Disclaimer: I borrowed the name Jabari to bandcrazy01's great universe, as I have to confess that I now struggle imagining Amos & Julius' father by another name.
III. Ten winter roses
There are the old dead, and the young dead. What do you have to declare ? I want to turn it over to veterans now. One, two, three, there are ten things to say:
ONE
Hannibal Friedwald
"They took us at dawn to a high hill to shoot us. It was the end of February, a great winter sun was hanging over the horizon. They took aim at us. At the last moment, they fired in the air. The sun was low, it was so tender, and shone on the frost with the same purity as it once did on the Libyan desert. I had loved there, a girl as beautiful as this sun.
As punishment, our commanders sent us to the Eastern Front. The soldiers were going mad there. They wandered across great plains in shadowy processions, large Russian ear necklaces swinging over their necks like amulets. I arrived in Ukraine when the civil war was starting. Lenin had seized Petrograd, the enemy had lost interest in us even before peace was signed. The front was disintegrating as the nationalists of Petlioura massacred the reds and the armies of Makhno. Some of my comrades sold artillery to the Cossacks. I lost my battalion. I hid in a Jewish village deserted since a pogrom. The Sixteenth found me and exfiltrated me from the country. All of the veteran magicians were now escorted to the first Nome for their trial.
The reign of Apophis, I saw it in Russia. I know chaos. But I'm still alive, and he'll never win, I swore. "
TWO
Hannibal Friedwald
1. Egypt
I was 20 when I first encountered my mortal enemy. We passed the Per Ankh's final exam the same year. We were five new German magicians. Like all the european Nomes, the Sixteenth was facing a real demographic explosion.
"Do you have a cigarette?" Thank you.
- It's you ? The Champollion son? I am Hannibal." He smiled, disappeared behind a colonnade. We did not meet again. That day, after our results, I was called the brightest magician of my generation.
2. France
It was Christmas. When our German hymns rose and the Scottish bagpipes echoed them, there was not a soul left to fight. The French lieutenant offered us a truce.
"Sie sprechen Deutsch?
- Ich habe es in der Gymnasium gelernt. Sie sprechen auch gut Französisch.
- Meine mutter kommt aus dem Elsass… "
We buried the dead. The men played football, three nations on the snow. So how, how do we get our guns back?
3. Egypt
Thirty-three fighters, that's what they managed to bring together. The Eighteenth was missing.
You see, each European Nome is subject to a network of ancient laws, the fruit of agreements and compromises of history, defining their links and duties towards the national government. For most of us, military service is compulsory. But the Per Ankh forbids the use of offensive magic between magicians. Only, at the peak of battle, could we stop using it? You might as well ask to charge, both hands on your back, to deprive yourself of drinking in the middle of the desert, in front of a source of fresh water, to survive without lungs. This grand trial was a joke. In our cell, while we waited, we smoked another cigarette.
"They have no proof.
- Speak for yourself. There is always a magician behind my back, believe me. "
4. Berlin
« Sind sie hinter dir her?
– Ja.
– Was suchst du hier ?
– Ich muss nach Russland gehen.
– Du bist verrückt.
– Vielleicht. Was ist das für ein Geräusch ?
- It's Spartakus. We can hear them calling, these formidable drums in the night. Don't laugh, Champollion, don't mock my hope.
- It's true, we hear drums. Spartakus or Weimar?
- What do you mean ?
- The army will intervene, you know that. Since when have you been a communist?
- Since the war. Since I saw the comrades die to defend industrial empires. Since Alma left too.
- Alma?
- Lady Kane.
- Oh, it's true then… She didn't wait for you.
- She was waiting for another man. What she got was a ruin. But tomorrow it will be different, tomorrow we will be able to believe again in better days to come.
- At dawn there will just be cannons, Hannibal.
- I thought you were red too.
- I ? I don't believe in anything.
- They also broke you then.
- It's just a little blues, abattoir blues. I have to find Sekhmet, that's all that matters now.
- Oh, listen Michel, don't let those bastards put you down. "
THREE
Giacomo Bellini
"Why did you join the foreign legion?"
- Personal reason, I had to leave Italy. I admit having more sympathy for the French Republic in this matter.
- Explain your reasons.
- A duel that I won. My opponent did not have this talent.
- Are you talking about Timeo di Angelo? You knew that duels are prohibited.
- This kind of offense falls under the jurisdiction of the Eighth, not yours.
- You used forbidden magic at the front.
