All in the Family
Neltharion waited just outside the temple. Snow began to slowly fall across the wastes. His black scales covered in a soft white layer of snow. The Great Black looked to the overcast sky, seeing a shifting color from the Northern Lights shimmering above the clouds. He shivered slightly, folding his great wings around his body like a wrinkly, leathery, black cloak. The only sound he could hear was the shifting ice beneath his feet and the soft fall of snow.
It was deathly quiet.
He snorted a thin cloud of steam from his nostrils. Neltharion always felt lie an outsider coming to Dragonblight and visiting Wyrmrest. His fault entirely, but long ago, it was not always that way. He was always welcomed in the north in the time of the Ancients, long before he was tormented by the Voices, before he was driven to Madness, and then into enslavement by them, feeding his dark desires to create Deathwing, the monster that lived inside of him. He was stronger to them now. At least that was how he felt. Despite defeating the evils of the world that were brought about by his sins and gaining their trust, he still felt estranged.
A figure poked out from the top level of the great spire.
"You should come and join us, brother," called a motherly voice.
"I'm fine down here, Alex," said Neltharion.
The Life-Binder shook her head and hefted a sigh.
"We need to talk to you," she said. "And I hate it when you separate yourself from us. Any Aspect is welcomed. You treat us like strangers."
"I feel like a stranger," said the Earth-Warder. Neltharion dragged his claw across the snow.
"Stop it," said Alexstrasza. "Come up here. Stand to my right as you used to. I want my brother beside me, not a frightened stranger lurking outside the walls of Wyrmrest."
Neltharion rumbled and suddenly vanished. The Black Dragon appeared right beside the Blood Elf with the fiery red hair. Alexstrasza was in mortal form, finding it more convenient than her dragon form. All the dragons were disguised in their mortal forms, all but Neltharion, who decided to remain in dragon form. He shrank himself down, his size was that of a rather large war horse. Kalecgos, the Spell-Weaver, dipped his head.
"About time you came up," he said. "You looked almost lost standing out there in the cold, Earth-Warder."
He backed away as Neltharion took to Alexstrasza's right. She placed a hand upon his shoulder and leaned her head down upon it. Neltharion relaxed and brushed his broad chin on the crown of her head.
"Just as I remembered," she said. "Don't be so distant anymore, brother. I won't bite."
"It's been so long since I felt apart of the group," said Neltharion, brushing his cheek against hers. The Great Black gave a small kiss to his sister's forehead, which made her smile. He parted, his green eyes focusing upon her golden ones. "I feel like I'm trespassing when I come here."
"You are an Aspect, Lord Neltharion," said Siderion. "As I am welcomed here as your ambassador, should it not be right for you to be welcomed as well?"
"You seem at home here, Sid."
"I am, my lord," said Siderion.
"Siderion is right," said Alexstrasza. "You are always welcomed here, Neltharion. Don't ever think that you are not. I want you to come here, I get so worried about you."
"Shouldn't it be the big brother who worries about the little sister?" Neltharion asked. "And not the other way around?"
"Perhaps," she said. "But, with you out there in the world, and the world...the world rejecting you...so much. At least know that you have a place here."
"The world rejects me because I once rejected it," said Neltharion. "This was my fault. I can't force them to love me like they did long ago before I betrayed all of them and you. But at least I have some who are my friends. And having a few friends is better than having no friends."
"And you have a family," said Alexstrasza. She slapped him on his foreleg. "Which you need to visit from time to time! My consorts say I grow bald from pulling my hair out worrying what is happening to you out there. My mistake of thinking you should handle the world all on your own...you should grow to rely on us. Such a heavy burden shouldn't be carried by one."
"The world is indeed heavy," said Kalecgos. "Now I know why Khaz'Goroth made you so big."
"He didn't make me this big," said Neltharion. "I'm the one who made myself fat, not my father. I'm too fat for my own scales, I still need big metal plates to hold all the fat in."
On queue, he gave a bang to the line of elementium plates that lined his spine.
"Grew fat on power," he said. "Grew fat on corruption. And I'm still fat. No amount of starving is making me any thinner. But at least the swelling isn't happening anymore. If I got any fatter, I wouldn't be able to move." He turned to Siderion and smiled. "I'm glad you are happy here."
"Thank you, my lord," said Siderion.
"Sid…grandpa," said Neltharion, knocking his snout horn against the disguised dragon's forehead. "I'm grandpa. Not lord. I…don't even deserve to be called a lord of anything let alone the Black Dragonflight. Couldn't even save the last broodmother I had."
