Editing City Series:Volume6e Prologue (section)

===Part 3===

A small room made entirely of wood functioned as a house.

A lamp without its shade sat above the fireplace in the back of the room, shining a brown light on the room.

In the fireplace, a few pieces of charcoal burned red with the firewood ashes.

The windows in the left and right walls showed only darkness on the other side.

Raindrops and their dripping lines decorated the exterior of the glass.

The lamp light flickered, affecting the single shadow near the entrance on the other side.

Two people sat across from each other at the small table next to the door.

One was an old man in casual clothing. He did not cast a shadow on the floor or wall. Not even the shadow of his crooked nose could be found anywhere.

The woman sitting across from him did cast a flickering shadow on the floor and wall.

The middle-aged woman wore a stole over a blue dress.

She looked to the old glass bottle and the glass sitting on the table.

The liquid in the glass shined a dark red in the brown lamplight.

She turned to look at the bottle’s label.

“That wine is from our mansion’s cellar. I completely forgot my sister brought that here.”

“You were still children back then, weren’t you? She left one of your family’s wines here so Lady Melda of Borderson or the regional lord could drink it if they visited.”

[[Image:City_v06e_027.jpg|thumb]]

“Ellis really loved acting like an adult. She brought five bottles over in all. A child like her couldn’t know how it actually tasted, but she grabbed whatever looked most expensive and carried as much of it as she could manage.”

“It was quite a surprise to learn it was meant to be offered to the imperial family, Lady Lillie.”

The mayor sounded amused and Lillie smiled bitterly in remembrance.

“We can laugh about it now, but the Telmetz family declined after that, the mansion fell into disrepair, and I lost all of the wine, furniture, and people. It must have been the curse of the stolen imperial wine.”

She viewed the bottle.

“So how many have you gone through so far?”

“This is the third. Take the remaining two with you when you leave. That is all this village can do to thank you for your consideration.”

“No. I’m the one who should have done more. This village has done nothing but look after me and my sister. Even if it is a Heidengeist village, the military’s current orders go too far.”

“Let us not discuss that right now. I have already informed the heads of the households. We will simply start moving. Calmly, like nothing is amiss.”

“I suppose so,” said Lillie, reaching for the glass.

She drank some of its contents, giving her a view through to the other side.

“I don’t know what to make of it. Everyone except me is moving on. And without doubt or hesitation. I want to follow them, but I can never seem to find an answer for my doubts and I can’t bring myself to do it.”

She set the glass back on the table and tilted it a bit.

She watched the dark red liquid rippling.

“I was supposed to collect Lady Rose’s gem from the wreckage of the Requiem that crashed last year.”

“You mean the giant ship that crashed on the border between Borderson and Hamburg?”

“Yes. I was to give that gem to the Messiah when Tristan is fully switched on tomorrow. As a good luck charm. Yet I took a job from the military and here I am.”

The mayor’s eyebrows reacted ever so slightly to the word “Messiah”.

“I was so worried when you left with the Neue Kavaliers waiting outside the village.”

“I know. But I failed. Now, I hear a villager took in a cat earlier.”

“Yes. When a man from the Eldering family took his kids down to the waterfall basin, they found a sword, some clothing, and a Flektierened Werecat washed up on the bank.”

“I assume the sword was left with you. So did you see it?”

“It was Rein König. The Messiah’s Werkzeug passed down by the Maldrick family.” The mayor looked to Lillie. “The Messiah is currently in the Eldering home. In the care of a woman with the maiden name of Ilfheim.”

“Ilfheim? That was Lady Frobel’s maiden name.”

“It is a variation on Alfheim. I do not know Lady Frobel’s family history, but the Messiah once gave the Ilfheim family a protective necklace. She had them promise to watch over the country’s prosperity and to act as its guardians. She also allowed them to mix with other families.” He took a breath. “The main branch apparently compiled history books at a library in Berlin, but they were killed off during the Heidengeist purge in ’35, with the sole exception of the daughter…who lost her memories.”

Lillie gulped at the mayor’s explanation.

“Where is this necklace now?”

“I do not know. It was lost during the previous war. And the Ilfheims born to other families would not know where it is or even be aware of their own duty. Nevertheless, the strong connection between the Neue Kavaliers and the Heidengeists continues to protect the Messiah.”

“But the Neue Kavaliers are no longer with her. Heiliger is still only ordering her capture, but we are focused more on the AIF’s attack on Germania. If the Messiah arrives with the AIF, we will have no choice but to fight back and prove which of us is in the right.”

“What do you intend to do? You know she is here and you are under orders to capture her.”

Lillie kept her smile intact, but closed her eyes.

“I am a simple woman, so it all comes down to one thing: I cannot forgive the Messiah.”

She tilted her head and sighed. She untangled her hair from her neck with her free left hand.

“I think the Messiah must pay for those who have died. She is trying to change the present for a better future, but that will negate all the efforts of everyone who has fought to preserve the present.”

Lillie straightened up and touched her index finger to the edge of the glass.

She tilted the glass back and then spoke more quietly.

“I fight for the past and she fights for the future. Let’s see which of us right.”

<noinclude>
{| border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" style="margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #aaaaaa solid; padding: 0.2em; border-collapse: collapse;"
|-
| Back to [[City_Series:Volume6e_Preface|Preface]]
| Return to [[City_Series|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[City_Series:Volume6e_Chapter1|Chapter 1]]
|-
|}
</noinclude>