They stayed a few days in Stormwind, stocking up on supplies for their journey. It was a long road south, and there wouldn't be any major cities until they reached Booty Bay itself. Once they had everything they needed, they set out on the open road, leaving the bustle of the city behind them.
Though Stormwind's damage had been extensive, Elwynn Forest seemed largely unchanged, and nothing really stood out to Li Li as unusual for the route they traveled. Stranglethorn Vale, however, was another matter entirely. As they tramped along the jungle's narrow but well-worn trail, the signs of Deathwing's return were all around them, from corrupted patches of forest to newly founded settlements of both the Alliance and Horde. In some places the road grew truly treacherous. Booty Bay, by the time they arrived, was a more than welcome sight. Run by the Steamwheedle Cartel, the small city perched over the tip of the Cape of Stranglethorn with the unmatchable defiance of the terminally down-and-out. All manner of brutal cutthroats and wide-eyed adventurers sought out Booty Bay as a place to make their fortunes or just escape the strict law enforcement of the larger cities. Li Li and Chen stepped onto its rickety wooden walkways with both relief and delight.
"As much as I love life on the road, it'll be good to have a bed underneath me tonight." Chen sighed happily. Li Li knew that Booty Bay was one of his favorite places on Azeroth.
"The road in this part of the world could use some improvement," Li Li huffed. "Would it have killed them to put up a sign? 'Warning: Path ahead disappears into a giant whirlpool of death'!"
Chen quickly sobered.
"Deathwing really did shatter the earth."
"Booty Bay seems intact, though."
"I think it would take more than a few giant whirlpools of death for the goblins to give up on this place." Chen winked, smiling again. "Come on, Li Li. There's a mug of terrible goblin grog with my name on it."
The Salty Sailor Tavern would never catch any architect's eye, except perhaps as a textbook example of disrepair. The dilapidated old hovel had an unfinished, haphazard air about it, its additional floors and bedrooms simply tacked on whenever the steady stream of visitors had exceeded the existing structure's capacity. In Booty Bay, safety and stability were generally not a proprietor's highest concerns—buyer beware, after all.
So, while the infamous pub might be a less-than-ideal destination for the honest tourist, it was a perfect haven for the downtrodden, petty criminals, gallivanting sailors, or otherwise slightly off-kilter members of society. There were plenty of places where one could hide unseen, and observe.
Doing just that was one of Catelyn's favorite pastimes. From her vantage point on the mezzanine-style second floor, she could easily watch the comings and goings of all the tavern's patrons, with an eye toward any opportunities that might present themselves.
Unusual people found their way to Booty Bay. Nonetheless, Catelyn was genuinely surprised to see two pandaren walk through the front door and slap some coins down on the counter for Skindle. She had heard of their kind but had never seen any up close, and something about them piqued Catelyn's interest. Their staves and haversacks clearly marked them as travelers. She watched them carry their pints of ale to an empty table in the corner of the bar, and started to edge along the stairs, eager to discover more about the two fascinating strangers.
Chen gently rolled the metallic mug between his palms, watching the beer swirl.
"It's definitely as bad as I remember," he commented.
"Pandaren brew beer to have an effect like gunpowder," Li Li said, "but I'm pretty sure the goblins brew it with gunpowder."
Chen tapped his chin, looking thoughtful.
"Li Li, do you remember anything else you've heard about the pearl?"
Li Li paused, her own mug halfway to her mouth.
"I told you and Papa everything the naga told me, and what Wanyo said confirmed it."
"So you were eavesdropping on that meeting."
Li Li glared. "That was a dirty trick!"
Chen laughed. "You did that all by yourself, Li Li." He wagged a reproachful finger at her, but his eyes twinkled.
"Fine, yes, I did listen in," she huffed. "So what?"
"I just wonder about the pearl. We don't know anything about it other than the fact that some naga was desperate to get her hands on it and it grants visions, yet here we are, following its direction."
***
Li Li understood what Chen was saying, yet her instincts were to trust the pearl.
"I don't know," she admitted. "I guess it's possible the pearl is dangerous. But it doesn't feel evil. Nothing about it's spooky."
"There is something to be said about trusting your instincts when it comes to magic. Still, the naga aren't generally a kind and considerate bunch. If a naga wanted it, it's likely that it's got some destructive capabilities." Seeing the expression on Li Li's face, he added, "I'm just trying to look out for you, like Po asked me to."
