The Order and its followers knew that their quest against the Hand of Kharduum would soon take them into the towering, alien mountains of Blade's Edge, and yet the wolves were are their heals. Encamped within the Twin Spires, the soldiers of the 13th Legion were poised to continue their quest to apprehend them, to distract them from their crusade against the fiends that infested the crags to the north.
So it was that the Order resolved to march upon the 13th Legion's encampment itself, to call forth their leadership and to settle the matter of the false accusations of desertion once and for all. Their parley was answered upon the bridge that joined the West Beacon to the central fortifcation of the Twin Spires, and forth came both Tatton Irwine and Amric Caelstan, captains from both Wildhammer Stronghold and Honour Hold, respectively.
Of the two of them, the Order knew Tatton better. The patrolmaster had been there on the day that the late Thane Khazgrim gave orders to pursue the demons' portals, and the man had shown reluctance when it came to carrying out his successor's orders to bring the Order and the Third Cohort back to face 'justice'. No matter how hard they tried to convince him, when last they saw him Nagrand, Captain Irwine would not disobey his superior's command.
Yet on that day, there was change. Amric, twice as stubborn and half as informed as Tatton was, was difficult to convince, yet the overwhelming evidence of the Order's achievements in Outland could not be ignored: the horn of a terrorfiend, taken from Shadowmoon Valley; the silver cross medallion gifted to John Librus by the Sha'tari Skyguard; the dragon tooth pendant given to the former provost Obadiah by Thane Khazgrim himself...
Disobeying direct orders issued from High Command, Tatton and Amric took the plunge, agreeing bilaterally to aid the Order in their destruction of the Hand of Kharduum. When they parted ways, they promised that they would be a day's march behind, and that they would catch up with them in Sylvanaar... yet, for reasons unknown, the 13th Legion never arrived, save for a runner sent to the night elf settlement to bring word of an ugly argument and a deep schism among the ranks.
Had Amric and Tatton gone back on their word already? Were the soldiers of the Alliance hot on their heels once more, even as they prepared to storm the third and perhaps final portal held by the Hand of Kharduum? Victory was close at hand, and this time, as the Order prepared to vanquish the third demonic portal, they would not suffer another distraction.
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