Project Empress 007

 (chapter 3 continued)

The next day Cara almost managed to sleep in, as she usually did on Saturdays, only to be woken by some very insistent ringing of her door bell. Cara had started cursing the bell, then whoever it was, who was causing the infernal racket. She paused this for a second, as more and more parts of her brain came back to life, reminding her that it probably was her new Master Natalie. Her animal self, who did not enjoy being roused at all, however vetoed the notion, deciding that there was enough time for regret at the other end of her righteous anger. 

Her regret instantly appeared in her mind, an epic monologue at the ready and was about to start berating Cara, when her mind was erased by a wave of white hot pain. A strangled croak made it out of her throat before even that part of her clenched shut. Her survival instinct kicked in asking for a highest priority first damage report. It was instantly overwhelmed by a cacophony of screams from all over her body. Every muscle in her body was pain and fire. Somewhere in the background the bell kept on ringing. 

It took her some agonised moments full of grinding teeth and yelps to climb out of her bed. She regarded her trousers for a second, imagined the fun it would be to wriggle into them and decided that today was a dress day. A wide, cosy, comfy dress, that she could easily slither her body into with as little movement as possible. Followed by a scarf, a coat and a cape to keep the cold out.

First, she had to stop Natalie though. She threw on her dressing gown walked to her door phone, a massive video capable behemoth that took up way too much space in the tiny corridor, but Cara was really proud of. She activated it, Natalie’s giant eye appearing on the black and white cathode tube screen. 

“Good morning Master Natalie. Please stop ringing”, ‘for ever’, Cara added in her mind, “And enter”, she pulled the lever that opened the door downstairs. 

She heard someone bounding up the stairs, resulting in an overactive Natalie appearing in front of her a bit later. Today her style had changed somewhat. Wearing wide wool trousers, a white blouse and west with a thick hoody, her long coat and her union choker. This time though she wore a belt with a sheath in which she carried a sword, showing the entire world that she was sword master. Cara also saw that over night there had appeared two new patches on Natalie’s coat: on her lapel and her right shoulder were now the emblems of a weapon-master. 

“Good morning Cara”, Natalie said, slapping her on the shoulder, making Cara wince and almost crumpling to the ground. “Sorry for waking you up, but today is the big day, we need to talk to the lord bishop.” Natalie had walked right past Cara who was still in the process of welcoming her in. 

“How long will it take you to get presentable?”, Natalie asked.

“20 minutes?” Cara tried. 30 would have given her time to wake up and five to six weeks would have been optimal, for that was the time she felt that she would need to overcome the pain consuming her or find eternal peace in death´s merciful embrace. 

“Hah!”, Natalie said, “Very good, we have an hour and I just came from the city centre, that’s like fifteen minutes from here on foot.” 

“I know…”, Cara said, closing the door to her flat. 

While Natalie was talking about discoveries of all the nice places she had discovered since she had arrived in the city and those she spotted on her way here, all places Cara had known for all her life, Cara went to collect her clothes and retreated to the bathroom, Natalie still talking happily to her through the door. For a moment Cara eyed her bathtub, the idea of submerging her body in warm water was incredibly tempting. But there wasn’t any time for that. So instead she just washed her face, fought her way into one of her favourite comfy dresses, the most elegant that she had, and when she was finished with that, opened the door again, to better be able to listen to what Natalie was saying. Natalie was mostly now thinking out loud, about methods and ways to improve their training, submerging Cara in concepts that she hardly understood but all sounded rather impressive. 

Cara was working on her make-up, her daily ritual of civilisation, one that today was more important than on other days as she was about to meet the lord bishop of her state today, when she noticed that that Natalie had stopped talking.

“…?”, Natalie had said.

“I… er… what?”, Cara asked.

“I asked you if you are religious.”

“I’m a catholic”, Cara said. 

Natalie, poking her head through the open door, asked, “Really? Like with true faith and all that.”

“I wouldn’t call it true faith…”, Cara said working on her eye shadow, deciding on going with a deep blue that would go well with Natalie’s European colours. 

“Oh”, Natalie’s head retreated back again, now that nothing that interesting was happening after all. “So what kind of Catholic are you?”

“… an out of habit one I guess?”, Cara said.

“Makes sense. Pity, I would have loved to have a true believer friend.”

“Aren’t you friends with the lord bishop?”

“Not really. He knew my master back in the day and our schools are allied. He is also a great supporter of the historical martial world.”

“So you do know him?”, Cara asked.

