Around twenty of Nethandris's dragons were participating in the attack on the twilight camp. The dragons' base was located in the mountains of the northern Eastern Kingdoms, and the twilight camp was in Hillsbrad, so it was not a particularly long flight. They gathered a safe distance away from the camp while they prepared for the assault itself. This location would work for now, but the twilight camp had drakes, so they would have to make their move quickly.
Jerastrasza was leading one of the teams, and Sathius the other. Blue dragons often fought alone or in pairs rather than in large, coordinated groups- the three red drakes Virigosa had worked with in the Wetlands were the most she ever had to deal with- and so she was unsure of who to go with. Eventually, Zoralus landed beside her.
"You don't have to join either of them," he said. "I know this isn't how the Blue Dragonflight does things."
Virigosa shook her head. "I don't want to interfere with their plans," she said. "I'm not sure how you do things here, and now's as good a time to learn as any."
"Virigosa, I want you with me," Nethandris said, having walked over to the two drakes in her elven form unnoticed. "I'll be going after the place where they keep the eggs. There's a good chance they'll have some sort of spells protecting them, and I'll need someone to disable them."
Virigosa still couldn't help but feel that there had to be some sort of nefarious intentions behind Nethandris's offers. There had to be some sort of catch she had conveniently failed to mention, or something she expected that had not yet been made apparent. Just from what Nethandris had said about Alexstrasza, Virigosa knew that she was being lied to about some things. However, the wyrm was correct in her claims that she had done nothing to harm Virigosa so far, and she didn't seem concerned with or defensive about her suspicions. And if there were blue dragon eggs here, it was Virigosa's duty to ensure they were safe and protected.
"Alright, I'll go with you," Virigosa said. "But if this is any sort of trick, I swear, you're going to regret it. I don't care how many dragons you have."
"I hear you loud and clear, and you have my word," Nethandris said, moving back towards Jerastrasza and Sathius.
Jerastrasza's group struck first, while the main force, led by Sathius, stayed back and waited. While the cultists were occupied with Jerastrasza's forces from one side, Sathius and his dragons would ambush them from behind. Nethandris was with Sathius's dragons, so Virigosa stayed back and waited for the second group to take flight. While they watched the progress of Jerastrasza's group, Nethandris made her way over to the blue drake.
"I'm going to be a bit away from the main battle, so look for me off to the side," she said. "Once most of the twilight drakes are away from us, we'll find wherever they keep the eggs. I'm willing to bet they're in the main building, they usually are."
"Alright, and I'll help clear the drakes in the meantime," Virigosa said. "I'm surprised you're not leading this. Didn't you make the plans?"
Nethandris nodded. "I did, but mixed-flight dragons don't have breath weapons," she explained. "And strafing is an important part of combat against mortals. I wouldn't be here at all if we weren't recovering eggs."
Virigosa was starting to get antsy after so long without the order to go. It felt like forever before a loud roar echoed through the plains, and Sathius sprung to his feet. The dragons, many of which had looked bored moments before, suddenly seemed to come alive. Sathius turned back to face his group of dragons, spreading his wings as he did so.
"That's our cue!" he announced, as if it wasn't obvious.
The group of dragons rose into the air together. It was a very short flight to the twilight camp, which was larger than most others that Virigosa had seen. While the rest of the dragons dove quickly into battle, she took a moment to scan her surroundings. She could see Jerastrasza's group already busy with twilight drakes to the west, and cultists running around frantically on the ground. The camp was mostly made up of tents, although a few crumbling buildings were within the perimeter as well. They looked to be of human make, perhaps from an abandoned town or military outpost.
One of the first things Virigosa noticed about the battle itself was how disorganized it was. Fighting was always chaotic, but it seemed that Nethandris's dragons had no plan at all beyond killing cultists and burning down their tents. She saw a drake accidentally swipe another with his tail, causing the other to falter in flight for a moment. The dragons weren't giving each other enough space to fight, especially near Jerastrasza's group. Virigosa couldn't help but feel disgusted, somehow, to see just how poorly this operation had been planned out. In the beginning of the Nexus War, the Blue Dragonflight had been disorganized, sure, but never quite like this.
Something slammed into Virigosa's side. Although it was embarrassing she had failed to notice, she recovered quickly and locked talons with the twilight drake. They wrestled in the air, and Virigosa managed to gain the upper hand quickly, stunning the twilight with her frost breath. After that, it was a matter of clawing at the wings and sending the drake spiraling towards the ground. A sloppier kill than Virigosa would've liked, but that was all that was necessary. These drakes haven't seen combat, she realized, casting her gaze towards the bulk of the fighting, where Jerastrasza's forces were facing off against many more drakes.
Virigosa looked towards the ground again, searching for Nethandris or anything that looked like it could be the main building. The golden wyrm was waiting for her above what could have once been an inn. Virigosa flew to meet her, and Nethandris made her way to the ground. The wyrm shifted into her elven form, standing beside a door, and Virigosa landed beside her.
"You think this is it?" Virigosa asked.
"I do," Nethandris said. "There were a few guards here I had to kill that weren't participating in the main battle. And look at the roof, it's been repaired recently. They're holding something important in here, no other reason they'd take care of it."
Arcane magic shimmered around Virigosa for a moment as she cast a spell. A faint glow appeared on the door, a rune. The blue drake leaned in to read it, then growled.
"They have no idea how to make a quality trap rune," she said.
