Editing City Series:Volume6c Chapter3 (section)

===Part 1===

The sky was blue.

Looking down showed trees covered in the green of early summer.

Further away, the trees grew thick enough to call a thicket. Further than that, there were enough to call a forest. A green mountain rose beyond that.

This was one of the forests in the northwestern German region of Borderson.

A mountain road ran through the forest. It was an unpaved dirt road with wheel ruts and some undergrowth.

A single car drove along that road – a green Volkswagen Beetle convertible. It had originally been a military vehicle, so it had a plain, undecorated exterior.

Schweitzer sat in the Beetle’s driver’s seat, wearing a white shirt and navy slacks. Lowenzahn sat next to him, viewing a map and wearing a green men’s suit.

Schweitzer barely moved as the car shook. He kept his eyes directed forward as he asked her a question.

“Lowenzahn, which way at the fork up ahead?”

“Left. I think right would take us to the cliff above a waterfall. We’d fall right into the basin below.”

They turned left at the fork, feeling like they were slipping below the branches sticking out from the trees. A straight-line ascent came into view. Small grassy hills rose on either side and the road continued straight through the center.

The car bounced a bit as it continued on straight. Schweitzer shifted down a gear to prepare of the climb.

The roar of the engine grew louder and the car made its climb in between the grassy hills.

“What a view.”

Far in either direction, the wind blew waves through the grass in the shade of the hills and those waves continued on down past the bottom of the slope like vast, grassy carpets. The sound of splashing water sounded a bit like radio static as it faintly reached them from beyond the hill on the right.

“The waterfall must be close by.”

“Indeed,” agreed Schweitzer before turning to face the left hill.

Warm music reminiscent of a blowing bellows played from beyond that hill.

“That’s an organ. That sound really takes me back. …They’re playing the Unreif Germane.” She slowly looked around, letting the gentle music wash over her. “Six sections of the Unreif Germane are recited as poems: the 3rd Section of Daily Life, the 9th Section of the Ruling King, the 12th Section of the Soaring Dragon, the 1st Section of the Moonlight, the 6th Section of the Ending God, and the Final Section of the Wheel. This combines them all into a single song.”

“Your prophecies have included the 3rd Section of Daily Life, the 9th Section of the Ruling King, and now the 6th Section of the Ending God, correct?”

“Yes. The one that starts with ‘the party begins’ is the latest prophecy.”

Lowenzahn opened her mouth and recited the 6 sections of the Unreif Germane in order.



In the deep darkness of the Black Forest

Born from the abyss

The wheel emerges

:It whips up the wind and speaks with the dragon

:It reads the wind and weeps

:It carries power in its hand and hesitates



The one-armed youth holds the Messiah

The moonlit pair returns to the earth

The dragons gather and dance tonight

Every last thing returns home



:The wind blows, the night blows, the dragon awakes, the people move, the dragon roars

:The wind arrives from the north / A path arrives from the north

:The knight descends as a knight / The dragon soars high as a dragon

:All is a path to the north star / All is a story of an insurmountable wall



Follow the path to a familiar face

:While walking side by side

Your hand and voice might reach them

:But the moon sees it not

The gatherers begin their party

:A wall separates the pair

:As they follow the same path with the same words



The party begins and the village dances / The dragon roars and the knights gather

The bride weeps uncrowned / Her words go unsaid and he never arrives

Thus she is alone / She weeps and sleeps in this land



Urge him on and wait / If you wish for something new / All hesitation will come to an end up ahead

Complete the circle or break it / If you desire something new / Throw out all hesitation and look back

The wind is with you, he is with you / Seek out something new / All hesitation exists to tear through that wall



She held the door under her arm to fight the shaking as the car made its climb.

“The party begins and the village dances, huh? Captain, what did you think of the information Bermark sent us over the radio earlier? That the messiah has arrived in Germany with the one armed young man and as a member of the AIF this time.”

“This will be her first real battle. The rumors say it took her two years to pass their entrance exam.”

Lowenzahn nodded, brushed up her bangs, and spoke with the morning breeze on her face.

“Interesting, isn’t it? Remember what I told you three years ago? Our world is moving two years ahead of schedule.”

“But those two years have been mostly canceled out by the Messiah spending two years on an entrance exam?”

Schweitzer shifted down another gear.

