Dawn of the Aspects: Part II

by Richard A. Knaak

More than a dozen additional proto-dragons, all as withered, peered at Kalec. He readied a potent spell, then paused when he realized that neither they nor the one he had attacked had thus far moved.

  These were not, he finally recognized, the undead that Malygos and the others had fought. They were merely dead proto-dragons.

  Merely? As Kalec observed them closer, he saw differences. Each of these proto-dragons was in some way misshapen. Yet it did not look as if those defects were the results of something that had happened in the egg. Kalec eyed one proto-dragon who appeared to have a fifth limb starting to grow out of his side. Another had a third eye just above her right shoulder.

  What sort of macabre display is this? Kalec stared at the group and saw that each also bore some injury. As he studied one corpse after another, he saw that those injuries had certainly impaired these proto-dragons, if not killed them outright. Moreover, the former Aspect saw that the dead actually lay sprawled against one another, as if they had been gathered in haste.

  Kalec paused again. It was clear to him that he had been steered to this place by the relic or whatever power it served, but what was he supposed to learn from this grotesque spectacle?

  A creaking sound set his nerves on edge and made him summon yet another spell. He turned to find the first proto-dragon tumbling forward, the damage done by the altered sphere too much for him to maintain his stability. The towering corpse struck the rocky floor and broke into pieces.

  The head rolled closer to Kalec, and in what remained of the second sphere’s light, he finally recognized the reptilian countenance.

  Malygos.

  Kalec retreated in shock, shaking his head all the while. This can’t be true! It can’t be! It’s not Malygos! That’s not possible—

  His mind spun. Kalec fell against one of the other corpses, which caused it to tilt into another. Suddenly, all the proto-dragons began falling toward him.

  In desperation, Kalec shut his eyes and concentrated his power all around him. The cave filled with brilliant white energy, so bright it blinded even its caster.

  Gasping, the former Aspect dropped to one knee. Head down, he waited for the corpses to bury him underneath them. When that did not happen, he cautiously looked up . . .

  . . . and found himself kneeling in his sanctum.

  At first, he dared not move. Kalec shivered as he tried to verify that what he now saw around him was the truth, more than the cave had been. He felt absolutely certain that he had been in the canyon—except that would mean that the relic had transported him from one part of the world to another with less effort than it required Kalec merely to breathe.

  A rapid thumping sound echoed in his head. It took a moment for the blue to recognize his own heartbeat. He tried to slow his breathing, also causing his heart to shift to a more normal rhythm.

  His surroundings did not change. Still kneeling, Kalec touched the floor. It felt solid, but then, so had the corpse against which he had fallen and the rock through which he had slipped.

  “This is real. This is real,” Kalec muttered, the next second feeling uncomfortable at the fact that he needed to speak out loud while he sought to convince himself. But the cave was real, too! It was!

  He could not say which was worse, the notion of being tossed about the world or simply being made to believe it had happened. Either way, the artifact continued to intrude too thoroughly into his thoughts. The present had become a series of moments whose lengths of stability he could no longer trust, while the visions were becoming more and more what seemed the true reality. Kalec knew, though, that if he allowed himself to become too attuned to the visions, he might at some point never return to the here and now.

  The former Aspect gritted his teeth. If this even is the here and now.

  Kalec rose and turned. The continued bane to his existence sat where last he recalled it, still gently emanating its own magical illumination.

  “I’m tired of all these games!” he shouted at it. “Tell me what you want!”

  But although it could do so much, although it could manipulate him in so many ways, the one thing that the relic apparently could not do was speak to him.

  Kalec?

  The blue male jumped. Eyes wide, he glared at the artifact, waiting for it to speak again.

  Kalec?

  The voice came from inside his head, but the relic was not the source of it, he finally understood. Someone was calling to him. Kalec knew that he should recognize the speaker.

  “Jaina . . .”

  Despite earlier misgivings about letting her potentially discover what was happening to him, Kalec now grasped at the chance to answer her call. The archmage represented part of that stability he fought to maintain.

