I do not own nor possess any right over Harry Potter and World of Warcraft, all rights belongs to their rightful owners.
Okay, today is a bit of a shorter chapter, but more focused on magic. Sorry for the delay, I've been experiencing a mild case of writer block on a few chapters, the ideas were there but I simply couldn't write anything. It's a bit better but I'm still a bit slow, so expect an update in a week or more.
Please comment/review.
Thank you for your patience and good reading.
I had no idea what time it was, but I was woken up by someone who leaned onto me.
I groaned as the feeling of not being rested enough made itself know to me, as I was being woke up. Turning around so that I could see who had dared to wake me up, I was faced with the sight of Mightion, standing there with a bit of an exhausted look on his face.
"What is it?" I grumbled. "Can't it wait until tomorrow?"
"My apologies, I didn't mean to wake you up." Mightion whispered gently as he nuzzled my cheek affectionately. "And yes, it can wait the morning."
I yawned wildly before nuzzling him back, with a bit more fondness than I usually gave him.
"Goodnight then." I told him.
"Goodnight, my love." He nuzzled me one more time before resting his head on his claws.
Doing just the same, I quickly returned to the world of dreams.
Thankfully, when I woke up again, I was fully rested this time. A brief look at Mightion showed me that he was still asleep and I wasn't about to disturb him, now remembering what he went through yesterday and wanting him to sleep as long as needed.
So I simply stood there, enjoying both the moment and the contact with Mightion, closing my eyes again as I thought. A bit to my surprise, I found Mightion to be slightly warmer than before, which was quite relaxing to me as I leaned gently into his bigger frame, basking in his comfortable warmth. That's when I noticed that he looked to be indeed just a touch bigger than yesterday, really not a lot, perhaps half-a-meter longer, but enough that it was noticeable. Mainly because he was already quite a lot bigger than me.
I frowned a bit, wondering why that would be, seriously doubting that I could have not noticed this before.
And then my eyes widened slightly as I put two and two together.
Mightion came back from his trial and he looked bigger and warmer. I was no genius, but it wasn't necessary to be one to understand that he succeeded. Why it took so long, I had no idea and I was willing to wait until he woke up for him to tell me, but it was reassuring nonetheless. Both to me and him, I presumed. So I decided to sleep in a little bit longer, awake, but resting as my mind wandered.
His left wing was almost completely covering my back, a naturally warm cover that started to twitch after nearly half-an-hour of thoughts on all I had to do today, as well as trying to ignore the pain in my claw that had returned. I felt him begin to stir and I looked at his face, only waiting a few moments before his eyes opened.
"Good morning." I greeted him with a smile and a small nuzzle.
"Hmm... you are warming up to me." Mightion smiled back, reciprocating the gesture.
"Perhaps. I see that you finished your trial with Neltharion." I continued with a chuckle.
He frowned a bit, quickly loosing his cherry attitude to a more serious one as he stood up. Seeing him like this worried me, and I was about to ask, but refrained myself from doing so, not wanting to press him.
"Neltharion. My meeting with him was nothing like I had expected." He started with a faraway look in his eyes.
"Why is that?"
"Almost as soon as we started talking, I felt how he wasn't really there. Alive, but only in thoughts. A memory, a presence of the past so deeply woven into the earth that he shall remain there forever." He stopped for a second before resuming. "He reached out to me first, telling me who I was and what I did. There was no anger, no frustration or disappointment. Not a single emotion in his voice. He only stated facts, the harsh truth as it is."
That was quite close from the impression I got from Neltharion when I met him. But Mightion, he knew far more about him than me and he probably was closer to him than I could ever be, if only by knowing and having felt the consequences of Neltharion's actions his whole life. I could see how troubling this experience might have been for him.
"Neltharion immediately welcomed me to take back my duties, not judging me for abandoning them. But, there was a price to pay." Continued Mightion.
"A price? Please don't tell me you made a deal." I stared at him, starting to fear the worst.
"I did. I swore to never again fail as a guardian, to help restore Azeroth and secure it against all those who would seek to harm it. I swore to protect its inhabitants, to fight the old gods."
"And what did you had to pay?" I dreaded.
Mightion only sighed lightly before answering
"To get my powers back, I first had to accept their weight. It is a part of the world as much as it is part of us, after all. And I completely forgot how heavy they were, it had been too long since I abandoned them." He said, clenching his claw as he spoke. "Despise all my physical strength, it nearly crushed me. The fire, the earth and the stone. So many sensations that I left behind returned to me in a single moment."
