Twisting Paths
- Thread starter Hiver
- Start date
Vaalintine
Wild Wondorous Wolfalope
So let me guess, the person who stole his power source was himself via time shenannigans?
Stormwind. I never thought I would see the place again.
I couldn't help but smile as we walked in through the gates. Of course, I was under an illusion, making me look a bit older with brown short hair.
It was just temporary; I'd craft a proper necklace for it later.
Chromie happily lead the way, "First, we need to gather everything you need for whatever it is you need to craft and then we need to get in position and prepare a hiding place as soon as possible."
"Yeah," I agreed before I frowned down at the older Bronze Dragon. "You know, I can't help but notice that you are not wearing a disguise."
"That's because if I see my future self, I smile and wave. If you see yourself walking around, you are going to panic and do something stupid," Chromie said and grinned up at me. "Also, you may be visiting the city and know people here that can recognize you. The ones of me in this time period is either working in alternate Dreanor or spending time with my past consort in the caverns of time."
"...Which one of them is the one that belongs in this timeframe?"
"Neither. That me is currently adjusting the Culling of Stratholme back into its place in the time stream and stopping the Infinite Dragonflight."
I rubbed my forehead, "Chromie, you are giving me a headache."
Fucking Bronze Dragons.
"It gets a bit confusing if you are not a Bronze," she said as she happily nodded, her strawberry blonde hair bouncing. "Don't worry, I got it."
"...I'll just take your word for it. I'll just blame you if I end up my own grandparent," I groaned and shook my head, heading for the merchant district. I needed a necklace to work on and some raw materials to craft the illusion and magic hiding shield for our hiding spot.
"Deal."
I looked around as I followed the other dragon through the busy street, "It's too bad we can't stop things before they go bad. I could make a manabomb that could blow half that island to dust with a month to work on it."
And the right materials.
Chromie stopped and jumped onto a barrel, turning to look at up at me firmly, "Okay, listen to me now, little one. We have a mission and we are going to do it. We will not disrupt the timeline in any way. Our goal is to get it back on track."
I sighed and stopped, "I know, I know. But so many are going to die."
"..It's the hardest thing with this," Chromie agreed. "It gets easier when you get older, young one. The Timeline must be protected. In the end, it will save more."
"Are we not technically changing it now?"
She shook her head, "Not at all."
"But is Nozdormu not meant to create the Infinite Dragonflight and die at the Endtimes?" I asked her, now thoroughly confused.
"He is and he did. He did and always will. We have been fighting against the Infinite Dragonflight to stop it," Chromie agreed. "That doesn't mean that's how the timeline will end up. Just one more branch on the tree. You are thinking of the timeline like a branching path, it's not. It's more like...Think of it like a river network, flowing back and forth. Some branches stop, some do not."
I just sighed. Time travel.
"You know, I am so glad I was picked up by the Blue flight and not the Bronze," I grumbled and crossed my arms. "I'd have an aneurysm before the year was over if I needed to keep something like that straight."
Chromie smiled at me, "And I couldn't enchant something to glow to save my life. I'm bad at magic, at least when it comes to the advanced stuff."
"...Time travel isn't?"
"Bah." Chromie snorted and jumped off the barrel. "You are not a Bronze."
"And thank everything for that," I said and shook my head before following her. "Go find a necklace of some sort, nothing too gaudy. Make sure it has at least one clear gem in it and that it contains silver. No diamond, a sapphire or something will work. I'll go see if we can find some mithril thread and some other materials I need to craft the camouflage shield."
Chromie nodded, "Okidoki. Meet by the bank later? Find some rooms for the night and then fly out tomorrow."
"Yeah. See you then."
Then I was alone in the city as the dragon in gnome form disappeared into the crowd. I looked around before I slowly let out my breath, leaning my back against the wall of the bookstore as my mind started to catch up with what the hell was going on.
Until now, I had not had time to think it over, it had all gone so fast. I was six months into the past.
I took a slow, deep breath.
Sheila, Rengosa and Zrazta were still in Westeros... would be. Right now they were with me in Pandaria.
No... Sheila and Rengosa were. Zrazta was yet to join us, she was in Northrend. I wouldn't see any of them for six months, even if everything went right.
The Burning Legion was coming. They would get here and a lot of people would die. That was best case if we finished our mission. If we fucked up... then everyone would die.
Everyone on Azeroth.
Six months. Six months to save the world without fucking up the timeline. No support other than Chromie.
My weapon was still missing from when that Blood Elf stole it while he tortured me.
No weapon. No support but a Bronze Dragon. No real resources but some gold for raw materials.
On the other side... the Burning Legion. Infinite demons from infinite worlds they had already conquered.
