A Black Story

[Errata]

"Did you notice the scars on my back? They're the start of the tale. Not tail as in.. You know. But tale, as in story.. You already got that." Lily sighed. It was a poor start to her story. Then again, any start would've been a poor start for this story.

Valira rolled her eyes. Yet she smiled, warmly and genuinely.

"Do you happen to know Marianna?"

Valira shook her head.

"She's a Demon. Eeeh, Half-Demon, actually. The woman has taken a strange liking to me and to throwing me around. I can't recall why she has. I can recall her etching these runes into my back after I had accepted one of her wishes."

Valira grimaced. “A demon? Lily, if you're trying to not make me throw you to the Argent Crusade you are doing a poor job.”

"I'm trying to give you the full story.. Or should I just say it was because a sunflower threw up on me?"

Valira stifled a laugh. “I'd then test you for drugs. But yes, yes… I'm sorry, continue.”

“ It wasn't really a wish. She had shared an idea with me and I had accepted it. I was under the assumption that there were two other options remaining. One lead to my death and the other to some form of hypnotized slavery."

Valira grimaced, yet let the girl continue.

“Right.. Now, Marianna's idea of this would have sounded something like this. One. Force Lily to accept the ordeal. Two. Imprint Lily with a demonic flower pattern. Three. Throw Lily into a portal to the Shadow Realm. It was more like pushing though. Four. Have Lily get tortured by shades and five would have been profit. That's the stage we're at now.”

Valira frowned softly. “How would torture cause you to… Have all of these mutations? Lily, I'm a piss-poor priestess and even I can sense the massive amount of Shadow radiating out from you.”

Lily shrugged and followed Valira with a frown of her own. "I do not know. I do know that all I can remember of that place was pain and suffering. It was cold and a bitter dark. Have you seen the world in black and white?"

Valira grimaced. “No, not unless it's raining.”

"Unless it's raining? No, it was more than that.. A world ruled by all possible shades of gray, every imaginable colour was absent. It looked grimdark."

Valira plucked at the pale woman's dark robes. She laughed. “It's the world you were meant to live in, it seems.”

"I have lived there.. And judging by the actions of the inhabitants.. They did not like me."

"I had first gotten the time to properly prepare myself. I didn't really want to enter it but else Marianna would've worse things. Worse than they are now, I would say."

Valira cupped the girl's cheek but said nothing more. She let her continue.

Lily took in a deep breath of fresh air to resume her story. It needed a breath of fresh air. "I ate and drank enough for days.. I hoped. I could only rely on my estimates as I had not near the faintest idea of what was going to happen. Marianna had offered me or insisted rather, on giving me a healthstone. I asked for another because I'm not going to rely on a healthstone. I'd rather rely on two."

“A healthstone… Made of another living being's soul?”

"I don't know. Could be, they didn't taste like that anyhow.. Not sure what they tasted like but I'm digressing.. I had gotten my final shove into the dandy little shadow portal."

Valira nodded. She dragged her nail along the girl's cheek idly as she listened.

"Well, normal feeling once you get shoved through a portal. I'm sure you know what it's like.. But there was an ominous feel to it. Then again, I was entering the shadow realm, it's allowed to make you feel like you are headed to your doom."

“If you're headed into the Realm of Shadow, you're allowed to feel however you damn wish.”

"The tower where I came from was just a grey shadow pasted onto a dark starless nightsky. The ground was as dark as the sky, only a different tint. Oh, and it was silent. Silent as if a bomb had been propped up to your ear and set off. It didn't exactly blow your ear off but it certainly made sure you were never going to listen to other bombs ever again. Jealous little bomb."

Valira swatted the girl's forehead. "Focus."

"So.. I was nauseated by a lousy portal configuration, nearly blinded by the lack of light and abundance of darkness and it felt as if I was deaf. I couldn't even hear my own footsteps."

“And then what?”

Lily yawned and shivered slightly. "It was cold.. The water was freezing without literally freezing. I had stepped into the stream after a good long walk. It took me ten minutes, I thought it was ten minutes atleast, to walk a hundred yards."

“Cold water isn't anything new.”

"My journey immediately ended as I stepped into the stream, I hadn't heard it before but as my foot felt a cold numbness caused by the water I was surprised by the sudden echoing growl of the stream."

Valira frowned. “The stream growled at you?”

