World of Warcraft: Burning Skies

by Blackdrag-rose

Suramar: Feeding Shal'Aran

Spitfire and Rainbow spent a few minutes making sure Vytheril and the rest of their allies were situated well in the section of Shal'Aran that they were going to be calling home for the foreseeable future, or at least until the rebellion was over so they could return to battling the Legion, where they noticed that Thalyssra was speaking to Elylia about the movements of the forces that were resting all over the city, or whatever information their new ally could give her, before she let the warrior head over to a rest area, with one of the mana crystals they had found earlier, before she walked over to where the pair were standing, causing them to turn towards her.

"Elylia will be useful in creating and maintaining a fighting force, once we have more soldiers, but there is one more ally that we need to recruit," Thalyssra spoke up, her tone revealing that she hadn't been expecting to acquire two allies for the price of one, though she was happy to have Oculeth on their side and the knowledge that he possessed, given his position in the city before her first failed rebellion, but instead of focusing on that she turned her attention to the pair that was in front of her and beckoned down to the map area of Shal'Aran, where the deep role rested, "now, I know this might not mean much to you two, but scattered around Suramar are a number of facilities, ancient arcways built to tap into the Ley Lines of the land, and as we learned to rely on the Nightwell, due to the barrier that kept us trapped inside the city, these scattered facilities fell out of use and are likely offline. Based on what I can tell, the lower chamber is definitely receiving power from elsewhere, a trickle of power to be exact, but if we can figure out a way to boost the Leyline energy we might have a way to sustain us while we plan out our next course of action... and the closest ancient facility, that I know of based on my studies of the land, is to the north of our current position, in Anora Hollow... it's also where we might find our last ally, Valtrois, so we might be able to take out two birds with one stone."

"Well, then we'll head over to the ancient facility and see what we can do," Rainbow remarked, though this time she spoke before Spitfire could, something that was interesting to Vytheril and the others that knew the pair, even though that was followed by her friend nodding her head to show that she agreed with what had been said, that they would head out and see if they could do anything to feed more power into Shal'Aran, but even then both of them had to wonder what sort of person this Valtrois was and how she would react to them, to which they left the area and focused on finding the section of Suramar that Thalyssra had told them about.

Once the two of them were outside Meredil the first thing they did was head in the direction of Ambervale, as there was a fork in the ruined road in that direction and it should, at the very least, give them a chance to find and retrieve more mana crystals for those who would be calling Shal'Aran home, given that there were currently three Nightfallen inside the ruins and there was no telling how many more would be coming once Thalyssra's remaining allies inside the city discovered that she had a second rebellion planned. As such the first thing they prioritized using the searcher stones that Thalyssra had given them earlier, to assist them in recovering any and all mana crystals that might be near them, and started to look for more crystals that could be added to what they already had, since the three crystals Thalyssra had wouldn't be anywhere near enough for her and the others, though even then Spitfire assumed that some of their allies might have been given a stone as well, just to make sure all of the tasks weren't pushed onto a single person or group, but that didn't stop the two of them from making sure to pick up some mana crystals along the way. By the time they discovered a northern path that had to bring them to the area that Anora Hollow rested in, or at least that was their assumption since Thalyssra had given them terrible directions to where they needed to go, Spitfire had picked up about ten mana crystals and Rainbow carried seven of them, which they stored inside their packs before walking off the path they had been following and used the dirt road that seemed to head to the base of a cliff or something, far below where a ruin rested, or maybe on the edge of said ruins, which caused them to draw their weapons from their horns once more. It was more in the off chance that enemies might try something as they walked through this area, with them hoping to scare off wild animals while cutting down any Nightborne who wanted to bring them down, before they discovered something interesting, Spitfire spotted a cave some distance in front of them that looked like it had been converted into a tunnel or an underground ruin, but due to the bits of Arcane energy coming from the entrance she had to assume they had found their destination.

What was interesting was that there were a couple of large turtles resting nearby, who didn't care about the cave, along with a few sabers that seemed to be resting, though that was when they discovered that the Arcane power was due to the entrance being blocked by a metal bars that were strengthened by magic, but standing near the portcullis, like Thalyssra had told them, was another Nightfallen, a lady to be exact, who definitely looked like she was starving and her clothing was in ruins, though it appeared that her hair was white, either due to her Nightfallen state or it happened to be what her color was when she was a Nightborne, and it took her all of a few seconds to notice that they were there.

