Project Empress 023

 Entremés 2.1

Meanwhile in Monasteria

Manfred Brumotti von Burg was filled by the fire of righteous indignation. His trust and benevolence had been betrayed. One of his students, ‘Former students’, he corrected in his mind, had gone behind his back to the Lord-bishop to somehow trick him into giving her the official, holy quest to win the fencing title of an upcoming tournament somewhere in the South for the greater glory of Monasteria. How she had even known about that tournament wasn’t clear to him. Surely she had somehow heard about it while gossiping with one of her friends. But instead of telling him, her master, of it she had gone directly to the Lord-bishop and gotten the quest herself. She had also somehow talked some wandering ‘master’ into sponsoring her. That little bitch had so cunningly asked him to let her transfer to another master, which he graciously had allowed. It wasn’t a big loss for the academy, as she was what Manfred called a “fun fencer”, someone who took up the sword not for the glory of winning tournaments, but just for the sheer pleasure of playing around with it. Which was perfectly fine. The “fun fencers” had their own corner in the hall, where they could work on their sloppy footwork, bad form and general lack of talent. Sometimes, every once in a while, out of this pool, after enough years of hard work, someone rose from those ranks to become a proper fencer. But mostly they were there to well, have fun, pay their academy fees and bask in the glory of being part of the leading fencing academy of Monasteria. 

He would, of course, distance himself from this snake. And of course it was a woman… Manfred fumed. They really didn’t make it easy for him to protect them. So often they were weak, but that was only natural, but also entitled. Dreaming dreams above their natural station. Of course a female could take up the sword and they could even rise above the level of pure fun fencers. But within their bounds. They did have their pretend tournaments, their own little spaces to fence in a safe environment, were they could pretend to be martial artists. But in an open tournament? With men? Ridiculous. 

But no matter, in the end it had opened up a new golden opportunity for Manfred. The Lord-bishop, for reasons only clear to him, had decided that this strange tournament, in Vienna of all places, was now something that the church of Monasteria was very interested in winning for the greater glory of God and its humble city. If Manfred could get this title, it would not only enhance the renown of his academy, but more importantly bring him up to speaking terms with the Lord-bishop. Then, finally, his school would stand head and shoulders above the other pretender schools and back alley academies which dotted the city. All of them were trash, second rate places with questionable methods. 

The Lord-bishop’s blessing would bring that last bit of official recognition which would turn his academy into the academy, not only in the city but the entire region.

Apart from that, it was high time that Eskil, his master student moved up to the rank of junior master and took over some more responsibility. For now Manfred would oversee the training of the new one. It was important to get him to as high a level as possible in the short months that they had. But it was also important to have Eskil learn the ropes of the high art of teaching others, so that he could be sent out, like in this case, to some faraway contest that had the potential to bear rich fruit for the academy. If he won, it would be proof that Manfred was a master among masters and if he lost, well, then he had obviously overestimated Eskil’s skills and would have to push him harder to become worthy of the school he was training in.

The new pupil, a young blond man built like a work-in-progress Greek god, showed despite being wounded enormous amounts of talent. He was very athletic, had a lot of previous training and had that certain ‘killer instinct’ which was so often lost to the new soft generation. Most importantly, he had the will to become a champion. He, despite the broken nose, had been walking his lanes, working on his footwork for two days straight now. Slowly he was getting them just right, perfect step, perfect measure, perfectly straight. One or two days more and he’d be allowed to hold his first sword. 

‘Yes’, master Manfred thought to himself, ‘this betrayal may in end be a blessing in disguise.’

Entremés 2.2

Later on the Ruhig Blut and afterwards

Natalie was screaming and kicking, being held back by Erika, who held her in something between a hug and a grapple. 

After Natalie had dispatched the last few pirates, sending them packing, often in a high arc overboard, she had made sure that there weren’t any left skulking around and walked back around the containers to see how Cara was holding up. As she had arrived on Cara’s side of the ship, she noticed that a small group of Pirates had managed to climb the ship the hard way, overcoming the passive defences of it. Two were without much success trying to break open the steel door leading to the bridge. Wolfram had not even graced them with a sideways glance, focusing exclusively on the path ahead, while three others were moving down the gangway. One of them had moved midships right into Natalie’s staff, falling to the ground stunned by the blow. Natalie jumped over him, following the final two along the port side of the ship. Ahead, she could see a Cara fighting a pirate dressed in red wielding two long knifes. Her style was a bit rushed but pretty solid. Natalie smiled to herself. She was now speeding along to help her pupil mop up the rest of the attackers. 

Cara had just dispatched her enemy, when Natalie’s pride turned into something colder. Cara was standing above her fallen enemy enjoying the after glow of victory, while the two pirates behind her were now accelerating towards her. Natalie started to sprint, not yet yelling a warning, so that she could overwhelm the pirate next to here with the element of surprise. She was preparing her rush attack when she heard Erika’s warning above her.  

“Cara, attenta!”

But it was too late. The two pirates were already cutting their losses. The one closest to Cara had lifted a black metal fighting stick in his hand, which came crashing down, as Cara was turning around. 

As Cara fell unconscious, her attacker caught her in his arms, with one hand he attached a grappling hook to the rail and, throwing Cara over board, rappelled down after her. His companion, drawing what looked like a hand canon from his jacket turned around. Seeing Natalie storming towards her took aim at her.

Natalie dove to the ground as the pistol fired a red glowing ball of fire. The flare flew over Natalie’s head. As she scrambled back up, the other pirate had also sprung over the railing and rappelled into the fog below. Natalie had run back and forth along the gangway trying to see anything below, but there was only the mist and the rumbling of the engines, in the distance a murder of crows was complaining about the racket they had caused. But even they fell silent after a while, leaving only the memory of the attack behind. 

Natalie had run to Erika, screamed at her to turn around and get Cara. But Erika had told her that it was impossible. They could not stop in time, turning around would take considerable time, in which they would be sitting ducks.

They had to push on to Datlem. Only then could they do anything to help Cara. 

The moment they had passed the mighty portals to Datlem, the city that controlled two important canal crossroads, Natalie had been itching to go off board. She had planned their next steps with Erika while constantly peeking over the side of the ship to see if there was a place where she could safely jump on land. 

Erika was going to talk to the port authority once they anchored. While Datlem’s sphere of control officially only reached to its city limits, welcoming everyone who behaved within them, very careful not to ask too many questions, the city actively discouraged any kind of criminal activity close to its gates. That was considered extremely rude.

Natalie on her end, when she finally managed to jump off board, took the shortest route towards Datlem Cathedral. 

The city was neutral ground owned by the church. It was the most important trade hub in the region based on its very Christian ‘don’t judge. lest you be judged’ approach to its guests, which made the local priest regionaria Alperta P.A. a woman far more powerful than her modest rank of priestess would normally grant her. To keep that position, she had to play nice with the regional powers. First and foremost among them the bishopric of Monasteria. Keeping the Lord-bishop happy meant remaining independent. They had a mutually beneficial understanding that shielded the Regionaria from church intrigue while granting the Lord-bishop privileged access to trading goods and, more importantly, the newest gossip about the local powers.

Armed with her official Monasterian charter in hand, she knocked on the door of the administrative building. First with her hand, then with her foot, followed by her staff. 

An angry church Deacon opened the door, head deep red and ready to scream, but he was outscreamed by a furious Natalie. 

“I’m here on a mission from god!”, she yelled as she waved the sealed parchment in front of the Deacon’s face. The Deacon stumbled a few steps back, Natalie rushing after him like a tidal wave that was approaching the end of politeness. 

“I need to talk to Monsignora Alperta now! This is a life or death situation that must not be delayed.”

Some ruffled feathers and some fire breathing on Natalie’s part later, she was in front of the Regionaria, who was tending to her orchids in the conservatory of the cathedral. The older woman listened to Natalie’s demands while continuing her work. When Natalie had said her piece, the Regionaria laid down the scissors she was holding, took a tiny watering can, watered the orchid in front of her and then turned to Natalie. Setting the can aside, she took the parchment in Natalie’s hand, as she started to read at the document with intent, a pince-nez appeared on her nose. The assistant responsible for this, did so by discretely appearing from between the plants, vanishing back into them when he was done. 

The Regionaria read the document. Took of the pince-nez handing it over to the reappeared assistant. Gave back the parchment to Natalie and looked her in her eyes. 

Natalie’s eyes narrowed by a small degree, but she stayed calm never looking away.

The Regionaria nodded. She took a tiny bell from the table where she had put her watering can and rang it. A different assistant manifested out from the surrounding plants, a clipboard in his hands. 

The Regionaria dictated that two small but fast motorised craft were to be prepared. A strike and rescue team was to be assembled by tomorrow morning an hour before daybreak. Their mission to assist master Natalie Laukkanen Lapointe in locating and liberating her student Cara Gibson Müller as well as making an example of the brigands who had dared to kidnap one of the Lords chosen flock so close to the sacred grounds of Datlem city. 

“Tomorrow morning”, Natalie had pressed out between clenched teeth, the best she could do to maintain proper decorum. 

“Yes,” the regionaria said. “Tomorrow. We need to prepare. You need to eat, pray to the Lord and rest. Our scouts will need time to go ahead, to see where the possible targets are hiding. My analysts will need to go over the Seraphim data to see if we can track your attackers. And then, when we are ready, we will strike. The pirates took your charge alive, they won’t kill her overnight. There are no cannibals left in the Purgatory gap.”

“I understand, Monsignora”, Natalie said, pushing down her burning fury, pressing it into something colder and harder. 

Project Empress 022

 It was a strange feeling, the acceleration of the ship. It wasn’t the impressive push of a fast wagon. Compared to them, the Ruhig Blut was pushing out of ‘hardly in motion’ towards ‘not really fast’. What made it impressive to Cara was that the ship in all its mass was inexorably pushing forward, always close to leaving her behind. Like a continental plate, that had suddenly remembered that the stove back home was still on and was now hurrying back, leaving all on top of it to worry about what to grab hold of. 

Cara decided to walk a few steps back, standing against the back wall of the bridge, which was now softly and reassuringly pushing into her, like a slightly over eager floor. It also reminded Cara of her less than optimal posture. She used the opportunity to straighten her back and work on her core musculature. Something that master Manfred had told her she had to work on, never explaining how. He had also given up on her on that front many years ago. 

“I have to have a final look at the old gods”, Erika said. “After that, I will prepare for combat duty and meet you outside.” Erika left through the door in the back.

“You can stay here for a bit longer,” Wolfram said, his gaze focused on the channel before him, eye flitting over to the simulation and several displays and readouts. 

“Once we reach our final velocity, it will be easier to move. In the case that it should come to a battle and I have to break or change course in a way that could throw of you balance, I will ring the ships bell”, he pulled a small lever and a loud piercing ringing sound trilled through the air outside of the bridge. “When you hear that, brace yourselves. It will keep you safe. It’ll give you an edge in combat too, even quick witted pirates will need a few repetitions until they notice the pattern. However, the better ones will have proper sea legs and won’t have any problem with adjusting to the situation. But for now just enjoy the ride.”

