Poor Med'an. Robbie felt deeply sympathetic, though he was mostly snickering.
Heaven's misfortunes could be endured, but self-inflicted ones left no escape.
"Hehe, you understand now, don't you? I, your commander, had the foresight to enter Draenor as a Priest. I kept a low profile, and no one was any the wiser."
Vanessa looked pleased with herself, inadvertently revealing two cute little fangs.
"Commander, I don't mind taking charge of the fortress for you, but there's something I need to understand..." Robbie hesitated, then spoke as politely as he could. "The People's Militia is garrisoned at the fortress. Marisa says they're on our side, but I still have some misgivings."
"You can rest assured. These People's Army soldiers were all trained in the Deadmines." Vanessa smiled. "Hit them when they need hitting, scold them when they need scolding. There's no need to stand on ceremony."
"Trained in the Deadmines?"
Robbie was a little confused. The People's Militia and the Defias Brotherhood were supposed to be on opposite sides of the law, so why did it seem the other way around now?
"Robbie, you haven't spent long in the Deadmines, so there are some things you don't know." Vanessa put away her playful smile, her expression turning serious. "What do you remember Westfall being like?"
The Westfall of the past wasn't actually so far removed.
Before the Dark Portal opened, in the peaceful years before the Orcs invaded Azeroth Continent, Westfall had been covered in farms, with lush pastures and thriving fisheries. It had been a land of plenty, flowing with milk and honey, the breadbasket of Stormwind City.
It also had vast mountains full of ore to mine. It was rich beyond measure.
Back then, Westfall had been called the Kingdom of Stormwind's most beautiful sight.
Those pleasant, carefree memories remained a source of nostalgia for Robbie's parents' generation.
Then the Dark Portal opened, the Orcs invaded from another world in force, and the Kingdom of Stormwind fell. It destroyed everything and changed everything.
Later, the Orcs were defeated and locked up in internment camps.
Under King Varian's leadership, the Kingdom of Stormwind was successfully restored. Unfortunately, unrest plagued the kingdom. Hogger terrorized Elwynn Forest, Blackrock Orcs rampaged around Lakeshire, and the worgen and Undead of Darkshire were a constant worry.
But Westfall had the worst problems of all.
Its location was the main reason. It bordered the Great Sea and was a strategic prize that every military power sought. A tangled web of conflicts kept the region from finding peace.
As a native of Lakeshire, Robbie had long heard about the chaos in nearby Westfall. Before the Brotherhood entered Westfall, thugs and thieves had run rampant, Murlocs and Gnolls had been everywhere, and plagues had occasionally swept through because it was so close to Raven Hill.
The nobles secretly colluded with pirates, keeping a firm grip on smuggling through Westfall's ports, while Stormwind City didn't receive a single copper in taxes.
Of course, none of that amounted to much.
Most worrying of all, the Horde had its eye on the region too, determined to turn it into a second Theramore, and frequently sent small forces to harass it.
The nobles of Stormwind City had an intriguing and unusual relationship with the Horde. If the Horde occupied Westfall, it would directly threaten Stormwind City's security.
"Commander, what are you saying?"
Vanessa knitted her delicate brows and said quietly, "It's a long story. I have to start ten thousand years ago."
"Ten thousand years?"
Robbie scratched his head. By the measure of a human lifetime, that was unimaginably long ago.
"That was the era when the Night Elf Queen Azshara ruled." Vanessa took a book from the shelf and opened it casually, then said slowly:
"The Burning Legion, led by Archimonde, first descended upon Azeroth through the Well of Eternity. A human served as Archimonde's captain of the guard and accidentally discovered a great secret of the Burning Legion, one connected to Archimonde."
Robbie nodded. Archimonde was the Burning Legion's second-in-command, surpassed only by Fallen Titans Sargeras. A secret concerning him was naturally a major matter for the Burning Legion.
"This nameless human recorded the secret on a stone tablet, named it Wealth, and kept it as a family heirloom. His descendants kept their promise and preserved their ancestor's legacy. According to reliable information, the last place Wealth appeared was Stormwind City."
Vanessa's lovely brows furrowed, and she continued:
"Somehow, the Burning Legion learned of it. To cover up this secret that could threaten the Burning Legion, the Orcs chose the Kingdom of Stormwind as their first target. After Stormwind City fell, the Orcs nearly tore it apart, but unfortunately, they didn't find the Wealth tablet."
"Afterward, the Kingdom of Stormwind was restored and planned to rebuild Stormwind City. SI:7 secretly sent people to take control of the Stonemasons' Guild, also intending to use the opportunity to find the mysterious tablet." Vanessa smiled. "Unfortunately, they came up empty-handed too."
"Wait, wait." Robbie felt his mind struggling to keep up. "Commander, if SI:7 had already taken control of the Stonemasons' Guild, why did the riot in Stormwind City happen?"
According to the history Robbie knew, the Stonemasons' Guild had repaired Stormwind City, but the nobles of Stormwind City refused to pay their wages. When the guild failed to collect its pay, a riot broke out, inadvertently causing the death of the Kingdom of Stormwind's queen, Tiffin Ellerian Wrynn.
