(2024-03-21) Different and the Same

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Author:	Alli
Summary:	After the fall of the Scarlet Onslaught, Siamus comes by to check how Sil's doing. The two talk about various people and share a little about themselves. ~2100 words.
Rating:	T for Teen

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mention of death knights, references to questing violence

The night is calm - far calmer than it has any right to be after all the carnage on the Scarlet Onslaught's isle. The Lady Blanche rises and falls over the slow swells of the dark northern sea, but it doesn't upset the footing of Sil Silentstep. He isn't on watch at the moment, but he's still on deck, leaning on the railing and staring back towards the forbidding cliffs of Icecrown.

A quiet tread of boots on the boards sounds behind him, and then Siamus Fallon leans on the rail beside him and gazes in the same direction. He is no longer in uniform, casual in trousers and boots, the sleeves of his shirt rolled and his collar loose, the kraken medallion on its leather cord visible around his neck.

"It went," he says, "as well as could be hoped, I think." He doesn't look at Sil.

"Yeah, I think so," Sil says, turning his head just slightly to look at Siamus. Sil is in casual clothing as well, as he is off duty at the moment. "Would've been good to kill the dreadlord, but… nobody was really expecting a dreadlord."

The corner of Siamus's mouth twists up in a sour smile. "It's the whole trouble wi'dreadlords. No one is ever expecting one." He tilts his head and revises himself: "Except, perhaps, Ralaea now.

"Still, it seems a foolish gambit for them to have used the same deception twice, after Dathrohan. Ye'd think they'd have new tricks."

"Maybe demons aren't as imaginative as we think," Sil says, leaning one arm on the railing and turning more towards Siamus. "I mean, they're dangerous as hell, but might be they just rest on that and aren't as tricky as folk give 'em credit for."

"I expect Miss Coit and Captain Tyrrell would both have things to say about that," Siamus says dryly. Now he glances at Sil. "How did it go with ye, today?"

Sil shrugs a shoulder, shakes his head. "I'm alright. I know I sort of… backed off a little when the death knights joined us. I was still there, though. I was still following orders. I know they're on our side now. It just doesn't feel like it sometimes, like when we saw all those bodies… when that fellow pulled out the man's soul…" Sil shakes his head again. "I'll follow orders, though, of course. And I did. Not, you know, feelings."

"I know," Siamus says. "I saw ye stay with it. I also saw ye didn't want to, some of the time. I appreciate that ye did it anyway. It wasn't like Light's Hope, was it?"

Sil considers that for a long moment, and then shakes his head. "No, not really. I guess all battles are different. And we had the upper hand here, for sure. I couldn't help wondering, sometimes, looking at them… how many of them had no idea what was going on, up till now. I mean, once you're on an island off the coast of Icecrown, I don't reckon you can really back out from your weird cult any more. Kinda trapped." Sil frowns. "I guess they could've surrendered, but could they really see that? With sailors comin' at 'em with guns and swords on one side and the death knights on the other…"

Siamus nods seriously. "I grant ye it's a fair question, and one that can weigh. But it's warfare, as well. There's never been a battle in history where there was opportunity to approach every fighter on the other side of the field and offer opportunity to surrender. By the time it comes to battle, it's usually beyond that point. And this particular lot saw the truth behind Dathrohan in the Eastweald, saw death knights and raven priests join their ranks and a commander apparently return from the dead and betray his predecessor, and followed him to this forsaken place. There were chances for questions and reservations along the way. Nor have the Scarlets ever been renowned for their mercy.

"I just spent a time talking with Ralaea, who takes it hard. These were her people, and she joined them with noble intent, thinking the cause was just. I think she's still torn between what they were — or could have been — and what they became. I won't deny her grief is fair. It still doesn't absolve them."

"Oh, gosh, Rae," Sil scrubs a hand through his hair. "I'm glad she wasn't there for most of it. Even if you turn your back on a people, that doesn't mean you feel nothing about seein' 'em cut down. Even Aze, I could tell it bothered her, though she'd made her choices. That was not the Scarlets, of course, I mean back when we were fightin' her people. But is Rae alright? Do you think I ought to go talk to her, too? I hate to leave a friend grieving like that." Especially a friend who is a pretty girl. Sil has his weaknesses.

Siamus's smile in the darkness is faint and fleeting. He gets you, Sil. "Aye, it's hard. It's why I had her in only for the part with — her 'uncle.' I thought she had a right to that, at least."

He looks toward the cliffs again. "She's gone home to Fallon House for now. I expect she'll be back before she's next due to join her squad, if ye want to seek her out somehow then. We're not finished in these waters, but the next battle may be… worse. So if ye need to stand down and see to your friend…."

"Oh, no, no," Sil says hastily, forcing a smile. "I'm alright, really. And if she's… with your family? Then I reckon she'll be fine. And she'll have her squad, so that's Ben and Lena and…" Sil frowns, trying to remember. "Vel and Iphindra, yeah? They'll keep her safe."

Siamus nods equably. "D'ye know all her squad well, then?"