  “Jaina!” Kalec called to the empty air, only belatedly realizing how desperate his reply sounded. Taking a deep breath, he tried again. “Jaina, I hear you. Wait.”

  Steeling himself, he re-created the gap in the air that enabled him to communicate face to face with her. Through it, the vision of Jaina’s chambers appeared. Although she had called to him, when the spellcaster first formed, she was leaning over a wide wooden table, inspecting some parchment.

  “Kalec . . .” Jaina’s initial smile faded as she looked over the former Aspect. “Are you sure you’re well?”

  He had thought that he had adjusted his appearance appropriately, but clearly, in some way, he had not entirely hidden the incredible stress he was going through even at that moment. “I’m more . . . I’ve been under more pressure than I wanted to admit,” Kalec began, thinking how best to keep vague but not too vague. “The Nexus . . . you understand.”

  “You don’t have to say any more, not unless you want to. I’d be willing to listen, if it would help.”

  It was an offer he seriously considered, if only for a moment. However, Kalec quickly came to the conclusion that this was a matter he could not involve Jaina in. There was too much risk that she might fall prey to the artifact, just as he had.

  “Thank you for that,” Kalec finally answered, trying to sound more relaxed. He remembered that he had heard her call to him earlier. His concern for his sanity briefly receded to the background as he concentrated on whatever dire problem the archmage confronted. “But enough of me. You need my help with something. What is it?”

  Jaina looked confused. “What do you mean?”

  “You tried to reach me before. I wasn’t able to answer as I was this time.”

  Her expression grew more troubled. “I don’t understand. I’ve only been trying to answer you.”

  “Me?”

  She leaned so close that if she had actually been in his sanctum and not merely a projection, he could have touched her. “You’ve called to me twice since our last conversation. I responded both times, and you finally answered just now—”

  “I called to—” slipped from Kalec’s tongue before he managed to catch himself. His mind raced. He could not recall reaching out to Jaina either time, instead only hearing her voice in turn. While she might be mistaken, Kalec doubted that. More likely was the possibility that some part of his subconscious had sought help from the only one he thought he could trust to understand his situation. He did not even want to approach the other former Aspects, aware that they had some reason for making no mention of all that Kalec had learned thus far from the visions.

  It came to his attention too late that he had been standing in silence before Jaina, his gaze now turned to the empty air to his right. Not at all to his surprise, she was staring at him with even greater worry than before.

  “Kalec, tell me what’s wrong.”

  Struggling for an answer, he blurted the only thing he could think of. “The collection is more massive than I could have imagined, and the Nexus’s protections are failing at the same time. It’s proved to be a monumental task.”

  Her eyes narrowed in understanding. A
s a sorceress—and especially the leader of the Kirin Tor—Jaina Proudmoore could appreciate the tremendous wealth of magical knowledge and power contained in the Nexus. She also understood the danger of leaving all that unguarded. “I know I offered this before, but please listen this time. I can gather a number of trusted magi and lead them—”

  “No. Not yet. Thank you.” Kalec had become nearly as distrustful of the other magi as they clearly had been of him after his unfortunate move into Dalaran. He could not imagine that things would go well with them around him in the Nexus, and that was not even taking the artifact in account.

  Jaina looked doubtful about his decision but finally nodded. “All right. But the offer is open. I will see to it that any who enter the Nexus will do as they’re told. You know thaaaaattttt . . .”

  The archmage and her surroundings rippled, grew distorted. Jaina’s body twisted, and her face stretched forward.

  “Jaina?” Kalec feared some force had attacked her while they had spoken.

  “. . . wrrrrrrong, Kkkkkaleeeccc,” she answered, even as her body grew scaled and her sanctum collapsed, becoming a rocky overhang. Her robes became wings, and before Kalec’s eyes, Jaina Proudmoore transformed into a dragon.

  No, Kalec thought. Not a dragon . . . a proto-dragon.