Li Li set her mug down on the table somewhat harder than normal and frowned at the wall. Chen pushed the topic gently.
"You still upset, Li Li?"
"I'm not going to fall into the bay and drown or something."
Chen decided he would rather not have an argument with his niece.
"I know you're tough, and I know you're not a child. Your father is worried for you, that's all."
"He doesn't even like it when we go out on the fishing boats. Too afraid of what happened to Mama, I guess. But if it were up to him, I'd be sitting at home all the time, gardening and cooking and not doing anything interesting ever." Li Li leaned forward, toward Chen. "The pearl gave me a vision. It's my task, and when I've accomplished it, Papa will have to admit he was wrong to try to hold me back!"
"Fathers can be especially frustrating that way, can't they?"
Chen and Li Li both looked over toward the source of the new voice. The speaker held her hands up disarmingly.
"Sorry for interrupting. It's a crowded tavern, and I just couldn't help but overhear." She pulled an empty chair underneath her and sat down by Li Li. A pale human woman, she dropped her bag on the ground next to the table, crossed one ankle over her knee with an easy grace, and draped an arm across the back of her seat.
"My name's Catelyn," she introduced herself. "Round these parts they call me Catelyn the Blade." She pushed a lock of reddish-brown hair behind her ear. "It's a bit dramatic, I admit, but it's got a certain ring to it, don't you think?"
"It gives you an edge," Li Li said. Catelyn laughed.
"You're pretty clever!" She grinned. "I overheard you talking. To be honest, I spoke up without thinking. Your story sounds so familiar."
"Familiar?"
"I went through something similar," Catelyn said, looking toward the ceiling. She tapped one hand against her crossed leg. "My father is a stuffy old scholar, and wanted me to be the same. I couldn't stand that life, and he couldn't stand the thought of me doing anything other than what he wanted. So I left. It was years ago, and it was the best decision I ever made."
"I'm sorry you never managed to come to terms with your father," Chen said politely.
Catelyn shrugged. "It's his own fault, really. If he'd been willing to listen to me, I wouldn't have had to leave behind his back." She glanced sidelong at Li Li and reached down to scratch her calf below the table. Li Li was staring intently into her ale, eyebrows furrowed in thought.
"Hey," Catelyn said to her, voice softening. "I'm sorry if I spoke where I shouldn't have. Just wanted to offer you a bit of encouragement. You've got to be your own person, live your own life! If your father can't understand that, it's not your problem."
"He likes to make it my problem," Li Li muttered. Chen narrowed his eyes.
"He'll come around, Li Li," he said.
"Maybe he will; maybe he won't," Catelyn replied. "Mine never did. But I don't regret my choices." She stood up, grabbing her bag. "I doubt you would either. Enjoy Booty Bay." She gave them a casual wave and sauntered off into the tavern's crowd.
"How's that for unsolicited advice?" Chen commented, watching her go.
Li Li fidgeted in her seat, then drained her mug of ale and made a face at the taste. "She gets it, though. She's been through the same as me."
Chen shot her a look. "I suppose. Let's go upstairs."
Li Li grabbed her staff and slung her rucksack over one shoulder, following Chen up the stairs. Their room was on the second floor, the small, lopsided window managing to make even the spectacular view of the bay seem cheap.
Li Li sunk onto one of the rickety old beds, feeling the boards creak beneath her. A long nap would do her good.
She pulled her pack toward her, wanting a change of clothing. The top of it was curiously flat, as if it was missing something. Heart suddenly racing, she threw open the flap and yanked out the cloak she normally used to shield the pearl. It draped across her hands, empty. Hoping beyond hope, one by one she scattered the contents of her bag around her, not wanting to believe what she knew to be true.
"Uncle Chen!" she yelled, outraged. "The pearl! The pearl is gone! That lady—that smarmy human lady—what was her name? Cathy the Cutthroat?"
"You mean Catelyn the Blade?"
"Yeah, her! She stole it!"
They rushed back down to the bar, a sickening feeling gnawing in the pit of Li Li's stomach. She and Chen searched the crowd with growing urgency. Li Li understood that the likelihood of Catelyn having remained in the tavern was next to nothing, but she refused to give up and continued to circle the perimeter of the room. On her third pass, the innkeeper, a chubby old green goblin named Skindle, eyed her sidelong as he counted coins under the countertop.
