Chapter Summaries

Felix Walkpatin, a transmigrated stonemason, realized the Stonemasons' Guild workers would soon be driven from Stormwind and become outlaws, so he tried to leave the guild by joining the priesthood. The bishop rejected his appeal, leaving Felix to watch wealthy noble children play as apprentice priests.

• Felix heard fellow stonemasons complain that their wages had not been paid, and he knew the nobles had withheld the money.
• Felix recalled how he had transmigrated into Azeroth as Felix Walkpatin and feared the guild workers' coming expulsion from Stormwind.
• Felix went to Stormwind City's Cathedral of Light and asked the bishop for a chance to serve the Holy Light.
• Felix offered a speech about his faith, but the bishop said he had not proved his devotion and refused him.
• Felix noticed wealthy children playing in the cathedral as apprentice priests and judged their clothing beyond anything he could afford.

Felix realized the Cathedral of Light and the Wizards' Guild offered no path forward for a penniless commoner, then returned to work with the Stonemasons' Guild. After Edwin VanCleef promised the workers their wages would arrive soon, Felix suspected he was hiding the truth and followed him.

• Felix concluded that his humble status barred him from becoming a Priest apprentice, and he found that the Mage apprenticeship required tuition he could not afford.
• Vladimir warned Felix that Stormwind might not pay the stonemasons in full because the treasury was strained by military costs.
• Felix heard that Joseph had missed work to pawn his belongings for his sick mother's treatment and that the nobles were withholding the guild's wages.
• Edwin VanCleef arrived with money for Joseph, asked Lightfinger to send Joseph to City Hall, and assured the workers that Countess Katrana would secure their wages by the following week.
• Felix suspected VanCleef was lying about the wage situation and secretly followed him.

Felix overheard VanCleef struggling to support the Stonemasons' Guild members and their families, and suggested borrowing money from wealthy nobles. VanCleef agreed to visit Duke Wishock with Felix the next day, while the guildmaster's financial troubles remained unresolved.

• Baros warned VanCleef that selling his late wife's pendant would upset Vanessa and doubted the nobles would pay the guild.
• VanCleef explained that his guild brothers' families urgently needed money and considered selling his house to help them.
• VanCleef discovered Felix listening, and Felix identified himself as a stonemason rather than a spy.
• Felix proposed seeking temporary loans from wealthy nobles instead of having VanCleef sell his house.
• VanCleef gave Joseph silver coins for his mother's treatment, then agreed to visit Duke Wishock with Felix the next day.

Felix accompanied VanCleef to Duke Boris Wishock’s residence to ask the nobles for money to pay the Stonemasons’ Guild, but the duke’s servants made them wait and treated them with contempt. Felix discovered that the duke’s supposedly important meeting was a drinking party, leaving VanCleef furious outside the grand door.

• VanCleef woke Felix and took him to visit Duke Wishock to ask for financial help for the Stonemasons’ Guild.
• Felix saw poorly equipped Stormwind soldiers marching as VanCleef explained that King Varian had gone to fight the Blackrock Orcs and army wages were delayed.
• Duke Wishock’s butler led Felix and VanCleef into the residence, seated them on worn chairs, and left them waiting for two hours.
• A servant mocked VanCleef’s request, but VanCleef swallowed his anger and sat back down.
• Felix went upstairs to investigate and found a grand door behind which Duke Wishock’s guests were drinking and urging one another to drink more.

Felix and VanCleef met with Duke Wishock and Earl Ridgewell to demand overdue payment for the Stonemasons' Guild, but the nobles refused to provide either kingdom funds or their own money. The chapter left VanCleef without a convincing way to secure payment, while Felix recognized that the meeting had been a futile delay.

• Felix urged VanCleef to leave, but VanCleef insisted that the guild still needed payment and waited another hour for an audience.
• The butler brought Felix and VanCleef to a reception room, where they met Duke Wishock and Earl Ridgewell.
• VanCleef reminded the nobles that the Stonemasons' Guild had rebuilt Stormwind City without receiving payment and pleaded for help.
• Ridgewell dismissed VanCleef's list of guild members' hardships and argued that the kingdom's military and rebuilding expenses took priority.
• Wishock doubted that the guild members were truly suffering, while Ridgewell said the nobles would need a more convincing reason to lend their private money.

VanCleef humbled himself before Duke Wishock and Ridgewell to ask for advances on wages for guild members in need, but Wishock tore up the list and had him thrown out. As VanCleef and Felix returned to the guild headquarters, VanCleef hid his anger and invited Felix to dinner.

