Chapter 072: A Suitable Wish

When the colonel had mentioned reporting the attack to the king yesterday, it hadn't felt real to Jess. He'd wondered whether the king might actually give him a reward, but he never imagined he'd meet the man in person.

Come to think of it, Varian Wrynn really did seem to want to be a good king.

At the beginning of the original version of the game, Varian had already been split into two personalities by the dark magic of Onyxia, the black dragon princess who'd infiltrated Stormwind. One part kept his original courage and fighting spirit but was cast out. The other was kindhearted, yet obeyed without question the noblewoman Lady Katrana Prestor—the disguise Onyxia used to manipulate the kingdom's politics.

Eventually the black dragon didn't even want that puppet anymore.

Until Varian reclaimed his throne and reunited his two halves near the beginning of the game's later era, then killed Onyxia, he'd had so little real presence that players generally assumed he'd always been a useless puppet king.

But after living in Stormwind for a while, Jess realized he'd overlooked the Varian Wrynn who existed before Onyxia arrived.

Right now he was still a decent king, or at least a young man who wanted to become one. He was trying to solve the problems left by the war: refugees, bandits, and shortages of food. And when a border fortress came under attack, he'd risked coming in person to steady morale and encourage his soldiers. That said a great deal about his intentions.

Once that female black dragon arrived, though, both the kingdom and its ruler might enter the miserable, almost invisible stage familiar to players.

That evening, Jess was practicing swordsmanship with soldiers in the courtyard when a noble-looking man in his thirties approached with a guard.

"Mr. Jess Seso?"

"That's me. And you are?"

"Baron Gray Ellian, secretary to King Varian. I don't have much time and must return to Lakeshire soon, so let's skip the tiresome formalities. Do you know you'll be meeting the king tomorrow?"

"I do, my lord," Jess answered.

He'd heard that Varian's wife, Queen Tiffin Wrynn, came from the Ellian family, a noble house with a small estate in Westfall. He wondered how this man was related to the queen.

"His Majesty will leave Lakeshire early tomorrow morning. I need to explain a few things before he arrives, because he will speak to you. Do you understand?"

"I understand."

That was reassuring. Jess knew nothing about the etiquette of meeting a king. He hardly knew how to behave before ordinary nobles. He tended to use whatever polite expressions happened to occur to him.

With shopkeepers and even mages, nobody made much fuss. A king might be different. One wrong move could cause trouble.

The baron took him into a small room in a corner of the keep and studied his clothes.

"Were you wearing this outfit when you fought the gnolls?"

"Yes."

"Good. Wear it to meet the king. It doesn't matter if it looks old or torn."

The baron looked him up and down again.

Old or torn? Jess had bought these clothes only recently, and the gnolls hadn't even damaged them much.

The orc shaman's lightning had burned a hole in his back a few days ago, admittedly. But in Azeroth, was a hole in your clothing really such a big deal?

Nobody uploaded this here with the author's blessing; it was lifted off NovelPhoenix by a scraper.

Even a hole in your face might not be!

"Has your hand healed?" the baron asked.

"It's much better. Thank you for asking, my lord."

"I'm not asking about your hand. I mean the bandage."

"Oh. Should I take it off?"

"No. Don't take it off. Leave it exactly as it is when you meet the king. Excellent."

The baron took Jess's wrist and examined it.

"Quite a serious burn. Very effective. Good."

The look in his eyes made Jess want to punch him.

"Oh, one more thing," the baron said, turning back. "Don't shake the king's hand. Don't wave at him. Before he approaches you, don't speak or make any movement on your own. Remain quiet. When he comes up to you, bow. Just a little—you don't want to bump your head against his chest. Then address him as Your Majesty. He'll ask your name, or whether you're the commoner who saved Stonewatch Keep. That's when you tell him your name or confirm that you're the man."

"I think I've got most of it."

"Don't think you've got most of it. Remember every word," the baron said. "Since you're the hero who saved Stonewatch, I'm willing to tell you some things I shouldn't normally say to outsiders, Mr. Seso."

