Kyou Kara Maou – Well of the Five Kings
Summary: Yuuri feared for racial conflict in his people's future. But he never dreamed that he could lose his past, and with it the Wolfram who would love him.
Disclaimer: Kyou Kara Maou is not mine. Its original creator was Tomo Takabayashi, with character design by Temari Matsumoto. The anime was produced by Studio Deen.
AN: Thank you to everyone who's reviewed!
Chapter 4 – The Great Viral Tea Party
Present day, Well of the One King –
Yuuri and his inner circle trooped out to the garden around 3 am. Selecting an oak by the castle baths, Yuuri drew out his Quercus whistle and blew it loud and clear. They all stared at the oak.
Perhaps the oak stared back, but it didn't say anything.
Wolfram had thought to bring along their Garena whistle, too, the one Garena gave them for a wedding present. He blew that, likewise to no apparent effect. Deciding perhaps it just wasn't a good tree, Wolfram went down the line, feeling the trees. Aldrich had told him that Wolfred planted this line of trees, nearly two centuries ago. But some didn't have the telltale life maryoku signature. At each life maryoku bearing tree, he blew the whistle again, ardently focused on Garena, and his urgent desire to talk to him. From tree to tree he ran, growing more frantic with each blow of the whistle.
"Wolfram…" Yuuri murmured tenderly, stopping him with hands on his shoulders. "Maybe they'll answer tomorrow. Let's go to bed, love." And he gently disengaged the whistle from Wolfram's hand and drew him into his arms. They walked alone to their bedroom, the rest of the group dispersing to their own beds.
Yuuri didn't ask whether Wolfram wanted to be held close all night. He just went ahead and did it. That way, he woke every time Wolfram had a nightmare, to gentle him, smooth his soft hair, and murmur calming words until he slept again.
Three times Wolfram woke. Yuuri wasn't sure, but he thought one of those times, it was Prince Wolfram rather than his own pretty vixen he soothed. That time, the other was stiff instead of clinging for comfort, and uttered not a word. Yuuri held him firmly but kindly. He spoke quietly of Ekaterin, whom Prince Wolfram had met, then his conversations with their other children today. For Yuuri figured, whatever kind of person this Prince Wolfram might be, he was disturbed by these events, just as they were. He deserved to be treated with consideration, and hopefully might even return the favor. When Wolfram passed back into sleep, Yuuri wondered how the other-Yuuri was coping tonight. He wished him well.
-oOo-
After half an hour with Aldrich in private, Manfred worked through the night. Grounding Aldrich was easy – soft-voiced conversation, a neck-rub, a cuddle with their twin newborns, shared fire-healer touch, that said beyond any shadow of doubt, no matter what happens, 'I love you'. That little bit of pampering under his belt, Aldrich rallied, dragged the three boys into their bed, and declared late-night Lord's Lesson. To Manfred, it sounded more like an Unconditional Love lecture, alloyed with Trond spiritual leadership. But no matter – whatever monsters lurked beneath the bed, the boys would sleep well, and Aldrich would, too.
Manfred's messengers returned throughout the night. He needn't have worried about people putting them off until morning. Wherever they went, disturbed and restless folk needed to talk about their experiences badly, be assured that they weren't alone, that yes, what had happened to them was bizarre, but it wasn't just in their own minds. Though the phenomenon wasn't understood yet, there was some real… thing… out there that they were perceiving. And others perceived it too.
I could open fact-gathering offices. Come join in, at the domain-wide 'Thing' Jigsaw Puzzle Party, thought Manfred wryly. Bring your story's puzzle pieces, and find how it fits with your friends and neighbors! With a soothing herbal tea served to everyone at the door.
Actually, that's not a bad public palliative until we can find solutions. Better that, than people's first instinct, to isolate themselves, convinced they're going crazy. Self-fulfilling prophecy…
Manfred expected a spatial pattern – to find an epicenter, with experiences dwindling off to nothing at some radius from there. But the data didn't fit. Temporal… he didn't like what he was seeing, but yes, there was a temporal pattern. From the nearest messengers, who returned first, there was absolutely nothing before 2:30 pm that day. In fact, outside the Castle, it was a while before Manfred got another report of an experience before 3:00.