The Ruhig Blut kept accelerating for a while, while pushing it’s way through a long curve. They were just coming out of it when Wolfram, started push the ship into a hard starboard direction. The ship slowly turned, Wolfram adjusted the baring. Cara was still wondering why he had done that when she noticed that not so far ahead the channel made a, for a cargo ship, sharp turn to the right. Wolfram pushed the throttle further forward, the engines going that little bit faster and he kept that up, while a display right above the throttle was slowly down the spectrum from a mellow green towards an increasingly insistent red. 

Cara’s hands were slowly turning into claws trying to grab hold of the steel wall behind her. The ship was now slowly turning towards the direction in which the canal was turning while still rather insistently drifting towards what now was an unhurriedly approaching metal clade canal edge. ‘Your Animus is still weak´, Walter’s voice resonated in her head, as she tried to keep herself from hyperventilating. She glanced over to her master, who, judging from her expression, was still undecided if she was seeing death in the eye or was having a really good time. 

Before they could hit the wall they were drifting towards, the ship´s propulsion finally managed to convince the boat to change track. Just as Cara was starting to relax again, Wolfram was twirling the wheel again, this time towards the port side. 

“Don’t worry”, co-captain Wolfram said, “We have azimuth thrusters.”

“Yaay…”, Cara tried. She looked over to Natalie, who looked back and shrugged her shoulders. The war over her expression was slowy being won over by enthusiasm. 

“I never quite get used to this”, Natalie said, “but Wolfram knows what he’s doing. If you can calm yourself, your survival instinct will start to relax. After that you can just enjoy the ride.”

“I don’t know… relaxing my survival instinct… it sounds like a less then optimal idea”, Cara said.

“Trust me”, Natalie said, trying a wide grin that was more fever than cheer.

“Yes, master Natalie”, Cara said, gritting her teeth and focusing on trusting Natalie. Indeed, after a couple more manoeuvres Cara started to get used to them, as every time they miraculously did not crash into walls but somehow, like strange prophesies coming to pass after millennia had passed after they had first been uttered, the Ruhig Blut somehow kept moving forward, always water in front of it and at least an hand’s breadth below it. 

“Get your weapons ready”, Wolfram said. “Over there”, he pointed forward and to the left, “the old channel joins the new part here. There could be the first attackers lurking.”

They did not. Even better, this was a long, mostly straight stretch of channel. It gave Cara time to catch her breath and even the control lamp above the throttle was back to its placid green. 

“Now is the time for you to get ready and out there. If there is going to be trouble it will be in about 5 miles from here. Then we will be in easy reach of the next part where the old channel meets the new. 5 miles further down, the channel will be winding its way about quite a few obstacles. We will bypass Ulfloa. I can’t go full steam ahead through their port region and they won’t help us. They will keep out of the conflict, siding with the winner…”, Wolfram sighed. “After that, we will just have to survive a bit longer and we are in the waters of Datlem, who don’t suffer any kind of conflict in their waters. There we will be safe. If all goes well well be back in safe waters in 40 minutes. After that it’s smooth sailing to Dortmund’s district 9”, Wolfram turned around for a second giving them both a crooked smile and a nod.

“You heard the co-captain”, Natalie said to Cara. “Use your sword first, it has the better reach, but keep that short stick of yours handy. If they come too close to you it will serve you better than your long sword.”

Cara nodded. Hesitated. Then asked: “What about you? You have your long sword and your even longer staff.” 

Natalie raised an eyebrow, the right corner of her mouth moving upwards. “That is a really good point. The answer is”, she put on her gloves and showed Cara their thick leather, the palm of the left had a long reinforced part across the palm, “and half sword techniques.”

“Half-sword?”, Cara asked. 

Natalie gripped her sword with her right hand at the grip placing her left hand on the middle of the blade. She showed Cara a few moves in that strange grip. The moves where short but controlled and powerful. “I know. I’ll teach you later, so don’t get killed.”

“Yes master”, said Cara trying to control her enthusiasm.

“Swear it.”

“What?”, Cara asked.

“That you won’t die today.”

“I swear that I won’t die before at least having won the manuscript we are after”, Cara said, straightening her posture even more.

“Attagirl”, Natalie said. She then paused, her head tilting to one side. Her intense look made Cara a bit uncomfortable. Maybe her master had realised that Cara wasn’t talented enough for this task. That all of this had been a big mistake. She swallowed.

“Your make-up”, Natalie said finally, “It’s not done yet.”

Only now Cara realised that she had been so engrossed in Erika’s explanations of the many interlocking systems that made the Ruhig Blut such a special ship, that she had forgotten to finish her make-up as she had originally planned.

“Anther reason to stay alive. That eye-shadow of yours won’t do on a dead face.”

Cara nodded. Natalie saluted her with two fingers before turning around to leave the bridge by its starboard door. 

“Before you go out, two things”, Wolfram said now looking forward again. “First, once you leave, the doors behind you will lock and you will not be able to open them from outside. If you need to retrea,t there is a door on the lowest deck of the container compartment. Midships. it will lead to a t junction both narrow with a few corner and emergency buttons big and red, that will instantly seal the corridor behind you. These are also weapons. If someone stand in their way when they come down, they will die. Understood?”

“Aye”, Natalie said.

“Y… yes”, Cara said.

“Good. The second point is, that the Ruhig Blut has several little surprises for attackers. They are mostly for show and to strike fear in their hearts. Don’t be surprised if you see or hear strange things. Especially if they are loud or dramatic. In this case the behemoth living in this waters is on your side. Understood?”

“Aye”, this time Cara and Natalie answered at the same time.

“Good. Now, all hands on deck please.”

 Cara moved out through the port door. After she had closed it, she heard several bolts slam into place. Through the windows which she now noticed had a dark green tint to them she could see Natalie on the other side grinning and waving at her. She waved back forcing something of a smile to appear on her face. 

As she moved down the stairs she noticed that she was shaking with nerves. She kept focusing on the training that she had had with both Natalie and Walter. As she did so she started to move more like she had on the green on the roof above Bacchus’ Barrel which now seemed to incredibly far away. Now she was here on a ship that was, maybe, about to be attacked by pirates. Under her fear, she felt a strange little tingle. A small seed of excitement taking root in her mind. She grabbed hold of it, encouraging it to grow. 

She had reached the part of the ship where cabins and the closed storage rooms ended and the ship was open. As she was about to climb the ladder down towards the walkways on the gunwale of the ship, she saw Erika appear from a door further down through the door Wolfram had mentioned earlier. On her back she was carrying a large metal back pack thing that over a cable was connected to a strange staff, that was one part rifle and one part science fiction weapon. 

“Is that a laser?”, Cara asked.

Erika looked up at her, waved at her with the strange weapon thing. 

“In part”, Erika said. “If you want I’ll explain how it works to you later.”

“I’d love to”, Cara said as she climbed down the ladder. When she had arrived at the level of the gunwale, Erika was walking up a steep set of stairs leading to the middle gangway above the containers. 

“Wonderful”, Erika called down. She pulled a retracting cable out of the backpack, plugging it in and securing it in a rail above the gangway. As she did, the backpack came alive with lights starting to glow and the whole thing making a noise like a turbine slowly revving up to speed. Erika gave her a thumbs up and wandered out of Cara’s line of sight.

Cara turned around and wandered along the guard rail, when over her Erika’s head reappeared. 

“Cara.”

“Yes?”

“Did I tell you about the honey pots?”

“You have bees here?”

Erika looked at her for a few moments blinking. “I’d love too, but I don’t think that works on a ship… or does it…?”, she shook her head, “But that’s not the point right now; no it´s that lower gunwale and the ladder in the middle”, she pointed towards the central point of the ship. “It’s open and undefended. It attracts pirates, like honey attracts the bear.”

Cara nodded strategically, hoping that it would encourage Erika to tell her more. It worked.

“The rest of the ship is well defended. High walls, hard to climb and, in combat, electrified overhanging wires. Very hard to get on the ship that way, except with an equally large or larger tanker. Pirate tankers don’t survive in the canal network… Anyway. The gunwales along the container parts are lower, easier to reach and in the middle they have these nice open ladders. The even go behind the bulky navigation lights. Very convenient. Greed makes people dumb. They will go up the ladder. Giving you an easy time to dispatch them one by one. If we get attacked. Stay back a bit you don’t want to scare the idiots away. If the attackers are mostly men and they see you? Scream in a high pitched and pathetic way.” Erika screamed, it was shrill and sounded terrified. “Oh no! Please…”, she pleaded, her eyes wide with horror, “… don’t hurt me. I’ll give you anything you want. But please don’t hurt me”, she said, looking at Cara with even bigger eyes and pursing her lips a bit. “8 out of 10 times it works and the idiots walk just right into your attack. Cazzi…”

Cara kept nodding, wrestling her confusion to keep it out of her face. Erika gave her a last look. “Just hit them with your sword. Hard”, she said.

Cara nodded again, this time more convincing and with that, Erika’s head was gone again.

Cara checked her defence stick, it was well in reach of her right hand, stuck into her belt. She jumped a couple of times to make sure that it wouldn’t suddenly fall down or shift into a position where she couldn’t easily reach it. It stayed where it was supposed to. She placed her sword held in her left hand over her left shoulder. With the wind tussling her hair she felt very heroic. As they moved past the increasingly wild vegetation at the edges of the canal she struck one pose after another looking for one that felt appropriately heroic. After a while she discovered that looking heroically into the horizon wasn’t that much fun if there wasn’t anyone to marvel at her poise. It also wasn’t that comfortable. So she walked up and down the gangway. Always hurrying past the honey pot ladder, to make sure that she didn’t startle any lurking pirate who had silently swum to the flank of the ship and was planning his shadowy infiltration. 

She had taken great care to always keep the ladder in her field of view somehow when patrolling. But in the end she sat down on the gangplank a few metres away from the ladder, to the aft of the ship so she could watch the now overgrown forests at the edge of the canal floating by while keeping a stealthy eye towards the trap. 

She was startled out of it by a loud hissing notion coming from the entire length of the ship. There was also a muted ringing of the ships bell. As mist billowed in thick sheets from the canal below. She remembered that Wolfram had said, that if they were to be attacked she’d notice by the ship doing strange things. She stumbled back up to her feet. The hissing came again and even more thick fog appeared. The navigation light started to glow much brighter now giving the fog a deep red colour. Not really like blood but close enough to be understood as a warning. She then felt a rumble shiver through the entire ship, a split second later followed by the bellowing of the ships oversized fog-horn. As it resonated through Cara and their surroundings the fog grew thicker extending ever wider. By now the Ruhig Blut was completely enshrouded by it. Below the navigational lights Cara would not have been able to see her hand in front of her face. 

