' = Internal dialogue

ยจ= Normal speech

* = Sounds / Etc

-Chapter 67-

It would seem I may or may not have made a mistake by simply keeping my identity a secret, the reason? I couldn't kill the spastic warrior-king before me.

His attempts at provocation and threats were thrown at me as if someone were firing a machine gun directly at me, Varian who just wouldn't shut the hell up. Jaina, however, looked at our interaction with apparent amusement, and as the sun had peaked over the now non-existent mountain path in the distance in clear view of where we sat around a round table, Jaina sat at my side, and Varian on the opposite side of the table.

Anduin and Valeera seemed to sit down and play a game suspiciously similar to Hearthstone in the corner of the room; they sometimes gazed and then giggled as they heard Varian keep bugging me.

"No, you are not getting the corpse, and no, not even when you claim that she was in the process of becoming your wife! I get screwing a dragon might have boosted your self-esteem, but for all that is holy, did it lower your mental capabilities to this degree!? Is there a limit to your shamelessness!? I replied.

The fact that I was considering murdering a king due to a dragon's corpse was starting to tear down my already ultra-thin wall of patience.

"You defeated the dragon inside of Stormwind! The corpse belongs to me as it was felled in my kingdom!" Varian replied with a grin, ignoring every single offense I was giving to the man, but his grin soon turned upside down as he noticed the air around us grow heavy.

"The only reason we are here and even talking about this is because of your son and Valeera, even if you threaten us with war for a third time... I'm considering taking that declaration seriously... your entire army is probably easier to deal with than you are in an argument!" I explained loudly and as if speaking to a child.
In all honesty, it had been a serious thought until Jaina broke the tense silence and broke down laughing.

Anduin walked over quickly when he realized that his father was close to stepping over an invisible line that only he seemed to see in comparison to his father.

"Father, they saved our kingdom. We owe them at least this much. A single dragon's corpse is not worth going to war against the people who..." Anduin said but then paused as he gazed toward Valeera and me, then back to his father.

"... has managed to infiltrate the Keep and take me away two times by now... though I don't mind as for some time, you even locked me up inside the royal tower... but... father, give up the claim for the dragon... if not for my sake, then do it for our people, please." Anduin pleaded while Valeera snorted in the background.

'Sometimes it's hard to accept the fact that these two are related...' I thought as I saw Varian eye his son before he gained a thoughtful gesture. His eyes lit up, and he slammed his hand into the table with a victorious smirk as if: Oh damn, I'm smart. Why did I not think of that before!? Kind of expression.

Varian grinned, then added, "...Fine, have it your way, but I will have compensa-" "No, you will not." I interrupted, not amused in the least at his attempts to gain something out of this situation where he did absolutely nothing except stay in the keep until Onyxia's death.

Of course, this resulted in another round of quarreling between me and the dragon-screwing king of Stormwind until Jaina finally stepped in after having her dose of amusement for the day as she yawned as we had yet to get sleep after the night.

In the end, we left the royal quarters, and Jaina, Valeera, and I went toward the lake where the corpse of Onyxia lay; her scales had hardened to the extreme after she died, seemingly because of the process of whatever she had drank mid-fight.

There was now a rogue that tried to peel off one of the scales trying to act all stealthy at the corpse. Still, with an audible cracking sound, the poor rogue ended up shattering his dagger, then skedaddled away the moment he realized the gig was up as we stared at him; undoubtingly, he had been there under Varian's orders.

And it turned out that we required no further use of portal mages to take the corpse with us through the portal after deciding where to put it for dismantling, as I used my warp ability to directly transfer it to an area open enough to store the corpse.

Which was... the dwarven district underneath the city. Turns out they had a large enough hall to hold the 150 meters or so long dragon and gladly accepted the deal of taking some of the materials after dismantling the corpse, which would take... days if not weeks, considering how hard it was to actually get through the scales and hide.

The head, however, turned out to be another ordeal; the smell of rot and decay due to the weird reaction Onyxia had to the black ooze turned out to be quite a hindrance for our one and only taxidermist; the poor man had a sensitive nose and directly passed out on accident when nearing the corpse to look over what process he was going to use.

It turns out that we had to wait out the smell as, according to the expert, sending a few cleaning crews over several days in order to remove the rotting smell should do the trick, he stated.

At this point, I was honestly not tired. Still, I had discovered that returning to old habits made me relax, plus the fact that the bed had gained an addition, which was also why I slept lately.

