Chương 28: Chapter 27

Selessa was no longer certain how much time had passed. After you focused on something for long, you entered a deep meditation where time stopped mattering. Only the work existed. It was somewhat similar to entering a healing trance were your entire being focused on fixing the damage. Only this time, the wound was outside the body. Removing the corruption from the surroundings wasn't difficult, only time consuming.

Keeping up the containment so that it couldn't come back was somewhat challenging, but still quite doable. The hard part was dealing with the corpse of the C'Thrax. She couldn't just cleanse the body. It had to be destroyed. The issue was, it was the corpse of a being with such a powerful existence that she couldn't just chuck fireballs at it. In fact, the creature would've been vastly more powerful than her while alive, and not all of that power had left when it had died.

Some of that was because death for beings like this was a malleable concept. That was one of the things that defined creatures of the Void. The Old Gods were near impossible to kill as well, according to the dragons. She could destroy the corpse when she put her full power into it, but it was slow going. She did notice when Tyrande arrived to help. How and why didn't really matter. The High Priestess of Elune was here.

And Tyrande had a bit more experience in damaging beings with a powerful level of existence, having been one herself for thousands of years. And she was apparently helped by Elune, which was of course cheating. Tyrande wasn't doing much better, but at least the progress was faster with two people working on it. More than twice as fast. It also allowed her to study the power Tyrande wielded. It was not Light exactly, but it wasn't entirely Life either. It was somewhere in between.

Still not something she was suited to wield, but closer than pure Life. The spirit of the dead C'Thrax, or whatever purpose still remained in the corpse, fought back fiercely, and sometimes they were pushed back, but they were both flexible, and allowed the corpse its death throes. Bit by bit the corpse flaked away, every loose bit being annihilated by the two women. Because they didn't deign to fight the spirit directly, there was nothing the Void being could do.

It was a death by a thousand cuts, just like Selessa liked. At long last, the last part of the C'Thrax disintegrated, and the remaining corruption was cleansed. [Congratulations! You have achieved a Feat of Light! Light skill and Magic attribute increased by one! Perk points earned for both.] [This one was a big one, especially for your level, so the next one will be a bit easier.] That alone washed away much of her tiredness.

Both Magic 12 and Light 12 allowed her access to power and feats that would've been impossible before, and Light in particular cleansed her body and mind of any lingering exhaustion. She blinked her eyes open, still in her dragon form, taking a look around the area. It was obvious that everyone could tell that all traces of the Void were now gone, as the paladins and priests surrounding them were all stretching out as if getting a weight lifted off their shoulders.

A group of dozen consisting of both paladins and priests surrounded them, while Tyrande sat in front of her, blinking her eyes open at the same time. Sister Seraphina and surprisingly Maiev Shadowsong were standing guard a little further. A quick glance at herself made it clear that quite a bit of time had passed, considering her dragon form had almost doubled in size, now roughly twenty meters from tip to tail. She allowed the transformation to dissipate, returning to her real form.

"Ah, that's much better. Thank you for the help High Priestess. Without your assistance, it would've taken me much longer to accomplish the task." Tyrande nodded gracefully, taking the gratitude in stride.

"No need for thanks. It is the job of the Sisterhood of Elune to cleanse such darkness, and getting permanently rid of a C'Thrax is a great victory." Selessa gestured towards Seraphina, who approached quickly with Maiev.

"Glad to have you back, Saint!" Seraphina exclaimed effusively.

"Another enemy vanquished!"

"Not a small feat." Even Maiev gave a small nod of approval.

"How long was I indisposed, and what have I missed? And when did Tyrande and Maiev arrive?" She questioned.

"You've been working for twenty-five years in total. High Priestess Tyrande and Warden Shadowsong arrived roughly ten years ago." Seraphina revealed, and she wasn't too shocked. She'd expected something like that. Even if she hadn't known exactly how much time had passed, she had some notion.

"No wonder I feel stiff. You saved me at least ten years then." She nodded towards Tyrande.

"And what did I miss?"

"The Naga have probed our defenses, and Silvermoon was attacked twice. The first one was easily repelled, though the later one managed to cause significant damage to the harbor and the defenses around it. The Naga managed to drive a tribe of Sea Giants towards us, and we were a bit unprepared to say the least. They tried infiltrating through the rivers, but the mechanisms we developed together with the Gnomes prevented that rather efficiently, forcing them to try overland, which did not work.

I've personally hunted several Void cults that attempt to subvert the populace, but they had very little success. Especially in Alah'thalas. Several nobles were executed, presumably by the queen's people. Perhaps because of all of that, and because of the concentration of three Starwells, the magisters moved the primary college of magic to Luminarion. The number of recruits both as paladins and as Sin'dorei has continued to grow." Seraphina listed the most notable things off the top of her head.

"This place did become something of a pilgrimage to any would-be priests and paladins." Maiev added wryly.

