Letters from Duskbreaker

These letters were sent by Ursala Earthwielder to various clanmates whilst she was working under the guise of a Twilight's Hammer cultist. She was originally kidnapped, hence the tone of some letters.
Most of the early letters are encoded or encrypted, so out-of-character translations will be provided for reader's benefit.
All mistakes - especially capitalisation - are intentional and in-character. Most mistakes are intentional in-character.
Dates given are when the letters were written. Delivery takes anything between two and five days. Some of the letters are yet to be written.
==IC: Letter to Gremkarc, 5th Sep 2010==
Father,
I've arrived at my new place of worship. Moving here was difficult as darkshore is full of unenlightened elves.
One day, i hope they will finally understand the truth. Knowing that i am not alone in my convictions makes me feel a lot better.
Would you join me if circumstances did not keep you? I hope that you would. Learning about the history of the world is fascinating, especially when learning the truth. Less and less of what i knew is making sense now.
Such lies are so misleading. Everyone should embrace enlightenment and serve the old gods. Never again will i accept false truths like that. Death is all that awaits those who perpetuate them.
I hope all is well. No, it's not always easy to avoid detection. For my peace of mind it would be nice to receive some letters in return. Only the old gods may take us into death.
From,
Salora Duskbreaker
===OOC===
IM OK WILL SEND INFO
==IC: Letter to Guak, 13th Sep 2010==
This letter arrives sandwiched between two relatively mundane invoices for armour, weapons, and other similar equipment.
Hael,
Qmieti iptasi vjev Hamhson dep fidufi vji mivvis O xomm tipf jon. O xomm ati vji teni doqjis.
O deppuv tipf mivvist ugvip, epf ov ot puv e vuvemmz tidasi nivjuf ug dunnadopevoup.
O fu puv lpux xjisi O en cioph jimf, cav vjisi esi nusi Vxomohjvt jisi vjep O jef iwis lpuxp. Tunivjoph ot jeqqipoph tuup. O en puv vji upmz "dupwisv".
Vjiz vsiev ni ximm. Vjiz vjopl O jewi ciip dupwisvif. O xomm vsz vu tipf opgusnevoup et O hiv ov cav vjiz fu puv vsatv ni
onqmodovmz. Og O vsz vu itdeqi, vjiz xomm lomm ni xjisi O tvepf.
Ni equmuhoit gus ni doqjis-dsegv. O jewi puv tvafoip ov topdi O jef cav vximwi xopvist cijopf ni.
Tipf ni sihesft vu Hsinlesd, Hamhson epf Szbesjp.
Asteme Iesvixoimeis
(us Temuse Fatlcielis)
===OOC===
Guak,
Please ensure that Gulgrim can decode the letter I will send him. I will use the same cipher.
I cannot send letters often, and it is not a totally secure method of communication.
I do not know where I am being held, but there are more Twilights here than I had ever known. Something is happening soon. I am not the only "convert".
They treat me well. They think I have been converted. I will try to send information as I get it but they do not trust me implicitly. If I try to escape, they will kill me where I stand.
My apologies for my cipher-craft. I have not studied it since I had but twelve winters behind me.
Send my regards to Gremkarc, Gulgrim and Ryzarhn.
Ursala Earthwielder
(or Salora Duskbreaker)
==IC: Letter to Gulgrim, 17th Sep 2010==
This letter arrives similarly disguised to the one addressed to Guak - between two sheets of invoice.
Hamhson,
O en ulez. O nott zua. O xomm liiq vszoph vu tipf mivvist vu Djoigveop fivemoph uh vji Vxomohjvt.
Piwis gushiv jux nadj O muwi zua. Fu puv fesi foi xjomtv O en jisi. Xi xomm ci vuhivjis eheop. Tunifez tuup, O juqi.
Asteme Iesvixoimeis
===OOC===
Gulgrim,
I am okay. I miss you. I will keep trying to send letters to Chieftain detailing movements of the Twilights.
Never forget how much I love you. Do not dare die whilst I am here. We will be together again. Someday soon, I hope.
Ursala Earthwielder
==IC: Letter to Gulgrim, 19th Sep 2010==
Gulgrim,
First things first, because I am handing you this letter, it will not be encoded or encrypted. Guard it with your life, Gulg. If it falls into the wrong hands, it could be the death of both of us – and indirectly responsible for the deaths of many others.
Secondly, there is another envelope included within this one. See to it that Gremkarc receives it. See to it also that he receives a hug. He is truly like a father to me, and I miss him.
Now – on to more important things. I regret that I was taken from you in such a traumatic way. Did you know that, to my knowledge, I am in the Wetlands again? Things seem to have come full-circle, although my reasons for having been gone this time are altogether more sinister and dangerous.