"Whatcha looking for, kid?"
Chen cut in before Li Li could answer.
"Hey," he said. "You see us talking to a lady just now? Brunette, about thirty, calls herself Catelyn the Blade. We need to find her."
Skindle tugged at the lobe of one of his oversized ears, and Chen tossed a couple coins onto the counter. The innkeeper grinned broadly and pocketed them.
"Catelyn's with the Blackwater Raiders, working for the Steamwheedle Cartel. She captains a raider ship, the Neptulon's Bride." Seeing the look on Li Li's face, Skindle added, "Don't go asking for trouble. She's the best knife fighter in Booty Bay. Anyone with half a brain stays on her good side, and I mean anyone."
"Thanks for the advice." Chen threw another coin Skindle's way.
"Hey, no problem." Skindle held the rim of the gold piece against his temple and winked. "Money talks, if you know how to listen."
"Let's go," Chen murmured to Li Li, striding out of the tavern.
***
They headed straight to the docks. It wasn't hard to find the Neptulon's Bride, and Li Li and Chen were soon approaching a familiar figure, who was directing the loading of cargo onto the deck of the sturdy, wooden-hulled collier. The two pandaren climbed aboard to face Catelyn.
"Well, well, what do we have here?" She wore a self-satisfied smirk as she jauntily rested her hands against her hips, her demeanor a far cry from the disarming friendliness she'd adopted earlier.
"I think you can guess why we've come," Chen said.
"Thieving scumbag!" Li Li snarled. "You stole our pearl!"
"Now, there's no need for name-calling," Catelyn responded, wagging a finger. "You're right. I grabbed it. You should be more careful when you discuss your rare magic artifacts in public, especially in this part of the world.
"I know it wasn't the nicest thing for me to do, but a girl's got bills to pay, and the Steamwheedle Cartel isn't the most forgiving of lenders; get my drift? I'm a sporting type, though, and I liked the looks of you two from the moment I set eyes on you, so I'll tell you what. This ship here?" Catelyn gestured around her. "Your pearl is somewhere on board. If you can find it, you can have it." Her grin widened. "But I'll warn you, my crew has a bit of a violent streak, and they don't take kindly to strangers."
It seemed as if, all at once, Li Li and Chen were surrounded by dangerous smiles, men and women who, a moment before, had been working quite innocently. Suddenly weaponry grew from their fists like claws. Chen grimaced, and Li Li hefted her staff in her hand.
"You're either very courageous or very stupid," Catelyn commented.
"You've never fought pandaren before, have you?" Li Li said.
Catelyn unsheathed her own weapon, a dagger as long as her forearm.
"I doubt you're much different from the rest," she answered.
Li Li lunged at Catelyn, while Chen leaped to stave off the oncoming crew. Catelyn parried Li Li's staff expertly with her dagger, then thrust it at the pandaren's belly. Li Li deflected it with a kick to Catelyn's wrist that sent the dagger spinning out of her hand. Li Li saw Catelyn's eyes momentarily widen in surprise. The pirate captain knew what she was up against now.
Catelyn dove to the deck and somersaulted toward her lost blade. Li Li followed her, flinging a pinch of enchanted dust at another pirate, who had jumped across the dock from the neighboring ship. The dust turned into a small swarm of angry, tiny birds pecking at his eyes, and he swore as he stumbled, catching his shoulder on the rigging.
Chen's staff twirled around him at lightning speed, catching the clumsier sailors unawares and sending them sprawling. One particularly burly orc took a kick straight to the sternum and lost his balance, tumbling over the railing to the dock below. Chen couldn't help but grin. He'd been in worse scrapes during his lifetime.
***
Somewhere off in the distance, a loud bell started clanging. Li Li sincerely hoped it wasn't a call for reinforcements.
"Buccaneers!" one of the crewmen shouted. "Bloodsail Buccaneers! We're being attacked!"
"You were already being attacked!" Li Li yelled, and thumped her staff against another pirate's chest.
Despite this assertion, the entire crew instantly forgot about her and Chen, running to take up their places within the ship. Li Li whirled around, craning her neck to see what was going on. Swarming out from every hiding place imaginable around the dock, armed pirates wearing distinctive bright-red shirts were ambushing Booty Bay's goblin bruisers and bounding toward the Raiders' ships.
