MAP. — Three weeks into the autumn of 1452, the enigma we know as Adrian Faust shined his last shoe, dusted his bedframe, and signed himself out of Exford’s House for Lost Yoof (they call spades spades in that region of Iara). House Head Corbin Strut confirms that he had been ‘about eighteen’, had been of odd conduct (although he did such jobs as were assigned him tolerably well), had done abysmally at school ‘for the useful subjects’, and was seldom seen about the home when he wasn’t expected. He could — or would — elaborate no more.
Adrian spoke gently with a creche of younger peers, patted their heads awkwardly; buttoned his tweed coat, and walked out of the gate and down the road. Above his retreating frame the tents and banners of the autumn fair glowed in westering sun. He never returned to Exford.
… or so went the prevailing narrative. We know from his notes that he did, once. We also know that he’d wandered into the fair that day as the sun set over the fields, and talked himself into a billet on the Guildship CR Hollander. And thence his life began to take on matters of pan-Carigian consequence.
A lot of what we know about the Hollander, her career, and life aboard her, we know from notes pulled from the ship’s charred and broken safe years after the crash which broke her back and retired her crew. In a statement last month the Havens stressed their decision not to treat with Federate press. There was no contestation, however, of Malendar’s legal rights over the wreck and therefore we see no reason not to render publick material that has fallen into our hands.