Disclaimer 1: Most of this is fanfic. That means I do not own any of it. I just borrow it to play with for a little while and let people see the pathetic results if they really want to.
Disclaimer 2: I'm not making any money from it. It's just for fun.
Disclaimer 3: What isn't borrowed is all made up. None of this is real or most likely at all realistic. Please don't trust any of the information in here. Most likely you know more about whatever I'm writing about than I do.
Disclaimer 4: Attitudes, views and opinions expressed by the characters or in the story are not necessarily those of the author. Even when writing Science Fiction or Fantasy I do not tend to attempt to create perfect/better worlds in which everybody gets a happy end ... or whatever is best for them. Please accept that some characters will have a bad ending or be unhappy.
Disclaimer 5: I intend no insult to anyone. If I offend anyone I'm very sorry. Please understand that it was an accident as I tend to be very clumsy in these things.
Rüdiger Zweigl And The School In The Mountain
Chapter 9: Joachim's Secret
September 15th 1990
Going to school on Saturday was new to Rüdiger and a few others whose Volksschulen had participated in various school experiments that managed to get around it, but all in all it didn't seem so bad. There were only four lessons to get through and the first one was Religion.
That meant that Maxim, Hildegard and the other students without confession as well as the Muslims and Protestants would have only three hours of school and didn't arrive with the others in the morning.
"Oh well," Margarete commented looking at the empty seat beside her. "I still have Sonja to talk with."
"It's a lesson," Joachim pointed out to her. "We'll have to pay attention anyway and Hildegard has to be here by the second lesson."
"It's Religion," Franz corrected him. "Nobody pays attention in Religion."
Rüdiger demonstratively turned away from the group and pretended to be busy searching for his Religion book and bible in his schoolbag. He was not talking to Franz anymore.
"But then how will we know anything for the exams?" Joachim asked.
"There are no exams in Religion," Franz explained. "And no tests either. They say getting a bad grade might turn people against Religion, you see, and so the church recommends that all students who show up for the lessons automatically get 1s. We only have to sit through it twice a week."
"Can they do that?" Joachim asked. "Doesn't the curriculum require some sort of exam?"
Franz shrugged. "I don't know what the curriculum requires," he admitted. "But I do know that the church and not the government makes the curriculum for Religion, so I guess, since they don't want it, they probably didn't put an exam in it."
Rüdiger was careful to keep his back turned to Franz at all times as he put his things on his desk for the lesson, especially the bible that he'd traded with the Viennese boy. He couldn't help wondering about the things he heard, though. When he'd started the Volksschule Religion had seemed very interesting, full of tales of miracles and the kind God, but later on it had become a lot of tiresome preaching, never as boring as Sunday mass, but always full of moral dos and don'ts.
If there really wasn't any test or exam, and Rüdiger couldn't remember ever having had one, then maybe he could use the time to write another letter to Papa. Or would Papa disapprove?
Now that he thought about it he realised that he didn't know what Papa thought about Religion. It was very important to Mama and Opa that he went to church every Sunday and behaved well while there and Papa always went with them when he was visiting, but giving Rüdiger his Schutzengel was the only other thing Papa had ever said or done that seemed religious - and he had said himself that it was a symbol of his love for Rüdiger and not of his faith.
In the end he resolved to at least not let the professor notice that he wasn't paying attention. He managed to look attentive just fine in church, so it should work here as well.
When the Religion professor entered, though, he found it was very difficult not to laugh. The wizard was dressed just like Friar Tuck and had the bulk to match. If his head had been shorn like that of a medieval friar as well, the picture would have been complete.
Sonja didn't manage to stifle her giggle in time, but luckily the professor didn't pay it any attention. Maybe he'd seen that she'd been talking with Lieselotte before they'd all jumped up to greet him and assumed that she was still laughing at a joke.
"Good morning, children," he greeted them. "Do sit down."
They did and his eyes darted from one empty seat to the next.
"Oh no," he decided. "This won't do. You two," He pointed at Franz and Henriette. "Move forward one row."
Right in front of them was an empty desk where Fadime and Nadja usually sat.
"And you," The girl that sat on Franz's other side was missing as well, leaving her neighbour alone at their desk. "Can sit next to that girl there," he gestured towards Margarete.
For a moment the two girls stared at each other, then Margarete shrugged and the other girl started to gather up her things.
"You," the professor continued to Dieter. "Move over here."
Dieter groaned. It was Nikolaus' seat right between Anselm and Kaspar who promptly started to protest that this was unfair and he refused to sit next to a commoner. 'Friar Tuck' looked startled and quoted something Jesus had said about humility and being kind to others.
That didn't seem to impress Kaspar, but Anselm forestalled another protest, by sliding over into Nikolaus' chair himself and offering his own to Dieter. The professor smiled proudly, called Anselm a good Christian and then told Heinz and Günter to sit at Dieter's and Fabian's desk.
Rüdiger smiled at Heinz when the boy sat down beside him. They hadn't talked much, yet, but he seemed nice enough. Margarete's temporary neighbour slipped into her seat with a shy: "Hi, I'm Ivonne." which started a whispered conversation that the professor ignored.
Now the last row had been cleared completely.
"There, that's much better," Friar Tuck announced. "Now I won't have to shout so much for you to hear me."