Valeera had tagged along when we visited the unconscious Pained and Belmont, the latter frozen in stasis and later placed elsewhere, as a block of ice was surprisingly not the best thing to have around other inhabitants of the room. However, Valeera's sniffle when she observed Belmont's frozen and pained expression truly hurt.

Belmont and Valeera were very good friends, even with their overreactions whenever one of them pranks the other. He had become the fun uncle for her since our arrival in Azshara, and only now did it seem to truly make Valeera realize that he might never get better as there was no known cure to the plague.

After having a silent walk together back to the tower, we took our time; I swore I could even see Lanira pass us by as the dryad's eyes widened before waving at us as she dashed through the market toward the tower.

And as we entered through the doors of our home a few minutes later, I could smell the aroma in the air and smiled, and as I was going to ask who wanted to have a brief bath before food arrived when I heard the teleporter activate.

Through the teleporter came a yawning Calia with extremely messy hair; she looked like she had slept for days, and as she massaged her eyes while walking toward the delicious smell, when she suddenly stopped.

Her eyes widened before she let out an indignant yelp when she finally realized this was not her home.

I snorted at her reaction, and so did Valeera and Jaina. Still, the latter soon rose up from her seat beside mine and went over and hugged the clearly disoriented woman.
And soon came Lanira with several plates of food and we all sat down around the table and chatted.

Then the comforting afternoon continued as we laughed and had an overall good time, even when Valeera accidentally mentioned our trip to Stormwind and what she had missed the last twelve hours to Calia, whose eyes widened in horror as she held her hand in front of her mouth while Valeera recounted an albeit exaggerated story on how she escaped the royal keep with hundreds of black knights hot on her heels while carrying Anduin on her shoulder who had teared up and panicked once he was informed about Lady Prestor's true nature as they ran.

Her gaze my way was like a sword being pointed at me. I just sighed and smiled, then as Calia was going to practically demand an explanation, Jaina stepped in and started to recount what we did; specifically, she pressed the matter that we did not kill a single human or animal... except the draconic creatures disguised in black armor.

Then Jaina started to explain Onyxia's and my intense fight in the sky.

She even correctly compared the sizes on a miniature scale. However, she had to water down the violent explanation of me literally blowing away the upper jaw of the now abominable water dragon in the sphere. The rest who sat around the table, as if in a trance while watching the projection with awe.

When she got to the end of the fight, the display showed just me punching the everliving shit out of the dragon with the cloudy form of vapor inside the sphere. Everyone could even hear the resonant sounds from the makeshift battle inside.

For the remainder of the show Jaina was displaying, Calia looked back and forth between the water sphere and me before sighing in relief when she noticed I had no injuries. Then she asked, "What about the king and his men? Did they just stand by and do nothing?"

I nodded before Jaina elbowed me gently, which made me fake cough as Valeera laughed and answered for us, "Jepp, they hid away until father put the dragon on the ground; they even hesitated when Jaina arrived; it was hilarious, I tell you,!" Then she covered her mouth, looked at me, and mumbled, "Oops."

"... Valeera? When did you get there?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.

"... It's not like the Anduin needed a babysitter... so I left him with Tygor and asked the portal mages to send me back, when the fight was over, I returned so you wouldn't find out? Guess all that effort was for naught, damn it." Valeera admitted, albeit sheepishly.

Only now, Calia noticed Valeera's new features as she gazed at her with wide eyes, then at me. I just shook my head. Calia nodded slightly before she smiled at Valeera, who was feeding Tina a piece of meat from her plate.

"So we are not at war with Stormwind or any of the factions after all that?" Calia asked as she pondered; she sounded genuinely surprised at how well our little escapade to Stormwind really went, or at least that's what It sounded like.

"Well, Varian threatened Medan with exactly, that dozens of times... but was dissuaded by Anduin, and before you get any assumptions... Varian was the one pushing the matter." Jaina intervened as she saw Calia reaching the wrong conclusion.

"Should have just gone to war and get it over with... talking with him is probably the worst of those options..." I mumbled to myself, which did not escape Calia's notice. Jaina again interjected, "Don't listen to him... he had a long discussion about the 150-meter-long dragon corpse now residing in the Titanforge."