I slowly let my breath out and pushed away from the wall. What is it they said at NASA? Work the problem?
Let's get this done.
AN// Buckets of thanks to Pietersielie for betaing this section.
I couldn't help but smile as we walked in through the gates. Of course, I was under an illusion, making me look a bit older with brown short hair.
It was just temporary; I'd craft a proper necklace for it later.
Chromie happily lead the way, "First, we need to gather everything you need for whatever it is you need to craft and then we need to get in position and prepare a hiding place as soon as possible."
"Yeah," I agreed before I frowned down at the older Bronze Dragon. "You know, I can't help but notice that you are not wearing a disguise."
"That's because if I see my future self, I smile and wave. If you see yourself walking around, you are going to panic and do something stupid," Chromie said and grinned up at me. "Also, you may be visiting the city and know people here that can recognize you. The ones of me in this time period is either working in alternate Dreanor or spending time with my past consort in the caverns of time."
"...Which one of them is the one that belongs in this timeframe?"
"Neither. That me is currently adjusting the Culling of Stratholme back into its place in the time stream and stopping the Infinite Dragonflight."
I rubbed my forehead, "Chromie, you are giving me a headache."
Fucking Bronze Dragons.
"It gets a bit confusing if you are not a Bronze," she said as she happily nodded, her strawberry blonde hair bouncing. "Don't worry, I got it."
"...I'll just take your word for it. I'll just blame you if I end up my own grandparent," I groaned and shook my head, heading for the merchant district. I needed a necklace to work on and some raw materials to craft the illusion and magic hiding shield for our hiding spot.
"Deal."
I looked around as I followed the other dragon through the busy street, "It's too bad we can't stop things before they go bad. I could make a manabomb that could blow half that island to dust with a month to work on it."
And the right materials.
Chromie stopped and jumped onto a barrel, turning to look at up at me firmly, "Okay, listen to me now, little one. We have a mission and we are going to do it. We will not disrupt the timeline in any way. Our goal is to get it back on track."
I sighed and stopped, "I know, I know. But so many are going to die."
"..It's the hardest thing with this," Chromie agreed. "It gets easier when you get older, young one. The Timeline must be protected. In the end, it will save more."
"Are we not technically changing it now?"
She shook her head, "Not at all."
"But is Nozdormu not meant to create the Infinite Dragonflight and die at the Endtimes?" I asked her, now thoroughly confused.
"He is and he did. He did and always will. We have been fighting against the Infinite Dragonflight to stop it," Chromie agreed. "That doesn't mean that's how the timeline will end up. Just one more branch on the tree. You are thinking of the timeline like a branching path, it's not. It's more like...Think of it like a river network, flowing back and forth. Some branches stop, some do not."
I just sighed. Time travel.
"You know, I am so glad I was picked up by the Blue flight and not the Bronze," I grumbled and crossed my arms. "I'd have an aneurysm before the year was over if I needed to keep something like that straight."
Chromie smiled at me, "And I couldn't enchant something to glow to save my life. I'm bad at magic, at least when it comes to the advanced stuff."
"...Time travel isn't?"
"Bah." Chromie snorted and jumped off the barrel. "You are not a Bronze."
"And thank everything for that," I said and shook my head before following her. "Go find a necklace of some sort, nothing too gaudy. Make sure it has at least one clear gem in it and that it contains silver. No diamond, a sapphire or something will work. I'll go see if we can find some mithril thread and some other materials I need to craft the camouflage shield."
Chromie nodded, "Okidoki. Meet by the bank later? Find some rooms for the night and then fly out tomorrow."
"Yeah. See you then."
Then I was alone in the city as the dragon in gnome form disappeared into the crowd. I looked around before I slowly let out my breath, leaning my back against the wall of the bookstore as my mind started to catch up with what the hell was going on.
Until now, I had not had time to think it over, it had all gone so fast. I was six months into the past.
I took a slow, deep breath.
Sheila, Rengosa and Zrazta were still in Westeros... would be. Right now they were with me in Pandaria.
No... Sheila and Rengosa were. Zrazta was yet to join us, she was in Northrend. I wouldn't see any of them for six months, even if everything went right.
The Burning Legion was coming. They would get here and a lot of people would die. That was best case if we finished our mission. If we fucked up... then everyone would die.
Everyone on Azeroth.
Six months. Six months to save the world without fucking up the timeline. No support other than Chromie.
My weapon was still missing from when that Blood Elf stole it while he tortured me.
No weapon. No support but a Bronze Dragon. No real resources but some gold for raw materials.
On the other side... the Burning Legion. Infinite demons from infinite worlds they had already conquered.
I slowly let my breath out and pushed away from the wall. What is it they said at NASA? Work the problem?
Let's get this done.
