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that I want to be part of right now, but I know I have to stay here. I’m learning something new almost every single day. It kills me that I can’t help, but—”
    “It is the destiny of others to buy us a future for you to grow up in,Anduin,” Jaina said. “It is your destiny to do precisely that—and do so well. Keep studying. Keep learning. You’re right. You’re exactly where you need to be.”
    He shifted his weight from one foot to the other and suddenly looked very young again. “I know,” he said, sighing. “I do know that. It’s just… hard, sometimes.”
    “There will come a time when you will long for these simpler, quieter days,” Jaina said. Briefly her mind went back to her own youth. Loved by her father and brother, safe with her governess and tutors, Jaina had been filled with the joy of learning and the duties of a young lady, despite the military nature of her family. She had chafed against such things then, but now they seemed sweet and delicate as a flower’s petals.
    Anduin rolled his eyes in mock exasperation. “Give Thrall my best,” he said.
    “I’m sure that’s hardly prudent,” Jaina replied, but she smiled as she said it. She lifted the cloak’s hood over her golden hair. “Be well, Anduin. It’s good to hear how you are doing.”
    “I will, Aunt Jaina. You be careful.” His image vanished. Jaina, who had been tying the hood down tight, paused in mid-motion. You be careful. He was, indeed, growing up.
    As she had so many times before, she set out alone, taking care, as Anduin had asked, that she was not observed by anyone. She paddled the dinghy to the southwest, navigating the small islands of the area known as Tidefury Cove. The occasional muckshell clacked at her in annoyance, but otherwise the waterways were undisturbed.
    Jaina pulled up to the meeting place, surprised to see that Thrall wasn’t present. She felt slightly uneasy. So much had changed. He had given leadership of the Horde to Garrosh. The world had cracked open like an egg, never to be the same again. And a great evil that had burned with hate and madness had rampaged across Azeroth to, finally, be defeated.
    The wind shifted, caressing her face and blowing the hood off despite the fact that she had tied it securely beneath her chin. Her cloak billowed back from her slender frame, and suddenly Jaina smiled. Thewind was warm and smelled of apple blossoms, and before she quite realized what happened, it had lifted her out of the dinghy like a large, gentle hand. She did not struggle; she knew she was perfectly safe. Cradling her, the wind deposited her on the shore with the same care it had displayed when picking her up. Not a drop of muddy water had touched so much as the toe of her boot.
    He stepped out from his place of concealment behind a rock, and Jaina realized she still hadn’t grown used to his new appearance. Instead of armor, Thrall, son of Durotan, wore simple robes. Red prayer beads encircled his throat. His large head with black hair was covered by a plain hood. The robes revealed part of his powerful green chest, and his arms were bare. He was indeed a shaman now, not a warchief. Only the Doomhammer, strapped to his back, was familiar to her.
    He held out his hands, and Jaina took them.
    “Lady Proudmoore,” he said, his blue eyes warm with welcome. “Long has it been since we met so.”
    “Long indeed, Thrall,” she said in agreement. “Perhaps too long.”
    “I am Go’el,” he said, reminding her gently. Slightly chagrined, she nodded.
    “My apologies. Go’el it shall be.” She looked around. “Where is Eitrigg?”
    “He is with the warchief,” Go’el said. “While I now am leader of the Earthen Ring, I serve humbly. I do not think of myself as greater than any other member.”
    A hint of an amused smile quirked her mouth. “Many would consider you much more than a simple shaman,” she said. “I among them. Or are the tales that you allied with four Dragon Aspects to