【03】
Sylvanas was hiding in the shade behind a boulder,clutching her short sword. She had accomplished two things: scouting around thepath leading to the Tirisfal Glades and killing any Scourge she came across.While she was running low on arrows, she chose not to retrieve them. They wouldserve as a guide for Varimathras. With few remaining options, she could only ambushthe undead trolls with her dagger, and hold out hope her comrades would pick upher trail.
She had lost count of how manyScourge groups she had eliminated since the beginning of her excursion, butwhenever she finished one off, two more would pop out of nowhere, and the cycleseemed endless.
Standing atop the pile ofcorpses, her cape black as the night itself flapped in the night breeze, as ifit were a flag marking her conquest. Nomatter, she would manage. Even if shedidn’t kill her way out of here, the stupid mindless Scourge hordes would notbe enough to harm her.
“Your Majesty, are you stupid?” Aeron’s voice emerged from below thecorpses.
She frowned.
“Killing the mobs here only luresin more mobs. If you keep that up, it’ll become a macabre carnival full ofghouls, and they might even hit up my house to party. But I won’t stop you ifyour goal is to march back to the Tirisfal Glades on a road paved with theirheads.”
“That isn’t your house.” High up,Sylvanas sneered coldly.
“Your short sword is starting todull, isn’t it?” He looked at the wounds of the few corpses lying on top.“Let’s make a deal: I’ll lead you somewhere farther away so you can kill toyour heart’s desire. In exchange, I won’t interfere with what you want to do,and you won’t interfere with what I’m doing. How does that sound?”
“I have a better suggestion.” Shecrouched down, smiling calmly. “You lead the way and we’ll kill our way back toLordaeron. Once there, I’ll grant you a title, and you can have a grandentrance to where you belong.”
“That would be too far.” Hetilted his head, contemplating.
“What’s keeping you here? Thatgirl should be long dead. With your skills, you can leave this place with ease.But you’re reluctant because of a weak human...” She trailed off as she noticedhim bending over to flip through the corpses. “...What are you doing?”
“I’m checking if there isanything edible,” he said, still digging.
“...You disgust me. You shouldsee yourself right now, Aeron.” She was appalled by his actions. “Is it reallyworth this? Your human prince betrayed his people, led an undead army, claimedthe Frozen Throne, became the Lich King, and left the world you see before younow in his wake. Don’t you understand? Humans did all this.”
“So what you’re saying is,Lavinia took part in this massacre, stabbed us to death with her twig arms, andthen brought us back to life?”
“Who could say for sure?” sheharrumphed.
“As a matter of fact, I can.” Hestood up straight, holding a piece of mysterious meat. “You think you knoweverything, but you’re mistaken.”
Sylvanas stared at the Forsakenin front of her, and cackled suddenly. “Then I suppose we’re both the same, youand I. Thinking we know each other, yet we’re so different.”
“How would I know?” he echoedmockingly.
“Begone from my sight. You’llregret not taking me up on my offer.” She slashed another ghoul making its wayup the pile.
Aeron shook his head. All hewanted to do now is to bring this mysterious yet relatively fresh meat back toLavinia. He was leaving anyway. “Alright, good luck, Your Majesty,” he saidhaughtily.
Sylvanas grew furious as shewatched him leave in haste. Humans were all mostly idiots; take AeronBloodblade, for example. He didn’t grow a brain after becoming a Forsaken.Nathanos, meanwhile, was quite the genius. Except he wasn’t around.
She sighed.
Other than pure hatred, shenoticed a new and peculiar emotion surfacing in her heart; perhaps it was dueto the frustration of being unable to find her way back, or the anxiety causedby Varimathras not yet showing up, or the anger suffered from Aeron’shumiliation. Regardless, her mood was terrible. It was disastrous, and sheneeded to put it all behind her and move on.
Three days had already passed,and she still had not seen even a shadow of the Dreadlord. Surely he did nottake this opportunity to betray her and take over the Undercity, did he? Justlike all the other untrustworthy demons, perhaps he had always been waiting forthis day.
“....Blast!” Agitated, sheshouted and dodged another ghoul’s attack, kicking it down the pile.
‘Enough of these baseless assumptions! They’re pointless and don’t help the situation at all!’ She sheathedher short sword, gracefully jumped down, then walked across the grisly groundand hid amongst the forest again.
When night fell, Sylvanas came byAeron’s home again, and sorted through her weapons. After she surveyed thearea, she reluctantly admitted that the house was indeed located in a verysecluded area.
