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| Details |
| Author: | Vond |
| Summary: | Nunuzac enlists the help of red drake Ranvrastrasz to help her write a letter when they spot Kirygosa, who had previously been deeply upset by the decision to kill Malygos. They check on her out of concern and reveal that Ranvra has suspicions about the black dragonflight within the temple - influenced by witnessing a great deal of alarming things that took place in Blackrock Mountain. Kiry agrees to help him discuss his worries with other members of the red flight, and expresses hope that her brother might still be saved. |
| Rating: | T for Teen |
(Takes place just before Terrible Timing)
While the upper reaches of Wyrmrest Temple remained populated with dragonflight leaders locked in intensive discussion and planning, Nunuzac is spending time on the ground floor during a lull in activity, seated in the company of a human
The human appears to be a healthy young man with short rusty-ginger hair and a clean shaven face, dressed in a warm woolen robe with prominant carmine panels and piping of sunny goldenrod. Most around here aren't exactly subtle about the color-coding, and besides, the dragons seem to like signaling a bit of clarity about their flight when taking alternate forms among themselves.
"Ranran, I thank you very much. The Common, it is so helpful. You pair a phrase very good!" The draenei folds a sheet of paper with care and caution, staring at it intently as she aims to get the crease precise. For as far as she has come in being able to get her meaning across with proper information, especially in person where tone and gesture are in play, there is something to be said for when you can get a fluent speaker to pair your phrase to one that sounds more natural in the written word. Also, his spelling is better.
Another dark-haired young woman walks through the lower level, her eyes still red-rimmed from recent tears. Her own color-coded clothing is a deep cerulean, indicating why she's excluded from the planning above. Not out of suspicion, perhaps, but out of compassion.
"Oh, of course, I'm glad to have some little way I can help more. It sure beats having to fly out for more incoming attacks, that's for sure." The transformed red looks pleased to have a moment to relax.
Nunuzac nods emphatically while unfolding and refolding several times, the crease skewed just enough to keep the corners of the paper from aligning just right. Eventually she gives up the endeavor to perfection and stuffs it in an envelope.
About to say something else, Nunuzac spots the blue-clad woman when raising her head, and her eyes light up with recognition and concern. "Kiry!" She stands, beckoning. "Are you in hurry?"
Kirygosa turns at the sound of her name, and she looks over at the two of them with a smile that's only a little tremulous.
"Oh, no, I have nowhere to be," Kiry says, and then her brow creases a little as she hears how bleak that might sound. She walks over to join Nunu and the red. "That is, I'm not in a hurry. Has something else happened?"
Nunuzac flattens her palms one over the other above her heart and shakes her head a little. "No new bad thing, it is only I saw you before very sad, very heavy." Her expression holds a bit of empathetic sadness of her own. "I want to again thank you for work with Cobalt Company and show, eh…" She murmurs a draenei phrase uncertainly aside to 'Ranran'.
"Condolences," the red clarifies, then instantly looks a little sheepish, adding, "Ma'am. Pardon, I'm sure this is presumptuous."
Nunuzac looks aside to him, tutting. "No no, you can say the thing you say to me before." Nodding to Kiry, she adds, "Shy. But cares."
"If you'd like to say something, I would welcome it," Kiry says, turning to the red dragon. "Please don't worry about being presumptuous. I won't be the dau…" Kiry chokes on the words, and amends to, "We're all kin here, one way or another."
The red relaxes slightly and looks relieved to have not caused offense. "Oh, well, Miss Nunuzac here flew out with me not long ago since I'm learning to carry mortals." Without dropping them, catching them downwind of your fire breath, that kind of thing.
The shaman nods with a sympathetic smile, not correcting the assumption about her expiration date. When on Azeroth, do as the mortals do.
The young man continues, "It's true that she was worried about how grieved you look, and I mentioned that I felt for you too because I also lost a father. Oh, um, I'm going by Ranvra when I'm like this, by the way," he tries to soften the subject a bit as he motions to the human fit of his robe. Two legs! So quaint.
Kirygosa nods, carrying mortals can be such a trial sometimes. They are so delicate. She smiles reassuringly and says, "I usually go by Kiry, when I'm in visage form. And I'm sorry to hear it. Grief is… it sometimes seems endless, doesn't it?" A flicker of guilt crosses her face. "Did you lose him in the Nexus War?"
Ranvra gives a quick shake of his head. "Oh, no, it was a couple years ago now, at, ah - " he seems to hesitate and lower his voice a bit, glancing around to assess who is nearby in the lower temple. "Blackrock Mountain. The whole affair with Nefarian. He'd been trying to discover exactly what had been going on, with all the disappearances."
He makes an uncomfortable expression, but at least there aren't members of Nefarian's flight nearby to take issue.
Nunuzac nods with concern. "I learn more things about the past troubles that lead to this, in small pieces as I stay here. My people also have fighting, and coming apart, long ago. So my heart is with the dragons in this. Draenei also know the hurt."