- I used a tiny bit of magic. Nothing but ordinary spells.
- You are a liar. The Bellini are descended from priests of Set. You are bastardized with Phoenician blood. There is never ordinary magic in you.
- I'm not ashamed of my blood. My grandfather was conversing with Michelangelo. My father rode alongside Murat and Garibaldi, for the glory of my people. I foughtin Verdun. We saved the entire army on the Chemin des Dames. Anyway you don't have any proof.
- Lucky for you, no. Other of your comrades are not so lucky.
- Are you talking about the Russians? You could give them a hand by the way, I think they're kinda struggling right now...
- This is an interrogation, we will dispense with your comments on the policy of Per Ankh.
- Even so, it must not be easy for them ... Dropped by the First Nome, massacred by the Communists ...
- The relations of a nome to its temporal government are not in the domain of the First Nome.
- Yes, yes, that's what they say. Tell me, now, who's worse ? We who killed each other, or you who calmly watched us do it? "
FOUR
Arsène Lupin
"How can I explain the years 1919-1921? With their great families, their hallway assassinations, their poisons, pistols and daggers? They are a game of dominoes. As soon as those magicians have used their sons in trench wars, they engage in a highly more perverse game. Each death leads to another, and another, and it all goes towards a usual war of Nomes. Large families are greedy. Their treasure: America. A new continent of promise and wealth, already divided between Romans and Greeks.
Now the war in America will not be fought without Europe, without its kopesh at least. The Kane, Hogan and Rehataka and their supporters wage ruthless battles in the United States. They would each like to obtain support among the great fortunes of the old continent. That's why they came to Paris.
But our chief of Nome, the baron de La Roque, is a man in mourning. He lost his four sons in the great war. The mission of Abdias Kane, Julius Kane's heir is a huge failure. The Fourteenth wants nothing to do with the New World, and its great families have been weakened by the Revolution. However, his presence in France will have great consequences.
It all starts because Abdias Kane is a crackpot. I honestly think his death was one of the best things that happened to the Kane dynasty. At least Jabari is intelligent, reasoned, quite measured. His father of course was wrong to despise him for years, because he's the one who will save this family from destruction, in the midst of civil war. But let's not anticipate.
It also starts because in Italy the Sforza family has made an alliance with the Hogans. A minor branch of their family is present in New Jersey, so they have a vested interest in the weakening of the Kane, who control the East Coast. The Kane therefore decide to make a pact with the Bellini, enemies of Sforza for millennia. Bellini and Sforza have faced each other throughout history. The Sforza in fact are allied with most of the surviving great Roman patrician houses, while the Bellini have Carthaginian blood. The Sforza descend from priests of Sobek, the Bellini are the last Setians. Some are from Lower Egypt, others from the Region of Thebes. Thus, I observe this little game of alliances, knowing full well that I will have to intervene shortly. The old Italian quarrel threatens once again to ignite the Per Ankh.
Now, since nothing is free, and the great 1918 trial implicated several of their own, the Bellini are demanding that the Kanes obtain the acquittal of the Italian magicians. One fact is particularly documented: the Nivelle offensive on the Chemin des Dames, in April 1917. Julius Kane, one of the judges, on the advice of his eldest son, decides to make French magicians scapegoats, those responsible for deadly magic deployed during the fight. Except that, apart from the two Italian magicians in question, only two magicians from the Fourteenth were present. Of course, there were also ten African mages from the French colonies, but all the colonial soldiers were acquitted straight away, especially because the French authorities used them as a cannon chair, and colonial rule is a particular mitigating circumstance. Let's go back to our business and you will understand.
The two French magicians of the Chemin des Dames happened to be Desjardins and one of the sons of Baron de La Roque, our chief of Nome. So coming to Paris to offer him an alliance, after having done everything to tarnish the memory of his son was perhaps not a very brilliant idea. Especially since Desjardins fled with the help of Iskandar, and a year later, he was finally pardoned for exceptional services rendered to Per Ankh. In short, Abdias Kane had fallen on a bone.
In the meantime, his brother Jabari had married Alma Mazrui, and had a son, Julius jr, which must have stung Abdias Kane in his ego. He had only one daughter, that his own marriage was a disaster, and now, his brilliant young brother was consolidating the dynasty. Now, I don't know all the details about the Kane family, but let's say their reputation is hardly less outrageous than the Menshikovs or Bellinis. In any case, Abdias, had resolved to make a demonstration and finish what should have been finished, that is to say, to get rid of Desjardins and give him to the Bellini.
