(2024-05-16) Two Gentlemen of Kul Tiras

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Author:	inkie
Summary:	Shortly after the Shattering shook the Kingdom of Stormwind, Siamus Fallon pays a visit to his compatriot and fellow émigré, Arric Falrevere.
Rating:	T for Teen

Arc: The Shattering

Two weeks after the disastrous Shattering left Stormwind City charred and shaken, nearly that long after word of Southshore's fate reached the southern kingdom, Lord Siamus Fallon pays a call on the orchard property of Lord Arric Falrevere.

It is a clear, spring morning in Elwynn Forest; an overnight rain has left the air cool and soft after a week of rising heat. The leaves on the trees that canopy the road to the house still shake droplets from their leaves as the wind sighs through them, and the grass glitters wetly in the sun.

Siamus is dressed like a gentleman hunter in a black jacket and cream tattersall vest over a shirt with its collar carelessly undone. As he approaches the house, he slows his dark dappled Tirasian from a lazy, rocking canter to an easy trot, and looks the front of the place over with frank interest.

The property has the look of a place long abandoned that is only recently receiving care and attention. Neat work has been done on the roof and fences, but a few of the windows are still boarded over, and cosmetic touches such as fresh paint are badly needed in places.

A few sheep can be seen within the now-sturdy fence, and one of several apple trees is being tended on the other side of the house by what is presumably a human man. His upper half is hidden by foliage, so all that can be seen of him is the bottom half of his grubby overalls and boots as he stands on a sturdy A-frame ladder.

Before Siamus has time to wonder if this man might in fact be the master of the house, the sound of hoofbeats approaches from the west. Arric approaches on Win-Win at a canter, grinning. The magnificent white stallion looks as though he has just had the spit and fire worn out of him; traces of sweat are visible on his flanks, and his peculiar swampwater eyes are lacking their usual demonic spark.

"Lord Fallon!" Arric calls once he's within shouting distance. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

Siamus reins Siroc in — the horse sidles a little, giving Win-Win a baleful once-over — and lifts a hand in greeting. "Lord Arric. I apologize for not sending ahead. I came to see how you're faring, both wi'the place and after the… events."

"I was fortunate enough to elude the dragon's wrath entirely," Arric says, his pale blue eyes going rather wide. "Tides, though, what those in the city suffered! Are you well? Your people?" It isn't politeness; there is a hint of genuine anxiety in his expression.

Siamus's expression tightens for a moment and he looks toward the house again as if to survey it. "I'm well, aye. We lost the townhouse in the city. And our people who were in it at the time." He looks back to Arric. "I'm glad to hear ye came through without trouble here. Would have been a fine welcome to the mainland for ye, a dragon."

Arric goes pale at Siamus's report, and needs a moment to recover himself. His eyes glisten suspiciously, and he clears his throat before speaking again, a bit more tremulously.

"Indeed. But it does inspire me to make better use of my hunting skills than sport. This land may not be my home, but it is worth protecting."

Siamus assesses Arric, and then nods once, courteously. His smile is a little tired, but it's a smile. "Aye, so it is. And fortunate to have ye, then. How is the place managing? Does it suit?"

Arric’s expression brightens again as he draws his horse as close to Siamus’s as he dares, given their respective temperaments.

"It's brilliant," he says. "I've been enjoying the project of rehabilitating the old place. Ever grateful to dear Sintha for bringing it to my attention."

"I'm glad," Siamus approves. "It's got pretty bones, this place." He looks toward the sheep and the apple trees beyond the sheep. "How are the apples coming for ye?"

Arric makes a sort of face. "Not well, as of yet. The trees have gone a bit wild, so I've been led to expect a less-than-fine harvest, unfit for sale. Gerda will make the best of them into pies and such for us to eat, and that will please me enough, for now."

"Gerda." Siamus glances at Arric. "So ye have a housekeeper, then?"

"Mm, perhaps nothing so formal. An older woman who couldn't find work in Stormwind, and who's a fine cook. My staff is not what you might call particularly organized, but they are all just absolute delights to talk to, which is higher on my priority list. You wouldn't believe some of Gerda's stories. She was a sniper in the first war!"

"Oh, aye?" Siamus, genuinely intrigued, is briefly distracted from whatever purpose his line of questioning was aimed at. "Did she go north wi' the rest or was she one of those who stayed?"

"She stayed. And it took a toll on her, and eventually she went half mad and had to withdraw from the fight. Branded a deserter by many, and has had difficulty finding work since. But she is a strong and interesting woman, and I have the capacity to give her a peaceful life, and so I shall."

"Good man," Siamus approves, and leans out to reach over and squeeze Arric's shoulder firmly. "And a brave lady, I've no doubt."

He drops his hand and looks around again. "May I ask," he begins delicately, "whether ye have need of any further staff? A lady, with a child. She'd be happy wi' housekeeping or laundry, but she can do orchard work if ye need hands there, as well. I understand if the child is… complicating, if ye've not got room for more staff at the moment. Only making an inquiry, is all."

Arric goes a bit pink at the shoulder-squeeze. "Oh, the poor woman! I should have room to take her in, for certain, especially if she has a way with trees. I do worry about the trees…" He squints at them solicitously. "And we are having a bit of trouble keeping up with laundry as well, as Gerda despises it for some reason."

