Korialstrasz, in his elven form, slumped into the cushy seat of his mortal office as he watched his student leave. He didn’t really need to remain in this confined room, but he might as well commit to the act for a while.

As usual, little progress had been made on deciphering the abilities of the protege he had been forced to take on. It was frustrating, yet what little insight he and Vasyrgos gleaned had often more than made up for the extremely slow research.

They’ve learned that whatever source of magic that Kyle manifested, it was not tied to the Void or the Light in any way. There was none of the inky, insidious corruption of the former, nor the overbearingly radiant presence of the latter whenever Kyle spoke through his mind or created blades of light from his confounding bracer.

Vasyrgos had been most certain that it had nothing to do with the Arcane or the Fel either, and Korialstrasz trusted the judgment of the blue dragon, a child of the Aspect of Magic.

Another intriguing fact was that this new flavor of magic made Kyle’s mind impervious to other mental based spells. Korialstrasz had snuck out a few artifacts from his personal vault from his Dalaran office, minor artifacts that were marinated with the taint of the Void or the Fel. While normally such objects had subverted lesser mortal minds to create power-hungry warlocks simply by proximity, the boy had remained oblivious to their nature even as he held the items in his bare hands.

Vasyrgos’ array of precautionary wards and spells had been completely unnecessary.

After witnessing such uncanny resistance - if not outright immunity - to mental subversion, It took all of Korialstrasz’s persuasion to stop the blue dragon from snatching young Kyle away to Northrend for further study with his kin. Both dragons believed the boy when he said he couldn’t remove the bracer however he tried. If it was anything like more conventional magical artifacts of great power, the bracer was bound solely to Kyle and nothing short of a time and resource intensive attunement ritual - of which would require deciphering the new magic in the first place - or destroying it to undo that effect.

As intriguing as the anomaly might be, its wielder was still a mortal human under Korialstrasz’s tutelage. And while the red dragon didn’t think that his blue cousins would be so callous with mortal lives, Kyle’s presence was significant enough that too many unwanted questions would arise if he were to be absent for too long.

So the facade of an education was kept up, giving the dragons what time they could to delve into the mysteries of a new source of magic, as well as its wielder. And for the time being, some subtle manipulation would be required to ensure that Kyle remained studying in Dalaran. If that meant keeping an eye on Alterac’s council of regents to do their jobs, or ensuring that Kyle’s family would live quiet and uneventful lives, then so be it. Krasus had his stable of agents for such things.

While Korialstrasz was approving of Kyle’s caution in seeking out aid to understanding the powers that came to him seemingly out of nowhere - after all, history was replete with hedge magi and inadvertent warlocks who did not understand the concept of restraint - there was a disturbing question that still nagged at the back of the red dragon’s mind.

How did Kyle know to seek him out?

The boy’s application into the Kirin Tor’s academy was a singular request for tutelage under Archmage Krasus. It was surprising enough that someone beyond Dalaran would know the name, given Korialstrasz’s care to minimize attention to his cover. But to not only know of Krasus, but the identity behind it?

The phrases Kyle included in his petition were nonsensical to the magi attending to Kyle’s request, but to the dragon they were highly unsubtle hints of the venerable archmage’s true identity.

“I have questions about the crimson, the sand, the wardings of earth…”

“...if by consorting with an aspect of royalty, say a great lively queen…”

That they still forwarded the otherwise outlandish application to Krasus’ attention was a credit to the magi, even if they were simply going through the motions to keep their hands clean.

It was a select few mortals indeed who knew that Krasus and Korialstrasz were one and the same, and he did not believe any of them would betray his identity in such a haphazard manner. In the same vein, those of his draconic kin that were not too removed from the affairs of mortals would not be so…creative in their ways.

That Kyle came seeking help with foreign magic instead of using his knowledge to blackmail (however useless that delusional notion might be) was a pleasant enough surprise that Korialstrasz did not press the boy too much on how he got ahold of what he knew. At least not yet. The hints of what he might know was more than enough for the dragon to tolerate for the time being.

And then, mere days after being confirmed as a student, Kyle was revealed to be the newly recognized heir to Alterac. Korialstrasz was not present at the time, but from Kyle’s haggard state after that, it was safe to surmise that the newly minted king did not look forward too much to his position.

“Isn’t there a real heir? Or if they’re going this far to find an obscure bastard, couldn’t they just make one up?”

Korialstrasz had shook his head in sympathy at the questions. “To put it simply, Aliden Perenolde, Aiden Perenolde’s legitimate son and heir, and your half-brother, is distrusted by the leaders of the Alliance, almost as much as his father was. To many, endorsing Aliden’s legitimacy would be akin to endorsing all his father had done.”

