The Eulogy of Sequoia Redmesa
His hand shakes as he writes. It has been an age since he held a pen, and this one is not made for tauren hands. The writing is slow. His frustration and sorrow destroys more than one attempt, and twice he decides to annul the promise he made his truest friend swear. He will help her anyway. He will open himself to the whirlwind of urges and indulge that sing-song desire to hurt, but leave no burden on his anchor.
Nevertheless, he cannot stop writing. Even as the quill wears dull and the scribe’s paper piles at his feet, new attempts arise. Echoes of things he has bitten back, torn down and cast aside rise in his stomach like worms through soil. The only way to sate them is write.
The final draft pains him. It brings that terrible hurt to the surface and does not give the satisfaction his restless spirit craves. This is a terrible half-truth. A lie with an honest core. It is an affront to his integrity, and does little to quell the tide of his unease.
He tells himself it isn’t for him. This is not meant to calm his many maladies of soul. This is for the peace of another. In truth, he had hoped it would settle some of his own concerns. That is so far removed from the purpose of the letter that the disappointment is only alive for moments. Another scar he will forget.
Selfishly, he hopes Astoreth cannot read Taurahe. He hopes she is merely confused by his request, and never understands that she is now a part of his conspiracy. It’s a terrible thing he will ask his friend to do, but there is no one else in the long history of the world that might do it. Least of all himself.
His hand is still shaking as he rolls the dry parchment and binds it with black string. He does not seal it. Astoreth has a right to know what it is she possesses, even if his cowardice will not permit him to tell her. He slides the letter into its sheath of hardened leather and screws the cap closed. He will wear it on his hip until his friend’s troubles are solved. He will put it in her hands when relief has pushed aside the worry for her family. When she is weak with exhaustion and trauma. He will take advantage of his truest friend, and pray she finds a means to forgive his quiet transgression.
Will he be able to say Kota’s name when he asks Astoreth to deliver this letter to the Bluff?
This is a hard letter to write. I knew Sequoia in life, and the memories of his fall are some of the deepest shadows in my mind. This is why his spirit pleaded with me to write those many years ago. It has taken me some time to muster the courage to put this ink to parchment, and time means different things for you and I.
Your father did his best to be a good man. Even during the war, he was a soul too gentle to turn his hunting bow on men. He made a name for himself as a messenger, running the distance from Mulgore to Durotar to keep generals aware of the happenings on the Barren’s Front. A letter in his hand was as good as delivered. In a hundred notes to a hundred important men, his hooves never failed to get him to his quarry. Ever the huntsman, he could not bring himself to miss his mark.
In the lull between sorties, he was at home. Whether home was in your mother’s arms at Camp Taurajo, or hunting on the Mulgore plain, depended on the moon. The day you were born, the plain lost much of its claim on the huntsman. He told many stories of your growing. Enough that I feel well-qualified to identify the zeal far and above even the token pride of a father. His love for you and mother knew no bounds, and many of his compatriots grew weary at the frequency of his familial tales.
As to your name, Kota Sootmane, there are two sources. Sequoia wished to name you after his wolf Uyachee, but Aketa would have none of it. Kota is her father’s name, the name of the willful Highmountain who wooed the proudest warrior of Grimtotem. It is his songs in your blood that make you a romantic. Much better than an aging dog. Why you were a Sootmane and not a Redmesa is simple: when you were born, your pelt was dark like your mother’s. Your grandmother’s Grimtotem blood is what gives you your temper, and makes you a strong brave of Thunder Bluff. This is why you wear her tribename.
Sequoia called you Uyachee until your third year, when a furious Aketa caught him doing it and tanned his hide. You were ever your mother’s son, but he loved you no less for it. They would both be be proud that you keep the old ways, even if you do not hunt or heal. They would be so proud of you, Kota.
If you have read this far, it is time I addressed the heart of the matter.
When your mother died, your father did not go to his death knowing he would abandon you. His fury was stoked by the knowledge that you had died with his Aketa. He did not know, could not know, you had gone to Bloodhoof in his absence. When he stood against the dwarves that slew your mother, when he died with the blood of vengeance on his bow, he did so believing he had nothing left in this life. He died believing Aketa and Kota Stoomane were long in the arms of the Earthmother. Only in Her bright clearing, at the end of the Winding Trail, did he see his son was not waiting for him.
And so his wandering ghost came to me, who has long had one hoof in that very clearing.
He watches you even now. He will not pass unto the ancestors without your understanding. Hold on to your hatred if you must, but do so with the truth of things.
-A Knight of the Ebon Blade