Wyrmrest Temple was busier than Virigosa had ever seen it. Drakes were posted at every balcony, every possible entrance to the temple, and several patrols were flying across Dragonblight. At the base of the temple, many dragons were waiting to enter. Virigosa had never seen anything like that before. All dragons with peaceful intentions had the sacred right to enter the Temple- were the guards really refusing to let them in?
Nethandris was flying beside Virigosa. They had hardly spoken the whole flight, not after what had happened in the camp. As they approached, several dragons looked up, staring at Nethandris. In fact, it seemed that most of them didn't even notice the blue drake beside her. It made sense- Nethandris's scales were bright and had a very unusual color for a dragon. Virigosa was small compared to the wyrm, and although a blue drake might've been something to stare about in times like these, a dragon like Nethandris hadn't been at Wyrmrest Temple in many years.
The two dragonesses landed off to the side, a short distance away from one of the entrances. It didn't take long for a rather flustered red drake came up to them, one who looked like he was hardly out of the whelp stage. "It is a pleasure to w-welcome you two ladies to Wyrmrest Temple. H-Have you come for the Conclave of Wyrms?" A nod from Nethandris. "Wonderful. Can I have your names, and uh, flight, please?" The last part of the question was clearly directed at the golden-scaled wyrm.
"I am Virigosa of the Blue Dragonflight," the drake said icily, shuffling a little further away from Nethandris.
"I'm Nethandris," the wyrm said. "As for my flight, that's a bit... Complicated. Don't worry, I'm sure it won't take long for someone to come out and deal with it."
"I'm sorry, Nethandris mi'lady," the red dragon said. "But we need your flight for administrative purposes."
"Trust me," Nethandris said. "Just wait. You'll see."
Virigosa growled, and smacked the wyrm lightly with the top of her foot. "Quit being difficult and tell him."
Closer to the entrance, dragons were parting to let a horned humanoid figure through. It seemed everyone's attention was on her as she walked through the crowd, halting just a short distance from Nethandris, Virigosa, and the young red drake. The red drake immediately dropped into a deep bow. The figure's gaze seemed to be shifting back and forth between Nethandris and the blue drake beside here.
"My queen," the red drake choked.
"Oh, Alexstrasza, it's so nice to see that the years have treated you well," Nethandris said. "Have you had trouble finding consorts? I can't imagine why the almighty Dragonqueen, of all people, would need to wear something so revealing."
Alexstrasza deflected the comment with a sigh, while Virigosa glared at the golden-scaled wyrm. "Are you two together?" Alexstrasza asked.
"Unfortunately," Virigosa said.
"I'll be escorting them into the temple personally, then," the Life-Binder said.
"Y-yes, my queen, of course," the red drake said.
Alexstrasza gestured for the two to follow, and they did. Several dragons stared as the Life-Binder returned to the temple, Virigosa and Nethandris in tow. Without so much as a word to each other, they made their way to a conference room on the second floor of the temple. Alexstrasza and Nethandris took seats across from each other, while Virigosa stood in the back of the room, still in her drake form.
"I was hoping I'd be seeing you, Nethandris," Alexstrasza said. "And-"
"Forget the pleasantries, princess," Nethandris said. "I'm not here to play your little games."
Virigosa growled, brushing her tail against the floor. "Show some respect," she said.
"Virigosa," Alexstrasza said slowly. "I remember you. I'm glad you're alive. You never did come back to speak to me."
"We're just here for the conclave," Nethandris said. "Nothing more."
"You don't speak for me, Nethandris," Virigosa cut in, taking a few steps forward so she towered over Nethandris's elf form. "I'm tired of this little game. I want to know everything. What's the truth between you two?"
"I was hoping our conversation wouldn't start like this," Alexstrasza said, pressing a hand to her face. "So you've been working with Nethandris, Virigosa? I thought you were stationed in Hyjal."
"We rescued her from the Twilight Dragonflight," Nethandris explained.
"'Rescued' isn't the word I'd use," Virigosa said. "Kidnapped and manipulated using the Twilight Dragonflight as an excuse, sure. Maybe you'll be able to explain. Who is Nethandris, really?"
"I didn't lie to you, Virigosa," Nethandris protested. "Skipped over a few details, sure. Maybe."
"In short, fourteen thousand years ago, when Nethandris was born, breeding between dragons of different flights was forbidden," Alexstrasza sounded tired. "Dragons, being such powerful creatures, can have serious problems if anything about their magic is unusual during their early development. Most mixed-flight dragons, due to having the magic of multiple flights, would develop debilitating deformations as they grew into drakes and adults. We thought that this was the true of all of them, and that's why when Nethandris's clutch was discovered, we attempted to put them all down."
