4. First Break Down
He kicked the wall in front of him furiously, a sharp pain numbing his foot and he didn't care. Yuuri looked over his shoulder, Murata was whispering heatedly on the phone, talking with Bob. Shori was half asleep himself, sitting on the sofa and rubbing his eyes every few seconds, still in pijamas. Everyone else was still asleep, and nothing made any sense. Why couldn't he go back home?
Yuuri clutched the towel around his shoulders tightly, his jaw set, his body vibrating with energy begging to be left out somehow.
He shivered out a faint sigh through his dry lips that sounded a lot like 'Wolfram' even to his own ears. Shori didn't notice, Murata looked up intently at him for a second, then looked away and kept talking with Bob as if he hadn't heard.
Yuuri looked up, his heart still running and tried not to panic. He wanted to run, fly or swim home, it didn't matter how, as long as he could laid eyes on… everyone, and make sure they were safe.
Every time he closed his eyes, that fateful image was back and clear as if engraved on his retinas: a familiar landscape composed of mountains, valleys, rivers and a dear castle, everything destroyed, desolated and only a single figure standing among it all. Wolfram on fire.
His home, his kingdom, his fia- Wolfram.
Yuuri groaned and kicked the wall again, feeling the hot sting of unwanted tears. And he was trapped here, with Murata, with no clue on why had he seen that, or why couldn't they go back, or what was happening, or…
"Stop" said Murata evenly, placing a cool hand over his shoulder.
Yuuri almost jumped out of his skin, turning around and looking at Murata who had come next to him quietly. Shori was now on the phone with Bob, apparently sufficiently awake now.
Yuuri opened his mouth and no words came out. Immediately he felt ashamed of himself, he was the king and should be able to control himself, damnit.
Murata looked startled for less than a second, his reaction to Yuuri's despair showing through a crack on his strong demeanor like a ray of moonlight sneaking through stormy clouds. Immediately it was over and he looked just as cool and collected as always. His hand on Yuuri's shoulder tightening significantly.
"I just talked with Bob." said Murata in a tone of voice that was meant to bring Yuuri back from whatever dark place his mind was, as much as it was meant to inform him of the situation "He will send someone to pick us up, we should-"
"Go where?" asked Yuuri turning completely to face Murata.
"To his place, he wants to make sure we are safe… we do not know why the Path has been blocked."
"No, we can't- we won't do that. We need to keep trying to go back." Yuuri turned around and tried to walk to the bathroom again. Murata took Yuuri's arm and pulled him back, the towel around Yuuri's shoulders falling to the floor with a heavy wet 'plop'.
"Let me go!" shot Yuuri straight at Murata's face "The only place I will be going to is Shin Makoku"
"We can not do that, you know it" answered Murata calmly, still not letting go.
Yuuri felt his fear and frustration bubbling just under his skin. He was proving himself weak to protect his people… to even go back to his realm. He shouldn't have run to Earth in the first place. He was a shame, he was a wimp…
"Stop" said Murata again, and it was not the first time Yuuri suspected Murata could read his mind like an open book. "We don't know if what you saw is even real, it could be a tramp to lure you out to try something risky and desperate."
"I feel desperate enough" chuckled Yuuri in a low, despairing voice.
Murata took a step closer almost without thinking, both his hands now on Yuuri's arms, steadying him. And suddenly Yuuri felt it, Murata's cool and light maryoku reaching out just enough… just a touch, and suddenly Murata was an anchor, and Yuuri looked up, breathing more easily.
"Whatever the reason, we are trapped here. You are the king and I am your Sage, we both are the political and spiritual heads of Shin Makoku, we need to go with Bob, and put ourselves under his protection till we figure this out".
"Why" breathed out Yuuri, feeling lightheaded.
"Because we are no soldiers, your majesty. Because here, we are targets".
Wolfram sat on the bed, and opened the letter. It was from his uncle Waltorana, current regent at the Bielefeld lands. Waltorana von Bielefeld wrote two different letters, an official one to Gwendal as security chief, and another one directed exclusively to Wolfram.