The idea may have been whispered to him by his friend Samy Keane. Large families hate Desjardins, they do not forgive him for his low extraction, his Champollion ancestry, or especially his recent celebrity. The Keane, although an average family, are of very noble blood, descended from Pharaohs of the Fourth Dynasty I believe, and are among the most annoying (understand the most obsessed with traditions and conveniences).
Except that the Bellini as a whole didn't have much to do with the Champollions. Above all, they wanted money and an opportunity to wage war on Sforza. Also, La Roque despite his conflicting relations with the young magician, would have been furious to learn that one allowed oneself to kidnap or assassinate his magicians. Abdias therefore pursued his folly, and almost destroyed what Iskandar had spent years building. Of course I offered him my help. It was a beautiful month of June, it was almost noon when we arrived in front of the tomb in the middle of the field of Picardy.
FIVE
Arsène Lupin
It was almost too easy. Abdias Kane counts to three. ONE, even before TWO, I point my gun at him. Bang, bang, and he collapses in the grave. Bang, bang and Keane follows him.
"Get up, Desjardins. Your death was never part of the plan." He looks at me completely lost. It must be terrifying to smoke your last cigarette though. I throw one of the shovels at him. "No magic, no traces." We cover the bodies with earth and silence. He finally asks: "I thought La Roque gave you the order to ...
- I have other orders. From now on you work for me, that is to say for the First Nome.
- Why ? It's the Countess Anne or so ...
- Gods, Michel, I do not care about the quarrels of the Fourteenth, like those of the Eighth, like the Twenty-first, they are all equal, believe me.
- Your mother is from a noble family, he remembers, but your father is a commoner. You know the nobles, but you hate them. Is that what you're serving Iskandar for? Are you a Republican?
- A Bonapartist, I said. Let's go, we have work to do. "
SIX
Arsène Lupin
We drove to Cap Ferrat, near Nice. Jabari Kane had recently landed in France, from Marseille. He was looking for a brother, without knowing how the latter was lying stiff and cold in a pit, somewhere in a Picardy's field.
I had to understand where his relations were with the Bellini, the La Roque, the Countess Anne. Alexandra Menchikova was also there. While her brother's Nome was still at open war with the faction of Slavic wizards and demigods allied to the Bolshevik government, she fled through Crimea and then Turkey, as most portals of the Russian Empire did not work anymore.
One of my snitches, a Ligurian bard close to the Bellini, had organized a large reception in his villa. I brought the kid with me, a bit to rough him up, a lot to gauge Jabari Kane's reaction to seeing him. But it was another man who welcomed us there:
"Giacomo Bellini. Beware of that one. Cesare Bellini's favourite son. Grandson of Lucrezia, one of the leaders of the Eighth. The Bellini have been linving in Italy since the reign of Augustus, they are partly Carthaginians. Before, they served as assassins for the pharaohs for millennia. Half of them are crazy, and the rest much worse. They would still sacrifice to Baal and Set in their Venetian palaces. "
I was still suspicious of Desjardins. Iskandar saw him as a weapon, to frighten large families, but he was still a baby, certainly talented, full of anger, ambition, and, what is far more dangerous, thirst for freedom. I just didn't know then how crazy he was, too.
SEVEN
Giacomo Bellini
"Get back on the bed."
- I have to get to work at some point.
- You'll do that later.
- And you have nothing else to do?
- It's Sunday, what do you want me to do?
- I dont' know. Plotting, meeting suppliers for your gang, buying weapons, whatever you came to Paris to for.
- What a poor opinion you have of me… Who tells you that I'm not here to visit the Louvre and buy Beaujolais Nouveau? Or to make love to you too ...
- If only it was true.
- Why not, you're quite talented after all. You need a normal apartment though, not a hole like here. Who lives on the ground floor, in an additional building courtyard? And your hut is a bloody jungle, looks like the Botanical Garden. You can't even see your window anymore.
– Could you just stop talking ?
- Desjardins, the forest man.
- Giacomo, shut up.
- Sell your paintings, they are ugly, and besides you are poor and they are worth millions.
- These are gifts.
- Do you collect trophies from all the artists you make love to? It's a fucking Picabia, isn't it? I didn't know he was Picasso queer.
- Criticize the one who thinks art is more important than eating.
- Pff, correct art stopped at the end of the 17th century. Boucher destroyed the taste afterwards. I guess we can save Delacroix and the Impressionists.
- Old react.
