Disclaimer:I do not own Warcraft or its sequels. Blizzard does.

Massive thanks to my beta dharak!

Chapter published 10/24/12

Selriona

The guild hall of the Liberality Confederacy was located, of all places, in the Park. The gathering place of the most powerful fighting force in the world, located in the city's most peaceful location. But, a hint from the Bronze was a hint from the Bronze, and Chronormu had never led me astray before. The building was rather unassuming. It didn't stand out more than any of the other buildings in Stormwind, with windows, a purple roof, and a porch with stairs leading to a door. A sign hung on the outside, with the symbol of the Liberality Confederacy; the lion of the Alliance surrounded by the horseshoe of the Horde, underneath a crossed sword and staff. I walked up to the door unopposed; nobody was in sight at the moment, the tranquil park empty.

I couldn't hear that many people inside. Perhaps only one. But what did I expect? The information of the Bronze, when they aren't trying to purposely mislead you, is very accurate. I tried to open the door, but it failed to obey my command. I sighed. Of course, it would be locked. Breaking the lock wouldn't go over with them well. What to do, what to do. Well, there is that option...

I knocked.

The door opened surprisingly quick, but it opened out, knocking me in the head. "Ow!" I exclaimed, stepping back and rubbing my head.

"Oh," someone said much to cheerfully for my liking. "I am so sorry."

Still rubbing my head, I got a good look at her. The night elf stood taller than my human form, but nearly so much as to make me need to crane my neck. She had hair as green as Ysera's scales, which, in atypical fashion for mortal females, was cut short so that it didn't extend beyond her ears. A black tattoo was imprinted on her forehead, filled with swirls and ripples, shaped like a bird of prey aiming its beak for her nose, its wings spreading to her long, pointed ears. A blindfold the color of the night sky wrapped around her eyes and behind her head, obscuring them from sight, save for the faint fel-green glow where her eyes should've been. She appeared to be in 'civilian' clothes at the moment, a green blouse with black pants, and, of all things to wear, shiny black dress shoes.

"Hello?" she snarled at me, taking me aback with her hostility. "Is there something you need?"

I narrowed my eyes. "First off, what's the matter with you?"

Her anger deflated, and she seemed bored all of a sudden, as if I wasn't worth her notice. "Oh, yeah, you don't know." I bristled. Was she, a mortal, brushing me off!? "I've gone through a lot of stress earlier in life. My emotions don't line up with how I express them. I'm not bored, really. I'm embarrassed," she finished with a yawn. "Trust me."

I raised an eyebrow. "O-o-okay? Anyway, can we talk?"

"Sure," she sighed, stepping out and closing the door behind her. Before she did, though, I caught a glimpse of a horn mounted on a wall. It didn't resemble any horn from a dragon. Maybe a demon? She crossed her arms and looked at me. "So, first off, who are you? And why do you seem so familiar?"

"Hmm." I narrowed my eyes at the night elf. Now that I thought about it, she seemed rather familiar as well, stirring up memories in me. It dawned on me. "Ah, Orande!" There's the memory, as bright and clear as if it happened yesterday. "I remember you now. What was it? Little more than eight decades ago, I think."

She smiled. "How exactly do we know each other?"

"Remember when you went with..." My voice fell. "Amanthe, and Aruen to Outland? To stop a corrupted mage?"

Comprehension seemed to dawn on her, for just a fraction of a second, before it faded to anger. "Oh! Yes, now I remember you. You're the drake's broodmother. Seluriona, was it?"

"Selriona, actually."

Still seething, she nodded. "Right, so, what was it you wanted to talk to me about?"

"A proposition. Amanthe, along with several other priests and paladins, have been abducted." I paused, taking in a deep breath. "By the Burning Legion, to Argus. I've already enlisted the help of three others to come."

She shifted her weight to her right side, frowning. "And you want me to come along on a suicide mission to Argus. What gave you the idea to approach me of all people?"

"Well," I said, wringing my hangs nervously. "To be perfectly honest, a Bronze friend of mine told me that your guild has a hall here, and that there was someone there who could help me. Guessing she meant you."

"The Bronze?" she asked, sounding happy. "What's going to happen that makes the Bronze interested in what's going on?"

