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

Huge, huge thanks to my wonderful beta dharak!

Chapter published 11/21/12. Happy Thanksgiving everybody. That is, if you celebrate!


Layalith

A great crash resounded around us, thunder rolling through the white haze of our teleportation orb. I was held suspended, incredible forces swirling around me and immobilizing me like a cocoon, a prison. The light flared, accompanied with deafening cracks. Crack... crack... cra-kaBOOM!

A massive shockwave slammed into me, and the blinding glare vanished in a moment. My stomach rose into my throat and air rushed along my head for a moment before I hit something, my legs buckling from the impact. I opened my eyes and looked around. The air was bitter, making me cough. We'd appeared on the new world in mid air. A thud signaled Selriona's limp body hitting the ground... again.

We were in a cavern, made of dark red stones nearly black in their coloration. The cave was dark, but the stones gave off a faint muddy light which kept the environment from being pitch black. The hole in the ground looked barely tall enough for Selriona to stand up in, but plenty wide for her to pass out in, as she was now. We appeared to be in its edge, since the cavern ended just a few meters beyond the wall of the dragon's body, and the path out quickly twisted out of sight, leaving anything beyond invisible. Stalactites dripped water onto the ground, being intercepted and absorbed by stalagmites in several places, as long as splashing on the water skins that fell randomly with us. One pillar of the two spikes had reached together and formed a solid column of the pale rocks, and on the other side of the cave was something that might have once been like that, but it had broken at its middle and fallen down, like a tree felled by lightning. Selriona's head laid by this one, her horns having scraped a long white gash on its still upright half, her underbelly towards me, wings limp.

To my left sat Orande, who landed on her feet and was now busy brushing herself off. To my left, towards the curvature of the cave, was the human pair. They stumbled to get to their feet, helping each other up. I bit down on my tongue seeing the husband and wife, a twinge of bitterness rising in me, reminding me what I had lost to their faction.

Before I could grow angrier, the night elf took charge of the situation. "We need to protect Selriona while she recovers," she said in an annoyed tone. She swapped to Common and after talking a bit more, the humans nodded. She turned her obscured eyes on me. "Layalith, I'll guard Selriona. You, Derek, and Anastasia go to the mouth of the cave, if there is one. Assess the situation, and all that. Come back when you're done. And try not to kill each other."

I frowned. "Right." I turned to the two humans and stalked forward. I pointed towards the direction the cave went, words not needed. They eyed me carefully, but followed after me. The cave was quite long, winding upwards towards some unknown destination. As we approached, the gentle wind that blew through the cave's lower areas steadily strengthened. The sharp rocky protrusions from the ceiling and floor diminished in their size, turning from the leading points of javelins to enormous dragon fangs, then to bumps on the ground, then vanishing altogether.

Less than a minute later, we spotted the entrance, or exit, as it were.

We'd seen many strange worlds on this suicide mission. Acidic rains, mountains taller than any on Azeroth but completely devoid of snow, a garnet sun that took up the entire sky. Even that shattered world occupied by nether-eels.

We'd never seen anything like this.

The sky was dark, obscured with blood red clouds. In between them were cracks of white where the clouds thinned, giving the sky the appearance of blood streaked with pus. A harsh, dry gale wind swept through the acrid atmosphere, which stung my lungs and made my eyes water. The ground was equally colored as the inside of the cave, like the entire world had turned into a volcanic wasteland. Irregular spires of stone stuck out at random intervals, some reaching no higher than my knee, and some mountains taller than the World Tree. Some looked like flowers yet to bloom, others like skeletal hands reaching out of the earth, and some others like very oddly colored diamond clusters. A few of them vanished into the cloud cover high above. Several had gaping maws in them, caverns waiting to devour their next meal.

What really stood out were the streaks of fire criss-crossing the landscape, little blazes rushing along the mountains, smoke rising up behind them, lightning up the dimly lit world like a million fireflies. Most were too far away for me to make out anything, but some of the closer ones I could see were not actual fires, but what appeared to be combustible horses.

