I don't know how long I sat there in the Council chamber just thinking.
Arthas already purged Stratholm.
Arthas was on his way to, or already in, Northrend.
In a very short time, he would return to the Eastern Kingdoms and plunge the entire continent into chaos.
And said chaos would soon march north and kill most of the high elven population…
How can I-
No, how can anyone with the foreknowledge I have deal with this sort of thing?
Even now, the mere thought of all that will happen, all that I might have been able to prevent if I had just gotten off my ass, was making me feel light headed. Everything seemed to be moving way to fast. I just...
After a while, I had zoned out of the discussion going on in the room.
Wait.
No… It wasn't that I zoned them out, there was no noise at all coming from them. Their lips moved, but no voice came out. It wasn't some sort of silencing spell, I would have been able to detect that sort of thing. They were just mute.
What the hell-
Before I could try and rationalize the scene any further, a hand wrapped against the door to the chamber.
"Knock, knock, knock~" Oh my god that fucking voice. Ironic that I'm saying that about my own voice. Yet low and behold, the door clicked and slowly opened to reveal that pale red eyed doppelganger almost skipping into the council room. That damned smile…it easily crossed the uncanny valley.
"So, you're going to haunt my waking hours with hallucinations now?" I commented quietly, not wanting others to think I was 'talking to myself'.
"Hallucinations?" she tilted her head.
I didn't reply, just gesturing to the area around us in a way that wouldn't make anyone around me think I was crazy. Something was muting everything around me, and the source had probably just skipped her eldritch looking ass in.
"Oh….Oh! Yeah, I see what you mean," she nodded to herself. Looking back at me with a grin, she wandered over to my side, leaning right to my ear and setting every hair on my neck up. "But how about this: what if you aren't awake." With a damn smirk, she angled a finger 'gun' at the 'people' and 'fired' it with a soft pew. The entire building, everything and everyone in it, exploded into a burst of smoke leaving the two of us in an empty void lit by a white-black sun.
"Wait, when did I…" I rubbed my eye, blinking quickly as if to clear the 'weirdness' from my sight.
"You mean fall asleep?" she finished my sentence with a shrug. "Hell if I know. I just saw you were in the neighborhood as it were and thought I'd stop by to say hi."
I pinched my nose. I was not in the mood for this sort of bullshit right now.
"And besides!" the doppelganger continued. "If I was just some visual hallucination, why didn't I just phase through the door over there. Better yet how could I open the door if I was immaterial?"
I didn't answer her, silently kicking myself for not thinking of that.
"Anyway, it's so good to see you again! Feels like it's been ages since we last spoke! I mean I know it's just been a few days, but man oh man does it feel a lot longer!"
"Not long enough," I grumble, more focused on trying to wake myself up than deal with this. If this is just a dream, I should be able to leave it when I want to. I just have to do it consciously. I stood up and started pacing around the small area that hadn't been obliterated by the doppelganger's antics.
I just have to wake up.
Wake up.
Wake-
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on there," she yanks me by the hood of my robe off my feet. Rather than hit the ground, I actually float in midair. Her firm grip on my robe kept me from floating 'away'. Guess rules of nature don't apply in a dream. "Before you go all 'you're not me~' and all that, just hear me out."
"I don't sound like that," I snort back.
"Yes, you do, we do have the same voice. Remember?" she 'spun' me around until I was looking her in the eye. "And please don't go down that rabbit hole of questioning if reality really does exist or something. I mean sure, this world is a fictitious one, but you know what I mean."
"So anyway, what you did back there, the Kirin Tor I mean, good work. 'A+' effort! Go to a bunch of reasonable authority figures who will actually do something. And I thought I'd seen it all~"
"Is this going somewhere?"
"I'm just trying to cover the good news before we get to the bad news." 'Bad news?' "So quick question, did you notice what happened when you told those guys over there about a bunch of super-secret plot stuff they definitely shouldn't have known about yet?"
"What?" What was this thing getting at?
"This isn't some trick question," she teased, "tell me, what happened the moment you told everyone about both the plot for Warcraft 3's human campaign and a good chunk of the Chronicles Books? And what happened to you, specifically I mean."
