World of Warcraft: Dawn of the Aspects: Part III Read online

  Fortunately, Galakrond instead alighted in a vast plain farther ahead. The macabre behemoth landed with as heavy a thud as earlier, sending a tremor through the region.

  Quickly descending again, Malygos waited. Galakrond settled his head on the ground. A few moments later, a low, steady rumble escaped the enormous proto-dragon.

  When the rumble continued, Malygos dared to take off again. How long Galakrond would rest, neither Kalec nor Malygos could guess, but the icy-blue proto-dragon could not assume that he would have much time. Following Coros’s tactics, Malygos kept low as he flew with as much speed as he could muster. Even when the rumbling faded into the distance, Kalec’s host did not slow.

  One notion began dominating the proto-dragon’s thoughts, and thus Kalec’s. While Coros had paid for his betrayals, he had still in the end performed one more misdeed. Galakrond knew where Talonixa had the others gathering for her charge. As suicidal as the female’s plan seemed to both Malygos and Kalec, at least it offered some chance. However, if Galakrond struck while they were still coming together, there would be utter disaster.

  The proto-dragon pushed harder. If Malygos could warn Talonixa before Galakrond awoke—and if he could make the female listen—then there was hope.

  Renewed rumbling sent Malygos dropping, but almost immediately, he recognized the sound as thunder, not Galakrond. The exhausted proto-dragon finally paused in his flight. The effort thus far had taken a lot out of even the sturdy Malygos.

  It started to rain. The storm was not a strong one, but there was the fear that if the rain continued on its present course, it would soon reach Galakrond. If it woke him, he might decide to fly in Malygos’s direction—

  Kalec’s world turned upside down. The vertigo struck him as if he were experiencing it for the first time. To his surprise, the blue dragon found himself struggling to remain with his host. He could identify with this battle for survival more than with the growing number of questions that represented his existence in the present.

  And yet, as ever, Kalec had no choice. Malygos and the past vanished . . . and Kalec awoke on his back and in half-elven form somewhere in the Nexus.

  There was no immediate hint to how much time, if any, had passed. It was dark, and that also disturbed Kalec, since there should have been some illumination. Rising from the floor, he summoned a sphere of light.

  He bared his teeth in frustration as he discovered that his surroundings were not where he had last been standing but rather a chamber deeper in the Nexus. He looked around, seeing nothing but emptiness. Even the artifact was nowhere to be seen, not that the fact encouraged him at all. By this point, he knew that it mattered not where the physical form of the relic sat; its power could reach him anywhere—

  Kalec spun around. For a moment, for just the briefest of moments, he thought that someone had been standing behind him. Someone wearing a voluminous cloak and hood.

  But a short search of the passage in that direction revealed nothing. Still, Kalec found himself drawn that way and continued on. As he moved, the former Aspect wished that somehow he could just return to the young Malygos. Better the sanity that the madness of the past brought him than the madness his own era offered.

  Yet despite his growing willingness to accept what the artifact appeared to be demanding of him, he remained conscious. His disappointment was magnified by the fact that he was nearing his original location without having discovered any reason for the feeling that he had again been watched.

  But just before he would have entered, he sensed the presence of another. Whoever he was kept himself well cloaked from most magi’s abilities but not Kalec’s yet considerable powers. He could not tell who or what had invaded the Nexus, but the intruder was very near.

  Kalec dismissed the sphere, then cautiously proceeded. A faint illumination immediately spread through the area around him. It was a sign that the Nexus still responded readily to his will, which gave him a formidable line of attack. Any thief seeking the Nexus’s collection would soon rue the day.

  Shadows filled the great chamber, which seemed natural considering the faint illumination remaining, but there was a very slight wrongness to one area that made him wary—

  “Kalec? Are you there?”

  As the voice echoed through the chamber, the wrongness vanished. Instead, the Nexus alerted him to the obvious fact that someone he knew very well now called to him from the more accepted entrance to his sanctum.

  Someone who was none other than Jaina Proudmoore.

  He turned just as she entered. Jaina did not see him at first, but when she did, her expression went from open apprehension to relief. “There you are! Praise be! I was beginning to think you’d either left or . . .”

  Her voice trailed off without her explaining what fate she had imagined might have taken him, but Kalec did not care. There should have been no difference between seeing her actually standing before him and viewing her through the tear he had earlier created, but now the scents that Kalec had come to identify with Jaina and only Jaina reached the blue dragon. Even in his half-elven form, his senses were more acute than those of the being he resembled and, in this case, more acute than Jaina’s. She did not know how she smelled to him . . . or how welcome those scents were to the former Aspect.

  “Forgive me,” she went on at last, approaching him at the same time. “I tried to contact you again, and when I didn’t even sense you, I finally had to travel here myself.”

  His brow furrowed. Kalec was well aware just how much effort Jaina would have had to put in to journey here so quickly. While a part of him was very grateful on a number of levels at this tremendous show of concern, he reminded himself of the potential danger facing her if she came into close contact with the artifact. Even if it only cast her mind into the visions, that might prove too much for her. The artifact had taken enough of a toll on him; while very powerful, she was still human.