"Let's move back," I said, wiping early beads of sweat off my brow and nearly cutting my forehead with my armor. "Don't want to draw their attention." Both the humans looked at me confused, and I just rested my face in my palm. I regretted that quickly, since my palm was encased in armor. I didn't wear it all the time, of course, and if we found a reasonably safe spot I'd take it off in a heartbeat since it was sweaty and hot and it didn't breathe at all.

I pointed to them and to me, then back into the cave. Their mouths opened in recognition, and we slunk back into the cave, out of sight from any burning equines. The trek back into the bowels of our mountain went in silence, and soon we reached Orande and Selriona again. For the past few jumps, the Twilight dragon always passed out at the end of the trip. After we escaped the shattered planet infested with the nether beasts, Selriona had passed out for a few hours. That had been weeks ago, and while it wasn't rare for us to find water to replenish our stores with, we were running out of food. We'd planned for one month; clearly that wasn't going to be enough. Even if we reached Argus tomorrow, we'd still need to actually rescue them, and then there's the return trip. And the increasing strain meant only one thing; we were getting closer. The last jump had her passed out for an entire day. What would this one bring?

The rise and fall of her flanks was slow and deep, and I could see Orande feeding a faint stream of ocean blue mana into her neck. The capacitor around her neck was drained dry, the rich arcane colors faded to a steely gray.

"How is she?" I asked, tilting my head curiously.

Orande turned around, glaring at me as best she could with concealed eyes. "How does it look? Unconscious, mana deprived, dehydrated. I think there might be some internal trauma too, can you help?" I was about to rebuke her at the rude tone she asked me in when I remembered her condition.

I nodded. "Sure." I jogged over and knelt by her side, Selriona's enormous head right before us. Now that I looked closer, I noticed several things I didn't before. Her six tusks appeared to have extended during the teleportation, creating three razor-sharp scythes along her jawline. Her eyes twitched beneath their lids, and her purple scales appeared slightly drained in their coloration, one or two even flaking off to reveal vulnerable, tan/dark blue flesh beneath. I called up my magic, manipulating the Light into the few basic healing spells I knew. I cast several of them, and glancing down her body I saw her stomach rise a bit, where I probably mended a rib or two. Meanwhile, Orande and the humans had been exchanging words, no doubt about the condition of the world outside.

I sat back. "I can't do much more, healing isn't exactly my expertise. If you want, you can drain my mana and give it to her. Light knows she needs it more." Orande didn't seem to hear me, instead talking excitedly, or happily as the case may be, with the humans. "Orande?"

She snapped her head over to me. "Oh, right," she said gloomily. She stuck out a hand at me and I gasped, feeling my mana pool drain at an alarming rate, azure energy flowing out of my stomach and hovering around the night elf's hand. She moved the arm over and pressed it under the dragon's head, where it flowed into her. It didn't seem to do much at all. Orande turned he gaze at me. "According to their description, we're on a world covered in black rock and horses on fire, right?" I nodded. She smiled. "Well, that's just fucking perfect. We're on Xoroth, the world of the dreadsteeds." She frowned. "Why did the draenei pass through Xoroth of all places? Wierd, but I won't complain. Those horses can be useful to us."

A raised a brow. "You want to ride dreadsteeds?" I asked, more than a little wary of riding on warlock horses.

She shook her head. "No no, don't be silly. I want to eat them."

My eyes bugged out of my head, running her words by my mind again. It didn't make any more sense the second time around. "You want us to eat... demonic... horses?"

"We're out of food, Layalith. We don't know when we might get another opportunity like this. You can bless the meat so that its demonic taint won't hurt us." A rude 'ahem' from Derek drew our attention. The demon hunter looked back to me. "One moment," she said sweetly, before turning to the humans. They exchanged a few words, after which the couple looked disgusted, then pressed their mouths into thin lines and gave her shallow nods. She turned back to me. "Alright. Let's stay here a little while longer while I explain what the plan is."

