31.5:《A:?》 do you think they will back up or will they be back up?

「page xiv」

°

「

Instead of playing with dolls,

perhaps I should try my hand at gardening now

」

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Syzygy. 

Patterns. 

A message.

A code.

Atienna sat in her apartment pouring over colorized photos of the recent Raincoat Killer crime scene. It was quite gray outside, the raindrops pittering and pattering against the window across the room. A television sat across from her, showing a colorful stripped screen. A test card, she’d learned recently. The faint static in the background from the television blended well with the rain.

“What are you trying to tell me?” Atienna whispered down to the images. “No—not me. What are you trying to tell whoever you’re meant for?” Her eyes scanned the hands, the flowers, trying to pick a pattern.

Perhaps… it was code? 

Werner would certainly be able to identify it. Or perhaps even Jericho.

Something fluttering by the window caught Atienna’s eye. She rose to a stand, apced over, and opened the window. On the sill rested a butterfly, wings weighed down by rainwater. It scuttled for a moment before collapsing as raindrops battered it.

Poor thing.

Atienna went into the kitchen to grab a glass cup. She placed it over the butterfly to protect from the rain. It was difficult to tell whether it appreciated the gesture. After some thought, Atienna got on her knees and rested her head against the sill as she watched its wings flutter. 

When was it best to let it go?

Atienna, can you hear me?

Atienna stiffened and turned to the grainy television.

Can you hear me?

Taking in a breath, she approached the device and peered into the screen.

Listen carefully: you are the only real thing there.

She hesitated momentarily and then turned the television off.

mbili

---

Werner felt like today was his lucky day. First: Nico was still home when he woke up! This meant that they would eat breakfast together in the morning. Breakfast today was sausages and eggs. The sausages were from his friend Hansel who worked as a butcher three stores down. J-man was not a fan of him. J-man was a really good judge of character but Werner thought maybe he was wrong just this once.

The sausages were really good so Werner had snuck Kaiser a little bite when Nico wasn’t looking. Kaiser was supposed to be on a diet but Werner felt bad eating tasty food while Kaiser was eating not-tasty food. He wanted to go on a diet with Kaiser too but Nico said that was a bad idea.

“At least one of us is smiling.” 

Nico’s words drew Werner out of his thoughts. Nico, looking as handsome as ever, sat across from him at the breakfast table. They’d started eating breakfast just three minutes ago. Two minutes ago Werner had lost himself in his thoughts.

Nico was now staring down at his plate. Werner had made sure to plate breakfast so that the eggs made eyes and the sausage made a mouth: a smiley face. But Nico wasn’t smiling.

It worried Werner. “Is work okay, Liebling?”

Nico turned the sausage upside down and looked up. His gaze softened immediately. “Just the usual, Tesoro.”

“You know you’re amazing, right, Liebling?” Werner said. “You help so many people everyday and you’re really good at what you do. I feel really lucky sitting across from you.”

Nico pinkened and then huffed, leaning back in his chair. “I wish the people I worked with were half as sweet as you.”

Werner beamed for a moment before he started imagining it: Nico working with a bunch of Werners as guidance officers. Kaiser would be the mascot at their precinct.

“—did you hear me, Werner?”

Werner looked up. “Huh?”

“Would you mind leaving my lunch today in the kitchen instead of the counter outside? I forgot to grab it a couple times this week. I doubled back for it a couple times but I couldn’t find it where you usually left it so I’m thinking one of your customers took it. I was going to mention it earlier but I figured it wasn’t too big of a deal.”

Werner was confused. “What do you mean? You came back for it last time, didn’t you?”

Nico arched a brow. “What?”

“Yeah, it was slow that day so you came by to pick it up. You asked me about what happened at the gates—”

Nico shook his head. “That didn’t happen, Tesoro.”

“Oh…” Werner frowned. “Maybe I’m just mismemorying it.”

“Misremembering.”

“Misremembering.” Werner nodded before he bristled. “Someone stole the lunch I made for you!” He shot up to a stand. “Liebling, we can’t let this go!” He punched his left fist into his right hand. “We have to find out who did it and teach them a lesson—”

Nico arched a brow. “Have you been watching that action movie again? Calm down down, Tesoro—”

“But I made that lunch for you, Liebling! You didn’t even get to read the note I left for you…”

Nico sighed. “It’s okay, Tesoro.” He smiled. “Besides, I already know what the note said.”