"Wait, three Starwells?" Selessa asked in confusion.

"Oh, right. Ron'vith created a third one at Luminarion due to popular demand. And because he wanted to show off." Seraphina explained. Selessa had left them another Wraithbone Starwell-fountain just in case they needed to create one, though she had not assumed they'd create one in Luminarion.

"It seems you took my advice about the Gnomes." She muttered, mostly to herself.

"Oh, there are now several Gnomes in Dalaran, the city of mages the Mon'keigh created. The Dwarves also created a path to what they currently call Dun Modr, the area just south of the Mon'keigh and west of the Highlands of the Dawn. They've initiated trade with us and the Mon'keigh both. They mostly trade with the Highlands over the sea but also through the new tunnel." Seraphina revealed.

"Since you're getting into minutiae, I should probably add that we had some trouble with the dragons." Maiev interjected.

"They kept coming into this area despite our warnings to the contrary, though their exact purpose was a bit unclear."

"It seems I need to have a bit of a word with them." Selessa grumbled.

"Could you send a word to my father?" She asked Seraphina, who just nodded and gestured towards one of the waiting paladins, who jogged closer to take the message.

"Anything else urgent? Because I need a long bath and even longer sleep." Even if her physical exhaustion had been wiped away by the System, her mental exhaustion was still there.

"Nothing that requires immediate attention." Seraphiel stated.

"Good. Warden, High Priestess, could I offer the hospitality of the temple? I'm sure you could use a bit of rest as well." She suggested, and the two nodded in thanks.

Selessa was just relaxing on a divan and enjoying some of the best foods the Quel'dorei had on offer when one of the paladins on guard announced Sapphiron.

"Good to see you back among the land of the living." The Blue Dragon commented.

"I was hardly dead, just indisposed. Speaking of, care to explain why dragons kept fucking around while I was dealing with a common enemy?" Selessa wasn't having any of it. Sapphiron grimaced.

"Right. So, Queen Alexstrasza had an idea."

"Oh, boy, this is starting well." Selessa muttered. Sapphiron continued as if he hadn't just heard the Dragon Queen being mocked.

"She is aware that you have no intention of personally expanding your Dragonflight. However, it would be useful to have more of your kind to oppose the forces of the Void. We have some precedent of the nature of whelps changing within the egg if expose to certain energies, and the area around you was practically oozing with the Light. It was a rather fair assumption, and I might've tested it myself had I thought of it." Selessa was tempted to chuck the grape she was eating at the man but refrained. For now.

"I'm guessing that's not the whole story."

"No. The test was wildly successful, though not necessarily in the way the Queen expected. Before you ask, yes, there were whelps of your flight produced. However, the more important discovery was that every egg we placed in your vicinity hatched, and none of the whelps that were born were diminished. You'll recall I mentioned the dragons have been having difficulties reproducing ever since the war with the demons and the betrayal of Neltharion?"

"You did mention that, yes. Your Aspects gave away a portion of their power, which led to the entire flights having less power. The reproduction process is rather intensive, and as a result, most of the eggs never develop enough power on their own to hatch. And of those that do hatch, the whelps are often too weak to reach adulthood." She recalled the conversation they'd had in the past.

"Exactly. So, when everyone discovered that not only were all the eggs hatching, but that the resulting whelps were not diminished, which means stronger whelps surviving to become stronger dragons, you can imagine certain parties got very interested, very quickly. My own flight in particular has been very low in numbers for a very, very long time. We now have more living whelps than we've had in the last seven thousand years. Combined. And some of them have already become drakes."

Sapphiron was clearly very pleased with the prospect.

"We would've talked about it with you, but you were indisposed, and the opportunity was simply too good to pass. Of course, now that you're done, that no longer applies." His tone grew sadder. Selessa wasn't entirely sure that was the case. It wasn't hard to figure out why the eggs had been hatching with such success around her. They were being affected by her perks. The same perks that rather explicitly helped her subordinates be the best they can be and go above their previous limits.

"That might not be entirely the case, but we'll return to that. Perhaps. What happened to the Gold whelps, some of whom I assume have become drakes by now as well?"

"Ah. That. Well. The others are aware of your loyalty to your people. They're fine with that, but they're less fine with an entire Dragonflight being pets of the Quel'dorei." Sapphiron revealed.

"That's not an entirely unwarranted concern, but there are several rather glaring issues to deal with before we even get to that. First of all, as whelps of the Light, I'm going to go ahead and assume that the most optimal surroundings for them to grow at would be where the power of the Light is the strongest, which would mean Quel'thalas. Secondly, you are the ones who decided to make the Gold a new Dragonflight and secretly hatch more of my kind.

