Messenger Tower
(Day 10 of @thewatchau‘s prompts)
Ivy had to remind herself that she’d agreed to this.
Things were patched up with Gus, that was good. He was still in the Guard, but that was his choice. Last time she was at Runner’s Haven, the two had bumped into each other again.
After a quick catch up, Gus mentioned that he’d had a message from Griff, about some post that his aunt and uncle had sent, but instead of it going to the forge, it was stuck at Mulladún’s Messenger Tower.
“I’ll get it,” Ivy had sighed, knowing where this was going. “I’ve got no messages to pick up here.”
“Thanks Ivy,” Gus sagged in relief. “I don’t hear from them often, so I didn’t want to miss it.”
“Is this why you wanted to find me here? To be your personal courier?”
“No!”
Ivy raised an eyebrow.
“…Maybe. I wanted to spend time with you too!”
“I’m teasing you Gus,” Ivy smiled. “I’ll get it tomorrow. Meet you in Glenbeg?”
“Yeah. Thanks again.”
“Thank me when I’ve done it,” Ivy downed her drink. “I’ll meet you the day after tomorrow, probably in the evening.”
It was only when Ivy got to Mulladún the next day that she remembered how many stairs there were. And guess where the Messenger Tower was?
Otto got bored before she did, landing on Firefly’s saddle, much to the horse’s irritation. Ivy had gotten off before they even reached the stairs.
The next worst point was passing the Guard Coalition hub. Ivy found herself glancing at it as they passed. It was hard to miss, because of course it was. Couldn’t just be a building with the Guard’s emblem on it, no. Griffin gate guards, despite the lack of gate, walls decorated with swords and shields, as if the griffins didn’t give it away.
Firefly didn’t seem so bothered, and Otto was trying to work out how Ivy was so agitated walking past it. He puffed his feathers up and hissed at the obviously offensive building, making Ivy laugh.
“Thanks Otto, you’re right,” she scratched his head, and he leaned into it, eyes closing.
The Messenger Tower wasn’t far from the guild hub. It was backed up against the central keep, which acted as a spine for the entire city. The tower jutted out a little above the keep, and ravens flew in and out of the very top in small groups.
The inside was pretty similar to the Messenger Tower in Fort Stiofán, making Ivy wonder if the latter had used the former for inspiration. One chute per floor was spaced equidistant from each other around the room with a person at each one to sort the messages.
They’ll all have come from the floors above, so they were already sorted depending on where they were going, down here it was just more sorting, depending on how much there was going to one place.
Right at the front of everything, blocking this all off from the public, was a greeter desk, which Ivy made a beeline for.
“Good day, do you have a message to send?” the greeting was probably scripted.
“I’ve come to pick up actually. Weird request, a message to a Gus Graham in Glenbeg?”
“Do you have permission to pick this up?”
Ivy had prepared for this, and slid across written permission from Gus with both of them having their signatures on, just in case.
“Very well,” the clerk had a look at their notes. “Ah yes, we were waiting to send that out with the rest of the post for Glenbeg. It’s a big one with only a few other letters for Glenbeg.”
“I’m heading straight back there, I can drop the rest off,” Ivy oh so subtly slid across her membership papers to the Wander Legacy.
The clerk had a look over them. “I will have to pay you for your services of course, this is a little unusual to get a volunteer,” they looked through their desk and came up with a sum. “Will that suffice?”
“I was doing it as a favour for a friend,” Ivy started, but the clerk interrupted.
“And you’ve added on the rest of Glenbeg’s messages, ergo I should be paying you the same rate we pay for Career Runners. I appreciate you are not a Career Runner, but you are still endorsed by both the Wander Legacy and the Watch, highly respectable institutions”
“Fine, I don’t mind either way.”
“Excellent! If you please wait a moment,” the clerk disappeared for a second before reappearing with what looked like a large box and a small sheaf of letters. “There we go. The box is for Gus Graham, everything else is for Glenbeg.”
Ivy’s eyes had gone wide. She had not expected that, and was mentally trying to work out how in Samwise’s name she was going to get that back!
“A problem there Messenger?”
“…No, no problem,” Ivy took the package and letters. “I’ll send a raven once these are dropped off.”
“Thank you,” the clerk said, who Ivy could just see over the box. “Safe travels!”
Ivy just nodded, leaving the building and hoping Firefly wouldn’t balk at the package. Maybe she could tie to the saddlebags?
(Not much to say here, date is either late 1610 or early 1611 I think)
