"That's what this action is intended to do, Genn. Not just to take Darnassus. But to use it against us, striking at the very heart of what makes our kingdoms the Alliance. Sylvanas is going to turn us against one another. That's the grand plan." He shook his head, his eyes on the small figures on the table. "I was a fool not to see it earlier."
Genn was silent for a long time. "When did you learn so much about strategy?"
Anduin laughed humorlessly. "I was reading when I should have been sparring."
"Well, you are a fool." Anduin turned to regard him, surprised by the words. "A fool to think for a moment that I would withdraw my support because you are helping the kaldorei. Do I want my kingdom back? My people to return to their homes? Of course I do! Do I want it badly enough to allow innocent night elves to suffer, when they so generously have helped the Gilneans these last few years? When they mitigated the worgen curse, so we could hang on to ourselves and not get lost in madness? When they fed us, sheltered us, and offered us their home when we had nothing?"
Genn made a dismissive noise, somewhere between a huff and a snarl. "No. I would never betray that kindness by turning my back on them now. Sylvanas doesn't understand that about the living. And she certainly doesn't understand the Alliance. She is in for a rude awakening, and you can mark my words."
**
Delaryn's grief and guilt raged as fiercely as the fire. In a final touch of malice as unfathomable as her motives, Sylvanas Windrunner had turned Delaryn's head so the dying kaldorei had a perfect view of the incineration of all she loved—all she had fought for, believed in, bled for. All she had lived for . . .and was about to die for.
The tree of life was now a deathtrap, and soon would be the site of the greatest mass incremation Azeroth had ever known.