Jaina had expected a peaceful break from her assignment. Being in Alterac’s first cathedral reminded her much of the reverential and serene awe she felt back in her first visit to Lordaeron with her family. The architecture and the echoing murmurs were similar enough that she could close her eyes and almost whisk herself back to a more oblivious but happier time.

Almost, because the lingering stink of cat oil and murloc slime clung stubbornly onto her even with the best soaps she could conjure. The novel showers in Kyle’s palace helped in washing the consequences of her research away, but the job was never complete.

Her new mentor, the vaunted Pelton Quickgear, had commiserated her and simply suggested that Jaina take a few fire-resistant potions before blasting herself with a fireball as a last resort. She didn’t think he was joking, and even if he did, she was seriously considering it.

Beyond the smells being burnt into her nostrils, the novice also found herself imagining gargling noises thanks to constant exposure to the murlocs. The slightest rattle, the coincidental tune of shuffling feet, and she’d be reminded of the accursed gralrgh-ing of the fish/frogmen.

She should have not accepted the damned offer, and realized that the honor of penning your own treatise came with the cost of closely researching the topic of said treatise. And in this case, a treatise on murlocs involved Jaina having to spend most of her time near Alterac’s new and unconventional vassal, learning of its inhabitant’s ways and constantly having to offer chunks of meat marinated in cat oil to keep the murlocs tolerable. 

For all the grueling work though, it was an honor to be conducting her own research, especially as she wasn’t even an apprentice yet. According to the missive from Archmage Antonidas, considering the novelty of the situation the Academy of Arcane Sciences would amend her curriculum around her research. Certain subjects were dropped completely (most she’d already read ahead on anyway) while others would be postponed to after she got her apprenticeship, just to dangle another carrot in front of her.

If her treatise was deemed acceptable enough, Archmage Antonidas had promised she’d get her pick of notable names to apprentice under, himself included. Or Archmage Krasus, or…

Jaina had quickly shaken that last name out of her mind. The idea of learning under an elven prince, who lived far longer than humans and therefore were greater repositories of knowledge - and royally sanctioned knowledged too at that - was enticing, but knowing the one-sided…fondness Prince Kael’thas held for her, Jaina found it a real possibility that her studies and development as a mage might be adversely affected.

Plus her rejection of his advances might make things awkward…

The near-perfect prince aside, potentially having her pick of renowned archmagi to learn from was more than enough to keep Jaina interested in investing all she had in the treatise. Until it was complete, the more practical aspects of her education would be resumed under Alterac’s overqualified steward, Pelton - who would also advise her in forming her treatise - while the rest of it would be done via reading and preparing essays based on them.

It had sounded very interesting at first, but then the gargling droning of the amphibious subjects she studied quickly wore on her. It didn’t help that according to Kyle (and verified independently by his brother Kallum), the murlocs had gotten used to her presence to a point that they had a name for her: the ‘Tidecaller Queen’, because of the water elemental she summoned to guard her whenever she was near the murloc village.

The stupid name stuck, of course, and Jaina had to endure Kyle, Kallum, and even Pelton on occasion teasing her with it.

Though considering the abomination that now towered in front of her, Jaina wouldn’t mind swimming with the damn murlocs right now.

Seeing Arthas snap into an immediate rage had shocked her, especially with how raw his hate sounded when he addressed Kyle. Jaina didn’t know what to feel by the exchange between prince and king, though she did see Kallum and his parents bristle at the tone Arthas took on Kyle. 

Then suddenly Uther was slamming into Arthas, and Kyle threw a blazing rod at the merchant, and the merchant was revealed to be a winged demon, and his friends were now bubbling and bursting out of their human forms as well.

“Avaunt, demon!” 

Surprisingly, it was Bishop Falric that cut into the panic and terror from behind the demon and everyone else. 

“Let the Light burn your evil away!” 

Still barely away from his pulpit, the graying and slightly portly priest brandished a silver holy symbol with authority as he tried to exorcize the demon.

