Disclaimer: I do not own Warcraft or its sequels. Blizzard does.
Massive thanks to my beta dharak. S/he is a wonderful writer and beta, really go check out his/her stories. They're amazing.
Chapter published 12/15/12
Selriona
"So next is Argus," Orande asked tiredly from before me.
"Yes," I said. It had been four days since we arrived on Xoroth and, true to her word, Nalestrasza had done something to my body to make it heal quickly. I was nearly ready. And also, just as she said, I'd been extremely hungry and thirsty. Especially thirsty, oh Titans. So thirsty. We'd been hard pressed to find more water. Luckily, there was a warm natural spring and tepid pond at the base of our mountain, and with our magic, we could treat it for any nasty parasites. So now we had enough food and water to last the return journey, which I expected to be much, much shorter. The same force that had opposed me coming to Argus would speed us away from it.
I was in my draconic form, laying on my stomach with my forelegs outstretched, holding down the dreadsteed I'd hunted down no more than an hour ago. I reached down and snapped up more of its flesh in my jaws, the tainted meat having no effect on me as it slid down my throat.
I continued. "The next world is Argus, and we to prepare. We have no idea what the situation will be like there, so we'll have to make it up as we go along. That won't stop us from laying down a few general rules. For instance, we have to enter there in the twilight realm."
Layalith nodded while Orande translated. "Good, good. That should give us some room to think. Well, we'll need to find them, wherever they are. How are we going to do that? We have literally the entire planet to search. They could be anywhere!"
"Well, there's a way," I said. "I have a telepathic link with Amanthe, goes both ways. Now, if we're too far away from each other, such as one of us being on Outland, we both suffer a crippling headache until we go back to each other. Outland also interferes with the link, but that's not the point. A few hours after she was taken to Argus, my head seemed to just explode. A few seconds later, it stopped, and there hasn't been a message from her since."
"Hold on," Orande interrupted sweetly. "You're saying Amanthe can talk to you?"
I shook my head. "She could, but she didn't say much beyond saying where she was and begging me for help. I don't think she heard anything that I said. And since there's been no message since, and the headache stopped, I think that she or someone else blocked the link on Argus's end."
"Hold on," Layalith said, walking up towards me. "How do you know the link hasn't just been completely ended?"
"I'd have felt it. It wouldn't have been pleasant. Trust me, the link is still there, just turned off. I've tried to reactivate it, but it's never worked. If we get to Argus, though, I know I can reactivate the link, and Amanthe can tell us where they are. Even if she can't, I can follow it to her. It is my theory that I could hear her, but not vice versa because of, once again, those blasted nether winds of Argus. They push her message to me, but don't let mine reach her. But if we're both on Argus..."
"You'll be able to communicate. Find out her location, then organize an escape with her. Alright, that's all well and good. How do we get back out?" she stressed.
"I don't know! I don't know how. If I can pull them into the twilight realm and we just teleport-jump back that way, that'll be perfect! But if that's not possible, them, well... I don't have a clue. That's about all we can come up with before going to Argus itself. Anything I missed?" I repeated it all in Common, and waited.
"How much of our resources should we bring?" asked Derek. "If we're forced to leave anyone behind, do we go back after them later and risk the Legion's full might?"
I pondered this, tearing out another chunk of the dreadsteed. "Good point..." I turned to Orande. "What do you think?"
She placed a finger on her chin and shifted her weight to her right foot, her brows furrowing with anger. "We should bring everything. No telling how long we'll be there waiting for you to recover from the teleportation. And besides, we can grab more food and water on the return journey. As for leaving people behind, if we can escape through the twilight realm we won't have to leave anyone behind. But if we can't, then we can not return for anyone lost. The moment we enter the physical realm ,the Legion will spot us, and time will rapidly begin running out before they come down on us hard. We can't risk everything for just a few people. We need to get in, rescue whoever we can, and get out."
I brought my head down to what little was left of the dreadsteed and snapped it up in one bite. I raised my head and tossed it into the air, where it then fell back down. I opened my jaws wide and swallowed it in one gulp. I shook my head side to side and refocused. "Yes, that sounds like a good idea. So, let's get everything ready. Finish up eating, drinking. Let me know when we can go," I said in Common.
"You sure you can make it?" asked Anastasia, more than a hint of nervousness seeping into her voice. Understandable, we were going to save her daughter. Derek moved over and held her hand, seemingly sharing her sentiments.
I nodded, annoyed a mortal was doubting my abilities. "For certain. Argus is close to Xoroth. Well... relatively close. Now that I think about it, it's a miracle Xoroth isn't more militarized than this, but I won't look a gift Titan in the mouth. But yes, I can make it. Just let me know when you're ready."
They nodded, and turned to the newest demonic horse that had been purified. A few minutes passed while they ate and drank, and I shifted to my mortal form for the extra mana. Once all four mortals were ready, they came over to me.
"Alright," I said in Orcish, Orande translating into Common for the humans. "Here we go. Step one, the twilight realm." I pulled us in, the world shimmering and distorting as indigo mist seeped out of the rocks, the light from the rocks darkening, and the life-forces of the mortals lighting up like a Winter's Veil tree. I braced myself, and whined. "I hate this part."
Before I could put it off any longer, I drained my capacitor dry and unleashed an orb of teleportation. Luckily, they knew well enough to cluster close to me, and so they were all in arm's length. The two remaining dreadsteeds and waterskins were not much further away. Blazing silver and blue light engulfed us, and instantly a wall of wind slammed into me. I felt myself slip, sliding away from the knot in the Twisting Nether that was Xoroth, away from Argus.
NO!
I steeled my will and sought out Argus, a gossamer thread of disturbed Nether linking to it, the thread I needed. My strength was fading quick, my mana pool vaporizing. I pulled us towards it, past Xoroth, towards the draenei homeworld. It drew closer and closer, the chaotic blue, black and white colors of the Nether rushing away from it in a torrent, crashing on our orb and piling up like water. With one last grunt of effort, I pushed us into the heart of the maelstrom and tethered us back to reality.
Exhaustion slammed into me, but with nowhere near the strength it had the past few teleports. The next thing I noticed that we were falling, and the ground that met our feet was smooth and even, not at all like the spiky, rough terrain of Xoroth.
I looked around, stunned, taking in the scenery.
We appeared to be on top of a mountain, made of smooth, black basalt. It was night, the stars above unfamiliar, dense and bright. The stars lit up the darkness almost as well as the sun would've back on Azeroth, the black backdrop of the sky turning dull red. Turning around, I saw an incredibly dense cluster of stars, like a beehive.
The mountain was a smooth dome, stretching all around us. We were above the cloud layer, an impassable canopy of black-tinted-purple clouds stretching into the horizon, flickers of blue lightning peeking through the fog. There was not a demon in sight, just the peak of this mountain, the night sky, and an endless expanse of shadowy clouds. My heart thundered in my chest.
