Virigosa wasn't sure how much time had passed by the time she woke up.

Her body still felt heavy, but she was able to blink her eyes open and roll onto her side. She was in some sort of cave, and rays of light were shining through the nearby entrance. She could hear running water outside, and a more distant crashing sound, perhaps a waterfall. But it was quiet, apart from the sounds of nature, far more quiet than it had ever been in Hyjal or in the Wetlands with battles always no more than a few miles away.

"Virigosa! I thought you would be waking up soon."

The unfamiliar voice belonged to a high elf clad in golden robes. She had been standing deeper in the cave, but circled around to stand against the sunlight streaming in through the entrance. She seemed to be looking outside, gesturing to a figure out of Virigosa's line of sight.

"Who are you?" Virigosa demanded. "And how do you know my name?"

"I'm Nethandris," the elven figure said. "It's good to finally talk to you."

Virigosa was about to speak again, but another shape was approaching the cave, this one a drake. As he came closer, she was able to recognize the distinctive turquoise color of his scales.

"Tealgos," she growled.

"Actually, it's Zoralus," he said. "Sorry about what happened in the Wetlands. There was no time to explain, and I didn't want you ripping my face off halfway here."

"He really didn't need to use a spell that strong, though," Nethandris hastily added. "You've been out for three days."

"It's not my fault," Zoralus protested. "Blues aren't trained to resist green dragon abilities."

"Tell her that," Nethandris said.

Virigosa, in the meantime, was getting to her feet, stretching out her limbs and shaking the drowsiness from her body. "I've been asleep for three days?" She flexed her talons against the cave floor. "I have no idea where I am or who you are. Give me a reason I should trust you."

Nethandris didn't seem fazed. "We haven't hurt you. We had plenty of opportunity to. And we took you away from the twilights."

"And if you don't believe us," Zoralus added. "There's six dozen dragons out there who'd be happy to back us up. Physically, need be."

"You're hardly a diplomat, Zoralus," Nethandris commented.

"You're telling me?" he shot back. "Isn't being a terrible diplomat your whole schtick?"

Nethandris held up a hand to him. "Maybe later," she said, turning to Virigosa. "We're sorry about what happened in the Wetlands. The Twilight Dragonflight was trying to capture you, and Zoralus pulled you here, through the Emerald Dream, to get you away from them."

"Emerald Dream?" Virigosa asked, calming down a bit, flaring out her wings as much as she could in this tight space. "So you're a green?"

"My mother was a green and my father was a blue," Zoralus said.

"So you're... a hybrid?"

"We prefer mixed-flight," Nethandris cut in.

"So is this some sort of secret 'mixed-flight' enclave or something?" Virigosa demanded, lashing her tail across the floor.

"Not really," Nethandris said. "We have seventy-some dragons here, and only eight are mixed-flight. Excluding dragons like my children, who for all intents and purposes, are green. Most of us, for whatever reason, just didn't agree with how the leadership of our flights were operating. So they came to me."

"My flight means everything to me," Virigosa said. "Why should I trust someone who's abandoned theirs?"

"I'm just explaining what we are, Virigosa," Nethandris said. "You don't have to stay. You can get up and leave right now, fly away and never see us again. That's fine. But please, walk with me. You deserve a better explanation, and I think we can help each other, if you hear me out."

Zoralus disappeared behind the cave entrance, and Nethandris stepped back, giving Virigosa space to walk. The blue sat for a moment, pondered, and walked out of the cave into the brilliant sunlight. She could hear now, clearly, wingbeats in the distance and the sound of running water. They were on some sort of path covered in thick green grass, and it led downhill and around some rocks. The pass wasn't terribly large, but wide enough for an adult dragon to fit through. Virigosa took a moment just to take in her surroundings, before locating Zoralus and Nethandris, still in her elven form, on top of a boulder.

"Are you coming with us?" Nethandris asked.

Virigosa was careful to keep her body language as neutral as possible. "I want answers. Nothing more."

"That's all I need," Nethandris slid off the boulder, while Zoralus took to the skies, hovering just above them. "Just this way."

Nethandris shifted into her draconic form. She was a wyrm, that was obvious enough, but she was not a particularly large dragon. She was still well within the wyrm size range, but it was apparent she had always been small for her age. She was covered in bright gold scales, far more yellow in color than any member of the Bronze Dragonflight. Most anyone who looked at her would recognize her as a bronze dragon, but Virigosa, after seeing Tealgos, could tell she was mixed-flight just from the strange color.