That changed with the last ferry back from Tarkenburg, the giant plantation that held Bielenfeld's western bank of the Donza River. Squire Soujourn, the current heir, sent a preliminary report from the manor house, to be followed by reports compiled from the rest of the plantation later. Soujourn and his wife Evrinne were among Aldrich's closest same-age friends. They and Soujourn's father reported powerful experiences before 3 pm. Soujourn saw King Wolfred throw a squire and his factor into the dungeon. Evrinne's vision was of preparations for an engagement party for Aldrich's non-existent daughter Tatya and their son Sylvain. Sylvain, who'd married Kieran Lady Donaghie just this summer. Soujourn had a second vision after supper, of a crisis meeting in Castle Bielenfeld, regarding the outbreak of strange visions. King Wolfred had dispatched Soujourn to organize crisis response for the west.
Huh. My father as his own public health and welfare officer? No, don't get sucked into the story. This isn't an opportunity to get to know my father better… Much as I would have liked to… Tasking Soujourn to organize western Bielenfeld was clever, though. Thanks for the suggestion, Chichiue.
Soujourn added a personal note of heart-felt thanks to Manfred, applauding his quick response. Until Manfred's runner arrived, Soujourn's family each thought they were going crazy alone. His father had locked himself in the library with a bottle of vodka, Evrinne was closeted with a healer, and Soujourn was pacing a hole in his carpet.
That puzzle party concept is looking better and better…
Willem from Blood Pledge Castle, followed soon by another runner dispatched to Wincott, both returned near dawn, carried by Aldrich's fastest wind-majutsu powered cutters. Wincott's reports – accompanied by another emotional thank you from Lady Kattrin – were just as Manfred expected. Which suggested he knew the pattern now.
Like ripples expanding in a pond. Reverberating out from Aldrich at Wolfred's grave, and Wolfred as Efram, and Wolfram and Dietrich. The earliest rings are the people closest, most intimately affected, by Wolfred. People close to him, but who have had no experiences at all, are dead on the other side, and apparently haven't reincarnated yet. Unless I can get in touch with Garena or Tariel, it might take another day before I hear from Trondheim. But I'll bet Friedrich was struck at the same time as Aldrich, and he's already investigating.
And each experience of this cross-talk between realities, is also being experienced on the other side. And they're planning their own response. And even though Wolfred seems to be at the epicenter, he doesn't know what's happening, either.
When Aldrich came in the morning to check on progress, he looked fresh as a daisy, ready to lead his domain through this crisis with calm confidence. And that, despite having woken with three more experiences overnight, as did both Dietrich and Efram. Trenton had simply pointed out that even if he did dream of being another Trenton, both of them were sound asleep, so who'd know?
"So, Lord Manfred, the resources of the domain are at your disposal," said Aldrich. "What can I get done for you while you sleep?"
"I am so glad that you rule this domain instead of me," Manfred grumbled. He pursed his lips and studied Aldrich's upbeat composure. He shared his overnight findings regarding what was happening. He offered his concept of a widescale Puzzle Party with Sedative Tea, crediting other-Wolfred for the idea of decentralizing response. "And there are some letters for you around here somewhere, from Conrad or Yuuri. But Aldrich… whatever you did, to get from where you were yesterday mentally, to where you are this morning? Add that to the party idea, if you can figure out how."
"Will do, Lord Manfred. Excellent work. And – sleep well, love."
-oOo-
When Yuuri woke around noon, Wolfram was already ensconced with the babies and Annissina and Cecilie in the nursery. Recalling Wolfram's near-hysteria last night, Yuuri pocketed both nymph whistles. Heading to the offices, he saw the castle was full of haggard faces today, faces that flinched instead of meeting his gaze. He realized that he'd also been wearing a serious, worried expression, and stopped. Yuu-chan, you look like stormclouds! his mother scolded in his head. Show me your happy face!
He walked to a window and found ten beautiful things in the view. He raised his arms over his head slowly with a deep breath, lowered them on the exhale, and repeated until he could smile sincerely. Then he resumed his walk to the office, greeted each guard and servant in the halls by name, and met their eyes with a warm confident smile. He set the tone. And the haggard faces looked slightly cheered, almost all managing to smile back.