  “Kaaaallllleeeccc?” rumbled the proto-dragon.

  He had no chance to answer her, no chance even to dismiss the link between them. Kalec wished it closed, then lost track of both it and the altered Jaina as he felt his body shifting into a more reptilian form. Thoughts other than his own filled his head, dominated his mind.

  Kalec tried to roar, but his mouth was no longer his. He felt himself receding into the background . . . and the mind of Malygos taking the forefront.

  The Nexus had become a chilly seashore that reminded Kalec of the area where Malygos had once fished. Malygos was not alone. Alexstrasza stood roughly the same distance from Kalec’s host as Jaina had seemed from Kalec.

  “I will do that,” the fire-orange female said to Malygos as she rose into the sky. Alexstrasza darted off to the east, leaving Malygos on his own.

  What they had discussed, Kalec neither knew nor cared about. He strained uselessly to return to the Nexus, even concentrating on Jaina in the hopes that the link that had helped him at least twice would do so again. Yet, as he feared, nothing changed.

  Malygos took off, heading out to sea. While it was evident that the proto-dragon hunted a meal, he also appeared to be watching or waiting for something that his vague thoughts did not reveal to Kalec. That further frustrated the dragon, who had assumed that if he had been thrust back into the visions, it had been for some purpose.

  Kalec’s host scooped up one of a pod of aquatic air breathers a half-mile offshore, devouring the creature in two gulps. While not as delicate about his meals as Alexstrasza, Malygos did try to kill his prey quickly and relatively painlessly. Still, Kalec had no taste for the hunt right now and hoped that Malygos would either quickly fill his belly or remember something more important.

  The meal did come to an end, but not as a result of one of those choices. Rather, Malygos suddenly raised his bloody jaws from his second kill and peered up into the overcast sky. Kalec instantly thought of the undead, but instead, Malygos’s sharp gaze fixed on a pair of proto-dragons skirting the bottom of the cloud cover.

  Kalec’s host leapt into the air and raced toward the pair. As he neared, it became evident that there were more than two. Kalec counted four, but Malygos counted five, with the fifth being none other than Ysera.

  And with her flew Coros.

  Hissing, Malygos came up behind the pair. Kalec understood his caution, for other than Ysera, the rest of the party were all proto-dragons Kalec knew to be hostile to his host.

  Coros noticed him first. Malygos’s rival sneered, then hissed warning.

  Ysera looked over her shoulder. Upon recognizing Malygos, Alexstrasza’s sister grew visibly frustrated. “I will do this!” she insisted. “We are right!”

  Thoughts spilled through Malygos’s mind and into Kalec’s. Ysera continuing to search among the dead—and the defeated undead—for her clutch brother despite knowing that it was unlikely she would find him. Alexstrasza’s sister growing more vehement in her distaste for all the violence. The yellowish proto-dragon preaching her beliefs to others and finding a few who saw as she did.

  And one of those appeared to be Coros, who had seemed so fanatically loyal to Talonixa not all that long ago. Now Coros also preached peace, preached finding a way to live under the rule of Galakrond. His notions did not exactly match those of Ysera, but they were close enough for both suddenly to work to convince others.

  Malygos saw only naivety in Ysera’s dreams and did not trust the mercurial nature of Coros’s. Kalec now understood what his host and Alexstrasza had been discussing; Ysera’s sister had been searching for her for three days, hoping to make her see the error of her ways before she did something foolish. To Malygos, Alexstrasza appeared too late to prevent the last. He felt that any plan hatched even in part by Coros was certain to be filled with danger and treachery.

  Once Malygos might have simply let things happen as they would, but more and more, Kalec’s host saw the intricacies involved in even the simplest decisions. The repercussions for the proto-dragon race as a whole were many, not to mention the fact that Malygos now felt a loyalty to the sisters that in some ways surpassed even that to his own family. He had fought side by side with both of them and knew their dedication and trustworthiness.

  He also knew that Coros lacked either of those qualities.

