Over the long months, Ezran eased into the role of steward. Jalinde stayed at the tower of Sentinel Hill for a while, but after a year had passed and the child was weaned, she faded back into the wilderness: whether to return to her life of a Farstrider or to seek out druidic training, Ezran never discovered.
He returned to using his illusion of a quel’dorei on most days: it drew less attention, and he hoped the less reminders of Seryth and the Nathsyssn that the townsfolk had, the better. It certainly seemed to put Jalinde at ease, whenever she visited; she admitted later he looked uncannily like Seryth, like his ghost, while with the disguise she could see him as just another unrelated quel’dorei instead.
“Does it not still bother you I am related to him in truth?” Ezran asked.
“I don’t want to think about it. If we forget her father, maybe the spectre of his evil will never touch her or these lands again.”
Ezran didn’t think her feelings were so straightforward, but he said nothing, and continued to wear the illusion for her sake.
The nights weren’t easy times for Ezran, either, the dreams of his encounter with the twilight panther sometimes returning to him. In other dreams, he caught glimpses of Seryth. Not all of them made sense. In one, the warlock rode on the back of a dragon, black as night. In another, he saw the hills of Drustvar in the background and fields of moving stone. He also saw a lush forest hidden in twilight, and he’d wake to the sounds of hooves drumming in the distance.
The cleanup of Westfall was at first straight forward. Ezran negotiated with the lords of Stormwind for donations to restart farms and settle new families. He hunted the last traces of Seryth’s demons together with Daelin and Fordrellon. With his injuries from the twilight panther still paining him, he also learned more of healing magic. The research into the fel-tainted children of the southern villages bore fruit as he was able to cleanse several of them of their taint.
Still famine occurred, and poverty, and with these things came the bandits.
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