"Good morning, Conrad, Gwendal, Günter! Anyone have more visions last night?"
They most certainly had. And reports were pouring in from all over the kingdom, all dismal. A fire-user in Krist used majutsu attacks to kill three neighbors, saying they were informants for the Mizrati occupation. Frightened miners in Donaghie attacked Trond mining consultants, accusing them of bewitching people. Their children stoned a small kobold family simply out for a stroll. Lord Khrennikov urgently requested military police to quell riots and Mizrati-Khrennikov fighting in the streets of Mizrat Prospect. And those were the distant reports, sent before daybreak. Closer by, in Shin Makoku proper, factories and workshops shut down, as the owners and workers were too upset to show up. In Blood Pledge Port, schools and markets were closed, and the docks lay idle. Sailors huddled in their hammocks, and longshoremen never arrived to work. Healers were inundated with people on the brink, or well beyond it.
By now it seemed three out of four people had an other-world experience. And many, like Yuuri's closest advisors, up to five experiences. The visions were lasting longer, involving more cross-consciousness and other-control, and coming at shorter intervals. As of the moment, to cobble together forces to restore order in Khrennikov and Donaghie, General von Dienst was selecting only the vision-free, preferring to keep the afflicted close to home, rather than risk throwing fat into the fires in the rioting domains. Even this was hampered by von Dienst not trusting himself – all his orders went through a half hour wait and review by several other commanders.
"Surely that isn't necessary?" exclaimed Yuuri.
Gwendal answered reluctantly, "When I first told him to send peacekeeping forces to Khrennikov, he laughed out loud, and said, 'That's a good one, Gwennie!' He… patted me on the head and reminded me to… take my medications. I removed him from office. But then his replacement had a vision of watching his daughter raped by Suberian soldiers. He needed to be sedated. So I reinstated von Dienst, and he devised the wait-and-review."
"Oh," said Yuuri. My kingdom is falling apart and I don't have a clue what to do about it… He gulped. "Any word from the north? Manfred or Aldrich?"
A guard cleared his throat at the door. "Visitors from Bielenfeld are waiting, Sire. We didn't want to interrupt before your briefing. I'll go fetch the professor."
Willem, Manfred's messenger from last night, strode in first. He summarized the situation as he knew it across the northern domains. And he knew it quite well, having compared notes with all of Manfred's other messengers, they being his guard-mates. There was a thick report with a note from Aldrich, but Willem provided the gist – Bielenfeld had plans in motion for peacekeeping in Bielenfeld and Donaghie.
"But m'Lord only sent a single advisor to each of the other domains and here," said Willem apologetically. "Not enough healers or tea or… Well, we're autonomists, after all. The professor just wandered off to look into tea supplies. He should be… Ah! Sire, Lords, please meet Professor Symbian of the Bielenfeld Majutsu Institute."
The paunchy little older man positively glowed, with china blue eyes under thinning blond hair. "I am so happy to meet you all. We have wondrous work before us today, don't we? Marvellous." He shook all of their hands in turn, meeting their eyes with a warm personal smile, and an outflowing of love so powerful it made Gwendal and Conrad flinch. Yuuri and Günter soaked it up.
"Are you a professor of healing, Professor Symbian?" inquired Yuuri.
"Yes, yes, head of Unconditional Love. Lord Aldrich is one of my adjuncts. We teach what laymen call 'bedside manner'." He beamed. "With your permission, Sire, I'd like to run a treatment plan here in the castle and garrison. It may be a little disruptive at first. But it should put people more at ease fairly soon, and the spread from here down to the port. By the way, could you possibly spare some sagewort tea?"
"Ah, certainly. Guard, could you get us a pot of… sagewort… from the kitchens?"
"Oh, lovely!" said Symbian, hands clasped. "Lord Aldrich could only spare me a few bales. As it is, we're having to try several less suitable teas near Castletown, where we can keep a better eye on things."
"Bales!" echoed Yuuri. "Professor, what is this… treatment plan?"
