World of Warcraft: The Ties that Bind

by Blackdrag-rose

Order Hall: Helping the Wardens

Lyra had been hopeful when she heard that her followers had detected an energy signature that matched her's and Trixie's own signatures, as that meant that someone from Equus must have come looking for them and likely followed their energy to Azeroth. She would have been lying if she said that she wasn't hoping for reinforcements from her home world, but the other ponies were guards or plain civilians and none of them were prepared for what forces were attacking this planet. Still, she would have been more comfortable if either of the Royal Sisters, Princess Luna and Princess Celestia, or Princess Twilight had come to this world in search of her and Trixie... but instead they got the one creature that was no doubt responsible for them coming to this planet in the first place; Discord.

All she could determine was that whatever Discord had done, to whoever his target was, happened to have some side effects and caught her and Trixie in the process, which was why she had shown up in the Outlands while Trixie appeared in Azeroth itself. She silently cursed Discord for doing whatever he had done back on their home planet, because she had suffered quite enough since she had arrived in the Outlands... and she was sure that Trixie had more than her share, considering what she had been told a week or two ago. Lyra was still surprised when she remembered that Trixie and her friends, those in the Alliance and those in the Horde, managed to kill Archimonde... not to mention defeating so many other enemies, each of which could have easily ended Azeroth, and survived to tell the tale.

Lyra let out a sigh as she opened her fel wings and glided down to the portal that would take her to the Fel Hammer, though when she walked through to the other side she immediately noticed that Malevolence was beckoning her over... to which she sucked up her annoyance for Discord and approached the Matron Mother. One thing she noticed, however, was the fact that most of the Illidari, both the demon hunters and the races they were allied with, were on guard, meaning that something was bound to happen soon.

"So good of you to return, Lyra Heartstrings." Malevolance commented, though at the same time she seemed concerned about something, which told Lyra that she needed to be ready for whatever was coming at them, "Brace yourself, because I am detecting a strange magic, not like what you investigated, forming in the chamber. Something is projecting itself in."

That was rapidly followed by two images appearing to Lyra's left, near the wall that Gaardoun and his Broken trained in, though Lyra growled when she recognized the image of Varedis Felsoul, which meant that the smaller corrupted demon hunter was Caria, the one that Lyndraxa had killed.

"How touching." Caria commented, though Lyra could hear the mocking tone in her voice, while at the same time the corrupted demon hunters looked around the chamber as Lyndraxa stepped up to Lyra's side, "You've gotten a few more champions... as if it will help in any way."

"Quite the ragtag bunch you have here, Lyra Heartstrings." Varedis said, though that was followed by the Lyra's former trainer glaring down at her, while at the same time she glared up at him in return, "I would have thought that you could do better than this. But enough with the pleasantries. Our Lord, Kil'Jaeden, has sent us to inform you that you and your Illidari will soon be joining the Burning Legion..."

"...and to prove that you are not safe," Caria finished, though at the same time she and Varedis smiled at Lyra and Lyndraxa, almost as if they were sure that their message would cause some of the Illidari to turn traitor automatically, "not even here, on the Fel Hammer."

"Hear me, Illidari!" Varedis shouted, causing the entire ship to go silent in a matter of seconds, meaning that everyone was listening to what Kil'jaeden's pawns were saying, "All present are welcome into the embrace of the Legion!"

"Great power will be imbued into those that join us!" Caria added, though Lyra was thankful that most of the power hungry demon hunters had died in the assault on Mardum, otherwise she was sure that there would be more traitors for her and the others to deal with, "Pain and agony waits those that refuse this gift!"

"Personally, I do hope you refuse, Lyra Heartstrings." Varedis said, though at the same time Lyra could tell that he was staring at the Twinblades, the very weapons he had discarded during his fight with her, "Then those warglaives will return to their rightful owner."

"Fair is fair, Varedis." Lyra growled, though before she could do anything, such as pull out the Twinblades and stab the two images, the images of the corrupted demon hunters disappeared, leaving her and the others to their decision regarding the offer they had all been given.

"The two of them are puppets of Kil'jaeden and a bane on our existence. I am glad that you and Lyndraxa have their warglaives." Belath commented, approaching the pair of demon hunters for a moment, to which they turned towards him and gave him their full attention, "They will be that much easier to kill when we invade their world. I wonder, do you have a moment to discuss a rather urgent issue?"

"There has also been an increase in demonic activity below on Mardum." Malevolence added, to which Lyra nodded her head in agreement to that, because it made sense that the Legion would still be sending troops here in order to claim the world again, "There are still demons leftover down there from when we first invaded. To eliminate any threat to the Fel Hammer, it's time that they were destroyed."

It really didn't take Lyra long to come up with an answer to what Malevolence suggested, as she had agreed with it the moment the Matron Mother opened her mouth, though she did turn to Belath and asked what additional work they needed to do in their quest to stop the Legion.

