The day of the Embrace. So it had finally come.
Virigosa gazed wistfully up at the sky, where the two moons were drawing ever closer. The actual Embrace had not actually happened yet, but it was obvious that it was close. She wondered what they were doing in Coldarra right now. Probably still debating, she decided. Or maybe they were watching the moons, just like she was. She could hardly believe that she had actually agreed to this.
"I'm sorry," The voice came from behind her.
Virigosa spun around and growled as she recognized the dragon in humanoid form. "Nethandris," she said. "Don't even try."
"I'm... I won't," Nethandris said. "I just wanted to say that Sathius is waiting for you. He's ready to begin whenever you are."
"Fine. I'm coming."
They had arrived in the Hinterlands early in the morning, just as the sun was rising, and had set up a makeshift base. Most of the dragons were in their humanoid forms, waiting for their orders. Nethandris's base was around an hour's flight away from where they were, so it wouldn't be too difficult to call for reinforcements. Virigosa made her way over to Sathius, who was waiting in his night elven form. He was dressed in twilight cultist robes, and had some beside him in the grass.
"It's good to see you, Virigosa," he greeted. "You know the plan. Dress up as cultists, pretend we're from the camp we raided a few weeks ago. I'm not sure what species these robes are meant for, but I doubt the Twilight's Hammer really cares much about that."
"Right," Virigosa said. "I'll use a human form and see if they fit. Two night elves would probably look suspicious. They'd be worried we were sentinels or something."
Virigosa shapeshifted into a human and changed into the cultist clothing. Sathius and Nethandris had scouted out the entrance to the facility earlier, so the green wyrm led the way. It was, to Virigosa's surprise, just a door in the side of a rocky wall, something that almost looked like a mix of high elf and dwarven architecture, hidden with vines and other foliage. There was no visible handle. Sathius took an amulet and pressed it into a slot on the door. There was a click, then a strange echo from inside. Something slid on the door, then it swung outwards and opened.
"Brother, sister," the cultist at the door said. "Where are you from?"
"Our camp in the Alterac Mountains was destroyed by adventurers," Sathius explained, holding out some of the papers the dragons had taken. "We managed to save some of the documents, including some transport logs with this location. We were hoping maybe we could be reassigned from here."
The cultist gave him and Virigosa an unreadable look, and snatched the papers. He looked them over, glanced back at the dragons in disguise, and after what seemed like forever gave them a nod. "Thank you for recovering these," he said. "Come inside. I'll see what we can do for you. We could use a few more janitorial staff."
Virigosa and Sathius stepped in through the door, and the cultist shut it behind them. With light from the outside cut off, this particular hallway was almost pitch black. Sathius took that as his cue, and slipped a dagger from his side. He grabbed the cultist before they could make a sound, put a hand over his mouth, and slit his throat before dropping the body to the ground. The sound echoed a bit, and Virigosa froze, turning in Sathius's direction.
"Already?" she hissed in a low voice. "Killing everyone we see is a great way to get caught."
"It was dark, and no one else is here," Sathius said. "It was a golden opportunity."
"There's nowhere to hide the body in these halls," Virigosa said. "Let me burn it. They won't notice a pile of ashes when it's this dark."
They stopped for a moment, and after checking the body for papers, keys, or anything else that might be important. After grabbing a few papers, Virigosa leaned down set it on fire. Sathius and Virigosa proceeded down the hallway, eventually reaching a longer, well-lit hallway that extended far to both their left and right. The hallways were wide enough for even an adult dragon to pass in most places. But most strangely, apart from themselves, there was no sign of life. There were no footsteps, no figures in the distance passing between the doors.
"I guess we're lucky someone was near the door at all," Sathius remarked.
"We could get lost in a place like this," Virigosa said. "Where is everyone? If this is really a facility with eggs and experiments, like Blackrock was under Nefarian..."
"This place is pretty structurally sound, it almost reminds me of Ironforge," Sathius said. "Maybe we can just destroy the entrance. A magical explosion, maybe? I know the Blue Dragonflight did similar things during the Nexus War."
"It would be... Well, I guess that could work," Virigosa said. "It might tire me out, depending on how strong it has to be, but I could do it. I'd be worried that this place might collapse, though, even if they did use dwarven architectural techniques."
"We're supposed to destroy this place anyways, I'm sure we can just dig through the ruins for any documents," Sathius said.
"But don't we think there might be eggs in here?" Virigosa pointed out. "They could die if a collapse happens."
"This might be our only chance to save them at all," Sathius said. "I doubt it will collapse, especially the whole structure. If anything, it'd only be that first hallway."
"Listen, that door in the front is pretty big. We're dragons, I'm sure we can just rip it off and let everyone else in," Virigosa said. "Drakes should be able to fit through, and everyone else will just have to use a humanoid form."
"You're no fun," Sathius said. Virigosa growled, and turned back towards the door.
The two dragons walked back through the dark hallway. Sathius undid the lock and held the door open, while Virigosa stepped outside and shapeshifted into her dragon form. She grasped the door firmly in her talons, and flew backwards into the air. The door came off cleanly and fell onto the ground with a clatter. Satisfied, Virigosa landed on the ground beside the green wyrm.
Sathius shifted into his dragon form, and peered inside the entrance. "Go back and tell Nethandris we found a way in," he said. "I'll make sure no one comes out to investigate and lives to tell about it."