The Coins. In memoriam.
It is mid day, a project given for the ceremony the guard is to oversee. An honor in her mind. Fenril accepted the duty of coin making without a second thought to it. But she did something different for those in her unit, instead of working alone in her forge room she brought out a wooden table, her clay for molding, and the metals she’d use for this. As guards came by she offered them the choice to help.
The coin process hand done by hammer in hand, a clay molding made to ensure each coin was rounded and the same size. No coin better than another. No coin prettier or better looking than another. All shining, all meaningful. One daring recruit even approaches the elder elven woman with a question! “Corporal Moonshadow…what is the meaning to this? Why are you making…isn’t this currency? Copper, silver, gold, even shinier gold? Why’re we..”
Fenril hushed the recruit. “Let me tell you a story. You’re new recruit. Each coin hosts meaning to the honoring of the fallen. Though it is not a tradition carried by my people it is similar.”
Fenril continued carving the clay she’d made for molding, detailing the Alliance lion as much as she could with her tools, this coin would be rounded, polished, made anew. She refused to have old coins for this, insisting to the commander that would bring dishonor to have coins that were beaten from daily use just thrown about. She’d take a breath though, her mind on work and the story as the recruit pulled up a chair to listen.
“In my years in the Sentinel’s we did something similar to this…each coin I make means something different. The copper means you acknowledge the death of a solider, you visited them. A silver coin? You may have been in their unit, trained with them. The gold coin? You served alongside them in full. You battled together, saw death and glory together for the righteous cause you served. This polished, embossed gold coin? You were alongside the fallen you visited until their death. That is what these coins will mean as we hand them out to visitors. Each feel the weight of the loss. Each feel the weight, the burden but carry on.”
“Do you..?” The recruit began to ask if Fenril felt that same pain, she lifted a hand to cease the question.
“I feel the burden of my sisters, brothers, my people lost daily. When I get the chance to return home I will have pendants made to honor those that served by my side. The Goddess wills my people to go on, she calls to us, gives us strength as we now beat back the legion as we have done time and time again…” her voice trailed off. Her eyes closed as war after war flashed before the Kal'dorei. “I hope you never have to understand the loss of life as I have learned to recruit…I hope nobody must see what I have seen, feel what I have felt. These coins are not just coins. Each person that takes one to mark a grave has a story. A memory. A reason to visit these graves, even if they never knew the solider they visit. They have a reason, their own story in mind to share even if in silence with the soul of the lost man or woman before them. Sometimes the strength to realize the pain you suffer is shared on a day like the one upcoming. You see how many others have lost life around them, what the honored dead give to us to move on. We lived thanks to their deaths in war. We live to fight another day thanks to the lives lost. It is a burden to bear.”
Fenril sat back in her chair, stopping her carving as she thought on this. She tried her best to remain strong willed infront of the recruit but oh…
How she felt ready to crumble.
How she felt ready to ball up and beg forgiveness to the dead. Those whom lost their lives both around her in service and those whom served under her. Even her friends whom she did not serve with but had fallen in the wars of the past.
“I will take this task…this coin making to honor the fallen the best I can. Even if this is not my city, not my people, not my home. They have become my people, my city, my home. I shall honor all of the fallen. No matter race, gender, creed, or the likes. You know why recruit? Because they have fought and died. They have given the ultimate sacrifice to ensure their people remain safe. So children may grow up in peace, so families may be started and life can go on. Until my dying breath I shall do what I can to push on, in memoriam.”
She fell silent, the recruit stunned at all she had to say. The pair leaned forward, recruit now inspecting the clay molding she had in her hand. “It’s…gorgeous…Corporal.”
“It is not complete yet. We have many coins to go and not a lot of time to make enough…every person in Stormwind should be able to place a copper coin on graves of the fallen…I hope many will come…even if they don’t know a soldier…I hope they come.”
@thestormwindguard @percy-aldenhardt
