Chapter Twenty
Assaulting the Arcatraz
Minor Imperial Officer: Inform Lord Vader we have a prisoner.
Random Stormtrooper: Okay sure, that's a great idea.
Officer: I beg your pardon?
Stormtrooper: Well I mean you could tell me to inform Lord Vader that we have an important prisoner, or maybe be even more specific and tell him we captured Princess Leia.
But instead you want me to walk up to the guy who chokes people with his mind from across the room and say "hey, we have a prisoner." At which point he'll probably be like "no shit Sherlock we just captured an enemy ship."
Officer rubs his chin: You make a compelling argument. It's a good thing I radioed Lord Vader of Princess Leia's capture the moment you stunned her.
Stormtrooper:...then why did you tell me to go up and inform him personally?
Officer: Oh I just wanted to watch on my helmet camera while he choked you like a little bitch.
Stormtrooper:...I fucking hate you.
APRIL FOOLS!
Chapter Twenty
Assaulting the Arcatraz
The fel orc drake rider dropped them off on the ledge where the bridge had connected the front of the Arcatraz to Tempest Keep. It settled the drake down there to await their return, and in spite of herself Saire felt a pang of regret as she turned away from the massive fel orc. She certainly had no desire to fight alongside the vicious brute, but it was hard to deny that the thing could be useful.
Still orders were orders; the drake riders were to have their mounts ready at all times. So she turned and walked across the ledge. Following behind her was a Spell Breaker named Lanthan'ar, a Corona's Blaze recruit wielding a glaive by the name Hadnar, and her two apprentices Beila and Galan.
The little ledge where the bridge had stood was blocked off by a wall with only one large archway leading into a small courtyard. On the other side of the courtyard the Arcatraz loomed, its only visible entrance a triangular doorway set in the middle of a little alcove jutting out from the structure. Unfortunately that doorway was filled with a triangular door of some shiny greyish metal.
Beila, first through the archway, was also the first to see the door. "Damnit, now what are we going to do?" her apprentice said, staring at the door in dismay.
Saire put a hand on her hip as she brushed by the dark-haired woman, doing little to hide her scorn. "You're right, we're screwed. Look at us, a skilled hand-picked assault team set to capture a major enemy installation. Just our luck they happened to have a closed door, our one weakness. We better just go home."
Her apprentice glared at her. "I'm no stranger to sarcasm."
"You're apparently a stranger to door-opening spells." She started forward across the small courtyard.
Before she'd gone more than a few steps Lanthan'ar caught her elbow. "Shouldn't we watch for defenses?"
For a moment she paused, considering, then she shook her head and continued on. "If there's a defense it'll be at the entrance."
"Defenses aren't going to bother us a whole lot if we can't get through the door," her apprentice Galan muttered.
She shot a glare his way. "You think I can't get through a damn door?" The younger elf raised his hands placatingly and backed away. Saire sniffed and continued until she stood before the door. In truth she'd been hoping for a more conventional lock or some sort of bar mechanism; she had spells which could defeat such things. This door was simply baffling.
She slid her hand along the smooth metal, searching for seams or any hint of how it opened. She could feel arcane energy running through it, an unfamiliar form that almost mimicked the feel of an elementalist's lightning. It wasn't reinforcing the door, and was mostly centered in three nodes along each of the three sides of the triangular doorway. Three parts to the door, then, that slid away from the center? She found the point equidistant from all three energy nodes and rested her fingertips lightly to the smooth metal, brow furrowed in concentration.
Yes, she could feel three seams meeting there, so perfectly fit that they were almost impossible to discern. She murmured a detect magic spell directed at one of the nodes and saw that the arcane energy served to hold that third of the door in place, pressing against the others. Then a puzzled frown joined her furrowed brow as she noticed something unexpected.
"Interesting," she murmured.
"What?" Lanthan'ar demanded. The Spell Breaker was fidgeting nervously, eyes roving the small courtyard that enclosed the main entrance.
Saire ignored the question, probing deeper. Yes, there was no mistake. This door was designed to ward very powerful magical attacks meant to defeat the three nodes which held the door shut. The odd thing was that the wards shielded it from attacks coming from inside. From outside it was formidable, but from inside it was close to unassailable.
Her confusion cleared. Of course. This was the Arcatraz, where Lokiv had claimed the draenei and their naaru masters kept imprisoned dangerous and powerful beings from various worlds and the Twisting Nether itself. Its defenses would be designed to keep inmates from escaping, not to keep attackers from entering. An unfortunate design flaw, but understandable since only fools would attack a place containing creatures the naaru considered dangerous.
It turned out she was feeling particularly foolish today.
She began murmuring, wielding arcane magics she was far less familiar with than her usual fire spells. An explosion of arcane energy pulsed from her, throwing her companions back a few steps. When that energy struck the door it shivered through it, reached the nodes, and overloaded them. With a soft hiss that almost sounded like a sigh the three parts of the door relaxed from being pressed together, the bottom two sagging down and away from each other slightly until there were about two inches separating them.
Saire stepped back. "Pry them apart," she ordered.
The Spell Breaker and the Corona's Blaze glaive-wielder rushed forward, each tugging at a section of the door. And while they grunted and strained with effort the huge metal plates moved with surprising ease. Hadnar had his section roughly halfway down to the floor when he poked his head into the opening and glanced inside. Almost immediately afterwards he was staggering backward and diving to the side, cursing up a storm. Lanthan'ar more calmly looked between the cracks in the door to see what had so dismayed his companion, and then he two was backing away to the side, out of view of whatever was inside.
Saire motioned for her apprentices to do the same while she threw up a mana shield around herself. She couldn't see anything but an odd reddish light issuing through the cracks, but both her companions had seen some danger. Her two apprentices ducked to either side of the door, hugging the wall beside Hadnar and Lanthan'ar, while she calmly walked forward and peered inside.
Only a few feet beyond the door there was an odd energy field, reddish in color and semi-opaque. Directly beyond it a dozen draenei with their odd crystal-bored guns crouched, glaring back at her warily. Their weapons were held at the ready, but they didn't fire even though some of them must have had a clear shot. Perhaps their view of her was obscured by the red forcefield? Possible, but unlikely. She chanted the swift and fairly mana-intensive incantations that would put up arcane and fire wards around her, reinforcing her mana shield, and then she ducked through the partially opened door, into the narrow space between it and the energy field.
Another detect magic spell wasted more of her mana to inspect the field, revealing nothing of its nature. But even without the divination spell she could clearly see the field was intensely powerful. Dauntingly so. Perhaps the draenei weren't firing at her because the field was defense enough, a ward she couldn't hope to defeat.
Then another thought occurred to her, and she nearly laughed aloud. She drew her dagger from its sheath at her hip and tossed it at the field. It passed through the red light easily with a soft hiss, clanging to the stone floor on the other side. One of the draenei gave an exclamation of surprise and convulsively fired his gun, sending a powerful blast of energy surging toward her. The energy struck the red field and its muted red glow opaqued to blinding red light, completely halting the blast.
This time she did laugh out loud, long and mockingly. One of the draenei near the back of the group barked an angry order, and the one who'd fired his gun ducked his head sheepishly. So it was not only the door designed to keep inmates of the Arcatraz in. Likely this forcefield could be shut down from elsewhere in the facility, probably in the control room itself. How amusing that her enemies, the defenders of this place, were trapped on the other side of a shield she could easily pass through while they could do nothing from their side.
It provided an interesting opportunity, however. If the field could be altered to repel people entering rather than leaving it would make an incredible defense; from what she could tell it was powerful enough to halt a demon lord, at least for a time.
"You can open these doors," she called over her shoulder. "Although if you can get through them it probably doesn't matter how wide the opening is." While she spoke she continued to eye the draenei on the other side, smiling widely. Certainly, it was somewhat troublesome to see so many defenders still remaining within the Arcatraz. But at the least they'd been kind enough to bunch up motionless less than ten feet from her, with a powerful field preventing them from attacking her while she sized up the situation.