"Was it why you were so late last night?" I paled as I realised that he had been all alone in there for so long. Not that there were many dangers around the Obsidian Dragonshrine, but still.
"Partially. To me, my conversation with Neltharion and me getting my powers back lasted only a couple of minutes. It's when I woke up that I took notice of how late it was and that it took so long." He explained. "When I was done with the return of my powers, he warned me that N'Zoth's plans were coming to an end, let it be for us or for him, Neltharion doesn't know. I fear that the precarious balance of our world will once again be put in peril soon. Though Neltharion told me that we would soon hear from a certain Speaker, a direct representative of Azeroth that would be of help."
I remained silent, carefully taking in his words and what it could mean in the future. It was both concerning and reassuring in a way, knowing in advance of an evil was always good, but if there wasn't anything to be done until then, it was of little value. As worrying as it was, this wasn't a matter of the present, and I didn't felt too concerned right now.
"But with your powers back, we will be stronger against N'Zoth." I reassured him, smiling with confidence.
"That much is true." He replied, gently pressing his head against mine.
We remained there a little bit longer. I think it was the first time I was completely enjoying Mightion's presence, and I found out that I was liking it. It had nothing to do with the changes brought by the return of his powers, perhaps the night had soften me up a bit and I didn't minded anymore being this close to him. And I also realised that I had unconsciously followed Merithra's advice, of being the one to initiate something by nuzzling Mightion when he woke up.
Just as she said, I learned something and I liked what I learned. It didn't meant that I would go further than that, but right now being closer to Mightion felt like a more likely option than yesterday. It wasn't a feeling of safety, for I felt safe around him already, but more of a matter of being comfortable. I felt better being around him.
"We still have a long day ahead of us." I finally said, knowing that staying there all day wasn't an option.
"I don't think so. What could we have to do beside starting to fix Blackrock Mountain?" Asked Mightion as he stretched.
"Well, that and I need to work with Tyri on my mental defences and I also have to go to Thunderbluff at some point." I enumerated as I stood up.
"Why Thunderbluff?" He asked slightly curious.
"Remember how I tried to save you? I went to Thunderbluff, hoping that I could get their Earthing Balm, which according to Wrathion could have helped you. I negotiated it with Baine and he was kind enough to give it to me, with me swearing to repay him and his people should they need my help. While I don't think they will need my assistance anytime soon, I have to tell them what happened to the Earthing Balm. They deserve to know." I explained.
It was something that mattered a lot to me. Baine didn't sacrificed anything truly necessary to his people, but he gave up something that had been gifted to them long ago with the duty to take care of the land, the Earthing Balm and its great power over the earth. I know that it wasn't an easy choice, and yet he accepted quite easily with the argument that it was better to see it gone and get another member of the black dragonflight back. It did happened, just not in the way I had hoped when meeting Baine.
"If that's what you want." Mightion agreed without further argument.
"What will you be doing today?" I asked.
"I'll go test my powers, see if anything changed." He shrugged. "Perhaps I'll come with you for Tyrygosa's lesson, there's more to just magic to defend our mind. At least not the same as the blue dragonflight."
"Let's go then."
We made our way through the portal, greeted the guardians and made our way toward the archives, taking our mortal forms as soon as we landed. And unlike yesterday, Tyrygosa was sitting at the front desk, a book in hands that she put on the table as soon as she saw us enter.
"Good morning Tyri." I greeted her.
"Tyrygosa." Said Mightion, far more formal.
"Annoyance. Mightion." Replied Tyrygosa quite coldly at first, clearly putting more respect in addressing Mightion.
"Really, now? I thought you'd be over it." I rolled my eyes at her.
"Is there something I'm missing?" Asked Mightion with a raised brow.
"Beside that she keeps dumping me whenever I try to help her? No." Quickly answered Tyri with a small glare at me.
"Its not like that and I know that you're not even half as mad as you make it look like." I told her, faintly amused by her behaviour. "Plus, Mightion will be there to help."
"You'll keep-"
"And I promise to stay until you're satisfied. Satisfied?" I interrupted her with a small grin.
She didn't said anything else, but nodded, standing up from her chair and leading the way toward the classroom that I used with her for the last year. Not really a classroom as there were only a few chairs, a table and no door at the threshold, but it's what we used it for.
Tyri leaned on the table as me and Mightion stood up before her. She looked at the both of us for a second before focusing on Mightion.
"It might be more interesting to know in more details what a trained member of the black dragonflight knows, especially since you managed to resist so long against the old gods." Started Tyrygosa.
