Archive of Our Own

I was walking through Dalaran, on my way to the library, when the young page approached me.

"Excuse me, Archmage Daiedan," she said, a bit breathless. "Your presence is requested in the Violet Citadel. The Council has an important mission for you."

I thanked her, and she turned and strode purposefully off, having delivered one message from a list that probably included many. I altered my path to take me to the Violet Citadel. In a few minutes I was climbing the imposing stone staircase that led to the grand entrance.

As I entered the reception chamber, four faces turned from their discussion to mark my arrival. They were expecting me, and as one they moved forward to welcome me.

I greeted them rather formally, nodding at each as I said their name. "Archmage Modera. Archmage Khadgar. Archmage Verlain. Archmage Kalec."

"Glad you could get here so soon," began Khadgar. "The blue dragons of Azsuna need our assistance urgently, and we think you would be the best person to aid them..." He continued speaking, but I suddenly felt unable to focus. I was assaulted by a wave of powerful dizziness. My eyes landed on the face of Archmage Kalec, and his eyes held me. All I knew for a moment was the rich, dark violet velvet of his eyes, so like the petals of the twilight jasmine I used to collect while wandering the slopes of the Twilight Highlands. I was reminded of something, but the memory was so vague and ephemeral that I could not place it. My sense of displacement faded, but I was left confused.

I could once again hear Khadgar speaking, and I turned my gaze back to him. "...we have transportation arranged for you at Krasus' Landing, for as soon as you are ready to depart. Stellagosa will be waiting for you at Azurewing Repose, with a more detailed briefing, and prepared to answer any questions you may have. Good travels, Archmage. I am sure you will do well."

I was not so sure, having missed the entire description of the mission. Ah well, Stellagosa would be explaining it all again, apparently. That would be fine. I took my leave of the councillors, and made my way to my quarters to gather my travel pack. My mind occupied itself by trying to work out why the mention of blue dragons, and the presence of one, had thrown me so off-kilter.

I had anticipated spending my flight to Azsuna in further contemplation of the issue, but somehow I fell asleep. And then the dream came.

It began with a cloud of the deepest purple, which resolved into a carpet of leaves and petals beneath my feet. I walked through a vast forest where all the trees appeared to be formed entirely of crystal. I could hear a strange crooning, and I realized it was the sound of the wind through the branches.

Before me, in a space barely wider than what I had already passed through, not even large enough to call a proper clearing, stood a man. At least, not quite a man. He stood perfectly still, but there was a sense of restrained motion about him, like he was coiled and ready to expand into action at any moment. And he looked like a human, but not exactly like a human. His hair was a vibrant sapphire blue, for one thing. And the angles of his face, and his body, they held an elvish quality to them. My eyes blinked involuntarily, and instead of the man, an enormous dragon sat there. How he managed to fit between the crystalline trunks, I could not understand. As soon as I blinked again, he was gone, and the man stood there once more.

"Friend," he said to me. "Brother. It's been too long."

I turned, and looked behind me. There was no one else. He was speaking to me. "Brother? I am no dragon," I said, baffled.

"Aren't you?" he asked me. "Can you not feel my blood in your veins?" His violet eyes sparkled in the strange light that shone through the glassy branches of the forest.

"I..." I began to speak, though I did not know what I was going to say. I stopped abruptly as I was consumed by the sensation of wings surrounding me. My own wings, arching above me. I felt them stretch, their tips touching the nearest trees. I looked up, and only saw the cathedral of crystal branches overhead.

My eyes returned to the dragon-man before me. Some apparent trick of the light made him seem to flicker between the form of a dragon and the form of a man. He smiled, in both bodies. "Soon," he told me. "We will speak of this soon." Then he turned and walked away from me, vanishing completely after only a few steps.

The scene dissolved and I became aware of the musky sweet smell of the gryphon feathers that cushioned my face. I sat up and found that we were already descending towards Azurewing Repose. I could not help but be thankful for the sturdy straps that had kept me in the saddle during my departure from consciousness. I wondered how I’d succumbed so readily to sleep. I had never felt relaxed enough to fall asleep on a gryphon before, and I hadn't even been sleepy in Dalaran.

This day was full of strange happenings. As the great beast landed in the blue-lit grove, I wondered how much more strangeness awaited me.

Stellagosa approached me as soon as I dismounted, having assumed her chosen elven form to make discussion easier for me.

“Thank you for coming so quickly to our aid,” she said, reaching out to grasp my hand. When she touched it, I felt a shock travel through my body. She did not, apparently, but saw the surprise in my face. “Archmage, are you alright?”

“Yes, yes… just a bit of arcane feedback. Or something. It's been an unusual day, but I am fine.” I gestured towards the center of the glade, and the pool where Senegos lay absorbing as much strength as he could from the ley-infused waters. “How fares your grandfather?”

“His strength is flagging, and I fear he has little time left. I know you have come to seek the Tidestone, but I hope that while you are here, you might do what you can to prolong his life.” Stellagosa looked over to where her grandfather struggled to breathe, and her expression grew very grave. “There is so much chaos in the world now, and it seems that we suffer from its effects more than ever before. The Nightfallen attack our whelps and drain our ley pools for their own use. The naga and the sea giants rise up in greater numbers daily, encroaching upon our refuge. There is corruption and destruction at every turn. Grandfather cannot survive much more.” She turned back to me. “I am indebted to your Kirin Tor for sending champions like yourself to help restore the balance.”

I was touched by her earnest gratitude, but I could not allow her to paint me as a great hero. “I am but a humble mage, seeking to help where help is needed. I am no champion. Please, show me what you need done, and I will begin.” She appeared to approve of my modesty, and led me onwards into the depths of the glade.

***

The dragons had allowed me a secluded corner of their most protected glade in which to set up camp. As late evening turned to full night, and a few persistent moonbeams penetrated the forest canopy, I laid myself down at last to rest. I found myself staring into the shadowed peak of my tent, turning over all the scenes of the day in my mind.

Stellagosa had given me an extensive tour of the part of Azsuna that the Azurewing made their home. There was a long list of troubles to be dealt with. If Senegos was not in such poor health, I suspect that many of the problems would have never arisen, but his weakness practically gave ill-doers an open door. I was a little overwhelmed with the amount of work I had volunteered to take on, but I had made the commitment and I would stand by it.

I had just about worked out where and how I might begin to restore the integrity of the borders of the Azurewing territory when the images from my gryphon-flight dream came back to me all at once. I tried to remember every detail I could, about the forest, about the dragon, about the man.

Was it Kalec? It seemed like Kalec, but as I tried to recollect Kalec as he was when I saw him that morning in the Violet Citadel, I could not form an image at all. I thought back over all the years I had known of him, since he had been liberated from his imprisonment at the Sunwell Plateau. My memory scrolled through various scenes where I knew he had also been present. Suddenly I noticed a glaring omission. Surely he had been in Northrend. The Nexus War had been a critical time for the blue dragonflight, and it had changed everything for them. Why couldn’t I remember Kalec being present at any of the key events? And then I realized the true nature of the gap in my memory.

It wasn’t that I couldn’t recall Kalec’s existence during the Nexus War. It was that I couldn’t recall my own. Nothing. It was a void. All I could see of Northrend in my mind’s eye was Wyrmrest Temple, the cold marble spire that towered above the great barren plain of Dragonblight, looking out over the enormous skeleton of the father of all dragons, Galakrond. A cold knot settled in my stomach. The one thing I trusted in life, my mind, had just proven to be as uncertain and unreliable as everything else.

***

I woke before dawn, to the sound of early birdsong. I was surprised I’d been able to sleep at all, and I wasn’t sure if I felt better or worse for having done so. As I stepped out into the forest, lit only by the luminescence of the ley pools, all I could feel within myself was numbness. Remembering the laundry list of tasks that lay before me, I sighed, and turned back into my tent to prepare for the day ahead.

Senegos’ suffering was what troubled me most, so I started with gathering ley crystals to fortify his personal pool with energy. I spent the day deep in a cavern, fighting off coruscating worms that erupted from the dusty floor to challenge me at every turn. By mid-afternoon, the sack I had strapped to my back was nearly full, and quite heavy. I considered summoning an arcane servant to haul them out, but the only thing that was keeping me from becoming completely obsessed with the gap in my memory was the physical strain of carrying them myself.

When I finally emerged from the cave, it was to find both Khadgar and Kalec in the glade of Azurewing Repose. Khadgar was gathering arcane energy from the atmosphere and redirecting it to Senegos, and Kalec was conferring with the lesser dragons who looked after the great aged beast. I hauled my sack over to the edge of the pool and tipped its contents into the water. They dissolved with a shimmer, and a wave of light rippled concentrically outwards, bending when it reached Senegos and encircling his reclining body before dissipating. Khadgar nodded at me, acknowledging my contribution without ceasing his activity. I looked back to where Kalec had been standing, and he was gone. I gathered up my empty sack and headed towards my tent for a chance to wash the dust off.

I had just put my spectacles back on and hung up my towel when I turned to see Kalec approaching.

“Dai. How are you? How do you find this mission?” He reached out to grasp my hand in greeting. The world remained its normal, stable self. Nothing slipped sideways, no strange visual phenomena occurred, and I felt no unusual sensations resulting from the contact. But seeing him now, I knew that yes, it was Kalec I had dreamed about. It was he who had suggested I carried dragon blood in my veins.

“I am well, Kalec, thank you. The mission is substantial, but I see no reason that I cannot complete it, approaching it methodically.” One piece at a time, I would see it done.

His eyes searched my face. I didn’t know what he sought there, but I did my best to bury my personal worries. He nodded, having drawn whatever conclusions were there to be made. “Be sure that if you ever need for anything, you have only to ask. You have my full support, Daiedan.”

“I...thank you.” I stood, frozen, as he nodded once more and turned to walk back to the ley pool in the center of the glade. What had I done that I had earned such attention from someone like Kalec? Or, what had I not done? More than ever, I needed to know who I was during the Northrend campaign. Things were not adding up.

***

In the back of the journal I used to record notes for my weekly reports, I began to make a series of entries detailing my life as I remembered it. I had to get it all down so I knew for sure what I’d lost. As I wrote bits and pieces daily, I marveled at how unremarkable my early life actually seemed. My family had seemed just like every other family in Goldshire, with the exception that most families had several children, and mine had only me.

Growing up, I’d read the great heroic sagas, and though as a young boy I’d dreamt of becoming a hero myself, my life never followed the prescribed pattern. I had no adversity to overcome, no challenges set before me to test my mettle, no mentor offering me great power and greater responsibility. So as I set down my uneventful history in the form of cryptic notes in the back of a leather-bound journal, all I could think was, what have I done that’s brought me here?

After a few days, I had reached the point in my chronicle where things began to feel strange. I had been a part of the army who had liberated the Sunwell Plateau, which meant freeing Kalec from his imprisonment. I remembered being there. I could picture many of the battles. But there were holes. Holes where Kalec should have been. I threw my journal across the tent in frustration. What had happened? Had Kalec done this to me or had someone else? Had I done it to myself?

And why did it bother me so much?

***

Eight days passed in Azurewing Repose. I had gathered so many ley crystals I was gathering them in my dreams as well. But at last the great dragon Senegos seemed less weary, and I could turn my attention to the reasons that his pool had suddenly become insufficient to sustain him. I had sketched a rough map of the area, and with Stellagosa’s assistance, had marked the main ley lines on it. These veins of resonant crystal had formed after the Sundering, when the fractured landscape allowed hot fluids from deep within Azeroth to rise to the surface. There, they cooled and solidified into a framework of pure arcane energy. Every magic user dreamed of such easily accessible resources, which meant that there was a multitude of possible reasons why the lines that contributed to Senegos’ life support could be diminished.

I decided to trace out each of the main lines one by one, and do what I could to reduce unauthorized power drains as I found them. I was certain there would be more than one. Looking around my simple camp, I was glad of my skills as a mage. They meant I could return here nightly, by teleportation, instead of having to haul my possessions around with me all over the countryside. I didn’t usually like to camp in the wilderness, but with my head in the state it was in, I was very glad of the solitude. I made everything ready for me to leave without delay early the next morning, and prepared for bed.

I had barely pulled up the blanket and laid my head on the pillow before I was asleep. Sometime in the quietest hours of the night a dream came upon me, as clear and powerful as if I were experiencing it awake.

I stood on a floating circular platform, its surface intricately decorated with inlaid symbols and runes in shades of blue and purple and silver. Hovering beyond the edge of the platform was an enormous blue dragon, larger and more powerful than Senegos. My conscious mind tried frantically to identify this creature. Was this Kalecgos? Surely not. Something…something about this dragon was different.