"Where are we?" I asked. "I mean, I know this is Argus. But, where?" It dawned on me what I just said. Argus. We're on Argus. Titans help us, the Burning Legion's home world. The residents of this one planet have crushed hundreds, thousands of other similar worlds to dust. I'd only seen the ones the draenei just so happened to travel to. All of a sudden I felt incredibly tiny. How had Azeroth, little, tiny Azeroth, held out against this unstoppable engine of destruction? I recalled how, so very very long ago while I was still a drake, an Infinite dragonspawn had caught me in a temporal rift and shown be the entirety of existence. A similar such feeling engulfed me now. We were so small, so weak.
"I think I know where we are," Orande said. "The story of the draenei is that the Prophet Velen took those who were willing to turn down Sargeras's offer to the top of a mountain, where the Naaru vessel Oshu'gun took them away. We've been following the path of Oshu'gun this whole time, it only makes sense we'd end up on this mountain."
"Makes sense, but I don't understand something. I do not see any demonic corruption, at all. This place should be awash in it." I narrowed my eyes. Something was off here.
"Maybe the Legion decided to leave this mountain alone, out of spite for the Naaru, or the draenei?" Layalith suggested. "As a gesture of 'You're not worth our time'."
"Could be, could be," I muttered. "I'm gonna try and see if I can reactivate the link with Amanthe. Give me a moment." I closed my eyes, and sought out the shut link. It was easy to find, since I'd used it to banter with my friend nearly every day for the past century. And, sure enough, it was inactive, a clump of magic shutting it off. And it was within range of my magic. I reached in and plucked at the magical lines, unraveling the spell-block, and prepared myself. What had been happening to Amanthe? Torture? Slavery? Experimentation?
'Amanthe, can you hear me? Titans, please tell me you can hear me.'
A minute passed with no response, and I cursed in Draconic. Couldn't she hear me? Or perhaps, after so long without hearing me, she chalked it up to a fevered mind. She was conscious, I knew that much from the slight buzzing of her thoughts in my mind. Titans, I'd missed that. 'Amanthe, it's me. You're not hallucinating, I'm talking to you. Please, answer me!'
More time passed in silence, the others looking at my face, which no doubt reflected the worry and fear in my heart. I was about to ask her again when...
'Is it really you?' I heard her return, that familiar pressure next to my ears. I'd missed that feeling. I'd missed her voice.
I could've leaped for joy. Success! Finally! 'Yes, yes it's me! How are you? What have they done to you? Where are you?'
'WHAT TOOK YOU SO LONG?!' My head rattled with her shock and anger. 'I don't even know how long it's been, and you respond to me NOW? How did you even get past the block?'
'Amanthe,' I said, cowed. 'I did try to respond! I did, honest, but I don't think my messages got through. I've just removed the block because I'm close enough to do so.'
'Wait, you don't mean - '
'I'm on Argus. I've spent over a month coming here to rescue you. I talked Orande, Layalith, and Anna's parents into coming her too. We're gonna get you out of here.'
'You... you came for me.' She sounded stunned, like she couldn't wrap her mind around the fact that I was here. 'I thought I'd never... I thought you thought I was dead.'
'Never! Amanthe, your messages when you were first taken, they got through. I've been coming after you ever since. How have you been? Have they tortured you? Do you need any food? Drink? We brought those with us.'
'I'm, I'm fine, believe it or not. They haven't laid a finger on me.'
'Really?'
'Yeah, sit down. This is a doozy for me to explain.'
'Well, go ahead.' I turned to the others, and spoke in Common, grin too big for my face. "She's okay. Thank the Titans, she's okay."
"What about our daughter?" the humans asked as one.
I held up a finger as Amanthe began her explanation, explaining their theory about a group of Legion-allied warlocks with multiple crystals to open gateways to Argus, a dreadlord herding them into a giant wooden building where they were given water, food, housing, and even bathrooms. I asked her to repeat that part several times, because it simply did not make any sense. Eventually, though, I got a general idea about what had happened. Evidently the Legion wanted something from them, and was willing to go to extreme lengths to make them as comfortable as possible, to make them brainwash their descendants. But what would the Legion want with a cult that obeyed them and wielded the Light? Several of Nalestrasza's scenarios came to mind, none of them good for my well-being.
'Okay, okay,' I thought, ending her tirade. By that point the sun was coming up, as blue as Kalecgos's scales and half the size of Azeroth's sun. 'So, let me get this straight. You have not been horribly tortured by the Burning Legion for the past month, but instead kept healthy and fed, inside a wooden building with a force-field keeping you from leaving. You and your group have come up with a way to get Anna to overload the exit field, and you will then pull everyone into the twilight realm and run.'
'Yeah, that just about sums it up.'
'Alright, where are you? I don't think that Anna, as powerful as she is, will be able to break the demons' hold on you so easily.'
'Well, I don't know. I don't know any of the landmarks. We could be on opposite sides of the planet for all I know.'
'Alright, alright. Hold on. I'll try and follow the link to wherever you are. Don't worry, we're getting you out of here. Get the others ready.'
'Roger,' she said, excitement resonating through her voice.
'Another thing. Derek and Anastasia want to know how Anna's doing.'
'Anna? She's doing fine, but... she hasn't been the same since we started training her.'
'See you in a few hours.' I turned back to the mortals, the link's familiar pressure diminishing. "Alright, we're going to go find them. Amanthe says Anna's fine." I expanded into my true form and lowered my body to the ground, wings forming ramps onto my back. "Get on, this might be a long flight." They did, walking along my thick wing membranes and hanging onto the thick, plate-like scales on the back of my neck, watching out for the three bony spines near the front. We left the food and drink where they were. If we could get far enough from the demons, we could pick them up on the return journey. "Let's go then. Hang on tight!" I flapped my wings once, twice, then took off into the air, following the faint tug of my link with Amanthe towards her location.
I didn't dare dip below the clouds. Call it paranoia, but I wasn't intent on going any closer to the ground, covered with demons, than I wanted, whether they were on another plane of existence or not. Contrary to my expectations, I followed the link to its end in moments, circling above the other end. I took a deep breath, steadying my nerves. Here we go. I began to descend towards Argus. The dark clouds rose up, clinging to my scales like a dense, choking fog. My eyes stung and I shut them as tight as I could. I held my breath as best I could, but dragons can't go for even half a minute without air, thanks to our metabolism rates, which are notably higher than a mortal's. As a result I was forced to take a few breaths of the foul clouds, which filled my lungs with burning air and clung to my throat. Finally, though, we broke through the clouds to the world below. The mortals on my back all took in deep breaths, filling their lungs with relatively clean air. I opened my eyes, and took in the scenery.
Mountains in the distance perpetually spewed black clouds into the air, where they merged with the layer of darkness enshrouding the world, preventing the slightest iota of blue sunlight from reaching through to the surface. As a result it was, even for the twilight realm, dark. I had no problems seeing, but I imagined the mortals must've been nearly blind. There were a few sources of light, such as massive sparking fel-reavers still in production, existing in the twilight realm since they had yet to be activated. Of course, the most prominent source of light was the dense, dense red fog covering everything, denser in some spots than others, forming trails where demons had passed through an area.
I coughed violently, trying to expel something burning my throat, clinging to it like charcoal. I shook my head and kept looking. There! A giant wooden wheel, with tubes leading into it with water spilling down. I followed the tubes as far as I could. They seemed to be coming from the volcanoes. How healthy was that water? How much did the Legion care about their mortal 'guests'? Enough to treat it for volcanic ash? From what I could make out from a distance, there were no impurities in the water, but perhaps it was just too dark to see anything.