"Um…nothing?"
"Ding, ding, ding! Exactly, nothing happened," she her smile turned deadpanned, creepy how she could do that at the drop of a hat. "Nothing. Nothing stopped you from coming here, nothing impeded you from speaking to them, nothing tried to nab you in a dark alley and drag you to the Caverns of Time where a certain dragonflight who cares about the sanctity of the timeline resides. But absolutely nothing happened to you when you tried to essentially derail the canon of Warcraft. Now tell me why, hmmm?
"What are you talking about?" I knew she was referring to the Bronze Dragonflight and their propensity to time shenanigans, but what was she-
Oh.
Oh no….
"What I'm talking about, as you so eloquently put it, is if those dragons who care about keeping the timeline the same didn't drag you kicking and screaming away from doing this, that means only two possibilities exist: either 'a', they don't care about you mucking up an important part of the timeline that sets up so many events in the coming decades. Or, more likely, 'b', they aren't doing anything because what you did doesn't change the outcome of anything."
"So you're trying to tell me it was all pointless!?" While I lashed out at her- It! I lashed out at it, I was mostly just venting my own frustrations of being too slow.
"Of course not," she shook her head. "Pointless implies nothing changed from you doing this. I'm saying not enough changed to warrant any 'timey-wimey' bullshit from happening to you."
"Isn't that the same thing?"
"Yes and no," the red eyed girl explained. "Yes, because you've probably extended the lives of many people in Lordaeron by the smallest of margins. Maybe farmer John survives for two whole hours rather than two measly minutes when the undead attacks his home. Maybe his family survives the wilds for five days rather than one. And yet, you didn't change annoying enough because the result is still the same: he and his family died and joined the ranks of the Scourge. Repeat that across all victims of the Scourge and all you have left are a slower tailspin for the Alliance."
"So, what would you have done then? Nothing and let everyone die!? Run away with Jaina and abandon my home!?"
"Run? Yes. With Jaina? Of course not!" the doppelganger kicked her legs up in the air. "Why the hell would we run to Jaina's group to go across the sea only to end up facing the Burning Legion in Kalimdor? I mean, sure, the situation resolves itself way faster than over here, but I wouldn't take my chances with all the demons over there."
I stayed silent, not wanting to give her- it, the satisfaction that I agreed with it.
"Also, this isn't our home," the doppelganger dragged me in by the collar. I was so close our foreheads were touching. Close enough to tell she wasn't even breathing, despite talking so much. "This place isn't real in the way we are. It's a fantasy world. Fictional. Take this whole Scourge thing, nothing more than a plot to entertain gamers as they played through a critically acclaimed video game."
"So you're saying nothing matters?"
"Things matter only in the way they affect us, everything else is irrelevant. This place may be fictional, but it is beyond deadly. We got so fucking lucky last we died it's not even funny. I refuse to let you walk us into a battle we have no stake in, or worst, let that emo prince impale you with the soul-stealing sword in some stupid attempt at heroism.
She- IT smiled, and ran a hand down my cheek. "I admit, I've had to spend most of my energy just keeping my head afloat and not letting what we know get out from lock and key. Even so, I am more than capable of doing what is needed for both our sakes."
"Is that a threat?" I growled, but beneath the anger, there was a pang of fear. Could this thing puppet my body?
"It's not a threat, it's an offer," she- IT smiled again. "When you reach the point where you have no idea of what to do, paralyzed with indecision and doubt, just know that I am always here with you. Ready to take the reins and do what needs to be done, the things that you will decry but know deep down are right."
Before I could give her some sort of witty comeback, the world around us started to phase out of existence.
"Well, looks like our time is up. Anyway, when you're ready to stop acting like a brat, you know where to find me." She looked around, as if trying to remember something then lit up. "Hey, I just thought of something. Wouldn't it be funny if someone has been saying 'wake up, wake up' over and over again while you were here?"
I didn't have enough time to roll my eyes before I returned to the world of the waking.
