Hunger

"Do you hear it, mistress?"

Of course she heard it. The only individuals who would have have heard it were the deaf. Few would have been able to identify the sound itself, but almost any would have been able to distinguish it above the rabble of the woods. Her head cocked to the side to listen for anything that followed. The sound of more intruders come to slay her. But nothing came.

With a long sigh, she turned, feeling a sense of disgust building inside of her. There were two possibilities. The first of which was that some poor fool had just ignored any and all of her warnings posted against the trees, and entered into her domain. Were this the case, the individual in question was now almost certainly dead. She would of course have to string pieces of him up along the trees to make further demonstration of why the area was cordoned so, as to ward off anyone else with similar ideas.

The second possibility was far worse. It also proved to be the truth. A rodent had ran through the ward. While it easily should have detected such a small creature, whatever purpose the ward had served was now moot, as its magic was spent. Sighing, she snatched the still smoldering corpse of the animal, carrying it with her as turned to return to her hovel. Dinner for the evening, at the least, had presented itself with ease. The ward was going to need replaced, but that was a task for the next day. She was forced to hope that no one would notice the lack of defense on that one side of her shack, and do anything stupid.

Not that she wouldn't have noticed if anyone got any bright ideas. The shack itself was warded, all two rooms of it. The walls forming its outside were warded, the door was warded, and each room and window inside was warded. An ordeal that she still believed was bound to bear fruit at some point. Disregarding the fact that the moment one of the wards was set off, the entire place was bound to burn to the Goddess-forsaken ground.

She tossed the rodent, fair sized as it was onto her crude counter, and allowed herself to find a seat. Dinner preparations could be undertaken in a short while. Now was a time for rest, weary as she was. Even if she had done little that day. Her spindly fingers crept through each other as she considered that. Tired, always tired. Fighting off a craving made her worn and weary, and for three days now she had fought off this craving. And for those same three days her minion's compatriots had yet to return with that which would sate her.

"They're late, again." The words themselves were plain, presented without malice. Simple statement of fact, that the black-blue malformed cloud of pure void was bound to understand.

It's booming voice, echoing from wherever in the Void it was being summoned from, responded in kind, "And they will return."

"Yet if they return too late, demon, our deal is meaningless."

The voidwalker never seemed to have to pause for its thoughts. She wondered if they too were simply summoned from the Void, or whether the creature was allowed to think and feel as its own being. She would never ask, and it would never tell.

"Our deal shall be secured, as it always has been."

Her eyes narrowed at the thing, though there was no doubt in her gaze. The demon wanted to uphold its end of the bargain just as much as she did. They needed each other, for now. She didn't really want to consider what was bound to happen when that need shifted one way or the other.

Little time was gifted to her to dwell on the matter though. A small imp was busy making its way through the window, which was bound to catch her attention sooner or later. Her fingers idly scratched her cheek as she stared down at it, waiting. This wasn't one of the things she had sent out for mana. No, this was her little pair of eyes from Suramar.

"Are they well?"

The thing snickered and laughed as it bounced back and forth on the floor, having dropped from the window. Its head bounced up and down, its voice in usual giddy mood, "Oh yes. Having a grand old time. Heads in the sand until the insurrection blows over."

"Still looking good as ever, I'd hope," she said, a layer of ice forming over her words.

"Oh yes, handsome as ever, mistress," the imp chuckled, "As nice as you described if not better."

She took in a breath, nodding slowly, "Excellent. And her?"

"Ravishing, my lady," the imp snickered, waiting for some sort of response.

Her eyes closed as she pictured the pair, fingers leaving her cheek to slowly dig into her leg. Nodding, she waved her hand, "Back with you. Return in a week's time with any updates." Complying immediately, the imp skittered out the door, and had disappeared across the yard in an instant.

The voidwalker turned its 'head' towards her, "Were you hoping for more."

"No," she said blandly, "I was not. These things take time."

------

"They always take time," he said. His arm was wrapped around the other woman's shoulder.

She could only stare up at him, watch him with tired eyes. At some point, days ago, she had hated him. Before that, she had feared him, and before that, she had loved him. Now, all she could feel was apathy. Everything else was replaced by want. A want for mana, for arcwine, for anything that would sate her.

Both of them were looking down at her. Watching her twitch, and squirm, waiting. Just as they always did. In a few minutes they would leave to be away from her, but for now, they were reveling in her misery as they always did. Eventually she would be allowed to leave. Whenever it became proper to kill her, or release her in the sewers to let the guards kill, or to wander the wilds until her mind ate itself completely.

She hated the other woman. Without even knowing her name. She was her replacement. His key to security in the city. All she had been able to gather about the other woman was that she was connected to their new allies, those among the Burning Legion. That was discernible by the green tinge to her eyes. Beyond that, she knew that the woman was cruel, by the smirk on her lips.

When they departed she allowed her eyes to close. The room was made dark, and she would be left alone until they returned, or sent someone to feed her. Food. Not mana. Never mana. Until then, there was little else to do, but consider her cravings, her wants. That was all that time had become. Craving, watching, and waiting.

Her fingers clawed at the chair she was tied into to no avail. And long ago she had given up on them ever being steady enough to untie the rope that bound her. Here and there she swayed side to side to some unseen tune, only to realize that she was humming it. Sighing, she allowed the hum to continue, and rocked more and more.

She felt herself moving faster, and faster. More violently, as a surge of rage filled her body. Pressing itself into a fit of anger, thrashing left and right. She was screaming, cursing, both no one and everyone. It lasted until she had forced the chair itself onto its side, and smashed it into pieces.

Beyond the door she heard movement. Beyond her, she felt her arms pushing her up. Watched as her fingers tried to call magic, a cry for help that went unanswered. Spectated as she fled, pushing past the pair as they opened the door.

It was from this perspective that she watched herself skittered here and there through Suramar, never ceasing. They were on her heels. Or rather, the guards they had sent to fetch her. Keeping on her even once she had fled past the city's walls. Only when she had stumbled into a creek did she feel herself crashing back down.
-----

Surrounded by guards, and covered in mud. The demon had called, and they had struck a bargain. Fire had returned to her fingertips, now tainted with Fel, and her pursuers had fallen. Everything had fallen into place from there. The shack was a convenient discovery. A comfortable place to live out of, while she waited. For however long it took for her to recover. To find her footing again, and for an advantage to present itself.

"What do you intend to do, when your matter is attended to."

She blinked, looking at the voidwalker, "I don't know."

"I do."

She stared at the thing for a moment, lips curling into a smile. The voidwalker did not smile back, but she could only imagine that it was amused by her reaction. However many people it had dealt with in the past, she didn't know. Perhaps it was aware that these matters were always so fickle.

"When they're dead," she said, hands becoming still for a moment, "I don't care. But until then, you're mine."