"You there! Outlanders! Could one of you be a dear and step on the other switch for me?" the Nightfallen inquired, where she even gestured to the device that was to the left of where she was standing, revealing that she was standing on a round device that looked a lot like the teleport pads that were back in Shal'Aran, though instead of arguing, since they were sure that this was Valtrois and that they had found Anora Hollow, Rainbow walked over to the switch and stepped on it, while Spitfire kept her weapons at the ready in case they were wrong about the lady, which was followed by the gate lowering a few seconds later, opening the way for them to enter the ruin, "There we are, the gate is finally open. Well, I will be killing the two of you now... have you any last words before you meet your end?"

"Yeah, we do: Thalyssra sent us," Spitfire replied, where she knew that the best thing to do was get to the point and make sure the lady knew what was going on at the moment, especially since she pulled out the coin that they had been given, or at least she pulled it out enough to flash the Dusk Lily insignia in the lady's direction, where she raised her eyebrow for a moment as she noticed the icon in question, allowing Spitfire to stash it in the area it had been in earlier as Rainbow stood by her once more, with a frown on her face since she didn't like people who assumed that they were easy to take down or wanted to kill them once a 'task' had been completed.

"Ah, I recognize that symbol... so Thalyssra has recruited some outlanders to our cause... are we truly so desperate?" the Nightfallen said, where it sounded like she was annoyed by the fact that the leader of the rebellion was even asking for any aid from unknown individuals, given that no one in the city knew anything about Dalaran and those who happened to be using it as their base of operations, before she sighed for a moment as she beckoned for them to follow her as she walked into the ruin that was in front of them, "Very well, I am Valtrois, former Arcanist of Suramar, and I was exiled due to being one of the few that spoke out about our leader allying herself with the Legion... truthfully, I didn't take part in the rebellion that ultimately failed, but my opinion caused Elisande to case me out. As such those who live outside the city, so far from the Nightwell, must settle for any source of magic that they can find, be it mana crystals or ancient facilities... though, due to the fact that you two are here, it would appear that Thalyssra and I had the same idea... the old Ley Line facilities might keep us and our allies alive, if barely, and all we have to do is wake them up."

"That's why we were sent, as we'll figure out how to wake them up," Rainbow remarked, though even as she said that she knew that Spitfire was likely going to figure out the method to waking this place up and channeling the power to Shal'Aran, to boost whatever power Thalyssra had felt earlier, given that she seemed to be able to take in everything at a much faster rate than she did, in terms of magic and artifacts like the coils, but before she said anything else she spotted a mana coil in the first chamber that was in front of them and noticed that it seemed to be firing a beam of Arcane energy down a tunnel, even if there were two tunnels to pick from, before she thought about something, "Anyway, I'm Rainbow Dash, and this is Spitfire... and before you ask, we're Illidari, who have taken on the demonic Fel powers to combat the Legion's armies and bring down their leaders."

"Fascinating... but not relevant to our current situation. This station has fallen into disrepair." Valtrois commented, where it was easy to see that part of her was interested in the Illidari and whatever they might be able to share with her about their forces, while the other side happened to be more focused on fixing Anora Hollow and making sure the power was sent to Shal'Aran, or, in her eyes, to a place where she and the rest of the rebellion could use it to sustain themselves, given that she had no idea the ancient ruin existed, or if she did she wasn't saying anything about it, before she finished studying the mana coil, "The circuit is broken, that much is obvious, and to mend it we must recharge the seals in the central chamber... based on the tunnels, I would say that both a high potency current and low potency current are needed to recharge each seal. That's all I can say on the matter, since I would need to study more before I figure anything else out... oh, and before you ask, I'll be here to supervise your efforts... you two are, after all, the help and I'm sure you guys can, in due time, figure this out on your own, without any additional assistance from me."

Spitfire and Rainbow followed the beam of energy that was heading out from where the mana coil rested, an intense one based on what the former was seeing, and stopped a few seconds later as they found a round central chamber, which had the four seals they were looking for, the seals being large human sized devices that were silver colored and seemed to be a perfect fusion of metal and magic due to what Spitfire was feeling right now, and there were four smaller pillars resting around the central chamber, one the intense beam was using to redirect into the top of a seal and another had a smaller beam, a weaker one, bouncing it to another seal.