There were no such people around me when I woke up.
Actually, I didn't know where I even was.
Not in the council room, and definitely not my hotel/inn room. I was lying atop the covers of a bed, still had on my clothes from before, in a small guest room looking place. Some light came in from a window, the curtains pulled over to keep most of it out. As unassuming as this place might be, I'd very much like to know where I am.
But before I could even sit up and look around properly, I realized that there was something laying on my chest. Heavy enough for me to feel it pressing down on me, light enough that I could still breath easily. Kind of felt like a little dog had curled up on my chest.
Well…turns out there was something small on top of me, but it sure wasn't a dog.
It was red, scaly, and reptilian. Blazing orange eyes stared into me. It blinked slowly as I stared at it.
Is that a... baby dragon?
Some monkey part of my brain was trying to flare up my fight or flight instinct at the sight of its sharp claws and teeth. But the way it was laying on me, with those big orange eyes, leathery wings folded onto its back, lying on its belly, with its tail swishing back and forth made that other part of my brain flair to life. The part that makes your heart melt like butter at the sight of something cute.
Without even thinking, my hand moved to pet the dragon on the head. Only to stop when I remembered something. Dragons can shapeshift and change their forms at will, right? So, the question was is this a genuine baby dragon, or is he/she just a dragon trying to look like a baby dragon?
Maybe this little guy works for Krasus and he's just here to look after me, and took that form so I wouldn't be scared shitless at the sight of a scaly red monster looking over me. Or this could be a genuine baby.
I better check to make sure.
Hmmmmm. Better check to make sure.
"Um…hi?" I wave to it. It just stares at me, bright eyes tracking my waving hand, but giving no reply.
Oh wait, maybe I should talk in its language. Time to put some of Siristra's lessons to good use.
Clearing my throat, I repeated my question. This time, in Draconic, "h-hi there, who are you?"
God damn Draconic is so hard on the throat. Feels like I'm coughing up my lungs!
My sore throat aside, this got a reaction. The whelp immediately locked eyes with me, recognition clear as day. Yet, it stayed quiet.
Actually, if this is a genuine baby, would it even be able to talk to me regardless of language? Eh? Might as well just double down and see how far this can go.
"Okay…" I clear my throat again. "Sorry for being blunt, but could you please tell me where I am?"
No reply, but it decided to draw closer. Looked as if the little guy was coming up to whisper something to me.
"Again, I'm sorry if it's a bother, but I would really like to know where….I…am…"
Rather than pay attention to what I was saying, the little guy bit into my robe's sleeve and started to pull and tug at it. Itty bitty claws pawed at the fabric as the little fella went to town playing with my robe. Kind of like an excited puppy when you hold out a toy and they want to play 'tug of war' with you. Or maybe a child teething.
Sadly, my robe's material was no match for a 'mighty' whelp's claws and fangs. Ripping and tearing pieces off as it played. Cooing in delight as it shredded more and more red fibers off.
Well, I guess that answers the question of how old they are.
Sitting up, the little fella rolled into my lap, its jaw not letting up on the fabric as the whelp munched away happily. Reflexively, and again thinking of this reptile as a puppy, I petted it on the head. The scaly, leathery, skin was warm to the touch.
When it almost purred at my touch, I couldn't hold in what I wanted to say anymore.
"Who's a good dragon? Who's a good dragon? You are. Yes, you are. Yes, you are", I spoke to him (her?) in draconic. Honestly, the way I was holding the little guy made it almost like an emotional support whelp then a fearsome dragon. Not helped by the constant cooing and cawing at my baby talk. "Who's a cutie, who's a cutie. You are. Yes you-"
A massive burst of mana immediately caught my attention over the adorable red ball in my lap. Looking to the source is when I finally noticed that the door to this guest room was ajar. Just wide enough for the light from beyond to flood in.
Or just wide enough for something baby dragon sized to slip through…
Was that already open or does this little guy know how to fiddle with a door handle?
"Did you do that?" I asked the whelp. No reply of course.