The winged horror only gave Falric a slight glance over its shoulder, and then it contemptuously swept a wing out. The bishop was clearly unprepared, and would’ve likely been flung into a broken heap if not for the bubble of hardened mana that formed around him, absorbing most of the brutal hit and only knocking the man back a step. 

“Bishop, get out of there!” Pelton commanded even as he began preparing another spell. About the same time, Jaina saw Uther already on his feet and charging towards the demon, while Kyle barked out orders before joining in. Both of them were intercepted as the merchant’s friends stepped in the way, shrugging off the last of their human disguise to reveal their true selves as towering, red-skinned brutes in black armor and horned helmets. Massive pole blades appeared in their hands, sweeping down to almost bisect Kyle and Uther.

For all their fearsomeness, the palace guard, led by Lora, slammed into the red demons soon after that, while Alteraci town guards hurriedly urged and dragged everyone else out of the cathedral. The rangers that came with Kyle and his palace guards also broke out of their shock and began loosing a barrage of arrows, which barely stuck in the demons’ exposed flesh and only seemed to annoy and distract them.

In retaliation, the barbed blade of a red-skinned demon cleaved straight through the plate armor of a guard and buried itself deep into another. Another arrow-studded monstrosity swept its weapon wide, amputating the limbs of several opponents before Lora leapt and buried her axe right into its face.

Terrified screams mixed with demonic roars as Alteraci worshippers fled the cathedral or were rooted in fear.

At the back of the fighting, the winged demon swatted aside Uther’s second attempt at a charge with a clawed hand, tearing through gleaming gold and steel like it was paper. The paladin tumbled with a grunt and crumpled metal, but to Jaina’s relief, no pool of blood gathered beneath him. The demon’s hands then began moving in the uncanny familiarity of spellcasting, gathering green fire before it. The infernal flames suddenly snuffed out, and the demon bowled over as it let out a strangled growl.

Off to the side, Kyle’s eyes were glowing brightly, his hands stretched out in a wrenching motion aimed at the demon. Whatever he did caused the fiend to fall over and cough glossy black blood that sizzled away on the stone flooring.

Jaina snapped out of her horrified spectating just as a trio of armored guards came up to escort her and Kyle’s family away. Without thinking, she shrugged off a guiding hand and began walking towards the fight.

“Princess!”

“Protect the king’s family,” she evenly said as her hands rolled into a gesture. Her water familiar materialized beside her, and with a mental command, surged out to join the growing melee. Even as she got into another spell, Jaina had to force herself to focus on her targets and tune out the carnage. 

She had to ignore the sounds of arcane missiles being loosed from Pelton at the winged demon, who was rising back up and had batted Kyle away with its wing. He flew out of her field of view with a crash of what she hoped was only wooden furniture. Elsewhere, a couple of demons fought back to back against a closing ring of steel-clad warriors who carefully closed the noose lest they join the heap of brutalized armored corpses between them and their enemies.

Just a few feet from that scene, the captain of the guard took on a brute by herself, the other guards with her already in bloody pieces around her. Despite pieces of shorn armor hanging loosely off her, Lora deftly skipped aside from a swift cleaving strike, and with a roar brought her own weapon down to sever both of the demon’s hands. It barely had time to appreciate its lack of extremities as the dwarf quickly followed up with a decapitating strike. 

Jaina condensed the air into six crystal-clear icicles that floated between her hands, and then sent the frozen spears into another red-skinned fiend, impaling it repeatedly before it could slam into the panting dwarf. She was casting again as it fell to its knees and the Alteraci defenders closed in to finish it off.

Near the cathedral’s great doors, Ranger-Captain Ariande dove towards a demon after blinding it with two expertly placed shots, her twin blades flashing out to desperately bat away the demon’s greatweapon before it could blindly crash through the fleeing worshippers. Another ranger leapt in with a short spear, successfully impaling the demon but suffering a powerful kick from it almost immediately after that bent him over with a sickening snap of bones.

