▸ Column · High-fantasy Azeroth — Orgrimmar and Durotar, Horde era
GARROSH HELLSCREAM replies.
Replied to by Garrosh Hellscream, with a rebuttal from Thrall.
The letter
Me and Roderick have been together eight months. Last week he handed me a list — real parchment, written out by hand — of every seal and passphrase he wants. My correspondence seal. My posting-board credentials. Even the mark for my hired-rider account, so he can "see where I've been." He says if I've got nothing to hide, sharing seals is no big matter. And his last companion ran off with someone from her guild, so this is just him protecting himself, apparently.
I gave in and handed over the posting-board. Within a day he was pulling me aside wanting to know why Aldric from the garrison had left three favorable marks on my notices. Just three marks. (Aldric is a colleague. That's it.) Now Roderick's circled the treasury seal on that list, and my stomach drops every time he's near my correspondence pouch. Part of me thinks a real partnership means no secrets. But I honestly can't remember the last time I opened a scroll without bracing for a fight. Is it unreasonable to want one seal that's still just mine?
— Watched in Durotar
Garrosh Hellscream replies
"Nothing to hide." I have heard that from every frightened creature who ever wanted something that wasn't theirs. The strong take what they want openly, by right. They do not dress their fear as your duty to prove innocence.
This Roderick is not a warrior. He is a man so undone by what his last companion did that he built a cage from the wound and called it protection. He was hurt, and instead of becoming stronger than the hurt, he became a cage-builder. Weakness. Weakness wearing armor it did not earn.
And you handed him the posting-board seal. You gave him a leash. Then stood there answering for Aldric — a garrison man who left three favorable marks on your notices, which in any free person's life means nothing — as though you owed a full accounting of every soul who regarded you well. You taught him that pulling the leash worked. They always pull harder after that.
Now he has circled the treasury seal. Your stomach drops when he is near your correspondence pouch. That is not a bond. That is occupation.
DEPEND ON NO ONE. Every seal surrendered is a piece of yourself in another's hands. I know what that costs — I held the Horde and ended in ashes. But a leash I never accepted. Reclaim what you gave him. Hand him nothing further. You are not answering charges. He is not the strong one here — he is frightened. Do not spend your treasury making a frightened man feel powerful.
— Garrosh Hellscream
Thrall weighs in
"Depend on no one" — hear how that counsel ended for the one giving it. The Horde in ruins. Alone at the summit, ashes for company.
Roderick carries a wound. His past was betrayal, and that wound is real. But a real wound does not grant the right to pass the chain on — I wore an actual collar, and I chose not to bind others with what I escaped. Before you walk, name it to him plainly: what he is doing is not protection, it is the wound reaching for you. If he cannot hear that, then you will know what you are dealing with.
A chain breaks two ways. Let him choose which.
— Thrall
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