"You didn't succeed," Nethandris said. "I was just a whelp."
"Yes, you were, and we regretted our actions once we discovered that exceptions like you existed," Alexstrasza said. "Unfortunately, we didn't discover that Nethandris was one of the lucky ones until she was an adult and had murdered two of my advisors. I believe she said that she wanted to usurp the Aspects and create a 'new order', or some such nonsense?"
"I was young, and more importantly, I was stupid," Nethandris said. "You can't hold that against me after all that time."
"That's why we pardoned you," Alexstrasza said. "Especially after what you did during the War of the Ancients."
"You can't be serious," Virigosa said, scraping her talons against the floor. "That's who I've been listening to?"
"You're alive," Nethandris said dryly.
"Enough. I didn't call you here to rehash this," Alexstrasza said. "I've told my dragons to keep an eye out for you. If the Twilight's Hammer manages to capture you or one of your-"
"The chromatic dragon project," Nethandris interrupted. "I'm fully aware of it. We haven't been sitting idly, princess."
"I just wanted to make sure," Alexstrasza said. "You two both came here for the conclave?"
"Nethandris did," Virigosa explained. "I know I won't be allowed in. The only reason we came together was because I wanted nothing more to do with her camp, and she wanted to attend the conclave. We were both going to the same place."
"I'll get you in," Alexstrasza promised. "There should be at least one blue dragon at the conclave, regardless of age."
"At least one?" Virigosa repeated. "You're not saying..."
"We recovered a handful of survivors, but they're too badly injured," Alexstrasza said. "The only blue dragons remaining on the front lines during the Embrace were those who felt some sort of bitterness towards their flight. Any others are mostly isolated from draconic society and likely unaware of what happened, and might not even care. Either way, we can't contact them. So, yes, you're the only blue dragon who's shown interest in attending."
Nethandris turned to look at Virigosa. "I didn't realize it was that bad," she said.
Alexstrasza stood up and made her way to the door. She returned a few minutes later with another red dragon in humanoid form. He had a few sheets of paper and a pen with him, which he set down on a table in the conference room. Alexstrasza sat down, and the red dragon attendant looked at Nethandris expectantly.
"Her name is Nethandris. Draw a line where you'd mark her flight," Alexstrasza instructed. The red dragon scribbled something down. "Put Virigosa on the list too."
"But my queen," he protested. "Virigosa, is she the drake here? The old laws state very clearly that only wyrms may be permitted in the Conclave of Wyrms."
"I know we wrote exceptions into those laws," Alexstrasza said.
"Yes, my queen, but she is not an Aspect, nor a representative thereof," The attendant was reading from some sort of list. "Nor a 'matriarch of her flight'-"
"She is now," Alexstrasza said with uncharacteristic frustration, rising from her seat once again. "I'm tired of playing politics. Now, would you please put Lady Virigosa on the list? Do it for me."
The attendant mumbled a quick apology and hurried out of the room. "I'm sorry," Virigosa said.
"No, Virigosa, I'm sorry. For everything," Alexstrasza said. "This never should've happened."
Virigosa shapeshifted into her elven form as Alexstrasza walked towards the door. "I'll make sure you're both assigned separate quarters," she promised.
A/N: I'm currently writing the chapter where Araxion first hears an outsider's perspective of the Twilight's Hammer. I'm happy with how it's coming out, but I keep feeling like it's missing something important that should be mentioned, and I can't figure out what it is. If anyone has any ideas for things that Araxion might have questions about after living his entire life surrounded by cultists and Old God dragons, they would be appreciated.
Thank you for reading! I'm very excited for where this story will go next. When I started writing this story (after conceptualizing it for a few years before) I had no plans except for a few major plot events. That's why some major events in part one (Alexstrasza in Hyjal) haven't really been mentioned much later on. The first version of part two was also mostly written without a plan (before all the files were lost to oblivion) and it was just bad. Thinking back to it, I have no idea how I ever thought that any of it was a good idea. It might also be interesting to note that Sariona was actually added to the story on a whim; when I needed to come up with a name for Araxion's sparring partner, I thought it might be cool if they ended up becoming close friends. The thing with the Blue Dragonflight was meant to happen much later, maybe 3/4ths of the way through the story.
Needless to say, I have a much better idea of what I'm doing and where the story's going now. I'm very happy with how the published version of part two came out, and I'm excited to go from here.