' = Internal dialogue

ยจ= Normal speech

* = Sounds / Etc

-Chapter 41 Start-

A week after the attack by the combined forces of the naga, the sea giant and his follower murlocs, and the now recognized Makrura species, the crayfish with an abnormal size.

Things were finally calming down, but I somewhat felt this was just the calm before the storm.

All things considered, there was a dragon who probably had gotten the news of being robbed absolutely blind. That fact was soon proved false once Belmont's spy had overheard the dragon herself talking to several nagas when she visited the docks one night, mentioning none of our recent ploys in Dustwallow March.

Apparently, the sea giant was not the one who had started the assault. Onyxia herself had tasked the naga and told them to use any means necessary to either sabotage or cripple us from the sea, and the naga had apparently known that the sea giant had a grudge against two hydras who resided in Azshara.

Aegwynn had also speculated that some other things were at play because there was no way a sea giant who had been neutral for thousands of years would suddenly decide to cooperate with his natural enemy just because of a grudge.

And even then, by a stroke of luck, they had scouted our enclosure and spotted the hatchlings, resulting in an attack by the naga, who had informed the sea giant about us having the hydras on our beach.

The nagas in question were the Strashaz, which I guessed from my previous knowledge were the ones who resided in Dustwallow March, and also the ones who sunk the vessel Varian Wrynn came into the region in my... Previous world.

This could mean a few things. Onyxia still had yet to receive the news of her lair. Her attack on us was planned when she realized we had become a faction she needed to deal with or put pressure on us while she tried to destroy the human kingdom.

Also, a few agents had reported that she had been leaving Stormwind every second day and returning early in the morning. Still, the direction she was traveling was off-putting.

She flew directly toward the Blackrock Mountains. Suppose she was communicating with Neltharion and his allies. In that case, our conflict might escalate.

Still, her efforts only pushed me and my allies to make contingencies in place for plenty of situations, which with Aegwynn's help, proved to be much more efficient than our own methods.

The fact she is a mage who's older than a millennium helped, thanks to her experience and expertise, we installed a city-wide barrier covering even the dwarven halls below.

The barrier was, in fact, not meant to take attacks all by its lonesome.

No, it was an identification barrier with two functions, stasis and mana drain, for unidentified signatures upon activation.

It was a start. The beach, however, now had a few groups of *Peacekeepers* patrolling. Several walls had been built around the growing coastal town. It was slowly being enveloped into the city as the defenses were built.

We realized that having two places instead of one was probably the most stupid thing we could do at this point. During a dinner when Belmont, Calia, Jaina, Aegwynn, Valeera, and I was relaxing and talking, Valeera just munched her food as she spat out, "Whhhgy nngot bgwild arghond it?" (Why not just build around it?)

We just sat there and stared at her as she gulped her food and asked, "What?"

So, in the end, we started a large project to make the walls stretch around the entire town at the beach and beyond, even to the mine we had stolen from the naga upon arrival.

Well, putting the ordeal with the naga and Onyxia aside.

As I felt my magic go back to normal, instead of relaxing, I spent the time attempting to learn more about Arcanite and how to apply the dwarves' techniques onto my own. I was met with a small amount of success.

By now, I had learned how to utilize Arcanite with other metals to make myself the weapons I wanted, but that was on hold for the time being due to lacking the rest of the materials.

I decided to reward the dwarves with some of the ores I had found within Onyxia's lair, which was reward enough for them, as a result... They helped me by making a teleporter in my home after realizing they were tired of climbing all the steps. However, this became a thing when Aegwynn brought it up in front of them first.

I wanted these teleporters myself more than I'd like to admit.

Every single teleportation pad on every floor was secured differently. With the gnomes and Aegwynn's help, we had built security measures in place for every teleporter, for example, no one except me could get to the third floor without my direct permission, and only the ones I chose could access anything.

It was self-explanatory that Aegwynn, Jaina, Calia, Belmont, Lanira, and Valeera were the only ones with access to most floors.

Then comes the subject of the core inserted into my entire right arm and part shoulder. It had stayed silent since it fell asleep one week ago. Sometimes the stars depicted in the arm would glow through my newly repaired chest armor and sleeve, even if the armor was by no means see-through.

