Chương 49: Chapter 39

Krivax could feel his exhaustion grow worse as he read through the reports detailing the ongoing war. More specifically, the exhaustion that had been creeping up on him over the past few months grew worse when he read about the demonstrable effect that his actions were having on the course of history.

Originally, the Horde would have used the red dragons that they had enslaved to push back the Alliance fleet, and the fact that this had not happened was obviously something that Krivax was happy about, but his efforts had not been quite as successful as he had hoped. The Horde still managed to find some dragons, although ones that were markedly less alive than they were in canon, and land their troops in Hillsbrad Foothills. Not only that but Daelin Proudmoore had been seriously maimed and had even lost a limb.

While the Alliance had come out ahead by not losing as large a portion of their navy, they had still lost one of the most experienced naval minds in the Eastern Kingdoms. It would take quite a while before they could stick a peg leg on Proudmoore, heal him up, and send him back out to sea. It was at times like this that Krivax wished that he had been reincarnated into a bronze dragon. His life would be much easier if he could freely see the effect that his actions would have on the future.

For the most part, Krivax had felt that he had gotten extremely fortunate in how his actions had turned out for him so far. But this was a stark reminder that his decisions could have unanticipated consequences, and the forces he was working against would not simply lay down and fail to adapt. All of this would be easier if I wasn't so weak… In truth, Krivax was not weak at all… but that was only when you took his age into account.

In between his politicking and scheming, Krivax had not let up in his magical studies for even a moment, but it was simply not enough. Azeroth was a deathworld in which the main antagonists were generally extremely powerful creatures that had been around for millennia. Deathwing, and the other Aspects, were so old that Krivax didn't even have a good way to estimate how long they had been around, despite his metaknowledge.

In addition to that, they had all been empowered by cosmic entities powerful enough to destroy worlds with little effort. Compared to Krivax, Deathwing was so powerful that he might as well be a god. Even Hadix, as unexpectedly powerful as he was showing himself to be, would not last for more than a few moments when faced with Deathwing's true power.

When the difference between him and his enemies was so great, Krivax found it difficult to see how he could possibly become powerful enough to affect the fate of Azeroth. Of course, he did have a few ideas about how he could drastically increase his power, there were many extremely valuable secrets in this world that Krivax was privy to, after all. However, Warcraft as a franchise tended to gate powerful artifacts or magical items behind equally powerful defenses. Power always came at a price and Krivax was…

reluctant to risk his life to acquire it. He wasn't particularly interested in becoming some super-powerful being; his greatest dream was to simply be able to explore the beauty of Azeroth without having to worry about himself or the people he cared about being killed. But… Krivax couldn't help but feel like he wasn't as close to achieving that dream as he wished he was. Most of his days were now filled with diplomacy, politics, and worrying about insane dragons trying to destroy the world.

Was this how his life was going to be from now on? After Deathwing was dealt with, was he just going to move on to worrying about the Lich King next? It was all just starting to feel… incredibly exhausting. Maybe I should just take a risk? Would it be worth it to risk my life trying to gain more power if it meant that I could live more freely? Krivax wasn't certain what the correct answer to that was, but it was a question that had been on his mind more and more lately.

However, there was nothing he could do about it in the short term, so he forced himself to push these thoughts aside for now. The Second War was still raging and Deathwing was still an active threat that needed to be dealt with. All that was left to him was to use his metaknowledge to position the good guys in the best position possible to improve the future. And it seems like I'll get a chance to do that soon, Krivax thought with grim satisfaction.

Krasus had finally returned to Dalaran, and Krivax would make certain to point him straight at Daval Prestor. Most of his time since he had informed Hadix about the current situation had been spent assisting Stormwind in gathering evidence. Hadix had assisted by investigating the potential victims for mental influences and had managed to detect faint traces of the Void that Stormwind had missed.

Krivax was the one who would be presenting all of this evidence to Dalaran, and he had every intention of incriminating Daval Prestor as much as possible. After causing so much trouble, he only wished that he could have the chance to see the look on Deathwing's scaly face when he realized that his human disguise had been discovered and the Aspects would be all gathered to tear him to pieces.

Krivax was not usually a particularly vindictive person, but he felt like Deathwing was someone who he could make an exception for. He only hoped that, unlike in canon, they actually managed to finish Deathwing off so that he couldn't come back to cause problems in the future. Krivax cast a convenient spell that he had learned recently that would tell him the current time and discovered that it was nearly time for his meeting.