"I see, that's what Valtrois meant when we might need a high and a low potency current," Spitfire commented, where she took a moment to touch the pillar the low beam was reflecting through and watched as it turned for a few moments, only to find that it reflected the beam right into the seal that the high beam was currently coming into contact with, though that was when she walked over to the first seal, which had a moon emblem at the top, and raised her had as she tapped into her own power again, where her magic connected with the Moon Seal and activated it, to which she smiled, "Okay, we just need to redirect both the high potency beam and the low potency beam with these smaller pillars, and possibly the main mana coil and a polar opposite on the other end of this facility, and connect them to empower the three remaining seals to bring this place back online... it's actually pretty simple, when you think about it."

Rainbow didn't say anything to that as she followed Spitfire, though she could see that Valtrois, who was following them at the moment to make sure they activated the seals and brought this place online, seemed to have a higher opinion of her friend right now, like understanding a simple mechanism was enough to interest the Nightfallen in question, though she also noticed that the other three seals had a star, a beast's paw, and a tear shape on them, giving them an idea of what to call each of them, before she refocused on what Spitfire was doing. The first thing Spitfire did was check the other side of the facility, just to be sure there was a mana coil over there, before she had Rainbow head back to the opening to turn the first one, something that caused the high beam to strike a new reflecting pillar, though instead of changing with the low beam Spitfire returned to the main chamber and turned both of the smaller reflecting pillars, turning both beams into the Elven Seal that was to the right of where the Moon Seal rested, from the first tunnel, and she activated the seal, restoring half of the facility's power in seconds. As Rainbow returned to the central chamber Spitfire turned the pillar that the high beam was touching and it was redirected to the Beast Seal, which was diagonally across from the Moon Seal, though that was followed by Rainbow knowing what Spitfire wanted and headed down to the lower mana coil, where she redirected it down the other tunnel it could travel down and found that it touched the Beast Seal without having to be changed at all, so she and Valtrois waited as Spitfire activated the third of the four seals. From there Spitfire tapped the pillar the low beam was touching and redirected it into the Star Seal, where Rainbow returned to the high mana coil and returned it to the first tunnel they had found it in, allowing Spitfire to redirect the high beam into the final seal and wasted no time in powering the seal in question, to which Valtrois raised an eyebrow for a moment, like she was surprised by the fact that an outsider was able to understand the mechanics of the facility with ease, especially since she determined that Spitfire wasn't a mage or like those who were inside the city, making her wonder about the intelligence of those from the floating city that they were receiving aid from.

"Okay, all four seals have been recharged, and with that done the facility will wake up," Spitfire remarked, as this was far easier than what she expected it to be, given that this place had been built by a previous generation of Nightborne, or the same ones that were currently inside the city since they had no idea how long a Nightborne lived for, and this meant that Shal'Aran would be given a burst of energy to maintain whatever was inside the lower chamber, or do whatever it needed to do while they planned out the rebellion.

"Indeed, and now refined Leyline energy will flow from here and travel to Shal'Aran," Valtrois said, revealing that she knew of the area that Thalyssra had made her base of operations in, maybe something that they agreed on the last time the pair saw each other before they were tossed outside the city, before she smiled for a moment as she glanced at Spitfire and Rainbow for a few seconds, as while one had great potential, in terms of a magic student, the other seemed to be more of a fighter or warrior, "I must admit, I am rather impressed by what you did... anyway, I will make my way to Shal'Aran and meet up with Thalyssra, and whoever else you've managed to recruit, where we can plan out our next move against both Elisande and her Legion allies."