Nethandris seemed to notice how Virigosa looked at her, and the blue didn't even have to ask her question to receive an answer. "My mother was a bronze and my father was green," Nethandris explained. "My mother was from the same clutch as Anachronos. I call myself Nozdormu's least-favorite granddaughter."

"That's... nice," Virigosa said. What other response was there?

The pass opened up even wider, and soon Virigosa was able to walk alongside Nethandris. They rounded a final turn, and the main part of the camp was revealed. Guarded by a rocky outcropping, the center of the camp a lake and a large stretch of grass. Above the lake, a few drakes looked to be practicing combat. Adult dragons, wyrms, and drakes alike were resting under shade or in caves, and they hardly looked surprised as Nethandris approached.

As they passed by, Nethandris used her tail to point out a green wyrm basking next to the lake. "That's Sathius," she said. "My consort."

Nethandris led the two drakes across the field and down through another path. Virigosa sat down in the grass, and Nethandris laid across from her, spread out like a cat. Zoralus settled next to his Lady, watching the two female dragons with interest.

"Wherever you want to start, Virigosa," Nethandris said.

She knew exactly where she wanted to begin. "What does the Twilight Dragonflight want with me?" she demanded. "And how do you know about it?"

"I like to be well-informed," Nethandris began to explain. "I have dragons here with me, yes, but I have a network of contacts across Azeroth, in every flight. Except, of course, those that answer to the Old Gods. We may not be allied with the Wyrmrest Accord, but like them, we fight for the destruction of the Twilight's Hammer and the security of Azeroth. So, in order to get actionable intelligence on twilight activities, I sent an agent into the Bastion of Twilight."

"I was that agent," Zoralus said. "You nearly got me killed, Nethandris, thank you very much. I can't just slip into the Emerald Dream in a place like that."

"You're still alive, and the information you gave us was invaluable," Nethandris said. "It didn't help you kept trying your luck. Did you really have to claim you were related to one of Eszragos's mistresses?"

"You know I like to fancy myself a gambler," Zoralus said.

"Whatever you like to 'fancy yourself' isn't my fault," Nethandris said. "Sorry, Virigosa. Anyways, while there, Zoralus was assigned to a mission where he, along with a group of twilight drakes, would capture you and bring you to a twilight base in the Hinterlands. When you went into the trap that the Twilight's Hammer set, instead of leaving you, he put you to sleep and we brought you here through the Emerald Dream."

"It's not polite to just leave someone to get captured by the Twilight's Hammer, you know?" Zoralus said. "And the more resources we can take away from them, the better. They said they wanted you specifically for one of their projects. You were the closest of Eszragos's drakes, and most of them are in Coldarra, where there's no chance they can get them."

"Eszragos's drakes?" Virigosa echoed, tilting her head. "I'm not one of Eszragos's drakes. I was told that they all died during the Nexus War."

Zoralus looked confused to hear this. "They were very sure that you're one of Eszragos's."

Nethandris was shaking her head. "Our sources say that around fifty of Eszragos's drakes survived the Nexus War," she said. "They're definitely still around. Mensagosa is one of Arygos's strongest supporters, and almost all of her credibility comes from being a war hero that was empowered by Eszragos."

"Are you sure?" Virigosa said. "I don't know how that's possible."

"I'm sure," Nethandris said. "All of my blue agents are in agreement. There's no debate about it within the flight. I can have one of my dragons retrieve your records from the Nexus if you want to be certain."

"That's... very strange," Virigosa said. She shifted her feet uncomfortably and wrapped her tail tightly around her talons. She wanted to change the subject. "Now, earlier. You said we thought we could help each other."

"Indeed I do," Nethandris said. "Virigosa, I know you're loyal to the Aspects and the Wyrmrest Accord. I have no love for them. But I'm not asking you to abandon them and join us- instead, I think that by working with us, we can-"

"What do you have against the Aspects?" Virigosa interrupted.

"I always look forward to someone asking me that question," Nethandris rose to her feet. "Are you familiar with the idea of ancient draconic law, Virigosa?"

The answer was yes, but Virigosa didn't get the chance to say it, because Nethandris launched into her speech almost immediately. "Fourteen thousand years ago, when Kalimdor was whole and five dragonflights protected Azeroth, the Aspects and their cronies spent their time writing countless treaties and laws that dictated what the flights could do and how dragons of different flights could interact with each other," she began to explain. "Most of those were abandoned after Kalimdor shattered and the Black Dragonflight betrayed them. But back then, one of those laws forbid dragons from breeding across flights. Mixed-flight dragons would have always been outcasts, no matter what. Not fitting neatly in any of the flights, the building blocks of draconic civilization. My parents made a mistake by having children, but I was held to answer for what they had done. I was not the first mixed-flight dragon that was born, I was just the first that they didn't kill."