Siamus shakes his head, mystified. Ladies and laundry, man. Who knows what their problem is? Not Siamus, he's never done laundry.

"Bless ye, man, I'd be obliged. She's come off my own orchard property — well, my orchard property that was — up in Hillsbrad. The woman who manages the orchard managed to convince a few of the families to leave the place before the Forsaken attack. Not because she knew of the Forsaken, but because of the earthquakes and some damage they'd done to the place. And now… these few are all that are left."

He gazes toward Arric's trees again, tired. "I'm trying to place them, but wi' so many out of work in the south as it is… I've taken two in at Fallon House and two more down at Fallon Harbor, but that leaves me wi' three to find situations for, and all of them wi' young children."

He turns back to Arric. "I'd be deeply obliged to ye, as I say. And she does know orchard-work as well as housework."

"Well I'd say she's a tidesend, then," Arric says cheerfully. "Who are the other three? I do enjoy children, and Davey, our current shepherd, used to be a tutor. I believe I have, on more than one occasion, caught him reading to the sheep."

Siamus is so visibly struck with relief that he seems to wilt a little as some tension drains from him. "No. A tutor? Tides be praised. Ah, that's brilliant, man. You're the tidesend, if I may say it. I don't want to overburden ye on a new property, mind, but if ye can take another…. The first, the lady I had in mind for ye, is a woman of thirty with a lad of eight: a Mrs. Beldum and her son —" He squints.

Surely the son has a name. Siamus might have known it at some point.

He decides to leave the sentence there. Mrs. Beldum and her son: that'll suffice. "There's also a lady of twenty-six, a Mrs. Finneon, with a girl of four, and Mrs. Chespin has a girl of just two. Mrs. Chespin is also… in a delicate way." You know. A Delicate Way. As we gentlemen say. Delicately.

Arric gets all shiny-eyed for a moment with enthusiasm for all the wee ones.. "Oh, they might be a bit crowded here, but that isn't such a bad way to live, if everyone gets along. And if the property starts to bring in money, we can build more onto it I'm certain."

Siamus looks around again. "I don't — as I say, I don't mean to crowd ye. Ye've been my first stop — I had to see how ye'd made out, and how ye're doing, and I'm a poor neighbor not to have come by before now — but there are others I can ask with in the next few days. If ye've room to hire, say, two of the ladies, that would do me — and them, obviously — a world of good."

"Absolutely! I wouldn't wish them to be crowded for their own sakes, but if you find no one else, I would be delighted to be safe harbor for them so long as they need it." Arric beams. Win-Win snorts suddenly, as though all this magnanimity irritates his nasal passages as well as his soul.

Siroc throws his head up to side-eye the other stallion. Siamus laughs and turns the dapple's head firmly away from Win-Win. “Ye settle, the pair of ye," he says good-naturedly, and lays a hand on Siroc's neck. To Arric, he says, "Have ye had word from Ta?"

"I have not," Arric says. Then looks a bit fretful. "Have you not?" Win-Win shifts under him, as though picking up on his sudden tension.

"I haven't," Siamus says. He shrugs easily, though his gaze slides away from Arric's for a moment. "But ye know how we are. I did assume she'd be more likely to write to you, of the pair of us, but if she's written neither of us then she's no doubt up to her ears in her business wi' the 7th. They can be… a secretive lot. An unfortunate amplification of Ta's natural tendencies, I fear."

"Yes, I've been reading up on them a bit," says Arric. "They seem to have little interest in glory; so little is known about them. And yet they have a reputation for effectiveness, loyalty, and courage. You must be very proud." Arric's pale blue eyes light up in a way that indicates what he really means: he is proud of his friend, so terribly proud he can hardly contain it.

Siamus's own expression softens, and he smiles at Arric. "I am, aye. I was… not enough, at first, from… misplaced worry over her. But I've repented my ways. She's done some valorous things already, and I shouldn't have seemed to doubt her."

He continues to regard Arric, and then says, "I'm glad ye came, Falrevere, and that she has a friend like you."

Arric's face slowly and unevenly suffuses with pink in that rather unflattering way redheads' complexions sometimes do.

"Well, and I'm glad I came as well, and that I've had the chance to get to know the brother she so clearly adores. You're welcome to come in for tea if you like, though I imagine we've already spent enough of your busy day chatting. So many responsibilities, as the lord of a household and a House member and a Vice Admiral besides! You must have much to do."

Siamus's shoulders do not sag, but there is the slightest shift in his posture that says he is holding them straight by force of will. "Aye," he says. "A great deal. I'm sorrier than I can say to decline, as a spot of tea wi'ye sounds like just the thing, but I should be off now. I'll take ye up another time, if I may presume on your hospitality, and I hope ye consider yourself welcome at Fallon House at any time already. I'll… shall I send ye word of Mrs. Beldum and Mrs. Finneon, then? When they're ready to come?"

"Of course, of course!" Arric says eagerly. "It will be my pleasure. Thank you for coming by, and I'll call on you sometime soon."

"Do," Siamus tells him. "Always a pleasure, Falrevere, and I'm glad to see ye came through well." He turns Siroc on the path and then reins him in again to eye Win-Win. "That one's a fine hellion. We'll need to get him to the Fallon stables sometime soon, too, aye?"

If u kno wat he meens.

Arric, for once, knos what he meens.