Spitfire nodded her head as Rainbow did the same, though as Valtrois left Anora Hollow the pair headed outside and spent some time flying around the area, finding a few ruins that seemed to be important in some manner, which either they or one of their allies would have to check out at some point, while they searched for more mana crystals to add to what was resting inside Shal'Aran, due to Valtrois joining them and there was no telling how many more would be coming to join the rebellion, so they felt that it was better to be prepared for whatever the future held. It would also give Valtrois time to tell Thalyssra what was going on and learn just how many allies were coming from Dalaran, even though neither of them had any idea as to how many heroes would be flocking to this province, but at the very least it seemed like Khadgar and the Council understood her instructions to open portals outside Suramar and let the heroes undertake a short journey to get to Meredil, all to prevent Elisande and her allies from figuring out what they were doing, which would be changed as soon as she discovered what they were up to. That was the reason that Spitfire was doing everything in her power to make sure their enemies didn't detect them until Thalyssra was ready, though the only downside to waking up Anora Hollow, in her mind anyway, was that it might also be connected to Suramar City in some manner and someone might notice that it had come back online, which would lead to someone being sent out to investigate if Elisande felt it was necessary to do such a thing, but for now they had to proceed under the notion that no one knew they were in Meredil and that Shal'Aran was a secret from everyone inside the city, along with fighting to keep it that way. Of course they also had to find and reactivate the rest of the ancient facilities that were scattered across Suramar, since Spitfire assumed that there was another way to use all of them besides just channeling power into Shal'Aran, something that they would figure out in due time now that Valtrois was on their side, hence why she focused on collecting the couple of mana crystals that were around her and found that Rainbow was doing the same, even if she might be thinking that this was boring and just wanted to kill some demons, to which she let out a light chuckle as they worked.

After some time the pair came to a stop, even though Spitfire was sure it had only taken them ten to fifteen minutes to do this, where they spread their wings and took off without delay, allowing them to return to Meredil and enter the area that Shal'Aran was resting in, where they found that Valtrois was talking with Thalyssra about something, while their allies had moved everything down into the ruins and were off on the right side of the ruins, even though Spitfire could tell that one of their allies had departed already, either returning to Dalaran or heading out to explore the rest of Suramar, no doubt to see if there were any other dangers they weren't aware of, to take them down before the rebellion started, and the pair stopped their conversation

"With Leyline energy feeding in from Anora, this chamber can begin to awaken." Valtrois said, quickly jumping from the topic that she and Thalyssra were talking about to a brand new one when she noticed Spitfire and Rainbow walking over to where they were standing, which was right in front of the stairs leading down to the lower chamber of the ruins, which she even gestured to for a few seconds, to show them what she was talking about, before she focused on them once more as she thought about something, "It will be a slow process, and we must take care to mask this activity from our enemies, a process which itself requires enormous effort and focus... fortunately, Thalyssra has several ideas on how we can make such a thing happen and, so far, none of them concern you or your allies. Furthermore, there is the conundrum of actually consuming the mana in this form, as a stream that is too weak won't be able to provide sustenance for us and our forces... while on the other hand a stream that is too powerful would likely vaporize us. There is a mountain of work for us to do, so we can overcome these possibilities and create a stable flow of energy for us to draw mana from... but for now, let us examine the feed and see what else we need to do, or what you and your forces need to do."

"Oh, Valtrois?" Thalyssra commented, speaking the moment Valtrois started to walk down the stairs, as she quickly caught the tone that her companion used when referring to Spitfire, Rainbow, and the rest of the allies that were helping them, as it still sounded like she felt that the rebellion didn't need the outlanders or their aid, even though the rebellion would have failed if the pair of demon hunters hadn't come to save her from the Nightborne guards or the Withered that had been chasing her through the wilds, "You would be wise not to turn your nose up at Spitfire, Rainbow, or the rest of their forces, as none of us would be here without their help."

"Of course, First Arcanist." Valtrois replied, her tone informing Spitfire and Rainbow that she respected Thalyssra too much to anger her, no doubt due to whatever might have happened between them before they were exiled or thrown out of the city some time ago, meaning there was a chance she might get used to everything that was going on inside Shal'Aran, to which she glanced over at the pair for a moment and beckoned for them to follow her, "Come, we can examine the feed from the lower chamber and gain a better understanding of what needs to be done without having to do too much in the grand scheme of things. Tell me, do either of you have much experience with Leyline energy? I only ask since one of you seemed to know how to recharge the seals in Anora, all by seeing what was in front of us, and quickly restored the power to the first of the ancient facilities that are scattered across Suramar."

"Truthfully, neither of us have any experience with Leyline energy, but we know several Archmages and I have been, from time to time, studying how they use magic," Spitfire stated, as that was the truth of the matter, she had an interest in all of the magic she had seen, even though using the Fel power prevented someone like her and Rainbow from using the five remaining Cosmic Forces like a mage or druid could, or at least that was her thoughts on the matter, since Xe'ra's vision showed her that someone would be capable of channeling all six forces at the same time, a being without equal, before she returned to the topic they were talking about, "other than what Vytheril and the others have used in our presence, we have no knowledge of how to tap into the energy that you and Thalyssra are planning on tapping into."

