"You have done well, Nzaria," Father spoke, leaning back on his throne as he examined the documents Nzaria had recovered. "All of the Alliance's operations in the Highlands, laid bare before us. (The marrow of their bone, ready to be broken!)"
Nzaria nodded, feeling a bit of warmth run through her at the praise. She had adopted the visage of a Draenei once more, kneeling on the stone floor of Father's throne room.
"If I may, I have uncovered another way in which I may be of service to you and the True Gods."
"Oh?" Father said, his right head rising to watch her while the left continued to pour over the documents.
Nzaria raised her head, looking up at Father.
"The Alliance's defences are woefully inadequate against infiltration, but I alone can only do so much. With your permission, I could muster a squadron of my siblings, teach them how to use visage forms, and destroy Highbank in one fell swoop. They would not know we were among them until we unveiled our true forms, and by then it will be too late."
"A bold plan. Ambitious. But how shall you make your siblings follow your lead?"
"If the order came with your blessing, they would fall in line."
"(And what would you do with such power?) What of Ultraxion, Theralion and Valiona, would they fall in line as well? (Do not think us unaware of your rivalry, whelp.)"
Nzaria hesitated.
"If they opposed your command, I would deal with them appropriately. With the Brood united under me, they would be a far more efficient fighting force than they are now, divided and wasting energy on squabbling. When Highbank falls the Alliance will have no way of moving troops into the Highlands, and alone the Wildhammers will not last for long. The power of the Twilight's Hammer could be directed to other lands, spreading the glory of the True Gods ever further."
"For the glory of the True Gods, of course," Father said, falling silent for a moment, his numerous eyes pinning Nzaria to the spot as he pondered her words.
"Very well. (We grant you your request… if you prove its worth to us.)"
"Whatever you command, I will see to it."
"You will prove that you are worthy of assuming field command over the Twilight Brood. (You will demonstrate the value of the plan you wish to pin so much on.)"
Father swept aside the documents from Highbank, pointing towards a marker on the map of the Highlands spread across the tablet in front of him.
"The settlement of Holwick has been a thorn in our side for some time. You will destroy it."
Reaching down below the table, he lifted a strange device before Nzaria's eyes- it resembled an intricately cast box of elementium, tipped with a tubular protrusion mounting a large orange gem. To Nzaria's senses it radiated raw power, potent magic the likes of which she had not seen before.
"This device will allow our forces to attack Holwick from within. You will carry it past the defences of the dwarfs, and activate it by inserting the gem into the socket."
"Understood," Nzaria said, hesitating for an instant before continuing. "What shall I do after that?"
"You will await further orders."
"It will be as you say."
"See that it is so. (Do not fail us.)"
-----
The Wildhammer settlement of Holwick was of similar size to the one Nzaria had razed alongside her siblings weeks ago, where she had fought the dwarf paladin.
The dwarven buildings were constructed low to the ground, stone covered streets winding between them, with grass-covered roofs that blended into the rolling hills. It was on one of said hills that Nzaria crouched, fiddling with the strange device Father had given her.
'Cease your fidgeting. You are going to set it off.'
'By all means, experiment with it. But do so out of curiosity, not by accident.'
She forced herself to stop, tucking the metal box beneath her cloak. Nzaria had adopted the form of the female dwarf she had used to infiltrate the shaman conclave once more- not because she intended to use the same method, for this time she had no message to authenticate her identity and she suspected that the Wildhammers would soon grow wise to it if she used the same ploy too many times. No, she had chosen this visage out of simple expediency: four and a half feet of dwarf were far easier to hide than twenty-odd feet of dragon.
With the element of surprise having faded long ago the Wildhammers were well-prepared for being attacked at any time: Gryphon-Riders patrolled in the skies, casting their watchful eyes down upon the highlands. It had taken Nzaria hours just to reach within sight of the village, flitting from cover to cover, taking refuge in crevices of the earth and behind boulders jutting out of the ground.
Now, another obstacle presented itself before her. The Wildhammers of Holwick had erected crude watch towers atop the outlying houses, little more than a wooden observation platform with a covering for rain. Upon each of them sat a dwarven guard equipped with a crossbow or a rifle, a horn sitting at their side. Though individually of little threat to her, should they ring the alarm Nzaria was no match for the entire settlement by herself.