It was unlikely Aeron would leavehis home at night, so she only needed to find a position that allowed an easydisappearance. She was in no mood for any more of his nonsense. She took outher dulling short sword and attempted to sharpen it with another short sword onhand. The results were less than ideal. Maybe Aeron had another sharpeningstone that he wouldn’t refuse to lend. No, on second thought, she didn’t wantto see his pathetic mask again.
As Sylvanas concentrated on sharpeningher weapon, she heard soft footsteps coming from the direction of the house.She raised her head in alert, soundlessly sheathed the two short swords andslipped herself behind a nearby boulder. It wasn’t Aeron, but that foolish girlfrom before. Her greying white dress stood out in the darkness and in spite ofher efforts to sneak about, her footsteps were loud enough to stir the ghoulsin the forest. Even though Sylvanascouldn’t imagine what would compel the girl to wander out in the middle of the night,she reflected on this serendipitous turn of events.
‘I must say,what a shame, Aeron. You probably didn’t think she’d die this way’.
Sylvanas judged Lavinia’s path and swiftly hid behinda tree up ahead, drew her short sword and soundlessly spun it at the ready.Sylvanas leapt out behind Lavinia as soon as she stepped into the forest,effortlessly locking the girl’s neck with her left arm, while swiftly thrustingthe tip of the short sword right under her chin. Too easy. Even the ghouls knowhow to give a proper struggle. Instead, this girl froze like a helpless lamb.
‘She wandered out on her own. Soas long as I toss her into a group of ghouls, even Aeron wouldn’t be able toplace the blame on me.’ She smirked at her brilliant idea, tightened hergrip and was about to cut when--
‘Plea--Please wait…!” Laviniasqueezed out a sound, “I know you speak Common, and you hate me. Aeron told me everything...”
Sylvanas frowned.
Lavinia's face flushed due to thelack of oxygen, the redness was obvious even under the dim moonlight. “I… Iwant to make a deal with you.”
“Are the two of you playing me?”Sylvanas finally replied, frustrated and offended. “Understand your position,your life is not worth any deal.”
“Then, in exchange for Aeron’sfreedom, do with me what you will. I’m sure that would suffice,” she saidbrokenly, gasping for air. In her present predicament, she was makingtremendous efforts just to say a few words. “Please, take him away. I love him, and I’m grateful for him… But he shouldn’t stay here.”
Sylvanas finally figured it out,the girl had wandered outside to talk to her.
"So what would you have medo? Claim your life so Aeron can kill meout of revenge? Look at you, tossing all your problems on me so you can act allinnocent and die without a drop of guilt. What a precious, good little girl.”
“Ju-Just toss the body to theghouls, and deny everything… E-Even Aeron wouldn’t be able to tell.” Stillgasping, Lavinia suddenly threw out an accusation. “Don’t expect me to believethis didn’t come cross your mind when you pointed that sword at me.”
Damn human.
Sylvanas reluctantly released hergrip and backed off a few steps. “If you really want to die, go ahead and marchout into the forest yourself. Don’ttaint my blade,” she scoffed as she sheathed her sword. “You have no idea thatyour actions have just ruined what Aeron had been doing for you. Foolish girl,you shouldn’t live your life for yourself, but for him.”
Lavinia dropped onto the ground, panting, but raised her head in disbeliefafter Sylvanas finished her sentence. “F-For... him?”
Sylvanas bit her lip and gaveLavinia a sturdy kick to the abdomen. Lavinia involuntarily rolled and smashedagainst a tree. She groaned in pain, heaving and shaking violently.
“Although I have no intention ofsoiling my hands, I don’t mind giving you a lesson.” Sylvanas coldly spat outher words, almost losing control of the raging anger within. “Why do you thinkhe would risk everything to find you food and take care of you? In this land ofthe dead, for you to still be alive means everything to him. As long as you’realive, he can still pretend he’s alive too. If you have any appreciation for mywords, you’ll get up and crawl back to your home--forget this ever happened,and live on.”
Lavinia began to sob; Sylvanascouldn’t tell if it was due to her words or the pain she had sustained frombeing kicked. Sylvanas stared at the girl with no sympathy, and maybe even alittle hatred.
“I’ll let you in on anothersecret: If you really want to help him, go back and remove his mask.” Sylvanasgrinned, quietly taking her exit. “We can talk about that ‘love’ you speak ofafter you’ve done that.”
Still curled up on the ground,Lavinia grew silent.
Written by: Ms.Ursus thibetanus formosanus
Translated by: Vicky Cheng
