Stormwind is loud.
I'd forgotten. The clatter of carts, the hawkers, the endless press of people moving in every direction. I'd spent so long in the quiet of Duskwood that the city hit me like a wall.
I found a bench near the canal and sat down.
Took stock.
Coin pouch: light. One silver, a handful of copper. Enough for a meal and a night in a cheap room, maybe. Not enough for anything after that.
Sword: still sharp. Armor: still holding. Boots: worn but not yet finished.
I was a sellsword without a contract in a city full of them.
I spent the first day walking the docks. Nothing. The second day, the trade district. A few leads, all of them thin. Guard work. Courier work. The kind of jobs that paid enough to eat but not enough to leave.
On the third day, I found something.
A notice pinned to a board outside the harbormaster's office. Expedition to Kalimdor. Seeking experienced hands for transport security. Pay listed up front — more than I'd made in a month with Voss.
I read it twice.
Kalimdor was across the Great Sea. A continent I'd never seen. I'd heard stories — desert wastes, primeval jungles, monsters that made the beasts of the Eastern Kingdoms look tame.
The notice said the job was standard. Transport security. Escort a shipment to a contact in Theramore. Simple.
Nothing about it felt simple.
I took the notice down and walked into the harbormaster's office.
The man behind the desk barely looked at me. "Name?"
"Wylde."
"Experience?"
"Bodyguard. Six years."
He wrote something down. "Be at the eastern pier at dawn. The Sea Sprite. Ask for Captain Harlan."
"That's it?"
He looked up. "That's it."
I walked out with the paper still in my hand and a feeling in my chest that I couldn't name. Not excitement. Not fear. Something in between.
I had a job.
I had a way out.
I just didn't know what I was walking into.