The journey to the Grand Capital took three days by high-speed Aetheric Rail. Kael'thas, still sharing space with a perpetually nervous Elara, found the modern human world tedious but functional. He used the travel time not to rest, but to furiously adapt his Arch-Fiend equations to the practical constraints of modern magic.
He discovered that the current, simplified magic focused heavily on spatial displacement (teleportation, levitation) but was terrified of temporal manipulation (slowing, speeding, or bending the flow of time). The Demon Lords used time magic as a matter of course.
They fear what they cannot control, Kael'thas noted, scribbling complex, forbidden runes onto a napkin. Their 'Heroic' magic is defined by its limitations. My strategy will be to use their sanctioned spells, but incorporate a temporal stutter—an invisible, one-millisecond bending of the spell's reality—to multiply its effect.
He was training Elara's mind, forcing her to process the terrifying logic. Elara's soul, though terrified, was captivated by the sheer elegance of the hidden mathematics. The desire for knowledge, even demonic knowledge, was strong.
During a stopover in a crowded city square, a pickpocket tried to steal Elara's small coin purse. Before Kael'thas could react, the thief simply froze mid-motion, his hand hovering over the bag.
Kael'thas looked down at Elara's trembling hands. The power surge had been external, instantaneous, and unconscious.
"You used a micro-temporal stasis," Kael'thas realized internally, his admiration grudging. "You adapted the theory faster than I did. You stopped him for three seconds."
"I just... I felt angry," Elara's consciousness whispered back, surprised and horrified. "He was stealing from that old merchant. I just wished he would stop."
Anger, channeled by the Arch-Fiend's logic, Kael'thas thought, retrieving the purse and allowing the thief to unfreeze, confused and empty-handed. A terrifying synthesis. The power was no longer just his; it was becoming theirs.