"Well, according to Chronormu, they aren't. She was just on a friendly visit."

"And you believed them when they told you that - hold on." She clenched her fists, and I could imagine her glaring behind the blindfold. "Chronormu, Chromie. Nevermind, she would. So, what exactly are you planning?"

"Well, I'm going to bring the five of us to Outland, and then sort of backtrack across all the worlds the draenei have visited until we reach Argus. Then, we'll quickly rush in and out of Argus, rescuing them. I know some of the Legion will attack us, but none of us can be too powerful."

She nodded, but didn't seem pleased. "Good plan, they'll swarm you if you bring, say, an Aspect, or something."

"That, and I'm guessing your power will cancel out the power of the paladin I'm bringing along with us. We'll go, rescue them while fending off the demons, and get the fuck out of there before they can bring their real strength down on us."

She sighed. "Sound plan, but why would I go along with it?"

I hesitated. "Well, there'll be lots of demons to kill."

The ghost of a frown tugged at her lips. "Good enough for me. I'll just grab my weapons and we'll be off."

"Actually, we're leaving tomorrow at noon. Make sure to bring your own rations; I've got no idea how long it'll take for us to reach Argus."

"Hmm, good point. One question, though. Why don't you simply ask the draenei to portal you there?"

"Are you crazy? Not only would that be a very, very sore topic, and the demons have probably changed all the anchor points on that planet, what if they succeed? That kind of power spike would land us knee-deep in demons. I don't plan to portal there. Just sort of swim upstream, which doesn't release as much of a magical signature. Stealthy, or as stealthy as we can be."

"True, true," she admitted. "Well, farewell. I shall be here tomorrow at noon. Come find me then."

"Thank you, Orande. Really, you don't know what this means to me." I clenched my fists. "If... if I let Amanthe just rot there..."

"I know. Goodbye." With that, she abruptly ended off our conversation and returned into the guild hall, slamming the door shut.

The day crawled by at an agonizing pace, yet somehow the departure arrived all too soon. It took no time at all to gather everyone up. Derek had his bow and a quiver full of arrows, as well as a bag that smelled of metal. Anastasia had her two daggers in another bag, judging from the smell, in addition to food and water. I shifted Layalith back into the physical realm, and we went to get Orande. She had changed into leather clothes patterned black and green, two poisoned, serrated warglaives on her back, with handles engraved with pictures of demons and naaru. A few explanations later, we were on our way. I shifted us into the twilight realm and, in the middle of the trade district, shifted to my true form. I laid down on my stomach and extended my wings as makeshift ramps. The humans, who had likely never seen a dragon before, swore. Layalith went first, clambering into a little nook between two of my crest spines, then Orande went behind her, followed by the two human mates.

"Orande," I asked her once everybody was on and relatively settled. "You can speak Orcish, right?"

"Indeed I can, Selriona."

I nodded. "Good, good. I don't want to be the only mediator between these three. Titans know we'll need to play translator." Then, inwardly in Draconic, "Far too many times."

With the strength of the twilight realm powering my wings, we sailed across Elwynn Forest in record time. Duskwood was passed even quicker, the eerie shadows of the trees not diminished in any way by the twilight realm. After just a few hours of flying, we arrived in the Blasted Lands. Over the years, the shadow energies released from the Dark Portal had diminished, and shifting partially into the physical realm, I saw that life was beginning to return to the area. I could see a few patches of green moss barely making a living on the dusty red stones. The various, mutated life forms were finally stabilizing into an actual ecosystem, instead of just an endless cycle of eat-everything-that's-not-me. Helboars gored the softening ground with their tusks for grubs, releasing fire novas to aid them in their efforts. Twin-headed vultures patrolled the skies in packs, circling above the bodies of fallen hyenas, whose heads were separated from their bodies by the strong bite of their kin.

Of course, the Dark Portal itself was still unstable. A storm cloud hung over it, strikes of lightning forcing me to the ground lest I get shot out of the sky. I didn't want to use my magic to shield myself; I'd need every drop of it to reach Amanthe. I shifted out into the physical realm entirely, along with my passengers, and cracked my wings.