AN// Buckets of thanks to Pietersielie for betaing this section.
- Location
- In a hole in the ground there lived a...
Why do I suspect that when he tried to summon his weapon in Before Dawn it didn't come to him because 'he' already had it?
Krazyfan1
Worrying for the future.
- Location
- Australia
Brilliant as always.
..you've been planning this time travel thing since you started before dawn...werent you?
the little innocuous details from that story will play a big part here.
things we overlooked...things in the background...all important...
..you've been planning this time travel thing since you started before dawn...werent you?
the little innocuous details from that story will play a big part here.
things we overlooked...things in the background...all important...
tgojeff
(Verified Pinwheel)
- Location
- Los Angeles
Whelp, I give it about a 95.67% chance that the power source of the ship was stolen by our chronologically challenged friends.
A 64.2% chance the other Plains Walker teamed up with the future crew.
A 20.32% chance our favorite SI:7 agent was informed in Westeros to prepare for dragons.
A 10.87% chance the death and apparent failure of the bomb was equipment tampering.
A 110% chance of mindfuckery.
A 64.2% chance the other Plains Walker teamed up with the future crew.
A 20.32% chance our favorite SI:7 agent was informed in Westeros to prepare for dragons.
A 10.87% chance the death and apparent failure of the bomb was equipment tampering.
A 110% chance of mindfuckery.
On the one hand, the world is being saved from the legion. On the other, I was really looking forward to the dragons in ASoIaF. Or are there going to be a split timeline where they both happen?
Vox De Harlequin
Consequences are for other people
- Location
- Hyalean Theoric World
The dragons are staying in the ASoIaF world, at least for now.
They're in the past so that Azeroth isn't overrun by the Burning Legion.
The Dragonflights are explicitly not returning, because if they're in Azeroth the Aspects will eventually be corrupted and thing will be even worse.
Grey Rook
Genuine Nerd
- Location
- The Quantum Foam
I'm here, as always.
All hail the vigilant one.
"There." I said and held the rather simple silver and sapphire necklace up in the light that shimmered through the high window in the inn room.
"It's done?" Chromie asked where she was sitting, reading a big, thick book.
I nodded and dropped my illusion. "Let's see, shall we?" I asked and slipped it around my neck before sending a pulse of magic into it.
"Nice." Chromie said with a grin. "It worked!"
A rather simple piece of enchantment to make you look like someone else. The problem was not in the enchanting work; it was getting it to interact properly with the environment and to feed it the correct parameters to make the illusion believable.
It's not like a spell, you couldn't just mold it in your head, you needed to craft it into the spell work.
I looked at myself in the small mirror on the table. Short brown hair, looking like I was in my forties. My face a bit thicker than before, my eyes were green and I had a short beard, also brown.
I looked as average as I could possibly make it.
"Yes. It did." I agreed before I reached for a pair of pliers, a ball and the spools of copper, mithril and gold thread along with the five small gems I had picked up for most of our gold.
"How's that going to work?" Chromie asked and closed her book as she watched me work.
I started with twisting the threads together with the pliers. "Enchanting artifacts relies on several conditions. Enchantability of the metal, energy capacitance and several other factors. But those two are what matter the most right now. Normally it means working the energy into the metal, either with prepared dusts and shards of solid magic worked for specific effects, or like I'm doing now, worked with pure magic."
Putting the wooden ball on the table, I held one end of the twisted thread against it and slowly started to wrap it halfway around it before putting a kink in the thread with the pliers and shifting course. Two centimeters and then another course change.
"You can guide and shape the enchantment's effect and power along with durability and... anything you want, really, using a great number of methods. From runes carved into the material to symbols painted on it to... just willing it to work while you create it." I explained to the listening dragon turned gnome. "I'm doing the quick and dirty version of carving into the metal right now. Instead of a negative space, I use a positive one. It's quick, nasty and works great."
Picking up one of the gems, I turned it over in my hand before I pressed it against the wooden ball with a tiny bit of glue, looped the thread around it and continued.
Chromie nodded slowly. "I... well, I kinda follow what you mean. But I have never seen an enchanter work like that before. I know some, but never seen anyone use anything close to that."
"Most that're not a complete hack know they can do it like this. They just don't." I said with a snort. "For very good reasons. This is a stupid way to make something, when done it's going to be fragile as fuck and have real power issues. A bump in the wrong spot will make the entire thing just stop working."
Thirty degrees left, ten centimeters. Sapphire and loop.
Chromie frowned and got up from the chair she had been sitting on, standing up on the seat to see better. "So... why are you doing it like this?"
"Because it takes a hell of a lot less materials. You said we couldn't access my accounts."
