Chapter Text
Far-Folded Mists and Gleaming Halls of Morn: The Mysterious Pegasus and the Fair Maiden
Her footprints echoed down the street as she ran, following the sound of a bell and the neighing of a horse that echoes through the nighttime. The city seems to change as she runs down the sidewalk, sometimes that of the city she’d known, her home of Crystal Tokyo, and other times the city she lives in now. At other points, she turns and there are other sights - the city in a time she’d only heard of in history books, fires of a war fought long ago, but it all blends and morphs as she chases after something. Someone.
The soft moonlight illuminates the meadow she finds herself in, the open area free of trees and city lights allowing her to see all of the stars above. They turn and swirl, like glitter in a water vortex, while below the grass and stones ripple like they’re under a clear lake she’s walking on. She looks around before seeing a small island nearby, and what seems like a golden glow coming from it.
“ Maiden…”
She stops at the crumbling column before a lake so clear it makes it seem like she’s seeing a mirror. In the middle, a huge archway stood before a fairy ring of brilliant flowers and small mushrooms. She stops at the entrance, her power flowing as she thinks she sees a horse in the distance, but two huge wings sprout from its back, a golden horn glittering on its forehead. Next to it, a young man looks up at her, his eyes a golden hue that seems to shift between a brilliant yellow and a cooler red. His light blue hair flutters in the wind as he speaks again.
“ Maiden, you must wake up.”
Chibiusa blinks as she sits up groggily, Usagi coming up and saying something about them going to be late. It takes her a moment to recall that they were going to see an eclipse that was due to happen later today.
It also meant it was almost time for her to return home.
Anduin sits next to Minako in the spot they’d found for everyone, relaxing in the cool day as the others slowly gather with them. Despite all that he’d done to try to catch up, Anduin had failed to join the others at Juuban High School. At least Motoki is willing to let him keep up their original arrangement until they know it’s time for him to return home himself.
The thought is one that he’s been having more and more recently, along with how he wishes for a way to travel between the two worlds with the others. It would be nice to bring Rei and Minako to Azeroth, Minako so they could continue or end their relationship in a more natural course, and Rei so she might meet Velen and the others.
Of course, introducing those two, or any of the others, to the Alliance would be chaotic. He could see Tyrande and the other Night Elves being quite surprised at Usagi or Chibiusa - literal embodiments of Elune and the Child-Moon, let alone Mamoru meeting with them. Ami would say something and the gnomes and more mechanically-natured Humans or Dwarves might be excited to hear more. Makoto’s baking alone might bring shame to some of the bakers of Stormwind, not to mention the adventurers who dabbled in baking and traveling.…
If they’d managed to convince Haruka and Michiru as well to join, the chaos would be at its peak, mostly because he’s sure the strict Genn Greymane or the other conservatives of the Alliance would not be able to figure out how to deal with Haruka being themselves. If they said anything, though, Father might get a laugh out of them underestimating Michiru when she rose to the occasion in a fight. They had mentioned once it was Michiru who, like Minako, awakened alone, and neither found themselves wanting to bring the rest into the dangers of what was to come.
The distance also makes Anduin hopeful about learning a new way to approach the Horde. Going through Go’el - Thrall - or Baine is going to be difficult, since they had sway but only so much after Garrosh’s tactics won the Horde more control over Kalindor. Anduin doubts highly that it’s changed in the three years since he’d been gone, though he suspects the addition of Pandarians might have managed to get in some cooler heads.
Still, getting Garrosh to speak and understand would be important. A solid middle ground would go a long way towards keeping things safe. Of course, that would not mean it was a fix - the fanatical Night Elves who viewed the Orcs as interlopers into Kalindor and who also viewed the trees as too sacred to even take from would not be happy about giving usable land to Orgrimmar. Jaina would see it as a reward for what they did to Theramore. They wouldn’t see that it was a way to help both the gentler Tauren and the Orcs, thus resolving a part of the conflict, and would claim they had rule over it all, as much as the Sin’dorei claimed their land was sacred despite the Troll’s claim over the same area.
