Northern Reactions

Alterac

Several crude letters had been carved deeply into the worn oak table before him. Had they been prankish graffiti from years ago? Slender fingers brushed over words that had once set hearts racing. The child who had left those marks was nowhere to be found now.

A man in fitted leather armor sat quietly in the shadows by the window. The bright orange crown banner snapped in the bitter wind. Another year had passed. Another winter had come.

"You kept me waiting, Antoine."

"My respects, Your Highness."

Antoine watched Prince Aliden stride in through the door with a smile on his face. The man before him, once so familiar, now had flecks of frost at his temples. The spirited young prince had become a steady middle-aged man. The Syndicate's difficult circumstances had forced its burdened leader into old age far too soon.

The prince was more mature than before. He no longer dwelled on Antoine leaving the Syndicate to swear allegiance to the Raven Guard Knights.

For a noble born in the Kingdom of Alterac to serve under Roderick, it was beneficial both to him personally and to the Syndicate in every respect.

There was nothing new in Roderick's letter. It still concerned the same matter: requesting that the Syndicate send the necessary soldiers to join the fight against the Undead in Northrend.

Only this time, his stance was far more resolute, and his tone considerably harsher than when he had left Strahnbrad. Considering the intelligence his subordinates had sent back from the south, Roderick had turned all of Southshore into a military camp. Was he truly planning to head north and fight the Undead?

The northern Chillwind Camp was still in human hands, and the Silver Dawn's troops had never ceased their small-scale clashes with Undead soldiers. It