“THIS IS YOUR ONLY WARNING”, a deep booming voice thundered out of dozens of speakers all around the ship. “THIS IS THE FREE TRADER RUHIG BLUT. YOU LEAVE US ALONE, WE LEAVE YOU ALIVE. THE MOMENT YOU LAY A HAND ON THIS SHIP OR DARE BOARD IT WE WILL GIVE YOU NO QUARTER. TURN BACK NOW, OR DIE”, the voice thundered, followed by another long rumbling boom of the foghorn. 

‘Pirates’, Cara thought, her heart started to race. ‘I’m going to fight pirates.’ Her eyes started to glow, her heart racing. She gripped her sword now with both hands and moved slowly towards the ladder in front of her while the fog came crawling on deck from below. 

As she moved forward, she heard the roar of smaller boat engines coming to life from several directions. Whatever stealthy manoeuvre the pirates had originally planned, now that they had been discovered they threw the veil of subtlety aside. 

A moment later Cara felt the Ruhig Blut jolting ever so slightly. The pirate attack boats had made contact with their ship. 

There was a the high pitched trill of the warning bell again. Cara crouched down, bracing herself for whatever may come next; covering her ears and squinting, just to be on the safe side. Right now she would not have been surprised if dinosaurs had suddenly erupted from the containers above. 

What happened instead was that far below, the dead gods started screaming in rage, the entire ship vibrating slightly as its frame tried to contain them. As they did, first the navigation lights started to glow brighter, drawing the eyes of everyone around towards them. Then, below them a string of floodlights that surrounded the ship came to life casting its harsh blue tinged light into the water below. Even through her hands Cara could hear the screams of the attackers below as they were blinded by the aggressively bright light. 

Inside, on the bridge, co-captain Wolfram threw his favourite switch.

Outside on the stern and on both sides of the prow where the name of the ship proudly stood, neon lights flicked to life. They added a few words above and some letters to the end of the ship´s name. Taking the “Ruhig Blut”, “stay chill”, and turning it into “Komm näher, du kannst Ruhig Bluten”, “Come closer and feel free to bleed”. Wolfram chuckled, turned on his microphone, roaring in his best overlord voice: “YOUR LIFE IS FORFEIT. MUWHAHAHAAAHAAA!”

Outside, Cara was trying to feel a bit better about her situation, but she had to admit that the entire lighting and thunder show was working. Despite being on the ship´s team she was starting to get scared. It didn’t help that Wolfram’s laughter was followed by two blasts of the fog horn. 

The tactic worked, as there was a a shadow trying to climb up the honeyed ladder, which slipped out of sight as the fog horn shook space and time around it.

Her hands covered in cold sweat, Cara decided that she really needed to read the book on Animus that Walter had given her. She had no control over hers. Inside she was all knotted up and any movement was not with her body but against it. Her body had decided that getting as close in form to a rock having a panic attack was the best idea right now, while her mind kept screaming that now was the time to relax and remember her training. 

The shadow that had disappeared on the ladder was now back. It turned out to be a pirate. Looking more like a young man in his black edgy phase, still blinking and shaking his head. The pirate in black saw Cara cowering and instantly relaxed. He grinned and started moving towards her. 

“Oh hello there, who do we have here?”, he asked.

Cara got up, still trying to explain to her muscles, that when one side tensed the other had to relax. The muscles didn’t buy it, deciding to stay all tense.

“Please”, Cara said, moving her sword forward, the point towards the pirate. Behind him another pirate, this one apparently preferring red, appeared on the gangway. 

“Look what I have found”, the pirate in black said to the one in red. “We already have a bonus. And we’ll even get a black sword on top.”

The pirate in red looked at Cara. He laughed when he saw her. “Nice”, he said. “Looks, like all of this was just smoke and mirrors.” 

They both laughed.

Cara took a deep breath, exhaled. That was all she could do consciously, the rest her body had to take care of. She didn’t have time for that now.

Trying to focus on Natalie’s and Walter’s lessons, she let the point of her sword sink again. 

Gritting her teeth she said, “I am very sorry. But you need to leave the ship.”

“No can do”, the black clad pirate said coming forward, shrugging apologetically. He drew a short but thick cutlass. It had a black blade. This actually relaxed Cara. She had fought and had been beaten by black swords hundreds of times. They hurt, they could break things, mostly her bones, but they did not kill as easily as sharps. 

“This is your l…”, Cara remembered the words the others always used in these situations.  “Y… your first and last warning. Leave of suffer the consequences.”

“Oh, no…”, the pirate in black said putting one of his hands on his cheek in mock fear. “Or I will be forced to spank some manners into you”, he laughed.

Before Cara could react, the pirate in black was rushing forward, cutlass raised. As he pushed forward, his cutlass flew down, trying to smash into Cara’s hands. 

Cara remembered what Natalie had told her during their first training session. ‘Don’t be afraid. The art will protect you.’ 

‘That shouldn’t be too hard’, Cara thought, remembering how often master Manfred had told her that she was slow and dumb. 

Before the cutlass could reach her wrists, crushing them, she pulled her leg back, pushing her back closer to the containers, pulling her hands out of harms way. She raised her sword, the strong of its blade stopping the enemy cutlass. As she felt the contact, she raised her hands, the cutlass now stuck and controlled by her cross guard. She turned her back foot around so that it now pointed towards her enemy, who was only now becoming aware that his attack had been blocked. The black clad pirate started to turn his own blade in his grip to better counter Cara’s force. 

Cara lifted her back foot as the pirate in black moved his sword.

‘When you walk the path’, she remembered Natalie telling her, ‘you just move through your enemies towards the sword masters of old.´

Cara stepped forward, carrying the point of her sword with her, pushing into the throat of her attacker. She felt that she made contact with his throat protection when her back foot was passing her front foot. Her grip steadily carried her through as she pushed past the pirate, sending him flying head first into the man in red behind him. 

“I hit!”, Cara exclaimed, a warm wave of excitement rushing through her body. 

The pirate in black was pushed back to his feet by the one in red. He coughed, when he looked up, Cara was relieved to see that he was still alive, but also a bit smug that she had killed his smile. The pirate changed his stance, now holding his cutlass in a more protective stance as he moved forward. The pirate in red was now also readying his weapons. 

The eyes of the pirate in black were now ablaze with anger. 

As Cara saw that, she started to relax a bit. The pirate´s form was weak, his style was sloppy. Her enemy taking her seriously helped her to get deeper into the flow of combat.

The pirate was now showering her with blows, alternating from left to right at a speed that impressed Cara, as she calmly blocked them with the strong of her blade. She was observing the impressive move-sets of her opponent. His sword slashes forming almost a V-shape as they kept raining down on her. He was creating enough pressure that Cara had to inch a bit away from her enemy every once in a while, but she was still lost in thought. 

‘Hmm…’, she thought, ‘if I wasn’t blocking his sword it would be more of an X shape, that means…’, her sword was making more of an inverse V shape. As she was left handed, strikes attacking her right were especially easy for her to block. ‘There!’ As an attack to her left moved over to the right, she swung her sword around to her right, the point falling, moving into an arc into the side of her enemie´s exposed head. His attack was still on its way, when his head was smashed into the containers. There was still significant force in his original attack, which dissipated in a puff of futility on the strong of Cara’s waiting sword. The black clad pirate stumbled back. Cara snapped her sword around again, squatting low as she moved forward. Her blade catching under the pirate’s armpit. She pushed up, shoving him over the ship’s railing into the water below. 

She turned back to the red pirate, smiling. “I did that”,she said, pointing over board. 

The pirate in red had seen. He was now crouching in front of her, two long thick knives in his hands. ‘That’s going to be interesting’, Cara was still thinking when she noticed a bunch of other black clad pirates behind the man in red. There were three of them, one half crouching a few steps further back the gangway. Another one standing directly behind him. The third was moving towards the prow of the ship. What had caught Cara’s eye were the crossbows the two men facing her were holding. They were definitely pointed at her.

“That’s cheating”, Cara said, her eyes scanning her surroundings for something, anything, that could provide some cover. Aside from jumping over board there was nothing. 

“Fiddlesticks…”, Cara said, her energy seeping away from her again. 

As she was gritting her teeth, getting ready for a dash towards the red pirate in the hope to somehow dive behind him for cover, she noticed that a thin blue line of laser light had appeared from above, dancing over a metal plate that was covering the standing marksman’s right shoulder. As she saw that, she felt the slight shudder of the dead gods, screaming louder below decks. She looked up seeing Erika pointing her weird rifle at the pirates below. Her backpack had come alive with strange purple light. 

As Cara’s eyes darted between the men with the crossbows and Erika, a blue-white ray of lighting jumped from the the strange rifle in Erika’s hands to the pirates. The man standing was cramped, shooting his bolt wide. The metal bolt was encased in St. Elmo’s fire. 

The lightning sprung from the standing man to his kneeling companion, who also misfired as all his muscles started to cramp. 

Cara was hit first by a wave of the smell of ozone. Followed by a strange sweetish smell that reminded her of barbecue parties in summer. 

“Don’t just stand there, piccola”, Erika shouted from above. “Get that stronzo in red.”

Cara was back in the fight. She closed the space between the pirate in red, careful not to get so close, that he could reach her with his long knives. 

She knew several styles of “langes Messer”, the long knife, but she had never seen one use two at the same time. But she knew of some Italian and Spanish styles that used a dagger together with a rapier.

As the red pirate moved, she smirked. Instead of using one of his weapons as defence and closing in on her, he was wasting time by making a flurry with both, getting up slowly. When he moved forward, his movements were heavy and clunky. Cara wanted to spring forward, point first, using her superior range. But she stopped herself in time. 

The pirate in black had been wearing armour below his lose clothes. Just as Cara was wearing armour underneath hers. Hitting him with a black sword with a rolled tip like hers on a breast plate, would leave her open. Not taking her enemies seriously because they were not following any style would also be a bad idea. The black pirate had not taken Cara seriously and then he had gotten emotional. Both reasons for why he was now in the canal. ‘Just follow the path’, Cara thought to herself, noticing that the man in red was showy, but he was showy outside of Cara’s reach. His posing was a trap.

Cara lunged into it with a cut from above, lunging towards the pirate´s face. He easily blocked her blade with one of his long knifes. She instantly withdrew, pulling her blade back  and changing her footing so that, instead of facing the containers, she now faced the water again. The second knife crashed against her blade closer to the point, thus displacing it. The red pirate used this opening to close the distance between them, his first knife now pointing towards Cara’s face moving forward. 

Cara had to stop herself from moving back. This was one of Walter’s harder lessons. Retreating against an opponent who had a strong aggressive style, created the illusion of security, followed by the reality of defeat. If she pulled back now, she would block the oncoming threat but also free the knife she had just blocked. After that it was just a matter of time until she would be hit.

Instead Cara inhaled, gritting her teeth she pushed forward past all her instincts, swinging her sword in a wiping motion as she moved past it, keeping the first knife bound against her blade. The far end of her sword crashed into the second knife above. 