It was all of what he was busy with looking into, reading over various treaties and the histories of this world. Added to those readings was the end result of those treaties - the anger, hurt, and even escalated conflicts that were slowly fading from this world’s history, but still was deep in the heart of many who’s peoples had been decimated, scattered, or otherwise wounded by a foe.
“There you are!” Anduin sits up as Usagi, Mamoru, and Chibiusa wave at them. From another direction, Rei wanders in while Ami and Makoto come in, Ami with a thick magazine and Makoto with a basket of what he guesses is food.
Rei sits on the other side of Anduin, Makoto and Ami spreading out their own blanket to sit on, Chibiusa joins them while Usagi and Mamoru stand, passing out the sunglasses and darkened viewers for when the eclipse began. Ami reads through a magazine she’d picked up about the eclipse - though there were such phenomena every decade or so, this one and the alignment of planets only occurred once every millennia.
“Aren’t eclipses rare on Azeroth?” Chibiusa’s question, as well as being surrounded by his friends, has helped to stop his melancholy thoughts. If anything, he enjoys it when they ask about his home, and he can do his best to explain the world to them.
“Somewhat. I’ve heard that the dragons revere them as a time of meetings and awakening their powers. But we also have two moons - the Mother,” he smiles at Usagi, then taps Chibiusa on the nose, “and the Child.”
“It’s not called that!”
Usagi giggles and nods as Chibiusa pouts. Minako sighs, leaning against him.
“That sounds dreamy…”
“It can be,” he admits, thinking of the night time in Stormwind, the way the stars looked outside of the crash of the Exodar in Ammon Vale, or even when he’d seen the sky in Theramore. “It’s simply a different look at the night sky. Sometimes I think I see constellations that, if looked at in another way, I might have seen them while stargazing.”
“Even here on Earth, you can look up and see similar stars,” Rei states as she also leans against him, “you’ll just have to find the ones to show us, Minako especially.”
“The galaxy is large, and the universe is vast,” Ami spoke up, Makoto sitting next to her and Chibiusa, “So finding that constellation to cluster of stars is a boon, that shows how alike our worlds are.”
“It’s romantic,” Makoto says with a smile, “knowing that even in such a big universe, you could find that one spot to connect with each other.”
Chibiusa sighs deeply, in a way that makes Anduin think she’s trying to grow up a bit too fast. He’d sighed like that before he went to stay with Velen and the Dranaei, and at other times when he spoke to his father. He’s glad that they both, despite being so sheltered and cared for, got this chance to grow without the watchful eyes of their parents and others. That they could find a way to grow, and then return to show that growth as well.
Perhaps that was why the power in Chibiusa had stagnated her growth to that of a small child until recently. A sign of her inability to see past a childish thought, and now….
“It’s starting.” Mamoru’s voice brings him to the present as they put on their glasses or hold the darkened glass above their eyes. He looks up, watching as the Sun’s glow slowly begins to fade.
“An eclipse is a time that the dragons are said to gain power,” Lady Prestor tells him in his studies, “but more importantly, it is an event that can only occur once every few thousand years, and few places on Azeroth are privy to the sight.”
“Why is that?”
She hums in thought before answering. “Think of it as you look out and down to the city below. You would see the ones as insects below you - without any distinguishing features. All things larger than them cast shadows upon their paths. Yet do you see how, of the whole ground, the shadow might only cover a small area of the larger city?” She smiles sickly-sweet at him as he frowns and holds the quill between his fingers, not writing down anything just yet.
“Shadows, cast by the larger and more powerful beings, move with them. Their omens are only good for as long as they might tell someone that they are being watched.”
“But the Light is--.”
“Light only exists for so long. Even moonlight is temporary…” she stops, tilting her head, before adding, “but so too is the Dark….”
