Chapter 59: Target: The Sunwell

Pandaria, a small cottage on the coast of the Jade Forest.

"You had better have a good explanation!"

The Black Dragon Princess marched up to Delen in a fury, pointing at the parchment on the table. "Why did you spend so many arcane crystals in exchange for the useless Quel'Thalas and Sunwell?"

Delen was studying a yellowed map of Azeroth and looked up at the sound, a thoughtful expression still lingering on his face. Chromie poked half her body out of a temporal rift behind him, her mouth stuffed with honey biscuits, wearing the look of someone watching a good show.

Delen remained entirely calm. Weighing his words carefully, he said to Onyxia, "It's a precautionary measure just in case. Though the cost is a bit heavy, it's still quite a bargain."

The gold-embossed contract text on the parchment gleamed brightly:

"Thirty-year ownership of Quel'Thalas and the Sunwell — Mortgagor: Kael'thas Sunstrider"

Chromie stretched her neck to take a peek, biscuit crumbs tumbling from the corner of her mouth. "Whoa, this deal is so bad Nozdormu would cry."

"That place is crawling with the undead right now!" The Black Dragon Princess's slit-pupils contracted into thin lines. "Are you planning to send Nefarian to do a close-contact waltz with Arthas?"

Delen sighed. "Don't look at how formidable Arthas seems right now; none of the heavyweights of Azeroth have stepped onto the field yet. He's only bullying his own father and the long-eared High Elves. His path won't go far. That's why he will grow even more frantic, and why his demise will come all the sooner."

"So?" Hearing this, Onyxia finally recovered a bit of confidence. "What on earth are you buying Quel'Thalas and the Sunwell for?"

"Quel'Thalas goes without saying. The High Elves have accumulated wealth over thousands of years. Even if the magic items have been scavenged by the undead, there's still a mountain of other wealth that the undead can't use. So the goblins have already laid claim to that part first. We don't even need to spend our own crystals," Delen patiently explained to his companion.

"And what about the Sunwell? That place has long since been contaminated by undead magic. Cleaning up the pollution after buying it is a massive headache, and it might not even be useful later on." The black dragon did not consider the Sunwell to be good real estate.

Delen pointed at Chromie. "You'll have to ask her about that. What's inside the Sunwell?"

Onyxia asked the bronze dragon quizzically, "What is inside the Sunwell?"

Chromie propped her chin on her hand and pondered. "Nothing much, isn't it just a pool of filthy water that the undead soaked corpses in?"

"Open your mind, the Sunwell! The legendary Sunwell in the timeline!" Delen prompted her.

The little gnome was startled, asking Delen in astonishment, "You surely don't want to steal Anveena, do you?"

Delen shrugged. "Why not?"

"That's impossible, Anveena hasn't matured yet," Chromie countered.

"Think outside the box, think outside the box. Don't let yourself be misled by the timeline," Delen dismissed Chromie's objection.

The black dragon listening to their conversation from the side finally caught the crux of the matter: "Wait a minute, what are you two talking about? Anveena? Sounds like the name of some elf woman?"

Delen remained silent and didn't take the bait, but Chromie replied with an indifferent expression, "That pool is going to turn into a human girl later on, and then go through a whole bunch of messy drama."

"So you want to kidnap her beforehand to save yourself a bunch of trouble." The black dragon quickly grasped Delen's objective, then realized in a dawning flash: "But that's a pool of water! How could it turn into a human body? Impossible, absolutely impossible!"

"Right, right, and the timing isn't right either. It's going to be several more years before Anveena appears," Chromie chimed in to refute the idea.

Delen smiled warmly at the two female dragons. "How could you both forget the most important thing? The birth of Anveena is inseparable from the influence of Azeroth's world-soul!"

Onyxia: Do you take me for a fool of a dragon?

Chromie: Am I a dummy dragon?

