Into the Chamber of the Paragons
from 'Tales of Two Journeys'
It took them a long time to get away from the clouds of oily smoke left behind by the Siegecrafter's mechanical warriors. In Isa's estimation, at least, the disgusting greasy residue stuck behind in the lungs, and she could feel it coating her insides as she coughed and gagged in a futile effort to discharge at least some of the slime.
"I would rather not ever do that again," Kala commented frankly. "Goblin machinery is disgusting." The young Draenei woman spat a ball of grey sludge onto the roughhewn stone floor of the passageway, wrinkling her nose at it as they passed out of the mechanical corridor and back into the Nexus of the Underhold.
"I agree with Kala," Tyladriel said with a fervent nod of her own. "Those shredder wheels nearly sliced my head off."
"If we're lucky, we won't ever need to fight a battle like that again," Gus assured her quietly.
"Gus is right." Isa looked back at her friends, her stride barely stuttering as she twisted to walk backwards toward the door at the far rear of the huge circular chamber. "Once we win the day here, this will all be over, and we can go back to living our lives as normal." Relatively normal, for some of us, but more normal at least than this hell we're living now.
They paused in the center of the room to survey the damage already done by their allies to the massive flood of orcish forces. Lady Moonsinger hadn't been wrong about their numbers, but neither had the Dwarf princess been mistaken about their oafishness. Clearly, Garrosh recruited for mindless loyalty over skill, at least when it came to his foot soldiers. Many of them lay scattered around the room, decimated by the Gnomes and their machines; still others crawled about on the floor as roaches, toads, and various other pests, hexed by the magi of Stormwind. Isa briefly debated squashing one of them, but ruled against it, reasoning that they were harmless enough as critters to permit being ignored. Besides, it wouldn't have been an honorable fight, and as much as Isa still sometimes struggled with Kala's peaceful philosophies, she hated an uneven fight.
"It's that back center door next, isn't it?" Tyladriel asked. "What's behind there, do you think?"
"More stupid orcs who won't give up their misplaced loyalties, no doubt," Isa replied wryly. She was still vaguely upset about having killed Nazgrim; he, at least, had been an honorable opponent. If only he had not been so stubborn.
"We should wait for Lady Moonsinger and Shiu-Mai," Gus advised them. "They're still rounding up the last of the cannon fodder."
"We cannot afford to wait too long," Kala said. "Those spells will not last forever, and I expect that the orc soldiers will not take too kindly to having been turned into roaches."
They had not long to wait, however; their other two allies arrived shortly after, both of them with grim but satisfied expressions.
"You got the last of them, then?" Gus asked.
Shiu-Mai nodded. "They were easy enough to round up. We didn't kill them all; some of them may yet find rehabilitation in the Alliance prisons."
"If your guards do not torture them to death first," Kala said frankly.
"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," Shoo replied with a shake of the head. "I can promise you that we'll do our best to keep any more needless violence from happening."
Kala didn't look totally convinced, but she wisely let the subject drop for now.
"We should move on with haste," Lady Moonsinger said, turning her gaze toward the far door. "I can only imagine how many more enemies await us within, and that even before we reach the deep sanctum."
"Tell the Gnomes to get that door down," Shoo said, and Gus sprinted off to relay the message, returning in a matter of minutes.
"They're turning their cannons on the door now," the young man said, almost exactly at the same moment that a tremendous blast came from the Gnomish cannons. All six of them ducked at the noise, which was followed posthaste by a loud smash as the cannon's projectile hit the metal door and splintered it, sending steel ribbons and rivets toppling to the ground in a haze of stone dust.
A hot draft came through the opened portal, blasting over them in a wave of nauseating, oppressive closeness. Isa almost gagged on the feeling, but she held it back, and the wave slowly passed, the dust settling to the floor to reveal a gaping hole in the stone wall, illuminated only barely by the shadows of crystals and lava trickles from deeper within the passageway. Clearly, they were not to be headed back toward the surface any time soon.
"Let's move on," Lady Moonsinger said.