A half-ring wall of ice rose up to stop it from rampaging any further, and then a glowing orb of purple energy slammed into it and promptly detonated, painting the ice wall in dark demon ichor. Jaina caught the nod from Pelton, and then instinctively began casting along with her mentor. Ice frosted the tiles under an isolated fiend, exploding into a spike that bit deep into its cloven feet before a stream of arcane missiles from Pelton tore its head off.

Beyond the bloody melee, Jaina’s water elemental crashed into the leader of this whole infiltration, and the winged demon stumbled from the force of the charge. It counterattacked with impossible speed, swatting the elemental so hard that it exploded into mist, and then snapped its head just in time to catch Uther’s hammer to its jaw. The paladin glowed brightly with holy Light, and like a divine avatar Uther swung his hammer again and again, each blow knocking the demon lower to the ground.

Despite the impressive attacks, his fourth strike was caught fully in the demon’s hand, and Uther had but a split-second to blink in surprise before the other hand shot up to tear through masterwork steel and bury its claws deep into Uther’s abdomen.

“No!”

Kyle struck like a diving hawk as the demon sought to rise up with its struggling prize impaled on its hand. He was clad in golden armor now, similar in fashion to the buildings he’d shown Jaina in what felt like an eternity ago. A blade of blue-white light shot out from a bulky bracer, slicing off a forearm to free Uther. The young mage-king barely landed before he was forced to roll away as the demon swatted at him with its remaining hand, roaring with blood-specked rage. The steel-rending claws somehow bounced off the air just mere inches from Kyle, the unknown shielding saving his leg from being torn out.

It was only then that Jaina noticed that Kyle’s back was just a few feet away from the still stunned Arthas. The crown prince of Lordaeron blankly watched the desperate combat occurring before his eyes, and Jaina almost paid him no mind.

But then Arthas began to rise, with his warhammer tightly gripped in one hand and a steely resolve in his eyes.

Worry shot through Jaina as she couldn’t tell if the prince’s gaze was fixed on Kyle or the demon as both danced about in deadly combat. Doubt seeped in and the distraction almost cost her as one of the last red demons went on a wild rampage towards her, swinging its weapon with its one good arm. Arcane shields from Pelton stopped all the blows from landing on her and the others caught in its path, and it was the blood-drenched marshal Colin who finally stood in its path with a spear, letting the demon run itself through the braced weapon. Man and demon struggled for control before more guards came to put the fiend down for good.

With the immediate concern for her own life banished, Jaina snapped her attention back to Arthas, who now brandished his weapon in both hands as he marched ever close to Kyle and the winged demon. By now, both king and demon were darting at each other like feral beasts; Kyle always barely avoided the powerful swipes from the demon, the invisible bubble protecting him flaring out from glancing hits. His own daring attacks were parried or similarly evaded. After forcing Kyle away, the demon tried to cast another spell, but once more his opponent’s hands lashed out in a twisting and crushing gesture, causing the demon to stumble and bend over and cough more foul blood. Despite that it was still capable enough to fend off another attempt at its life, and the stalemate continued.

And Arthas drew ever closer to them, hammer raised for a charge.

A decision had to be made, and quickly.

Jaina looked at the kneeling form of Uther, bloodied but unbroken with his cuirass torn open to reveal horrendous wounds in his chest and stomach, and saw that he too noticed his squire’s advance. The paladin and the novice’s eyes met, and the weary resignation he gave her told her all she needed to know.

As quickly as she could, Jaina snapped off a spell that froze the air around Arthas’ feet, burying him thigh-deep in a block of ice. Immobilized, Arthas first looked down at his feet, and then cast his gaze around in confusion before finally catching sight of her. Jaina flinched as she saw surprise and betrayal flash across her friend’s face, but she steeled her resolve and met his gaze nonetheless.

