It was autumn in the sixth year of the Dark Portal. Autumn should have been a season of harvest: the wheat the farmers planted turned golden, its heavy kernels heralding another bountiful year. In their leisure time, residents could picnic on the grass outside or drink and chat in taverns. All the people of Lordaeron thought Terenas was a good king. He was kindly and benevolent, and taxes in the Kingdom of Lordaeron were relatively light among the human kingdoms. The people did not have to struggle for breath beneath a crushing tax burden.
Yet that was what life in Lordaeron had been like before. Now, after a continent-wide war, the Alliance nations had barren fields and scattered, displaced people. In some regions ravaged by war, a complete failure of the grain harvest was inevitable. The nations' debts kept mounting, and throughout the northern Eastern Kingdoms, the regions the Orcs had passed through had virtually no harvest to speak of.
At Terenas of the Kingdom of Lordaeron's invitation, Patrick attended the Alliance summit following victory in the Second War. After all, the Kingdom of Quel'Thalas certainly would not send a representative to a meeting of the Arathi Empire's "high officials." In Anasterian's eyes, having Patrick Cabrolon attend as a representative of the High Elf Highlords was perfectly appropriate. Ultimately, aristocratic politics and notions of class still held too much sway.
Patrick once again teleported directly from Sunfury Spire to Lordaeron City. This was also Quel'Thalas's only teleportation link to the outside world. All of Silvermoon City had always been protected by bann'donor, cutting off the possibility of connections to the outside world. Even the establishment of teleportation magic circles with the Kingdom of Lordaeron dated back only a few centuries. As the Kingdom of Lordaeron developed rapidly, the Kingdom of