The longer she thought of it, the better she liked it. She heard a metallic grating behind her and turned to see Lanthan'ar once again opening his wedge of the door. "Don't follow me through the field until I give the order," she said. "But when I do all of you be ready to move fast and strike hard."
The Spell Breaker glanced past her at the draenei. "You think you can take them alone?"
Her smile widened. "Of course. Any idiot knows not to bunch up in an enclosed space within pissing distance of a fire mage." She refreshed her fire and arcane wards, checked to be sure her mana shield remained active, then prepared herself mentally and faced the draenei. "I'd like to talk," called to them in her most harmless tone, raising her arms above her head to indicate surrender. The draenei who'd shouted the orders glared at her for a moment, then gestured curtly with his gun for her to approach.
Saire smiled a winning smile and stepped through the field. She wasn't even angry when the draenei leader screamed an order and a dozen blasts of energy rushed at her. Her own reply was just as fast.
The nice thing about blast waves was that they had almost zero cast time. They were a great tool for surprising an enemy, and suited her style of magecraft far better than arcane explosions.
She unleashed a healthy chunk of her mana pool, converting it to flame as it flooded from her in all directions. Within seconds the narrow hallway choked with draenei became an inferno with her in the center. Distantly she could feel the strain on her wards and mana shield as the discharges from the draenei guns struck them, and another healthy chunk of her mana burned away to keep her alive. Far more immediate were the screams of shock and agony from the men who suddenly found themselves in the midst of a firestorm.
She felt one of the draenei, perhaps the leader, preparing a shield to protect his men from the flames, and she focused her concentration and shouted out a counterspell. The force of it knocked her back a step, and among the flames she could see a draenei go flying backwards. Then the blast wave had passed the draenei by, leaving them burned and their defensive formation broken. About half turned to flee while the others writhed on the ground, screaming in pain. Saire prepared a more conventional fireball and flung it after the fleeing ones, scattering the wounded draenei like ninepins at a game of bowls.
Then she sagged to the ground. "Lanthan'ar they're retreating!" she shouted. "Go after them!" Behind her she heard the Spell Breaker bark an order, and then he and the recruit rushed by her, her two apprentices close behind. As a group they sprinted down the hall and into the chamber beyond. She distantly heard more screams even as she dragged herself over to a wall and leaned against it, feeling dizzy and drained.
Most mages hated blast waves, and with good reason. Similar to arcane explosions but even more costly in mana, they were just about the crudest spell a mage could cast. The spell was simply an unfocused unleashing of mana, sending energy of equal strength in every direction. It was grossly inefficient unless a mage happened to be beneath a dog-pile of enemy soldiers, an event rather unlikely to come up in most fights. Even in that case the wave would simply strike the bunched enemies briefly before continuing on past, doing little more than superficial damage unless the mage unleashed a huge amount of energy.
For duels it was a laughable waste, and even against multiple enemies flamestrike was a more useful spell, less costly and easier to target. Since it was point-blank your enemy had to be right next to you, and given its wave-like nature it was strongest near the mage's skin, weakening rapidly as it spread out in a sphere until by the time it was fifteen feet away it would barely scorch the skin. Even the fact that it could be cast almost instantly wasn't much of a bonus.
She was just lucky circumstances had been ideal for the spell, and the enclosed space and the forcefield behind her had channeled the entire force of the blast wave in the direction she wanted it to go. Almost like the fiery equivalent of a cone of cold, a thing which she didn't have near the precision or control to manage in an open space.
Perhaps nine dead in that attack, and three-quarters of her mana pool drained. Luckily like a good little mage she'd come prepared.
With a weary sigh she stood, using the wall as support as she dug into her pouch and withdrew a diamond the size of her fist. Not real, of course, or she'd be the luckiest girl in two worlds. It was a mana gem, a conjured matrix of enclosed energy mages could create to temporarily store their mana. Usable only by the mage who'd created it, and it rarely lasted more than a day. She'd created it last night and then ate and slept to replenish her mana pool. It was the highest ranking mana gem she could create, and as she held it up to her face and released the containing matrix, inhaling the mana, it refilled her mana pool by roughly a third. Leaving her with around sixty percent of her pool. Barring any other grossly wasteful spells in the future it should be enough for the task ahead.
And who knew, she might get lucky and find herself with a half hour of free time she could spend in evocation. The equivalent of opening the floodgates of mana regeneration was intensely taxing to mind and body both, but having mana when she needed it had saved her life and others' several times during her village refugees' flight from their homeland.
She broke into a trot past the burned and blackened bodies of her victims, some still writhing and whimpering weakly. The room beyond was large and grand and decidedly empty save for another blackened corpse with a vicious wound along its back, as if it had been crawling away and one of her companions had cut it down as it tried to flee. The room ended in another hallway, this one wider, and she crossed to it and ducked inside.
This hallway was much longer as well, and boasted doors to the left and right every ten feet or so. At the end of the hall it ended in a broad wall with a tiny door in the middle of it, barely six feet tall and three wide. Her four companions were crouched along the wall to either side of the door, cursing and peering around it suspiciously. Saire ran down the hall toward them, passing another burned draenei, this one decapitated and with its head six feet farther down the hall. She passed it with a grimace of distaste. "What's going on?" she called when she was halfway to them.
Lanthan'ar spat off to the side and peered cautiously around the doorway. A blast of energy nearly struck his head, hissing past only inches away and continuing on to blacken the wall fifteen feet down the hallway. He cursed and ducked back. "They've got another defensive position in there."
Saire cursed as well. Another? Just how many defenders did Arcatraz have? She'd seen a few dozen rush from this satellite to assist the Exodar. "Have you searched these doors?" she asked, pointing at the dozen doorways lining the hall. His incredulous look was answer enough. "Manastarved fool. You just rush on by and leave possible enemies behind as well as in front?"
He spat again. "Would you rather we dawdled along and let them set up a defensive position where we're crouched here, shooting those damn guns of theirs along this hallway? That would've been a wonderful little death-trap to try to fight down."
Saire hesitated a moment, then shrugged irritably. "Gods damnit. Galan, Beila, you two guard that door." Her apprentices nodded grimly. "Lanthan'ar, Hadnar, you start searching the doorways along the hall starting from your end. I'll backtrack to the beginning of the hall and start searching from that end."
Without waiting for a response she ran back down to the first pair of doors along the hallway and burst into the righthand one. It opened easily to her touch, sliding up into the ceiling. Behind was a fairly large room which, true to the Arcatraz's nature, was filled with eight-by-eight foot prison cells. Rather than bars or enclosed dungeons these cells were blocked off by forcefields, shimmering blue rather than the red one at the entrance. Of the dozen or so cells most were empty, with only a few near the doors filled with bored, defeated-looking Broken draenei. In the center of the room stood a round control panel with a number of large crystals corresponding to the number of cells, and a few smaller crystals in clusters around the large ones.
No guards or other enemies. She ducked out of the room and crossed the hall to the other. It was much the same as the first, with more Broken prisoners and a few cells filled with what looked like amorphous blobs of flesh with squid-like tentacles and mouthfuls of circular rows of wicked sharp teeth. They looked like they'd been mutated with fel energy somehow, experiments or casualties of attacks by demonic magic. By the way they threw themselves snarling at the forcefields, teeth scraping across the semi-opaque blue wall in a shower of sparks, she was glad they were contained.
The next pair of doors also led into cell blocks, a few orcs and normal draenei in one room and the other filled with more of the mutated freaks. Though they were all safely contained Saire felt a bit nervous at the savagery of these imprisoned creatures, and decided it was wise to have spells prepared when she entered the next room. Probably should have been doing that from the beginning.
She burst into the next room, this time with defensive and offensive spells at the ready should she meet any resistance.
Instead a dozen pairs of big eyes stared up at her, wide with surprise and the beginnings of fear.