The moon covers the sun, a brief blink of light on the edge as a chill sets in.
“...depending on where you are, the dark can be as all-encompassing as the Light.” She walks slowly behind him, circling like a panther circles its prey, “One never negates the other, but is the definition of its absence.”
It’s dark enough that he doesn’t need to look through the glass anymore, yet it feels too cold and dark. He feels something flit across his shoulders, a phantom touch or memory before he hears cruel laughter all around, and sees something move through the darkened sky, twinkles of light glittering like fine glass in the sand.
Strange pieces falling from the sky, glittering as a ship of bones--
“Anduin?”
He blinks and looks over at Minako, who seems curious about something as the darkness begins to disappear. “Did you see something?”
“I’m…not sure.” The light of the sun is already blinding, as if trying to erase the linger dread he’d felt.
Rei touches his back as above them, the two crows from the shrine fly overhead, letting out angry caws. The trio looks up as two feathers fall down, between them a card that Rei catches easily before showing to Anduin. “What do you make of it?”
He looks at the odd card - a fortuneteller’s card of some sort, with a half-full moon smiling down at a river, with a strange water animal flanked by two barking dogs…no, wolves or wild dogs of some sort.
“Mystery, a threat hidden from our view, but that can be made briefly visible.” He pauses, thinking. “Intuition…something to do with the unconscious.”
Rei nods in agreement as Anduin notices that the others are around, all of them looking worried. He glances at Usagi, noticing that she and the others are already in protective stances - her in front of Mamoru, the others around them. Only he and Chibiusa seem to be the odd ones out, though he doubts it's intentional.
Something else had seemed to alert them to what was going on - not just the attack on the Moon Princess, but the other, underlying danger that bubbles up to the surface. The whole thing makes him shiver as the group shifts and heads to the Crown. Though they were already heading there, the mood was now one of getting ready for the next battle.
The shadows laughed and danced in the darkness of the tent, showing off their talents as they joked and jeered about the townspeople below. The slow beat of the oars on air seemed in time with the music of the calliope and the other instruments being played, old and worn and better seen in forgotten courts and old, rotten places.
”ENOUGH!” The booming, old voice gets the laughter to instantly stop, the shadows bowing and disappearing beneath the center ring before, at the huge stage on top of the elephant statue shines with a faint light. The old creature stretches out, the tall staff looking like it was made of bone as an eyeball with a bit of fire above it looks around, flapping its wings quickly before it settles on the top of what looks like the large femur or leg bone. The bug-like old being looks out before banging their staff three times on the ground. “Amazon Trio! Where are you?”
A whorl of water spins into a circle, moving up to reveal an elvin being with long blue hair, puffy blue suit that seems like bubbles all over their body, and webbed hands with green fish scales over clawed fingers. “Fisheye, present.”
A tornado of dusty wind and feathers spins to a circle, moving up to reveal a pink-haired elvin being with short, windy hair and a sash across their chest, a skirt and tights going up while brown gloves with feathers at the end adorn their hands. “Hawkseye, present.”
A wave of heat curled into a swirling inferno of fire, spinning up to reveal the final elvin being with long, orange hair with a white top, a black speedo and tiger-stripe tights covering their legs as they bow, a circus trainer whip in their hand. “Tigerseye, present.”
The Trio bowed before the old being as they awaited their order.
“Go out and learn of the dreams of this place,” the old crone said as their skeletal fingers moved out, “We must be ready to have them. As well, keep an eye out - the Pegasus that our beautiful queen has been working on taming escaped, and is hiding somewhere in this city.”
“What a naughty creature!” Tigerseye states in anger. “Master Zirconia, let me go out and find the Pegasus to bring it back.”
”And if it’s not where you could smell it out? I, Hawkseye, can find them easily enough.”
”You two do what you will. I, Fisheye, am fine with finding all the dreams we need instead of going after that ungrateful Pegasus.”