When he laughed, the darkness of his soul was obvious. “Fool of a mortal! You come to me seeking knowledge? Wisdom? You and all your kind deserve only destruction for the wanton waste of knowledge and wisdom that you have perpetrated in the name of magic since you first walked this world. My brothers and sisters claim that you deserve our protection, but I say to you, why should we protect those who would willfully bring the end times upon us?” He laughed again, a cavernous sound that spoke of ancient glaciers and frozen waterfalls.

I tried to speak, but with a mere inclination of his massive head, my breath was taken from me. I fell to my knees, helpless.

“Yessss, that’s right,” he hissed. “Kneel before me. Kneel before Malygos, your new lord and master!” Other strange sibilant noises came from his throat, and immediately my perception fragmented. The scene before me became like shards of a broken mirror: jagged and blindingly reflective at strange, unnatural angles. A deep and profound ache bloomed in my head, and I would have cried out had I the voice to do so. I clutched at my head, and scrubbed at my eyes, trying to clear the pain and confusion away, but it was no good. I collapsed forward as the pain grew sharper and more comprehensive, lancing through my entire body like an avalanche of icicles.

With a great heaving breath I was awake, released from the agony, but the fear stayed with me. I was overwhelmed with guilt. What had I done? Gone to Malygos’ lair willingly? Offered myself up in order to amplify my own power? If this dream was true, I was indeed a fool, and Kalec had a perfect right to watch my every step.

My tent suddenly seemed horribly confining and I was having difficulty catching my breath. I tossed off my blankets and stepped outside, wrapping my cloak around me against the pre-dawn chill. Heat still radiated from the banked coals of my campfire, and to occupy myself, I set about restoring the fire without the use of magic.

As flames began to lick at the fresh kindling, a movement in the trees caught my eye. I had a spell ready to fling as I turned swiftly towards the intruder. It was Kalec who stepped from the shadows into the firelight.

“Peace, friend,” he said. I relaxed the hand that had been ready to attack. “You are awake early. Do your dreams trouble you?”

He sounded genuinely concerned, but my self-restraint was not yet restored after my disrupted sleep. “Yes, in fact, they do.” I heard anger in my voice. “Maybe you can tell me why you and your flight feature so prominently in them lately.”

Kalec's eyes widened slightly. “We have a considerable history in common, it would be only natural…”

I interrupted him. “Do we? Why can't I remember any of it, then?” This was not at all how I had intended to approach this, but the terror of this latest dream roused me to my most confrontational self.

His mouth fell open. My words apparently shocked him. “My friend, I am sorry. I had no idea you were suffering this way.” His voice was quietly solemn. “If I can answer any questions, or help you determine if your dreams are true-seeing, I would gladly do so.” He stepped closer into the fire circle and sat down on one of the logs I had placed for just that purpose.

The fire was burning merrily now, crackling and popping, and I was beginning to feel its warmth seep into me. I stood watching its dance, trying to put my worries into words. I opened my mouth to speak, and again I spoke in ways I had not planned. “How do I know I can trust you?” I asked. I felt like a defiant child, and I'm sure I looked it, too.

“Hmmm, that is a good question. If you can't recall our shared past experience, then you have no pattern of my behavior by which to judge me.” He idly stroked his chin and stared into the flames. “Wouldn't the knowledge that the illustrious leaders of the Kirin Tor trust me enough to request my membership on the Council of Six count for anything?” He looked up at me as he spoke.

I had to grant him that. Although it wasn't proof against corruption, members of the Council were generally less concerned with manipulation of others and more concerned with their well-being. At least, they had been since Rhonin. Before that, no one was altogether certain who the Council was or what they did.

I nodded slowly. “That does carry some weight.” I sat down across the fire from Kalec. I didn't know where to begin. “My memory… it seems as riddled with holes as a wheel of Alterac swiss.” I shook my head. “I started writing things down, and everything seemed okay until I got to the Sunwell campaign, and then I knew you were there but I couldn't remember you. The next thing I remember with complete certainty is Deathwing destroying Stormwind.”

“And what about your dreams? Are you having many strange dreams? Waking visions?” Again Kalec seemed more concerned than anything.

I hesitated. “I have had a couple of dreams, and some strange sensations of displacement and other visual and physical phenomena.” I felt very shy about telling him I had dreamed of him, but his face was so open and inviting in the flickering light I found myself describing the scene in the forest to him anyway.

“I see,” he said when I had finished. “Yes, for the most part that was true. I…” He fell silent for a moment, then continued on. “I could tell you everything I know about your time in Northrend, but unless you remember it for yourself, you will not truly accept what I say. Indeed, if you have begun to recover your memories organically, I don't know that I should give you details not yet in your possession. But I can confirm that which you have rediscovered for yourself. That scene happened, more or less.”

My mind boggled at the confirmation that what seemed like a bizarre fever dream had actually taken place. “And…the dragon blood? Is that real?” I felt dizzy just trying to comprehend.

“Well, yes, but not in the sense you mean. We gave you a transfusion in an attempt to undo…some damage that had been done to you by others. You were not born of a dragon. And yes, it was my blood that was given to you. We thought that maybe the influence of the Sunwell…” He broke off again, clearly going over it all again in his own mind.

“Damage done to me. By Malygos?” This made sense. If the second dream was as true as the first, then I was beginning to understand a few things at least. I leaned forward on my knees, waiting for his reply.

He looked at me again. “You remember that?”

“The dream I had tonight. I was standing before Malygos, and he was berating me for seeking knowledge, telling me that mortals only used it to bring about the end times and how we all deserved to be destroyed. And then he shattered my mind with a spell.” I drew a sharp breath as I was struck twofold by strong emotions. The first was the absolute certainty that this was why my memory was fractured, and the second was the return of the crushing wave of guilt with no obvious source.

“Yes,” said Kalec sadly. “That too is a true-seeing. And I can offer you no reasons why it happened to you, save that Malygos saw mortal magic as uncontrollable and dangerous and decided to end it, starting a war in the process. You were unavoidably caught up in it.” He sighed. “But your true role is something you will have to uncover for yourself, I’m afraid.”

I sat and stared at him for a minute or two, and then I realized that the sky was brightening and the sun would soon rise. I had obligations to answer. My internal guilt only assured that I would willingly shoulder the burden I had accepted. I gathered my cloak around me and stood.

Kalec also rose. “What are your plans for today, Dai?” he asked.

“I intend to begin tracing the local ley lines and eliminating threats to the supply of energy. I anticipate a lot of walking. Why do you ask?” I looked forward to being forced to concentrate on something other than my unusually intense emotions, and to the presumed isolation that meant I would not have to perform social behaviors for anyone.

“Ah, I was just wondering if you would be near the glade. I will be staying with Senegos for a while, and thought perhaps we could speak more later.” Again Kalec's reaction surprised me. He seemed disappointed that I would be away from Azurewing Repose while he was there.

“Well,” I said, “I will be returning in the evening to this camp. Maybe then?” Maybe by then I could figure out how to handle this awkward situation, where it felt like he knew me well and I knew him not at all. Or maybe I would just continue as I had begun, by saying things I hadn’t planned in ways I never intended.

He smiled. “Yes, I will look for your return this evening.” Then he turned and slipped away into the early morning shadows and left me to prepare for the day.

***

I pushed myself to cover as much ground as I could that morning, fighting my way through the undergrowth and over uneven terrain as I kept as close to my chosen ley line as humanly possible. I could sense it faintly myself, except for when it dove deep into the earth, but the legendary artifact weapon I carried, the staff known as Aluneth, kept me on course by constantly seeking to draw power from the ley line for itself. Aluneth was sentient, a disembodied spirit captured and contained in the enchanted staff by the once-Guardian of Azeroth, Aegwynn.  From time to time he spoke to me, and the longer I carried the staff, the more attuned I became to Aluneth’s moods and his reactions to my world.

So far, he had been silent about my dreams. Whether he was uninterested or simply had not noticed, there was no way of telling. I had not heard much out of him at all since I had begun this mission, in fact. I took that to mean he was bored. But today, he was alive, sensing that we were in search of sources of great power. At last I broke through the trees to find myself near the edge of a cliff, and below me the escarpment revealed the exposed crystalline formation of the ley line I was following. Aluneth practically leapt off my back trying to drain the crystals of their arcane energy. I allowed him to have a taste, enough to keep him from making my life miserable, but stopped him from taking enough that it would be noticed. After all, I was out here to stop such illicit reappropriation, not to engage in it.

I heard Aluneth’s voice in my mind, deep and masculine. “This world is steeped in magic. You need only grasp it.” The artifact never seemed to catch on that I did not seek boundless power. I had once thought that was precisely why he permitted me to carry him, but his endless promptings to acquire more power had disabused me of that idea. Now I had no idea why he let me use his abilities, unless I was somehow amusing to a spirit that had been locked in a piece of wood for hundreds of years.

I sighed, and sat down in a spot with an excellent view of the ruins below the cliff to eat my lunch of smoked fish and flat bread. I had thought that the rigorous physical activity I was subjecting myself to would make it difficult to think about all the issues that weighed on my mind. It seemed to be rather the opposite: I had spent the morning with about four lines of thought running through my head simultaneously, all while beating back the bushes and stumbling over roots and stones. And I didn’t feel like I was making progress on anything, mentally or physically.

Kalec’s latest appearance bothered me in more than one way. He had turned up in my camp at an hour when I would normally have been asleep, and I wondered if he could sense the content of my dreams or if there was some other strange reason he wanted to be around while I was not awake. I still found it odd that he had any interest in my life at all, although he’d hinted that we were more than passing acquaintances during my missing past. And I supposed that this unknown history was why I felt both at ease and awkward in his presence. It was strange to feel pleased and anxious at the same time.

As I looked out over the ruins below me, I noticed movement along the open ley line. Squinting, I could just make out a couple of emaciated, hunched figures scrabbling at the crystals. Withered! Nightborne elves that had been exiled from Suramar and now wandered the surrounding region, they constantly sought arcane fuel to keep from losing their mental faculties away from their accustomed source, the Nightwell. Most did not find enough to maintain any sort of normal existence, and became like feral animals. This ley formation had attracted them, and they were diverting some of the resources that would otherwise naturally flow towards Azurewing Repose. Aluneth and I would have to encourage them to move on. I dusted the crumbs from my robe and took a long drink from my waterskin before I found a path down from my perch to the ley ruins below.

***

A few hours later, I collapsed on a fallen log to catch my breath and have another long pull at my waterskin. I had been forced to release at least a dozen Withered elves from their painful existence as I fought my way towards where I could see a healthy Nightborne elf had erected some triangulation pylons. She was standing in the center of these, using them to channel large amounts of arcane energy to some unknown destination. This elf was my obvious target here, and after a significant battle of wits and spells, I neutralized her at last. It was always hardest fighting another spell-caster, because we knew the same tricks and it was often a matter of who did what first.

Somehow, I prevailed. The Nightborne lay where she had fallen, between her pylons. I had used the last of my energy to destroy them so no one else could use them without significant repairs. I sat on my log and waited for some small bit of my stamina to return, so that I might teleport myself back to my camp. An entire morning of beating back brush and an entire afternoon of ceaseless spellwork had left me thinking fondly of the peace and solitude of my small camp at Azurewing Repose. Then I remembered Kalec’s promise to find me there when I returned. I was surprised to realize that I found that prospect comforting.

I stood, feeling restored enough that I knew I could successfully teleport myself, and fixed the coordinates of my camp in my mind. Shaping the spell with one hand, I created the tiny rift that transported me across Azsuna to the space just in front of my tent. I was very glad to see it, and stepped inside to change out of my battle robes into a clean shirt and some fresh trousers.

When I came back out, Kalec was there, relighting the campfire with the flick of his fingers. His face lit up when he saw me, and he lifted a cloth bundle. “I brought some fruit and cheese from Dalaran. I thought you might be hungry and too tired to prepare much for yourself.”

He was right. I nodded. “Thank you. I hadn’t even thought that far ahead yet.” I brought out some of my smoked fish to add to the meal as Kalec spread out the cloth in the middle of one of my log benches and sat down on one side of it. I sat on the other. The dusk was already falling in the shadowed glade, slightly ahead of the sunset outside, and it was not cold, but I welcomed the warmth of the fire. For a few minutes we were silent as we shared our meal.

“I’ve noticed,” said Kalec, “that you refrain from using magic in a lot of ways that other wizards habitually do. Ways that would make your life easier. Why is that?”

I looked over at him. “You mean, like lighting fires?”

