The Blue Phoenix, Part Four
"He rubbed his belly.
I keep them here
[he said]
Here, put your hand on it
See, it is moving.
There is life here
for the people." (1)
In the sky loomed purple death. The floating city was covered in a shield of energy that allowed it to be defended from the blue dragons who had lined up in rows in the frigid wastes. Only one red dragon hovered in the air near the barrier, looking down at his kyn below. He was waiting. At last Malygos strode onto the frigid battlefield, walking to the front. Maekrux had taken his place among his blue family in the ranks; for this, Maekrux was not special, merely another solider in a war to come. As Malygos looked up at the hovering threat, the red dragon called down to him.
“Malygos! You must stop this mad ploy at once! Magic is the gift of the Creators and a necessity in this time! The magicians have as much of a right to life as you do!” the dragon shouted.
“They will only bring greater misfortune upon us all! Magic only serves to pervert the unwary mortal, who seeks only power and prestige! Without magic, the Legion would never have come to this world! If we do not take the magic back from them, they will turn against us! Look now at the city that floats beside you, Korialstrasz! How long will it be before they turn on you as well?” Malygos demanded back.
“We should work together with them to lead them, Malygos! If Magic can corrupt, should you not be the one to teach them? Should you not then guide their hand and help them to not fall into darkness?” Korialstrasz argued.
“I shall save them by ending their magic-use forever! You will not dissuade me! Magic is my domain and its use and license is my affair. You and the Reds have no place in it!” Malygos shouted.
“You seek to assert your rights by denying us Reds of ours! If you will not back down or find another way, we Reds must stand against you!” the crimson dragon bellowed.
“Then let our dispute be settled in blood!” Malyos trumpeted back, raised up onto his hind paws and summoning a great flame to his talons. This he did not launch at the red but instead turned against the ground, burning away the snow with a rapid sizzle of heat. Revealed was a circular crest of runic. Malygos fell back down to his forepaws, shaking the ground as he summoned arcane energies into his claws, activating the seal. The runes lit up with a callous purple-blue light, which suddenly erupted into a massive beam six yards wide. The beam shot into the sky and crashed against the barrier of Dalaran, the light at first parting around it, spreading more like jelly than light. The true nature of the spell came into view, however, when the blue-purple energy began to eat and tear at the purple shield like acid, until the shield itself was completely destroyed, despite the efforts of the several exposed mages who had been maintaining it.
“You leave us no choice, Malygos. Reds, to the aid of Dalaran!” Korialstrasz exclaimed. At his command, a hundred red dragons suddenly leapt into the sky from behind the mountains, flying up into a square formation to intimidate the blues with their size.
“Blues, to the sky! It is time to reclaim our birthright!” Malygos shouted. The blues had only about two hundred dragons on their side and a few of the stronger, more willing netherdrakes. Maekrux, too, took the air, noticeably concerned at the battle to come. Maekrux was not overly afraid; even here, the Gift would work. Rather, he was apprehensive about fighting in the air. He had never done so before, though as he flew along side his blue family, he started to wonder why dragons on Istaria hadn’t tried it since the Battle of Tazoon.
As the dragons vied for airspace, the mages of the Kirin Tor were not idle. Several mages had taken up two detachments of about thirty wizards with a single grizzled mage in the front, looking down from the edge of the land of the floating city. “Korialstrasz! Be ready!” he shouted.
“I know that voice… Rhonin! The mage who destroyed the Dragon Soul!” Malygos exclaimed, mostly to himself.
“Fire!” Rhonin exclaimed. The mages weaved together lines of arcane energy, forming into several patterns of squares overtop the heads of the two mage detachments. The purple-white energy launched from them and the mages began the spell again. The spell they had launched flew through the air swiftly and the blue dragons attempted to scatter out of the way, but with so many in the sky at once, two dragons were caught by the spell, which wrapped around their wings and caused them to fall ingloriously to the ground. To compound matters, once a dragon had been brought down by these energy nets, they launched themselves back into the air, trying to grab another victim, causing confusion amongst the blues.