"We can't. Old you would notice," Chromie said with a shrug. "The Bronze never used that much money and we don't have the time to get fancy about it. Besides, us appearing now would disrupt things."
I nodded and kept working with the metal thread. I was just going to leave the specifics of timetraveling to the Bronze dragon. Time travel would be fucking awesome to be able to do. Then again, the first thing that came to mind was seeing if Sheila would be willing to do the whole time clone thing.
Probably for the best that I had no idea what the fuck it was that Chromie was doing.
Pushing the errant thought of Sheila out of my head, I returned my focus fully to my work. Despite what I told Chromie, this was kind of finicky work. Mostly because it was so damn sensitive. A couple of degrees off on the 'reverse carving' may cause the entire thing to just overload and melt when I finally enchanted it.
We didn't have the money to buy more, then we would just need to risk either stealing it or tapping into our resources anyway.
Holding the last gem in place, I twisted the metal thread into a loop with the pliers before putting the tool down and starting to follow the lines with my fingers, double checking my work, making small adjustments when needed.
Even despite the circumstances, I couldn't help but find the familiar and easy but still involved task relaxing. Made me focus on a single task instead of worrying.
"Is it done?" Chromie asked when I put it back down.
I shook my head. "No, just the 'carving'. It's as magical as a random boulder right now. I still need to do the actual enchanting work."
"Oh."
"That must wait until we get there, though," I said and continued; "When it's on, it will stay on. Like I said, we don't have the stuff to do anything fancy." before I sighed and leaned back in my chair, rubbing my forehead.
"So... What exactly will it do?" Chromie asked and reached to poke the matrix around the wooden ball.
I slapped her hand away. "Once done, it will project a no-magic sphere twenty meters across with a counter sphere nineteen meters across inside it. It will allow us to still use magic inside, but the anti-magic shell will completely mask our magical signatures.
"Oh. Cool."
"Yeah." I agreed before looking over towards the corner next to my bed. "Pass me the spear, will you? Let's see what we can get done to it before we have to leave."
Chromie nodded and jumped off the table.
AN// Big thanks to Grey Rook for betaing this section.
"It's done?" Chromie asked where she was sitting, reading a big, thick book.
I nodded and dropped my illusion. "Let's see, shall we?" I asked and slipped it around my neck before sending a pulse of magic into it.
"Nice." Chromie said with a grin. "It worked!"
A rather simple piece of enchantment to make you look like someone else. The problem was not in the enchanting work; it was getting it to interact properly with the environment and to feed it the correct parameters to make the illusion believable.
It's not like a spell, you couldn't just mold it in your head, you needed to craft it into the spell work.
I looked at myself in the small mirror on the table. Short brown hair, looking like I was in my forties. My face a bit thicker than before, my eyes were green and I had a short beard, also brown.
I looked as average as I could possibly make it.
"Yes. It did." I agreed before I reached for a pair of pliers, a ball and the spools of copper, mithril and gold thread along with the five small gems I had picked up for most of our gold.
"How's that going to work?" Chromie asked and closed her book as she watched me work.
I started with twisting the threads together with the pliers. "Enchanting artifacts relies on several conditions. Enchantability of the metal, energy capacitance and several other factors. But those two are what matter the most right now. Normally it means working the energy into the metal, either with prepared dusts and shards of solid magic worked for specific effects, or like I'm doing now, worked with pure magic."
Putting the wooden ball on the table, I held one end of the twisted thread against it and slowly started to wrap it halfway around it before putting a kink in the thread with the pliers and shifting course. Two centimeters and then another course change.
"You can guide and shape the enchantment's effect and power along with durability and... anything you want, really, using a great number of methods. From runes carved into the material to symbols painted on it to... just willing it to work while you create it." I explained to the listening dragon turned gnome. "I'm doing the quick and dirty version of carving into the metal right now. Instead of a negative space, I use a positive one. It's quick, nasty and works great."
Picking up one of the gems, I turned it over in my hand before I pressed it against the wooden ball with a tiny bit of glue, looped the thread around it and continued.
Chromie nodded slowly. "I... well, I kinda follow what you mean. But I have never seen an enchanter work like that before. I know some, but never seen anyone use anything close to that."
"Most that're not a complete hack know they can do it like this. They just don't." I said with a snort. "For very good reasons. This is a stupid way to make something, when done it's going to be fragile as fuck and have real power issues. A bump in the wrong spot will make the entire thing just stop working."
Thirty degrees left, ten centimeters. Sapphire and loop.
Chromie frowned and got up from the chair she had been sitting on, standing up on the seat to see better. "So... why are you doing it like this?"
"Because it takes a hell of a lot less materials. You said we couldn't access my accounts."