“Lighting fires, carrying sacks of ley crystals. Supplying yourself with food. This fish isn’t conjured, it’s hand caught, isn’t it?”

Again, he was right. “Yes. I try to catch a fish or two every day, smoke what I can, eat the rest fresh. It seems to be the easiest way…” It was the easiest way, aside from conjuring my food, like Kalec indicated. “I don’t know. I just feel better about saving my power for when it’s truly needed, not expending it on trivial matters.” I shrugged. I didn’t know why. It was just what I had always done, as far back as I could remember. I felt a shiver run down my spine.

Kalec’s expression changed. “Are you alright, friend? You just went completely white.”

“I think…” I swallowed, hard. “Did Malygos do that to me, too? Teach me that magic was not to be handled casually? I can remember being taught to start campfires, and to fetch and carry with magic, but I can’t remember being taught not to. I can’t recall deciding that I shouldn’t.”

His face softened, and his tone was kind when he replied, “It’s possible. Some of my flight felt that way, to be sure. But some of us find the myriad ways mortals find to manipulate the arcane to be a joyful celebration of life, or at the very least, entertaining.” I was not reassured, and I think he could tell, because he reached over to touch my arm. “Do not trouble yourself, Dai. If you do not wish to use magic for simple tasks, don’t. There is no requirement to do so. You are not less of a man or wizard for using restraint.”

My skin tingled slightly where he touched me, almost like the sensation of electricity I had experienced upon first meeting Stellagosa. Perhaps the dragon blood really had changed me, such that I responded to contact with dragons. I felt Aluneth stir, even from across the campsite. But the rustle of the spirit’s awakening across my raw nerves was the last straw.

The long day had been too much, after my troubled night’s sleep and early rising. My exhaustion left me defenseless, and this overstimulation of my senses, in combination with my growing distress over the state of my mind, pushed me over the edge into panic. I felt my pulse suddenly take off, and my breathing become shallow, and there was nothing I could do to stop it. Before I knew what was happening I was on my feet, my hands clenched.

Kalec was not alarmed. He moved smoothly, deliberately, to stand in front of me. He gently placed a hand on each of my arms, and watching my face carefully, spoke in a low voice.

“Dai. You are okay. Listen to my voice. You are safe.”

I tried to focus on him, but the racing of my mind made it difficult. There was only blankness where I sought reason.

“Dai,” he continued, “breathe. You are safe. I won't let any harm come to you.”

I wanted to run, to lock myself in a room with thick stone walls, to bury myself under a mountain of blankets, but I had no such place to go. Kalec continued to grasp my arms. I looked into his eyes, and once again they held me when the rest of the world felt like it was shattering. My breathing slowed somewhat, but I was still dizzy.

He was watching me closely, looking for indicators of my panic attack fading. When I wasn't responding as he had hoped, he whispered a few unintelligible words, and a wisp of fog drifted out of his mouth, almost like a warm breath on a cold day, only it was cool air that enveloped me. I hadn't realized how overheated I was until the coolness brought relief.

I heard his voice, but the half-elf before me did not speak. “Find me,” I heard him say in my head. “Find me.” What did that mean? Find him how? Where? The deep velvety purple of his eyes transfixed me. The scent of twilight jasmine filled my nostrils and I was back in the Twilight Highlands, wandering between Dwarven villages in search of the precious blossoms. A vast shadow passed swiftly over me, and I turned my head skyward as a great blue dragon soared between me and the sun.

“Find me,” he said. Now I was caught up in the tumult of a thunderstorm, drenched to the skin. I struggled against the fierce winds to climb the bamboo steps of The Lazy Turnip, the Halfhill Market inn, and pushed the heavy door open. The interior was warm and bright, and busy with many jovial customers. I heard my name called out, and turned to see a friend rise to greet me. His hair shone sapphire and amethyst in the lantern light.

“Find me!” The enchanted fey drake beneath me dove and circled in the wintry sky over Frostfire Ridge as I searched for the lava pools that contained schools of strange fish called fire ammonite. At last I spotted one, and brought my mount in for a gentle landing nearby. As I assembled my rod, I heard the crunch of footsteps in the snow behind me. I turned swiftly, unsure if I would find friend or foe. It was a violet-eyed half-elf, who wore only his usual rugged trousers and loose shirt, needing no warmer clothes as proof against the freezing air.

“Find me…” he whispered, and this time I saw his lips move as he stood before me in the soft twilight of Azurewing Repose. I could breathe again. My heart had ceased its headlong dash towards implosion and had returned to something approaching a normal beat.

Kalec still held my upper arms, and seemingly of their own will, my hands lifted to grasp his in similar fashion. “You were there,” I said, never breaking eye contact. “I saw you. I… I found you.”

He smiled then, and embraced me briefly as though he welcomed me back to reality. “I am never far, if ever you need me,” he said.

We stepped apart, and a thought occurred to me. “This has happened before, hasn't it?” I asked. He had been far too prepared to handle my flight response, too calm in the face of my irrational terror for it to be otherwise.

“Yes, you have had episodes like this before. I take it you don't recall them?”

“I know the feelings, but I didn't know you had been with me during them before. I can't remember ever coming out of it this well.” I wondered if I had experienced the visions before and then forgotten them. “I don't remember having the visions.”

“Visions?” Kalec’s voice turned sharply inquisitive.

I stared at him for a moment. Hadn't he called them? “‘Find me,’ you said, and then I experienced several brief visions. I thought you intended it.”

His expression was impossible to read. “I did not say those words, nor did I summon your visions. That does not mean that what you saw and heard was not real. Please tell me about them, the visions, if you are comfortable doing so”

“They were brief scenes, from various places I have traveled since Northrend. You were there in each. Gathering herbs near Thundermar as you flew overhead. A thunderstorm in Halfhill Market, and you waited for me at the inn. Lava fishing in Frostfire Ridge, and you walking towards me through the snow, without coat or cloak. Are these things not true? They felt authentic.” As an afterthought, I repeated, quietly, “I found you.”

As I described the scenes, I watched Kalec brighten as though a torch had been lit within him. “Yes! Those things are all true things. I am so glad you have recovered them.”

His enthusiasm was infectious, and I felt my spirits truly lift for the first time in what seemed like decades. And it seemed like my new friend was an old friend after all.

He patted my shoulder. “You have done good work today, friend. I should leave you to your rest.”

“Kalec,” I said, before he could turn away. “Thank you. For your care, and for your patience. I don't know what I have done to deserve your attention, but I am glad of it.”

He smiled, and replied, “You didn't need to do anything special to be my friend, but fighting for the same causes I do is definitely a point in your favor. Rest well, and I will see you again soon.” With this, he turned and headed for the center of the glade and Senegos’ pool.

***

When I woke the next morning, my body was a little stiff, but my spirit was whole. I rose after several minutes of lying still, just sensing my body and its surroundings. As I prepared for the day, I decided to trace another ley line. A few sore muscles didn't even come close to the suffering of the Azurewing.

And this time, I looked forward to the solitary hike as time to contemplate what I had remembered instead of a chance to avoid thinking. I wanted to try and piece together other events in the light of the new understanding.

I knew now that I had come under Malygos’ control during the time he had set out to destroy all mortal magic users. I was still uncertain how I had come to be there, or what I had done while my will was not my own. This had to be the root of my guilt.

But Kalec had said that I fought for the same things he did, and I was certain he had stood opposed to Malygos during the Nexus War. It gave me hope that I had at least begun on the right side.

By the time the sun was high overhead, I was some considerable distance from my camp. I had followed this ley line to where it entered a cave. It was reasonable to assume that there would be threats in need of tackling inside the cave, so I decided to take my lunch break before going in.

As I leaned back against a convenient tree, with my eye on the cave opening, a realization slowly dawned on me. Malygos had enslaved me to fight for him in his war. I had certainly killed some of those who came to end his campaign. Heroes who might have been acquaintances. Friends.

No wonder I felt it still. I had inflicted suffering on my allies, and though my will had clearly not been my own, some part of me had been alive to what was happening. My eyes stung with unshed tears. I carried the pain of all the allies I had wounded, whether they were known to me or not. The remorse hit me like a blow to the gut, and I was no longer interested in eating the smoked fish in my hand.

I sat there against the tree and thought of dozens of instances since I had recovered my will where I had shied away from combat, or avoided developing relationships with people, or turned away from opportunities for growth. Now the scenes where I had met up with Kalec began to form a pattern. He was checking up on me, observing how I was coping. Apparently, for quite some time, I hadn't been coping well at all.

It was difficult at first to pinpoint where things began to turn around, but then it occurred to me that my renewed sense of self had begun to solidify when I had formed the bond with Aluneth. I still didn't understand why I was the one Aluneth chose, and I probably never would, but after I began to hear the affirming comments it frequently made about my skills and my power, I started to see myself in a new way, even if the comments were only made for Aluneth’s own gain. As a result of my developing strength I had been given this substantial task in Azsuna, and I was almost certain that Kalec had recommended me. So he saw it, too.

And now, here I was, to the point of actually recovering parts of myself that had been lost so long I had no longer noticed they were gone. I was experiencing emotions again, and mostly keeping it together. My body felt alive again, not merely a constant source of pain and discomfort. I even felt warmth towards another being, even though I wasn't completely sure of his motives. This ability to trust was an improvement.

I lost track of time and place as I went through this revelation, and when I came to notice my surroundings again, it was raining. The tree I was under had only offered a minimal amount of shelter, and I was beginning to get quite damp. I stood up and brushed myself off, noting that the daylight seemed to be fading. I had apparently spent the entire afternoon lost in reflection. I sighed. This cave would have to wait. Some adventurers would have continued in to face whatever peril awaited them, but I still didn't feel confident that I could manage alone without rest and preparation.

So I made a mental note of some unique reference points in order to teleport directly here later, and took myself by the same method back to my campsite in Azurewing Repose.

I was struck by an inexplicable sense of loss when I arrived and found the camp was as cold and damp and empty as the cave entrance I had just left. What was this, loneliness? Had I really been expecting Kalec to be here, waiting for me to return? I sighed. Apparently so.

I dropped my satchel inside my tent and propped Aluneth up against a tent pole. My hand automatically fished in my pocket for the little box I kept my flint and steel in, but I stopped myself from removing it. Instead I stepped over to the fire circle and, after placing some fresh, mostly dry wood on top of the charred pieces left from that morning, I cast a simple fire spell. It was the first spell we were taught in our lessons in Dalaran, and most spellcasters used it regularly. My firewood caught readily, primed by the flow of energy the magic created. I sat down on the driest patch of log bench I could find, and just watched the flames leaping and dancing.

My mind returned to the evening before, but not to the overwhelming, irrational anxiety. I was remembering Kalec’s hands on my arms, projecting calm and solidity. I relived that quick hug he had given me, and found that I wished it had not been over so soon. Some other sort of magic was at work here, something far more difficult to control than the arcane.

It had been a very, very long time since I had traveled this road, but I recognized it easily. I was falling in love.

***

I dreamt I was staring into the twisting nether as it swirled millions of fathoms above me, yet so close I could taste its metal in my mouth. I was lying on a stone surface so smooth and hard it felt like ice. My body was twisted in a strange position, but I noticed little discomfort. All I knew was the dance of the universe around me.

Until I heard a voice, fading into my consciousness as though it was approaching rapidly, but from a great distance. “Krasus!” I heard the voice call out. “Krasus! Is this one of yours? He still breathes!”

Kalec! I would know that voice anywhere, it was now as familiar to me as my own. Where was he? Why could I not see him? All I saw were stars and planets and drifting clouds of utter darkness. I tried to turn my head, but if I succeeded, still I only saw the nether.

Another voice entered into the scene. This must be Krasus. “You say he lives? Let me see him…” I felt a hand on my jaw, turning my head to the other side. I heard the intake of breath beside me. His voice more solemn now, almost sorrowful, he continued, “Yes. This one...I sent him. We must do what we can for him.”

Kalec spoke again, “Should I fetch one of the healers?” I could sense the movement of him rising beside me. Had he been kneeling, then?

Krasus stopped him quickly with a word. “No.” I heard a long sigh. “No, I will have a better chance with this one, I think, than they would. Lay him straight, and I will begin the spell.”

I felt hands on me again, arranging my awkwardly angled limbs into a semblance of normalcy. Kalec’s hands. If this dream was true, I had felt his touch before. Perhaps this explained why it felt so right to me now.

Whispered words of great draconic power encircled me, lifted me, set me aflame. My view of the deep universe faded and I saw nothing, heard nothing but those words and the rush of fire in my veins.