The slope was getting steeper, but if they cleared this patch, they would reach the top of the hill. He stepped on the gas to accelerate.

Lowenzahn spoke in an emotionless tone while viewing only the sky out ahead.

“Someone sent P. Wagner a Verlsten Brief directing him to where the Sylphide slept underground and that sped up our world by two years. The Berlin Conflict was meant to happen in ’37 and the Sylphide Incident in August of ’39. The Sylphide Incident was meant to rouse suspicions of a Polish spy leaking information related to the Sylphide and that would have led to the invasion of Poland.”

“But it instead happened in ’37 when the military was not ready for an invasion and that opportunity was lost. In our version of the war, the invasion began in ’39 when classified documents were stolen from a German craft that crashed in Poland.”

“Yes, so hostilities still began in ’39 as before. That means events surrounding the Messiah were two years ahead of schedule, but the world as a whole remained unchanged. And by now in ’42, almost all of it has worked itself out on a global scale.”

“Has that made correcting the prophecies easier?”

“It has. And like you said, the Messiah has been so slow it has mostly canceled out the two years. Things are much easier to understand than they were back in ’37. The prophecies will not fail anymore.”

“May I ask one thing?”

Lowenzahn gave him a puzzled looked, so he asked his question.

“How was the Messiah meant to develop? Our Hazel Mirildorf was caught in the Sylphide Incident at the age of 15, but that was meant to have happened when she was 17.”

“Yes, and she was meant to quit school and join the AIF once the war broke out in ’37.”

“She joined the AIF immediately after the Sylphide Incident?”

“Yes,” stated Lowenzahn. “The original Messiah completed the entrance exam in the standard half a year and took part in the sabotage of the Gard-class’s #1 ship in late ’40. She had her first battle at 18. And she was captured in ’42.”

“So the original Messiah and our Messiah both began the entrance exam in ’37 at the age of 17…but the original one completed it in half a year and ours took two years?”

Lowenzahn faced forward.

“17,” muttered Schweitzer while gripping the steering wheel in both hands. “That’s about how old I was when I made my promise with Eryngium, Berger, and the others.”

“I think I had a lot going on at that age too. When I was all alone in that small house Graham gave me.”

The car shook, but Schweitzer said nothing and only pushed on the steering wheel.

But Lowenzahn continued regardless.

“But the defining incident for our Hazel Mirildorf was two years before that, when she was 15. I think she found herself caught in the Sylphide Incident before she was old enough to develop any real wisdom or have a good sense of herself. And even if she did want to join the AIF immediately afterwards, it didn’t exist in that form at that point.”

“So she had to wait the two years from 15 to 17. She must have thought about a lot in that time.”

“You were there at the Sylphide Incident, so you should know. Did she manage to accomplish anything there?”

“No,” said Schweitzer. “And all Berger and I managed was force her to abandon the Sylphide. Yet she still apologized to it.”

“She has such a soft heart, doesn’t she? But does the Messiah need one of those?”

“––––?”

Schweitzer turned toward her.

When she noticed his gaze, she looked up and frantically pointed forward.

The wheel ruts were straying to the right up ahead.

The car shook and he turned the wheel to keep it under control.

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“Because the Sylphide Incident happened two years early, the Messiah was forced to abandon it before she had developed more mature wisdom…which unintentionally turned her into a soft soul who can’t bring herself to abandon anyone.”

“But if the Sylphide Incident had happened when she was 17, she would have been mature enough to abandon that which was unnecessary, so she would have entered the AIF…and ultimately come to lead us as an elite?”

“But even our Messiah is having her first battle, even if it’s two years delayed. That is why I prophesied her capture now in ’42.”

Just then, their view opened up. They had reached the top of the hill.

Beyond the green hill was an even deeper green wheat field.

The top of the hill was flat and the rippling green field was visible as far as the eye could see starting with the slope down the hill. The road continued straight on down and arrived at a forest after half a mile.

“Past that forest is a Borderson ‘Village of Pardons’.”

They could hear the music – the organ playing the Unreif Germane.

Lowenzahn murmured while listening to the warm, gentle melody.

“The latest prophecy is the verse about the Messiah girl ending up alone. And she will remain in this land. Do you know what that means? The Messiah girl was originally supposed to arrive with Dog Berger as a skilled AIF member, but he sends her to Cologne ahead of him.”

She frowned and started to say more.

“?”

She heard the roar of an engine.