Jaina sighed as walked back to her dorm, the bustle of excited novices leaving class around her fully ignored as she stewed in her own thoughts. It was a wonder that she could follow her lessons today considering the little meeting at noon. She’d need to unwind, maybe find someone to-

Jaina.

The princess let out a gasp as she startled at the sudden echoing voice, almost dropping her books in doing so. The other students around her offered quizzical and concerned looks, but after a second, she shook her head and continued walking.

Maybe it was the stress of the day, maybe-

Jaina.

This time, she didn’t jump, only stumbling a little mid-step. Jaina hurriedly cast a general detection spell, finding nothing, not even lingering traces of mana on her. Which was weird, because she definitely-

Jaina. Library.

Surprise turned to annoyance and curiosity as she finally recognized the owner of the echoing voice rattling in her head. Annoyance because of course it was Kyle, and curiosity because he should be in Alterac right now. 

Jaina. Li-

“I heard you the first time,” she muttered, though Kyle’s ethereal echo did not immediately shut up.

Library? Fine, she’ll play along for now. 

Jaina turned about and marched straight for the library. She knew the one he was probably talking about. Mercifully, Kyle’s voice did not rattle in her head any more.

The Library of General Arcane Studies was quiet and sparsely populated as usual, magi and students alike barely visible behind the wall of tomes on their tables. A quick scan gave no sign of Kyle, so the princess headed towards the secluded corner Kyle liked to hide in during his green gas research.

She reached the corner and found it empty. “Alright Kyle,” she whispered irritatedly, “where are you?”

“Right here,” came a voice from behind her, almost making Jaina jump in surprise again.

“Kyle,” she greeted tersely, leveling an unamused glare at the boy.

But then she noted how she had to shift her gaze up a little to meet his gaze, and how he filled the space between the bookshelves. And how his face took on dashingly sharper features.

“You’ve…grown.”

“Puberty’s a thing, I heard,” he lamely replied, and then sketched a shallow bow. “It’s good to see you again, Jaina. Thanks for coming, I didn’t know if it’d wor-”

Kyle blinked in surprise as his gaze narrowed on her wrist. Jaina looked down to his point of interest, and fought the sudden urge to fidget. “What?”

“It’s…I’m surprised you kept it on you.”

She rubbed at the bracelet with the other hand, letting her palm press against the transmuted jewel hanging off it. “It felt appropriate…” the blonde novice replied with a touch of defensiveness. 

Kyle coughed into a fist before shrugging. “I thought you’d have simply chucked it in some corner as a novelty bauble,” he clarified lamely.

It was hard to meet his eyes for some reason. “It’s a pretty enough jewel to simply throw away or forget in some dusty corner.”

The boy nodded shakily before clearing his throat. “Well… I’m glad you appreciate the gift that much. Anyway, as I was saying…”

“Yes, you were,” Jaina cut in, eager to move the topic along.

“I’m glad you received the message. Didn’t think it’d work.”

Jaina blinked as intrigue replaced her momentary…distractedness. “What, telepathy? But I didn’t notice any ma-”

Right. She aborted finishing the sentence as she remembered Kyle’s peculiarities. His magic had the indecency of being practically undetectable by normal arcane means.

Kyle gave a light shrug. “It’s still a work in progress. I can emit, but cannot receive just yet.”

“Well, good luck with that… Wait, how did you get here? When did you get here?”

He gave another shrug, this time accompanied by his trademark punchable smirk. “I’m sure you can place an educated guess, and earlier in the afternoon. Had a meeting with Archmage Antonidas.”

Jaina raised an eyebrow. “Are you coming back to school or is it more kingly matters?”

“The latter.”

That was strangely disappointing, but the girl nodded. “Right, I won’t pry then. So what brings you here, and why the secret meeting?”

Kyle glanced around to make sure that they were alone before fixing her with a mildly uncertain look. “Well, as a tangent from my discussion with Master Antonidas, I brought up the possibility of doing some research. He is…approving of it, so I was hoping to look for some help.”

“What are you going to drag me into this time?” she asked with not a bit of exasperation, placing her hands on her hips.

