Arkady

  When Obie arrived to walk with them to dinner, everyone was a bit surprised by his attire. Instead of his usual blue robe, he was wearing a fully-body, and very purple pajama set. He had a pillow in one hand and a teddy bear in the other. In place of his large cone hat, he now wore a matching pajama hat with a little white furry ball on the end.

  “Um, Obie, whatcha wearing?” Orb asked.

  Obie tilted his head. “What do you mean? I’m sleeping over after dinner. Why wouldn’t I just wear what I’m going to sleep in?” he asked.

  Vetica and Merlin exchanged a look. Arkady shrugged. “Good enough for me. Charlie, you ready?” he called out.

  “Welcome lads, Obie, Arkady,” Aveo said, addressing each other them in turn. Orielle stood behind him. She wore a warm smile and a modest but stunning red dress.

  Aveo noticed Charlie. “And who is this? Don’t tell me you have a brother I don’t know about, Obie?” he asked.

  “No, this is Charlos! He’s Arkady’s son,” Obie said nonchalantly.

  Orielle’s eyes widened. Arkady choked. “What? No, he’s not!”

  “Huh?” Obie turned, surprised. “Oh…wait, Charlo’s is Merle’s son. Not Arkady’s. My bad!” Obie said with a smile, as if he hadn’t made a preposterous mixup.

  “How did you confuse the two of us?” Arkady asked.

  Aveo eyed them. “Lad, in the future, get your story straight before you get to the front door.”

  “It’s not like that, I swear!” Arkady said.

  Aveo shook his head. “Looks like Orielle’s gonna be a step-mom.”

  Orielle’s jaw dropped. “Dad!” She turned a deep shade of red, matching her dress.

  Aveo chuckled. “I’m just giving you a hard time, lad.” He turned back to Obie. “Where are his parents?” he asked, motioning them inside.

  Obie looked shocked. “Oh, no…should I have invited them?”

  “Of course, Obie! You don’t just ask parents to bring their baby somewhere all on its own! Though…I guess they did agree to it.” Aveo stroked his beard.

  Arkady laughed. “It’s okay, I’m basically his uncle. His father, Merle, was injured on the way into town the other day. He’s still recovering. Obie here’s giving them a little break. You know how tough babies are, I’m sure?” He shot a playful look at Orielle, who rolled her eyes. She wasn’t the only one. He could feel Charlie shooting him a look as well.

  “Whose says I’m hard to deal with?” Charlie demanded.

  “Aye, I know it well enough,” Aveo said. “Welcome, Charlos!” He paused as Charlie waved at him. “Did the kid just wave at me? How the heck did he learn that?” Aveo’s eyes lit up.

  Arkady turned to stare at Charlie. “Uh, yeah, that’s a little trick he picked up. He likes to wave, at people, because he’s a lot smarter than most babies,” Arkady said, emphasizing the last few words.

  “Oops,” Charlie said.

  “He really is! We’ve been talking all day—” Obie said excitedly. Arkady put a hand over his shoulder.

  “Lovely home you have here!” Arkady said, cutting Obie off before he could let anyone else in on Charlie’s secret.

  Aveo looked at Orielle. “Why don’t you show them to the dining room? I’m just a few minutes away from pulling dinner out of the oven, lads. You go get comfortable and ready to dig in!” he said, a beaming grin on his face. He hurried off, his apron flowing in the wind.

  Orielle took the lead. “Follow me everyone,” she said, before turning and leading them toward the dining room.

  Orielle stood behind her own seat and waited for the others to file in. Arkady noticed the open seat next to her, and it took everything in his power not to make a beeline for it. But Obie, System bless him, had his eyes on it. He hurried over with Charlie still in his arms.

  “Uh, actually, Obie…” Orielle spoke up. “I was thinking maybe you’d want to sit over there, next to Tomlin?” she said, pointing at the side of the table across from her. The chair opposite hers was already pulled out, and it was clear someone had been sitting there a little while ago.

  “Oh! That’s a good idea! Thanks Orielle!” Obie handed Charlie to Arkady. Then, he rolled over the table head first and landed on the other side.. “Ta-da!” he said, before grabbing the chair she’d pointed to. His long beard was twisted and flattened around him now. When he noticed, he pulled out a tiny brush and got to work at fixing it.

  Charlie thought this was hilarious and shrieked in excitement in Arkady’s arms. He motioned for Arkady to set him down and then crawled after his friend across the table.

