Twilight Between: Day 5

Word Count: 30,123

Summary of Events:

After being given just one day to recover from his branding, Adler was set to work in a fruit orchard, where he was tasked with loading full crates of apples into a wagon to be taken to a sorting facility, which he had to admit, wasn't necessarily all that bad — except for the pain in his leg. Torben was wanting to work on what he would say to Kronprinz Theoderich in his private audience, but didn't know how to start, so he took Emma on a walk to the Bear Square, whose centrepiece was a stone fountain of bears that had been created over 300 years ago to commemorate the 1,000th anniversary of the Kingdom of Zeig, and whose symbolism — especially when it came to two of the bears in particular — was well-known and widely taught . . .

Excerpt of the Day:

Additionally, the sculptor had noted that he’d deliberately designed the fountain so that neither the cub nor the male bear were splashed on by the fountain’s waters, but only by what he had called the fountain of the heavens — or, more simply, rain — so as to show their importance, as the lack of water running over them regularly would make their natural erosion slower than that of the other bears.

And, so far, it’d proven true; neither the Bärenjunge nor the Großer Bär had been copied and replaced since the fountain’s construction on the order of König Baldrich VII, which had been commissioned for the Thousandth Anniversary of Zeig, which he had anticipated presiding over, despite the fact that he turned 90 years old two years before that anniversary.

In the end, König Baldrich VII had died days before his 91^st birthday and it was his son, König Athanarich VIII, who revealed the fountain on the Thousandth Anniversary which had occurred 333 years ago. Kronprinz Theoderich would be the tenth König over Zeig since the fountain’s construction.

Only the Großer Bär and the Bärenjunge had seen over three and a quarter centuries of life unfold around them, including every single Coronation Day, and as he looked at them and thought back on their symbolism — including the fact that the Großer Bär was alternately known as the König Bär, or the animal personification of the König — he started to come up with an idea.

“There is a sight you know well, Your Majesty,” he said aloud, looking into the stone eyes of the Großer Bär that glowered at him. “The Bear Fountain. I am sure you see it at least every week, if not even sometimes on successive days. Did you, as I, learn what the different bears of the fountain symbolised?”

“Papa,” Emma said.

“I know I’m talking to a stone bear,” Torben replied, not breaking his gaze with the stone eyes. “I need to practise.”

Emma said nothing, meaning his addressee was her only concern.

“Specifically, Your Majesty, do you recall what the Großer Bär and the Bärenjunge symbolised?” Torben went on. “Emma, pretend you’re Kronprinz Theoderich, tell me what they symbolise.”

“The Großer Bär symbolises the König,” Emma replied after a hesitation.

“And who is the König?” Torben asked.

“Me?” Emma replied uncertainly.

“Now the Bärenjunge,” Torben said. “What does he represent?”

“The future of Zeig,” Emma replied.

“Indeed,” Torben said. “The future is young. It always is. What is young, is vulnerable, it can be destroyed far easier than what is mature, and it is my conviction that the future of Zeig is not as healthy as the Bärenjunge. It is at best a sickly Bärenjunge, and it is only getting sicker, and weaker, to the cusp of death.”

“Why?” Emma asked. “How?”

“Because of something only you have the power to change,” Torben replied. “You hold the greatest power in your hand of any man in this Kingdom, and yet, under your watch, hundreds, even thousands — millions! — die every day because of the complacency of your forefathers. Slow, lingering deaths they die, while their murderers do not merely go unpunished, but are even celebrated, honoured, and respected; and the more of them that die, the sicker and weaker the Bärenjunge that is our future gets.”

Pronunciations:

Bärenjunge: behrehnyoonguh

Großer: grohssehr

Bär: behr