"Very well. As it is the case for most of our powers, they come from our link with the earth and Azeroth itself. Where the blue dragonflight basks in magic purer and stronger than any other, we draw our strength from the unbreakable stone, from the flowing lava and the immovable world. It is more practical in our abilities, but it can be used to defend our mind." Explained Mightion with a seriousness that I hadn't seen in him before. And perhaps it was only me, but he seemed a bit brighter than yesterday. Especially his eyes. "It is also our greatest weakness against the old gods. Because they reside in the earth itself, they corrupted it and through millennia managed to destroy and recreate Neltharion's mind into Deathwing, and with him, the near entirety of our flight."
"So even if its a weakness, that's what we need to use to defend our minds?" I asked, finding that logic somewhat not very sound.
"Exactly." Assured Mightion. "It is a weakness, that much is true, but it doesn't mean that it can't be strengthen to become an advantage. I personally use the stone as my main defence. Not in a literal way, obviously. What I'm doing is picturing the core values of the stone, its solidity, how strong it can be and make it as though as possible, make it an indestructible wall that can resist all assaults."
While it made sense as he said it, it didn't appeared that credible. But after all that happened to me? It was nothing that I couldn't believe.
"You speak of the stone working for you. Does this mean that there are other ways?" I wondered.
"Indeed. One of my clutch-sisters used to be very talented to defend her mind through the lava. I never really got it, and I don't want to sully her memory, but I do not think it was that effective. From what I remember, she said that lava could either burn anything trying to invade her mind, drown it in a endless pit or simply washing away the attack, using the flow of the lava to carry the threat out of her mind." He detailed as he looked to be struggling to remember. "While I can't deny that it worked, I found and still find it flawed. She divided her defence too much, some dedicated to the heat, some turned toward the depths at which lava can be found and some to the movement it carried."
"That is quite different indeed from what we blue dragons do. And we also don't suffer the same weakness against the old gods, even if they can corrupt us too through shadow magic or the fel magic." Interrupted Tyrygosa, quite interested just like me in Mightion's words, to the point that she was recording it on paper. "But I will agree with you that your sister may have been wrong, an unmatched attention is required to defend one's mind. One way to destroy mental defences is either by using physical means, or by disturbing the attention of your target. Sometimes, a few words can be enough. Or, you can be like me, a master that knows all the ways to fight, repel and invade with mind magics."
"We only had one way to defend our mind in my old world." I started, wanting to share my own knowledge of the mind arts. "It was called Occlumency, and it required one to empty their mind of all thoughts and emotions, to be as blank as possible. Those who mastered it were even capable to create false memories, tricking those invading their minds. Occlumency was more useful to hide your thoughts and memories, but if you were strong enough you thrown your ennemies out of your mind."
"Hmm. I can see the interest in that, but I still prefer to stop it from even happening." Said Tyri, deep in her own thoughts.
"Indeed." Agreed Mightion before turning toward me. "Alright, let's start. Picture either stone or lava, try to find their core values and acknowledges them for yourself."
"Wait. You also spoke about using the world. Can you tell me more about it?" I asked.
"Ah, right. Well, taking Azeroth as your defence is quite harder than the other two options. It is based on what values you would give to Azeroth, and it can change from one person to another. For me, it's how unbreakable it is, how after millennia of invasions, destruction and horrors, it still stands strong today. Perfectly immovable. If you choose to take Azeroth, you need to ask yourself what you see in it, which of its aspect you can use to defend your mind." He explained. "I picture it in my mind as the tallest and strongest of mountains, immovable and unbreakable."
So they were giving me three options, which was two more than I expected. I thought that they would teach me how to do it and then be done with it. Listening to how they worked their mind defences, I started to understand that it was slightly more complicated than what I expected. Not that it was hard to understand what they said or how to do it, only that it gave me more possibilities.
Starting with the least appealing, I had to say that Mightion's method with the stone, tough and unbreakable, didn't sound perfect to me. Sure, it might work for him, but stone didn't looked strong enough to me, it could break, shatter and be grind to dust. And I knew myself to not be unbreakable, I could bend and be crushed, but I would stand back up, where once a stone was broken it wouldn't mend back together.
Lava... was interesting. The greater degree of focus required was certainly a liability, but the more varied uses looked far more interesting to me, giving me a wider array of options to defend my mind. Just the exemples that Mightion gave, burn, drown or throw away the attacks, were quite interesting.
Taking Azeroth as my shield, just as I would be shielding it as guardian of the black dragonflight, felt better. Maybe right, even. But how was I seeing Azeroth? That was actually a good question, and I was fairly certain that my lack of knowledge concerning its many races, creatures and history wasn't an issue.