  “It’s a good thing we haven’t set the dinnerware out yet…” Orielle said, watching everything play out. “I think we still have Tomlin’s booster seat from when he was younger…I could go look for the baby!” she said.

  Arkady smiled. “Actually, he prefers to sit on top of the table. I know how that sounds, but don’t worry, he’s pretty well-behaved. He won’t move from his spot. Will you now, Charlie?” Arkady said, looking at Charlie across the table.

  Charlie didn’t respond. He’d commandeered Obie’s comb and was helping him brush his beard. Though he didn’t seem to be helping all that much. He was combing the same patch of beard over and over, apparently he wasn’t actually sure how combs worked. But he was having fun, and that was what mattered. Obie casually pulled out a second comb and started working on the rest of his beard. Arkady was wondering how exactly he combed the beard behind his back when his curiosity got the better of him.

  “So, where’s this Tomlin?” he asked. Oriella scarcely had time to answer when Arkady noticed a pair of eyes staring at him from under the table, only a few feet away from his shoes.

  “Hello!” the boy with brown hair and blue eyes said. “It’s me!” he said.

  Oriella huffed. “Tomlin, get out from under the table!”

  “Why? It’s funny! Besides, you told me to try to scare the man with red hair!” he protested.

  Oriella blushed. Arkady turned to look at her. “Oh, did she now?” He crossed his arms playfully.

  “That…was supposed to be a secret,” she admitted.

  Tomlin shrugged and crawled back under the table. He popped back up on the other side, taking his place beside Obie. “Hey Obie!”

  Obie rubbed his hands together. “Oh my gosh! I’m sitting next to both of my best friends! This is amazing!” he said. “Tomlin, meet Charlos; Charlos, meet Tomlin!” Obie hurriedly introduced them. He whispered something in Tomlin’s ear.

  Tomlin’s jaw dropped. “He can talk?!”

  Arkady clenched his eyes shut.

  Obie shushed Tomlin. “It’s a secret, but yes. But…only I can hear him. Don’t worry, once I master the art of baby talking, I’ll teach you how to do it! We could have secrets.”

  Charlie covered his mouth. Tomlin squeezed his fist. The idea of secrets was apparently very appealing. Too appealing for Arkady’s comfort. At this rate, everyone in the fort would think Charlie was a talking baby by the end of the day. He couldn’t wait to have this conversation with Vetica and Merlin later. Vetica was gonna kill him.

  Tomlin stood in his chair and started dancing fervently for no other reason than he apparently felt like it. Charlie and Obie watched as if it were the coolest thing in the world.

  He turned his attention to Oriella. Despite his concerns, he hadn’t come just to chaperone. And of course he had information to get, but for now, that could wait. “Orielle, you look…amazing.” He said, gesturing to her dress and the hair that fell around her shoulders. She’d rocked a ponytail earlier, but her hair looked just as amazing down like this. He was starting to think this girl was trouble.

  “Really? You think so?” she asked. “I like to dress up for dinner every once in a while.”

  Tomlin paused mid-dance. “No, you don’t.”

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  Orielle shot him a look. “I also like to push little boys off chairs!”

  Tomlin stuck his tongue out and went back to dancing.

  Behind Arkady, Aveo’s heavy footsteps entered the room with the dinnerware. “Lad, I’ll be honest. I can’t remember the last time I saw my daughter in a dress. I wonder what the special occasion is?” Aveo nudged Arkady and winked.

  Orielle sighed and fell into her seat. “I hate it here.”

  Obie noticed Aveo and sent an exaggerated wink towards Arkady as well. “Yeah! Special occasion amirite?” he asked. When Arkady only folded his lips in return, Obie sighed. “I have no idea what we’re talking about.”

  Arkady helped Aveo set the dinnerware. When they’d finished, he offered to help with the food. A few trips later and they’d laid everything out on the table. At the table’s center was a sizeable chunk of meat, it looked like a ham, but Arkady couldn’t be sure. All he knew was it smelled delicious and thankfully was far too large to be a rat or a raccoon, like Aveo and Orielle had joked.

  Aveo chuckled. “Alright lads, Orielle, time to eat.” He paused. “Where’s me knife?” He looked around for a bit before shrugging. “This is why I always clean my axe before dinner,” he said, hefting it off his waist.

  “Father don’t…” Orielle groaned.

  “This is how you use an axe when someone’s way too close to your daughter,” Aveo announced.

  Thunk.

  The meat split in two, so did the plate it was on, and a large crack formed on the table underneath it.

  Arkady hurriedly slid his chair a few inches further away from Orielle.