"We can't. Old you would notice," Chromie said with a shrug. "The Bronze never used that much money and we don't have the time to get fancy about it. Besides, us appearing now would disrupt things."
I nodded and kept working with the metal thread. I was just going to leave the specifics of timetraveling to the Bronze dragon. Time travel would be fucking awesome to be able to do. Then again, the first thing that came to mind was seeing if Sheila would be willing to do the whole time clone thing.
Probably for the best that I had no idea what the fuck it was that Chromie was doing.
Pushing the errant thought of Sheila out of my head, I returned my focus fully to my work. Despite what I told Chromie, this was kind of finicky work. Mostly because it was so damn sensitive. A couple of degrees off on the 'reverse carving' may cause the entire thing to just overload and melt when I finally enchanted it.
We didn't have the money to buy more, then we would just need to risk either stealing it or tapping into our resources anyway.
Holding the last gem in place, I twisted the metal thread into a loop with the pliers before putting the tool down and starting to follow the lines with my fingers, double checking my work, making small adjustments when needed.
Even despite the circumstances, I couldn't help but find the familiar and easy but still involved task relaxing. Made me focus on a single task instead of worrying.
"Is it done?" Chromie asked when I put it back down.
I shook my head. "No, just the 'carving'. It's as magical as a random boulder right now. I still need to do the actual enchanting work."
"Oh."
"That must wait until we get there, though," I said and continued; "When it's on, it will stay on. Like I said, we don't have the stuff to do anything fancy." before I sighed and leaned back in my chair, rubbing my forehead.
"So... What exactly will it do?" Chromie asked and reached to poke the matrix around the wooden ball.
I slapped her hand away. "Once done, it will project a no-magic sphere twenty meters across with a counter sphere nineteen meters across inside it. It will allow us to still use magic inside, but the anti-magic shell will completely mask our magical signatures.
"Oh. Cool."
"Yeah." I agreed before looking over towards the corner next to my bed. "Pass me the spear, will you? Let's see what we can get done to it before we have to leave."
Chromie nodded and jumped off the table.
AN// Big thanks to Grey Rook for betaing this section.
Bad Dragon! No touchie fragile magical equipment that may or may not blow up in your face and destroy your timeline! Bad!
Itsune
Eldritch horror, Ship's Cat, Emergency Gunner.
- Location
- Somewhere in King County Washington
Personally, I'd put a close fitting Wood sphere around the thing to lock every thing in place using a mana nuetral hard wood, and Glue Free Puzzle Joins, in case I need to take it apart. These would be things that you would normally use for prototyping a new "work", and something you would learn to make as an Aprentice Enchanter. If you are clever, you can layer the thing with different effects for interaction testing.
"We have everything?" I asked as we walked into a very familiar clearing in the forest outside of Stormwind.
Chromie nodded, "You have already asked that, Atregos."
"Just double checking," I said before I frowned. "I actually had a thought last night."
"Did it hurt badly?" Chromie teased with a grin.
I just snorted before I shook my head, "Can you bring us further back? The further back we go, the better we can prepare."
"The further back we go, the longer we have to wait," Chromie sighed. "But what's more important, it increases the chance of disrupting the timeline. If it was just me, then maybe. But you are not a Bronze, you don't have a feeling for what actions will cause changes and what will not. I can't do this mission on my own."
"I don't like this," I said and shouldered my spear.
I really, really didn't. The odds of something going wrong was just too damn high and I didn't have Sheila, Rengosa or Zrazta watching my back.
"We should have brought more people."
"This isn't anything that can be fixed with force, Atregos," Chromie said and frowned up at me. "We have to be careful and come up with a way of doing this right. This is how the Bronze operate."
Letting my breath out, I nodded, "Fine."
"Don't worry, I've done stuff like this before."
"...Somehow I kind of doubt that."
Chromie smiled and looked around before the gnome disappeared in a cloud of smoke to be replaced with a large bronze dragon. She shifted her wings in amusement as she looked down at me, "Trust me, you would be surprised."
I frowned up at her before I shook my head and closed my eyes, focusing and soon returning to my real form as well, yawning and stretching my wings.
Despite everything, I couldn't help enjoying being back in my real form. Being in my human form was just so... restrictive. It just felt slightly uncomfortable and the longer you were in mortal form, the worse it got.
"Shall I cloak us both?" I asked the larger dragons.
"Please. I suspect your illusion magic is better than mine," Chromie answered and stretched her wings wide, giving them two flaps before taking to the air.
I took two running steps, following her into the air while I crafted the two blur spells to cover us from sight, at least once we gained a few hundred meters' altitude.
Following her up, we circled the area before she started to fly west while gaining altitude. Looking down, I saw Stormwind below us.
Venir was there.
