//------------------------------//
// Interlude: Imprisoned 
// Story: Sunset Shimmer: Path of the Damned 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
//------------------------------//

Sunset had no idea how long she had been asleep, as it had become a foreign concept to her after being reborn as one of the Lich King's death knights, but when she finally opened her eyes she found that she was in a large structure that looked like a prison. How she knew that was because there were a number of cells resting around the area, some larger than the others and some human sized, like the one she was now resting in, which had magical barriers in front of them to keep the inmates inside their cells. What she found as she looked around the area was that there happened to be two floors that she could see, plus a watery area that might lead down to some submerged cells, ones no longer in use since most humans couldn't go down there, before noticing that the holy bindings had been removed. Of course, as she discovered, she found purple magic bracers on her arms and legs, which were connected to devices in the wall behind her and she found that it also applied to her magic, based on the ring around her horn, causing her to lean against the wall.

Since there wasn't a lot she could do in this situation, as something was negating her powers, Sunset glanced out at the rest of the prison and found that there were all sorts of creatures in the other cells, a large fire hound with two heads, a being made of shadow, and three human sized cells with humanoid bird creatures, as those were the ones she had a good view of from her cell.

This was already boring, locked inside a cell with nothing to do and, based on what she was feeling, something had cut off her connection to her master, where she suspected that Darion had done something to her while she was asleep, likely a rune designed to interrupt the connection. As such she sighed and pulled off her helmet, setting the terrifying piece off to the side for the time being, because it looked like her former mentor had decided to throw her in prison and just leave her here, until he figured out how to restore a fraction of her old self. Her only reason for thinking about that was due to the fact that a number of death knights had broken free of the Lich King's will, likely the Light intervening again, and with their master no longer enforcing his will on them Darion was likely searching for a way to save her. She was, after all, one of the most brutal and soulless killing machines in the world, so she knew that his thoughts were that if he liberated her, and she returned to how she was before being reborn, her power could be used to bring down the Lich King, which just made her want to cut him down when she thought about it.

At the same time, however, she let out a light chuckle as she rested her head against the wall, because their master just so happened to be one of the strongest forces in this world, one that not even the Lords of the Legion or Illidan Stormrage, a powerful demon hunter, and bringing him down would result in Darion's death, if he got that far.

"Someone seems to be in a good mood." a voice said, one that was unknown to her, causing Sunset to focus on the one who spoke and found that someone had entered the prison, a human mage, judging by the robes that looked like he was more suited for exploration, wielding a staff with a raven sitting at the peak, who had to be important in some manner, all while discovering Darion, Thassarian, and Koltira behind him.

"Not really, given that I'm in prison." Sunset remarked, because even before her death and rebirth it was something she had avoided to make sure her plans to dominate the mirror world succeeded, though to be sure that none of her powers worked she raised a hand towards Darion and mimicked the motion of strangling him with magic, only to find that nothing happened, causing her to shrug as she lowered her hand, "I had to try... especially since you brought some traitors to my new resting place."

"Even here, far away from Northrend and cut off from the Lich King, she still calls us traitors." Thassarian commented, an interesting fact when Sunset thought about it, as it sounded like the traitorous knights of Acherus had taken her to some new location, hoping that distance would help break the bond between her and their master.

"Our master desires the end of the living, and yet here you are, consorting with the Lich King's enemies." Sunset said, as it was pretty obvious why she saw him and the others as traitors to the cause, because each of them had been raised into undeath to bring death and destruction to the world, though Darion's faction likely stood to protect this world, which was just a guess on her part, "Of course I'm going to keep calling you traitors... you're lucky that I'm in this cell, and that all of my powers have been cancelled out, otherwise I'd fulfill my earlier promise."

"What is your master planning? We know he unleashed some ghouls and plagued grain on Stormwind and Orgrimmar not that long ago," the mage asked, where Sunset suspected that he was an Archmage, a powerful individual, though nothing compared to the might of the Lich King or even her old mentor, Celestia, while finding that Darion didn't dare to get close to the cell, just in case the magic died at the wrong moment, "Tell us what you know. We can help you return to who you used to be, before that monster raised you into undeath and twisted you into a tool that he's discarded, but we need to know what he's planning."