  “Papa!” Orielle rose in a huff. “Damage the table again and I’ll show you how to use an axe when your father forgets his table manners!”

  Aveo swallowed, and slid a few inches to his right as well, closer to the opposite end of the table. “It’s hard being a dad when your daughter’s scarier than you are.” He looked at Obie. “Alright, let’s eat, pass the potatoes, Obie.” He noticed Charlie on the table. “Oh right, what’s this baby of yours eat?” he asked.

  Charlie was already pointing to a slice of bread, and Obie reached out and got it for him.

  “I’ll be! The boy eats bread already?” Aveo said, taking a large helping of potatoes on his plate.

  “Apparently,” Arkady said, watching the baby nibble. Arkady waited for his opportunity, as everyone filled their plates and ate, and Tomlin and Obie talked about their days. The fort had a school, apparently, and Tomlin was sharing the lessons he’d learned today. Obie talked about some of his hex knight duties, which as far as Arkady could tell boiled down to playing and staying away from all the more serious stuff. But finally, the conversation turned to him and Orielle.

  Aveo turned to him with a chunk of meat sitting in his beard. “You two had a productive day,” he said.

  Orielle beamed.

  Aveo continued. “I slipped out before cooking and took another look at that training dummy. If I’m being honest, the knights are running me thin with last-minute adjustments to the shelter. But I’m excited to see Orielle excited about something again, so I talked to a few of the lads and a couple of apprentices agreed to help out.”

  Orielle beamed. “Wait, really?” she asked.

  “That’s right. After dinner, we can take a look at it. I’ll make some notes, get the process as streamlined as we can, and they’ll help you pump out as many as you can. Maybe your new friend can help out too,” he said, gesturing at Arkady.

  Arkady could feel Orielle’s eyes burning into the side of his face, and he turned to look at her. “That’d be great,” she said excitedly.

  “I have a few errands I need to run for Charlos’ parents, but, yeah, I’d love to,” Arkady agreed.

  “Whenever you’re free,” Orielle said, smiling. “I know there are only a few days until the storm, but a lot of people are talking about making the fort their homes long-term. There’s no guarantee that the knights stay to protect us forever, so this will go a long way toward helping us protect ourselves if we need to.”

  Arkady nodded. “That’s amazing. I didn’t realize so many people planned to say once the storm had passed. He turned to Aveo and complimented him. It really goes to show how good of a job you did, sir.” He watched Aveo pull the meat stuck in his beard out and plop it into his mouth.

  The older man turned and eyed him. “What, you thought I didn’t know about it? I always know about meat, boy. The beard adds a little spice.” He cut another piece and then sat it in his beard as well, before continuing picking at his plate.

  Across the table, Obie tried to do the same thing with a piece of bread. The bread slowly rolled around his circular beard like a snowball down a mountain slope. Arkady tilted his head at that. He turned back to Aveo. “You mentioned a shelter, Aveo?”

  Orielle groaned. “Oh, don’t get him started on this. He’ll be talking about it for the rest of the night.”

  Fortunately for Arkady, that was exactly what he was hoping for. “Well, I was a little curious. Like I said, I really admire all the work he’s done around here.”

  Aveo nodded, wiping his beard. “We built all these houses out of fancy materials. Finer stuff than I’ve ever used. It took a long time, but the plan was for everyone to shelter in place when the storm hits. But in the last week or so, it’s like the knights are…I don’t know. They decided they want a shelter, just in case. The fort is full of knights. I just can’t imagine what they think we need a shelter for on top of everything. The walls, the defenses we’ve got in place? They’ll hold. I know they will,” Aveo said.

  At least he was confident in his work, but why weren’t the knights? The better question was, why had the knights changed their minds at the last second? Had they learned something? Did it have anything to do with the storm arriving earlier than they originally anticipated? The questions were piling up, but Arkady couldn’t ask too many. Ask too many and he’d look suspicious. Precision. That was his strength. It was just like fighting. Find that one weak point that makes everything else unravel.

  Aveo shrugged. “But ya know? I haven’t been paid this well since I worked in the capital, and the lads are hungry for the king’s coin, so we’ll rack it all in while we can.”

  Arkady nodded. It was interesting that Aveo used to work in the capital. “So you’re working on a shelter for the storm now. Are you using more of that wood?”

  “No, no. Same as that axe of mine. It’s a dungeallis mixture,” Aveo explained.

  Across the table, Charlie perked up at the mention of dungeallis.