"Ready?" I asked in Common. The humans voiced their confirmations, and Orande translated to Layalith, before both gave me the go-ahead. "Hang on," I said, charging at the Dark Portal. The stone-encased form rapidly filled my vision, the two statues on the end as still as ever. The green-ringed starry sky grew larger and larger, dominating my vision, until it was all around me, and then I fell out the other end.

Hellfire Peninsula laid spread out before me, its stones the same pale maroon as that of the Blasted Lands, but without the occasional patch of moss or green slime. Instead, fire billowed up in dozens of pillars, sending acrid smoke high into the Great Dark Beyond. Colossal moons dominated the sky, along with a green, shimmering river. Hundreds of stones hung in the air, some orbiting others, others bobbing up and down in the air. The Stairs of Destiny were humongous, over twice as wide as an Aspect is long, and they led to a road that stretched farther than even my eyes could see.

"Well," I said. "We're here."

Wing beats filled the air, and a deep indigo figure landed infront of me, sending dust rushing away from him in a near-perfect circle. He bowed his head to me, his six tusks retracting into his head.

"Brood-mother," he greeted in Draconic, standing back up. He leaned his head to the side, looking at my passengers.

"Ialion," I greeted. "Anything happen here?"

He shrugged. "A couple of demonic couriers come by now and again, but they never get far." He shook his head, his neck-flap moving back and forth in opposition to his head. "So, who're the mortals? I mean, I recognize Orande, and I think I know that blood elf, but..."

"You met her when you were a whelpling. In Orgrimmar, remember?" I ignored the nervous shuffling and the scent of fear coming from my passengers.

He cocked his head sideways, extending a rear tusk on one side of his head. "Hmm... maybe. It's when I talked you into letting me go with Amanthe, right?"

My face fell when he mentioned her. "Yeah, then. We're just passing through here. To Nagrand."

"Really? So, anything happening in Azeroth? I mean, you can imagine I don't get a lot of news here."

I smiled warmly at my son. "Well, from what I heard up in the Ghostlands, Charoliona's laid her eggs." He smiled at the update on his mate. "And, lets see. We're working with the other four Flights, and I think we may have found the fourth living Old God, in Stranglethorn Vale, but we're not entirely sure yet."

He nodded, grin too large for his fangs. "That's great news! So, what do you need from Nagrand?"

"Listen closely. A few days ago the Burning Legion kidnapped several priests and paladins from Stormwind, Amanthe among them." His slit pupils turned to narrow lines, and a breath forced its way out from behind his fangs. "They were taken to Argus, and we're going to rescue them. Nagrand has Oshu'gun, a draenic ship. I'm going to follow its trail all the way back to Argus."

A look of hard determination set on his face. "Hold on. Brood-mother, I'm coming with you."

I shook my head. "No, Ialion. You're not. If we bring too many people with us, the Legion will sense our magic, our heartbeats, you name it. They'll swarm us. And second..." I took a deep breath. "If anything happens to me, if I don't return, I need you to tell Verthelion what happened."

"But - "

"No buts. Ialion, I'm counting on you to do this. They're using them for the Light and magic amplifier that they stole when you were a drake. They've got to be, why else would they kidnap them and not kill them?"

He drew closer to me and nodded. "Alright, Brood-mother. How long do you think you'll be gone?"

I shrugged my wings, still speaking in Draconic. "Hard to tell. I'd say maybe a month. Maybe longer. But if I don't return in a month, assume I'm dead."

He frowned. "Alright." Sensing my son's discomfort, I reared up on my hind-legs. This caused the mortals on my back to swear and tighten their grips on my scales. Ialion also reared up and I wrapped my forelegs around him, my wings behind his back. "Be safe, mother." We withdrew from the embrace.

I lowered my underbelly to the ground, flaring my wings straight out. "Keep the portal safe, Ialion!" I shouted. Then I jumped, thrust my wings down in a powerful flap, and drew my passengers and I into the twilight realm, all with one fluid motion. I started across the now purple-tinted landscape of Hellfire Peninsula, every blazing geyser releasing massive, shadowy ripples.

"So, dragon," began Derek after an hour of travel, the mire of Zangarmarsh coming into view, green and blue spores filling the air high above the mushroom canopy in the physical realm.