. . . . .
Children. Close to a dozen Draenei children. As tiny and delicate as any elven child, with the same animated features and large, curious eyes. They were clumped in a disorderly gaggle behind a tall, striking draenei female with white skin and long, curving horns.
The room was another containment chamber with cells along every wall, all blocked by those same bluish forcefields that mingled engineering and arcane energy. The female had been leading the children along past the cells but was now halted a third of the way along one wall.
It was obviously some sort of school tour group or the like. Though the draenei were strange in appearance Saire could have seen such a group in Silvermoon City, touring the Court of the Sun, the children bored of their teacher's words and looking for other ways to amuse themselves. In fact here one of the draenei children was even separated from the group, off on the other side of the room hiding behind a panel with a mischievous pose. Before Saire's interruption the draenei woman might have been calling for the child to rejoin the group, a tinge of exasperation in her voice.
Now, however, all were still, staring at her in shock and fear. The draenei female looked as if death itself had come through the door. Then she barked a sharp order to the children, ushering them into a tight knot in the far corner of the room. The little girl who'd been playing hide-away broke cover and dashed towards the others, wailing in terror with tears streaming down her cheeks.
The draenei female caught the child and shoved her behind her back, then faced Saire with a pleading expression, hands bunched in fists over her chest. "Ni'tandranot sethi," she cried, falling to her knees and stretching her arms out as if to ward off any attack on the little ones behind her. She wore a dress with an odd, stiff bodice and a loose skirt of some cloth that flowed like water. When she knelt the cloth puddled around her, and half a dozen of the children scooted forward to hide their heads beneath it. "Sethi l'enfant edithi. Sethi ni'tandranot!"
Tandranot. That was the word Nex had told them meant "surrender" or something like it. Saire let the prepared spells fade from the forefront of her attention, their power dissipating somewhat, and held out her hands reassuringly. "Yes, tandranot," she said as gently as she could. She started to back out of the room; if the female was intelligent as soon as Saire was gone she would find a way to lock the door from the inside, keeping her and these children out of the fighting. Saire would relay orders to her people to do anything they could to protect these little ones.
Her backward progress was halted when she ran into something solid, and she turned to find the doorway blocked by the blood-red armor of a Spell Breaker. Lanthan'ar. "Well well," he breathed, eyes gleaming as he stared at the terrified group of draenei. "We just took the Arcatraz."
Saire stared at him in confusion. "What do you mean? You found the control room?"
His handsome face flickered with annoyance, and he glanced down at her. "Don't be silly. We're still trying to break through the second defensive post." He waved a long, delicate gauntleted hand at the draenei children. "But it looks as if we've found what we need to end the fighting."
For a moment longer she stared at him uncomprehendingly. Hhen her confusion turned to horror. "No."
"Yes." The annoyance was back. "Think of this reasonably. These goatmen will surrender immediately if we use these children as hostages and living shields. We'll be able to march right to the control room unopposed. Lokiv would dance for joy at the thought of us taking the Arcatraz with no more casualties to either side."
For a moment she wondered if the human really would have condoned such an action. It made sense in a cold, logical sort of way. But it didn't matter what Lokiv would have done, because she wouldn't. "No," she said again, more firmly. "We won't stoop to that. That's an order."
The Spell Breaker pushed her aside roughly. "You may be in charge here by the human's orders, but we all know you're nothing more than spellcaster support. I'll do this because it's the best method for taking a place far better defended than we had assumed it would be. Five of us isn't going to manage it otherwise."
Saire caught his arm as he started forward. "And what if the draenei decide they can't trust us and the children are an acceptable loss? Are you going to murder a dozen innocents?"
He shrugged out of her grip. "Don't be soft, woman. It's a gamble, nothing more. If the goats don't take the bait then we'll dump their kids in a room and try something else." But Saire could hear the lie in his words. Negotiation relied on making good on threats; if the draenei defenders didn't surrender Lanthan'ar would kill one of the children and repeat the threat. Then two. He would force them to either betray their positions as defenders of the Arcatraz or watch while he slaughtered a dozen children.
Then, knowing the enemy they faced and with nothing to lose, the draenei would fight to the death. Further negotiations would become impossible.
Lanthan'ar's spell defenses were fully in place, rendering him highly resistant or even immune to her spells. Lokiv could probably have overpowered them as he'd done to Velansar, but that option was not available to her. So instead she drew the dagger at her waist and darted forward, wrapping one hand around Lanthan'ar's chest and pressing the dagger to his throat. "No," she hissed in his ear. "We're not going to do this."
The Spell Breaker froze, breath hissing out of him. She could see the draenei female who'd been cringing backwards in renewed terror was gaping at her in surprise. "Are you mad?" Lanthan'ar demanded. "What will you do, kill me and guarantee this assault fails? Let me go now and I'll pretend you aren't a weak lovesick sop with her moon's blood flowing and let you live."
Saire pressed deeper with the dagger until a bright bead of blood broke free of the blade and slid down his neck to nestle in the hollow of his throat. "If you die the assault fails. But if I die the assault also fails, and you know it. Do you think my apprentices can provide the arcane support you need to storm defensive positions?"
"Then it appears we are at an impasse."
Saire hissed laughter into his ear, and he flinched slightly. "That's where you're wrong. I'm willing to destroy this mission rather than achieve it by the methods you suggest. I'm even willing to die to protect these innocents. But you're a bit more interested in seeing us succeed. The only option you have if you want to take the Arcatraz is to walk out of this room with me. The only option."
For a moment more he remained tense beneath her, then he nodded slightly. "It's been said the only thing more pointless than cursing at the sun is trying to convince a woman motivated by her feelings. Very well, mage, we'll do it your way. Take out the second defensive perimeter and prove to me we don't need hostages to take this facility."
Saire nodded and dropped her hand. "All right, I wi-"
Her words ended in a strangled squeak as he suddenly spun, sweeping the dagger from her hand and pressing the tip of his warglaive just beneath her left breast. He leaned in close to her ear, mimicking her own earlier action. "And you better hope you play your part perfectly, mage. If we fail because of you do not expect to leave Arcatraz alive. I'll thank you for drawing my blood and putting a damn bread knife to my throat."
Saire took a deep breath, flinching slightly from the tip of the warglaive as even that slight motion stung her, then nodded. "We'll take the Arcatraz," she answered calmly. "But no more threats or power plays. We can't afford to be trying to kill each other when there's plenty of draenei out there willing to do it for us."
He nodded curtly, motioning to the door. She didn't have much choice but to lead the way, uncomfortably aware of his weapon at her back.
Hadnar met them outside, not seeming to notice the tension between them. "All clear in our rooms. Yours?"
"A group of children in this room. We're leaving them behind." The recruit nodded, and she led him and Lanthan'ar back down the hall to where Beila and Galan were waiting to either side of the door. More black scorch marks adorned the walls, but her two apprentices were unharmed. "What do we have?" she asked.
Galan shrugged. "I took my sash and waved it across the opening. Judging by the number of blasts that followed I'd say there's at least ten enemies in there."
"Good thinking," Saire said, nodding in approval.
Her apprentice looked sheepish. "Mostly I was just bored, and also I kind of didn't want them to try sneaking up on us so I thought it would distract them."
Saire bit back an angry retort and turned to Lanthan'ar. "You peeked around the door at least once. Any idea what that room looks like?"
He hesitated. "Around twenty feet across, I'd say. I saw two hallways opening up on the far side of the room. Not sure about the sides or along the near wall."
"Hiding places?"
"A control panel in the left corner. Mostly they were just peeking around corners or shielding themselves with the wall on the other side of the door, same as we're doing."
She nodded. "All right. How do you feel about dodging energy blasts?"
He looked at her as if she were insane. "Not good."
"Blocking them, then? With your armor and spell resistance you should survive a few hits."
