Delanna sat and listened to the soldiers fight about which one of them got to rape which prisoner first. Two years she had spent as a captive by this band of villains that called themselves "Soldiers". Every day was the same for her and the other women; wake up, work, shower, rape, maybe get fed and then sleep.

Delanna had been imprisoned for simply trying to tell the truth about the Duke, she lived a simple life with her mother and father. Her people had worked a small tract of land just South West of Maurin Reach City, granted to the Blood Elves by the Emperor himself as thanks for the care and perfection of their treatment of the dead. Choosing this spot was perfect for them, Blood Elves considered the task of honoring the dead amongst the most noble of jobs. Maurin Reach City was where heroes were put to ground in the Human Realm. Enormous, intricate and beautiful crypts were built for each hero that rested here.

Her people were sent by the Elven Counsel long ago to deal with the necromancer problems that once plagued the Human Realm. Blood Elves Mages were often Necromancers, but they used their power to calm spirits and care for them. As with every power, it’s not necessarily evil, but can be used that way. Evil uses of the power were why they were called. Humans had no respect for the dead, they only desired more and more power. Their desires lead to the defilement of legions of undead. No army could stand up to a mere pair of the mages, every death on the living side just added strength to the undead.

Blood Elves unequaled precision, skill and power at cleansing corrupted spirits was the perfect weapon to quickly and efficiently lay waste to this scourge. Counsel deliberation only took 13 minutes after the Human Emperor requested a contingent. Everything that the "evil" necromancers were doing was an affront to the beliefs of the Blood Elves, it was not a hard choice.

Most of the women in this group had given up completely on resisting the soldiers. After years of abuse, they seemed to accept their lot in life. They used to speak of revenge and justice. Plans were formed about how magic would someday return, and when it did they’d rip the essences of their tormentors out and dissipate them into nothing. Though this was a banished practice, desperate people would do unspeakable things. One-by-one they gave up and stopped believing in Lady Death, except Delanna.

Every day she would pray to the Goddess of Death for the strength to endure so that she may one day be free again. She sometimes felt a light caress on her mind which assured her that her thoughts were heard. She was either insane or her God was still there.

A gruff voice broke the silence in the room.

“Del, you’re coming with me tonight.” Captain Jasper growled into the barred room. “Get up. Bring Lily too.”

Lilly was the youngest of all, barely a teenager by Elven lifetimes. Her mind had broken long ago. Lily was pretty much already dead; her mind had never matured enough to take the torments she had suffered.

Jasper was the most violent of the soldiers, often leaving bite marks and broken bones on the women. Nobody cared though, they were just toys and tools. When the Duke lied and told the Emperor that the Blood Elves had attempted to murder him, everything changed. Immediately issuing the order to quell the invasion by “any means necessary” put the Emperor on her kill list as well.

They reached Jaspers room shortly, the portly man stripping as he walked to the bed.

“Get naked and come sit on this.” the man said, pointing at his manhood. “Lily, you come sit over here on my face.” He chuckled. This truly vile creature was in his element, and nothing here was going to change him.

Del moved and did as was told, not giving anything more than what she had to. Lily though, she just stood there.

“Lily, do what he said now. C’mon. If you don’t he’s going to hurt you, please Lily.” She urged the young one, but Lily was a statue.

“Get that bitch over here Del or I’ll kill you both!”

Del jumped off the man’s lap and darted to the young one. Lily’s head was down, breathing slow and calm. “Lily, darling, please. Stay alive long enough for Lady Death to help us exact our retribution. It won’t be long, I can feel it. Please. ” She lifted Lily’s eyes, there was just…nothing. Lily was gone. These men had beat her essence down so badly that it faded into nothing.

Atrocity!! Del could not contain her fury a moment longer.

Del dropped Lily’s head back down and started to turn towards Jasper, the man was about to be the target of all her rage. A hand grabbed her and stopped her. Lily reached up and put her hand around the back of Del’s neck, pulling their two foreheads together, touching, and whispered, “If the Goddess you pray to ever answers, I want you to take my Essence and use it as a weapon to kill these men. Very little of me is left, I must make sure it’s preserved for you. Please don’t let them win.", Lily bit her hand and drew blood, then she smeared the blood on Del’s hand. She’d enacted an ancient tradition, giving her Essence completely to another. The practice was rarely ever seen throughout Blood Elf history. You were giving your Essence to someone in this life and the next. If that person didn't treat you right, your soul would never know peace. It was like the Human's marriage, but it was forever and carried far more risk. “Honor me.”