I started experimenting with my newly increased Arcane attunement, and boy was that a blast. I almost blew the entire tower off its foundation when I first tested the potency of intertwining my lightning with the tier IV arcane attunement. Long story short, I was told never to do that again in the middle of the night.

After that day, word had gotten out that the city lord was being held prisoner inside his tower by two dangerous women, most people passed this off as just another one of my flimsy actions, but most knew... The city lord had indeed fucked up.

And by all means, yes, I fucked up. Aegwynn was deep into her previous research about the banishment of demon business while trying to figure out how to fix the eggs we stole from Onyxia. Jaina was with her this night. This later proved to be a bad thing when my stunt shook Aegwynn so much that she incidentally banished Jaina within one of her experimental items, which she had managed to put a banishment spell into.

Getting Jaina out of that little object took an entire day, and Aegwynn blamed me wholeheartedly. The rest of that day, Jaina followed me around, trying to get some payback. In the end, turned out just to be another wholesome afternoon talking about her progress and mine. This was after she gave up when she realized that me being sealed into one of Aegwynn's traps might result in something terrible happening based on the core in my body.

I did not know if I could be affected by Aegwynn's traps. Still, I wanted to avoid testing that theory after hearing of Jaina's experience; apparently, there was no concept of time.

She felt some strange kind of disconnect from her magic. She said it felt like years, and after asking Aegwynn about it, she explained that this was something she had been working on for the last three centuries. She had found the schematics and magic formula in an old decayed library shown to her by a wizard called Kithros.

Aegwynn had later turned Kithros's banishment spell into one of her own making. By anchoring the spell to an object, she could potentially trap anything within it. Instead of making an enemy disappear and later return, she decided to make it into a trap that could be further secured and sealed.

{{Imagine a soul gem from The Elder Scrolls, but this one also captures the body. And that is terrifying.}}

It reflected Aegwynn's ingenuity regarding the machinations of magic and the theory she had mastered over the years.

Then the day came when the mages of Dalaran were scheduled to visit. Luckily there were no nasty surprises lying in wait as we prepared for their arrival. I had opened up the teleporter from Belmont's office to the 7th floor in the new war room at the top floor inside the tower, with an enormous map of Azeroth in the middle.

Chairs surrounded it, and the map itself was magical. Of course, I chose not to display Pandaria, Zandalar, or Kul'tiras. The map consisted only of the three continents, Kalimdor, Eastern Kingdoms, and Northrend.

I had already told Belmont about certain secrets and that we should attempt to place some agents in Northrend, Kul'tiras, and several more to attempt to find Pandaria, the only clue I had about its location was that it's to the south, between Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms, but that was just me acting on the lack of knowledge, I had no idea how to actually get there.

But the place was so full of resources and even one...No, or two weapons that I wanted my hands on no matter the consequence. Still, for that to happen, I needed a way into the lands filled with Sha, Mogu, and the so-called peaceful Pandaren, which by all means was peaceful sure, but every race has its rotten eggs.

After talking about this with Aegwynn, we had reached the conclusion that the fog would unravel itself when the time was appropriate, she had only heard of Pandaria from the very few Pandaren she had encountered since she became a Guardian, and even they were only on a pilgrimage, and had sworn to their brethren that if they were ever asked about their homelands, they would not reveal a thing, no matter what.

How she knew all this? This was during her time as she had become unstable due to her possession. She had quite literally dug into their minds and tore the truth out, resulting in the immediate death of the peaceful Pandarens.

Her face showed deep regret when she was reminded of that time. She would by no means do anything of the like were she completely sane.

I was only glad she was my ally because my grandmother was one cold, ruthless bitch against her enemies. This was primarily because of her long life, or so I presumed.

Having a completely balanced moral compass after a millennium is a bit much. I could picture myself becoming less emphatic over time as everyone I know would die and rot into nothingness while I couldn't, wouldn't.

Leaving those depressive thoughts behind, I prepared for my daily routine down to the hatchery before I would greet the remnants of Dalaran.

After taking the teleporter down, it looked like a large cylindrical metal pipe with a blue, glowing circle at the bottom and a small metallic antenna at the top, flimsily rotating around in an imperfect circle motion.

As I entered the room filled to the brim with red eggs with black markings, I felt the heat smack into my face. By no means would this hurt me no. It was just that I had gone from an average room temperature to what would essentially be the death of an ordinary being. The entire room needed a very high temperature to keep the eggs healthy.