"Ah, we call it the Great Viral Tea Party!" explained Symbian. "It's beautifully simple. We set up big cauldrons of a mild sedative tea in public places. Then we go around asking people if they've had experiences of another world, and if so, share the treatment with them. The treatment is to drink a cup of tea, then stay in public places and find ten others to swap experiences with, looking for people whose visions are related to your own. And then have another cup of tea." He beamed triumphantly. "Feeling better spreads like the common cold. It's very effective."
"Oh, how brilliant! I'll help you get the supplies you need, Professor!" offered Günter, while the others were still speechless.
"Ah, thank you, Günter," said Yuuri. "Please be sure to pick up Wolfram along the way. Professor Symbian, you do know Wolfram, my… public health officer?"
"Oh, yes, certainly! I've had him in classes several times. Lovely youth. Amazingly well-developed sense of entitlement. And a true natural at applied love, very gifted!"
Yuuri smiled, amused. Symbian smiled. Günter led him away to find Wolfram.
When they were out of earshot, Gwendal mumbled, "If that's the best Manfred could come up with, we're in deep shit." Yuuri and Conrad sadly concurred.
-oOo-
Manfred was right. Friedrich von Bielenfeld, Aldrich's father and predecessor as Lord Bielenfeld, did have his first experience of another reality at the same time as Aldrich and Wolfram and Efram. It was his habit to go cross-country skiing in the early afternoon, to catch some much-needed sunlight while the rest of the Trondheim royal family were still asleep, then work a few hours until family breakfast after sunset. Friedrich being a man of regular and constructive habits, it happened that his alter-self was doing the exact same thing, several hundred yards to the left and downhill, while mulling over a different line of empirical research than here-Friedrich.
Other-Friedrich was thinking that his successful treatment to prevent death-by-breeding of quarter-troll men, by applying the troll counter-pheromones produced by pureblood ogres, had a parallel to the endemic and tragic problem of birth defects from troll and elf inbreeding.
Here-Friedrich took this to be a flash of inspiration. Of course! When I began this research, we had no pure ogres, but now we do! That opens up a whole new… But hang on. How would we harvest and apply ogre counter-pheromones?
So excited was he by the potential of this treatment approach, that he skied straight back down to Trond Hall and into his lab. His wife Alana and their newborn daughter Frieya peeked in on him later for a kiss, but Alana knew better than to interrupt Friedrich at his empiricism. He worked straight through breakfast and into the evening. He was rather stuck, and decided to list his questions clearly, as a prelude to inducing further insights. Then he emptied his mind and focused on his maryoku signature, a phoenix, and settled in to meditate.
After nearly an hour of contemplation, he was rewarded with another vision, of himself in a different lab in Trond Hall. His alter ego was bustling around supervising his assistants, who were charting an outbreak of visions of another world. His lead assistant was a woman of perhaps 120 who looked like Friedrich's son Aldrich, and was addressed as Princess Frieya. Another appeared to be an adolescent full-blood ogre, possibly Lord Erick's adopted son Dannikin, but grown.
Hello? asked Friedrich. I have questions about your quarter-troll breeding treatment. He presented his questions, and other-Friedrich, suddenly standing stock-still, answered them.
Then other-Friedrich asked his own questions. Who are you, who seem to be me? What do you know about these experiences of another world, spreading among the people? Have you seen me before? I have seen you.
But at that point, the contact broke off. Friedrich was still scratching careful notes of every detail he could, when Murata found him. Friedrich held up a hand, and jotted one-word reminders for what else he wanted to write, then looked up for Murata to speak.
Murata too ate evening breakfast with the royal family of Trondheim. He filled Friedrich in on the strange dreams people shared over the meal. The dreams all seemed to be of a single world, where Lord Franklin still ruled Trondheim, not his son Erick. But Franklin and his aunt Alana were called King and Queen. King Wolfred ruled in Bielenfeld, and Aldrich was Maou. And then Murata himself had an experience later, of the same other world, in which Shinou and Soushu were still locked in combat, under a containing dome of some kind over Shinou's temple, that was starting to fail. In that world, Yuuri barely visited Shin Makoku, which was pretty much in ruins. Other-Yuuri and other-Murata were helpless to conquer Soushu.
