On the eve of battle, Talanji spent a long time thinking.
After the Fourth Pirates War ended, Talanji returned to Zandalar with many ideas. War, peace talks, even an alliance-she had considered them all.
Talanji had not resented the time she spent as Rowan's captive.
That strange journey taught Talanji different ways of looking at things. For her, those days had been heavy, but free of worries.
Rowan was a dangerous enemy, but he was no warmonger.
As a leader who considered problems from different perspectives and put interests first, he and Talanji could find common ground in many areas.
But Talanji did not want to concede. She wanted the upper hand in these negotiations. To achieve that, she had to overwhelm Rowan completely and keep him firmly in her grasp.
It was late at night, but Talanji's tent was still brightly lit.
Talanji had already learned the full details of Yazir's attack on Southshore.
The situation really had reached the point of no return. Prophet Zul had spared no expense to turn the war around for the Zandalar Kingdom, and that was understandable.
Although slaughtering civilians was shameful, Zandalar had never had a tradition of protecting civilians of other races.
Throughout tens of thousands of years, Zandalar's tradition of warfare had been not to destroy nations, but to exterminate races.
Talanji could understand Prophet Zul, but she also realized that Rowan must have been pushed to the brink.
The coming battle would be a bloody struggle to the death.
Yazir had fallen into Rowan's hands. As the instigator of the Southshore attack, he was probably dead by now.
Talanji had not expected Rowan to imprison Yazir as a captive and use him as leverage against her. But she and Yazir had grown up together. He was certainly not a