A letter to family, through Glenn.

[channe]

The Kaczmarek children are everywhere.

That's the thing one must remember when coming to the Baker Farm -- now changed and rechristened Calomel's Farm in honor of its new owner and benefactor. Children. Giertruda watches the neighbors', as well, so it's black hair and yellow and brown that would crowd around Glenn Burnie as he arrived at the half-built stone cottages funded by the Governor's deep pockets. Dominik, you see, had told them what Glenn would arrive to do, and a letter is always big news.

Very big news.

In five minutes, they're all gathered around him, young and old, and a half-crumpled letter with a plain, broken wax seal is thrust into his hands -- and, here. Here, Glenn. Somebody has gone in and wheeled out Karol, you see, a man that stinks of whiskey and looks as haggard as you'd imagine, after years in bed, years inside, and he so rarely comes out. He should be in the prime of his life, but those legs have started to atrophy from disuse; he should be a strong, healthy man, but there's nothing of that left. Not after Jozef, not after Curin's beating. Not after the Ashfiend.

Nothing.

"G'wan, read it," Otto says.

[Glenn]

Glenn Burnie seemed more than a little nervous as he stood in front of the assembled (and impatient) Kaczmarek clan. It had been a very long time since he had done any public speaking, and never with an aduience quite like this, and for AGONY's sake no less. When did he get so blasted nice anyway? This was a letter from the girl who... ah, hell with it. She hadn't been all that much of an unstable brutish hellcat the last few times he had seen her. Agnieszka had even gone so far as to send him a letter of his own recently, though that was probably more for Rhaena's sake than his.

So it was with a deep clearing of his throat that Glenn looked down to the letter, ready to begin.

"Deer.. deer? Oh, yeah." He had almost forgotten EXACTLY where Agnie's skill level was. Aeryn meant well in teaching her (probably), but it was almost offensive how backwards he was in doing so. It's as if the man didn't have the first idea about Alzarn's Six Tomes of Phonics or ... or maybe he'd grumble about this later, given that it looked like he was about to get a shoe tossed at him.

"Dear Family,

"Well I know I havne't been gone for this long bih.... ah! before. Things are g.. good" Glenn stopped here, glaring down at the paper slightly. Oh, this wasn't fair. Given her spelling. He sounded like she would reading a normal letter! He'd just slow down and read a sentence in his head first. "Things are good but a little boring. The Xanth Grange soldiers are..." He looked up at the family, first the children and then the elders, with a shrug. "Apparently they're butt heads. Her phrasing, not mine. Just like she's in the room with us, really." Glenn could almost hear her trying to put her foot up his ass now. How charming. His expression turned sheepish as he continued. "They want stuff like bacon. Don't they know we don't even have bacon for ourselves? They don't know how to play bones with dice."

As he looked to the next paragraph, a frown came over his face. He read it twice to himself before translating it into a language that people in Myrken would actually understand. This wasn't the one to get wrong. "Dom will tell you about some trouble that I am in. It is stupid trouble and he knows the truth about it. I kept on telling the Constables that I don't know anything." Normally he'd be frustrated that she spelled know as 'no' in the first paragraph and 'kno' here, but really, that news was unsettling enough. He wondered if Rhaena knew about it. Would it be overstepping his bounds to ask Calomel about it? Did that ever stop him before?

Deciding it was best not to leave too long a pause after that, he continued. "Anyway, it rained all day and I was out on the walls. Now I think I have a cold, but it's not bad. It got me thinking about home and I'm glad we'er getting stone walls. Cinnabar is not..." Something of a cough there, but then another weak smile. "Cinnabar is not that much of a git after all."

He glanced over the next few words. Cheery as ever. "Sometimes I wonder if Thessilane comes at us, if I will die." Content aside, he wouldn't fault her for that. Thessilane was damn hard to spell. "Or if they'll actually tell me about the Ashfiend so that I can help. They don't tell me, and I hate that." A bit of guilt crept into his voice there. He's the one that knew as much as anyone and he really hadn't talked to her about it. Maybe he just didn't want to explain to Rhaena that HE was the one who sent her best friend off to her death. "But if I die protecting you from Thessilane or the Ashfiend, that will be okay. I wrote to tell you that I love you just in case, because things being as they are, I might not be able to come home right away." He was doing his best to just read now, to focus on the paper in front of him and not the people.

"And Otto, please listen to Mama for once." And stop trying to rush neighorly mapmakers while you're at it, huh?

"Ok I am going to beat up some new aspirants now." Hopefully not too brutally. Glenn happened to like a couple of them, at least he did last time he made it out to spar the recruits. She WAS an irritable peasant hellcat.

"Love, Agnie."

He finally looked up at the assembled family. "That's all." Well, it was MOSTLY easier than bringing a grief stricken Dominik alcohol, not that he's done that in the last week or two either.

[channe]

Otto, the smart aleck, claps. Almost immediately, Magda smiles, grabs the boy's wrist, and drags one hand away from the other.

"Thank you," she says, and, pausing, she narrows eagle-eyes on the mapmaker. "... you do not tell her about the Ashfiend?" But there's nothing after that, nothing to tell whether it is a criticism or sheer praise. She just crosses her arms. Around her, some of the Kaczmareks begin to disperse, their curiosity sated: the children, back to a strange game of stickball, and Piotr, back to the barn. The younger girls wheel a very silent, dirty Karol back into the old house. Only Dominik and Magda remain.

Magda continues, with a smile -- "That was private, for our family, you will remember that, yes?"

"... he will," says Dominik, his eyes flickering to the letter, and then back up to Glenn Burnie.

[Glenn]

Glenn watched everyone disperse, keeping nice and quiet as they did. There was a nod here and a smile there, and then he was alone with Magda and Dominik.

Oh it's a bad thing when the entirety of Myrken Wood, peasants and all, seem to realize that you're one of the foremost experts on Teron Ashfiend. A little uncomfortable that. Or maybe Glenn just said a bit too much with his face when he read the letter. It's hard to blame him, really. The whole reason that he ended up in this mess, in his position, in the first place was that no one was telling him anything. So he went out and learned. That's what Glenn did. It's about all he COULD do. And then shortly thereafter he ended up over his head (like always). The joy that was the life of Glenn Burnie.

And they were both looking at him. Somehow it was easier to look at Dom's gaze than Magda's smile. At least the former he was used to. "I know. Yeah, of course." He hands over the letter to the man. Thing of it was, Agony WAS part of the family, so that meant he could well talk to her about it, couldn't he? It was a thought that he rolled through his head with a straight face too. No grin. No smile. No nothing. "I was just glad I could help. Please, call on me if there's anything else like this I can do. I'm sure Dom can find me easy enough and if not, Cinnabar ALWAYS knows where I am." Then, finally, he let himself relax and a smile came over his face, slight but honest enough. "I mean it, yeah?"