After helping Gilbert and the others get Matthew and Lilli settled, Ludwig found himself sitting alone in the meeting room in front of the empty table.
As he stared past the table and out the window at the sun heading west, his thoughts returned to the Jokers. Fritz was Gilbert's fellow Joker when Ludwig got his Mark, and was a wise mentor in the year they worked together. He had gotten into a spat in Clubs the following winter, and nobody expected Sadiq to be able to kill Fritz. They knew that Jokers were supposed to fade away at the end of their servitude, but Sadiq's Axe through Fritz's neck proved to everyone that Jokers could be killed.
As if it wasn't enough to see once in a lifetime, Gilbert has now lost two fellow Jokers the same way.
Ludwig looked at the table again, and noticed the pile of Club Ledgers waiting to be read. Amidst all the commotion, they had been forgotten, and Ludwig figured he should take a look through them. He lifted himself from his seat, circled the table, and brought the Ledgers back to his chair. He spread out the four Ledgers, and chose one of Svetlana's to read first. Remembering that Valencia had marked the dates of her own entries about the Absorbing, Ludwig looked for a similar date in Svetlana's, and quickly found what he was looking for.
It is after much deliberation that I write the following section, as I had to control my frustration upon learning of how the future Royals of Clubs are expected to submit themselves to the rest of the Deck.
I recently returned from a meeting between the four Queens of the Deck. We have discovered a future event called the Absorbing, where the four Suits will be united under one group of Royals. I was willing to work with the others on the research of this prophecy, and even compromised on the interpretation of each Suit being represented by the Intended survivors.
I visited the Club Timepiece to see what would become of my followers, and discovered that not a single Club Royal would be an Intended. I remembered our discussion about the Absorbing, and how the Intendeds would have to kill the other Royals in their ranks and absorb their Marks, and I realized that the Intendeds are not guaranteed to survive. As such, I will record all I can about the Absorbing as preparation for the Club Royals who will be in a position to take control of the Deck for themselves.
"Basically, you wanted revenge for getting the short end of the stick," Ludwig muttered, before he kept reading.
My first move was to prepare the Club Timepiece. I have found that it would freeze when the last Ace of Clubs received her Mark before the start of the Absorbing. I do not know how much time they would have to prepare after she receives her Mark, so I made the hand for each of the Club Royals who would participate in the Absorbing individually freeze at the 12 when they received their Marks. As such, my Jack and Queen would know to start their research when the King received his Mark, three years before the Ace got hers.
Ludwig recoiled from the Ledger in astonishment, and the door opened before Ludwig could process this thoughts.
"Oh, I'm sorry, Ludwig," Yao said, "Did I surprise you?"
"A little bit," Ludwig replied, "I just saw something in Svetlana's Ledger that triggered a memory."
"Really?" Yao asked, sitting in Gilbert's chair, "What did she say?"
"Svetlana discovered that none of her Club Royals were Intendeds, so she vowed to leave them as much time and information as possible to prepare for the Absorbing. One thing she did was make each individual hand of the Clubs Timepiece freeze at the 12 when each of her Royals got their Marks. This way, the Queen and Jack would know to start their research when the King got his Mark three years before the Ace did."
"Elizaveta and Roderich got their Marks four years before Ivan, isn't that correct? And Natalya got hers three years later?"
"Yes, and that's the memory that was triggered. Clubs and Hearts were at war that year, and King Gupta and King Vladimir were both slain in battle. I was found and made the new King of Hearts within a few days, but it took Ivan a month and a half to get to the Clubs castle with his Mark. I had been negotiating a peace treaty with Elizaveta, but she did not have authority as the Queen of Clubs to sign such a treaty on the King's behalf. She had to check the Timepiece at that time to make sure the Club King Mark had been assigned. Based on what Svetlana wrote here, I suspect that Elizaveta discovered both her minute hand and Roderich's second hand still at the 12, even though they had already been Royals for four years."
Yao reached for one of the newer Ledgers.
"Well, it's a good thing Emil brought us Elizaveta's Ledgers, she probably started her research then. That was eight years ago now, correct?"
"Yes, it was."
Ludwig waited as Yao shuffled through Elizaveta's Ledger before stopping at a few sections and reading.
"Here it is, you're right. That's exactly when Elizaveta knew there was something going on. She told Roderich and Sadiq immediately, and they decided that they would start the research after they found the new King and completed the peace treaty."
"See if you can find her first research notes."
Yao moved a few pages forward.
"Elizaveta notes here how they discovered their destiny as the rebels of the Absorbing. They quickly deciphered that she would be involved, as would Roderich and Ivan. It had already been more than 1640 days since Sadiq got his Mark, and his time was still moving toward the 12, so they knew the next Ace of Clubs would be the one they needed to wait for."
