000
Asche zu Asche und Staub zu Staub
Und das Feuer wird zu Eis
Asche zu Asche und Staub zu Staub
Und der Mond berührt die Sonne...
001
The only source of light in the room was the quietly crackling fire in the fireplace. For the owner of the room it was more than enough to see clearly – for Traveller it was barely enough to not bump into anything.
“So, commander…” he began after carefully threading from the doorway to the fireplace and a pair of chairs near it, one of which was occupied by an old vampire in his best black suit.
“Don’t call me that, Traveller. Just Krieger would be enough,” vampire put away a paper he was reading.
“Would it?” Traveller moved closer to the empty chair. “Would you mind?”
“No, take a seat.”
“Thank you… Comfy. Benefits of a good castle I guess.”
“So, about the name,” Traveller continued. “Despite it, you’re not really a warrior… You really are more of a ‘bigger picture’ type.”
“Hm…” Krieger looked at him with his left eye. “You want to say I’m missing some small details?”
“Ah, no,” Traveller rose both hands in front of himself. “That’s not what I’m saying. I’m saying – you have a plan, probably. And there’s a possibility that this plan involves some sort of a battle. I’d like to know when and where you expect it to happen.”
“Did you come to this conclusion yourself?”
“So, you’re not denying it?”
“Not confirming it either… yet.”
“Look, Krieger… I am not an idiot, no matter what Ruprecht might’ve told you.”
“He actually didn’t tell me anything of that sort but go on.”
“Nice to hear…” Traveller smiled. “Anyway – you’ve invited me here for a reason. All that ‘sending a message’ stuff… At first I thought I’d be sort of a safeguard, a warning sign for anyone foolish enough to interfere with your affairs. But that would’ve involved letting others know what I actually am and what my powers are. Just so they know who they are dealing with and are scared properly. That didn’t happen. So, that takes me to another conclusion…”
“A secret weapon.”
“Wunderwaffe, yes.”
“That doesn’t actually mean ‘a secret weapon’ – that would be ‘Geheimwaffe’.”
“It doesn’t? My German is laughable then…” Traveller shook his head. “Anyway, with the rise in the inquisition’s activity…”
“You know about that? Looking through the classified reports, are we?”
“Me? Never! It’s just that one time Weisz took me to the wine cellar, and we traded some stories… Impressive collection, by the way.”
“Thank you,” Krieger gave a slight bow. “Now that is the benefit of having a proper castle. And a great maid.”
“So, anyway… With all that combined – when are you expecting it to happen, commander?”
“Honestly? I’d love to know myself. Sadly, the inquisition doesn’t share their plans with me… Or with anyone for that matter. I just knew that they would try to do it sooner or later, so I took some precautions, such as inviting you, Traveller.”
“What’s gotten into them anyway?”
“Oh, since the whole Kiss-Shot Acerola-Orion Heart-Under-Blade debacle…”
“Hell of a name.”
“Hell of a vampire” Krieger smiled. “Since then inquisition got increasingly anxious and began to target vampires all over the world. It’s like they're on a crusade…"
"Don't say that word" Traveller shivered.
"Why?"
"Still… too soon. For some of me at least."
“Noted,” vampire looked at the fire. “One day they will get here too. This castle is a rather hard to find for normal people…”
“But the inquisitors aren’t ‘normal’...”
“Even for them,” Krieger bit his finger then realised what he was doing and took his hand away from his teeth. “It exists in a sort of ‘imaginary space’... close yet separate from ‘normal’ reality. It is an extension of my and Weisz’s legends and a legend in itself. A somewhat unique structure – there was another one like it in this country, but that one got destroyed… Foolish twins had bitten more than they can chew.”
“Twins?”
“Oh, nevermind,” vampire shrugged. “I’d say we’re pretty safe here. For a while.”
“Nice to hear that…” Traveller scratched his brow, thinking. “Though I have to ask: are you fine with it, commander?”
“I am not… a commander,” Krieger made a noticeable pause there. “Fine with what exactly?”