"Wait, they named it? When?" I asked, taken aback. Jaina just leaned backward and made eye contact with me, then smiled and nodded before continuing, "Yes, several weeks ago, and I believe it is time for us to do so as well; we can't let our city stay as the unnamed city above the Titanforge of Azshara."

I nodded slowly at that remark; it was true; we had delayed it for far too long, especially so if we were to establish positive relations with other factions; staying a nameless city was probably not the impression new allies imagined a powerful city in the region of Kalimdor to have.

"So... suggestions?" I asked casually.

"Sanctum?" I asked after brief consideration, which made everyone ponder the new name. That was a decent one, which was met with speculations as the name was coming from me, who had a disturbingly bad naming sense.

Then, after a minute, Jaina nodded and said, "Let's stick to that, or if anyone has a better suggestion..." Everyone at the table just shook their head at this, which Jaina noticed and sighed before she continued, "Then if by the end of the week, that is, if no one has a better name, then we'll go with that."

The talk and dinner paused once the teleporter activated, only to reveal a ragged-looking Aegwynn who gazed at us before she smiled and then made her way over.

As she sat down beside Valeera, she gave her a smile and said, "You look good with those new features; it suits you." Valeera took the compliment and turned away from the ex-guardian with a slight blush, making Tina grumble as Valeera had forgotten that she was practically feeding her.

"I apologize for my outburst yesterday. It struck a chord with me, and I have, since then, been attempting to figure out how to deal with the plague. I couldn't help but come here after my brief visit with the dwarves to get some molds for the new experiment. Their hallway had an aspect-sized dragon just lying between the teleporter and the crafting quarters. What did I miss?" Aegwynn said as a plate of food levitating out of the kitchen landed in front of her.

"Went to Stormwind, fought the black dragon Onyxia, killed close to a thousand draconic creatures disguised as black knights, dealt with the king of Stormwind when he tried to get the corpse of the dragon you found... and here we are?" I replied with a shrug. This made Aegwynn look at me oddly for a moment before she mirrored the shrug and continued eating.

After five minutes, most had finished eating as Valeera and Lanira left the table and went to take a walk around the city. Their destination was the beach where Nessie, Bluey were. But I heard Valeera whisper about taking a trip down to Titanforge into the dryad's ear, who nodded happily as they exit the tower after waving at us goodbye.

"Ahh, that reminds me, Calia. Is it possible to prepare housing for roughly 1000 new citizens?" I asked.

"Uhm, yes? Do they prefer to live underground or above? The dwarves have recently expanded their residence hall to help out. Apparently, some have received news of a migration from all across the Eastern Kingdoms being brought here by goblin vessels for a hefty amount of gold." She replied and became thoughtful for a moment.

After a brief consideration, she continued, "We are also expanding in the coastal region toward the Kalu'ak, who currently occupy the abandoned temple to the east near the sea. However, that won't be practical as there won't be any defense for quite some time... Though we do have some free residence on the human side as you clearly have established positive relations with Stormwind due to your... quest inside their city, which means we will send back around 600 humans that are currently residing in the dungeons."

Calia then leaned back and stared at the ceiling before looking back at the table, then to us as she continued, "The Stormwind assassins and the like, who I would prefer to be delivered back to the city unharmed, even if they aimed for my life... they were still under orders, and I know personally that such authority is not easily swayed, and will often result in forfeiting ones life if one went against it." Calia explained while looking at me seriously.

After a sigh Calia continued, "I'll start clearing up an area to the north as we are building a wall much further outward to expand the city. Within the next few months, temporary residence in Titanforge is recommended, though."

"I'll ask before they arrive, and don't worry... the assassins and people from Stormwind are returning this afternoon since I need to set up the coordinates of a semi-permanent portal to Stormwind and Gnomeregan later today. Can I ask for your help with doing this?" I replied, then asked Jaina, who nodded while remaining seated on my lap, which was getting... quite weird as Aegwynn sometimes gave us a sideways glance and then shook her head before returning to her food.

After some time clearing up information around the new inhabitants that are coming and returning an estimate of 500 Stormwind Citizens and 150 Rogues/Assassins back into their care, Jaina and I left as Aegwynn brought Calia with her down to the lab as she wanted to get her magical signature to make her a defensive accessory.

Jaina and I made our way down the busy streets toward the Portal hall, which was still under strict surveillance by the Peacekeepers under my orders, as the temporary portal to Stormwind had been kept open to make a semi-permanent one easier to set up.