Now, past the knives herself, her sword had a clear way towards the pirate in red. She twisted her body around, again sending her sword flying toward the face of the red pirate. But there was no impact. The man bent over backwards, her sword missing him by the tiniest of margins. He sprung back up, the hand that was close to Cara shooting forward with another stab attack, while the second knife was moving in a long arc towards whatever part of her body remained undefended when blocking the stab. 

Cara rotated her body back in the other direction, towards her attacker, throwing her sword in a wiping motion to his outstretched hand that was holding the stabbing knife. She should have pressed on, but the motion of the other flying knife was too much for her. She pulled back, lifting the sword, blocking the second knife. The attacker gasped. Whatever Cara had hit, it was a good hit. The stabbing knife fell out of a limp hand. The pirate shook his hand. There was something painfully wrong with the shape of his wrist. But to Cara’s terror, her attacker just focused on the remaining knife and his target.

Cara was about to slip back into a panic. She could hear her breath coming in rapid puffs. ‘No time for panic’, she thought. ‘Only the path.’ In the background she could hear Erika’s lightning weapon striking someone on the other side of the ship. 

‘I’ve got the better range’, she thought, pushing forward several exploratory stabs, which the pirate in red swatted away with ease. ‘His technique is weak, but his focus is phenomenal.’ The attacker tensed his body. As Cara’s next stab came, she knew that she’d made an error. He jumped into her blade, intercepting it with his long knife. As her sword rebounded, the pirate turned his knife around to hook the part of the grip extending out of his grip behind Cara’s cross bar. Cara would either lose her sword or be pulled into the knife face first. But he wasn’t there yet. Cara relaxed her arms, her sword falling, bumping over the metal pommel of the long knife. Now her blade was under her attackers arms. She made contact with the blade, push cutting upwards. Moving the knife above her head, shoving it aside. Her blade, moving in a C shape over her opponent´s arms, now lay on top of his arms. With a little jump she smacked the arms of the pirate against the rail. This time he screamed. He let go of his second knife that landed with a clatter on the bright crimson navigational light. Making sure that she used the flat of her blade, she struck the pirate square in the face with it. The man stumbled back crumpling to the floor.

“Cara: two. Pirates: nil.”

“Cara, attenta!”, Erika yelled, pointing at something behind Cara.

As Cara turned, she could see the shadow of motion out of the corner of her eye. 

The shadow was followed by darkness.

Project Empress 021

 [Chapter 5 continued]

Bright searing light blazed all around Cara, as if the summer sun had fallen to earth. The noise, despite the protectors, was already quite the challenge, the roar reached her bones and marrow and shook her, synchronising her entire being to the old gods´ roar. But the light? Nothing had prepared her for that. She screamed and closed her eyes, but that wasn’t enough, the light pierced her eyelids with ease. 

The next thing she actively noticed was that Erika was holding her in her arms. She felt through the vibration that she was talking to her and felt a hand gently stroking her head. Slowly she got used to the glare and could open her eyes again, if only so much. Erika was looking at her, trying to gauge how she was doing. When she saw here eyes were open, she gestured to Care to leave the engine room. She helped her up and helped her past the bulkhead door. When they were back at the bottom of the stairs the door closed behind them. The light gone and the roar now the purr of a mountain sized cat, Cara slowly came back to her senses.

“No wonder these things ate the world…”, Cara said.

“They didn’t, it was us”, Erika said, before remembering Cara’s situation. “I’m sorry sweety, I didn’t think that the light would overwhelm you so much.” She hung her head, looking up to keep her eyes on Cara. “It’s mostly for show anyway. I call it ‘the dawn of the gods’. It is meant to inspire awe… but not like this.”

“I’m OK….”, Cara said, her voice slightly uneven, slowly finding her balance again. It reminded her of what Walter had said about the Animus. She knew that her body was fine, but her spirit? Right now it was something small and furry hiding under a stone, hoping against all hope that the predators around her didn’t find her. ‘I need to start reading that book’, Cara thought. 

She slowly got up. 

“Good”, Erika said. “You are a strong woman. I can see that. But let’s go back up to the bridge and get you a nice blanket and a hot cup of chocolate.”

Cara nodded, feeling a bit better, about herself and the world and a bit worse because Miss Snuggles was still in her suitcase waiting for her to stitch her back together.

When they returned to the bridge the ship had moved into the lock. The canal at this point did not change in elevation. The lock was mainly a security measure. Everyone who wished to enter or exit this part, had to enter this very confined space surrounded by four guard towers and more guards in one place than Cara had ever seen together in her whole time in Monasteria.

When she followed Erika onto the bridge, both Natalie and Wolfram looked at her. The moment they saw her face both pairs of eyes moved instantly towards Erika. Who despite having her back turned to them instantly felt it. 

“It was the light… it was a bit much.”

“The light?”, Wolfram asked.

“Cara”, Natalie moved towards her, put her hands on her shoulders with enough pressure to feel reassuring, but not so much that they would add to what ever it was Cara was carrying right now, “are you OK? Did she… give you a doubtlessly fascinating, yet incredibly detailed sermon about the machines down there?”

Erika, still working on the hot chocolate, shifted her stance a bit to give Natalie a very pointed side-eye.

Cara’s eyes started to shine again. “Yes”, she said, “did you know that there are seven different engines on this boat? And that they are forbidden technology but do not partake of the forbidden blood of the earth?”

Natalie’s eyes twitched a bit. “Yeees…?”

“Oh! I forgot to ask”, Cara turned to Erika. “How much power do the engines produce?”

Erika, whose expression was lurking ready to pounce and kill at the slightest provocation, stumbled over herself but bounced back not missing a beat, now all sunshine and heavenly choirs. 

“What a very good question”, she said, looking pointedly looking at Natalie and Wolfram, who both tried their best to not move at all.

Cara looked very proud of herself.

“The engine blocks produce about 2700 kW of power. And Juno the turbine again as much. Right now we have enough fuel to run the engines for about 3 hours and the turbine for one and a half.”

“Oooh…”, Cara said, finding her inner balance again. Erika came to her, a triumphant glance thrown at the utterly confused Wolfram and conflicted Natalie. She put put a blanket she had produced from under the table, next to the little fridge there, around Cara’s shoulders. “Now come with me so I can give you your chocolate, and tell you a bit more about the wonders of the god machines down in the engine room.”

Natalie and Wolfram shared a short glance, shrugged stealthily and Natalie turned her attention back to the radio. “5 Minutes until the outer gate opens.”, she said.

“Right”, Wolfram said, checking the instruments in front of him, a lot more of them now lit, lamps blinking, needles twitching. “Engines are all green. All auxiliary systems are working. Batteries are all at 60% and charging. We are ready to go. How is the piracy forecast?”

Natalie was still concentrating on what she was haring over the headphones of the radio station. She had covered only one ear, while scribbling down notes on a piece of paper in front of her. 

“They say it’s good, I would say we are taking a risk. There was little activity lately. The old channel on our side has been swept only a few days ago by church militia. Datlem hasn’t had any trouble with pirates or ‘competitive traders’ lately.”

“Too quiet for too long. And no information about the last part.”

Natalie nodded. “The pirates are going to be hungry. This sounds like perfect conditions for an ambush. Are we going to get company for the trip?”

“No”, Wolfram said. “We are the only ship today and there are only a couple of ‘maybes’ who’d dare the trip in two days.”

“So they are all waiting for some other idiot to kick the hornets nest…”

“Looks that way”, Wolfram said. “Meh… It won’t be the first time. We aren’t that juicy a target. We don’t carry that much cargo and we have only unlabelled containers on the outside. And we have pushed our way through this part of the channels several times by now. We are far more trouble than we are worth.”

Natalie smirked. “Yeah, that’s what worries me. The fuckers out there are hungry and you are known as pirate breakers. Only idiots who are hungry for the fame would attack us.”

Wolfram exhaled, his breath turning into a long sigh. “Idiots are always the worst”, he grimaced. 

“I’ll go get my sword. Cara…”, she looked over at Cara, now snuggled into a warm blanket hugging her cup of chocolate while listening to Erika, utterly captivated by the various uses of algae. “I will get your weapons too…”, she said.

While Cara was deeply fascinated by the many ways precious resources could be won from algae, which in principle lived from the waste of the ship, her attention was for a moment distracted by a large cathode ray tube that slowly rose to the surface of the helm. She had heard of these wonders of the past, that had already been old when the century was still young. 

“Is that…”, she said pointing at it. Erika looked over her shoulder, nodding with a knowing smile. “Yes that is an ancient CRT, amber and black. No flicker. Appropriate resolution. Very robust.”

“What is it for?”

“We travel across the channels and rivers all over Europe and for special places, like for example the Purgatory Gap here…”, she let the words hang in the room.

Wolfram took over from there, “… we have detailed 3D maps which we can use to simulate the way we are going through. We pre-calculate the fastest ways through the Purgatory Gap in front of us. We are aren’t fast enough to outrun smaller ships. But the less time we spend in the Gap the less danger, and when we go full steam ahead, its significantly harder to board us.”

The monitor was now in its final position showing a very sparse wire-frame model of the lock and a schematic birds eye view of the channel system in front of them. 

Wolfgang started the auxiliary motors of the ship, manoeuvring slightly towards the port side.

“I have to line up the ship so that it matches the simulation, to get the best effect.”, he said.

Cara nodded. Taking everything in.

Natalie came back with a bouquet of weapons in her arms. She gave Cara her black sword and her defence stick. She put her own sword into its sheath, balanced her journeyman stick in her hand. 

“So, what’s the plan?”, Natalie asked.

“We will have at least 5 minutes until we reach the part where we reach the first old channel exit”, Wolfram said. “I would suggest you take the starboard side, Nat. Cara, you take the port side. Concentrate on the middle part of the ship where the containers are. That’s where the ship is at its most vulnerable. The fore and aft are heavily reinforced. Erika will stay up top,” he gestured towards the gangway on top of the container space. “From there she can help any of you if you should need assistance.”

“Aye, co-captain”, Natalie said. “Cara, how do you feel about the plan? If you want, I’ll take care of the port side with you and Erika takes care of starboard.”

Erika nodded. 

“I’m OK”, Cara said, still feeling guilty about her episode in the engine room. She was a trained swordswoman after all. Her sword and stick would both give her an advantage against a boarding party. The paths left and right of the containers were narrow, so even if she had several opponents, she could face them one on one.

Natalie raised her eyebrow, eyeing her but not saying anything. 

“Alright”, Natalie said, nodding at Cara.

“The gates are opening”, Erika said.

As Cara looked past Natalie, the large doors of the lock were slowly parting. Both in front of her as well as in the simulation. Like on the screen, Wolfram adjusted the course slightly to exit the lock with a slight starboard trajectory. 

When the gates were a bit more then half open, the simulation flashed three times.

Wolfram pushed the throttle controls forward, the Ruhig Blut very slowly starting to move. Cara could feel through her feet the roar of the old gods below, the lights on the bridge flickering a bit but then growing brighter than before. Several displays above the helm came alive with time readings all counting down. That’s how long the engines will last”, Erika murmured to her.

Now, after it had overcome its inertia and started to push against the water, the ship was starting to really get moving.