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“But I’m fine as an heir because I’m a bastard?”

“In a sense,” Korialstrasz had answered honestly. The boy deserved to know his place as a pawn in Alliance politics, at least. “While there are some kings vying to claim Alterac for themselves, the others would prefer the realm be restored…to some degree. There were other claimants, like your cousin, Isiden Perenolde who was momentarily sponsored by King Genn Greymane.” Or Deathwing’s guise as Daval Prestor that was luckily foiled in time, Korialstrasz thought sourly.

“Were?”

Korialstrasz found it hard not to shrug. “From what has been made public so far, Isiden had suffered a riding accident during one of his journeys to rally support,” the red dragon explained simply. It would take a bit of resources to figure out if that was really the case or not, but considering King Genn was not kicking a fuss about plots from Stromgard or Lordaeron, perhaps it really was a sad misfortune.

“As for the others… Similar to Isiden and Gilneas, their claims were sponsored by other kingdoms, which due to the inevitable contention between kingdoms weakened their legitimacy-” Or in Deathwing’s case, he was defeated and forced to flee. “-enough so that with your…discovery, support for all of them were dropped.”

Kyle had nodded then, bleak understanding dawning on his features. “So I’ve just got enough of a claim to be counted, and am considered unaffiliated enough that everyone’s compromised on me?”

Korialstrasz gave another nod of sympathy.

“But wouldn’t me studying here be an issue?”

“A minor one, considering how little stake the Kirin Tor has in Alterac, and how generally uninvolved it is in the internal conflicts of the Alliance recently. So long as you remain only educated in magic instead of being groomed for politics, your time here will be acceptable. You will eventually be assigned an…impartial educator to bring you up to speed on a king’s duties.”

Once the Alliance leadership finished with their bickering and came to a consensus on the matter, which might take a while…

“In any case, your council of regents also serves as a check to…ensure the common interest of the Alliance.”

Kyle had frowned for a second then, and then gave Korialstrasz a querying look. “If I may be bluntly honest?”

“You may.”

“Fuck.”

Knowing what he did about the current culture and politics of the continent, Korialstrasz almost pitied Kyle. That he chose to continue his ‘studies’ in Dalaran would earn him little favors among the near magic-phobic and superstitious human lords. Even for all its contributions to the Alliance, the magocracy of Kirin Tor was still regarded with distrust by its supposed allies. Human aversion to the unknown, coupled with superstition exacerbated by their worship of the Light, made magi unwelcome at best throughout most of the human kingdoms.

Maybe after a few years, once Korialstrasz had fully cleared any misgivings about Kyle’s character, he could set up a meeting between the boy and an envoy of Quel’Thalas to gain more honest support. The elven kingdom was respected by the human kingdoms despite their use of magic that was on par with Dalaran, and if nothing else they might be a powerful patron to fend off the worst of the politicking over Alterac. With the quiet influence Krasus exerted, perhaps he could introduce Kyle to Prince Kael’thas, who was himself a senior archmage of the Kirin Tor.

Of course, such aid would have to depend on just how trustworthy Kyle Daelam was. Just like his magic, there was still much unknown about the mage-king to be. The boy was definitely more than he seemed, and he definitely knew more than just Korialstrasz’s identity. Unfortunately every attempt at inquiry, subtle or not, was so far expertly deflected. Politely too, at that.

At least the boy was currently focused on figuring out the limitations of his power. “To make sure that I don’t accidentally summon something or blow something up because I blinked the wrong way,” as he phrased it. It was a laudable enough goal, but Korialstrasz couldn’t help but worry about what happened after that.

There were too many of those that sought power for power’s sake, and while Kyle showed none of their narcissism or greed so far, Korialstrasz also knew that all it took was for an over-ambitious mage to learn that one spell, that one supposed key to solve all the problems in their life, to send them down into a destructive spiral.

As archmage of the Kirin Tor, Krasus had euthanized his fair share of delusional aspirants (and even once-respected magi) and power-hungry warlocks within Dalaran. A few were even his apprentices at some point.

As Korialstrasz, he’d purged caverns of corrupted cultists and snuffed out secretive covens before they could endanger their environment with their reckless abuse of dark magic.

Hopefully Kyle would prove his suspicions wrong, and would grow into a respectable lord - the first mage lord - despite his neighbors’ machinations.

For now though, the draconic archmage conjured a scrying window and silently observed his student going about his daily life within the Academy of Arcane Sciences. Just as with Kyle’s magic, the boy himself still required much studying.