"Cut the lines!" Catelyn's voice roared above everyone else's. "Get us out of here as fast as possible! The rest of you, defend the ship! The cargo must be protected!"
A Bloodsail Buccaneer vaulted over the gunwale onto the Neptulon's Bride right in front of Li Li, swinging his cutlass. She landed a kick against his ribs that flipped his legs over his head, dumping him back onto the dock. All around her, the Raiders under Catelyn's command were sawing through ropes or doing their best to repel their rival pirates. The bruisers on the pier tried to hinder the Buccaneers, but they too had been taken by surprise. Chen appeared at Li Li's side.
"We should leave while we can, Li Li."
"I won't go without the pearl!" she snapped. "It's somewhere on this ship! We have to find it!"
The collier lurched beneath them. Catelyn's crew had freed it from the moorings and was doing its best to push the great cargo ship out into the bay. Oars extended from openings on the ship's sides, and Li Li realized there must be more of the crew belowdecks than she originally thought. In fits and starts, the Neptulon's Bride began to draw away from the dock at Booty Bay.
"Go, go!" Catelyn screamed. She still battled one of the Bloodsail Buccaneers, parrying his sword with her dagger. After a moment's struggle she managed to kick him over the side of the boat, and he splashed into the bay below. She ran toward the helm, taking her place to pilot the ship. Other crew members were unfurling the sails, preparing to make a quick dash out of port.
The wind picked up as they left the shelter of the bay, and the Cape of Stranglethorn's long spit came into view. The oars disappeared back belowdecks; the sails swelled and began to carry the ship more steadily. Li Li wasn't quite sure whether to be relieved or anxious. On the one hand, she and Chen had safely evaded a skirmish between two rival pirate factions. On the other, the two of them were now trapped on Catelyn's ship, with nowhere to go but into the sea. As Booty Bay shrank rapidly behind them, Li Li wondered how long it would take Catelyn and the crew to decide to turn on her and Chen again, since the ambush's more imminent danger had passed.
Catelyn hollered a phrase so vulgar that even Li Li blushed.
Floating in the waters outside Booty Bay—just out of range of the harbor's protective cannons, clearly lying in wait—were no fewer than three fully rigged ships, sails broadly striped in black and red, flying the colors of the Bloodsail Buccaneers. Catelyn swore again, and other members of her crew joined her. Chen shifted uneasily from foot to foot. The Neptulon's Bride had sailed straight into a trap.
"Prep the cannons!" Catelyn yelled. "All hands to defense! We're in for the fight of our lives!"
"So are we," Chen said grimly.
As soon as they drifted into range, the Buccaneers fired. Most of the shots fell short, but a few crashed into the Bride. The deck heaved upon impact, sending enormous splinters of wood hurtling through the air. Li Li and Chen threw themselves down, covering their heads with their arms.
"It's so maddening," Li Li snarled, "to watch them attack and not be able to fight back."
Chen nodded. "Battles at sea are terrible that way."
Catelyn and her crew managed at last to return with their own volley of cannon fire, and even landed a few good blows, but their opponents were sailing straight toward them. By the time the crew reloaded the guns, the Bride would be swamped with Bloodsail Buccaneers.
"To arms!" Catelyn cried as the enemy ships started to near the Bride. "Let's give them a fight they won't soon forget!"
The oncoming Bloodsail ships violently jostled the Neptulon's Bride as they slid alongside it, members of their crews swinging from the rigging, brandishing all manner of bladed weapons. The Bride's crew fought ferociously, but it was badly outnumbered.
Catelyn battled two opponents at once: an angry goblin missing a chunk from his ear, and a tall, lithe night elven woman sporting a dagger nearly as long as Catelyn's own. They forced her down the deck until she was back-to-back with Li Li, who quickly sidestepped and swept the night elf's feet out from underneath her with her staff. The elf face-planted onto the deck, her nose spouting blood.
"Betcha feel bad about taking my pearl now," Li Li said.
"Not really," Catelyn answered coolly, disemboweling a Bloodsail gnome who had been foolhardy enough to leap at her. "If you hadn't come searching for me, I would have two fewer crew fighting by my side."
Li Li wanted to retort, but the Buccaneers were closing in, and all her concentration had to be spent on the battle. She kicked, ducked, and used her staff to overturn and incapacitate her enemies. She threw enchanted dust every which way, and swarms of bees, tiny birds, and biting gnats distracted and harassed the attacking pirates, but the Buccaneers' onslaught never stopped. There were so many of them, and someone else was always waiting to take the place of whoever had just fallen.