She repeated the words to the members of the Alliance, and the four of us sat in a circle. "Alright Layalith. Now, Xoroth is a prime world of the Burning Legion. Imps, felguards, satyrs, you name it. I don't know too much about the dreadlords here, but I do know that there is a ruling council of them. Whatever you do, if you see one of them, run. I don't know how you'll be able to distinguish them. Taller than others, maybe?" She shook her head before translating angrily, then back to me. "Now, from what you described we seem to have gotten lucky, and we're on a plain where, more or less, dreadsteeds run wild and untamed. It shouldn't be too hard to kill a few without drawing the ire of the locals. I need to stay here and guard Selriona, make sure nobody stumbles on us. You three will need to go on your own."

"What?" I hissed, before she held up her hand for me to stop and translated to the others, then motioned for me to continue. "That's a terrible idea! Not only is there a really, really big language barrier between the three of us, but they are the Alliance, and I am the Horde. We'll end up killing each other!"

Orande reached to tug on her hair, which looked disturbingly psychotic with the smile plastered on her lips. "For the love of Elune, what is wrong with you? We desperately need food, not only to reach Argus, but to return, and I doubt we can rescue captives from the Burning Legion's homeworld on an empty stomach." I bit my lip. "Furthermore, we have no idea why the Legion's doing this. But mark my words, it's purpose is to end our world." Images flashed through my mind of what Azeroth would be reduced to. The great oceans little more than basalt plains, Mount Hyjal ground to sand, Silvermoon city's gates shattered and tosses aside like children's toys, the statues of my heroes gathering soot as ash fell like snow on deserted streets...

"But - "

"No buts," she interrupted. "Are you going to let our world end because you could not put your petty conflict aside? I don't know if you've been paying attention over the past few decades, blood elf, but the Horde and the Alliance? Nobody takes you seriously. Sure, we acknowledge your military powers, but beyond that you are hollow. You are the laughing stocks of factions, two little children who squabble over precious toys while the rest of us struggle against that which would see us all dead. So you will put your differences behind you, or so help me Elune I will learn mind control and force you to." She stopped her rant and gazed at me with her eye sockets glowing bright green behind the black cloth. Then she turned to the humans, who were also wide eyed, gathering everything from, no doubt, my facial expressions.

She spoke a few words in Common, then turned to me. "Have I made myself clear?"

"Yes," I hissed. The humans also nodded, their lips moving to form an unfamiliar word. Even after all this time, I still hadn't picked up a word of Common. Yay. "You'll protect Selriona while we go out and hunt dreadsteeds." I looked at the humans, who distrustfully returned the look, and motioned to the exit. With less than cordial glances, we departed once again.

Before too long we were once again outside in the hellish landscape of Xoroth.

"Alright, how to ask," I pondered to myself, drawing the attention of the humans. An idea struck me. I held out a palm and with my other hand trotted four fingers along it. The woman nodded, pointing to the horses and neighing. "Good." I kept trotting my hand-horse, then made it abruptly lie down to the side. I put away my hands and shrugged, hoping that would successfully get my point across.

The human man's face lit up, and he opened his mouth with an 'Aha!' that was recognizable across all tongues. He knelt to the ground, carefully shifting to avoid sitting on a jagged spike of stone, and slung his pack off his shoulders. He zipped it open and rummaged through it for a moment before pulling something out carefully. It was a metal contraption, with jagged lines painted on a rounded side. He grabbed it and pulled, opening it up. I realized the jagged lines weren't painted, they were metal teeth, where the trap would snap together when triggered. A pale blue crystal spun around in its center, steaming in the heat. He closed the trap and placed it on the ground, inactive, before forming his own hand-horse. He walked it through the air towards the trap, and then touched it lightly with one finger, and his hand-horse fell over dead.

"I see," I said, before realizing they couldn't understand. Anastasia and I lure a dreadsteed to Derek's frost trap, which the fiery horse would NOT take to well. Quite brilliant, except for one tiny little detail.