You can't then bitch and whine about divided loyalties if you're the one creating them. Either we are a proper flight with our own autonomy, with me as its leader, or we are not. You can't have it both ways. We need to have the freedom to make our own choices. Currently, from my point of view, the other flights have effectively kidnapped members of my flight and are both holding them hostage and potentially brainwashing them. That's an act of war." She got up from her divan and walked up to Sapphiron.

"Let me make this very clear. I'm giving the dragons a chance to do the right thing. If they choose not to, there will be repercussions. Severe repercussions. And you can forget any sort of alliance with the Quel'dorei and the Gold Dragonflight. Am I clear?"

"Crystal." Sapphiron nodded, clearly not too happy.

"Good. Because I assure you that I can do much worse than the one you call Deathwing if I have to. If you do comply, we might discuss how the effect you discovered actually works, and how it might continue to do so." She allowed a bit carrot in addition to the stick.

Now feeling much more refreshed, Selessa moved towards the rooms given to Tyrande and Maiev. They were currently in a house owned by the church in Silvermoon. She found the two enjoying the refreshments, talking about what they'd seen in Quel'thalas.

"Pardon my intrusion, and my hasty departure before. As you might imagine, I was quite exhausted, and I couldn't perform my hostly duties to a sufficient standard. I hope you were not subject to any undue hardship."

"Your people have treated us well, even if with some polite distance." Tyrande reassured her.

"I notice you're still radiating Light." Maiev pointed out, still wearing her armor.

"And I likely will be for a while. Grand works like that have an effect, and Light rewards such service." She sat next to the two, who in turn were sitting on the opposite sides of a small table.

"Which brings me to my next point. I do not wish to owe debts to others. What can I, or the Quel'dorei provide to return the favor you have provided us?" Tyrande was about to dismiss the gratitude, but got a silent signal from Maiev, who was more practical. That caused her to re-evaluate things on the fly.

"Well…there is talk of an expedition to the southern parts of Kalimdor. We aren't exactly sure when it would happen, since it depends on when certain druids are awake. And my people aren't exactly known for quick decision making. That could be anywhere from tens to hundreds, maybe even thousands, of years from now, so the timeline is really shaky, but we could use your support and expertise. You've been doing this sort of thing more lately, and your ships might be better suited to the job."

"Granted. I'll make sure some vessels are made available on short notice until the time comes." Selessa pursed her lips thoughtfully.

"Anything else?" She felt the scales were not yet balanced.

"I would feel much better if I was allowed access to hunt my targets on this continent, and if necessary, in your lands." Maiev pointed out.

"I would assume you don't want rogue mages or servants of the legion or the void here either, nor would you like dark artifacts."

"We're going to have to settle on a firm definition of what constitutes as a rogue mage, but I don't oppose in principle. Our Knights of Retribution perform much the same duty, so you might want to coordinate with them. If you are hunting one of ours, you'll have to run it by us first, but we'll try to make that process as frictionless as possible." She suggested.

"That said, I do believe there's a lot of potential for problems among the Mon'keigh. Sorry, humans. They even have a city of mages now from what I'm being told, Dalaran."

"I got acquainted with Sister Seraphina when the two of you were indisposed. We can work together and coordinate." Maiev nodded in agreement. She hadn't expected she'd be allowed to hunt Quel'dorei without some checks, so this was well inside her expectations.

"Alright then." Selessa agreed, and the trio started discussing details.

"Why is the palace flying?" Selessa asked with a flat tone, directing the question at Elorien, the magical engineer and architect.

"I'm fairly certain we agreed to not make it fly."

"Did we? I remember things differently. Also, it's not just the palace. It's the headquarters of the Sin'dorei, The headquarters of the Church of Light, and the Luminarion Magical Academy. And the new Starwell." The man replied shamelessly.

"That explains why it's so big." She muttered. And indeed, the floating island was very large. Much larger than just a palace warranted, even assuming the architects had gone grandiose, and she didn't expect they'd hold back after making the damn thing fly. The presence of the other institutions explained things, though it was still big, even with those considerations.

"Where did you even find a suitable landmass?"

"Oh, we just lifted a chunk from the southern shore, causing the lake to expand. More fishing waters as well. The gnomes loved participating in the project." Elorien explained.

"The gnomes?" She asked with a frown.

"Yeah, we had them working with the river inlet systems at the time, so we thought why not ask them for feedback for this as well. Good thing we did. They did a great job in calculating weight support ratios that I didn't even consider. It turns out, it's actually easier to lift a bigger chunk of land, assuming you have enough power. Less effort needed to hold the whole thing together."

"Bah. I don't care anymore. On your head it be when the enemy causes it to plummet to the ground." Selessa exclaimed.

"We do have safety features for that.." Elorien pointed out with a slightly less certain voice. He'd used the same argument before.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it. It was time for Selessa to deal with the perk points she'd gathered in Light and Magic. Many important perks had opened up for her, and many of the perks that had been available from before became more useful. The two big ones were Judgement, and Radiant Defense. She had been using Light to attack her enemies before, but Judgement was a dedicated ability created to turn Light into an offensive ability.