“Jaina, let me go!” Arthas pleaded even as the last of the red demons were being put down and Kyle continued fighting for his life with their leader. Some guards tried to support him, but after contemptuous slashes from the fiend, Kyle ordered them, especially a limping Lora, back. Arrows sung through the air, ignored by the demon even as their tips pierced its skin.

“Jaina, please! Let me help!”

Jaina looked at the duel, and then glanced back to Arthas, and then she forced herself to shake her head. “I’m sorry Arthas.”

She quickly turned away from the blue eyes filled with devastation, unable to bear her friend’s gaze, and instead focused on figuring out the right spell to aid Kyle. With how fast he and his opponent were moving, she’d need something easy to cast but also precise enough to not clip Kyle. Despite how large it was, the damned fiend kept positioning Kyle between itself and everyone else, turning his enemy into a meatshield. The arrows that pincushioned it seemed purely ornamental instead of debilitating it. 

Jaina had seen it attempt flight a couple of times, but each time Kyle would leap at the opening, scoring shallow hits that made it clear that it could not take to the skies in time before Kyle would cut it down. Yet at the same time, any attempt by Kyle to disengage had it lunging sideways, forcing him to reengage before it lunged for Uther or other incapacitated targets.

Pelton sent out another barrage of arcane missiles that tore into the demon’s pale violet flesh, causing it to growl threateningly before Kyle forced its attention back to him. It still managed a quick turn of its head, taking in the ravaged cathedral. Without thinking, Jaina followed the fiend’s gaze, noting with immense satisfaction the heaps of red demons joining the more mortal corpses strewn across the cathedral. Their bodies were steaming, as if evaporating, likely being banished back to the Twisting Nether.

Seeing itself alone, the demon directed a final snarl at Kyle. “Enjoy this petty victory. You will be broken. Everything you cherish will be sundered before your very eyes.”

Then the demon burst into a cloud of shadowy bats. With cacophonous screeching the dark swarm flew up towards the cathedral’s ceiling. Arrows zipped harmlessly through the bats, though some of the fel shadows burst when Pelton flung and detonated an arcane orb at them. Jaina joined in, hurling a spear of ice that exploded just close enough to the swarm to disintegrate more shadow bats.

“See to the wounded!” Kyle’s voice echoed as he charged out the cathedral, head fixed upwards to follow the infernal cloud. Jaina glanced at Uther, who wore a fading halo as Bishop Falric tended to his wounds. She then turned to the still immobilized Arthas, who once more gave her a pleading look as a group of palace guards trained their weapons close to his face. Then she snapped her head quickly towards the cathedral, ignoring most of the bloody chunks around her that were once people, where Pelton, Lora, Colin and others  followed after Kyle in pursuit of the demon.

“Jaina…”

She gave one last apologetic look to Arthas, and ran out to join the demon hunt.

“Jaina!”

She tuned out the prince’s voice, but no sooner had the weary novice stepped out of the cathedral, she stumbled to a halt with the others as the cloud of bats above her were engulfed in explosive blue-white light. Jaina’s eyes darted downwards, to the spiraling spire of the gilded fountain that now rose up beyond the heads and shoulders of the people in front of her. The crystal that floated at its tip flared, and then shot out a blue orb of energy at the diminishing swarm. The orb barely detonated when the fountain’s spire flared to life and fired again. More bolts of explosive light flew from other points of Alterac City, as other not-purely-decorative fountains in squares throughout the city came to life and joined in the barrage.

In just two volleys the cloud of bats were quickly blasted down to merely four bats that flapped desperately to juke and dive away from the blasts directed their way.

Then it became three bats.

And then one.

And then the last bat was engulfed in the simultaneous explosions from four orbs. It burst into a pathetic shadowy mist, and then the demon reappeared again to tumble out of the sky in a much more broken state. Kyle must have ordered the fountains to cease as its descent went uninterrupted.

Kyle ran, and everyone ran after him, Jaina included. All eyes were trained on the falling demon with broken wings and mangled body. But even then, Jaina quietly processed the revelation of the fountains, of the extent Kyle had solidified his power throughout Alterac. Concern and curiosity mingled as she pondered what else the mage-king might have up his sleeve.