• VanCleef knelt before Duke Wishock and Ridgewell and pleaded for them to advance wages for guild members in urgent need.
• Wishock sarcastically tore up the list of names and ordered servants to escort VanCleef and Felix from his mansion.
• Felix pulled the stunned VanCleef out and apologized for suggesting they appeal to the nobles.
• On the way back, VanCleef concealed his anger and insisted that the humiliation had been worth trying to help his brothers.
• VanCleef invited Felix to a nearby restaurant and offered to pay for their meal.

Felix learned why the Defias Brotherhood remained loyal to VanCleef and resolved to help them fight for their unpaid wages and, if necessary, organize a purposeful rebellion. The chapter left him determined to lead the Brotherhood to victory and change Azeroth’s history.

• Felix ate noodles while VanCleef could afford only sawdust-filled bread, then VanCleef recalled Felix’s parents and broke down in tears.
• Felix understood that the Brotherhood’s loyalty came from gratitude for VanCleef’s kindness and began seeing its members as people rather than enemies in a game.
• Felix resolved to keep the Brotherhood from becoming bandits and planned to pressure Stormwind’s leaders into paying its members’ wages before Anduin Wrynn’s birthday celebration.
• Felix vowed to use his knowledge of rebellions to help the Brotherhood organize itself if it had to take up arms.
• After remembering VanCleef’s failed struggle against Duke Wishock, Felix swore that if he became the Brotherhood’s leader, he would win.

Felix, VanCleef, and the Stonemasons' Guild tried to find money for Joseph's mother's treatment as the nobles delayed approving their work. Vladimir proposed stealing from the wealthy, but Baros Alexston warned that the plan was unsound.

• Joseph revealed that he was eighty gold coins short of the hundred needed to treat his mother, despite selling his belongings and receiving help from the guildmaster.
• VanCleef comforted Joseph and suggested seeking help from Grand Duke Bolvar, while Vladimir argued that Bolvar would not provide money or influence the Council of Nobles.
• Vladimir proposed taking money from the Royal Bank, the Trade District accounting office, or the wealthy nobles' mansions.
• Felix supported Vladimir's proposal and criticized VanCleef for trusting good nobles while the guild remained unpaid.
• Baros Alexston objected that stealing from the nobles was too unsound, despite understanding their wish to help Joseph.

Felix worried that Baros might be connected to SI:7 and waited for a chance to speak privately with Vladimir as VanCleef took him to visit Bolvar. Meanwhile, Katrana revealed her plan to give the Stonemasons’ Guild hope before engineering a catastrophe that would drive them into rebellion, while coordinating an offensive in the Redridge Mountains.

• Felix suspected Baros might be a Stormwind informant and decided to keep sensitive matters from him and VanCleef.
• VanCleef invited Felix to visit Grand Duke Bolvar, and Lightfinger encouraged Felix to go with him.
• Dune reported that Katrana’s agents had stolen medicinal herbs, driving up prices and worsening a stonemason’s attempt to treat his mother.
• Katrana ordered Dune to protect the guild leader’s daughter and said she would give VanCleef several hundred gold coins after the guild no longer needed the money.
• Katrana planned to let the nobles destroy the Stonemasons’ Guild’s hopes and families, provoking their fury and chaos in Stormwind City.
• Dune reported that Rend Blackhand had launched a full-scale offensive in the Redridge Mountains, which Katrana intended to use to draw Varian away from Stormwind.

Felix and the Stonemasons' Guild confronted Bolvar Fordragon over their unpaid wages, and Bolvar discovered that he had unknowingly approved Katrana Count Prestor's sweeping financial measures. He read the alarming document and grew increasingly frightened as he saw how much authority and responsibility it shifted away from the kingdom.

• Felix, VanCleef, and Baros met Bolvar Fordragon in Stormwind Keep, where Felix asked why the Stonemasons' Guild had not been paid.
• VanCleef explained that the Council of Nobles had never allocated wages, and Felix pointed out that Bolvar's approval was required for its disbursements.
• Bolvar recalled signing financial documents while under Katrana Count Prestor's mental charm, distracted by her and unaware of their contents.
• Bolvar searched the council chamber and found a document proposing cuts to garrison funding, shifting military costs to local officials, and suspending the Stonemasons' Guild's wages.
• Bolvar read the document's call for officials to raise funds and cut spending, then felt alarmed as he reached its sixth page.

