Chapter 114: The Alliance Internment Act

Over the next two or three weeks, Jess practiced swordsmanship at night and kept working on Arcane Intellect during the day, slowly increasing how long he could maintain it.

Marin's requirement was that it last at least three or four hours before Jess could use it to help practice Mage Armor. When Jess had first cast Arcane Intellect successfully, it had worn off after only a few minutes.

To reach Marin's standard, he'd have to work much harder and learn to control arcane energy with greater precision.

But he didn't want to start questioning his own life under Arcane Intellect's influence, as Marin had warned. So he used Saeno as his test subject. Whether the imp was clever for a while and stupid for a while, he probably wouldn't notice much. As long as he felt he could see things more clearly, Jess counted the spell as working.

Of course, besides sword practice and Arcane Intellect, the most important work was continuing to learn Orcish and practicing his written essay.

At the end of October, Master Duchamp announced the exam topic. Just as Marin had guessed, students would use Orcish to discuss the main conflicts and common interests among the kingdoms of the Alliance.

Jess decided to choose a topic that had recently become less popular than the much-discussed Alliance Expedition: the Alliance Internment Act.

It wasn't that he wanted to avoid a popular subject. He simply knew too much about the Alliance Expedition's future: what would happen to the Sons of Lothar, the disappearance of Marshal Turalyon and Alleria Windrunner, the war that would last a thousand years, the struggle on Argus, the battles between the Burning Legion and the Army of the Light...

He worried he might reveal too much in his essay or answers and expose knowledge he wasn't supposed to have.

Carlo Duchamp wasn't only an Orcish teacher. He knew many languages, had lived in many places, and understood the cultures of different races and kingdoms.

He knew a great deal of history and geography too. If Jess carelessly revealed something he shouldn't know, Duchamp would certainly notice.

The Alliance Internment Act was safer. After Lordaeron fell, it would become little more than a dead letter. Jess knew no more about it than the people who actually lived in this world.

Simply put, the Alliance Internment Act was a law passed by the Alliance under Lordaeron's leadership to decide what should be done with captured orcs.

It required every Alliance member to send its orc prisoners to a newly built internment camp below the Alterac Valley, with all members sharing the cost of running the place.

Recently, many kingdoms and groups holding orc prisoners had noticed something strange. The orcs were no longer as savage and bloodthirsty as they'd been during the war. Instead, they were becoming weak and sleepy, almost as though a disease had spread through them all.

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Antonidas, leader of the Kirin Tor, believed the effect of the demons on the orcs was fading. He therefore supported King Terenas II's proposal: continue holding the prisoners, find a way to cure them of the demonic influence, and look for a way to live alongside them. Eventually, the orcs could work to make up for the damage they'd caused in the war.

Dalaran and Lordaeron's position met fierce opposition from the other kingdoms. But after the internment camp was built, the question of living alongside the orcs stopped being the main point of debate.

The real problem was the cost. The entire Alliance had to pay to maintain the camps. Kingdoms devastated by the war could barely afford to feed their own people, let alone these orcs. Worse, the prisoners they were being asked to support were the same people who'd killed their citizens and burned their lands.

Most importantly, every kingdom had already contributed a considerable sum toward rebuilding New Stormwind. Finding more money for the internment camps was even harder.

The camps had originally been a proud sign of the Alliance's civilized values. But once the kingdoms' treasuries ran dry, that promising beginning came to an abrupt end. The camps became a thorn in relations between the Alliance kingdoms.

Making matters worse, the camps' first administrator had been the respected Danath Trollbane. He had joined the Alliance Expedition, so he could no longer serve in that role. With him gone, more politicians and nobles dared to oppose the Internment Act openly.

Stormwind was in a special position. Most of the kingdom had been destroyed in the war, and it had fought bravely and suffered more than almost any other Alliance member. So it generally benefited from the Alliance's postwar measures.

The kingdoms opposing the Internment Act all supported funding Stormwind's reconstruction. But Stormwind had also received enormous help from Lordaeron and Dalaran.

King Varian didn't want to offend either side, and Stormwind's politicians sensibly stayed restrained during the debate. As a result, Stormwind was one of the places where the issue could be discussed relatively objectively.

Jess studied spells and Orcish during the day and didn't neglect his evening sword lessons with Gred.

Partly, as he'd told Gred, sword practice helped him relax. More importantly, he was coming to understand how essential strength was in this world.

He would soon leave Stormwind and return to Lordaeron, to Hillsbrad. Jess had no idea what greater dangers might be waiting there.

He wanted to prepare for them in every possible way, both physically and mentally.

Once he boarded the ship to Southshore, there would be no turning back.

In fact, practicing swordsmanship and magic might be even more important than studying Orcish.

If he failed the Orcish exam, he would simply have to pay his own way to Lordaeron. He could sell the naga pearl bracelet. Even if it brought less than the merchant's estimate of forty silver, it would still cover some of the passage.

But his physical strength and magical skill would determine how likely he was to survive after leaving Stormwind.

So Jess worked seriously every day and night. Once he received his ten-silver salary from Marin, enough to cover his living expenses for the next two months, he could focus on improving himself with greater peace of mind.

Sometimes Gred was even surprised by how seriously Jess practiced at night.

After all, Gred didn't know what had happened to Jess on the Westfall coast. The more Jess thought about how weak that naga might actually have been, the more he thought of his own weakness, and of how helpless he still was in this world.

Once he'd set his goal and started working toward it, time flew. In what seemed like a moment, November twelfth arrived—the day of the Orcish exam.

Aside from helping Marin deliver two more packages to Lakeshire and Stonewatch Keep, Jess had spent all his time improving his skills.

By that day, he'd finished and revised his essay several times. He'd also prepared answers in Orcish for the questions Master Duchamp might ask during the exam.