“Charge!” Malygos shouted, leading the way towards the floating city, his Blue Dragonflight eviscerating the air as they sliced through it at breakneck speed. One of the purple nets launched at Malygos himself who tore through the magical fibers like paper. Several dragons managed to land on the floating city of Dalaran, but the red dragons rushed into the gap as well, crashing into the blues and grappling with them in furious combat, weaving, falling, flying along side one another, clawing at each other, breathing flame, breathing ice. Malygos himself was prevented from landing by the Consort of the Wurmqueen, Korialstrasz. The Blue Aspect and the grizzled veteran of combat hissed wildly at one another: these once-comrades had become blood enemies.
Maekrux made it safely onto the ground of Dalaran, relieving some nervousness since he would not have to fight in the air. Maekrux and his blue comrades engaged the wizards on their own ground, cleaving through scores of them with powerful claws and bites and magical spells. Runes of frost were placed upon the dead corpses of the mages, in case their priests managed to bring them back to life; some tried and found that those who had been marked were incased in a solid block of ice the moment their breath returned to them. The blue dragons also had a seriously detrimental ability to the mages: the ability to force their own magical aura out around them and reflect all magic that was thrown against them. Maekrux, not having this ability, turned to errant mages and eviscerated them cleanly with his Gold Rage attacks, letting his brothers take the fore.
The tide turned upon the ground when several heavily clad warriors followed by men and women in priestly garments rushed out to aid the falling mages. One after the other, these warrior shouted taunts at the dragons and struck at their hides with their glowing blades. The dragons turned their claws and breath upon these newcomers, but with the powers of the priestly men and women behind them, the warriors continued to stand and continued to fight, and continued to draw the ire of the Blue Flight. Maekrux watched this confrontation almost stunned. Why were they not killing the ones healing the metal-encrusted meatshields?
The air battle was fairing no better. The red dragons did not have the numbers, but they did have the strength. Physically stronger, older, and more used to fighting in combat, these dragons were slaying some of the younger blue dragons outright. Their blood rained upon the snow below, staining it pink as it melted from the heat of the passionate blood. Malygos and Korialstrasz seemed to be evenly matched. “Call off this foolish attack, Malygos! Your Blue Dragonflight is still crippled; you would risk killing off all your kindred again!” Korialstrasz exclaimed.
“If I must sacrifice my entire brood so that none will ever die to magic again, then so be it! Netherdrakes, to me!” Malygos shouted. Several of the translucent blacks rushed to Malygos’s side, and then crashed into Korialstrasz, taking his attention away from the Spell-Weaver. As the red dragon tore drake after drake from his body, breaking their necks, spilling their purple blue, Malygos dived down to the ground and took one of the nets tangling a blue dragon. Rushing back into the sky, he channeled his own chaotic magic into the net which began to flare wildly. “Blue Flight, to the ground!” Those dragons still in the air immediately disengaged their targets. Some of the reds immediately gave chase while others paused to see what was being planned. Those that paused were soon sorry for it, as Malygos launched the writhing net into the air. It spread out like a cage over the sky and arced down against those still in flight and struck all save Malygos with a powerful arcane-electrical force. The motor functions of the reds were completely shot. Some died of heart attack before they hit the ground. Others were helpless to prevent themselves from landing on their necks. Most landed in poor health on the ground, Korialstrasz and the netherdrakes who had attacked him included. “See now the folly of daring to oppose an Aspect in the right! This battle was ours from the start, for our moral obligation to protect this world far exceeds your right to allow mortals their freedom to destroy it!” Malygos bellowed.
“Now! Use the Double-Ocular Device!” Rhonin shouted. From the blemished white towers that had seen great previous battle, five mages stood in concert, chanting in ancient tongues as a green-purple eye-shaped gem floated between them all. Powerful and dark energy erupted from the gem, an amalgam of the Eye of Dalaran and the Eye of Sargeras fused together by forbidden magicks. From it erupted a massive beam of energy that struck Malygos head on, sending even the mighty Spell-Weaver reeling and falling to the ground. He managed to regain control and land hard on his feet, spraining his left hind ankle.
“Lord Malygos!” the blue dragons exclaimed from Dalaran’s proper. They had done significantly better since Maekrux rushed into the gap and eliminated the troublesome healing priests. Now freed, almost all of the Blue Flight upon the floating city abandoned their post and tried to strike at the tower. But once more the eye fired, not a single beam this time but several in all directions, turning and weaving like dragons through the air, cutting and slicing and tearing the poor dragons to pieces.