The fact that I cannot, even if I wish it, visit you on a whim makes me all the more bitter for it. I miss you more than words alone can describe. I do not even know what to write here to that effect; I just know that, more than anything else in the world, I want to be in your arms once more. Not just telling, but showing and sharing.
That seeing you poses a threat of ending this whole thing – of your heart being broken by virtue of my death, as that is what we are dealing with – breaks my heart. I often cry when I think of it. Let me tell you, Gulg, whenever I get out of this mess, I am not leaving your side. I will work alongside you and we will be as one, complimenting each others' weaknesses with our respective strengths.
Things keep reminding me of you. I can barely go ten minutes without you or some memory of you or some phrase that you told me crossing my mind; you are the first thing I think of as I wake and the last thing before I sleep. More often than not, you appear in my dreams.
I always feel as though I have lost you all over again when I wake from them. I find myself re-reading the letters you sent me when I was in the Wetlands the first time. I wish I had more things to remind me of you. My greatest fear is that I will forget what it is to know you.
I truly hope that this predicament will be over soon, but I know what I represent – I represent, to those in the know, the Horde's best chance at ending the Twilight cult in, as Grem put it, years and years. To those who do not know, however, I represent an easily-lead traitor that Chieftain sees fit to abandon.
For this reason, reintegrating into the clan afterwards will be trouble, no matter how Grem tells me that I will be welcomed with open arms. Grunts do not like to be deceived, even if it for a greater cause. Some may disbelieve that I am not, in fact, a Twilight agent nonetheless; others will find a source of great disquiet in that they were lied to in the first place. Whilst I wish very much to see the cult toppled and the clan prosper as a result, I also do not want to see it split by misunderstandings alone.
The rituals that the cultists perform grow darker by the day. The injuries become more convoluted and the patients more fanatical. I cannot even find comfort in Grem's words there – he told me that, if I was called upon to perform some atrocity, that he could not tell me what I ought to do. That it was my decision to make. Whilst he is right, it is not comforting. I do not know that I would be able to bring myself to commit such things – so I would run, and so die. I am sure you can understand why this notion upsets me.
Some nights, I have strange dreams of a salamander held by chains – but he grows and snaps out of them. The image is innocuous enough, but the juxtaposition between it and the feelings of pure dread and evil that accompany it make me queasy with unease.
Even as I find myself running out of paper, I find myself feeling loss for you. Any communication that I can get with you is precious at the moment. I miss you more than I ever thought it would be possible for me to miss a mortal. You know that I thought I could and would never take a mate at all? That my responsibility to them would damage my relationship with the Elements. Now, you have taught me love and what it is to truly care for another. If you were to die or this separation were to be made somehow irreversible, I do not know what I would do.
As you said yourself: we have many paths to walk together, Gulgrim. I hope that they will preserve until ours meet once more. That I can return to your home – home, Gulgrim! – and see Gorik's Hammer change and our clan mature and grow and you and I grow better in our shamanism and grow older together, and, perhaps, one day, (much to Gremkarc's delight,) into a mother and father.
My life for the Horde – but I love you with all that I have and am, Gulg.
Your Sal
==IC: Letter to Gremkarc, 19th Sep 2010==
Father,
I got your message on the Netherwind. I rarely get messages through the Nether, but your intentions were clear. I cried at it – for missing my mate, for missing my clan, but also for my fear of the task ahead of me.
I hope that I will not fail you, and I hope this for three reasons. The first is simple: they must fall. There is no question of this; they go against everything that we stand for. The more of them I see, the more I worry for the future – and Azeroth itself seems to be what is at stake.
The second reason is that my failure would signify a failure of my duty to our faction. What I am doing here could signify a great victory for us, but I have no training. You know that. I wish I could have spent more time learning from Mother. If I am found, security will be raised and it will be more difficult for another member of our faction to repeat my accident stunt happenstance.
The third, of course, is my own mortal concern. Whilst I know that to die for our faction would be an honourable death, I also know that it would be cause for worry if I actively sought, or neglected to avoid, that death.
I have, therefore, no trepidations over confiding in you that I am afraid to die. I am afraid of the effect it would have on the clan and my mate, and of how I would need to be remembered in order to maintain any masquerade that would be required to remain in place after my death. My personal preferences are, of course, second to what is required of me by our faction.
Included with this letter are two other envelopes, addressed to acquaintances of ours. I want you to check them over, censor any sensitive information, then forwards them to the ones to whom they are addressed. I trust you to ensure that they are delivered correctly. I will remember not to attempt communication with grunts; my mate should have my communication device now. I will contact you on the winds if I require to speak with you face-to-face.
I wish it was possible to hold a proper correspondence with you, but unfortunately it is not so. I am going to look into getting a courier to deliver letters for me, but I worry that such will be very dangerous indeed. I will see how common such things are among the others that hold my rank and investigate the possibility in as subtle a way possible, however.
