“Mommy, I don’t WANT to go!” Greta clung to their mother’s leg, tears streaming from her big, beautiful eyes. Shinorah swallowed, trying her best to be brave. She didn’t want to go either, but at fourteen she was too old to cry about it. Instead she was trying hard to be brave enough for both of them. For all of them - she’d heard the sobs coming from her parents’ room the last two nights, her’s mother’s anguish and her father’s pain.
“Gerhart, we *MUST*. They will not be safe here. The Imps are right on their doorstep, and there’s no hope. Surely you remember the stories of Gildenburg, what happened when the city fell?”
“NO. That will not happen here. These are modern times, and this is Ala Mhigo. The Empire - they wouldn’t. They - much as I hate to say it, they *need* us. They won’t put us all to the sword.” His voice wavered, though, betraying the confidence of his words.
“But WHAT IF”, Mathilde replied, firm and - for one of the only times he could remember - with a hint of fear in her voice. This woman, who won his heart in a duel, who didn’t flinch after four unmedicated childbirths, war in the Shroud, or Anything he could ever remember. And suddenly - he heard fear in her voice. That scared him more than the impending invasion. “What if they do. We don’t KNOW. They bear no love for us, not now, the Gridanians less. If we don’t get the girls out now, we may never get another chance.” She choked, her voice cracking. “I...heard through one of my networks they’re already working on a wall. They mean to trap us here.”
“Mattie, mein liebchen, those are rumors. They’re not real. Surely the Senate would have heard news of a Wall, for Rhalgr’s sake.” He said the words, but again without conviction. Would they have? The Senate used to have more power, but under the Mad King was a joke - a courtesy offered to the Old Families so they didn’t overthrow him, but with no actual power. Would they have heard this news? He couldn’t say anymore.
“We must, Ger. We need to think about them, not us. I don’t want to lose them either. Not my baby girl....but this is the last caravan out. We have no choice.”
He paused, listening. His wife’s words rang true. Their oldest son was already fighting in whatever left of Abania’s military, and their younger son - well, that was another whole complicated matter entirely. He shook his head, pangs of regret for his harsh words, his stubborn unwillingness to understand. But - nothing to be done for that now. They didn’t even know where Jeffron was anymore. He said a quick prayer to the God of Destruction, praying to keep their son safe. All their children.
“I...I just....let me think on it some more, ja? Another night.”
“No”, Mathilde interjected, her voice sympathetic but also firm. It’s clear her mind was made up. “There is no more time. The caravan leaves in two days, at dawn. And there are arrangements to be made.” She paused, grabbing his hand and staring into her husband’s eyes. “Do you think this is any easier for me, mein Wolfen? I carried those girls in my belly, nearly died bearing Greta....our last, my baby girl”. Her voice cracked again, and she cut off her words as she blinked rapidly and tried to swallow through the sobs building in her throat. “You know how wars can be. Conquerors. You know....” She lowered her voice, barely a whisper. “You know what some of our own damn men did to the girls in the Shroud villages....is THAT what you’d want for ours?” There was a caged fury in her voice, the Lioness’s wrath buried in the whisper.
“No, no, of course not.” But she knew her words had hit home. Mathilde nodded, knowing the decision had been made even if he hadn’t said it yet. “I will send word. We’ll tell the girls tomorrow, and Jossen too, and prepare their things.”
“I hope we’re doing the right thing” Gerhart whispered, a pain he’d never felt welling up in his chest, mingling with the pit of dread in his stomach. “I will tell them - Norah will take it better hearing it from me. She’ll understand - she won’t like it, but she’s always done her duty for the family.”
A young girl stood in the hallway, clad in a flannel dressing gown and with a blanket thrown around her shoulders like a shawl - green eyes wide as saucers as she held up a glass against the door of her parents’ room. Sending us away...? She had so many questions, and the teenager in her rebelled against the idea - but she kept thinking about the giant magitek ships hovering outside the city, their shapes monstrous, terrifying and alien. She thought about the words her mother said, about things happening to girls in the Shroud. She didn’t know what things her mother meant, not exactly, but they sounded awfully bad and they frightened her. The voices had dropped so low now that even the glass couldn’t help her, so she tiptoed quietly back to her room, laying in her bed and blinking at the ceiling for the rest of the night. Any other night, this might have sounded like a Grand Adventure. But now, in the dark of night, with her parents afraid and giant mechanical monsters in the sky raining fire and ash upon them all, it didn’t sound like an adventure at all. It sounded frightening, and she didn’t want to be frightened anymore. She curled up in a ball and cried softly to herself, clutching a small stuffed griffon to her chest, and did her best to make sure the cries were so quiet that nobody would here. She had to be brave - for the family.
“Greta, come!” Shinorah said, whisking her baby sister and bouncing her on her hip. “This will be fun! It will be a Grand Adventure! I know you’re sad, but we’ll see Mommy and Daddy before you know it! We’re not leaving for long, just a tiny little while! Right?” She gave a forced smile of false bravado that anyone but a small child could easily see through. Fortunately, Greta was a small child. “Now then, dry your eyes, it’s time to go. Tell Mommy and Daddy you love them.” Greta nodded, wiping her eyes with small, eight-year old fists and saying, “I love you Mommy. I love you Daddy.” Shinorah hugged her tight, whispering, “That’s our girl! Greta, you are so brave! What a proud Nachsieger you are, mein Taubchen!” She turned to her parents, swallowing hard and gasping for air so the tears stayed down, choking them back into her chest by pure will. “Mum, Dadda - we’ll see you soon, right?” She smiled again, and her parents could see the slender fourteen year old doing everything she could to hold it together. They werne’t much better - brave smiles, her mother’s knuckles white grasping her father’s hand and his jaw clenched so tight that she could see the muscles in his cheeks. “Of course, liebchen. Only a couple months. Just until this all passes”. They gave the girls a quick hug, and Norah felt something small pressed into her hand as her mother hugged her. “We’ll see you soon. Eweg und Immer, mein kinder. We will be with you ever and always.”
“We need to go!” the caravan master said. “There’s no more time. Come on.” Norah took one last look at her parents, her home, the only city she’d ever known....and then once more at the dark, terrible airships darkening the skies. “It’s time to depart, Greta. Time for adventure!” She looked back once more, waved, and then followed the caravan master off unto the unknown.
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