"My Queen, Anachronos is here to see you."

"I've been expecting him. Send him in."

The Life-Binder sat in her humanoid form upon an ornate red couch. This room of the temple was furnished and oddly small, unlike many draconic dwellings, seemingly intended for mortals. In reality, this was one of Wyrmrest Temple's newest and best-equipped meeting rooms, designed for dragons in mortal form to securely discuss the planet's safety and future. Right now, however, the red aspect was alone, all her guards having been sent to the room's entrance.

A familiar figure strode into the room, a high elf adorned in golden robes favored by the Bronze Dragonflight. He surveyed his surroundings, then bowed briefly before the Dragonqueen, smiling warmly. "Alexstrasza. It's been too long."

"Or is this the first time we've met?" the Life-Binder teased. "It has been too long. It's good to see you again, Anachronos. How have you been faring?"

"You know my kind too well," Anachronos said. He sat down just across from the red aspect. "I've been well, all things considered. Better than you, I suspect."

"It's been hard," she admitted. "I've never liked being stuck in this tower while Azeroth burns. But I'm no fool. I know what needs to be done."

Anachronos nodded slowly. "We would be lost without you," he murmured.

"I know." Alexstrasza's tone suddenly became much more businesslike. "What's the status of the Bronze Dragonflight?"

"Most of our resources are dedicated to fending off the Infinite Dragonflight. Their attacks have become more and more relentless since Deathwing returned," Anachronos said. "We're sending as many of our forces as we can spare, but there's not much we can. Two more of our drake squads should have arrived here yesterday."

"They did," Alexstrasza confirmed. She tapped her claws on the armrest, seemingly in thought. "The Blue Dragonflight isn't offering any official support. They can't, without an official leader."

"Our intelligence suggests that Kalecgos will become the next Aspect of Magic," the bronze wyrm said. "Arygos is widely supported among the traditionalist wing of the Blue Dragonflight, but our agents in the Blue Dragonflight suggest that that traditionalist wing of the flight is far smaller than most believe. Once the Embrace comes, Kalecgos should be willing to commit large amounts of dragons to the war effort."

"I've heard the same," the Life-Binder said. "But Arygos, as the most senior son of Malygos, has the fervent loyalty of most of the surviving members of Malygos's special forces. He's committed a few to the war effort, but it's token support more than anything. And it's not official support."

"I heard you got quite an earful from him after one of them was killed," Anachronos commented. "I believe his name was Eyrigos?"

"Don't get me started," Alexstrasza shook her head. "I regret the loss, but this is war. Arygos needs to understand that. I hate to say it, but we can't save everyone. And it's not my flight's responsibility to protect his favorites."

Anachronos nodded. "His reaction is proof more than anything that he's not really on our side. He just wants power. But if all goes well, we won't have to worry about him. I think our main concern would be that Arygos might attempt a coup. He may not have the support of most of the flight, but with the flight's special forces in his pocket and some of the most powerful wyrms at his side-"

"I'm inclined to believe even their loyalty is less solid than Arygos would like to believe," Alexstrasza interjected. "Blue drakes are helping the Wyrmrest Accord in very large numbers, as expected. But the Red Dragonflight has received a number of under the table offers of support from both Malygos's special forces and some of the flight's most influential wyrms. Tyrigosa and a few special forces drakes, independent of Arygos, are the only notable blues who have openly pledged themselves to the Wyrmrest Accord, but there's a lot more who are ready to help us once the aspect situation is resolved."

"That's good to hear," Anachronos said. "It won't be long before we have most of the Blue Dragonflight on board, then."

"Yes. And when it comes to the others, I can't hold your flight's situation against you," Alexstrasza said. "My flight's status is well-known. My sister, with Hyjal mostly secured, is able to promise us more of her dragons than ever, although they remain preoccupied with the Nightmare. The mortals, though... Hyjal was the main site of cooperation between dragons and mortals. But both major factions are determined to protect their cities. I don't blame them, but that means most of our assistance will come from smaller groups like the Earthen Ring."

"Mortals fight in different ways than we do," Anachronos noted. "No dragon is a civilian. Every one of us can and will fight when it comes to that. Mortals, though... they have non-combatants that they have to protect. We can't rely on their support when it becomes especially difficult."

"Yes," Alexstrasza agreed. She traced a carved pattern on her couch's armrest and sighed before once again meeting Anachronos's eyes. "Have any of your flight seen Nethandris?"

Anachronos paused for a moment, then shook his head slowly. "She'll never help us," he said. "It doesn't matter."

"It's been fourteen thousand years, Anchronos, and she helped during the War of the Ancients," Alexstrasza pointed out. "We have to try. Either way, I'm not so concerned about what she thinks of us. I just don't want Deathwing getting his talons on her brood."

"Your sister would know better than I do," Anachronos said. "I think we should focus on the situation with the Blue Dragonflight for now. I do think there's a very real possibility that Arygos could try to launch a coup after a Kalecgos victory."

"I don't think there's much we can do," the Life-Binder said. "Most of the Blue Dragonflight is on shaky terms with the rest of dragonkind already. Not only does my flight have so few resources to spare, the blues would resent us for sending in forces to deal with their internal affairs, even if it turns bloody before we arrive."

"We can't risk the blues having a civil war," Anachronos said. "We need them fully behind us, even with how small their numbers already are, or our chances against Deathwing and the Twilight Dragonflight are going to be far worse."

"I think we'll only make it worse," Alexstrasza said. "I agree with you, one hundred percent, but I don't think we can risk interfering in flight politics. We just need to hope it all goes well."

"There isn't enough hope to go around these days."

"As sad as it is. On a lighter note, Ysera's dreamgate network has been allowing us to very efficiently transport rations to the front lines..."

A/N: So. Funny story. While on hiatus, my computer died, and with it everything I had for this story, including the outline for the next 20 or so chapters. Oops. While I remember the major plot points, this means that I'm going to be doing something very different for the story than what I had planned. I was going to overhaul what I had originally done for Part 2, and now that I've lost all that writing anyways, I can just scrap the whole thing with no regrets.

My original intentions for the story were very different from the direction it's going to go in now. In particular, the last chapter, from Sariona's perspective, was meant to lead into two story arcs, one focusing on Sariona and one focusing on Araxion, and this current chapter was meant to introduce Virigosa's story for Part 2. Sariona's intended storyline has been mostly sidelined for the time being, Araxion's has been heavily expanded upon, and Virigosa's will be completely different. Instead, this chapter was a way to introduce a few new plot lines and ideas that will be important to the new direction of the story. Everything in the last chapter still happened, this just means that some things may not be brought up again for a while. I may also go back and edit some very minor details in previous chapters, particularly regarding how much the Blue Dragonflight has been supporting the Wyrmrest Accord, just to keep the story consistent.

On a somewhat related note, Virigosa's power level has been brought up. This was intended from the beginning (particularly her ability to take on Sariona, Araxion, and Eryigos; some things, like Eryigos's comments, were intentionally exaggerated by the characters in question). Due to the new storyline, that's going to be addressed very soon.