Twilight Between: Day 4

Word Count: 24,141

Summary of Events:

Adler regained consciousness to find himself in a dark building on a wooden bed; before long he discovered that there were a lot of other slaves in the building, as they all got up and went to work, while he was allowed to remain behind. Torben mulled over a variety of things related to the private audience he would be having with Kronprinz Theoderich following his coronation before the carriage reached the Sky Falls, the tallest waterfall in the country, which he stopped to show Emma. Not terribly long after passing the falls, Emma noticed buildings descending into a valley with a river at the bottom of it; Torben informed her the buildings were Äußere Odalrichsaal and the Königstrom meaning they were just a short ways from their destination . . .

Excerpt of the Day:

Although she knew her geography, she found that seeing actual trees, water, stone, snow, grass, hills, and mountains was far different than seeing lines drawn to resemble them at much-reduced scale on a piece of paper.

Glancing to her left, she saw there was just bare stone beside them, rough and craggy, with a few hardy trees growing despite the predominance of the stone, then the carriage made a rather sharp turn and Papa’s window showed Äußere Odalrichsaal, while her window showed rocks and trees.

There was a total of three turns before buildings were out of Emma’s window and a smoother turn brought them into the thick of Innere Odalrichsaal, which was actually the smaller part of the city, but was the part of the city where the most important people lived, and much of the most important business was done.

The street was good and broad, allowing room for two wide, heavy wagons to pass one another while leaving space for the same to be stopped on either side of the road without any sustaining damage.

Black was everywhere. Cloths draped from windows, ribbons on doors, and black clothes on all the people who were about their business, which Papa had told her most citizens were allowed to resume — albeit while still wearing black — following their having done next to no work on the day the König had died; unless the König died overnight, then it was the day after his death.

Flags were the other thing Emma noticed there to be a lot of, each of them bearing a thick black ribbon above it to show mourning, even when the flags were on such poles where they could be lowered to half-staff.

Because the black band on the Königlichflagge was at the top, the tails of the ribbons were lost in the flags hanging at half-staff, but the part that was tied about the staff was visible.

Since the air was still, none of the flags waved much, but instead hung still, creating jumbles of black, yellow, green, and red as they hung on the staffs, with the stripes being more distinguishable on those flags which hung on posts projecting out from buildings.

After winding their way down several streets lined with buildings that were predominantly made of stone, some with a coat of coloured plaster over top to differentiate them from those buildings adjacent to them, they came to a wide, open square with a large fountain whose centrepiece featured several bears, the Königlichtier of Zeig.

“This is the Bärplatz,” Papa said.

Emma nodded, she’d suspected as much because of its size and the fountain.

“And up there,” Papa said, pointing.

Looking up after Papa’s hand, Emma could see what was formally known as Odalrichsaal Festung, the imposing, grey fortress wherein the König lived.

It was broad and tall, and looked in many ways as if it were one with the cliffs of Bärhöhleberg behind it, which had no trees for several metres on either side, before the trees resumed in a thick blanket.

Pronunciations:

Äußere: oysehreh

Königstrom: kuhnihgstrum

Innere: ihnehreh

Königlichflagge: kuhnihglihchflahggeh

Königlichtier: kuhnihglichchteer

Bärplatz: bareplahtz

Festung: fehstung