The Council of Six would not normally gather just because they were asked to, but Azjol-Nerub was simply too powerful and important to the ongoing war effort for them to decline. Honestly, despite this not being his first time meeting with them, Krivax was feeling a bit nervous. This was the first time that he was trusted enough to meet with such powerful figures without having his hand held by one of his superiors. He had earned that trust by handling Azjol-Nerub's affairs with only… minor slip-ups.

Although, I suppose it helps that there aren't many nerubians who are particularly interested in doing what I'm doing… He really didn't want to ruin all of his hard work by making a fool of himself in front of the Council of Six. Krivax spent the next few minutes going over what he intended to say while also preparing his scrying tools. Although the Council of Six had granted him an audience, there was no convenient way for them to hold it in person.

Many of the Archmages were incredibly busy with their own affairs due to the war and were not currently in Dalaran. Once he was done preparing himself, Krivax took a deep breath and cast the necessary spell to connect him to the Council of Six. Fortunately, it seemed like the Archmages had been waiting and none of them were interested in wasting their time. Soon enough, Krivax was looking at the images of five Archmages, with the only missing member being Kel'thuzad.

That was fine with him, the only one that he truly cared about was Krasus.

"Greetings, Vizier Krivax," Antonidas immediately said once the scrying connection was made. Krivax had a feeling that the Grand Magus wanted to get the meeting over with as quickly as possible.

"I apologize for Archmage Kel'thuzad's absence, but he had important prior commitments and was unable to join this meeting."

"It's not a problem, Grand Magus. I understand that you are all very busy," Krivax said politely.

"I'm grateful that you were all so willing to accept Azjol-Nerub's request for a meeting despite the ongoing difficulties of the war."

"Well you all certainly made it sound important," Archmage Modera replied dryly.

"But you are correct that we are quite busy, so let's get to the heart of the matter. Why have you called for this meeting? Is there an issue with our ongoing trade agreement with Azjol-Nerub?" It was becoming increasingly obvious with every report that came from the front lines that beasts being provided by Azjol-Nerub were well worth the price that the Alliance had paid for them. Krivax wasn't surprised that they would be the first thing that the Archmages would think about.

"No, as I informed Archmage Runeweaver in our most recent meeting, Azjol-Nerub is completely capable of providing the beasts throughout the war, despite the high rate of attrition," Krivax assured the Council.

"Then what is the subject of this meeting?" asked Prince Kael'thas.

"I've called this meeting to bring a matter to your attention that affects the interests of both Azjol-Nerub and Stormwind," said Krivax. Although he wasn't able to read their body language, Krivax had no doubt that his words had aroused the interest of the Archmages.

"I was not aware that Azjol-Nerub and Stormwind were on friendly enough terms that you feel comfortable speaking for them," said Krasus with barely concealed suspicion.

"We were not until we recently became aware that we were both being targeted by the same malicious actors," said Krivax, ignoring the dragon's tone.

"Prince Varian presented us with convincing evidence that someone has been using magic to manipulate the minds of the nobility against our kingdoms. Stormwind even believes that these people are the reason why nobody was willing to respond to their requests for aid when they were fighting against the Horde." There was a stunned silence among the council before Archmage Modera spoke up, "That is ludicrous! We would have certainly noticed such widespread manipulation.

What you are proposing would only be possible for a mage far more powerful than any single member of this Council or an organization of renegade mages that would have not escaped our notice. Who do you claim is responsible for this, and what evidence do you have?" Krivax didn't get upset by the Archmage's fervent denials.

He hadn't exactly expected to receive a warm response when he was basically telling the Council of Six that they had failed so badly at their job that an entire human kingdom had been destroyed because of it. He was practically insulting them all to their faces.

"According to the evidence provided by Stormwind, we believe that House Prestor is primarily respon—""Who? I've never heard anything about a 'House Prestor' in my life," said Archmage Modera, interrupting Krivax's explanation.

"Do you truly expect this Council to believe that some no-name noble house in the middle of nowhere was able to use magic on such a vast scale under our noses?"

"Archmage Modera, please allow the Vizier to finish his explanation," said Krasus, sounding grave. Krivax felt more than a little relieved that the dragon was already taking this seriously. It was likely that the dragon was already reaching the conclusion that Krivax wanted him to. Krasus was aware of both Deathwing and the Void's natural ability to manipulate the minds of people.