  “Sister seeks you,” Malygos informed Ysera, indicating the direction Alexstrasza had flown only a short while ago. “That way.”

  “Saw her,” Ysera responded with a snort. “Let her fly on.”

  This startled Malygos, who knew how close the pair was despite the constant bickering. “Should listen to her! Galakrond will not—”

  “Galakrond will.”

  Her short but incredible interjection caught both Malygos and Kalec by surprise. Malygos hissed in confusion. Coros grinned but did not interrupt.

  “There will be peace,” Ysera announced with some pride. “Galakrond will talk peace.”

  “You do not know—”

  She raised her head higher, taking a dominant position over Malygos. “We spoke with Galakrond. He will talk peace.”

  The madness that had affected Kalec in the present now looked as if it was taking hold of him in the vision. He could not believe that he had heard correctly, and judging by Malygos’s racing emotions, Kalec’s host could not believe it, either. “Galakrond . . . talked with Galakrond?”

  Coros finally joined in, his triumph clear in both his tone and his expression. “Peace we will have . . . if all will listen.”

  Before Malygos could retort, Ysera said, “All must listen . . . and we must go.”

  “Go where?” asked Kalec’s host as both his mind and Kalec’s raced.

  “Find Talonixa,” she answered, as if that should have been clear to anyone. “Tell her. Tell all.”

  That said, she veered off. Coros, the other three proto-dragons in tow, followed.

  Malygos stared, wanting to believe Alexstrasza’s sister but also aware of just what a monster Galakrond had become. Still, if Ysera spoke the truth—

  “No.” Malygos shook off that possibility, and Kalec once again admired the analytic abilities of the future Aspect even as a proto-dragon. However, his admiration faded as both he and Malygos thought of what would happen if Ysera did convince the others.

  The proto-dragon quickly turned. He had to find Alexstrasza and somehow help her make Ysera see sense. Even though Kalec’s host—and Kalec, too—understood the odds of Ysera convincing Talonixa and the rest of the merits of her plan, the two could not help but feel that somehow matters would end in new disaster
and that more, many more, would die as a result.

  FIVE

  FATEFUL DECISIONS

  Malygos grew more desperate as his search for Alexstrasza stretched to hours. At that very moment, Ysera—with Coros’s aid—might already be convincing Talonixa of the merit of her intentions and Galakrond’s willingness to agree to everything. Malygos could foresee only catastrophe if that happened.

  His thinking was another example of the leap Kalec had witnessed among several of the proto-dragons. Malygos saw nothing new or odd about his considerations for the future, whereas among some current proto-dragons, the here and now was all that existed.

  The lengthy search had had its own effect on Kalec. Able to feel the wind as Malygos flew, Kalec had calmed down somewhat. When he was in the visions, he had no choice concerning the path upon which he had been set and therefore tried to become as detached as he could.

  Yet Kalec could not help but consider the choices left to his host. Unaware of how this entire struggle had ultimately turned out, Kalec was not even certain that Malygos was right in seeking Alexstrasza’s aid in stopping Ysera. Although Kalec had believed as Malygos had when first hearing about the suggestion of peace with the marauding behemoth, he also knew that, in his time, Galakrond’s skeleton lay near the heart of the Dragonblight and that the gigantic proto-dragon was considered the Father of Dragons. How that had come to be, Kalec could not fathom. Had Galakrond achieved salvation after all, something that had escaped the future Neltharion and even, regrettably, Malygos himself?

  He forgot all about such questions as Malygos spotted a red speck perched atop a tall hill. While to Kalec it might have appeared to be any member of Alexstrasza’s family, his host was absolutely certain that he had found Ysera’s sister, and within a few strong beats of the male’s wings, that proved to be the case.

  She noted Malygos’s arrival with a hopeful gaze. Kalec felt his host’s guilt at coming with something other than good news.

  “Found Ysera,” he started. “With Coros.”

  Alexstrasza eyed him in disbelief. “Coros?”