"Selriona," I corrected him.

"Right, Selriona. Who was that dragon back at the portal?"

"My son," I told him. "He watches this end of the Dark Portal, while Asphyxion watches the other end."

"Why didn't we see him?" Asked his mate.

I would have shrugged my wings, but they were busy flying me across Outland. "Beats me. He was probably hunting. He seems to do that a lot, now that I think about it."

There was a brief silence as the two humans contemplated this, and Orande tiredly translated for Layalith, before Derek spoke up again. "Watching it for what?" he asked.

I cursed in Draconic, and craned my head back towards him, catching my passengers out of the corner of my eye. "Well, it's a long, long story. One that I don't feel like saying. You can ask Layalith or Orande if it interests you, they know. But let's just say they're watching out for demons, and keeping them from passing through." The sky turned turquoise as we entered Zangarmarsh. Using what I'd seen of Outland maps, and my internal compass, I angled myself slightly more to the south in order to reach Nagrand. For a while in Zangarmarsh, I could've forgotten we were on Outland. No enormous moons dominated the sky. The green beam of energy was behind me. As I continued to fly, the sun got lower and lower, and stars began to pop out in the sky. A white disk, Outland's one true moon, shone bright. I craned my neck around, looking at the stars. I wondered, which one is the sun for Argus? For Azeroth?

Mushrooms continued to pass below me, but we soon reached a mountain range. Updrafts, strong even in the twilight realm, came up below me and I spread my wings out to catch the winds. They lifted me higher and higher, over the mountains. Once there, I marveled at the scene before me.

The plains of Nagrand stretched before me in all their splendor. Even at night, they were a rich, vibrant green. Wildflowers bloomed in multicolored clumps on the ground, their scents permeating the air. Stones stuck out of the ground in awkward angles, like outposts for someone to stand on. I could just picture myself standing on one, raising my head and roaring to the sky, extending my wings. In the distance, I could see an enormous, pale white crystal sticking out of the ground, as tall as Wyrmrest Temple.

Of course, all of this was with the small portion of my essence in the physical realm. In the twilight realm, Nagrand was much less vibrant.

Just Zangarmarsh had been depressing, nothing more than a vast, empty plain with dark water-ways winding through the damp soil like a demented labyrinth. Nagrand, however, was a different story altogether.

It was nothing but brown and gray. Dirt covered the land in bumpy waves, with plateaus of gray stone replacing it in some places. The rocky protrusions were untouched, but with the dead Nagrand around it, they looked more like tombs. Oshu'gun itself was surrounded by a simply humongous cloud of black mist, void corruption, as large as Stormwind City, maybe even as big as Grim Batol. This was a place that made me feel uncomfortable, even within the twilight realm. Which was why I moved all of us into the physical realm. We were close enough. Time to begin.

I laid down on my stomach and extended my wings. "Alright, time to get off," I said in Common, then Orcish. That's going to get annoying, I thought to myself. Once all the mortals had disembarked I ruffled my wings, then pressed them against my back. "Here goes nothing. If all goes well, we should teleport to the world the draenei were on before Outland. " I focused on my magic, and the magical currents of Outland.

The rest of the world seemed to fade into nothingness as I focused on the mana. Outland was amazingly, even alarmingly, close to the Twisting Nether. Vast currents of magical energy swirled around the entire world, mostly inert, but every now and then one managed to make something odd happen. Like a pebble would suddenly skip itself, a blade of grass would uproot itself. One of my newer scales abruptly shed, falling onto the ground. I frowned. I'd grow a new one within hours, but still.

I searched closer to the enormous, crystalline structure in the distance I knew to be Oshu'gun, and for a moment I found nothing. But very quickly, I saw it. The chaotic winds of the Twisting Nether curved at the top of the fallen Naaru ship, forming a narrow filament reaching higher into the night sky than I could see. I blinked hard, then refocused on it. I drew magic around me, arcane energy lighting up the night and crackling about my fangs. I held onto the magic while aligning it with the tear in the Twisting Nether, drawing upon that realm's own energy to fuel my spell. The arcane spell around me grew brighter and brighter as I found a destination. Then I pointed my head down, and spat the magic at the earth before my claws.

