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>8
>8
You put the letter down and sighed. It would be better to wait for Eligius to return before you get into the letter properly. There was a danger that you could damage or just destroy it if you were to soak it in water or light it on fire, so better to wait for someone who actually has knowledge on how to deal with letters like this.
Pinching the bridge of your nose, you shook your annoyance away and looked at the papers arranged on your desk. Tari had finished most of them and prepared them for you for the final check and read through. Even pregnant and probably deserving to spend as much time doing everything else than the paperwork, she had dutifully done her job as your secretary. While you were away, she had been the one keeping the cogs turning so to speak.
Beric was right, you should treasure her.
You went through the papers. Most of them were a boring list of expenses, bought planks, windows and such. Why were you even in the first place having to deal with any of this? But beneath the papers you spotted something different, a letter.
Oh no
Oh by the Holy Light no!
Fishing it out, you quickly opened it with a knife and pinched the bridge of your nose hard enough to leave a red mark. It was the letter given to you by the mercenaries from Edwin VanCleef.
Oh how you had forgotten it?
Edwin VanCleef, the leader of the Stonemasons Guild wrote to you about the events of the spring and the winter. He had led the Stonemasons into exile towards the north, towards Westfall and the abandoned mines of Deadmines. With his people loyal to him he would organise his forces and strike back against Stormwind City and King Varian, but you had accepted to take in the women, children and those unwilling to take up arms immediately.
This had caused issues for him, he had lost a considerable amount of manpower that could have been armed and used in whatever plans he had, but at the same time he was very glad. Women, children, the elderly and those not so sure about the future had decided to take the journey to Alterac to your lands where they would be safe. As much as that might have caused issues to his plans, it was the right thing to do. They weren’t combatants nor people to be thrown into a struggle.
It was in his plans to regain his strength and put the Stonemasons under his command through a training schedule to get them ready. In the meantime he would try to recruit other bands of criminals and thugs under his command.
So he was trying to get his forces ready for whatever counteroffensive he had planned for the Stormwind. By how he wrote, he seemed quite serious about his plans and that did worry you. Still one third of those who were to come had arrived and the remaining were still enroute. One letter should make you change your opinion regarding them. They weren’t part of any of this.
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