But that burst of mana, that was a serious spell that just went off. From the intensity and how quickly it went down to normal, I can only think of two things that might have caused it: some sort of attack spell that could level a city block, or a teleportation spell.
Given how close the spell was from here, I'm betting there wasn't some massive explosion I missed but teleportation.
Really far teleportation.
Like continental scale teleportation. The kind I only saw once when an instructor at Dath'Remar was showing us how far he could go in one burst, going from Silvermoon to Stormwind and back in under a minute.
Hmmm, this called for some investigation. I can also figure out where I am at the same time.
I got up, carefully shifting the small dragon off my lap and onto the bed, and moved to exit the room.
Pushing to the door open, I heard a soft flapping sound from behind. The little whelp was following me by air, flapping his itty bitty wings as fast as he could to stay in flight. Actually, how were wings so small able to carry his weight? Birds can fly because their bones are light, but this guy is heavy as a dog.
And like a dog, the whelp followed me out of the room, chirping and cawing for attention.
Entering the modest hallway, portraits of fruit lining the walls, I tried to shush the baby. This was an investigation! it just happily chirped to get my attention.
Down the short hallway, I was able to look out a pair of windows along the way and safely determine I was still in Dalaran. Several stories above the ground, I got a good view of the foot traffic of a main street. Going by the poston of the sun I would say it was close to mid-day. A quick glance at a clock to my side confirmed it.
So, I'm still in Dalaran, and I've got a red dragon following me. I'm pretty sure I know who brought me here.
Sure enough, at the end of the hallway was a sitting room with a certain disguised reptilian enjoying a cup of tea.
"Good morning, Miss Dawnguard," Krasus greeted me, doing his best to organize the messy assortment of papers strewn across the table. Either he was not the tidiest person or he had been pulling an 'all-nighter'. His gaze soon shifted from me to the baby dragon hanging from my sleeve. He sighed with a smile, "and I see you've also met my son."
"Your son," I glanced to my side to the whelp.
"My youngest," he elaborated, setting his cup down and walking over to us, his eyes firmly on the whelp. "Who knows he ought to be sleeping right now and not disturbing our guest."
The whelp flew above the table and chirped at Krasus's seamless transition to draconic. The little guy looked out the window, not meeting his father's eyes.
"Wait, he understands you?" I'd been working under the assumption he was just reacting to the tone of my voice.
"Why wouldn't he?" He smiled at my question, then patted the baby dragon on the head."Now that you've had your fun, Nastrasz, go to your room. Me and the young woman have important things to discuss."
The whelp whined, which got a good chuckle out of Krasus.
"Don't worry my son, I shall make it up to you tonight by reading your favorite story before bed."
Little Nastrasz happily chirped, but still didn't move.
"Yes, I promise. Now please, son."
Several more chirps, a little arial loop, and the whelp flapped his way out of the living room, giving only a single look back to look at us before rounding the corner. Krasus gestured for me to sit.
"So," I started. This guy was one of the most powerful dragons on Azeroth. How do I break the ice with that kind of person? "What did he say?"
"He didn't say anything," Krasus sat down across from me. "But when you've been around a whelp long enough, you can parse out what their whines and chirps mean."
"You make him sound like a dog," I almost didn't realize what I just said. "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean-"
"No, you have the right of it," the dragon cut off my apology, seemingly not offended by me comparing his son to an animal. "He's non-verbal for now, but in some time, I have no doubt we shall share many pleasant conversations. I also apologize if he woke you up. His curiosity must have gotten the better of him and he slipped into your room while I was dealing with another matter."
"You mean whoever teleported out of here?"
"So that's what woke you up?"
"No but…" Was it right for me to ask this question? "Um, can I ask why you brought me here?"
"Certainly. You fell asleep in your seat in the Council Chamber so I brought you to my home. I suppose I could have dropped you off back at your Academy's accommodations, but I have to confess the thought slipped my mind until a few hours later. By then, well, it seemed better to let you sleep then to take you out of bed. After everything you told the Council, I can only imagine how exhausted you must be. Then my queen's handmaiden showed up and was too busy giving her my findings. In turn, she is currently racing back to Wyrmrest."