  “You should not have concerned yourself, Jaina. I did hear you call to me, but I was in the midst of trying to revitalize some of the wards and could not risk halting the work at that point. I intended to contact you as soon as I could.”

  “Kalec, you should really have some help, even if it’s me and me alone.”

  Kalec knew that even if he did agree to her aiding him, no good would come of it, especially for Jaina. He remembered too well the distrust with which some of the other magi had begun to look at their leader because of her growing relationship with a blue dragon.

  “I’m grateful for the depths of your concern,” he began carefully, not only hoping to avoid offending her but also praying that the artifact would not choose this moment to cast him back. “But you have so many other matters you need to worry about. The others—”

  “I know about the others,” Jaina interjected just a bit sharply. “I need no counsel from them regarding what I can and cannot do! They wanted me to be their leader; now they can accept my choices.”

  For the moment, Kalec forgot his troubles. The last thing he wanted was for Jaina to jeopardize her position. In addition to his own concerns, he had hoped that by leaving, he would cause no more harm to the archmage.

  “But as leader, you also have responsibilities to your people,” the blue dragon reminded her. “And I am not part of your people. I’m sorry I have added to your worries, Jaina. Please trust me that your place is with your own, not assisting me here.”

  It came out colder than he had planned. Jaina’s expression did not change, but there was a subtle shift in her gaze.

  Finally nodding, she looked away. “Perhaps you’re right. Forgive me for being impetuous. I just had to come myself to see what was happening.” Her eyes returned to his. “But I take your word that you’re well, Kalec.”

  He kept his own eyes steady despite the guilt growing within him. “All is well.” He started to reach for her but put his hand down before she could notice the movement. “Thank you.”

  Where he had held back, Jaina chose to act. One slim hand touched
his arm, remaining there long enough to make an unspoken point. Then the archmage stepped back and, with a brief smile, began her teleportation spell.

  When at last he was alone again, Kalec exhaled sharply. He hoped that Jaina would take to heart his reluctance to have her near and would not try to attempt any further contact. At least then, one fear of his would be no more.

  And as for the greatest of his fears, Kalec could think of only one course of action to take with the relic. While he could not yet prevent it from affecting him, he could make certain that it bothered no one else. That meant that more than ever, the wards had to be strengthened. At this point, no one—not even other blue dragons—could be allowed to enter the Nexus. Not until he had dealt with the situation. Kalec felt fortunate that Jaina had not come any earlier. If she had, she might have discovered the truth and endangered herself by trying to help him.

  The task giving him renewed focus, Kalec headed back to where he had been working when the visions had last taken him. He prayed that he would be given the time at least to do this, if not for himself, then for the sake of Jaina or anyone else who sought entrance to the Nexus.

  There was no hint of anything wrong when he arrived, for which he was grateful. He considered confronting the artifact first but chose to remain with his decision. If the powers of the relic were for the moment dormant, he preferred to keep it that way.

  Kalec prepared himself for his work just as he had before. The ley lines appeared before his veiled gaze. He began manipulating the power, growing more satisfied with each step he completed. Within minutes, the first ward had been strengthened enough that he decided to go on to the next.

  The second proved even quicker to fortify. Kalec felt a rare moment of pride. It had been a long time since he had accomplished anything. He reached for the third ward.

  There was something attached to its spellwork, something neither he nor any blue dragon had cast.

  The artifact’s magic had insinuated itself in the ward.

  Kalec immediately withdrew for fear that he would stir up whatever the artifact intended. An unease crept over him, and he sought out the next ward.

  That, too, was now linked to the artifact.

  The former Aspect frowned, then returned his attention to the one he had just finished strengthening.

  Like the others, it was also linked . . . linked when it had not been a few seconds before.

  Quickly dismissing the rest, he focused on the first and, not at all to his surprise, found that the artifact had also connected its power to that ward.

  The uneasiness swelled. Kalec took a deep breath, stepped back, and without hesitation, brought forth the entire array that formed the Nexus’s network of defensive spells.

  The hiss that escaped him was far more suited to his draconic form than to the half-elven one he currently wore. The former Aspect glared.

  The power of the artifact was now a part of each and every ward in the Nexus.

  THREE

  THE AFFLICTED

  Jaina Proudmoore reappeared in her chambers, her exhaustion having more to do with Kalec than with her magical efforts. She knew that he was hiding much from her, and while she appreciated his obvious worry for her, she also resented it. Kalec was a blue dragon, and yes, that meant that he understood aspects of the magical arts in a way that even she did not, but Jaina also considered herself more than capable of facing most such situations and using human adaptability to ferret out solutions that perhaps a dragon might not think about.

  She summoned a chair to her. Taking a minute to gather her thoughts, the archmage relived her visit to the Nexus. With those thoughts came guilt of her own. She had held back some of the truth from Kalec, too. Jaina had not arrived just before he had noticed her; in fact, she was the one he had almost discovered. Only a quick manipulation of magic had enabled her to focus his attention elsewhere long enough for her to shift her location to where it would seem she had just entered the area.

