Chapter Text
I hardly remember my life before I was taken to Felsoul Hold.
The catacombs in which we were held were deep underground and, judging from the architecture, once served as a ley station from a bygone era. This place had long since lost its original purpose and now the walls were covered with cages of the Burning Legion, in which we endured until our time had come. Water kept dripping from the ceiling and in the freezing cold of this underground dungeon there was no protection nor solace to be found.
Demonic overseers would often cause psychological agony before ultimately leading us away, never to be seen again. We knew this was a death sentence. The empty spaces were regularly filled with new prisoners, outcasts from Suramar, most of them withered before they could be used to fuel the Burning Legion arsenal. A gracious fate to go insane and not witness your own end.
Days and nights were a tireless fight against the endless hunger that tormented me and drove me to the edge of madness. I was almost blunted to the suffering of my fellow prisoners around me, who tried to cling to any spark of hope. Until they gave up on themselves they often cried, some were overcome by despair and they screamed their hearts out. No one would come to save them. Their will to live would be broken here, and if the fear and agony alone were not enough, the hunger would ultimately tear them apart.
I knew that my time would soon come. The hunger barely made me think clearly and all I could do was lie on the floor of my prison cell and await my fate.
My body and mind famished, tired and freezing, I examined my hands in the gloomy dim. How much I must have changed, I thought, flexing my bony fingers. My once shiny tattoos had faded and looked like burn marks on my arms and hands.
It seemed ages ago that I had attended the magical school in Suramar. My parents from the noble house of Daerwain, respected and influential. Arcwine and arcane magic, music and art, all seemed like memories from someone else's life. If I got out of here one way or another, I knew I would never use arcane magic again. The dependency and withdrawal were so terribly all-encompassing that it is a mystery to me how all my people could agree to this curse.
Screams and noise of battle penetrated me and I would have liked to get up to see what was going on - but it was a long time since my legs had found the strength to carry me.
Some in the other cages around me began to whisper and a few got up to lurk curiously and hopefully through the bars. Hope, a concept that seemed so foreign to me through my clouded thoughts.
Gradually the turmoil subsided and steps could be heard coming down the stairs to our dungeon. With a great effort, I turned on the floor and in the dimness I recognized silouettes giving each other harsh instructions. Were they here to rescue us? Or to kill us? The distinction now seemed banal.
As you approached, you appeared to be enclosed by an unnatural cold that chilled the moist air around you. The water dripping from the ceiling froze in your presence as life itself seemed to avoid you. Your skin, exposed under your heavy armor, was pale green, and your eyes radiated a shimmering blue in which death rested as if frozen in time.
You looked like a demon to me, but the unnatural aura that surrounded you belied that impression.
When you broke the lock on my cage with sheer force and picked me up to take me away from this terrible place, you looked down at me for a second.
What a hideous sight I must have made. My fingers, bony and parched; my face disfigured, my ribcage, clearly visible under my skin; witnesses of suffering.
You climbed the stairs with me, through the ornate corridors, now corrupted by the devices of the Burning Legion and dead bodies that beared witness to a recent battle.
Around us, your comrades, who led those who could still walk outside, and carried others who were drained like me. As you stepped through the last gate, I sensed a gentle breeze of freedom that the wind waved over me.
I dared a look at the sky I hadn't seen in a long time and took a careful breath of relief. Your eyes shone as bright as the stars above and seemed just as distant; a spark of hope that had died out in me, reignited.
Light, that has traveled far beyond time and whose origin has long since ceased to exist.