The boy who didn’t act like a king raised his hands in a warding fashion. “Whoa, I’m not dragging you, you’re free to say no…”

Somehow, Jaina doubted it.

She fixed him a glare, and then he caved in seconds later with a slump and a sigh. “Look, I need a bit of help. Basic stuff, apparently, though Pelton said he doesn’t have the right reference. Hence me being in the archives.”

“And you need me for…?”

Kyle shrugged as he gave a lame smile. “A free hand? Ideally, my steward helps me run the kingdom while I run off to do projects like this. Can’t have him coming with me and leave the throne room empty. Ideally.”

“Your steward’s a mage as well?”

A simple nod came with the answer. “Yeah. Pelton Quickgear.”

Jaina blinked. “Pelton Quickgear?”

“Uh, yeah.”

“Pelton Quickgear, the mage who helped simplify the Arcane Orb spell? The mage who wrote up the treatise on counterspells? That Pelton Quickgear?”

Kyle looked at her, pretending to understand what she was saying, before nodding dumbly. “Uh…yeah, I guess. He was also one of Master Krasus’ students.”

“And he’s your steward?”

“He didn’t mind taking the job when I offered it,” Kyle replied defensively.

Jaina stared at the boy for a moment, dumbfounded at his obliviousness at having such a talented arcane pioneer at his side. As a mere steward at that.

“How don’t you know how important he is?”

“He…never brought it up?”

The blonde senior novice let out a heavy sigh of exasperation. At times like this she wished she remained back in Kul Tiras, and took up martial training under her father. Just so she could sock Kyle a good one.

“Look, it didn’t pop up in the studies, alright?”

“Sure…” Jaina replied with a roll of her eyes. “You just spent your time rummaging through the wrong books…”

“Exactly. Anyway, are you interested?”

“Just tell me what you plan to do exactly, and I’ll think about it.”

And so Kyle, regrettably, did. And Jaina had to make him repeat it a few times to make sure that she was hearing things right, and that he understood the string of nonsense that was coming out of his mouth.

Despite, or perhaps because of, the blatant madness of the plan, Jaina agreed to offer her assistance. Whether out of morbid curiosity or purely academic observation, she couldn’t be certain. 

Preparations were made, along with a meeting with Archmage Antonidas himself over the finer points of note-taking. Then, in the following day, Jaina met with Kyle and his small entourage officially outside the Academy as its representative to observe his (insane) endeavor. 

Apparently Archmage Krasus would also be observing, but remotely. With the whispers of the scandal over Kel’Thuzad and the ensuing cleanup, the venerable elf was probably involved in cleaning up the mess left behind by his (allegedly) corrupted peer.

They traveled barely half a mile before Kyle teleported Jaina and his whole party back to Alterac. The guards with him seemed inured and unimpressed to the effects, which brought up interesting questions in Jaina’s mind.

Within the seat of Kyle’s power, as promised, she was introduced to the Pelton Quickgear and allowed to gush over the boundary-pushing spellcaster for an hour. The humble gnome was amused, but clearly welcomed her enthusiastic questions. He even offered a copy of his most recent tome, a treatise regarding streamlining spell matrices. Such was its usefulness that the copies in the Academy’s libraries were always being borrowed by some mage or another, and rare was a mere novice able to get their hands on it.

And now Jaina had her very own copy, to peruse however long she liked.

The cost though, was the commiseration offered by Pelton over her involvement in Kyle’s scheme. “If it’s any consolation, I’m sure your conduct throughout this madness would put you in good stead when it comes time to apprenticeships.”

There was that, yes.

Jaina spent the night as a guest in Alterac palace, and had the pleasure of dining with Kyle’s family. They seemed wary at first, being still unused to their elevated status while in the presence of a Kul Tiran princess. But after some ice breaking over exchanging grief over Kyle’s eccentricities, Jaina found his family very welcoming and charming. 

In the following morning, after experiencing the novelties of a flush toilet and a warm running shower, Jaina joined Kyle, his brother Kallum, and a band of palace guards, courtiers and servants west towards Lordamere Lake in a convoy of carriages and wagons. The path they took paralleled a river that snaked its way towards the lake.