The crowd came upon the shuddering remains of the demon, and up close it looked truly pitiful. Both its horns had broken off, one wing was missing while the other was reduced to a stump about halfway through. Once dread-inspiring armor now was now cracked, dented and carved off, with the demonic flesh it protected being in a similar ruined state.

“You…think…you’ve won…” it hissed as they drew close, weapons and spells ready. It couldn’t even stand, its legs missing the hooved feet. It didn’t even have a complete hand to point with. It made the demon’s glare all the less threatening.

“Kill me then, all it’ll do-”

“Who said anything about banishing?” Kyle interrupted, and the hateful glares directed at the demon turned into confused ones shifted towards him.

“Kyle?” Pelton queried, and the mage-king shrugged.

“We can’t kill him, he’ll just be sent back to the Nether, where it’d be free to spread what it’s gleaned from us to its kin.”

That…that was a terrifying piece of information. The silence from everyone probably meant that they were similarly disquieted by Kyle’s statement.

“So what do we do?” Jaina asked softly.

“Leave it to usss,” a new voice suddenly cut in, and seemingly out of nowhere an elven noble garbed in blue and white appeared, bearing a dark grin and leading a group of similarly dressed elves and humans and gnomes. The elf noble exuded an authority that was almost suffocating in its oppressiveness. Jaina felt a primal urge to bow or cower before him, and a quick glance at the corner of her eyes showed that the guards and rangers were similarly transfixed.

Kyle simply nodded at the newcomer, head shifting slightly to address another robed elf behind the noble. “Vas- Valoghan. A good hunt I hope?”

“Well enough, your highness,” the elf that was supposed to be Kyle’s missing court mage replied with a shallow nod.

Ignoring the two of them, the noble walked towards the crippled demon with supreme confidence. “Yes, well enough…a pity some vermin were missed.” Jaina could feel the hate in his glare on the defiant fiend, and then his head snapped towards Kyle. “You are right, banishing this wretch would do nobody any good.”

“I’ll leave its interrogation in your hands then,” Kyle replied with surprising deference.

The noble’s grin widened into something feral, something that Jaina never thought possible for the race. “Yes. Interrogation.” He looked back to the demon, whose glare faded and now seemed to understand the gravity of the situation it was in. “Oh, there’ll be plenty of questions. Plenty of questions indeed.” The elf reached out with a hand, and light bathed the demon. There was a blinding flash, and in the fiend’s place was an aquamarine crystal floating serenely towards the elf.

He then regarded Kyle and the crowd behind him before breaking into a jarring laugh. “You’ve done well, young king. We’ll have to have a chat later.”

Kyle actually bowed before the elf. “As you say.”

“As I say… Indeed. But first, questions. Ah, the questionsss… ” The elf stared at the crystal now floating in the palm of one hand, and then suddenly broke into another grin at Kyle, something softer, more composed and more…vulnerable. “Thank you, for what you’ve given me. We will not forget it.”

Kyle barely managed to give a nod before the elf and his entourage teleported away in a flare of blue and violet light, leaving only Valoghan behind. Questions raced through Jaina’s mind at what had just happened, at the heavy looks Kyle and his court mage exchanged. But the king of Alterac regarded everyone with a weary and resigned gaze, reminding her of what had just transpired and what was left to be done. 

“Come, the demon’s been taken care of. See to our fallen and wounded, if we’re lucky the treachery today didn't cost us much.”

With somber and tired sighs, the men and women of Alterac turned and began hurrying back to the cathedral, already preparing themselves to return to the carnage that awaited them. Jaina’s eyes met Kyle’s for a brief moment, and as he offered a grim but grateful nod, she could only reciprocate with equal weariness.

The battle was over, now came the part of salvaging what was left.

And then Jaina remembered Arthas, and she let out a heavy sigh as she mentally braced herself for that conversation.