The arcane barrage smashed into the ground and exploded, catching us all in its energy. The entire world went white for a few seconds, the only sound the screaming of... I believe it was the humans.

It ended as quickly as it began. Everything the mass teleport had caught came with us; even the grass from Nagrand formed a perfect circle around us, with a radius as long as I was from horns to tail. I took a moment to catch my breath, and drew energy from my capacitor to replenish my mana pool. It left it dry, but at least I wasn't lacking any magic.

The human mates stopped screaming momentarily, then looked around. "Where are we?" Anastasia pondered dumbly, sweeping her head around.

"Good question," Layalith murmured, the words lost to her but the meaning clear.

'Where are we' indeed. We'd brought a microcosm of Outland with us, but beyond the farthest blade of grass, nothing was recognizable.

The sky, for one thing, was overcast with heavy, sulfurous yellow clouds, which rumbled ominously, as if a massive beast was waiting to spring down on us. For a second, it was hot. I thought I knew hot after living in Grim Batol, close to oceans of lava, but this! It felt good on my cold blood, but it parched me. The only time when a wet heat is preferable to a dry heat!

The ground outside our ring of grass was made of cracked and baked white stones, which looked like they had been beaten with multiple hammers over years. Battered, dented, on top of the cracks. Clearly, all the water in them had been boiled away. The spider-web cracks reached as far as the eye could see, and the land was completely level. No matter where I looked, the same endless stretch met my eyes, overlaid with the toxic gold-colored clouds. A desert. We were in a desert. I voiced this opinion to the mortals.

"By the Light," Layalith whispered. Is this what the Legion does to worlds they conquer? I hope this is just a small portion of the world, and that other parts are more lively."

"I doubt it," Orande grumbled dejectedly as I translated to Derek and Anastasia. "The Burning Legion wishes nothing more than to tear down everything the Titans have ever made. They are very, very thorough. This is the fate that should await Azeroth, should we ever fail to repel the Legion's attacks."

"What's with the clouds, though?" I asked, craning my neck up. I opened my jaws slightly and blew a narrow stream of my dark flames into the air. The fire whistled, but did nothing spectacular. "I've never seen anything like it. Think it'll rain?" I asked. "That'd be welcome. A little rain in a desert like this."

"No, no!" Orande shouted, suddenly furious. "Look, look! These clouds are so thick, and go for so long, they must be permanent. And if they were, it would rain often, and there wouldn't be such cracked stones. Look closely. Don't you see how... worn the stones look? And those clouds... it's going to rain alright. But it won't be water!"

"Then what will it rain? I mean, if it's not water, then..." I asked, eyeing the brewing storm with distaste. Then I snapped my eyes forward, seeing an approaching wall of yellowish rain closing in on us, clearing ground at an alarming rate.

"Acid!" she shouted.

I instantly threw up my power, forming a solid barrier of shadow magic around us. The rain bounced off harmlessly, but the shield wasn't large enough to completely engulf the grass. The grass that was hit by the acidic rain wilted and turned black, crumpling to the ground. The downpour was deafening, and I could hardly see two meters outside the dark barrier.

"Alright, we're getting out of here," I growled in Common. I searched for a tear in the Twisting Nether again. It was a little harder to find this time, but there it was. I reached my magic into it, and teleported us away to another dead world.

This next world was little better. I brought with us the same grass as before, along with some of the wilted, blackened strands, to yet another planet. This one was not overcast at all. In fact, it had a clear blue sky, and it was a sunny day. Too bad it was an endless plain of solid gray stone. Not cracked like the desert world had been, but devoid of life anyhow. There were a few pools of murky water that I drank from, my draconic immune system fighting off anything unhealthy that may have been in the liquid. The mortals all gathered around Anastasia as she took a few flasks of water out from her bag, while Orande drank from her own, which she appeared to produce from a secret pocket in her clothing. Once we were done refreshing ourselves, we gathered around and continued to hop across worlds. But the third jump was even harder than the second. And I had a bad feeling that as we got closer to Argus, going on would be harder and harder...

Amanthe

Alright, I'll admit it. I kept putting it off.