It promised to be a very powerful way to strike even powerful foes and had several future perks that improved it further. She also thought she would be able to create a smaller version for others to use, with sufficient time. Radiant Defense was a direct improvement to the old aura that helped protect her allies. Radiant Defense caused an armor of Light to form around everyone affected by her aura, protecting those affected directly from attacks. It too had several future perks.

Importantly though, this effect was powerful but temporary, and both of the new abilities were rather demanding on both mana and Light. That prompted her to invest in three other perks. Power to the Masses, Lasting Boons, and Efficiency of the Light. The first one heavily reduced the burden of casting beneficial spells on a large number of allies, Lasting Boons caused all her positive spells to last much longer, and Efficiency of the Light reduced the mana cost and burden of all Light-based abilities.

She knew her Arcane and Spellbreaker abilities had fallen behind her Light, and swore to herself that she'd focus on improving them in the coming years. At least she hoped.

"No." Selessa stated firmly, batting the whelp on the snout with a finger. The golden-scaled whelp whined and brought its little paws to its face, with a look of indignation and betrayal.

"Don't give me any of that. You've been told repeatedly that biting my hair will only get yourself hurt." She stated, maintaining the firm tone.

"I'm going to have to name you Chewy if you keep this up." Around her, whelps were fluttering about, building little nests in the rafters of the temple of light. The members of her new flight required the presence of Light, and what better place than the temple? The healers and paladins certainly didn't mind their presence, nor did the congregation.

It helped that even the youngest whelps, hatched from the eggs of the Blues only recently, had enough brain power to not interfere with any of the more serious temple services. In fact, it was rather common to see a priestess or a paladin carrying one of the whelps on their shoulders or even on top of their head for the smaller whelps. Chewy gave her an indignant huff and made a cute screeching noise, sounding like something in between a dragonhawk and an angry kitten.

The larger drakes were nesting outside, although around the temple. Some simple pens had been erected for them, under the advice of Sapphiron, and the drakes liked to decorate their little homes with whatever made them pretty or comfortable in their mind. In fact, the Gold Drakes were quite comfort-seeking, shown by how one of them had decorated his little pen entirely with pillows.

"You think yourself clever, don't you?" She asked, looking at the offending drake.

"Stealing pillows from the palace."

"Stealing!" The drake protested, speaking perfect Thalassian. They'd also somehow inherited the language of the Aeldari from Selessa, without her teaching them a word, though they spoke it less often.

"These are all gifts from my loyal fans." The drake stated huffily."

"I might buy that, if I hadn't heard the reports from the palace servants. About pillows going missing. And we both know it wasn't Stompy who stole them." They both looked at the drake two pens over with entire sofas stuffed inside his pen. Mostly broken by his rough handling. Stompy wasn't the brightest drake ever.

"Surely you wouldn't accuse me of stealing and lying." The drake suggested slyly.

"I don't know where my fans got them." The female drake grinned.

"I am, in fact doing so. You might not have stolen them directly, but you at least encouraged it, which I consider the same. Sneaky, is what you should be called. A little bit of sneakiness isn't bad, but don't go overboard. You can just ask most of the members of the congregation to make you pillows if you really want them." Selessa decreed. Sneaky huffed.

"Really? Sneaky? That's barely better than Stompy!" She complained.

"You get to decide your own name when you have your Visage Day. Until then, you'll have to suffer the consequences of your actions." She often gave the drakes and whelps slightly derpy names, partly to encourage them to strive harder. And partly because she wasn't great with names and there were a lot of whelps. Derpy whelps.

"I shall endeavor to reach that day quickly then." Sneaky huffed.

"Also, your whelp is trying to chew on your hair again."

"And failing." Selessa stated with resignation. At least Chewy wasn't as bad as Slobber and Droppy. The latter one liked to jump off the edge of the palace floating island, only to barely fly back up with his stubby wings. The bugger had fallen to the water below five times now. Luckily there were safety features. Raising whelps and drakes was sometimes challenging.

Alexstrasza stood next to Selessa, watching as the Gold whelps played with the children in front of the temple in Luminarion. Elven children sometimes tossed some juicy snacks at the whelps, causing the tiny dragons to happily gobble them up, the greedy little omnivores that they were. All the whelps seemed happy and healthy, while the drakes were all dozing off on the practice field between the church and the magic academy, having gone through some structured training.

"I know you didn't just come to see how they were faring. So, get to it." Selessa pushed the Queen of Dragons. The other flights had returned the Gold whelps and drakes after enough cajoling and threats.

"I suppose you're right, though you can't blame me for wanting to make sure." Alexstrasza stated.

"I am the Aspect of Life after all. You are right that they are doing better in an area heavy with their favored magic."

