(2025-09-04) War

Details

Author:	Athena
Summary:	Avrenne replies to Siamus to tell him about her own efforts (war), and to report on their children's growth. She includes bonus artwork, some of which might be more than they seem. 2500~ words.
Rating:	T for Teen

Arc: Season 17: From the Mists

Chain: Siarenne

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September 4th, Year 29

Most esteemed Admiral of the Alliance Navy,

Your letter was received in good time, and into a household of good health and general well being. I am pleased to report that all of the children are thriving. I must admit that we were somewhat surprised by both Shine and Ralaea’s sudden call to report to Cobalt Company for duty with some urgency and little notice, but I am relieved to hear that their deployment was successful, and that they are well. I am not surprised at all to know that you found a land shrouded in mist that has never been charted by any living human being based on the maths of sky ships blown off course, my extraordinary sailor. It is the sort of feat that bears repeating to those here who ever doubt that our greatest naval asset lives and breathes in his duty to the Alliance, to apply his talents to our benefit, and that his advice in such matters is from a place of true expertise.

As for myself, I have been undertaking the task of completely redoing my Resource Book. Between the inclusion of the turtle island and now an entire continent, it is abundantly necessary. I expect to be at it for several weeks to set the organizing of various resources into the seven categories, organizing them by cultural and physical locations, and all their proper indexing, especially as I wait for more information on the potential trade opportunities for the resources with the Pandaren. I have not had such an exciting realm of entirely new possibilities available to explore for potential applications to our required responses to the Horde’s aggressions since we discovered that Draenor had not been entirely destroyed on the other side of the Dark Portal.

If I were a person inclined to flights of fancy, I might wonder if I had been tricked into some alternate world where just as I despaired of ever finding a way forward with the state of lumber mills and quarries and mines, we have suddenly found a place of great potential to solve all these problems. Since I am not such a person, and I cannot fathom any such deception being capable of the depth necessary to fool me accordingly, I am merely pleased by the news.

Pandaria sounds like a lovely place, despite the strangeness of this malignant energy you describe, although I can only conclude that they have managed to avoid it becoming worse as they have been hidden from the orcs and their rampages for so long. It must be enormously frustrating to need to convey the history that they have missed for the introduction of the Horde, to explain to these Pandaren that their way of life is threatened more than they could ever suspect, and that their only recourse is through necessary and judicious violence to throw the Horde out of their territory, for those rapacious creatures are unfortunately intelligent enough to recognize the same awareness of new resources, but too savage to ever consider acquiring it through diplomacy and mutual cooperation in an alliance.

I suppose they will make their own natures evident enough with time, if they have not already. I do hope that those of the Horde responsible for kidnapping children have been doled out an appropriate capital punishment. After all, there is a solution beyond apologistic resolution and empty promises that still removes the dangerous monsters of unwonted rage and unfounded hatred who spread these feelings like a miasma. I myself have often found it far easier to not feel emotions of either rage or hatred provoked by the Horde’s ways when justice has been properly carried out in a lawful manner to remove those offenders of the natural order.

But time has proven that such conclusions are best when the person comes to them on their own with the evidence before their eyes in an undeniable truth of actions that manifest the words of those who have warned of them, and I have no doubt that the Pandaren will arrive at an agreement that their peaceful existence on their island is incompatible with the Horde on their shores. It’s an unfortunate necessity that they will learn this through experience as the rest of Azeroth has already, though they do not yet know how lucky they are that they will not face the brunt of it alone and unprotected, that a great seawall stands before them and the wave of the Horde.

Your patience with the Pandaren and the Jinyu will be rewarded in the long term, I am sure. It’s a clever idea, my dearest Admiral, to open trading with them, to foster goodwill on both sides, and establish an early potential trading treaty for the House in the future. If there is anything that I might send to increase your impact among them, to either impress or entice, you need only say the word. I have taken the liberty of preparing a few demonstrations of the Alliance’s technology through our united efforts, such as the modified lighthouse prism reflector lenses in a small lamp. I expect that a land that has this strange mist would benefit greatly from the inclusion of a lighthouse, if they have not already developed some technology for it, or if it could be improved upon if so.

I must admit to some curiosity in regards to the weapons of the jinyu, especially created in such an unusual manner with water, and would be glad of greater details or of an example if possible, though I understand that if they are using such weapons to defend themselves at present that it might be more challenging to convince them to part with one or two.

As for the speed in which you report of the purpose and cause for this journey, I have been given to understand that in matters of certain operations, time is of the essence, but that the cooperation of those with local knowledge can play an invaluable part, both for their understanding of the land as well as their perspective for recognizing the most likely avenues of pursuit and how to prepare for them. Though it most certainly does not make for an easy wait, your restraint shows your wisdom, and it will pay dividends in the end to have secured the route through diplomacy, as you so rightly label it. Cobalt Company has a reputation for excelling in these sorts of circumstances, and we must trust that they will prove as capable this time, as this does not appear to be a front in which numbers will count for more than precision.

With the state of things as they are, I have spoken to those in charge of such matters to inquire as to a possibility of traveling through the established magical portal to Pandaria. At present, they require a commitment of time that I am unable to do with the babies as young as they are, though they grow less dependent on me by the week. It is still unlikely that I could commit to repeated times away until they are several months older. I can think of nothing in particular that I could offer in the current situation as described to be of greatest use, and so I bide to wait until such a moment when it might be of greatest impact or of most requisite timing to acquire information about a warfront’s necessities (for like you, Admiral, I have no doubt of this course that it will become one, despite the wishes of the Pandaren for peace through inaction) to obtain permission to travel there myself.

