//------------------------------//
// Order Hall: Investigation 
// Story: World of Warcraft: The Ties that Bind 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
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When Trixie, Ravandwyr, and Esara returned to the Hall of the Guardian the first thing Trixie did was hand over the Fel tomes to someone that knew what to do with them, before following her companions to where Meryl was resting, where she discovered that the undead mage seemed sicker than he was when she left for Azsuna. From what she could tell none of the mages around the bed had any idea what to do with Meryl, which meant that they had no idea what was wrong with him, though she worried that something terrible might happen to him if they didn't cure his illness. A few moments later, with the three of the looking at Meryl, Khadgar walked over and checked up on the sick mage, while at the same time Trixie noticed that her followers were focusing on their tasks and giving her some room.

While Khadgar checked up on Meryl, however, Trixie took the opportunity to tell him what she, Ravandwyr, and Esara found in Azsuna, knowing that her mentor would have some insight to what was going on at the moment.

"Archmage Vargoth's involvement with the Empyrean Society is troubling." Khadgar said, though at the same time he focused on what he was doing with Meryl, which involved walking towards one of the bookshelves and running a hand over one of the spines, "However, as he has proven his loyalty to the Kirin Tor many times, we must give him the benefit of the doubt for now. Still, I am obligated to share our concerns with the rest of the Council. You had best travel back to Dalaran and meet with them in the Violet Citadel. I will remain here to care for our old friend."

Trixie knew that some of the Council members would at least lend her their ear because she had been Khadgar's apprentice for so many years, but at the same time she knew that none of them would be too happy to hear that she was accusing one of the other members of working with fel magic. A part of her said that something strange was going on here, as she had never seen Archmage Vargoth break the rules in such a manner, and she had been watching all six of the Council members whenever she was in the area. She wondered if the Dreadlord that had been messing with Meryl was behind all of this, but she kept her mouth shut on that matter and headed back to where she had left Azuregos.

The disguised dragon was sitting in one of the chairs and was currently overlooking the city from the balcony that the Hall of the Guardian had, though when Trixie walked up to him, however, he pulled himself from his chair and turned towards her.

"So, what's our next move?" Azuregos asked, though at the same time he tapped his staff on the ground as he returned to Trixie's side, where he preferred to be after what happened in the Academy a few days ago.

"We need to go speak with the remaining Council members and tell them what I found in Azsuna," Trixie replied, to which she started walking towards the portal that would take them back to Dalaran, where she found that Azuregos was following her again, "Archmage Vargoth may or may not be in league with the Legion... and I need to bring this to the attention of the other Council members."

Azuregos nodded his understanding, as they both knew that anyone tampering with fel magic was likely to fall into the hands of the Legion and hand over secrets that could spell the doom of their Orders or Dalaran itself, to which they accessed the portal and headed back to Dalaran. When they arrived at Krasus' Landing Trixie decided that they should walk to the building that the Council would be gathered in, though Azuregos agreed, as he had done nothing but sit around since she had left for Azsuna. As they walked they both noticed that some of the people were looking at them, mostly because they knew that Trixie and Azuregos were Blue Dragons, but Trixie was used to the stares... though they made good time and reached their destination in record time.

When they reached the building, however, Trixie found that Kalec had already returned from the Hall of the Guardian, meaning that he must have told the other Council members what Trixie had found... as she noticed that one of the Archmages, Ansirem Runeweaver, was definitely annoyed at the moment.

"We do not tolerate misconduct amongst our own, Trixie Lulamoon." Archmage Ansirem said, though his tone indicated that he wasn't using the respect he usually held towards her, since she was Khadgar's apprentice, which meant that her discovery had definitely pissed him off, "However, if your accusation against Archmage Vargoth proves malicious, know that the consequences will be severe."