If I were to guess, I would presume it was around the same temperature as the surface of an active volcano. I had asked Aegwynn how she could handle the heat, which resulted in her just looking at me with what I would assume was her considering how much of an idiot I was, and something between *How are you still alive* kind of look, turns out she has a barrier constantly active around herself. Without it, she would most likely be dead a week ago.

This made her go on a charade about how to keep me safe and how to utilize my magic around myself constantly to create something akin to a passive barrier, something like a thin membrane of mana around my clothes and armor, which I was still working on ever since she taught me how. However, I still hadn't been able to make it into a proper barrier yet, but I was getting closer each day.

Looking back at the orderly collection of eggs, I started walking toward the large metal square in the middle of the room, as thin tubes were connected to every incubator and all leading toward the metallic square.

This was Aegwynn's personal achievement. She had managed to make some kind of distributor of magic.

Every day since I could adequately utilize my magic without risking any mishap, I was to step on top of it, push some of my mana out, and let the strangely ritualistic square absorb it. As a result, my magic would enter every egg in the entire hall.

This was an ongoing experiment, as she had tested how my magic would react when I tried to *Give* another being my magic. The result after insane increase in the amount of mana I held resulted in this being a catastrophe.

I had destroyed ten of the thirty eggs Aegwynn kept in her lab this way, as they simply could not handle the sudden strain.

Giving anyone my magic without the current solution was no longer possible.

It had to be a slow process or nothing at all. That was the analysis Aegwynn had given me. After looking through her previous notes, she made the strange device. It was inspired by the ritual she had gained her powers when she first became a Guardian.

She refused to go further into that explanation, so I didn't ask, but the results were clear. Now I was imbuing every egg in the hatchery with my own magic, letting each little whelp soak themselves with my magic every day.

The reason for this? Simple, it was a complete and utter gamble. After hearing how I hatched Nessie, Aegwynn was sure that something in my magic was a critical component of their growth, connecting entire beings to myself and letting them gain some of my attunements and magic in the process.

Nessie had been showing an aptitude for lightning and the arcane. After we had checked the enclosure, some of the walls underwater were covered with black lines, almost like thunder had struck. She had later listened to me and fired off a potent beam of purple-black lightning at a target. It sizzled out before hitting, leaving three heads slumping in disappointment.

Aegwynn herself had been experiencing an increase. Magic was easier than ever before, even showing herself capable of summoning the same colored lightning as Nessie but significantly more powerful. It wasn't as much of a bolt as Nessie's, the beam was like a laser, potent, compact, and deadly, and the dwarves weren't happy that there was now a small hole going through their mountain.

Lightning aside, her magic potential also skyrocketed. Even as old as she was, she could still improve, and after getting this boost... I saw her starting to regain the will of wanting to grow stronger. However, Jaina was the one getting put through the wringer, as Aegwynn's demands and teaching had become much, much more brutal than before.

How do I know this? My grandmother whispered it to me once when Jaina was lying face-first to the ground in mana exhaustion.

That brings me back to the situation in front of me. The eggs still had one problem hovering over them like an enormous guillotine. The taint of the Old Gods.

We had hoped to fix it with the help of my magic, but I wasn't willing to gamble on that, so I had asked Aegwynn to keep up her research about how to remove it entirely.

Which was still a work in progress. Only one week had passed after all.

As I finished my routine at the hatchery, I returned to the living room, where a dryad was tapping her four legs on the floor while cooking delicious-smelling venison and mushrooms. She truly wasn't like her sisters.

Lanira was an oddity. She preferred the company of me and the ones around me. She loved nature much, it was true, but she did not have the same drive regarding preserving nature, and as a result, she didn't mingle with her sisters as much as she used to.

And instead spent time with either Valeera, Calia, or Jaina. She also loved playing with Nessie in the last few days, however... She had undergone a slight transformation, her once bright blue eyes had gained a purple hue, and her skin color had turned from light blue into the same color as my newly acquired tattoo, dark blue, with small white pigmentations across her body, her fur had now gained a shade of black.

But the most significant change was the sprout of dark antlers starting to grow out of her head, these were now ten centimeters out of her skull, slowly, and they were truly sharp. They looked like pointy black crystalline spikes.