And I will admit to you here that the temptation to do so before such an opportune moment arises daily, for the chance to see you that much sooner. Much as I wish I could indulge such an impulse, it’s not in my nature to put such feelings ahead of a war effort, and there is nothing I could do there now that would be of any greater significance, and I have nothing but faith in you and your ability to hold to the course ahead.

Instead, I have put my energy into establishing more of a place and purposeful inclusion into the Alliance with the pandaren from the turtle island, as well as now preparing for more trade and military enrollment with those of Pandaria. It’s clear that their natures bend towards a willingness to engage in martial “arts”, for a lack of a better word, but that war as we know it is a foreign concept to them. So I pursue an avenue of turning them towards accepting the reality of war as an inevitable part of Azeroth. My reputation for being something of a warhawk has been growing after so many years seen as a neutral party, but I find it an appropriate time to allow such opinion to be held by others, as I have need of them to see that the course laid out for war is not to be avoided by claiming that there is some neutral third option.

You with diplomacy there, and me with war here.

I have been thinking of it like an inverse equation of two lines, like f(x) = √ (x - 3) and its inverse of f -1(x) = x 2 + 3 , x >= 0, and how even as they seem to arc into other directions away from each other, to pursue courses that seem nothing like the other, they always are reflections of each other, linked inexorably together. Or perhaps a bit like the axiom scheme of separation, where any definable subclass of a set (for example, a husband of -, or a wife of -) is a set. So wherever you are, so am I there, and vice versa.

But I should save such talk for when I see you next, so as to not tax your gentlemanly nature with a bit of parchment.

I do hope that Shine and Ralaea are doing well, and are well pleased with the work. I am glad that Mrs. Shine was able to reunite with him after all to be working in the same place. It’s not an easy thing to be separated from one’s husband so soon after a marriage, even if one can acknowledge the great necessity of it. When Mrs. Shine and I spoke about her preferences for a partner, the possibility to work alongside each other was one she was open to, not the least for the ability to have such a partner through deployments.

Do remind Ralaea, if you will, that this sort of longer term deployment with the newly established lines of mail would provide her an excellent opportunity to practice her acquired skills of reading and writing, as well as communication of her doings and thoughts with an organized manner structure that a letter provides, if she has sufficient time to place a few words to paper for those of us here at home.

Ery has grown her vocabulary a little more since you departed, but more than only additions, her clarity of tone and enunciation is improving, if still a work in progress. We had a few days of confusion where she repeatedly asked for “chaos,” as far as any of us could hear of the syllables involved, and if I will admit that it didn’t seem altogether something unlike what she would ask for in truth (and, of course, for “now”). At last, when Finley was setting up a little working of art with her, she reached for a particular box of simple, cheap materials suitable to allow a child access to, and yelled, “Chaos!” and finally clarity was obtained that she had been crying for crayons.

Given the resulting product, which I have included here for your appreciation, I think her name for the artistic tool uncannily accurate.

You will be pleased, I am sure, to know that Elliot and Eamon have now not only fully caught up to Ery’s growth at the similar age, but as of this latest measurement they have begun to surpass it, particularly in length. According to the scientific extrapolations of growth, it’s likely they will someday be as tall as their father, despite their early emergence into the world. Elliot is so determined to be on the move, as Ery was at his age, but without any of her frustration at it being something of a struggle towards this independent movement. He laughs so often at himself, cheerfully rolling and scooting. Eamon follows his lead as a younger brother most naturally does.

I had heard stories from Duchess Aspenwood of her own twins, how even as little of an age gap as thirty minutes had set a tone of her children’s dynamics, and thought them only retroactively applied to memories, but I was mistaken. I can see it in the boys now, as they are, and it grows only more obvious with each passing month. Their personalities are as full as any person’s, and they have an awareness of the other, and who they are to each other.

Isla very much enjoyed the drawing of the tanuki, even more so by its description of its nature, and I expect that she will bombard Shine on the details when he returns home again. I believe she intends to show Sintha the artwork to request another animal for the menagerie. As the artwork lacks any verbal component, naturally, she has invented several possible sounds for this creature, one of which provokes immediate laughter in Elliot (and therefore Eamon) no matter how many times Isla performs it, so based on this scientific approach, Isla has decided this must be the true sound of the tanuki. If I were to attempt a transcription of this sound for you in writing, it would be something like,

“EEEticticticEEEEkeeeeEEee.”

You may also inform Shine that Ery has not yet abandoned the Clacker. More surprisingly, the staff has not yet mutinied and used it for kindling in preparation for the upcoming autumn.

I asked Finley for some other art of sea lavender growing here that I might show you in return, and he provided a sketch, and though I am no artist, I think you will see my hand in a few enhancements.

In greatest esteem and pride for your diplomacy efforts,
Your warhawk of a wife,
Avrenne Esprit Fallon

PS – I find myself feeling obliged to mention that Lord Graves has not yet returned the token. I will admit to you here, and only you here, that I am surprised by the delay.

[Enclosed is a crayon drawing by Ery, a sketch of sea lavender (and perhaps something more), and a sexy graph of the charted line equation mentioned in the letter.]