"Friedrich, I'm concerned," Murata concluded. "Alana and Erick are worried about these visions upsetting the public. But Soushu may be the greater threat. Could you call me a dragon, to ride down and consult with Yuuri?"
"I see," said Friedrich. "Give me a moment." He completed his notes, then placed his lab notebook lovingly back where it belonged, for him to get back to tomorrow, or… never. Someone else could pick up where he left off, if need be. "Alright. Let's call a dragon."
With most people, Friedrich would have been coy about nymph activities, but this was the Great Sage. No doubt Murata already knew that Tariel was the spirit of the dogwood tree. They went straight to Tariel's favorite dogwood, in the field greenhouse, where Murata's centaur daughter Lucy lived. Friedrich didn't use a whistle. As a half-nymph, speaking amongst the trees was his milk tongue, though he didn't speak it well anymore. He simply laid his hand on the trunk and called. Garena? Tariel? No answer. Salix? Quercus?
He took his hand from the tree and frowned. They weren't… here. Anywhere…
Lucy tugged on his sleeve. "Edelweiss isn't busy. Just the wood nymphs," she offered.
"Lucy! You should be asleep, not pestering grown-ups," Murata scolded.
But Friedrich leaned down, face to face with Lucy, palm out to Murata. "What do you know about this, Lucy?"
"I'm too little in this well," she replied. "My other me knows."
"Did you say 'well', Lucy?" Friedrich asked in sudden alarm. "Like a well of futures?"
Lucy hid her head on his shoulder. That was too complicated.
"Can you take me to Edelweiss, Lucy?"
"Sure!" The little centaur cantered off to a decorative rock outcropping, and waited for them to catch up.
Friedrich thanked Lucy, and sat on the grass and felt around… There. Edelweiss? May I speak with you?
The shy field nymph appeared, half-prone facing him, up on an elbow. Like all the field nymphs, Edelweiss appeared female – quite obviously so, since they went topless and favored low-slung grass skirts with flowers. Her hair was white as the alpine edelweiss flower, her eyes large and yellow-green. Her curvaceous body was about the same height as Friedrich's scant 5'3".
I seek my nymph-parent Tariel, or my brother Garena.
They are not in this well, replied Edelweiss. It is council season for nymph, after leaf fall. Field nymph start next week, water nymph in a few days. So many wood nymph – they start days ago. Lots of business. The world is untended so long. Wood and water nymph have major issues.
Friedrich considered that, then asked, What are these major issues? Mazoku experience two realities today, and Lucy mentions another well. Are these related?
Yes, very serious. Wood nymph let two wells live, have renegade reality. Now reconcile. I feel merge tests begin this afternoon. Big mess. Edelweiss was sympathetic – to the wood nymphs' problem, not the Mazokus'.
Reconcile – how reconcile? asked Friedrich.
One reality, of course.
With a chill, Friedrich suddenly remembered his nymph-parent Tariel's reaction when he learned that the nymphs were back. "But I won't see you on the other side, Friedrich. It's this that is over." Tariel and Garena had cried on and off all that afternoon, rather than eagerly anticipate the return of the nymphs, as everyone had expected. And they had… simply not explained. As usual.
Friedrich fought hard to stay calm – Edelweiss didn't owe him any answers. He asked, Which well ends?
Difficult question, she allowed. One more real. Other more moral, better well. One intentional, other renegade.
Which is this well?
More real. Intentional.
Friedrich's heart sank. That meant she believed the other was moral, though renegade. And he was well aware of the profound differences between nymph morality and demon. How create one well, from two?
Maybe whole, maybe merge. One law, said Edelweiss, and disappeared.
"Did you… learn anything?" prompted Murata, when he felt Friedrich had stared into space long enough.
"Yes," said Friedrich. "But you won't like it." It's futile to defy the nymphs! he railed within himself. But another, more nymph part of himself countered, One law.
"Alright. We can't ask the dragons to come to us, so let's ask Guya to take us to them." Guya was Lord Erick's wife, and crack elf troubleshooter. If you wanted to get somewhere in a hurry in the Trondheim mountain winter, Guya was a pro.
