Richard A. Knaak - World of Warcraft: Dawn of the Aspects: Part I

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ISBN 978-1-4165-5069-3

DONT MISS THESE OTHER TALES IN THE

JAINA PROUDMOORE: TIDES OF WAR

by Christie Golden

WOLFHEART

by Richard A. Knaak

THRALL: TWILIGHT OF THE ASPECTS

by Christie Golden

THE SHATTERING: PRELUDE TO CATACLYSM

by Christie Golden

STORMRAGE

by Richard A. Knaak

ARTHAS: RISE OF THE LICH KING

by Christie Golden

NIGHT OF THE DRAGON

by Richard A. Knaak

BEYOND THE DARK PORTAL

by Aaron Rosenberg & Christie Golden

TIDES OF DARKNESS

by Aaron Rosenberg

RISE OF THE HORDE

by Christie Golden

CYCLE OF HATRED

by Keith R. A. DeCandido

WAR OF THE ANCIENTS: BOOK ONETHE WELL OF ETERNITY

by Richard A. Knaak

WAR OF THE ANCIENTS: BOOK TWOTHE DEMON SOUL

by Richard A. Knaak

WAR OF THE ANCIENTS: BOOK THREETHE SUNDERING

by Richard A. Knaak

DAY OF THE DRAGON

by Richard A. Knaak

LORD OF THE CLANS

by Christie Golden

THE LAST GUARDIAN

by Jeff Grubb

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART I

ONE

WYRMREST

His vague shadow passed over the immense structure below as he circled to land. Even though he had been here before, the scope and age of the stone temple and its surroundings still struck him hard. The temple rose several levels high, with each level built for a race obviously towering over humans and orcs. The rows of grooved columns that lined the outside from the circular base to the rounded top stood like an army of sentinels surveying every desolate direction of the chilling Dragon Wastes. Long fangs of ice draped the ancient edifice, and vicious cracks ran through many of the columns and curved archways, but despite the ravages of time and several fierce conflicts that had engulfed it, Wyrmrest stood defiant, eternal.

It was, to him, a welcome contrast to the horrific and seemingly endless transformations plaguing the world of Azeroth.

The others would already be here. He peered at the distant shrines to each of the great dragonflightsbronze, emerald, azure, ruby, and obsidiansurrounding Wyrmrest. They were shrines without purpose now, the dragonflights in disarray or decimated. Even Wyrmrest, though it might stand ten millennia more, risked being nothing but a relic of a time and hope long past.

The great blue dragon sighed and began his descent. As he did, his gaze briefly shifted far beyond the temple and the shrines to the north, where unsettling mounds dotted the icy landscape. He quickly looked away. Each mound was the frost-encrusted corpse of a dragon; some of the mounds dated thousands upon thousands of years back. The Dragon Wastes were the graveyard of hundreds of his kind, whatever their color. It was a grim reminder that even the mightiest of creatures were not invulnerable.

The winged leviathan focused again on his destination. Wyrmrest seemed to swell before his eyes. By the time he neared one of the entrances at the base, the dragon was dwarfed by the temple. He alighted, and then, with one last glance around, stepped inside.

The interior did nothing to lessen the sense of enormity, the first chamber rising more than three times the dragons height. Torches that still stayed lit despite the millennia gave some weak illumination. Ancient carvings loomed over him, many of them of indistinct figures with some resemblance to humans or elves, and yet were clearly not. Whether these were meant to represent the titans, the godlike beings who had brought order to the chaos and reshaped Azeroth to its current form, or had been carved with some other intent, the dragon did not know. This place had been built long before his time, indeed, long before the time of dragons in general.

No one knew the reason for its construction, but long ago it had become the meeting place for the greatest of his kind, the Aspectsguardians of not only all dragons, but all Azeroth. Here, over the millennia, the five champions had assembled to coordinate the actions of the dragonflights. Here, during the Nexus Warin which the Aspect of Magic had led the blue dragonflight in an attempt to purge Azeroth of all mortal spellcasters who did not bow to his utter controlthe leaders of the three other dragonflights had created the Wyrmrest Accord, an annual gathering in which they discussed what courses of action to take in regard to the oft-precarious future of the world. Here, after the War of the Ancientswhen demons had invaded Azeroth and ancient Kalimdor had been sunderedfour of them, Malygos at that time still very much included, had come to determine their next step to counter the treachery of one of their own. The last had become one of their predominant tasks, but even that long struggle paled against what had actually been their primary goal since the beginning: nothing less than preventing the Hour of Twilight, when all life on Azeroth would become extinct.

That extraordinary victory had at last been achieved... at the greatest of costs for the Aspects. Now, here, for the first time since this ancient edifice had been chosen as their meeting place, the four remaining former Aspects came not as the worlds champions, but simply as themselves.

The dragon descended into a gorge carved into the ice, arriving at the lowest, half-buried portion of the temple. He listened, but heard no voices rising from within. It was possible that he had arrived before the others after all. He considered departing the temple and finding a nearby place to wait until one of the others turned upfor even after reassurance from the others, he still felt that as the youngest it was not his place to be first among them in any mannerbut finally proceeded.