I couldn't open my eyes. Every time I moved, pain shot through my head. Opening my mouth, I vomited.

Sounds, there were sounds. Chains rattled. There was a low moan, followed by another. Something brushed against the floor, below me.

"Wake up, lassie," said a voice.

I tried to crack my eyes open, barely managing it. Everything was blurry and very dark. I could only catch glimpses of green light, but there didn't seem to be any source for it.

Dark place… with green light…

"Where am I?" I asked. My voice sounded horrible.

"Naxxramas, lassie," the dwarf, for it was obviously a dwarf talking to me, sounded sad.

"Naxx…" I sat up suddenly, giving a cry as agony pounded through my skull. I raised my hand to the back of my head, finding it sticky with what I could only assume to be blood. I felt dizzy and sick to my stomach.

I dragged my mind back. What had happened? I remembered going to the Carrion Fields with Cindera, and nothing else. Had we been ambushed? Was Cindera here with me?

"Is she all right?" asked someone with a tiny voice – a gnome.

"She's awake, at least," said the dwarf. "And I think she's a blood elf."

"I am," I said slowly. "How many of you are there?"

"Five with you, lassie. Myself, a gnome, a night elf, and a troll."

"You been here two days, mon," said the troll, who appeared to be somewhere behind me.

"Two days… how did I get here?"

"A spider brought yeh."

A spider? My body reacted instantly, tensing up and erupting into goosebumps. I didn't want to know what quarter of Naxxramas I was in, but by the faint light, I noticed large cobwebs dangling from the ceiling, one of which was wrapped around part of the cage I seemed to be trapped in.

"Arachnid Quarter…" I whispered. Fear threatened to choke me. I could feel each vertebrae in my back turning to ice.

"It looks that way," said the gnome. "There's a spider patrol that comes through here every hour. They're huge, and there might be thirty of them. And every thirty minutes in between, Nerubians patrol here as well. Then, twice a day, we see Maexxna."

I vomited again, the foul substance seeping through the metal grating at the bottom of the cage and dripping onto the floor.

"I would advise against doing magic," said the troll quietly. "It rebounds on you, and not in a good way."

"Good to know…"

"We wanted to try and heal you," said the gnome. "I'm a priest, but… I can't, I'm sorry."

I recognized that voice. "Aren't you the priest that works in the Dalaran Clinic?"

"Yes! I'm Harlee! And… wait a minute, are you Faith?"

"That would be me," I said, curling up in the most comfortable position I could. My cloak was gone, and I shivered. "The Scourge seems intent on kidnapping me. I might have set the record with this one."

"What do yeh mean, lassie?"

"I mean that this might be the fifth time the Scourge has gotten its rotting hands on me."

"Will Sylvanas come and save you, you think?" asked Harlee.

I closed my eyes, "I don't even know how she would find out that I'm in here. Naxxramas is a huge necropolis, and they might manage to turn me before she actually gets here." The thought of that happening was unbearable. They were going to torture me, I was sure of it. And this time, I would probably remember everything that they did to me. "Did they bring in anybody else with me? A death knight, maybe?"

"We did not see anybody else," said a deep voice that I knew belonged to the night elf. I could just barely see him, as his cage dangled just a foot below mine. "Just you."

I struggled to remember what had happened, but the more I did, the more my head ached. Where was Cindera? Was she here somewhere too? Had they put her somewhere else? Or was she dead? "We have to get out of here."

"And how would you like to do that? These cages impede magic from getting in or out. There's no way we can go anywhere, unless they take us out of here. And you don't want them to do that."

I didn't, but I knew it was going to happen sooner than I thought. Already, I could hear voices coming from somewhere in the dark. They spoke Nerubian, which wasn't really my forte, but I understood enough to know that they were talking about me.

"Just put her with the spiders. She's afraid of them. She'll beg for mercy soon," said a dark voice. It sounded clotted, the voice of the monsters that made children afraid to go to sleep at night.

A hiss responded, and although I tried to calm myself down, my hair stood on end. I knew that hiss. It was a spider's hiss, the one they made when they focused on their prey and were about to pounce.

I curled up tighter in my cage, keeping my eyes closed, not wanting to see. But I could hear, maybe too well. The spider was pacing beneath my cage, its pincers clicking menacingly. A cold sweat began to trickle down my back.

"Is she awake?"

The spider merely clicked. I heard it scuttling up the wall. A moment later, a tremendous blow shook my cage. I couldn't keep pretending to be asleep, and so opened my eyes. I immediately wished I hadn't done that, forcing myself to bite back the shriek of terror that nearly clawed its way out of my throat.

Think of Sylvanas! Think of the way you handled that giant spider at home when she took you hunting!