  And even that might not have been necessary if Jaina had not been concerned that Kalec would realize just how long she had been there.

  Long enough to discover the relic.

  The archmage had no more precise name for it. Artifact. Relic. Jaina suspected that Kalec thought of it in the same terms. It was like nothing she had ever seen, and that included personal knowledge of a variety of powerful magical objects comparable to the collection stored in the Nexus.

  Yet if it was like nothing she had ever seen, it was not entirely a mystery to her. She did identify one significant factor, possibly something that even Kalec might not recognize.

  She had come across such spellwork in the past. Only twice and of a much lesser degree, but she had definitely seen its like before. It was a spellwork older than dragons, spellwork that bespoke of a unique knowledge lost to magi of her time.

  Spellwork that Jaina, at least, believed had ties to the legendary keepers or even the titans themselves.

  The archmage had certainly not journeyed to the Nexus with such a discovery in her mind. All she had truly had to go on was her suspicion that there was something in the Nexus tied to Kalec’s strange behavior. It had been her intention to speak with him and find an excuse while doing so to use her power surreptitiously to seek anything amiss. Jaina had believed that she could do this without even Kalec sensing it.

  And had that opportunity not presented itself, she had plotted other ways by which she would have had some time alone to try to decipher the truth. However, all of her planning had proved unnecessary, for there had been no hint of Kalec upon her arrival. The weakened wards had made it easy to gain entrance, and once she had verified that Kalec was nowhere to be seen, she had begun to investigate her surroundings.

  To her surprise, finding the relic had been quite easy. It had radiated a unique magical trace. In addition, it seemed that Kalec had not even bothered to secrete it in one of the many arcane prisons or other caches designed to hold such powerful magical items. The artifact had simply sat out in the open in the first major chamber she entered.

  Some might have been unnerved by the thing, but Jaina had only been fascinated. She studied its aura, admired its design, and delved as deeply as she cautiously could into its core.

  But in the end, Jaina had learned little. So significant was this find that she had actually considered taking the artifact with her, even despite the near disaster created by her intention to use another relic—the Iris—in revenge for Theramore’s destruction by it at the hands of the orc Garrosh. However, before Jaina could bring herself to seize the artifact in the Nexus, the archmage had suddenly sensed Kalec nearby. Not sure how he would react to her obvious intrusion, Jaina had masked her presence as best she could, then worked to make certain that Kalec did not know she was there while she quickly shifted her location. Even then, he had almost noticed her.

  Yet if Jaina did not have the artifact with her to study, she did have access to other avenues that might give her a clue to what it was and how it might be related to the changes in Kalec’s personality. Jaina was convinced that he was in desperate danger, perhaps not only to his mind but also to his body.

  Jaina summoned a thick silver tome from the highest shelf. As it neared her, the book opened, and pages began flipping. A narrowing of the archmage’s eyes caused the pages to cease turning. With the book still hovering at reading level, she surveyed the contents.

  The archmage who had written these pages had marked the two items she was particularly interested in as remnants of the period shortly after order had been brought to Azeroth. Jaina had sought these because something in the artifact’s appearance had reminded her of something the archmage had read when first she had combed through this book for other reasons.

  To her frustration, the two pages before her presented Jaina with nothing. There were details of where the items had been found and who had been involved in discovering them. There were also notations on previous studies of the titans and keepers believed to have been identified as ha
ving influenced the regions where the finds had been made. While such notes were interesting to Jaina in a scholarly way, she sought more.

  The page turned. Theories about the titans and the keepers dominated, some concerning the extent of their ties to one another. Jaina started to skip farther ahead, then recalled something mentioned within the theories.

  She found it: . . . as the young mage Rulfo insisted. The vision he claimed to have had from touching it suggested keeper influence in its design. Archmage Theolinus had his own theory on keeper influence in other regions . . .

  Jaina let out a grunt of exasperation. She skipped down past theories that she normally would have had more interest in, hoping to find what she thought she recalled.

  “Ah!” The name Rulfo finally came up again. It had been so long since Jaina had read through this part that she could not remember what else Rulfo had told his masters about the vision, but surely it had to be in this section.

  But scarcely had she begun reading when the archmage stepped back in such shock that she accidentally canceled the spell holding the book in place. The ancient tome dropped with a loud thud on the floor, the pages now askew.

  Her heart pounding, Jaina knelt by the damaged book. Her concern was not for what she had allowed to happen to it but for rereading the passage. With a wave of her hand, the other pages flew by until the one she sought once again faced her.

  “Rulfo . . . Rulfo . . .” Jaina muttered, seeking his name.

  . . . Rulfo might have had the answer to that. His death is a sad footnote to an otherwise intriguing expedition into a study of the past . . .

  She had gone too far. The archmage went back a few paragraphs. Once there, Jaina read more carefully.

  . . . the third day after the find. An entire afternoon of searching revealed nothing, not even with the finest spells at work. Only after dark, only when one last attempt was made, did someone find his body.

  “Body,” Jaina murmured, praying that she had read wrong.