Chapter Summaries

Azshara inspected Suramar’s Duskwatch and warned Alysande and Thalyssra that the guards were unprepared to face the Orcs in Ashenvale. She arranged for them to train with Deren’s close-combat allies and Kalimdor’s Sentinel Corps, leaving the group to prepare for war.

• Azshara praised the Duskwatch’s appearance but dismissed them as an honor guard unfit for battle against the Orcs.
• Azshara explained that the Duskwatch lacked battlefield experience and would be overwhelmed by the Horde’s warriors.
• Thalyssra accepted Azshara’s assessment and asked how the guards could prepare.
• Deren proposed that the Duskwatch spar with his close-combat allies and learn from Elves who had fought the Orcs.
• Azshara asked Tyrande to send Sentinel instructors, then ordered Alysande and Thalyssra to dismiss the formations and prepare for the journey.

Deren brought the Duskwatch to Northrend for combat training with the Vrykul, where repeated defeats forced the Nightborne to develop new tactics. After the Duskwatch improved, Deren prepared to send them to Ashenvale, where Tyrande said tensions with the Orcs were worsening and Malfurion was losing support.

• Azshara and the Duskwatch traveled with Aegwynn to the Vrykul settlement in Northrend and met Rhonin and his three wives.
• Deren asked the Vrykul to train the Duskwatch, whose first combat exercise ended in a crushing defeat.
• After an emergency meeting, Alysande and the Arcane Masters devised a spell that turned the frozen ground to mud and disrupted the Vrykul charge.
• The Duskwatch improved through repeated battles, learning to use terrain, combine spells, hold formation, and counter brute force.
• Deren declared the Duskwatch ready to go to Ashenvale, and Tyrande reported that the conflict with the Orcs remained unresolved while Malfurion's support dwindled.

After the Duskwatch completed their training with the Vrykul, the two groups held a farewell feast before the elves prepared to leave for Kalimdor. Deren drank an unfamiliar local wine and grew hazy, mistaking Azshara for Onyxia as she helped him toward a tent.

• The Duskwatch and Vrykul refined their tactics through more than ten days of training, ending with the Duskwatch victorious by a narrow margin.
• Deren declined Rhonin’s offer of Vrykul bed attendants and reaffirmed his love for Onyxia.
• Rhonin hosted a lavish farewell feast, where Onyxia drank through challenges from Vrykul and Duskwatch women on Deren’s behalf.
• Aegwynn praised Deren’s insight, and Azshara thanked him for helping accomplish something she had once thought unattainable.
• Deren warned Azshara to guide the Elf Council carefully, then drank Sweetheart Wine and mistook her for Onyxia as she led him toward a tent.

During a drunken Vrykul celebration, Azshara and others took advantage of Deren while Onyxia was distracted winning a drinking contest. Deren escaped the tent confused, and Onyxia led him away after finding several women emerging from it, while Azshara suspected Thalyssra had arranged the scheme with Sweetheart Wine.

• Azshara brought the drunken Deren into a tent, where Elaseth joined her and they took advantage of him.
• Onyxia won the drinking contest, then discovered Deren was missing and searched for him among the sleeping revelers.
• Deren woke in the tent surrounded by women, escaped naked, and accepted a robe from Azshara outside.
• Onyxia found Deren and questioned Azshara, who admitted she had helped him into the tent while concealing what had happened.
• Several scantily dressed Vrykul girls and Nightborne elves emerged from the tent, and Azshara offered Onyxia a list of those involved.
• Onyxia took Deren away, while Azshara concluded that Thalyssra had likely tampered with the Sweetheart Wine.

Deren woke hungover after drinking Sweetheart Wine at the celebration, and Azshara explained that someone had switched the bottles at his table. He feared something had happened with Aegwynn, but she appeared unharmed before the group teleported back to Darkshore.

• Onyxia told Deren she had left him alone while competing in a drinking contest, and Rhonin teased him about spending the night with beautiful women.
• Azshara gave Deren a calming potion and explained that someone had replaced his wine with Sweetheart Wine, while assuring Onyxia that the women who entered later had done nothing to him.
• Deren suspected the wine had been switched as a prank by people resentful of his decisions, and he reassured Onyxia that she mattered more to him than anyone else.
• Deren admitted to Onyxia that Aegwynn had drunk Sweetheart Wine with him, then worried until Onyxia reminded him that Aegwynn could handle it.
• Deren and the others prepared to leave that afternoon, and Aegwynn arrived looking normal before casting Mass Teleportation to take them back to Darkshore.