I formed a horse and trotted it to the frost trap, then 'rewound' time, moving my horse away, then I made it go on, away from the trap. They both nodded, and pondered this.

Anastasia held out her hand, palm up, shook it a bit, and looked at me expectantly. Confused, I held out my own hand in the same way, and made the same movement. The motion inundated me with muscle memory, and I did it again, the Light briefly flaring to life in my hands. I understood. I pointed to her and I, then out towards the endless plain of dreadsteeds, then at Derek, then at the ground. He nodded and placed the trap on the ground, opening it carefully, the ice crystal springing to life. I called on the Light, blessing each of us with increased strength.

Anastasia nodded and spoke a few words to him. They chattered for a bit, and then she turned to me, taking her daggers out from where they hung at her waist, and pointed towards the top of the mountain we were on. She began to hike, and I went after her, quickly overtaking the human. Like hells she was going to lead me!

Of course, the moment I did she sped up, trying to overtake me. I growled, and sped up again, scanning the area for any dreadsteeds at the same time.

So far, no real conflict had erupted between me and the humans, thank the Light. Our language barrier prevented us from going beyond hostile glares and angry tones of voice, and even then we were kept relatively docile by either the psychotic demon hunter with us, or by the giant freaking dragon. But now there was nobody here to keep us reeled in and, despite the mission at hand, I found myself arguing with the human as best I could given the language barrier, over who was to draw the attention of the sleeping dreadsteed on the relatively level plateau of crimson stone.

I motioned to her, and made a running motion. I was weighed down by my armor, not to mention she was the one with rogue training! She kept motioning to my armor, no doubt insisting I'd have a better chance of survival, then making an amateur casting motion to show that the Light would help me.

I shook my head at her latest attempt to convince me, crossing my arms and glaring down at the shorter human. "For the last time, I am not the one drawing its attention! I can keep you safe long enough to get back to your husband - "

She cut me off with her own string of Common, which made my anger flare. No member of the Alliance cuts me off. I raised my voice, and so did she. Before too long we were in a full blown shouting contest, neither of us needing to know the words to know that the other was saying some less than kind things.

A single huff filled the air, combined with the crackle of fire. We both froze at the same time, looking up at the dreadsteed that had woken up and turned its incendiary gaze on us. Oops.

"Run!" I shouted at the same time she yelled. We both sprinted back down the mountain as fast as we could, but obviously, the demonic horse was faster.

I felt something hot slam into my back, sending me down onto the ground. I called on the Light for strength as what felt like a branding iron pressed into my armor. I pushed myself up as hard as I could and the dreadsteed whinnied, its weight vanishing from me as I scrambled to my feet. I spun around and raised a hand to the sky, calling upon the Light. A blazing iron hammer materialized above the horse and slammed onto its head, stunning it.

"Go, go, go!" I shouted as we sprinted down. Anastasia took the lead, and for once I wasn't about to complain. I was a lot better equipped to handle a direct attack from that thing than her, and from the sound of things my Hammer of Justice had worn off and it was coming back. A sense of justice filled me, overcharging my mind with thoughts of righteous imprisonment and holy wars against the undead. I spun around and let the light of my eyes flare, peering into the dreadsteed's dark soul and judging it.

The burning horse shook its head and slowed down, shackles of holy light shimmering in and out of existence around its hooves, weighing it down. I turned my attention back to running forward. There, there was Derek and the ice trap! Almost there, just a little further!

I leaped over the entrance to the cave and landed clumsily on the ground opposite the ice trap, almost triggering it. We backed up, putting some distance between us and the dreadsteed as my judgement faded and it came at us full speed. It circled around the cavern and charged at us, its head lowered like a battering ram, and stepped in the ice trap.

The crystal shattered into pieces with a crack that went on for several seconds. The magic within exploded out and up, wrapping the dreadsteed in thick coils of blue mist. It whinnied in pain and reared up on its hind legs moments before the mist hardened to ice, entombing it in a deep blue crystal.

Now that it wasn't bearing down on me, I could inspect it more closely.