The one who met me at the door was Tygor. He looked slightly ragged as his squad and himself had been guarding it for twelve hours, "Lord Medan, glad you arrived at this time. Someone in the portal room insisted on entering through to our side from the temporary portal to Stormwind. I was going to send one of my men to tell you If it wasn't for the fact I recognize the person's importance and what the situation inside looks like..." Tygor calmly explained as he followed us to the entrance.

"Oh? That's interesting. I didn't realize you knew how to recognize the human ranks, considering you've never been in Stormwind, or at least that is what you have told me." I replied, curious about who this person could be.

"...Well, you see... I did not have much choice in the matter as she explicitly told us about her reasons for coming here through an ... unorthodox method." The large tauren continued, then sighed before the door into the portal room.

"This is where I'll leave you to deal with your business. My men need to rest, and with your arrival, the job is done. Can you tell Damian that I'll increase his pay when he returns? Ah, he's the blonde high elf with the short fuse. You'll recognize him when you see him..." Tygor explained as he waved at us while walking back from where we came from.

This made me turn around and look at the departing tauren male weirdly as Jaina did the same. After a moment, we both shrugged and opened the door, only to see an old woman holding a grown man by the throat as a dagger dripping with green poison up to a middle-aged looking high elf's crotch as the elf in question had sweat running down his forehead.

There were also several shadows that I recognized as a dozen rogues behind her and a brown-haired man around the age of 30, which reminded me of someone. The rogues were most likely bodyguards as they did not move a step away from her shadow except for the brown-haired man who stood at her side while looking at the high elf with disdain in his eyes.

Her back faced the portal as she held the dagger calmly and smiled, but she seemed to not be pleased with the situation somehow as her eyes were all but smiles. "Get your temper in order, boy. It will get you killed one day. Luckily, my rogues and I are not here for conflict today, and the monster from yesterday has appeared to save your pride." The voice of the old woman said with chilling neutrality as she smiled coldly until she lowered the dagger and did a slight bow with her left hand on her chest.

I noticed that her hand was filled to the brim with jewelry, and she actually displayed sincerity; the high elf now backed off slowly, and as the high elf was going to say something rude, I flared my magic and made him aware of who was behind him. He paled as his head whipped around before he looked slightly ashamed.

"Tygor told me to tell you that your pay will be increased today, but please... leave this situation to me before doing something stupid," I told the high elf named Damian calmly. He bowed slightly before making his way out of the hall in silence, not uttering a word.

We both followed the high elf with a temper with our eyes as he exited the room and closed the door behind him. I turned to the older woman whose dagger had disappeared in thin air and studied her while she did the same. However, she smiled pleasantly, studied me, and stopped when she reached Jaina. Her eyes widened before she giggled into her hand.

"Ah, so you are the so-called Ghost. I never expected one so young to be such a master of water and ice magic; the two Archmages were indeed humbled, and I presume you want to keep this information to yourselves? Ah, I apologize. My name is Pathonia Shaw, current Head of the SI:7 and, unfortunately, the mother of disappointment." "Hey!" the brown-haired man shouted indignantly before she raised her hand in a swift motion and replied, "Shush, the adults are talking, honey."

Jaina frowned as she heard the nickname she had been given but said nothing as the woman now known as Pathonia gazed at me with curiosity and continued, "Ah, and I am sorry for threatening one of yours, Lord Medan. He was on the verge of attacking my son over here due to the latter not being able to hold his mouth shut, and I had no other way to de-escalate the situation. I apologize."

"Alright..." I replied as she was clearly lying at that last part, then asked, "So, what brings you here, and even bringing twelve assassins along?" I asked, letting her comment about calling me a monster pass by as if it had never been mentioned.

"Ah, straight to the point, I like it. Well, you see, Lord Medan, after your little visit to our humble city of Stormwind, I realized that the assassins sent this way under misguided orders may have succeeded in their endeavor. And if the worst-case scenario had occurred, I wanted to make sure this this incident would be contained to only affect the ones responsible in this potential political shitstorm that would leave all of Stormwind's higher up dead as doornail... In other words, I came here in hopes of preventing such a thing from ever happening."

Then the woman's eyes finally displayed her inner turmoil as she continued, "And... I humbly apologize for not looking into the mission given. I had been sent elsewhere during your first visit and received information deemed tampered with. Clearly, after meeting with the king, I had a small chat with little Anduin, and because of that boy's grasp of the situation, I realize we may have taken on a bit more than we could chew." She finished speaking with a somber tone.