The wooden wheel was covered in a dull green luster, tinted brown with the haze of the twilight realm. Four tethers of fel energy wound away from the wooden building that had to be Amanthe's prison. Each of the four beams lead to a tower, a tall, black, spiky cylinder that seemed less of a building and more of a mass of Argus's stone that had jumped up. At its top I spotted the fel energy coming from nowhere, which meant a demon in the physical realm channeled it. Confirming this theory was a short glob of red mist at the energy's emitting end, with several taller blobs around it standing guard. The story was the same with the other pillars. I set down a fair distance from the towers and lowered my head, coughing violently.
"Oh Titans," I groaned, coughing some more as the mortals disembarked from my back. Whatever had been in those clouds did not agree with me. My throat burned, my eyes watered, and there was something in my lungs. I coughed violently some more until some spit came out, a few traces of something gray in it. The agony in my body subsided, but it was still there. And now that I thought about it, my scales itched. Of course. The volcanic ash that made up most of the clouds, it was stuck under my scales. Grah! I shifted to a mortal form to fix it, the ash falling off around me in a transparent gray mist, since it no longer had my scales to cling to, and then I shifted back. My insides hadn't improved much, but what could I do?
I turned over to the mortals and began to speak in Common. "Titans. Alright, alright. We need a plan. Four towers that power the force field." I turned towards it. "Give me a moment to analyze it."
I delved into the arcane, watching the spell lines flex and shimmer around it. The barrier was truly a marvelous, complex thing. Dispel resistance like I'd never seen, life-siphoning so that harming those who cross it wouldn't drain its own power, limited self-sustainability, it just blew my mind. I could never hope to fully inspect it, as short for time as we were, but I could garner a few things about its nature and how it could be overcome.
Touching it, needless to say, would be a bad idea. Not only would the life be sucked out of you, it would strengthen the barrier. Attacking the barrier directly with large blasts of energy, like the captives planned to do, would only provide limited success. The attacker would suffer an intense mana drain, and while Anna sounded like she had a lot of mana in her, the four beams sustaining into the force field would surely outpace her efforts. The fel shield would also not vanish the moment all four towers were knocked out. Rather, it would feed itself for a while, maybe five minutes with no outside interference, before finally vanishing. Also, when a 'feeder' beam vanished, the barrier would send a backlash of shadow magic towards the remaining three towers. I wasn't sure what that would do, but I bet it involved a big explosion.
"Alright, I've got a plan. You see those towers?" I asked. They nodded. "They're feeding the barrier. Anna won't have a chance of destroying it if they're up, so we need to knock them out before they can do so. Unfortunetly, the moment any of the demons channeling those beams stops, something very bad happens at all the others. So we need to take them out all at once. After that, we need to defend the towers to make sure nobody else starts to empower the barrier again. I'll send Amanthe a signal once the towers are taken care of, that'll be the sign for her to have Anna begin destroying the barrier."
"Hold on," Anastasia piped up, craning her neck up to look at me. "How will we take them out at once? I mean, the shear coordination not to mention the foolishness of dividing up like that - "
"We'll move into place within the twilight realm. I'm certain I can handle two towers at once. Anastasia, you go with Orande. Derek, you go with Layalith." I turned to Layalith and relayed the message to her. She looked rather displeased. "We don't want any especially weak spots. No offense," I said, turning to the mated couple. "But you two together would be a weak spot. I'll handle two of the towers, Orande and Anastasia the third, Derek and Layalith the last. I'll pull us all into the physical realm at once. When I do, assassinate the demon maintaining the beam and do not let anything take its place. At the same time I'll send the order for Anna to begin dissolving the barrier on her side. If even one of the towers come back, well... I don't need to explain that."
They nodded, the humans sharing nervous looks and squeezing each other's hands. "Once the barrier's taken down, I'll swoops us down and the paladins and priests will all run out. I'll try to pull us into the twilight realm. If it works, great! We can escape easily. If I can open us a portal to, well, anywhere on Azeroth really, even better! But I don't plan on being able to do that. I... oh damn it. How do we get to the nether tear? No way we'll be able to wade across that many demons, and I absolutely can not fly that many people." The moment I completed saying that I leaned down, another fit of coughing overtaking me.
Silence reigned. "Well, then what? We came all this way for nothing? Because if they can stop portals, then they'll be able to stop you from teleporting away, right?" Derek asked.
"Well..." I said.
"Alright, I have an idea," he continued, turning his gaze to the demon hunter with us. "Orande, can you open portals?"
"Of course I can't," she responded fiercely. "That's far beyond the scope of magic I command. I use my spells to kill demons, and well at that. But portals? Good luck."
I sighed, suppressing a cough. "Alright, so it seems we're being left with one option. We'll need to run for the mountain as fast as possible, defending ourselves against demons as much as we can. If we can get close enough to the nether tear I'll be able to bring us along with it. If we can just reach even Xoroth, we'll be in the clear. Problem is, how will we get that far?"
"That's a good question," Derek said. "Maybe you could ask Amanthe?" he asked, cracking his fingers.
I did ask her. After a few moments of thought, her response echoed in my head. 'Well, we'd need a shield to protect us. I think I can help Anna create a shield to keep the demons away from us, but if a demon lord comes we're doomed. Anything short of that, though, and we should be fine. It's gonna be hard on her, though, breaking through the barrier and then shielding all thirty of us.'
'I'll help her then,' I returned before telling those around me of Amanthe's plan. 'How haven't the demons noticed you vanishing into the twilight realm to train Anna?'
'Either they aren't watching us, or they're that confident we can not escape. So, we can we get started?'
'Soon, soon. Just gotta get a few things ready on our end first. You all set on your side?'
'Oh yeah, we're all waiting near the exit.'
I nodded, even though she couldn't hear me, and turned to the mortals, shifting to a human form. I walked up to Layalith and reached behind my head, grasping the chain of the capacitor. I pulled it over my head and gave it to her. "Layalith, I need you to channel the Light into this," I told her, tossing the magical relic to her, where she caught it with an armored left hand. "I want it to unleash the Light when I command it to, instead of the arcane."
She nodded and placed a hand over the glass, that appendage shining with the holy magic. Slowly, the flowing arcane energy, which began in the middle of the disk and flowed out, shrunk, turning to a small spot before vanishing entirely. The glass interior filled with what seemed like golden mist, cutting through the rippling shadows and mists of the twilight realm. The shine of Layalith's vitality dimmed slightly, but then she stopped the flow of energy and stumbled.
"Ungh, that's tiring. How's that?"
I took back the capacitor and inspected it. The golden disk's glass covering on one half now contained a sizable measure of the Holy Light. Already, a small tendril of pale amber light was snaking into Layalith, who I calmed down, explaining that all it was doing was draining negligible amounts of the Light within her. Truly minuscule amounts. Within the prison of magic, bronze and glass was what looked like sloshing yellow water, currents shown by the darkening or lightening of the fluid in several spots. I doubted that channeling the Light to wield with my own Old God-given powers would be a good idea, but I was confident I could still use it to turn a good few demons to ash with it. And we were rescuing priests and paladins; it would refill fast.
