A Final Farewell

[Chronics 482]

 

 QUETI TEMPUS ✦ NO TIME TO REST

 

 

 

ISSUED BY THE

 

˳˙⋆  ──────────────────────༺⠀✧⠀༻──────────────────────  ⋆˙˳

 

 

AFTER MUCH PRAYER AND DELIBERATION, our house has chosen to take up a new path in the realm. House of Arkent will soon depart from the Grand Duchy of  Lotharia to make way for the Kingdom of Numendil.

 

I ACHILLIUS D’ARKENT RELINQUISH OUR title, the County of Salia, returning the holdings that come with it to the Grand Duchy of Lotharia, These honors, which have been held by our family for generations, we now surrender willingly, that the Crown may grant them to those whose service and presence shall strengthen them.

WE, HOWEVER, WILL RETAIN OUR Barony of Selm, which we shall carry with us as the foundation upon which we build anew in Numendil. Though we go forth to a new land, we leave behind no ill will. May Lotharia and its people flourish and endure in the years to come. We take this step with gratitude for the decades spent among the people of Lotharia, and with hope for what lies ahead in Numendil. May both Kingdoms prosper, and may peace endure for us all.

 

˳˙⋆  ──────────────────────༺⠀✧⠀༻──────────────────────  ⋆˙˳

 

His Grace, ACHILLIUS ARTEMISIO D’ARKENT, 

Baron of Selm, Patriarch of House d’Arkent

 

[annanicole__ 2802]

Beryl Augustina d’Arkent closed her eyes as she read over the missive. At just twenty-three namedays, she had already endured more heartache and hardship than many twice her age—the fall of her home and kingdom, the move to a foreign land, and then the loss of her mother.

 

With a quiet sigh, she stepped over to the small desk by the window, its surface still dusty from disuse. She drew out a piece of parchment, uncorked her inkwell, and dipped her quill.  The candlelight flickered as she began to write, her hand steady despite the weight on her heart.

 

“Father,” she wrote, “I pray for you and for our family. I pray that this is the right path. Know that wherever Mother is, she is proud of you. You are fulfilling the promise you made to her—to find us a place where we can be proper, respected, and whole once more. Balian and Lotharia will always hold a cherished place in my heart, but we cannot grow there. We are of the blood of the dragon—we need space to rise and stretch our wings. This gives us that chance.”

 

When she finished, she set the quill aside, sealed the letter with care, and sent it off to her father. Then, with a deep breath, Beryl turned back to the task before her—unpacking her belongings in the silence of her new manor. 

[Cheese 8883]

Spoiler

https://youtu.be/yplMTaA0ypY?si=wS5cIMq_8VE4BfsL

Esfir sat in front of the fireplace. The flames ate at the missive posted by her son like ravenous dogs, and the light of the embers reflected off the boomsteel blade she held across her lap. The woman seethed with an anger hotter than the hearth. She felt it in her stomach; she was nauseous with the betrayal. She was sick with the loneliness that plagued her and followed her like a shadow. After all she had done. Years, decades of work trying to promote her House and make it flourish, and within moments it had been so carelessly thrown to the wind? And now, only she should remain in Lotharia—the rightful home of d’Arkent, as it descended from Balian, as it descended from the Holy Orenian Empire—alone?

 

”Oh, Achillius…” The last, and only Duchess of Sunholdt murmured the name, not of her son, but of her husband, as she placed her head into her hands. “Why did you have to leave?”

Spoiler

good luck gang

 

[The Vulgate Cycle 577]

Arthur Marsyr, in his home within the White City read the missive and sighed softly. He had very much wanted this, all his family together in one place. But he knew it would be all his family, absent one. He looked at the portraits of the family he had in the house, his family, Tereza's, spotted who he was thinking about and then moved to his desk to begin penning a letter to her. It had been to long anyways.

[xDisarray 552]

Aurellius Greye silently read the missive in his chambers. The page lit by a candle sitting near the edge of the desk, illuminating the dark around him as his eyes scanned the page. 

 

“Farewell friend, I pray for you and your family” he said aloud. Both Aurellius and Achillius had been friends and comrades for many many years. “I hope we can still keep in touch.” He then folded the missive before putting the candle out.

[FireAGN 1207]

Malcolm Julius read the missive with much surprise, his old family, coming to his home in Numendil? Achillius leaving Lotharia was nothing Malcolm would have ever expected from his elder brother, and such a choice made Malcolm wonder if he should leave too, simply existing as an unfavorable remnant of their past, or if he ought to stay...

[TaraJess 2848]

Aera de Senna read the missive and felt her gut twist. Perhaps her Uncle was braver than she was... perhaps it was because Balian had been gone for years. 

 

She pondered that night, what could have been. She pondered what life would have been like if the rightful Duchess of Aquilae had been brave enough to take the deal offered to her, to force her family to new lands despite their protests. Would they have been better off? Would their name have been more than whispers by now? She thought of the current sucess of Senna, that broken branch of Vuiller, how it grew bigger than the tree that it had splintered from. Was that destiny a show of what should have been?

 

She ached, for what should have been. She ached for the name she was born of, and felt responsible for its demise. She wanted that name to not just survive, but thrive, and it was ripped away from her. No matter how many times she would turn around to inspect the what-ifs of her past, the very least she could do now was assist her current family towards greatness.

 

"You were always brave, Uncle Achillius..."