All it took to disarm the rune was a simple fire blast, and then it shimmered out of existence. Nethandris opened the door, and Virigosa shifted into her own elven form to fit in through it. The two dragons stepped into the old inn together, scanning the building for any sign of life. The quiet was strange, but it proved not to be deceptive. On the ground floor, at least, Virigosa and Nethandris were the only ones there.
"Let's sweep this floor for any sort of documents or any sign of eggs," Nethandris suggested.
Virigosa nodded in agreement, and walked across the room to what looked to have once been a kitchen. A fireplace sat long-abandoned, and shattered glass was scattered across one part of the room. The disrepair struck Virigosa as odd. If it had been like this when the Twilight's Hammer arrived, surely they would have fixed it. A kitchen would've been useful- even cultists needed to eat, after all, and mortals couldn't usually eat food raw like dragons did.
She gathered arcane energy in her hand and wove it into a spell, sending it out in a pulse around her. There was a soft crack, and the room around Virigosa shifted as the illusion shattered. It was much more like she expected- a partially stocked kitchen, with food and cooking equipment left hastily abandoned. Virigosa's heart sank. If they had disguised something as insignificant as a kitchen, they would have to check each and every room for illusions.
"Nethandris!" Virigosa called, stepping out of the kitchen. "There's illusions cast on the furniture. I have no idea how much is real. No way we can find the eggs with them active."
Outside, fighting could still be heard. It sounded like Nethandris's forces were doing well, from the triumphant roars. Such sounds were distant, thankfully; Nethandris and Virigosa had not told the others which building they had gone into, but the fighting was far enough away that they wouldn't be caught in the line of fire.
"Crafty bastards," Nethandris said. "What do you want to do about them?"
"We could go room by room and shatter them- my mana pool is plenty large enough- but that'll be tedious," Virigosa said. "But the spellwork is poorly done. There has to be someone nearby powering it, and once we stop them, it should all disappear."
"Right," Nethandris said. When she next spoke, her voice much much louder, bordering on a yell. "I hear mages taste better than most mortals."
Virigosa shook her head and muttered a few insults directed towards Nethandris. The blue drake made her way up a flight of stairs and emerged onto the top floor, leaving the golden wyrm to check the ground floor more thoroughly. Virigosa was faced with a hallway and several doors, presumably leading to what were once bedrooms. It was impossible to tell which one might've had someone inside.
"I know you're there," she called out. "Let's make this easy for both you and me. Show yourself."
It didn't work. She hadn't expected it to.
Virigosa turned to the nearest door to her right, and used her hands to cast a fire spell in its direction. The door went up in flames almost immediately after it hit, crumbling into ashes within moments. No mage was to be found. The blue drake went further down the hall, doing the same to every door she passed and glancing inside to ensure that she was not missing anyone.
It was not long before her efforts were rewarded with the sight of a twilight mage cowering in a corner. He looked to be in the process of casting some sort of spell, but Virigosa used a blast of arcane energy to knock him off his feet. She held out a hand to channel another spell, which pinned the cultist against the wall.
"What arrogance to try and use magic against one such as I," she said, almost in a growl. Her intention was to intimidate the mage more than anything. "You should be honored I think you worthy enough to stay your execution even for this brief moment. Tell me, where are the eggs?"
"Your efforts here today are futile," the cultist said, and Virigosa couldn't help but think it sounded like he was repeating someone else. "The Hour of Twilight is nigh. Any victory you think you acheive is a false hope."
"I don't have the patience to keep this up for very long," Virigosa warned. "Tell me where the eggs are."
"Spawn of a lesser god," the cultist began to babble. "Your end comes on twilight wings. The Hour of Twilight-"
He was cut off by Virigosa letting him drop to the ground. She didn't give him a moment to speak, spearing him with a conjured ice spike as soon as she released her other spell. The blue drake turned and walked back into the hallway, leaving him to die, as the illusions around her began to fade. It was nothing too drastic, mostly a change in the color of the furniture. Virigosa wondered why they had bothered at all. Casting an illusion on everything only made it more likely that it would be noticed.
"I got it, Nethandris!" Virigosa yelled to the wyrm downstairs.
"I noticed!" she called back. "They have documents everywhere around here! Any luck with the eggs?"
"Not yet!" Virigosa said.
The blue drake had no more reason to destroy the doors in such a flashy way, but still used a weak bolt of arcane energy to check the doors for defenses before opening them. Finally, when she opened one of the rooms towards the end of the hallway, she was met with the sight of eggs resting on a blanket. After using a weak, harmless pulse of arcane energy to check for any traps, Virigosa kneeled beside the eggs and rested a hand on one. It was disappointing how few there were- she counted seven blue eggs and twelve red- but thankfully, they all appeared to be safe.
"I found them, Nethandris!"
"Great! I'll be up in a moment, I'm just gathering some of these papers."
Virigosa stood up and began to look around the room for anything else of interest. There were nails in the wall where there might have once been paintings or picture frames. The only furniture remaining was a table, with a few papers laying on top. Virigosa picked them up and began reading. It looked like some sort of transport list- apparently, both the red and blue eggs were the remnants of two larger clutches. After hearing Nethandris explain where twilight drakes came from, Virigosa didn't want to think of what had happened to their siblings.
She turned around to look back at the eggs. In the distance, it sounding like the fighting was already beginning to tamper down. Virigosa leaned down and began to gently stroke the shell of one of the blue dragon eggs, just as she began to hear Nethandris's footsteps on the stairs.
"We'll take care of you," Virigosa promised.