That spider had been tame by comparison. The thing reaching into the cage to prod me with its legs was at least twice as big as the giant spiders I was used to. I wanted to scream. To run away. Better yet, to faint and be unaware of what was happening to me.

The spider clicked its pincers excitedly, causing the Nerubian below me to chuckle.

"Ah, so Blackfire is awake. And just as terrified of us as rumor has it. Very good, very good. Bring her down."

The spider reached its mandibles through the bars, beginning to spin some kind of web around me. My fear had reached the point of panic. I felt that soon, I probably would faint, especially when the thing opened my cage and took me out, tossing me down to the Nerubian, who caught me deftly.

"How's your head?" he asked me, prodding it gently. Pain sizzled through me, and I grit my teeth to keep from screaming. "Hurts, doesn't it? You'll know better now than to mess with us, won't you?" He brought his hideous face closer to mine, and I tried my hardest not to cringe away from him.

The spider clicked behind me, and the Nerubian set me down. I swayed, but the arachnid placed itself behind me, forcing me to stay upright. My skin crawled at the contact. I glanced up and saw that the other prisoners were all watching me, clearly worried. Harlee appeared to be praying.

"Walk, Blackfire."

But that was easier said than done. I took two steps and collapsed, my head spinning so badly that I was sick again. Bile burned my throat.

The Nerubian said something to the spider. I didn't catch what it was, but understood it quickly, as I was slowly dragged along the floor. The web I was wrapped in was hot through my clothes. It would burn me soon. I could already smell the material of my clothes smoldering, coupled with the stench of acid.

They dragged me through numerous corridors, and as we passed through various chambers, I saw hundreds of large spiders resting on webs. They clicked and hissed at me, and I closed my eyes again. If I survived this, I would have nightmares for years to come.

Finally, after about five minutes of being dragged, we stopped. My robes were torn, and my skin felt raw where it had rubbed on the floor, which was slimy with who knew what.

The Nerubian lifted me onto a stone slab, tying my hands above my head, and keeping my feet together, tying them to some kind of metal pole.

"She's a morsel, isn't she?"

That voice belonged to a human, but one with sunken eyes and cheeks, and hair of a blinding white color. He seemed to be close to death, but even in his state, I could tell that he was strong. He was probably waiting for the Scourge to turn him into an undead.

"You can have her, if you wish," said the Nerubian. "But only after we question her."

"For now, we'll just work on her fingers."

With amazing speed, he reached my hands and snapped my thumb in half. I shrieked, the sound reverberating across the chamber I was in. The spiders who were hanging from the ceiling clicked in excitement.

"Do we even have any questions to ask her?" wondered someone else. Another Nerubian.

"No. Master Kel'Thuzad just wants us to torture her until he's satisfied. We should bring her to Icecrown Citadel afterwards, if she survives."

Kel'Thuzad. The name sent hot hatred coursing through my veins, and for a moment, I thought I was actually going to get free as I struggled against my bonds. But the man slapped me so hard that I hit my head on the slab. Momentarily dazed, I stopped struggling.

"You… have no idea what I'm going to do to you once I get free…" I whispered.

"Free? You're never getting out of here, Faith. You're going to die in here, maybe even today, and we will raise you to serve Lord Arthas and his Scourge." He laughed.

"Go to hell, you bastard."

"Temper, temper. Perhaps this will help." Picking up some kind of curved blade, he ripped the sleeve of my robe, then gently inserted the tip into my forearm, slicing very gently, whispering loving words in my ears. I screamed.

Time was lost to me. I cannot tell you how long they kept me in that chamber, breaking the bones in both my hands and slicing my skin open, layer by layer. Every time I fainted from the pain, they revived me and went on. I would have welcomed insanity, but they were too cruel to give it to me. Thoughts of Sylvanas crowded me, and every time I felt some comfort from them, the pain broke through, causing me to shriek again until my voice disappeared.

But no matter how bad the pain got, I didn't beg for mercy. I screamed and cried, sobbed even, but I didn't beg. Not then, anyway. I had a feeling that they were just getting started with me, and that by the time they were done, I would beg plenty.

I don't remember them putting me back in my cage. All I know is that I lost consciousness again, and when I woke up, I was back in that confined space, my clothes practically shredded and hanging off my body. I was bleeding from two dozen places, and there was no hope of my moving on my own.

"Oh, Sylvanas…" I whispered.

I shivered violently, aware that waste was running down my legs. I felt as though I had a high fever, which was probably the case.

Sleep eluded me. Every time I closed my eyes to try to get some rest, throbbing agony racked my body. I found out later that it was a spell they had put on me, something to make sure that I would stay tense and in pain even while they weren't actively torturing me.