"Not like that.. But it could have, I'm sure. The echoing sound of the trickle of water was kind of like a growl. At any rate, my foot went numb and I fell onto the bank of the stream. I crawled onto a patch of grass. There was a stab of pain in my back. It was as sudden and quick and heavy that I wanted to roll up in a ball and cry but it was gone the moment it came."

“Where did it come from?”

"The pain? It was a shade causing it.. Indirectly. He had taken notice of me. I cringed at the slowly burning pain in my back, it was rising. I felt it coming closer. I was trying to warm my feet back up."

Valira grimaced at the mention of the Shade.

Lily shivered as Valira grimaced. The thought of shades wasn't a very fond thought either. The thought had prompted Lily's mind to shut down for the moment and she noticed it. The girl simply yawned. “I had better like to continue this some other time. The wounds are still a bit too fresh.”

[Errata]

Lily cleared with a deep and rather burdened sigh. It was a clear sign of the resumption of Lily's story. “So.. I believe I had left at when I was warming my feet. I meant that I left the telling of the story at that part, I couldn't really leave the situation with frozen feet. The friction caused by my hands wouldn't take. The shade was getting closer and I was out of luck, it seemed.”

Valira frowned. “But..?”

“There was no but. It seemed it was out of luck but I'd like to think I'm very accurate at such predictions. The shade loomed over me, I can only assume it was looking at me, examining me. The pain in my back had worsened almost a tenfold. I had stopped moving in the hopes of looking like a dead person so that it would have leaved me be.”

The other woman grimaced. “You –hoped- it would leave you be?”

“Shush! I was through my entire arsenal! I wasn't but I couldn't quite cast spells as it seemed to silence every sound that I tried to push through my lips.. That and I couldn't concentrate with the pain in my back. The shade reached out with its stringy black arm…” Lily shivered as she recalled the icy touch.

Valira dropped a comforting hand on Lily's shoulder, she retreated the hand as soon as she had placed it on Lily's shoulder and grimaced instead.

“That touch, it was as bad as all the others but my memory won't let it fade as it was the first of them all. Fel, you wouldn't know the fourth time you were punched in the face but the first time will creep through your mind ever after.. I hope I can forget every time it happened.”

Valira simply nodded, lacking anything useful to add to Lily's reminiscences.

“It opened my eyes, literally. I had my eyes closed ever since I saw it coming closer, I thought it'd help me with dealing with the pain. I was right. I saw the dark entity looming over me, an outstretched hand on my cheek. I gritted my teeth and saw a glint in what I thought to be its eye. It wasn't just going to leave me there.. I don't exactly know why but it seemed interested.. In me.”

Valira nodded. “At least the shade has a good taste and interests.”

“It was drawn to the runes on my back, I'm almost convinced by that. I felt that hand ran past my forehead and through my hair. This was just before the shade dragged me through the dirt by my hair. The pain of someone pulling me by my hair somewhere , I had no idea where, was negligible. It didn't care for the trail I was leaving behind, neither did it care for me. It cared for what I bore, I could only hope it cared for it.”

A grimace appeared on Valira's face.

“Then every part of my body went numb. I think he dragged me through the icy stream, I don't know. I guess I fainted.” Lily's eyes had dwelled across the room and locked on the empty glass standing next to the bed. “Can you get me some water? I'm thirsty.” She smacked her lips, softly.

[Errata]

Lily didn't take long to finish the drink, she gestured for Valira that she had had a sufficient amount of water. Valira set aside the glass so Lily could continue with the story.

“So I guessed I fainted but after some careful deliberation I'm quite sure that I fainted. My robe felt cold and clingy as I woke up so I figure it hadn't been that long since I was dragged through the stream. It was dark, my eyes barely could adjust to this level of darkness. I could distinguish a few moving form against the background. I was lying somewhere out of the way and it smelled of.. Old.. Old anything, really.”

Valira frowned. “You do know old isn't exactly a smell, right?”

“If you had smelled the same thing I smelled then you would agree with me. I digress. It doesn't matter what it smelled like, my company was far more important. I had a knot in my stomach, I could barely breathe and I had a headache that could conquer worlds if it wasn't just a headache. I closed my eyes and probed the insides of my cheeks with my tongue. You know, to reassure myself that I still had those survival options at my disposal.”

Valira nodded and quickly added. “They were there, right? Else you wouldn't be lying in this very bed.”