She was one of just five Draenei we brought with us when we fled Azeroth. She couldn't go out among the locals of Westeros without the illusion amulet I crafted for her. She was my oldest friend, she saved my life when no one else could.
We had gone through a lot together. If this went well, I could bring her and her cons... fiancée, back home to Azeroth. She wouldn't need to live like that.
We couldn't bring all the mortal servants of the flights, but I brought as many as I could. If this... I could bring them all. Make more trips.
Most may have been human, but there were a lot of the other races too. We could get full communities in Westeros of all the races.
As it was... some were highly under developed. Like the Draenei and the dwarves. Five draenei and just twenty-one dwarves.
I saw Venir just a few days ago. She seemed so... lost.
I hated seeing her like that.
The city faded away beneath us as we passed the slight cloud layer and then we were out over the ocean. Nothing but ocean until the Broken Isles.
Chromie flew steadily and smoothly in front of me, her strong wings slowly beating against the air. It would take days to fly there. Even before the demons put up their anti portal field, we didn't have any portal keystones there.
So no way to portal there.
I really wish I had the coordinates for the place mapped out. If I did, I could have Walked to Earth with Chromie and then taken a train or something to the corresponding spot.
Okay, granted, it would have taken the better part of two to three weeks getting there and back if I didn't want to kill myself doing it, but then I might be able to come back with Alexis.
Actually, that's a really fucking good idea.
"Chromie," I said as I beat my wings faster, flying up next to her. "Would more people disrupt things?"
"Yes.
"If they are not from this world?" I continued. "Would they?"
Chromie looked thoughtful as she flew, "...In theory, no. Not unless there are so many that we get discovered."
I slowly nodded, "You have the tracking medallion I gave you. I'll find you in a couple of weeks, a month at the most."
"What? Atregos, where are you going?" Chromie asked as she turned her head to look at me.
"We need backup and I know just the girl to talk to about it. I'll be back as soon as I can," I said as I half closed my eyes and started to focus.
Next stop: Earth.
AN// And a barrel of thanks to Pietersielie for betaing this section.
Chromie nodded, "You have already asked that, Atregos."
"Just double checking," I said before I frowned. "I actually had a thought last night."
"Did it hurt badly?" Chromie teased with a grin.
I just snorted before I shook my head, "Can you bring us further back? The further back we go, the better we can prepare."
"The further back we go, the longer we have to wait," Chromie sighed. "But what's more important, it increases the chance of disrupting the timeline. If it was just me, then maybe. But you are not a Bronze, you don't have a feeling for what actions will cause changes and what will not. I can't do this mission on my own."
"I don't like this," I said and shouldered my spear.
I really, really didn't. The odds of something going wrong was just too damn high and I didn't have Sheila, Rengosa or Zrazta watching my back.
"We should have brought more people."
"This isn't anything that can be fixed with force, Atregos," Chromie said and frowned up at me. "We have to be careful and come up with a way of doing this right. This is how the Bronze operate."
Letting my breath out, I nodded, "Fine."
"Don't worry, I've done stuff like this before."
"...Somehow I kind of doubt that."
Chromie smiled and looked around before the gnome disappeared in a cloud of smoke to be replaced with a large bronze dragon. She shifted her wings in amusement as she looked down at me, "Trust me, you would be surprised."
I frowned up at her before I shook my head and closed my eyes, focusing and soon returning to my real form as well, yawning and stretching my wings.
Despite everything, I couldn't help enjoying being back in my real form. Being in my human form was just so... restrictive. It just felt slightly uncomfortable and the longer you were in mortal form, the worse it got.
"Shall I cloak us both?" I asked the larger dragons.
"Please. I suspect your illusion magic is better than mine," Chromie answered and stretched her wings wide, giving them two flaps before taking to the air.
I took two running steps, following her into the air while I crafted the two blur spells to cover us from sight, at least once we gained a few hundred meters' altitude.
Following her up, we circled the area before she started to fly west while gaining altitude. Looking down, I saw Stormwind below us.
Venir was there.
She was one of just five Draenei we brought with us when we fled Azeroth. She couldn't go out among the locals of Westeros without the illusion amulet I crafted for her. She was my oldest friend, she saved my life when no one else could.
We had gone through a lot together. If this went well, I could bring her and her cons... fiancée, back home to Azeroth. She wouldn't need to live like that.
We couldn't bring all the mortal servants of the flights, but I brought as many as I could. If this... I could bring them all. Make more trips.
Most may have been human, but there were a lot of the other races too. We could get full communities in Westeros of all the races.
As it was... some were highly under developed. Like the Draenei and the dwarves. Five draenei and just twenty-one dwarves.
I saw Venir just a few days ago. She seemed so... lost.
I hated seeing her like that.
