The elf had fallen into despair. He sat motionless on the ground, staring fixedly at the iron trap clamped viciously around his foot.

By rights, he should have been strong enough to pry it open, but he did not even try.

The wretched fight and the humiliation of being caught in a trap had short-circuited his mind.

It was summer. Even though Duskwood was cooler than other regions, the ice could not last long against the heat of a dwarf's body.

Gred soon broke free of the spell. He slung his sword onto his back, pulled the short blade from the ground, retrieved his buckler and strapped it to his arm, then swaggered over to the elf.

The elf looked up at the dwarf blankly. "Cut off my head and use it to decorate one of your ridiculous clay hearths. Perhaps it'll earn you a little prestige in the dwarf holes of Loch Modan."

"I'm a Wildhammer dwarf, pretty boy." Looking at him, Gred could not suppress two more laughs. Then he crouched and began cutting the herbs.

As he cut, he muttered, "Still, your description of the Bronzebeards warms my heart. You deserve praise."

"Whatever. Bronzebeard, Wildhammer—who cares? I suspect only you people bother drawing such fine distinctions, hmm?" After shouting, the elf lowered his head and muttered, "That really hurts."

"Give me your sword," Gred said, holding the bundle of harvested Kingsblood.

"It's already in your hand."

"The other one."

The elf reluctantly handed over his long blade. The dwarf weighed it in his hand. "This could sell for more than ten silver."

Not far away, Jess picked up the traveling bag the elf had dropped and opened it. What he found surprised him.

The herbs inside were not plentiful, but all were fairly valuable: some Kingsblood, Briarthorn, a little Grave Moss stored in a small pouch, and even a vine-like herb Jess had never seen before. It might be Earthroot, but he could not tell. He would have to compare it with his scroll.

The bag also contained four glass bottles filled with potions of different colors. Jess took them out and considered opening them for a sniff, but with his limited knowledge of alchemy, he probably would not learn anything. Better to leave them sealed than risk losing some of the contents to evaporation.

Another small cloth pouch inside held biscuits and cheese. Jess could not resist breaking off a piece of biscuit and tasting it. It was slightly salty with a rich spice flavor. After swallowing, he felt refreshed, as though much of the strength exhausted in the fight had suddenly returned.

The cheese tasted of raspberries. Since transmigrating, he had never eaten anything so close to the flavor of ice cream.

So these were the snacks elves made? One bite was enough to win him over.

He could not bear to eat it all at once. Carrying the pouch over to Gred, he said, "This should sell for a lot. We may earn forty or fifty silver from this trip."

Gred waved the two blades in his hands. "These should bring in some money too."

"So you're bandits after all? The humans have retaken Stormwind. You could go north and find honest work," the elf said with a sidelong look.

"This isn't robbery. It's self-defense. Don't forget that you started the trouble," Jess said. "We're taking your belongings as compensation for our injuries and your weapons to keep you from hunting us down."

Then he glanced at the bow on the elf's back. "Gred, shouldn't we take that too?"

"I actually forgot." Gred paused. "But without it, how will he deal with wolves?"

"Leave him two arrows," Jess said. "Elven arrows are so sturdy that he should be able to use them as makeshift daggers."

Gred chuckled as he removed the bow from the elf.

The elf watched him without a word and submitted in silence.

Jess continued searching the bag and suddenly found a box inside an exquisite little brocade pouch.

When he removed it, the elf blinked involuntarily, as though struggling not to look.

Jess opened the box. It contained a necklace set with a beautiful gemstone whose color was difficult to describe as either gold or green.

"What is this?" he asked the elf.

"A cat's-eye stone," the elf said. "I can see that neither of you is wealthy and that you're willing to risk your lives for money. Take it and go."

Jess asked, "Does this necklace belong to you, or did you steal it?"

"Why would I steal someone else's necklace?" the elf asked. "Do I look short of money?"

Gred glanced at Jess. "This lad truly is asking for another beating."

"A lady gave it to me as a protective charm," the elf said. "Take it. If it saves my life, then the charm has done its work, and I haven't betrayed the thought behind her gift."

Hearing that, Jess instantly lost all interest in taking it.

"This..." He hesitated for a moment.

"Leave it with him." Gred clicked his tongue. "Let him have something to cling to in this darkness, so he won't be quite so pitiful and alone when he dies."

Jess tossed the necklace beside the elf's foot. "We're taking the box. You can keep the necklace."

The elf picked it up and clenched it in his hand. After a pause, he looked at Jess. "Human, you're a warlock, aren't you?"

"Huh?" Jess asked. "Why would you say that?"

The elf said, "You tried to cast a spell at me earlier, and it looked like warlock magic. Don't worry. We aren't particularly hostile toward practitioners of shadow magic. I only wanted to tell you that yesterday, I found an orc warlock hiding in an abandoned human farm to the south. I killed him but didn't touch his belongings. The farm has a tall mill whose windmill has only one sail left. You can see it from far away. It's quite distinctive. If you have time, you can go there and see whether he left anything you need. This necklace is important to me, so consider the information my thanks for leaving it."

"It should be around three in the afternoon. If you leave now and move quickly, you can reach the farm and probably return to Raven Hill before nightfall—assuming Raven Hill is where you came from."

Gred whispered, "That warlock may have herbs related to shadow magic, such as Grave Moss or Kingsblood. It's worth a look."

Jess nodded. His mind was already full of books about demons, dark magic, and the like. If that warlock had carried some magical treasure, wouldn't Jess's progress leap forward?

The elf said, "Go. Once I've rested and recovered some strength, I can pry open this trap myself."

"We should still leave you a weapon for protection." Gred looked at the two elven blades in his hands and prepared to set one down. Unexpectedly, the elf drew three daggers and short swords of different sizes from his waist in rapid succession. "Unnecessary."

"Fine, then." Gred tucked the weapons into his belt, slung the quiver across his back, hung the bow over his shoulder, and said, "Let's go."

"One more thing," the elf said. "There's a bottle of pink potion in the bag. Leave that one with me."

"Pink?" Gred watched Jess take out the bottle. "Is that a Rejuvenation Potion?"

The elf said, "Exactly. You wouldn't want your ally from Quel'Thalas limping along until wolves caught and devoured him, would you?"

"Ally? Bah!" Gred spat, and the elf laughed.