Eventually, the convoy came to a stop as an outrider came back to deliver a report. From there, the whole entourage disembarked and began walking slowly on foot. Rangers with machetes and strange bows attached to boxy contraptions forged a path through the underbrush, clearing a walkable path until they reached their destination.

A ranger signaled for a stop as they reached the end of the forest, and the whole royal party fell into a tense hush. Kyle took to the front, and after having a look at what was beyond, gave a satisfied nod to everyone.

“Right then. Time to prep the stuff. We’re downwind, right? Nice. Kallum, get the barrels ready?”

His brother quickly rushed to the back of the line to get the servants, and then Kyle’s attention turned to Jaina. “So, whenever you’re ready.”

A sudden pressure fell upon her as her part came up. Jaina shrugged it off, and then pulled out a scroll prepared for the occasion. Reading off it, she spent a full minute going through a very particular series of gestures and incantations while the Alteraci rangers and guards kept watch. Despite the exhaustion brought by the demanding spellwork, once it was done Jaina still smiled with satisfaction at seeing a cauldron filled with bubbling amber liquid pop into existence before her.

Well, at least she’ll get some marks for pulling this off. Assuming Archmage Krasus was observing to note it down.

The cauldron and its peculiar-smelling contents appeared just in time as Kallum and a gaggle of servants showed up, cloths draped over the lower half of their faces while rolling barrels over. 

“Oh, when was this here?” the boy asked, to which Kyle answered absently as he continued to stare out of the forest.

“Jaina just made it.”

“Cool.” As the servants righted the barrels, Kallum looked to his brother. “Think we have enough?”

“Should be,” Kyle nodded, still distracted. “They know how to share. Alright, open ‘em up.”

Jaina watched as the barrels were cracked open, and joined the others in backing away from them as the stench of rotting meat immediately filled the space. While groans filled the air and eyes watered, Kallum and Kyle quickly moved as one to lift a barrel and dump the rotting fish into the cauldron. The other face-covered servants followed with the other barrels, and mercifully, the worst of the stench died away in exchange for the amber liquid turning into a foul brownish pink.

Kyle then pulled out a fish in each hand, and after curt talks with his guards, he broke out of the treeline with arms - and fish - spread wide, heading straight for a murloc village on stilts along the riverbank. Jaina sneaked over to watch the scene unfold with her own eyes. There were maybe two scores of them, shiny, bright colored bipedal creatures with big frog-like eyes and bigger, fang-filled maws. Barely a dozen yards away, she could hear the murlocs gargling in surprise and alarm as they spotted Kyle and his guards.

“Rarllraglglh…” Kyle…spoke? Greeted? And somehow the murlocs became even more startled.

“Brrugralgh?” one of the bigger ones actually replied, head cocked to one side in clear confusion.

Kyle responded with another gargling sound, and the spears and serrated blades of the murlocs were actually lowered.

“He’s…talking to them?” one courtier asked in a loud, astounded whisper.

“Eh, only basic stuff,” came the shockingly blase reply from Kallum. “Took a long time for Kyle to learn a few words, and took me a while to pick it up as well.”

Jaina stared at the king’s brother. “You both can speak murloc?”

Once more, Kallum was frighteningly casual with his shrug. “Eh, barely. It’s hard to make the sounds properly.” He nodded at Kyle’s way. “He just managed to say hello, but if he got it a bit wrong, then he’d be asking them to lay eggs or something. Murloc language is tricky…”

“But you understand them?”

“I’m okay with it, I think?” Their attention still on Kyle walking closer to the confused murlocs, Kallum proceeded to translate the gurgling that took place between the two parties. “Like right now, Kyle’s saying that he’s here to give food - with murlocs, you’re normally either food or danger. Unless you’re a friendly murloc, then you might be giving food. That’s why they’re confused.”

“That makes…sense?” another guard said.

“It does, when you think about it. Well, Kyle says so, anyway. And right now, the murloc shaman - the one with the big stick with shells - is asking if Kyle’s a cursed murloc. Which is good, because it’s either cursed murloc, tricking human, or haloo- uh, halluci-”

“Hallucination?” Jaina provided, and the boy nodded.