The city faded away beneath us as we passed the slight cloud layer and then we were out over the ocean. Nothing but ocean until the Broken Isles.
Chromie flew steadily and smoothly in front of me, her strong wings slowly beating against the air. It would take days to fly there. Even before the demons put up their anti portal field, we didn't have any portal keystones there.
So no way to portal there.
I really wish I had the coordinates for the place mapped out. If I did, I could have Walked to Earth with Chromie and then taken a train or something to the corresponding spot.
Okay, granted, it would have taken the better part of two to three weeks getting there and back if I didn't want to kill myself doing it, but then I might be able to come back with Alexis.
Actually, that's a really fucking good idea.
"Chromie," I said as I beat my wings faster, flying up next to her. "Would more people disrupt things?"
"Yes.
"If they are not from this world?" I continued. "Would they?"
Chromie looked thoughtful as she flew, "...In theory, no. Not unless there are so many that we get discovered."
I slowly nodded, "You have the tracking medallion I gave you. I'll find you in a couple of weeks, a month at the most."
"What? Atregos, where are you going?" Chromie asked as she turned her head to look at me.
"We need backup and I know just the girl to talk to about it. I'll be back as soon as I can," I said as I half closed my eyes and started to focus.
Next stop: Earth.
AN// And a barrel of thanks to Pietersielie for betaing this section.
PseudoSim
Intentionally Obfuscating
- Location
- Beating my muse with a bat for being a pain
Next next stop: Dealing with Angry
esotericist
A Weary Hand
- Location
- Lacey, WA
Hooray Lexi!
Been looking forward to her getting screentime again. Interested in seeing how she's been since last seen.
Auuugh! And now we go off on another tangent before we see how Westeros is dealing with the new community of magic weilding dragons and their friends!
Heh, this is going to be interesting as well.
Heh, this is going to be interesting as well.
PseudoSim
Intentionally Obfuscating
- Location
- Beating my muse with a bat for being a pain
eh. he just needs to come delivering pizza.
Reality returned around me in a flash of right, replacing the unreality of the Blind Eternities in an instant.
Stumbling slightly as I returned to reality, I was suddenly very happy that I chose to do the final Walk in mortal form.
Four people were staring at me from their place on the couch, a man, a woman, and two children. They just stared at me and I glanced behind myself.
Yep, that's their TV. I was in their living room.
Oops.
Oh, Terminator. Love that one.
I turned back to them, "...My apologies, it seems I took a wrong turn somewhere. Could someone be so kind as to point me towards the door?" I asked before any of them started to recover from the surprise.
The woman raised her hand and pointed to the left.
"My thanks." I said with a smile and crafted a quick spell, putting them all to sleep before I walked out. Hopefully they'll think it was all a dream.
That was a bit awkward.
As I walked out the door, I looked around. Hmm, still in the US. Good. Makes things easier.
I never did put up a portal key stone in New York so it would take a while to get there unless I was already in the country. Fuck, even then it will take a while to do, even if I should be able to illusion myself onto a plane without any actual ID.
I glanced up at the dark sky. Overcast, but it was also evening. How late was difficult to say.
Shaking my head, I dug into my satchel and pulled out the phone Alexis got me a while ago and powered it up.
It took a while. Stupid smartphones.
When it finally booted up, I checked the battery. Better part of ninety percent. It was the reason I always had it off, so I could use it when I needed it like this.
Not like it was useful in anyway when away from earth, being basically a expensive paperweight... even if I admit I did use the camera from time to time.
I hit speed dial one and lifted it to my ear, resting my spear against my shoulder as I waited.
"The person you called is currently..."
Frowning to myself, I hung up and called the second number as well. If Alexis turns out to be off the Plane right now, I couldn't waste time.
No use hanging around here longer than I absolutely needed not to kill myself or making myself useless as I Walked back.
If Alexis was not here, I would stop by Skyrim and Whiterun to check for messages, but then I needed to get back to Azeroth.
Beep.
Beep.
"...Hello?" A man's voice said at the other end.
"Mister Castle?" I asked, "It's Atregos. Is Alexis available?"
"Atregos!" He exclaimed and there was sound of movement, "Uhm... yeah. Is she not answering her phone? She's out with some friends."
I almost let out a sigh of relief, "So she is on this Plane?"
"Yeah. What's up?"
"I could use her help with a couple of things." I said and drummed my fingers against my spear in thought, "Tell her to call me when she gets back home, I'm going to start making my way back to the city. I'm..."
I paused and looked around, "Actually not sure where. But I'll get there as soon as I can."
"Atregos, what's going on? Is she in danger?"
"...No. But a lot of other people are and I think she and her teacher can help." I answered quietly, "Tell her 'Burning Legion'. She'll understand what I mean. Tell her to call me when she gets home."