"There has to be more to the story than that," Virigosa didn't let Nethandris get another word in. "The Aspects are reasonable. Alexstrasza loves all life. They wouldn't kill you just for being born."

"They have their excuses, but to be frank, I don't give a shit about why they did it," Nethandris answered, digging her talons into the grass. "They tried to kill me, and that's all I need to know. Ysera was the only one who showed me any sort of mercy, and Malygos didn't care. The others didn't stop until I threatened to reveal something that would have been very bad for them. You see, not all dragons agreed with what the Aspects had tried to do to me. So they helped me. That's when I realized how powerful information can be."

"You're crazy," Virigosa said. "The Aspects are good people."

Nethandris shook her head. "I may be a bitter old dragon," she admitted. "But believe me, I'm perfectly sane."

"She has this conversation with pretty much everyone new she meets," Zoralus said. "Neth here just doesn't have a very endearing personality."

"I think most everyone else here would disagree with you," Nethandris said sharply, gesturing with her tail back to where they had came.

"Enough," Virigosa snapped. "Just tell me how I can help you, and how you can help me. You said it yourself, I don't have to be here."

"Right, right," Nethandris sat down and lowered her head. "Working with the Red Dragonflight in the Wetlands, you have experience against the Twilight Dragonflight and the Twilight's Hammer. If after the Nexus War you're willing to work with the Red Dragonflight to defend Azeroth, you've shown you can put aside past grudges and disagreements for the greater good. Those are great qualities to have, and we can always use someone like that around here."

"Is that it?" Somehow, it felt like that couldn't be all. Plenty of drakes had experience against the twilights, and plenty had worked with other flights at some point in the past.

Nethandris smiled, and didn't seem to acknowledge Virigosa's question at all. "I won't criticize the Wyrmrest Accord, because I know what you think of them. We want to protect Azeroth, just like they do. The difference is, with us, you won't spend days lounging around in a red dragon war camp. You'll be with us making a plan, executing the plan, whatever you want. You could spend your time basking in the sun, if that's what you desire. Either way, we can give you a much more active position in the war than you've had."

"The chain of command is there for a good reason," Virigosa said. "There's a reason generals are wyrms and not whelps."

"How long have you fighting for, Virigosa?" Nethandris said back. "Don't tell me you know nothing about strategy. Besides, many of us here are wyrms, born before the Sundering. Our plans aren't made by just drakes, everyone contributes to them."

"You're failing to impress me," Virigosa said, moving her tail from her feet to swish it back and forth beside her.

"That's fine, because I think you'll find my next offer most appealing," the golden wyrm said. "Have they ever bothered to tell you where twilight dragons come from, Virigosa? The Twilight's Hammer and the Black Dragonflight takes the eggs of the four other flights, and uses shadow magic to convert them into twilight eggs. Red eggs are the ones they take most often. However, a very large number of twilight drakes originally came from blue eggs."

Virigosa dug her talons into the soil, but refused to say anything.

"I think it's fair to say that after the Nexus War, whether it was justified or not, it was clear that the Wyrmrest Accord's top priorities do not include the preservation of the Blue Dragonflight," Nethandris continued. "But our priorities are not theirs. We will help you take back stolen eggs from the Twilight's Hammer, Virigosa, and you can bring them back to your flight. I'm not Alexstrasza. No single flight is my main priority, while she has to worry about her Red Dragonflight- I, on the other hand, care about every dragon, from every flight, regardless of what they've done."

Something about the offer sounded too good to be true. Virigosa let her talons sink deeper into the dirt. "You still haven't given me very good reasons to trust you," she said.

"You have nothing to lose and so much to gain, Virigosa," Nethandris said. "We can help you play your part in saving the world, and help you save your flight at the same time. The Wyrmrest Accord, when it puts you at a quiet outpost in the Wetlands, can't say the same thing."

"I'm not going to waste my time on false promises," Virigosa said.

"Listen, Virigosa, then you don't have to," Nethandris said. "We've been planning an assault on a twilight camp where they're holding eggs to send to the Twilight Highlands. We're going to raid it tomorrow. Join us. We'll prove that we're telling the truth. And if you don't like it, you can leave whenever you like. I just ask that you give us a chance."