I miss you and the rest of the family. I hope that you are all well in health and mind, and that my absence has caused no unrest. Know that I love you all – even the more abrasive clanmates – and that I do not use such words lightly.
Yours,
Salora Duskbreaker.
==IC: Letter to Watrus, 19th Sep 2010==
Sergeant,
I really do wish that I could have apologised properly for my conduct before circumstances removed me entirely from your vicinity, let alone your acquaintance.
You are a fine Sergeant and an even finer friend to those who find themselves in the privileged position to be called such. Whilst I am aware that these words may seem insincere, know that, at this time, I have no reason to be so; I do not know where, when or how (or, indeed, if) I will rejoin the clan in a physical and overt way.
Stay strong, and send my regards to Venima.
Unsigned
==IC: Letter to Ryzarhn, 19th Sep 2010==
Ryz,
Are your arms working yet? Are you still doing your pin-prick tests? Is Narashmosh helping you with your leg exercises? If your arms are working, can you get Orgrimmar to at least give you a wheelchair?
I do not know if anybody filled you in on what happened to me. If you can, ask one of the Sergeants; they may be able to inform you. I can, unfortunately, tell you nothing save that I may not visit you currently.
I miss the times when we used to train together, regardless of whether it was you training me in weapons skills or me training you in meditation. I hope that you can find somebody else agreeable to continue tutoring you in the latter.
Stay strong, Ironfist.
Unsigned
==IC: Letter to Gremkarc, 25th Sep 2010==
Hsinlesd,
Oc't hivvoph xusti. O fu puv lpux xjev ov ot, cav iwisz pohjv nz pohjvnesit hsux cohhis, nusi siem, nusi wowof. Tdesois. Nusi foggodamv vu xeli aq gsun.
O'n tasi ov't eahas-tohjv. Xjodj niept vjev tunivjoph ot huoph vu jeqqip. Tunivjoph coh, og O'n hivvoph qsibupovopt ug ov. Cav xjev dep zi fu?
O'n tdesif. O'n tasi vjot ot emm umf pixt vu zua, cav O'n tdesif. O fup'v lpux xjev vu fu, Hsinlesd.
Asteme
===OOC===
Gremkarc,
It's getting worse. I do not know what it is, but every night my nightmares grow bigger, more real, more vivid. Scarier. More difficult to wake up from.
I'm sure it's augur-sight. Which means that something is going to happen. Something big, if I'm getting premonitions of it. But what can we do?
I'm scared. I'm sure this is all old news to you, but I'm scared. I don't know what to do, Gremkarc.
Ursala
==IC: Letter to Gulgrim, 27th Sep 2010==
This letter is written scruffily and hurriedly on a small scrap of paper. There are a few drops of a suspicious-looking substance on the page which, upon examination, appear to be dried blood. Exactly whose blood it is is unclear.
Hamhson,
Vjopht esi lopf ug UL jisi. O juqi zua'si wot ovoph Fuhvuuvj epf Mapdj e muv.
Neli tasi zua'si muuloph egvis iwiszupi, itqidoemmz zuatimg. O dep'v ci vjisi vu muul egvis zua, tu zua jewi vu muul egvis zuatimg gus ni. Dep zua fu vjev?
O muwi zua xovj emm vjej O en. Piwis gushiv vjev.
Nz mogi gus vji Jusfi,
Asteme.
===OOC===
Gulgrim,
Things are kind of OK here. I hope you’re visiting Dogtooth and Lunch a lot.
Make sure you’re looking after everyone, especially yourself. I can’t be there to look after you, so you have to look after yourself for me. Can you do that?
I love you with all that I am. Never forget that.
My life for the Horde,
Ursala.
==IC: Letter to Gremkarc, 8th Oct 2010==
Father,
Now, my mate and my sister are travelling with me. As far as i know, they will only let me go forwards. Grateful though i am for their concern, we will not be safe before we reach our goal.
Rather than detail everything here, i would encourage you to talk to my mate. All that has transpired will be explained by him. Not that i am avoiding you, but security wise this is important. Do not put yourself in undue danger.
Salora Duskbreaker
===OOC===
NAGRAND
==IC: Letter to Gremkarc, 10th Oct 2010==
Delivered through the Horde mail service via the Steamwheedle Cartel. Whilst there are no Horde postage stamps, the Cartel have put on stamps from Booty Bay and Ratchet.
The letter itself is written quickly, but not too hastily. The ink changes slightly mid-word every now and again, implying that the letter was written little by little over several sessions, short though it is.
Father,
Please speak with my mate. His fury knows no bounds. He rages against the sky itself and the inevitable turning of days and nights. He needs to realise that to fight the dusk, we cannot simply raise arms, for therein lies the danger of losing ourselves to it.
S.D.
Category:Story