"Nalice chose her own fate," said Kalecgos. "No one chose it for her."
Neltharion took a deep breath and swung back, a flicker of red graced his emerald green eyes.
"The last batch of eggs we recovered from my daughter's former lair yielded hatchlings…whelps with birth defects, genetic diseases, mental retardation…" he growled lowly, his voice like the sound of continents colliding against each other. The tower and the ground it stood upon jostled with every note in his voice.
Kalecgos turned away, feeling the heat building beneath Neltharion's fiery orbs.
"My flight is dying and I can do nothing to save it…" Neltharion continued. "I feel like I am dying along with it."
"Neltharion…" Alexstrasza whispered, reaching out to touch his great shoulder. "You're not dying. We will not let your flight die, either." She turned to Kalecgos. "We need each other. We need to support each other. We have already seen what happens when we do not."
"No thanks to me…" Neltharion interjected, lowering his head.
Kalecgos seemed to nod in agreement at that statement.
"Kalecgos," said Alexstrasza, shooting him a cold glance.
"Forgive me," said Kalecgos. "Neltharion, I meant nothing…I...just..."
"You don't have to remind of what a failure I am," said Neltharion. "After all you're appointment to becoming the new Spell-Weaver is one of my many failures. If I had not done…if only I were strong enough to fight the darkness…Malygos would be here instead of you. But I failed him too. And his flight was made to suffer."
"Malygos chose his fate as well," said Kalecgos. "You had nothing to do with that…"
Neltharion averted his eyes, his brow furrowed as he tried to fight back the sob threatening to choke his throat.
"And how is your mortal wife?" asked Alexstrasza, shifting the topic when she noticed the pained expression upon her elder brother's face.
"Busy," said Neltharion. "Busy snooping around in cities to see what her enemies are up to, fighting the king's war, a war I cannot fight."
"A war you want to fight," said Alexstrasza.
"I do not like Garrosh," said Neltharion. "And being married to an assassin and a spy, I begin to realize what he's been doing. For that, I curse my neutrality. This war he wants to fight could be a danger that we have to face. I know I have to face it. Garrosh has the fury of Gul'dan's old Hoard, the expendable foot soldiers of the Burning Legion. They came here under the orders of their demon masters. Though I don't fight the war, doesn't mean I don't defend my home when Hoard warriors come knocking down the gates of Theramore. That little island city is all alone in a sea of enemies. Innocents are going to be harmed, and I must protect those innocents. I protect those who cannot fight."
"My brother the hero," said Alexstrasza. "Just like it was long ago." She took in a deep breath. "Let's just get on with our meeting shall we? We've wasted enough time already bickering."
Neltharion took in a deep breath. He once more focused upon Siderion. Just like many black dragons, Siderion preferred to wear a human form as his disguise. His thick black hair was feathered. Neltharion noticed he had cut the ponytail off. He was also more clothed, wearing a black fur cloak draping over his shoulders. Black dragons were not fans of the cold, preferring the heat of jungles, steamy swamps, and the innards of a sweltering volcano. Thankfully, there was a jungle not far from Dragonlight, created unnaturally by the Titans long ago. Neltharion heard that Siderion and some of his siblings had made their home there. Though being black dragons, they carried the stigma of their more evil brethren. Alexstrasza personally vouched for them to the mortals who shared the jungle. Neltharion had about 150 dragons loyal to him now on Azeroth. Each one related to him, a direct line from his own seed.
The others were either slain or exiled to Outland. Among the 150 dragons was a female, the sister to Siderion, named Nameria. The other was Jacinthia, the rest were drakes that made up the bulk of his remaining flight.
Though, it was because of Nameria that Neltharion was there. Nameria had offered to become broodmother for the newly purified Black Dragonflight. She offered herself to the Black Aspect.
Nameria was there in human form. Her black hair touched her shoulders. She was dressed in black, dark red, and brown robes and a heavy velvet cloak and hood. Neltharion stared at her with uncertainty. She was lovely, but too young for his tastes, at least where dragons stand.
But she was no Sintharia.
Nor was she Calia.
She, much like Siderion, was the granddaughter of Neltharion, directly from Sintharia's brood line.
"I present my sister, my lord," said Siderion with pride. Nameria gave a pert curtsy to the Great Black.
"I read her spirit, Neltharion," said Alexstrasza. "Not a drop of darkness or corruption in her. Like the others, she has fought the Old Gods too. Your song cures them."
