The group was barely a minute away from where they found Prince Farondis when they were stopped by a pair of angry spirits, though instead of focusing on Lyra, Trixie, or Azuregos they focused on their prince. Trixie had seen hatred in the eyes of both the Alliance and Horde, back during their campaign in Pandaria, but this was on a level beyond what she was used to. She had known that the entirety of Azeroth had suffered ten thousand years ago, when the Well of Eternity exploded and tore apart the landmass that that existed at the time, creating the continents of the modern age, and it appeared that these spirits might be from that time period. If they were really ten thousand years old, and their curse had not been lifted from them, that meant that they were dealing with someone incredibly powerful... and judging by who their enemies were, the naga and their allies, that meant it could be only one person; Queen Azshara.
Sure, she and Lyra had known this fact since they flew into Azsuna and helped the Illidari, but now this was further verification of what they knew... and that meant that they had to work fast before their enemies discovered the location of the Tidestone.
"You have some nerve showing your face around here." one of the spirits angrily said, to which she spit in Prince Farondis' direction, before she and her companion parted ways and allowed them to continue walking.
"I… I am sorry." Prince Farondis replied, clearly trying to regain the trust of his people, but when it appeared that this group would not listen to him he sighed and moved forward, causing Lyra, Trixie, and Azuregos to follow after him.
Not a minute later they spotted another group blocking their path, though Prince Farondis took out the group of naga that were approaching them by burning them with boulders, before they stopped in front of the spirits once more.
"You did this to us, Farondis." one of the other spirits said, accusing the prince of what he had done in the past, which made Trixie curious as to why the spirits hated their prince so much.
"I only did what I thought was right." Prince Farondis insisted, telling the group that he must have tried this many times over the last ten thousand years, which meant that he was persistent and wouldn't give up if he believed that he was doing something right.
With the spirits out of the way the group of four continued to the entrance of the ruined city and approached the bridge, where Lyra, Trixie, and Azuregos noticed a spirit, who was dressed in the same armor as the lady they had first helped, standing in their way.
"Hold right there." the spirit exclaimed, stopping the group in their tracks, though the only reason Lyra, Trixie, and Azuregos did that was because Prince Farondis wanted them to do so, "We will not let you into Nar’thalas again. Not after what happened last time."
"I beg your forgiveness, Thaldrys." Prince Farondis replied, informing the group that, despite what happened all those years ago, the prince was truly sorry for whatever he had done.
"You sundered the land we called home." Thaldrys said, his tone full of accusation, which meant that he had spent a long time preparing for this and was letting everything out all at once, "You denied us the release of death. Ten thousand years of damnation for ten thousand elves. All because your foolish alliances and botched politics."
"Thaldrys..." Prince Farondis said, sounding a little defeated for a moment, which meant that the spirit in front of them had been a loyal follower until they had a falling out, "What can I do to make amends?"
"I doubt there’s anything you can do now, prince." Thaldrys replied, though he crossed his arms and said no more, indicating that he would not allow his prince to enter the ruined city, but Trixie knew that she and her friends might be able to get away with entering the city.
"Perhaps this was a mistake." Prince Farondis said, to which he pulled the group back for a moment, though his movements indicated he had something for them to do, "They have not forgiven me, and I cannot blame them considering what happened, but past crimes aside, I am still their prince. Even in death, I will do what I can to protect my people. Friends, I need the three of you to act as my champions for some time. Find and defeat the creature that leads this naga attack against the people of Nar’thalas. After all these years, the three of you may very well be the instruments of my redemption."
Trixie knew that finding the naga in question would be rather easy, considering all they had to do was save some spirits and they would point them in the right direction, to which she beckoned for her friends to follow her... though a few seconds later she stopped as she spotted two living people sitting in an area of the ruins that was close to where she, Lyra, and Azuregos would be passing through. Instead of leaving the two living elves alone, and likely get them hurt in something they weren't prepared for, Trixie sighed and walked over to where they were resting... to which the female elf immediately noticed the group approaching them.
"Hi! Trixie Lulamoon, right?" the female elf said, to which Trixie nodded, as she wasn't expecting to find someone down here that already knew her name and face, "The archmages in Dalaran said we might see you down here. My brother and I are here on a reconnaissance mission. We’re looking for our parents. We’ve lived our entire lives thinking that our family was killed in Azsuna several thousand years ago, but look around! Most of the elves here are ghosts. Olothil’s been searching through books for clues as to why, but we could use some help."
"In order to find the spirits of our family, I will need materials to scry their location." her brother, Olothil, commented, though the group could tell that he was annoyed about something, "The naga carry magical trinkets imbued with ley energy that is better-attuned to this land than anything we have in Dalaran. If I had a few of those, I could do some real scrying."
"Okay, we'll find a few of the naga's magical trinkets and see if we can't find any intact books," Lyra said, though at the same time she sighed, because these two were distracting them from their mission, but Trixie had already committed them by approaching the pair of siblings and there was no backing out now.
The trio left the siblings in their hiding spot and walked down the road that they had been following, which brought them to the middle of the ruined city and allowed them to see that the naga were using siege machines that they had built to deal damage to the entire city. It was clear that they weren't interested in keeping what remained of the city intact, though both Trixie and Azuregos growled as they watched the naga attempt to bring down the wall near them, only to fail in the end. The pair separated themselves from Lyra and charged at the closest siege weapon, to which they ignited their magic and blasted the naga off of the device, before they destroyed the weapon as well.