Tyrande returned to the Night Elf camp with Alysande and presented the Elf Council, but Malfurion rejected the alliance and clashed with her over peace, reform, and cooperation with other races. The chapter ended with Deren offering to stop supplying Malfurion’s side from Theramore, while Tyrande claimed Theramore’s goods for herself.

• Tyrande returned to Darkshore with Alysande and asked Shandris to prepare the camp and summon the commanders.
• Tyrande introduced Alysande and the Duskwatch, then announced the Elf Council and its plan to unite the elves against the Orcs.
• Malfurion stormed into the meeting and refused to join the council, denouncing Azshara and the other elves as sinners.
• Tyrande argued that Malfurion’s pacifism would leave Ashenvale and Mount Hyjal vulnerable, then ordered him to join the council or leave.
• Malfurion noticed Deren and the humans, and Tyrande revealed that Theramore supplied the front with food and war materials.
• Deren offered to take back any goods Malfurion considered unnatural, and Tyrande declared that Theramore would sell its goods only to her.

Malfurion and Tyrande ended their marriage over their opposing views on the war, and Malfurion withdrew from Night Elf affairs. The Elf Council was founded under Azshara, and its representatives began discussing how to reclaim Ashenvale.

• Malfurion proposed dissolving his marriage to Tyrande, and she accepted before the gathered elves.
• Malfurion urged the Druids to leave with him, but none supported him, so he departed with several followers.
• Tyrande continued the meeting and took Malfurion's vacant seat, strengthening her influence in the council.
• Azshara presided over the Elf Council's founding ceremony, where representatives of several elven peoples pledged to the covenant.
• The representatives began discussing a battle plan to reclaim Ashenvale, while Deren hoped the alliance would bring less conflict.

Tyrande’s Elf Council launched an aggressive campaign to drive the Orcs out of Ashenvale after Malfurion’s peace policy collapsed. Thrall realized the Horde could no longer rely on negotiations or expect the conflict to return to its former state.

• Tyrande’s forces attacked Warsong logging crews and reclaimed Orc outposts across disputed territory.
• Tyrande lured retaliating Orcs into an ambush, where the elven forces nearly wiped them out, and ordered Shandris to destroy further incursions.
• Thrall sent King Saurfang to negotiate, but Shandris rejected his appeal and declared that war would come.
• Saurfang reported the failed talks to Thrall, who acknowledged that the Horde had to reassess the elven threat.

Deren hosted a chaotic breakfast in Theramore as Sylvanas confronted Chromie over her visits to Vereesa. The gathering ended with Deren persuading Chromie to stay away from Vereesa for half a month and encouraging the Windrunner sisters to obstruct Orc supply shipments.

• Deren and Jaina finished breakfast, and Chromie arrived before Onyxia and Anveena.
• Sylvanas confronted Chromie for taking Vereesa to watch videos and demanded that she stop visiting her younger sister.
• Onyxia asked Deren how to keep Chromie occupied, and Deren offered to teach her new games; Chromie agreed to stay home.
• Vereesa arrived to defend Chromie, but Deren calmed the sisters and secured Chromie's agreement to avoid visiting Vereesa for half a month.
• Sylvanas asked whether the Elf Council could claim Theramore's elves, and Deren assured her they remained Theramore's citizens.
• Deren suggested that Sylvanas and Vereesa use their Ranger Guard authority to delay Orc supply shipments, and the sisters agreed to act.

Sylvanas Windrunner used inspections to keep the Horde’s purchases trapped in Theramore, then took Deren’s advice on how to accept a bribe without helping the Orcs. The conversation ended with Sylvanas agreeing to serve as Deren’s maid for a week, leaving Deren caught between her and Onyxia.

• Sylvanas and the Rangers exposed altered trade documents and delayed the Horde’s goods from leaving Theramore.
• Mogronar protested Sylvanas’s inspections, but she defended them as enforcement of Theramore’s laws.
• Sylvanas told Deren that intermediaries had tried to bribe her, and he suggested she take the money through her own intermediary and deny receiving it.
• Sylvanas accepted the plan and offered Deren a week of massages, but Onyxia proposed that she wear a Red Dragon uniform and serve as his maid instead.
• Sylvanas agreed to the maid arrangement, and Onyxia teased Deren about looking forward to it.