He announced what notebook they would need, but unlike most of the other teachers he did not explain how they would be graded or warn them about the need to study outside of lessons. Instead he went straight on to what they would do in class.
"We are in the lucky position that this subject is no different for us than it is in non-magical schools," he explained. "If you look at your Religion book, it has been written for non-magical school and is used there as well. After the first few lessons we will follow the same curriculum as your non-magical peers, but first, there is one thing, that the curriculum doesn't address and that I believe we, as catholic wizards must talk about."
He paused, visibly uncomfortable.
"I mean the topic of Christianity and magic," he announced. "I'm not sure whether you've heard of the bible quote saying you 'shall not suffer a witch to live'?"
Rüdiger looked at him blankly, then around at his equally dumbfounded classmates. He'd heard a lot of bible quotes in church, in Religion lessons and from various adults, but this one wasn't just unfamiliar, it didn't fit in with any of the others at all. It simply didn't sound like the bible.
"Ah, I see you have not. It is not very widely known in this day and age. At least not in this country. There are still some witch-hunting fanatics around, though, especially over in America, so be very careful to hide your magic, if you ever travel there."
"But we aren't witches!" the princess exclaimed. "We are wizards and wizardesses!"
"Indeed," the professor confirmed. "But most non-magicals do not know the difference and for example in English the same word is usually used for wizardesses and witches. We cannot blame the non-magicals, of course. Most of them are raised to believe that magic is entirely fictional, so where should they learn to tell the difference? As good Christians we must not blame them for their ignorance."
"However, we should be sure that we understand it and know what the bible actually means. Because, while not everything the bible says is to be understood as literal truth, we, who have been given the gift of magic by the kind God, need to understand His will concerning the use of that magic."
"And there you already have it, as well. Wizards and wizardesses have their gift from God, entrusted to them so they can use it for good. Witches are women who gain their magic by serving the devil and for the purpose of spreading evil into the world. And while, as good Christians, we of course must not kill, it is our duty as wizards to prevent witches from working their evil as best we can, and our first and uppermost duty never to use God's gift for evil ourselves. As Christians we must always remember to ask ourselves whether we are truly using our magic for good, as God wants us to do, or whether we are about to allow the devil to tempt us into using it for evil, or our own selfish pleasure. Magic is not there for our enjoyment, or to make our lives easier, it is a gift and a mission from God, a sacred duty, that, like all duties, is a great responsibility and heavy burden to bear. This we must understand before we can move on to the more general duties that apply to all Christians and not only us wizards."
It was strange to think that some Christians believed it their sacred duty to kill people Rüdiger knew, but at least it concerned only the girls. As a wizard, Rüdiger thought, he had nothing to fear and he soon grew bored with the topic.
The Professor didn't object when he picked up his bible and started to look through it. The old letters looked so much prettier than the modern ones he was more used to seeing, even if they were harder to read and the thought that this book had once been owned and most likely read by a long dead prince still fascinated him.
Maybe long ago Franz-Ferdinand had sat in this very classroom feeling just as bored by a very similar lecture from a long dead Professor and done just the same thing Rüdiger was doing now. Most likely he'd sat in the front row, just like the princess was doing now, with noble-born friends beside him. Perhaps one of them had been an ancestor of Joachim or Margarete?
Rüdiger stared at the backs of Anna-Theresia and her gaggle and tried to imagine a group of boys in their place. Had their robes looked like the ones the magical children of today were wearing, or had wizard fashions changed as much as the ones of the non-magicals back at home? Opa hadn't even known what a t-shirt was when he'd been a boy. He'd worn shirts with buttons and strange old-fashioned trousers.
Would Franz-Ferdinand have been nice to him, if Rüdiger had lived back then? Or had he been an arrogant ass-hole like Kaspar and the princess?
Most likely he had been, Rüdiger thought, contemplating the noble boys who were sticking their heads together and whispering ignoring Dieter.
Joachim slipped him a piece of paper on which he'd drawn an extra fat stick figure holding a cross instead of a wand and a huge speech bubble saying "blah-blah-blah-blah ..." and they grinned at each other.
Then again maybe Franz-Ferdinand had been nice to everybody, or curious about non-magical life, like Joachim and Margarete, and they would have been great friends. He'd have invited the prince to their farm and showed him the village and all the farm animals, and then in turn Franz-Ferdinand would have invited him to his parents' palace ...
The ringing of the bell rudely tore Rüdiger out of his daydreams just in time to jump up along with everybody else as the Religion professor left the classroom. Had he said anything about homework?
Apparently their non-catholic classmates had already been waiting outside. They rushed in as soon as the Professor had left and the students from the last row hastily gathered up their things to make room for the usual occupants of their seats.
Hildegard shot Ivonne an angry look, but the girl was already gone by the time she reached her desk.
"What was she doing here?" she demanded.
"The Professor made her sit here," Margarete explained. "Said he didn't want to have to shout to be heard in the back row."
"Yes, he look like his voice so weak," Maxim said with a laugh.
"He looks just like Friar Tuck, doesn't he?" Rüdiger said joining in.
"Oh yes, exactly!" Sonja agreed and dissolved into a giggling fit.
"Who's Friar Tuck?" Joachim asked them.
"The monk in Robin Hood," Rüdiger explained. "You know, on TV."