The inside of the tunnel was close and stifling, the light from the lava flows not nearly making up for the intense underground heat. Isa felt close to dying right then and there, but she clenched her teeth resolutely and marched on, feeling the sweat prickling her freezing skin against the tight confines of her plate armor.
When we get out of here, I am moving to Northrend and I never want to look at another volcano ever again.
"Stop," Gus said suddenly. "There's an enemy ahead."
"I smell it, as well," Lady Moonsinger affirmed after a slight pause.
They all stopped moving, crouching low beneath the jagged, rocky ceiling. Up ahead, something was indeed moving; Isa could hear it clicking faintly around the bend in the tunnel with a sound like nails or claws on stone.
"Another machine?" Kala asked in distaste, clearly not fond of that notion at all.
"It sounds more like an animal," Tyladriel said softly. "I can hear its claws clicking on the floor when it moves. A worg, maybe? The orcs seem fond of them."
Gus shook his head. "I would smell it if it were a worg. It smells like it belongs to Pandaria."
"A quilen, then?" Tyladriel ventured. "Although I don't know why the mogu would be lending their pets to Garrosh."
"If it belongs to Pandaria, it is almost certainly an enemy creature," Shoo said. "Mogu, yaungol, or mantid."
"It's too light for a yaungol," Gus replied. "I'd hear its steps."
They discovered the creature's identity before they could even come to a consensus; the thing stepped around the corner and emitted a high, clicking screech as soon as it caught sight of them.
It was an enemy creature, as Shoo had predicted; a mantid nearly half a head taller than Isa, the tallest of their party. Its compound eyes locked onto the elf woman's, and she saw a ripple of surprise catch the thing off-guard, but that didn't stop it from charging at them with arms and pincers raised in unison.
Tyladriel's shield buffer tripped the thing on its way, and Gus's blades made quick work of it, piercing right through the carapace and into the creature's heart. The mantid gave a quick shudder and died soundlessly as quickly as it had appeared.
"What are the mantid doing down here?" Kala asked curiously when they had all recovered from the surprised.
"The mantid are the loyal servants of the Old God Y'Shaarj," Shoo replied. "If the rumors are true, and Garrosh has awakened the Heart of Y'Shaarj, then it comes as no surprise that these creatures have bound their loyalty to Orgrimmar, even if they have no love for Garrosh."
Upon the event of his return, we will stand faithfully by his side…you would do well not to stand in our way…
Isa shook the distant memories from her mind with a faint turn of unease in her gut. She knelt to search the mantid's body for weapons or clues as to its allegiance; the creatures always had a badge marking the kypari to which they were bound. She herself possessed a similar sigil from the sentinels of Kypari Zar. She found what she was looking for quickly enough, in a pouch around the mantid's long throat; a small golden token embossed on one side with a mantid symbol.
"What've you got there, Isa?" Tyladriel asked.
"It's his allegiance sigil," Isa explained. "It'll tell me which kypari he's bound to; that'll give us some idea which factions of mantid have already arrived here in Orgrimmar."
"How did you know to look for that, Isa?" Shoo seemed half curious and half suspicious.
"Ah…" Isa evaded the question with silence, turning her attention back to the golden badge. She flipped it over so that its marked side faced up, squinting down at it with deep concentration.
Zar would make sense…or Ik, they like to fight…
Impressed into the little coin was the emblem of a great kypari tree, something which decorated every mantid badge; beneath it, however, was the point of interest, the identifying mark. Isa looked at it for a long moment, a little confused by what she saw. It didn't look like the badges of any of the kyparite soldiers she had slain, but still, something about it was familiar. It was stylized as a ring with evenly-spaced lines slicing across it from edge to center; rising from that center was the emblem of what looked like an amber resonating crystal.
Where have I seen that ring before…?
"Can you identify him, Isa?" Lady Moonsinger asked.
"He isn't from any of the kypari that I've seen," Isa replied slowly. "The Zar and Ik badges don't have the resonator on them, or this weird circle thing. It looks like a summoning circle of some sort." And still, the emblem looked oddly familiar; Isa could have sworn she had seen it glinting somewhere else, dimly bluish in the pale light of the Dread Wastes sky.