I placed it back around my neck. "Good, that'll help me a lot." I returned to my true form, looking down at them. "Alright, remember the plan. Take out the towers, hold them until the captives escape, then we guide them to the mountain. If we get close enough I'll be able to bring us back to Xoroth and we'll escape that way. Remember, time is of the essence. The more time we spend here, the more of their army the Legion will be able to mobilize against us. So, first. Layalith and Derek." I launched myself into the air and grabbed both human and blood elf in my claws. They shouted indignantly, but I ignored their protests and carried them up to the first tower, plopping them rather unceremoniously on the flat, cold metal surface. Before I could fly back I gripped the side of the tower, a spell of coughing keeping me there for a moment. I repeated the process with Orande and Anastasia, then positioned myself until I was flapping between the last two towers.
'Alright Amanthe, we're about to begin. Remember, this will be our only chance. If anyone falls behind we WILL be forced to leave them behind.' Even her... no. That wouldn't happen. She wouldn't be left behind. I wouldn't allow it.
'Roger that. I've got everyone ready to defend Anna in case the Legion attacks through the barrier, but I don't think the Legion will try to kill us. Just recapture us.'
'In a way, even worse. Alright, now here it goes.' I turned to the mortals, who had weapons raised to slit the throat of the demon on their tower at a moment's notice. "On the count of three, I'll pull us into the physical realm all at once. After that, there is no turning back. One." My heart pounded within my ribs and I licked my tongue over my fangs. Several of the thicker red globs down below shuffled about. "Two." I unsheathed my tusks with a shwing. Light flowed around Layalith. Derek held a trap in one hand, bow in the other. Orande's poisoned glaives began to gleam with pure, red fires. Anastasia's daggers were poised to stab into a 'sentry' demon guarding the one channeling her tower's beam. "Three!" I quickly extended my magic and we rose into the physical realm.
This was going to be bad. I knew it was going to be bad. I prepared myself for just how bad it was.
Somewhat anticlimactically, it wasn't anywhere near as bad as I thought it would be.
I'd expected the ground to be covered in demons, the black ground barely visible through them, a writhing sea of evil and genocide stretching as far as the eye could see. What I instead saw was a rectangular field of maybe a hundred fel-cannons, all oriented so that they couldn't fire at me, nor at the top of any of the towers. Patrolling all around the area in several loosely-woven paths were groups each consisting of a wrathguard, shivarra, one or two felhounds, and a whole slew of imps. Within immediate attacking range there were maybe half a dozen groups, with even more stretching beyond. But I couldn't worry about those now. I had other things to do.
Flames boiled in my crop and flew out of my mouth, magic shaping and twisting the fireball into multiple sharp daggers of twilight energy, which I mentally guided towards the demons at the top of the two towers I'd assigned myself. Channeling each beam, I noticed, was an eredar, the one to my left red skinned, the one to my right gray. They were surrounded by a ring of doomguards. The spikes killed every single one of them, spearing the surprised demons' throats and dissolving them into nothingness. The green beams of fel energy from my towers ended, and half a heartbeat later the same happened for the other two. The shimmering barrier on the massive wooden wheel at the middle of it wall rippled, the spots where the beams had channeled into releasing ripples through the shield, which clashed with each other before rebounding, without losing any of their potency.
'Now, do it now!' I shouted to Amanthe.
A moment later a shining yellow beam pierced the barrier, making it fluctuate and a deep growling fill the air. I flew higher up, looking down. The demonic patrols were stunned, still getting over their surprise, not yet comprehending what had happened. But it wouldn't be long before they began their attack and sounded the alarm, bringing the entire Burning Legion down on us. I took the opportunity to breathe in deep and bring fire into my crop. I joined the two and unleashed a massive, wide stream of twilight fire down on the demons below, which hissed, screamed and screeched in pain as the dark flames washed over them, ignoring their shadow resistance. I summoned my magic and placed a twilight prison on the two towers that were mine, the bright purple runes pulsating gently with magic that would make the first demon to touch it completely helpless.
More pockets of demons began to trickle towards us from the horizon, but I didn't both blasting them. Those fel-cannons would tear anyone escaping the prison to shreds, and it had to go. I drew on my magic to weave a shimmering dark purple cocoon of twilight magic around me, and began to spit multiple fireballs at the cannons, watching with satisfaction as each one that impacted left a heavy dent in the metal frames, vibrant green fire spilling from their frames. I was destroying them fast, but there were so many. As I did, I heard the rushing of flames, the chime of the Light, blades slashing through the air and what sounded like something being hit with a wooden stick as the mortals fought to keep their towers cleared. Most of the demonic patrols that I had not incinerated recovered from the initial surprise and were now beginning to attack me. I was out of range of physical attacks, but that didn't stop the imps hurling fireballs that popped against my shield, or the shivarra casting rocky clusters of shadow that thundered around me.
I blasted the cannons as best I could before my barrier fell, forcing me to focus on the demons attacking me. I swooped down, fading into the twilight realm. The process was slower than usual, though, sluggish. Usually sinking into my Flight's realm was like lowering myself into a warm lake, but on Argus it was as if that water had turned gelatinous, unwilling to let me in. Still, I managed to enter, continuing to fly towards where a cluster of shivarra were in the physical realm. Right before I reached it, I rose up almost completely out of the twilight realm, leaving a portion of my essence there in case I needed to draw energy from within. The three female demons were taken by surprise at my sudden disappearance and reappearance. The shock on their faces only existed for a second before my claws raked through them, goring two and nearly ripping the last one in half. I flicked the black blood off my claws.
Thud thud thud!
Before I realized what had happened I was in the air, wings thrusting straight down as my legs pushed me up, moments before a gale of hot wind washed over my underbelly scales. Looking down, I saw greasy green flames clinging to the crater that had formed where I'd been a moment before, acrid smoke rising to fill the air. I looked back and saw that clawing apart the demons had taken me into the cannons' line of fire. I groaned and rained down more fireballs onto them, ignoring the shadow attacks sliding off my scales and the fireballs that lost nearly all their power by the time they reached my height, little more than annoying sparks.
A reverberating, deep noise echoed throughout Argus, and I knew for a fact that it wasn't us.
"That's not good," I muttered to myself before opening up my maw and blasting another fel cannon into ruin.
'Selriona, what the hells was that?' Amanthe asked.
'The alarm, how long until Anna's done?' I questioned her, whipping around and unleashing a river of twilight fire at the eredar that had stumbled into one of my twilight prisons, killing him instantly. There had to be something on those that allowed the barrier to be channeled. Why else would they go to the effort of building them?
'Not long, just a few seconds. How's the outside looking?'
I spun around in mid-air, biting down on the flying terrorguard that had arrived and tried to stab me in the back with a barbed spear. I clenched my teeth and let go, the two halves falling to the earth below. 'Worse by the second! I'll get the others and meet you at the exit. Get ready to run like you've never run before!' I didn't hear her response, if there was any. I unleashed a massive shadow nova to destroy a few more fel-cannons before shooting over to Orande and Anastasia. I didn't have time to take in their condition, grasping them in my hind legs, leaving a twilight prison at their tower and refreshing the one that had been tripped recently. I swept over to Derek and Layalith, grabbed them in my hind legs, and trapped their tower as well. I descended to ground level and dropped them, blasting a few more fel-cannons as I did. By that point only about a dozen remained in working order.
