Chapter 125: A Journey Taking Shape

Jess listened to Gred explain how he'd arranged the house, packed his things, and prepared for the trip. After a while, Jess said, "I keep feeling like I've forgotten something. Like I'm going to leave something behind."

Gred picked up a slice of toasted bread, tore it in half, dipped it in pumpkin sauce, and popped it into his mouth.

"I'll tell you something. If you can't remember it now, it can't be that important. Let it go. Stop worrying about this and that, or you'll be uncomfortable wherever you go."

"All right." Jess thought for a moment. "Shouldn't we work out what we're doing when we get to Southshore? I have to be in Dalaran around the tenth. How long does it take to get there from Southshore?"

Jess remembered that Lordaeron's geography wasn't quite like it was in the game. The Alterac Mountains extended much farther than the game showed, standing between Lake Lordamere and Southshore. Hillsbrad was really a broad stretch of slopes and fields running down from the Alterac range to the coast.

The game map had simplified things. The ground between important places was flatter and there were fewer obstacles.

In the real world, anyone traveling from Southshore to Dalaran had to make a huge detour, perhaps even crossing into the Kingdom of Gilneas. Walking straight north toward Dalaran, as if the shortest line between two points on the game map were a real road, would take a traveler straight into the Alterac Mountains.

When Jess had traveled from the royal capital to Southshore, he'd followed the coast near Shadowfang Keep on the far western edge of Lordaeron. Of course, at the time, the castle was still called Castle Silverlaine.

On the western side of Silverpine Forest, he'd followed the Gilnean coast past that castle, then headed southwest into the Burning Wood Marsh. Beyond the marsh and another great stretch of forest, he'd reached Emberstone Village, surrounded by trees.

Only after leaving Emberstone Village and crossing the broad Hillsbrad farmland to the east had he finally reached Southshore.

Throughout that entire journey, he'd never been able to see Dalaran to the east of Silverpine Forest. Later, the mountains of Alterac had blocked the view completely.

Gred drew a rough map with his finger. It matched Jess's memory. First, the dwarf dragged one thick finger across the table to mark the mountains separating Southshore from Dalaran. Then he tapped a spot farther north.

"This is your home—the royal capital of Lordaeron."

He tapped just north of the mountains. "Dalaran."

Then a point by the southern coast. "Southshore."

Gred traced a long curve around the mountain line. "This route takes about three days. It's roughly as far as going from Stormwind to Sentinel Hill, but the roads aren't as good. It's all hills and mountains, and you'll pass through a few towns in Gilneas."

Hearing that made Jess worry about the state of Gilneas. Of all the kingdoms, Gilneas had reacted most strongly against the Alliance's refugee internment law.

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Lordaeron was far more powerful than Gilneas, and it had become the leader of the Alliance. Gilneas already had reasons to be wary of its mighty neighbor.

Then came the strain on the treasury. Losses from a series of naval battles were hard to recover from, yet the kingdom was still expected to contribute to rebuilding Stormwind and maintaining the internment camps. Under all that pressure, Gilneas was pushed toward breaking point. Before long, it would become one of the first human kingdoms to withdraw from the Alliance.

If Gilneas carried so many grudges against its fellow Alliance members, would traveling through its territory be troublesome?

And to guard against retaliation from the other kingdoms, Gilneas would eventually build a massive wall across the entrance to its peninsula after leaving the Alliance. Construction might already have begun. Jess hadn't heard any rumors, though, and he certainly hadn't seen a wall blocking the road on his earlier journey from the capital to Southshore.

Once that wall was built, this relatively safe route would probably be closed. Travelers would have to open up the little path through Silverpine Forest instead—the one the game showed.

That path had been usable before the war, but crossing Silverpine afterward carried the obvious danger of being hunted by orcs.

And politics wasn't the only problem. There were the worgen.

According to what Jess knew of Gilneas from the past few years, rumors of wolf-men were already circulating there, much like the stories around Raven Hill.

But Jess knew that the Gilnean rumors weren't about creatures that only looked like wolf-men. They were about real worgen.

He was certain that mages in Gilneas had already discovered the creatures, and had used magic to look across planes into their home, the Emerald Dream. That was where those strange, half-believed stories had begun.

Gred knew nothing of that, of course. He kept explaining the route.

"Once you reach Dalaran, getting to the capital will be much easier. Take a ship across Lake Lordamere and you'll be there in less than a day. On the way back, I suggest you go from Dalaran to Alterac City, then east into the Hinterlands. The journey will be at least three times shorter, and you won't need to cross those snowy mountains and forests where orcs have been spotted. It's safer too."

"Alterac City?" Jess asked. "I heard the city was attacked by black dragons and orcs recently. Is it safe to go there now?"

"Don't worry. It's still the capital of an ancient kingdom," Gred said. "I've asked around. Trollbane's troops are running the city for now, and Trollbane wants to take it for himself. If the place were nothing but ruins, why would he risk making the entire Alliance angry by trying to swallow it?"

Jess had heard similar rumors. If the Kingdom of Stromgarde was determined to annex Alterac City, perhaps the city's final decline wouldn't come until after the Scourge invasion, rather than as a direct result of the Orc Wars.

Of course, Stromgarde wouldn't be able to take the territory so easily. If Trollbane gained Alterac, his kingdom would quickly grow powerful enough to challenge Lordaeron.

Terenas II would never allow that. He would surely find one of the surviving children of the Perenolde royal family and put the crown on that child's head.

"In that case, fine," Jess said. "So you think I should visit my parents in the capital after arriving in Lordaeron, then return to Dalaran for the Orcish exchange meeting on the tenth?"

"Exactly. Dalaran to Alterac City takes about a day and a night. By the time you finish your business and reach Alterac, it'll probably be Winter Veil already. Think how tight the schedule is."

Jess frowned. He remembered how long the road from the capital to Southshore had felt when he left home. He made a quick calculation based on Gred's plan. He might only get to stay at home for three or four days.

But what would a few extra days accomplish? It would only make the parting harder for his parents and make him more reluctant to leave.

If he could bring his parents to the Kingdom of Stormwind, he wouldn't have to worry about any of this anymore.

"How long from Alterac City to the Hinterlands?" Jess asked.

Gred traced a line eastward. "That road is very hard going and doesn't see many trade caravans. But we can travel with patrols. I've checked. There are a lot of patrols between Alterac City and Durnholde Keep because the area's been unsettled lately. About two days should do it."

Jess took a deep breath. This really was going to be a long journey. Crossing Baradin Bay was only the beginning.

If he managed not to die somewhere along the way, he could call the whole trip a complete success.