Night of the Dragon

SIXTEEN

Sinestra slept.

That she might do so even when her senses warned her that there were other intruders about spoke not of her exhaustion, but of her confidence. She was certain of her impending triumph, certain that any of the vermin seeking to prevent it would soon be either eradicated or serve her in some manner or another.

She slept, as she always did, for but only a few minutes at a time. There had been periods when she had gone more than a century without slumber. This was not normal for most of her kind, but Sinestra had only contempt for the others, even those of the black flight. In her mind, the only dragons worth existing in her imagined world were herself and her new children.

Still in her mortal form and lying atop a bed of stone, she slept alone in a vast chamber deeper than any other she currently used for her experiments. Down here, there was nothing to disturb her.

Down here, she could listen to the voice in her head far more clearly.

All goes as planned, it said over and over. All goes as planned and Dargonax grows larger.... The next generation will dwarf even him...and be a thousand times more powerful...

"A thousand more times..." Sinestra murmured in her sleep. "A thousand more times..."

A thousand more times powerful...and they will crush the other dragons... crush them all... the day of the dragon is at an end...now comes the twilight... the night...

"The night..."

But the night shall be followed by a new day... the first day of the children's rule... the first day of a new golden age of dragons... "A new... golden age—"

Sinestra started. Her eyes flashed open and a look of intense anger spread over her face.

"Korialstrasz!" the black dragon roared. She leapt to her feet. "But how could he—how could he—?"

And then, oddly, Lady Sinestra's expression transformed. Instead of shock, anger, and outrage... satisfaction spread across her maimed features.

"Yes... of course... how delicious... how perfectly timed! Thank you. Korialstrasz... thank you..."

With a smile, she hurried out to find Zendarin....

Another dragon stirred at that same moment, a dragon who was certain that he was dead. It was not Korialstrasz, though, but rather the blue, Kalec.

His first discovery was that he was not, after all, dead. That, though, did not explain the darkness that surrounded him, a darkness that felt... in some obscene way... almost alive.

And then Kalec recalled what had happened to him before he had blacked out. He remembered the pit where they had dumped the huge corpses and the discovery that the pit was not empty.

Not empty...

Kalec summoned his blade. The blue-tinted weapon materialized, but only as a dull shadow of what it should have been. The next moment, it simply faded away.

" Must not... must not do that..."

Each syllable literally struck a chord of fear in Kalec, even though he was not one given to that emotion. The blue dragon tried again to call for the blade, but this time there was not even a hint of its existence.

"Must not do that..." the voice repeated."...or she will know..." She. There was no question as to whom the voice referred. It could only mean Sinestra.

"Who—who are you?" Kalec finally asked.

"I am her child...."

"Where are you? Let me see you!"

"I am here before you...." There was a deep amethyst glow and in it Kalec beheld an immense shape. It was dragon in form, yet seemed to flow as if not entirely solid. It resembled somewhat what he knew a nether dragon was supposed to look like, but was also more.

Shimmering orbs observed the blue dragon in turn. Kalec suddenly felt as if those eyes had been staring at him all the time that he had been unconscious and that notion sent new chills through him.

"What are you?" he asked.

"Her child..."

Kalec grimaced. He was not certain whether the vaguely-seen creature was as naive as he sounded or simply toying with the blue dragon.

He decided to try a new tack. "Do you have a name?" There was a pause, then. "I have a name.... She calls me Dargonax...."

"'Dargonax?'" Kalec's wariness magnified a thousandfold. He knew the meaning of that name from the tongue of his kind. Dargonax... Devourer...

"Do you like it?" the murky form asked. "I like it." "It is a...strong name."

"It means 'Devourer'... in the dragon tongue, she says," Dargonax added, quickly destroying any hope the blue had that the creature was ignorant of the foul meaning. "You are a dragon...."

Kalec surreptitiously tried to summon a magic blade, anything that he could use against the creature. Now the blue knew that he was being toyed with.

"I am a dragon, too...." Dargonax moved forward, the murkiness peeling back as just enough to allow Kalec to see that the shape was definitely that of a dragon, but not one of the nether one.Dargonax was much, much more.

But the mysterious dragon did not fully reveal himself. Indeed, he pulled back, growing once more akin to a shadow. Kalec had no idea whether it was some ability of his, some spell, or some trick of the pit, for there were unsettling energies in play around them and not all were directly associated with Dargonax.. .although surely he was affected by their presence.

Kalec wondered if even Sinestra understood what she was growing in this pit.

He steeled himself for what would surely be his imminent end. "We are both dragons, yes."

"Then we should be friends...."

The statement took the blue dragon aback. He could fathom no reason why Dargonax would need his assistance. Surely it would do him more use to swallow Kalec whole, an easy task considering that, in addition to being unable to use his inherent powers, the blue could not even shapeshift. He had already secretly attempted to do so more than once and the only explanation for his failure had to be something that his surreal companion was doing.