But in fact, Joachim didn't know what TV was.
"I think he looks like a Bergmönch," said Hildegard with a slight shudder and all the children from magical families in hearing distance fell abruptly silent.
"A mountain monk?" Franz asked confused.
"Not a real monk," Rüdiger explained. "Bergmönche are a myth. Some kind of ghost that looks like a monk and will attack you and beat you up on lonely mountain paths in the night."
"They're not ghosts, you common-born idiot!" Franziska snapped. "They're a kind of Perchten, as everybody who has any brains knows. They collect and guard huge treasures, and if you impress them enough, they give you some as a reward."
"That's really rare, though," Kunigunde added. "Because they're not teaching Perchtisch in school anymore, so hardly anyone still speaks it."
"Perchtisch?" Rüdiger asked despite his dislike of the gaggle. "Do Perchten have their own language, then?"
Kunigunde nodded importantly. "Back when there still were a lot more students and only one form of the Gymnasium, in fifth class you'd choose whether you wanted to learn Perchtisch or Heinzel as your third foreign language and there'd be at least one class that had each, but now there just aren't enough students anymore and they got rid of the Perchtisch professor when they hired the Schnick."
"The Schnick?" Rüdiger repeated.
"He teach Heinzel, older students say," Maxim explained. "We not have, yet."
"You don't think that Professor really is a Bergmönch, do you?" Henriette asked nervously.
"Of course not," the princess told her haughtily. "Why really, only a child like you could come up with an idea like that. As if my uncle the Emperor would ever allow a Bergmönch to teach here, and while I, his only heir, am attending!"
"But you'd better be very careful not to go out after dark anyway," Augustina recommended. "Or the Nachtkrapp might come and get you!"
Nachtkrapp? Like the nachtkrappfeather wands they'd tried in the shop? Joachim's grandfather had had one, the saleswizard had said.
"Yes, you know they carry off little children who're out in the dark," Kunigunde added.
"Ha, that's not even true," Henriette shouted at her. "I know it's just an old Heinzelfrauen's tale to scare babies. And I also know that there aren't any free-flying Nachtkrappen outside of their preserves. You can't scare me!"
"Oh, but there is one now," Augustina crowed. "It was in the Magiprint, my Mama said. Right after the latest news about the stone angel failure. A Nachtkrapp's tracing spell failed and they don't know where he is. He might have left the preserve."
"News about the stone angel?" the princess interrupted excitedly. "What news?"
Augustina shrugged. "Oh, I don't know that. I didn't even see Papa's Magipress and Mama only told me about the Nachtkrapp."
"Ha, you don't know anything, silly goose!" Kaspar shouted from the other end of the classroom. "There's a whole team of professors from the university in Vienna investigating the stone angel together with the imperial guard and it's been deactivated until the end of the investigation."
"I heard that they're even thinking about involving international experts," added Ottokar.
But before he could explain which ones or why Professor Pospischil arrived for their Sprache und Kultur lesson.
"Just a few administrative things first," he told them and then finally handed out their public transport cards. "You can see which traffic unions they are for by the acronyms printed on the right under your picture," he explained. "If it says -B after the acronym that means the card is for flying buses as well as trains in that area, if it doesn't it's trains only and you have to buy a ticket whenever you take a bus of that traffic union."
Rüdiger regarded the little cardboard card. It had his name, a painted miniature of his face and two acronyms, both with the -B, so there was no need to worry about bus tickets. He wondered when they'd painted him, though.
"I'm also still missing milk forms," the Pospischil continued and called on every student that hadn't handed one in, yet, in turn.
"I'm not ordering school milk," Rüdiger explained when it was his turn.
"Oh, wasn't Ottokar's money enough to afford it?" Kaspar challenged.
"I didn't take Ottokar's money!" Rüdiger shouted back at him. "And we could afford it just fine if we wanted to." Though, Mama had declined it mostly because it was a waste of money. "But we have milk from our own cows on the farm. My Opa says the school milk can't possibly be as fresh and healthy."
"But do your cows produce cocoa or banana milk?" Anselm asked.
Rüdiger stared at the boy in surprise.
"Don't be ridiculous, Herr Anselm," the Pospischil admonished him. "Of course the cows don't produce cocoa. You make it by adding cocoa powder to the milk. Which, I'm sure Rüdiger's Mama can do."
"I can do that myself," Rüdiger told him feeling slightly offended. How old did the Pospischil think he was? "I've been doing it for customers forever - and making salad and filling beer mugs, too. I can even milk a cow by hand, if I want to."
Apparently Kaspar and his friends had no more arguments after that.
The Pospischil finished collecting the last milk forms and then turned to Kaspar and Ottokar again.
"Now concerning Ottokar's money, the headmaster has asked us to make use of the occasion to remind all students, that one should not bring money to school. You do not need it here, there is nothing you can buy and a lot of people who could get into the wardrobe or the classroom while you're not there. As you noticed, you can't watch your money while you're in the Turnsaal, and it is almost impossible to catch a thief among so many people. Leave your money at home. Unless of course I have specifically told you to bring it for example for your school milk."
Everybody laughed.