Kalec’s voice broke through the blaze. “Krasus!” he shouted. “You will incinerate him!” And then I heard Kalec begin to cast as well, and the burning was pacified as a cool wave washed over me and I drifted in the currents of a vast ocean. And then a strange light began to blossom in my chest, growing in strength as it flowed through my bones, setting them straight. It knitted my muscles and skin back together and I began to feel whole and alive again. At last it reached my eyes, exploding outwards. The light was all I could see for a time, and then the world began to resolve into shapes around me.

Two figures were bent over me, a high elven form, all in red, and a sapphire-haired half-elf dressed in woodsman’s attire. Their spells done, Kalec and Krasus carefully observed my rebirth.

Assured that I would live, Kalec turned to Krasus. “Why did you nearly set him on fire? You would have killed him!”

Krasus answered calmly, “I had to force you to react with intensity. Because you were touched by the Sunwell, you will always have a certain twist to your power that no other dragon possesses. I needed it to bring back Daiedan’s arcane gifts as well as his health.” He looked down at me, and I thought I saw a glimpse of tenderness in his expression. “I owe him that, for what he suffered in my name.”

***

Several days passed as I worked steadily towards restoring the proper resources to the dragons of Azurewing. My exploration of the ley cave had been delayed indefinitely, because a swarm of Withered elves descended upon the Azurewing whelping grounds in search of ley crystals and had discovered they could drain the whelps themselves of energy.  The invaders had to be beaten back quickly or the entire generation of dragon whelplings was in peril. And with dragon populations already in severe decline, I couldn’t possibly ignore the need for immediate and powerful defense.

For days I fought side by side with the Azurewing guards, and with several other mortal adventurers, until at last most of the feral Withered were destroyed or chased away, and the greater portion of the whelplings who were injured in the conflict were restored. On the day we declared victory, I returned to speak with Senegos in the center of Azurewing Repose, and found that Kalec and Khadgar were there, along with a paladin I had not met. They, too, were tending to wounded infant dragons. I did not bother them, but went straight to Senegos to inform him of our successful defense of his brood. In all honesty, I was nervous about speaking to Kalec, and doubly so to speak to him in front of his other friends.

“I am all gratitude,” Senegos said, when I had described how the lengthy skirmish had at last finished. “That you would aid me, a frail and aging patriarch, was a kindness. That you would fight to save my children and grandchildren is heroic, and you have earned my fiercest loyalty. Whatever you need of me and my flight, you will have it.” He bowed his great head towards me in a symbolic gesture.

I felt too humble to deserve his gratitude, but I tried not to dismiss them or my role in the victory. “It is an honor to lend my skills where they are so truly needed. I am happy to be of use to you and your flight, and my leaders in Dalaran will be glad of your support in our war to save Azeroth from the Legion.” I bowed in return, and excused myself to return to my camp.

I cast one last glance over my shoulder to where Kalec still worked to save ailing whelps. He hadn’t even seemed to notice me. I knew it was entirely reasonable that he shouldn’t, but I still felt let down, even after all of my other achievements that day. When I reached my tent, I washed up and went to bed straight away. I was very tired, and not hungry at all, and wished only for the oblivion of sleep.

Morning came quickly, and I gathered my fishing tackle and headed to my usual fishing spot along a nearby woodland stream. I hadn’t had a day of rest for sometime, and I figured I’d earned one. And it was a perfect day for it. Mild autumn weather had set in over Azsuna, and today it was blue sky filled with tiny puffy clouds. I settled in to fish, in a position where I would be comfortable if I happened to nod off, and prepared to watch my bobber for the next few hours.

The sun was significantly higher in the sky when a swiftly moving shadow passed over me. Looking up, I caught the flash of light on blue dragonscales. Just a couple of minutes later, a familiar figure stepped out of the trees. I laid down my fishing rod and stood to greet him.

“Dai! Senegos shared the news of your success with me. Well done!” Kalec gave me a sincere smile. His eyes seemed more radiant today, his skin somehow more translucent, as though he was touched by the Light.

“I could not have done it alone, to be sure. But I am honored to have a place defending dragonkind, especially after what happened before.” My voice faded away, and my gaze turned from Kalec's face. I hadn't had a chance yet to tell him about the conclusions I had drawn, or my most recent dream.

“Have you remembered more?” he asked. “Please, sit, and tell me.” I did as he indicated, and felt a nervous flutter in my belly when he sat down next to me.

I required no further prompting, and though I had made notes about my dream for this very reason, I recalled everything as clearly as if it had just happened. The story spilled from me. I felt Kalec watching me as I spoke, but I kept my eyes on the stream that flowed at our feet.

When I had finished describing the dream, I paused, and turned towards him. “I killed friends, didn't I? People I knew. I can't remember yet, but it is only logical.”

Kalec grew solemn, though the light in him did not dim. “It was not you. Whatever anyone says, it was not you, it was Malygos. Your body was only a shell, a tool to be used. It was not even your power. We were lucky to be able to restore your soul, to bring your mind and your will back together as we did.”

I didn't have any words, and I could not meet his gaze. We sat there in silence for a minute, the rushing water the only sound. Then Kalec spoke again.

“Why do you wear the spectacles? I didn't think your vision was damaged.”

“Not my vision, no,” I replied. “But my eyes… I don't want to frighten people, and these lenses help to obscure the alteration.”

“May I see?” he asked. I took off the glasses and turned back to face him, feeling very self-conscious about my deformed irises. His face was so close to mine, and I was vaguely surprised to realize that I was about an inch taller than him. He looked so seriously at my eyes that it felt as though he could search my soul.

When he had thoroughly examined them, or me, he said, “I don't think you should be ashamed of them. They are unique and beautiful. The blue and violet blending together.” He didn't break eye contact.

I felt my pulse pick up, and my face flush. He was so close. My glance darted between his lips and his eyes, and I saw his jaw relax. My thoughts flew faster than my heartbeat. Did he want to kiss me? I wanted to kiss him. Was that wrong? His mouth looked so soft, and as I looked at them, his lips parted ever so slightly. My instincts took over and I bent towards him.

It felt like it was the first time I had ever kissed anyone, although I knew that it wasn't my first by far. I was caught up in the sensation of it: the warmth of his lips, the smell of his skin and his breath, the feel of his nose brushing against mine. It made feel warm, and alive. And he didn't recoil, or remain passive. He kissed me back.

But I was afraid to go too far, to ask too much, and I pulled myself away. Now his eyes were wider as he stared at me, and it felt like he was seeing me for the first time. I was terrified.

“I’m sorry,” I said, barely finding the air to speak. “I shouldn't have… That was inappropriate. I… I’m sorry.” I couldn't bear to see him watching me, so I turned away and began to disassemble my fishing rod and pack away my lures, shoving my glasses back on as I did so. My face was on fire with embarrassment.

“Daiedan,” I heard Kalec say softly. My name had never sounded so lyrical. I turned back to him, unable to ignore his call. “Yesterday my world was turned upside down, and I thought I would never see my way clearly where humans are concerned. But today,” he paused, smiling. “Today has been like the sun coming out after a storm. The air is clear and bright, and the breeze smells free again.”

I did not know what he meant, but he was happy, and that brought me an immense and immediate sense of relief. There was a color in his cheeks that had not been there earlier. I couldn't help but smile with him.

“Are you done fishing? I will help you carry your things back to camp. Then I am afraid I must leave, for there are things to which I must attend, but I will return soon.” Kalec took my tackle box from me and started down the path towards my tent. I stared after him for a minute, bewildered, but soon came to my senses and followed.

***

“I have been keeping this for you. For a time when you were prepared to accept it again. I believe that time has come.” Kalec handed me a flattish square parcel, done up with plain paper and string. I accepted it, and found that it was softer than I expected. He watched as I untied the string and carefully lifted the paper away from the mystery shrouded within.

It was folded cloth, midnight blue in color. I let the paper fall, and shook out the cloth to reveal it as a cloak. It warmed my hands where I held it, and draped elegantly over my fingers, yet it was as light as a whisper. A fine silver border was woven around the entire piece, seemingly without break, though the garment was clearly pieced together and shaped with careful seams. I sensed, too, that it had been enchanted, imbued with power not obvious to the casual observer.

“This is too fine a garment for me,” I told Kalec. “Much too exquisite.”

“And yet it is yours. It was on your back when you were taken by Malygos. He removed all objects of power from those he enslaved, but, for some reason, failed to destroy them.” He shrugged. “I could detect your scent upon the fabric, and closer examination revealed some of the spellwork to be yours as well. This cloak belongs to you.” Kalec took it from my hands and draped it over my shoulders, where it lay as if it had been crafted for my body alone.

I still could not identify it as mine, but as I drew it close, I felt the frisson of energy as the hidden truesilver runes that had been worked into the fabric activated once more. I could even picture them as they glowed upon my back.

As Kalec stepped in front of me once more, watching my reaction, I experienced the strange visual distortion of my surroundings that had occurred a number of times now. He recognized that it was happening this time, and placed his hand upon my arm.

“Friend, I am here.” His voice was calm, with that unusual warmth combined with coolness that was his signature. Though all around him the world appeared shattered and flickering, he was solid, whole. I placed my hand over his and focused on his eyes. Gradually, the distortion subsided and I could breathe easily once more.

The moment I took my eyes from his face, I saw in my mind’s eye a figure striding through a white landscape. I knew it was me. I could hear the snow crunching under my feet and feel the wind whipping my dark cloak about me. Out of the mist before me loomed a great tower of ice. The Nexus.

And then it was gone, and I was still holding Kalec’s hand upon my arm. I met his gaze again, and when he saw that I had recovered another piece of my memory, he nodded, and slipped his hand out of my grasp. Another slight surge of energy shot through the enchantments of the cloak, and I felt Aluneth stir.

“Ahhh,” I heard him whisper in my mind. “At last you are beginning to come into your true power.” I looked over to where the great artifact leaned in the corner of my tent. A shimmering haze encircled it for a moment, and when it cleared, the powerful gems that held Aluneth’s spirit had changed color. What had been a twinkling amethyst was now a deep and vibrant sapphire, complete with an elusive central flame.

Kalec saw it too. “I see Aluneth approves,” he commented. His tone was invariably neutral when he spoke of Aluneth, so I could never tell what he thought of my partnership with the ancient spirit that resided within the staff. Frankly, I didn’t know what I thought of it, either. Mostly I was in some state between awe and fear when it came to Aluneth, and perpetually concerned about what his choice to accept me meant for my future.

But in a way, Aluneth was right. In pulling my old cloak about me, I felt as though I had regained the use of a long-forgotten limb. Coming into my true power? Perhaps. Perhaps I was merely coming back into my true self.

***

The courier handed me the parcel he carried, and had me sign a scroll that he had produced from somewhere within his purple Dalaran livery. When I had added my name to his list, he secreted the scroll once more, nodded, and ran back to his mount. They vanished quickly into the forest, leaving me alone with an unexpected package.

I turned it over a few times in my hands, inspecting the parchment wrapping and the seals. I didn't recognize the seals or the handwriting that directed it to me. The weight and size of it led me to suspect it was a book.

I broke the seals and loosened the parchment, and my suspicions were vindicated. It was a modest, grey leather-bound book, unmarked on the outside. I examined it carefully before opening it, because I had seen books with traps integrated into them, both mechanical and magical. Nothing presented itself to me as a trap, so I carefully unfastened the strap that held it closed, and opened the cover.

A folded piece of parchment lay inside the cover. It had my name written on it in an elegant script. I unfolded it to reveal a letter.

Daiedan,

By the time you hold this letter, you should at last be recapturing the essence of your true self, after many years of wandering. I feel great regret that you suffered as you did at the hands of Malygos, and hope that you can forgive me for sending you into the maw. It was not the first time that I have sent another, unknowing, to sacrifice themselves in order to save our world, and it shall not be the last. I expect to face the same fate one day.

I have kept your spellbook safe for you, as you requested. You did a very thorough job of cataloging everything you learned during your time in Dalaran. I am quite impressed with your sketches as well as your spells.

Finally, I assume that I will no longer be present in Azeroth when you receive this. Although I have had no clear seeing of my own end, I expect it to happen before long. I am sorry I cannot be there to explain what unfolded during the Nexus War, and how you came to be involved in it. I trust that Kalecgos will guide you.

As for young Kalec, I hope your feeling for him will continue as it has begun. He may seem well-advanced and even-tempered to you, but to me he will ever be young and tempestuous, and his heart will have been wounded again and again after I write this letter. You can be his healing flame, and he, yours.

Remember that life is worth fighting for.

