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- Jan 2, 2010
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"Thoughts before a meeting"
Adonis left last week with the Black Hawk recruits. With the Talon Company leader gone the responsibility of keeping law and order in the Gardens has come down to me. It is odd not having someone to fall back on if something goes sour. It would seem I have to get used to this for a month or so, depending on how long these recruits take to pass basic training. However, it isn't all bad. We managed to apprehend the thief that mugged Adonis a while back. I am not sure how much gold was stolen at the time but the Talon Company hit the jackpot of stolen goods. He is in the cell to my left. Strange looking man, it is almost as though he is hiding something from us. Though I should not worry myself about him. He is locked in a cell that he cannot escape, or so the smith tells us. And as it happens there are more pressing matters. I am be expecting a visit from Terodin any minute now. This note here tells me he has some important information for me. I am not sure what about, but it seems important.
*Sudden footsteps*
What? This could be Terodin with his 'important information'. The door opened and instepped a rather tall man. He had a bald head but rather alot of bronze whiskers on his face. Though whiskers are not the right word here. His beard was that big. The man seemed well rounded and well feed, especially for someone not in rich clothing. He wore simple things and carried with him a walking stick as well as a book. What is in it? I couldn't tell you but there is something familiar about it. Something that I can't remember. The man noticed me looking at the book and with a big booming, yet friendly voice he spoke, "Ah, I see you have spied why it is I have come to you Harriet of Longworth, I am Terodin and I have spent many a year trying to find you." He knows where I am from? How could he? Not even Adonis knew that! I looked into his eyes to see if they gave me a clue as to who he was. They didn't. "You seem to know enough about me Terodin, but I must ask how?"
Terodin laughed in a friendly chuckle, "In time I shall tell you, but for now you must see this book. It is the Book of Longworth. It holds all the history of the keep there. From well before the Falimir took seized the land for its own, til today." I knew I recognised the book, my father showed me it when I was seven. A few weeks before I was forced to leave my home. I've never been back there because the Avians said that to return was too early. "My father's book! Why have you brought it here? Has my father died?"
The big man sighed and appeared to loose all the joy which flowed through him just seconds before. "I must say what you ask is not a current event. In fact it is some twenty years old."
"But that must have been around the time I left! How can this be?"
Again Terodin sighed, "A loving man was your father and a loved man. The people on the estate couldn't have asked for a better landowner. Three weeks after your departure your father died of unknown causes. The women say it was thanks to how much he missed you. The men say it was the man who came to him the day you departed. To each of these there is some degree of accuracy, but neither theory are correct." It was at that point I didn't recognise him from the estate. Even at the young age of seven, I would have remembered one so jolly as this. "Why do I not remember you from the Longworth? And why do you tell me of this news twenty years late? Is this some sort of trick?"
"I wish it were, but I am afraid your father is very much dead. I was the man who came to him on the day of your departure. We became friends but he was always lost without you. He would never tell me why you left, or what happened to your mother. All he said was that he regrets having to send you. On his death bed he asked me to find you. I agreed."
"Then why has it taken you so long to reach me?"
"Circumstances didn't allow me to start my search and you have to remember you were lost from the world briefly." Is he telling the truth? Or does he fail to tell me something? These cirumstances he talks about are suspicous, but it is clear he has a something else he wishes to tell me before what they were.
"So tell me Terodin, why did my father ask you to find me? Surely my cousins could have taken Longworth. Why would he tell a stranger?"
"For love. You are his lost daugther. Does a man need any alternative motive?"
Adonis left last week with the Black Hawk recruits. With the Talon Company leader gone the responsibility of keeping law and order in the Gardens has come down to me. It is odd not having someone to fall back on if something goes sour. It would seem I have to get used to this for a month or so, depending on how long these recruits take to pass basic training. However, it isn't all bad. We managed to apprehend the thief that mugged Adonis a while back. I am not sure how much gold was stolen at the time but the Talon Company hit the jackpot of stolen goods. He is in the cell to my left. Strange looking man, it is almost as though he is hiding something from us. Though I should not worry myself about him. He is locked in a cell that he cannot escape, or so the smith tells us. And as it happens there are more pressing matters. I am be expecting a visit from Terodin any minute now. This note here tells me he has some important information for me. I am not sure what about, but it seems important.
*Sudden footsteps*
What? This could be Terodin with his 'important information'. The door opened and instepped a rather tall man. He had a bald head but rather alot of bronze whiskers on his face. Though whiskers are not the right word here. His beard was that big. The man seemed well rounded and well feed, especially for someone not in rich clothing. He wore simple things and carried with him a walking stick as well as a book. What is in it? I couldn't tell you but there is something familiar about it. Something that I can't remember. The man noticed me looking at the book and with a big booming, yet friendly voice he spoke, "Ah, I see you have spied why it is I have come to you Harriet of Longworth, I am Terodin and I have spent many a year trying to find you." He knows where I am from? How could he? Not even Adonis knew that! I looked into his eyes to see if they gave me a clue as to who he was. They didn't. "You seem to know enough about me Terodin, but I must ask how?"
Terodin laughed in a friendly chuckle, "In time I shall tell you, but for now you must see this book. It is the Book of Longworth. It holds all the history of the keep there. From well before the Falimir took seized the land for its own, til today." I knew I recognised the book, my father showed me it when I was seven. A few weeks before I was forced to leave my home. I've never been back there because the Avians said that to return was too early. "My father's book! Why have you brought it here? Has my father died?"
The big man sighed and appeared to loose all the joy which flowed through him just seconds before. "I must say what you ask is not a current event. In fact it is some twenty years old."
"But that must have been around the time I left! How can this be?"
Again Terodin sighed, "A loving man was your father and a loved man. The people on the estate couldn't have asked for a better landowner. Three weeks after your departure your father died of unknown causes. The women say it was thanks to how much he missed you. The men say it was the man who came to him the day you departed. To each of these there is some degree of accuracy, but neither theory are correct." It was at that point I didn't recognise him from the estate. Even at the young age of seven, I would have remembered one so jolly as this. "Why do I not remember you from the Longworth? And why do you tell me of this news twenty years late? Is this some sort of trick?"
"I wish it were, but I am afraid your father is very much dead. I was the man who came to him on the day of your departure. We became friends but he was always lost without you. He would never tell me why you left, or what happened to your mother. All he said was that he regrets having to send you. On his death bed he asked me to find you. I agreed."
"Then why has it taken you so long to reach me?"
"Circumstances didn't allow me to start my search and you have to remember you were lost from the world briefly." Is he telling the truth? Or does he fail to tell me something? These cirumstances he talks about are suspicous, but it is clear he has a something else he wishes to tell me before what they were.
"So tell me Terodin, why did my father ask you to find me? Surely my cousins could have taken Longworth. Why would he tell a stranger?"
"For love. You are his lost daugther. Does a man need any alternative motive?"