"And one more matter," the Pospischil continued after a moment. He put his hand into his pocket and ... pulled out a pretty red moneybag with some white design on it. "This," He held it up for all to see. "Was found under a bench in the Turnsaal 1 wardrobe and handed in to Professor von Amselfeld yesterday. You wouldn't happen to know who might have lost it, Herr Ottokar?"
Ottokar blushed bright red, but nevertheless smiled widely as he went to the front to reclaim his moneybag. He clutched it tightly to his chest on the way back to his seat.
"This time," Professor Pospischil said. "There was no thief at all, but please remember what I told you: Do not bring money to school. Another time there might be, and even if you only lose it, not every finder is likely to be this honest. But now, to the Stundenwiederholung."
His eyes wandered over the students, stopped on Maxim for a moment, but them moved on.
"Franz!" he chose. "Come on, get up, Franz, and tell us how many cases we have in the German language?"
"Viere," Franz replied correctly.
The professor winced. "Could you please tell us in proper German and a full sentence?"
As it turned out, Franz could.
"And what are their names?" the Pospischil asked. "The proper Latin ones."
To Rüdiger's disappointment Franz not only got them all right, but did so much faster than he could have.
"And what are the cases of ... Haus?"
"Das Haus, des Hauses, den Haus ..." Franz started.
Ha!
"Stop, what's the Dativ again?" the Pospischil interrupted him at once.
"Dem Haus?"
"Indeed."
So Franz started over again and this time declined Haus correctly in both Singular and Plural, which were apparently the proper Latin names of Einzahl and Mehrzahl.
Next the professor chose Heinz who had to decline several more nouns and then it was Maxim's turn after all.
"So, Maxim, Franz already told us that nouns have cases and when declining them we noticed that they have a singular and plural. What else do they have?"
"They has articles," Maxim told him.
"They have," the Pospischil corrected. "That is a plural, too. And what kinds of articles are there?"
"There be indefinite articles and definite articles," Maxim said.
Had they really learned that last lesson? Rüdiger couldn't remember it.
"There are," the Pospischil corrected again. "Another plural. Do try to remember those, Maxim. And yes, there are, but that wasn't what I meant." He paused, then continued. "What else do nouns have? What definite articles are there?"
"There be ... there are der, die and das."
"And what is the difference between them?" the Pospischil demanded triumphantly.
"It be ... it are gender!" Maxim said equally triumphantly.
"It is," the Pospischil corrected. "This one is a singular."
But at least he let Maxim sit down after that and started teaching about indefinite articles and plurals himself.
The lesson was followed by another Beschwören one in which Professor von Hintersbach at least managed to write the C-dur onto the blackboard and tell them the names of the keys before going off on a tangent about her youth and Konstantin again.
Soon the class was happily chatting and blowing spit-balls a each other. Rüdiger looked around for something to do and finally remembered that Joachim had promised to explain something to him.
"So," he whispered even though it was completely unnecessary. "What was all that mumbling about your name about?"
Joachim winced. "Look, it's ancient history, okay? It doesn't really matter."
"It's making people act weird, though," Rüdiger pointed out. "And you said you'd tell me."
"Well, ... It's about the assassins, you see. Nobody likes to talk about them, it's such a horrible tale, and it's particularly terrible to us, because ... you see ... well ... my grandfather he ... Well, we don't really know. He always denied it in any case, but they say ... they say that he started it all."
"Started what all?" Rüdiger asked nonplussed.
"Well, ... Maybe that wasn't the best place to start," Joachim decided after a moment. "I suppose you need to know first that the emperor had two sons."
"Two sons? But didn't the von Hildesheim say that he wasn't able to produce a male heir at all?"
"No, no, that's the current emperor," Joachim shook his head. "He's infertile and - well, that's part of the story, too. But back then his father was the emperor and he could father children just fine, so he had two sons. The oldest was prince Maximilian and is now our emperor and then there was a younger brother, prince Rudolf."
"Oh, and he's the father of our princess then?" Rüdiger assumed.
"Why no, that's Heinrich von Lothringen. He was the son of the emperor's cousin. I mean the father of the current emperor and Rudolf again. That is ... The princes Maximilan and Rudolf were the sons of the emperor and the emperor's father, who'd been emperor before him, had had a brother. Heinrich von Lothringen was the son of that brother and Princess Anna-Theresia is the daughter of Heinrich von Lothringen. But they're not important right now, because prince Maximilian von Lothringen was going to be the next emperor and if he'd died prince Rudolf would have been."
Rüdiger tried to follow that, but in the end wasn't quite sure which emperor Anna-Theresia descended from. The only thing he was sure he understood was that she wasn't the daughter of either of the two princes Joachim was talking about.
"Right, so then prince Maximilian did something stupid. I don't remember exactly what it was, but that's not important, just that it was some foolish mistake that any young man might make, but a lot of people who didn't like him, or that he didn't like, started saying that he was too stupid to make a good emperor and that prince Rudolf should inherit the throne instead," Joachim continued.
"Is that possible?" Rüdiger asked.
"No, the oldest son is the heir," Joachim replied. "That's the law. But I suppose the emperor could change the law, if he wanted to. He probably would, if his oldest son were an idiot or something. In fact, I think the law was changed once when the emperor's oldest son didn't have any magic and now only a real wizard can become emperor. That didn't apply in this case, though, because both princes were perfectly healthy and intelligent. Prince Maximilian was just inexperienced."
