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28th of Tarsakh, 1483

The Incident: Part 4 of 4... for now

by Arkadius Farcleaver-Hogg

"Postmaster Arkadius Hogg, at your service. ...Good Gods, that has such a nice ring to it, it's unreal."
 
Arkadius had been busy bustling around Port Ffirst at top-speed, drumming up business in New Town for his new endeavour, Ffirst Airmail, and route-learning to support his business. During the day, it had become habit to scout around the town and speak to merchants and nobles to advise them of the new service that had become available. During the early morning and late evening when people weren't so chatty, he'd started flying around, both to learn the best routes and paths between different points of the city and to keep his fitness up. Primarily, he needed to learn Port Ffirst like the back of his hand. He needed to know where everything was at the drop of a hat, no time for thinking about it, his livelihood depended on this knowledge.
 
Every so often as he flew, his thoughts would flicker back to his past...
 


The Visitor was clearly reaching the point of exasperation. His head dropped into his hand, and he sighed loudly. "…Look, kid. You need to learn how to read between the lines. You’re not gonna have everything drip-fed to you in the future, you hear me?"

Arkadius nodded, "Yessir." The Visitor looked apprehensive but shook it off quickly.
"It is nearly time for me to go, dear Little One. It’s likely to be some time before we speak again… if we do again at all. If we don’t directly speak again, then… Well, I would say it has been a pleasure but that would be a lie. It’s been infuriating, to tell the truth. I thought there was a flicker of possibility, but I am willing to be proven wrong."

Arkadius blinked, processing what the stranger had said for a moment. "I’m sorry," was all he could muster, going quiet for another few seconds, before feeling unnaturally emboldened to speak up, "Actually, no. I am not sorry. I’m not the smartest, or the loudest, or the bravest. But I am me," he said standing up, "And I don’t take too kindly to a stranger who’s barely known me for five minutes coming in here and… putting me down, or something. Thank you for your time, sir, and goodbye."
 
Arkadius made to walk away towards the door to leave angrily, but a hand landing firmly on his shoulder stopped him. "And there it is, that little spark that I needed to see. All I needed was for you to stand up for yourself, to show promise, that you had something. That’s all I needed to see.", the Visitor said, a renewed grin on his face. "You have spirit, deep down, a little ball of spirit. You needn’t and shouldn’t apologise for who you are."

The Visitor let his hand drop back to his side, testing to see whether Arkadius would keep going or stay. Arkadius stood still where he had been stopped, "I can work with this. This is… Yes, there is potential here after all." His hand raised up, and rested on Arkadius’ shoulder again, this time wreathed in some kind of red magical light. Arkadius made a move to run away, but he couldn’t, he felt himself magically frozen to the spot. The Visitor’s hand on his shoulder felt…
 

His attention flicked back instantly to the real world, as he realised he was flying head-first towards a rooftop, that he’d somehow angled himself towards while his attention was drawn back to his past. His shoulder grew suddenly achy, and his head felt like the world was spinning around him. Perhaps it would be best for now to… rest up, and relax.

Continue reading...

  1. The Incident: Part 1 of 4
    25th of Tarsakh, 1483
  2. The Incident: Part 2 of 4
    26th of Tarsakh, 1483
  3. The Incident: Part 3 of 4
    27th of Tarsakh, 1483
  4. The Incident: Part 4 of 4... for now
    28th of Tarsakh, 1483
  5. Bidding Farewell to Fallford
    30th of Flamerule, 1484
  6. What's an R between F(r)iends?
    Midsummer, 1484
  7. The First Sign of Power
    16th of Eleint, 1484
  8. The Path to Waterdeep
    Various dates
  9. Five Years of Waterdeep
    Greengrass, 1492
  10. The End of Life in Waterdeep
    Greengrass, 1492
  11. Return to Kundar
    3rd of Flamerule, 1496
  12. In the Shadow of Kundar
    15th of Flamerule, 1496
  13. Golden Hour
    17th of Flamerule, 1496
  14. A Simple Job
    22nd of Flamerule, 1496
  15. Reminiscing
    13th of Elesias, 1496
  16. The Old Temple
    16th of Eleint, 1946
  17. Case of the Still Missing Person
    25th of Eleint, 1496
  18. The Naming of the Weasel
    28th of Uktar, 1496
  19. Revisiting The Incident
    30th of Uktar, 1496
  20. Help Us Hope
    1st of Nightal, 1496
  21. The Reappearance of Alocasia Zebrina
    14th of Nightal, 1496
  22. Amorphophallus Titanium
    8th of Hammer, 1497
  23. Losing a Friend
    9th of Hammer, 1497
  24. Return of the Prince
    30th of Hammer, 1497
  25. Aerial Delving
    3rd of Alturiak, 1497
  26. What's in a Name?
    10th of Alturiak, 1497
  27. Hunting for Trouble
    25th of Alturiak, 1497
  28. Doing the Right Thing
    14th of Ches, 1497
  29. Here and Back Again
    15th of Ches, 1497
  30. The Sharp End
    22nd of Ches, 1497
  31. Triumph of the Vanguard
    7th of Tarsahk, 1497
  32. Pre-Birthday Shenanigans
    30thnif Tarsakh, 1497

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by 3 Armored Kittens · Prodromos v.1.1 - World Anvil 0.9.15.045 © 2017-2024 [en] | Anvil Time: 02:48, May 26 2025