"As much as we might not like it, we need the aid of the Wardens if we're to locate the Sargerite Keystone." Belath said, though he patiently waited for the flash of anger to leave Lyra's face, because she disliked the Wardens and hated Maiev, but she was, at least, willing to give the others a chance, "They took it from you when we were all imprisoned in the vault. With Maiev missing, again I might add, their current leader is Sira Moonwarden. On your behalf, I have agreed that we will assist them in tracking down some of the more powerful creatures that escaped from the Vault of the Wardens. In return, she will direct us to where we need to go to get the Keystone."

"How many targets do they want us to eliminate?" Lyndraxa asked, as she wanted to know how many of them she needed to kill before they could finally get the Keystone, something that Lyra agreed with.

"Sira said that there are five she wants us to deal with," Belath replied, to which he held up a list and started reading the names that had been written down on it, "Skul'vrax, Mellok, Fathnyr, Mal'Dreth the Corruptor, and something on the Isle of the Watchers. After those five missions are taken care of, and Mardum is secured once more, we should be able to gain the location of the Keystone."

Lyra nodded and headed towards the command table, where Lyndraxa asked her to be sent to Mardum so she could clean up the mess that they had apparently left behind, to which Lyra agreed and sent her out immediately. That left her with four champions that could carry out her will, though her decision was that one of her champions would deal with one of the threats that Sira told them about. Then, one the four named ones were dealt with, they would gather on the Isle of the Watchers and deal with the final target together... to which her champions saluted her and headed out towards the portal that would take them to Dalaran. Since she had nothing better to do, and it appeared that she wouldn't be going anywhere until her champions returned to the Fel Hammer, Lyra decided to train her skill by asking some of the other demon hunters, the newest ones, if they would like to join her.

To make things more fair for the new initiates, and to provide some challenge for her, Lyra opted to not use the Twinblades and used a pair that the demon hunters used when they were training, though once she was ready she charged at the Illidari that had accepted her challenge.

Some time, likely an hour or two, passed before both she and the initiates were done with their training, to which Lyra set her training blades back where she had gotten them from, collected her actual weapons, and had a quick word with the person that was training the initiates. From what she had seen they could all use some additional work, which the instructor agreed with, but she was pleased to say that they could definitely hold their own against someone like her, which made their instructor proud... despite the fact that they both knew that Lyra had been holding back the entire time. If she was looking for some serious training she would have transformed into her Havoc Form and attacked them, but she knew that using that form would have been overkill... though this method allowed her to understand how her followers were holding up and if there was anything that needed to change in order to make them stronger.

When she walked back up to the main floor of the Fel Hammer, however, one of the Illidari came over and handed her a report that had come in, from all of the champions she had sent out on missions, which made sense seeing how Lyndraxa was walking on the other side of the chamber. Lyra thanked the naga for the information and quickly read through the report, where she discovered that Lyndraxa had actually discovered a survivor who had been fighting on Mardum since they took control of the Fel Hammer... and apparently never picked up. With the report in hand she walked over to Belath and showed him what she discovered, though it appeared that he was surprised as well.

"Ariana Fireheart?!" Belath said, looking down at the name for a few seconds, before glancing up and noticing a new arrival had appeared in the Fel Hammer, "I thought she died the first time we were here. How horrible that she's been down there all this time. But, what an amazing survivor! I remember her being an excellent trainer of demon hunters. We should put her talents to good use immediately."

"Agreed," Lyra replied, as another trainer for the new initiates would be most welcome, as she was sure that Ariana would be able to improve upon what they were learning at the moment, before she turned to Belath again, "Now, what about the Wardens?"

"Well, we did everything that she asked, but that wasn't enough for Sira Moonwarden." Belath answered, noticing a look of annoyance appear on Lyra's face, indicating that she wasn't pleased by this turn of events, "She's asking for one more thing and she wants you to deal with it personally."

Lyra had been hoping that Sira was more than willing to give them the information that they requested, especially after her champions had killed five of the runaway prisoners that had escaped from the Vault of the Wardens, but it appeared that she was dealing with someone that was on Maiev's level of annoyance... to which she quickly gestured for Belath to continue so she could deal with this immediately.

"The way I see it, the Wardens owe us for all of those years we were imprisoned." Belath stated, indicating that he didn't much care for how they were being treated either, "Unfortunately, their new leader, Sira Moonwarden doesn't agree with my assessment. Even though your champions have already dealt with several of their escaped bounties, she wants more. In fact, as a sign of good faith, she's asking that you deal with it personally. You'll have to extinguish the flames of the kobold candles to summon forth the Devouring Darkness. The other two, Hertha Grimdottir and Theryssia, should be more straightforward... and she even passed on a small list to tell you where all three are located."

It turned out that the Devouring Darkness resided somewhere near a small settlement called Skyhorn, which happened to rest in Highmountain, while Theryssia happened to be located outside Black Rook Hold and Hertha rested in Suramar, near the border with Stormheim. Lyra was surprised that one of the three targets was in an area that she had already passed through, as she didn't see anything that matched Sira's description of Theryssia, but she simply sighed, walked through the portal to Dalaran, and asked the flight master to arrange for a mount to take her to three specific locations... which apparently didn't take too long for him to do, because soon she was on her way to Val'sharah once more.