So, she settled in to wait. Observe.
Time passed, the shadows lengthening as the sun slipped towards the horizon, until at last she saw what she had been waiting for. One of the dwarfs rolled his shoulders, calling out to the other sentries before stepping down from his post, sliding down the sloped, grass-covered roof. He made his way towards a small copse of trees and bushes a short distance away.
He walked with a casual yet confident gait, running his fingers through his beard. And why should he be concerned? The thicket was no more than a stone's toss away from the outer limits of Holwick, surrounded on all sides by flat, open ground watched by the vigilant eyes of his comrades.
No enemy could possibly cross it in the time it took for him to relieve himself without being spotted.
No ordinary enemy.
Nzaria took a deep breath and dived into the ground from her hiding spot, slipping into the dirt and soil as though it wasn't there. Well, not exactly. There was a certain amount of resistance, a pressure that told her she was immersed in an object- and as she had learned, against which she could push. Implementing the lessons of swimming she had obtained to infiltrate Highbank, she managed to push herself forward with frantic strokes while trying to measure how much distance remained to the thicket. No matter how much the tiny dwarven lungs burned, she could not emerge until she was certain she was out of the line of sight of the sentries.
At last, when she felt like she was on the verge of passing out, Nzaria pushed herself upward. She emerged right below the dwarf's feet, rising from the ground with her hands reaching for his face. A moment of frantic and very confused wrestling ensued, but she managed to clamp her hand over his mouth before he could shout loud enough for his comrades to hear. A dagger materialized in Nzaria's hand, conjured into existence as an extension of her visage form, and she stabbed it down- only to fumble and miss the dwarf's throat, plunging the blade into his shoulder.
'What are you doing?'
'Are you trying to screw this up?'
The voices erupted in a cacophony of scornful derision, but Nzaria ignored them. It was not as though the dwarf was going anywhere: buoyed by her draconic strength, her limbs might as well have been cast from iron for all that he was able to budge her.
Nzaria brought the dagger down once more, this time slower and with more control, plunging it into the sentry's jugular. Soon, his muffled screams turned into wet gurgles, before falling off entirely.
'You know, you could have just snapped his neck.'
"Shut up," Nzaria mumbled under her breath. She let go of the body, studying it intently, the thick eyebrows, the long reddish beard, the green cloak over his shoulders. Then, she closed her eyes and focused. When she opened them again she was a couple of inches taller, a beard tickling her face.
'Now what will you do with the body?'
In response, Nzaria opened her mouth, her jaws distending far further than they should have been able to, razor-sharp teeth pushing out of her gums.
She exhaled, spitting a small globule of shadowflame at the corpse. The dark flame spread rapidly, greedily devouring the carcass. The way it moved almost resembled a living thing, crawling across the burning flesh.
When the body was nothing more than ash, she inhaled, devouring the shadowflame before it could start spreading across the grass. In the end, all that was left of the sentry was a burnt patch on the grass.
Nzaria couldn't help the small grin that broke out on her face, seeing her plan work perfectly. Even if one of the other dwarfs came here, it would be easy to think he simply dropped his pipe and started a small fire before stamping it out.
Certainly, she thought as she walked out of the thicket wearing the dwarf's form, it would seem more plausible than that he had been killed and replaced by a shapeshifting infiltrator.
She waved to the other sentries, before shouldering her rifle and climbing up to the dwarf's watchpost. Then, she sat down to wait, watching the surrounding highlands like a good little guard.
Hours passed, and night fell. When the last rays of the sun dipped beyond the horizon, she heard footsteps approaching her, and a female dwarf climbed up to the roof with a heavy crossbow slung over her back.
"Shift's over Gunthar," she said, gesturing at Nzaria's stolen visage. "Go home and sleep."
She nodded wordlessly and hurried to climb down the grass-covered roof, not wanting to give the dwarf a good look at her face and an opportunity to spot discrepancies.
With that, she dropped down to the ground, and started walking towards the center of the village.