Wyrmrest? "You're taking this all the way to Alexstrasza?"
"The Ruby Flight are the protectors of life on Azeroth. Even if you haven't mentioned the Legion's involvement, a plague of undeath is an affront to everything we hold dear. While I cannot say if she will personally be ready enough to fight this Scourge herself, the full might of our flight will be brought to bear against these monsters. On that, you have my word."
And for the first time since the meeting with the Council, I actually felt a sliver of relief. The dragons mysteriously had no part in the Third War in canon despite the whole Legion invasion thing. I can chalk that up to Warcraft 3 gameplay/story integration not meshing up. But in 'real life', their involvement would raise more than a few eyebrows.
"You might also like to know that King Terenas has recently been informed of his son's fall," the Prime Consort informed me.
Again, more good news. "And how did that go?"
"As well as one can expect," Krasus explained. "What father wants to be told his son not only intends to be his executioner, but to put the whole realm, perhaps even the world, to the sword as well? All in service to demons and undead. I heard it was quite the back and forth."
"I'm surprised he believed it," hell I wouldn't believe it if I didn't have the foreknowledge of the games to work with.
"He didn't, not at first anyway," the dragon continued. "It was only after Sir Uther lent his voice to Antonias's warnings about the prince's state of mind that he finally conceded to at least exercise the greatest amount of caution possible.
"How do you exercise caution against an imminent undead invasion?" Seemed counter productive to me.
"By not losing your King before the first battle is even fought."
Fair enough.
"Now, while I would normally offer you something to eat or drink before sending you on your way, as you can see," he gestured to the papers, "I have a great deal of work to do. Even should this mad prince's invasion fail before it even begins, there is still the matter of the Legion that must be dealt with."
"So, what are we going to do next, with the Legion and undead I mean?" I questioned.
"For me, much. For you, nothing at the moment."
"But-" was he seriously saying 'let the grown ups deal with this?'
"There is no need for that," he raised his hand to interrupt me. "You've done a larger service than you can imagine. You brought attention to the Legion's activities, dragged their schemes into the light of day. The fact that the situation has devolved to the point where the word of a…" he mulled about for the right word.
"Child?" I offered.
"I was going to say young woman, but you are not entirely wrong," he shook his head. "Regardless, the fact it was you who brought this to our attention is already a great failure on our part. For that, you have my deepest thanks, and a heartfelt apology."
"But…" I can help.
I can….
I can do something. Tell you everything I know!
Save the world right here and now!
Yet I didn't say anything.
Leaving the dragon's large apartment, a note in hand to explain my absence to the Academy staff, I could help but wonder why I choked up in there.
I did have more to say. What the Legion's target is. How they plan to do it. How they can (or canonically will) be stopped. But I choked up.
Why?
This information could help people! Save lives!
'It could also backfire horribly', a sinister part of my mind whispered. Canon only happened because events followed a certain track. The more one derails said track, the less helpful my foreknowledge becomes. Or worse, events could transpire worse than if I had done nothing.
The Scourge would be defeated. The Legion would be turned back. Even if I had said nothing, the hero's would win the day.
But was that line of logic what I genuinely thought, or just an excuse to feel a shred of power for knowing the 'future'?
I ignored the awkward looks from the Academy's minders when I returned to the Inn. Sure, I had a note from Krasus detailing some bullshit reason why I was out late and did not return, but the unspoken implications were quite annoying.
Think about it: a young girl arrives late the next morning from an, apparent, all-night meeting with a powerful mage lord at his personal home?
I wasn't even the most socially aware and I could see the writing on the wall.
Look I know some people do that sort of…stuff to get power. Hell, there was even a class for that sort of stuff at Dath'Remar on both ends of the 'arrangement'. Yes, the most prestigious school in the nation had a class where students are taught the best ways to 'trade pleasure for favors' in addition to learning the proper amount of 'rewards' to give to such a 'partner' when on the receiving end.
