' = Internal dialogue

ยจ= Normal speech

* = Sounds / Etc

-Chapter 33 Start-

-14 hours after setting up the portals and transporting people to Azshara-

We had finally sent the people through the portals we managed to set up. It turned out Jaina's mages were experienced and prepared to undertake such a task, summoning around twenty portals. The process of distributing the identification tokens still took some time, though.

Belmont had sent several of his spies over to Stormwind while utilizing the migration as some sort of cover and had told me to open gaps to let them through.

The mass transfer to Azshara went almost without any problems. When they finally saw what was waiting for them, most reacted differently. Some were ecstatic. Many fell to their knees and sobbed loudly after realizing they were finally safe, while many looked at their surroundings in awe.

Considering the number of people just arriving in the city, we were at a loss on what to do with our current personnel. We by no means had enough people to watch everything the newcomers were doing, we were outnumbered roughly one to ten, but our worries were for nothing, as most quietly settled down at their assigned temporary homes.

The houses were basically on loan, and to pay that off, a person could work for the guard or start up their own businesses, or actually do something reasonable that would benefit the city as a whole, as we wouldn't give housing for free, that would utterly ruin any worth the houses had in general, but for now, we had decided to loan them just out of necessity.

Leaving so many people homeless after coming from Stormwind was not smart.

Many people were quite wary of the different races living here.

The dwarves or gnomes weren't new for Lordaeron humans; they had been working aside them for a long time, but the people immigrating from Stormwind was another story.

It would be a process for them to get used to living among different races like the ones from Lordaeron. The tauren did their best to help welcome the humans, but in the end, the humans stayed wary of the friendly tauren race, as it was mostly alien for them to mingle among a race they had barely seen before.

The number had reached the point we had considered closing the portal for the time being, but luckily Belmont and Calia had been hard at work and were somewhat prepared for what came. According to them, before this event, the city was mostly empty, which made it a city only in name.

We had fulfilled the requirements to call this a city, but in reality, we needed more numbers to properly function as such. Now it wouldn't matter as the numbers skyrocketed.

After the entire day helping with the process, I was getting tired, as was Jaina but much more so. Valeera was still walking around in Stormwind, probably visiting Anduin.

I had sent one of Belmont's agents to tell Valeera to use her Hearthstone when she grew bored of the human kingdom, as we would undoubtingly be spending most of the following days trying to accommodate the new arrivals.

So when both Jaina and I stumbled through the doors to my place, she entered her room, just to come out of it right away while heading towards the second floor wearing a bathrobe. She paused mid-stride, "I'm taking the entire second floor... unless you are up for a bath as well after dealing with... today..." she said with a yawn.

I paused momentarily, "Sure, I'll see you there." I said as I went toward the basement and found a pair of shorts packed into one of the storage boxes I had lying around and had not yet been able to properly unpack in my bedroom on the second floor.

After putting them on, I went up to the second floor and heard a splash from the pool as I entered through the door, and to my surprise, the pool was already heated up, and the room was covered in thin vapor.

I removed the effects of the orb of deception as I felt my body return to its normal state, then placed all the armor and items I wore on the side of the room before I walked over to the pool. And sat down on the edge, submerged myself slowly into the warm water, and leaned backward with my head gazing up to the ceiling. Soon I could hear something coming toward me through the water.

Then I turned my gaze down and saw Jaina just floating around her back, wearing a very revealing outfit with closed eyes as she hummed to herself for a few minutes before she stopped and said, "You have an amazing home. I am honestly envious..." Then resumed her humming as she floated around the pool.

We sat in comfortable silence for a while, just enjoying the water and the calm, as the room was utterly soundproof, so we couldn't hear what was going on outside, which was, without a doubt, pure chaos. I honestly felt sorry for leaving Belmont and Calia to their jobs at settling in the new arrivals.

But I didn't feel sorry enough to leave the pool while enjoying the calm humming of Jaina, which soon turned to silence as she swam over toward me and sat beside me in the water.

"I never told you about myself, did I? Even when I demanded to know your origins a few weeks back... In hindsight, that paints a bad picture of myself now that I think about it..." She said all of a sudden.

"You didn't really demand an answer, if I can recall correctly. You more or less asked after reaching your own conclusions, though I am curious to know how you ended up on this side of Azeroth, even while I know some details regarding your journey in Lordaeron." I told her while having my eyes closed and enjoying the comfortable water.

As I waited for her response, I leaned further backward in thought.

'Water feels nourishing after my whole debacle with gaining the racial skills of being an Eternal.' I thought briefly

"Well, there's not really much to know. After my mother realized my talent for the arcane, she fought with my dad. After many nights of shouting and arguing, he sent me to Dalaran to learn. There I met many amazing people who taught me the wonders of magic." She said with a slightly nostalgic smile as I turned toward her; she got my attention and stirred me from my thoughts.

Her smile dimmed, however, when she continued, "When I apprenticed under Archmage Antonidas, I was the only female mage apprenticing under an Archmage at that time, leading to.. a few unpleasant experiences because most thought of me as nothing more than a servant, this made me make a lot of enemies while I was researching and investigating magic on my own.