Werner looked at him expectantly. 

“‘Du bist die Liebe meines Lebens’.”

Werner gasped. “How did you know?”

Nico rose. “Because you always write variations of the same sentence.”

Nico soon headed off to work. This left Werner and Kaiser to get ready for another day at the bakery. Kaiser had worked pretty hard yesterday so Werner let him ride on his shoulders for a while.

“Toria! Luddy! Good morning!” he greeted the two siblings with a wave before he continued in his native tongue, “You’re both early! What’s crackin’?”

“Good morning, Werner,” Viktoria greeted him. When Kaiser came to her and began rubbing along her legs, she smiled and greeted him too. “Good morning… Kaiser.”

Ludwig gave a tight nod. After a pause he added, “There is nothing ‘crackin’, but thank you for asking.”

Ludwing and Viktoria were both watchmakers—in their VNW, at least. Their father Ulrich was also a watchmaker. Also in his VNW. They didn’t make the watches with the plain glowing numbers but the old-fashioned ones with the hands. Werner’d always thought that the only thing to those kinds of watches were the hands and the face, but apparently there were a bunch of little complicated parts inside that made it go tick-tock.

Werner had first met the two that one night he and his friend had that revenge fight at the gates. He hadn’t really paid that much attention to them at the time, so when they showed up at the bakery with their father a couple days ago he hadn’t even recognized them at first. He had barely got to ask them what sort of pastries they were looking for before they tried to sit him down and started talking about confusing things. They kept bringing up their mother and saying how she was gone before saying that it was his mother that was gone. Werner had almost burst out into tears when he’d thought that his mother had gone to the tree without saying goodbye first. Then they started saying that they were his siblings which actually cleared up a lot of things.

It turned out that it was all VNW: the idea that they were siblings and the idea that something had happened to their mothers. Werner proved this by calling up his Mutti then and there. They were really surprised to hear her on the phone. Mutti was surprisingly surprised to hear them too. Then the two siblings were the ones who looked like they were about to burst into tears while their father looked very serious.

They seemed really upset after that so Werner had offered them some pastries and coffee on the house. They got to talking afterwards about each other’s lives and Werner learned that Shion of all people was the guidance officer they were assigned under! Somewhere down the line either Ludwig or Viktoria had offered to help around the shop.

“What is this 50-count order at the bottom here?”

Pulled out of the memory, Werner turned to find Ludwig reading the daily order list at the counter. He peered over the man’s shoulder and read the tiny scribbles there. “Oh, yeah! Someone called an hour ago to place that order. They want them to have little flower designs on them—probably for the tree festival!” He put a hand to his cheek. “But you know what? I heard they were going to cancel it…”

Ludwig stared at him. “Werner, they want this done by 1200 today.”

“Huh? 1200?” Werner looked down at what he’d written. He pointed to the ‘50’ there. “50?”

Ludwig made a face before he shook his head. “I meant they want this done by noon. We can’t do that.”

“Of course, we can!” Werner reassured him. He flexed his left arm and gave it a squeeze with his other hand. “You know one time Otto and I made 1000 cupcakes in just three hours! But we did have to borrow all the ovens on the block…”

Ludwig stared at his hand.

Was Ludwig stressed out about it? Werner felt bad. “Oh but you don’t have to worry about that. Otto and I’ll handle it.”

“No, that’s not what I’m saying.” Ludwig paused. “Okay, Werner, think about it this way. Making these… patisseries takes time. Is this correct?”

“Yeah!”

“You like putting time and care into each patisserie. You like the detail that goes into each one. Correct?”

“I never thought about it that way, but you’re right.” Werner nodded before he mimicked Ludwig’s odd seriousness: “‘Correct’.” He chuckled.

Ludwig stared at him for a moment. “Right… and you don’t want to unnecessarily rush any of it. That wouldn’t be respectful of your time. That would not be respectful of their time and money. Correct?”

Werner felt a horrible realization come to him. 

“No, don’t feel bad,” Ludwig said. He raised his hand and made to put it on Werner’s shoulder but retracted it. “We’ll complete this order, but I think next time you should put a notice that orders should be placed at least 36 hours in advance.”

