Editing City Series:Volume6b Chapter4 (section)

===Part 1===

Mornings began early in a hospital.

That was especially true for Munich’s central hospital. By 9AM, the inpatients had all finished their breakfast and the outpatients became the main focus.

The hospital was made from five 4-story buildings measuring 100 yards long, so the interior was much like a labyrinth.

The hallways were built wide to allow rolling beds to pass each other and the windows were large to let in plenty of natural light, so this massive multilayer labyrinth was designed with healing in mind.

Three sets of footsteps rang loud through the hallway filled with older patients and doctors.

The one walking in the lead was Bermark Vier, a pencil of a man with a relaxed expression and the black coat of the Geheimnis Agency. Two enormous men walked behind him.

The bald one with a fully prosthetic body below the black coat was Graham Karlsruhe.

Walking behind Graham’s clanking metal feet was Schweitzer. He held his removed coat and his eyes took in his surroundings as he walked.

The large window to their right showed a courtyard surrounded by hospital buildings on all sides.

The courtyard contained a grassy lawn and black cedars chosen for the amount of sunlight the area received. A few patients were walking through it, chatting pleasantly.

Schweitzer heard Graham’s voice while he viewed the courtyard.

“Lieutenant, how do you like the hospital your father protected?”

“He did not protect this hospital,” plainly stated Schweitzer. “From what I heard, he allowed most of the patients to escape but failed to hold back the rioters and was killed.”

“Keep your head up, Lieutenant. I can hear your voice sinking.” Graham did not look back. “Your job today is to protect me. Do not forget that.”

“Yes, sir.”

After the briefest of pauses, Schweitzer picked up his pace. An old woman among the patients saluted the three of them and he nodded back before moving on ahead.

Graham met his increased pace with words.

“My memories tell me your father destroyed the empty hospital to create a barrier and even smashed the earth below it to protect the people. He fought the rioters, but he refused to use any weapons and killed none of them.”

“…”

“Among the patients he protected were a woman of the Naylor family that would go on to lead the Geheimnis Agency, and my own sister Rose.”

Schweitzer kept his legs moving as he listened.

“I no longer possess emotions, but I still sense the necessity of that act. You have my thanks, heir of Schweitzer.”

“You honor me.”

He bowed and raised his head again to see Bermark taking a left turn at the intersection of halls up ahead. That took them away from the sunny courtyard.

“It appears Lieutenant General Heiliger has already arrived,” said Bermark.

Graham nodded and followed, his prosthetic feet clanking on the tiled floor.

“Bermark, I heard Heiliger accompanied you as far as the HQ. Did my brother-”

“You will meet him shortly. It is a shame that your positions prevent you from meeting anywhere other than this.”

“The relationship between the Geheimnis Agency, the government, and the military is exceedingly complex.”

“Only because the current age demanded it. After the war, the Geheimnis Agency was created with a Naylor family Sofort Leser in the lead and with you as one of its Fünf Leithammel. …Lieutenant General Heiliger accepted his position as an intermediary between the Geheimnis Agency and both the government and military, so he relinquished his position as a Neue Kavalier, married a Heidengeist, and enlisted in the military.”

Graham said nothing, so only Bermark’s emotionless voice filled the hallway.

“Someone like him is necessary to bridge the gap between the Neue Kavaliers of the Geheimnis Agency and the common citizens of the government and military. If not for him, someone else would have taken the position.”

“Bermark, I detect no emotion in your explanation.”

“How can you understand emotion with that Psyche Outer device installed?”

“If your explanation contained emotion, I would find it incomprehensible.” Graham explained. “Now, Bermark, the Lieutenant told me on the ride here that you had an emotional response to the Messiah girl, Hazel Mirildorf. Was that because she is your future master?”

“She was polite with me and I merely returned the favor.”

The hallway came to an end up ahead. The great metal door there covered the full width of the hallway.

Schweitzer watched as Bermark turned around.

Then Bermark took a step aside, toward the wall.

A pair of metallic feet clanked forward to take his place.

It was Graham.

He faced the massive metal door with his back to Schweitzer.

“This land is near the Black Forest, where Germany had its true beginning a thousand years ago. The Unreif Germane tells us the Messiah and the divinely-named one-armed young man were served by four Neue Kavaliers: Naylor, Karlsruhe, Borderson, and Maldrick.”

Schweitzer nodded. You could find that information in children’s picture books.

But Graham was not done.

“My ancestor, Karlsruhe, made a demand in return for his service: a way to save this land from the Word Plague that ran rampant at the time. This and the Neuschwanstein hospital you saved are remnants of that.”

“…”

“At Neuschwanstein, they built a lab for creating prosthetic parts like my brother’s Tragisch. Here at Munich, they built a cold storage facility to preserve terminal Word Plague patients.”

Schweitzer frowned at that. The words pushed out from his mouth.

“How did they have such advanced technology back then?”

“I do not know. Perhaps it was a remnant of the Obstacle Era and perhaps it was Ober Geheimnis. But now that we know how to cure the Word Plague, the facility has been given a different use.”

Graham coughed. It was a quiet cough, but it came from deep in the lungs. He forced it down with a breath and reached his right hand to the door.

“Many of my Karlsruhe bloodline come down with this disease. Not even taking a prosthetic body is enough to fully suppress Words Warn, so the patients are preserved here.”

Then the door moved. Upwards.

“Behold that which your father protected, Lieutenant.”

The rising door revealed a stairway leading down into a black abyss void of light.