In a dark room in Flame Ridge Chasm of Orgrimmar, Garrosh Hell scream his fist on an iron table, causing the bone decorations on the wall to rattle.
"So you wasted a Fel Cannon Shell just because you 'sense' something?" he roared at the figure in the shadows. "Do you know how expensive that thing is?"
A Twilight Cultists emerged from the shadows, clad in a long, dark purple robe, only his pale chin visible beneath the hood. " Great Chieftain, my senses have never been wrong. There was indeed magical probing last night, originating from the air."
"But the patrol found nothing!" Garrosh interrupted him, his One-Eye burning with rage. "And the Troll hunters at the watchtower didn't even see a bat! How much blame have I received for your launch?"
A purple crystal slid from the Twilight Cultists's sleeve, its interior swirling with a black mist. "This is a fluctuation recorded by the detector; it couldn't have formed naturally. I suspect it's from the Blue Dragon— "
"Enough!" Garrosh grabbed the crystal and crushed it to pieces. "This is Orgrimmar, the city of orcs' glory. No one can come here undetected. The Kor'kron forces have Flame Ridge completely surrounded. Even if one or two rats manage to sneak in, they won't be able to break through the Kor'kron's defenses. I don't care about any detector fluctuations; I just want your attention focused on the Eye of the Storm's upgrade! How's the Eye of the Storm's charging progress?"
"Seventy-two percent," the Twilight Cultists took a half-step back, "But the energy channeling device is not progressing well; the goblins and mages are working hard. They need more testing!"
Garrosh grabbed the battle axe from the table, its blade reflecting the red glow of the furnace. "I don't care about experiments! The charging and guiding device must be completed by the end of the month! This can't be kept secret for long. I've done as you asked, and you must speed things up! Otherwise, if things are exposed, no one will escape unscathed."
The Twilight Cultists bowed deeply and disappeared into the shadows. Garrosh turned to the map on the wall, his finger tracing the path to Theramore, his eyes gleaming with madness.
"This time," he whispered to the empty room, "I will show Thrall that I have chosen the right path, even if it means temporarily cooperating with those villains. Jaina, I will make you pay for your arrogance; you shouldn't have led the orcs astray."
In the room of Karazhan, countless suspended crystal prisms refracted the moonlight into fantastical spectacle of colors. Anveena stood in the center of the room, fine beads of sweat glistening on her forehead, her hands cradling a golden sphere of light that constantly shifted shape.
"Focus!" Aegwynn tapped the ground lightly with her Silver Staff. "Imagine energy as an extension of your limbs, not an enemy!"
The sphere of light fluctuated in size, sometimes expanding to the size of a human head, sometimes shrinking to the size of a walnut. Deren sat on a soft chair in the corner, pretending to be focused on the Magic Tome in his hands, but actually stealing glances at Anveena's condition every few seconds.
" Deren." Anveena looked at him pleadingly, and the orb of light immediately began to flicker erratically.
"Don't look over there!" Aegwynn snapped. "Energy control requires absolute focus!"
Deren quickly put down his book, walked to Anveena's side, and gently held her trembling wrist. "Remember the feeling of the Sunwell? That warm, flowing energy. It permeated all of Quel'Thalas! You were everywhere, and every part of you was part of your body. Let the magical fluctuations ripple out like water, like a gentle breeze, like sunlight."
Anveena closed her eyes, her eyelashes casting tiny shadows in the moonlight. Miraculously, the sphere of light gradually stabilized, taking on a perfect sphere shape, its surface shimmering with delicate patterns.
"Very good," Aegwynn nodded approvingly, a rare occurrence. "Now try to separate a small portion to form Detection Tendril."
Deren slowly released his grip, but remained within reach. Anveena slowly drew out a strand of gold thread from her fingertips, extending it like a spider's web towards the other end of the room. The gold thread passed through the suspended prism, leaving brief streaks of light on the surface of each crystal.
"Incredible," Aegwynn murmured, "Her affinity for magical energy is simply..."
"Like a young Medivh?" Deren added softly.
Aegwynn's expression instantly darkened. "No, it's more like the pulse of Azeroth itself." She turned to Deren, "Are you sure she's just an avatar of the Sunwell? And nothing more?"
Before Deren could answer, Anveena suddenly screamed. When the golden thread touched the Ancient Astrolabe in the corner of the room, it abruptly turned a blinding purple, then broke and vanished.
"What was that?" Anveena retreated in horror, and the orb of light went out.
Aegwynn strode towards the star chart, her fingers tracing its surface. "Strange. There's some kind of Outland Energy residue on it. I didn't even notice it, but Anveena could. Fantastic! We can develop even more powerful functions. This is absolutely an unprecedented discovery in magical theory." She turned to Deren, her eyes gleaming with research fervor.
"Alright, alright, don't scare Anveena." Deren quickly stepped forward to comfort the somewhat panicked Sunwell.
Aegwynn realized she had been a bit too hasty; she couldn't rush the innocent and carefree Sunwell Incarnation. She changed the subject. "You said Chromie hadn't returned?"
Deren nodded. "It's been almost two days. Logically, the Bronze Dragon shouldn't—"
A rapid knocking interrupted him. The Magic Servant stiffly opened the door, Jaina's Message Spell transformed into a small blue bird that flew in, landed on Deren's shoulder, and whispered a few words.
Deren's expression changed drastically. " Jaina has received a reply from the Goblin Prince. We must return to Theramore immediately."
Theramore sunset was tinged with blood red. At the Deren house, Onyxia and Jaina were spreading a map on the dining table, marking several points with a red pen.
" Aella and the others have left. Alexstrasza came to pick them up herself," the Black Dragon explained to the group who had just been teleported back. " The Red Dragon Queen took advantage of Deren's absence and directly took away three of her red Dragon Maid. She said she'd invite them to visit the Dragonblight Temple. But I still have a feeling..."
"It's too deliberate," Deren interjected, gesturing for Jaina to activate the barrier before continuing, "It feels like Alexstrasza is hinting at something to us."
Jaina took out a roll of parchment from her bosom. " The Goblin Prince's intelligence is even more astonishing. At the beginning of the month, an elite orc force secretly went to Northrend, and when they returned, some orc Warrior were carrying ' Blue Dragon Souvenir' —according to goblin eyewitnesses, they looked like the remains of dragon wings that had been violently dismantled."
Aegwynn gasped, "They're hunting Blue Dragon? For what?"
" The Eye of the Storm was originally in the custody of the Blue Dragonflight," Deren pondered, "But why go to Northrend? The Nexus is there. The Eye of the Storm is there too. So they've already seized this magical artifact."
Aegwynn was puzzled. "That's the Nexus! How could the orcs have broken in and stolen the artifact?"
"The orcs didn't necessarily steal the artifacts from the Nexus. It's also possible, for example, that the artifacts were being transported." Deren remembered that's how it was explained in the book.
Aegwynn was even more puzzled. "Why is this artifact, which has been stored away for thousands of years, about to be transferred away? Isn't this just creating trouble out of nothing? And how could the orcs have received advance notice of such important news and then travel all the way to Northrend to ambush the artifact's transfer party?"
Deren curled his lip. "You're right if you feel something's wrong. This whole thing has a lot of illogical aspects. But no matter what, we have no choice but to preemptively detonate the artifact."
First bonus chapter! If we get over 400 monthly votes, I'll immediately add two more chapters. Thank you all for your support!!! The story will only get more exciting!!!