Couple that with the extremely suspicious fact that nobody at all sent help for Stormwind, it wasn't exactly a difficult conclusion to reach.

"Thank you, Archmage Krasus," said Krivax.

"As I was saying, Stormwind has managed to gather circumstantial evidence that Lord Daval Prestor is responsible for manipulating the minds of nobles in Lordaeron through the use of magic. They have also gathered evidence that House Prestor has been making deals to undermine both Stormwind and Azjol-Nerub." The conversation grew quiet once again as the Council of Six considered the seriousness of his claims.

Krivax could tell that they did not believe his claims, but their relationship with Azjol-Nerub was too important for them to risk harming relations by dismissing him out of hand.

"Tell me everything that you know about this situation, and present your evidence," said Antonidas said firmly. Krivax did so gladly. It took him a while, but Krivax did not hesitate to share every little bit of evidence that Stormwind had managed to gather. The evidence about mental manipulations was not as strong as Krivax would have wished them to be, but House Prestor's mundane crimes were already sufficient to implicate them. Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent.

Report sightings. In the end, it didn't really matter if the evidence was enough to convince the entire Council of Six. As long as Krasus was able to read between the lines, then it was mission accomplished as far as Krivax was concerned. Once he was done laying everything out to the council, it was surprisingly Prince Kael'thas who was the first to speak, "I must admit, while none of your evidence is very convincing on its own, it does become fairly compelling once you look at it from a broader point of view."

"What? How could you say that?" Archmage Modera asked her fellow council member in surprise.

"After hearing the evidence, I agree that there is likely some malicious group that is targeting both Stormwind and Azjol-Nerub, but they barely have any evidence that there is magic involved in this matter."

"This is not the first time that I've found myself suspicious about how Stormwind fell without any of us knowing about it," Kael'thas calmly explained.

"Malicious action by a powerful organization would explain how this happened under our aegis. In that context, the evidence that Vizier Krivax has presented is enough to convince me that House Prestor is deeply suspicious and is worthy of investigation."

"A proper investigation would take much of our already limited time," said Antonidas.

"We must be certain this is warranted before we make such a commitment." Krivax stayed quiet as the Council of Six argued the merits of investigating House Prestor amongst each other, focusing most of his attention on Krasus. He was sure that the dragon should have already connected Daval Prestor to Deathwing, but he was beginning to grow nervous as Krasus maintained his silence.

Krivax was in the middle of answering a question asked by Archmage Modera about the evidence when Krasus finally decided to speak up, "I believe that we should launch a full investigation of Lord Daval Prestor." After a moment of silence, Antodias was the first to respond, "Why do you believe we should do that, Archmage Krasus?"

"I largely agree with Prince Kael'thas. The events that took place around Stormwind make no sense," said Krasus.

"Not only that but has anybody asked why any organization would choose to target both Stormwind and Azjol-Nerub? The only reasonable explanation is that they are trying to aid the Horde. Regardless of whether or not magic is involved in this matter, it would be foolish to ignore the dagger that is about to be buried into our backs." Krivax felt a growing sense of satisfaction as the conversation gradually turned in his favor.

Krasus had obviously noticed the clues that had been prepared for him and was now turning his attention to Daval Prestor. Once he knew for certain that Daval Prestor was the human identity of Deathwing, the only remaining problem would be finding the Dragon Soul. It would be difficult, but there were a limited number of places where Deathwing could logically keep it. After that happened, Krivax was certain that Krasus and the other Aspects would be able to put together a plan to deal with Deathwing.

He couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief. Krivax was in the middle of daydreaming about dragons fixing all of his problems and ending the war with the Horde in a single day when he realized that Krasus was asking him a question.

"I apologize Archmage Krasus, could you repeat your question?"

"I was asking whether or not Azjol-Nerub and Stormwind were doing anything further to investigate Lord Prestor," said Krasus Ah. I guess he's probably worried about someone tipping off Deathwing. Truthfully, Krivax had been a bit worried about the same thing after Hadix had informed him of his intent to look into Daval Prestor. If Deathwing learned that his human disguise was already so heavily suspected, then nothing good would come of it.

Krivax had also grown quite fond of his curmudgeonly mentor and didn't want him to get squashed like a spider being stepped on by a dragon. He had been slightly reassured when Hadix informed him that he didn't intend to confront Prestor directly and would instead investigate discreetly. Hadix had been doing stuff like this for centuries, so Krivax was sure that he knew what he was doing. Krivax quickly told Krasus that his teacher was looking into House Prestor carefully, not that it seemed to reassure him.