BOOM!
With a searing explosion of demonic energy the barrier blew outward, like an bursting bubble of water. I wrapped my wings around the mortals next to me, taking the full brunt of the blast. I grunted and was pushed back a step, but beyond a slight stinging in my scales I was unharmed. Like a flood the mortals began to run out towards me, tossing the occasional blast of Light towards the regrouping demons.
Thud thud thud!
Not good! I shot fireballs out of my maw like never before, intercepting three of the cannon shots in midair, causing them to explode safely and inflict no harm. The other five shots that had been fired were dodged, but left acrid flames burning on the ground which the mortals took care to avoid. I looked down at them as Orande used her own weak fireballs to intercept more cannon fire.
Two dozen collected mortals, most in white and teal robes that were more than a little frayed by this point, the pungent stench of their fear mixing with the air and adding to my own. And there was Amanthe, her gray eyes wide and fists clenched, one of them holding the hand of a male with different colored eyes. My gaze hardened as a lot of the mortals looked up at me fearfully.
"Come on!" I shouted over another thud thud thud. "Follow me! We're not stopping for anything, even people left behind! Let's go!" Coughing, lungs burning from all my shouting, I shifted to my human form to make myself a smaller target. Demons were beginning to cluster around us. I tried for a moment to pull us into the twilight realm, but the sluggishness had grown tight, and now there was nothing I could do. I also tried to open a portal to Stormwind, Dalaran, anywhere, but magical interference kept me from using any Azerothian portal anchor. Why didn't I have the foresight to create one on Xoroth? We could be out of here already!
Demons were already beginning to swarm around us. Felhounds, imps, succubi, wrathguards, one or two floating eye-covered beholders, flying doomguards filling the skies.
We ran.
Amanthe
Everything happened so fast.
We'd been training Anna when Selriona had contacted me, and everything became a flurry of activity after that. We were getting ready, running her through the things she had to do. If the Legion knew of what we were planning, they didn't do anything to stop us. Maybe they were that confident in our inability to escape. Which would also explain why no dreadlord had come knocking, asking why Jason and Anna vanished into thin air for hours every day. We had gathered at the hallway that ended with the shimmering green force field, with the little girl in front of us all, ready to put her training to use the moment I relayed Selriona's signal.
Now we were outside. Outside. Demons surrounded us on all sides but we just ran through them, fighting off the ones that made moves to attack us. Anastasia and Derek had come with Selriona, and the father had scooped up his daughter.
Moving forward was getting harder and harder. I ducked an imp's fireball and retaliated with a pillar of holy fire, which roasted the little creep, and kept running. Someone shouted in pain as a shivarra's swing got him, only for Jason to wave his hand, a flash of light healing the stomach wound. A moment later Anna, still being carried, pointed a hand at the demoness and focused. A solid beam of the Holy Light shot out and got her in the eye, making the six-armed women scream and fall to dust. Selriona tossed balls of twilight fire around, which exploded in the increasingly dense demon ranks. Anna soon stopped shooting and closed here eyes, making a yellow sphere around us to keep the weaker demons away. I narrowed my eyes and summoned my magic, aiming it at a group of felhounds with lit up antennae. A moment later they whined in pain as they sailed through the air, knocked away by the explosion of twilight flame I'd summoned. I dispatched another with magic, and the others killed the one remaining.
One thing we had in our favor was that the demons had to hold back against us. We were obviously valuable to them; they couldn't risk damaging us. They'd have to exercise extreme caution to prevent harming us, have to be careful to make sure they were attacking Selriona, or Orande, and not us. But... just because they couldn't kill us didn't mean they couldn't knock us out, as I learned quickly when a felguard charged at Oldritch, the demon's bulky skin smoking and turning black as it charged through Anna's barrier. It's impressive weight and armored shoulders knocked the paladin out cold. A moment later Anastasia was there, planting a long, wicked dagger in the demon's throat, but by then a succubus, standing outside the fatal barrier that kept moving through Argus towards our salvation, reached out her whip. It wrapped around Oldritch's waist, and yanked the fallen paladin into the thick of the demons. That's the last I ever saw of him.
My attention was drawn back to the fight by a fireball nearly hitting me in the left temple. I yanked myself to the side, where the flame spell sailed past me, so close I could feel the beginnings of sweat on my brow vaporizing. It flew off without hitting anyone, dispersing when the magic holding it together vanished. I spun around, smiting the imp that had dared fire in my general direction, before calling down holy fire on another. An explosion of twilight energy rocked the world as Selriona cast one of her most powerful spells, sending the thickening demon army around us back and clearing room for us to move forward.
It didn't take long for the Burning Legion to realize Anna's shield wasn't as potent as it seemed. Soon, demons by the handful began to charge across it, most of them surviving the blast of Light. A shivarra, an infernal, several types of 'guard'. Derrek set the pace, since he was the one holding Anna, and she was the one channeling the shield that kept us relatively safe. As a result, the entire endeavor was a race to keep up with Derrek and stay inside the shield as he hauled ass across Argus, Selriona and... someone else busy clearing a path ahead for him. Only problem was, it was getting harder and harder to push through the army - where did all these demons come from? - and fend them off at the same time. Ellie was caught by a web of shadows and tugged out. So was Isabella. People were being taken. I could be next. How would the Legion punish me for trying to escape? I thought of what had happened to Oldritch, who was now back in their grasp, and what they had done that left him white as a sheet for eleven days afterward.
No. That won't be me. I'll escape.
As if to say 'Oh really?' a doomguard's barbed spear stabbed at my midsection. I acted on impulse and shielded myself, but that wasn't enough to stop the attack all the way, and it left a sizable gash on my stomach. Healing magic began to lap at my wound, but in my distraction it cast some spell at me. My legs fell out from under me, pain lancing up them as black and dark blue swirls of magic surrounded me, crippling my body and mind. I tried to focus through the pain, but it was like trying to stop the sun from setting. I finally managed to cast a twilight fireball and nailed the doomguard in its right wing-bone, making it snarl in pain and raise a hoof. I dispelled the crippling spell on myself, the pain instantly vanishing.
At that moment its hoof came down, a thunderclap resonating in my ears and throwing me off balance. I noticed that the shell of Light was moving on, leaving me behind. I scrambled to find my balance and redoubled my speed, weaving a shield onto myself to both deflect an incoming fireball and give my run a little boost, letting me catch back up to the middle of the shell where I had the most safety.
"Don't stop!" I heard Selriona shout, before descending into a fit of coughing. Once done, she continued. "Whatever you do, do not stop!"
Something whistled through the air, and I hit the deck as somethin sailed next to me, where it would've hit my arm. It embedded itself into someone else's arm - I couldn't recognize them with their back to me - and made them scream. I jumped back as the satyr tossed another knife at me, where it stuck onto the ground. I could see the green glow of poison on it, likely a paralytic venom since they needed us alive. I called forth twilight flame and spotted the demonic night elf, flanked on either side by imps that were engaged in other battles. I finished up my twilight pyroblast and sent it at the satyr. Without waiting to see if the green-furred demon died or just shrugged off my attack I sprinted on, since the time it took to cast that meant I was almost out of the protective barrier of Light.
