The Tune Without the Words

[shosen]

He’d found me by the waterfall in the Valley of Honor. I’m not sure how, but I’m taking his appearance as a hopeful sign. Sakti’s parrot, still without a name, singed and a little worse for wear from his time in the Chasm, but alive and now sleeping peacefully in the new cage I bought him.

It’s funny, how something so small an have such a large impact of a person’s mood. The sense of urgency and loss haven’t left, but the despair has lightened. Just the fact that he’d survived, escaped, set it loose. At least, enough that I no longer felt as though I were being crushed by it when I finally found Avenhar.

Days without answer, and then a whisper of presence, dancing and insubstantial, like the Ghost Wolf she so often was. I made my way out to the Valley of Strength and found her talking with High Lord Saurfang. When I asked for her help, she offered it without knowing what I needed. I hoped the agreement would hold after she knew what it was I wanted.

Orgimmar is alywas loud and busy. I couldn’t talk there, so we left, walking to a small farm near the gates. It had a pond, and, more importantly to Avenhar, it had trees. We sat by the water, and though I found it difficult to start, I told her what had happened. When she asked if Sakti was with the Spirits, I answered as honestly as I could: I said I didn’t know, and then handed her the wool-wrapped crystal of our friend’s soul.

“You want to bring her back, don’t you?”

Straight to the point. Again, I told her the truth: that I hoped we could.

“Koani, are you sure she wants to come back?”

The question hit hard, and I looked away. On some level, I think I was trying to avoid that particular line of thought. Not that it mattered, there was only one answer I could give. “I don’t know, and I can’t do this unless there’s a way to ask her.” It wouldn’t be the same for her as it had been for me, I knew that. Still, I wouldn’t take away her choice. “I was hoping you could help with that too.”

She agreed, but it would take her a few days to prepare. In the meantime, there was nothing I could do. Nothing, except be mindful of why we were doing this.

I thought about that as we left, and as we fought together in Thousand Needles. We both missed Sakti, her death had been such an unfortunate accident, if she wanted to come back, we wanted to help her. I hoped that those were my main reasons for doing this, because I knew that the purely selfish desire to have my friend back also played a part.

And there was nothing else I could do now except acknowledge that. Avenhar would do whatever she needed to do, I would wait, and once we had Sakti’s answer, we would accept it. Regardless of what that answer was.

When Avenhar left to rest and prepare, I found myself at the Sun Rock Retreat. We had run some errands for an Elf there, continuing on as I had since waking in Deathknell. I stood on the bridge, and thought of those battles. In accepting that there was nothing to do but wait, I also had to accept another, fundamental, truth.

The would could not stop for the dead, not even those that might one day be back.