Wolfram pulled on the chain waking the foghorn the ship used to announce its presence. As its deep, powerful roar shook the towers around them, it dared anyone who could hear it to stand in their way as the Ruhig Blut accelerated into the Purgatory Gap.

Project Empress 020

 [Chapter 5 continued]

Cara followed Erika down the metal staircase, away from the daylight that came from the skylight above, down into a gloomy darkness which was dimly lit by strange LEDs from below. 

“They are grow lights”, Erika said, as Cara was still wondering about the strange colour of them. It was then that she saw ivy growing up the handrail. Slowly creeping towards the daylight above, while at the same time stretching towards the synthetic light below. It gave the plant a strange appearance, like it was desperately trying to escape the depths but with a strange force trying to keep it closer to the darkness below. Cara was so distracted by the strange plant that she had the feeling like she had been walking down this stairs for an eternity.

“How deep is this machine of yours?”, Cara asked feeling that by now they had to be below the ship, below the water in some unfathomable depth below the earth. 

“So very deep. If in front of us is Purgatory below us is just the cold damp world of the dead gods”, Erika said.

Cara shivered, regretting not having taken a scarf and stayed above with the others. They had tried to warn her. 

When Erika saw Cara’s reaction she laughed. “Don’t worry Cara, we are just below the waterline. Here are the batteries, the labs, the special stores and of course”, she paused dramatically; they had arrived at the  bottom of the stairs, there was just one reinforced steel bulkhead door, almost overgrown by the crawling ivy cast in a baleful green light. She opened the door with a flourish, letting Cara see what was behind it, “there are the dead gods sleeping.” Behind the door, slightly deeper than the floor were many different engines and machines Cara didn’t recognise, bathed in a strangely warm, amber light. The smell was half that of a chippy and the other half was that strange slightly sharp odour, that she could not identify. Here that smell was crisp and harsh. It smelled tempting, but like something that, when you got too close to it, would hurt you if you weren’t careful. Cara did not move forward.

“Come on”, Erika said, “the old monsters won’t bite you. They are tamed and very well behaved. Well mostly, block one is a spoilt little child sometimes. Aren’t you, Alekto Sinister?”, she said moving to the first engine on the left which she gently patted like one would a puppy. 

“What is all this?”, Cara asked. Upstairs Natalie and Wolfram shivered. Erika in front of Cara grinned broadly. “I’m so glad you asked”, she said, almost giddy with halfheartedly hidden enthusiasm. 

“These are the last V8s. Four Diesel and two petrol, with two-stage variable turbo chargers, I call them my little furies, the port furies and the starboard furies. 

And further back is Juno, our gas turbine.” Erika’s pride was now outshining everything else in the room.

“Diesel? Petrol!?”, Cara said, her voice croaked. “These are the forbidden fuels! If the church finds out you have them…”, Cara was at a loss for words. 

“The dead gods do not drink of the forbidden blood anymore. We feed them only the freshest elixirs.”

“I don’t understand anything you are saying”, Cara said, slowly walking back over the threshold. 

Erika was beaming even more than before. “Then let me explain. It takes weeks sometimes months to produce enough of the Essence on which these ancient engines run. The petrol engines run on what I distil from the liquid trees.”

“Liquid trees?”, Cara said, imagining horrible melted masses of bark and leaf matter. 

“Yes. The navigation lights”, Erika said. “Both are tubes filled with nutrient broth in which algae grow. There is a light source in the centre, the filtered ships exhaust goes through them, feeding the algae with CO2. They also give the lights their colour. Red ones on the port side and blue-green ones on the starboard side. From the algae, once they die, I can produce the fuel for the petrol engines. What remains goes unto the pile that creates the gas for the Juno. And we recycle our oils and fat and actually get paid for taking old cooking oils on board”, Erika laughed. “We get paid for it”, she shook her head. “Anyway, that goes into the Diesel engines.” 

“Oh”, Cara said, slowly stepping back into the engine room, where the gods were sleeping. “Can I touch them?”, she asked Erika. 

“Now, yes, but later when they are running, no. So take advantage of the situation, because soon it will be too late.”

Cara slowly extended her hand, first poking one of the engines softly. When that didn’t strike her down immediately, she used the palm of her hand to feel the metal surface of it. It was hard to imagine that these compact metal things were what caused the Dies Irae, which almost led to the apocalypse. Cara had never been much of a religious person, she was to easily distracted. She was often confused by the parts of the doctrine that she could not fit together in a way that made sense to her, however she had always loved the stories during mass. And while they were intended as a dire warning, she always enjoyed the sermons about the almost apocalypse the most. 

These were the engines that had feasted on the blood of the Adversary…

“Are you sure we are safe with these?”, she asked her fear tinged with a growing splash of excitement. 

“As safe as we can get. I keep improving everything around the ship, to make it as efficient as possible”, Erika was now walking around the large engine room starting to work on various levers, connectors, running checks and activating devices. To Cara it all looked very exiting. Lights were coming on, started blinking and little electric engines came to life, pumping strange fluids through all matters of hoses and tubes.

“The Ruhig Blut, is not the largest freighter there is. We can transport far less than any other commercial vessel of this size, but there is no ship that can transport as large a variety of things as this ship. Passengers, liquid gas, coal, machines, life-stock, letters, plants, you name it we can transport it. With the help of the dead gods here, we can reach places with ease that other don’t dare even get close too. We also respect all decent people, we deal with moneterians, traders and gifters with equal ease. Some people say we waste resources. I say we invest in diversity and more importantly we invest in fun.”

“Fun?”, Cara said looking around. The tomb of the old gods felt as impressive as the catacombs of Monasteria, but fun…

Erika’s smile retreated into the shadows established by her eyebrows, lingering in it waiting for its moment. “You will see”, she walked back to a slightly raised platform where a strange looking seat was bolted in front of an array of control panels. She grabbed a pair of ear protectors and threw them towards Cara. She noticed to late and the ear protectors hit her as her hands closed around empty air, but she could pull a leg up before the protectors clattered to the ground, her arms darting down catching them in the last second. She looked up with burning ears, but Erika had turned around to get hold of an old telephone speaker. 

“Put them on”, Erika said. “You’ll need them soon.”

Erika grabbed hold of crank near the speakers cradle and turned it a couple of times vigorously. After a moment she said. “Si, caro mio, we are ready. How does it look up there? Perfect. We’ll get ready.”

She hung up. Turning back to Cara, her smile pouncing back into the limelight and turning into a triumphant grin, she said:

“It is not dead what can eternal lie,

for a machine is immortal.”

She turned back around to Cara still wondering about the strange words. Erika sat down, holding up her left hand counting down with her fingers.

5

Cara put her hearing protectors on.

4

She checked if they fit correctly.

3

She snapped her fingers around her head to test if they were working.

2

Cara nodded to herself steeling herself for what may come.

1

Around her all the engines came back to life all at once, with a throaty roar.

‘That wasn’t so bad.’, Cara thought, while in front of her Erika, her left hand held up again one finger pointing towards the ceiling, now waved her hand forwards, while her right pushed an array of levers forward.

The dead gods around Cara all leapt back to life with a unified deep roar full of fire and fury.

Project Empress 019

 [Chapter 5 continued]

Not long after, Cara and Natalie found themselves in a cabin with one large reinforced window with view of the channel and its other side, that was also lit in warm amber light. The cabin itself smelled of hardwood and fresh laundry. In front of the window was a large wooden desk. Cara noticed that it was connected to the outer wall with four heavy metal hinges. She suspected that the table could be pushed up to barricade the window in case of an emergency. Thick cables connected the two corners of the room. To their right was a narrow door leading to a toilet and another leading to a small shower which was made out of cast plastic. Whatever it was that Wolfram and Erika were doing, it obviously paid well. Next to the bathroom were more doors, wooden this time. A quick look behind them confirmed her suspicion: behind them was a wardrobe. What she found behind the third door was a bit of a surprise though. A full length mirror on the door itself but the really surprising thing was the electric kettle, the water tank, as well as a collection of tea and coffee making paraphernalia.

There was a couch to their left with more than enough space for two people to lounge, as well as a matching coffee table kept in space by chains which connected it to floor and ceiling. All in all it was a small room that refused to be confined by its dimensions.

“This looks really nice and I love the kettle”, Cara said, “but where are we supposed to sleep?”

Natalie didn’t say anything. She just walked to the couch and pulled it out, so that it touched the table. With a clank, a panel in the wall next to Natalie opened and a lever fell out of it. As Natalie began to pull repeatedly on the lever, the table began to move up towards the ceiling, while the back rest of the couch started to move up, at the same time starting to extend into the room. A bit later, the couch and table were replaced by a bunk bed. 

“And the best thing is this”, Natalie said, pushing the lever back in and pulling on something that Cara couldn’t quite see, but with a clinking noise, the table slowly returned back down while the bunk bed transformed into a couch again.

“Magic”, Cara said, eyes wide.

“Even better”, Natalie said, “technology.”

“Magical technology?”, Cara said.

“Fair enough”, Natalie shrugged and started putting her stuff into the wardrobe. “Put your stuff in here too. But not your weapons, they belong in the rack over there”, Natalie gestured with her thumb towards the door. There were several adjustable brackets to place swords, staves and all other manner of the weapons. 

“I would suggest to hit the sheets as early as possible. If we are lucky we’ll have maybe 6 hours of sleep ahead of us. By then we will have reached the last portal in Ludinchusen; once there is enough daylight we will rush through the Purgatory Gap. Once we reach the Datlem crossroads, we are safe and can take a victory nap.” 

“Victory nap, I’ll hurry up and get some training sleep done before then”, Cara said.

She put her stuff away. Hung her sword and defence stick on the door. She went to the bathroom, which, while incredibly tiny, was actually very well lit. She removed her make-up, then washed her face. The soap smelled of citrus and orange, the water was just the right kind of hot. When she straightened back up, she saw herself in the mirror. 

“That is a very good nap face”, she told her mirror image.

When she returned to their room, Natalie was already snuggled under her duvet, snoring softly. For a second Cara’s heart skipped a beat. She got the top bunk! Life couldn’t have been better.

A few minutes later, she was already drifting into the world of dreams where she was back in Walter’s garden, working on her moves and flow.

Cara was drifting through a comfortable darkness where there were no thoughts, no feelings, just warmth, when a blandly melodious marimba sound caught her attention. While the last note of the sound that had entered the cocoon shielding her consciousness was still reverberating, a mellifluous female voice added:

“Good morning passengers, this is Co-Captain Erika Hartmann Serafini speaking”, ‘Erika?’, Cara thought. That voice sounded nothing like she remembered it to sound… “This is your first and only warning”, the voice continued, “before the weak-up horns are sounded.” A brief pause. “You have been warned”, the announcement ended in a benevolent smile.

By now Cara was mostly back in reality, safely rolled into her big fluffy blanket that smelled like a warm spring morning. Her face sunken into a big soft pillow, only her nose and mouth looking out of it, the only point of contact to the cold early morning air. Not as good as the darkness from which she had come, but a close second. 