Time began to blur. I was vaguely aware of an impassable sea of demons around us, thickest towards the direction we were running. My lungs burned with the strain of our run, twilight fire, the Light, fire and shadow flew through the air. A few braver demons pierced the shell and we were forced to fend them off, and they were getting more and more common. And we were getting fewer and fewer as the Burning Legion re-abducted us, one by one. I slapped away a succubus's hand, I unleashed a blast of Holy Light at an eredar, produced twilight explosions to clear out groups of imps targeting Selriona, Derek, the ones that the Burning Legion didn't need alive. I didn't know where we were running, I just trusted that Selriona knew where we were going. At one point it was Jason next to me, weaving what protective spells he could. A few minutes later and it was Selriona, her violet eyes shining murderously as she unleashed explosions of dark magic throughout the battlefield, channeling all her fiercesome power into freeing us. I lagged behind her, and there was Layalith, decapitating a felhound as I used the Light to blast a hole through a succubus sneaking up on her. A satyr slipped through our defenses, and engaged Anastasia in a fight with its own duel daggers. I was unable to watch what happened.
Because a pit lord arrived on the scene.
I gaped, and nearly got knocked out by a shadow bolt. I fired a blast of twilight flame in the general direction of the spell, not seeing where it landed or to what effect. My gaze was focused on the colossal pit lord. I'd last seen one... Titans, eighty years ago, when a corrupt mage had torn one out of Orande's soul. How fitting she was here as well the second time I saw the annihilan. In a moment she had broken free of the protective shell of Light, and I only had a moment to weave a shell of holy energy around her before she vanished into the demonic armies. A few seconds later she began to tear through their ranks with burning, poisoned warglaives, making her way to the pit lord that was happily calling down infernals within our shell.
The back of my neck tingled and I threw myself forward, barely dodging the flaming, stone fist of one of said infernals. I spun around on my stomach and got up, instinctively speaking a word of pain. The infernal made no sound, but the green fire around its 'joints' flickered and dimmed. My shadows work on infernals, then.
I called up my magic and blasted its mind, or whatever passed for one. It gave off a grating, muffled roar, and swung another fist at me. I shielded myself, which was just enough to stop the fist in its tracks before breaking. The flames came close enough to make me wilt backwards, holding out a hand to let a beam of flaying magic at it. It groaned and charged at me. The infernal lifted its fists and slammed them down at me, forcing me to jump to the side and interrupt my spell. Even so, the shockwave knocked me off balance. It whirled around and almost hit me again, but its flames continued to dim as my word of pain kept eating at it. I wove a plague on it, curious to see how a plague would affect something made entirely out of stone.
As it turns out, quite well. The small pores on its body began to widen and it howled in pain, despite having no mouth. I stepped back, the air going cold around me, and called up my magic again. I spoke a word of death, confident the infernal was close to falling. I was proven correct as the fel fire animating the lump of boulders died out, and the towering creature fell to pieces.
I screamed in pain as something tight and sharp wrapped around my left elbow, sharp spikes digging into my flesh. I turned to face the succubus and, with the arm that wasn't wrapped in her whip, pulled up the energy for a twilight fireball. The energy came slowly with only one hand to channel it, but I still managed to launch the fireball at her. She ducked out of the way of the dark blue fires, which barely clipped her wings, and smirked.
She vanished from sight, but I didn't let that deter me. The whip was still visible, as was the end of it, which moved around as if preparing to wrap itself around my neck. Like hells. I summoned shadows to my throat and screamed, the psychic shriek resonating throughout Argus.
The succubus reappeared, but hardly seemed phased. I cursed myself. Of course, of course she'd be resistant to shadow magic. I called down fire from the sky, the holy flames engulfing the demon. She gave out an unnervingly hinting scream before vanishing to ashes, taking the barbed, serrated whip with her. I quickly wove a renew onto my injured elbow, stemming the flow of blood, the sight of the deep holes nauseating even as they closed up.
I fell to my stomach as something heavy collided with my back, white hot spikes of pain shooting through either side of my spine. I gasped as a fair chunk of my mana pool evaporated, and summoned my strength. I spun around, unlatching the felhound from my back and throwing it to the side. I drew up darkness to burn away the mana it had stolen from me, but before I could its antennae flared blue again. My magic suddenly decided it didn't like me and, with a sensation not unlike getting slapped in the face, my casting was interrupted.
I got to my feet and growled, irritated, unable to weave my magic into a simple dark word of agony. Although, that was just my shadows interrupted. I'm a shadow priest, sure, which doesn't help much against demons. But twilight flame technically isn't shadow magic, which means I could still use it, and the demons wouldn't be able to resist it. I nailed the felhound with a twilight fireball, the slimy, greasy flames enveloping its fur as it collapsed, squealing and growling in pain, before vanishing into a puff of black smoke.
I kept fighting, demons coming at me one or two or sometimes even three at a time, with the intent of recapturing me. Once I killed my second terrorguard I realized my situation. I was surrounded by demons on all sides, forming a veritable ocean around me. They were toying with me, I didn't stand a chance. And even worse, if the demons were all around me, then that meant I wasn't surrounded by Anna's light shell...
I shouted and unleashed a nova of holy energy in all directions around me, sending the imps scattering and glanced around me. There! The shell of Light was very far, flickering like a candle drowning in its own wax, heading towards a mountain that stuck up above the clouds. Flashes of light, fire and darkness surrounded it, and the pit-lord was nowhere to be seen. But the main problem was that I'd been separated!
"Not happening," I growled to myself, charging at the felguard in between me and my destination. He leveled his axe at me, aiming to bash me with the flat of the blade to knock me out. I ducked below it and charged into the thick of the army. A flurry of arms reached out to grab me, but I just released an explosion of holy Light in all directions to clear something that, if you squinted, resembled a path. Soon, though, that wasn't enough. Even using shields of Light to give me temporary bursts of speed, the demons grew smart quick, directing me to the side. By the time they had me surrounded, I'd only made up half the distance to the others. Add on to that the fact that each step was like trying to stop the world from turning, each breath like trying to halt a hurricane, and I knew that I needed to do something drastic.
A mace came sailing towards my gut, and I let the spell take hold of my body. My insides dissolved, pulse and breaths fading into nothingness as my skin crumpled and turned to a dark mist. My dispersion complete, exhaustion temporarily abandoning me, I hauled ass towards the others. One advantage of dispersing was that, in the darkness of Argus, the demons completely lost sight of me. As I passed by others, they didn't glance at me for more than a second before I was out of sight. I held onto my cloud of darkness as long as I could, even as the wisps of darkness tried to coalesce back into me. I managed to stay dispersed right until I caught back up with the others, entering the shell of Light, at which point I returned to normal and the barrier vanished.