Before the two female dragons could figure out the relationship between Anveena and the Azeroth world-soul, Delen continued, "Anveena is the biological avatar of the Sunwell. And the Sunwell originates from the Well of Eternity, which in turn comes from the celestial body of Azeroth—it's liquid energy gushing from the wounds torn open by the Old Gods. Are you telling me Anveena won't have the slightest connection to Azeroth's world-soul and celestial body?"

Upon hearing this, Chromie nodded and said, "Put that way, Anveena can indeed be considered some sort of avatar of Azer-chan."

Onyxia hastily declared, "Then let's hurry up and steal the Sunwell out!"

Delen said, "There's no rush yet. Arthas's Scourge forces are still too powerful; it's not the right time for us to go toe-to-toe with him. Once the Scourge is weakened, we'll find an opportunity to snatch Anveena away."

Chromie nodded. "So you went through the trouble of trading crystals to secure the mortgage on the High Elves' Sunwell just because you were afraid Anveena's identity would be discovered and spark controversy?"

Delen nodded. "Exactly. Better safe than sorry. We wouldn't want to put Jaina in a difficult position when the time comes."

"Hmph, you're quite considerate of that human princess," the black dragon sneered as she questioned Delen.

Delen gave a wry smile, offering no further explanation, only saying: "When I act and do things, I follow my own principles. I can't have myself taking all the perks while leaving my allies to take the blame. I only have the two of you as partners, whereas Jaina has an entire city, and her position is much more complex."

"If we want long-term cooperation, we always have to consider the mutual interests of both sides. Anyway, our funds are still sufficient; don't sweat a few crystals. After all, we stand with Azeroth."

Hearing this, Onyxia and Chromie raised no further objections, silently acquiescing to Delen's plan. This was perhaps the deepest unspoken understanding between them.

Delen stood up, stretched lazily, and walked out of the house. The weather was bright and clear, perfect for a swim in the sea. He stripped off his outer clothes, walked into the ocean wearing only swim trunks, and called back over his shoulder, "Ladies, care to come down for a swim? But we have rules: no spells allowed, and no pulling down each other's swim trunks."

Onyxia and Chromie exchanged glances, changed into swimsuits in a flash, and wore wicked grins. One launched an assault from the surface while the other dived beneath the water.

A moment later, Delen's startled yelp rang out: "Cheating, you two are cheating! No magic allowed! Ah—my swim trunks! Chromie, give them back to me right now!"

"Haha—" The cheerful laughter of the two dragon women drifted across the sea. All troubles and unease vanished at that moment.

After playing and splashing around all afternoon—fortunately, none of the three were ordinary beings, with two being humanoid dragons and the other a human gifted with dragon-strength, granting them boundless energy—as night descended, they started a barbecue party on the beach.

Chromie's belly was rounded to the point of being spherical, and she rolled happily back and forth across the sand. Contentedly, she sighed, "This is wonderful! This is the life I want—no overtime, no assigned missions, no worrying about the world ending! Oh haha—"

Delen was sipping dwarven mead when Onyxia, noticing his cup was empty, immediately used magic to control the wine bottle and refill it for him.

The Black Dragon Princess also looked slightly intoxicated, staring intently at Delen. "Delen, my pet... it's really hard to imagine that a year ago, you were still a starving vagrant, and now you can drink and sleep alongside a Black Dragon Princess. I must be out of my mind to have taken a fancy to a guy like you."

Delen raised his cup, gesturing to her from afar before saying, "My dear Ony, the good days have only just begun. Once we get through this busy spell, we'll live like this every single day, without having to fret over Burning Legions, monsters, undead, or heavyweights."

"Get through this busy spell?" Onyxia crawled over to him on all fours, rested her head against his chest, and let out a lazy, comfortable laugh. "Why do I smell the scent of a conspiracy on you again? Black dragons are most sensitive to that."

Chromie popped up from the other side, grabbed his hand, and shook it. "Oh, Delen, your face is wobbling. Is it because Onyxia is pressing down too heavily on that side?"

Delen smiled faintly and said to Chromie, "These good days are about to come to an end. These past few months have flown by, and Arthas looks like he's about to march on Dalaran. You surely know what happens next, don't you?"