"I see... truthfully, I should have expected such an answer, but I wanted to hear you say it." Valtrois said, showing the pair that she had to be taking Thalyssra's order to heart and was trying to not turn her nose up to anyone she talked to, or at least those that weren't from Suramar City, though at the same time it would take her some time to get used to being that way, before she sighed for a moment as she glanced down at the bottom chamber, which caused the pair to follow her gaze not a few seconds later, "Allow me to educate you on the fundamentals."

What they discovered, upon reaching the lower chamber, was that there was something new for the to see, due to the fact that there was a beam of silvery midnight colored energy going from the center of the hole to the center of the ceiling, as neither Spitfire or Rainbow recalled seeing it the first time they came down here, along with the fact that one of the nodes that rested around the 'map' had activated, no doubt showing anyone who looked at it that Anora Hollow was online and was pumping out energy once more.

"Far below us, rivers of raw arcane power course throughout the land... these are the Ley Lines, which are eternal, primal, and impossible to control." Valtrois continued, where she walked over to the center of the bottom chamber and glanced at the map that was around her, not to mention everything else that happened to be happening right now, before she found that Spitfire and Rainbow had stopped nearby as well, both of them waiting for her to explain things and give them more information on the Ley Lines that likely spread all over Azeroth, before she gestured to the active node, "However, just as one pulls thread from cotton, so too can we draw power from the Ley Lines... as you can see, this is the feed from Anora, indicating that it is active once more, and there are a number of nodes that are still dark, meaning the other facilities are still dormant. If we can restore them to their former glory, like we did in Anora, we can create a new locus of power here in Shal'Aran, one that might be able to rival the power of the Nightwell itself!"

"Not counting Anora Hollow, there seem to be seven more Ley Stations that need to be activated," Spitfire commented, as she noticed something interesting about the map and that there were seven nodes outside the city that had to be the ones the rebellion had to focus on empowering, while there seemed to be one in what appeared to be the direct center of the city, meaning it was likely the Nightwell and whatever connection had existed between this place and the city had been cut off at some point in the past, before she considered something for a few moments, "given that Thalyssra might call for one or more of us to help her with the rebellion, and that means focusing on securing more allies and disrupting whatever our enemies are doing inside the city, someone will need to focus on heading out and activating the remaining Ley Stations, to empower Shal'Aran for whatever the future has for us."

"Given how easily you activated Anora, maybe you ought to help me figure out where they're resting and then head out to awaken each of the Ley Stations," Valtrois said, though she had to admit that Spitfire's name for the ancient facilities was rather good and made her wonder why none of those who came before her came up with such a name, before she took a moment to glance over at Rainbow, who she felt was more of a fighter and a follower than a leader, given what little she had seen of the pair so far, though there was always the chance that she might be wrong due to what happened after they met each other a short while ago, "your friend, on the other hand, seems to be more like a fighter and should be the one to take the fight to Elisande's enemies, or whatever Thalyssra needs her to do."

"Well, we'll just have to wait and see what she decides to do, since she's the leader of the rebellion and whatnot," Rainbow said, though she honestly didn't mind the fact that Valtrois seemed to think that she was more of a warrior, since that was the truth due to her desire to bring down the Legion and focused on the art of fighting, while at the same time she felt that telling Spitfire that everything she should do for the foreseeable future was focus on the Ley Stations was a bit wrong, as it would deprive them of Spitfire's skills in combat for a time, but she kept her mouth shut about that since Spitfire didn't seem annoyed by what Valtrois had said, even though she considered something, "though I can always head to the south and visit Felsoul Hold, just cut down the demons that are scattered around the place, maybe draw out some of Gul'dan's allies and weaken his forces... it's a thought for later."

Spitfire nodded her head, as clearing out Felsoul Hold some more sounded like something they could do, punishing more of the demons by trapping their souls inside their weapons, but for now she was more focused on making sure Vytheril and the rest of their allies were fine with the accommodations that were inside Shal'Aran, even though more would be nice for everyone, before she and Rainbow headed out to check on them, knowing that it was only a matter of time until they were called back to where Thalyssra was waiting and informed as to what the next stage of the rebellion might be, which included what they needed to do to bring down Elisande's forces.