All the Best People are Mad – Part Two

"Franz Ferdinand and Sophie are dead."

The news stabs Eliza like a knife to the heart. "What do you mean?" she asks Roderich blankly.

"They were assassinated this morning by a Gavrilo Princip of Serbia," he reads from the letter, his frown deepening. "What will this mean for our empire?"

Eliza simply stares ahead. How could Franz and Sophie be dead? She's grow rather close to the latter, and is already beginning to mourn her friend's death.

There's a knock at the door and a servant says demurely, "His Highness wants your presence in his study."

So Roderich and Eliza slip silently through the dark hallways and go to the emperor's study.

"I've written a letter to Serbia to let our demands be known. They have twenty-four hours to accept our terms or we declare war." He hands the paper to Roderich to inspect.

He and Eliza read over the terms. While he seems satisfied, she is not. She points at one of them and reads out loud.

"Allow Austrian police to operate in Serbia? They'll never agree to that."

"They shouldn't have shot Franz and Sophie, then."

Eliza wants to slap some sense into Roderich and the emperor, but she restrains herself. "Maybe it is so…"

"Besides, they probably don't want to fight us anyways. They did just fight a war of their own," the emperor adds.

Roderich yawns. "Hopefully they'll respond by morning," he says tiredly. "Goodnight."


When Eliza wakes up he's already awake and pacing the length of their room, a far cry from his normal self.

"The Serbians responded," he tells her by way of good morning.

"What did they say?"

"I don't know. They said to come when you wake up."

So she throws on one of his coats over her nightdress and they hurry to the emperor's study.

"They said no." The emperor gives them the paper. One term is highlighted – the one that Eliza had pointed out the previous night.

Roderich sighs. "With a heavy heart, the Empire of Austria-Hungary officially declares war on Serbia."

When they're in privacy, Eliza murmurs to him, "This is mad…"

Roderich looks at her funny. "All the best people are mad," he tells her. "Or else how would we change the world?"