Licking his dry lips, Wolfram read his in silence. He could feel his heart beating faster, and a surge of fear creeping its way over his body, so he put the letter down and took a moment to close his eyes and will those emotions to the back of his mind. Fear, panic, that wouldn't help his mother. Right now, to bring her back, he needed to be the soldier, not the son. He opened his eyes and kept reading, his hands no longer shaking.
Waltorana greeted him with a 'Dear Wolfram', and after that his handwriting was less dignified, hurried, to the point. There had been an attack. Lady Cecile had decided to go on another one of her journeys, on a travel 'for free love'. She had taken off of Shin Makoku by carriage, and would reach the Bielefeld lands three days later, where she would take one of Waltorana's galleys as a special favor. This time her journey would be longer, leaving the continent and reaching new exotic places to her heart's delight.
She never reached Bielefeld. Some bandits attacked them, took Lady Cecile and attempted to kill everyone else. Lady Cecile had a court of twenty-three people with her, plus twenty elite soldiers.
Wolfram kept reading. Of those accompanying Lady Cecile only two survived. One of them was strong enough to reach the Bielefeld Castle and tell them what had happened, right before collapsing on Waltorana's floor. The other one had been perilously wounded, and left behind in a farmer's home. Waltorana had sent a healer his way already, and they would take him to the castle as soon as they were sure he could stand it.
Wolfram could see his uncle's handwriting getting less precise, he knew time was not on their side and had to send those letters as soon as possible, cover up all possibilities. Move quickly, it appeared to say.
…I urge you to reach Bielefeld as soon as possible. You are needed here, the political branches are spreading already.
-Waltorana von Bielefeld, Regent of Bielefeld.
For a moment Wolfram wasn't sure he had read that right. 'Political branches'? And rage threatened to choke him, realizing his uncle was worrying about politics while his mother was lost, kidnapped.
Someone knocked on the door.
Wolfram froze, paralyzed in the middle of tearing the letter to pieces. He ran a hand through his hair, steadied himself and snapped his fingers. The letter burst in flames, consuming unnaturally fast and falling in ashes over the carpet, leaving a black strain as proof of its previous existence.
"Come in" called Wolfram, and Günter pushed the door open, walking in and closing it behind his back.
A moment of silence in which they looked at each other went by. Surprised, Wolfram realized he hardly ever talked with Günter at all, besides trying to pry him off of Yuuri. And suddenly it was so ridiculous, because Yuuri was not here, and so they didn't have their unspoken neutral zone, and neither was mother here, Günter was not his brother Gwendal, and Günter had always thought he was a spoiled brat anyway and…
And suddenly Günter had taken a few silent steps towards him, putting one strong arm around him, pulling him closer, and for some unfathomable reason he was drying off some treacherous tears that shouldn't have been there in the first place.
"We will find her" said Günter, in a voice so unlike himself it almost made Wolfram laugh, because this was utterly madness, there were only two survivors, and what if his mother was not one of them?
They stayed like that for some minutes, and Wolfram realized he didn't feel utterly humiliated to break down just a little in front of Günter. He needed it, he realized after the tears had stopped flowing. Oddly, he felt more collected, his mind was sharper too, the issue about Yuuri, their engagement and the ring had been pushed to the back of his mind, and all his being was focused on one urgent goal: find and bring back his mother.
Gently, he pushed himself back, and Günter released his hold of him taking a step back himself.
"Thank you" whispered Wolfram, not sure what to say.
Günter von Christ nodded, smiling faintly.
"Gwendal sent me to give you this" Said Günter handing a parchment.
Wolfram took it and read it, still not looking at Günter in the eye.
"This… is an order, is even singed by Gwendal"
Günter nodded "I got one myself, I will be leaving tomorrow morning with three regiments, and will be meting my own men halfway to von Christ".
Wolfram nodded, Gwendal was sending him with most of their army to Bielefeld, in a search party. The order was clear, every Lord on the realm would lead a search party and look under every rock till Lady Cecile Spitzweg was found. Christ, Voltaire, Spitzweg, Bielefeld, Karbelnikoff, Grantz, Wincott, Rochefort, Gyllenhaal, Radford. No exceptions were made, and no failure would be tolerated.