First of all, Azeroth was a new world for me to explore. It was wonder, discovery and unknown mixed together. It was new people to meet, brand new creatures of both wonder and terror, along with foreign cultures to discover. I also read that much of the world was unknown, unexplored and untamed, meaning that I could be the first one to set foot in some places. It was new experiences, new things to do, some that I could never had imagined back on Earth and things that I never got to try before. Even Northrend, the continent we were in right now, still had many things left for me to discover.
Secondly, it was a world of dangers. N'Zoth was the most recent one, the most personal one, but he wasn't the only threat to Azeroth. Just in the history books, the number of threats in the past that tried to take over Azeroth for absolute domination or simply for a need of destruction was truly immense. Still today, after all the millennia of torment that Azeroth had to go through, it was once again being threatened. This was without counting the war that the Alliance and the Horde led against each other, the many people and races allied or ennemies, the countless fights taking place all over the world. It was a scale that I never had to face before, one that made my fight against Voldemort look like a series of skirmishes, of children fighting with no idea of what truly happened to the rest of the world. Here, there were so many threats with world-ending capabilities that made Voldemort look like a simple dark mage, perhaps closer to a lich with how he separated his soul to survive death.
And lastly, it was my new world. It was now mine to protect. Where on earth, I was forced to carry the burden of saving Britain from a terrible man, here I had been granted the duties and capabilities to help the world, and I accepted them. I didn't even had to fight if I didn't wanted to. I would learn to care for the world in a manner never taught to me before. As I said before, Azeroth had to face a lot of threats in the past, all of them defeated in the end by those inhabiting it. Now, not only was I one of its inhabitants, but I was also its guardian, tasked with protecting it and its inhabitants from all threats no matter where they came from. It simply was a part of who I was.
But what did all of this made for my mental defences? I couldn't take a single one of these aspects without excluding the rest, for it wouldn't truly be Azeroth without them. Was it even possible to combine all three of them in a single word? A single idea? I didn't think so.
I started to imagine it, a world in a void filled with faraway stars, a world painted with blue seas, gigantic green forests visible from space, clouds hiding parts of it and mountains trying to go the further away from its center. Zooming, I could see its creatures and inhabitants living, being there, a presence that was part of Azeroth as much as they were part of them.
Azeroth was my world. Mine to protect. And if I wanted to be its guardian, then I needed my own. And what better guardian than a world?
A figure started to manifest in my mind, vaguely humanoid at first but quickly gaining in details. One could have compared it with the old goddesses of the ancient Roman and Greek pantheons, with a white armour of chain mail and plates covering her pale grey skin, a helmet of the same white that covered the top of her face up from the nose and had little blades going backward at the ears and covering long, magnificently blond hair that reached her shoulders. Large gauntlets protected her forearms and greaves just as strong assured that her legs wouldn't be hurt. Her torso was protected by a mail and plate armour, small rings holding together plates that led no opening in her defence.
She carried in her right hand, a massive, large and tall flat shield, covered with black scales on its surface, making it a stronghold on its own. Impenetrable, unbreakable, the very first line of defence on Azeroth.
And in her left hand, a slightly decorated metal stick that got sharper to the tip, long like her forearm, shining with a white glow at the end.
She was magnificent, of a great beauty that mixed perfectly well with her warrior appearance.
I knew, just like that, that it- no, she, would be my greatest guardian. I would be defending Azeroth in the reality, while I was leaving the defence of my mind to Azeroth. Her shield would protect both her and me, with my own scales embedded in its surface, and the wand in her right hand would give her the power and reach needed to overthrow those daring to intrude my mind.
I blinked twice as I returned to the real world, looking to and fro as I saw Mightion and Tyri standing up next to the table with a few books opened before them.
"How long have I been out?" I wondered, certain that those books weren't there when we came in.
"Hey! You're finally awake." Cheered Mightion, standing straighter as he stepped away from the table.
"We've been waiting for you to figure what worked best. It's been half-an-hour." Added Tyri drily.
"That long? I didn't noticed." I replied a bit surprised.
"We certainly saw that you were no longer giving us any attention. Did you at least managed to choose something to defend yourself?" She asked a bit nicer.
"I did. I took Azeroth as my guardian." I answered with a bit of pride in my smile.
"Oh?" Said Mightion as his interest was renewed, greater than before. "That is quite the choice, hard but very rewarding if it works."
"If indeed. I shall give it a try." Continued Tyri with a small malicious glint in her eyes.
