Their conversation was light-hearted on the way from Johru's grove to the village. The older Pandaren pointed out particular stumps where he'd found a particular variety of fungus, some of which he claimed made excellent healing agents. Kaara Galebreath mused that he knew more about the forest than all of her teachers at the school combined. The subject of the dead mogu did not come up on the return trip. Kaara was curious, make no mistake, but she gathered that the dealing of death did not make for pleasant conversation. The fact that Johru seemed at ease for it not being mentioned was another benefit.

Johru's knowledge of the village was not nearly to the same extent as his knowledge of the forest. Where others bowed to him, he'd nod back stiffly in return. It was as though the notion of returning the gesture was entirely foreign. His tail swaying as he walked, Johru inevitably drew quite a few strange stares. The sorcerer responded with an abashed sort of smile to some of them…but his discomfort was obvious.

Kaara led him into the Galebreaths' home and quickly closed the door after his tail had crossed the threshold. No sooner was he inside than the heavy Pandaren let loose a sigh of relief. "I'm…glad to be out of eyeshot." He murmured.

"Kaara?" Jinsong stepped out from the living room. "You are back?"

"I am, Mother, and I brought Johru as you asked me to." Kaara bowed her head.

Jinsong smiled at the sight of the green-robed Pandaren. "Johru. Welcome into my home."

Johru showed a very toothy grin and bowed his head, with far greater ease than when he had been outside. "Thank you for your hospitality, Lady Galebreath."

"Please, sit down." Jinsong gestured to the comfier of the seats that were in the living room. Kaara wasted no time finding two glasses, one for Johru, the other for her mother, filling both with clean water. She'd long since stopped needing reminders for this sort of thing.

Johru was appreciative when she handed him the glass. He sat such that his tail tucked over his shoulder – it was at that moment Kaara realized she'd never have that sort of concern. A few of her classmates did, however; Inhai, a girl a year older than her, had a magnificent red-and-white striped tail that most of the school wished they could also have.

The Sorcerer sipped gratefully and nodded his head to Kaara. "My thanks." He then looked to Jinsong. "Your daughter is a fine young woman, Jinsong. I'm certain you must be impressed."

"I am." Jinsong accepted her glass and smiled appreciatively. "She has brought much joy into my life, and her father's as well."

Johru's eyebrows rose. "I can imagine. How does Jaryit fare?"

"Well enough…though his back is bothering him of late, and he won't mention it." Kaara was amazed to see just how relaxed her mother was in Johru's presence. Knowledge of the old traditions or not, the man's very being seemed to put Jinsong Galebreath at ease. For her part, Jinsong seemed far more rested than any of the times that one of Kaara's classmates had visited when their parents accompanied them.

This caused the green-robed Pandaren to sigh. "He is not alone." Johru murmured. "Many in this village suffer, though few ever have the grace to admit it."

Kaara's mouth opened and words flew from her lips faster than she could stop them. "Johru, how would you know that?"

Before Jinsong could say anything, Johru answered her question. "It is in the way people walk in this village. Something great has been lost." He looked into his glass. "Can you not feel it, young one?"

Kaara at once met her mother's eyes. Jinsong did not look at her in shock, but rather, with a gaze that Kaara could not truly place - she was neither displeased nor impressed. "Many in this village were captured by the mogu." Kaara spoke softly, with far greater respect in her voice.

However, this didn't seem to affect Johru's tone. He spoke plainly. "How could such a disaster not affect this place? We are social creatures, yes." He took another sip from this glass. "I grieve for those lost…though I am certain my concern is outweighed by those who had family members taken."

Jinsong spoke quietly. "That is true enough." Kaara's mother placed her glass on the wicker table and folded both arms over her lap. "My family left this village for Binan many years ago, before Kaara was born. Jaryit lost his siblings long ago. We are both fortunate in that regard." She met Johru's eyes.

Johru at once said, "Yet even so, you grieve."

The heavy sigh that fled Jinsong's lips was followed by a quick nod. "Kobal Gao was a friend of my husband, who served in the village guard. He was taken. Rami Quickpaw, my aunt's friend in childhood, also swept away by the mogu." She leaned back in the chair and closed her eyes tightly. "They left families behind. They were not alone in that regard."