“We met a couple of times”, Natalie said.

“Well he is a true believer.”

Natalie snorted, her head reappearing. “Whoa!”

“What?”

“What happened to your face?”, Natalie asked pointing at Cara’s nose. 

“My face?”

“Yeah when I arrived here, you looked like the living dead, but now you look fierce! Love the eye shadow.”

“Thanks, and it’s called make-up, I am pretty sure this doesn’t belong to the lost arts of the golden age. Wait”, Cara squinted, examining Natalie’s face. “Don’t you wear make-up too?”

“Of course I do. Lipstick, eye-liner and stuff. But I can’t do what ever witchcraft you did there.”

Cara turned around to finish her work, mostly because she didn’t know how to respond to that. She had wanted to ask Natalie, if she wanted her make-up done or maybe learn how to do it herself. But Cara couldn’t ask her master if she’d like to be taught by her own student.

Natalie kept staring at her, following her every move, one of her hands making little movements mimicking Cara’s.

“You will have to teach me”, Natalie said.

Cara blushed. “I… how… I wouldn’t dare….”

“Why?”, Natalie asked.

“You are my master, I could never be so presumptuous as to teach you”, Cara said.

“I’m your master in the ancient arts of fighting not in face magic”, Natalie said. “Also, even if it were in the field of combat, if you know something that I don’t know or do something better than I do, then you are the teacher and I am the pupil. We are now siblings in the martial world. We learn from each other. Right now I am your master, because there are things I can teach you. That’s all.”

“Still, I owe you a minimum of respect.”

Natalie’s face changed, first her expression turned neutral, almost cold but then something predatory and malicious started to take over.

“Cara, I command you to teach me. If you don’t, you will be disobeying your master. Not only that but you would disappoint me to my very core. After all I have done for you.”

“What? No. I would never…”, Cara spluttered. “That makes no… What you are doing with the rules is outrageous.”

“Cara, will you or will you not listen to your master.”

Cara bit her lip, her her head sinking, “I will teach you. But I´ll do it under protest, what you are doing here is very irregular.”

“Don’t worry,” Natalie said, her usual broad grin finding its way back to her face, “this is also a very valuable lesson for you.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

“And what exactly is this lesson supposed to teach me?”

“I’m not quite sure yet, but in time it will all become clear.”

Cara rolled her eyes and felt only a tiny bit guilty about it.

Not long after, the two of them were on their way to the general administration of the holy principality of Monasteria. They took a few shortcuts, not because they really had to, but deeply motivated by Cara`s wish to move as little as possible. At least moving reduced the flaming agony she felt in each muscle fibre to a dull throbbing agony.

Natalie was mostly deeply invested in the discovery of all these new nooks and crannies in the city that she hadn’t been aware of. Her personal highlight was an old narrow street lined with bars, kiosks and fast food places, where she discovered an incredibly luxurious provider of hi-fi audio equipment, a lot of it ancient treasures from before the crash. Cara was at first surprised by her master´s utter fascination for all things old, then she thought that her enthusiasm was somewhat adorable. Besides, Cara herself loved old machines and electronics. If she had been born into a more moneyed family or had had the patience to jump through the ridiculous hoops you were expected to jump through to get better grades at the academy, she might even have studied high science in the local science-fortress.

Natalie’s very rude comments on the pricing for some kind of relic level audio wire, pulled her back into the present, a present which was now much closer to their audience with the lord bishop than to anything else. With some effort she manged to pull Natalie away from the display window. 

While there should still be enough time left, Cara wasn’t so sure anymore that her easily excitable master might not get distracted by some timber-framed house or whatever else.

However, as they got closer to the general administration Natalie’s whole behaviour changed. She shifted her attention back to Cara, eyeing her outfit.

“I know, I said to dress for the occasion”, she said, “but I think you overdid it a bit with the grandma style.”

“Grandma style?”, Cara asked.

“Yeah, all the wool, layers, the dress and the combat boots. That’s the way my grandma dresses.”

“Then you have a grandma with impeccable style”, Cara said.

“Yes. For a grandma…”, Natalie eyed her boots. “The undone shoelaces are stylish I give you that, however, not ideal in combat situations.”

“Yes master”, was all Cara could say. She certainly would never admit that she had not done her shoelaces because that would have hurt too much. She thought that she was showing the discipline of ancient heroes by moving at all.

“It’s OK, I don’t expect any problems right now. You know the lord bishop?”

“Not personally, no.”

