Jail?

When Duke's jaw hit the floor, he was seeing stars.

Jail? The pokey? Alleria? Why in the name of the Light was Alleria cooling her heels in the clink?

He racked his brain, but there wasn't a single whisper in the history books about Alleria ever doing hard time. Not a peep!

What in the blazes was going on?!

Duke's face went dark as a thundercloud. "Vanessa, Gavinrad, if you'd be so kind as to give us a moment."

"Sir, we…" Gavinrad, ever the loyal watchdog, started to protest. In his book, high elves were about as trustworthy as a goblin with a gold tooth.

"I insist!" Duke snapped, his voice firm as a stone wall.

Vanessa had never seen Duke so wound up. It hit her like a ton of bricks: this high elf, Alleria, was more than just a passing fancy to him. She held a spot in his heart that was off-limits.

Vanessa and Gavinrad beat a hasty retreat, but not so far that they couldn't keep an eye on things. They hovered less than twenty paces from the house, their gazes glued to the window, silent as shadows.

Sylvanas, light as a feather, flipped through the open window into Duke's room. Her eyes did a double-take at the sight of mages inside, scribbling away like madmen, parchment rustling like autumn leaves.

But she quickly reeled her attention back to the man of the hour. She saw a pair of eyes brimming with self-blame and regret. Those weren't the eyes of a carefree fifteen-year-old boy; no, these were the eyes of an old soul who'd seen some things, weathered some storms.

Sylvanas suddenly felt like she'd hit the jackpot.

"Spill it. I'm all ears." It wasn't an order, but a plea, raw and desperate. Duke sat behind the table, his fingers laced together, knuckles white, pressed against his lips like a prayer.

"It's all because of a little book. Called 'Introduction Notes for High Elf Mage Apprentices.'"

Duke's heart did a triple somersault and his face went from pale to purple in a blink. His ten fingers clasped so tightly his knuckles looked like they were ready to pop. He'd bitten his lip so hard the taste of iron filled his mouth.

Duke couldn't help but rewind. After he'd landed in this crazy world, everything had kicked off with Alleria. If her helping him drive off the wild boar was just a friendly gesture, easily repaid by dragging the boar carcass away, then this notebook—this tome of the Arcane Circuit, passed down from the Sun King to Kael'thas—that was his golden ticket to Duke's big break.

It was no exaggeration to say that without that notebook, Duke might still be an excellent mage. But just excellent. Miles away from his current extraordinary level, where he could easily wipe the floor with mages of the same caliber, or even higher.

Duke secretly sized himself up against other mages, even the legendary masters like Krasus and Kel'Thuzad, and found his Arcane Fire Magic Circuit could hold its own with the best of them.

What was his secret sauce? Wasn't it just this seemingly unintentional gift from Alleria?

It was hard for Duke to put a finger on his exact feelings for Alleria. But one thing was clear as day, etched in stone: Alleria was definitely his benefactor.

And now Alleria was stuck in the slammer because of him… Duke was about to blow a gasket.

Sylvanas seemed oblivious to Duke's internal meltdown, continuing her tale as if talking to herself. The future Queen, proud as a peacock and sharp as a tack, now spun a slightly melancholic yarn in the tone of a girl-next-door:

"Originally, it was a total fluke that this notebook fell into my eldest sister's hands. But my eldest sister didn't know that my third sister, Vereesa, bless her heart, had a memory like a sieve when it came to this little detail. She'd signed on the dotted line that this notebook was strictly family-only, no exceptions. Anyone who broke that rule would get the book thrown at them."

"Vereesa just told her to drop the codex off with Prince Kael'thas when she was passing through Dalaran. In truth, the prince wouldn't know a spell from a hole in the ground with that codex. But due to all the top-secret magic mumbo-jumbo, the prince, who hadn't gotten his hands on the codex for ages, raised a stink with the higher-ups. Eventually, this little kerfuffle got His Majesty Anasterian, the Sun King, all riled up."

"Normally, it wouldn't have been a hill of beans if a mere apprentice's notebook went missing. Even if it was a problem, the Windrunner family could have swept it under the rug faster than you could say 'abracadabra.' The kicker was, this notebook actually held the secret sauce of the Sunstrider family's arcane circuit."

"If that secret had stayed under wraps, my elder sister would have been fine and dandy. The problem is, some human whippersnapper got his grubby hands on it and cracked the code. He even used the arcane circuit training tutorial in this notebook to build his arcane fire magic circuit from the ground up, like a boss."

"If this kid was just some run-of-the-mill Joe Schmoe, the Quel'Thalas royal family could have just sent in a hit squad to zap his magic circuits and stop the leak. No harm, no foul. But wouldn't you know it, by the time they caught wind of it, this kid was already a big shot in the human kingdom."

"After all, the high elves had egg on their face. Plus, the Sun King's secret method of constructing magic circuits rubbed the Silver Moon Council the wrong way. So, in the end, the eldest sister got stuck doing hard time for three months in the dark prison."

"You might think three months is nothing, but for a freedom-loving, couldn't-care-less Windrunner, that's worse than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick. My elder sister would have gone to her grave before letting us spill the beans. But I couldn't keep a lid on it, because not long after she got out, she was asking about you again, like a broken record. When she heard about your deeds and that you became the deputy commander of the alliance, my elder sister, who originally planned to come alone, pulled out all the stops and dragged the elite of the entire Windrunner family along for the ride."

"I don't know why Big Sister did this. But I only know that you owe Big Sister a debt the size of a small kingdom. I once thought you were Big Sister's secret squeeze from the human world, so I tried to get the lowdown on you the moment I stepped off the boat."

At this point, Sylvanas shrugged, looking a little deflated. "Well, I still can't figure out what the heck you two are, but if you hurt my elder sister again, we'll be coming for you with pitchforks and torches this time."

Duke let out a breath he didn't know he was holding and spoke. To Sylvanas's surprise, Duke didn't promise any compensation or swear any oath. He just said, without missing a beat: "Time will tell, but knowing Alleria? That's my lucky break. And Alleria knowing me? Well, that's the Windrunner family's lucky day."

Sylvanas cocked her head, a curious glint in her eye, and then her figure shimmered, then vanished into the twilight like a wisp of smoke.

The room fell into eerie silence again.

After a long while, Duke suddenly called out, "Sister Alleria, fancy a stroll?"

In the woods thirty meters behind the wooden house, there was also an eerie silence. It was only after ten full seconds that a whisper of a reply was heard.

"Good."

As night fell, Duke and Alleria walked side by side in a forest far away from the refugee camp and military camp.