The sorcerer's heavy head nodded. "A few of their relatives sought me out afterwards." Jinsong's head at once shot up and she stared directly at Johru. The Pandaren held up a hand, his tail twitching behind him. "It is not as you might think, Jinsong…though I appreciate your concern. They wanted me to consult with spirits to find the ones they lost."

Kaara looked to Jinsong, then to Johru. "Did you?" Johru blinked, puzzled by her question. "Did you talk to spirits, I mean?"

"No." Johru said quietly. "I did not. Not that time, anyway."

"Can I ask why you didn't?" Kaara asked.

"You have just done so." Johru inclined his head towards one side of his neck, placing the knuckles of one hand as though to hold it up. "If people only come to me when they grieve, but ignore the spirits and the Celestials the rest of the time, I cannot help them." The sorcerer's head bowed. "They have a temple. They have priests, monks, and shamans to whom they should talk to. Why seek me out?" The sorcerer folded one leg over the other.

Jinsong spoke now. "Perhaps they think you can help them." Her posture shifted as well.

"Perhaps they do. But they need to offer prayers to someone else." Johru's voice was icy. "I am of no use in that regard."

A most uncomfortable pause settled within the living room. Kaara fidgeted where she sat. Finally, Jinsong's voice broke the silence. "Johru…I had a vision. I do not know how much my daughter told you…"

"Only that you had a vision and you wished to see me." The Pandaren sorcerer's voice was considerate; even soft. "Little more than that."

Jinsong nodded, then looked to Kaara, and back to Johru. "Yes. It was about three nights ago." Jinsong stood to her feet. "I had just returned from helping an elder Angler fix their nets, and the fog was thick that night…" She stood to the door and her eyes closed tightly…as did her hands.

Kaara wasn't certain as to whether she would leave, but the look she got from Johru indicated she could remain. Clearly this was something she could remain privy to…if anything, her mother wanted her to be here for it, considering the values Jinsong had passed down to Kaara. Johru didn't interrupt, but rather allowed Jinsong to continue telling of what she had seen.

Jinsong turned back to them. "I saw a shape in the mists. I have seen mogu before, but…it was many years ago. I know what they look like…and the shape was clearly one of them, at the prow of a vessel. A large one, at that…" Johru's eyes narrowed slightly. Jinsong turned back from the door. "When I looked for others, to raise the alarm, I heard a colossal splash. When I looked back, the vessel was gone…as was the mogu."

Johru let loose a long breath between his teeth. "Interesting indeed, Lady Jinsong. Three nights ago, there was indeed a very heavy fog."

"It was so thick one might have woven sails from it." Jinsong said quietly. "Even so…I know what it was I saw that night."

"Did you tell anyone in the village?"

"I told the village guards at once." Jinsong spoke firmly, her tone displeased. "We found nothing when the harbor watch was sent out."

Johru leaned forwards in his seat, his tail tucking back over one shoulder. "Hmmm…I wonder…"

Jinsong sat down once more and rested both hands in her lap again. This time, they gripped so fiercely together that Kaara feared her mother would scratch her knuckles bloody. "I do not know if he saw me. Or if the ship was close enough to the shore to see the village."

"It is possible." Kaara spoke. "In a heavy fog like that, who knows how far that ship was off its course?"

"Your daughter speaks wisely." Johru stood to his feet. "I did not think that was any simple fog on that night. I think it was the Mists themselves that kept that ship from seeing the shoreline…and kept this village from a second attack. In any event, the village should be grateful the mogu did not venture any closer."

Kaara knew the legend well enough from school. The Mists of Pandaria seemed to settle in on strange nights, masking away the rest of the world. On other nights, not a wisp was to be found. "Why would the Mists have come now, and not six years ago?"

Johru looked at her quizzically, then a sigh rattled from Johru's lips. "In truth, I do not know."

Jinsong looked to both the sorcerer and her daughter. "I have wondered this myself…and I also have no answers."

"There are more mysteries in this world than a hundred thousand monks could ever imagine in all their lifetimes." Johru said contemplatively. "The Mists are more mischievous than any woodland sprite. They settle in such that a mountain goat might walk across them on some nights. Other nights, there is nothing. Why would they swoop in so thickly that a mogu ship would turn away now, but not then?" He shrugged his heavy shoulders. "Your guess is as good as mine."