"Should be obvious enough." Selessa muttered.

"You told Sapphiron that you would reveal how so many whelps hatched during your time in Zul'Aman." Alexstrasza prompted.

"I did. And I keep my promises. It is something of an open secret among the upper echelons of Quel'dorei that I have a particular ability. Those serving under me will develop their skills and abilities more quickly, and they usually also tend to go beyond what they thought was possible for them before. You could say I help push those working for me to their maximum ability, while also improving that maximum." Alexstrasza looked surprised, before starting to connect the dots in her head.

Let it not be said she wasn't intelligent when she needed to be.

"So, when we left the eggs in your vicinity…"

"They were affected by that ability. They were pushed towards their maximum potential, which allowed them to hatch, and they were pushed to go beyond their old limits, which is why they are not diminished." Selessa finished for her.

"So, if we were to move our nests closer to this city…" Alexstrasza suggested.

"No. That's not exactly how it works. Just moving your nests closer would not mean they are affected. Think of it sort of like a benefit to my own flight. The Gold Dragons, once they grow, will likely end up stronger than normal. Those eggs were affected because they were effectively abandoned near me in Zul'Aman. They were no longer yours, so my ability considered them potentially mine." She specified.

"That makes things more challenging." Alexstrasza pursed the lips of her elven form.

"It does. Not impossible, but more challenging. I will admit, I do not know the exact limits of that ability, so I don't know exactly what is required to qualify. Something for you to consider." Selessa said simply. She wasn't going to do all the work for the dragons.

"On the flipside, unless we place the eggs inside the temple, they are much more likely to hatch as members of your flight."

"On that note, Malygos is awake." Alexstrasza suddenly said.

"He was woken up by a combination of the larger number of young Blues and the news of Queen Azshara being alive. After our initial test, we focused on helping the Blue flight's eggs hatch, so there are now many more of their whelps than in the past, which helps my brother with his guilty conscience. Gives him hope that the Blue Dragonflight might recover one day. And Azshara is rather directly responsible for the doom that befell his flight."

"Explains why my father hasn't been around in the last few years." Selessa realized.

"Indeed. Malygos recalled all the Blues to get updated on the situation. Suffice to say he wasn't too pleased with what he heard. There was a very tense moment where he might have attacked Quel'thalas because of the propagation of the Arcane. He was convinced otherwise, fortunately. For one, the Starwells are not only fonts of Arcane magic, but can be used for Light as well.

The propagation of Light, the direct opposite of the Void that corrupted Neltharion was another factor, as was the fact that you have the Golden Dragonflight here observing things. It also helps that the Blues are rather openly observing the usage of Arcane in Quel'thalas, and that you're taking steps towards weeding out the use of forbidden magic."

"I suppose that's positive news, though I'm not sure how happy I am about someone, even the Aspect of Magic, presuming to judge my entire race. And presuming they have any fucking authority to decide what we can and cannot do." She looked directly at the Dragon Queen in the eyes.

"Had he decided to attack us, I would've done my level best to make sure his entire flight had gone extinct. And let me be quite clear. It wouldn't have been a question of if I succeed, but when." Alexstrasza nodded a bit.

"I assumed you might feel that way, which is why I argued for this result. I shall also give you the favor of not repeating those words to Malygos. He is brilliant, and in some ways the most powerful of us, but he isn't always the most stable and considerate, especially after just having been roused from his stupor. He might not react rationally to threats."

"That I can sympathize with. I don't either." Selessa stated firmly.

"He might consider how others might react to his threats." Alexstrasza chortled.

"Yes, I suppose you two have that in common. Fortunately, he has directed his ire towards Azshara and the Naga. That should be to everyone's benefit. He might actually do something about them, and thanks to your information, we have some idea where to look for them, even if the proximity of the Maelstrom makes things more challenging.

According to him, he has to be careful, not just because of the swirling vortex of energies and the perpetual storm surrounding the area, but because careless meddling might have disastrous effects all the way here."

"So, he can't just drop a huge Arcane detonation at the Naga then?" Selessa filed that information away for future, as she had considered doing that or equivalent before.

"No. Ironically, that would be the worst thing to do. The area is already filled with the Arcane, so doing that would be rather simple for him, but the effects would be potentially disastrous and wildly unpredictable. We might face a cataclysm of rather significant proportions if he tried. Not exactly something the Aspect of Magic can allow to happen." Alexstrasza confirmed. Selessa was thoughtful for a moment.

"I do have an idea of sorts. The Gnomes."

"The…Gnomes? The little people?" Alexstrasza frowned in incomprehension.

"Yes. They are tinkers and very technically minded. They don't have the ability now, but they might eventually figure out a technological answer to the problem. It might take a long time though."

"Hmm. I will suggest it to Malygos. He might be satisfied with waiting if there is a potential future answer. He can be patient if he has some hope the patience can produce results. He can instead make it difficult for the Naga to leave their city, stopping them from harassing you and others. Mostly out of spite." Alexstrasza suggested.

