A Dragon’s Heart Pt. 9

April 19th, 29th year after the Dark Portal

Nearly a month after the fact I find it hard to write down my thoughts of that final night with Vissic in Nagrand. I made him a promise you see… that I would never think of him again after that night.

I have to break that promise this one time… for history must remember that there is a consequence for killing an Astherion. For snuffing out a light as bright as that of my wife Sylerinn Astherion. My Rin.

It all started very suddenly. After Vissic was driven from the Caverns of Time I decided to gather his enemies to press our advantage. Of course I started with Ravine. Who else? No one has wished for his death as vehemently as she has.

I tracked her down in Nagrand. There she lay hidden from the authorities of Stormwind and Dalaran that still searched for her, and she was hidden from Vissic who desired her death as much as she yearned for his.

I flew over Nagrand on the back of a young red drake named Nialstrasz, one of Ruby’s friends from Wyrmrest Temple. As I approached the village of Telaar I could see below us the violet proto-drake that was Vissic’s signature… and on it’s back was the warlock himself… he had found Ravine first!

Vissic is nothing if not resourceful. I have to give him that.

The great proto-drake snapped at Ravine with it’s massive jaws… roaring it’s challenge. She stood alone, staff raised, fighting for her life and for the vengeance she had long sought… and for the peace that had long eluded her.

She would not end as a meal for the drake however. That is not Vissic’s style. Oh no. To kill her could never be enough. Nothing less than stealing her soul and making it his personal toy would satisfy him.

Vissic always DID have issues.

The warlock leapt from the back of the proto-drake and confronted Ravine himself. Fel fire flashed, sword clashed against staff, and I could hear Vissic’s gloating even from my great height.

Ravine was hard pressed and driven back. Vissic smirked as only he can and seemed certain her soulstone would soon be clutched in his hands. Death was mere breaths away for her… her soul’s eternal torment at Vissic’s hands mere heartbeats away.

I admit it was not Ravine I saw as I urged Nialstrasz downward. I saw only my Rin… as I had seen her last… worried that I would get myself in over my head as I tried to save poor Ruby from Vissic’s dark “help”.

My rage was not heated… it was cold. Unlike Vissic I felt no need to kill the one I hated myself. Just the fact of Vissic’s death would be enough for me. And I had no doubt that would be the result of that night’s battle. The only question in my mind was if he would take me with him and leave my children parentless.

And so Nialstrasz and I dove down upon Vissic, the red drake’s talons outstretched, the dragon sharing my mood and shrieking it’s own anger at such a vile villain.

Vissic’s attack on Ravine was halted as the warlock dived desperately out of the way of our strafing attack. Nialstrasz’s claws missed him by mere inches and we landed in front of the warlock.

But we were not the only one’s looking for Ravine that night. Even as Vissic tried to regain his feet Scheen suddenly appeared out of the shadows… an annoying habit of hers now used to deadly effect. Strapped to her back was a tank hooked to a nozzle she carried in her hands. Scheen decided to ignore the usual banter and get straight to business. Simply saying: “I’ve been waiting for this…” she fired the contraption at Vissic unleashing something… I don’t know what it is… I am no engineer… only that it was HORRIBLE… Vissic knew it too and hurriedly dodged out of the way and redirecting the firestorm he was about to cast at me on Scheen instead.

We of course took advantage of this distraction.

I urged Nialstrasz upward and we soared past Vissic, and landed so as to block any possible escape. Meanwhile Vissic summoned a Fel Guard which was intercepted by Scheen, though she was forced to abandon her infernal contraption and rely on her rogue talents instead.

Nialstrasz took a deep breath and then exhaled a great gust of fire at the warlock causing even Ravine and Scheen to scramble for cover. Vissic was quick to react, hoping to take advantage of the dragon fire, he threw a small gnomish explosive device at us…

A loud boom echoed across the night, and a searing heat hit me. Nialstrasz screamed as he took the brunt of the blast and with a screech the drake collapsed and began his death throes, throwing me from his back. As I lay dazed looking up at the Nagrand night I could hear his slowly dwindling whimpers as death took him. For a moment I imagined it were Ruby instead and I thanked the fates that she was not a grown drake, for if she were, she would have surely been dying in his stead.

Still I lay there dazed, but eventually I could make out Ravine’s voice: “You’ve taken….

and taken…”

Slowly getting back to my feet I surveyed the scene. Both Nialstrasz and Vissic’s Fel Guard Thootom were killed in the explosion, while Vissic seemed to have been badly wounded in the blast as well.

I felt determination fill me and I half gasped, half growled: “Last… life… you… take… Vissic.”

Vissic struggled to get back up on his knees having  been hurled to the ground in the explosion. His only response was: “And none of you have anyone to blame but yourselves.  You're all just as guilty as I am for their deaths."

Time seemed to slow down then as Ravine slowly approached the fallen Vissic, her hands dripping with wisps of shadow. Resting her staff on Vissic’s pauldron she simply said: Mayhaps, but now… now their souls will finally know peace.”

Seeing death mere moments away Vissic did what he was best at, trying to prick us with one more barb, saying we would remember him forever. That he would haunt us, a reminder of all our failures.

That is when I made him the promise. That I would never think of him again… instead I would only remember the love Sylerrinn and I had shared. A promise I intend to keep after this night….

And then so suddenly it was impossible to take in Ravine struck the final blow, her soul fire ending Vissic’s life, putting an end to his darkness forever.

As his body collapsed I felt a sense of peace come over me. As if now that Rin could rest peacefully… so too could I. Though I still had one last duty…

I turned Vissic’s body to ash right there and then. With warlocks you cannot be too careful after all. His nutrients will feed the grasses of Nagrand… and one day he will become clefthoof dung.

A fitting end I thought.

 

 A fitting end.