“Yes.. Yes.. They were there. I tried raising my hand only to have it swatted down by one of the shades. I knew I wasn't going anywhere, not anytime soon. Everything blurred into one memory, I can't pick them apart. When I fainted and for how long I remained out in the dark, I can't recall. I can't even recall what had happened.. I was delirious.”

The other woman slid her hands into their opposing sleeves and quickly glanced at the glass of water to check if something might've happened to it. It still only contained a bottom of water.

Lily coughed, a particle of dust had caught the girl unaware. She resumed as soon as the fit of coughs died out. “My strength was being sapped. I could hardly move and when I did try to move, I met an opposing force much greater than my own that held me in place. I slipped into illusions, memories of my own.. Grim memories, and they seemed more vivid than reality ever did. They had an edge to them, as if they were darker and worse than I could recall.. I knew why Marianna had warned me, why I was suspected to either die or grow mad.”

Valira listened carefully, the tone in Lily's words revealed the dread she experienced more than the descriptions she offered Valira. Lily's voice trembled as she withdrew the story from her memory.

“The occasional cold slap against any random part of my body awoke me from time to time. My perception of time waned and I feared for my sanity. I had been trying to block out the vivid memories but I felt that my strength would not suffice. As I came to this realization.. I figured I had to start trying to keep my mind together instead of attempting to keep others out. Even though I didn't know how long I had been there, I knew I was going to stay more than double that time.. So I waited.”

Lily had shivered and fell silent. The images of those days of torment washed over her and rendered her silent. Valira could only look at her and rest a comforting hand on the girl's forehead.

[Errata]

Valira had retreated her hand from Lily's forehead once the shivering subsided. The girl regained her calm steadily, it was paired with deep breaths of air.

Valira drew a concerned look on her face. Her voice was careful, as if the air had suddenly become fragile. “Don't take too long. You're still recovering and it's taking its toll on you, I can tell.”

Lily sighed and nodded. “I wasn't going to take too long with this part.. I already described my dread, didn't I? It continued, just keep that in mind.” The girl closed her eyes, regaining what stature she had left.

Valira nodded, joining Lily's tired gesture. “It's clear to me.”

“Then I can continue.. Nothing happened, not for a while. Well, things happened but it didn't change, it was just agonizing torture.. Until something curious occurred. I had suddenly woken up because one of the shades was looming over me, it eyed me with its eyeless face. I felt petrified, horrified beyond belief. That outstretched hand reached for my mouth.”

Valira raised a brow. “It had noticed the stones in your mouth?”

“That's what I thought! I was reaching my limit as well so I bit down on one of the healthstones just before the shade's icy grasp enveloped my jaw, I felt the energy spread through my limbs but it was joyless. I still felt drained even as that energy had replenished my reserves . My throat was hurting merely because of the air it was forcing into my mouth. The shade didn't notice the other stone that was still stored in my cheek but it wrenched open my mouth. I couldn't resist and by the shadow did it hurt. If I had any tears left, I would've cried.”

“Why did it open your mouth?”

“I was getting to that. I saw another hand reach down for my mouth, I was still tempted to shut my mouth but I knew it was pointless and a waste. A sudden weight had occupied my tongue. Not only a weight but an awfully bland taste. It tasted horrible, I can't describe it other than nothing.. It tasted of a nothingness, an empty void. Then it shut my mouth and tilted back my head, the sand rolled into the back of my mouth. At least, it felt like sand. I was going to choke if I didn't swallow it.”

Valira instinctively glanced at the floor, trying to spot any sand that might've made its way onto the floor.

Lily swallowed. She looked at Valira. “It felt horrible.. My throat was hurting like Fel. The remaining grains of sand harassed the insides of my mouth and I still don't know what the Fel it was. The horrible taste didn't decline, I could feel the grains imbedded in my dry mouth. How I longed for a sip of water to flush it all away. Every time I clenched my teeth together, I could hear the grating sound of the sand between my teeth. It still bothers me, the sand... It bothers me that the reason for feeding me sand eludes me still.”

Lily fell silent after that. She was probing her teeth with her tongue to ensure not a grain of sand had been left in her mouth.


“Could I have another sip of water?”

[Errata]

Valira pulled the glass of water from the bedside table and pressed it up to the girl's lips. “Here…” Lily greedily drank from the glass of water. Valira tipped the glass back, pouring a couple of mouthfuls past the girl's lips. “All this talk of sand is making me thirsty…” She pulled the glass away from Lily's lips and drank the rest herself.