"I'll take it." Selessa nodded. She would eventually have to talk with Malygos, but she'd rather avoid it for now.

Sapphiron guided her down a huge gorge of ice towards the subterranean floor of Wyrmrest Temple. She'd seen the gorge the first time she'd been here, though not what was down here. The dragons had not mentioned the place before this either, and she'd gotten the distinct impression it was not widely talked about. Even Sapphiron had changed the topic the one time she'd tried asking. Yet here he was, leading her down the gorge.

While the ice was encasing them from the sides and even above, the ground below their feet was a huge well-built road, albeit in disrepair. She had no idea who had built the road, but it seemed very old, and it was somewhat surprising it was even in as good a condition that it was. Building something like that would've been a large endeavor as it was wide enough to fit maybe six or seven fully grown dragons side by side.

"Remember when I told you that the Wyrmrest Temple was built originally by the Titans?" He suddenly asked. He'd been quiet the entire trip here, so his words came as a bit of a surprise.

"Sure. You've all been a bit quiet on both the temple and the Titans since then." She said pointedly.

"There are reasons. However, I'm not bringing the topic up at random. You walk the Path of the Titans, and Wyrmrest Temple was constructed by them to serve as the heart of our culture, a sanctuary, a symbol of our supposed unity, and a place for us to meet and discuss our activities." They walked down the path and came to the base of the tower and enormous doors clearly designed for even larger beings.

As they stepped inside, Selessa found herself in a chamber with tall and smooth red columns holding up an arching ceiling high enough to allow even the largest of dragons to comfortable enter and move around. The chamber's walls were featureless and seemingly frictionless, smooth and curved. The floor was an immense circle that seemed geometrically flawless to her eyes. The whole place was illuminated by a soft golden light with no obvious source.

It was the largest construct she'd seen in this world, by a large margin. In the middle was a slightly raised dais, with nothing on it. There were six other small daises near the walls, and all of them seemed to have differently colored portals on them, with large Dragonids guarding the portals.

"The Chamber of Aspects." Sapphiron explained. The size now made more sense. Fitting in five enormous dragons required space.

"The room where the Aspects originally gathered for their most important council and most powerful works, out of the eyes of the world. This is where the Dragon Soul, later on re-named as Demon Soul, was created."

"And why exactly why am I here now?" Selessa asked, breaking the thoughtful atmosphere. Sapphiron wordlessly pointed a bit behind her. There stood the sixth portal glowing with golden power, although unlike the others, it wasn't guarded.

"I would say, I see, but I really don't." She responded wryly.

"I mentioned this place was created as a sanctuary. It is governed by conceptual magic that even the Blue Dragonflight doesn't have a hope of understanding. Each Dragonflight can access a sanctum from this chamber, inaccessible from anywhere else. Where do the portals go? Nobody knows. Only that each sanctum has the optimal conditions for the members of the flight to lay and hatch their eggs or recover from injuries. We've since moved to other places, but the sanctums are still used on occasion.

And interestingly, the temple has seen fit to create a sanctum for the Golden Dragonflight. No matter what anyone else might say, the temple recognizes your claim to a Dragonflight." Sapphiron stated solemnly.

"Ok. That's genuinely interesting, though I still have no interest in laying any eggs." She was getting a little tired of the suggestions and implications.

"That's your choice. The new dragons at Luminarion might want to utilize the sanctum, however. You should be the first, and the only one for now to enter it." Sapphiron didn't push. She did. She wasn't gone for long, but as she came back out, even she had to admit the conditions inside had been optimal. A realm of almost pure Light. As she came out however, she noticed another dragon present, one she recognized.

"Saragosa." She gave a small nod to the prime consort of Malygos.

"Selessa." Saragossa gave a slight bow.

"I feel compelled to thank you. I believe Sapphiron here explained that we were able to utilize your situation at Zul'Aman to have many our eggs to hatch. There haven't been this many hatchlings since our fall. I firmly believe it is the main reason my Lord is now awake, and we have hope again. It has saved our flight from a slow decline and inevitable extinction." She explained without prompting, and this time she gave an honest deep bow of gratitude.

"It didn't cause me issues, though I would've preferred if you had talked with those protecting me, as that would've saved a lot of headaches. And that you hadn't attempted to keep those of our flight." Selessa's last words had a bit of bite to them.

"Fair enough. Though I would say, you are the primary reason for the latter. You've made no secret of your loyalties, and unlike the rest of us, you are not dedicated to the Titan's vision. It was a fair assumption that the whelps would be used to benefit the Quel'dorei." Saragosa explained and didn't bother apologizing.

"Still a very unethical thing to do." She responded.