This was one of those moments that Trixie was reminded of Lyra's annoyance with the people of Azeroth, as they were under attack by the Legion and one of the Archmages that served on the Council of Six was talking about punishing her for accusing another Archmage of dabbling in fel magic. Fortunately she didn't have to remain on that thought for long, as Kalec coughed for a few seconds and caused the other three Archmages to turn towards him.

"Ansirem, I have been following Trixie for some time now," Kalec commented, though as he spoke Trixie noticed that the other Archmage was slightly annoyed, if the look on his face was any indication, "and these are not spurious charges. I, too, have observed Archmage Vargoth behaving oddly."

"As have I." Archmage Karlain added, drawing attention to himself once more, before everyone turned their attention back to Ansirem, "Lately he has been preoccupied on something..."

"If it is true that Archmage Vargoth is exploring fel magic, I will be shocked!" Archmage Ansirem stated, though at the same time he let out a sigh, as if he had noticed something that was on the lines of what Kalec and Karlain had told him and hated to admit that he had seen the sign as well, "Still, I guess we owe you our thanks in bringing this matter to our attention. Trixie Lulamoon, since Vargoth has been absent for a while, you and your companion may have a look around his living quarters here in the citadel tower. Kalec will escort the two of you there. I will hold out hope that our esteemed colleague is merely up to his usual eccentricities."

Trixie silently hoped that Archmage Vargoth wasn't tampering with fel magic, but the evidence at the Empyrean Enclave, or rather the lack of evidence, meant that they needed to find something to determine what was going on and which side Vargoth was actually on. She nodded to Kalec and watched as a portal to Vargoth's living quarters was opened in front of them, to which she, Azuregos, and Kalec entered the portal and traveled to their new destination, where they appeared on one of the balconies that rested on the citadel's tower. Once the portal closed behind them Trixie opened the door in front of them and walked into the living quarters, though not a few seconds later she was followed by both of her companions... though it appeared that the place looked completely normal.

"This is a nice living space, for a mortal," Azuregos commented, looking at all of the items that rested around them, while at the same time noticing that Kalec was nodding his head in agreement, "Now then, let's see what sort of secrets Archmage Vargoth is hiding... if he is actually hiding anything."

"Now this is interesting," Kalec said, pointing at a scroll that had been open when they entered the room, to which Trixie raised an eyebrow for a few seconds, "I had no idea that Archmage Vargoth was also interested in the breeding habits of angelfish!"

Trixie quickly determined that the scroll was of no use to them, since angelfish had nothing to do with what they were searching for, so she ignored the parchment and continued looking around the chamber that they were in. She spotted a journal on Vargoth's bed, something that she determined to check once she and the others had made sure that there was nothing else of interest in the room. Kalec also expressed an interest in the open tome that was floating above one of the tables, as it apparently contained some information on ancient Nightborne rituals, and that he resolved to borrow it at some point in the future. Azuregos, on the other hand, found two interesting items to comment on; a doughnut that had been sitting on a table, which was molding and indicating that Vargoth had been gone for longer than they suspected, and a novelty crystal ball.

Once they determined that there was nothing else of interest, and were sure on that, Trixie collected the journal she had spotted earlier and opened it to the page that had been written last... though at the same time Azuregos and Kalec checked it out as well as they looked over her shoulder.

"Hmm. This appears to be Archmage Vargoth's notes on the Nightborne Soulstone." Azuregos commented, though Trixie knew that the disguised dragon would know about this, as he was supposed to hunt down and lock away powerful artifacts inside the Nexus Vault, though at the same time Kalec nodded his agreement, "Supposedly the energy of captured souls stored within it can be channeled directly from the stone! If that's true, it is very powerful, indeed!"

"Archmage Vargoth seems to be mixed up in something dangerous, not that that's unusual for an Archmage of his caliber and experience!" Kalec said, though at the same time he gently took the journal, as it would prove to be the evidence they needed for the others, before looking at Trixie, "The Arcway Vaults may be where he's headed, but we should investigate all leads in order to get a better idea of what he's up to."

