Beckyann sat atop a mound of rubble, her thoughts focused on a rather challenging issue with a particular spell she'd been working on earlier in the week. Behind her, the burned out support beams of a ruined house thrust up from the scarred brown soil of the former Scarlet Enclave in the Plaguelands, the hollowed out shell a testament to the former settlement that once stood along the coast.
A few feet from her, Beckyann's deathcharger grazed as she sat thinking. She smirked as she watched it, wondering if one could really call chewing on the bones of a long dead cat 'grazing'. Even so, the beast was soothed for the moment, so it was one less thing to occupy her thoughts as she returned to the spells she'd been considering.
"Come to witness the horror of this place again, have you?" a voice called out to Beckyann's left.
She stiffened the moment she heard it, knowing who she'd see when she turned her head to look. As expected, Captain Pendagast of Acherus's Central Requisition Office was walking towards her, two other Death Knights escorting her. To Beckyann's annoyance, one of the two was the Knight she'd hurled from Acherus's observation deck a few days prior; clearly they had patched him up from his rather unexpected flight.
Beckyann ignored the comment, rolling her eyes and looking away as the woman stepped closer. Captain Pendagast's voice echoed with a hollow sound from within her saronite helm, the words bouncing within it before assaulting Beckyann's ears, "I've read your file you know, or rather, the files that we have thus far collected on you. Information has been rather sparse as of late, but I've seen enough to know just how much this place must haunt you."
Pendagast stepped around Beckyann, walking slowly as her two henchmen stood smirking at the blonde Death Knight. She continued to talk, taking Beckyann's silence to mean her words had had their intended effect, "It must be hard for you to view this place, given how closely you try to tie yourself to the living. To see the carnage that we Death Knights unleashed upon the Scarlets. Do you come here to soak in the feelings that the memories bring? Do you remember what we inflicted on every man, woman, and child in this place?"
Beckyann's voice was carefully neutral, and she didn't look at Captain Pendagast as she replied, "I remember."
"Of course you do," Pendagast almost purred. "I bet the memories burn in you. How many did you cut down when our forces invaded this place under the Lich King? How many civilians died to your runeblade? Do you remember them running for their lives? Begging when they were too weak or wounded to escape? Do you remember how it felt to cut them down anyway, as any common monster might? Oh how it must sting your poor soul to recall those moments."
When Beckyann didn't respond, Pendagast stepped closer to her, running a finger across Beckyann's cheek, her voice mocking, "Look just beyond these houses. Do you recall those who fled to that building over there? Do you remember how we set fire to it, so that they screamed as they perished in the agony the flames brought them? Whole families perished there together, and your hand helped with the deaths delivered that day."
Beckyann looked down, her blonde hair falling around her face as Pendagast continued, "Oh I'm sorry, did I touch on a nerve? Do you want to cry now at the thought of what a beast you really are? Of how much you hurt those who lived here in this place?"
Pendagast leaned casually against one of the upright beams of the burned out house, her glowing eyes staring out of her helm at the top of Beckyann's head, "You're pathetic. Your little failings and emotions just lead you to yo-"
She didn't get to finish her sentence as Beckyann swiftly rose from where she'd been sitting. In one smooth motion Beckyann reached up and removed one of her hairpins before jamming the six inches of pointed saronite into Captain Pendagast's hand, nailing the limb to the burned beam.
Behind Beckyann, Pendagast's two henchmen shouted, drawing their runeblades. Beckyann whirled, ignoring the raging screams of the pinned Captain behind her as she drew her own blade. She parried one blow and then swung low, forcing both of the Knights back.
One of them stepped back a little too far however, and to his everlasting regret he bumped into Beckyann's deathcharger. The beast hissed once and then turned and clamped its teeth down on his neck. The Knight gasped, attempting to punch the evil creature which only lead to it releasing him and then lashing out with his hooves. The man's body flew several feet, looking much like a broken rag-doll with the front of his armor caved in from the blow.
The second Knight swung at Beckyann, only to have his blow parried. This was the same one that Beckyann had tossed from Acherus, and she gleefully severed his hand from his arm with her return strike, watching his weapon spin away before punching him in the face with the pommel of her sword. He tumbled back onto the ground with a grunt, and Beckyann turned away, ignoring him.
She stalked towards Captain Pendagast, scourgelight flowing from her eye sockets as she stared with utter malice at the other woman. The brittle, dry grasses that still clung to the ground died as her very footsteps desecrated the soil, the power of her necromancy pulsing in the air around her as an unseen force.
"You made a crucial mistake, Captain," Beckyann purred, her voice a sensuous whisper. "You have mistaken my plans, my design for the bleeding heart of someone who cares about all of this, or even any of this."
Beckyann stepped closer to the trapped Death Knight, watching with amusement as the woman tried to get the gore-soaked hairpin out of the wood where it had been buried. The metal was slick and difficult to grasp and she couldn't free her arm. Beckyann would have just tore it the rest of the way out of her own hand if she'd been in the reverse position, and she sneered at Pendagast, spitting on the ground.
"Pathetic. You really don't understand me at all, do you?" Beckyann said, her tone almost scolding now. "You think that I regret what happened here? That I care that these people died? Let me ask you something; should the sword care what wounds it inflicts? Should the arrow pause in mid-flight to consider where it might strike? No. They are weapons meant to fulfill a purpose, as we were and are. We were designed to do this. We were created to destroy this place, these people. It is in our nature as it is in the nature of the sword to cut."
Beckyann brought the tip of her runeblade up, casually scraping it against Pendagast's armor. It made a hideous metal on metal squealing sound that wound have set anyone's teeth to grinding. Beckyann continued, her voice mocking, "You perceive in me a weakness that does not exist. The very fact that you thought that to be the case means that my design is fulfilled, for I want the living to think that we are like them, that we regret what we are. It comforts them. It lets them tell themselves that we may not be the monsters that we actually are in reality."
Beckyann poked the tip of her runeblade under Pendagast's armor once, pricking her but not stabbing her. She smiled, "I do have regrets, Captain. I regret the things I did in life. The things my heart tells me I did wrong. This, all of this, is simply the penalty for having done those things. Every horror I witness, every horror I inflict and that my soul must endure, is simply a payment for all of that. So no, Captain, I do not feel sorrow for what happened here. I do not sit and mourn people who attempted to stand before us, the ultimate weapons. No, I was merely attempting to puzzle something out and clear my thoughts until you so rudely interrupted me."
Beckyann pressed the tip of her runeblade a little harder into the Captain's armor, drawing blood, "I could slaughter you now, and I'm sure you fully expect me to, but I won't. Not because I am weak, but because we are all brothers and sisters in this unlife. We will all do horrible, terrible things, and that is by design. In the end though, every family has its little tiffs, and I will not punish your mistake by cutting you down. You still serve a purpose to our family, to the Ebon Blade. It is only when you cross the line and become a threat to us all that your very existence will become forfeit."
There was no mistaking the underlying threat in Beckyann's voice. She casually reached out and yanked the hairpin from her victim's hand, watching with a smirk as the woman cursed and used necromancy to seal the wound. She offered the woman a mocking bow and a last parting comment, "By the way, I have a friend in Central. She's way better than you at what you just tried to do, just saying. I'd advise you to practice on the living or on someone who won't cut you into little pieces when you fail to achieve your goal, hmmm?"
She smiled at the woman, sheathing her runeblade and walking over to her deathcharger. The beast hissed at her and snapped its teeth but a quick backhand settled it enough for her to mount. She dipped her head towards Captain Pendagast before snapping the reins and riding off, "Good day to you, Captain."
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