Her brain, having finished most of the necessary preflight checks, had now time to start wondering about the the warning they had received.

She felt the ‘wake-up horns’ before she heard them. Her entire body, the bed and the ship around her began to vibrate, followed by a deep mournful roar which shook her bones, her inner organs and probably her soul too. The roar emerged slowly from the depths of infra-sound making itself known to all the world.

Underneath her she could hear increasingly load protests coming from Natalie, her shouts, however, were caught in the currents of the roar and drowned.

As Cara’s eardrums started to tickle the sound suddenly stopped. 

Again the Marimba sounds. 

“Good morning”, a deeply satisfied male voice this time, “this is your other co-captain Wolfram Hartmann Serafini speaking. This has been your wake-up call. All hands, including our esteemed guests, the Ladies Natalie Laukkanen Lapointe and Cara Gibson Müller, on the bridge in 30 minutes.”

Cara moved towards the edge of her bunk and looked down, asking the bundle of duvets and pillows, under which she suspected her master to be: “Do you want to go shower first?”

“Mblll… brgllbrrrb… murgh… blllrmb…”, came the reply from inside the pile in the lower bunk. 

Cara thought about what she had heard for a moment. Not quite sure if she had interpreted what she had heard correctly, she tried: “So… I’m going to shower first…?”

“Grrb mpflll…”, the pile answered.

That was good enough for Cara. She threw her duvet back. Instantly regretted her choice as it was really cold outside. But now there was only one way to escape: forward.

She grabbed hold of the edge of the bed and flipped over the edge in an elegant arc.

That was the plan at least.

When she was six she could do that, no problem.

Her body reminded her of little details like, not being six for a long time now. And how it expected training, to see which movements should be kept and which shouldn’t. Also “OW!”, said Cara, first when her arms protested against the way they were being treated. Then from her feet as they scraped against the low ceiling. There was a short moment of clarity when the adrenaline kicked her body into high gear as she started her free fall. Punctuated in the end when she crashed into the floor below. Her duvet dripping over the edge of the bed laying itself over her, hiding her shame from the world. 

“Gnnnr brrr ng-heh?”, the pile asked.

“I’m good”, Cara said. Noticing that, indeed, she was. She had expected worse. Still hurt though. But that was something she had to add to her mental training list…

“Mmmmmrb…”, the pile said, a hand worming its way out of it showing a thumbs up, then quickly retreating from the cold.

Cara got up, opened her side of the wardrobe, got some fresh clothes out. She selected some functional underwear, unearthed her light weight protective gear that she could wear under her normal clothes and put that on the table. She then went digging for her make-up kit and with that and her underwear she went to the tiny shower room. A quick look told her that there wasn’t much space for her clothes, so as she undressed she threw her old clothes out. Hung the underwear on the hooks that were located high on the door and took a quick shower. The quick shower took her a bit longer than expected. The water came with a good pressure and could be set to a heat that was close to divine. For a moment she forgot about time. Then she suddenly panicked when she noticed that she had forgotten the existence of the universe. When she was done, she dried herself, solved the puzzle of getting into her clothes in a very tight space, followed by a quick look outside. Still no sign of Natalie. Just a pile furiously denying the existence of time. Good. She checked her clock. 10 minutes gone for the shower. She had to be quick, but would not leave her cabin without a proper face… Today she needed something more resolute. Eye shadow and lip-stick would have to wait, she could do that on the bridge while listening to the briefing. She hoped. 

She was done in a little over 5 minutes. When she got out, Natalie was still nowhere to be seen. 

“Master Natalie!”

“What..?”

It could speak. Good. 

“We have to be on the bridge in 14 minutes”, Cara said.

The reaction she got was not quite what she expected… “Fuck the bridge…”

As Cara put on her light carbon fibre and ceramics protectors, which covered her lower arms and legs, her chest and shoulders, she attempted to motivate Natalie to get up again. 

“12 Minutes, master Natalie.”

“Just another minute longer…”, Natalie said and turned around.

Cara put her pants on, chose a high necked long-sleeve shirt covering her armour.

“10 Minutes master…”, Cara said, now getting nervous for her master.

“Alright, alright”, Natalie said. Moving slowly out of bed, cursing the whole time. She started rummaging in her bag as, as Cara had put on another shirt, a sweater and her jacket.

“You go on ahead. I’ll be right there with you…”, Natalie half mumbled.

“Are you sure…”

“Yeah, yeah, I already know most of what they are going to say. Shoo, shoo, off you go.”

Cara nodded, not very convinced by Natalie’s words. She left their cabin, noticing a strange smell she could not place in the corridor, a bit sharp in the nose and like nothing she had ever smelled before.

She moved down the corridor to the staircase and went all the way up where, past a peculiar looking section, that didn’t have the faded carpet but was pure metal, until she reached the door at the end of it. She knocked.

“No need to knock”, she heard Erika’s voice from inside, “come in.”

She opened the door slowly and looked inside. Behind the door was a surprisingly large bridge that could comfortably house at least five people. Surrounded by windows in all directions, giving everyone a great view of the surroundings without having to endure the cold autumn wind. As she moved inside, the room smelled of polished metal and coffee, she noted that all the windows were reinforced by iron rails which held metal shutters.

“Come, join us”, Wolfram said. “You are either welcome on the bridge, then you can just come right in, or you aren’t and then Erika will let you know.” Erika just snorted at that. “Coffee?”

“If I may…”, Cara said trying without much success to maintain eye contact. 

“As much as you like. But remember the rule…”, Wolfram said.

“The one who drinks the last cup”, Erika continued, “brews the next batch.” 

“Sounds fair”, Cara said, her voice a bit smaller than she had hoped it would sound. She walked over to the coffee maker that stood in the central space at the back of the bridge. The coffee maker was an old drip machine, she knew the model from catalogues. A dutch model that was known as the king of the drip machines. She got a bit exited. It had a strange look to it, which she soon discovered was, because the stainless steel body of the coffee maker was by now covered in a patina of coffee. 

“Oh, and we drink it sailor strength”, Wolfram added. “If you aren’t used to coffee, you should dilute it with water.”

“I’m good. I can handle my coffee”, a phrase Cara never had imagined she’d ever use. 

When she poured herself a cup, she knew why co-captain Wolfram had warned her. The liquid was slightly viscous. When she added an extra big helping of sugar she was sure that it did not sink instantly into the liquid. She added a good amount of cream, turning the coffee from event-horizon black to a very dark brown. When she pulled the spoon out of it she was a bit surprised that it still existed. 

She had taken her time, hoping that Natalie would finally appear, especially seeing that 35 minutes had already passed since the announcement. She turned around, facing the co-captains, fearing their stares, but Wolfram was looking out the window, the boat moving very slowly towards a large metal portal that cut off the canal in front of them, framed by high towers with armed guards on various levels of them. Mostly people with crossbows on the lower levels and longbows on the higher ones. But there were a few guards at the top which had pre-fall rifles.

“Er… master Natalie should be with us very soon…”, Cara ventured.

Erika looked up from the console where she had been prodding several buttons and gently tapping several gauges. 

“Ah, don’t worry about Nat, sweety, she knows the drill. We’ll get started and by the time we are through the basics she’ll either be here or…”

“Erika will make her be here”, Wolfram said nodding solemnly.

“Very much”, Erika said.

“So…”, Wolfram said, “as you have heard we are co-captains. I am the one who does the navigation, I got the helm and plan the cargo runs we do, that kind of things. And Erika…”

“I take care of the engines,” she said, “I keep an eye on the details and I am the one who takes care of security.”

“Once we go through that portal”, Wolfram said, nodding towards the lock behind him, “we will be in the Purgatory Gap, a lawless region between Sendaion and the channel cross at Datlem. It’s only about 20 miles from here, but even when you know the course and go full steam ahead, the Ruhig Blut will take about one hour to cross it. In that hour nothing may happen or we get attacked. There are several old canal parts that are just perfect for pirates to hide in. And over the years new side channels have appeared that weren’t there before. Along this route are Ludinchusen which has a constant beef with Monasteria and the mercenary city of Ulfloa, whose inhabitants will do anything for a quick buck”, Wolfram shrugged. “Whatever the case, once we are in the Purgatory Gap, you’ll listen to Erika. She has the command when it comes to protecting the ship, the cargo and you.”

“In that order,” Erika added. “You are our guests of course, but in the Purgatory Gap you are also our guards. We fight together and we make it together.”

Cara nodded, took a sip of her coffee to hide the fact that she didn’t know what to say now. The coffee kicked its way through into her system, starting at her mouth, not waiting to be swallowed. As Cara was working on not to choke on it, the door to the bridge opened up and a zombie which looked suspiciously like Natalie shambled in. 

“Need coffee”, the creature said and shambled past Cara, pouring itself a generous portion of the viscous fluid. Cara noticed that the creature that might be Natalie left enough for a small cup inside the coffee pot. 

“Ship, cargo and maybe us?”, the creature said. It sipped the coffee, its face doing things that no face should be able to do. It added copious amounts of sugar.

“Exactly”, Erika said, “and if you want I can show all the things that will power the Ruhig Blut through the Purgatory Gap”, she grinned. Wolfram behind her moved a step to the side to stand completely in the blind spot of his wife, and then started to shake his head, also shaking an empathetic no with his hand.

Behind Cara, the undead creature decided that it needed all the coffee.

“What do you say? Cara, Natalie?”

“Oh nooo… the coffee is all gone. I think I need to go brew a new one…”

“I’d love to go!”, Cara said.

Erika’s face outshone the light of the early autumn sun.

Wolfram’s face was a mask of terror, while behind Cara, the undead creature almost let its mug slip out of its hand.

“Great!”, Erika said. “You’ll love it. I have sooo much to show you”, she looked back at the lock. “The first portal isn’t even open yet, we have enough time for a tour, before we enter the Purgatory Gap. Come”, beaming, she took Cara’s arm, pulling her with her towards the door. 

As Cara was pulled through the door back down stairs into the bowels of the ship, she could swear that the undead, who might be Natalie, murmured: “Some of us will be in Purgatory much earlier…” There was a deep sadness in that voice. 

Project Empress 018

 Chapter 5

Where the tides take us

It was close to 2 am on a Monday, actually a very early Tuesday, the city was quiet and dark. Natalie and Cara were sitting in the back of a large hydrogen driven carriage, easily recognised by the two large exhausts circled in golden script, blessing the water vapour produced by the engine as it left the car. 

The driver was holding a varied monologue, complaining about the lack of clients at this time, but happy that there were no drunks during the week, wondering what two pretty young ladies wanted at the harbour at this unchristian time of day, then wondering even more that they were leaving Monasterian territory at all, and to go to the Confederated Cities of all places, if they didn’t worry about all the bandits in the law-less territories and why anyone would want to go to a place so secular. Natalie gave him the shortest answers possible, which always resulted in a new monologue.