  “Dungeallis is rare, and expensive. The knights have enough of that lying around for a fort like this?” Arkady asked. He should consider his questions better, but the absurdity of it was too much for him.

  “It is. But it can be diluted. You mix stone and dungeallis at the right temperature, let it settle, you get something much tougher than most hex beasts can handle. It’s a diluted version of the technique they used to make the castle and walls of the capital city,” Aveo explained.

  “My great-grandfather helped build that!” Tomlin said across the table.

  Aveo chuckled. “That they did, lad.”

  Arkady looked between Aveo and Orielle. “Wait, but wasn’t the capital city built hundreds of years ago?”

  Orielle dabbed at her face with a napkin. “It was, but the city has expanded a lot since then; every once in a while the walls are expanded, or need to be repaired. Papa’s grandfather oversaw the last expansion,” she said.

  “You can imagine his disappointment when I decided to make toys instead of walls. This place, this fort, well, this is the only legacy he’ll ever have from me! I’m going back to making toys after all this hex storm business is over,” Aveo chuckled, but the laugh didn’t quite reach his eyes.

  “That must’ve been hard, feeling like a disappointment,” Arkady said. He didn’t think anything could get to Aveo at this point, but seeing him like this, well, it was another side to him.

  “Eh, he stopped giving me grief, eventually.”

  “Well, that’s good—” Arkady started.

  “When he died,” Aveo said with a laugh. He nudged Arkady with his elbow.

  Arkady smiled. “I still can’t imagine a toy-maker making…all of this.”

  Aveo shrugged. “What’s a house but a toy you can live in? Toys have to be safe for children, homes have to be safe for everyone, safety’s always a priority for me. Me and the lads, well, we just expanded the scope of our work. It’s giving me some good ideas too.”

  “I can imagine. Surely there are some things though…like the tower for instance, or this shelter you're working on, surely you’ve never made toys like that? What’s been the most challenging thing for you? Has anything pushed you or…presented a unique challenge?” Arkady asked. He hoped the question got him what he needed. He wouldn’t be able to press on this topic much longer. Arkady didn’t want to annoy Orielle if he could help it, and Aveo worked with the knights daily, if his suspicions were aroused, this operation was over.

  Aveo leaned his head back. “It was the planning. I’m good at figuring out how to mass produce things, showing my lads where to cut, finding a system that allows us to get more toys out, especially the popular ones. The challenge with a fort like this was making sure I had everything planned out ahead of time. We had to work on the houses, the tower, a lot of different components all at once. That took a lot of planning. I had to have it all mapped out before we got started. That was the only way Gregory could approve the whole thing. He said once we committed to bunkering down, that was it. So, I made a plan,” Aveo said.

  Arkady’s mind started turning the words over and over. He had an idea, but he couldn’t press on this particular topic. So, he turned it back to one Orielle might appreciate more. “Well, I’m excited to see you break down the training dummy later. Do you walk your apprentices through the steps or how’s that work?” he asked. This was more a test than a question. He had a sneaking feeling that he already had the information he needed. Now he just needed to confirm it.

  “Lad, I don’t have time for that. I draw up a blueprint, a habit I picked up from the family business before I changed what the family business was. When we come up with a new idea, I break it down, and draw it up. When the lads help the two of you tomorrow, they’ll look at that blueprint and know exactly what to do. It’ll take some time to get the steps down quickly enough, but they’re quick learners. That’s why I chose em,” Aveo said.

  Arkady smiled. That’s what he’d been hoping for.

  He took a bite of the meat on his plate and thought to make a joke. “This uh, rat, it’s fantastic, sir,” he said, referencing the joke Aveo had made when he’d invited Arkady to dinner earlier.

  “Rat?” Obie asked, covering his mouth.

  Aveo groaned. “Oh boy, please don’t —”

  Obie’s cheeks visibly expanded behind his hands.

  “Take it outside!” Aveo said hurriedly, pointing toward the front door!

  Obie stood and made a run for it.

  Tomlin retched. He was getting sick, too. He didn’t follow Obie, instead; he turned and ran further into the house.

  Aveo turned to glare at Arkady.

  Orielle held up a hand. “Don’t look at him like that. It was your joke.”

  Aveo grumbled. “That it was, but if they don’t make it out of the house...” His words trailed off.

  “I guess Tomlin’s using the backdoor?” Arkady asked, pointing out he hadn’t followed Obie.

  “Something like that,” Orielle said.

  Obie cried out. “Oh system, I couldn’t make it. It’s all in my beard! It’s everywhere!”

  Arkady grimaced. “Got a mop I could borrow?”