"A new faction of mantid, perhaps?" Shoo asked in vague alarm. "Could there be another kypari that we do not know about?"
"No, there are only six or seven kypari." Isa shook her head. "The Par—holy Elune."
Her memory had struck home, and it sent a chill racing all the way down her spine.
The little gold coin glinted in the faint light from the drab, hidden sun, its gold surface looking strangely blue, though everything here seemed to be tinted in tones of blue.
"What is that?"
"It is my kypari badge. Every mantid soldier carries one to identify the great kypari to which he is bound. I have the great honor of carrying the badge of the Klaxxi."
"What is it?" Kala asked, hearing the note of horror in her friend's voice.
"It's the Klaxxi sigil," Isa said weakly.
"Klaxxi?" Tyladriel sounded confused. "I've never heard of that."
"Nor have I," put in both Gus and Lady Moonsinger.
"I had thought them a mere legend," Shoo said quietly. "How did you come to know of them, Isa?" His eyes demanded that she not lie.
Isa sighed heavily. "I was commissioned to the Dread Wastes for four months, and while I was there, I was to be fighting the mantid swarm who followed the Empress. As it turned out, I found allies among the mantid. The Klaxxi are their advisory council, and it's their job to depose the Empress if she gets out of hand. I…helped."
Shoo was quiet for a very long time; so long that Isa began to wonder whether she wasn't in very serious trouble. Eventually, though, the Pandaren sighed and shook his head a little.
"We'll worry about that later. You say this soldier bears the Klaxxi sigil?"
"Yes, which is really bad," Isa emphasized quickly. "If the Klaxxi have turned against us, we're in for serious danger. Their warriors are the mantid's best."
"This one didn't seem that good," Gus commented, glancing at the dead mantid.
"We caught this one by surprise, and there are six of us," Isa said. "When we're up against a whole roomful of them, plus their generals, it won't be that way anymore."
Not to mention…no. I won't think about that.
"We had better be prepared for great danger, then," Lady Moonsinger said. "Isa, Gus, and Kala, you three will walk point with me. Tyladriel and Shiu-Mai, walk behind us and be prepared for ambushers from the rear."
They quickly shifted into their formation, with Lady Moonsinger and Gus to sweep one side and Isa and Kala taking the other. Isa turned to her Draenei friend when she caught Kala's eye on her, surveying her keenly as they proceeded down the passage.
"Something troubles you, my friend," Kala said quietly. "Something to do with this Klaxxi."
Isa sighed heavily. "Let's just say that if that badge means everything I think it might, there is a serious problem waiting for us somewhere up there."
Kala did not respond to that, but her eyes never shifted from Isa.
The Klaxxi soldiers were, indeed, fearsome, especially when they were not taken by surprise. Wave after wave of mantid crashed over them the further down the tunnel they proceeded, each one seemingly more prepared than the last. Isa and Kala took several deep scratches each from mantid pincers and daggers, keeping Tyladriel on her toes to combat the insects' venom. The mantid did not come alone, either; young kunchong scurried about beneath their claws to wreak havoc at the feet of the attackers. Isa was strongly reminded of Kovok, but she kept it to herself, silencing the personal sadness at the shudder of each tiny fallen body. She simply concentrated on her own blade and its rhythm, blocking out all the inconvenient memories struggling to push their way to the surface.
The tunnel seemed to continue on forever, but Isa noticed slowly that it widened at the same time that it led deeper down, until, without realizing it, they had fought their way into a gently sloping cavern some several times wider and taller than their heads. The mantid surrounded them now, and they fought in a circle, switching places and exchanging spells at a breathless rate. The combat came to several standstills, and once or twice Isa thought it would be the end and that they would go under, but somehow, the six of them stood fast and pulled through, until the floor behind them was littered with black-bloodied mantid corpses and the way before them stood clear, a high, narrow archway which opened up into a chamber vaulting so high that Isa could not catch sight of the roof at all.