Natalie herself was hardly listening, mostly murmuring to herself, pouring over her ‘plan’, which to Cara looked like a large piece of e-paper covered by several layers of  doodles and notes that would someday become an artefact setting ablaze the heart of any archaeologist that found it. And its charger. 

Cara, on the other hand, was looking out of the window. The talking of the cab driver and the murmuring of her new master nothing more than the voice equivalent of rain patter. She was mostly thinking about what in the world she could have done to be declared a traitor by her own school. She had wanted to go to master Manfred to talk to him. Surely that would resolve the misunderstanding they were having. She would also have wanted to warn him about the blonde man; he was obviously a cheat and a liar not worthy to hold a sword in his hands much less learn the secret techniques of the great Liechtenauer style. Natalie and Walter would have none of it though. And so here she was, feeling amorphously guilty looking at a city she had know her entire life, had grown up in, now all cold and dark. It felt as if her home itself had turned away from her. As she felt tears welling up in her eyes, something in the voice of the driver had changed enough to make her look up. 

“… the harbour. The harbour never sleeps, eh. It truly is one of the beating hearts of the city.”

Cara wondered for a second what kind of beast the city had to be to have several hearts. Before she could follow that line of thought though, she saw the warm amber of the harbour lights. There, right ahead of her, was an island of life and activity surrounded by the darkness of the sleeping city.

As they moved closer, Natalie swore, redoubling her efforts of scribbling in her already overloaded ‘plan’, while Cara watched wide eyed: the cranes of the harbour were dancing their strange mechanical dance, carrying containers to and fro, guided by the dance of the human workers on the ground, scaffolds, containers and towers. 

The cab turned into the harbour itself, moved its way through a canyon of containers until they could see ahead of them the row of freighters.

“Which one is yours?”, the driver asked.

“The ‘MHS Ruhig Blut’, it’s a Monasterian free-trader. It should be anchoring in the”, Natalie looked at her ‘plan’ and to Cara’s deep surprise, Natalie somehow instantly found what she was looking for, “Block D-1 to D-4”.

“’Ruhig Blut’?”, the driver laughed a loud laugh that would have qualified him to play Santa Clause, “the ‘Stay chill?’ I like that.” The car turned to the right, passing the white and gold church ships anchoring in the A blocks, that took more than half of the anchoring space. Past the sanctioned company ships of blocks B and C, towards the D block where the free-traders had their ships. All the ships up to this point had been following a certain uniform design, but with the free traders this radically changed. Now every ship was its own design, some grand, some deeply spartan, there were solar sail ships, steam driven ones, some of the smaller ones were even powered by human or animal power. And then there was the ‘MHS Ruhig Blut’.

It looked the most like a company ship, but instead of normal navigational lights, it had giant red glowing tube running along side the ship. On the back of the ship Cara could see that there was an equal tube on the other side this one glowing green. The cabin space in the aft was longer than on most other ships, while there was also a cabin complex on the fore of the ship, both of which sloped down into two green houses as they moved towards the ship’s centre, both of them dark, but with fogged up windows. It was only after these parts, that the open cargo space appeared, which right now was being loaded with the last containers. Some the white gold of the church, others in the colours and icons of large Monasterian companies and a few just the red-brownish colour of an unbranded cargo container.

The driver stopped next to the gangplank where a large thin man was looking over a list discussing it with a stevedore. 

“Here you are”, the driver said. He got out himself and helped them get their luggage out of the transporter. While he was still piling backpacks on suitcases, Natalie was writing on an official looking and pre-sealed piece of velum. When the driver was done with the luggage and had closed the doors again, Natalie gave him the paper saying, “Here, you earned this. Especially if you forget that you ever saw us or where you drove tonight”. She smiled a surprisingly magnanimous smile. Cara couldn’t see what was written on the velum, but she could see the eyes of the driver widening. She also knew what a ecclesial pledge of recompense looked like. 

“As you can see we, and with us the arch-bishop, are extremely pleased with your work and should we remain that pleased with it for the next month you will reap the goodwill that you sowed four fold, as the good Lord teaches us.”

The driver just nodded, then added, “The Lord is our shepherd and in his mercy he will provide…”, he then remembered that he wasn’t alone. “May the Lord bless you, my lady.”, he retreated bowing before Natalie and Cara until he had entered his wagon, where he crossed himself and stared at the velum for a little while longer before leaving.

While Cara was still captivated by the reaction of the driver -how much money had he received? Was that even OK? It looked like Natalie may have been a bit too generous with resources that weren’t hers to give?- Natalie had started talking to the tall man. 

“…this is Cara over there. She is my new apprentice.”

“You have an apprentice?”, the man said, “wonders never cease!” He turned to Cara, “It is a pleasure to meet you Cara, I am captain Wolfram Hartmann Serafini.” He shook her hand, his grip was that of a very well mannered vice. “And somewhere over there,” he gestured towards where the last containers were being loaded, “you’ll find my wife Erika. Whatever you do, do not ask her about the engine or technical details of the ship. If you do it anyway, I warned you and may the Lord have mercy on your soul.” He smiled a last warning smile and turned back to Natalie. 

“You are lucky, our grand passenger suite is still free”, he said to Natalie.

“Are we?”, Natalie scanned the ship and dock with a raised eyebrow, “to me it looks like it’s you who are lucky. Because it looks like we are your only passengers.”

“Bah… passengers are just a side hustle. As you can see,” he gestured towards the containers. “Business is going really well and we will probably be using some of the passenger cabins to get some more light cargo. Very lucrative light cargo. I am basically doing you a favour here.”

“Are you?”, now that thin smile that promised an explosion of gleeful violence appeared on Natalie’s lips. “To me it looks more like you really need some help, to get your precious cargo past the Purgatory Gap…”

Cara was following the spectacle, trying to find out what exactly was happening here. Both of them seemed to be friends… and they were haggling? Before they had even talked about the price? 

“Bah, the “Ruhig Blut” is one of the fastest freighters in the entire region and we have some of the best anti-boarding weapons mankind can produce. We hardly need help to get past the Gap. At full speed will get through there in under an hour.” 

“Really? That’s great, I hope the slowest attack crafts keep that in mind and don’t push their engines over half power and give you the right of way, then. Also this,” she pointed at the containers being moved. “, doesn’t look like last minute loading at all. As if someone,” she cast captain Wolfram a meaningful look, “had spontaneously decided of jumping the gap tonight…”

“Wolfram!”, a female voice flooded over them, “What are you doing? Stop pestering our guests!”

“What?”, Wolfram turned around towards a woman who was moving in long powerful strides towards them down the dock. “My love, I am just following tradition!”

“What tradition?”, Cara asked, curious about what exactly this spectacle was supposed to represent. To her it looked like the captain and master Natalie were arguing.

“Well, young Cara,”, captain Wolfram said, “the age old tradition of haggling over the price for services rendered.”

“That was haggling?”, she and Erika said at the same time, Cara confused, Erika exasperated. 

“Really, caro mio?”, Erika said. “What is the price range we are talking about then?”

“Er…”, said captain Wolfram.

“We were about to come to that point.”, Natalie said raising a finger. 

“Ah Natalie, what a pleasure it is to see you.”, Erika beamed, she embraced Natalie in a bear hug, and despite being almost a head shorter than Nat, she effortlessly lifted her of the ground moving her left and right. Natalie squeaked softly in protest. 

“No need to kill me…”, Natalie gasped.

‘Cuddled to death…’, Cara thought, ‘Not the end I had expected for Natalie.’

“And who are you?”, Erika asked, turning, an unhappy Natalie sill dangling in her arms.

“I am Cara. I am master Natalie’s apprentice!”

“Apprentice?”, Erika glowed, she let go of Natalie who squawked as she made contact with the floor again.

“Look at you, aren’t you the cutest?”, Erika said moving towards Cara with a terrible pinch-in-the-cheek energy. Cara tensed, getting ready for the first contact, which turned out to be a warm embrace and two quick pecks on her cheeks. “Welcome to the family my dear. I am Erika. That over there is Wolfram my often wonderful husband and behind us is the Ruhig Blut, our pride and joy.”

“Er… thank you. Mrs. Erika…”

“Just Erika, sweety.”, she smiled. Then she turned back around to face Natalie and her husband, as she turned all her warmth into thorns. “So… about that haggling of yours...”

Both captain Wolfram and Natalie stood up straighter, none of them daring to say the first word.

“Nat, my dear, were do you need to go?” 

“Dortmund at the very least. We need to go to the forge fortress Solingen. Cara needs training and equipment.”

Erika considered Natalie´s words for a second, rubbing her chin. 

“Then we’d rather go at least to Düsseldorf… and there…”

“District 9, they have a private trade harbour there.”, Wolfram said, his eyes scanning over a map he was visualising, his voice now all business. 

Erika nodded. “Good plan. How long are you going to stay at the forge fortress?”

“Depends,” Natalie said. “If we get a place to stay and train, for a couple of months…”

“What is your final destination?”, Wolfram asked.

“Vienna. In about six months.”

Erika and Wolfram exchanged looks. “It would be wiser to push further south,” Wolfram started. “And find a place to stay over the winter months.”, continued Erika, “and then push forward again as spring arrives.”

“Maybe.”, Natalie said. “But the most important part here is training Cara here. A Salle that will have us and let us do our thing would be the the best. Especially during winter.”

“Good point,”, Erika said. “So we can take you to Disrict 9 in Düsseldorf. You are going to get board and lodging and you will help in defending the ship. Especially in the Purgatory Gap.”

“That would be the deal.”, Natalie said. This confused Cara, wasn’t that what her master and the captain had been arguing about only a few minutes ago?

“So what’s your budget?”, Erika asked.

“Two Monasterian gold icons and not a cent more.”, Natalie said.

Cara had to pull her hand in front of her mouth so that the others wouldn’t notice her jaw dropping. One gold icon, a thin pressed gold plate in a steel frame was the highest denomination of money in Monasteria and was roughly the equivalent of a fourth of Cara’s pretty decent yearly income.

A smile flickered on Erika’s face but failed to fully manifest. She slowly turned towards captain Wolfram. “Caro mio… you have been haggling over two gold icons for taking two passengers to Dortmund?!”

“But my love… the tradition!” 

“Don’t you ‘my love’ me right now. You are a disgrace to your profession and my family.”

Natalie tried to hide her smug smile, not very hard, she also failed spectacularly at it.

“And you Nat…”, Erika turned back her eyes burning away any sign of smugness from Natalie’s face. “You had to keep that fact to your self and indulge in this childish play? What would your parents say to such behaviour?”

“My parents are dead…?”, Natalie said.

“Good for them”, Erika said her voice now growing louder. “To imagine what they would have to go trough, if they heard about this! Or maybe worse, because now they are watching you from heaven”, she crossed herself as she said that, “with all your other ancestors. Just imagine how they need to excuse your behaviour to all your noble ancestors who came before you.” 

Natalie shrank under the onslaught of Erika’s words. “It’s not their fault…”

“Maybe not,” Erika said, “but it is their responsibility…” Erika sighed and shook her head.