"I do hope that he isn't caught," Krasus said worriedly, unknowingly echoing Krivax's own thoughts.

"If House Prestor is indeed responsible for everything that you claim they are responsible for, then they are extremely powerful and dangerous. This matter is one that needs to be handled with delicacy."

"We understand that, Archmage. Azjol-Nerub will not do anything that lets Prestor know that he's under suspicion," said Krivax.

"I'm glad the hear that," said Krasus, still not sounding assured. Krasus turned his attention back to the ongoing conversation and Krivax allowed his thoughts to drift to worrying about his mentor. He really hoped that Hadix wouldn't end up making him a liar. Hadix glared balefully at House Prestor's ancestral home and knew instantly that he was in the right place.

The building was completely covered in a dense weave of protective spells that was extremely out of place considering Prestor's supposed level of wealth. They were so dense and complicated that the vast majority of Viziers would have absolutely no hope of entering the building undetected. Even he, who was more capable than most at sneaking past magical defenses, would not be able to get in easily.

According to information provided by Stormwind, Daval Prestor should be handling business in Alterac, and the man's goblin servant should be away from the manor as well. Despite having several children, none of them were known to live in the Prestor's family manor, so it should currently be completely empty. It was a strange thing for a human noble to have only one servant, but it was obvious to Hadix that Prestor was not a normal noble. Still, he would have expected the building to be busier than it was.

Void cultists had a tendency to congregate if they were not culled quickly enough. Knowing that he would not receive any answers from glaring at the building, Hadix began to carefully weave a path through the wards. It was a time-intensive task, he would dismantle the wards completely, but he could not afford to leave behind any indication of his intrusion. Void cultists were easiest to deal with when they did not know that they were being hunted.

Hadix had every intention of learning everything that he could about his enemy before he exterminated them. With a hum of pleasure, Hadix stabilized the path through the first layer of magical defenses and immediately began working on the rest. Every new spell was more complex and lethal than the last, and Hadix began feeling impressed by the skill of his target. These humans are truly more capable than I had given them credit for, Hadix grudgingly admitted.

How is it that they manage to learn so much in so little time? Hadix eventually succeeded in getting through the final layer of external wards. He was certain that there would be more inside the manor, but he would need to go inside to find out. Of course, he had no intention of actually entering the building with his own body when he didn't need to. With practiced ease, Hadix cast the spell to send his mind into the flyer that he had brought with him.

Not only was using a flyer much safer than risking his own body, but Hadix had found over the years that many mages created wards that did not work on them. He could not recall the number of times that he had been confronted with a complex alarm ward, only to discover that the casting mage had created an exception for animals to prevent false alarms. Hadix didn't hesitate to send the flyer over the tall walls that surrounded the manor.

Once past the walls, he was immediately confronted with a rather simple alarm spell, much more simple than he would have expected. Attempting to lure me into a false sense of security? If so, then their efforts were doomed to failure. Hadix had not lived as long as he had by being uncautious; it would take something truly exceptional to surprise him.

Hadix directed the flyer through an opening that would allow it access to the building, only to immediately be confronted by the most potent source of Void that he had felt in centuries. Forcing down his discomfort, Hadix carefully inspected the deadly Void spell that was set to protect the interior of the manor from any intruders. It was easily one of the most dangerous and sophisticated examples of Void magic that he had ever seen.

With morbid curiosity, Hadix took a calming breath and began to use his extensive experience to analyze the spell's structure. Hmm… it seems like this spell was created specifically to kill mages. I can tell that almost any counterspell would quickly have its magic devoured and absorbed. The spell has a tracking component, so fleeing would be useless… it would even have followed me through my link to the flyer. The more Hadix looked at the spell, the more uncomfortable he became.

He could already tell that if he had walked into this spell unaware then he would have died a painful death. It doesn't seem to have an alarm function, but the caster would be able to tell that it was triggered once they returned to it. The trigger seems set to go off by proximity. However, there does seem to be something more complex about this spell that I'm not seeing… After a few moments, Hadix realized what he was missing and immediately tried to sever his connection to the flyer.

Unfortunately, it was too late. The flyer was dead faster than Hadix could react. The last thing it saw was a maw filled with razor-sharp teeth manifesting beside it and spewing out black tentacles from its depths. Now that same maw was manifesting from thin air next to Hadix, and he was already running away and beginning to cast the only spell he knew that might save his life. The Void, however, had no intention of allowing him to live long enough to finish casting that spell.