I told my teacher that I would tell him the truth about me the day after we arrived on Argus, but now it's been two days and I've said nothing. I avoided him any chance I got, staying close to Anna. We typically holed up in a restroom, playing casual games like rock-paper-scissors in vain attempts to take our minds off our situation.

"Rock, paper, scissors, shoot," I said, showing off paper. Anna showed rock, and when I reached out to cover it, she playfully pulled away. I ruffled her hair. "I win, Anna!"

"Again!" she stubbornly insisted. I smiled, and held out my fist again.

We bounced our fists three times and showed our decisions. I had rock, and Anna, just as I predicted, went with scissors, expecting me to show paper again. I bounced my fist on her fingers, and she pouted.

"I wanna play something else, Manthy."

I chuckled. However talented she was with the Light, she was still only six. I let her win plenty of times, sure, but I needed something to comfort my own ego at times. However petty it was.

"Sure, what else?" A gurgle filled the air, originating from both of us. "Hmm, maybe we should get something to eat first?" I asked her.

She smiled and nodded a little too vigorously. "Yeah! I'm hungry! How did you know?" she asked, honestly amazed.

"I heard your stomach growling," I told her.

She looked down at the wooden floor sheepishly. "Oh," she whispered. I got up from the bathroom's floor and unlocked the door, ushering out Anna with a hand on her back.

The Legion had, so far, been true to their word. I hadn't seen a demon once since that dreadlord came to explain that they wanted to breed us to be strong in the Light. And as I walked with Anna to the center room, clean, drinkable water flowing in spiral ramps along its edge, others also came inside. A few washed their hands in the moving water, while some cupped their hands and drank from it. I myself also drank, and offered some to Anna, who greedily accepted. I doubt the Legion hadn't put anything in the water, but if they had nothing had happened so far. And water is water. But the real reason we came here for was what happened every day at roughly this time. As much as I loathed the term, I could think of no better words for what the event could be called.

Feeding time.

I looked up at the hole in the ceiling, a dull ray of white light shining down, waiting. The internal clock of us 'mere mortals' was nowhere near as accurate as that of dragons, but I still counted down. "Five, four, three, two, one." Nothing happened. "One, two, three, four, five, six..."

"Manthy, why are you counting?" Anna asked, tugging at my robes. None of us had a clean change of clothes. Yay.

I didn't respond, instead holding up a hand for her to wait, and kept counting. "... eleven, twelve, thirteen..." I reached twenty-eight before a stream of solid objects fell through the hole, landing on the floor with dull bounces and rolling a little distance away. Everyone walked towards them at once. It had only been two days, yet we were so used to this procedure. I personally still waited for the Legion to provide us with something poisoned, but as of yet nothing had happened.

The items that fell were, for lack of a better description, containers. They weren't made of any solid material, instead of flickering shadow energy in a form that could fit in the palm of my hand. They were shaped like cylinders with wide tops and bottoms half as wide, making them awkward to balance. There was a pile of roughly fifty of them, two for each of us. I scooped up four for me and Anna, and guided my relative away. Instead of heading back for the restroom we'd locked ourselves in before, we returned to the room we'd unofficially claimed as ours, the same one we slept in the first 'night' we were here. We got into the bed, sitting with our backs against the wall, as I opened my containers of food by 'peeling' off the top layer of shadow magic, which flickered and vanished when I removed it. I repeated the procedure for Anna's food, and we dug in.

The food we were given was always in a few different forms. For what I supposed was breakfast, one of our containers held gray nuggets the size of my thumb with the taste of pasta, and the other was a dark brown pudding that I supposed was our caffeine, since it woke me up and tasted like a mixture between coffee and chocolate milk. For dinner, we got narrow, dark red strips that were chewy, smelled like bacon, and tasted like cardboard, in addition to a thick orange pudding whose taste was some cross between orange, mango, and banana. And for lunch, like now, we got translucent, chewy amber nuggets, shaped in the form of rounded rectangular prisms that had a strong taste of vanilla and sugar. The other container always had coarse green bearings, as if someone took an emerald and ground it to gravel. That always had the taste of spinach.