"I come too!" said Lucy, grabbing her father around the waist. "I can help!"
"Bring her," encouraged Friedrich, before Murata could scold her back to bed. "She already has been a huge help."
Within a half hour, they were in the stables, packing the sleigh. Friedrich drew Alana aside for a quiet word before they departed.
"Are you sure, Alana? You're a Queen in the other reality. Aldrich is well, with two grown children. Frieya is a beautiful grown woman. You and I are happy there. We could… let this be."
"You think too much, husband," scoffed Alana. "I am me, simple as that. Maybe she's stronger, maybe she's not. But Queen or Lady, I lead my people to survive, not to… surrender to non-existence. I am me, and I choose to live. And you'd better, too, because I shall accept no substitutes. Succeed, Friedrich. And come back home to me."
Friedrich chuckled and gave her a kiss. One law. "Yes, ma'am."
And their sleigh, driven by the madcap elf Guya, was off with a whoosh across the snow, a couple hours past midnight.
The one law was survival of the fittest. Nymphs considered the one law the final arbiter, the wellspring of all morality.
-oOo-
Wolfram was surprised how well his father's stupid tea party was working. Granted the sedative sagewort tea had a lot to do with it. He'd helped Professor Symbian seed the 'virus' through the garrison, and remained as host healer by the tea cauldron, while Symbian and Giesela headed into town. Wolfram felt vastly better himself, after having told his story to ten or fifteen complete strangers, and was rapt by how their stories painted an ever more vivid picture of that other world.
By now, Wolfram had a bevy of army medics he felt were ready to carry the good word to other towns. He saw two dragons arrive up at the Castle, and was itching to go find out what was up, but he attended to the public welfare first. He'd already dispatched the first group of medics, vision-free, to the farther reaches of Shin Makoku. The second half of the group, vision veterans, he planned to deploy closer by.
"Next, Lutenberg – Holger, you're from Lutenberg, aren't you? …Holger? Anybody see where Holger went?" Most shook their heads. Two timid medics at the back were staring at something unseen. Wolfram decided they were other at the moment, and pressed on. "Well, we'll wait on that until Holger gets back. Isarhof is our next priority – anybody from Isarhof?" He looked up again, and everyone shook their heads no. Not including the two who'd been spaced out a moment ago. They were gone. Gone?
"Did… anybody see Ulf and Volker leave, just now?" Wolfram's heart started beating faster, his palms moisten. But he was an experienced commander of men. He wasn't allowed to command anymore, but… that was for self-destructive tendencies, not lack of leadership talent. The medics' real commander stood behind him, to authorize these assignments.
Wolfram counted the men before him. Twelve left. There were fifteen. "No. Well, is anybody else from Shin Makoku proper? Perhaps we should just… start there."
"I'm from Asfodel," offered medic Sven.
"Excellent, Sven! Commander, perhaps two troopers could accompany Sven – " Wolfram stopped. The commander he'd turned to speak with, was gone. He swallowed, and turned slowly back to the medics. Nine left. All staring in horror at where their commander stood a moment ago. Wolfram licked his lip. "Did anyone see the commander leave?"
Nine jerky nods answered. "He just… vanished," explained one medic.
"And Dale and Rudolf…" offered another from the back row, pointing at Dale and Rudolf's empty spaces.
"I see," said Wolfram. He deliberately and neatly folded his page of priority Shin Makoku cities and pocketed it, to buy himself a moment to think. "Medics, we're going to postpone this operation while I consult with the Castle. Please carry on here. I imagine… some people will have renewed concerns. I suggest you… sing. Get the troopers back out here into the square, and… singing. If you'll excuse me, gentlemen."
To the accompaniment of an off-color marching song, Wolfram took the garrison steps to the castle proper two at a time, and nearly ran to Yuuri's situation room.
As he slowed in the office area, Wolfram overheard a guard say, "But Lord Günter was here just a moment ago! Where could he have gone?"
Günter too? Wolfram's heart quailed, and he leaned against a wall to pull himself together before walking into the situation room –
And found himself seated in his grandfather Wolfred's conference room.
-oOo-
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