Chapter 4: Winds of Change
"The wha'?" Thoradin nearly shouted.
"The Inquisitor for this section of the wall, they make a report on each person here, and determine whether we have any, er… anti-human tendencies." Replied Horen.
"But you are all human." Said Levin, making what he thought was a very obvious point.
"Well we are, but we may help or be friendly to 'non-humans'… and by 'non-humans' I mean dwarves, gnomes and elves. They are also clamping down on the orcs and trolls, in fact I don't think any of them are still living in their camps any more, all of them are in the prisons in Stormwind. At least some of the dwarves and gnomes are helped by isolated villages, no-one would dare help the orcs because it would mean a life sentence for them if they were found out." said Horen.
"Wai'… wai'… you mean all the non-humans in Azeroth are getting' punished for being what they are? What 'bout Ironforge? or the Tech-Union? Are they doin' anything?" Thoradin asked.
"Well they tried, but they would never be strong enough to take on Stormwind. They've already withdrawn all of their frontier scouts from the wall; you are the last group of scouts back I think." replied Horen. "Most of the veterans were pulled back to Stormwind because the Inquisitor thinks they were too friendly towards the scouts, so I got this rabble to man the wall here. But I still got some loyal men under my command, so we will sneak you out during the night. And as for you," Horen turned to Levin, "you look like a mage to me, so how did you meet with Thoradin and his scout party?"
Levin then told Horen all about the Kalimdor expedition and how they encountered the dwarves, by the end of his story; Horen was sitting still on his chair, stunned by what he heard.
"Yea, ther' story got me too, still cant' believe they are still alive after all thes' years…" Thoradin muttered.
"So, you are sent here by Kil'jadin himself?"
Levin nodded silently, reliving the moment the huge demon teleported the entire fleet to here.
"This is great news! We have to get to Stormwind, and tell the King, although not to him directly… probably best to speak to Prince Anduin first…" Horen's words gradually grew quieter.
"What's wrong with King Varian?" Asked Levin, who had learnt enough human history from the library in Theramore to know that the King was a wise ruler, and, other than a brief abduction, had ruled Stormwind well for decades.
"Well… the King is ill, or so they say, nobody can be sure of what's true or not these days. If the King was fine, these laws would have never been passed, Prince Anduin is trying to persuade him about how wrong the laws were, but apparently the King is adamant about the laws he had passed." said Horen.
Horen looked at the sky, which was gradually darkening, and said to Thoradin and Levin, "You better get some sleep now, we would be moving you guys out at…" He opened a drawer and pulled out a Gnome-made watch, "Illegal item, so I have to hide it… we will be moving you at midnight, so you should get some sleep, at least we would be moving you if I can get in contact with the Victor brothers that is…" As he started to fiddle with a magically enchanted bottle.
Thoradin bade goodbye, whilst Levin sat on a spare bed in Horen's quarters. He couldn't sleep and so instead asked Horen about how he will be moving them.
"Well, not many people are very happy about the laws, after all the dwarves and gnomes had been in the Alliance for a long time, a lot of people were eager to help them. The Victor brothers are one group of them; they operate a gryphon carrier service, which basically transport endangered people to safe houses across the country. This bottle is supposed to teleport the message I put in there to their base…" Horen kept tapping the bottle with his fingers, but the message inside it did not disappear.
"Here, let me help." offered Levin. He took the bottle, and in his mind he identified the wrong component in the complicated spell work. He quickly corrected it in his mind.
He tapped it with his finger, and the message disappeared. Horen was amazed at how Levin fixed the bottle, "That's amazing! The Victors say that it is really hard magic, only one of their High Elf friends could cast it."
Levin smiled briefly, but said "The bottle had been tampered with, someone damaged part of the spell, so that it won't work. Does any of your men know magic?"
"Are you suggesting one of my men did this? No, none of them know magic, I don't think anyone knows magic here apart from the battle mages, but they are stationed at a garrison miles away." said Horen.
"It could be accidentally of course, a slight spark could damage it, or maybe some heavy tool… but they won't damage the magic so accurately at one point…" Levin's muttering gradually trailed off, as he tried to think of how the magical bottle got damaged.
Midnight gradually got closer, and soon the other dwarves and the gnomes reached Horen's quarters. He quickly led them down the stairs, and into the courtyard. Levin asked if the guards would see them, Horen said that he had changed the roster when the dwarves arrived, so that only men loyal to him stood guard over the wall.
They waited in the court yard, until, at exactly midnight, they heard the beat of wings. From behind the forest nearby, ten gryphons appeared, five with riders and five without.
The majestic beasts touched down in the courtyard, and one by one the dwarves and the gnome climbed on to their backs, whilst Levin climbed behind who he had assumed was the leader. Levin was rather disturbed by the fact that none of them spoke as they mounted, and they were still silent as they flew towards their secret destination; a few of the dwarves tried to begin a conversation with the riders, but the riders did not respond.
After about two hours of flying, they reached wherever they are going to. It looked to Levin like a small hill, but as they got closer, he realised that it was an illusion, an extremely good illusion in fact. The High Elf sorcerer the Victor brothers use must be very good, mused Levin.
Levin jumped down the gryphon he was riding, seeing a small but orderly camp behind the hill illusion, and was met by a friendly looking man, who he assumes must be one of the Victor brothers, flanked by a High Elf, who was muttering a spell.
Levin wondered about what the spell could be, when suddenly one of the dwarves gasped in surprise; the five riders who led the gryphons suddenly disappeared.
All of the others were surprised apart from Victor, the High Elf and Levin. Levin was just about to ask the Elf about the spell, when all hell broke loose. Arrows were fired into their midst, whilst explosions were heard from the other side of the small camp. It was only now that Levin realised that the illusion protecting the camp was gone, and from the skies countless number of human soldiers and Inquisitors riding gryphons bearing down on the camp. Beyond the camp itself, a huge number of foot soldiers and knights also appeared, one of the leaders blew a horn, and all of them charged.