“With sitting here in your high castle – and waiting for the enemy to come?”
“Why not?”
“Because they won’t come until they are sure they’re powerful enough… Nobody would storm the castle unless they know they can win. Or they’re desperate enough… Or…”
“Or what?”
“Or they found an easy way in.”
“Interesting thought, Traveller…”
“If you say so… Commander.”
002
Tall trees cast greenish shadows on the ground overgrown with wild grass, dampening the shining daylight, creating a calm and solemn atmosphere fitting for the place of rest – eternal rest. Tall man in grey robes stood unmoving in front of the simple gravestone with few markings on it – just the name, birth year and the year of death. Nothing excessive, nothing unneeded, just an acknowledgement of the fact that the person was born to this world, inhabited it for a while and then left.
Man in grey was silent.
Even if he knew that the grave in front of him was a cenotaph, an empty place devoid of any connection to the person whose name was engraved on the stone – it was enough for him to not dare to disturb it with words. The grave might’ve been empty, but his memories gave it enough meaning – all the meaning he needed.
This man could be described best by his position in the church hierarchy – a grand inquisitor. One of the few living holders of the title, and the one that most consistently put it to use, starting a campaign of extermination of things others may call “oddities” or “apparitions”.
“Forgive me, Father…” Traveller in his camouflage clothing stepped out from behind the angel statue standing to the right of the inquisitor. “For I have sinned. Abundantly.”
“Did you come here to mock my faith?” grand inquisitor asked in a calm voice.
“Not really – I just can’t help it,” man shrugged. “I actually came to talk.”
“Out of your own will? Or were you sent here by your master?”
“So you know who I am?”
“A mercenary, working for that vampire…” grand inquisitor spat out the name as if it was bitter in his mouth. “Krieger.”
“Well, you got most of it right,” said Traveller, looking at the gravestone, in front of which grand inquisitor was standing. “Family? Mentor, maybe?”
“Both.”
“I see,” Traveller looked at a grave once more and lowered his head respectfully. “I’m sorry.”
“Are you?” grand inquisitor wasn’t impressed. “You’re working with the likes of those who killed him – and you’re saying you’re ‘sorry’? Dropping it as if were an empty word…”
“All words essentially are, inquisitor. Empty vessels people fill with meanings. Like a tin can from the field rations – it can be filled with the delicious tushonka or it can blow up in your face.”
“You’ve said you came here to talk,” grand inquisitor looked at him with a cold steel gaze. “Say what you have to say then – and go away, run to your master.”
“I’ll take a ride, thank you…” Traveller stopped himself. “Sorry. So… What I had to say... “
He scratched his brow, then continued.
“We’re asking you to stop your extermination efforts. They are misguided and essentially pointless. Personal vendetta has never been a good reason to do anything…”
“Enough,” grand inquisitor cut his words short. “I won’t.”
“You haven’t even…”
“I don’t care what else you have to say, mercenary, unless it would be an absolute and unconditional surrender. I despise the very existence of the creature you’re working for – and I won’t stop until they all disappear from the face of the Earth. All of them.”
“Resilient and unwavering in your misguided beliefs…” Traveller shook his head. “As the true grand inquisitor should be.”
“What would you know about true belief, mercenary? You work for money, bowing to the highest bidder…”
“Nothing, perhaps,” Traveller nodded. “Yet still, I can see when it goes wrong.”
“Do you? How?”
“Vampires… Weiße Frauen… Knecht Ruprecht… all the other oddities – aren’t they all just a human creation? Solidified coalescence of fears, hopes, legends?”
Grand inquisitor tried to say something but Traveller stopped him by raising a hand.
“Let me finish, inquisitor. The fact that you’re battling your own creation doesn’t bother me – that’s what humans always did, since the time first woman gave birth to a child. What I think is misguided – your fight has no end. No matter how many oddities you’d slay, no matter how many apparitions you’d exterminate… As long as there will be humans – there will be fears, there will be hopes and there will be legends. And so – there will be oddities. You see where you went wrong, inquisitor?”
