![](http://cobalt-company.wdfiles.com/local--resized-images/writing:2025-10-30-a-box-of-two-kinds-of-cookies/style="margin:/medium.jpg) |
| Details |
| Author: | Alli |
| Summary: | Thalstan responds to Oranna's letter about the tale of two sha. He discusses Outland and Pandaria and makes a cookie metaphor even more awkward. ~1600 words |
| Rating: | T for Teen |
Chain: Orastan
Oranna,
Thank you for telling me your stories, and for talking to me like you’d talk to yourself. I’ll try to do the same from my side. Even if things start out a jumble, we might help each other pull them out straight. A journal can be a good help, and I’ve done that before as well, but a journal can’t talk back to you or bring up new ideas. I know you’ve got people and that’s wonderful, but I’m also happy to be one of them, even if at a distance right now.
I’ll have to be honest to say that Tadget (or Lord Springblade?) did mention that to me once, about the opportunity you’d been interested in with her. I promised her I’d not bring it up directly, since she thought it might be a sore point. Since you have, though, I can say that she meant nothing ill by it I’m sure, and I’m glad to hear it was taken as kindness. She rather likes you, I think, in her way. I suppose one would know if she didn’t, because of the knives.
I think I see what you’re talking about, with the cookies. You know I’ve done a lot of modeling in the past, and in that line of work you do see a lot of tasty cookies. After a certain point you start thinking of it more in an intellectual way – like yes, that looks like a very well-made cookie indeed, but I don’t feel the desire to eat it. There are plenty of good cookies in the world, but I can recognize that and still not want to get them from the bakery. Maybe I’m more of the sort that’s looking out for one special cookie, maybe one that who I think you’re right about this metaphor. It's easy to run away with.
Anyhow, I’m not a bad hand myself at making cookies, so I hope it doesn’t break the metaphor too badly that I made you some and included them in a package with this letter. They’re skethyl berry and white chocolate, so the little blue bits are berries. If you don’t like them, I also included some regular sugar cookies for familiarity. I’m not my ma when it comes to cooking and baking, but she did teach me a thing or two.
We’ve been in a bit of a lull here in Outland, since Art dismantled the last rune engine. I’ve spent a lot of the time in Shattrath, which is where I’ve got the kitchen access, up on the Aldors’ tier. It’s amazing how life goes on here, even with all the damage done to this world. Little children - sporelings and elves and draenei – play, and Arakkoa look down from their tree houses, and people buy and sell in the Lower City, and it’s all just so alive and vibrant. It might not be the same city it once was, but it’s still a lovely place.
Maybe this is just me musing on my current mission, but watching these people going about their daily lives reminds me that all we’ve done in this place is worthwhile. It goes back to what one of the villains said not long ago, that they wanted to destroy the rest of Outland to deny the Burning Legion the chance to use it as a launching point. That’s big picture thinking, sure, but the small pictures matter too. And just because we can’t save Outland forever doesn’t mean we can’t preserve it today, and tomorrow, and for however many tomorrows there are.
What you’re doing means a lot, too, I’m sure, for the people in Pandaria. I’m sorry that week was a hard one, in the temple. It sounds like you did all you could, with what you knew of how to stop it. I’m sorry the pandaren didn’t know more about their old enemies, and that you couldn’t drive the sha out of the people safely. You did stop the sha, though, and that means something. It means many more people aren’t going to fall to it, and those are lives saved, even if it’s harder to see them than the ones lost before the end. You were fighting to preserve, not to destroy, and that makes a difference. And maybe, as you worry more and learn more and see more, you’ll find another way.
That brings me to your story about the sha, the rain and the masks. Do you suppose the sha are looking for a mask for themselves, and they use living things as one? Then an actual mask, maybe a particular made one with teeth (not yours) can entice them to use it instead. Or maybe something more complicated. In any case, thank goodness it worked, and you and Bran could be de-sha-ed safely. Now you’ve got a weapon against them, as well as a way to safeguard yourself and the others in the future. And it was a hozen that figured it out. I’d not have guessed that, from your earlier description of the hozen. I suppose any group of people have a wide variety of folk in them. This Ken-Ken sounds like a good fellow.
As to the past, I didn’t realize it went quite so deep with the alcohol, and I thank you for sharing the story of it with me. I expect you made a good call on not trying drink, in the end, since it would mean something so different to you than a pandaren. You know my ma is a tavern owner, so I’m no stranger to brews myself. I might have a more pandaren approach to the subject, but I could do without. If just the smell can set the ghosts rustling, I’d just as soon set it aside. Maybe cookies and pear bread and other sweet things are better to linger over.
I was too young to be a part of the siege defense at the time, so I was with the civilians myself, with my parents in Ironforge. Whatever reason was in your ma’s head, sending you that way, I’m glad you’re here now. I’m happy you survived, and I’m sure many others are as well. I’m sorry for the loss of your family, for that grief, and for the pain of being a survivor. Sometimes there is no reason we survive and others don’t, or maybe sometimes we need to make a reason for ourselves.
I know it isn’t the same thing, but I can share the story of my grief. My pa was an Explorer’s League fellow, investigating some of the carvings down around Ahn’Qiraj. I guess the League didn’t really know how dangerous that was at the time, or if they did they thought it was worth it for the knowledge they might gain. He was brave, my pa. But I wasn’t there, and I don’t even know properly how it happened in the end. He was investigating those carvings, and then he was missing in action, and then he was found too late. There’s not so much I can give of details, but only because I’ll never know them. I regret that, but there was no way me or my ma could’ve known that this mission would’ve been the one that got him. There’s no way to know what battle will be someone’s last.
That was what spurred me into rising in the guard, and then joining the Cobalt Blade. That feeling of what the world lost in my pa, and what could I give it. I can’t give the same things he did. I’m not an Explorer’s League fellow, and I can’t decipher an ancient tablet or put together a whole ancient creature from scattered bones. But I give what I have, and I think that’s enough. I think that’s all any of us can do.
My route from a grief to Cobalt might’ve been a little shorter, but that’s my story. I’m sorry you were left all alone after the siege, and it makes me wonder what could have happened if we’d bumped into one another a-dream sometime back then. Then again, maybe we had our paths to walk, and now is the right time for sharing stories. You had Mywill and now Befound, and I’m happy they were both there for you, to give you the scaffolding to make your way back and chart a way forward. And at least, you know the other path now and where it leads, and you’ve got the tools to turn aside from it. I would love to hear any more chapters of your story you’d like to tell, dark or light. I’ve more I could tell as well, like the time with the earthquake in Kharanos, or the rat disaster in the tram tunnel.
Speaking of stories I could tell, you’ve got one of the Cobalt Blade novels? I hope you like it. They’re based on true stories, but they do take a bit of dramatic license here or there. I could tell you some of our team’s stories sometime from experience, so you can see the difference between the two. There’s also a draenei called Kehda we’ve bumped into before – if she tells you a story about the Cobalt Blade, you’d be wise to doubt it. She’s a friendly sort, but seems to have a fanciful imagination.
If you take some time off later and Befound’s having kittens, how about we meet up somewhere? I could show you where we’re working in Outland if we still are, or you could show me Pandaria, or we could just meet up at the Thirsty Dragon for some home cooking and comfort. Just let me know, when the time comes.
-Thalstan