There was a long moment of silence before Virigosa finally answered. "I'll give you one chance," she said.

"That's all we need," Nethandris said. "And I thank you. Zoralus, take her to her quarters. She's going to be tired after you put her to sleep for so long."

The sun had set some hours ago, and it was almost silent in Nethandris's camp. A dragon in a night elven form picked his way through the grass, and descended into one of caves that ringed the lake. Four other dragons, also in their humanoid forms, were already there.

"Sathius," Nethandris said. "It's good to see you've finally arrived."

"Meralygosa is dead," Sathius announced. "Navagos passed along the word to me."

"I'm surprised that Arygos would dare kill her," Another dragon, an adult named Jerastrasza, said. "Killing others is not a good way to ensure their silence. More often than not, it only serves to make everyone else more supicious."

"He's hardly clever," Nethandris pointed out. "And he killed her too late anyways. She'd already passed his dirty little secrets off to us."

"He disguised her death to make it look like spell that backfired," Sathius said. "But Navagos and a few others weren't fooled. Arygos is arousing more suspicion than he'd like."

"But none of them are going to do anything," Arisra, the fourth dragon and a daughter of Nethandris, pointed out. "The Embrace is too close, and Arygos holds the illusion of power on his side. We all know that the odds of him becoming Aspect are bordering on impossible, but almost every blue dragon believes that he holds a strong majority of the flight behind him."

"Many of Kalecgos's supporters believe that most of the flight is against them," Zoralus observed. "When really, there's so many more of them than they think."

"Arygos's power is undeniable, though," Sathius said. "With Mensagosa at his side, the Blue Dragonflight's strongest warriors will live and die for him."

"And with Deathwing ready to support him," Nethandris added dryly. "If Arygos wins, the Blue Dragonflight joins the blacks. If he loses, the Blue Dragonflight... it could be a slaughter. The smart move for Deathwing would be to cut his loses and try to destroy them right then and there, when they're still weak from the ritual to empower an Aspect. I hope I'm wrong, but even in his madness, Deathwing is no fool."

"It kills me knowing our options," Zoralus said. "If we tell the Blue Dragonflight, they'll refuse to believe it and then we have Arygos going after us. There's no way we can stand against Deathwing and stop it ourselves. And if we tell Alexstrasza..."

"I'd be willing to set aside my differences with Alexstrasza and tell her something like this," Nethandris said. "But her options wouldn't be much better than ours. If she were to interfere in the Blue Dragonflight's internal politics, it could create another war between the two flights, with tensions as high as they are. The Blue Dragonflight might not end up picking an Aspect at all, leaving Arygos as the apparent leader, meaning Deathwing would probably get his way anyways."

"We need to try and keep as many blues out of Coldarra as possible," Jerastrasza said. "And hope that a viable option presents itself. Sathius, any progress on trying to smuggle the eggs out of the Nexus?"

"Our remaining contacts in Coldarra have all flatly refused," Sathius said. "And if we tell them that Arygos is working with Deathwing, both them and us will then become a target. We'd need to send in a team of our own to get them out, and I don't see that happening. Zoralus is our only dragon that can pass for a blue, and the Blue Dragonflight would be out for blood if he was found anywhere near the eggs before they disappeared."

"Speaking of which," Arisra said. "Did the blue drake agree to stay? I saw that she was awake."

"She doesn't trust us," Nethandris said. "But that's not surprising. I had Navagos send us her records when she first arrived, and she has a history of fervent loyalty to her flight."

"Odd she'd be working with the reds, then," Zoralus noted.

"Yes," Nethandris agreed. "But either way, she agreed to join the attack on the twilight holding camp. I think that she'll be very willing to work with us after that."

"That's good, then," Arisra said. "Do you think this camp might have more information on that Hinterlands facility?"

"I'd assume so," Zoralus said. "From what I could wrestle out of the twilights, their Hinterlands facility is a place where they do experiments on dragons. Like Blackrock Mountain under Nefarian. This is the closest twilight camp to the Hinterlands that we know of, and if they have eggs there, it makes sense that they'd be sending them to the Hinterlands base instead of the Twilight Highlands."

"Let's hope so," Sathius said. "We should finalize our plans before we show them to the others in the morning."

Nethandris nodded. "That's a good idea. Let's talk strategy, then. Now, Jerastrasza, you're still going to be leading a group of six against them from the west, yes?.."