"love is like a sin, my love"The last thing he had expected in her dying moments was an admittance of love. Unrequited and unknown, paired with a sad smile.
His expression loose and gormless, he had tried to reciprocate. She merely laughed and coughed red foam, placing a hand on his cheek.
"Shh... I know you don't. That's not the point."
She sucked in a breath. Her wounds bubbled with the action.
"It's selfish of me, but I can't go without saying it. To let you know that you are more than your work."
--
He watched her funeral from a distance, unsurprised by the attendance. She had saved many lives and had held a natural charisma that overpowered the ill will held against most Illidari. Many of them had accepted they would die on the shores of the Legion's stronghold, but the reality of it all had been more crushing in practice.
It was true defiance, then, to bury her on the cracked remnants of this world.
His breathing began to quicken as he watched the proceedings: the somber stance of the attendees, the respectful tears, the whispered well-wishes. The breaths took over his body, his shoulders and chest rising and falling with each one. His teeth locked together and creaked.
He twist his neck to gaze over the decimated field below. He felt them crawling amidst it. The storm of emotions evaporated in the heat of his anger. They were responsible; they were always responsible. It started with them, and it would end with them.
Fire ruptured from his flesh and spread over his body. He leapt from his perch, a scorching trail left through the grey sky as he careened towards the only escape he knew.
((too many words rip my consistency))