Krasus

I read it several times, trying to wrap my mind around everything it told me. There was so much suggested by so few words. I wondered how much I had actually shared with Krasus and how much he simply knew. At last, I set the letter aside and turned my attention to the modest tome.

My spellbook, started in my first lessons in Dalaran, was a chronicle of my life and myself as a young mage. I turned the first pages slowly, smiling at the careful transcriptions of basic spellcraft. Then I flipped more casually through, noticing sketches of plants and animals beginning to fill the edges of the pages, then giving way to drawings of dragons. Two thirds of the way through the book, after a page marked with a date not long after the restoration of the Sunwell, the writing and sketching stopped altogether, and I would have assumed the rest of the volume was empty, but it fell open to an oft-visited page near the back.

The leaf was covered in numerous figure sketches, face and body, isolated hands and ears, neck and shoulders, all apparently of one model. The following page, and the one after that, contained drawings of the same face, the same figure.

Kalec.

I closed the book and went into my tent to stow it in my trunk. But I hesitated before putting it away. I sat down on my cot and let its pages fall open again. I remembered the drawings, and the sense of longing that had accompanied their genesis. Minutes went by as I relived every sketch.

I wondered if I had fallen in love with Kalec the second time because I already had once, or if it was independent of the first.

***

I inhaled deeply as I stepped through the massive doors of the Dalaran Library. That scent of ancient parchments and musty tomes was one of the most comforting things, and one of the most recognizable, about the city for me. Somewhere on the countless shelves there was a collection of yearbooks, the annually-produced volumes of student spellwork projects. Within a small number of those yearbooks, my projects were recorded. More importantly, so were those of my classmates. It had occurred to me that were I to find a classmate or two, I might remember some more things, or at least learn about them. Again.

I stepped up to the information desk. Librarian Fillmaff was puttering around behind the counter, arranging and rearranging pens and such. He looked up when I approached, and his decaying face appeared to register pleasure at seeing me.

“Ah! Daiedan! Here to look over your old yearbooks, are you? You can find them in Division Four, Level Eight, Section R, Aisle Five, Row L. On the right hand side. Ninth row from the top, or sixth from the bottom, if you prefer counting up.” His undead features contorted slightly and I realized he was smiling.

“Uh, thank you, Fillmaff. I don’t suppose…”

“Merilla? She’ll be in her classroom about now, I expect. Level 18 of the tower.”

By now my face surely registered shock at his ability to accurately forecast my questions.

“How do I do that, you wonder? For me, it is as easy to remember the future as it is the past. It is why I make such a good librarian.” He nodded at me and turned to greet a young student that approached the desk next to me.

I’d already forgotten the location he’d given me for the yearbooks. And he’d provided me with the answer to the question I would have asked after I’d looked at them, so I decided to just head straight to the eighteenth floor of the Violet Citadel, and skip all the unnecessary legwork.

Merilla. I knew the name. I paused just outside the library and tried to recall more. Yes, I remembered her. I could picture her at seventeen, in our third year of study, with a long cascade of straight, black-brown hair, and brilliant green eyes. We were friends? I thought so. She must be doing well to be teaching, and on the eighteenth floor. That level was only unlocked to more advanced students. And so young, I thought, until I realized that neither of us were that young anymore, at least according to the typical human lifespan.

I considered my coordinates and teleported to the eighteenth floor lounge. The classroom door stood open and I saw her standing over her work table, reading what was likely student papers. She was still attractive, after twenty-five years. I was almost afraid to approach her, to ask for her help. But she sensed my presence and glanced over towards me, so I stepped forward, and entered her room.

Merilla’s face shifted quickly from the generic welcome she would have given one of her students to surprise at seeing me. “Dai? It’s been years.” It seemed like her guard went up the moment she recognized me.

“Merilla. I’m sorry to disturb you, but I...I need your help.” How did I even begin? I swallowed, hard.

“How are you? I’d heard you hadn’t been well, and then I heard nothing at all. I mean, I suppose I shouldn’t have even been interested in news of you, but some things you can’t help.” She sounded bitter. I must have hurt her. A grey feeling of dread settled in my stomach.

“I apologize. I have troubles with my memory and I was hoping that finding an old friend would help me reclaim some more of my past, but perhaps it was a bad idea.” I sighed. “I should leave you to your work.”

She looked perplexed. “Wait. You really don’t remember?”

I shook my head. “I thought I could remember my life pretty well up until the restoration of the Sunwell, but I am constantly finding gaps and holes that I didn’t realize were there. I can picture you in our third year of classes, and I know it’s our third year, but I can remember little else of our time together.”

“Yes, that was when we became friends, when it all started.” She almost looked dazzled, as she thought of those days. “You had always seemed so aloof, so uninterested in other people, but when we started getting to know each other I found that you could open up into this warm, funny person.”

Merilla studied me, as if trying to locate that again. “I always hoped you would show that side to the world more. For a time, as we were rebuilding Dalaran, I thought you might. And by the time we were sent to Silithus, to aid the Cenarion Circle, I thought our future would be together.”

“Silithus.” Yes, I could picture that now. We had fought against the armies of C’Thun together. My eyes widened as I remembered other, more intimate scenes. “I remember Silithus again. But things changed?” It came out as a question, but I knew it to be the truth. Things changed.

“It all changed after I received my orders for Netherstorm and yours were for Quel’Danas. The next time we met, it was like you didn’t even see me.” She looked away. My gut twisted.

“I’m sorry, Merilla. I don’t know what caused it then, but I’m very sorry now for hurting you.”

She turned back, her green eyes sparkling with the suggestion of tears. “I always assumed...well, I don’t know. I thought maybe you had met some tall, fair Quel’dorei ranger and fallen hook, line, and sinker. You wouldn’t have been the first. But you never said a word. You just slowly withdrew, until I was tired, and walked away from it. I don’t know if you even noticed I was gone, to be honest.”

There was that bitterness again. It stung, but she was justified. I looked away from her face for a moment, and when I looked back, I could see she had blushed, even behind the deep tone of her skin. “I’m sorry, Dai. If you don’t remember, it’s unfair of me to be cruel. It’s not like we ever had any sort of formal arrangement, anyway. But what’s happened to you?”

“I haven’t pieced it all together yet, but in Northrend my mind was shattered. It is only just now beginning to truly recover. After six years.” I pushed my glasses up my nose, suddenly nervous to be revealing these things to someone I barely remembered. “I recently located my old spellbook, and it has some things in it...I mean, I didn’t know...but if we weren’t close then…” My thoughts were getting jumbled.

“What?” she asked.

“There were just some sketches, and I wasn’t quite clear what they implied, but if you didn’t know about them at the time...well, then it’s probably not what I thought.” If she hadn’t associated me with Kalec, didn’t blame him for our breakup, then there hadn’t been any public discourse about the two of us. Not exactly evidence, but nearly.

“No, I don’t remember any unusual sketches. But if you drew them after the Sunwell, I’m sure they were strange, because you were different. I wondered if you had suffered some sort of power overload or something. Or that you had just been so terrified of your heart being broken after seeing what happened to Kalecgos that you had completely shut down. It would not have surprised me.”

Her voice softened a bit. “It’s good to see you again, Dai, and I’m glad you’re doing better. I can almost see a bit of what you were like back when we were third years.” She rustled the papers on her worktop and tried to pretend she wasn’t checking the clock behind me.

I understood. “Merilla, thank you so much. I am glad to see you doing so well here.” I inclined my body ever so slightly towards her. “And I am glad to remember more of our past. You’ve been very helpful.” And with that, I quickly teleported myself out, not realizing until I had materialized there that I had instinctively gone to one of my old favorite Dalaran haunts, the top floor of the bell tower. The bell was no longer rung except in emergencies, so it was a good place for solitude.

It was a good place to think about what I had just unearthed. After what had happened to Kalecgos, she’d said. Of course. There would have been no question of anything between us before Northrend, because he was grieving the loss of Anveena. This thought triggered something in me, and a flood of memories of my years with Merilla cascaded through my mind. I fell to my knees in the belfry, overcome by racking sobs as I beheld all I’d had and lost. I cast my spectacles away across the floor and buried my face in my hands.

The distress passed surprisingly quickly, as though I had peeked into the void but turned away, unable to process it completely. I had other things to do, and what was done was done. I could not unbreak Merilla’s heart any more than I could stop the tide from changing. And I knew that I would have never been able to act differently, because now I remembered coming back to Dalaran from Quel’Danas. I remembered my head spinning and my heart feeling so full it could explode whenever I saw Kalec. I remembered meeting Merilla in the street, seeing her for the first time in months, and feeling...nothing.

I sat back against one of the elegant marble pillars that ringed the belfry and closed my eyes, trying to restore my equilibrium. As I paid careful attention to my breathing, I found I was able to distinguish the sound of someone else’s, too. My eyes flew open.

Kalec was leaning up against a nearby pillar, watching me. He smiled slightly when I realized he was there, and offered me a hand to pull me to my feet. I accepted it, and he retained his hold on my hand even when I was standing, using it to bring me to him before releasing it. Wordlessly he took my head in his hands and kissed me. My hands slipped around his waist and my body gently pinned his against the cold stone of the pillar.

I forgot Merilla, and my betrayal of her. I didn’t wonder how Kalec knew where to find me. I was lost in the magic of the kiss, of the feel of him pressed against me. I needed him, and he was there. His hands were in my hair, his tongue danced with mine, and I fell headlong into him. After a time the kiss ended, but we stayed there, wrapped up in each other, and I rested my cheek against his.

“I’m sorry if I startled you,” Kalec whispered. “I can follow Aluneth anywhere in this realm. I should have told you.”

Aluneth, I thought, wryly. My champion and my nemesis. “Your timing was perfect,” I said. I leaned back just far enough to see his face, to see the eyes that made my breath catch every time they looked at me.

He smiled. “Let’s go somewhere else,” he said. “Will you come to my rooms?”

At that moment I would have willingly followed him into the Twisting Nether itself. I nodded. Kalec opened a portal and, taking my hand, pulled me through. My colored glasses lay forgotten where I had cast them aside.

He had brought us into a small chamber painted a twilight blue. It was a sort of study, low bookshelves completely encircling the room beneath the windows, full of varied volumes, scrolls, and strange relics. In one half of the room was a work table with a high stool, in the other, a comfortable chair and a small side table. Everything was clearly in its place. But this was not where Kalec intended us to be. Still holding my hand, he led me through the doorway into a somewhat larger room.

I felt more at home than I expected to in someone else’s bedroom. Again, it was furnished primarily in blues, with some darker purple accents. The furniture had simple, elegant lines, and was neither heavy nor ornate. The room was designed for peace, for rest, for contemplation. It had an openness to it that I hadn’t experienced often in an interior space, yet it felt private and secure. And it took only an instant for me to take it all in, as Kalec led me past the sitting area near the door towards the bed.

My heart began to thump in my chest. Kalec turned to me and kissed me gently, then released Aluneth from his carrying strap, and leaned the staff carefully against the wall. I unfastened my cloak and he caught it before it fell to the floor, and draped it over the back of a chair.

“Kalec,” I whispered, “I don’t know…”

It was foolish of me to think he didn’t realize I was nervous. “Dai,” he replied, “I only want to hold you comfortably. I would never demand anything that you did not wish to give.”

I felt so awkward, as though I’d never had a lover at all, even as I had been reminded only a matter of minutes ago that I most definitely had. Kalec sat down on the edge of his bed and took off his boots. I hesitated for just a moment, and then followed his lead. I turned to him when I finished, and felt the desire rise in me. But we looked at each other like shy adolescents, neither quite sure how to proceed.

Tentatively, I slid my hand across his back, and he slipped easily into my arms and I was kissing him again before I could even think about it. He laid me down carefully and we adjusted until we were agreeably positioned in each other’s arms. I loved the sense of him against me and the shape of his muscles under my hands. I reached up to run my fingers through the shaggy waves of his dark blue hair, and to stroke his jaw and neck. I could feel his pulse pounding beneath his skin. He was so warm, and suddenly so was I.

Clumsily, with my left hand, I began to unbutton his shirt. Kalec took over before I had it halfway unfastened, and leaned away to slip it off. I ran my fingers across his chest, feeling slightly displaced from reality. But his skin was soft and warm to the touch, and I wanted to feel it against mine so badly that I rolled onto my back and began to remove my own shirt. How glad I was that I had decided not to wear my battle robes for my trip to Dalaran.

Now bare to the waist, we embraced again, and I was startled to find that he was trembling as much as I was. We laid there quietly, his chin nestled in my collarbone, my arms around his shoulders. The rise and fall of his chest against mine was quick and shallow.

“Kalec?” I said, very quietly.

