II

Location: Vienna

Time: "27 days to SkyFall", noon, 12:30 am

As Dietrich climbed the stairs to the upper floor of the restaurant, where only booked rooms were set and only rich people could afford such rooms, he wondered if the Magus was really having such a mood for this kind of entertainment. It wasn't that the Orden's chief of staff couldn't afford a luxurious meal but with SkyFall coming and one could still go party, that surely sounded off.

The brunet expected either a single table for two, or a whole large room full of tables for all the Orden's members. Opening the door, he was greeted by the sight he least expected, actually he would never have expected or wanted to expect it.

There was one long table set close to a large wall with a veil over it, there were two chairs and one was already occupied.

By that one person that made Dietrich lose appetite almost immediately.

"Why are you here?" Dietrich tried his best not to growl at the hag.

"I was invited, Mr. Lohengrin, by the Magus himself." The woman took a sip of the water in his glass, the thin black veil covering her face didn't move much. Her bodyguard, the completely-not-funny "killer doll" stood straight at her right side.

If this was a joke, Dietrich wanted to call the 'Magician' and told him it wasn't funny. Not at all.

"Care to explain how you did get invited to this, Fraulein." 'Puppeteer' took his seat elegantly, he didn't plan to lose face in front of the hag nor make himself a fool to the 'Magician', if this was really planned by that man himself.

The former proud cardinal, now regressed to a member of the terrorist group she hated so much (she probably still hated them by now, couldn't fool Dietrich's eyes), set the water glass onto the wooden table. Her tired eyes slightly casted a glance towards the brunet, who was sitting half the room away from her.

"The Magus came to me and handed me the invitation and address of the restaurant." She made a gesture towards her bodyguard, who then stepped over to Dietrich, showing him a red envelope. "I personally have no interest in going but Magus said this was for business, not party time."

And the brunet jerked the envelope from the 'killer doll's' hands, taking a quick read of the content inside. It was all correct with what the woman just said. But Dietrich knew it would be correct, he did receive an envelope like that as well. 'Magician' surely enjoyed making everything as fancy as possible.

What he didn't understand, however, was why the hag was invited.

Exhaling loudly, 'Puppeteer' shoved the envelope back to the hag's bodyguard's hand and picked up his glass, pouring some water into it. It seemed like this little lunch would just include three people. Dietrich preferred just two people actually.

But there were only two chairs and this kind of setup in the room was so odd. Why were they both facing the wall for a very expensive room? And shouldn't the waiter or waitress be here to serve appetizers or drinks already.

Around 5 minutes passed and they both just sat on their seats, the woman checking her nails while the young man stirred the water in his glass with a spoon out of boredom. Surely they had no intention to start a conversation.

"Apparently the Magus is late, Mr. Lohengrin." Caterina spoke up to break the annoyingly odd silent atmosphere. "-It's the first time I ever see him being late.

-You have only been in the Orden less than half a year, of course, you haven't seen him that much.

-You seem to know him personally well.

-Nein. Anyone being in the Orden long enough would know 'Magician' has a very funny rule for everything.

-Is that so?" There was a chuckle from the woman.

Dietrich kept his face straight. So the hag wanted a game. While Isaak hadn't arrived yet, it was not a bad idea to entertain this shrewd woman for the time being.

"Have you ever heard about the story of the Troia battle?" 'Puppeteer' picked up the smallest knife amongst the silverwares. The chessboard was set.

"Humor me, Mr. Lohengrin. I am not familiar with lost literature." Caterina twirled her water glass. White pawn moved from D2 to D4.

"Oh, the brief summary of that is a war caused by the gods but the ones who suffered were humanity below, killing each other for… 'love'?" Dietrich spinned the knife one circle with his skillful fingers. Black pawn moved from E7 to E5.

"Interesting, indeed. You would say the gods are the bad ones or the humans are the bad ones?" The veiled woman straightened the handkerchief she put on the table. White pawn moved from D4 to E5.

"Does it really matter? Shouldn't we just talk about why the war lingered instead? 'True love sometimes causes more tragedies than pure evil'." The brunet absent-mindedly tilted the knife to a side. Black knight moved from B8 to C6.

"Whose quote is that?" The woman halted her hand. White knight moved from G1 to F3.

"Who else? Our dear Magus, of course." A mischievous grin stretched on 'Puppeteer's' lips. Black queen moved from D8 to E7.

The door opened and the sound of wheels could be heard. Neither Dietrich nor Caterina turned to check who that was, supposedly that could only be the waiter or waitress since there was no scent of cigarette smoke.

"I can see that you did learn many interesting philosophies from him." The woman nodded her thank but waved her hand to the waiter to deny the wine offer. White bishop moved from C1 to F4.

"Heh, I can say his presence left a bad impression on me." Nodding his thank to the waiter, Dietrich held out his hand to receive the wine glass offered. "But it's fair to say I did learn a lot from him… One thing is to always break open a giant wooden gift horse no matter how beautiful it is."