He lifted his arm enough to reveal a blackened scorch on his bracer where the metal was bubbled and warped. "That's just a graze."
Saire swore. "Well, on the plus side with so many ways to go beyond this defensive post we should be able to pick one and rush along it. There'll be less defenders after that, and the others might have trouble coordinating a proper defense beyond this point."
"Unless there's another hundred more in here," Galan muttered.
She shook her head. "At least one of those draenei knows our numbers. If they had endless bodies to throw at us they would have already attacked us rather than holding defensive positions." She hesitated, thinking, the nodded. "All right, here's what we'll do. Lanthan'ar, you're going to duck into the room and follow the wall to the left, making for the closest door. If you meet any enemies kill them. I'll Blink to the far side of the room at the same time and unleash a prepared flamestrike at the largest knot of defenders. Hopefully that will distract them enough for the rest of you to follow Lanthan'ar to that door. Galan, Beila, have spells prepared to unleash at anyone I didn't hit with the flamestrike. Any questions?"
"Just one," Lanthan'ar said with a bitter twist to his mouth. "Are you trying to trick me into killing myself?"
She resisted the urge to swear again. "Fine. I'll go in first. If you have any interest in taking this place you're welcome to do your own parts in the plan." She put her arcane and fire wards back in place and activated her mana shield, then began casting the flamestrike spell. She stopped just short of powering the spell matrix, using most of her presence of mind to hold the spellform intact as she stepped in front of the door. She had an instant to look at the room beyond and the dozen or so surprised draenei before she Blinked.
Pandemonium erupted as energy bursts whizzed past her, all targeted for the doorway. She had a moment to find the largest knot of defenders before the draenei even knew she was there. That was along the right wall, where a wide opening led into a steeply descending ramp. The draenei were laying flat on that ramp, using its downward curve and the floor to shield most of their bodies. There had to be at least ten there alone. She finished casting the flamestrike, calling the flames down on the hapless draenei, who all shrieked as they began to burn.
Then she twisted toward the nearest doorway, where two draenei were pointing their guns at her people on the far side of the room. The tips of the guns glowed weakly, the glow growing stronger, and she realized with a start that the power of the guns was limited by a cooldown period of several seconds. She began casting arcane missiles at them.
The advantage of arcane missiles was similar to the advantage of an arcane explosion or a blast wave. They could be loosed almost immediately, after only half a second or so to concentrate the energy in a ball and launch it. After that though she was forced to hold her attention on that ball and guide it with her mind, even as she prepared and loosed another ball and guided it as well. Making it extremely accurate but somewhat concentration-intensive.
She used her hand to guide the first ball, making it arc around to hit the first draenei in the chest. The energy surged through him, sending him stumbling backward screaming. She guided the second missile towards his companion, who was turning his attention toward her. Her third missile formed and flew free, and she was just about to snag it when a barrage of energy bursts from guns behind her made her wards flicker and die, her mana shield beginning to drain. She kept concentration long enough to guide her second missile into the draenei's head, then let the third fly three as she turned toward the doorway her people had been making for.
Galan and Beila were hunched just inside it, throwing fireballs at draenei across the room. There was little danger to them since the defenders were all targeting Saire. She focused on their position, turning slightly to get in line, and then Blinked through the doorway and into the hall.
Thirty percent of her mana. Not bad all things considered. She turned, preparing a fireball. "Keep going," she ordered tersely. "I'll follow." As they ran past her she flung the fireball blindly around the corner, towards the position of a draenei she'd seen out of the corner of her eye. Then she pressed her hands to either side of the door, spreading fire into the doorframe. It took far more concentration for this, but soon she had a wall of fire burning in the doorway. With any luck it would last up to twenty seconds before failing.
She turned and fled after her people.
. . . . .
By the time she caught up with them they were in another room, or at least a juncture where three hallways met. Two draenei sprawled on the ground, dead, and Hadnar's glaive was bloody. Two more draenei, unarmed and simply dressed in some sort of coveralls, where crouched in one corner, hands held protectively above them. Lanthan'ar was striding toward them with his warglaive upraised when she arrived.
"Leave them be," she ordered.
He paused. "They're enemies."
"They're civilians. Knock them unconscious if you have to, but we're not killing anyone we don't have to."
His lip curled. "Another order from your tenderhearted human lover?"
She met his eye directly. "Enemies will be on our heels. Should we resume the conversation we were having in that cell back there?"
For a moment he hesitated, then he spat and turned, slamming the first technician across the temple with a gauntleted fist. The blue creature dropped like a stone. The second technician gave a squeal and tried to bolt, but Lanthan'ar tripped him with his warglaive and stepped in, smashing his boot into the back of the creature's head.
With that taken care of Saire looked around quickly. "Damnit," she muttered. None of the halls looked as if they led downward, to where the control room would be. She pointed to the one on the left, away from any defenders who might be circling around from the previous ambush point. "Let's go." Without waiting for a response she broke into a run down that hall. As she ran she prepared a fireball, a good thing because this hall was filled with more doorways like the first, and when she passed the third door on the left it slid open silent as a shadow and a draenei lunged toward her, swinging a massive warhammer at her head. Loosed the fireball, hitting him in the chest from less than three feet away, and he flew backwards with a strangled noise.
From behind she heard the odd humming noise the draenei guns made, and spun in time to see a second draenei, this one robed and bearing a staff, slump to the ground ten feet behind her. The glow of the spell he'd been casting faded from his hands as he died.
The shot had come from Beila, who held one of the draenei guns. At her glance the dark-haired woman flushed slightly. "It's easier to use than you'd think."
Saire looked at the gun with interest. "Fire it again," she said.
Beila nodded and raised the weapon, pressing its trigger. Then she frowned when nothing happened. Saire, however, had noticed immediately that the bore of the gun wasn't glowing, and that no glow was appearing. "The guns glow as they recharge. Are there any other mechanisms other than the trigger?" Her apprentice shook her head. "Well then you'd best throw it aside. Until we figure out how the draenei make them work they're not worth more than one shot." The gun clattered to the ground, Beila looking disappointed, and Saire turned and led them at a run down the hallway.
They reached another juncture, this one unguarded. None of the three other hallways seemed to lead downward. They picked the one straight across, hoping that at the back of the Arcatraz, the most difficult place to get to, they'd find a way to the control room. At the end of that hall, however, they came to a large room with dozens of draenei in it. There was no choice but to backtrack, lucky they hadn't been noticed.
When the made it back to the juncture they were about to pick another way when draenei burst from two of the hallways, the one they'd first come down and one to the left. Saire sent one group scattering with a fireball, but before anyone could attack the second group they darted forward and caught Galan. Her apprentice shrieked as his hands were held. Saire was expecting the draenei to use him as a living shield, but to her surprise his captors simply rushed him away from the fighting while more draenei attacked them.
So, they'd taken him prisoner rather than simply killing him, and kept him safe rather than making him a hostage. Lanthan'ar seemed like an even bigger asshat now.
Asshat or no, Lanthan'ar was quick to respond. He roared and pushed forward, warglaive held horizontal in front of him. Its blades caught two draenei and pushed them back, severely wounding one, and when the Spell Breaker snapped his warglaive back he spun it expertly and drove one of the points into the second draenei. Hadnar lithely dodged another draenei's hammer, his triple-bladed glaive coming in to open the enemy's throat. Beila threw a fireball at another, and though she missed the few remaining draenei ducked back down the hallway, retreating. The other group, scattered by Saire's fireball, were returning. And down the hallway they'd just come from led the room.
She looked grimly at their only remaining option, the fourth hallway. "Let's go."
. . . . .
She'd been afraid the fourth hallway would lead them back to that massive room with all its defenders, since it was right next to that other hallway, but she was relieved to find it made a right angle a little ways along and led off in a different direction.