“Yes?” he responded, similarly.

“Are you nervous too?”

“Yes,” he replied.

“But surely you’ve...I mean…” I didn't know what I meant. I knew what everyone knew of his love life. He’d managed somehow to become romantically involved with the physical embodiment of a great source of power, the Sunwell, and then some years later it was said he had paired off with Lady Jaina Proudmoore. I was clearly not like either of those. But he was easily several hundred years older than me, and I suppose I expected that nothing was new to him any longer.

I felt his arms squeeze me a little tighter. What was this creature I held against me? He was like fire wrapped in silk, with the rapid and fluttering heartbeat of a bird. “Yes, I have. I’ve shared with a human woman, and with a human man.” He paused, and sighed softly. “But it’s never mattered so much.” And he tucked his head more snugly into the angle of my neck and shoulder.

I didn't know why or how it mattered to him, but it certainly mattered to me. I closed my eyes briefly, using my other senses to carve out a memory of the moment: the shape of his face against my throat, the quiet rush of his breath, the shivering tingle as his hand slowly stroked the sensitive skin along my side.

“Kalec?” I asked.

“Hmm?” he replied. I felt his voice vibrate through my collarbone.

“Those times you visited me, checked up on me...Did I remember you then?”

He shifted position a bit, to speak easier. “Usually. Or you would remember me after speaking with me. After the first few months, you seemed to function fairly normally in the world. And when Deathwing brought the great Cataclysm down on Azeroth, you were fully able to participate in the recovery effort, though with a few breaks for rest. You have joined every campaign since. Do you still have great holes in your recollection?”

“Some. I thought I remembered a greater percentage of my life than what I actually do, it seems.” I sighed. “But you were apparently still concerned enough about my functioning that you continued to watch over me.”

“Well, to be quite honest, it was a task entrusted to me by one whose guidance I learned, with some difficulty, to accept. It was Korialstrasz, or Krasus as you knew him, who requested I keep an eye on you, until I was confident you were fully recovered. I assumed you had an important destiny to fulfill, and so I honored his wishes.” It felt like he was tracing runes across my chest as he spoke, leaving a tracery of shimmering energy to soak into me. “The best way I can think of to describe how you were, until quite recently, is that you were like a ghost of yourself. You went through your daily life as normal, but the vital spark that made you unique was absent. But now, now I am beginning to see it again, and it pleases me.” Kalec lifted his head from my shoulder, and when I turned to meet his gaze, he kissed me gently.

Still looking into his eyes, I told him, “Krasus sent me my spellbook. It’s why I am in Dalaran today.”

He interrupted before I could continue. “Krasus? How?” He adjusted himself beside me again until we were facing each other on the pillow. He tucked one arm beneath his head and the fingers of the other hand twined and untwined with my fingers as we spoke.

I shook my head slightly. “I suppose he had it stored somewhere to be sent to me on a certain date. All I know is that I was in the middle of the forest when a courier in Dalaran livery landed a gryphon right in front of me and had me sign for a package. And it was my old spellbook, from my school days, and the few years after. There was a letter from Krasus inside.”

“And I suspect it was typical Krasus, completely oblique.” Kalec’s eyebrow arched in simulated exasperation. The curl of a smile at the corner of his mouth gave away his amusement.

“It was confusing, yes.” I automatically smiled in response to Kalec’s. But it faded slightly as I explained my visit to the city. “I came up here to find someone who knew me before Northrend, who could support or refute the conclusions I had made regarding some of the things in my book and the things in the letter.”

“Did you find someone who could help?” he asked.

I remembered the guarded look Merilla had greeted me with earlier that afternoon. “Yes, although I’m not entirely sure she meant to. She was probably the best person I could have spoken to about the situation, having known me the best at the time.”

“Ah,” said Kalec. “Your lover.”

“Yes. And I had forgotten her.”

“Oh, my. I did not know, or perhaps we might have tried to put you back in contact much earlier.” He sounded quite apologetic, and I hastened to relieve him of his misconception.

“We had separated some time before Malygos. If you had tried to reunite us afterwards I fear she would have had none of it.” I saw the relief cross his face. I didn’t mean to tell him why Merilla and I had fallen apart, but as my mouth seemed to be fond of doing lately, it said the words anyway. “You see, I was in love with you then.”

I froze as soon as the words left my lips. Kalec’s fingers stopped their gentle play with my hand. For what seemed like an eternity he looked at my face as though it was some cryptic map from a foreign world. Then, all in one swift motion, he reached up and placed his hand on the back of my neck, drawing me into a kiss so fierce and ardent that I felt it in my toes. Again I lost track of time, but eventually we separated, and in that brief moment Kalec made an observation.

“You said then . You were in love with me then . Not ‘in love with me then’ as you might have. Which implies…”

I finished for him, “That I’m in love with you now.” And I felt it burst in my chest, that love. He was accepting it. He had told me that I was coming alive again, and I was handing him the proof and he was pleased. More than pleased, I thought, as he pressed my body to his and his lips to mine.

***

I stood quietly, contemplating the unassuming cave entrance. I had tracked down all the other ley lines before returning to this one, and as far as I could tell, nothing had changed here since I had left it that rainy afternoon. But there was something at the edge of my perception that had given me pause that day, and now, in the morning light, it was clearly apparent. There was the hint of a worn path coming from the direction of the whelping grounds up to the sandy, fern-shaded opening. Someone, or something, used this cave regularly.

Stellagosa had little information to give me when I asked her what she knew of the spot, but she had warned me that there were rumors of a Nightfallen elf wandering the area around the whelping grounds, one who was more judicious in picking off whelps and stealing ley crystals than the feral Withered. If this elf was the resident of my cave, I could face a challenge.

I felt Aluneth stirring along the borders of my consciousness. He was ready for action. I took a long, deep breath to focus myself, and slipped between the boulders that marked the cave entrance. Once inside, my eyes took a moment to adjust to the dim light. Luminous fungus grew in damp patches along the walls and floor, granting enough radiance for someone like myself to maneuver safely through the narrow passage. After twenty yards or so, the passageway opened into a larger chamber, and a thin sliver of light penetrated from some unseen gap in the stone of the ceiling, illuminating the area. Water burbled softly as it carved a path from the dark recesses on the opposite side of the cavern into a small basin near the center, forming a pool that glowed and sparkled like a miniature version of Senegos’ ley pool. Aluneth began to reach out for the ley energy but I stopped him before he could give us away. On the far side of the pool, next to the glowing embers of a dying campfire, lay the figure of an elf.

There was the faintest movement as the elf’s chest shifted with his breath. He was alive. I took one careful step closer, and even the whisper of my soft boot on the sand was enough to wake him. He leapt to his feet with a shriek.

“What do you think you’re doing?” He had been holding something in his hand and he threw it at my head. A stone. I ducked just in time to avoid contact, and summoned a shield of energy to absorb the impact of further attacks. “This is my place! You do not belong here! Do you not know who I am?” The Nightfallen elf had flung himself at me, beating at my shield with his fists. He was stronger than his emaciated figure would suggest, and was clearly fueled by rage and frustration.

I swept Aluneth around before me, knocking the elf backwards and locking his feet to the ground temporarily in a wave of ice crystals, allowing me the time to place distance between us once again. I shot a purple bolt of concentrated arcane energy at him, and he shuddered in pain, but it did not subdue him. He broke free of the ice and launched himself at me again.

“That’s some weapon you have there, wizard,” he said in a mocking voice. “Do you wield it or does it wield you?”

My shield failed just then and his fist landed in my gut, interrupting the spell I was weaving and causing me to bend over, gasping in pain. I struggled to knock him away with my staff and renew my protective barrier before he could make contact again. As I straightened, I felt Aluneth’s power surge within me, and at the same time the world seemed to slip sideways and fracture in that too-familiar manner.

I was no longer in a cave, facing a soon-to-wither Nightfallen elf. I was riding a flying disc high above a huge circular platform that floated in the midst of nothingness. A large raiding party was gathered below me, and I scanned the crowd, looking for a target. A willowy night elf priestess, cloaked in a veil of twilight, had fixed her sights on me and was etching shadow words into my very being. I returned the favor, showering her in a hail of arcane missiles. She fell, defenseless against their barbs, and a sense of exultation rose in me as I turned my attention to the next attacker. Another fell, and another, and with each the fire of victory burned brighter within me until I thought I would be consumed. Unexpectedly, my flying disc wobbled beneath me and plunged the fifteen feet to the platform. The impact of the landing knocked me back into the present.

I was backed against the wall, Aluneth held out before me, his arcane brilliance repelling the Nightfallen elf’s attacks. There was a rush of movement from the entrance to the cavern and I was surprised to see Kalec appear, projecting a beam of frost from his hand towards the elf. The elf flew across the chamber as though he were an insect casually brushed aside.

I heard him whimper from the corner where he landed. “I surrender! Runas surrenders… Please forgive me, I am sorry.”

Kalec moved towards him, his fingers working to summon another, more powerful spell. He was going to end it.

“Kalec, NO!” I cried out, and teleported across the cavern to put myself between this ruined elf called Runas and the avenging dragon. Aluneth surged again, and I harnessed his force, detonating an explosion that knocked Kalec backwards and interrupted his spellwork.

Kalec shook himself and stared at me in confusion. “He is a threat, Dai, he needs to be neutralized. He will only become more harmful as he withers.” He stepped around me and began to cast another spell. Runas crooned pitifully from the heap where he had fallen.

My anger exploded within me, becoming volatile when mixed with Aluneth’s power. My spellcasting became instantaneous, and I swiftly silenced Kalec and stepped in front of Runas again. “No! He was only defending himself. Only trying to ease the pain of his curse. You cannot condemn him to death for such.” I remembered the dark joy I had experienced at seeing my allies fall by my own hand. “You cannot condemn him without condemning me for similar crimes.”

Kalec, too, became angry. “Your crimes were not committed of your own free will, and you know that. No one could blame you for what you were forced to do. Now stand aside and let me end this wretch.”

I stood my ground. “I will not let you. He is only trying to survive, driven to destruction by forces beyond his control. He is still sane enough to speak, and therefore not beyond redemption. If you wish to kill him, you will have to kill me first.” I looked at Kalec, my love, and I could not believe I had chosen to stand against him. But in these circumstances, I could not imagine making any other choice. I saw his fingers twitch, and in less time than it took to blink I had fired an arcane bolt that laid him flat on his back on the sandy floor. He had raised no defenses against me, and I heard him groan from the pain of the impact.

He lifted his hand in surrender, and slowly climbed back to his feet. “Fine,” he conceded. “But we take him back to face Senegos. Let the patriarch be the judge.”

I nodded. I did not like it, but I could not conceive of a better plan.  I turned to help the broken Runas up from where he huddled in fear.

“I am not a monster,” he mumbled. “The mana...it muddles my mind, it clouds my judgment. I am not a monster.” His eyes met mine, and he said in a much clearer voice, “I shall prove it to you. You will not suffer for your choice.”

***

As he stood before Senegos, asking for mercy, I could see a suggestion of the nobility Runas had lost in exile. Even in his fallen state he could project a certain amount of grace.

The Nightfallen elf offered to lead us to where others were constructing siphons like the one I had destroyed on my first outing, enabling us to terminate the operation and restore the complete flow of energy to the Azurewing. Senegos was reluctant to place any trust in Runas’ claims. Kalec clearly had no faith at all in what the elf said.

I had no good reason to believe Runas, but I did. I had to believe that he was not evil himself, merely caught up in evil times. So I stood at his side and accepted responsibility for his promises. I volunteered to seek out these elven masterminds and destroy their machinery.

Kalec would not let me go alone, and even Senegos sent a projection of himself in order to keep an eye on things. Runas led us straight to the center of the mana siphoning operation, as he had said he would.

“Ael’yith is the one you seek,” he said, as we stood at the edge of the ley ruins I had visited previously. Three new, towering stone pillars stood in a wider formation than the smaller ones I had destroyed weeks before, their crystalline crowns sparkling and crackling with the flow of energy as they siphoned pure mana out of the earth. Runas pointed to where an imperious figure paced along a stretch of crumbling wall that rose above the exposed ley line, watching all that went on below.

A shadow passed over me and I looked up to see a mass of tiny, shining blue bodies fluttering towards the channeling pillars. Even the whelplings were here to assist our fight. One by one, they circled each pillar and together beat upon the mechanism at the top until it crumbled and was no longer functional. Before the first pylon had been destroyed, Kalec was on the ground below the azure cloud, fighting off the withered elves who came to defend their master’s machine. I left him to it, and began working my way towards where I could see Ael’yith becoming enraged from his overlook.