Kyle was barely a yard away from the gathering murlocs by now, and he burbled something as he slowly laid the two fishes down before him and took a step back.

“He’s saying that he’s giving good food.”

“But the fish is rancid!” someone exclaimed.

Kallum shrugged. “Murlocs don’t care if it’s fresh or foul. So long as they can eat it, they will. They care about the taste a bit though.”

“And they like rotting flesh?” Jaina asked.

Surprisingly, Kallum shook his head, and his face scrunched up a bit. “Nah. They like fresh fish better. But, they also like weird things. Like cats, they love the taste of cats. We only found that out during a bad flooding. Our neighbors lost their cats, but their calves and lambs were left alone.”

Which explained the cauldron of cat-scented oil Kyle had Jaina summon.

Proving Kallum’s words, the murloc shaman picked up a fish with a scrawny arm, and then tossed it into its impossibly wide mouth. Its bulgings eyes stared blankly as it crunched and chewed away. Then its whole body trembled as it gulped, and a reedy gargling sound was made.

“Ah. They liked it. Kyle’s right, this will make things so much easier.”

Jaina was hesitant to ask, but she had to. “What…what do you mean, ‘easier’?”

“Oh, last time, we had to grab Snowball - our neighbor’s cat - and rub her against the leftovers we’d gift to the murlocs down by our river. They didn’t always like it, ‘cos the cat taste wasn’t strong enough. And the Leighs got mad because Snowball kept coming back home all stinky with meat.”

Utter silence surrounded Kallum as the adults around him processed his words.

Back near the riverbank, the murlocs were ‘talking’ with Kyle with animated enthusiasm, and he replied back with obvious smugness. After some back and forth, Kyle turned back to the forest and waved. “Right, Jaina, do your thing.”

Jaina wished she’d remembered the swear words her parents and the sailors around them used when they thought she wasn’t around to listen. Instead, she let out a heavy sigh and turned back to the cauldron. 

“Master Krasus,” she whispered, as her arms began the motions of a spell. “If you’re watching this. Please, please keep this out of my record.”

Jaina aimed her spell at the cauldron, half-hoping that it’d fail. It didn’t, and the whole conjured container shuddered as the mix of disintegrating fish and perfumed (is that even the appropriate word here?) oil churned and rose up. Eventually, the mixture rose up and spilled out of the cauldron, and a pungent variation of a wate- oil elemental took shape.

“I’m so sorry,” Jaina apologized to the summoned being, and then directed it out of the forest to join Kyle.

The murlocs were suitably awestruck by the spectacle, burbling and gurgling amongst themselves as the oily elemental flowed over to Kyle’s side. Then Jaina dismissed the spell, and the humanoid form fell apart in a messy splash of fish and tainted oil.

Kyle gave an utterly misplaced, regal nod to the murlocs, and they dove towards the pile of fish. Jaina’s stomach roiled just watching fanged maws shredding messily through the broken-down meat, and oversized tongues lapping up oil from the stained ground. It wasn’t a complete display of gluttony though; there was definite hierarchy to the murlocs as the larger ones devoured what they wanted first, and then moved away to let those behind them take their turn. The novice watched some frog/fishmen pick up pieces of meat and bone to offer to their smaller kin behind the mob.

Kyle was right. They knew how to share.

Why was that fact so astonishing?

The messy buffet was over in little over a couple of minutes, and then Kyle was exchanging gurgles with the murlocs again. The conversation ended with him extending a hand, and the largest murloc taking and shaking with uncanny human-like fluidity. Kyle then looked up, grinning, and for some reason Jaina could imagine his stoic, venerable mentor palming his face in disbelief.

“Great, looks like Kyle’s got them to be friends with us,” Kallum needlessly explained.

And with that, supposedly Kyle now had Alterac’s rivers and lakeside secured. An…unorthodox plan, but if the murlocs could really restrain their aggression as he was sure they would, then it just might be effective.

“Hey Jaina! Do you think you can create another cauldron?”

Though maybe it’s for the best if they decided to gnaw on Kyle instead.