They encountered more groups of draenei, some merely the hints of them, lights or noises down hallways, others open attacks. After running for several minutes, seemingly chased the whole time, Lanthan'ar finally said what they were all thinking; they were being herded in circles. The draenei were only guarding the hallways leading to sensitive areas, so if they kept on avoiding the draenei they'd never reach the control room.
So at the next juncture Saire listened carefully until she found a hallway where she thought there might be defenders, then she nodded. Lanthan'ar led the way in a rush, with them following behind. Beila had scavenged another charged gun, and Hadnar's glave had even more blood on it.
Just past where the hallway formed a right angle she heard screams as the Spell Breaker ducked around the corner. They arrived in time to see two defenders dead on the ground and a third fleeing. That one went down with a shot to the back from Beila's gun, and the dark-haired woman frowned petulantly as she threw it aside.
Saire started forward, stepping over the dead enemies, but before she'd gone too far she saw a vent up near the ceiling, not five feet ahead, filled with an odd mist. As soon as she saw the mist creeping out of the vent she screamed for her party to stop, fearing they'd sprung a trap which unleashed poison gas. She gathered up her mana and focused a small but powerful flame wave at the gas, blowing it farther down the corridor. "We'll have to double back," she said, turning away.
"I must protest, Mistress Saire, that was a rather hostile greeting."
Saire froze and turned slowly around, to where the cloud of gas was reforming farther down the hall. Inspecting it more closely she could feel its energy, and it glowed with its own life. It wasn't a cloud at all but an unbound ethereal. And to her surprise she recognized the voice.
"Gava'sikh? The hell are you doing here?" she demanded.
The energy continued forming into a more coherent shape. "Ah, Mistress Saire," it said, "a pleasure to meet you again. In spite of the rather, ahem, heated reception."
"What the hell is that?" Beila demanded, staring at the unbound ethereal with wide eyes. Saire noticed that while Hadnar looked equally surprised, Lanthan'ar obviously recognized the ethereal.
"Quiet," Saire ordered tersely, turning back to the ethereal. "I asked what you were doing here, Ambassador Gava'sikh."
The ambassador regarded the three draenei bodies splayed out in the hallway. "My my, you're still flailing about blindly and allowing these draenei to lure you farther and farther from the control room? A fortunate thing Master Velansar commissioned our services in taking the three satellites. Much as I respect Master Nex I'm disappointed he never thought to engage us in this enterprise. A regrettable oversight."
Saire felt a surge of hope, and for the moment she didn't give a damn where the aid was coming from. "You can lead us directly to the control room?"
"But of course. I have some familiarity with the layout of structures of this sort. I can indeed lead you directly, as per your request, or if you prefer by a more circuitous but less well-defended route. You are the client so the choice is yours." Saire stared at it blankly, and it nodded as if that was answer enough. "I am pleased you defer to my wisdom in this matter." It began to drift down the hallway. "Come along, if you will. Be advised there is a pair of draenei gunmen waiting in a room one hundred meters down this corridor. The door to your left."
Saire followed hesitantly, motioning her people to follow behind. Thanks to the ethereal's warning when they passed the aforementioned doorway the two draenei leaping out in ambush were met by Lanthan'ar. One died with the Spell Breaker's glaive through the chest before she could even get through the door, and the other fired a useless burst of energy at Lanthan'ar's armor, almost completely resisted by the Spell Breaker's powerful magical defenses. Seeing that the draenei dropped to his knees and flung his gun away before Lanthan'ar could kill him. Lanthan'ar passed the gun to Beila to replace the one she'd lost in the last fight, knocked the draenei out to ensure he didn't follow, and then they hurried after Gava'sikh.
With the unbound ethereal leading they made much better progress. Not only that but they seemed to leave the draenei defenders far behind, and when they did encounter resistance Gava'sikh was able to warn them of it, including numbers, location, and how they were armed. A few times the ethereal drifted ahead, scouting perhaps. She also noticed portions of its essence breaking away and entering the vents, and sometimes drifting back to rejoin it.
They began finding ramps leading downward, and hallways that also sloped down. After a few more minutes with almost no enemies encountered the ethereal led them into a little vent that covered a duct. They followed it for a hundred feet or so and then Gava'sikh drifted to a stop. "I would advise that you be prepared for this next part."
"How so?"
The ethereal hesitated. "There are, ah, twenty-three enemy draenei in the room to the right as you exit this vent. Most of them are facing the other way, expecting you to come down the hallways. This is the last major defensive position before the control room."
"So we'll have to fight our way through?" Though she tried to keep her tone even Saire couldn't help but feel overwhelming dismay. Twenty-three enemies?
The ethereal sounded amused. "You misunderstand, Mistress Saire. We have gone beyond the defensive position. To the left lies the final hallway leading to the control room. Once we are past a certain point I can activate defenses which will permanently separate us from those twenty-three enemies. The control room itself has other means of egress, so you need not worry about being trapped."
Saire nodded. "So we sneak left down the hall and hope they don't notice us?"
"I'm afraid not. As soon as you leave the vent you will be very visible. I would suggest exiting as quickly as possible and fleeing."
"Would you?" Lanthan'ar replied dubiously.
"Indeed I would."
Saire hesitated. "All right," she whispered. Prepare this permanent separation. Everyone behind me stay close and be ready." She inched up the final ten feet or so of duct to the vent. Gava'sikh streamed through it and drifted away. After testing to make sure the vent would come free, she held up a hand for her people, counting down with her fingers. As soon as she finished she slammed her shoulder into the vent, tumbling out. Behind her she heard voice raised in alarm, and she scrambled to her feet and sprinted down the hallway to her left.
Gava'sikh had chosen a good spot for them to come out, since they only had to go five feet or so before the hallway made a right angle, taking them out of direct line of fire. She skidded around the corner with Lanthan'ar right behind her, and then Hadnar came around the corner. Last of all Beila came squealing, slapping at a smoldering flap of robe beneath her arm. Almost as soon as she passed the corner the lights along the hallway pulsed and she heard a deafening crystalline chime that sounded like an alarm. She looked up to see Gava'sikh's entire cloudy form compressed into a dark black ball around some sort of nub protruding from the ceiling. Then a massive slab of metal began to fall almost directly over her head. She leapt inside, her people following her as the thick door lowered slowly. She ducked down and saw a handful of draenei run around the corner just as it settled into place, blocking them off from the defenders. Permanently, the ethereal had said.
She turned to Gava'sikh. "What was that?"
The ambassador sounded smug. "Being a dimensional vessel, the Arcatraz passes through the Twisting Nether. There are many unpleasant things in the Nether, and so the ship is fitted with safeguards in case of nether breach. In the advent of contamination by nether particles the sensor I activated sets off a failsafe which lowers an impassable wall, confining the contamination to a specific area of the facility. As an amusing aside, the hallway through which we just passed will also be blocked at its end, just where it enters the room. Since you lured a good number of that room's defenders within the hallway they are now permanently trapped."
"Just how permanently?" Saire demanded, thinking of those poor draenei dying inside a tiny hallway.
"The safeguards can only be overruled by the control room or by scouring and resetting the sensor. I've left enough of my essence clogging the sensor to keep it activated indefinitely. It will be a rather difficult and lengthy process to free those draenei, and one which will have to be done after the facility is in our hands."
Saire didn't like it, but she resolved to make freeing those draenei her personal responsibility. Unable to do anything else, she turned down the hallway to their destination. The control room. About twenty feet farther on the hall ended in a big, very sturdy-looking door. She started forward, walking past Gava'sikh and expecting him to follow. When he didn't she slowed to a stop and looked at him quizzically. "Well?" she asked.
Gava'sikh turned to regard her. "I do hope you won't think this seems silly, but I feel a bit underdressed for this next bit."
She stared at him blankly. "Underdressed," she repeated.
"Indeed. It's quite embarrassing, but I should like some sort of clothing. Bandaging if you have it, although a shirt and pants would suffice. And gloves. I'm afraid I must insist on gloves."