It occurred to Kalec then that Dargonax was surely only days— perhaps a few weeks at best—old.

How terrible would he be as he further matured? And did he even need to mature? The beast seemed already huge.

Krasus had warned Kalec against even pretending to deal with the blood elf and surely would have counseled against doing the same here, but the blue doubted that he had any real choice. Dargonax had dragged him down here in the first place, and the only reason that he had not devoured Kalec as he had the dragonspawn—for there were no signs of the corpses anywhere— was that the behemoth did truly need him.

But exactly for what was the question.

"Yes," the blue finally responded. "We should be friends."

"Good...good...and friends, they help friends, yes? Is that right?"

For a being who had likely never been out of the pit, Dargonax was already well-versed in many of the nuances of life. Sinestra had wrought something terrible.

"Friends help friends," he agreed. "Both help each other."

"So they do—" Dargonax broke off. Then, much to Kalec's shock, the other's voice resonated in the blue's head. She comes! Be silent and still!

Although still recovering from his surprise at Dargonax's ability to speak to him through his mind, Kalec nevertheless managed to obey. There was no need to ask just who the creature meant. Since Anveena's sacrifice, Kalec had become very reckless where his life was concerned, but he also still held tight to his sense of duty. He would not serve Malygos well by letting Sinestra know that he had survived. The blue planted himself tight against the wall and tried to summon the shield that he had earlier created.

But still nothing happened.

Then, he felt what almost seemed a wing cover over him. Kalec was immersed in shadow... shadow with hints of amethyst in it.

Barely a breath later, he heard Sinestra... and another.

"He is missing," she hissed at her companion.

"Your old friend'?" The other voice was that of the blood elf. "From the chrysalun chamber? How is that even possible—unless —perhaps his companion survived. Maybe he let the other out."

Kalec grimaced, caught between hope and concern. He suspected that they spoke of Krasus, which meant that the red had somehow escaped a chrysalun chamber of all things. That was all for the good, but now Zendarin had, by his mistaken notion, put into Sinestra's mind the thought that the blue lived.

"Dargonax has feasted on that one," Sinestra replied. Yet, there was a hint of question in her tone. Then..."Besides, the chamber was destroyed from the inside."

"I've never heard of such a feat! How could he manage that?"

"He is who he is: that is how he could manage the impossible! Make no mistake of it, my dear Zendarin; he is the one fact that I consider a concern."

"And yet you brought him here."

"He would have come," she retorted. "He always comes. He always interferes. That is his nature. The best way to deal with that was to make him come on my terms, at my urging." There was another pause, then, "He must be even weaker now and if I know him, he will have fled below. He knows that must be where to go. I want you to send your pet after him—"

"I'd do that, my lady, except that the damned beast hasn't responded to an earlier summons! The last I traced it, the thing was in the vicinity of the nether dragon and since then.. .nothing."

Sinestra let out a long, angry hiss. "How cunning! Korialstrasz must have slipped around and sought to free the nether dragon! Go! Seek your mageslayer—"

Kalec did not hear the blood elf depart, but assumed that he would be wise enough to obey her. The blue started to speak, but then sensed that his unsettling companion did not wish him to do so.

"My sweet child..." she cooed in a manner that turned the blue dragon's blood cold. Her fury had now been replaced by a malevolent confidence. It was as if she had become an utterly different being from the one the moment before. "Come to me, my sweet child...."

Dargonax moved upward, ever keeping his indistinct form between Kalec and the dark lady. "Mlssstressss..."

The shift in Dargonax's speech startled Kalec nearly as much as Sinestra's odd, abrupt change in attitude. The creature sounded much younger, much less developed.

Much less of a threat?

"My Dargonax...my firstborn of a new world... Is there anything you would tell your mother?" "Hungrrrrry..."

Sinestra chuckled. "Of course, you are. Fear not, my darling. Soon you shall be fed, fed as you never have been before, oh yes... but from thereafter, you must learn to stave off your hunger. There will soon be others to feed, brothers and sisters in multitudes...."

Brothers and sisters in multitudes. Kalec imagined a dozen, a hundred more like Dargonax. What would become of Azeroth, then? He doubted that these newer ones would be as unstable as the pair that he and the others had fought. And even if they could eventually be stopped, how much bloodshed and destruction would they have committed by then?

Kalec thought of the sacrifice that Anveena had made to help her world begin the road to recovery. All that might be for naught if more of these dragons hatched.

He recalled a brief conversation that he, Krasus, and Iridi had had shortly after the struggle. While eating, Iridi had mentioned her impressions of the dragons, who were not black, blue, or nether. The word twilight had come to her, a word very apt in so many ways to these monstrous beings, if Dargonax and the pair were even the least of their example. The draenei had called them twilight dragons.

And they might just be the vessels by which Azeroth's own twilight would happen.

