Chapter Text
The next day he got another revelation, Eckhart sent him a magic letter that Heidemarie was surfacing in her jureve. Ferdinand stared at the letter for a long time. Heidemarie had gone into a jureve, just like last time, but this time, she hadn’t died, she was waking up. A change from the first weave. A welcome change, Ferdinand was fond of his scholar, and Eckhart did not deserve to endure that pain. But how? Ferdinand buried himself in the never ending work of the temple, opting to use the accounting methods that Rozemyne had shown him to get things a bit more organized and easier to deal with.
At second bell on Fireday Ferdinand received the ordonnanz that Heidemarie was awake. Quickly disembarking he was still the last one to join the group at Eckhart’s estate.
“Lord Ferdinand may I pray for a blessing in appreciation of this serendipitous meeting, ordained by the vibrant summer rays of Leidenschaft the God of Fire?” Greeted Heidemarie, as everyone in the room rose.
“You may.” Though with her having just come out of a jureve he’d prefer if she didn’t.
“O Leidenschaft, may this reunion be blessed”
All and all she seemed to be doing quite well, they completed their greetings before moving forward.
“Lord Ferdinand,” Lady Elvira addressed “worry not, we have yet to begin our discussion.”
“Before that, I believe I should assess your health, Heidemarie.” Ferdinand’s eyes returned to his scholar and a subtle dip in them acknowledged he was concerned about the child.
“Of course my lord.”
Justus was forced to stay put as Elvira, Eckhart, Heidemarie, and Ferdinand moved to the next room. He set down a cloth on a low table with his examination circle on it. Heidemarie quickly stripped as necessary and lay down with her abdomen directly over the circle, the mana lines lighting up automatically as Ferdinand had already activated it. Red lines on top connected to lighter color lines that tangled below, he’d had to scour books for weeks since her submersion to figure out how to get an unborn child's mana lines to present, but there didn’t seem to be any issues that stood out. Next he examined her back, relieved to find that she as well didn’t seem to be having lingering effects from the jureve or whatever had caused it.
“Nothing appears to be anomalous.” Ferdinand confirmed as Heidemarie finished dressing. “Though it will still be important to understand what happened.”
The three Lords and two Ladies arranged themselves on the couches and chairs around the small coffee table in the room Justus had been left to wait. It had been set with a tea service though no one was particularly hungry. Eckhart then activated the ranged sound blocking tool sitting next to it.
“‘Marie?” He prompted as it looked like his wife began to swim back into her own thoughts.
“... I was taking afternoon tea in the conservatory.” Which explained why they weren’t gathering there now, if this had happened there, it would have felt to her like it just happened though it had been over a month prior. “I called for the servants to clear it away and no one came. There was no one in the hall either, like they had all left.” She made a face. “I don’t know why but I headed toward the kitchen but I was stopped by a sharp pain.” Her hand slid over her belly and both Elvira’s and Eckhart’s expressions darkened. “I threw up immediately and it felt like my blood was on fire.” She paused looking away as she pieced together the story, “I remember thinking that I had to get to my hidden room.”
“To your jureve.” Eckhart added confidently.
“No.” She said it so definitively even Justus raised an eyebrow. “Something else, I remember needing something else, I- I had left something there.” She had her right hand splayed across her forehead as she looked down. “I couldn’t summon my schtappe. I could barely even gasp for air but my feet kept moving, I had to keep moving.” The memories were starting to rile up her emotions and her hands trembled slightly. She brought her hand away from her face and looked at it. “A tool- a charm- Eckhart did I have something in my hand?” She turned her face to stare at him who was sitting directly next to her.
“No.” He shook his head, you weren’t holding anything, “but there was a drawer pulled out of your desk.”
“That doesn’t make any sense, if I didn’t have anything… I should have greeted the Supreme Couple before you found me.”
Eckhart’s jaw clenched and he was clearly restraining himself from embracing her.
Heidemarie rose and stepped away from them while staring at her hand.