"Be strong, lassie," said the dwarf to me. He sounded pained for me.

"Y-you… you guys… h-heard that…" I could barely form the sentence.

"Yes, Faith," whispered Harlee. "We heard."

I wanted to apologize for worrying them, but the words wouldn't come. One by one, my companions went to sleep, waking up only when the spiders came to rattle our cages. I simply curled up on myself, trying not to think about what they were going to do to me when morning came around.

They came for me again. And again. I lost track of the days. I was no longer able to scream after what I thought was the third day, as spiders bit me over and over again. Poison coursed through me in small doses, not enough to kill me, but definitely enough to make me very sick. I was terrified by then, and it was pointless for me to try to hide it.

I screamed out Sylvanas' name, making my torturers laugh.

"Do you think she's almost done?" asked one of them. "She looks ready to die."

"We'll leave her here for the night," the Nerubian who had barely left my side during the torture chuckled and turned me before hitting my lower back with such force that I lost consciousness.

When I came to, it was pitch black. My breathing was shallow. My heart was racing in my chest in an uncomfortable way, and I was nauseated, but I couldn't be sick in the position I was in. I would choke on it, and I was determined not to die in this foul place. Besides, I hadn't eaten anything in days, so there was nothing in my stomach for me to throw up.

I looked around, seeing evil red lights several feet away from my head. A spider was positioned directly above me. I didn't want to cry, but I couldn't help it. My fear of them was absolute.

"I don't want to die…" I whispered to myself. Trying to speak was agonizing. I tried to swallow, but all my throat made was a series of clicks. They had given me something to drink every day, polluted water that had made me as sick as the spider venom. It had just been enough for me not to die from dehydration.

My eyes began to get used to the light, and I found that it wasn't entirely pitch black after a while. I could clearly see the outline of the enormous spider just above me. It was watching me intently, all eight of its red eyes focused on me. I was fairly certain that it wasn't going to kill me, at least not for food. Most likely, it had been posted there to let the others know whether I suddenly died.

The rest of the webbing was mostly empty, except for small spiderlings crawling here and there. A few of them were on my legs, doubtlessly placed there so that I would always have a crawling sensation on my skin. I could feel them, which told me that I wasn't paralyzed, despite the fact that my back was hurting fit to kill me. As it was, I had to bite my lip to keep from moaning.

Sounds reached me. I saw the spider tense and turn towards the southern entrance to the chamber I was in. In a flash, it pounced, landing just over me. I cried out in fear, although it was more like a mewling sound. What was going on? Was that thing planning on killing me, then?

I realized what was happening.

Rescue. Someone other than the Scourge was in Naxxramas. I heard something that sounded like metal clashing against metal. Swords. A shout.

The spider turned around, facing me. Its monstrous face lowered. It meant to finish me off now so that nobody could rescue me.

I didn't have much strength left in me, almost none of it, in point of fact. My hands were tied together, and most of their bones were broken, but I was still able to cast a spell that caused a ball of light to explode in the spider's eyes.

The creature made a loud pained sound and collapsed on top of me, its front legs pawing at its eyes. It was so heavy that I found myself struggling to breathe as it splintered a couple of my ribs.

"Did you see that light?"

"Faith!"

I didn't dare believe the voice I heard. What was she doing here? How?

"She's in here!"

There was a shout in Thalassian, and suddenly, the spider's weight was rolled off my body.

"By the Light, she's still alive," said a dwarven voice.

"Faith? Baby?"

"Sylvanas…"

"It's me, honey."

"No… you're trying to trick me…"

"Shh, my darling. You're all right. Everything's going to be fine."

"The bars are locked, my Lady. We can't free her."

"Find a way," snarled Sylvanas. She placed a blissfully cold hand on my face, stroking gently. "Oh, my love, you're burning up… what have they done to you?"

I said her name again. Was she really here with me?

"She's not long for this world, Sylvanas."

Lor'themar. What was he doing in Naxxramas?

"She is not going to die!"

The metal holding my wrists together became scorching hot and I cried out, but a moment later, someone pried it off me. The same happened to the shackles on my feet.

"She needs healing right away, my Lady. We could kill her just by moving her."

"Then heal her!" she snapped. She gently cradled me in her arms, "Please, Faith… please don't go."

"I'm not going anywhere," I whispered to her. Fingers of warmth stole over my body as the healers who had come with Sylvanas began to work on me. My ribs were healed the fastest, because they were the freshest injuries, but everything else would eventually take longer than we had. After five minutes, they were forced to stop when one of the dwarves noticed that we were getting company.

"We need to get out of here," said Lor'themar. "Faith, can you walk?"