On even footing it would be as tall as I was. Its hooves were backwards and blazed brilliant white. The bottom of its legs didn't seem to have any flesh on it, instead bone that glowed white with heat right above the hoof. As the bones rose to their respective knees they faded to a burning red, before being swallowed by the sinewy maroon flesh. Most of the dreadsteed was dark red, with a few exceptions, such as the red goatee under its chin, above which fire crackled inside both nostrils. It didn't appear to have eyes at all, just empty sockets overflowing with miniature explosions, the superheated smoke rising out and up. A crown of horns formed half a circle around the top of its head, and in between its eyes was another spike pointed straight out, making any charges it performed lethal. Two enormous spikes stuck from the sides of its forelegs, joined by what appeared to be a red leather chestpiece but on closer inspection was actually just a part of the horse patterned to look as such. Even the red saddle on its back was part of its flesh. Its frayed tail had a glowing red core, and even through the ice prison, the flames on its hooves, eyes, nostrils, and down its neck blazed with the light of a forest fire.

The flames cracked the ice.

The other two noticed this as well. Derek already had his bow out and notched an arrow, Anastasia settled into a stance, and I readied my sword. He said something, likely along the lines of 'That's not good!'.

Cracks emerged from the inside of the ice, rippling outward with a series of sickening crunches. Mist stopped flowing off the ice, and the moment the first of the cracks merged with another, the entire thing exploded. I raised an arm to shield my eyes from the shower of ice. I would have brought my helmet with me, but a certain dragon couldn't wait for the blacksmith back in Silvermoon to repair it.

When I lowered my hand, the dreadsteed was shaking its head, steaming ice crystals falling away from it. Its flames seemed dimmed, the fiery white of its hooves dimming to yellow. I called on the Light, sealing myself with holy fury. I charged forward while it was recovering and let my sword swing through the air, the light cutting through its flesh and leaving a deep wound, the power of the Light within me forcing its attention on me. It swung its spiked head at me, and I was too slow to dodge. My armor absorbed the stabs, but the force still knocked me aside. An arrow pierced its flank, making it whinny.

It wheeled around, fixing eyes on Derek, and scraped a front hoof along the ground. It charged forward with its head lowered, the spike on its forehead ready to gore him. At about that time I landed, pulling myself to the ground. I missed what happened as I did, but when I looked again I saw Derek safely to the side, with Anastasia on the demon horse's back, daggers plunging into its saddle-shaped flesh.

Even weakened from the ice, the fiery mount was strong, and shook her off after a few stabs. Now that she was off and not in his line of fire, Derek shot it again. It screeched in pain, a noise I was not at all expecting from the dreadsteed. The fire on its neck and hooves flared, engulfing it, and faded. My jaw dropped when I saw what happened. It wounds were healed, as if nothing had happened at all. I charged at it again, slashing at it several times, but each the three of us got anywhere more fires rose up and sealed its injuries. The horse reared up on its hind legs, ready to brings its hooves down on me. A sudden gust of wind knocked me out of the way as it slammed into the place where I'd been a moment before.

I shook my head. This wasn't working. We needed to put this thing down with one fell swoop. And I knew just how to do that.

"We need help with this," I muttered. I placed my sword on my back, where tiny nicks along both it and my armor held it in place through friction. I placed my hands together and called on the Light. Holy energy swirled around my hands, and my hair fluttered in a suddenly generated breeze. Lines of Holy Light formed a ring around my feet, flowing and swirling around me as I finished the summoning spell.

A solid wall of metal forced me straight up, suspending me in mid-air as something large materialized underneath me. A red miasma surrounded my charger, and I smiled, pulling out my sword. I pointed it at the dreadsteed which was swinging its hooves at Anastasia. She managed to dodge them, but it was clear that the shear heat which, judging by the increasing glow of the hooves, was returning to its full strength, was keeping her utterly on the defensive. Not for long.