Black queen moved from E7 to B4. Check.

'Puppeteer' tilted his head to his left while casting his eyes to the right, reddish brown eyes met with gray blue eyes; if look could kill then perhaps both of them would have been dead already. And while look couldn't kill, guns, knife and lost technology monofibre could.

Suddenly there was the sound of slow clapping; one, two, three claps.

Then the sound of a match struck on a metallic surface.

Both the two guests darted their wide-opened eyes to the source of the sounds.

Sounds that all came from behind their seats, where the waiter was supposed to be right now.

"Lady and gentleman, what a masterpiece of a playlet." The soft, melodic but monotonous voice rose along with the scent of perfumed cigarette smoke. "But please refrain from any climax, a lunch scenario should not end in tragedy, don't you agree?"

Caterina made a sign for Tres to cancel genocidal mode while watching the black-haired man picking up the trays of appetizers from the troller and skillfully served them to the guests. If it had not been for the cigarillo that he had on his lips, one would really believe he was the chief waiter or a butler of a noble house. But as far as everyone in this room knew not to judge a book by the cover, one should never judge the devil by the clothes he wore.

"My sincere apology for being late." Kaempfer fixed the silverwares on the table for both sides after setting the appetizers - stir fried asparagus with cream sauce - on their dishes. "I have some business back in Turm that needs urgent attention. I hope no discomfort issued while I was on my way here."

The woman kept her posture in her seat. Did Kaempfer invite her here to investigate her motives? If that was what he wanted then he got what he wanted, she had slipped up.

Since stepping in the Orden, she had been making up a persona for herself, one that only showed jealousy and hatred towards the Queen of Albion. Many of the Orden's members ate it up, some didn't fully believe her but they showed no hostility. Witnessing the once proud, just cardinal falling to the depth of despair to join the Orden was already a great victory for them. Although successfully baiting the lower ranked members of the Orden, the bigger fish to catch still never took a bite.

Lohengrin had never dropped his unsubtly disapproval about her presence in the Orden, especially when Kaempfer just allowed her to be on rank 7=4 right after she pledged her loyalty. In retrospect, that was suspicious of him, though the other members of the Orden did confirm to her she wasn't the first to get high ranked right away. Lohengrin joined the Orden at age 7 and by age 10, the brat was already on rank 8=3. Did Kaempfer play the favorite card for Lohengrin or was the brat really that genius? After the murder of Empress Augusta Vradica and the annihilation of Rome, Caterina wasn't sure which was more plausible anymore, it could be both. However the main problem here was that Kaempfer hardly seemed to be affected by any kind of trigger, physically or mentally, and what he thought about her was still a mystery; she simply couldn't read that man.

"What was all this for, Magus?" Lohengrin stabbed the fork into the bunch of asparagus on his dish. "Not just booking expensive restaurant but you, with your very humble behind, being our waiter too? What kind of event is this?"

Kaempfer moved to swiftly switch the wine bottle from white wine for appetizer to red wine for main course. Pushing up his glasses, somehow he did actually wear glasses, the raven read the labels of the wines on the rack.

"Oh, it's just like I wrote in the invitation, it's lunch to discuss some business," The 'Magician' pulled out one bottle from the rack. "-Say, how is world politics? The Empire still wants to attack Albion and Germanicus?

-So far, they have halted their advancing progress. It seemed like they realized the Albion cupcake wasn't easy to eat, the Germanicus bagel wasn't tasty either." Putting the asparagus in his mouth, 'Puppeteer' elegantly chewed on the vegetable before continuing. "But say, they have more problems with their own new lands actually."

There wasn't any reply from the Magus. Seemed like he was busy setting the main course. Filet de canard rôti with truffle sauce, somehow still smoking when the cloches were opened.

Caterina just kept quiet. Lohengrin surely had relaxed upon realizing his superior's presence in the room, and Kaempfer just… He had always been like that, always putting up a show.

The main courses were served and while it kept getting awkward with each minute passed, Caterina eventually picked up her fork and tried the food. One thing she could be sure that if they wanted to kill her, she wouldn't be here sitting at all, let alone eating, in conclusion, there was no reason to not eat the well prepared food.

"Does the meal fit your taste, Fraulein?" The 'Magician' suddenly turned his attention to Caterina, making her almost jolted, but fortunately she didn't.

"My taste has become bland over the years, I find food to be just food, the need for high culinary experience is no longer required." She replied, keeping her tone flat.

"Is that so? But so far you seem displeased. Is it the quality of the ingredients, or the way the dishes are spiced, or the drink is unfulfilling?" The raven elegantly poured water to refill the lady's glass. "Is the restaurant not up to your expectations? Or perhaps you are upset with how I wrote the invitation letter?"

Caterina glanced towards the man, just as her face was lightly hidden behind the veil, his eyes were obscured by the long thick tar-colored hair strands.

