Whispers in the Dark Pt. 3

Faylian watched the pair from both everywhere and nowhere at once. Watched as they stared around in horror at the mutilated wreckage that had once been her husband and children.

"She was...oh, Goddess..." murmured Myrandriel in shock. "Faylian...? Lady Faylian? Where are you?"

She watched as they discovered the wall behind which the safe room was that had hid her past self from the Scourge. But before they could find a way to open it another Faylian walked into the room; one dressed in full Scarlet Crusade regalia and tabard. Her eyes burned with a zealot’s fire. "She won't be any good to you now you know..."

“We came to seek the help of both of you, Sister." Myrandriel stated.

Faylian hissed in response: "She cannot help you. She is useless and weak. She sat there in that safe room and listened while her husband and children were dismembered and eaten alive!"

"Did she? And you would not have, I assume?" Andryen rumbled quietly, brilliant blue gaze resting on the woman.

"What could she have done?" Myra spreads her hands, shaking her head. "Against the dead...what could she have done to save them?"

"I would have opened the door and died with them!" Faylian’s past self screamed.

Andreyn merely asked, "To what end: one more meal for the ghouls? Or perhaps a soldier for their master..."

"Coward! I should kill her myself." Faylian started toward the wall.

Andreyn snapped out a hand to catch her and not particularly gently either.

Faylian's eyes narrowed at Andreyn. "Remove your hand from me."

"I would have opened the door and died with them!" Faylian’s past self screamed.

Andreyn merely asked, "To what end: one more meal for the ghouls? Or perhaps a soldier for their master..."

"Coward! I should kill her myself." Faylian started toward the wall.

Andreyn snapped out a hand to catch her and not particularly gently either.

Faylian's eyes narrowed at Andreyn. "Remove your hand from me."

"This is not the action of a Crusader," he stated quietly, though his voice had steel under it. "A warrior of the Light does not lash out blindly. Focus, and turn your betrayal into a weapon against the true source, not against things you cannot change."

"Do you want to see what a true Crusader is capable of?" Faylian sneered.

Faylian looked at Myra coldly as the mists swallowed the room up once again and then pull back, revealing a new room. Now the pair stood somewhere deep in the dungeons of Tyr's Hand. Faylian now stood before them as a full Inquisitor of the Scarlet Crusade. Before her is a rack with a Cultist of the Damned strapped upon it.

Faylian's face seemed perfectly at peace for once as she said: "I know I have broken you hours ago... have taken what you knew... from this point onward it is only for my own amusement corpse lover. I intend you to give me DAYS of enjoyment."

"Torment of the wicked--hell on earth, exacted by the victims. Am I not correct?" Myrandriel asks.

Faylian stared Myrandriel down, "I have the right."

Andreyn rumbled ominously. "And you would waste your time in this when your duties should occupy your mind and heart?" He grabbed her shoulder and spun her to face him. "Fool. Giving in to this is equally as worthless as groveling in terror and fear. You waste your time, and waste your efforts to no good end."

Faylian blinked at Andreyn and nodded slowly. "Perhaps."

"There is no perhaps. This is the path of falsehood and unrighteousness," Andreyn growled, that scarlet haze rippling around him. "We do what we must, but we do NOT give in to the temptations that cling to our enemy. THIS is what gave the Legion its claw hold in MY Crusade. A true Crusader knows the difference between what is needed and just and what serves only the self."

"YOUR Crusade? And who are you to claim ownership of the Crusade? To pass judgment over ME?" Faylian sneered.

"I. Am. Your. HIGHLORD." It barely sounded like Andreyn...and for a moment, just for a moment... he didn’t look like Andreyn at all either. Instead he seemed possessed by the spirit of Alexandros Mograine himself, original patron of the Scarlet Crusade.

Faylian took a step back, hesitation showing in her eyes. "You... are not the Highlord... he wouldn't consort with the likes of HER." Faylian pointed at Myra disdainfully.

Myra smiled softly to herself. "On the contrary. Highlord Mograine oversaw my oath himself. He knows the value of the skills other races may bring to the Order."

"This is no longer the heyday of Lordaeron. Have you looked around you lately? With the betrayal of the Onslaught, Lordaeron is shattered, empty. Stormwind's King is obsessed with the wallowing Horde. I have the sense to see that we need what allies we can find that will accept the banner of the Flame, regardless of the color of their skin. This is a war of the living against the dead, Crusader. Remember that."

"She cannot understand. You speak of events that have not happened to her yet HIGHLORD," a cold voice says. A new form emerges from the mists from behind Andreyn, this Faylian clad in the Saronite Armor of an Ebon Blade. "I understand. The Lich King unified us all with death's embrace."

This Faylian looks at the pair coldly, with none of the fire that Inquisitor Faylian showed, but with equal determination and resolve. “Now you must deal with me as I am today.”