"Perhaps. But you know better than most that sometimes we must do unethical things. Most are perhaps not aware of the troll villages wiped out in the lands the humans are moving into, but I am. I'm not judging, by the way. Like I said, sometimes we do what we must. However, that brings me to a rather delicate issue. You had mentioned to Sapphiron that if the whelps and drakes were returned that you might be able to replicate the success and told the basic theory to Alexstrasza who shared it with the rest of us.

The Blue Dragonflight is still in a precarious situation despite the recent additions and re-emergence of Lord Malygos. In fact, I myself am soon going to lay a clutch." Saragosa explained.

"And you'd rather they hatch." Selessa finished for her.

"Well, to be affected by the ability, they need to come under my command and control, which in practical terms means you need to abandon them. They'll be perfectly safe if you leave them in Luminarion. Especially at the palace." Saragosa pursed her lips.

"Such an odd conceptual ability, though I think I've got the rough gist of it. Would it be fine if Sapphiron delivers them?"

"As long as he makes a point of leaving them in my care and makes no mention of retrieving them. You will get them back of course, but it needs to be clear that they are mine to do as I wish. I'm not sure where the actual limits are, but the less we take chances, the better." She stated firmly.

"We shall be in your debt." Saragosa made another bow.

"Keep the Naga off our back. That's a decent enough trade. The Quel'dorei don't currently have an effective method of dealing with enemies under the ocean, and we'd really rather avoid another sea giant tribe or three being sent to attack our capital. Or something worse like a kraken." She grumbled. Saragosa smiled a bit at that.

"I'm sure Lord Malygos will be glad to oblige. While he can't attack their cities directly, he can strike at anyone attempting to leave. He has a personal animus against the former Kaldorei Queen."

"Don't we bloody all." Selessa agreed vehemently.

"Oh, on a completely unrelated note, it's traditional for the Aspect to name their sanctum. Alexstrasza named theirs Ruby sanctum, and Neltharion name theirs Obsidian Sanctum." Saragosa suddenly switched topics. Selessa considered it for a brief moment.

"Let's keep things simple. Aureate Sanctum."

"A bit on the nose, that one." Sapphiron grinned.

"Oh, like any of you have any room to complain. I know yours is called Azure, admit it." Selessa shot back, causing both of the Blues to look away in embarrassment. [You've unlocked the Dragon's Might skill!] [You've unlocked the Aureate Dragonflight skill!]'…ok?' She thought to herself. The first skill dealt with her abilities as a dragon, while the second one had to do with her Dragonflight. Rather straightforward, and something she wasn't planning on delving into for now.

"…. and either because the dragons have kept their word, or because they want to lull us into a sense of false security, we have seen nothing from the Naga." Ron'vith reported.

"To prove they are still against us, the portal travel to Kalimdor has become increasingly difficult. At this point it seems better to do most of our travel by ships and save the portals for emergencies." Selessa had some ideas about how to improve that, but she needed to improve her Arcane to know for sure, and especially focus her efforts on dimensional magic. Alternatively, she could focus on engineering and maybe they could develop vessels that could fly. Choices, choices.

"Not great news, but better than suffering attacks from them." Alleria commented in her role as the Ranger-General.

"Good thing Citadel of the Dusk is mostly self-sufficient at this point."

"True, and the rest of our network has not been similarly affected." Ron'vith confirmed.

"Just the ones where the ley lines pass beneath the ocean."

"This isn't an ideal solution to the Naga problem, far from it, but it gives us some peace. Any particular way they could attack us further?" Anasterian looked towards Selessa, who was the expert.

"Well, this is Azshara we're talking about. I would assume if she took to the field, even by herself, she could do great damage. Judging by their underwater dwellings, I'm assuming she might try something like sending a tsunami at Silvermoon. Would take a bit of arranging, but doable. Our other areas are mostly protected from that. Earthquakes? Those aren't really Arcane methods. Maybe masses of elementals, though that would be sort of repeating something that already failed.

Our water is already being tested for poisons, and farms kept an eye on for tampering." She speculated.

"We've intercepted and executed several spies and seditionists after implementing the tests for control and mind-tampering. The rest are learning the lesson." Anasterian echoed her words.

"They are going through the list you mentioned so many years ago. Any other outstanding issues." Melevedon rose from his seat.

"Yes, there's something interesting. Apparently some of the humans are at war. Not against each other, though small skirmishes do happen as their empire loses their grip more and more. No. Some of the humans settled on islands they named Kul Tiras, and have started building another one of those city-states they seem so fond of. Kul Tiras joins Dalaran, Gilneas, and Alterac. If we assume Their current capital retains enough power, we're currently speculating their empire breaking into five pieces.

Six if their efforts at the city they've named Lordaeron bear fruit. Anyway, I got sidetracked. These Kul Tirans have run afoul of some locals they're calling Drust."

"Hardly our problem." Anasterian said flippantly.

"Although…" He looked towards Selessa.