"The king is a young man about your age. You might even call him a boy. He returned to Stormwind only recently. He wants to build King Llane's great legacy into a kingdom as strong as Lordaeron. For that to happen, people must believe he can do it."

"He doesn't want anything going wrong. You know how sensitive boys of that age can be. He's just returned from Lordaeron, where he saw Terenas II, the king loved and blessed by all seven kingdoms."

So that was how other people saw Varian when he was young?

Jess nodded obediently.

"Now we come to the main point." The baron grew serious, sat on a wooden chair, and looked up at Jess.

That hadn't been the main point?

What else was there? Did Varian think Jess was an invincible hero because he'd defeated so many gnolls and intend to challenge him to a duel on the spot?

"Stop daydreaming and pay attention, Mr. Seso," the baron said sternly. "At the end, King Varian will ask what reward you want—or what wish you'd like granted. As a hero of Stormwind, he'll try to fulfill your request."

Oh! That was it!

Ideas immediately flooded Jess's mind.

"Could I ask for a house?" he blurted out.

"Holy Light. Look at the trouble you're causing me." The baron raised his eyebrows. "Duke Bolvar sent me to speak with you first. That's the wisdom of an experienced politician. Otherwise this might have become a disaster."

"If you simply ask the king for a house, can he refuse? He's a passionate young man under twenty who knows practically nothing about running anything. He'll agree on the spot, and then I'll have to find you a place in Stormwind, where land is worth a fortune."

"I'll have to argue with nobles who own property, upset every last one of them, and still might not find the home you want. And if I squeeze some small noble out of a little property to give it to you, do you think you'll live there peacefully? Will you even be able to stay in Stormwind? Those damned bloodsuckers won't give up a scrap of their interests, not even when the kingdom's in danger!"

Jess had a feeling the man wasn't only complaining about Jess's problem.

The baron sighed.

"Ask for something realistic. Or tell me other ideas and we'll discuss what's possible. I'd suggest keeping your request to something worth no more than ten gold coins."

"Then ten—"

"Ten gold coins are out of the question," the baron interrupted firmly. "A kingdom's hero shouldn't waste a wish on vulgar gold. And more practically, the royal household can't afford to give you ten gold coins. We may not even have enough to pay the Stonemasons' Guild for its work."

He seemed to realize he'd said too much and wiped the corner of his mouth with his thumb.

"We should have enough to pay them. In any case, don't make trouble for the royal family."

Jess thought again.

"Then I want to enter the Wizard's Sanctum."

"What do you mean? Aren't you already that Marin fellow's assistant?"

"An assistant isn't an apprentice. I want to become a mage's apprentice and study magic," Jess explained.

"I don't understand." The baron frowned. "Isn't an assistant the same thing as an apprentice? Are you telling me that the Wizard's Sanctum hires young people to run errands for its mages, but doesn't even let them study magic? What sort of arrangement is that?"

"Assistants are hired workers," Jess said. "To become an apprentice, you usually have to be recruited when you're barely over ten, or have some special talent nobody discovered before. I'm already much older than that, and I don't have any extraordinary talent. But I've always wanted to study magic..."

"I don't see a problem," the baron said, standing up with a smile. "It's only one apprentice position. Surely the whole Mage Quarter can make room for one more?"

"I'll report it to Duke Bolvar Fordragon. It's an excellent request. A hero who defeated a vile gnoll invasion wishes to pursue knowledge, become a mage, and continue serving the kingdom! Why, someone could write a story about it."

"But I should warn you: the scholars in the Wizard's Sanctum won't promote you just because the king let you in. If you fail their examinations and produce no results, you won't become a full mage. You'll have to earn that yourself."

"I understand, my lord," Jess said.

"Excellent. Then we're nearly done."

The baron taught him several more lines he'd need to say, brushed down his clothing, and walked out.

At the door, he looked back.

"No need to see me out. I must get back to Lakeshire and report."