"Oh, yeah," Sil nods. "I mean, not all of them well, but Ben's one of my oldest and best friends in the Company. And Lena, 'course, we talked about her. The kaldorei I don't know quite as well yet. We used to hang out at Bruuk's Corner in Ironforge, me and Ben, and I know 'em from there." Sil pauses, thinking back over the years. "Velrin's been around for a while, off and on squad. I think she had some kinda issue with the Scarlets, somethin' that happened before. So this mission was probably personal for her, too, though I don't know the details. And Iphindra, she was just the sweetest girl, offering flowers to everybody."

"A personable lad. Ye know a great many people well." There's a smile in Siamus's voice as he looks outward again. "Tell me about — fighting Aze's people."

"I like to know people! Everyone's got their own story, you know, and all of them interesting…" Sil smiles, looking back out over the water in reflection of Siamus's movement. "As for that, it was in Outland. I suppose we were already fighting the Sunfury in Terokkar Forest when I met her. That was sort of how we first got on? I had questions about the blood elves and she was the one I met in Shattrath who was game to give answers. And then in Shadowmoon Valley, the Eclipsion… it got pretty ugly. She didn't blame me, I don't think. Well, I know, because she said she didn't. But I could see it sometimes, that little hesitation."

"Ah," says Siamus. "Were ye there, then, at… the Temple? When the rest of them were killed?"

"I… yeah," Sil says, tensing a little. "That was a like a few months after Light's Hope, but there were people counting on me. A lot of Cobalt were there."

"Another bad time for ye, then?" Siamus asks mildly. "I was never there. Outland. Never saw any of it."

"Not so much, not really," Sil shakes his head. "It was more like an adventure? Less like a horror. I didn't really talk about it to Aze, though. It seems… impolite, somehow." He turns a little back towards Siamus. "We snuck in by the sewers, all of us, and met up with some allies inside. It was this Broken tribe, the Ashtongue. There was so much different shit in that Temple, the place was huge."

"An adventure," Siamus repeats. "How old are ye, Silentstep?"

"I'll be twenty-six this fall," Sil says. "Why do you ask?"

Siamus shrugs a shoulder, still watching the water. "Thinking of what ye've seen and how much. Comparing what makes two men different or the same."

Sil frowns at the water, like maybe it's supposed to give him some clue what that's about. Then he draws in a breath, and says, "I'm the same age, near enough, to my friend Ben. He came from a different background, family shitty in a different sort of way. Lot of differences between us, but enough in common it was like finding a brother." Another breath, and he adds, "What sort of differences on your mind?"

"When I was twenty-six — " Siamus begins, and then stops. "Ah, it hardly matters. Ye've steered an interesting course, Silentstep. Was it… adventure that drew ye to it?"

"To… Cobalt? I guess so, yeah. I joined up right at the beginning. It was after I left home, so I was on my own. I'd already been through a few different ideas, and they were recruiting. I thought, you know, why not? I could try being a mercenary." Sil smiles, running a hand through his hair again. "Worked out better than I thought, and next thing you know I'm like… fighting in volcanos and going to other worlds alongside the military and all that."

Siamus eyes Sil like he's not entirely sure what he's looking at but maybe someone should get him a butterfly net so he can capture it for study. "Aye," he says dryly. "The next thing ye know." He slaps a palm against the rail gently, absently a couple of times, studying Sil now. "Remarkable."

"I always try to do the best thing, you know, in the moment," Sil says, shrugging. "It doesn't always work out, but it tends to lead to interesting places. And the changing my name, that was important. So I'd remember to never go back, only forward. What were you doing when you were my age, then?"

Siamus smiles wryly. "I'd taken command of my first ship in Proudmoore's Fleet the year before it; I was receiving a commendation from the Lord Admiral for distinguished service, getting betrothed, and watching the Third War break out."

"Ah, wow, that's real impressive," Sil says, looking over at him with genuine admiration. "But yeah, then the Third War. That was a rough time for a lot of people. I wasn't quite an age to be involved, myself. Still just a kid back in Stormwind."

Siamus does the arithmetic. "Ye'd have been — eighteen? Seventeen? Is that… 'just a kid'?"

The question seems more anthropological than judgemental: tell me of the coming-of-age customs of your people.

"Yeah, around seventeen," Sil nods agreeably. "Old enough for some things, I guess, but I was still a Sullivan then. The old life plan was in effect and the new one was still a bit of an idle thought. Glad I went with the new one, though, or I'd have never ended up here."

"Aye, well. I'm glad also, then. I expect ye'd have been wasted on the old life plan. Though I assume you're not glad ye ended up… literally here." Siamus surveys the black waters and icy cliffs around them.

Sil sobers a little, brought back to the reality of the grim sea of Icecrown and the lack of friendly anchorpoint. "Literally, here, maybe not." Sil offers a crooked grin. "But here with the fleet. What we're doing here, it's worth a lot. And anyway, I like the company."

"And the company likes you," Siamus says, and flashes Sil another smile.

He straightens and drops a hand to the younger man's shoulder briefly. "At any rate, I won't keep ye. You did fine work today, and I wanted to see how ye were faring afterward. If ye're feeling companionable, I believe there are still casks open in the galley below, if ye want to join the rest of them."

"Yeah?" Sil says, and then pushes back to a stand, a way from the railing of the ship. "Thanks, sir, and I probably should. We've got to celebrate our victories when they come, right? And this was a victory, and a good one, too."