“Hmm…”, Natalie walked a few steps, without saying anything, then continued, “lord bishop Waltharius is someone you can trust…”, she said.

Cara thought there was more to come but Natalie kept walking, her eyes focused on some other reality. 

“So he is a good man?”, Cara said.

“In his way…”, Natalie said. “You can trust that he will do what is the best for his archdiocese. In a way that will secure or advance his position.”

“That doesn’t sound very nice…”, Cara said, wondering what she had thought how the lord bishop would be. 

“Oh he is one of the most reliable allies you could wish for. He is straight forward, he doesn’t hide his motivation and he is both professional and a man of his word.”

“OK, that sounds pretty good.”

“But you always need to consider his point of view when dealing with him. While he is not a bad man, if you and your people stand in the way of what is right for his domain, he will sweep you aside, without batting an eyelid.”

“Sounds like someone stood in his way once.”

Natalie snorted. “Yeah, but not me. I’m not an idiot and also I am a professional, something he appreciates.”

Cara nodded.

“Oh my god…”, Natalie said suddenly stopping, her nose wrinkling while, the corners of her mouth dropped. 

“What is it?”, Cara asked, looking at her master, then following her line of sight to see what had so offended her. But in front of them was just the large sandstone building were the administration of the holy principality was located.

“You know, I’m a fan of the old Union. I believe in its values and that we as Europeans should return to its past glory.”

“I had noticed”, Cara said, eyeing Natalie’s blue and star circle choker. 

“But fuck me, as great as the European Union was, their infantilist style of… of ‘architecture’”, Natalie made air-quotes when she said that word, “is a fucking crime against humanity”, she looked at Cara. “When we bring back the European Union, we will also bring back architects.”

Cara looked at the building. She had passed it hundreds of times in her time in the city but never given it much of a second glance. Natalie was right, it was a late industrial infantilist building, with the signature simple cuboid structure with rectangle windows and doors design. The style had gotten the name in later decades and had led to many heated debates if it was the epitome of a clean no-nonsense style or if it was as its detractors described a ‘shoe-box with punched out openings”.

“If it makes you feel better,” Cara said, “the lord bishop is having a contest were stone masons can present their plans of how carve decorations into the building to turn it into something more worthy of our city.”

“Not really. I… I just have to live with the fact that despite its splendour, united Europe also produced… that”, she pointed at the building in front of them.

“Well the union did break apart like the rest of all the industrial quasi-civilisations.”

“Too soon, Cara, too soon…”

“I’m sorry master…”

“Never mind, let’s get in there. There is an alliance to be forged.”

Cara had expected them to have to pass through security and several checks and maybe get asked some pointed questions because of the sword Natalie was carrying openly. 

However the the guard just stopped them and after being told Natalie’s full name, he said that they were expected and told them to wait in the lobby, where they were greeted by a vicar shortly after who led them further into the building. However, instead of being led into an office he led them to the wide atrium of the administration where they saw lord bishop Waltharius training with a one handed sword and buckler. He moved with speed and grace, shifting quickly from one stance into another, always keeping his guard up while projecting his force towards his hypothetical enemies.

Cara and Natalie stood in the arcades next to the atrium watching as the lord bishop finished his training.

Natalie was smiling faintly. 

“He is trying to impress us with his martial skill…”, she said, keeping her voice low to Cara.

“He looks like he really knows what he is doing”, Cara said.

“Oh he is, but the Walpurgis style? That’s a bit on the nose, don’t you think?”

“Is it, the Tower fechtbuch is the oldest manuscript we know of? Maybe he tries to understand the art basing it on the most ancient traditions.”

Natalie shrugged. “Yeah, could be. But then the Tower manuscript is monks fencing. It’s a bit on the nose…”

Cara thought about this for a while. “But there is also the Lecküchner style with the long knife… Lecküchner was a priest and his is one of the most detailed treatise we have, isn’t it?”

“Huh… never thought about it that way. But it’s not that important anyway. If the lord bishop wants to show off his skills, so be it. Also watch him closely, you can learn quite a bit from him. See how he moves through space? Observe how his buckler always protects his sword hand and also how he keeps his body shifted forward a bit in contrast to how we move. Can you imagine why that is?”

“Maybe because the reach is better?”

“Good point. But also because if he stands that way and he is hit by a sword the points will slip over his ribs, like sliding down a stair instead of getting stuck between them.”

“Oh…”, said Cara, renewing her focus on the movements of the arch-bishop.