The flight to Val'sharah, or more specifically Bradensbrook, gave Lyra some time to think about what she was going to do if Sira Moonwarden went back on her word and refused to hand over the Keystone. It was likely that none of the Wardens even knew what it was or what it did, but had likely kept it around since Lyra had been holding onto it before Maiev trapped her in her prison. The only reason they needed the Keystone, besides keeping it out of the Legion's hands, was so they could invade a Legion world and wipe its forces out, which made her wonder if Lord Illidan's plan had been to assault Argus at some point in time. She had to wonder what Sargeras was doing with the world that Velen and his people had come from, but something in the back of her head told her that they would find out about that soon enough.

When she arrived in Bradensbrook she climbed off the griffon she had been riding on, which was going to stay until she needed to find her second target, before she retraced her steps towards Black Rook Hold... where she quickly spotted a ghost floating near a tombstone, a ghost that matched the description of Theryssia.

Once the ghost of Theryssia spotted her, and shrieked in her direction, Lyra growled and charged at her target, allowing her warglaives to slash through her opponent's body and damage Theryssia, like she had done to the spirits in Black Rook Hold. Lyra soon discovered that this particular target was extremely boring, as all she had to do was silence Theryssia's ghostly wail before it could be used and the ghost went silent, to which she attacked her with her hands as Lyra hacked into her in turn. Theryssia made two more attempts to use its ghostly wail on Lyra, who in turn silenced her target, before she dealt the finishing blow and let the spirit of Theryssia journey to whatever afterlife she was destined for.

The moment Theryssia's ghost was dealt with, and a name was crossed off the list, Lyra returned to Bradensbrook and had the griffon fly her to Highmountain, so she could find the cave that the Devouring Darkness was in and deal with it before it plagued the tauren that called the region home.

It took her some time to reach Skyhorn, giving her some time to reflect on what she knew about Argus once more, before the griffon touched down in the settlement she was supposed to land in. As she asked around for where the cave she needed was located, however, a guardian druid emerged from the main building and looked at her, though when she noticed the unique armor it had on she knew that she had bumped into Monkskah again. The tauren druid came over and inquired why she was looking for the cave, to which she explained that the creature inside it, the Devouring Darkness, was one of the prisoners that had escaped from the Vault of the Wardens... and that the Wardens were personally asking her to get rid of it.

Monkskah agreed to help her, because of all the help she gave him and the other druids in Val'sharah, and quickly lead the way to the cave in question, where they found the bodies of some kobolds resting around the entrance, but neither of them were frightened by the display and carried on. It didn't take them too long to reach the 'alter' that the candles were lit around, though when they doused them a shadowy creature emerged from the darkness and attacked them without hesitation. Fortunately the most harmful ability that the Devouring Darkness had was summoning a small vortex in the immediate area around it, which Lyra and Monkskah could get away from without being hurt, and its attempts to throw bolts made of shadow at them failed... to which Lyra smiled when she and her comapnion put the second creature on her list down.

The two of them then took a few moments to walk outside the cave, allowing them to speak to each other for a few minutes, before they returned to Skyhorn, where Lyra said farewell to the druid and headed towards her last destination, which happened to be in Suramar.

When she arrived at her destination she found that there were some ruins nearby and a lone hippogryph standing on some rocks, to which her griffon chirped at it as they landed, though Lyra paid them no mind as she followed the directions towards where her final target was hiding. It didn't take her long to find the cave that Hertha was hiding in, though when she found her target Hertha lifted her large sword and attacked her within a few seconds. Once again Lyra had to wonder why this person was even considered a prisoner of the Wardens, as Hertha's attacks were slow and she could easily dodge them, leading Lyra to suspect that this was merely a test of her skill... and that Sira was trying to see if she could be trusted.

Since Hertha was just a lowly warrior who was terrible at fighting, Lyra quickly put her down and made sure that she was dead, before sighing and returning to her griffon, to which they took off and left the hippogryph behind. Since they were close to where Dalaran was located it didn't take them long to reach their destination, to which Lyra thanked the flight master when she arrived and returned to the Fel Hammer. once she was back in her Order Hall she headed over to Belath and informed him of her success... though at the same time she kept her suspicions about Sira's motives to herself.

"The Wardens should have cooperated with us much sooner than this." Belath commented, speaking about the number of prisoners that had escaped and had remained at large, only for them to cut that number down, "Still, we now know that we need to go find a Warden, one called Malace Shade, who happens to be in Stormheim. She was the one entrusted with safeguarding the Sargerite Keystone. That information, combined with some scouting I did on my own, will point you in the right direction. We'll have the Keystone before you know it."

Lyra smiled, because it appeared that things might be looking up for her and the Illidari, though all she had to do was find Malace, help her with whatever she was working on, and learn where the Keystone was located... and then they would be one step closer to bringing the Legion, and Sargeras, down at long last.