"Wait, what is that bit about the 1640 days?"
"It doesn't say specifically, but it does mention it being foreseen when Svetlana read Queen Guinevere's mind. Perhaps you have that part in your Ledger, Ludwig."
Ludwig turned a few more pages in Svetlana's Ledger, before noticing the familiar number written at the bottom of the page.
"I think I found it," Ludwig said as he started to read again.
At today's meeting, I found my opportunity to learn more about the Absorbing. The other Royals had foolishly left me alone in the room with Queen Guinevere of Spades. While her foresight is certainly legendary, my own telepathic powers allow me to see whatever she has foreseen. I forced myself into her mind, and found what she had discovered about the Absorbing. The first thing I saw as we connected was that the Absorbing would start exactly 1640 days after my last Ace of Clubs received her Mark.
"Elizaveta's notes are correct, the Absorbing was meant to start 1640 days after Natalya received her Mark," Ludwig told Yao.
"That was almost five years ago now, wasn't it?"
"Yes, exactly five years as at December 21st. 1640 days would be approximately four and a half years, which would line up with sometime in June this year."
"June 18th, just before midnight."
Ludwig noticed the soft mutter, and looked over to see that Yao was stunned.
"How do you know that for sure, Yao?"
"That's when they killed King Berwald and Ace Mikkel. Valencia's Ledger said the Absorbing would start when all the Timepieces froze, and the Spade Timepiece froze after Alfred received his Mark. Ivan was seen trying to take Berwald's Mark that night, and I think Natalya tried to take Mikkel's. That's why I wanted to see these Club Ledgers, since I suspected Ivan and Natalya didn't know about the other Timepieces freezing."
"So, Berwald and Mikkel had to be killed for the Absorbing to start, but they weren't a part of the Absorbing themselves. That'll be interesting to explain to the others."
"Certainly. Does Svetlana say anything else about reading Guinevere's mind?"
"The page ends here, but there might be more."
Ludwig turned to the next page and found a something rather unexpected.
The right side had no text, instead showing a sketch of two young men. The man to the right was facing the reader and had shorter hair. He was holding a King's Sword, and there was a Spade Mark on his chest. The man to the left stood with his back to the reader, head turned to the side with slightly longer hair. He was holding an Ace's Axe, and had a Spade Mark across his shoulder blades, along with a crown on his head.
The baffling part was that Ludwig recognized the two men.
"That's Matthew and Alfred," Yao gasped, "Svetlana drew Matthew and Alfred in the Clubs Ledger."
"Not only that, but I think she saw through the disguise. Look at how Alfred is holding the King's Sword, but Matthew is wearing the Crown."
As Yao looked closer at the drawing, Ludwig read the first paragraph at the top of the other page.
Guinevere's foresight also featured these two blond brothers, possibly twins. Although the Spade weapons they wield suggest a certain rank, the supposed Ace is wearing the King's Crown. I saw that, whether intentionally arranged by the brothers or switched with a spell on the Spade Timepiece, the rightful King of Spades will be disguised as an Ace while his brother will be disguised as a King. I also noticed that Guinevere sees them as key players in the Absorbing, if not possibly Intendeds. They will be the greatest threat to my Club Royals. I tried to see more about them, but Juliana chose that moment to barge in and force me out of Guinevere's mind.
"Svetlana saw enough to know that they were switched, and that they would be involved in the Absorbing. I wonder if Ivan and Natalya considered this when plotting their murders."
Yao grabbed Elizaveta's newer Ledger and flipped through it hastely.
"They met the twins earlier that day, but didn't even know who they were until after killing Berwald and Mikkel. As for Elizaveta, she wouldn't have even known of their existence until we kicked them all out of Spades. Ivan and Natalya would've told her about the twins on their way back to Clubs."
"So the new question is, when did they realize they were switched?"
Ludwig watched as Yao finished turning the pages in the Ledger.
"Here it is, just as I thought. These are Elizaveta's notes as soon as they returned from Alfred's coronation. When she saw Alfred as King and Matthew as the Ace, she recognized them and understood immediately that they were switched."
"In other words, they knew the entire time that Matthew was a King."
Author's note
Once again, I got so wrapped up in my plot details that I needed to put the other part of this chapter into the next one. Seriously, at this point I have so many headcannons for character backstories that I could start a prequel fanfic. If I had known back in February that I would come up with all these ideas, I'd have written the entire story before I started posting. Of course, this is working well too, with the focus on Matthew and Alfred, instead of taking another 20+ chapters to reach the Absorbing.