Lyra sighed as she watched her fellow Equestrian and the disguised dragon continued their assault on the naga's siege weapons, though that was before she continued the search for the naga they were after... to which she found a spirit that was pinned to a wall with a trident sticking out of its stomach, where she didn't bother to question how a spirit could be impaled on a wall in the first place. She freed the spirit after taking out the naga that was standing near it, though when she asked about the leader of the naga's forces she was pointed up the large set of stairs and was told that Athissa was at the building at the top. With that information in hand Lyra climbed up the stairs and easily found the building in question, though she had to kill the four naga that were standing guard outside the entrance.
Inside the building she spotted a lean naga, one that seemed to be dressed in the naga's version of a sorceress' armor, that happened to be interrogating some of the spirits that had been brought to her... and so far hadn't noticed that Lyra was approaching her from behind.
"Your orders are clear! Find the Tidestone, and return it to Her Glory, Queen Azshara!" Athissa shouted, bellowing her orders to the naga that were attacking the city, as if she was taking a break from the interrogation or something, "These creatures only pretend to understand its power. The Tidestone belongs to Azshara, Her Radiance, the Light Beneath the Tides! Scour the sands! Pillage the ruins! Slay anyone and anything that gets in your path! FIND THAT TIDESTONE! Your Queen Azshara wills it, and so shall it be done!"
Lyra decided to intervene while she had the chance, to which she threw one of the Twinblades at her target and grinned as it cut into one of Athissa's arms, causing her to drop the spirit she was holding onto and focus on Lyra. As Athissa turned her attention to Lyra, and started to ignore the spirits behind her, the spirits seemed to sense that this was the best time to flee and took the opportunity to leave, allowing Lyra to fight without having to worry about hitting them in the process. Lyra moved around the chamber they were in, dodging Athissa's attempts to hit her with a single spell and making her miss when she tried to use a blizzard spell, though the only one she had to watch out for was the large number of people sized bubbles that rained down from the ceiling... though she suspected that they would trap her in an instant and avoided them to the best of her ability.
While she ran around the area, and forced her opponent to miss her, she occasionally charged at her and delivered a cut to some part of her body, pissing Athissa off in the process before she moved away again... though she was truly stopped when the naga zeroed in on her and froze her where she was standing.
"Enough of this!" Athissa declared, though as she said that she started moving towards the building's entrance, clearly intending to leave the area for the moment, "The Tidestone will be ours!"
A few seconds later Lyra broke out of the ice that she had been trapped in, which was nothing compared to the fel prison Maiev had locked her in for all those years, before she charged outside and looked around for her target... where she discovered that Athissa had fled the moment she had cast the freezing spell on her.
"Such a troublesome pest," Lyra commented, though at the same time she sheathed her warglaives and walked over to the edge, where she found the location that Trixie and Azuregos were in.
It was times like this that Lyra was glad that she was still wearing her Illidari robe, because her back, and the fel markings that were near her shoulders, were bare for the world to see. The first time she had used her demon wings, to glide from the top of the Black Temple to a spot where the Illidari practiced gliding towards, she had asked where they came from and why they weren't permanent. From what she had been told only the really strong demon hunters, such as Lord Illidan, were capable of making their wings a permanent addition to their body. The fel markings on her back, which existed in the same location for every demon hunter that was under her command, were where her wings were, waiting to be unfurled at a moment's notice.
It made her think back to when she was locked in her Havoc Form thanks to Maiev, before Gul'dan snapped her back to reality, but she shook the memory away and jumped into the air... where she unfurled her wings and glided down to where her friends were fighting, surprising them in the process.
"I cannot believe that I forgot you could do that." Trixie said, trying to find the fact that she had forgotten Lyra could glide from high places, though at the same time Lyra allowed the fel wings to fade back into her tattoos as she looked around the area.
"I don't mind that you forgot," Lyra replied, though at the same time she noticed that Azuregos was carrying three trinkets and some books, "I take it you guys found what we were asked to find, while I was busy taking out Athissa?"
"We found a few trinkets that Olothil is bound to like," Azuregos commented, sounding a little pleased that he and Trixie were able to pick up what they were after, while getting revenge on the naga that was were trying to destroy the rest of the ruined city, "We also three tomes that detailed the downfall of Azsuna; apparently Prince Farondis disagreed with his Queen's idea of joining forces with the Legion, to which he planned on staging a coup to stop the destruction of the world. One of the people that were in his circle learned of his plans and told the Queen about what he intended to do... to which Queen Azshara used her magic to shatter the Tidestone and place a curse on the people of this land, trapping them in the state they are in now."
"That explains why the spirits hate their prince so much," Lyra said, a frown appearing on her face for a moment, because she wasn't liking how this was going at all, "I don't know how Queen Azshara had the power to shatter a Titan artifact like the Tidestone, but all this means is that we need to be careful while we're here... because something tells me that she won't sit idle while we fight her forces."
Trixie and Azuregos looked at her for a moment, realizing that she had come to the same conclusion that they had reached while they were fighting the naga, before they moved back towards the location that Prince Farondis had chosen to stay in. They needed to tell him that the task he had sent them on was done, as well as tell Olothil the good news... before they truly focused on finding and securing the Tidestone, before Athissa came back with an even larger army than what they had seen so far.