Lily smacked her lips. She gave a content sigh and closed her eyes. "That's why I wanted some water in the first place... Now where was I?"

Valira sighed softly, rubbing the bridge of her nose. “You were talking about the wraiths torturing you with sand.”

"Sand, yes. I can't recall anything except for my most horrible memories being worse than I could possibly imagine… It filled my days and my nights, there was no distinction between the two in that dark hall. My main priority was keeping sane and alive.”

“The torture continued then?”

"Yes... It continued, worse than it had been. That cursed sand. It kept on going for an eternity. Yet I somehow survived it and made it over here."

Valira blinked. “I've been meaning to ask… How –did- you get here, Lily? Being tortured by wraiths in an alternate dimension doesn't seem like something you can just get up and walk away from.”

"No, you don't… I can't recall the exact details but I do know that Marianna had managed to find me in that shadowy realm. She saved me but then again... I believe she had intended to save me after I spend a good, long time in there."

Valira scowled. “The demon saved you…?” A slow shudder rolled through her. “And why did she bring you back here? To my... I mean, to your apartment?”

Lily shook her head slowly. "Half-Demon, actually.. And I think so I would recover here? Did no one actually ask you to take care of me? I thought you had met the woman already."

Valira shook her head. “No, I've been staying here for a few days… While you've been away.” She waved to her clothes strewn about the bedroom. “Just to keep an eye on things and wait for you. I found you tossed through a window a few nights ago. She must have just chucked you through and left it at that.”

"What? She threw me through a window? Are you serious..? I was under the impression that she had handed me over to you or something, so you could take care of me. But this…" Lily sighed. She peered at Valira and looked rather concerned. "You do know she'll come for me after I have recovered, don't you?"

Valira aimed a thin-worn smile at the girl. She shook her head. “She won't have a chance. I've arranged for you to be put in protective custody by the Argent Crusade.”

Lily cringed slightly and shook her head. "Val, that won't do. They'll try to cleanse me, to remove this taint from my body. Wouldn't they? It'd kill me, I know it will!"

Valira pressed a finger to the girl's lips to silence her. She offered her a warming smile. “I won't let them. They know how to cure you. They'll make you better and protect you from this demon.”

"She's a half-Demon and they can't cure me! I can feel it... It's what is keeping me alive, this energy. It's too mingled with my own body that there's no turning back. You can't save me anymore, you can only save yourself."

Valira looked hesitantly at the woman. She turned, glancing out the window. “You'll… Be fine, Lily. I'm sure of it. They'll take good care of you. When they promote me, I'll make sure you're treated well…”

Lily's seemed rather surprised, she narrowed her eyes at Valira. "When they promote you? You'll get promoted over this? Val, maybe you don't understand but they'll turn me into a friggin' lab experiment! They will not share your sympathies. They will simply look at me as if I were evil and would act by that thought… And even if they wouldn't do anything like I just explained then I'll still be locked up for the rest of my life.”

A knock resounded from the apartment door. Valira fell silent. She gripped the girl's shoulder. “It.. It will be all right. They will be gentle. I know they can cl-..” She abruptly ended the sentence and peered out the window. She spotted a Draenei and exhaled. “Enough of this. I've invited a friend over to inspect you, Lily.”

Lily gulped. Lily couldn't see squat from where she was lying. "Okay.. So now what?"

Valira slid off the bed and moved towards the door. “I'll be back in a moment, Lily. Just… Don't worry.” She took a hold of the doorknob and glanced back. She smiled. “Things will be all right. For the both of us.” Valira had swung the bedroom door closed shut. The familiar sound of the lock had given Lily the impression that she wasn't fully trusted by her caretaker.

The apartment door opened and closed. Valira's voice mingled with another's, the voice of a female Draenei. The Draenei, a doctor, seemed to have a delicate stutter to her. Both the voices rose as they moved up the stairs towards the bedroom.

The slight rumble of the key in the bedroom announced the door being swung open. Valira laughed softly. “-I preciate your discretion. It's something I want to keep under wraps.”

The Draenei followed Valira's footsteps and stepped into the light, she smiled delicately. “O-o-ofcourse. I…” She unclasped the doctor's bag at her hip and reached inside. For a moment her gaze fell upon Lily. A slow, vile green spread across her angelic face. She drew a long blackened blade from her bag and stepped forward. The point of the blade slid into the small of Valira's back. “…Understand your point.”