I took a big breathe, preparing myself to gather my strengths for Tyri's assault, when a sudden pressure in my mind took me by surprise. It didn't felt like the insidious, silent and vicious attack of N'Zoth, but rather like an overwhelming wave, crushing anything on its way. There was no time for me to summon my guardian that I could feel Tyri's presence in my mind.
"Tch. That was pathetic. Did you even try?" Chided Tyri with a disapproving look, leaving my head.
"I wasn't ready!" I was well aware how bad I sounded right now, but I didn't care.
"If someone attacks your mind, they won't wait for you to be ready. Again!"
Her presence was barely starting to reach my mind that I summoned my guardian, standing tall and proud with her shield raised forward. Tyri's power rushed at me, again feeling like a wave of power that I visualised as a real wave of shimmering water. It fell down on Azeroth, but she stood her ground, shield digging in the ground as the mass of water flowed around her, barely moving her at all.
I started to feel victorious when the water started to grow more turbulent, shaking and battering Azeroth from all sides, trying to bring her down. It created more waves, crushing her with their weight. It formed into sharp spears, attempting to pierce her armour and shield. But it wasn't working. I gave her more strength, focusing on the idea of telekinesis. The wand in her hand started to glow brighter, glowing like the greatest of moonlights, and she rose it above the water level. In my mind, water simply wasn't strong enough to move an entire world, it was a part of Azeroth and she could use it as she like.
The sea slowly started to rise, leaving the invisible ground that was in my mind, passing above Azeroth's head. It remained there, thrashing and expanding in all directions in a vain attempt to escape the telekinesis keeping it in the air.
And then it turned into ice. I hadn't expected the sudden change, nor its greater weight, and it fell down to the ground, breaking into thousands of incredibly sharp shards. Without leaving me the time to react, they rose in the air and started to batter Azeroth, barely stopped by her armour and shield as they scratched her relentlessly. It was definitely more dangerous than the crushing water of earlier, but it wasn't enough to break her.
Just like water could turn to ice, it could also be melted through fire. Azeroth's wand grew brighter, this time with the unbearable heat of the magma flowing through the center of the world, the blood of a world that I personally knew and enjoyed. I dug into this connection with the earth, with the fires of the world. The air became terrifyingly hot, unbreathable for living beings, instantly attacking the ice still flying in the air.
The ice didn't melt, it boiled, turning into a large cloud of mist.
"Arg!" I heard.
Suddenly, the mist vanished, leaving my mind as I didn't felt Tyri's presence anymore.
My eyes snapped open, stopping on Tyri who was clutching her head with one hand, obviously in pain as she muttered something.
"Are you alright?" I asked worried.
"I am. Just- give me a moment." She said, waving a hand at me.
"What have you done?" Asked me Mightion, not at all concerned for Tyri's health, but rather curious and interested.
"I countered her. I think." I answered, not quite sure what happened at the end of our mental battle.
"You certainly did." Agreed Tyri, still a hand on the side of her head. "I was testing your defences, trying to show you how an invader could use different ways to attack you. Not only was your guardian responsive, but versatile. It feels like my mind got set on fire."
"I didn't mean to do that." I sort of apologised.
"Then I don't want to know what it'll be if you try to force me out of your mind. You were a bit too focused on the defensive, only reacting to my attacks and not initiating any. But that will come with training." She continued.
I nodded at her and turned toward Mightion.
"Do you want to try?" I asked him with a smile.
"I cannot." He simply replied.
"What? Why?"
"I was never trained into attacking someone's mind, only defending mine."
Huh. Well, that was good to know.
"So? What next?" I turned back toward Tyri.
"As much as I won't like it, we keep going. I want you to be as efficient as possible, so I'm going to attack you with everything I can use." She said, a challenging fire burning in her eyes.
I chuckled drily. She wouldn't be the only to not like it. But since it was for my own good, I wouldn't complain about her methods. Even if, in a way, her ruthlessness reminded me a bit of an old potion teacher of mine. She wasn't like Snape when he tried to invade my mind, throwing insults and trying to diminish me all the time, but she wasn't taking any gloves with her teaching, something that I appreciated. And contrary to Snape, she was taking risks, just as she proved with the headache she got from me throwing her out.
"You won't mind if I leave? I'm afraid I won't be of much help." Said Mightion.
"Not at all, I'll see you later." I replied.
"Have a good training then."
I watched him leave, watching his tall and impressive frame disappear. And right after that, I felt Tyrygosa restart her assault, forcing me to focus on her.