Twitch.
Maiev’s thin fingers jerked as her lips slowly parted and her teeth bared, her eyelids clenching and fluttering as she attempted to open them. The orange light of Draenor daytime was bright, even when obstructed by the tendrils of hair in front of her face. She moved to bring her hands to her face and was startled to find that she could not; she looked up slowly, painfully, and found them bound above her head. Panic rising in her mind, she looked around frantically for anyone who might be nearby. Her eyes surveyed the camp she was in, the large, reptilian guards standing near her, watching for any signs of consciousness.
They grinned toothily at her as she instinctively snarled at them, a caged tiger in front of its captors. “I see you are awake, night elf,” one said in a deep, bubbling voice. “I shall alert the master.” He nodded to his partner and slithered off into the camp with his heavy scimitar in hand.
Maiev hissed in pain as the memory of the battle flooded into her mind’s eye, the thump on the head from one of the heavy blades of the Betrayer and the black that followed. She heard the screams of her Watchers as they were overwhelmed and murdered, and hoped that at least some had escaped and were in hiding in this Elune-forsaken land. I must escape, she muttered to herself, struggling against her bonds, trying to find a weakness in them.
“So she is awake.”
The sudden deep, familiar voice caused her head to snap up. Her eyes rested furiously upon the face of Illidan Stormrage, her prey and captor. And lov- No! She hotly shoved that rogue thought to the back her mind and focused instead on her rage.
“Illidan!” she screamed. “Release me at once!” She threw herself forward, testing the range of her bond, and was dismayed when she fell short of the demon hunter.
He chuckled down at her. “I think not.” He looked behind him to his comrades and indicated them forward. “What should we do with this wretch?”
“The little Warden from the Broken Isles?” A froggy voice from Illidan’s left complimented the naga’s Lady Vashj. Her arms were crossed and an amused smile adorned her sharp, scaly face.
“It seems she is in everyone’s business,” a delicate male voice from Illidan’s right smirked. The sharp elven features of Prince Kael’thas were easy to recognize.
“Prince Kael of the blood elves?” Maiev asked, shocked. She and Tyrande had assisted Kael and his band of elves across Scourge-infested territory not too long ago; they had allied themselves with Illidan?
“Indeed, you nasty woman,” he said, his sharp nose elevated in the air. “I thank you for your assistance against the undead earlier, but I’m afraid I have a new allegiance now. I cannot return the favor of helping you.” He snorted and made a little mock bow. “You were unpleasant company anyway. At least your Priestess had a little compassion.”
Maiev caught a twitch of Illidan’s lip out of the corner of her eye. The orange sky suddenly glowed white to her. He still cared about that bitch, Tyrande? Even if he had run off to save her after Shan’do had angrily (and wrongly, she thought hotly) entangled his most loyal Watcher...
“Won’t you ever get over her, you weak little pig?” she hissed at Illidan, almost inaudibly.
Illidan’s higly tuned senses caught the words that Vashj and Kael did not. He knelt down so his face was level with hers. A wave of his hand sent the two back a few steps, albeit a bit warily. “You do not understand what love is, woman,” he whispered, almost sadly.
“If I do not, you certainly do not either,” she muttered, slamming her eyes shut to avoid them betraying her emotions, though she knew he did not see in the conventional way.
“I know how you feel,” he said, somewhat harshly. “I know you think we are the same in many aspects, but you are wrong.” His hand lightly brushed her bare cheek. She froze and fought herself from moving her face into his caress. “I have compassion. You are merely obsessed. I don’t think you understand the meaning of compassion.”
“I have such strange feelings for you,” she gasped. “I can’t take them anymore, Illidan. I don’t know what they are, and I just can’t handle the weight knowing that I’ll never figure them out without your support. Support that I will never have because you have no compassion for me.” She stared up at him, unashamed at the wetness of her eyes.
Slightly taken aback from these completely honest words from the woman that confused him the most in the world, Illidan merely stared at her, his lips moving silently as he probed for something to say.
“I hate you,” she murmured, turning her head and closing her eyes again. “I hate you so much. You complete me, and I hate you for not wanting to. I hate you for the crimes you have committed because my duty requires it. But mostly I hate you because I love you. And that is just unacceptable. I cannot love.”
A ringing slap startled a cry from her lips. Her cheek darkened as a tear slid down it, mingling with the dark blood oozing from a bite on her lip.
“Stop acting so pathetic,” he snorted at her. Her wet, angry face swung to meet his. “This is not the Maiev I know. The Maiev I know would be screaming for me to free her and allow her to drag me back to my own prison where I belong.” He smiled at her. “Not confusing herself and me with her words of love and hate. Words neither of us really understand.” He pushed the hair back from her eyes gently. “Perhaps you are right. Perhaps I really do know nothing of love. Although I suppose we both do know a good bit about hate.”
She coughed angrily, but could not keep the smile from her bleeding lips.
“By the way, Kael thinks you have a beautiful face.” He laughed. “I wasn’t kidding when I told you that myself.”
A sudden flash of panic stabbed through her as she finally consciously realized that she was without her mask. “My mas-“
“Is safe,” he interrupted her. “You will have it back before you depart, I promise.”
“Depart?” She looked at him with narrowed eyes. “You capture me just to release me?”
He shrugged. “I can’t bring myself to kill you, Maiev. I know I would kill myself soon after. I just can’t imagine life without you.” He grinned. “It wouldn’t be as, fun, you could say. Now get out of my sight.”