Saire turned to find her three companions looking at her. "Why are you staring at me? I'm not stripping down."
Beila sniffed. "You certainly can't expect me to be any more willing to run around this maze in my altogether."
Hadnar looked at the apprentice thoughtfully. "You're not wearing undergarments, then?" Her only answer was a glare, so he shrugged. "Well Lanthan'ar is the most dressed anyway. Let him donate some clothes to the cause."
"You're out of your damn mind," Lanthan'ar protested. "I'm the only one besides the mage who's actually useful here, I'm certainly not giving up any of my armor. And it would take time we don't have for me to take it off to get to my clothes beneath. Hadnar, strip down and give Master Gava'sikh your clothes."
Hadnar looked toward Saire beseechingly. When he saw her expression he sighed. "God damnit." He stripped off his shirt and pants, revealing of all things a pair of undershorts with fancy little embroidered "HY"s all over them. Beila took one look and burst into a silvery peal of laughter. Hadnar glared at her in disgust. "I hate you all, you know that?"
A few moments later Gava'sikh's energy filled the cloth, along with the thin cloth gloves Beila had been wearing. The ethereal inspected himself dubiously, then nodded and turned to Saire. "Excellent. Now that I don't appear a beggar with energy to siphon let's negotiate."
Saire gaped at the ethereal. "What?"
A slender gloved finger pointed at the door ahead. "As you can see, the control room. Sadly the defenders have had fair warning of our approach and have sealed it against us. And as you can quite imagine, this being the Arcatraz the control room's defenses are sufficient to repel the attacks of a demon lord. The odds of your party managing to get inside are, unfortunately, quite slim. I could calculate those odds based on your current mana pool and other factors, but it would be a waste of time. That's how slim they are. Very, very slim."
Lanthan'ar cursed, and Beila gave a wail and sagged against the thick wall. "You're saying we're as trapped as the draenei on the other side of this wall?" Hadnar demanded.
"For the moment yes. Assuming the draenei technicians manning the control room have no desire to allow you inside, which I believe is a safe assumption."
Lanthan'ar snarled and took a step forward. "You son of a bitch. You got us trapped here!"
Gava'sikh raised the delicate disembodied gloves placatingly. "Now now, Master Lanthan'ar, let us not be hasty. I assure you the Consortium can be trusted to provide solutions for its clients, not problems."
"And you have a solution," Saire said flatly. "Which you will make us pay for."
Gava'sikh's placating floating gloves wiggled frantically. "Please, Mistress Saire, do me no discourtesy of harsh judgment. The Consortium is not in the habit of forcing trade agreements with a netherium destabilizer held to our trade partner's core. Let us instead call this fair compensation for services rendered."
"And what is this compensation?"
The ambassador gestured vaguely toward the ceiling. "Somewhere in this facility one of my kind is being held. I ask only that you release him to my custody."
"Friend of yours?" Lanthan'ar asked sarcastically.
"Tatters of K'aresh, no!" Gava'sikh replied, sounding equal parts amused and scandalized. "The ethereal in question is a former Nexus-Prince by the name of Shaffar. At one time he headed an organization known as the Qiv." The ethereal hesitated, then continued resolutely. "I've not entered into a conflict for a time. Doing so has created a certain feeling of...camaraderie towards you all. So I will give you this information without expectation of reciprocation.
"You see, the Qiv are, or I should say were, a singularly unpleasant organization. Thieves, murderers, spies and tricksters. Even by the most pragmatic ethereal's standards they are somewhat unsavory. At various times the entire Ethereum has declared war upon them, and they've been obliged to disappear for a long while until they could find a way to buy their way back into some powerful organization's good graces.
"But now again I should say the Qiv still are, for one single member of their organization remains. That being, of course, Nexus-Prince Shaffar himself. Centuries ago the naaru caught the Qivvi selling information concerning the location and disposition of a draenei colony to the Burning Legion. Needless to say the naaru were not pleased. Their retribution was a large contributing factor to the downfall of the Qiv. Shaffar himself was taken prisoner and set to serve an eternal sentence in this very facility. Where he has, I presume and hope, suffered intense boredom and mental anguish in the last few centuries of his imprisonment."
"Considering your dislike of this Shaffar you seem awfully eager to see him free," Saire observed.
Gava'sikh conveyed amusement. "Mixing personal predispositions with business is rather bad form. Regardless of my sentiments toward Shaffar he has the potential to be a great asset to the Consortium. A very profitable acquisition." The ambassador's tone became brisk. "So what say you, Mistress Saire? I will find a way to obtain you entry into an unassailable control room, and you give me leave to take away this Nexus-Prince Shaffar."
Saire shrugged. "We get our objective and one less prisoner to worry about. Win-win."
"Excellent!" Gava'sikh turned toward the door, rubbing disembodied gloves together in anticipation. "Now, how to enter a room protected by an impermeable shield, saving us all from certain death trapped within this short expanse of corridor. Perhaps this will do it." The ambassador raised a hand and snapped his fingers, making a surprisingly clear and sharp sound in spite of the fact that there was nothing under the gloves to make the snapping noise.
Saire watched, openmouthed, as the door in front of them slid open. Gava'sikh hadn't cast any spell, or used any device she could see. "How the hell did you do that?"
"Forewarned is forearmed," Gava'sikh replied cryptically. "Master Lanthan'ar, there are two technicians within who should probably be dispatched or taken prisoner." The Spell Breaker stared at the door for a moment longer, surprise written across his handsome features, and then he gave a start and rushed through the opening, warglaive leading.
Gava'sikh was stripping off the shirt, pants, and gloves, exuding a palpable air of satisfaction. Saire watched him with growing suspicion. "You had agents in place before the room was sealed," she accused. "You used this as a bargaining chip to get what you wanted."
"But of course. That is how negotiation works, dear corporeal." Gava'sikh brightened and drifted toward the door in his unbound form. "Ah good, Ya'seri, you have my wrappings. I was quite missing them. Amazing how quickly a luxury becomes a necessity." Saire followed Gava'sikh into the room and saw that there were two ethereals waiting inside wearing more tawdry rags, one of which was holding the ambassador's runecloth bandages. On one side of the room a scrap of rag flapped from a vent, perhaps the hiding place of these two ethereals until the time came for them to do their task. On the other side of the room Lanthan'ar was standing threateningly over two female draenei in utilitarian clothing who looked so shocked she recognized the expression even on their alien faces.
Freshly bound in his familiar wrappings, Gava'sikh moved over to one of the odd crystal control panels with its holographic display. "If you have no objection, I will alert the entirety of the Arcatraz that we now have possession of the control room. I expect resistance will swiftly die down after that."
"By all means," Saire replied, feeling somewhat dazed at how swiftly everything had changed. Not that she was complaining.
For long minutes afterward things were silent as Gava'sikh worked, showing incredible familiarity with alien devices and controls Saire wouldn't have known how to begin working with. After a time he turned the front of his head to face her, conveying satisfaction. "Reports coming in from all sectors of the facility. You did an admirable job of thinning the numbers of defenders, in spite of your rather pell-mell dash through the corridors. It appears news has reached them of heavy fighting in Tempest Keep, and communications with the Exodar, Botanica, and Mechanar have gone silent. I am getting declarations of capitulation from quite a few groups." He fell silent, tweaking a few crystals. "Odd. The leader of the facility is not responding. His surrender would end resistance for good. But why on earth would he be silent?" His tone became quieter, almost as if he were musing to himself. "If he were dead a lieutenant would have taken control. Their protocols are quite clear on chain of command. I wonder-"
A crystal on one panel pulsed brightly, and the ambassador brightened. "Ah, here we are. Yes, yes, this is the leader, finally responding. It seems he's-" the ethereal broke off, tone changing. "Oh. Oh dear."
Saire didn't like that tone at all. "What's "oh dear"? What's going on?"