”QUIET!” The Trio and the rest of the laughing shadows fall silent. “You three will go out and learn the dreams of this place, and keep an eye out for Pegasus. He is dangerous and may go to try to find others if you try to capture him without any aid! If they utilize his power before our beautiful queen, then it will be on you three! Understood?”
The Trio bow. “Understood, Master Zirconia.”
Zirconia bangs the staff three times, getting the dark circus to fall silent as everyone looks up and waits.
“Always remember not to forget—.”
”—a child’s dream is a dream you can never get.” The Trio spoke the next line in a near dreamlike state as other words echoed throughout the rest of the Circus.
”Dream and dream, don’t doubt it. Dream and dream as children dream.”
There is laughter, but it’s cruel. Within it, he hears screams and anger, and voices chattering over and over before screaming again and again.
He turns as four voices speak in one tone, “In the circus, in the darkness, we don’t have--”
The dark blue landscape is frozen over, with webs like that of a spider having wrapped around crystals and landscapes far into the distance. A chill wind blows through as he hears the whispers of those trapped again, of strange echoing screams that reminds him of stories he’d heard - whispers in the dark, the eternal cries in doomed cities….
As he turns, he sees a darkened temple, one that makes him frown as he walks into it. A garden of rose bushes, all dead, ring the area as familiar power seems to seep into the very stones he walks upon. At the top, he sees a darkened mirror, like polished obsidian, but it makes him stop as he realizes the white frame of it is made of bleached bones that…that are still--
Anduin and Rei shake themselves as there’s a sudden rattling that gets both to jump up. While Anduin is trusted with most of the area, he doesn’t go to many of the areas beyond a few that have helped him with learning more about his spiritual power. However, caring for the sacred objects is Rei’s job, and she easily races ahead of him to where the sound is coming from. Her grandfather is ahead of Anduin, but all three make it to the inner area before he sees it.
This temple has a sacred mirror, and there is a strange, dangerous shadow moving over it.
Both Rei and her grandfather work quickly, Rei chanting as Anduin, hoping to aid them in some way, throws up a ball of Light that quickly banishes the weaker parts of the attacking shadow and radiates off the dark surface of the sacred mirror. Hino-san finishes the chant first, throwing out a paper to try to seal it, before he lets out a pained cry. Anduin rushes forward, catching him, as Rei finishes and throws. Hers lands and chases the darkness away, but Anduin’s focus is on Hino-san.
“Grandpa,” Rei rushes to sit next to him, watching as Anduin takes in a small breath to focus and heal him. Whatever they both saw or sensed, this was not a good sign, anymore than other sensations. It felt like something was starting to cover them. He’d only ever felt this same sensation when Onyxia was at full power in Stormwind.
The reminder makes him shiver before he pushes the thought out of his mind and concentrates. It doesn’t take long for Hino-san to recover enough for the two to lead him to rest in his own room. Going back to clean up the mess their rush had made and ensure the fire was still going, Rei sighs in worry. As they head out into the night, the dark shapes of the two crows as they land on Rei’s shoulder and hand gets him to realize how dangerous this would be, if they aren’t careful.
“You thought of something like that power,” Rei says as she pets one of them.
“Yes,” Anduin tells her, letting out a breath. “In my youth, a dragon tried to take and weaken Stormwind - not that we might fall to the orcs completely, but for some other reason related, I think, to her flight’s leader.” The reminder of Onyxia as she had been, as she’d transformed into, makes him let out a breath to steady himself. Why think of that after so long? Was it the magic used, or something else?
Rei is quiet, one of the crows hopping to his shoulder and rubbing its soft feathers against his skin. He slowly petted the bird before glancing at Rei. “So…you are taking this threat seriously?”
He yelps as the crow pulls on his ear and Rei glares at him, then motions for the crow to come back to her. “Yes, yes. We’ll have to tell the others as soon as we can. But I also don’t like it. That wasn’t the only thing at work from our new enemy.”