"Would we want to offer the services of the Sin'dorei just to get practice? I know you hate the humans, but..:""That's not a bad idea as such. I won't personally attend, but maybe we could get some of our officers training as commanders? More training in realistic conditions is always useful. We're not going to fight their war for them, but maybe a few regiments just to get some action and experience." She nodded at that.

"I did hear some interesting rumors." Melevedon added.

"According to those rumors, these Drust use some kind of rather powerful death magic. Even raised some of their dead to continue fighting." That caused her to frown. She knew about Death magic and necromancy as concepts due to her high Magic attribute, even if she didn't know much detail. There was a reason the Church of Light's doctrine involved burning the dead, as cemeteries were bit of an obvious weakness if some kind of powerful necromancer rose in power at some point.

The Quel'dorei had quite liked the habit of small local shrines in their house, dedicated to those that had passed instead of graveyards. It gave them another way to show off. They hadn't burnt all the old bodies yet, but those were a problem that solved itself as they decomposed entirely.

"I'll have to send along some of the Knights of Retribution to keep an eye." She decided.

"We might need to form a dedicated organization to hunt down those that use such magic beyond your paladins." Ron'vith interjected.

"I'm not saying they don't do a good job, but especially outside our territory, we need more people. Spies, assassins, Spellbreakers, and other operatives. More subtle operatives."

"Consider this my order to form such and organization, because we have another issue." Anasterian ordered, as a messenger ran in and handed him a scroll.

"The mages of Dalaran have just reached out for help. They've run into the problem that their magic attracts demons. And now they have a demon problem. And it has gotten bad enough that they're reaching out to us to help with said problem."

"We all knew this was coming sooner or later." Noraeen Drathir commented.

"Hardly surprising since they don't have any of our precautions."

"Yes. This is where we generously offer guidance and insert our own into their magical institutions to exert some control, is it not?" Melevedon asked. This was something that had been agreed upon decades ago.

"Naturally. But it is making it more obvious that we need a dedicated force of demon and dark magic hunters. For now, I believe this falls on our dear Grand Magister and you Selessa. I believe you'll like this order. Go make the humans see the error of their ways and cleanse their dark magic users." Anasterian ordered, bringing a smile to Selessa.

"As you say, my King." She was quite eager to oblige.

STATUS: Level: 13 3000/13000 EXP 12 Base Points/2 Advanced Points/1 Mastery Points Mandatory Perks: Beauty Over Brawn Body: 11/15 (5 Unspent Perk Points) Athletics 10 Iron Lungs Strength of a Dragon Body of Eternal Dawn Unbreaking Stride Eternal Sunstrider Heavy Weapons 10 Cleaving Strikes Blade of the Rising Sun Unyielding Vigil Fury of the Chosen Bladestorm Durability 10 Immovable object Dragon's Fortitude Unageing Regeneration Healing Factor Dragon's Might 1 Reflexes: 10/15 (4 Unspent Perk Point) Light Weapons 10 (4 Unspent Perk Points) Swift Strikes Nervous System 10 Keen Eyes Keen Eye for Hidden Dragon's Perception Sentinel's Eye Danger Sense Dawn's Reflex Subtlety 5 (1 Unspent Perk Point) Arcane Shots Charisma: 18/18 (1 Unspent Perk Point) Politics 17 Competent Underlings Superior Subordinates Shared Vision Intelligent Improvisation Unleased Potential Unlimited Potential Above and Beyond Inspiring Loyalty Improved Resources Rare Resources Treasure Trove Fertile Land Esprit de Corps Conflux Endless Plenty Hardy Stock Social 5 (2 Unspent Perk Points) Pleasure 1 Crafting: 10/12 (2 Unspent Perk Point) Magical Crafting 10 (1 Unspent Perk Point) Master of Disassembly Superior Runework Talented Enchanter Master of Efficiency Creation 1 Nature 2 Eye for Errors Eye for Improvement Bonesinging 10 (1 Unspent Perk Point) Difference of Kind Amalgamation Amplification Grand Amplification Great Works Regeneration Stronger Than You Think Discipline: 7/12 (1 Unspent Perk Point) Commander 7 (1 Unspent Perk Point) Battlefield Awareness Ambush Expert Cavalry Tactics Squad Leader 5 (1 Unspent Perk Point) Sensei Soldier 6 (2 Unspent Perk Points) One With Your Steed One With Your Steed II Aureate Dragonflight Magic: 12/16 (3 Unspent Perk Points) Light 12 Severe healing Baptism of Light I Baptism of Light II Draconic Magic: Light Judgement Radiant Defense Power to the Masses Lasting Boons Efficiency of the Light Arcane 8 (1 Unspent Perk Point) Massive Spells Master Conjurer Arcane Subtlety Spellbreaker 5 Magic Sight Anti-Magic Zone Projected AMZ