NOVEL NEXT Cleaning House
6/8 evening
According to the instructions provided by Azuregos, the best location to deploy the buoy would be off the coast of Azshara. His “minnow” was apparently attracted to the dense arcane energy of the area, which the buoy would magnify. The whole operation went off without a hitch, with Onyxia hauling the gigantic shark out of the water like an eagle diving for prey and tossing it on land. It flopped around a bit while my dragon riders rained arrows down upon it, but come on. It’s just a big dumb fish.
We cut the last fragment out of its stomach, and brought them back together. I’m not sure who the bronze dragonflight expected me to get to fix the scepter without them, but with all the pieces brought together Soridormi was able to “rewind” them into their whole and unbroken form. I probably could have found someone else to manage it, if I’d needed to, but this was by far the quickest approach.
Just like that, I had finished my first objective for the War of the Shifting Sands. It felt pretty good, considering how crazy the to-do list had looked a week prior. I was well on my way to finishing the exterminator mission, and thanks to Naxx I was probably going to finish the Horde war effort soon. Broxigar and Kerrigan would be really nice additions to the team. In the short term, I decided to celebrate by checking out my newly upgraded house.
•••••••••
Magatha was not stupid. When she felt the spirits call to her right after receiving Cairne’s gift, she was conflicted. If this was a gift from the Earthmother, it would make sense that if would draw the spirits' attention. There was just one problem: this was most certainly not an item of shamanic craftsmanship. It was certainly powerful, and it was already beginning to revitalize her body, but it was of alien craftsmanship. She absolutely couldn’t recreate it.
As she prepared for bed, she heard whispers from the armlet once more. “Come Magatha. Come to me in the heart of Desolace. Follow my instructions, seek me humbly and alone, and I will grant you power greater than you could possibly imagine and the service of my children.”
The old tauren witch stared at the gem, her gut telling her she was being lured into a trap. Though the amulet spoke to her with the voice of the earth, other spirits whispered warnings. Arikara, the spirit of vengeance she had bound not long ago, was particularly cautious, speaking of dark crimes committed by the Princess Theradras. Of course, this had a mixed effect; Arikara inadvertently confirmed that the voice had the power she promised.
A new voice, sounding younger, echoed out of the amulet. “If you ignore our words, old crone, we will grant our aid to another. Perhaps Sagorne Crestrider; he is a lesser shaman for now, but with my aid he will eclipse you. Or perhaps we must seek beyond the tauren. The orcish Warchief is said to be a fine warrior and gifted shaman.”
That possibility troubled Magatha greatly. Thrall was indeed strong with the spirits; to see him elevated would be unacceptable. With a heavy heart, she whispered into the gem. “Wait. I shall leave tomorrow.” She would be on guard, but she was in no position to pass up an opportunity.
••••••••••
The Disks of Norgannon were a grand repository of information, but they were also limited when studied directly. Ironaya had taken hours to locate the Tuskar village, still recovering from the attack, and several minutes to track backwards to the attack itself. Her point of view within the simulation was able to track the black dragon as he flew inland with his entourage before subduing a local storm giant. She was able to read the giants lips well enough to see that he was being interrogated about a location known as Gjalerbron, though the recording lacked audio or analytical software to read lip movements and translate them into words. They had not been able to complete the various quality of life upgrades before Tyr and Archaedes had been forced to flee south.
She logged the name and a transcript of the exchange, forwarding the intelligence to the tactical coordinator named Aelthalyste. From there, she accelerated the recording by a factor of 5, the quickest that was built into the rudimentary tool set without simply skipping forward, and tracked the dragon’s movements. He did appear to be moving towards the documented location, but that was several hours ago. When he arrived, Ironaya would log his coordinates in the amulet’s map and observe his behaviors.
It was a bit boring, but someone had to do it. The Aesir woman’s conflicting orders distressed her, as she had been given key roles in subduing two separate high value targets. The shadowlands tainted warrior known as the Lich King and the corrupted spawn of the Earth Warder. While she agreed that the old god corrupted dragon was the higher priority, as it was associated with the primary source of corruption threatening this world and had access to his own reordering technology, constructing a tower to channel the energy used by the Tantric rod was far more within her skillset. She kept wondering why she hadn’t been relieved by a more specialized Watcher. She, with all due respect to a superior and friend, cursed Archaedes for his stubbornness.
Logging request: appropriate and Order titanic facilities to combat current Watcher personnel deficit.
With one eye she monitored the recording, while filling out the Titan facilities known to her within the New Order’s area of operation. She felt so naughty multitasking when she was working on a vital mission, but long term this would be a net benefit to operations. She wasn’t trying to be insubordinate, but she couldn’t be in three places at once.
••••••••••
My new house was, as promised, much bigger. When I walked through the portal, I found myself in a winter wonderland, a short walk away from a dwarven hall carved into the side of a cliff face. A large field of white stretched out behind me, dusted with snow. The cobblestone path I was on was completely clean of snow or ice; no slipping hazard for me. I marked out part of the field for an altar of elders and a hatchery.
I walked into my new house with my prime consort at my side, though she seemed only moderately interested. The whole place was similar to my old house, just marginally better in every way. The old common room was now a dining room, which felt pretty small compared to the spacious living room stocked with comfortable arm chairs arranged around a large fire pit. The kitchenette was expanded into a full kitchen with a far larger collection of dishes and utensils, as well as a huge refrigerator.
I had a few extra bathrooms, including a master bathroom in my newly expanded bedroom, which included a newly expanded bed. It was a huge square expanse more than six feet across, clearly intended to host orgies. I put a pin in that idea while I finished my exploration. My storage and clothes closets were still around, already manned by a few dazed looking Ops team members who had been restocking the food and potions supplies when the upgrade happened.
The secondary rooms had furniture which suggested uses for them. A library full of desks and empty bookshelves, a training room full of practice dummies, and a workshop full of basic tools for all sorts of trades. I considered converting one of the larger rooms into a more secure ops center than the slightly ramshackle one I had at the Twilight Grove, but decided to dedicate the hatchery I was planning on building outside for that purpose.
Having surveyed my newly upgraded pad, I checked my app and found a report telling me that Malygos had just been captured. Gazlowe, the goblin from Ratchet, was also captured but that was mainly an economic benefit to me. Malygos was my third aspect, and honestly the one I had the least interest in keeping as he was.
Malygos was probably at least on par with Aegwynn as a mage, but getting another five star platinum tier mage was far less exciting than getting the first one. He had rebates that finished out immunity to corruption and polymorph, which were certainly good even if polymorph was a little niche. He was, of course, a giant lizard faction leader that needed a regional upgrade as soon as possible. He was also an ineffectual leader who went crazy and abandoned his post for ten thousand years while the world was going to shit, then came back two years from now and immediately declared war on people that probably should have been his allies. Nozdormu was a big maybe, but Malygos was absolutely getting an overhaul.
I saved his current mind as a preset, since he was still ostensibly the leader of his faction and there were people that would notice if he suddenly turned into a waifu. “Lividia. I’m going to transform the leader of the blue dragonflight into another consort for me. Any thoughts on how to do it?”