“No!” Maekrux shouted as his comrades were torn apart in a bloody cloud of scale and bone before his eyes. Maekrux had little time to mourn their loss, however; one of the ribbons of death tore through his shoulder and the ground on which he had been standing. Maekrux tumbled down from the floating isle, painfully struggling to right himself, his wings well enough for flight, but each beat pulling and tearing on the hole through his shoulder. He landed a little more gracefully near Korialstrasz and Malygos, who was being counseled by some of his kyn.
“Malygos, we cannot fight against a city with a weapon of that magnitude!” one of the blues exclaimed. Malygos’ eyes were wide in horror, in his mind reliving the death of his kyn at the hands of Deathwing.
“Give up Malygos! If you do not, your entire flight will be wiped out once again!” Korialstrasz exclaimed.
“Silence you!” shouted one of the blues at Malygos’ side, “They would not dare use that attack on you while you were down here!”
“We reds knew the risk. Rhonin is instructed to end this, even if it means the death of the reds helping them. This is but a faction of our children, blue. You are all there is to be had,” Korialstrasz said.
Maekrux looked out at the frigid battle field. Purple death still loomed in the sky. Those he had called family lay dead and dying in the unwelcoming snow. Blood had rained thick upon this land, but it was not blue dragon blood alone. Here, too, were those he might call kyn. By some arbitrary distinction had they been born red, but were they not dragons too? Were they not dead and dying around him, staining the battlefield in their blood, fighting for their values and beliefs in this heartless civil war? It made Maekrux sick. There was a time when he was violently ill for putting down the corpses of hatchlings on Draak for his rite and now he was fighting kyn to the death? These were not dragon either. These were fools. “No more,” Maekrux murmured, turning his eyes skyward. “No more can I be kyn to these creatures!” Maekrux shouted. He waved his wings back and forth, grimacing at the pain it caused his shoulders, but he continued, drawing in all the power of the Prime he had. Its entrance onto the land of Azeroth had a strange effect of multiplying and what would not have even reached the floating city had suddenly become a gale-force wind that crashed against the city and the tower. The tower was sheered and fell to the floating city, but the floating city itself also began to fall and strain under the intense pressure of the storm.
“Lord Rhonin! We must retreat from the battle!” a mage advised him.
“But we have almost won! If we can strike now the crusade of the blues is finished!” Rhonin exclaimed.
“There is no time!” the mage shouted, pointing to the side of the city. The winds were threatening to crash the floating isle into the mountains from which the red dragons had sprung; such an impact would shake the isle apart and surely kill all its inhabitants.
“Blast! Order the mages to advance to the sky and retreat,” Rhonin conceded. “Korialstrasz! Dalaran must fall back! Get your dragons out of there!”
“What strange power is this?” Korialstrasz asked. Hearing Rhonin’s voice, however, he hobbled to his feet, tossing the corpse of a netherdrake from him. “Reds, to the sky! We must retreat to lick our wounds. Leave not a living comrade behind!” The dragons that were strong enough carried those who were not strong enough to fly away as they retreated. “You have not seen the end of this battle, Malygos. Your crusade will become known to the Horde and Alliance before long and this internal matter will spiral out of control. I beg you, give up this fight. Farewell.” And with that Korialstrasz took to the sky and flew after his comrades, his wing beats slow and injured.
“Resurgam, you – you have saved us!” Malygos exclaimed, surprised. Maerkux looked down at the corpse of one of the blue dragons, remembering the traitor who had warned the Kirin Tor, the one whose place he had taken.
“It was a mistake.”
“What?”
“It was a mistake to have come here. Malygos, you are old and you are wise, but about some things you are an even greater fool than hatchlings fresh from the egg, innocently ignorant of the world at large. But even they know the beauty and love that a dragon feels for another. The racial bond that they share that they will never let broken. You have tossed those values away and become nothing more than a wise husk.”
Malygos was stunned and silent. Maekrux walked away.
1 - Ceremony, by Silko.
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Frith-Rae BridgeSol