Slowly, Li Li realized she was losing ground. She and Chen pressed shoulder to shoulder, fighting together even as they knew they were being overwhelmed. All the crew of the Neptulon's Bride was clumped alongside Catelyn, Li Li, and Chen in the center of the deck. They pointed their weapons outward, sweating, breath heaving, blood dripping from their wounds, and surrounded on all sides. Li Li gritted her teeth. The real fight had only begun.
A steady, rhythmic clomp across the wooden slats of the deck broke the pre-carnage silence. A captain's hat bobbed above the Bloodsail Buccaneers, its bearer a full head taller than anyone else around him. He pushed through to the front of the crowd, and Li Li got a clear look at him. He was an enormous draenei, his cloven hooves as big around as dinner plates. His facial tendrils spilled over the front of his red overcoat like the tentacles of a slimy blue octopus. A patch covered his right eye, and in his left hand he clutched the biggest cutlass Li Li had ever seen.
"Your journals said that the draenei were a peaceful, spiritual people!" Li Li hissed to Chen.
"I must have missed this guy," Chen whispered back.
"Well, well." The draenei's distinctive accent rolled smugly off his tongue. "I knew someone from the Raiders would get tangled in my net if I played it just right. How fortunate for me that the famed Catelyn Runeweaver—oh, come now, don't give me that look; that's your name, isn't it?—how fortunate that it should be you."
"That name sounds familiar," Chen muttered. "Where have I heard it before?"
"You're awfully special to Baron Revilgaz, Catelyn, you being quite the renowned duelist," the draenei captain continued. "Though I do understand you're in a bit of financial trouble at the moment. I might be able to help you with that."
"I'd rather be gutted for debt by the cartel than ever throw my lot in with you," Catelyn snarled. "Who the hell are you, anyway? I know every Bloodsail from here to Ratchet."
The draenei captain swept the hat from his head with an overdramatic flourish.
"I am Captain Koslov, and as you have correctly guessed, I am a new face along the chain of command. Judging by my success here today, a far more effective one than my predecessors as well."
A blinding flash of indigo-tinted light flared in the distance, back toward Booty Bay. Captain Koslov whipped around, facing the light's source, but nothing more occurred. He harrumphed and turned to Catelyn once again.
"You and everyone else on this boat have a choice," Koslov continued. "Surrender or die. Simple, no?"
"You haven't won yet," Catelyn snapped, shifting her weight and brandishing her dagger.
"I see you have chosen to die," Koslov answered, smirking. He raised his arm to give the signal to attack.
All around the ship, sounds like gunshots filled the air, popping and cracking. Everyone scrambled to take cover. The Neptulon's Bride began to shake as the hull rose from the water. Li Li lost her footing and slid gracelessly along the deck as the ship tilted, tripping over an unconscious Buccaneer as she did so. She slammed into the gunwale and caught herself, climbing to her feet as the ship steadied.
A great patch of the surrounding sea, encompassing the Neptulon's Brideand all three of the Bloodsail Buccaneers' ships, had turned to ice.
Li Li blinked. She could still see the coast of Stranglethorn off to the east. It was a jungle, covered in palm trees and thick growth. These were tropical waters.
"What is going on here?" Captain Koslov bellowed.
"That's what I want to know," Li Li muttered to herself.
"What's going on is that you are about to surrender," a male voice boomed.
Everyone looked around, puzzled.
Running nimbly atop the ice, four individuals in violet robes approached the ships. Led by a middle-aged human man with reddish-brown hair and pale skin, they easily climbed over the rail of the Neptulon's Bride to stand on the deck.
"Who are you?" Koslov asked, fuming.
"Father?" If the tone of a voice could alter reality, the disbelief in Catelyn's would have made the new arrivals simply vanish from existence.
The foremost of the magi cracked the barest of smiles.
"Ah ha, you must be Ansirem Runeweaver." Captain Koslov sneered. "What a touching family reunion. I'm afraid you'll just get to die together. Kill them!"
"Oh, I sincerely doubt that," Ansirem said.
***
The Bloodsail Buccaneers charged.