The food was, in short, surprisingly good. Much better than what I expected as the prisoner of the Burning Legion, and, as much as I hate to say it, some of it's even better than the food back home. I don't know what it's made of, but I don't really want to know. While the food is in small quantities, it fills me up, leading me to believe it's some synthesized good the Legion makes and adds flavor to. Whatever. It's food, and if it'll keep me alive longer, then fine. I'd long ago given up on escape, but I wasn't about to just lay down and die.

Since our lunch contained what amounted to vegetables, Anna grimaced as she ate the green gravel. But since it also contained the chewy, sweet food, she downed it in moments, chewing loudly despite me telling her to eat with her mouth closed. I was content to sit their quietly, sampling my food slowly over a length of time I estimated to be thirty minutes. At this point Anna was halfway through her 'vegetables' and all traces of the other shadow container, and the sweets it held, had vanished. I sat there, watching Anna pick through her food, encouraging her to eat and keep her strength up, when the door opened. I cursed in Draconic. I'd forgotten to lock it.

Jason walked in, his arms crossed. "Amanthe, as your mentor and your friend, I am telling you right now. Explain your past to me." He tapped his foot, and his face was set in an expression that clearly said Not Amused. "Start here. Who's on the other side of your mental link?"

I gulped. This was it. Anna had stopped eating her food, looking at the exchange between the adults with wide red eyes. Steeling myself for the worse, I opened my mouth. "Her name's Selriona. We go way back. When I say way back, I mean way back. She's very talented in magic and gave me a spell to freeze my aging temporarily." My eyes widened. If our magic was suppressed, then did that mean I couldn't refresh the spell when it wore off after a year? Oh by the Light, I was going to get old!

He narrowed his eyes. "And just how old are you?"

I counted on my fingers. "Um, I look thirty, but I'm actually one-hundred sixty-six. Give or take."

He choked on his next breath, coughing and sputtering. He leaned against the wall with one hand, the other around his stomach. I stood from the bed, but made no move towards him. He was fine. Finally, he looked up at me, his one blue and one brown eye wide. "A hundred and sixty six? Light, Amanthe! You're older than I am. Over four times older! And what kind of a name is Selriona?"

This was it. The kicker. As much as mortal knowledge of the Dragonflights had increased, they still provoked a sense of awe and, more often than not, fear of a race so incredibly powerful. "Alright, ever heard of the Cataclysm?"

He nodded. "Yeah, happened a few years after the Fall of the Lich King. Guessing you were alive for both. The Black Aspect Neltharion made his final attempt to destroy Azeroth then, but failed."

"Yes, and one of the tools he used to try and destroy Azeroth was a new Dragonflight. By taking dragon eggs and corrupting their bodies, then brainwashing their minds, he created the Twilight Dragonflight." The inklings of an idea formed in his eyes.

"Proceed," he said.

"The Twilight Dragonflight's view of the world was twisted into thinking the good were bad and the bad were good - "

"Just like Samantha!" Anna piped up.

I looked over to her, smiling. "Yes, just like Samantha." I looked back to Jason. "I babysat her back home. That was one of the bedtime stories I told her. So anyway, the Twilights thought Neltharion was good, and us mortals were evil and corrupt. All except one, Selriona."

"So she's a dragon? Oh wow. That's... something else. You could talk to a dragon with your mind. Oh my."

"Yeah, her. So anyway, she nearly died in the Cataclysm while she was a drake, but she managed to piece things together and pull through, realizing she and her entire Flight had been, well, duped. She came to Stormwind, where we first met. Eventually, being around her got us both exiled and nearly killed, after which she felt she owed me for making me an enemy of the Alliance. She brought me to where I wanted to go, the Argent Crusade. I spent some time there, but that's not important. Selriona went to go find her mate, well, her destined mate at that time, who was in Hyjal. She never tells me what happened there exactly, or how she saved him, but both she and Verthelion got away from the fight, and she persuaded Verthelion that Neltharion was, in fact, evil, and we were not."

