Vereesa assumed Aaron was merely comforting her. Composing herself, she continued, "Since you know my eldest sister's name, you must know my second sister too?"
"Syl... Sylvanas? I remember she's the general of Quel'Thalas's ranger forces?" Aaron had nearly blurted out Queen Sylvanas. Fortunately, he hadn't, or he would have had no way to explain it. The Windrunner family wasn't high elf royalty; no matter how you looked at it, Sylvanas had no claim to be queen.
"I wouldn't have guessed. You're young, but you know quite a lot. Then let me test you again: who's the king of us high elves?"
Aaron's face fell at once. How was he supposed to remember what Kael'thas's father was called? All Aaron remembered was that poor old man wielding Felo'melorn head-on against Arthas's Frostmourne, only for his sword to shatter and for him to die, leaving behind a scarred and battered Quel'Thalas.
After that, Prince Kael'thas had renamed his race the Blood Elves. Following a series of events, Quel'Thalas had been rebuilt, Kael'thas had betrayed his country, and the one who ultimately became the Blood Elves' leader was Lor'themar Theron, who should currently be no more than Sylvanas's deputy. A ranger had actually become the supreme ruler of Quel'Thalas. Where was the sense in that?
Watching Ailun shake his head, Vereesa gave him a surprised look and said, "You know both my sisters, but you don't know who our king is?"
But after thinking it over, Vereesa seemed to work something out herself and said, "My eldest sister Alleria liked traveling through the human kingdoms from quite early on, and Sylvanas has come this way plenty of times as ranger-general too. It's not strange that you've heard their names."
Aaron nodded, pretending to agree with Vereesa's guess, while inwardly muttering to himself that, never mind the high elves' king, he only knew four of the kings of the seven human kingdoms. He didn't even know who the other three were.
But then an image of a figure surrounded by three large fireballs flashed through Aaron's mind, and he said, "Oh, right, I know who your prince is. Kael'thas. He's a very powerful archmage."
"Yes, the prince is a very powerful archmage, but even he has to go to Dalaran to study magic. We've reached a point where we have to learn magic from humans." Vereesa nodded. "The prince has rarely returned home these past years. He spends most of his time in Dalaran. He's practically more of a farstrider than we Farstriders are."
"Farstriders?" Hearing the term, Aaron vaguely felt he had heard it somewhere before. Wasn't there a place in Quel'Thalas called that, or...?
"Ah, the Farstriders are an organization of rangers who carry out missions abroad, like me." Vereesa pointed to herself as she explained, "Although the rangers' main combat duty is still fighting trolls, many of our people have settled outside the kingdom, and naturally we have a responsibility to protect them. But the arcanists are too delicate and pampered for that sort of work, so the task of protecting our people outside the kingdom mostly falls to us Farstriders. Of course, we're also responsible for maintaining contact with the human kingdoms."
Listening to Vereesa's explanation, Aaron nodded to show that he understood the Farstriders' duties. As he understood it, the Farstriders were probably something like a combination of peacekeepers and diplomatic envoys, though a little different.
"So Alleria is a Farstrider too?" Aaron recalled what he remembered about Alleria. What she did seemed to fit the role of a Farstrider quite well.
"Yes. My eldest sister was originally supposed to inherit the position of ranger-general, but she said she disliked the atmosphere in the kingdom and preferred dealing with humans. Mother finally gave up on it, and the position of ranger-general went to my second sister instead." Vereesa tilted her head back to gaze at the sky and said, "When Arator grows up, perhaps he'll inherit the position of ranger-general."
"Arator?" Aaron glanced at Vereesa. Naturally, he knew Arator was Alleria and Turalyon's child, but this half-elf who had grown up away from his parents seemed to have become a paladin later on. The position of ranger-general had ultimately gone to Halduron instead.
"Yes, Arator is my eldest sister's child. These days, my second sister and I are basically the ones looking after him, but my second sister really doesn't know how to take care of people. I hope I can finish this mission soon and go back to look after him." When Vereesa mentioned Arator and Sylvanas, her expression became noticeably more heartfelt.
After two wars against the orcs, the Windrunner family had lost many people. Vereesa's mother and younger brother had both died during the orcs' siege of Silvermoon City, and contact with Alleria had been lost as well. Now, the only people Vereesa could call family were Arator and Sylvanas.
Aaron watched Vereesa gaze up at the stars, seemingly hoping to see her eldest sister's figure among them. After a moment's thought, he said, "Vereesa, may I ask why you chose to become a Farstrider?"
"Me?" Vereesa lowered her gaze and blinked at Aaron. "It was probably my eldest sister's influence. I really dislike the atmosphere within the kingdom too. My second sister even said my personality was more like a human's than an elf's."
"Then has your thinking changed over these past few days?" Following that line of conversation, Aaron continued to ask.
At Aaron's question, Vereesa seemed a little puzzled. Then she lowered her head, apparently giving it serious thought. Only after a long while did she look up and say, "How should I put it? It really hasn't been as good as I imagined. All the way here from Stratholme, the humans I met either treated me like some kind of rare animal or... were like that drunk that night. You know?"
Vereesa was clearly referring to the night they had first met, when Aaron had intervened to stop her and, in the process, activated a cheat of unknown origin.
Given the high elves' relatively insular traditions, few inhabitants of the human kingdoms had ever seen them, so it wasn't difficult to understand why all sorts of situations would arise.
"Ah, well, about that night, um..." For a moment, Aaron didn't know what to say. He didn't think he had done anything wrong, but defending himself seemed out of keeping with the rhythm of a normal conversation.
"You don't have to say anything. Actually, I should thank you for what happened that day." Vereesa seemed to notice Aaron's dilemma and spoke first. "I was a little too tense at the time. This is my first mission outside the kingdom, after all. I was bound to overreact a little."
"Huh? Oh..." Aaron nodded in surprise and said, "I really couldn't tell this was your first mission away from home. I thought you were very professional."
This wasn't just idle praise from Aaron. Over the past few days, whether scouting out enemies or finding campsites, Vereesa had shown proficiency in all kinds of ranger work. At least, before Vereesa explained it, Aaron had never imagined this was her first mission away from home.
"We have to undergo ranger training for a long time before we're allowed to finish our training," Vereesa explained. "Besides, everyone in my family is a ranger. I grew up in that environment. If I still messed up, my second sister would scold me."
"Let me tell you, my second sister is very strict. Growing up, she was always the hardest on me." Vereesa seemed to remember something. "Even the other rangers under her command have plenty of grievances about her. Lor'themar, Halduron... I've caught them bad-mouthing my second sister behind her back more than once."
"Lor'themar? Oh, A-Qiang." Hearing the name Lor'themar, Aaron took a moment to adjust. After all, players all called him A-Qiang; very few people remembered his proper name, Lor'themar.
The two sat by the fire, chatting casually like that. Only then did Aaron realize that Vereesa was nowhere near as unapproachable as she appeared. In person, the elven girl was more like the girl next door, lively and talkative.
As the two moons in the sky set one after the other, the night passed uneventfully. Only when Aaron happened to yawn did he realize the whole night had slipped by just like that.
Looking back to check on Rhonin, he found that the red-haired mage was sleeping quite soundly, even snoring.