"So prince Rudolf wouldn't have been better after all?"
"No. I mean, I don't know which one was better, but they were both perfectly suitable for becoming emperor," Joachim explained. "But there can only be one emperor and prince Maximilian was older, so he was going to be it. There was no reason to change it, you see, and therefore the emperor didn't. So when they saw that he wouldn't, some of the nobles who favoured prince Rudolf over prince Maximilian got very angry and some of them got together in secret and started to plot how they might get Rudolf on the throne after all. My grandfather was one of them, but not because he didn't think that prince Maximilian would be a good emperor, but because my father was going to school with ..." He stopped talking very abruptly and stared at Rüdiger with his eyes wide and mouth hanging open.
"What's the matter?" Rüdiger asked. "Why don't you go on?"
"Nothing," Joachim said his voice sounding very odd. "I only just realised that I've met him. I met prince Rudolf and I didn't even know it. He told me to call him Uncle Rudolf!"
"So what?" Rüdiger remained unimpressed. "We've both met the princess Anna-Theresia and she's just a silly goose."
"Well, yes, but prince Rudolf, that's quite different," Joachim protested. "He's cool. A real hero and all."
"Alright, so you've met a real royal hero," Rüdiger conceded. "But what does your grandfather have to do with the two princes?"
"Well, as I was saying, my father was going to school with prince Rudolf, and so my grandfather thought that it'd be much more advantageous to our family, if Rudolf were to become emperor. So he joined up with some other nobles who had that same goal - It is commonly believed that he was their leader, in fact, but he always denied it and claimed that the real leader never revealed his identity and that he'd thought it was prince Rudolf himself. But that's nonsense, of course. After all prince Rudolf was still in school and never wanted to become emperor. He loved his brother, you see, and wanted nothing more than for prince Maximilan to have a long and happy reign. But the assassins didn't know that and one night when the emperor and most of his guard were away on a diplomatic mission to Italy, they snuck into the palace. My grandfather had been left in command of the guard during the emperor's absence, you see, so he'd simply given most of the guards the night off and left the palace unguarded except for a few men who were on his side."
It was Rüdiger that was staring wide-eyed now. This sounded like a movie plot rather than real life events that could happen to people he knew - or even their long dead relatives.
Except that grandfathers usually weren't long dead. Opa at least was very much alive and hoping to farm his land a good many years more before he retired and passed it all on to Rüdiger.
"They managed to catch prince Maximilian alone, just as they'd meant to do, and without raising anybody's suspicion at first, but then, luckily, things started to go wrong for them," Joachim continued his story. "The prince did get suspicious when a whole group of noblemen came into his private rooms, you see, and some of them had no reason to be at the palace at that time of night at all. So when they started flinging spells at him he wasn't as surprised as they'd thought he'd be and instead of being killed by the first spell he dove out of the way and started fighting back."
"Oh my!" gasped Rüdiger.
"They would probably still have killed him in the end as there were several of them and the prince was all alone at first and there were no loyal guards there to defend him, but prince Rudolf heard the noise of the fight. He called for the guards and they told him what was going on and that they were doing it all for him. Prince Rudolf was horrified and rushed to his brother's aid at the head of a group of loyal servants."
"And they saved prince Maximilian?" Rüdiger gasped eagerly.
"Yes, but he was very badly wounded, and so was prince Rudolf. I think he jumped in front of his brother to shield him and right into a spell or something," Joachim said. "But I don't really know how exactly it happened. My grandfather would know of course, but I've never met him. I only know what Papa told me. Prince Rudolf didn't mention the fight at all when I met him and Papa wasn't there, of course. He'd never have joined in such a horrible plot. In any case, they managed to kill two of the assassins and the rest fled. They had recognised their faces, though, and had them all arrested in the end, but right then prince Maximilian was so badly wounded that he should have died. There was no healer there that could have gotten to him in time, but prince Rudolf was in such despair when he realised he was going to lose his dear brother that he did some spontaneous healing magic even though he'd never learned any."
"One can do that?"
"Oh yes, magical children do it all the time, and it also happens to adults when they are very desperate or angry or frightened, but usually they are much smaller spells. This one was so strong that it burned out all prince Rudolf's magical strength and he hasn't been able to do any magic at all ever since. Not even the simplest spells, like turning on lights, or changing the lines in a notebook. But it was worth it, because prince Maximilian survived, except that one of the spells he was hit with that night has left him infertile and that's why he can't produce an heir. Prince Rudolf obviously can't inherit the throne either, if he survives his brother, because he isn't magical anymore. So ... well first of all they had an uncle who had a little son, but some assassins, my grandfather among them, escaped arrest and went into hiding and later attacked their home and killed the entire family. Then there was another boy, the son of the emperor's sister, but some of them managed to sneak into the school and kill him, too, and his family was poisoned. They finally caught my grandfather when he was leading an attack on Heinrich von Lothringen's house and that was the end of the assassins. They were all banished from the country for life, but either they'd poisoned the emperor as well, or all those losses and the grief made him sick. He died of his illness and prince Maximilian became the new emperor."
"But Heinrich von Lothringen got away," Rüdiger said. "Why didn't he have a son to save the male line?"
"He meant to," Joachim assured him. "But the first child was a girl, princess Anna-Theresia, and then he was killed as well and there wasn't anybody left."