Lily opened the door, pushed Delanna out and locked it behind her. All that Del could hear from inside the room was crashing and banging. She fiercely tried to open the door, “NOOOOO! LILY!” she screamed in desperation, but it wouldn’t budge. A few more sounds came from the room and then it fell into silence.

Please Lady Death! Please do not allow this! Please grant me strength! She pleaded to her God and felt nothing more than a slight tug on her being.

The door opened, Lily was laying on the floor, her face was nothing more than mush. Jasper snatched Delanna, threw her into the room and punched her in the face so hard that she couldn’t see. Her foot slipped on blood and she fell onto Lily’s lifeless body.

“Your friend is going to make a great fuck pillow for you tonight. Death won’t save her body, I’m still going to have you both! You’ll remember not to defy me! I'll make sure the rest of you bitches get the message too.” The still naked form of Jasper strode with the gait of a predator towards her.

The remainder of the night consisted of an onslaught of rape and abuse. Several other Elven women were brought in throughout the night and treated to the horrors. When morning finally came, Jasper stood up and walked to his shower, stepping on Lily’s lifeless body in the process.

“Clean this shit up and get out of my room. You and the other sluts will suffer dearly for her actions.” Said the man, not with remorse, but with amusement.

I will end you ALL!! Del could feel the burning fury in her essence as though it were on fire. Tuning her thoughts and emotions so that she could be heard clearly, she sent a short prayer to Lady Death.

I've seen what I needed to see now. I will not break! I will remain strong. I will not be destroyed. Thank you

“Bitch Lady!” Tom barked from atop the rock golems head. “You have rat as Bonded, what magic you do? Never see you use it. Why?”

The group had been walking towards Sariah’s next armor piece for over a week now and camping only a few times along the way.

Tom had experimented on Sub every day, sometimes feeding the boy more than one potion. So far, the boy had been lit on fire, grown bark skin, been paralyzed, suffered uncontrollable vomiting and, Srit’s personal favorite, had an uncontrollable need to chew on human flesh. Kavon, being the only human in the group did NOT think that bit was funny.

“Do you know how to write?” she replied.

“Did know. Stupid hands don’t work like old body. Teaching myself, need to record test results for potions. Dumb human doing it now, will fuck it up for sure.” Tom was clearly frustrated with his diminished higher though abilities. Enough so that he chipped a small piece of Erections frame off and pegged the spaced-out Kavon in the face.

“Ouch! What the hell was that?” Kavon wined.

Before anyone could respond, Srit piped up, “Sub! Don’t throw things.”

Kavon immediately focused his eyes on the child, once again displaying the incredible violence that the man held deep down. Flaring between gold and blue, those eyes promised a violent and painful death.

“Boy, if you continue to antagonize me, I will crush you into dust and feed you to my golem.” Moments later the gold subsided, and a kinder demeanor settled on Kavon’s face.

“Hey! You no touch my experiment! I make you drink potions if he die. Make your dong fall off!” Srit had found a whole new pleasure in turning the two on each other at every opportunity. It was just so EASY.

“Stop bickering you two.” Sariah chastised the two while looking directly at Srit (secretly she loved the games as much as Srit did, they have been bored for a LONG time). "Tom, to answer your question, using my magic is like what you are going through. My armor made up as much of my identity and abilities as this body you see. Losing it has forced me to re-learn how to speak, move and especially how to use magic. There is a difference though; if I try to use fire and get it wrong, I could burn everything in sight of us right now. I have to take my time and teach myself how to use it again.”

“I see. So, get armor and you complete again. Tom help you get armor if reward come with it.” Tom seemed excited by this, he was certain that Sariah would be able to restore his body if she had her full power.

“That’s the hope. Honestly, I don’t know. I set out to do two things, kill the beings responsible for my exile and recover my armor. I got the first piece of armor back, but it was nearly dead. I can’t communicate with it and I’m having a hard time reintegrating it. I may have been gone for too long.” Sariah seemed very sad at this confession.

“Lady strong enough to…” Tom paused, noticing that everyone in the group had stopped to stare at him, even the idiotic golem. “What?! I grow tits or something?! What you are staring at?!”