I paused to take a breath. "Eventually, they got back to the Eastern Kingdoms and went to their old home, where they stayed a few months. They had their aging accelerated, see, so they instead of being drakes for a century, it was two years. Once that time ran out, they went and found old friends of theirs and were aged into full-grown dragons. They brought those two into their little fold, as well. See by that point, the war was turning in our favor, and the Twilight Flight knew that. However much they, as a whole, wanted to beat us, the fact that they were down to fifteen hundred prompted them to scatter and hide. Verthelion's group got a few dragonspawn over into their group as well, and headed to Wyrmrest to speak with the Dragonqueen. A few things stood in their way, but eventually they reached her, and talked her into a temporary alliance; their group helps them defeat Neltharion, in exchange for their Flight not being hunted down."

"I'm guessing they succeeded in killing Neltharion," Jason mused. "We wouldn't be standing here otherwise."

I nodded. "That's correct. They, the four non-corrupt Aspects, and the Kingslayers went and killed Neltharion after a battle that she describes as having 'made her want to die'." I reached over and patted Anna's hair as she kept eating, listening intently to my story. "They had only four Flights after, so they appointed the Twilight Flight as the new one, and promoted Verthelion to be the Aspect. They made their home in Grim Batol and have been keeping tabs on corruption on the world ever since."

"Mm-hmm," he said. "And what about you?" The reserved tone in his voice led me to believe he already knew, but I told him anyway.

"I missed her, to be honest. She was my friend in Stormwind, so I left the Argent Dawn after a year and found her. I am, well, I was, her Dragonsworn."

"And you were in Stormwind because...?"

"Well one, nostalgia. Two, I was keeping an eye on it in case something flared up, like Faceless, or voidwalkers, or demons. And three... I had a twin brother. Key word had. He was a mage, made a big name for himself in Dalaran as the so-called 'Ice King'. Then he died, but he'd had a family." I sat back down on the bed and hugged Anna to my side. "Anna's his great-great-great granddaughter. I went to Stormwind to stay with my family."

Anna gasped, and looked up at me. "You're my aunt?" she asked.

"Well, great-great-great grand-aunt, but yes," I told her. I looked back to Jason. "Well, there you go. That's everything there is to know about me. I can use twilight fire, and shift into the twilight realm. Or I could, if the blasted Legion wasn't keeping our magic down. Not like it would make any difference."

Jason staggered, then sat on the bed. "This is, quite a bit to take in. I'll definitely have to sleep on this. But one more thing. How did Anna kill that succubus?"

I gulped. "Um, well, uh..."

"I like using the Light," she responded proudly. "It's fun."

Well, not like she had any childhood left to preserve. "Yes, Anna's a prodigy with the Holy Light. I've seen her mold it into actual physical objects, like miniature ponies, or pouncing cats."

"And you didn't bring her to the Cathedral," Jason stated. Not asked. Stated. In a voice that once again gave the impression that he was Not Amused.

"I didn't want her to grow up so fast!" I protested. "She's six, Titans damn it!" I looked at the toddler, once again picking through her spinach-flavored green gravel. "She deserves to grow up with her parents, with no worry, not being taught to be a great big hero!" She stopped eating and flushed, closing her eyes and covering her face with her hands in embarrassment. "She'd have enough time for that later." My heart grew heavy. "Not like it makes any difference now. Everything's been taken away from us."

He nodded. "You should've turned her over to us. We could've taught her to use her gift. To fight off the demons. You've doomed us all!"

"I know that now!" I shouted. "But how was I to expect something like this to happen? You can train her if you want, for all the good it will do! You'll just play into the Legion's hands, making her stronger in the Light. That's what they want, isn't it?" I spat.

He shook his head, glaring at me with harsh, accusing, two-colored eyes. "It doesn't change that fact. You've... really messed up. Who said wisdom comes with age?"

I moved over to the door. "I need to go. You can tell whoever you want about me. It doesn't make a difference now." I left, heading to the restroom. I didn't need to use it, but I needed to clear my thoughts. Just like that, my greatest secrets, which I was oath-bound to keep, were out for all to know. I felt awful. Even though they'd never know it, I betrayed the Twilight Dragonflight. And he was right. I knew the Burning Legion was up to something. Properly training Anna in the use of the Holy Light could've stopped any of this from ever happening, but I didn't have her be taught because she was my family. I doomed us all.

I could hear mocking words in my mind, and they were so fitting. It was your fault.

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