Looking closely, I saw Anna, the poor little six year old girl who liked to make little cats of Light prance around on her bed, passed out in her father's arms, a stream of blood running down her nose. Derek's feet trembled, but to his credit he kept running at the same pace. Trouble was, now there was no barrier to keep us together. We could scatter easily, be captured easily. Taking a quick look around, I saw that our situation was getting very bad very fast. Selriona, Orande, and Layalith were still doing their best to fend off the demons. Of the twenty-four of us that started, myself not included, I counted six. Thank the Light, Jason was among those that remained. Anastasia was nowhere to be seen.
Jason was on his back, a felguard poised to knock him out.
Acting on impulse, I thrust out my hand and called to a creature deep within the Twisting Nether. Sure enough, a shadowfiend appeared next to the felguard, and bit its armored leggings with enough force to at least distract it, replenishing some of my mana pool in the process. Its distracted swing went right over Jason's head, and in that time I was next to him, grabbing his hand and nearly tearing off his arm pulling him up.
"Thanks, come on! She says we're almost there!"
My eyes widened and I continued running after them. But as the demons no longer had to worry about a shield of holy energy giving them severe burns or death trying to cross, there wasn't a lot keeping them from just surging in around us, and flying demons blotted out the clouds. Everyone did their best to keep them away from us. Selriona tossed around shadows, indigo flames, and I thought I saw a burst of the Light coming from her at one point. I picked up a doomguard's barbed spear and used it as best I could in combination with my magic, even though the most 'swordplay' I could do was distracting the enemy long enough for either me or someone else to kill them. The only time I killed anything with it was when a felhound pounced at me and I raised it up, stabbing the dog-like demon through the chest.
A shout came out of the air, and I glanced up towards its origin, dropping the spear.
My heart nearly stopped. A doomguard had swept down and grabbed Jason, and even as I stared, was busy hauling him up.
"Jason!" I shouted, raising my hands and thrusting them down. A thick pillar of divine flames arced down from the sky, striking the doomguard in the back. One of its wings stopped flapping and hung limply. It shifted Jason to one arm and pointed the other at me, shadows flickering about it. Pain erupted around me as the shadows crippled my body, but I dispelled the effect the moment it took hold, tossing a blob of twilight fire at the doomguard. The flames splashed along its skin to little visible effect, but I did see it snarl. So I could hurt it.
It sent a little spike of shadows at me, which impaled the ground next to me and dug into the black stone a good distance. I gulped. That could've been my head. Did this one know it needed us alive... or did they already have enough recaptured, and didn't need us? Surely information couldn't move that fast in an army. I retaliated with a shield around myself, then sinking into my shadowform for extra protection. I held my hands together and began to channel twilight energy into a massive fireball, before hurling the pyroblast at the doomguard. Its eyes widened as the fireball honed in on it. Its free hand glowed once more with magic before it tried to wing away with its one remaining functional wing. My pyroblast still hit it, and it screeched, dropping to the ground, Jason with him.
My heart stopped, but just before Jason could hit the ground a narrow ray of yellow energy exploded out from next to me, like cold lightning, and wrapped around his waist. The tether yanked him back, and I swear I saw his soul separate partway from his body before rejoining. Jason hit a patch of open ground with a roll, unconscious from the sudden change of direction. I levitated him and scooped him up in an instant, running after the others. I released a nova of the Light to clear away the demons closing in on us. I saw someone lag behind us, but I couldn't make out who. The land was getting steeper now, running getting harder and harder. The demons took full advantage of this, snatching up someone else.
I heard an unmistakable growl from ahead of us. "Get out of our way!" A massive figure expanded before us and Selriona, now in her true form, flared out her wings, streaks of dark blue lightning arching from the talons on them and into the demon army. A river of her flames washed over the demons, clearing a wide, half-circle shaped path before us. But I lagged behind, even with Jason's weight levitated. My breaths were short wheezes, sweat clung to every corner of my body.
"Amanthe!" I heard Selriona shout, turning around to look at me, stopping. Why had she stopped? "Hurry up!" She began to glow silver, arcane energy flowing across her scales, condensing in a ball held between her fangs. No, she couldn't be. She was teleporting. A white, hazy orb appeared in a small radius around her, those within would be teleported. And I wasn't there.
Every step I took felt like I was swimming in molten lead, but I managed to put on a boost of speed nonetheless. I am not getting left behind. Neither is Jason.
As I neared the sphere, which was growing brighter by the moment, obscuring the fighters within, the impossible happened. I tripped.
With a grunt, I fell to the cold, unforgiving ground, dropping Jason. I saw demons rushing at me out of the corner of my eye but being struck down by hasty balls of magic. I struggled to even raise myself on my elbows. Everything hurt, and this was so much worse than Discipline training. My body didn't want to go on. It wanted to just lie down and give up. My legs wanted to. My lungs wanted to. I wanted to. It would be so easy...
"Amanthe! GET UP!" I heard Selriona shout desperately over the crackle of arcane energy. She couldn't wait any longer, I knew that. She couldn't afford to wait for me, the Legion would close in on us if she did and everyone would be lost. But I couldn't move. None of my muscles obeyed my command.
The pale orb was no longer transparent, a glowing pearl in utter darkness. Think, Amanthe. If you can't use your body, what does that leave? It left magic. But what spell did I have that could move myself and others? I could use the Light to give myself a surge of inner will, but that simply would not cut it. All my shadow spells would just slow me down, at best. Twilight flame wouldn't help, and by the time I healed myself to be able to move it might be too late. What did that leave me with?
The light was growing now, blinding. Almost out of time. The sudden brilliance, while not holy in nature, made the army of demons shrink back from around me. I didn't have time left. An idea sprung to mind. Levitation, one of my most versatile spells. The spell relied on creating a magical repulsion field at one's feet. Not enough energy, and the person would simply be light. Just enough, and they'd float right above the ground, as the magic created air jets. Too much energy...
It was worth a shot. I cast a levitate on Jason, placing half of all my remaining mana into it. He was on the ground, still passed out from the trauma of being jerked to the side by that spell. He shot forward like a rocket, vanishing into the miniature sun before me. I cast the same spell on myself. My feet lurched into my throat, I tumbled head over heals. My body scraped along the ground causing painful cuts to tear open, ripping my robes in several places, not all completely decent. But at least I got within range of Selriona's spell.
Inside was much different than outside. It was not blinding, and it was not opaque. I could still see outside, what looked like a giant red-skinned eredar with wings fast approaching. I glanced around at the assembled people. Almost nobody had made it through. I saw Selriona, Orande, Layalith, Jason and I, and someone else who's name I knew to be Thomas. But there was someone missing. Two someones.
'Wait!' I shouted into the link, not trusting my throat. 'Derek and Anna, we have to wait for - '
Then the world was light, power, and wind.
When the stars faded from my vision, we were somewhere completely different than Argus. The air wasn't exactly fresh, but it wasn't choked like it had been on the Burning Legion's homeworld. My vision focused, and I saw the sky, too. Which is saying a lot, because I hadn't seen the sky in over a month. It was a bright, bright blue, the glow of a yellow sun tinting it, the sun itself out of my sight. I twisted onto my stomach, and instantly regretted the motion as my muscles screamed in agony. I wove several heals into my body before my muscles were fit enough to not burst into flames whenever I so much as twitched.
I pulled myself up into a seated position, and looked around.