While I was advancing my studies, a high elf...Noble thought I'd be the perfect romantic interest for him due to my high magic potential and kept bothering me for years, even while I had... Prince Arthas covering me from his advances..." She said with a sad smile.

Obviously, she had purposely left out that she had a crush on the upcoming Lich king, but it was understandable as it was a bit too personal for her to discuss with a man she had met only a month ago.

"So fast forward a few years, I saw Archmage Antonidas meet with the Prophet, and I overheard him warn my mentor about calamity striking in the heart of Lordaeron, and considering the power I felt Prophet displayed, I instinctively felt he was not lying, he had no reason to, so I met with Prince Arthas, and we solved the mystery of the plague my mentor had been researching." She paused for a moment, then sighed and continued.

"And after that... Stratholme happened and resulted in me retreating back to Dalaran. I wanted to help defend it against the Scourge. Still, Archmage Antonidas convinced me to leave with the remaining people I had saved after making my way toward Dalaran to join me in my journey across the sea and onto safety... This was where I encountered the warmongering orcs Hellscream had brought with him, and soon after, I met Thrall and Cairne and... you." She said as she finished her tale with a sorrowful smile which gradually turned brighter as a genuine smile appeared.

"I had no idea this would be where I'd end up. Since I arrived here, I have felt... at home." She said while gazing at the ceiling with a relaxed smile.

After some calm and therapeutic silence, only the sound of running water is heard in the room. I decided to ask her about yesterday.

"Oh, by the way, have you felt any different since yesterday? You reacted when I touched your shoulder, and I wondered if there have been any... Complications, It is, after all, quite an odd reaction..." I said in a pondering tone.

"Well, earlier today, when I cast magic... My cast time has been reduced slightly, and my spells are now considerably more potent. I haven't had time to test it in combat yet, but... I feel as if-" She said and then turned toward the door leading to the third floor.

I could guess why. This was the door toward the third floor. No one was supposed to live there except for me.

The door flew open as a hydra the size of a small horse rushed towards us, all the heads wailing in happiness as it jumped towards me. I just sighed. This ended up with me being pushed down the pool while the hydra stood on top of me.

I lay there momentarily as I look up, and three heads bob under the water, looking down at me. I look back with a lazy smile as its eyes widen, and the hydra suddenly steps aside, no longer standing directly on me and waiting for me to get up.

I heard Jaina laughing at the absurd situation as my head came out of the water. Before she had come here, she'd never expected to see the rumored vile and bloodthirsty hydra looking worried about its own ambush.

Nessie had her three worried sets of eyes on me as I got above the surface. Her response after me getting up was as follows, three heads wiggling around in joy when she realized she had my attention while Jaina was petting its back.

'This goofball...' I thought with a wry smile on my face.

Jaina and I talked casually from there as we both gave Nessie our attention. At the same time, the overjoyed hydra kept splashing around the pool after getting encouraged by Jaina after she summoned two small water elementals to play with her.

Apparently, her affinity with water was much more significant than mine. I presumed this was because of her Kul'tiran ancestry. Perhaps it had something to do with the tidesages in her homeland.

I had tried to summon water elementals of my own, but the response from the attempts was dull and emotionless, almost as if the water couldn't respond due to some veil between us.

I considered my affinity too low, so I concluded that Jaina had a higher affinity with water than myself. According to my system, I would presume her affinity with water was around Tier III because I couldn't summon arcane or air elementals yet, and something told me that I was still far off from doing anything like it.

An hour later, Nessie was tired, with all three heads yawning loudly. We decided to leave the pool, "We need to do something like this again. I haven't felt this relaxed in ages..." Jaina with a relaxed smile as I lifted the hydra who had fallen asleep in a carry.

"Sounds like a good idea. Let's hope we can do it under less stressful circumstances. Good night Jaina. I really enjoyed our talk, and thanks for entertaining Nessie. I'll see you in the morning." I said with a smile and started to walk toward the third-floor stairway door.

As I approached the door, she replied, "Good night Medan. Good luck with Nessie, and I'll see you tomorrow." She said with a smile as we both retreated back toward our rooms after having a calming end of the day.

[Belmont PoV At the same time as MC and Jaina entered the second floor into the pool.]

'This fucking night can't get much better,' I thought after being handed so much work I'd expect shit to go tits up, but apparently, I was pretty wrong, as that was quite the understatement.

So far, we have caught over a hundred suspicious individuals. A few of them had even tried to steal the tokens we handed out as our way to identify citizens. My little agents were doing a fantastic job keeping a careful eye on the ones our tokens marked as being afflicted with unknown magic.

Four weeks ago, I had asked the dwarves if they would make some a prison and perhaps be its temporary wardens. This was something the spokesperson of the dwarves was enthusiastic about to a scary degree. Hence, the dwarves made some super prison with magic-negating runes imbued into thorium and mithril.