"If the mists won't stop the mogu, then who will?"

Kaara's question hung in the air a while. Jinsong and Johru met her eyes, then averted their gazes, staring instead at the coffee table. She knew what that meant – neither of them had an answer for her question.

Kaara and Jinsong insisted on walking Johru back home, or at least as far as the covered bridge. The Sorcerer certainly seemed glad for their company, and when their paths parted and Johru walked into the sheltered grove he called home, the long-tailed Pandaren bowed to them.

"Many thanks for your generous hospitality, Jinsong Galebreath. Until the next time." Johru called out. Jinsong bowed, returning the gesture. Kaara followed suit.

They did not head back immediately. Jinsong took a path that led down to the stream and the waterfall, and sat down regally on a flat stone that overlooked both.

"I have been thinking about the question you asked." Jinsong said after a moment, inviting Kaara to sit beside her.

The younger Galebreath joined her mother in a moment. "What are your thoughts?"

Jinsong met her daughter's eyes. "We have been lucky." A long, ragged sigh escaped her lips. "Six years ago, I had a…feeling that we needed to be out at sea. Even though we caught so little that night before the attack, we were not in the village." She wrapped one heavy arm about Kaara and hugged her close. "A whim, really…but it saved you."

"You think I'd have been taken?" Kaara asked, wrapping her own arm about her mother's far shoulder.

For the first time since the attack, Jinsong's eyes filled with tears. She nodded once. "Fortune smiled on us."

"Then fortune must be a fickle thing indeed." Kaara's voice was soft. "I can't think of anyone in the village who could say the same about that day."

Jinsong met her daughter's eyes and nodded once. "Any member of the Anglers could tell you that fortune can be both horrid and wonderful. Hopefully not at the same time…" She offered in a more lighthearted tone. Her expression became crestfallen once more. "As far as who will stop the mogu if the Mists are useless in that regard…" She looked down at her toes.

"There are the Shado-Pan." Kaara pointed out.

This caused her mother's expression to become a frown. "Shado-Pan are creatures of the land. The mogu work from sea. To fight them, you would need a ship…and weapons…and a crew." Jinsong's brow furrowed. A low humming noise came from her lips. "Most importantly, you will need to be a person that others look to and trust with their lives."

Kaara met her mother's eyes. "I'm not old enough to have that much respect."

"No. But you will be." Jinsong held a paw to Kaara's shoulder. "You remember my sisters, yes?"

She did at once. Jinsong's siblings were stolid Pandaren, stoic in their bearing but dutiful to a fault. "I remember them, yes. But I think of you as the best of them." He hugged her mother close.

At once, Jinsong smiled and her ears twitched. "It means much to hear you say that, little one, even if I know your words are hardly objective."

"You're my mother. Do you want me to be objective?"

Jinsong said nothing, but held her daughter close.

Kaara Galebreath's story had a few gaps in it, which Shuchun's mind had to fill in. She gathered this Johru was an important figure, given how there was an entire chapter devoted to Kaara's first encounter with him. One thing was certain: whoever had written this had to have won Kaara's trust for her to given such an in-depth look at her early life.

The winds still howled beyond the shelter of Shuchun's room. She was about to turn to the next chapter, one that she hoped would bring her up to the point at which Kaara gained a vessel and began to earn her reputation, when a small piece of paper that had been folded between pages fluttered up from its position such that Shuchun's fingers touched it. Was it a schoolchild's note, someone who had borrowed the book leaving a message in the hopes that the next person to get it might understand their humor?

It was something else entirely. The language of the folded-up note was crisp, clear, a scholar's handwriting to be certain. Shuchun's eyes roved over the note.

My mother's name was Jinsong Galebreath. If you ever visit the Village of Singing Winds, I ask you to whisper that name to the air itself. You will be answered, but only if you listen closely.

Kaara-

The note had been torn at that point, as Shuchun could read no further legible text. It answered a few questions for her. Whoever Kaara had dictated the note to must have won her trust first, and then had written the story as it had been related. A lorewalker, perhaps?

The lorewalker yawned and stretched her arms behind her head. Just as she was about to close the book and head to bed, the name of the next section caught her attention.

At once, her eyes widened and a smile came across her face. She could wait a little longer before bed…