Morning over Dalaran wasn’t especially different than evening over Dalaran. The lights within the mage city kept night as bright as day, shops were open late, and there was always something going on. But today was only a little bit different. When Arrel awoke, Aria, Rebecca, AND Karrista stood over his bed, shaking the bed... and not Arrel Directly gently.
“Arrel?” Karrista had dropped her usual teasy and seductive demeanor for one more serious and if not panicked, then definitely worried.
The reason for shaking his bed became evident as the man wheeled out of bed into a combative stance, fist already in mid-swing at nothing. This behavior an apparent parting gift from his Executor experience.
“Wh-What?” He blinked and looked at each of the three women, all had similar looks of upset and concern.
“Arrel.. are you actually awake?” Aria asked, the smokey voice tense.
“I.. Yeah.. I think so..” He shook his head and inhaled, slowing the tumultuous thundering of his heart to a mere cacophony.
“Then.. How about you put on some clothes, if you want to fight evil today.” Rebecca quipped.
Arrel’s nude state did nothing to abate the tension in the room, speaking novels about what he was likely to head next.
He dressed, donning even his chestplate and made his way into the offices of the Kiden’s Joint Special Operations Command. He looked with some surprise to see not only the three regulars of his office, but also Sea’zel, who he’d known had been reassigned to him, but hadn’t heard she’d actually made it to her new quarters. He also saw Lord Niteblood of Igrayne.
Lovely... Just what I need in my day today... him...
“Commander Warburn.. Good morning.” Arrel’s mirror image spoke. A few other Igraynians were with him, some he’d met only briefly during operations, but none he’d spoken with outside of that. Lord Niteblood Continued “ I hate to wake you, but the need is pressing. Several of my people.. Hirelings who handled some of the lower risk endeavors... were supposed to report in two days ago after taking survey of legion forces on the Broken Shores. I know that there’s plenty of Alliance and Horde forces there already, But I suspect they weren’t looking for the same indications as we were...” E’an trailed off.
“Alright, What indications?” Arrel looked between his contemporaries and saw only blank faces.
“I suspect the Legion, sensing defeat is pulling out all the stops, and not just pulling in all their forces from all the worlds at their disposal, but also from all the Sca-... Dimensions.. they have access to as well. Indications infer that they are looking to not just crush THIS Azeroth, but ALL Azeroths across all realities.” E’an spoke matter-of-factly, as if this sort of thing happened all the time.
Arrel blanched, “Ok, so.. despite that sounding like a very Legion thing to do, Why are you here?”
“I think, they plan to take THIS one first, using overwhelming forces and then from here, use what to an Igraynian, is called a Scale Gate to journey onward.” He inhaled and blew out his breath. “For what ever reason, this scale of reality.. this dimension, seems to be a confluence point between other realities and would make a damn good jumping off point for future expansion.”
“Alright?” Arrel nodded understanding the words, but only something of the import. “So.. we stop them from taking OUR Azeroth to secure others, yes?”
“Yes... But there’s more to it than that. Agasti Forbid, if we should fail in that task... The confluence must be destroyed. One world’s lost is a great concern.. but.. the loss of enumerable worlds.. is not something I can allow to happen.” E’an looked over at Arrel sternly. “And.. Neither can you.”
Arrel sputtered. “So what.. if we don’t defeat the legion.. you’re gonna destroy the world?”
“Do not scoff at things you don’t understand Arrel.” Rebecca warned gently. “The legion’s ability to move through dimensional space is a concern.. but pairing that with access to the scale - gates.. would be worse.”
Arrel snapped, “Then blow up the damn gates!”
Karrista looked over at Arrel, obviously confused. “Scale-gates?”
E’an fielded this question, “The way Igraynians... Move to where they are needed. It’s a nexus of conduits between worlds... between realities. It’s less crude and more reliable than the Legions dimensional rifts, and infinitely more predictable when jumping long distances or to not-immediately related realities. The problem becomes to what else they are connected.. which we shall not now discuss.”
Aria turned pale. “The Forge...” She said without thinking.
E’an nodded and exhaled. “The Forge, indeed.”
Rebecca growled “You’re Buddy Sarius has to be LOVING this.”
E’an’s eyebrows rose, “Oddly, I haven’t heard from any of Reikai’s followers, let alone Sarius. But, in honestly.. the Legion represents order. Well.. AN order. Oppressive and destructive, not the chaos of new-birth that Sarius seems to serve.”
Karrista pursed her pretty lips and asked. “Sarius, Reikai? Too many things I don’t seem to know here.”
Arrel shrugged, un-helpfully.
“If Igrayne represents balance and order in a way that preserves free will and the Cycle of Life and Death.. Sarius and the Followers of Reikai are the other side of that coin. They seek to disrupt the balance and bring about a new structure to the multi-verse through disrupting the one that exists now. Total chaos to invent a new system. Make sense?”
Karrista shook her head, but said simply, “Sort of.”
E’an interrupted the exchange. “A lot of this is Igraynian business, the reason we are here on your Azeroth, and as such needs to stay know only to a thin level to most of you. I’m sorry, that’s how it has to be.” He looked around the room, garnering nods from some, deep frowns from others.
Arrel sat back in his chair, folded his arms. “Alright so.. What’s the ask here, Lord Niteblood?”
E’an nodded. “To be very very succinct, to do exactly as you propose to go on. Destroy the Scale gates.. before they can be accessed by the legion. Rally your forces through the JSOC and help us make a hard push against the legion.. Perhaps into the Tomb itself.”
Arrel lofted an eyebrow. “To get my people together, approval from Lochlyn ... or Malurra if Lochlyn is out of pocket, gather supplies, plan the attack.. We’re looking at .. Two Months, maybe? Thirty days if I push?” Arrel asked Karrista, who of late had taken over some of Rebecca’s clerical duties.
“We push in Four Days, Arrel.” E’an said with the most stoic and cold tones Arrel’d ever heard of the man.
Even Sea’zel blanched at this. “Four Days Lord Niteblood? This.. This is not possible!”
“It has to be.. If we don’t give them a bloody nose, and set them back.. they could call in their additional warships and demons and simply overwhelm us as soon as next week.” E’an inhaled.