"That must be where their leaders are waiting," Lady Moonsinger said, exhaling a short, sharp breath. "Everyone rest for a moment. We will need all of our strength for this."
They leaned against the walls to catch their breaths. All six of them were spattered with sweat, black mantid blood, and red blood of their own, their faces ringed with stone dust and soil. Isa removed her helmet and wiped her face with the long hem of her tabard, smearing the already-stained blue fabric with fluids.
"Isa, you know the most about the Klaxxi," Shoo said. "Can you tell us what might be waiting for us in there?"
Isa put her helmet back on, silent for a long moment before she replied. "The Klaxxi are led by their Klaxxi'va, a circle of councilors who control the amber resonators. Originally there were somewhere around seven or eight of them, one for each faction of mantid, but now there are only two remaining. The others were killed by the Empress. We may have to face them. Or it's possible that we'll face lesser lieutenants, or giant kunchong." She shrugged. "I'm not exactly sure. Whatever it is, it'll be dangerous."
A worm of dread gnawed away at her insides, but she ignored it vehemently, focusing on cleaning the blood from her runeblade with a handful of stone dust.
No. They won't be there. They can't be there.
But hope was no challenger in the face of fear.
At last, everyone had caught their breaths. They all stood as one, facing toward the tall arched entryway; Isa could see looks of trepidation on every face. She herself was feeling vaguely weak-kneed, small within her suit of armor; it was only at this moment that she ever thought to bless her Ebon Blade training for the gift of an unbreakable poker face.
"Are we all prepared?" Lady Moonsinger asked quietly.
"If we aren't now, we won't ever be," Gus replied.
"Let us move," Kala agreed.
They all voiced their assent, and with that fading into an echo against the stone walls, they stepped hesitantly forward and through the archway.
They found themselves in a high, domed room carved completely from stone. The same ring which decorated the Klaxxi badge had been replicated on the floor below them, though without the amber resonating crystal at its apex. Window-like openings circled the top perimeter of the chamber, each one leading out onto a carved stone walkway; within each, Isa could see shifting shadows, vaguely the forms of mantid. At the far end of the room, waiting for them, stood a gigantic kunchong, bigger than any Isa had ever seen. Both Shoo and Kala inhaled sharply at the sight of it, but Isa barely had time to be surprised before a sudden call from the high ceiling sent bolts of ice through each and every one of her veins.
"Look, brothers! The Wakener is here!"
Oh, no. Please, no. Anything but this.
Slowly, Isa turned her gaze skyward, toward the voice.
There they hovered, near the center of the ceiling; two winged mantid, staring down at them with intent compound eyes. Isa could see the others now, coming forward to stand on the platforms ringing the top edge of the room. She recognized each and every one, and with every recognition, her heart gave another dull ache.
"They made it this far? I told you the others needed some microsonic genetic alterations!" Rik'kal sneered from one of the platforms. Isa turned her eyes toward him, but the mantid either did not or would not see her.
Iyyokuk clicked in disdain. "How illogical. Did they not take your warning, Kil'ruk?"
Isa could see Kil'ruk's annoyed look from where he hovered near the ceiling, but he did not reply to his brother's taunt. He was the only one with his eyes turned toward the ground, and she stared at him with no attempt to hide her grief.
"We mantid serve a power far greater than they or their gods!" Xaril called out. He sounded vaguely offended at even the notion of such an interference here. Isa wished they would look down, for Elune's sake. She didn't take her eyes off of Kil'ruk, even as the others began to speak.
"It matters not! The Old One will not suffer their intrusion." Kaz'tik sounded as energetic as ever, and as eager to fight.
"We have endured the Usurpers, their children, the loss of the Old One, and soon... you." This was Korven, the most ancient of the circle, and by far the most intimidating. His clicking voice was heavy with foreboding and dark confidence which Isa knew that nothing short of imminent destruction could shake.
"We will slay you all as easily as we slew the pandaren of old!" Ka'roz shouted eagerly. Korven might have been the most intimidating, but Ka'roz was by far the most violent.
"And then the Old One will remake this world for the mantid!" Skeer prophesied.