"If they all wish to hear the song," said Kalecgos. "Then they all would be cured. But they must want to hear it, otherwise they are lost to the madness."
"Well?" Alexstrasza asked.
"No," said Neltharion.
"What?" Alexstrasza asked, taken back by his swift reply.
"My answer is no," said Neltharion.
"Why, my lord?" Nameria asked.
"Because you need to be calling me grandfather as well! You both smell the same. Just like Serinar smells the same, like Jacinthia smells the same…like everyone else damn well smells the same in the flight I saved! There's a reason why you're not corrupted. You're related to me. They're all related to me. My flight is dying because of inbreeding."
"She's only separated from you by five generations," said Alexstrasza.
"That is not far enough. She has to be at least twelve generations removed from me to even have an exotic scent. I can't even smell her! Because she smells exactly like me. They all do! And when you've grown so accustomed to your own scent, you no longer smell it. I can't even make them out by scent. Because they all smell like me. The Titans built us that way for a reason, Alex. To prevent what my son and daughter did, what many of my flight did…forced by Deathwing's madness because there weren't many of us left. Disease, birth defects, mental problems! I'm surprised that either Sid or Nameria came out fine despite their parents were first cousins!"
Alexstrasza shook her head.
"Beggars can't be choosers," said Kalecgos. "You have to do something about your dwindling numbers."
"With my own granddaughter, Little Kalec?"
"Five generations removed…"
"Again, the space is not wide enough," said Neltharion. "I will not mate with my own grandchildren. No more than you would, or Alex would…or any of you would! To do so would only hasten my flight's extinction."
He sighed, staring sadly over the frozen wastes.
"The only one who has an exotic scent that I have as a 'consort' is Calia," he said.
"She is human," said Alexstrasza. "And considering what I heard before…the child she had from Deathwing's ravages upon her. It would have been a child just as unhealthy…as sickly as any inbred whelp."
"She's not looking to become a broodmother any time soon," said Neltharion. "Not even a regular mother. She is my wife. And I am her husband."
"And those words mean very little in our society," said Alexstrasza.
"I know you still don't approve."
"She makes you happy," said Alexstrasza. "And as you said, you need someone other than the sea of the same scent from your flight. You need an unrelated mate, and so far that human is the only unrelated mate you have."
He huffed.
"Though, I am envious," said Alexstrasza. "When you two are together, it reminds me of the love I shared with Korialstrasz. It is a different love, different than we normally feel for our consorts, isn't it? I never thought dragons feeling romantic could ever happen twice. At least I can see that look on someone else…even if it is not the face of my beloved."
Neltharion felt a slight pain in his chest when she mentioned Korialstrasz. The lover and Prime Consort to the Life-Binder had sacrificed himself to prevent the spread of infected Chromatic eggs from corrupting her eggs. Krasus' death was Neltharion's doing as he was the one who ordered Nalice to infect them. Krasus had intern became infected as well, but before he was completely changed, he destroyed the Crimson Sanctuary in a burst of energy. Neltharion, who could sense the deepest thoughts and emotions, felt the hole still inside his sister's heart. His head lowered and his thick, scaly lips drew a sharp line. Neltharion's eyes became downcast. He could feel the sting of tears filling his emerald eyes.
"I am sorry for what I did to your love, my sister," he said softly, fighting back a deep sob. "I would only think out of vengeance, you would try to destroy mine..."
"I am...not Deathwing," said Alexstrasza. "Though, it hardened my heart when you...I...can forgive..."
"But cannot forget," said Neltharion. "My betrayal was a shock to all. How could I do such things? To you especially? Those monsters that possessed me...it's so easy to blame them, when it was me who did it. I take responsibility for his death, Alex. If now you wish to punish me..." He backed away from her and knelt down. "I await any judgement you have..."
"I'm not going to punish you, brother," said Alexstrasza. "Just like I shouldn't have done so to Malygos. Talk, that was all we needed. Talk. I think you and I need to talk."
She left the circle of dragons and began to walk out onto the ledge of Wyrmrest.
"This meeting is over," she said. "I will speak to my brother alone." She looked over her shoulder and smiled at Neltharion. "Meet me in the Ruby Dragonshrine, Neltharion."
Neltharion took in a deep breath as he watched the guised dragon disappear. She reappeared once more in her full form, crimson wings flapping in the chill. The Life-Binder took off towards the massive ruby tree growing out of an icy gorge.