Her attitude did not change; instead, she wanted to pamper me and the ones visiting the tower more. However, Valeera fled every time the dryad came after her, as she still avoided contact with most except for bickering with Belmont, adventuring with me, or training with the other children.

So, in the end, I made the fourth floor of the tower Lanira's floor since she no longer spent too much time with her sisters in their groove. With her current change, this might have been for the best.

I'm shaken out of my thoughts as I fall backward to the ground, just now realizing Lanira had lept at me with the intent to embrace me.

*Thump*

"This time, you won't escape dinner! I even invited Jaina! Though... I don't know when she is arriving..." Lanira said, but her tone became uncertain when she mentioned the mage.

I rose to my feet while the dryad hugged me and patted her head, then smiled as she let me go and returned to finish the food.

Lately, I had been socializing with Jaina a lot and not giving more attention to the dryad beside me, resulting in a friendly competition for my time.

Just as I sat down, I heard a knock on the door. Jaina came through, a smile on her face, with two jugs of blue-looking liquid.

"Hi, I tried to be as quick as I could. I had some success regarding what my devilish mentor made me do, so I brought my work here and thought we could test it during a meal. " Jaina said with a smile as she pulled out a chair and sat down while Lanira brought three cups over.

"What is this?" I pointed toward the two jugs, which seemed animated as the fluid inside was see-through.

"It's a new version of the mana gem!" Jaina said excitingly before continuing, "After... my mentor took some of the moon well's water and tried to separate the arcane magic from it, we realized we were looking at liquid mana gems, so she made me distill a lot of the moon well's water these last two days, and with her help, I managed to turn it into a drinkable liquid.

It's still in the experimental phase, I tried it, and it didn't do anything to me. If anything, it was very refreshing, and I wanted you to test it as well." Jaina said proudly.

Obviously, there was more to her statement than that. Still, she wouldn't deliberately hurt anyone of us with an experiment, even if she had tested it beforehand. However, if we made the water into liquid mana gems, it would be an insane boon for the city.

Lanira just looked at Jaina with narrowed eyes. She had heard the conversation but still had reservations about the moonwells being used for anything other than decoration and burials. However, it was one of the things drilled into her by Cenarius, her heritage.

Lanira was an oddity in that regard, so she soon just shrugged it off, put the food on the table, and sat down with us.

Jaina had been marveling at Lanira's transformation these last few days.

It made her a bit shy regarding compliments she was given. Still, as it turns out, it was one of her few weaknesses, so Jaina kept using that to drag me into all sorts of situations, resulting in me spending much more time with the blonde mage.

Undoubtingly this was her goal, and I honestly didn't mind. Spending time with Jaina was pleasant, even when she was bombarding me about what I knew about sorcerers and the lore of the world after Aegwynn told her that I had knowledge of a few events even she did not.

As a result, we spent the most time around each other except when she received guidance from her Aegwynn. At the same time, I went on with doing whatever I felt like doing, which was basically feeding dragon eggs with magic, playing with Nessie, skinning with Valeera, planning with Belmont, tea time with Calia, and basically wandering around the town while enjoying the sights of everyone having a good time.

As we started eating, Jaina moaned slightly when she started chewing the venison. That made me look at her with my eyebrow raised as I also took a bite of my venison steak.

My eyes went wide as I felt my taste buds experience some sort of euphoria. I understood why Jaina made a sound like that. Lanira just looked at us with a proud smile while her face reddened.

Lots of Jaina's moaning later, we had finished dinner, and she put the two glass jugs on the table as they had been on the floor while we ate. With a flick of her wrist, she lifted the jug, poured the liquid into our glasses, and looked at me expectantly.

As I lifted the cup to my face to take a sip, we were interrupted by a knock on the door, and Belmont soon entered.

This made Jaina pout for a reason, but I ignored it as Belmont said, "The Dalaran mages are outside the gates waiting for both of you. I'll wait in the meeting room. I don't have a good impression regarding Dalaran mages, so excuse me for not joining when you bring them in." And with a slight grin went over to the teleporter and teleported to where the meeting would take place.

"So, ready to meet some of your old colleges?" I asked Jaina with a smile, she nodded, and we both started heading out the door toward the gates. At the same time, an annoyed Lanira just stomped her hoves due to dinner being somewhat interrupted yet again.

-Chapter 41 End-