"Oh, that's terrible!"
"Yes, isn't it," Joachim agreed sadly. "And it might be all my grandfather's fault. So of course our classmates hate his name. Everybody does."
"But you really believe that there was another leader? Someone that pretended to be prince Rudolf?" Margarete asked suddenly.
Joachim flinched at the reminder that others had been able to hear their conversation.
"I don't know," he said. "Papa says my grandfather always insisted there was, but most people believed that he was lying, so I suppose he might have been. I just don't see what reason he had to lie once he knew that he'd be banished for life anyway."
"Maybe he thought he'd be killed, if they were sure that he'd been the leader?" Rüdiger suggested.
"There is no death penalty in Austrian law," Joachim countered. "The emperor would have had to make a new law."
"Well, he could have," said Hildegard. "I doubt anyone would have blamed him after all the assassins had done."
"There definitely are people who say he should have," Margarete confirmed. "But my uncle says he was right not to. Even if the assassins themselves certainly deserved it, he says, once you start executing people you'll be tempted to do it to every political dissenter or anyone who's committed a particularly disgusting crime and eventually you'll go too far or make a mistake and kill someone who turns out to be innocent afterwards. A banishment can be lifted, but you can't bring the dead back to life."
"Oh, can't you? I thought that's what necromancers do?" Dieter asked.
"Well yes," Margarete allowed. "Necromancers are supposed to be able to do that." She looked confused.
"They can do it," Joachim confirmed. "But no decent wizard would. My Papa says it's a really terrible thing to revive a human being and only a few of the very worst necromancers ever did it. You can't bring them back completely, you see. They'd be stuck somewhere between life and death and that's really horrible."
"Besides, necromancers are very rare," Margarete added brightening. "And I think the last Austrian one was one of the assassins. So just imagine you'd executed an innocent wizard and then when you find out you made a mistake you can't find a necromancer to revive him!"
"You could hire one from some other country," Dieter countered.
"But you wouldn't want to do that if being revived is so horrible," Rüdiger suggested. "Maybe the dead wizard would even prefer to stay dead. What would you do then?"
"Why," said Sonja, "You could revive him and ask and if he'd rather be dead again then you could just kill him again."
"It's not that easy," Joachim corrected her. "If a necromancer has revived someone they can only die again if a necromancer releases them. That's why Dracula's castle remained surrounded by undead wolves and dogs and bats for generations after he died. They still find one that they missed in the big cleansing there every once in a while."
"Wasn't Dracula a vampire?" Rüdiger asked.
"Oh no, he just pretended to be," Dieter answered him. "He really was just a necromancer."
"A really, really evil one," Joachim agreed. "Maybe the evilest ever."
"So vampires don't actually exist?" Sonja asked hopefully. "They're just necromancers?"
"Oh no, they do," Margarete disappointed her. "But Dracula only pretended to be one to scare the non-magicals away from his castle so he could plot in peace."
"He wanted to overthrow the imperial family as well, you see," Dieter added. "Just like Joachim's grandfather."
"Oh, but my grandfather didn't really," Joachim protested. "It's sort of what he did, I suppose, but originally he only meant to make prince Rudolf emperor. And prince Rudolf is part of the imperial family, too, so you can't really call that overthrowing the imperial family."
"Maybe not technically," Dieter allowed. "But it's high treason all the same."
"So what did Dracula do?" Rüdiger asked both out of curiosity and to turn the conversation away from Joachim's awful grandfather. It had to be horrible to be related to someone so evil and he didn't want his friend to have to think of it any more than absolutely necessary.
The measure was unnecessary, though, as just then the bell rang and this time the professor did hear it and dismissed them.
"Oh good," the princess sighed loud enough for the whole class to hear despite the increase of noise that greeted the start of the big break. "I was afraid I'd have to ask her to let us go to the Turnsaal."
Her worry seemed a bit exaggerated, as big break was fifteen minutes long and they wouldn't be able to get into the Turnsaal until Professor von Amselfeld let them in, but it was nice to get to eat his sandwich in peace.
Franz gave him an envious glance when Rüdiger pulled out his hiking flask. Rüdiger smirked at him and took a long drink.
"What are you doing in the classroom?" the Gangaufsicht demanded angrily. "Out, out, out, out! No, leave your schoolbags inside. You don't need them during break. You only need your Jause."
"But we've got Tur..." someone started to explain.
"I don't care. Out into the corridor, all of you. Now!"
It would probably be alright to fetch their things right when the bell rang and then run straight to the Turnsaal before Professor von Amselfeld arrived, Rüdiger thought at first, but then, quite suddenly a group of much older students roughly pushed past him and his friends and disappeared into the first class classroom.
Next they heard some dismayed exclamations and then the older students started tossing schoolbags out into the corridor.
"Hey," Kaspar exclaimed rushing to the door followed by Ottokar, Anselm and Nikolaus. "What are you doing! Those are ours!"
For once Rüdiger agreed with the outburst.
"Well, this classroom's ours now," a particularly tall boy declared tossing a neat pink schoolbag out over Kaspar's head. "So take your trash and get lost."
Anselm only just managed to catch the bag, preventing it from hitting a fellow student or colliding with the opposite wall.