To say it was a battle would be an exaggeration; the word that came to Li Li's mind was "rout." The four magi were untouchable. With flicks of their wrists, they sent flying bolts of arcane energy so pure that all the fur along Li Li's arms stood straight up on end.
The Buccaneers were unable to so much as lay a finger on any of the powerful magi. The pirates slammed into the deck and the masts, and were thrown over the railing to skid across the ice. The ones with any sense at all ran, slipping and sliding back to their own ships to cower belowdecks and wait out the storm. Around the Neptulon's Bride the sky resembled a spectacular fireworks display, colorful bursts of light exploding and showering upon anyone who dared attack Ansirem or his comrades.
Li Li leaned against a crate on the deck, content to sit back and watch the show. Now this was some magic!
Captain Koslov clearly had his wits about him, for he did not stick around very long once the magi had demonstrated their formidable command of the arcane. He vaulted over the gunwale, running across the ice, outraged at his loss.
When the last of the Buccaneers had scrambled back to their boats, the magi collectively lifted their hands, and the ice that trapped all four of the ships melted away. Li Li could see the Bloodsail Buccaneer crews scurrying around on the decks, hoisting the sails to put as much distance between them and the Bride as possible. As they went, a curious silence settled over the Neptulon's Bride, the surviving crew shaking their heads and regaining their bearings.
Catelyn Runeweaver faced her father and the coterie that had come with him: another human woman, a cheerful-looking female gnome, and a tall high elf man.
"I... ah..." Catelyn began. She sighed and started again. "Thanks. Um. For saving our lives."
"You don't have to thank me," Ansirem said. "I realize you don't much like to hear from me, but this time sounded bad, and I couldn't just stand aside and do nothing."
"How did you know?" Catelyn asked. "You don't live here."
At this, Ansirem grinned slyly. "Last I recalled, gold was the universal tongue of Booty Bay. I've got a few 'friends' who don't mind keeping me updated when something happens. I'd heard a trap was being set, but by the time I knew for certain, I was afraid I was too late."
Catelyn's eyebrows arched high on her forehead. "Oh, I see."
"I thought your name sounded familiar," Chen interrupted, approaching Catelyn and the magi. "I knew I'd heard of a Runeweaver somewhere." He eyed Ansirem up and down. "You're an archmage of the Kirin Tor, aren't you?"
Ansirem nodded. "Indeed I am." He tilted his head toward Chen. "I've read about your kind, but I must say I've never actually met a pandaren before. Are you a member of my daughter's crew?"
Chen grinned broadly, showing off his teeth. "No. But my niece and I werevictims of her piracy."
Catelyn swallowed, the expression on her face an odd combination of caught-in-the-cookie-jar guilt and outright fury. Ansirem shot her a sharp glance.
"Catelyn—"
"Oh, by Neptulon himself!" she cried, throwing up her hands. "This isn't happening. I'm a pirate, Dad! I steal things sometimes! It comes with the job! And don't you dare look at me like that, as if everything you've ever done as an archmage has been perfectly ethical."
Ansirem opened his mouth to protest, then promptly shut it again. The human woman of the group that had accompanied him stifled a laugh.
"Well, she's got you there, Ansirem," she said.
Ansirem sighed exaggeratedly. "I'll never hear the end of this, will I, Modera?"
"Not a chance!"
"Then, if I may," Ansirem replied, "I'm going to speculate that, in this particular instance, your thievery was related to this debt you owe the Steamwheedle Cartel for refusing to throw a fight."
"Hey, how did you—" Catelyn began, then stopped. "I'm not even going to ask. Yes. It is."
"I thought so." Ansirem reached into one of the wide sleeves of his robe and withdrew a large, shining jewel nearly the size of his fist. "This is an enchanted gem. I trust it should be worth enough to settle your debt?"
Catelyn's eyes rounded with greed. She extended her hand, palm open. "Absolutely. Enchanted gems are very sought after. What does it do?"
"It should aid the wearer in the casting of spells."
Catelyn narrowed her eyes. "'Should'?"
"The mage who made it was a student at the time, and admittedly, not the top of his class. He intended to use it to help him cheat his exams. He failed them anyway."
All three of Ansirem's companions burst out laughing. Catelyn looked suspicious.
"Did you confiscate this from one of your students?"
"Hardly," Modera said before Ansirem could speak. "Though I've no doubt his students have tried to use plenty like it."
Ansirem rolled his eyes.