My charger dashed at the dreadsteed, lowering its head to stab it with the horns on its head. The dreadsteed had more spikes, but my holy horse had larger ones. And armor. And me riding it.

My steed stabbed it in the flank, and my sword came down onto its burning neck. The demonic horse jerked away, shaking its head weakly. Flames began to crawl over its form...

No you don't. I called upon the Light again, and something formed itself in my left hand. I gripped the hammer and tossed it at the horse, where it collided with a deafening crash and an explosion of Holy Light. At once it fell over limply, the fires going out. Whatever parts of it that glowed slowly cooled until they were a chalky white, like burned coal, with black cracks criss-crossing them.

I patted the plated neck of my horse. "Thank you," I said, before dismounting it. The charger faded into a cloud of red mist, which faded into the wind the moment my feet touched the ground. "Easy," I said. All three of us approached the fallen dreadsteed and, without any further words or gestures, each took one part to lift. I took the head, Derek took the body, and Anastasia the hind legs. We hefted it up, knees buckling under its weight, and headed back towards the cave. Before too long we returned to Orande and Selriona, dropping the dreadsteed down with a plop. I noticed something about its puncture wounds; they weren't bleeding. Instead, soot filled them. Tasty.

The night elf got up from the rock she leaned against and walked over to us, her poisoned weapons resting on the ground next to her.

She poked the horse with her foot and nodded, despite looking quite unpleased. "Very good," she said disapprovingly. "But two things. One, I doubt it's fit for our consumption. And two, I seriously doubt this one will be enough for both us and a starving dragon."

"What if she were to shift into mortal form?" I asked.

She shrugged. "I know a lot about dragon physiology, since my guild interacts with them a lot, but not that much. I don't think eating in mortal form fills them up a lot." The humans began speaking with her. She brightened up and nodded. "Never mind, I was wrong. But all the same, better safe than sorry. Let's get a few more just to be safe. Layalith, I'll go with them this time to get a few more. Can you stay here and purify this one's flesh?"

I shrugged. "Sure. Any progress with Selriona?"

She shook her head. "Not much. Her mana pool's recovered to about half, but she's dehydrated, so from here on out all we can do is feed her our own mana until she wakes up and she can drink. I tried waking her up, but it's almost as if something - or someone - is keeping her asleep. Just keep watch over her and cleanse this dreadsteed, alright? We'll be back." She turned to the humans and chattered in Common a while, before she scooped up her warglaives and they headed out, leaving me alone with an unconscious, several-ton dragon, with only my sword and the carcass of a dreadsteed to defend myself with. Still, I decided that risk of discovery was very low, so I took off my heavy armor. I groaned, cracking several of my joints now that the stiff plating was off. I felt so off, sticky. A bath sounded heavenly, but there was nothing around to use.

I sighed and got to work, leaning next to the extinguished horse's body and placing my hands on its flank. Warmth seeped through its leathery skin, devoid of fur, and I closed my eyes, sensing the magic inside of it. Sure enough, the thing was absolutely tainted with darkness, drenched in it. As if I'd expected anything else. I called upon the Light and exorcised it, hoping to purge it of the corruption. A flash of holy magic filled up the cave, but when I examined the dreadsteed again, I noticed that only a small portion of its flesh had been affected, and even then only partially purified. I shook my head. Great.

After having my mana drained to help Selriona recover, and using what had recovered to fight the dreadsteed, I didn't have much left in me to exorcise the blasted thing. Glancing over to Selriona, I walked over to one of the leather flasks. I took the initiative and drank a little out of one; after all, we had plenty of water to go around after visiting that world made almost entirely out of ocean. Thank the gods for islands.

I opened my mouth and drizzled the water into my throat. The liquid, while not exactly cool, was insanely refreshing, reminded me just how awful the air on Xoroth was. After a few seconds I took the flask away, sealed it, and placed it back, returning to the dreadsteed's flesh. I called up my magic again, and got to work. I was just finished purging the last of the corruption from the demonic warhorse's body, leaving only its legs and hooves tainted, when somebody groaned lightly, snapping me out of my trance to seek out the noise, ready to blast it if it turned out to be demonic in its origin.