"We have to get Kel'Thuzad! He's here."

"Don't be ridiculous," said Sylvanas to me. She picked me up and I gasped in pain. "What's wrong?"

"My back… everything…"

"And you want to keep fighting," she whispered to me. "You're in no condition to do anything but sleep right now."

"Incoming!" cried another familiar voice. It was Rhonin. "Do you have her? Is she alive?"

"Yeah, Rhonin, she's here." Sylvanas held me more securely against her. "We got other prisoners out as well."

"Good, so did we. There were another five in one of the other wings. We have to go now. We'll come back and destroy this foul place later."

Sylvanas began to run. I struggled to keep from screaming, but I couldn't help the tears that ran down my face every time she moved. She glanced down at me, but she had no choice but to keep going. "We're almost there," she whispered. "Just hang on."

I tried. But I felt myself slipping into the comfortable embrace of unconsciousness, knowing I was safe in my lover's arms.

I knew as soon as I opened my eyes again that we had escaped from Naxxramas. I was resting in a warm bed with the covers pulled up to my chin and Sylvanas by my side. Her arm was slung protectively over me, and she was watching me.

"Welcome back," she said quietly.

I closed my eyes again, moving only briefly to rest my head against hers, "You're a dream," I whispered.

"A dream, am I? Aren't I alive in your dreams?"

"You have a point." I rolled over to snuggle into her arms, ignoring the sharp aches I felt as I did this.

"Easy, Faith. You're not supposed to move yet."

"Can I merge my body with yours?"

She chuckled, "I think the potions you're on have made you a little loopy." She kissed my cheek, "I don't think you'd like it if we did that. My body's cold and dead. Yours is warm and alive."

"How did you find out where I was?"

"It took your cowardly soldiers a couple of days to contact me and tell me that you were missing," she said to me.

"Cowardly?" I asked.

"They were trembling when I arrived in Venomspite. Cindera was still recovering from the attack, and she was the one who confirmed that the Scourge had taken you, but she couldn't figure out where."

"There was nobody near us when we approached the Carrion Fields," I said. "The ghouls and zombies were just realizing that we were there when I threw the first plague bomb at them."

"You remember this?" she asked me, her eyes staring into mine.

"I… I can't remember my own name when you look at me like that…"

Sylvanas began to laugh, blinking. "Oh, Faith."

"I remember bits and pieces. I don't remember anything after I threw that first bomb, so I think that's when the attack happened."

"You're sure that no member of the Scourge was around you?"

I knew what she was thinking, "The alternative would be that Cindera was the one to attack me. It's her word against mine, and I can barely remember what happened."

"How were you positioned on the catapult?"

"She was driving, and I was taking care of the bombs."

"So you were on the right," she said. "And she was on your left." She examined my head, "Your injury was more on the left side, right?"

"I guess. Sylvanas, I don't really know. I had other things to worry about when I woke up." I took her hand, "I haven't trusted Cindera ever since I first saw her, but that's not the point."

"It is, because I trust your judgment."

"Yeah, but if Cindera attacked me, we're going to have to wonder why. Did she do it because she wants you or does she work for the Scourge?"

"Oh, that's a scary thought." Sylvanas held me closer for a moment, her eyes getting that intense look they got when she was thinking hard. I loved seeing her like this. It made me remember her as my general. "I'll have people keep a close eye on her. But in the meantime, you're coming home with me."

"You're pulling me out of combat?"

"Faith, I don't think you realize just how close you came to becoming a member of the Scourge. We would have been too late to save you had we waited any amount of time."

I knew.

"I'm not keen on having you fight the Scourge anymore, but Thrall is adamant about you returning to combat after you've fully recovered. So you're coming home with me for a month. I'm rotating the full Magi Corps for now so that you can all rest. That way, when you come back to Northrend, you'll be in much better shape."

"You want me to come home for a month, then to come back to war? Sylvanas, I'm not sure I'll be able to go back."

"You will." She kissed me, "But for now, I want you home with me so that you can have some real rest."

"With you?" I asked.

"With me. Not by yourself, but only with me."

"I can't refuse a direct order from my queen," I said softly.

"No," she agreed. "You can't. We leave tomorrow. I've already sent most of the Magi Corps home. Oh, and you'll be going to Thunder Bluff for a while, to be with your tauren parents. I think that they'll be glad to see you."

"Will you come with me?"

"I can, for a day or so."

"Okay." Burying my head against her, I closed my eyes, feeling her wrapping a warm blanket around me and kissing my cheek. "I love you," I murmured. "Thank you for rescuing me, my queen."

"It's the last time I'll do that, you hear me? Stop trying to die."

"I promise."