Bolvar discovered that Stormwind had already approved policies that stripped the kingdom of valuable assets, leaving him unable to pay the stonemasons. He tried to placate VanCleef with honors and a small personal payment, but VanCleef insisted the workers still needed their wages.

• Bolvar read the approved plan to privatize Stormwind’s saltworks and loosen control of customs, and realized the kingdom had already lost royal assets and revenue.
• Bolvar met VanCleef in the throne room and praised his wartime service and work leading the Stonemasons' Guild.
• Bolvar granted VanCleef an earl’s title and medals, promised sixty gold coins at Prince Anduin’s birthday celebration, and gave him twenty gold coins personally.
• VanCleef rejected the honors as a substitute for wages and demanded payment for the stonemasons who had worked for years.
• Bolvar cited the kingdom’s depleted finances, slow postwar recovery, and continuing attacks by murlocs and gnolls as reasons he could not pay more.

VanCleef rejected Bolvar’s offer of a noble title and accepted his oath to pay the Stonemasons’ Guild, while Felix realized Bolvar might leave Stormwind to seek money from Lordaeron. Fearing that Katrana Prestor would seize power during his absence, Felix took Joseph and Vladimir to scout the Mage Quarter and the Wizard’s Sanctum.

• VanCleef refused Bolvar’s offer of an earldom and demanded that the guild’s wages be paid first.
• Bolvar swore by the Holy Light that he would fulfill his promise and gave VanCleef twenty gold coins for the guild.
• VanCleef trusted Bolvar’s oath, accepted the coins, and postponed discussion of the title.
• Felix realized Bolvar might travel to Lordaeron for help and feared Katrana Prestor would take control of Stormwind in his absence.
• Felix summoned Joseph and Vladimir to scout the Mage Quarter and the Wizard’s Sanctum.

Bolvar secretly summoned the Wizards' Guild archmages and used a portal to leave for Dalaran, while Felix and his companions prepared to protect the Stonemasons' Guild and rescue Vanessa. Katrana learned of Bolvar's plan and decided to exploit his absence as Stormwind's hidden enemies watched events unfold.

• Bolvar ordered his guards to summon Andromath and Malin in secret, and Felix, Vladimir, and Joseph watched Andromath leave for Stormwind Keep.
• Felix told Vladimir and Joseph to escape the city and rescue Vanessa in Goldshire, while Joseph was tasked with warning the guild foremen and hiding the Stonemasons' Guild brothers in the sewers if necessary.
• Andromath and the other archmages opened a portal to Dalaran, and Bolvar entered it after asking them to keep his departure secret.
• Katrana secretly observed Bolvar leave and said she would conceal his secret while the Council of Nobles prepared to take advantage of his absence.
• A Black Dragonkin disguised as a royal guard had reported Bolvar's secret order to Katrana three hours earlier.

Duke Lescovar told the Council of Nobles that Varian Wrynn, Bolvar Fordragon, and the Stonemasons' Guild were conspiring to take noble property. The nobles authorized Lescovar to act against them, and he began by ordering the guild leader's daughter taken into custody.

• Duke Lescovar gathered the nobles and claimed Varian Wrynn and Bolvar Fordragon planned to let VanCleef seize their property and then pardon the Stonemasons' Guild.
• Lescovar warned the nobles that Bolvar had left Stormwind City for the Redridge Mountains and urged them to strike before he returned.
• The nobles voted to authorize Lescovar to take action against the alleged conspiracy.
• Lescovar ordered the nobles to take the guild leader's daughter into custody and accuse the Stonemasons' Guild of treason.

Felix reached Goldshire ahead of the Council of Nobles' messengers and warned the Stonemasons' Guild that the nobles were coming to arrest them and were after little Vanessa. After learning that a mysterious visitor had already prepared the guild for a fight, Felix realized the visitor was Katrana Prestor and began to understand her plan.

• Felix and Vladimir raced toward Goldshire by a narrow path while an unmarked carriage carrying the Council of Nobles' orders sped along the main road.
• Vladimir collapsed from exhaustion, and Felix continued alone until he reached Goldshire at dawn.
• Felix found that the Council's messengers had not yet arrived and pounded on the Stonemasons' Guild headquarters door beside the Lion's Pride Inn.
• A man in black pulled Felix inside at knifepoint, but Jack checked Felix's papers and let him explain that Guildmaster VanCleef had sent him.
• Felix warned Jack and Morgan that the nobles were coming to arrest the guild and were after little Vanessa, then saw the armed group preparing for battle.
• Jack told Felix that a mysterious visitor had warned them about the nobles five hours earlier, and Felix identified the visitor as Katrana Prestor.