“That’s the first time you didn’t call her Bitch Lady, are you…” Kavon stopped mid-sentence as a mental blast penetrated his defensive aura and slapped him the brain.

“You shut up! Bitch Lady,” Tom looked at each person, daring them to speak up. When nobody did, he continued. “..you have power to make stupid human travel realms and get me. How much power you lose?”

“I’d have to say that I’m only a fraction of strength now. In the past, I would have been able to shatter Kavon with a light punch. When I sparred with him, he managed to do me physical harm and take my hits.” Surprised by the questions, she turned her thoughts inwards. It would be convenient to be able to measure my current power against my power at my prime. I need to figure out how to do this.

“So, you reward Tom if he help find all armor?” Tom sounded hopeful, it pulled Sariah from her internal thoughts.

“Yes, if you stand by me and I rise to my former power, you will be rewarded with anything I can give you.” She said with a tiny smile on her face.

Tom had been so caught up in the conversation that he hadn’t noticed Srit lacing a rope around his waist. When the rope tightened around him and yanked him from the golem perch, he finally did. Seeing a half-sized Gnome Flayer scream threats at Srit while swinging from an overhanging tree branch was enough to set the entire group to laughing. Sub even joined in, for the first time displaying something more than sadness.

Erection lost his balance due to the intensity of his laughter. *CRASH* Srit, not paying attention, wound up with his tail directly in the golems landing zone. “YYEEEEEOOOOOWWWWWW! Get it off! Get it off! Get it off! Get it off! Get it off!” he cried. This caused a second wave of laughter to spread, even Tom was laughing and pointing instead of cutting himself down from the tree.

Sariah froze in an instant. To an onlooker she’d have appeared as a statue she was so still. Her eyes glazed over and took on a creamy color, the power that she kept locked up leaked and overwhelmed the group enough to silence them all. None of the others could so much as speak while trying to direct the raw energy away from them. There was no real danger, but it was not pleasant.

Tom was slowly turning in circles at the end of the rope, the only noise that could be heard was the twisting of the fibers on the branch above him. He reached out with his mind and gently “knocked” on Sariah’s consciousness. Even with her power bottled and only leaking, the power felt like being under water so deep that you felt you were going to implode.

Tom pushed this feeling into the knock and it fortunately stopped the leak. Sariah’s consciousness hesitated briefly, a force that felt like it cleaned his mind and refined its presence washed over him and then he was standing next to Sariah in a place that looked like a dream.

Everywhere he looked was blood, young women slaughtered in ways that twisted even the Flayers stomach into knots. There were so many bodies, all appeared beaten, suffocated, stripped of flesh and worse. A lone woman sat in stocks, forced to see every detail of the violence that her people were experiencing. Soldiers were raping the beautiful young women mere feet from the face of the trapped lady. These were truly evil men.

Tom could feel three emotions from this place; despair from the young women, amusement from the soldiers and a unmeasurable hatred from a lone woman, tied to stocks facing the slaughtered woman.

“What is this place?” Tom asked, noticing that his entire body, his real body was here.

“This is the place that we are headed to next. The young Blood Elf that is radiating hatred is one of the few beings that prays to me. I can see what she sees when in the trance. Her people have safeguarded the next armor piece in the dead city. She's prayed to me for her entire screwed up life, we'll be helping her along the way."

"My people were always treated well by the Blood Elves. They are a remarkable people. Who would do this to them?" Tom wretched as he saw a particularly gory scene.

"Humans, it's always Humans. I will be right back, please wait here." Sariah said as she vanished into a room. After a few minutes she exited that same room carrying a trail of light green energy.

Such a beautiful magic shining through all this torment was enough to cause Tom to feel empathy for the women here. He reached out a tendril of his own essence and walked towards Sariah with it. He wrapped his tendril around hers and gave the lead to her. "Please allow me do what i can here."

Sariah had a look of appreciation to her features as she took the magic. She led the energy to the young woman in the stocks. No emotions covered the young woman's features. Sariah reached out and attached the tendrils, both now fused together, to the woman’s hand. She reached up and a wisp flew from her fingers to the woman’s temple.

After a moment of nothing, the woman’s eyes moved to track Sariah...and smiled.

"What did you say to her?" Tom asked

"I'm coming" Sariah stated, and the vision vanished.