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| Details |
| Author: | inkie |
| Summary: | Admiral Fallon once again writes home to his wife. The situation in Pandaria remains peaceful. It sucks. So does the tea. |
| Rating: | T for Teen |
Chain: Siarenne
A parcel arrives at Fallon House, addressed to the Duchess Esprit.
20 September
To Her Grace the Duchess Esprit, Lady Fallon —
My Lady Duchess,
You will be pleased to know that all in Pandaria remains well with the fleet at present. We have not been visited by any manifestations of these ‘sha’ we were told of, nor has any of Cobalt Company. There are rumors of Horde in the north but we have seen none ourselves. Rogers left behind a detachment of her people up there to establish a provisional airbase for monitoring the situation. Absent either word from the airbase or direct encounters with Hellscream’s forces, I grow personally more diplomatic with each passing day. I must remember to inquire as to whether there is a sha of stultification.
The longer we go without any trouble — and the more peaceable trade and assistance we offer the locals — the easier they seem with our presence. In particular, the jinyu have been deeply impressed by Cobalt Company’s aid; an Elder of their people went so far as to seek an ancestral vision from the waters, and it foretold the arrival of the Alliance as a great blessing. They have been solicitous of Admiral Taylor — who remains among them, though he is much recovered — and accommodating of Captain Bray and a small complement of his marines from the Blanche.
The pandaren, meanwhile, seem won over not only by a painstaking lack of martial attitude (and of sha) but by exchanges of food and drink. They have declared every member of the fleet — including Kettering — ‘too skinny,’ a condition the pandaren consider insupportable. (I believe Mr. Darlington, with the encouragement of some local ladies, has eaten his weight thrice over in noodles.) Purchase of cider for the fleet continues to gratify them, and at Mrs. Shine’s suggestion we gifted the innkeeper and mayor with some bottles of wine and of whiskey from the ship’s stores. They enjoyed these, but were not impressed by our tea, which a number of the villagers drank as a curiosity and pronounced unspeakable.
Their own tea is a thin pale stuff that tastes like mown hay. Shine assures me it is faintly sweet and quite pleasant. I will take his word for it; to me it is an insipid hot hay-water. I have included a packet of it herewith for your own curiosity and in case it should prove that you, like Shine, enjoy the flavor of wet hay.
On a more agreeable note, the pandaren also fabricate extraordinary silk. One of the village seamstresses told me that it is woven in the ‘heartland’ of Pandaria, a valley to the west of the Jade Forest. We have not ventured there, but I was able to acquire from her a bolt of the stuff in a color I trust will please you. I trust as well that M. Latour will be able to produce something exquisite from it.
Bamboo proliferates here; it grows prodigious fast, as I knew it to, but I have never seen it grow to such sizes as it does in Pandaria. There are forests of the stuff where it’s grown up as sturdy as any Elwynn oak. (In size only — absolutely unfit for shipbuilding.) If you are yourself acquainted with any industrial processes which could benefit from use of bamboo (I should not say ‘if’), there is a fortune in it to be had here, and the pandaren are master craftsmen with it.
The most common local ore is called ‘ghost iron.’ It is a silvery metal utterly unlike ordinary iron — perhaps closer kin to stormsilver? — and is used for almost every purpose here. I am told there is another metal called ‘trillium,’ which comes in both black and white ores; it requires smelting the two colors together in order to form distinctly parti-colored ingots. I have seen none of the stuff myself, and am not entirely clear as to whether the pandaren are in earnest or trying a gullible foreigner.
I have dispatched Captain Foyle and the Swift along the eastern coast to make a survey of it; I myself will be taking the Blanche west tomorrow for the same purpose. The place we moor now off the southern coast of the Jade Forest will serve for our few ships but is no fit landing place for the whole of the Alliance fleet; it is necessary to search one out before they set sail. With any luck we will encounter Horde or other hostiles and I will have a blessed respite from diplomacy.
On the subject of the fleet’s departure — I require updates as to progress on the Constellation and Crestfall. Kindly request McCall’s written reports and forward them to me at your earliest convenience.
I trust that you and all at home are well. Give my best regards to the children. Tell Finley also that I much admired his recent drawing and am obliged to him for it.
Warm regards,
Yr. obdt. svt.,
Adm. S. Fallon
The letter lies atop a bolt of raw silk in an extraordinary shade of garnet red with a faint gold glimmer-sheen. Tucked within the silk’s folds is a paper packet of green tea.