“I know that, mercenary,” grand inquisitor’s hands clenched the cross he was wearing on his neck. “And yet I won’t stop. No matter how many times I’ll have to exorcise the unholy beasts, no matter how many of the devil’s kin I’ll have to send back to hell – I won’t stop. For such is God's will, mercenary, and it is not for me, – or you – to argue against it.”
“God’s will…” Traveller waved it away. “Well then. In that case there only one last thing for you to hear, inquisitor. Don’t get near the Krieger’s castle? Please? Old guy doesn’t like visitors.”
Grand inquisitor laughed at it. Traveller shrugged his laugh off, turned back and waving goodbye walked down the narrow path between the graves to where a bike with the driver waited for him. He saddled the bike, gave the driver a slap on the helmet, engine burst into life and they moved, first disappearing from the view behind the trees and then disappearing completely.
003
"Thanks for the ride," Traveller jumped off the bike when it blurred back into reality and stopped its engine inside the castle.
"You're welcome," Ruprecht pulled off his helmet. "Look under the rear fender please."
Traveller grunted, sat down, looked up the rear wheel.
"Sucks to be the one with bad sight in this castle," said he, pulling the flashlight out of one of his uniform's pockets and lighting it up.
"Yeah, it's here," he concluded, looking at the small red waz seal with the cross, hiding under the fender. "The beacon is set."
"I almost didn't notice when they placed it," Ruprecht roared. "Those guys are good."
"We'll see about that. For now we can just say they are predictable."
004
Ruprecht was tinkering with the engine of one of the cars in the garage when he felt the ripple moving through the air. Then another one. And then one more. He let out a tired groan, bent down to the floor to pick up his favorite helmet, sitting next to the car’s front exactly for this type of occasion, put it on and grabbed one of the bigger wrenches instead of the usual baton.
Exactly as he expected, several trios of inquisitors were standing around his motorcycle – drawn in by the beacon under the fender. Just as expected. Predictable and reliable inquisitors.
Ruprecht clenched the wrench harder and closed the distance with them, knocking one out cold with a blow to the side of the head, swung and planted the wrench across the face of another who fell back, getting in the way of the inquisitors behind him. Ruprecht took the hit to the face – well, to the helmet, – growled back at the attackers, dropped the wrench, grabbed one of the inquisitors by the arm and slammed him into the wall. Another one tried to do the same to Ruprecht, – tried grabbing his arm – but got a sharp blow to the face with the helmeted head and fell onto the floor disoriented and bloodied.
Yet more inquisitors were coming – one by one they appeared seemingly out of nowhere sending more ripples through the air. Plan to provoke the inquisition worked… worked too well, maybe?
Ruprecht fell back, standing with his back to the car, ready for any incoming blows and considering if it wasn’t the time to run. He didn’t stand a chance against so many, but this time he didn’t have to.
With a barely hearable whistling sound, something sparkled through the air and dug its way into the inquisitors' bodies. Some of them fell down without a sound, some lay on the floor groaning, one tried to stop his innards from falling off and from being stepped on.
Ruprecht cast a quick glance back to see Weisz, holding a stack of silver coins in her hand. She clenched her fist and threw the coins – each one blurring into the sparkly silver line, ricocheting from the walls and the ceiling, whistling through the air until it found a body to cut open.
Good children get the silver coin.
Bad children get their bellies open.
When she ran out of coins, Weisz disappeared into the mist to appear beside Ruprecht.
"Fall back," she said. "Now."
Ruprecht turned and ran into the closest of the castle's hallways, followed by the sound of the bodies falling and groans of the wounded.
He didn't run for long before he was stopped by Traveller, sitting on the floor of the castle behind a tripod-mounted machine gun.
"Those guys just keep coming…" Traveller scratched the back of his head. "Like that ever worked since 1914…"
Weisz was retreating in short jumps, leading the group of inquisitors to them.
"Weisz, down!" Traveller yelled and not giving her much time opened up with his MG08, old German Maxim gun.
