarde Keep?" cried Hamu as he reached the dwarf. It was a female, and from what I could see, she was barely stirring. He picked her up, setting her on his kodo and wrapping a fur cloak around her.

"Just keep them safe!" I called back, using my spellblade against a gargoyle who had swept down on me.

We saw a group of dwarves fighting horribly large constructs, and made towards them, setting fires to everything that was dead. The smell of burning flesh mingled with the reek of death, creating what I considered to be the perfect environment for what we were doing, however horrible it was. More than ever, I wished that I had just gone home with Sylvanas, not caring about the war anymore.

"Yer Horde!" cried one of the dwarves, slicing cleanly through a ghoul. Dark ichor stained the already dirty snow a darker color. He seemed to be part of a group of fighters who had been stuck in the fields when the village had fallen.

"Well spotted," I told him, killing a ghoul of my own. "We thought you could use a hand against these things. Why don't you get your people out of here, and we'll cover you."

"Why are yeh helpin' us?"

"Are you fighting the Scourge?"

"Of course."

"That's why."

"Captain!" cried Rotvine. "Frost wyrm!"

I looked up, feeling my blood freezing in my veins. Part of me pitied the beast that was gracefully flying towards us, as it had been a blue dragon in life. But now, it was an undead killing machine, more difficult to kill than the constructs we were fighting. I had no idea how we were going to bring that thing down.

"Go, Dwarf. Go!"

"Yeh cannot fight that thing on yer own!"

No, we couldn't, and I didn't really want to be lost to the Scourge so that a dozen dwarves and humans could get away. "Together then?"

"Migh' as well, lassie."

We were joined by most of my soldiers and around twenty Alliance survivors. "I don't think fire will work on that thing, but give it your best shot!" I cried. "Everyone who can, use arcane and holy magic to bring it down!"

We began to cast. Next to me, the dwarf chanted in a strange tongue that I barely understood. He must have been a paladin, because I recognized some of the spells I heard. For my part, I cast my black fire at it. I didn't think any other spell in my arsenal would be strong enough. I began getting tired almost immediately, but it wasn't debilitating, at least not yet.

"Fools!" cried the wyrm, and I realized that it was a female. "You will never kill me! I belong to Lord Arthas!" She braced herself and let out a long jet of horribly cold blue fire that didn't burn, but instead seemed to freeze anything it touched. At the last possible moment, I cast a barrier around all of us, including the Alliance, to keep us from being decimated.

My barrier cracked the second the fire came into contact with it, but we weren't harmed. I fell to my knees.

"Oh, Blackfire," said the wyrm. "We have heard of you. Do you really think that you will ever be able to kill us? My Lady Sindragosa has a surprise for you next time you venture anywhere near Icecrown Citadel, but I think it would be more prudent to kill you now."

"Well, come at me, then!" I screamed.

The frost wyrm cried out and came directly for me as I took several steps forward, away from the main group. They didn't stop casting, and I saw brilliant spells hitting the former blue dragon from every direction. The creature didn't seem to feel any of it.

With amazing speed, the wyrm picked me up in her claws, which I felt digging into me. I shrieked in pain as she pierced the protective layer of leather I had worn under my robes, feeling blood immediately pouring from my wounds. My ribs cracked and I shrieked again, but somehow, I was able to use my blade to slice at the foot that was holding me.

The wyrm gave a cry and dropped a few feet, allowing me to cast a second spell that caught the wing that was closest to me.

We fell.

I closed my eyes to keep from seeing the ground that was approaching far too rapidly. Moments with Sylvanas raced through my mind. I saw ourselves as we swam in the waves near Windrunner Village. A time when we had eaten roasted fish by a river. The moment she had first kissed me before we'd separated.

We crashed, and I felt pain slamming through every muscle in my body.

I heard faint cries behind me, and guessed that my soldiers had seen the fall. It wouldn't have been difficult to miss.

The frost wyrm tried to get up, but I muttered my black fire spell at it, catching its neck. It shrieked, its claws completely releasing me. I cried out as more pain ripped through my body when I attempted to extricate myself from the creature.

The black fire was catching. Already, the blue glow that had animated the wyrm was turning black. I didn't know what that meant, but judging by the sounds it was making, I figured that it was going to die. Just like me.

You have to get up, Faith! Get up!

The voice inside my head sounded like Sylvanas.

Don't die without seeing her again!

A series of spells hit the wyrm, and glancing back, I saw that Rotvine and Hamu were right there at the front, trying to give me some cover so that I could get away.

There was no way I could get to my feet, so I began to crawl, leaving a trail of blood behind me. The next thing I knew, Lady was there, lying down in the snow so that I could climb onto her back. She nudged me, and I painstakingly pulled myself onto her. The colors around me were turning grey, and I really hoped I wasn't going to die from this. I didn't want to die.

