Jaina took a tiny crystal ball from her pocket and set it on the table. Antonidas leaned in curiously, and together they watched the magical recording of the scene that had just unfolded.
The two watched intently, from the moment Jaina jumped out of the carriage to the end, when Liam pulled a little trick and turned to flee. Neither said a word the entire time.
"If it was him, then perhaps he wasn't just making things up..."
Antonidas's words broke the silence and left Jaina thoroughly confused. She looked at her mentor curiously, unable to understand why he seemed to know someone whose identity she herself hadn't learned, despite meeting him twice.
In truth, aside from the people of the Kingdom of Gilneas, few in all of Azeroth knew Liam. As it happened, Antonidas was one of them.
When Liam was little, Genn Greymane had brought him to visit Antonidas. He wanted the archmage to test young Liam's aptitude and see whether he could become Antonidas's apprentice and stay in Dalaran to study magic.
The next day, the listless young Liam failed the very first test of his mental strength. He was judged to have no aptitude, so he returned to Gilneas with King Genn and began training as a Warrior.
As the sanctuary of mages, Dalaran was naturally a place where most noble children wanted to study magic. And only heirs to the thrones of the great kingdoms could command the attention of someone of Antonidas's stature. That was why Antonidas had recognized Liam at a glance: his features bore such a striking resemblance to King Genn's.
Antonidas had already taken notice of Kel'Thuzad as a "volatile factor" ever since he showed an unusually strong interest in the "Book of Medivh."
After all, the book had been written by the most powerful spellcasters in two worlds. Even Antonidas himself couldn't resist its evil allure and had to lock it away. Whether the much younger Kel'Thuzad could withstand the book's influence was entirely unknown.
What was more, Kel'Thuzad had shown far too much enthusiasm for the magic in the book. He didn't seem to be passively falling under its spell so much as actively seeking out its knowledge.
So when Antonidas heard the name from his young apprentice, he was startled. He thought Jaina might have become entangled in some kind of conspiracy.
Now that he saw the information had come from Liam Greymane, Antonidas immediately wondered whether there was more to Gilneas's policy of complete isolation, which had begun three years ago.
After all, the heir to a country that had shut itself away behind walls was roaming all over the world, with the most cutting-edge secret intelligence from the Kingdom of Lordaeron in his hands. Antonidas couldn't help but wonder what lay behind it.
"It seems Gilneas hasn't completely withdrawn from foreign affairs. At the very least, they still have an intelligence network operating abroad, and it's quite possible that this organization is under the prince's command."
Antonidas naturally attributed the leak of Kel'Thuzad's secret activities to some mysterious intelligence organization in the Kingdom of Gilneas.
Dalaran stood apart from the world and generally avoided outside conflicts. Its members came from all the kingdoms and races, so obtaining information wasn't difficult for them. Nor was it surprising that other kingdoms could do the same. The Kingdom of Stormwind had only just been rebuilt, and hadn't that so-called SI:7 already begun infiltrating every corner of Azeroth?
"If even an outsider can see it, then Kel'Thuzad's problem must be very serious..."
If this was supposed to be an attempt to sow discord, it was a rather clumsy one. Antonidas was already eighty percent convinced that something was wrong with Kel'Thuzad, and he expected to take action before long.
If Liam had known that Antonidas had already spun his offhand remark into a far-reaching theory linking Gilneas's isolationism with an imagined "secret-police regime," he would surely have marveled at how far-reaching a politician's vision could be. One had to admit, it was impressive.
"Mentor, is there something wrong with that man?" Seeing the old mage fall into thought after saying something so cryptic, Jaina asked uneasily.
For some reason, deep down, she didn't want that "con man" to have really shown up just to swindle her.
"Not exactly." The old mage didn't know what his beloved apprentice was thinking and answered casually. Then he considered it and realized that wasn't quite right, so he quickly added, "Still, you'd be better off keeping your distance. His background is complicated, and he isn't one of us."
Thinking her teacher had misunderstood her relationship with that con man, Jaina's little face flushed bright red. But Antonidas had only meant to warn her out of kindness. His implication was simply that Gilneas had left the Alliance and was no longer on the same side as the kingdoms that remained in it. He was completely baffled by the sudden change in his apprentice's expression.
The master and apprentice talked at cross-purposes, and never quite got on the same wavelength. The generation gap was a truly frightening thing.
The two mages from Dalaran were discussing Liam. Liam, meanwhile, had no recollection of Antonidas whatsoever.
In his memory, when he was little, his father had taken him to Dalaran once. There was an old man with a white beard, a huge study, and a very strange spellbook.
He had secretly read books in that study all night, then been taken back to Gilneas by his father the next day while he was half asleep.
Becoming a "noble" mage had never mattered much to Liam. After all, there was nothing appealing about living in a place as unlucky as Dalaran. The Burning Legion was always keeping an eye on the city, and whenever its mages got bored, they'd fill a prison with "criminals" waiting to riot. With nothing to do all day, those prisoners could only think up new ways to escape.
The city was full of all sorts of people, but the mage lords who lived above them only cared about studying their magic and paid no attention to what was happening below. Still, they were very good at maintaining their neutrality.
So Dalaran would turn into a giant crater a few years later. After that, it would move house every so often, never staying in the same place for more than a few years. That was what happened when the mages played with fire.
But that was all beside the point. Liam was already racing down the road to becoming a pirate, and it was too late to turn back. He could forget about things that no longer had anything to do with him.
Besides, his chance encounter with Jaina today had made up his mind: he would go to Kul Tiras. He had a ship he could hitch a ride on, after all. He might as well go.
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