"Come, children of the Titans!" Hisek, the last of them, issued their challenge, which echoed in seemingly eternal rounds from the far distant reaches of the vaulted ceiling. "You face the Paragons!"
Shoo turned a dark expression on Isa. "Paragons? I believe you left something out of that prediction, Isalea. And what's all this about a Wakener?"
Isa ignored him for the first time ever, pushing past her startled companions with sorrow-stricken eyes turned skyward. "Kil'ruk! I know you see me! Why are you doing this?!"
The hovering mantid met her gaze steadily, black beads locking onto her and piercing through her.
"I did warn you, Wakener," Kil'ruk called down. "I told you that we serve Y'Shaarj, and made it plainly clear where our loyalties lie."
"This is unnecessary!" Isa shouted in desperation. "You don't have to fight us! We're friends, Kil'ruk! All of you, we're friends! I know we are! Come down from there!"
Please don't make me fight you.
"I never said any such thing, Wakener, and neither did my brothers," Kil'ruk replied calmly. "We were of one mind for a time, and so my brothers and I accepted your help and cooperation. But your short life will pass. We mantid live a long time, and the will of the Klaxxi, and of Y'Shaarj, is eternal. It is our destiny to rise again."
"Please don't do this," Isa said weakly. "Please. I know you, all of you. You helped me defeat the Empress, and the Sha!"
"You helped us to defeat the Empress," Kil'ruk said coldly; then, more quietly, "It is true that we grew fond of you, Wakener; allow us to repay that fondness by blessing you with a mercifully quick death."
"Isa, what is going on?" Gus whispered in alarm.
"…Then I accept your challenge. Come and face me, Klaxxi Paragons!" Isa clanged her runeblade on the ground, tears welling in her eyes as she ignored her friend beside her. "I will fight against you as honorably as I fought beside you!"
"Isa, you can't fight them alone!" Tyladriel exclaimed. "They'll shred you!"
"Actually, they won't." Isa smiled bitterly. "For all their talk, they will award me a fair combat. I was their Wakener, who drew them from an amber sleep. And they…they were my friends."
It broke Isa's heart when Kaz'tik sicced the huge kunchong on her friends; her heart was almost destroyed, however, when Kaz'tik informed her that the giant creature, was, in fact, Kovok.
"He grew nicely, Wakener, thanks to you!" the mantid cackled.
Isa tried to suppress her tears. Initially creepy, Kovok the tiny kunchong had slowly grown on her until, without realizing it, she discovered that she had been truly affectionate toward the little creature. It was devastating to hear him scream in pain; she could not focus on that, though. She had a challenge to complete.
"Let's get this over with!" she called toward the ceiling. "Either you'll die tonight or I will!"
Whoever dies, they die with honor.
"Very well, then. Time for a little target practice!" Hisek screeched, leaping from his platform to land before her. Beside him soared Skeer and Rik'kal, and they took their places in a triangle facing her, with Hisek at its point.
"You choose the wrong side, Wakener," Skeer said. "It is not too late for you to join us."
"Never," Isa said raggedly. "I would die before giving my life to another dark master."
Skeer looked vaguely disappointed. "It is a shame. You were a powerful combatant; a Paragon in your own right, perhaps."
"We will draw no pleasure from your death," Rik'kal clicked.
"And I will draw no pleasure from yours," Isa said softly.
The combat began.
From the first, Isa could tell that even fighting fair, this would be a close match. The Paragons refused to fight underhandedly, and for that she was grateful, but she was fighting for her life mere moments after the first blows were struck. She parried, thrust, parried again, and avoided the venomous pincers as best she could, though they glanced several times off of her armor and twice pierced her through its chinks. The poison stung, but Isa was of the Ebon Blade. It would take much longer for toxin to kill her than it would anyone else.
When her runeblade finally sent Rik'kal to the ground, Isa nearly cried out herself. She had not been lying about finding no pleasure in their deaths; it hurt like a physical blow to see her mantid friend fall. There was no rest for her, however; almost as soon as he fell, Ka'roz leaped down eagerly to join in the fight. Another pincer caught her flesh, this time across the cheekbone, and Isa growled as she felt the place beginning to swell with venom. Another vicious slash of the runeblade sent Skeer toppling to the floor, and then Korven was there in his place.
