S2.5: The aftermath
There is a short pause while Lottie gathers her thoughts.
“Do you remember when I first came to the Potting Shed, suddenly, shockingly - at least to me - and late at night? I spent the first few days sleeping under Lois-the-Hippo’s snout in her armchair in the cozy area by the stove near, but not too near, the front door. I hardly ate and hardly left that chair. Only later did I feel comfortable having my own bunk. But then I picked the one furthest away: the only one anyone uses in the rafters, up two ladders! Pity that it’s above Hipparchus’s study but it’s a long way above.
“Anyway, that night, after the battle, I cuddled into Lois’ chair again and slept all through the night and well into the morning.
“When I finally woke, I went to the kitchen to get some breakfast and heard Alcock giving Fabian a real dressing down. I’ll tell you a bit more about what he said in a moment. But Alcock was cross that Fabian had used a sword - Anduril: Flame of the West! - to kill bulb spiders. He said he thought that Fabian had renounced violence after ‘their meeting’ and was ‘very disappointed’ that Fabian still carried a sword. Fabian, of course, didn’t say anything and later left quietly, and rather more slowly than the previous evening.
“Well I wasn’t having that! I stormed in and gave Alcock a piece of my mind, Chairman or not! I told him Fabian had saved my life when no one else did anything…”
“A little harsh!” - pTravis - “no one else was there!”
“And that the sword was my sword and not just any sword but Anduril: Flame of the West.”
“Would this be an insensitive time to ask whether you really know it / she is Anduril?”
“And stupid Alcock said he didn’t even know I had a sword. And I said: When I was brought here - and I was never asked! - I only had two possessions! A football and a sword. How could you not know that?!?
“And then I told him I was going to tell everyone what I’d heard. And he asked me what I’d heard. And I told him. And he told me that I should never repeat that to anyone else. And so I bit my tongue until now.”
“Yes” pTravis almost gasps, “But what did you hear?”
“I’m coming to that.”