Kiry's eyes widen. "Yes, my own history is tied up in the betrayal of the black flight, though its all from before I was born. I was just an egg, but… you know what they did to the blue flight, I'm sure. That was the origin of my father's madness. I am sorry their corruption has touched your life with grief as well." Kiry pauses then, and adds, "I had understood an end was put to all Nefarian's… work?
Ranvra bows his head slightly, gathering his hands before him. "Yes, I have been taught how much of the tragedy that has visited both our aspects, and our world, ultimately flows from the same source: the fallen Earthwarder and the Dragon Soul he created."
"It is the same," Nunuzac begins, looking between the two dragons questioningly, "as the thing held by kaldorei queen in the War of Olds?" She looks like she has more questions to ask, but is doing her level best to not stray the topic too far. A challenge.
"Just so," Ranvra assures. "Long before my time, but that's just about everyone. About Nefarian's work, though, yes. Ever since the warchief of the new Horde rose to power, they saw Rend Blackhand in the mountain as a false challenger and a threat. So they sent great force after him and the Blackrock orcs there, and soon after, wholly dismantled Nefarian's lair and took his head.
"What they found there was… extremely disturbing, to say the least, and my father Vaelastrasz was discovered and taken while we were trying to find out more. I was, well, the one that was able to return with the reports…"
"If I recall, he was doing some kind of… experiments," Kiry shudders. "He must have felt some responsibility for the fall of the black flight, as Deathwing's son. I can understand a desire to preserve his flight, but experimentation on our own people? That is not the way." Kiry shakes her head. "All of the black dragons' paths seem to be twisted. With Nefarian's sister Onyxia trying to take over Stormwind of all things, and his own dark lair… dare I ask what you uncovered, Ranvra?"
Ranvra looks uneasy, and Nunuzac pats his shoulder gently. He collects himself after a moment. "I did not see… all of it, for myself, up in the lair, but I stayed near the mountain until I got news that it was over and he was finally at peace. Father even aided the Horde warbands access the spire to storm it before he was taken, so they were kind to me and pleased to tell the tales of their victories."
His voice comes more quickly as he draws up the memories. "Nefarian's clutch, his minions and his dragonkin, they had been gathering from all four other flights. Blood, flesh, bodies - even live eggs. They were carrying out terrible experiments, Kiry." He swallows. "Hatching whelps they had… molded together, with material and magics in different combinations, trying to create something powerful without regard for the life itself whatsoever.
"For a mixed mercy, very little success was reached in the way Nefarian hoped. He had powers of compulsion and hoped to control a new flight of his own creation. There are tales of a terrible two-headed beast that spouted every kind of conflicting magic, but only a few true dragons. One was aged to drake-hood unnaturally and ridden by Rend Blackhand as a prize symbol of a kind, and his scales were said to be a strange violet, mottled with other hues. I am not aware of any of them that survive to now."
Kiry claps her hands over her mouth in horror, the tears welling in her eyes anew. She moves closer to Ranvra, reaching out a hand to him in comfort. "Oh, Ranvra, I had not imagined it to be so… so… that is all so terrible. No sensible being could think such a path could lead to any kind of life for those poor creatures. Nefarian had his own madness, he must have been poisoned by the same source as his father."
She turns to Nunuzac, and adds, "I hope you don't see this as what we're like, Nunuzac. This is all aside from the path, away from the will of the Life-Binder. But even my own father, in his madness, I do think he genuinely believes he is trying to protect this world. I do not know what Nefarian believed."
Ranvra had been holding himself still a bit apart with the effort to act respectful to a much older dragon until now, and looks a little surprised by Kiry's consolation, but he immediately takes it a step farther by quickly giving her a hug.
Nunuzac nods in approval because hugs are for everyone.
"Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry. Here I had meant to try to give you some comfort and instead I went off about something so horrible," Ranvra looks apologetic as he lets go. "But yes, I… The things I saw and heard, sometimes it makes me worry about the way no one really knows what's going on in the Obsidian Sanctum. I know that all the flights are protective of their sanctums, but… We are trying to keep the peace, and everyone here swears they are distancing themselves from dragons like Nefarian."
Nunuzac shakes her head gently to Kiry. "I also do not know the mind of that one, even though I try to learn more of Azeroth every day. I promise you I do not think bad of flights. I know that, when things come apart like this, many do what they think they must, and that all people that last for a very long time, they go through times of trouble.
"Besides," the shaman adds, "Dragons watch over important things in this world, and Azeroth has pushed back Burning Legion before. Do you know how that is so great and not common at all? By not common at all, I mean I think it is only the one time, and I have seen many.
"I do not have enough words for the tears of blue dragons. I grieve with in a small way, not decide worth. There will be tears and then more living to do."
Kiry hugs Ranvra tightly but lets him go when he pulls back to speak. Then she listens to Nunuzac's words and nods.