Hanging up the phone I looked around and frowned. Now to find out where the hell I... oh. I'm such an idiot.
Pulling out the phone again I quickly found the GPS map application. I'm in...
Arkansas!?
Great... just halfway across the fucking country if I remember my earth geography right. Well, not quite, a bit closer but still not exactly close if I remember my maps right.
Fuck it, I'm flying.
Ignoring anyone that might be watching, I turned back and took to the air, almost hitting a parked car on the way. Then I climbed towards the dark sky, avoiding a set of powerlines before casting a blur spell around myself.
I started to climb again before a uncomfortable thought struck me and I sunk back down to three hundred meters or so as I started to beat my wings and fly east.
Better not fly too high up on earth. Scarier things than me up there and I really don't want to end up causing a.. well, dragon strike. Never mind that while my armor was tough, I kinda doubted that it was 'hit by a 747 at close to the speed of sound' tough.
AN// Big thanks to FPSCanarussia for betaing this section.
Stumbling slightly as I returned to reality, I was suddenly very happy that I chose to do the final Walk in mortal form.
Four people were staring at me from their place on the couch, a man, a woman, and two children. They just stared at me and I glanced behind myself.
Yep, that's their TV. I was in their living room.
Oops.
Oh, Terminator. Love that one.
I turned back to them, "...My apologies, it seems I took a wrong turn somewhere. Could someone be so kind as to point me towards the door?" I asked before any of them started to recover from the surprise.
The woman raised her hand and pointed to the left.
"My thanks." I said with a smile and crafted a quick spell, putting them all to sleep before I walked out. Hopefully they'll think it was all a dream.
That was a bit awkward.
As I walked out the door, I looked around. Hmm, still in the US. Good. Makes things easier.
I never did put up a portal key stone in New York so it would take a while to get there unless I was already in the country. Fuck, even then it will take a while to do, even if I should be able to illusion myself onto a plane without any actual ID.
I glanced up at the dark sky. Overcast, but it was also evening. How late was difficult to say.
Shaking my head, I dug into my satchel and pulled out the phone Alexis got me a while ago and powered it up.
It took a while. Stupid smartphones.
When it finally booted up, I checked the battery. Better part of ninety percent. It was the reason I always had it off, so I could use it when I needed it like this.
Not like it was useful in anyway when away from earth, being basically a expensive paperweight... even if I admit I did use the camera from time to time.
I hit speed dial one and lifted it to my ear, resting my spear against my shoulder as I waited.
"The person you called is currently..."
Frowning to myself, I hung up and called the second number as well. If Alexis turns out to be off the Plane right now, I couldn't waste time.
No use hanging around here longer than I absolutely needed not to kill myself or making myself useless as I Walked back.
If Alexis was not here, I would stop by Skyrim and Whiterun to check for messages, but then I needed to get back to Azeroth.
Beep.
Beep.
"...Hello?" A man's voice said at the other end.
"Mister Castle?" I asked, "It's Atregos. Is Alexis available?"
"Atregos!" He exclaimed and there was sound of movement, "Uhm... yeah. Is she not answering her phone? She's out with some friends."
I almost let out a sigh of relief, "So she is on this Plane?"
"Yeah. What's up?"
"I could use her help with a couple of things." I said and drummed my fingers against my spear in thought, "Tell her to call me when she gets back home, I'm going to start making my way back to the city. I'm..."
I paused and looked around, "Actually not sure where. But I'll get there as soon as I can."
"Atregos, what's going on? Is she in danger?"
"...No. But a lot of other people are and I think she and her teacher can help." I answered quietly, "Tell her 'Burning Legion'. She'll understand what I mean. Tell her to call me when she gets home."
Hanging up the phone I looked around and frowned. Now to find out where the hell I... oh. I'm such an idiot.
Pulling out the phone again I quickly found the GPS map application. I'm in...
Arkansas!?
Great... just halfway across the fucking country if I remember my earth geography right. Well, not quite, a bit closer but still not exactly close if I remember my maps right.
Fuck it, I'm flying.
Ignoring anyone that might be watching, I turned back and took to the air, almost hitting a parked car on the way. Then I climbed towards the dark sky, avoiding a set of powerlines before casting a blur spell around myself.
I started to climb again before a uncomfortable thought struck me and I sunk back down to three hundred meters or so as I started to beat my wings and fly east.
Better not fly too high up on earth. Scarier things than me up there and I really don't want to end up causing a.. well, dragon strike. Never mind that while my armor was tough, I kinda doubted that it was 'hit by a 747 at close to the speed of sound' tough.
AN// Big thanks to FPSCanarussia for betaing this section.