Hadix hurriedly reached into his spatial bag and threw out one of his most powerful defense artifacts at the tentacle that was reaching for him. The artifact activated and instantly created a powerful arcane barrier around Hadix without him needing to cast anything. The force that resulted when the tentacle slammed into it was enough to stagger him, but Hadix did not allow his casting to interrupt for even a second. He knew that if he did, then he would not be able to survive.

It only took two more hits for the barrier to be shattered, the arcane magic making it up swiftly devoured. A moment before Hadix was able to finish casting his spell, the tentacle wrapped itself around one of his lower arms and one of his legs, tearing them off with ease. All of his defensive spells were rendered completely useless as the spell seemed to devour the magic sustaining them with its mere touch.

It was only thanks to the fact that Hadix habitually used magic to ignore his own pain during a fight that he was able to prevent himself from screaming and instead finish his spell. Just as the tentacles were about to finish him off, Hadix opened his mouth and let forth a stream of violet, iridescent webbing that surrounded the tentacles and the maw that it came from. Hadix could feel his mana reserves being quickly depleted, but he could already tell that his spell was working.

While the spell in Prestor manor was designed to use the Void to devour magic in general, his spell used arcane magic to suppress the Void. The maw thrashed wildly against the webbing that surrounded it, but it failed to escape no matter how hard it tried. Eventually, it stopped moving and Hadix was able to tell that the spell had been successfully suppressed. Hadix slumped over in relief, careful not to allow himself to become unbalanced due to his missing leg. I have to move quickly.

Hadix reached into his spatial bag and quickly retrieved a potent healing elixir derived from troll blood. It would not be enough to regrow his limbs, but it would give him enough time to finish his business. Once that was done, Hadix summoned every drop of resolve he could for what came next. The Void energies that he had sensed from the spell that almost killed him were by far the most potent that Hadix had sensed in his life. Whoever created it was a threat that could not be permitted to exist.

He absolutely could not allow his own failure here to jeopardize that by letting them know that they were being investigated. Fortunately, the only spell that had been triggered was the Void spell, which did not have an alarm. Unfortunately, Prestor would realize what had happened as soon as he returned. Hadix only hesitated for a moment before he turned his attention to the still-suppressed Void spell.

It had triggered before because there was a portion of it that was capable of sensing those that were paying it extended attention. Hadix could feel that it wanted to continue attacking him, but there was no risk of it doing so as long as he was keeping it suppressed. I'm starting to feel dizzy… I have to act soon. Tightly locking away the intense disgust he felt at doing so, Hadix delved into the memories of the time that he spent with his mentor, Elder Yel'rin.

Most of the lessons that Yel'rin had taught him were horrific, but Hadix had no choice but to make use of them in this instance. Memories of a time when he was young and naive, and had taken far too long to see the truth of the Elder who had promised to teach him secrets most Viziers could only dream of. The spell that had nearly killed him was far too complex a creation for Hadix to replicate with the Void. However, he did not need to replicate it.

He simply needed to restore it to its prior state before it had been triggered, which was just barely within his capabilities. Hadix let out a shuddering breath and focused on channeling the Void. Immediately, he could feel his body attempting to reject the foul magic. He was well acclimated to arcane magic, so channeling other kinds of magic was not a simple task. It took Hadix nearly ten minutes for him to return the spell to the state in which he had found it.

Ten excruciating minutes where the pain of his missing limbs grew by the moment and the whispers grew ever louder. As soon as he was finished, Hadix immediately closed the gaps he had made in the outer wards and searched his surroundings to make certain that nothing was out of place. Thankfully, it seemed like the maw had devoured his limbs whole, so he didn't need to worry about any traces of blood. Finally…

Once he was as certain as he could be that his attempted intrusion would not be discovered, Hadix used the last dregs of his magic to teleport himself to his student's room in Capital City. If he had possessed the strength to do so, then Hadix might have actually laughed at the look on Krivax's face when he appeared in his room missing an arm and a leg. Stop worrying brat. It's not like it's the first time I've ever lost a limb. This is merely the price of overconfidence.

As it was, Hadix didn't have the strength to do anything aside from passing out on the floor. As the world faded to black, he couldn't help but notice the oily whispers that vaguely sounded like his old master beginning to become audible in the back of his mind. Oh… the whispers are back. Those aren't going to go away for months, are they?