Instead of ducking down, Weisz dissolved into the fog, reappearing behind Traveller and Ruprecht.
"You forgot I can do this," she smiled.
Traveller didn't answer, showering the forward row of the inquisitors with bullets. Those left standing got the message and turned to run. In the brief moment of confusion, Traveller let out one more long burst and then…
The part of the castle in front of them stopped existing.
Instead of it there was the dark void with a jagged edges, as if someone took a bite out of the building's stone.
Then the same void appeared behind them as well. Traveller rose from his seat and walked closer to the patch of darkness. Inside of it, he could see the vague shades and contours of the city, ghost lights of the moving cars and neons of never sleeping human hive.
"Well, that went terrible…" he spat on the floor. "I'm not setting a foot in that… thing."
"But we need to get back," Ruprecht said, taking his helmet off and nodding in the direction they originally ran from, that now was hidden behind the black void.
“I’d say we need to get forward,” Traveller said. “To the main entrance, maybe?”
"It's and old castle, boys" Weisz stepped closer to the wall and pressed something. Part of the stone lifted up, revealing a narrow stairway. "It is full of secret passages."
"I don't remember it being the case," Ruprecht looked at her.
"It is my castle," Weisz insisted. "So if I say there's a secret passage – there will be one."
"Fight now, argue later," Traveller moved past them and onto the stairs. "Where does it lead, Weisz?"
"To where we need to be."
“Not nearly specific enough,” Traveller said. “But I’ll take it.”
005
Apparently they needed to be in front of the doorway to the Krieger’s study – and right at the moment where the old vampire, with a roar, pushed one of the inquisitors out of it. Held him to the wall of the corridor and with a short punch smashed his face, shattering the skull bones and crumpling it into an unrecognizable greasy mass. Then he noticed Traveller and the others standing nearby and spat out someone’s hand that was stuck in his mouth.
“Absolutely outrageous,” Krieger said, pulling up the body of the inquisitor that slid down the wall with one hand and tossing it into the nearby splash of the black void. “See what they’ve done? They’ve ruined my castle!”
“Master…” Weisz started.
“Don’t worry, Weisz, I’m not nearly mad enough,” judging by his appearance, it was hard to believe these words. His hair, covered in blood, was sticking in every direction in spikes, black suit jacket unbuttoned and slide itself to one side, white shirt – now covered in dark red dots – lose a few buttons too.
“What?” vampire said, looking at Weisz’s judging look. “It was a struggle. I’m sorry, but there will be a lot of cleaning needed inside.”
“As you say, master,” Weisz sighed.
“Well, let’s move then,” Krieger straightened the jacket, tucked the shirt back under his pants, combed the hair with his hand. “Inquisition awaits.”
Castle shook under their feet.
“Another bit gone,” Weisz said.
“I know,” Krieger turned away and began walking. “Let’s go before they ruin it all.”
“How they even do that?” Traveller asked.
“The castle is imaginary, right? I believe I’ve told you that,” Krieger said, not turning his head. “When there are enough of those guys around… They can un-imagine it. Bind it to ‘reality’, back to being ‘normal’.”
“Which for us would look like destruction…” Traveller nodded. “Got it.”
006
The walk was longer than they expected because they had to avoid the cracks and fills of void that continued to appear as more and more inquisitors poured into the castle.
“Just how many of them there are?” Weisz hissed.
“Well, the church was never short on loyal idiots,” Traveller shrugged. “Believe me, I know.”
Finally they passed through an arch and onto the balcony of the main castle hall that was connected to the lover floor with the wide stairs. What they saw showed that the Traveller’s words were true indeed: the hall was full of inquisitors with the grand inquisitor, the same man in grey robes Traveller talked to, standing in the middle and shouting orders at his underlings.
“Should I tell them to stop?” Krieger suddenly asked, when he realised that nobody had noticed their small group.
“Just yell at them, master,” Weisz smiled.
Krieger yelled.
Several inquisitors turned to them and tried to close in, but were stopped by Weisz’s coins and Traveller’s handgun.