- Decadent.
- Go and take a walk, seriously.
- Stop worrying, you will defend your thesis and it will be extraordinary, blah, blah. Stesichorus has waited two thousand years for someone to take an interest in him, he can wait a little longer. Now kiss Me.
- Wait, wait, move the hyacinths, there.
- Christ, I'm not going to give your plants a fit of jealousy ! I'm taking them out. Oh, Michel, there's an empty pot there, can you grow some grass for the backyard cats?
- You are really unbearable. No, take the cat away… I had not numbered these pages… Giacomo… Ah!
- Shall I continue ?
- Please. "
We're just fucking, I tried to tell myself. It's easy to lie to yourself, to find pretexts to go through Paris, to convince yourself that he isn't spying on Iskandar's behalf, that if I meet him in Rome, it's only by chance. But you know, desire isn't really a light and trivial thing.
EIGHT
Giacomo Bellini
"They all want something, you see: Jabari Kane wants to rule over America, Vladimir Menshikov wants to massacre his Communists, Monsieur de La Roque wants to transform France into a giant war memorial and be embalmed there, Countess Anne wants to destroy the third republic, the young Hannibal wants to save Germany and glorify his ancestors, Iskandar… who knows exactly what Iskandar wants, if not to dominate all this pile of ambitions.
- What do you want?
- See them run.
- What does it mean ?
- I'm going to break off the engagement. I am sorry.
- But why ? You may not love me, love comes with time. But we must do our duty, for our families, for our alliance….
- Our alliance, do you know the basis of our alliance? Kane has promised the Bellini war with the Sforza. The Bellini have promised the Kane their khopesh, and the name of Abdias' assassin.
- My father's murderer. Your cousin saw it, he was present.
- Gianini… We grew up together, a little piece of shit, but my own blood. It's true, he knows, but he won't tell you everything until after the dowry has been paid… The dowry… You know my dear, everyone is more or less a murderer here. It is the home of life after all. The pact between our two houses is a pact of blood. "
NINE
Hannibal Friedwald
They killed Germany three times. The first time, in the fields of France, the second in the streets of Berlin, the third in the salons of Versailles. I too had been killed three times, the first in the fields of France, the second in the streets of Berlin, the third in this mosque in Cairo.
"I beg you Alma, do you really like him at least?"
- That's so, she whispers. I am pregnant.
- He only wants power. He won't make you happy.
- But he thinks of his family, he only thinks of his family. You want to save the world. I'm sorry Hannibal. "
Alma's family governs the thirty-sixth Nome, one of the oldest and most prestigious in the world, that of the Sultanate of Zanzibar. If I was not from a great magician dynasty, I was of the blood of Narmer. But I had just dreamed. I watched her, eyes dry, join Jabari Kane. My last tears had been for the dead of the bloody week.
TEN
Giacomo Bellini
"So you were there, were you really there?"
- Yes, changed into a pigeon. Sam Keane had a hunch, he had asked me to follow us. We were friends, you know, we studied together in the first Nome. It happened to quick, I could not do anything.
- Who killed him then?
- Lupin and Desjardins, in cahoots. No need to swing Lupine of course, he works for Iskandar, we're going to blackmail him. Julius Kane is sick with grief, one name will suffice.
- Who else knows?
- No one yet, I won't talk about it before your wedding. But after, after ... we must not disappoint the Kane dynasty.
- You've always been a little cunt, you know? You never fucking wanted to shut up. … Still, the things we ruin for love…
- Giacomo… "
Bang, bang.
The body under the impact hit the glass, shattering the large glass window into these thousand pieces, the pieces of my life. They were very small and so very wicked the broken shards of my life. I threw the wind to catch them, they were falling in a slow spiral, and I remembered another day when a certain magician made roses bloom for me in winter. And those roses were red, red like chaos, and I squeezed them so tight my palms were all splashed with my own scarlet blood.
Translation
German:
Sie sprechen Deutsch? : You speak German ?
Ich habe es in der Gymnasium gelernt. : I learned it in school
Sie sprechen auch gut Französisch. : You also speak good French
Meine mutter kommt aus dem elsass… My mother is from Alsace...
.
Sind sie hinter dir her? : Are they after you ?
Ja. : Yes
Was suchst du hier ? : What are you looking for
Ich muss nach Russland gehen. : I have to go to Russia
Du bist verrückt. : You're mad
Vielleicht. Was ist das für ein Geräusch ? : Maybe. What's this noise ?