Sylvanas arranged for One-Eye Heg to pose as her corrupt intermediary and swindle the Horde merchants seeking to move their seized goods through Theramore. After Heg disappeared with their money, Orc representative Mogronar confronted Sylvanas, who denied any involvement and had him surrounded by Rangers.

• Sylvanas recruited One-Eye Heg to pretend he could use his connections to help the Horde release its detained goods, then sent him to hide in Quel'Thalas after taking their payments.
• Sylvanas rebuffed the Tauren representative, who later met Heg outside Ranger Camp and brought him to the Horde merchants.
• Heg convinced Mogronar and the Horde merchants to pay escalating fees, using forged clearance documents to bolster his claims.
• After collecting the largest payment, Heg vanished, and Sylvanas discussed the merchants' desperation with Deren and Onyxia.
• Mogronar accused Sylvanas of arranging the theft, but she denied knowing about Heg and had Rangers surround him for attacking the guard camp.

Mogronar agreed to let mysterious conspirators arrange an assassination of Sylvanas after her inspections blocked the Orcs’ shipments. The attack wounded Sylvanas, and Deren shattered his teacup when he heard the news.

• Jaina asked Deren how to resolve the dispute over Orc goods, and he proposed that locals buy supplies for the Horde while Elf Rangers continued strict inspections.
• A mysterious figure offered Mogronar a plan to assassinate Sylvanas, and Mogronar agreed to cooperate under pressure from mounting losses and demands.
• Sylvanas led another inspection at the docks, where disguised assassins attacked her with poisoned weapons.
• Sylvanas was wounded and taken to the Mage Tower, while the assassins’ surviving allies escaped and the dead attackers could not be identified.
• Deren received news of the attack and shattered his teacup.

Deren brought the gravely wounded Sylvanas to the Temple of the Moon after realizing Death Power could turn her into a Banshee. With Elune’s intervention, Elaseth purged the power and Sylvanas awoke, while the Jailer’s threat lingered.

• At the Theramore Mage Tower, Aegwynn’s examination of Sylvanas’s wound triggered a soul-piercing scream, and Deren recognized the danger of her becoming the Queen of the Banshees.
• Deren urged Aegwynn to teleport Sylvanas and the healers to the Temple of the Moon, where he asked Elaseth to use Elune’s power against the Death Power in her body.
• Elaseth’s healing stalled until she prayed to Elune, whose moonlight drove black energy from Sylvanas; the energy formed a skull and threatened that Sylvanas remained under its control.
• Elaseth completed the healing, and Sylvanas awoke as the priests restored her strength with Holy Light.
• Sylvanas blamed Deren for the idea that had led to her near transformation, and he accepted her threatened punishment.

After Elune revealed herself to Deren, he discussed the Shadowlands’ plans for Sylvanas and questioned how powerful the realm of death truly was. Back in Theramore, Deren and Jaina investigated the assassination and considered how to deal with a possible Pit Lord hiding in the city.

• Elaseth told Deren that Elune’s blessing had been necessary to treat Sylvanas, then asked him what had happened in Theramore.
• Deren speculated that the Shadowlands had arranged the assassination to preserve Sylvanas as a key part of their conspiracy, and Elaseth revealed that she was Elune.
• Deren told Elune that Sylvanas had become the spokesperson of Death Power in another timeline and explained his doubts about the Shadowlands’ claims and his plan to protect Sylvanas.
• Elune sent Deren back to the temple, where Jaina told him Sylvanas was unconscious but no longer in danger.
• Jaina reported that assassins had traveled with an Orc convoy, and Deren suspected the Orcs had been manipulated by a Pit Lord connected to Death Power.
• Deren first proposed luring the Pit Lord out himself, but Jaina objected, so he decided they needed another approach.

After Sylvanas was assassinated, Deren and Jaina sealed off Theramore and used a conspicuous search and a huge reward to pressure the Pit Lord into revealing its agents. On the sixth day, major merchant families began protesting, and Protoca Nuhai left a meeting with Jaina after requesting permission for his caravan to depart.