Gava'sikh's fingers flew across one panel, and then his hand shifted to another panel close by and he began working both in tandem. Then he actually drifted off the floor, the bandaging around his toes shifting and reforming to form two more hands which also went to work. "Oh I must say. Those paranoid geniuses. They leave nothing to chance, do they?"
"What!" Saire demanded, stepping forward.
The ethereal didn't slow his efforts as he responded. "It seems the most high-security portion of the facility, the Core, is not accessible from the control room. Understandable, in a way. The Core holds creatures so vile and dangerous accidental release could result in massive suffering and loss of life. There are numerous failsafes surrounding the containment fields on Core cells, and they can only be opened from within the Core itself. Needless to say, there is a full-time guard on the Core, a score of the Arcatraz's most dangerous fighters."
"So a force of resisting draenei have holed up there?" she asked. Gava'sikh nodded, then his head lengthened and formed a fifth hand, working frantically. "Why is this such a problem? They can't take control of the Arcatraz from that location, can they?"
"No of course they cannot. The control room is the final defense against all other containment breaches, allowing the draenei to send the vessel to its destruction with all aboard rather than letting them go free." Gava'sikh sighed. "Unfortunately it seems that this commendable suicidal zeal has fled from our good Arcatraz warden."
"What does that mean?" Lanthan'ar demanded.
"It means, good Spell Breaker, that he is threatening to release the prisoners within the Core."
. . . . .
She was relieved to see that Gava'sikh's demand that the hallways leading up from the control room to the Core be cleared was honored, for they saw no enemies as they made their way up. For some reason the ambassador and his two escorts accompanied her group when they left, leaving the control room sealed so only the ethereals could access it again. It seemed madness to leave it empty after they'd gone to so much effort to take it, but Gava'sikh had insisted his escorts accompany him. He'd been equally adamant about coming himself.
So they made their way up the ramps and upward-sloping corridors of the Arcatraz, Saire feeling very vulnerable in spite of the progress they'd made. At the entrance to the Core they encountered a score of draenei, the "full-time guards" the ethereal had mentioned. To her surprise the draenei all threw aside their weapons. They even had rope with them, or some sort of strong slender cord, and they allowed themselves to be bound. Saire left her people guarding these draenei as she entered the room.
It was massive. If it was at the apex of the Arcatraz it had to fill the entire top floor of it. Hundreds of yards across and almost as tall, and all made of smooth, glowing purple-white crystal.
In spite of the size of the room there were only ten cells within it, each large as a small house. The forcefields covering their open fronts were different as well, far more opaque and shimmering faster than any she had seen before. It took her several moments of staring to realize that it was because there were multiple forcefields layered close together in an intricate weave that made them incredibly stable and secure against attacks, either from within or from without.
It took only a cursory glance of the creatures inside to realize why these cells were so large and sturdy. One held a massive red demon resembling a draenei that was obviously an eredar, and even from this distance and through the forcefields blocking its cell she could feel its malignant power. In another was imprisoned a massive creature that looked like an insect with eight legs supporting a spider-like body with a sturdy trunklike torso rising from the middle of it. Just looking at the thing made disturbing thoughts skitter through her mind like fingers of madness. In another a creature like a serpent of fire appeared to sleep, and she recognized it as one of the greater fire elementals, an elemental lord from the Plane of Fire.
Looking tiny in another of the massive cells she saw an ethereal, bound in humanoid shape with odd shimmering black cloth like nothing she'd ever seen before, though the creature's energy blazed bright enough to shine right through the cloth in many places. Nexus-Prince Shaffar, she presumed.
So this was the core of Arcatraz, where the most dangerous of all the prisoners of the naaru were housed. She suddenly had a profound respect for the draenei who had maintained this place, and fought so desperately to prevent these fiends from escaping. And thinking of those draenei allowed her to tear her eyes from the containment cells and to a bank of controls near the back of the room, directly beneath the largest of the cells where the odd insect-creature was kept. At that bank stood a draenei so burned and battered she hardly recognized him as the leader of the defenders who'd met her at the entrance. He was shaking visibly, swaying so precariously that it looked as if he'd fall over at any moment, and there was a wild madness in his eyes.
One twisted claw of a hand was hovering over a pulsing white sphere, the crystal plate which had covered it shattered into pieces over the control panel. With horrified certainty she knew it was the control which would release all of these monsters, and she was just as certain that in his despair this draenei would set them all free.
This was the reason Lokiv had sent her into the Arcatraz. To prevent this very disaster from occurring, or find a way to contain it in the worst-case scenario that it did.
"Oh my." She whirled to see Ambassador Gava'sikh and its two escorts moving into the room, the spectral afterimages of themselves trailing behind. The ambassador was intent on the draenei, and even without expression or body language she could tell it was alarmed. "This is a very volatile situation. I would not wish to be myself at this moment."
Saire fought the urge to run. Even if she did some of these creatures looked as if they could tear the Arcatraz apart pursuing her. "You can communicate with this draenei?"
"I can. Though in past encounters with the Exiles I've found them to be somewhat stuffy and judgmental." Gava'sikh rubbed its "chin". "To be honest I'm somewhat surprised a draenei would even threaten such a thing. They were instrumental in capturing many of these creatures, and should be horrified at the thought of releasing them."
"Perhaps you should remind him of that." Saire paused. "I'd recommend doing so as diplomatically as you can."
Gava'sikh conveyed a sort of superior amusement. "My dear corporeal, whenever are we not diplomatic?" It took a few careful steps forward, its cultured voice speaking to the draenei in Draenish. The draenei growled something in response, and his mangled hand dropped a fraction closer to the glowing sphere. The ethereal's words quickened, conveying more urgency. The draenei made another reply, his words sounding weary and garbled even though she couldn't understand them. He looked on the point of dropping dead. Gava'sikh answered, then turned to Saire with an air of apology. "He demands you quit the Arcatraz and release all his people. Within the next hour. Any other outcome will result in him freeing these creatures."
Saire stared at the injured draenei with narrowed eyes. She was somewhat doubtful the blue creature could even survive an hour in its current state. "Inform the draenei that we have the control room sealed, and the forcefield protecting the entrance to Arcatraz is intact. If he releases these creatures they will remained contained within this facility, and the control room has defenses enough to keep them from breaking through. As he should well know. We will retain control of the Arcatraz, and the only result of him freeing these dark creatures will be that they will prowl through the entire facility slaughtering all of his people we have already taken prisoner or left unharmed in our wake."
Gava'sikh hesitated. "Are you sure you wish me to convey this threat? If these creatures are freed anyone not in the control room will surely die, including us, and this draenei has nothing to lose."
"My master Prince Kael'thas has the power to subdue these creatures, or if not he then his master Illidan. Arcatraz will fall under our control, the only question is whether any draenei will survive its capture. The answer to that question lies in this draenei's hands. Be sure he is aware we promise healing for him, and protection for all of his people if he surrenders."
Gava'sikh hesitated, staring at her eyelessly for a long while. Then it turned and spoke calmly and quickly to the draenei. The creature's hand spasmed over the release control, dropping towards then jerking away from it half a dozen times in the span of ten seconds. Gava'sikh's flow of words didn't falter in the slightest during this, and Saire couldn't help but be impressed at the ethereal's self-control.
After what seemed an eternity the ethereal fell silent, expectant. Anguish raged across the draenei's face and he began mumbling to himself, hand trembling until he slammed it onto the panel beside the control sphere, where he held it shaking as he hunched in sudden pain. When he answered his voice was just over a whisper, thick with the effort of speaking. Gava'sikh nodded and turned to her. "He has a condition. He will step away from the release control with your promise to free all of his people aboard the Arcatraz."
"You know we can't do that," Saire answered, though she dearly wanted to shout yes.