Now was the time to tread carefully. Lohengrin may be smart but he was still a human (and a brat) nonetheless, which meant he wouldn't push to the point his life would be at risk. But Kaempfer, despite many attempts to discover what exactly he was, Caterina was still clueless. He didn't have prolonged fangs nor the need to drink blood nor the fear of UV radiations so of course he was no Methuselah, but he also didn't die. Methuselahs and Terrans could die of course, but Methuselahs could take more damage to die, even Krusniks could die if their vital neurons were destroyed. Kaempfer didn't seem to have any real weaknesses, he could be shot in the head, slashed half body apart, blasted with every kind of artillery known to mankind and one moment his dead body was shown, the next moment he was talking right next to the attacker, as if he had always been standing next to them whole time. So trying to backing Kaempfer up the wall with force was meaningless, yet playing the mind game with him was a way to commit lengthy suicide.

"Whatever reason it was, I do hope you can set it aside. After all, such lunchtime wouldn't be organized again. So, please enjoy it your best." Kaempfer continued, as if he didn't take Caterina's silence into account at all.

And Caterina frowned upon that line, no, she frowned upon everything he just said. Two arm lengths away from her, 'Puppeteer' was smirking, a tint of pity sparkled in his eyes.

The lunch moved onto the dessert course. Black Forest cake with whipped cream and fresh fruit slices. Caterina stared at the green fruit slices that have tiny black seeds making a closed circle around the yellowish green core. She had never seen this fruit before, perhaps this was an exotic fruit of the world before the Apocalypse.

"Another weird fruit from your collections, eh? What is it this time?" The brunet poked his fork at the fruit slice, perhaps pondering whether to pick the seeds out or not.

"It's kiwifruit. One of the very popular fruits in the past." Kaempfer exhaled some cigarette smoke. "-Most cultivated and exported by New Zealand, the fruit was then named after the country's native bird, the kiwi bird, for both shared the same round, brown and hairy feature. But do you know that the fruit wasn't native to New Zealand?

-Then where was its origin? Must have the same weather as New Zealand to grow it, correct?

-Of course. The fruit originated from central and eastern China. The original name means 'macaque peach'." The 'Magician' took out one hairy brown egg-shaped fruit from his pocket and gently put it onto the table so both his guests could see it.

"After being introduced to Westerners, the fruit became so popular and was brought to New Zealand, where it was mass cultivated. From a fruit that was used mainly as medicine, the "macaque peach" got altered genetically to adapt in the new land and fit with the majority's taste, it became "kiwifruit". Not only its usage was changed but even its nationality and name was too." Kaempfer stepped towards the window that looked out to the Danube river. "If I now tell you that this fruit was originally from Oceania, you would probably believe that."

Lohengrin boredly stabbed the fruit with his fork, watching the lime green juice seeping out from the punctured holes. "But the fruit was still the 'macaque peach' to its native country, I supposed?"

Caterina looked at the fruit, at an angle, it did look like a hairy ape curling into a ball. Once she read about the discovery of the dinosaurs, giant lizard-like animals that used to roam the planet even before humanity came to existence; all that was left of them were fossils, bones that would never be able to tell all the stories they had. And just like the dinosaurs, this fruit was completely lost to this age's knowledge.

How did the dinosaurs come to extinction? - A catastrophic meteorite crash, natural disaster.

How did the "macaque peach"/"kiwifruit" come to extinction? - That…

"There is no longer anyone that can recognize this fruit as 'macaque peach', 'Marionettespieler', for they were all wiped out during the Apocalypse, their country's territory amongst the Terra Incognita." Kaempfer replied to the question of Lohengrin, still looking out the window, whether he was reminiscing about some faraway past or just enjoying the sparkling water of the river at this hour of the day, no one knew. "But no matter what, the fruit at the core would always be what it was, no matter what names it was called, what lands it was brought to, who it was served for… Don't you agree?"

The silence filled the room and no one was looking towards another person.

It kept going on like that for several minutes, then the 'Magician' made a loud clap of hands.

"I believe lunchtime is over, lady and gentleman. Let's get onto the business part, shall we?"

..

.

Location: ? - "Nyviv uzu PFL veu reu Z svxze?"

Time: ? - "Whxl bm xoxg ftmmxk?"

He was sinking.

But he wasn't suffocating. Did he even breathe to begin with?

The atmospheric pressure increased gradually.

Ambient noises formed around his skull.

Was there someone calling for him? Or was it just the sound of his own skull cracking?

Faces with glitching facial features flashed before his eyes.

The sight of a burning ship slowly faded as he descended further and further below.

His organs started to fail, from lungs to brain, to kidney then cardiac arrest; blood vessels started bursting. It felt like his whole body was breaking apart and decomposing.

At one point the pain may end.

It didn't end.

The pain didn't end.

If there was a God, they would make it end.

.-.. . - / .. / -... . / -.- - ..- .-. / -. - -.. .-.-.-