I didn't want to die.

I wasn't going to die.

Blinking my vision back into focus, I looked around. The wyrm was down. Scattered across the Carrion Fields were various Scourge corpses that we had killed as well. Fires were burning here and there, funeral pyres for the Alliance soldiers that had been killed. But it wasn't over by a long shot. Smaller frost wyrms still circled close to the entrance to Naxxramas, spitting down fire at us but not daring to get any closer to us, and several hundred ghouls and zombies were making their way towards us. I could smell them from where I was.

"We should retreat," I whispered.

Hamu nodded, "Can you make it back?"

"It's just a scratch," I told him. "I'm fine."

He didn't believe my lie, I could tell that right away, but we began to pull back as quickly as we could. Gryphons flew above us, giving us cover as we ran back towards the relative safety of the trees. They landed as soon as we stopped to catch a breath.

"Soldiers of the Horde!" cried one the humans on top of a majestic white animal. "Are you taking prisoners?"

I looked at him. He was a burly middle-aged man with short red hair and a moustache. "No, Sir. If we wanted to take Alliance prisoners, we wouldn't have done it that way." I coughed into my hand, seeing blood.

"Let me help yeh, lassie," said the dwarf paladin. He pulled Lady down slowly, and she obliged until I was level with him. He then lay his hands on my leg and abdomen, and I felt warmth coursing through me. "My name is Moderan Wildstout. Thank yeh for comin' to our rescue."

"They rescued you, soldier?" asked the man.

Moderan nodded and quickly explained what had happened. "This here's quite a capable mage. Blackfire, I think she's called."

"I've heard of you. You helped the people of Farshire too, and some gnomes in the Borean Tundra."

"It was either that or let them die," I stated weakly. "Thank you, Moderan, I think that this will be enough to get me back to Venomspite."

The dwarf removed his hands from me, and the warmth disappeared immediately, leaving me colder than ever. "That way, I won't owe yeh," he said, but he smiled.

I nodded, "You should all go now, before they regroup. We'll make our way back to Venomspite."

"Good luck to you all," said the man.

"And to you."

We all separated, the Alliance hurrying one way, while we retreated in the opposite direction. I tried not to think as Lady rushed back to the Forsaken town. I was still in a considerable amount of pain, but my injuries were no longer lethal, if they ever really had been.

"Will you be the one to tell Sylvanas that you helped the Alliance get away?" Rotvine asked me.

"Sure. I'll tell Thrall too. To be honest, that's the least of my worries."

As soon as we got back, the medics took me aside and forced me back to my bed, where they kept me for two days, with a tauren druid constantly by my side, healing me periodically. I hated the inactivity, although the Scourge didn't attack us while I was recovering. Maybe us killing that wyrm had been enough to make them think twice about us. I hoped that was the case.

I received a letter from Sylvanas admonishing me for having taken "unnecessary risks". She had been so angry when she'd written to me that the tip of her quill had punctured the parchment in several places.

"You all brought down a frost wyrm," said the druid to me as I read the letter over twice. "It seems to have made a big difference."

"For now, at least," I told him.

When I was finally allowed to get out of bed, I saw that there were new preparations in place for the New Plague. Putress seemed excited, which didn't bode well for anybody he was planning on testing that vile concoction on.

"The Scourge is our next target," he said to me. "If we're lucky, we'll be able to kill several dozens of them at once with just one of these plague bombs. It would be better if we could have the Lich King around, so that we could practice on him, but his undead forces will have to do, I suppose."

"How do you suggest we bring that to them?"

He pointed to the row of catapults near the southern entrance to the town, "These can lead us straight into the back of the Carrion Fields, almost directly under Naxxramas. If you put a few bombs in there and launch them at the Scourge, you'll be able to see what the effects are on them."

"You," I repeated. "You want me to do it?"

"Who better to implement the plan? You want to see the Scourge gone as much as any of us do, so you'd be the perfect candidate for it, don't you think?"

I didn't know about that. I didn't trust moving on machines, as it was too easy to disable them. I supposed that a living creature could be killed even faster, but at least I could shield a mount, the way I couldn't shield anything mechanical.

"I can go with you," said Cindera, coming up on us suddenly. "I haven't been able to go on these things, and I've been wanting to ever since I first saw them. What do you say?"

What could I say? The last thing I wanted to do was take Cindera in a nest of Scourge zombies.

"What are we hoping this is going to do?"

"It should kill them, plain and simple," said Putress. You shouldn't have anything to worry about. The catapult moves pretty fast, and if you get stuck, you can always fry them like you usually do."

Fry them. I was brought back to when my family thought my herb and potion store was just a hobby. "Right. I'll make sure to do that. That is, if you're certain that nobody else can do the job."