He turned to me as I raced up the last few decaying steps to join him on his catwalk. “I suppose you think you’re clever,” he snarled at me. “But this power source belongs to me, now.” And with that he instantly teleported to the top of a nearby tower.

I hurriedly worked out the coordinates and followed, feeling a rush of power as Aluneth came awake upon my back. I lifted the staff free of its harness and swept it in an arc in front of me, sending a wave of arcane energy across the tower chamber towards Ael’yith. He staggered slightly as it struck him, and I saw the crackling fingers of it rush up and over his legs, reaching for his heart, but he was able to stop its progress before it could stun him.

“This power source belongs to Senegos and the Azurewing, and we are here to see it returned to his control. You will find no peace here, Ael’yith.” There was a commanding tone to my voice that I did not recognize, but I welcomed it.

“Lowborn scum!” he retorted. “You are not fit to touch the hem of my robe!” He raised his arms in a familiar drawing gesture, and I watched in disbelief as the entire room seemed to come alive with arcane energy. The entire tower was a mana siphon, and this chamber was its point of convergence. “YESSS!” Ael’yith hissed. “I need more power!”

Instinctively I shielded myself with my strongest magical barrier, and just in time. The Nightborne arcanist sent an immense glowing orb of energy hurtling at me, and even with the protection I was thrown backwards against the wall. My body ached as I regained my footing, but I was thankful that the energy had dissipated without actually contacting my flesh. Inhuman laughter filled the chamber as Ael’yith prepared another barrage. This time I was ready, and cast an interrupting spell, followed quickly the most painful attack I could think of, a shower of arcane needles that automatically sought out their target’s nervous system. Unmitigated, it could cause a very rapid death in a manner similar to electric shock. Even with a good defense it could initiate cascading torrents of pain as the target’s nerves responded to the stimulus. I knew Ael’yith had the capacity for a defense at least as powerful as his attacks, but I hoped that at least a portion of my spell would make it through and cause enough distraction that I could follow it with more hard-hitting spells that would wear him down.

When he laughed again, I knew that even with Aluneth I could not overpower this opponent. Aluneth was trying to consume the power that swirled around the tower as I considered my options, but I could tell it was somehow secured against his access. If I could not defeat Ael’yith even with a mighty artifact like Aluneth, what use was I in protecting the Azurewing?

In the seconds it took me to follow this thought process, Ael’yith was clearly operating on parallel lines. “If you think you, a weak old dragon, and his puny grandchildren are enough to stop me from achieving true dominance, you are sadly mistaken, peasant.” A rushing sound filled my ears as the energy in the room swirled into a vortex and vanished, like water down a drain. Ael’yith vanished and reappeared across the ley chasm next to an enormous mechanical beast that gleamed silver in the sunlight. “Today, Orbyth and I shall feast on dragons!” he called out, climbing the construct’s metallic back as he did so. I raced to the edge of the tower balcony in time to see him disappear into a portal.

A thundering sound behind me caused me to turn. Stellagosa, in full draconic splendor, hovered alongside the tower, wings beating. “Did I hear him say, ‘feast on dragons’?” she asked, alarmed. “Quickly, we must return to Grandfather. He has not the strength to defend himself.” She angled her body and extended a foreleg to help me onto her back. I grabbed one of the ridges at the base of her neck to hold myself in place as she dove away from the tower in the direction of Azurewing Repose. Off to the east, where Senegos’ projection had remained, watching, as we assaulted Ael’yith’s encroachment, there was just empty grass. To the north I saw a shimmer of blue disappear into the treeline. Kalec was ahead of us.

Stellagosa took us above the forest canopy before plunging down through the branches just above Senegos’ ley pool. Ael’yith and his monstrous construct were at the edge of the pool, assaulting Senegos with both spells and physical attacks. I dropped off dragonback before Stellagosa’s feet had touched the ground, casting short, powerful bursts of energy at Ael’yith as I ran towards him. He was visibly jolted by each one. Here, away from his siphoning tower, he was merely a wizard like the rest of us.

He turned to face me, directing his attacks my way as Orbyth remained focused on Senegos. Stellagosa tried to distract the construct as Kalec, back in half-elf form, channeled energy into Senegos to restore him. Ael’yith was mine to defeat, mine and Aluneth’s. Now that I saw him straight on, I saw a gash down the side of his face and neck, streaming blood onto his elaborate robes. Senegos must have landed at least one blow. I hoped this would provide enough of a drain to give me an advantage.

“Fools, all of you! The Nightborne have more right to this land than any of you. The dragons’ time is through, and you, interloper,” he said, gesturing at me. “You do not belong here. Go back to your hovel and cower with the rest of your vapid and ineffectual race.”

I felt my face stretch into an angry sneer. I knew he was baiting me, and it was working. But then I felt Aluneth take over, and I forced myself to focus on channeling his rage into targeted spells. Each one seemed to increase in destructive force as Ael’yith’s protective shields were beaten away. My blood pounded in my ears as the power flowed from my fingertips. I was riding a wave that seemed to reach into eternity. There was no end to this force, and it took everything I had to restrain it from tearing me and everything around me apart.

The target of Aluneth’s aggression was the one thing I did not try to protect, and Ael’yith quickly fell. I turned to Orbyth and the circuits of the mechanical beast were soon overloaded by the onslaught of our arcane barrage. Soon only a seized piece of machinery stood where once there was a formidable weapon. Stellagosa and I looked at each other, both breathless from the fight. And then we heard the shrieking, and the sounds of an army stampeding through the undergrowth.

Turning, my eyes wide, I was faced with a new onslaught. A multitude of withered elves poured into Azurewing Repose, attacking anything remotely dragon-shaped. A squawk to my left drew my attention and before me a hovering raven shimmered and resolved into Archmage Khadgar. He took in the scene around us: the Nightborne corpse, the deactivated construct, and the flood of feral withered.

“Come to avenge their leader, have they?” he asked, in the calm, dry tone he normally adopted. “Well, we’ll just have to see what we can do about that.” Immediately he turned, and whirling his inherited greatstaff, Atiesh, around like a common club, he began to launch arcane bombs into the crowd of degenerate elves.

Surprised that I was not yet feeling weary, I turned to face the howling mob. One by one I selected a target, and hammered them with spells until they fell. I soon determined which spells were the most efficient, taking down the withered while using the least amount of my energy. Tunnel vision overtook me, and all I saw was the next emaciated figure lurching towards me, and the next, and the next.

I lost all sense of time passing, but many withered had fallen to my magic across the glade by the time Stellagosa drew me out of my trance. I blinked at her as she spoke. My eyes felt dry and sandy, as though I had been staring unbroken for some time.

“Daiedan, they say there’s a Nightfallen that has made his way into our sanctum. Could you find him and relieve us of the danger? I need to stay here with Grandfather, and Kalecgos is tending to the injured. Khadgar was needed elsewhere.” She placed a gentle hand on my arm as if she recognized my battle haze. “Over there,” she said, pointing in the direction of a large cavern opening.

Aluneth grumbled in my hand. “They call you ‘hero’. Why, child, do you concede to their every whim?” he muttered. His voice was enough to ground me. I nodded at Stellagosa, who could not hear him, and began to make my way across the glade towards the cavern, picking my way carefully over the withered corpses that littered the road.

My path took me past where Kalec was working, rubbing ground ley crystal dust into the hides of whelplings and fallen dragon sentries, trying to give them the energy to heal and recover. He looked up as I approached, his face grim. “Your precious Runas brought this upon us. If he is the one who has hidden himself away in the Leyhollow, you’d best eliminate all possibility of this happening again, or I cannot speak for your safety in this glade.” His threat was like a shard of ice in my heart. I had failed my love somehow, even as I had managed to eradicate the prime danger to the continued existence of the Azurewing brood. I did not know how to reconcile this, so I simply lowered my head in acknowledgement, and continued on into the cave.

Twenty or thirty yards in, there was a great boulder in the center of a wide chamber, with a deep, radiant ley pool at its base. Floating in the pool, his wasted fingers delicately clinging to a ridge in the boulder, was Runas. He seemed even more feeble than he had been when he led us to the ruins and showed us the mana siphoning system. His eyes blinked slowly at me as I approached, faded and bleary, even as he lay completely immersed in mana-spring water.

“I am sorry, friend,” he rasped. “I am sorry to bring so much death upon you and your dragon kin.”

“Runas,” I said, trying to reassure him, and ignoring his assumption that I too was a dragon, “we killed Ael’yith. We saved the Azurewing with your help. We could not have done it without you.” I knelt down by the edge of the pool, inches from where he drifted.

A weak smile spread across his face. He coughed. “Thank you for coming to tell me,” he said. “I see now why your Senegos lays in a pool like this, but even yet, the hunger burns within me. It is taking all my strength just to…” His voice trailed away. He took another gasping breath, and began again. “Can you still hear me, my friend? I can no longer see you. Perhaps that means it is time…”

I reached out and covered one of the frail hands that kept him from slipping beneath the surface of the pool. It was so cold. “I am here, friend. I am with you.” As I said the words, I heard them in my memory, as Kalec had said them to me so many times before. In that instant, Runas’ fingers relaxed their grip on the stone, and it was only my hand that held him up. “No! Runas, stay with me!”

I plunged half into the pool and hauled the elf’s slight frame out and onto the sandy floor of the cave. He was at least a foot taller than me but weighed so little, even with the force of the water pulling him down. I laid him carefully out. “Runas,” I called. “Runas!” He did not respond, and I could not find his breath or his pulse. My hands being wet, I didn’t notice until I looked down that one of them was covered in blood. Pushing the sodden rags away, I found a long wound in his side, red with the last bit of blood his heart had pumped.

It was like someone had thumped me hard, knocking the wind out of me. This creature I had barely known a day had slipped away like the sun fading into dusk, and I deeply regretted his loss. I rearranged the remains of what had once been fine robes over his fatal injury, and sat back on my heels, wondering what to do. At last, it occurred to me to slip him back into the ley pool. If it were plain water, his body would have putrefied and poisoned the pool, but ley water would seal his skin, and gradually crystallize his entire body. I found a couple of stones nearby and slipped them into the pockets that remained in his clothing to help him stay below the surface, and then gently lowered his body back into the pool. I watched as the figure drifted down into the unplumbed depths, until the shimmer of the water no longer allowed me to see him.

Kalec found me sitting there, hypnotized by the gentle luminous movement of the water, saying my wordless goodbyes to someone I had barely known but so easily understood. I wondered what Kalec saw in my face when I looked up at him, because his expression changed from something quite stern to something much softer.

“Where is he?” Kalec asked. He no longer sounded angry.

I gestured vaguely at the pool. “He is gone,” I said.

“Gone?” Kalec looked at the pool, then around the cavern. There was no indication Runas had ever even been here.

I slowly stood, using Aluneth as a crutch, my body aching from the battle and from sitting motionless for so long. I looked Kalec in the eye. “He is gone. He will not wither, and I am glad of that.”  Then I walked past him out into the fading light of the day. It had only been a dozen hours, and yet I felt years older. And as I looked over to Senegos, I saw that I could not yet go to my rest. He signaled to me with his great head.

“Little one,” he said, as I stood before him. “You have restored the flow of energy that supplies my pools, rescued my brood, and secured my borders from invaders. You have earned the loyalty of every blue that calls Azsuna home. Thanks to you, we will persist many more generations. I owe you a debt of gratitude.” He inclined his head to me, then cocked it slightly sideways. “One might almost think you were a dragon yourself,” he said.

“I can assure you I am not, sir,” I replied. “And I am very pleased to have been of assistance to you and your family. You may send for me at any time, should you need help again in future. I will always honor the call of the Azurewing.” I bowed in respect for the great patriarch. He was perhaps younger than Malygos would have been, but still probably one of the oldest living blues left, and still proudly in possession of his faculties. It was almost as if my experience with Senegos was gradually cancelling out some of what I had suffered at Malygos’ hands.

I pondered this as I returned to my small camp. I moved a few things around in preparation for breaking camp the next day, thinking about the dragons who were good to me, and those who had been cruel, and how I was never entirely sure which ones would be which. I sensed a movement behind me and froze. I knew who it was this time.

“Dai.” He said it in a warm, low voice. I turned to see him leaning against a tree at the edge of my camp.

“Kalec.” I was once again unsure where I stood, this time as much with my own feelings for him as with his for me.

He stepped forward a couple of paces. “I want to apologize for doubting you. I was wrong to do so.”