Ottokar took a step back and Nikolaus too, looked rather unsure of himself.
"Why you!" Kaspar yelled. "Come on boys, let's show those assholes!"
"We better help," Maxim decided and started towards the classroom as well.
Rüdiger wasn't sure that was such a bright idea. There were fewer older students in the classroom than first classlers outside it, but they were much bigger and stronger and not even Kaspar's friends looked eager to fight. In fact Anselm was now studying the name tag on the pink schoolbag.
"Sabine!" he called out. "Here, I rescued your things!"
Lieselotte and Sonja too turned their attention to the scattered about schoolbags and sorting out spilled contents.
Rüdiger looked at Joachim. He didn't feel at all obliged to assist Kaspar, but could they leave Maxim to fend for himself in such an uneven fight?
Just then help arrived from a most unexpected source. "See, Professor!" the princess' voice rang out from the nearby corner. "Just look what they've done!"
The Gangaufsicht was not at all amused. "Why Herr Tomas!" she shouted at the tall older boy who now had hold of the front of Kaspar's robe while Maxim clung to his other arm. "Let go of those boys at once! Attacking the little first classlers at your age! How could you."
"They attacked me first!" Tomas defended himself.
"I only protect Kaspar," Maxim countered. "I think big boy will hurt him. I try hold big boy."
"And I was only going in to get my things before they throw them out, too," Kaspar lied. "I know we're not allowed inside during big break, but just look at what they've already done."
"My penholder's broken!" sobbed Henriette.
"Right," the Gangaufsicht sighed. "Fourth class, why are you in the first class in the first place?"
"We've got Altmagisch here now, Professor von der Alp," a fourth class girl answered. "So we came in to set up our things, but the little idiots left all their stuff lying around."
"You told us to leave it," Fabian shouted. "And now look what happened."
"My poor, pretty penholder!" Henriette sobbed.
Professor von der Alp, apparently the sister or wife of the Darstellende Magie professor, took a deep breath. "Okay, so where are you supposed to be next lesson?" she asked the princess.
"In the Turnsaal, Professor."
"Alright, then, first class, go and fetch your schoolbags and clean out everything that's in your benches and carry it to the Turnsaal. Fourth class, let them pass. You can set up once they are gone. And do not throw any more schoolbags around. You could have carried them out or put them to the side without throwing them, you know."
There was a lot of glaring and mumbling, but the professor remained standing right by the door to oversee the procedure and so only a few insults and no more blows were exchanged. Henriette was still sobbing when Rüdiger and his friends passed her on the way to the Turnsaal with their luckily unharmed bags, but when they reached the Brausaal Rüdiger could already hear the first "Franziiiskaaa! Wait for meeeeee!" and concluded that the little nuisance was fine.
A shrill whistle rang through the Turnsaal silencing the first classlers.
"Form Stirnreihe!" Professor von Amselfeld ordered and 31 pairs of feet thundered across the room to the blue line they'd stood on last lesson.
Well, 30 pairs.
"Henriette! Get in the line!" several voices shouted.
"Not here, you idiot!" Franziska added when Henriette tried to do just that. "You're much too short."
"Didn't you pay any attention last time? Stirnreihe means to line up by size," Professor von Amselfeld scolded. "I told each of you where you belong and to remember your place."
"Not me," Henriette whined. "You said it didn't matter right then."
"She was late," Kaspar accused.
"Well, fine," Professor von Amselfeld allowed. "Then I'm telling you now." He grabbed Henriette by the shoulders and pushed her to the end of the line. "You belong here. Don't forget it again."
Henriette nodded hastily. Of course, Rüdiger thought, her place shouldn't be hard to remember. She was last after all.
"Today we start learning how to set up, use and put away the equipment in the Turnsaal. We'll start with the mats." He pointed at the blue mats hanging from the wall by their leather strips. "It takes four people to carry a mat. So when I tell you to fetch a mat and put it in that corner, the first four children in line," he pointed at Maxim, Franz, Augustina and Ottokar. "Run to the first mat in line."
They ran and Ottokar and Franz started to pull on it, but it didn't come off.
"Must lift off hooks," Maxim shouted and started to climb the ladder to reach the right hook.
The others let go of the mat and Franz climbed up on the other side. After a moment of useless pulling on the leather strips he and Maxim coordinated to pull simultaneously and ... the mat dropped to the floor with a tremendous crash almost burying Augustina under it.
Another shrill whistle sounded and the professor ran over to them.
"And that is exactly how you don't do it," he shouted so everybody was sure to hear. "Leave that mat there for now and let's try the second one. Now you two climb up to the hooks again, but don't start pulling yet. The other two take the lower corners and push up to help them. And once you have unhooked the strips, don't let go. Climb down slowly, and you start to carry the mat away slowly. Yes, now all change your grip so you're holding the mat by the leather strips. And now carry it across the Turnsal. Do not drag it and do not drop it."
This part looked easy enough.
"When you reach the place you are supposed to put it, lower it slowly so it doesn't make any noise, straighten it and fold the leather strips under the mat. Else someone might catch his foot in it during an exercise and trip. Then sit quietly on your mat. Got that? Good. Then put another mat into that corner." He looked expectantly at the next four students in the Stirnreihe.