"You're the best one for the job. And the Dark Lady would agree with me."

It's killing the Scourge. Who cares how it's done?

I had reservations about it, but simply shook my head, "Fine. When do you want to do this?"

"Tomorrow too soon?"

I didn't want to point out that I had only just been allowed out of bed, and that Sylvanas would probably have a conniption fit when she found out. But hopefully, I'd already be back by then.

"Look," said Cindera, wrapping an arm around my shoulders, "We won't even have to get too close to them. The catapults have a range of twenty feet, so we'll be perfectly safe."

"You think I'm scared of going out there? I'd just feel better with more backup."

"Oh, come on! Where's your sense of adventure?"

"Back in Quel'Thalas, at the very spot where Sylvanas died, thank you very much." I moved away from her and went to get ready, but as it turned out, there wasn't much for me to do.

The following day, I dressed as I normally did, putting on warm and reinforced robes with high boots and my woolen black cloak. At my waist was my spellblade.

Cindera was waiting for me outside the inn, fairly bouncing in place. "Come on! Are you ready? Let's go kick some Scourge ass!"

I frowned. Since when was she so excited to be anywhere near me? "What's with you?" I asked her.

"Sylvanas wants us to work together. And I think that it would be in both of our best interests to work together like she wants, don't you agree?" She put an arm around me again, giving me a brief hug. I pulled away from her.

"What are you up to, Cindera?" I asked, feeling weird about the whole situation.

"I'm not up to anything! I just want to get this over with, so that we can come back here and get to know each other, that's all."

"You want to get to know me as much as Arthas and Sylvanas want to become lovers," I told her.

"That's a little harsh, don't you think?"

"No." I took piece of dried beef and chewed it, "You and I haven't gotten along since you first set foot in Undercity. And all of a sudden you want to be friends?"

"Well, yeah, I do. Is that wrong?"

"You're thinking that you can get to Sylvanas by being nice to me? It's a bit late for that."

"This isn't about Sylvanas!"

"Of course it's about Sylvanas. You want her, and I'm in your way. So you think that by being nice to me, it'll get you closer to her so that you can edge me out. Personally, I think that things will be much easier for you if you're just honest with what you want. Even if it's to see me die so that you can take my place."

Hamu approached us, looking worried.

"You're not really thinking of doing this? Surely, others can take care of this test."

"I don't mind doing it. Besides, it'll be worth it if it's as effective as I've heard it is."

"Well, at least let me come with you."

"You can't, Hamu. The catapult won't hold you, you're too wide, especially with me on it. And you can't take a second catapult because it'll bring attention to us." I smiled at him, squeezing his hand, "Don't worry, my brother. I'll be fine."

He sighed, turning towards Cindera, "If anything happens to my sister," he said in a voice I'd never heard from him before. "You'll have me to deal with."

I rolled my eyes, "Let's just go, shall we?"

Cindera and I walked towards the row of catapults, seeing that Putress was already waiting for us.

"Ah, there you are. Well, hurry up, we haven't got all day, and I'd like to jot down the test results as quickly as possible." He quickly showed us the controls for the vehicle, but both Cindera and myself had operated something similar before. "All right, well I'll leave half a dozen bombs here. They should wipe out about twenty zombies at a time."

"Should?" I asked, remembering that he had once mentioned that they would take out twelve at once. "You do realize that we'll probably have to retreat after we've fired two of them, right? Because they'll be on our tail."

"Just document some results for me, all right? And try not to inhale any of this. I don't know what the effect is on elves."

I wasn't planning on inhaling that stuff unless something went very, very wrong, but I didn't mention it.

"I'll steer," said Cindera, taking her place on the left side of the catapult.

"I guess that means I'm aiming," I replied, getting on next to her. I had a nagging feeling that something bad was going to happen. Part of me wanted to desist, except that I'd never live such a thing down.

Cindera started the engine, and we began to roll, passing through the southern gate. I found that my heart was pounding uncomfortably, quite unlike the way it did before battle, when I was normally energized.

I realized that I was actually scared.

We reached the Carrion Fields faster than I'd anticipated, not exchanging a word the entire time. We kept glancing at each other. I think that I expected her to try to kill me right away, but surprisingly, she didn't attempt anything like that.

"There they are," I said in a low voice as the first ghouls and zombies showed up on the horizon.

"Get ready then," she said.

I already was, having placed a plague bomb into the basket. I released it just as the first skeletons were alerted to our presence.

The bomb exploded. Sending out a toxic green cloud that killed several of the Scourge right where they stood.

"How is it that they're dying with this? They can't bre –."

A sharp pain drilled itself into the back of my skull. I felt myself falling forward, just as black flowers bloomed in front of my eyes, obscuring my vision entirely.