Felix recognized Katrana’s plan to spark a war between the Stonemasons’ Guild and Stormwind’s army, so he persuaded the Goldshire brothers to retreat with Vanessa instead of fighting. As Felix and Vladimir headed back to Stormwind City, an unmarked carriage sped toward Goldshire.

• Felix reasoned that a clash in Goldshire would turn Katrana’s manufactured misunderstanding into a war between the guild and the army.
• Felix convinced Jack and Morgan to take Vanessa and the brothers to Moonbrook, arguing that a fight would put her in danger and distress VanCleef.
• Jack carefully wrapped Vanessa while the brothers packed their supplies and weapons.
• Morgan ordered the brothers to leave, and Jack carried Vanessa away with them.
• Felix met Vladimir and urged him to return to Stormwind City before events turned ugly.
• An hour later, an unmarked carriage raced past Felix and Vladimir toward Goldshire.

Felix and Vladimir found the City Planning Office sealed and the Stonemasons' Guild disbanded, then entered the sewers to look for VanCleef. Earlier, VanCleef had led his men out to protest, while Windsor questioned the Council of Nobles' rebellion accusations; the chapter ended with a guard reporting that the target had appeared in Cathedral Square.

• Felix and Vladimir read notices announcing the Stonemasons' Guild's disbandment and the sealing of the City Planning Office.
• Joseph met Felix and Vladimir in the sewers, but they could not find VanCleef or the other stonemasons.
• VanCleef, furious over the arrests and the guild's closure, rallied his men to take back what they were owed.
• Windsor and his officers found no evidence of a rebellion at the City Planning Office or in Goldshire.
• Duke Wishock claimed the stonemasons were plotting rebellion and attempting to murder the queen and the prince, despite Windsor's doubts.
• A guard told Windsor that the target had appeared in Cathedral Square.

VanCleef led the stonemasons in protesting their unpaid wages, but Katrana Count Prestor manipulated General Marcus Jonathan into ordering the soldiers to attack them. Felix, Vladimir, and Joseph emerged from the sewers to find Cathedral Square strewn with bodies and the survivors fleeing in terror.

• VanCleef rallied the Stonemasons' Guild representatives in Cathedral Square and demanded that Bolvar answer for their unpaid wages.
• Katrana Count Prestor sent Tiffin Ellerian away with Marshal Windsor, then used her magic to break General Jonathan's will.
• Jonathan ordered Stormwind's soldiers to eliminate the stonemasons, and black dragonkin disguised as soldiers led the attack.
• The soldiers killed stonemasons, civilians, women, and children as panic swept through Cathedral Square.
• Felix, Vladimir, and Joseph emerged from the sewers and found bodies scattered among fleeing crowds.

After the massacre in Cathedral Square, the Stonemasons' Guild abandoned hopes of peace and prepared to fight back. Felix began planning a rescue of VanCleef from the Stockade, then received a mysterious offer of help.

• Windsor berated Jonathan for the killings, then ordered Stormwind's armories secured and the docks blockaded as he suspected Katrana Prestor.
• Joseph and Bazil returned to the sewers after finding their families dead, and the grieving workers looked to Joseph for guidance.
• Felix urged the guild to wage a life-or-death struggle against the nobles and officials, and the workers rallied behind him.
• Felix declared that VanCleef was likely imprisoned in the Stockade and began planning a rescue with help from guild members familiar with its layout.
• A worker brought Felix a letter in a bottle that offered help to anyone seeking revenge.

Felix and the Stonemasons' Guild debated a letter offering weapons and urging them to attack Stormwind City, and Felix decided to use its author rather than trust her. At the docks, a woman prepared for their arrival after the Royal Guard secretly moved covered goods into the harbor.

• Dudmore recognized mental magic in the letter, which had stirred Joseph and Bazil into violent anger, while Felix remained unaffected.
• Felix identified Katrana Prestor as the likely author and recalled that Dudmore's friend was Surena Caledon, Gakin the Darkbinder's former student.
• The guild members argued over whether to take the weapons, and Felix decided they could accept them because he intended to use the noblewoman.
• The Council of Nobles reassigned C Company from the harbor, and a Royal Guard squad moved black-cloaked goods into the docks.
• A woman asked whether everything was ready and said their guests would arrive soon.