“Well what are we standing around wasting our time with empty talk, let’s get your luggage on board. We need to weigh anchor soon, so that we can pass through the Purgatory Gap during the day.”

Project Empress 017

 [Chapter 4 finished]

Cara helped Walter and Natalie to move the two men, who were slowly coming back to their senses, out of the bar. They were able to walk again by now, both had a certain spark in their eyes that made Natalie bare her teeth in anticipation. The alleged smile soon turned into something more disappointed when the two men just sat down around the still unconscious blond man, glowering fiercely but not moving. 

“Oh come on, two big men, strong like you, are you really just going to sit there and just wait for the church militia to arrive?”

“Yeah,” one of them said. “Then they will see that your old friend over there assaulted us when we were here on official academy business”, he tried a smile, not to much of one. Natalie looked twitchy like a sprinter milliseconds before the race was started.

Cara was slowly moving herself into a position that she could intervene from if her master decided to attack. It would look really bad if the church forces arrived and they gave them double beaten bullies. More than anything else, it was morally wrong to attack an enemy that was already beaten. Goading them into another match they had already lost was just mean. 

“Official academy business?”, Walter asked, leaning against the door frame of the bar’s entrance. “You damaged my front door and then assaulted me with some flimsy excuse of some academy.”

“We have the paperwork. We were just talking. And then you attacked us”, the guy said, now allowing himself a bloodied grin.

“I warned you thrice and I invoked the principle of sanctum sanctorum.”

“Yeah, that’s what you say grandpa, but that would be you word against ours.”

“Heh”, Walter snorted. “Show me that paper again…”

Both thugs looked around them, the paper had fallen from the hand of the blond man’s hands when he had been struck down. 

“Oops…”, Walter said, his expression was perfectly neutral but his aura was smiling thinly. “And you just told me this incredible lie to my face, with witnesses. Also you are here on academy business? Funny as none of you are part of the academy.”

“We…? We were hired as body guards by…”, he turned to the blond man.

“Who also isn’t in the academy”, Walter said. “My friend here is from the illustrious  High Academy of Historical Fencing Arts Monasteria”, he turned to Cara. “When was the last training you attended?”

“Two days ago”, Cara said.

“And have you seen any of these people there?”

“No.”

Walter lifted an eyebrow. The thugs, eyes wide, fell silent. 

Only moments later an armoured transporter in the white and gold of the church militia came silently rolling down the street, bathed in the blue pulsing halo produced by its light strips, showing that it was there on official peace keeping duty.

The transporter stopped in front of Bacchus’ Barrel. Two armoured officers got out of the wagon. A lithe wirey woman and a large bull like man, both looked tried.

“Hey Walter”, the woman said. 

“Hello Christine. Hey Frank”, the large officer grunted a greeting to Walter. “Long night?”

“Yeah long and full of bullshit. I swear to the Lord, whose mercy shines on us all, that if I get another bunch of drunk arseholes tonight, that he may bestow upon me the patience of all the saints, for I feel the wicked temptation of the mortal sin of wrath.”

The two thugs on the floor somehow manged to shift into an even more colourless white.

“No drunks”, Walter said. “Just a group of criminals, damaging my property,” Walter motioned towards his door. Frank clicked his tongue in disapproval, slowly shaking his head. “Who pretended to be on official business of the High Academy of Historical Fencing.”

“Did they say that indeed?”, Christine said, looking the three over.

“Yes, they said I was hiding, on a day my bar is obviously closed”, he gestured towards the dark bar, “that I was hiding a Proditor Perfidissimus.”

“Huh?”, Frank asked.

“You three”, Christine said, “knocked on this man’s door and asked him to look through his rooms looking for a Proditor Perfidissimus?”

“Yes ma’am”, said the other guy who up until now hadn’t said anything.

“You accused the war hero, high instructor and grand master Walter Balogh Rayne of harbouring a Proditor Perfidissimus inside the walls of his house? And you did so in the name of the High Academy of Historical Fencing”, Christine clasped her hands together as she mouthed a short prayer. “May the saints of mercy and the Virgin Mary move the heart of the  judicial vicar I am going to wake up the moment I have brought you to your holding cell. Pray, my stray brothers, for you tonight you will only find salvation in the Lord”, she nodded at Frank, who one by one lifted the men from the pavement and threw them into the back of the transporter.

Christine turned back to Walter. “I am so sorry this happened and to you of all people…”

“It’s OK”, Walter said. “I had everything under control.”

“Still, that things like this happen in our beautiful city”, she crossed herself. “We live in the strangest of times.”

“At least it wasn’t drunks.”, Walter said smiling. 

“That at the very least is true and we are delivered of a night of boring duty.”

“Glad to be of service”, Walter said.

Christine snorted. 

“And say hi to Monica for me.”

“Will do, good night, Walter., Madams”, she nodded to Cara and Natalie. Frank nodded goodbye to them. Moments later, the wagon had disappeared as silently as it had arrived.

Walter turned to Cara and Natalie. “This will buy you a bit of time. A few hours at worst. Nat, did you secure passage on a ship?”

“Yep. The ship will leave in about two hours when it’s done loading. They want to enter the wild lands during daylight and reach the territory of the Confederated Cities before it gets dark.”

“Perfect.”, Walter said. “That gives you enough time to get Cara’s things and go to the harbour without raising any suspicion.”

“I’ll escort Cara. Will you prepare the last rites?”, Natalie said.

“Sure will do”, Walter nodded.

“Let’s go Cara, the clock is ticking.”

As they walked back to her home Cara asked, “What are the ‘last rites’?”

“You’ll see soon enough.”

“They sound scary”, Cara mumbled.

“They are more of awe inspiring and ridiculous.”

“That doesn’t make sense.”

“You’ll see.”

Back in Cara’s home she had already prepared all her things. She had the large transport backpack with her sword and equipment. She had packed two suitcases with her clothes, a few books and a few other things she thought she would need on her voyage. 

“Mind if I have a look around your flat and the things you packed?”, Natalie said.

“Er… no? Go ahead.”

Natalie went directly to her equipment bag and got rid of most of her protective gear. “This is just bulk and we won’t need it at first. We’ll get you knew and better gear when it’s time for it and when we aren’t running away from the church’s army… and your academy.”

Natalie looked up at Cara. “What did you even do? I thought you had told your master about our arrangement?”

“I did!”, Cara said, tears now pooling in her eyes. “He didn’t mind. He just waved me away. I asked. I really did.”

“Oh… on no, Cara”, Natalie rushed to Cara, giving her a big hug and holding her. “It’s OK, Cara. You didn’t do anything wrong. It’s probably just a misunderstanding. Walter will look into it. We still have the support of the Lord-bishop.” Cara sobbed silently, her hand gripping Natalie’s coat tightly. 

“No matter what happens”, Natalie said, “I will take care of you, OK? We will clear your name. We will win that tournament. When we come back here to Monasteria in a few months, will come back as heroes, you hear me?”

Cara, still crying, nodded. They stood like that for quite a while. Natalie never let go of Cara, very gently turning around with her so she could have a look at a clock. Natalie would worry about the time so Cara didn’t.

Five minutes later Cara let go of Natalie, she sniffled wiping away the last tears from her face. “It’s all a bit much”, Cara said.

“It certainly is”, Natalie agreed.

Cara looked at the pile of protective gear on the floor. “At least that solves one of my problems.”

“Which one?”, Natalie asked.

Cara walked to a pile of shreds of fabric that stood looked quite out of place in Cara’s flat. She started to stuff them into her equipment bag. 

“What exactly is that?”, Natalie asked. She chose her words very carefully.

“That is Miss Snuggles.”

“?”, Natalie said.

“Miss Snuggles is my special blanket. She has been with me for as long as I remember. The blond shithead cut her to ribbons when he attacked me.”

 She then went to her bed and took a small very old bunny plushy.

“And who is that?”, Natalie asked.

“That is Fiore the bunny”, Cara said.

“We need all the help we can get.”

“Are you making fun of me?”, Cara looked at Natalie with red eyes.

“No”, Natalie smiled a surprisingly warm and open smile. “I have Miri-chan.”

“Who is that?”, Cara asked.

“My plushy, its a little cat.”

Cara laughed. Natalie joined her. Moments later the atmosphere in the room was much lighter again. 

“I’m going to have a look in the kitchen. Gone make sure that you won’t have to fight what ever was in your fridge when we return. And look if there isn’t something that we can take with us. Either as rations or to barter.”

“I’ll help you.”

“Nah, you my friend need to take care of your make-up.”, Natalie said.

Less then half an hour later, Cara and Natalie were back on the street again.

“One last thing and we can leave this city behind us.”, Natalie said, she was carrying both of Cara’s suitcases, moving at a impressive clip. It took Cara some effort to keep up with her.

“The last rites?”, Cara asked.

“The last rites”, Natalie said.

They returned to Bacchus’ Barrel. Cara was extremely nervous because here they were back at the scene of the crime. Even if it hadn’t been her crime. But instead of church militia there was just silence and darkness.

This time Natalie rang the bell. Walter’s joy was measurable.

“We don’t have much time”, he said. “Leave your stuff here in the bar. I will call you a coach, I know someone we can trust. You go up to the garden.”

Upstairs, in the middle of the green, stood a large roughly humanoid figure mode from cardboard boxes. 

“What’s that?” Cara said.

“Walk around it and you’ll see”, Natalie said.

Cara did, the cardboard scarecrow had something written in big black letters on it’s chest. “CARA GIBSON MÜLLER” it said.

“Is that me?”, Cara asked.

“In a way”, Walter said, he had just arrived at the entrance. He walked over to them, a large round wine bottle in one hand. He opened it and poured a clear liquid over the cardboard Cara, it smelled of concentrated alcohol. 

“Nat”, he said.

Natalie took a lighter out of her pocket and lit the effigy on fire.

“Hey!”, Cara shouted. “Why are you setting me on fire?”

Walter looked at Natalie.

“This isn’t you”, Natalie said.

“It has my name on it…”, Cara pouted.

“This is your fear. This is your panic, These are all the things inside you that hold you back, that weigh you down.” 

“Uh-huh…”, Cara said still not sure what to think of all of this. The fire had now engulfed all of the cardboard figure. Natalie stepped towards her, carefully unsheathing her sharp sword, presenting it grip first to Cara.

“Take the sword. Confront your own weakness, all the things that live within you only to get in your way. This is your first real enemy, take the sword and destroy it.”

Cara took the sword from Natalie’s hand, a beautiful weapon, with a point of balance that gravitated towards the enemy, a weapon that wanted to smite who ever stood against it. She weighed it for a short moment, getting a feel for the weapon, then stabbed the burning Cara-thing in front of her. It was just an empty shell, weak, timid, afraid. Someone who when confronted with her dreams would shy away from them, their light so bright as to startle her away. 

Cara lifted her sword, this thing before her wasn’t her. With a clean step forward and a slash down she destroyed this weak thing, leaving behind only Cara, blade shining in the trails of fire her attack had left.