I followed the direction of the noise to the resting dragon. Her eyes were half open, slit pupil nearly round beneath the scaly lids. Her mouth opened ever so slightly, showing off the points on her fangs. She groaned again, flicking her eyes over to me.

"Nice to see you're awake," I said. "How are you feeling?"

"R'lorash, belanark.." she whispered hoarsely.

I tilted my head. "I don't know Draconic," I said.

She blinked. "Water, please," she croaked.

I got up. "Alright, that I understand. You'll need to shift to your mortal form. Only way it'll be enough water."

She groaned again, thick indigo light enveloping her scales. The light glowed bright, forcing me to turn away. When it dimmed again, a human was laying on the ground, purple robes slightly gray. Selriona was on her side, her legs tucked into her stomach and her arms splayed before her. I grabbed a leather flask of water and hopped over to her. I pulled her into a sitting position, and from there she placed her hands on the ground, mustering the strength to keep herself up. I held the water to her mouth like a mother hen and, after a few seconds of her inhaling water, pulled it away. She leaned back down onto the hard earth, closing her eyes.

"How are you feeling?" I asked.

"So tired... and thirsty. Where are we? Where are the others?"

"We're on Xoroth, and the others are out hunting dreadsteeds. I already helped them get one, I was exorcising it when you woke up." I cracked my neck. "You should probably go back to sleep, you need your strength."

"Mmm, you're right." I didn't hear another word from her, and her breathing sank into a slow, rising and falling tide. I turned back to the dreadsteed and continued to work my magic on it. By the time Orande and the humans returned, I had completely purified the demonic horse, leaving just pre-cooked flesh and charred white bones. The demon hunter stepped over to me and, in a single smooth motion, cleaved her warglaives downwards onto the ashy white legs, slicing them off without a sound.

"Is this one safe to eat?" she snarled.

"Yes, it is. Already cooked too, what an advantage. Want me to get started on that one?" I asked, motioning towards the one they had plopped onto the ground moments before.

She shook her head, but stayed cross. "No, no. Rest up, let your mana come back. Besides, we don't want to use the Light too much in too short a time. Any progress with our Twilight friend?"

"Actually, yes. She woke up a few minutes ago." I motioned to her human body. "I had her shift to a mortal form and gave her some water. How're we doing on that front, by the way?"

Orande turned her gaze towards the waterskins scattered throughout the cave. "At the pace we're going, three more worlds, if we really ration it."

I sighed. "Great. Just great. I hope we reach Argus soon. This is drawing out far too long for my liking."

She grunted, then turned happy. "I concur." A cough reminded me that, sadly, the human couple had not ceased to exist. She turned to them and began speaking in Common. After a few words were exchanged between the three of them, she turned back to me. She seemed relaxed and patient, so it was safe to assume she was anything but. "Well, while we're waiting for her to wake up, let's eat. Somehow, I feel these two will last us for quite a while." She moved towards the older corpse.

"Wait," I asked suddenly, holding out a hand to stop her, well aware she could just push past me. "What are we going to cut it with?" Her eyes wandered to the sword I had taken off with my armor. Was she serious? That was a sword. It was used to kill things. Cutting meat was... was... beneath it!

"How do you think?" she asked, dead serious.


Selriona

"What exactly am I looking at here?" I asked the Red dragon besides me. This dream was, even as far as Nalestrasza's dreamscapes go, strange. The ground beneath me was nonexistent, yet something held me up like solid stone. All around me was the night sky, patterned with stars so densely that the black canvas took on a rusty glow. Nalestrasza stood to my right, and before both of us was a shining blue orb of light. It was about the size of one of my horns, loops of azure flame leaping up from it and crashing back down, black dots littering its surface. Around it, two spheres half its size were locked in orbits of different size. The closer one was the color of dry blood, with white cracks on it, and the other was covered in what looked like smoke, obscuring any glance at the features below.