Valira smiled softly at Lily. “This is docto-” She jerked. Slowly, through the fold of her tabard, the point of the blade slid through. Wide eyed, she pressed her finger to the growing red stain. “O.. Oh..”

[Errata]

Lily was startled by the sudden backstab. She looked at the two women who had just entered the room with widened eyes. Despite Lily's attempts, the warning would not pour from her lips. She only managed to weep gently and have her cheeks gather her tears.

The Draenei slid the blade out from the woman's gut, letting the body crumple to the floor. The woman clutched feebly at the slowly spreading red stain. “Lily…” The voice had lost its stutter and accent. It was Marianna's voice that spoke through the Draenei's lips now. “We really must stop meeting like this. I don't think your friend enjoys my… House calls.” She stepped over the woman's body, flicking the blood off the blade with a twist of her wrist.

"Marianna…You! You…You throw me through a window and leave me to die…Then you kill the caretaker who has taken care of me for all this time and you.. I.. Why? Why?!"

The Draenei paused at the foot of the bed. She tapped her chin thoughtfully for a moment. The female finally shrugged, opening her arms to the girl. “Mmmh…Maybe I just have a poor bedside manner?”

Lily frowned. She threw a soft glare at the Draenei. "You had better not have killed Valira! She helped me with all of this… And so. You didn't, did you?" Her voice carried a shred of hope.

Valira whimpered softly. The Draenei glanced at the prone priestess and placed a kick to her shins. “She believes in the Light. A little scratch like that… She wouldn't have a problem healing it.”

"Can you please just get me out of here before you burn down my house or something? It is why you came here, right? To get me?"

Marianna planted one last kick to the priestess before turning back to the bound girl. She sighed softly and nodded. “Ah, thank you. I had almost forgotten amidst why I was here amongst all this fun and ribaldry.”

The ‘doctor' raised a leathered hand. Dark tendrils rose up from the shadows beneath the bed. They wound around the girl, ripping the belts and restraints from Lily's body. Wrapped around the girl, they lifted her bodily up to set her down before the vile creature.

Lily groaned as she stood on her feet. She didn't seem fully recovered from her previous torment. The girl stretched her arms. She gave Valira a pitiful look but quickly turning back up to the Draenei. "How do I look?" Lily tapped her foot. "Well? Can I cross the street like this?"

The Draenei grabbed Lily by the collar of her robes. “You couldn't...” She yanked the robes away, tearing them from the girl's body. Marianna smirked. She reached out a hand to brush the dark strands of hair from Lily's face. Exposed, she took in the girl's visage in its entirety.

Valira hadn't been unjust by binding Lily from head to toe. Apart from the black runes that graciously littered the girl's back were there some additional features to Lily's body. Her veins had blackened, creating a great contrast to Lily's even paler skin. The girl's skin had been torn in several places, the cracks glowing a dark purple and wrapped in the shape of runes. To top it all off, Lily's eyes had turned a complete, inky black. Her gaze was as dark as a starless sky.

Lily shivered as the robes had suddenly abandoned her. The girl glanced down at her own body, inspecting it shortly and blinked. She turned to Marianna and gave her a questioning look. "Why.. Is this?"

Marianna inspected Lily's form, marveling at the changes that had been made. She smirked, bearing rows and rows of small, pointed teeth. “Because, my dear girl… You're changed now. Just like me. And people will fear you for it.”

Valira coughed up a wad of blood. She groaned softly. Lily looked at Valira from the corner of her eyes. "But I can't cross the streets looking like this... I'd be arrested and stabbed any number of times... I don't think I'd like to remain in a city if I am to be feared by its inhabitants."

Marianna laughed. It was a cold and hollow sound. “How much you need to learn about your new powers. How much I shall need to teach you.”

Lily blinked. Her eyes, black as filled inkwells, showed no emotion. "Can't you keep that for a later date? I'd just like to leave the sanctity of my home before you decide to show me what I should be capable of... Surely you did think of a quick escape from Stormwind, did you not?"

Marianna cackled. She closed her hands around the naked girl's shoulders. Already green runes were beginning to spill out from beneath their feet. They wound around them. “Let's be away, my dear.” She threw her head back and let out a peel of laughter. The wood beneath them buckled and warped, falling away into the yawning green abyss. The two plummeted into the twisting green Nether and were gone.

Valira watched the two go. She caught the glint of a red stone flying through the air and landing next to her. It was covered in Lily's spittle. Valira softly burbled before she passed out.