"There will certainly be more living to do. The blue flight will endure - we survived the betrayal of Deathwing, and we will survive this war." Kiry smiles tentatively again. "Maybe someday soon we'll have little blue whelpings flitting about the temple. And when next the Legion comes for us, it will find us united: red, blue, bronze, green and…"
Kiry looks worriedly back at Ranvra. "Nalice and Serinar have been keeping the peace, however unpleasant they are personally. Do you think they might… be doing something horrible in secret?"
Nunuzac looks delighted at the idea of little whelplings beyond the reach of the Nexus War, but looks to Ranvra when he gets a question, giving him room to answer.
"I… I know I shouldn't speculate too much. It would not be right for me to assume some kind of crime just because of those commited by kin. The things I witnessed might be leading me to see things that are not there in the rigor of the obsidian guardians." Ranvra sighs as he attempts to talk himself down from judging too warily. "Their shrine was overrun, too, so they have every reason to be on the same side with us, right?"
Nunuzac taps her chin. "I think maybe we should talk to your elders about the worry, yes? Mother of Ranvra works for Life Binder, has the ear of ones who will know how to go. Maybe just to give you calm, but they will know."
Kiry nods slowly. "We wouldn't want to leap to conclusions, but anything you've actually seen anything you've actually noticed… it can't harm anyone to let the higher reds hear, can it? If it's leading you to see things that aren't there, then, well, the other reds will say so, won't they?" She considers the two of them in concern. "What exactly have you noticed, Ranvra?"
Ranvra seems to consider Nunuzac's suggestion, then tilts his head to Kiry. "Only the guards being really bristly about keeping anyone from seeing into the sanctum whatsoever, and, well," he hesitates again, scanning the ground as he thinks. "I believe some time ago I saw them delivering some manner of goods there, which isn't itself strange, only that the crating bore signs of scrubbing and rasping, as if to remove an identifying mark.
"Ever since I was spotted observing the transport, I feel I've had more eyes on me…" He swallows a bit. There could be any number of explanations of why containers might be reused from somewhere, and the young drake clearly has reasons to perhaps be over vigilant. He may or may not have seen something actually suspicious.
Nunuzac assures him, "More reason to just speak with others, yes? Many are always busy busy with the shrines and the fighting. There is no wrong in to give and get thoughts on this."
"Yes, yes, the more people who know a thing the better," Kiry says encouragingly. "If there is something wrong, then the more who know the better, and the safer you are. And if there isn't, well, no one will be harmed by a little over-observation, will they?"
She looks from Nunuzac to Ranvra. "Do you want me to go with you to speak to them? Add my voice to yours?"
The draenei speaks up quickly. "I think this is a good idea," she agrees while nodding to Kiry, then adds, "If you are not busy from other things. You get to be with friends and allies, and Ranvra gets support. As I say before, cares but so shy." Nunuzac teases genially while patting his short hair, since he's shorter than her in this form. She also seems eager to find some way to keep Kiry occupied.
Ranvra swats back at the hand in good humor then settles. "I um, yes, feel free of course, you've got a lot more experience than me, after all. I hope I can think of something to do for you in return, though. Like you said about us all being kin here in a way, I hate it that you and the others have to feel so much sorrow."
"I'm not sure what I could ask," Kiry says, her face falling. "I suppose they have a plan, now, and it's… it's moving forward. I suppose, if you're with those who join the fight, can you try not to harm anyone any more than you need to? Most of them are likely just folllowing the Aspect, after all. If he's gone…" Kiry's lip trembles. "If he's gone, then they may listen to reason."
Nunuzac nods her head and steps forward to clasp Kiry's hand. "You have done so many hard things so far, to save the life of other dragons who were in danger from family of your own. Many also have had wrong done to them, too much magic, strange runes put on them, take away will and fill with anger. We fight to stop this also.
"Red, bronze, green, all alive because you are strong in this. They will be thankful to you and hear your words. And we try to find blue who can still get healing and reason."
Kiry clasps Nunu's hand in hers. "Thank you. I hope I can continue to be strong. And who knows? Maybe my brother Arygos will come to his senses. He has done so much for Azeroth. He was trapped in Ahn'Qiraj for a thousand years, to protect us from the qiraji and the Old God there. And now he follows our father, but… maybe he will see reason. Maybe I won't lose my entire family."
Nunuzac's eyes go a little wide then soften.. "I see. Another very close, long apart, then this." She may be wracking her brain for what scraps of knowledge she has retained about Ahn'qiraj and the Old Gods from Bran's book, but a reunion after a thousand years is something she grasps instantly, and the genuine understanding is clear in the draenei's face. "Arygos, I remember this name. Maybe we can find, maybe we can speak."
She gives Kiry a warm hug before releasing her, forming a smile again. "I must send very important message," she mentions as she lifts her envelope, as if just remembering. "I take this to the letter flyer, yes? You two speak to Ranran's family, I find later?"
Ranvra nods to Nunuzac. "You know where to find me if you need anything else read or written, okay?"
"And be well, Nunuzac. I'm sure the other dragons value your friendship, and so do I," Kiry says with a smile, and she reaches out a hand to take Ranvra's. "Let's go speak to your family, Ranvra. I'm sure they'll listen."