As if the draenei understood her words he spoke, swift and fierce. Gava'sikh nodded again. "He is willing to swear on his people's honor that if you release them, they will not raise up arms against you save you raise arms against them first. They will not take part in any further fighting between the blood elves and the draenei." At Saire's disbelieving look the ethereal shrugged. "It is a fairly common practice among the draenei, accepted by the orcs in their dealings with them as well. There has been no known incident of draenei breaking this pact." It paused, then continued significantly. "Ever."
Saire thought of the children huddled in that room near the entrance, hiding tiny heads beneath the puddle of their teacher's skirt. Of the defenders fighting through every corridor. Of Galan being dragged away by the draenei, but never used as a hostage against them. "I accept," she said, sincerely hoping she was making the right decision. "Inform the draenei that he has my word. If he and his people surrender and swear to never raise arms against us again, conditional on our nonaggression towards them specifically, we will let them go. Not only that, but we will take up their duties of keeping the prisoners aboard the Arcatraz contained for as long as this facility is under our control."
Gava'sikh relayed her words, and after a pause that seemed like an eternity the draenei slumped to the ground and went still, hand sliding away from that perilous glowing sphere and down the side of the panel until it rested atop his chest. Although the ethereal displayed no body language Saire could have sworn its shoulders sagged slightly. "I believe that is answer enough."
. . . . .
After a long, relieved pause while the draenei leader was carried from the room and intercepted by two robed draenei who immediately got to work healing him, the ethereal bustled forward and hunched over the control panel, very noticeably avoiding the glowing sphere. Its long, delicate runecloth-wrapped fingers danced over the controls. Then it motioned to its escorts and moved over to the cell where Nexus-Prince Shaffar stood just inside the forcefield, practically leaning against it with anxious anticipation.
Saire followed more slowly, watching in bemused curiosity as one of Gava'sikh's escorts produced a tiny glowing cube and set it just outside the forcefield. Gava'sikh moved over to a crystal beside the cell and fiddled with it for a few moments, then spoke. "My dear Nexus-Prince Shaffar. How excited you must be to see us."
Shaffar's answer came not from the ethereal itself but from the crystals Gava'sikh leaned over, and she realized the forcefield blocked sound from passing through it. "Why thank you. Although it shames me to admit you have me at a disadvantage in that I do not recognize you, nor have I heard anything of you."
Gava'sikh sounded amused. "And that is the only way in which I have you at a disadvantage?" it answered. "But in any case I am Ambassador Gava'sikh, leader of the Outland exploration and assessment team, affiliation Consortium."
Shaffar laughed, an oddly rich sound for having no throat. "The Consortium? When did Haramad drag up enough resources to pull that collection of netherchaff out of the lower planes?"
The ambassador conveyed extreme affront, and for once its tone was not perfectly cultured and polite. "You've been away a long time, Nexus-Prince. And it is indeed only courtesy which compels me to use that honorific. The Qiv are extinct, their assets liquidated and their energy repurposed to cover outstanding debts. Those who survived the takeover have mostly become test subjects in the Nexus-Stalker Project. I have no more desire to speak with you than you have to speak with me, and bear no mistake that I would as happily end this conversation presently."
If anything, the former Nexus-Prince only looked more amused. "Then perhaps you should." Gava'sikh made no response, and Shaffar laughed again. "And yet you do not, hmm?"
"You are, of course, of potential value to us," the ambassador admitted reluctantly. "Being the sole survivor of the Qiv liquidation you're the inheritor of all Qivvi personal assets. You are, in effect, a very wealthy man. And seeing as how you are rich, and we are your new captors, I believe a ransom is in order. Unless you find you enjoy continued imprisonment?"
Shaffar turned toward Saire. "Corporeal, perhaps this is the ideal time to bring you into this discussion."
Gava'sikh curtly motioned for Saire to step back. "Abandon that tact, Nexus-Prince. We have already purchased you from the corporeals."
"A pity." The former Nexus-Prince sighed and was silent for a long moment. "Very well. Let us discuss ransom."
What followed was a somewhat incomprehensible exchange of terms Saire had absolutely no familiarity with. It sounded something like "let us agree that the proximate ferbunate of your gargibles shall be mooble arbed in Consortium daggle blats to the second geveral Nether Zone, conditional on fanfurgle divurnates kaliming to the gifeltafish." Although there was much more of it. After a few minutes the two ethereals seemed to come to some agreement and Gava'sikh motioned to one of his escorts, who knelt over the odd glowing cube and probed at it. The cube split apart into four smaller cubes which drifted away from each other, creating a sort of darklight from its center.
"If you will disrobe, Nexus-Prince," Gava'sikh said politely. Shaffar willingly slipped out of his shimmery black wrappings, leaving himself glowing brilliantly in his unbound state. With a gesture toward his escorts Gava'sikh manipulated the crystal cell controls some more, and with a final hum the layers of forcefields winked away. The escorts began glowing, tendrils of energy wisping through their wrappings to drift towards the unbound ethereal, encircling it in ribbons of softly glowing energy. They began guiding the enclosed ethereal towards the four darklit cubes.
Before they could move it too far, however, Shaffar's energy bunched together and drifted down to settle atop its black wrappings. Somehow it produced an ordinary-seeming stone from within the pile of shimmering cloth. Black light pulsed from the stone, sending Saire staggering backwards, and she heard the two escorts give haunting otherworldly cries, the tendrils surrounding Shaffar dissolving like mist, and then the energy within their wrappings exploded outward in all directions. The wrappings fell to the floor, looking almost forlorn, and Saire was certain the two ethereals the wrappings had encased were destroyed.
Gava'sikh staggered backward, drifting off the floor for several feet before landing once more. "How did you smuggle K'areshium into that cell!" the ambassador cried, horrified.
Shaffar laughed again, a low, sinister sound. Its black wrappings rose up off the floor and began looping around the former Nexus-Prince, encasing it in humanoid form once more with a sort of leisurely calm. "Fragments of the Homeworld don't seem to draw much interest from corporeals. To most of them this little rock must have seemed no more exciting than any stone of their own planet. They wouldn't have been able to detect Dimensius's void essence within it."
The ambassador produced some sort of device, holding it uncertainly. "The trick of surprise won't work twice."
Shaffar tucked the stone into its wrappings and stepped from the cell, breathing deeply. "Ah, to cross that line. It seems no different from one side to the other. But you cannot imagine how many centuries I've spent staring at this little patch of floor, imagining setting foot upon it." He turned to where Gava'sikh stood, conveying amusement. "Put that toy away, Ambassador. You set me free, and for that I am not ungrateful. I will not even stoop so far as to entrap you in the Cryo-Containment device you had planned for me." The freed ethereal turned and began walking towards the door. Saire made a move to halt him, and Shaffar turned to face her. "No no, little corporeal. There is no need for you to become involved in this. I will be gone from this prison soon and you need fear nothing from me." Saire hesitated, but in truth she had no desire to challenge the mysterious ethereal. Not in her current state.
As Shaffar continued to the door Gava'sikh called out. "You realize you've broken compact. The entire Ethereum will be after you for this. And the Consortium will not forget nor forgive the debt you've agreed upon. Haramad will have your wrappings for a plaything."
"It would not be the first time I've faced the Ethereum's disapproval," Shaffar said, sounding wholly unconcerned. "Besides, as you yourself said I am wealthy. Beyond that, I've unearthed a delicious tip about a location called Auchindoun that has a supply of arcane collectibles. The trove I've found will cause anyone who hears of it to lose plasmoid control in their excitement. I'll soon have an army of drifters at my beck." It laughed. "Who knows, perhaps I'll even resurrect Qiv and repay old debts. Do give Haramad my best regards when next you see him. Is he still conducting business only by hologram for fear of assassination? Paranoid fool...he'll have a hard time having my wrappings for a plaything hidden away as is his wont." Shaffar waved a hand. "No matter. Until next we have cause to bargain, little Gava'sikh."
The former Nexus-Prince disappeared through the doorway, leaving Gava'sikh standing beside his unused containment device, looking as close to anger as she had ever seen one of the ethereals.