In other words, powerful mages would NOT be getting out, and if they actually got close? Well, the spellcasting fucks wouldn't get far, as the room would fill up with an alchemic formula that would literally make the individual inside the cell lose every single bit of control over their bowels.

'Somehow, I feel sorry for the cleanup crew...'

Calia had been too busy to keep an eye out for herself as she was treating the people coming into her makeshift healing station around the portal area if it wasn't for Pained... We would have been short one Menethil, as several assassins who had hidden in the masses of people when coming here suddenly attacked, luckily Pained swiftly made them disappear the moment they showed any hostility and managed to get rid of them without the people in the camp getting treated noticed the fact assassins were on the loose.

I had at first thought the night elf was all bark and no bite, but after our duel, I realized I was very wrong as both of us gained some respect for one another, maybe a bit more than that, but that's a work in progress.

The elf was quite frankly terrifying in terms of combat expertise. However, her only negative trait was the fact she tended to let the attack land on her in order to retaliate, effectively basing her fighting style on always being injured for the sake of landing crippling hits on the enemy, quite literally the opposite of my own way of fighting.

Though we seem to be quite... compatible in terms of mindset as we both tend to sliiightly get a bit too invested in fights, honestly, this was new to me after we had our duel and Medan had encased us in ice for several hours we had been talking, sharing stories.

Turns out we both had quite similar stories to share. Pained was pretty unhappy being in service of spellcasters, and she was initially sent here to defend a mage. This caused her a high amount of anger at the order.

According to her description of magic, I had to correct her. She did not hate magic. She hated necromancers, warlocks, and the like. As a young elf, she had been exposed to the negative sides of magic for a long time, her parents were killed, and she was enslaved and used as an experiment.

But after being freed by Tyrande Whisperwind and her warriors, Pained spent several decades recovering from her black scars that would never truly heal, even with the help of the moonwells and the dryads. After that realization, she ended up focusing entirely on training.

After decades of torture, she no longer feared being hurt by physical attacks, swiftly making her a fearsome warrior who traded hits without fear. Even the orcs I had heard of while serving Lordaeron did not have such disregard for their own health. However, that would be negated as soon as they were overwhelmed with bloodlust and rage, turning them into suicidal maniacs.

After Medan, with his random acts, froze, Pained out of nowhere, she apparently opened up quite a bit and lost some of her spite toward magic and mages.

He always returned with new abilities, which seemed odd, but I always shrugged it off. The guy is an absolute and mind-numbing anomaly, but the guy was undoubtingly the one I felt safe to cover my back. Something told me that day when we fought Gavinrad that this... anomaly of a close combat shaman would undoubtingly destroy the war-worn veteran. It did help we had similar views on certain topics as well.

Though he does piss me off at times, it cannot be helped. If I was in his situation, I'd probably do the same, at least after hearing of the situation around his... appearance in Lordaeron and his relation with the dragons, who I literally knew nothing about even if I set myself as a very informed man, it quite frankly ashamed me that I wouldn't have read up on the subject if it wasn't for Calia.

After Medan had left us alone on the boat when sailing towards Azshara, Calia had gone in-depth on what she knew about the different flights. The ones who stood out the most were two of them, the bronze and the black; honestly, that was some scary information and further convinced me that Medan was the leader we needed if we were to thrive in this world after seeing the undead, demons, and other twisted creatures which of whom appeared one by one ever since Medan appeared.

Soon enough, as I was deep into my paperwork and pondering, I was interrupted by Deylia. Daylia was the high elf from Lordaeron who tried to steal Medan's... non-existent gold.

She was now my trusted assistant. The young high elf teen was the one organizing my young spies after I taught her how I did things. So far, she has been doing a magnificent job managing all this and reporting back to me, effectively reducing my workload significantly and enabling me to set my focus elsewhere.

So when she came running into my office under my Inn while heaving for air, I knew something was going on, "Sir! We have a problem!" she said loudly. She tried to calm herself and took a deep breath before continuing, "A few humans suddenly transformed into some four-legged black dragon without wings! And is currently trying to break down the wards from outside the prison!" She shouted in alarm in her voice.

Her statement made me think, 'So, Medan's warning came in handy, huh? He did warn us of this... Onyxia after all. Though I seem to have underestimated her intelligence by placing her agents in an unknown place and making an enemy out of that unknown... Well, that lizard will probably get what's coming when he hears of this...'

Even as Deylia was panicking, I knew that this wouldn't be a real problem, considering how the wards worked, this was a secret only the dwarf in charge of the prison, and I knew when the wards reached a certain threshold of 'Damage' they would deplete half of their charge outwardly towards the ones putting pressure on them.

In other words, the four-legged dragons would soon... no longer be a threat as it would teleport them inside the cells and initiate the anti-escape protocol, aka the ultimate loss of bowel control. Now I truly felt sorry for the ones doing the cleanup after tonight.

It's funny how a simple disorienting spell and an alchemic substance that is medical in nature mixed together and put into wards can have such... intense results.

I rose from my chair, went over to my clothing rack at the exit of my office, and geared up in preparations for a very long night.

-Chapter 33 End-