"You face the Prime, Wakener!" Korven shrieked. "Are you prepared to submit?!"
Isa let out a shattered gasp and sliced off one of Hisek's pincers; answer enough for him. Black blood sprayed across her armor and into her face, but she ignored it, letting the building tears wash it from her eyes.
Hisek fell soon after that, followed by Ka'roz, and Iyyokuk and Xaril soared down to take their places. Korven fought longer than any of them, and Isa was almost convinced that he would finally kill her until her sword found a place beneath his blind spot and slipped through his carapace, cracking several things on the way in. Isa swallowed her scream. She had liked Korven very much, and the first of the tears leaked down her cheeks as she watched him collapse. Kaz'tik jumped from his platform as soon as Korven fell, and Isa could see the manic cycles of eagerness and distress on his face.
"Your outsiders killed Kovok!" he accused.
"I'm sorry!" she cried. "You could have prevented it if you had chosen not to do this! It isn't too late!"
But it was too late, and Isa watched all three of them fall in slow succession until, at last, she stood alone amidst their broken bodies, her ragged breathing filling the now-silent chamber. Her eyes clouded with mantid blood and tears, she turned her gaze skyward to where Kil'ruk still hovered.
The first to Wake and the last to die.
"Please, Kil'ruk, don't make me fight you," Isa begged in a whisper. The tears had robbed her of her voice more swiftly than she had expected. "You're the last one. Don't make me do this. I flew with you, remember? We were friends."
Kil'ruk's voice was surprisingly sad, for a creature whom so many pandaren believed to be integrally evil. "I will carry you only one last time, Wakener…to your doom."
Isa could not even muster the strength to make a reply as he dropped from the ceiling to clash blades with her.
The fight was long, even longer than her combat with Korven. Her friends stood beside Kovok's body and watched in silence as mantid and elf slashed and danced and wove in what seemed a neverending circle of deadly grace. Kil'ruk was just as expert a fighter as Isa, and indeed, she had learned some of her style from watching him on their missions. They paralleled one another, mirror to mirror, blade to claw.
But finally, the last blow had to be struck.
Kil'ruk looked surprised when the runeblade swept across his abdomen, but the surprise turned quickly to acceptance as he crumpled to the floor, black blood staining the ground beneath him. Isa immediately dropped her blade and knelt beside him with tears streaming down her face.
"I'm sorry," she whispered. "I'm so sorry, for all of you."
"You…were our Wakener," he replied raggedly. "Only fitting…that you send us to our sleep."
"I was proud to be." Isa wiped her eyes viciously, ignoring the sting of the blood on her gauntlet.
Kil'ruk coughed and gave a sort of half-smile. "Well fought, Wakener."
Isa let out a quiet sob; then, without really thinking about it, she awkwardly clicked out the mantid phrase for rest well, companion.
"We will meet again, Kil'ruk."
"Perhaps we will…" He rattled out one last exhale and then those black beads grew dim and clouded, and he was gone. They all were.
Isa sat back, half-aware that she might be going into shock. She was still poisoned, still cut, still bleeding, but none of it mattered. She had killed them. Her friends.
Tyladriel and Kala helped her up gently, looking at her with expressions of quiet sorrow.
"You really cared for them, didn't you?" Kala asked. Internally, she was proud of her friend for desiring peace with these creatures; now, however, did not seem the best time to mention it.
"They will be buried with the honor due Paragons of the Klaxxi," Isa whispered. "In Klaxxi'vess, where they belong, and where they can someday become part of the cycle of their kypari."
"We will see to it," Tyladriel said, her face pale with shock and sympathy. "Come on, now, let's get you cleaned up."
They moved off at a slow limp toward the far exit of the chamber, leaving the Paragons where they had fallen.
I will come back for you, my friends. And you will receive the honorable passage you are due. Thus vows your Wakener.
They slipped through the door and disappeared into the darkness beyond.