Return to Westfall

The "plainclothes soldier" quickly slipped away from the disorganized ranks of the Westbrook Garrison soldiers in Stealth and ran toward Jerod's Landing as he remembered it.

He encountered little resistance along the way. As dawn approached, Felix finally reached his destination, where Lightfinger and the others were already waiting for him. They had long since found a boat and loaded the stolen silver coins aboard.

Without any unnecessary talk, the boat set off at once, following the Elwynn River downstream toward Westfall.

"Felix, I... we shouldn't have let those adventurers get away." Aboard the boat, Dudmore, who finally had a moment to spare, apologized earnestly. "We were still too naive."

"An apology? What damn good is an apology? Can an apology bring our brothers back to life?" Lightfinger cursed. He had been one of the few who had advocated physically eliminating the adventurers at the time.

"Now Joseph, Bazil, and the others have been arrested by Stormwind City's lackeys, and before long, the corrupt Council of Nobles and that incompetent, muddleheaded king will order their execution!"

Felix pressed his lips together and said nothing. After a long while, he finally spoke. "All right. Now that you know you were wrong, don't make the same mistake again. When the time comes, we'll find a way to rescue Joseph and Bazil from the Stockade."

"Rescue them?" Lightfinger was clearly somewhat surprised. "Felix, they're definitely going to be executed. When are we going to rescue them? It's already too late!"

"No, there's still time," Felix said firmly. "Joseph and Bazil won't be executed for now. They'll only be held in prison, and when the time comes, we can find a way to rescue them."

His confidence clearly had a basis. Back in WoW's level-60 era, there had been a riot in the Stockade. Bazil had led the prisoners in taking over the prison outright and had even driven all the guards out.

In the end, Stormwind City's authorities had still relied on the invincible adventurers to quell the riot.

So did these brothers even need rescuing? Felix had serious doubts about that. The tough men of the Defias would clearly stage a riot in the Stockade themselves, and they could even drive the incompetent guards and warden straight out.

Perhaps Joseph and Bazil would break out and make their own way back by then?

"So," Lightfinger said, turning his gaze toward him, "Felix, I'm afraid you'll have to plan another prison break when the time comes. We'll all follow your lead."

Felix looked around and found everyone nodding. Clearly, they had all pinned their hopes on him.

"All right... but absolutely not now," Felix explained. "Brothers, I think you all know very well that, overall, this operation was a failure."

"Our original plan was to steal these silver and copper coins without a hitch, then bring all of them back to Westfall without letting Varian Wrynn know we did it. But now we've drawn SI:7's attention, and the slightest misstep could bring a crackdown from the Kingdom of Stormwind. If we break into the Stockade at a critical moment like this, then..."

Everyone fell silent.

A moment later, Lightfinger broke the silence.

"Then what should we do?" he asked earnestly. "You know that Chairman VanCleef has a creed: he will never abandon a single brother of the Brotherhood. If he learns that Bazil and the others are in prison, he'll definitely-"

"He'll definitely make an irrational decision." Dudmore curled his lip. "We've all known the chairman for so many years. We all know that's exactly the kind of man he is. So let's just not tell him. If VanCleef thinks Bazil is already dead, he won't demand a prison break."

"But that could make things worse," Vladimir said. "The chairman might try to retaliate against Stormwind City directly, and the crackdown would only come sooner. Besides, Felix, we can't just leave our brothers to suffer in prison, so... you'll still have to think of something."

"It's all right," Felix said lightly and confidently. "Just steer the boat and leave the thinking to me. I'll persuade the chairman, and I'll definitely find a suitable way to rescue them."

A day later, the boat finally reached the shore of Westfall. Carrying the stolen silver coins, the group made it back to the Brotherhood's base without incident.

VanCleef was clearly delighted to see Felix and the others return safely.

"Felix, I've already sent a few Rogue brothers to make contact with Johnson inside Gold Coast Quarry," VanCleef said, his delight plain on his face as he handed over a sheet of paper. "Look, this is the garrison's rotation schedule that Johnson secretly wrote out by hand. Every day, they-wait, where's Bazil?"

A puzzled expression appeared on VanCleef's face. "Also, I distinctly remember twenty-six brothers going on this mission. Why are there only eighteen now?"

As he looked at Lightfinger's flushed face and Dudmore's shame-filled expression, VanCleef's own expression grew increasingly grim.

"Don't tell me they've all already-"

"No, Chairman, things aren't as bad as you think," Felix said hastily. "They haven't died. They should only have been captured by the enemy. After their trial, they'll be sent to the Stockade-"

"Then we have to hurry and find a way to rescue them!" VanCleef said through gritted teeth. "We can't stand by and watch our brothers suffer in prison."

Felix curled his lip, not surprised in the slightest. See? VanCleef had no guile whatsoever. His reaction was far too easy to predict.

"Yes, we'll definitely rescue them, but not now," Felix said. "In fact, for certain reasons, our operation ran into an unexpected problem."

At this point, he glanced at Dudmore and the others. All of them lowered their heads in shame.

"We alerted Mathias Shaw, the bandit chief of SI:7. You should know how formidable he is. If we act rashly now and bring down a large-scale crackdown from the Kingdom of Stormwind, we'll lose more than we gain."

"Yes." VanCleef sighed. "I personally spent a great deal of time with Mathias Shaw. Based on what I know of him, let me put it this way: being his enemy isn't easy. He was my childhood companion, and he trained me himself. I also thought that one day he would fight by my side-I never imagined he would take the wrong path-even now, he still chooses to keep risking his life for Stormwind City. Since Shaw is the head of SI:7 and insists on remaining our enemy, we can only hope that our souls will be shown mercy."