'So... she came all this way to either apologize for them killing Calia or have the hope of her agents not succeeding in assassinating her since Jaina and I could take on the entire of Stormwind's forces? This is one sly woman...'

"... If I may ask, what would you do if your assassins managed to finish the job and I chose to do something about it?" I questioned with a grin as the two fangs on the sides of my mouth seemed to extend out of my face while the room was bombarded by my magical prowess, which she tensed up to the point of her hand full of rings seemed to shake at feeling.

The rogues around the room had a stronger response as their entire bodies trembled while grasping at their weapons and getting into a stance in preparations of running away at their fastest speeds upon getting the chance, of course all of this was done unconsciously, and when Pathonia lifted her hand up and clenched her fist, then all the tension of the rogues seemed to fade.

Her response was slightly delayed as she calmed herself while lowering her arm which still trembled slightly, she then released a deep sigh with relief, and replied, "I would willingly surrender myself and the ones who were to fulfill the deed in hopes of you not pointing your wrath elsewhere, but hearing you say that puts my mind at ease. Clearly, they have failed, but that being said... I will still reimburse you and yours for the trouble, but If I may be so bold... are my agents still alive?"

I nodded, which made the old, and worn woman smile. Then she turned back to the shadows and whispered something as a shadow disappeared through the portal toward Stormwind directly after. And she returned her gaze to me and asked, "Lord Medan, do you mind if I send my son into your city in order to withdraw the order, and my assassins?"

As she explained her reason for sending in her son into the city, I studied him as I slowly came to realize who he was: Mathias Shaw, one of Varian Wrynn's or, rather, Stormwind's most prominent rogues in the future, and he was currently being sassed by his own mother.

"Sure, though, let me contact my current leader among our rogues first and have her lead him through the city." I replied, looked at Jaina, and asked, "Jaina, can you get Deylia? One of hers should be outside the building."

Jaina nodded with a smile as she started walking toward the door and headed toward the entrance of the building.

As Jaina exited the room, I turned back to Pathonia and Mathias, who looked slightly puzzled as the reason why became clear as Pathonia asked, "I thought your rogues were led by a former Lordaeron assassin?"

I shook my head and sighed, "He is currently indisposed, and his second in command is his apprentice." I said as Pathonia nodded slowly.

Ten minutes later, Jaina came through the doors with a young high elf teen in tow, making Pathonia smile and Mathias's expression to turn toward the worse, as he had judged the teen based on her age.

He was then smacked in the back of the head. He gave his mother an angry look that soon changed into a resigned one as she shooed him off after Deylia introduced herself. They both left the building, and Jaina came to stand by my side.

"By the way, there is an old friend of mine who wanted to meet you if there is a possibility of you visiting Stormwind soon. I believe the two of you have met, and he was most curious about you, though if you do visit Stormwind, as long as you won't bring the same kind of mayhem as you did not long ago." Pathonia said with a smile.

"Sure, but there is too much to do in the coming days. We were originally planning to transfer people back to Stormwind within the next few days, but can we perhaps get it done today? I'd very much like them off my hands..." I told the old woman with a sigh.

"That can be arranged; how many have caused your city so much trouble to make you want them gone, though? I'm just curious." She calmly asked while waving her hand to get one of her rogues to step forward.

"900, plus your rogues. They couldn't get along with the general populace as not everyone here is human, elves, dwarves, or gnomes, resulting in unwanted conflict." I replied honestly, and she nodded and stated calmly, "I see; that is to be expected, though I thought the numbers would be much higher considering how many of ours migrated here."

"And I am a bit curious about your city, but I will instead visit when I am retired. I'll arrange the transfer of the citizens and my men and women by the end of the day if you keep the portal open until then. My son will be back within a few hours at best, and we will be out of your hair.

And with this, I bid you farewell, Lord Medan; it was a pleasure to finally meet you in person. I will see you again shortly and reimburse you for all the trouble." She said with a slight bow as she and the shadows returned to the other side of the portal.

Leaving only Jaina and me standing in the almost empty room where an opened portal churned with two mages standing on each side of it in deep meditation while channeling their mana into it.

"What a day huh..." I said as Jaina only smiled, then shook her head as we made our way out of the portal area.

-Chapter 67 End-