I tried to breathe normally, to think clearly. All I could think of was Runas’ empty form, slipping into the depths of the ley pool. “I know he was not the hero you wanted to see, but Runas was the key to saving the Azurewing. We could have floundered for months without him, losing countless numbers of dragons. He survived by the killing of your kind, but had he not survived, it is doubtful the Azurewing would either. He was not blameless, but neither was he the villain you expected.”

This was clearly not what Kalec expected to hear. “He may have been of some assistance to us, yes, but he was a danger to us alive and now he is a danger no more. We do not need to think of him again. That withering exile is gone.”

Anger brought me alive. I was too tired to control it. “Is that what you plan to do with me? Ensure that I am no longer a threat and then forget I existed?”

“What? No! Dai, why would you think that?” His brows pinched together in consternation. “Why do you keep comparing yourself to him? He was an outcast, an exile. You are not like him.”

“If you can't see why Runas and I are the same, then you don't understand anything about me.” I felt as shattered on the inside as he looked on the outside. This creature, this person that I loved, he could not really see me at all. He looked into my eyes and saw only a reflection of himself. It tore my heart apart to think about it. The anger in me fled, and I was left with only despair. “Perhaps you should go,” I told Kalec.

He nodded a single, defeated nod, and I turned away before I had to watch him leave. I decided then that I would break camp that night, no matter how tired I felt or how late it was. Somewhere I even found the energy to summon a couple of arcane servants to assist me and do the heavy lifting. I said silent thanks to Aluneth. Everything was packed and teleported to the tiny cubicle I called home in Dalaran with several hours left before dawn.

I collapsed into my narrow bed and slept heavily and without dreams until morning broke through my unshuttered window.

***

My feet crunched through the ever-present crust of snow that blanketed the landscape surrounding the Nexus. The massive spire of ice and magically-suspended basalt terraces loomed over me, stretching towards the clouds. The wind swirled and danced around me, whipping my cloak out of the numb fingers that struggled to hold it closed. It was much as I had experienced before, in the memory-vision.

But though I could still sense the great power present in the ley lines that lay beneath this ancient volcanic crater, there was little sign of life here. Even when I had come for Aluneth, I thought there had been an impression of movement, of things watching. Perhaps it was a reflection of how I felt inside, but now it felt empty and abandoned.

I crossed the threshold into what could be loosely termed a reception chamber. Here there were three swirling portals: one below me, one on a central elevated platform, and one high above, at the top of a narrow, spiraling ramp. It was the center portal that I was most interested in. If everything still worked as it had ten years before, it would take me to the Eye of Eternity, where Malygos had fought his last.

As I ascended to the platform, I felt Aluneth rustle about in my mind. He surprised me by not attempting to gather energy from the massive web of ley lines that gave the Nexus its name. I gave it only a passing thought, as I quickly realized that I would have to work out a way through the security wards that barred me from simply stepping through the portal. But with a burst of blue-violet light, the way was opened. Aluneth had apparently acted as my key.

My heart had been pounding ever since I had arrived at the rim of the caldera where the Nexus was nestled. Now it was almost impossible to hear or feel anything else. The Eye of Eternity awaited me. I entered the portal.

On the other side, there was merely an empty platform hanging in the nether. I recognized the rune inlays and the patterning that a novice would think was merely decorative, but was actually a network of energy channels. But there was nothing here. No visions, no memories, no revelations. It was only a floating disc and a broken, imperfect mage and his sentient, but not entirely trustworthy, artifact weapon. Even the twinkling points of light that had given depth to the vastness of the Twisting Nether had vanished, leaving the floating platform adrift in a muted cloud.

The passionate need to fix my missing pieces had given me the energy and strength to get here, through the exhaustion that had descended after the battle against the withered army, even through the everlasting winter of Northrend. But now that energy deserted me. I collapsed to my knees in the center of the platform, my fingers spread across the runes. I knew then that I would always be broken. Perhaps the wounds would heal, but I could never be who I had been before.

I sat there for a long time, my eyes screwed shut against the pain I had hoped had gone. Silent tears leaked out, and they turned cold on my face in the dead, still air. I thought I had left this feeling of being lost behind me, that I had reclaimed enough of myself to know who I was and where I was going. And all these emotions, the ups and downs, they were overwhelming. I almost wished I could go back to being numb inside.

But there was no going back. I could only go forward, and there was no point staying here. I stood slowly, staggering as the feeling returned to my feet. I had to pull Aluneth from my back to use for support. He did not complain.

I took one last look around me at the physical representation of the emptiness of my past existence. Then I turned and stepped through the portal.

***

Kalec found me sitting on the topmost ring of the floating terraces that ranged above the Nexus, leaning against a crystalline tree. I was staring out to the west, where the icy northern sea went on and on until it met the horizon.

“Did you find what you were looking for?” he asked, his voice gentle.

“No,” I replied. “There are no answers here. Only the void.”

He looked around at the familiar surroundings. “Yes, I feel much the same way. And this was my home.”

At last I took my eyes from the sea and turned them to Kalec, just in time to see the sadness cross his face. His past was just as ravaged as mine had been, perhaps more so, even considering the scale of our lifetimes. He gave me a soft half-smile. “Dai, I am sorry I did not understand what you meant about Runas. I should have recognized the common patterns, as used to finding patterns in the world as I am. But I failed, and it hurt you, and I am sorry.”

Something within me gave way, and I could not be angry at him any longer. I didn’t have the strength to sustain it. “You were blinded by wanting to protect your kin. It was a natural instinct, and I can’t fault you for that.” I still couldn’t bear the weight of his gaze, and I looked back out at the ocean, willing the rhythm of the waves to bring me peace.

“Will you come with me? There is a place I would like to visit, just to see it again, just to remind myself…” He sounded almost shy, like he expected me to reject him. I forced myself to make eye contact, and I nodded. There was that half-smile again, and suddenly his body shimmered and it was impossible to focus on him for a moment until he resolved into the shape of a dragon. A very large, cerulean dragon, with scales that shifted from ice blue to nearly violet depending on the angle of the light hitting them. For the first time I could see a sort of evanescent flow of runes wrapping around him, like a visible breeze or a swift-moving stream. He swished his tail and the runes faded into invisibility.

He tossed his head. “Hop on,” he said, and lowered his shoulder for me to climb up. I complied, but it felt strange. This was a being that I had considered my lover a few days before. Then we had fought, and I had been emotionally upended and had isolated myself. Now here I was touching him, and even in his native form, scales and wings and all, I felt that I was again touching my lover.

When he was assured I would not fall off, he spread his wings and stepped off the edge of the terrace, catching the breeze and banking around to the east. I was awed at the physical power he possessed in his true form, his wings beating apparently with little effort but propelling us forward at an impressive rate. I admit, my knuckles were a bit white as I clung to the neck ridge before me that offered the best handhold.

Soon we had crossed mountains and sea and more mountains and were flying across the face of the massive fortress of the Lich King, Icecrown Citadel. It was then that Kalec slowed his flight, and began spiraling down towards the glittering woodland to the east. He landed in a small clearing, where the ground was cushioned with purple leaves. I heard the familiar keening of the breeze through the crystal branches. He had brought us to the place I had dreamed, in Crystalsong Forest.

I slipped down from his back, and before I had realized it he had shifted back into his half-elven body. I took a few steps away from him, filled with wonder at how clearly I had seen this place in my dream-vision. The only changes were ones that could be explained by the passage of ten years. I turned back to find Kalec watching me.

“Is it familiar?” he asked.

“If only from my dream, yes.” I replied quickly. “It’s just as I saw it then.” But as I watched him, my eyesight did not falter. He did not shift forms. The world remained stable.

“Will you humor me for a moment?” he asked. I nodded. “Close your eyes. Remember how you said you felt dragon wings stretching above you, filling the space around you? Feel that again.”

I felt a crackle from Aluneth, as though an electric shock had passed between the staff and my body. I ignored it, thinking it one of his standard fidgets, and concentrated on feeling the dragon’s blood flowing through my veins, of the sense of wings extending from my shoulders. I heard Kalec draw a sharp breath and I opened my eyes.

I was startled to discover that my view was now originating from some dozen or more feet off the forest floor. Alarmed, I looked down at my body. I had somehow become shaped like a dragon, but it was if I had been made of living glass. I could see through the dragon shape and my human shape was still on the ground, standing immobile at the center of the larger creature. I looked at Kalec, who was inexplicably grinning.

“Well done!” he said. “A spectral dragon. I hadn’t thought of that. Can you fly?”

Tentatively I wiggled my various appendages. My wings responded when I thought to move them, so I carefully extended them as far as I could without bumping painfully into the trees.

“Push off with your hind legs,” Kalec suggested.

I did so, and as I did, I saw an arc of energy leap off of Aluneth towards the center of my spectral dragon-self. With it came a burst of energy that helped propel me into the air. And I was flying! I was above the trees and gliding off towards the mountains in the north before I even had a moment to think. I angled my body and I was banking around back towards where I had left my human body and Kalec. Kalec had apparently figured out how to assume a spectral form as well and was flying casually towards me.  I turned again and he followed. I beat my wings hard and fast and I shot away from him towards Storm Peaks, casting a glance over my shoulder to see his response.

I heard a rumble of dragon laughter come from him as he easily caught up with me. While my dragon body seemed very large to me, his was still larger, the normal size of his native form, and his greater wingspan allowed greater speed. But if I could manage the maneuvering, I knew I would have the advantage in dodging and feinting. And I was feeling tremendously energized, and having a glorious time. It was the complete opposite of how I’d felt just an hour earlier. I felt alive and I wanted to have some fun.

Just when I sensed Kalec coming up behind me, I dropped a few hundred feet and turned on a dime, racing off at an extreme angle. I heard him laugh again behind me as he got serious about giving chase. Two, three more times we did this, at various elevations, nearly brushing against the mountainside once. Then some sort of fire was lit inside me, something I recognized as a draconic instinct, but did not know what it meant. Kalec was no longer laughing, and I knew he felt it too. But there was still a sense of glory, and even more so a sense of power. Kalec wanted to catch me, he needed to catch me, and I was too clever, too fast. Now I was the one laughing as I escaped him yet again and climbed high above the forested valley.

And then he was upon me without warning, and my wings tangled as they struck his body. He caught me in his forelegs and held me firmly, preventing me from struggling to free myself. But that instinct that had taken me before guided me again, and I did not want to struggle. My tail wrapped itself around his body, pulling us closer together, and I furled my wings. I felt a deep vibration from his chest and my swiftly increasing understanding of draconic nature interpreted it as a moan.

“Dai…” he murmured, as we glided across Crystalsong, his wings fully extended. “What are you doing to me?”

I lifted my head and rubbed my brow under his chin. He moaned again, a ragged, guttural sound, a raw expression of his desire. Arousal washed over me like a flood. And then I felt him thrust inside me, and there was a cascade of sparks through my body like an arcane burst. He thrust again and I was turned into flame, completely alight with his passion. One more thrust and I felt as though I shattered into a million ice crystals, as though I had reached the singular harmonic frequency of ecstatic sensation. My spectral form evaporated and I was in my human body again.

We lay together on Kalec's cloak, our bodies entwined and still resonating with the echoes of our lovemaking. I didn't question the fact that we had apparently been intimate in the flesh while engaging in similar acts as spectral dragons high above. It felt right and good to me.

Kalec had a blissful smile on his face. His cheeks were flushed and his eyes seemed a deeper and richer color than I remembered, something I would not have thought possible. I pushed a damp sapphire curl back from his forehead and pulled his mouth to mine. We kissed until we had no breath.

As his eyes opened afterwards, he said, “I did not expect any of this. I simply wanted you to recall your connection to me. And then, there you were, in a magical dragon form.”

It was a curious puzzle, but at that moment I was far more interested in the information my human body was giving me about how it felt to be tangled up with Kalec’s.

But I remembered that it had been Krasus who had suggested the transfusion that gave us the link in the first place, and that reminded me of the letter he had written me. I thought that he would have been pleased to know how close Kalec and I had become, and how much closer we might be as time passed.

“And here I thought I would never actually mate with a dragon,” Kalec was saying. “Too bad it could never be productive, or we might repopulate the entire blue flight.”

“Is that your way of saying you hope we do that again?” I asked, feeling my heart begin to thump as I relived the glory and the ecstasy of our spectral mating flight.

He grinned broadly. “Again and again, in every possible form. I hope to share many things with you, Daiedan.” My breath caught when he said my full name. His voice never failed to make it beautiful. “I thought once that there was no future for dragons in Azeroth, but you have given me hope for our survival.”

Then the smile faded, and his arms closed more firmly around me. Kalec looked dreamily into my eyes. “I cannot imagine seeing that future without you.”