Caught in such thoughts, he missed what Sinestra said next. Only Dargonax's reply enabled him to figure out what it was.

"Yes.. .mother..." the creature answered in his false child-talk. "Want to share.. .want them strong..."

Sinestra had obviously been emphasizing the fact that Dargonax could no longer expect to be the focus of all her efforts, that he would have no choice when she began feeding him less magical energy so that she could use it on the next generation. But even if Dargonax's creator did not notice the tiny hint of ire in the twilight dragon's voice, Kalec certainly did.. .and now he knew why his shadowy companion left hidden to Sinestra his rapid maturing.

Dargonax was jealous of the siblings to come.

Suddenly, although he had made no sound, no movement, the blue dragon sensed a change in Sinestra. That was verified all too well a moment later, when she snapped, "What is that in there with you?"

"Nnnothing..."

"Nothing?"

Dargonax screamed and only because his roar was so loud did Kalec's own cry go unheard. The blue dragon suddenly felt as ifmolten earth rather than blood now flowed through his veins. It was all that he could do to avoid adding to the other scream. Dargonax roared again, his cry ending in a whimper.

"Do not lie to your mother. It hurts me more than you when I must punish you. Show me what you have there, my child...."

"Yesss..."

Kalec prepared himself to be tossed up to the lady in black, there to be subject to a fate that would make his recent pain a blessing. Yet, it was not he who flew upward—perhaps raised by Dargonax's paw; he could not tell—but a heavy lump that he had not noticed previous in the dark.

"So..." Sinestra said in an almost disappointed tone. "Is that all, then? One of the missing guards. They left them to you." " Yesss..."

"Consider him an appetizer for what is to come. You will be obedient from here on, will you not, my darling son?" "Yesss..." "Yes what?"

Dargonax did not hesitate. "Yes...mother..."

"Very good, Nefarian. Finally learning..."

There was the brief sound of movement away from the pit's edge and then silence. In that silence. Kalec pondered the interesting fact that Slnestra had called Dargonax by her prime son's name. Whether it had been accidental or not, he could not say, but it made him think of something.

It was another minute at least before Dargonax quietly rumbled, "She has left."

"I must get out of here," Kalec immediately responded. "Korialstrasz needs me...."

"He's the other? He is a...friend?"

"Yes," the blue replied quickly. "And he could be of great help to you. You want to escape her, don't you? You want to be free of her. It would be best if Korialstrasz is also able to help you."

Dargonax considered this, then replied, "Yes...that makes sense...it does...who is Nefarian? You know. I sense that you know...."

So, the twilight dragon had been as quick as Kalec at noting Sinestra's use of the name. "He was also her son, the son of she and her mate, Deathwing. Nefarian was the eldest and most powerful of her children...."

“I would meet Nefarian," the creature murmured. “I would meet my brother...."

"Nefarian is dead." At least, that was as far as Kalec knew. Taking advantage of the mention of Sinestra's murderous offspring, the blue dared add, "He failed her and she abandoned him to his enemies...."

There was silence. Dargonax either did not understand or was digesting the information. The twilight dragon was very, very clever, but perhaps it did not understand all things, being secluded here.

"My brother is dead. All my brothers are dead."

The finality In Dargonax's statement shook Kalec as much as the last part itself did. Brothers...

"They escaped her. They escaped her just before I was born. We were far, far apart, but we could feel one another, yes, we could feel one another inside."

He was speaking of the two other creatures Deathwing's consort had created, the two whom Kalec shared some responsibility in destroying.

"But they were not like me," Dargonax continued, a slight hint of contempt arising. "They did not think well. They only hungered. They let the hunger think for them. They were foolish and they died foolishly...." The shadowy head leaned a little closer, but still not enough to be distinct. "I will not die foolishly.... I will not die... and you will help me...friend..."

"Yes...of course. I will—"

Without warning, Dargonax once more spoke In Kalec's head. I will send you to find our friend. You and he will free me of her. I will not be cast aside....

Kalec was thrust up into the air much the way the dragonspawn corpse had been tossed. He shot out of the pit and landed on his feet next to the fetid body. No sooner had he landed than he saw the corpse—carried by Dargonax's magic—float back into the pit.

Kalec turned toward the pit—and an invisible force arising from within shoved him toward one of the passages leading away from the chamber. Dargonax's will was incredible and, at the moment, something against which the weary blue could not fight.

She is the other way. You go this one.

With no choice, Kalec obeyed. He wanted to find Korialstrasz, although he feared thinking too much concerning the reasons exactly why. Kalec was not certain how much of his thoughts Dargonax could read or sense. Indeed, he might have already given all his secrets away.

The blue dragon felt a surge of magic rush through him again, his own magic once more there for his use. However, it was not his will that next raised his hand and created his sword.

Go...

Gripping the weapon tight, Kalec exited.