The whole concept was utterly alien to me. Sure, I might be a bit of a blabber mouth and say more than I ought to, but it's an almost unimaginable concept to open myself up like that for something to that sort of relationship for something so transactional.
But I do understand that some people do that sort of stuff.
Moving on, when I told my 'story' back to a groggy Elsia and an annoyed Verana, I could tell neither of them believed it either. They didn't outright call me out, the letter did have Krasus's personal seal on it, so no matter how suspicious it looked I technically had the backing of Krasus himself on the matter. Thankfully, neither questioned me further about it.
For the rest of my stay in Dalaran, everything proceeded as intended. Speeches, seminars, free-roaming, free time, all that good stuff.
I won't lie and say I didn't try to bury myself in frivolous things to keep my mind preoccupied and off the subject of the Scourge. I've proven time and time again I enjoy blissful ignorance to harsh reality. But the Scourge and Legion invasion were one harsh truth that no amount of distractions could get me to stop fretting about.
It was even bad enough that Elsia and Verana both came to me, separately and at different times, to ask me what I was worried about. The way they spoke made it painfully clear they were thinking something happened that the night I didn't come back.
They were right, but I was hardly some forced paramour or concubine they both seemed to be alluding to. Not by Krasus himself, but that the fake-elf had helped me out of a situation involving some other party and was doing his part to preserve my 'honor'.
If only the situation was that simple.
Expectedly, though still, unfortunately, Kael'thas little seminar was canceled. Apparently, the prince was preoccupied with other matters. I suppose Imminent zombie apocalypses tend to do that. Shame, I had wanted to speak with him about what the Council was planning to do. While Krasus did say to leave it to the adults, I don't know anyone who sits quietly when something on the scale of the Scourge or the Legion is about to happen.
I will say that I wanted to smack the back of the heads of some of the other students who started to whine about the 'highlight' of the excursion being ruined.
Like seriously, the guy is trying to stop a zombie apocalypse! Give him a break!
Still, one other incident stood out more than any other. On the very day we were leaving no less.
As the telemancers opened up a portal for us back to Silvermoon, the sudden sound and light from said magic scared off a flock of birds nesting in a tree. They scattered as the 'floosh' sound of the portal coming to life scared them.
All except one bird, a raven, that just kept staring at our group. One by one, we walked back home, and it kept staring.
Wanting to confirm that this was who I thought it was, I let everyone go ahead of me.
Being the last one, I stared the bird down. My stare-off with the bird must have annoyed the minders who were basically trying to push me through after a point. But the 'raven' chose to fly away once it realized that I knew who he was.
Yep. I had just rubbed shoulders with very powerful people, said a lot of things that were very well-guarded secrets, and I was absolutely on some sort of watch list for it now.
For a while, nothing happened.
Everything proceeded as normal. School carried on, assignments were given out, tests completed, and swordsmanship practiced. It was an uncanny sensation of mortal peril paired with the blissful ignorance of my surroundings.
Of course, I hoped it meant that what I did somehow changed the story. That this wasn't some calm before the storm but evidence that my foreknowledge had done something good.
That my warning, late as it had been, had single-handedly nipped the Scourge in the bud and saved untold numbers of lives.
It took two further weeks of blissful ignorance to have reality slap me across the cheek.
Lordaeron was gone. The city had been overwhelmed by a horde of undead that butchered the populace and rose them to fill its ranks. They were spreading across the human kingdom like a virus, entire hamlets and villages vanishing in the dead of night. The fighting from what I heard was fierce, and the dead outnumbered the living.
The Scourge had begun.
And I couldn't help but feel it was all my fault.
AN: That's right folks, I'm back!
Yep, so this chapter was a pain to write. Not just because it was hard, but with all the stuff going on at Blizzard. Just seemed to suck all the drive to write more. But I'm back, and hopefully (probably) you all won't have to wait until 2023 for the next chapter!
Mostly because I actually had a bunch of stuff I wanted to put into this chapter but none of it 'meshed' with the overall theme and flow. So I'm kicking it all to the next chapter, an Interlude showing the immediate effects of Syllia's warnings and how despite thinking otherwise, things have drastically changed.