Having caused such a tremendous disaster, the Stonemasons' Guild broke with the Kingdom of Stormwind.
Afterward, the Stonemasons' Guild transformed with astonishing speed. Its members laid down their tools, took up weapons, and instantly evolved into one of Azeroth Continent's foremost assassin organizations. They occupied Westfall, leaving Stormwind City with a terrible headache and no way to deal with them.
Stonemasonry and assassination were, by rights, two entirely different professions, separated by who knew how many Hoggers. The transformation was too abrupt, and Robbie had harbored some doubts before.
Vanessa smiled. "All you saw was the surface. You don't know the truth. At the time, Queen Tiffin's life was under threat, and she was in imminent danger. The Stonemasons' Guild deliberately started the riot under secret orders from SI:7, in order to cover Queen Tiffin's escape from the city."
Robbie frowned, unable to agree. "Commander, there's a problem with that. Who could threaten her when she was the queen of the Kingdom of Stormwind?"
Vanessa fell silent for a long while. She stared intently at Robbie, then suddenly asked:
"How many brothers and sisters do you have?"
What does she mean? Is this turning into a matchmaking interview?
Robbie was a little thrown by Vanessa's leaps in thought, but he answered anyway. "I have two older brothers and an older sister, and a younger sister and a younger brother."
Vanessa glanced at Robbie with her large eyes and remarked, "Quite a thriving family."
"I'd say we're about average."
Robbie lowered his head, his voice very quiet and his expression a little sad.
Azeroth Continent was a world in complete turmoil. War, plague, natural disasters, roving bands of Murlocs, and Kobolds covering the hills and wilderness all threatened human lives.
Take Lakeshire, where Robbie was born: three fully armed Blackrock Orcs might leap out from behind any rock.
If humans lost the reproductive ability they were so proud of, they would probably have gone extinct on Azeroth Continent long ago.
Robbie's family was a typical example.
His eldest brother's bones lay in cold Northrend; he was said to have died in a Horde ambush. His second brother had gone missing in the war against Garrosh, and the family hadn't even received compensation. Robbie's younger brother was only sixteen and had "gloriously" joined the Alliance's Seventh Legion reserves.
In this miserable, bleak age, every family had its fallen heroes, and every household its loyal dead.
The people's bones had built the kingdom's splendor and glory, its lands stained with blood.
As ordinary people, what could they do but have more children?
"And yet King Varian of the Kingdom of Stormwind has only one son, and the late King Terenas of Lordaeron had only one son and one daughter," Vanessa said meaningfully.
Huh!
Robbie drew a deep breath.
How did I never notice before? That's a major problem.
Having too many princes could lead to disputes over the throne, but having too few was an even bigger problem. Generally, as long as there was nothing wrong with the king, he would have several princes in case anything happened.
Take the Kingdom of Stormwind: if anything happened to Prince Anduin, it would inevitably fall into civil strife. King Varian's failure to have more children was a serious dereliction of duty.
"There's a lot more to this, and it isn't time for you to learn the truth yet."
Vanessa sounded hesitant, her eyes wide. "I only want you to know that even royalty sometimes has no control over their own lives. Queen Tiffin was able to escape Stormwind City thanks to the Stonemasons' Guild, and she also had help from an important benefactor."
Robbie thought for a moment. "King Varian?"
Vanessa shook her head. "Countess Katrana Prestor. She was the one who gave SI:7 the secret order."
Countess Katrana Prestor? Robbie was startled. Wasn't that the alias of the Black Dragon Princess, Onyxia?
Deathwing's youngest daughter, the Black Dragon Princess Onyxia, had assumed the identity of Countess Katrana Prestor and spent a long time in Stormwind City.
Later, Marshal Reginald Windsor returned from Blackrock Depths and exposed the Black Dragon Princess's true identity, losing his life as a result.
"All right!" Having learned so many secrets, Robbie felt somewhat helpless.
"One last question. What about the Stonemasons' Guild's wages?" Robbie asked.
Vanessa looked relaxed and chuckled. "That was settled long ago. In exchange, the Black Dragon Princess agreed to give Westfall to the Stonemasons' Guild to govern. They only had to pay a small, symbolic amount in taxes each year. A record of this secret deal is kept in the royal family's secret archives, with King Varian's own signature as proof."
What a strange deal.
Robbie pondered briefly and understood.
Westfall was too chaotic, with too many interests entangled like a tangled skein. Resolving it through normal means would have taken too much time and effort.
Only bloody repression and a purge of Westfall's hostile elements could resolve the matter most effectively and swiftly, an approach well suited to the Black Dragon Princess's nature.
That was also why the Stonemasons' Guild had been able to evolve so quickly into the Defias Brotherhood, and why Stormwind City had consistently turned a blind eye to the Defias Brotherhood's various "evil deeds."
The methods were excessively cold-blooded, but the results were remarkable.
Robbie still remembered that when he had first set out, he had chosen to serve the Defias Brotherhood for two main reasons.
First, the Brotherhood had happened to be recruiting, and the pay was high.
The second reason was that the Brotherhood had done a good job of putting Westfall in order. Everything was orderly.