Exactly as she'd planned. From observing the village from afar, she knew that the shifts changes started at nightfall, midnight, dawn and noon, staggered by half an hour so that the entire guard force didn't get replaced at once and risk slipping up. Which meant that she was inside the perimeter, with a plausible excuse to be there if someone asked, all of the watchful eyes pointing outwards, and nobody else was supposed to be moving around in the interior of the village at this hour.
"Have you been drinking on the job again?" the female dwarf's voice called out to Nzaria, startling her out of her thoughts. "Your house is in the other direction."
'See what happens when you celebrate too early?'
"I'm just grabbing some water from the well," she called back, hoping her voice was close enough to 'Gunthar' to pass muster.
"Suit yourself," the female dwarf shrugged, settling back down onto the watchpost.
Nzaria let out the breath she had been holding, hurrying along.
The Wildhammer settlement was quiet and still, lit only by the occasional brazier that gave just enough light for her to see by. Nobody challenged her on the way to the center of the village, where a winch-operated stone well sat, a wooden cover over the opening. Nzaria gave one last look around herself, making sure nobody was watching her.
All of these buildings… there had to be hundreds of dwarfs living here. And in a matter of hours, if not minutes, they would all be dead.
But it was the way it had to be. They opposed the will of the True Gods. They stood in the path of the Hour of Twilight.
She pulled out the device Father had given her from the folds of her cloak, and placed it on the stone flagstones lining the streets of Holwick.
It radiated immense energy to her senses, and an irrational part of her wanted to reach out and devour it. Surely, with such power, she could lay waste to Holwick on her own. She could show Father what she was capable of.
But she had her orders.
She pressed her palm to the center of the device, pushing the gem into its core with a click. It responded instantly, starting to emit light and whirr softly, rising in pitch and volume.
Nzaria cringed, but nobody seemed to have noticed yet. The gem was casting the surrounding area into an orange hue, heat prickling her skin. The metal casing was shaking and rattling, clanging against the flagstones.
'Something is wrong.'
Was it… supposed to do that? She had expected it to open some kind of portal, not whatever this was. Maybe it was just charging up?
'That is not a portal.'
But… then what was it? Father had said it would allow the Twilight's Hammer to attack the settlement from within.
'There are other ways to attack. You… you need to run.'
But Father had told her to wait for orders!
The device was floating in the air now, beams of orange energy cascading from the gem to form rings around it. In the distance, somebody was yelling, and running feet were approaching her location.
'It is already too late.'
Nzaria could feel the pressure building towards a breaking point, the light so bright it was nearly blinding. It was more energy than she had ever seen, save for the day when Deathwing came to Grim Batol.
'DO SOMETHING!'
Her breath hitching in her throat, Nzaria reached out for the power she had ripped from the dwarf paladin, still nestled deep inside her.
I don't want to die.
And the power responded, flooding out of her in a burst of light, coalescing into a spherical shell of golden energy around her.
An instant later the device in front of her exploded in a flash of light so bright it burned Nzaria's eyes, turning the world around her into a sea of flame and noise. Even through the shield she could feel the terrible, all-consuming heat, reducing the village to less than ash.
If she had… if she hadn't…
She would have died.
Nzaria swallowed slowly. If she hadn't drawn upon the light, she would have been killed by the explosion.
It- the device must have malfunctioned. She must have done something wrong. Mishandled it somehow.
'You followed Father's instructions to the letter. There was no error.'
That… that wasn't possible. He must have meant for her to turn incorporeal after activating the device. Yes, that must be it.
'Then why did he not say so, even when you specifically asked what to do after activating it? And even if you had, you would have died anyway: powerful magic can still hurt you when incorporeal."
He must not have known about that. He could not have known about that.
'You are lying to yourself.'
"Shut up!" Nzaria yelled, her voice hoarse. "SHUT UP!"
At that moment the fire and smoke finally died away, leaving behind nothing but scorched rock. Of the buildings, of the people, there was no sign.
Only a towering figure of living flame that stood tall where the device had once been, a humanoid upper body with two clawed hands and a head adorned with a pair of blazing eyes, in the place of its legs a swirling torrent of fire, the flames that had washed over the surrounding landscape slowly crawling back to their origin.
