Farenworth
| Type | Abandoned village |
|---|---|
| Notable sites | Alpin Loomin's house and its library |
| Notable inhabitants | Alpin Loomin, Galabear |
| Status | Deserted apart from one household |
| First appearance | Sacred: Eslura's Calling |
Farenworth is an abandoned village in the wooded hill country inland of Eslura's west coast, and the home of Alpin Loomin. Alistair Archibald carried Beatrice Tidal and Reagan Hideaway there on the night they came out of the cave portal, and it was in the library at the back of Alpin's house that Bea was told she is the new Sacred Head.[1][2] Seely introduces the gopher to strangers as Alpin Loomin of Farenworth, and Alpin has asked him more than once to stop.[3]
The village
Farenworth lies in a meadow at the end of a forest path. Its houses are small and their mossy roofs blend into the roll of the grass so completely that a traveller could ride past without seeing the place at all. The windows are shattered, the doors hang crooked and open, and vines have grown over everything. Bea took it for a ghost town.[1]
The map of Eslura letters the name among the trees of a wooded, orchard-covered hill country, with one large round thatched hall drawn beside it.[4]
Nothing in the books says what emptied the village, when, or where its people went. Alpin insists he has more than enough friends to keep him company, which was his answer to Seely's remark that Farenworth might have grown lonely for him.[3]
Alpin Loomin's house
One house stands slightly taller than the rest and is untouched by the overgrowth, its windows whole and its alabaster white front catching the light of the moons like gold. Its front door reaches only to an adult's midsection, so guests go in on hands and knees.[1]
Inside it is nothing like its facade. The place felt to Bea ten times larger than any house she had been in, and held more gold than a dragon's treasure hoard. A fountain stands in the centre of the foyer topped by two golden gophers dancing, water falling from their cupped paws into a pool tiled in gold and bronze, and beyond it a grand marble staircase winds up to a mezzanine under a gold-coffered ceiling with a crystal chandelier. Arched windows run down the walls behind fringed curtains.[2]
The library
The library is behind the last door on the right, down a dark corridor off the foyer. Shelves of books rise higher than any ladder could reach, stacks stand on the dusty oak floor taller than Bea, and a fireplace takes up the whole of the back wall with its mouth shaped like a gopher, wide enough for Alpin, Alistair and both girls to have stood inside it with room to spare. On the night Bea saw it the firebox held no logs and the dust in it had piled into small mountains. A table and chairs stand in the middle of the room, and Galabear sleeps on the floor when she is not shooed out of it.[2]
The fireplace is a door as well as a hearth. A small stone at the back of the firebox, pressed, slides the stone walls apart onto a passage that comes out behind the house.[2] The chimney is wide enough to climb down: Millennium Loftwind arrived that way in a cascade of black dust, and was taken for the Shadow Reaper until she got her hands down from her face.[2]
Government
Farenworth has none. No ruler, council or guard of the village appears anywhere in the books, and the only household left in it is Alpin's. Piercio once tried to take the place for himself on the argument that "when you've got an abandoned town, it's really up for anyone to take", and Alpin has not forgiven him for it: meeting the mouse again in Galecrest, he spat at his boots and called him "the pest who tried to steal Farenworth from me".[5]
Notable events
- Millennium Loftwind, flying out from Galecrest to warn the Sacred Rulers that its dragons had lost their fire, was nearly blinded by a flash of golden light, felt the weight in the air that Eslura carries when it claims a Sacred Head, and changed course toward Farenworth to find the source.[6]
- Alistair Archibald reached the village the same night with Bea and Reagan on the back of his florahorse and a Shadow Reaper on their trail. He locked the arched windows, dragged an armoire against the front door, broke Alpin's vase doing it, and moved everyone into the library.[1][2]
- Alistair, Alpin and Millennium sat over tea in the library while Bea and Reagan listened. Alistair set out Amelia Lunala's foretelling, Bea's wrist was laid on the table and found to carry the Sacred Symbol, and Alistair told her that Eslura had chosen its next Sacred Head. The candles went out in the middle of the conversation, the Reaper having found the house, and the party left through the passage behind the fireplace on Galabear's back.[2]
- On the road to the High Moon Festival, Alistair said that if Seely's findings were right there was no reason the Olphins should be imprisoned any longer. Barnaby Britto asked whether that meant he was free. Alpin told him the whole of Eslura had still to be won over first, then offered him a room at Farenworth until it was.[7]