We were near a beach, but the water was yellow, and the sand black. As the dark beach stretched away, it turned to lime-white rocks, arranged like the scales of a dragon, which stretched as far as I could see. It was on these slabs of white stone that we had arrived. However, everything was tinted with a purple mist that clung to the stones, as well as to my skin and clothes, in a way that no regular fog ever could. Every movement I made, from waving my hand in front of my face to my chest rising and falling with my breaths sent black ripples away. We were in the twilight realm.
I glanced around. Jason was still next to me, unconscious. Thomas, Orande, and Layalith stood in a circle, talking amongst each other, with the paladin weaving healing spells onto the human.
I groaned, then was flattened onto my back when something like a meteor crashed into me. Something rough and wet rubbed itself along my body repeatedly, and I held up my arms, trying to fend it off, stifling a gasp of pain.
"Oh thank the Titans you made it! You're okay you're okay you're okay!" Lick. Lick. "I was so worried, I thought you weren't going to make it! Oh thank the Titans thank the Titans!" Lick. Lick.
"Get off! Ow! You stupid, stupid dragon!" Her enormous, scaly head pulled away from me. "Blargh!" I exclaimed, wiping my face with my hands, looking up at the twilight dragon.
The capacitor around her neck seemed to be filled with a dull yellow fluid, sloshing about gently, a narrow yellow tendril extending from me into it. Multiple burns and cuts covered her body, there was a sizable gash in her right wing's membrane, and she had several patches where her scales were outright missing, revealing the softer flesh beneath. She didn't seem to notice any of them, though, instead beaming down on me with her tusks retracted, largest smile I'd ever seen on her face. Her fangs were bared, but dragons' fangs were always visible thanks to the structure of their jaw. For a moment her smile vanished and she turned her head to the side, coughing viciously. A few splatters of purple blood appeared on the ground, but when she returned to smiling at me I figured she was fine. If she wasn't, she'd be healing herself.
I shot up to my feet, remembering what I'd said just before she teleported us away. "Wait! We have to go back! For Derek and Anna!" I had no hope Anastasia was alive, she'd likely been swallowed by the horde. But Derek had Anna with him. Sure, she was unconscious, but his daughter had to have counted for something!
Selriona's smile evaporated, her voice turned somber. "Amanthe," she began slowly. "We can't go back. They fell behind, and I told you that this is our only chance."
"We can't just leave them behind!" I shouted. "We can't just let him die, can't just let the Legion control her! Send us back! Or just me! I'll rescue her myself!" I felt feverish. It couldn't be. How could our escape plan have gone so wrong? It was all so perfect. And now... I was the only one left of my family. The last one, not just with my family name, but in relations too. Nobody else left...
"Amanthe, think about this!" she retaliated. "The only reason we stood a chance this time was because the Burning Legion wasn't expecting us. We took them off guard, and even then look how bad it went! Thirty of us started out escaping, and only six of us returned! You want us to go back, with them ready for us, with only one fifth as many people for that matter, in the hopes that we might save two people? It can't be done!"
"There has to be some way! Send me back, I can find it! She's my family, damn it! I can't just leave her there!" I didn't even notice I was shouting in Draconic until Selriona responded, lowering her stomach so that her head and eyes were on my level.
"Why? So you can get captured too? Amanthe, I know you're upset! I know what it's like to lose family; you think everyone from my clutches are alive? But there is nothing that can be done. Kil'jaeden himself was there, I couldn't have waited a second longer. How much do you want to bet he's still there? Ten gold? A hundred?"
I looked down, clenching my fists, shadows flickering about them despite my depleted mana pool. "No... she can't be gone," I whispered. Kil'jaeden himself... "They... they can't be gone. They're the only family I have left."
"Amanthe," she said apologetically. "Even if I wanted to, I couldn't. Going to Argus isn't as easy as going away. I teleported us quite a few worlds away thanks to its aura, but going back would take weeks. By then they'll have taken precautions. Increased security a hundred-fold. They weren't expecting a breakout. Now though, they know to keep a close eye on them. We can't get in again." I didn't realize she'd moved behind me until she moved a wing forward, gently pressing me against one of her forelegs as she sat.
I shrugged off her wing. I was dizzy. The world was spinning. Too fast, too fast. The last one... can't rescue... no hope. Suddenly I started to feel bitter. My only family, doomed to either death or demonic brainwashing! As good as dead! While meanwhile Selriona had dozens of surviving children, some of which had their own broods. Why should she have that? Why not me!?
"No," I choked out. "It can't be..." I looked up towards the sky, using mana that wasn't there to look for a trail of arcane power. I looked for the method Selriona had used. Surely it had to be somewhere. It had to... I had to try. I had to. I had to.
"Amanthe," she said with a note of steel in her voice, no doubt sensing my efforts. "Let it go. We still have the return trip ahead of us. It's a miracle we rescued three people, even more so that you were one. When you tripped, I thought I'd never see you again. Please, Amanthe..."
"My only family. My family's all gone." My mother's smiling face, blue eyes framed with gold hair, the day before Lordaeron fell. My father's face was blurred, I'd seen so little of him. All I recalled were slightly pointed ears and gray eyes. Samuel with his absurd face-framing hairstyle and gray eyes, pranking me by turning me into a sheep, then when I bit him, a snail.
"Amanthe, you have a family. At Grim Batol, with our Flight. Come on, let's just go back." Her wing wrapped itself around me and pulled me back to her, and I didn't fight it. Was our escape attempt so ill-fated? So unachievable?
She was right, wasn't she? I'd left humanity behind over a century ago. I'd placed myself with the Twilight Dragonflight for the rest of my life, however long that may be. My place was with the dragons. Selriona, cackling mischievously from a mountain roost as she 'accidentally' scared off my hunt. Ialion, while he was still a whelpling, toxic green eyes jerking back and forth as he got his first taste of coffee.
"Right," I muttered. "Let's go back. It's been a month. We've... got to tell them. We have to stop them. Organize... something." My family, gone...
"Amanthe," she said sternly, making me look up at her. "I'll find a way to make it up to you, alright? I promise. It's the least I can do, for all you've done for me, all you will..."
"Will?" I asked.
She shook her head. "Nevermind that. Nalestrasza must be messing with my head." It was a gossamer attempt at an excuse, but I let it slide. "I'll make it up to you, I swear on Aman'thul's name I will. But let's just go back, alright?"
I nodded, ignoring the stinging in my eyes. "Right. Let's go back."
"But not yet. I don't have any mana, and we left all our food and drink on Argus. We're still too far for a proper portal, so we're gonna be a day, maybe more. Get some rest. You squishy human."
"Squishy yourself," I muttered, sitting down. Selriona shifted behind me, her bulk moving around until her stomach rested on the ground and her wings formed a cocoon around her. I rested against her flank, its gentle rising and falling soothing my tattered nerves. "You big sack of scales..." I was tired. I'd run nonstop for gods-know how long, fighting off an army of demons at the same time nonetheless. It didn't take long for my eyes to slam shut, the world fading to black.
Oh holy fuck. I don't think I've ever been hit with writer's block like THAT before. It's just the worst. But I'm back now, finally. About time.
Review, let me know what you think. They really help me grow as a writer and know what you do and don't like in terms of prose, so I can correct it. It's a win-win :-)