• Deren advised Jaina to spread conflicting rumors, seal Theramore, and offer a reward so the Pit Lord or its agents would come forward to protest.
• Jaina and Deren organized searches and recruited Theramore’s High Elves, while the reward led the underworld to seek clues and guards to arrest suspects.
• The lockdown exposed unrelated crimes, including the Catania family’s role in sinking rival merchants’ ships.
• On the sixth day, representatives of major merchant families protested, and Jaina summoned them individually while Aegwynn and Elaseth examined them in an adjoining room.
• Protoca Nuhai asked Jaina to let his caravan leave, and she agreed to have the guards review his list before allowing it to depart.

Deren devised a plan to draw out the Pit Lord hiding in Theramore by using a caravan and staged checkpoints as bait. The trap exposed a disguised demon at the docks, where the chapter ended as Holy Light engulfed the caravan.

• The former Guardian and Elaseth sensed chaotic and Death Power on a possible Pit Lord, and Deren proposed luring the demon into a trap.
• Jaina arranged three checkpoints between the city gate and the docks, with the first inspection strict and the others seemingly lax.
• Protoka's caravan passed the city gate after its cargo and workers matched the approved lists, while a bearded laborer slipped out with it.
• At the second checkpoint, the bearded man bribed a soldier and learned that the dock inspection was supposedly little more than a formality.
• At the docks, the bearded man paid the soldiers and joined the caravan workers in a name check, but a Magic Array activated and bat-winged demon appeared amid the Holy Light.

Varimathras attacked Theramore but was ambushed by Jaina, Aegwynn, and Elaseth. Blasted and wounded, he fled on foot while Elaseth watched him go.

• Varimathras resisted Theramore's Holy Light Matrix, drained nearby people, and tried to summon an Infernal, but Aegwynn interrupted the spell.
• Varimathras attacked Aegwynn with Death Coil while Elaseth ambushed him and cut off his right arm.
• Aegwynn revealed her true power as Jaina and the others confronted Varimathras.
• Varimathras feinted toward Elaseth and charged at Jaina, but she threw Glyph Bombs that blasted his left arm and knocked him down.
• Varimathras pretended to be dead, then fled when Jaina and Aegwynn discussed throwing another bomb; Elaseth wounded him as he ran past.

Varimathras tried to escape capture in Theramore, but Deren’s layered backup plans stopped him after Chromie’s time magic, a failed trick, and Onyxia’s crushing attack. Aegwynn bound the badly injured Pit Lord, and the group headed back to interrogate him.

• Varimathras plunged into the sea to escape, but Chromie reversed his movements with time magic and blocked his path.
• Varimathras pretended to surrender and lured Chromie close enough to put her to sleep with a control skill.
• Onyxia crashed down onto Varimathras as he tried to flee, while Aegwynn woke Chromie and bound the demon.
• Onyxia teased Chromie about Deren, and Aegwynn led the group away to interrogate Varimathras.

Deren interrogated the captured Pit Lord Varimathras about his mission in Theramore and uncovered that the Shadowlands had ordered Sylvanas’s assassination. Varimathras also revealed that a demonic old elf was secretly investigating something in the city.

• Deren questioned Varimathras while Elaseth tortured him, and the Pit Lord identified himself as a member of the Burning Legion.
• Varimathras admitted he had come to assassinate Ranger Captain Sylvanas and turn her into an undead.
• Deren exposed Varimathras’s secret service to Denathrius, and Varimathras confessed that the Rage-Sea family had helped him without knowing his identity.
• Varimathras revealed that another demonic old elf had infiltrated Theramore and was searching for something.
• Deren wondered whether the old elf could be Anasterian Sunstrider, Kael'thas's father.

After Deren and Jaina planned to lure Anasterian Sunstrider into revealing himself, Deren returned home and reunited with Onyxia and Chromie. He then questioned Aegwynn about the Twisting Nether and challenged the accepted understanding of the universe’s six primal forces.

• Bwonsamdi seized the dead Pit Lord’s soul before it could return to the Twisting Nether, and Jaina told Deren that Anasterian Sunstrider had joined the Burning Legion.
• Deren and Jaina planned to use Kael'thas, Verina, and a borrowed baby to tempt Anasterian into meeting his family, while Aegwynn and Elaseth listened.
• Aegwynn cleaned up the demon’s remains and teleported Deren home, where Onyxia and Chromie welcomed him and squabbled over his attention.
• Deren asked Aegwynn about the Twisting Nether and whether demons returning to life affected the total amount of souls.
• Deren argued that Azeroth’s Soul and the Titans’ hierarchy cast doubt on the idea that the universe is made up of six primal forces.