"You mean besides the utter destruction of the Alliance and the Horde? Nothing." Sunset remarked, where she chuckled a little as she noticed that Darion and his companions seemed surprised by her choice of words, though that didn't make them any less true, she knew nothing about the ultimate plan her master had created for this world, "All I knew was that he was focused on destroying the Scarlet Crusade, which will extend to the Scarlet Onslaught in Northrend, he wanted to kill Tirion, and he desired both factions to be destroyed... as to what he's actually planning, when he's planning on lashing out at his enemies, I have no idea. I'm in the dark, just like you are, and nothing will change that fact."

"Come on Sunset, surely the Lich King told you something? You were, after all, his champion." Koltira said, where he took a few steps and stood in front of her prison cell, an arm's length away from her if she was standing and the barrier wasn't in the way, showing her that he wasn't afraid of her or her power, even though he should be after everything he had seen her do in the Lich King's name, "He was known to telepathically deliver orders and commands to those who were out in the field, all while he watched from his post in Acherus, and you were his greatest and darkest weapon, someone he put a lot of trust in... he must have told you something, anything, that might be crucial to his war against the living."

"How many times do I have to tell you? He. Told. Me. NOTHING!" Sunset snapped, where she got up from her position and struck the magical barrier of her cell with her fist, though while she expected it to do nothing she found some cracks, small ones anyway, forming around the area she struck, surprising her guests for a moment.

Khadgar, as that was the Archmage's name as Sunset discovered, wouldn't take no for an answer and kept asking her all sorts of questions, trying to figure out more about the Lich King's plans and the key figures he might be planning on killing in the future, with his minions, but her answer remained the same. Some of his questions went into what she learned in Acherus, the skills that a death knight needed to master before they were sent into the field, though she said nothing, due to the fact that he had three other members of her kind that could answer them, as she wasn't about to hand information over to the enemy. She suspected that Darion might have handed over all sorts of details on runeforging, the art of adding runes to runeblades, along with going into the three aspects that a death knight could master, as most of her kind were either blood, frost, or unholy, with her being an exception, so she said nothing. The question about runebaldes did make her wish her weapon had survived the battle with Tirion, given that all of the other humanoid prisoners here had what had to be their gear on hand, just so she could run them through if the power was suddenly terminated, but since that wasn't happening she simply ignored the questions.

With her little outburst Sunset found that Khadgar also stood away from the cell, allowing the other death knights to stand in between them if she suddenly found a way to break the barrier, though after standing for some time she turned and sat back down again, assuming the position she had been using earlier.

Of course he also asked about her, as her race was one he wasn't familiar with, even though he did think she was a blend of human and draenei, at first anyway, but she continued to tell him nothing about her, her body, or her race, and saying nothing for so long eventually caused them to leave. As they departed from the prison she was greeted by silence once more, where Sunset simply remained sitting where she had taken up her position and simply stared out at the rest of the prison that she knew was going to be her home for the foreseeable future. Based on what she found there were guards who usually watched over this place, armored mages who seemed ready for anything, meaning a riot or attack must have happened at some point in the past and caused them to make new procedures to protect this place from whatever force might seek to bring it down. That told her that she wouldn't be able to escape with brute force, even if she was able to break out of her prison and the bindings on her limbs, as the guards were either charged with holding the prisoners back, knocking them out, or killing them if they continued to resist, meaning she was in for a really long stay.

As the hours ticked by she found that the guards did change out with another set that was likely resting or patrolling the area on the other side of the main entrance, where she assumed it was the former so they would have a restored body for their duties, but it did nothing for her situation, other than gathering information. She couldn't really form a plan of attack since she had no weapon or magic, but that didn't stop her from imagining what would happen if she undid the barrier in front of her and the other inmates that had been locked away in this place, the chaos and destruction they would cause before Khagdar or someone else was able to restrain them. Another thing she discovered was that this place seemed to be lit so that no matter what time of day it was she and the other inmates would only see light, something she assumed had been designed to aid the guards while dissuading any of them from trying to escape, since there were no shadows to hide in. Her reasoning behind that was because she was sure that hours had passed since her waking up in this place and no darkness had filled the prison, a sign that night happened to be approaching, though she filed the information away for later, even though she was sure that it would be some time before her observations became useful.

Because Sunset didn't feel the need to sleep, a perk of being a death knight, despite the fact that she could force herself to do so, she was able to think about her situation, what it meant for the Lich King's plans since his chosen was in a cell, and a few other things, but she knew that once she was free she was going to show Khadgar, Darion, and the others a level of death that was unlike anything they had seen so far, she just had to be patient and wait for that day to come.