“Dear.” Elvira also rose and watched as her daughter-in-law began to circle them slowly. “Please sit-”
“No- I had something,” She muttered. Justus and Ferdinand watched her closely as Eckhart rose and stood pace with her. “Something I took out of that drawer- Which drawer?” She whipped her head up to look at Eckhart not finding him at the couch anymore and then turning farther to see him directly next to her.
“Bottom left.”
“Bottom left, chain… gold and green..” Heidemarie looked up in realization. “Rozemyne’s gift!”
“What?” Ferdinand and Justus had risen as well leaving the entire room standing, and her Lord staring at her intensely. “Explain.”
Heidemarie, still walking through the event, did not hear the latent tones in her master’s voice. “It was a chain with alternating little feystones, gold stars and green tear drops. It was a very long chain, I can’t imagine she made it, the girl‘s grades were just at the passing mark for everything and she was taking the attendant course.”
“Rozemyne? That girl you said kept watching you?” Eckhart inquired suspiciously.
“She gave it to me in the library after I finished studying my final year, said she had to go back to her duchy, and wouldn’t tell me why.”
“What else?” Eckhart, Justus and Elvira all could hear the cold intensity in Ferdinand’s voice.
“She said she hoped I wouldn’t need it, and gave me a strange blessing before rushing off. She’d always be weird like that though.” Heidemarie’s eyes refocused as she finished her jaunt down memory lane and to her surprise she saw her master positively on edge before managing to smooth his own feathers.
“Draw a diagram of the charm she gave you.” He commanded. “What was the strange blessing?”
Justes’ eyes darted between Heidemarie and his lord.
“Verdraos defend you… and I think Greifenchan for something.” She responded as Eckhart collected a wooden board from a drawer, Heidemarie had boards and parchment all over the place. “I put the charm in my hidden room after winter ended though… she certainly wasn’t an amazing student but she was still Werkestock so she was likely killed.”
Ferdinand had to close his eyes briefly before reopening them and inquiring. “So you didn’t hear from her after the purge?”
“No.” She quickly sketched out what she remembered of the charm, including the length of the chain, and number of stars and tears. She included a general shape for the magic circles she had seen as well, though they had been so very tiny.
Ferdinand took the board and Heidemarie returned back to a couch with Eckhart, encouraging the rest of them to sit as well.
“Lord Ferdinand,” Justus began.
“Later.” His voice was ice.
“Lord Ferdinand, this Rozemyne…” Elvira began
Ferdinand looked her in the eyes and Elvira shut her mouth. Her imagination danced like Bluanfa with the masked emotion she thought she saw there.
“There has been little to collect on this whole situation.” Justus lamented. Changing the direction away from the Werkestock girl “Veronica’s faction does well at hiding behind Verbergen.”
“We will need to be more diligent, the fact that Trudelie was able to reach here is concerning, I’ve already set it up in anticipation, but darling, I would like for you to stay at the main Linkberg estate.” Elvira told the distracted woman.
“Heidemarie?” Eckhart nudged her gently as she didn’t seem like she was paying attention.
“How would she have known?” Heidemarie whispered to herself.
“Dear?” Elvira inquired as the young woman seemed completely submerged in her own thoughts.
“She knew, she had to have, she was terrible with her mask.” She continued her outloud musings and the rest of the group just went with it, there was little they could do to stop her once she got on one of her thought trains. “How could someone from another duchy know about our issues with Veronican’s poisoning us but it not come out in the information gathering, even as rumors. I never told her anything that could have been construed that way.”
“We will likely get nowhere trying to understand the mind of an aberrant child.” Ferdinand managed to break through her musings as they slowed down. “We have plans to make now that you are mobile, shall we continue?”
The meeting took a turn back away from the mysterious Rozemyne and to their predicament with Veronica. They discussed and drew conditional plans for the protection of the Linkbergs as well as the duchy. One thing was certain, Ferdinand could not allow Bezewanst to continue to hold the key to the foundation. After that was dealt with he would move forward on Rozemyne’s previous “Gutenbergs”. There was talent hidden in Ehrenfest, and he still had his promise to his father, while he could do nothing about finding Rozemyne yet.