"This is a model of the star Xoroth orbits. You remember what I told you about stars and orbits, right? Please, I don't want to explain again. We're pressed for time as it is."

I swallowed my annoyance, but I knew she could read my emotions anyway, no matter how well I concealed them. Why did I even try? "Yes, I remember. It looks like the sun goes around Azeroth, but that's because Azeroth spins. In reality, our world goes around the sun. So this is Xoroth's star. Why is it blue? And how did you even get this information?"

"Well, while you're teleporting us, I can look sort of through the Twisting Nether into the Great Dark Beyond around us. I decipher the flows of energy around us into a map of the universe. Xoroth seems to be near the galactic core of the Violet Lady, a galaxy just outside of the Circlet of the Titans." I gave her a blank stare. "For the love of - don't worry your pretty little crest over it. What matters is Xoroth here." The red sphere shone for a moment. "And this world here." The black one gave off a dark gray aura for a second. "They're close to alignment, which is good. It'll make teleporting there easier if you don't have to go as far." Now that I looked at it, the three orbs did almost make a straight line.

"You didn't answer my question about the blue," I reminded her.

She shrugged. "Well, I've got a few guesses about that one. Maybe it's some chemical in the star that colors it. However, it's far more likely to just be blue hot. If Azeroth orbited that star as closely as it does the sun, there wouldn't be any oceans."

"Lovely," I said.

"You're getting me side-tracked again! The alignment is important because that smoke-covered world? That's Argus."

My heart stopped, and my tusks extended with echoing shwings. That little, tiny, insignificant, crushable orb was where Amanthe was held? "Argus? It's that close?"

She shook her head. "No, not quite. This model isn't to scale. But it's billions of times closer than the other jumps you had to make. In four days, Argus and Xoroth will be at their closest, and it's then you must make the jump."

"Alright," I said, eagerness numbing my limbs. My wings shook with excitement and dream-flames boiled about in my crop. Argus, finally, our goal. But this final part would be so much harder than all the rest. "But how do you expect me to make the jump in four days? I've only been resting for one day, and I don't think I'll be able to jump in time."

She turned her rainbow, shimmering eyes on me. Had they always been that color? "You just let me worry about that, Selriona," scolded Nalestrasza. She ruffled her wings. "I'll put your mana metabolization on overdrive and keep you conscious once you've caught up on your sleep. You'll need to drink a lot though, but we have more than enough water. Go make a plan with the mortals. Figure out how you'll save them."

"Don't you have a plan?"

The air around her suddenly began to ripple and distort with heat. A few stars exploded in a blinding display of light before fading back to normal. "As much as I hate to say it," she forced out. "I really don't. I can take the information given and create an utterly magnificent plan, sure. But I don't have any information about Argus. It's an enormous blind spot. All I know is that millenia of demonic corruption have given it fierce nether winds, as you've noticed. Oh, and there are a lot of demons there. That's it. You'll be charging in blind, so the best plan I can give you is 'go in the twilight realm.' Beyond that, you'll be on your own."

I frowned, and she read my mind. "Look, it's perfectly normal to be having doubts when you're about to attempt a rescue mission on what is quite likely the single most dangerous world in existence. But you have, for some illogical reason, come this far already. I'll admit, I kinda want to rescue Amanthe too. But - stop thinking that! We are not turning back now. I've got a number of theories as to what the Legion wants with the priests and paladins, and neither of them end too well."

"Care to share?" I asked.

"Well, one is that the demons train them with the Light and them have them fire the magic amplifier onto Azeroth, killing everyone. Another is some sort of mass-healer, keeping their armies alive even in the face of the wrath of the Titans. Yes, I know holy healing injures demons. I also know that if you're good enough you can manipulate it not to. You've seen it happen before, but you never paid attention." She huffed, then shook her head. The model of the Great Dark Beyond began to fade. "But now is not the time for this. For now, wake up. Wake up, eat, drink. And come up with a plan."

The dream rippled like a pebble tossed into a pond, and my eyes snapped open.


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