This group, consisting of Kunigunde, Markus, Jürgen and Nikolaus managed to get the mat off the hooks just fine, but angered the professor by letting it drop into place with a loud bang and almost forgetting to fold under the leather strips.
The third group proved that carrying the mat wasn't without its difficulties after all as Sigrid and Heinz ran off too suddenly causing Ivonne to trip and Fadime, who'd just been changing her grip from the corner to the leather strip to lose her hold of the mat.
The fourth group included both Sonja and Lieselotte, but balanced out their good luck of being together by also combining them with Kaspar who complained loudly that the mat was too heavy.
"Will you just shut up and carry it already?" Günter finally snapped at him. "We could have put it down ages ago if you'd just start running."
Joachim, Dieter, Jasmin and Hildegard finally were the first group to place their mat without any incidents.
Then it was Rüdiger's turn. He frowned when he realised that he had to work with Franziska, Anselm and a quiet boy he'd never spoken with yet.
Anselm smiled at them, though. "Okay, Phillipp and I are tallest so we get the hooks, and you two push!"
Rüdiger nodded agreement, but it soon turned out that Anselm had bitten off more than he could chew - at least with Franziska only ineffectually bending her end of the mat upwards rather than pushing it at a helpful angle. He could not lift the mat far enough.
"Let me try," Rüdiger suggested. "I'm pretty strong." and let go of the mat.
Phillip yelped and the already free end of the mat slammed to the floor.
"Oh damn, it's much heavier than I thought!" he apologised to the annoyed Professor von Amselfeld.
"You should have waited for Anselm to take over," the professor informed Rüdiger sternly.
With the other corner already dangling to the ground it was even harder to lift the remaining strip free, but with the the other three pushing as hard as they could, though Franziska's efforts remained rather ineffective, Rüdiger finally managed to free it and they didn't seem to be all that bad a team for carrying a mat after all.
Margarete had to work with the princess, who turned up her nose at Dirk and Fabian and was even clumsier than Franziska at pushing a mat up. But with Margarete pushing in the middle they managed to get the mat down without any mishaps and even the princess was capable of carrying it and folding under the leather strips.
Now only Sabine, Nadja and Henriette were left.
"As there are only three of you," the professor allowed. "And you are the shortest, you may take the mat that is already on the floor."
It was probably a wise choice. Rüdiger didn't think Henriette would be any use at all and what chance had Nadja and Sabine to lift the mat free without help from below if Anselm, a boy, hadn't been able to do it?
Once they had placed their mat correctly Professor von Amselfeld assigned a number to each mat and then proceeded to shout out pairs of numbers the students on which had to exchange places as quickly as possible - and without colliding. Once he took to calling out another pair while the first was still running this became more difficult than it sounded and on two or three occasions a student suddenly found himself with the wrong group.
It wasn't as much fun as playing Völkerball, but nobody seemed to actually dislike it. Even Henriette was laughing when she dashed past Rüdiger on a long sprint from mat 2 to mat 4.
She looked a little less happy when the professor had to help her group hang their mat back on its hooks at the end of the lesson, and Kaspar complained that that wasn't fair.
"I no see why not," Maxim declared loudly. "Every group have four. They and Professor is four, too. That fair."
"Whatever your sort consider fair," Kaspar scoffed. "Like coming here to live off our social welfare system. Stealing our tax money ..."
"We no live off social welfare," Maxim protested. "We live off father's work."
"And child-support money!" Kaspar yelled.
"But everybody gets that," Rüdiger protested. He knew because Opa didn't like to accept charity and explained every year that every Austrian family with a child got some money from the sate as a gift. It wasn't charity if the rich got it, too.
"And besides he is right: it is perfectly fair," Nikolaus added. "Don't you start calling my Papa unfair."
That actually did shut Kaspar up for once and the school day ended peacefully after all.
Volksschulen - plural of Voksschule
Volksschule - "folk school" - in Austria: primary school
Schutzengel - guardian angel
Opa – Grandpa
Bergmönch - "mountain monk"
Perchten - plural of Perchte
Perchte - a mythical creature
Perchtisch - Perchtish
Sprache und Kultur – "Language and Culture" I tried to give each non-magical subject a magical replacement. This one is meant to be German's (= first language).
Turnsaal – Gym.
Stundenwiederholung - "lesson repetition" - Exam on the last lesson at the beginning of every lesson.
Viere - Viennese, correct German: Vier - four
Haus - house
Einzahl - singular
Mehrzahl - plural
der - the
die - the
das -the
Beschwören - "Enchanting" I tried to give each non-magical subject a magical replacement. This one is meant to be Music.
Gangaufsicht – "corridor supervision" teacher on duty to patrol a corridor during break
Jause – snack/tea/school lunch (A small meal in between the three big ones, not actually in place of lunch.) or packed lunch
Altmagisch - "Old-Mageish" - I tried to give each non-magical subject a magical replacement. This one is meant to be Latin.
Darstellende Magie – "performing magic" I tried to give each non-magical subject a magical replacement. This one is meant to be Art (as in drawing, painting and sculpting; Music and acting are not included).
Brausaal - brewing classroom
Stirnreihe – "forehead-row" – A line of people formed according to size: tallest to shortest or shortest to tallest
Völkerball – "peoples-ball" - A ballgame played in Austrian primary schools. Very popular with the popular kids.