Trixie nodded and knew that this meant that she needed to head back to the Hall of the Guardian and asked some of her champions, of which Kalec was one of, to investigate the locations that Kalec had given her a list of, to which she accessed her magic and teleported herself and Azuregos back to her Order Hall. When they returned to the Hall of the Guardian, however, Trixie made sure to approach the other three champions and asked them if they would be willing to search three of the locations that she had been handed. She was fortunate that they were eager to search for Archmage Vargoth, as they were curious as to what he was doing, and immediately set out to gather some apprentices before they set out for their destinations.

As Trixie headed towards one of the tables that Azuregos had been sitting at earlier, so she could relax a tiny bit after everything she had been through so far, she was stopped by one of the other apprentices... one who had a very interesting report to hand her.

"Conjurer, we've detected a strange energy signature coming from the area around Dalaran," the apprentice said, though at the same time Trixie looked over what she had been handed, "only this energy is nothing like what the magic that we possess... its more like what your magic is like."

"Equestrian magic..." Trixie commented, wondering what was even going on at the moment, before she noticed that the report said that the signature was located near the citadel she had just been in, on the small floating island that followed the city around, "Tell the others that I will be back in a few minutes... I need to check this out for myself."

The apprentice nodded and returned to her duties, though at the same time Trixie lead a confused Azuregos over to the Dalaran portal and returned to Krasus' Landing once more, but when they arrived they found that Lyra was already walking towards them.

"Did your followers tell you about the strange energy as well?" Trixie asked, because if Lyra's demon hunters had spotted the signature as well, something that she had missed, then there was no telling who else had noticed it.

"At first we thought that the Legion was going to pull in a ship and attack the city, but then I noticed that the signature was different than anything else we've seen so far," Lyra replied, though at the same time the three of them walked back over to where the citadel was located, but this time they ignored the building and walked over to a hole in the wall, which allowed them to look at the small island.

Normally there would be someone sitting on the island, fishing to his hearts content while the world around him shattered under the weight of whatever threat the world was facing, though today that man was no where to be seen and there was no one else on the island. There was, however, a creature that Trixie and Lyra had thought that they were never going to see again, as they were looking down at a creature that was made up of a variety of other animals, one that they had both learned about when they were fillies. The creature seemed to be sunbathing, if the chair and reflectors were anything to consider, though as the trio stared at the island the creature seemed to notice that he was being watched, as he turned his head towards them and waved.

Before Lyra and Trixie could wave back, however, the chimera leapt off of his chair, tossed the reflectors away, and slashed at the air in front of him, creating a portal to what appeared to be another world... to which he walked through the tear in the air and disappeared, which caused the strange portal to close.

"Wh... what was that thing?" Azuregos asked, because he had never seen anything like that creature before, especially since it appeared to have body parts that belonged to multiple animals, and its appearance had shocked him a tiny bit.

"Discord," Trixie said, though at the same time Lyra nodded, as she understood who they had just seen, before she glanced over at Azuregos, "he's the Lord of Chaos and the Spirit of Disharmony of our home planet, Equus. I have no idea what he was doing on that island, or how he managed to find out where we were, but his presence confirms one thing."

"And what is that?" Azuregos inquired, though he wasn't liking the sound of this character, because it sounded like Discord might be responsible for sending Lyra and Trixie to this world, not that he was complaining thanks to everything they had done to save the world so far.

"It means that, at any point in time, he can come and take us home," Lyra replied, though that was when she turned around and started heading back to the Fel Hammer, while at the same time knowing that she and Trixie likely needed to do something before the Spirit bothered to rescue them, "though it appears that he's waiting to see how this war ends before doing that. We had best focus on our tasks, least Discord's sudden appearance throw us off track completely."

Trixie wanted to know what Discord was doing here, as it appeared that he might have been spying on them, but at the moment she had to agree with Lyra; they had to focus on gathering the Pillars of Creation and stop the Legion from wiping out Azeroth... and then they could think about going home.