The hall fell silent.
“Finally you’ve shown yourself!” grand inquisitor’s voice rumbled and echoed. “Devil!”
“I feel like I have to ask ‘where?’ with a puzzled face…” Krieger shivered. “But I know you’ve meant me, so, yes, here I am. Finally shown myself.”
“Did you came to your senses and decided to give yourself and your ragtag bunch to the mercy of the church?”
“No.”
“Did you came to fight then?”
“No.”
“Explain yourself.”
“We’ve came here to destroy you, grand inquisitor Cutter. Before you could destroy us,” Krieger said. “And before you finish ruining my castle.”
“...”
“Traveller, please…” Krieger gestured him to move forth.
“You sure it’s time, commander?” Traveller asked and seeing the affirmative nod from the old vampire, began walking down the stairs, towards the inquisitor.
“Is this a joke?” grand inquisitor asked. “Have you eaten your own brain, ghoul, if you think one mercenary could stop me…?”
“Mercenary – that I am,” Traveller’s voice was plain and calm. “But one I am not.”
“You’ve asked me what I know about belief… about faith…” he continued. “Let’s ask someone from 1099.”
Behind him a second figure appeared – a man in battered armor, torn mail shirt and rags, still bearing the symbol of the cross.
“Wait, he can do that!?” Ruprecht gasped.
“Or maybe… Maybe we should ask someone from 1620?”
And another figure accompanied Traveller – a Bohemian soldier whose clothes were covered in blood.
“Should we talk more about faith, Inquisitor?”
“Who… What… are you!?”
Traveller smiled.
“Always wanted to do this in front of the audience… You see, Inquisitor, as long as there were humans, there were wars. How many can you name? How many do you remember? It doesn't matter, because there were more. Unrecorded, forgotten, cast away from memory... From that Egyptian warrior who fought and fell alongside Ramses II but didn't get on the stone relief celebrating the victory – because victory is one for the living; to the Roman soldier whose whole legion was wiped out by the barbarians in the old German forests – and subsequently was struck out from all records; to the young soldier killed on the day when the newspapers wrote "all is quiet on the western front"; to the Soviet recruits frozen solid in the Finnish ice... All the memories, all the forgotten – they all are me and I am all of them. Would you stand against me?"
More and more figures appeared out of nowhere in front of the eyes of shaken inquisitors. Fighters, warriors, soldiers. From all countries, all continents, all ages. Greek hoplite stood side by side with an Aztec warrior, next to whom was the Mongol bowman casting the side glances at the British riflemen standing to his right. And just around Traveller, shoulder to shoulder – short guy with a wide smile, holding his RPK gently as if it was his girlfriend, an older man with tired eyes and a grand big moustache on his face, and a young guy, barely in his twenties, with the blue and yellow flag wrapped around his shoulders and a fire of red hair on his head.
All them fallen in battles and forgotten by history were pulled from the other side to this place. And that was their wish, that was their purpose – another chance given to them: to be again remembered. Army of the forgotten stood ready, unwavering under the stone heavy gazes of the inquisitors.
“Onwards” said Traveller.
Stone broke first.
007
It were still the early morning hours when Weisz gathered herself in her room of the castle. She looked herself over, making sure her dress was in proper shape and condition, nodded to her reflection in the mirror hanging on the wall – the reflection nodded back approvingly – and disappeared into the fog that swept itself under the door out of the room.
She appeared again in the middle of the kitchen, right in front of Ruprecht and Traveller arguing over something while drinking coffee.
“So, breakfast?” she asked, noticing how the argument died down immediately.
Ruprecht and Traveller nodded.
“How’s the castle?” Traveller asked.
“As good as new,” she said, breaking the eggs into the pan. “Will stand strong as long as we need it.”
“Good,” Traveller took a drag of his cigarette.
“You smoke to much…” Ruprecht said.
“You’re repeating yourself,” Traveller grimaced. “...Bear.”
Weisz reached up to the shelf for salt and pepper.