Nzaria let the shield flicker and die as the fire elemental turned its gaze upon her, its expression unreadable.
"You, dwarf," it rumbled, its voice like the crackle of flames. "Are you the one who brought me here?"
"Yes. I am Nzaria. I was told you would have new orders for me."
"Oh, indeed I do," it chuckled. "I am Emberus. Remember that name, in the little time that you have left."
Without warning a fiery fist lashed out, backhanding Nzaria to the ground, a blinding pain erupting from the side of her face that had been struck. Before she could recover, the elemental reached down and grasped her body in its clutches, her ribs creaking under the pressure of its grip. Where the claws of living flame touched skin it seared and charred, filling her nostrils with the scent of burning flesh.
"What are you doing? Stop this!"
"No, I don't think I will."
"When F- When Cho'Gall hears of this treachery, you will be unmade, your essence never to return to the Firelands!"
"Arrogant child. Who do you think gave the order for your death?"
And with those words, Nzaria's world collapsed around her.
Her mind felt blank. She felt nothing.
Then, then she felt something. Anger.
Nzaria would not describe herself as someone easily drawn to anger. In her short life so far, such things had only ever been distractions, liabilities she couldn't afford. When even the tiniest slip-up could lead to immediate punishment, giving into rage was a death sentence.
Now, she no longer cared. Now, she unleashed every bit of anger and frustration and murderous wrath she had ever suppressed.
With a wordless roar her true form exploded from Emberus' grasp, her claws whirling. There was no finesse, no tactics, no thought as she tore into her opponent, only animalistic fury. She didn't care that her scales blackened, her flesh burned. Heedless of the pain she bit into the living flame again and again, even as her mouth and throat blistered.
At some point, she saw the fire elemental's mouth moving, as though it was talking. She didn't know if his words simply didn't register into her consciousness, or her ears had been too burned to hear anything. She didn't care.
Emberus did not sit idle, of course, its broad arms wrapping Nzaria into their burning embrace, threatening to crush her ribs and drive the air from her lungs, but that only allowed her to bring her hind legs to bear, raking them across its abdomen, tearing out more of the solidified flame essence even as it seared her flesh.
At last, she saw the elemental's fiery core, exposed to the air. With a final, furious bellow, she stabbed her claws into it and inhaled.
Little by little, Emberus' entire body began to twist, warping and elongating as it was drawn towards her mouth. Now, a pleading expression had entered its face, but Nzaria did not care.
When the last of the elemental disappeared down her throat, Nzaria finally let herself collapse, falling down onto the blackened rock, rendered smooth by the force of the explosion.
Her mind felt fuzzy, her thoughts like flies rolling around in tar.
"I don't… understand," she rasped, her throat scorched and burned.
'Yes, you do.'
"Why? Why would he…"
'Really? You're actually surprised he would try to kill you? Did you not see what he did to Sethron? Did you think he was any different to Mother? Father never had any intention of giving you command over the Brood- he is the one who divided it.'
"But I… I didn't- I wasn't- I am not weak. What mistake did I make? I don't understand."
'No, you are not weak. Your mistake was thinking that the system was fair. That it followed its own rules.'
"I did everything that was asked of me. I followed every order to the letter. I completed every task."
'You are resourceful. Cunning. Bold. You are something far worse than weak: a threat.'
"I DID EVERYTHING RIGHT!"
'And it was not enough.'
A wordless scream escaped from her burned throat, her claws slashing into the stone again and again, carving deep furrows into the scorched rock until they grew too dull and broken to find purchase, and Nzaria collapsed in sheer exhaustion.
For a time she simply lay there, her breaths short and ragged, her heart hammering in her chest. Now the pain came in earnest, her seared flesh aching, writhing, like needles driven under her scales, all pulsing in tune with her heartbeat.
She screwed her eyes shut, bit her tongue, pressed her forelimbs against her skull. None of it helped. None of it made anything better.
No matter what, she couldn't escape the burning question in her mind, pushing all other thoughts aside. The one question she didn't have answers to.
What now?