Werner tried to do the math in his head. 

“That’s a day and a half…” Ludwig drew slowly. 

“Oh… right!” Werner felt better now and nodded. “Next time!” He gave Ludwig a firm pat on the shoulder. “You’re a lot like J-man! And Gil! You know your things!”

“Gilbert…” Ludwig muttered. For some reason he looked at Viktoria.

Werner looked between them for a moment before he squeezed Ludwig’s shoulder and said to Viktoria, “You’re lucky to have such a reliable older brother!”

Viktoria smiled just a little and said, “Oh, I know.”

They got busy working on the cupcake order, a cake order, and the pastries for display. Werner was excited to show the little symbols on the table Jericho had drawn on for him to help him keep count of large orders of small pastries. It was like a bunch of tic-tac-toe boards stacked on top of each other. 100 squares each. Werner could just spend the entire daydreaming without having to keep track of how many pastries he’d been making. Viktoria thought it was cool.

Otto clocked in ten minutes late but that was okay. Werner was sure it was just because he was busy with family or school. Werner thought that those things were more important than work for Otto so he wasn’t pressed about it. Otto usually stayed overtime anyways to help close up shop. 

Otto was a very good kid.

“Morning, boss.” Otto grumbled something under his breath before grabbing the daily list from Ludwig. “What the hell is the order of 50 cupcakes?” He shook his head and turned back to Werner. “Anyway, boss, did you see the wrestling match last night?”

“Wrestling match…?” Werner smacked his head. “I completely forgot!”

Otto glanced at Ludwig. “Not surprised.” Otto didn’t like people who had VNW that much but he was being really nice about Ludwig which Werner appreciated. “Well, it was a good match. Guess who won?” 

Werner looked over his shoulder as the doorbell to the shop chimed. He recognized the person who entered and brightened. “Shion!” 

Otto frowned. “What? No, it was the Queen of the N—” He turned. “Oh.”

Shion was wearing her guidance officer uniform which meant that she was on duty which meant that she’d gone out of her way to visit him. This made him happy.

“What are you doing here?” Werner asked after greeting her with a hug. 

Shion returned the gesture. “I just wanted to say hello…” She stared at Ludwig and smiled. It wasn’t her normal smile. 

Ludwig froze when he saw her. When Viktoria came out of the back of the store, she froze too. They must have recognized her from when the guidance officers came to Caddy’s that weekend.

“Oh, don’t worry about Shion,” Werner reassured the two. “Shion’s a good person.”

No one said anything for a while.

“Well, I’m not dealing with this,” Otto said as he headed through the back doors into the kitchen. “If you need me, I’ll be head-deep in dough.”

“I’m actually off-duty until the evening,” Shion said after he left. “I was hoping that maybe I can hang around a bit.”

Werner nodded. “Of course! I’m always happy to have you here, Shion!” He moved her to a table and brought a slice of strawberry cake for her. “It’s on the house like always.”

“No, no no—let me give you VPs for it,” Shion insisted. “Or at least let me make up for all the free things you’ve given me by letting me take you out to dinner sometime.”

Werner thought about it for a second. “Alrighty!”

She smiled but after a moment her smile dropped slightly. “Have you spoken to Atienna lately?”

Werner wracked his brain. “No, I don’t think so. I don’t think I’ve seen her since the weekend. Maybe I should visit her…”

Shion let out a breath before she opened her mouth. After a moment, she closed it and then said, “Would you mind letting me know if you speak with her sometime soon?” After another pause, she added, “Ah, I mean… if she seems upset or anything or if something she says worries you, please let me know.”

Werner was confused by the way she said it but he nodded. “Sure thing!”

The doorbell chimed again. Werner turned to greet the customers but was surprised when he saw a familiar face. “Professor Hauptmann!” Werner brightened and waved as he recognized J-man’s professor. 

Hauptmann looked up before glancing back at the men and the woman he’d come in with. When he looked back at Werner, he said, “It’s good to see you, Werner. I hope you don’t mind.” He paused as he looked at Ludwig. He nodded. “Ludwig.”

“Of course I don’t mind! Come in!” Werner was always happy to see unexpected familiar faces. He noticed Klaus standing behind him and beamed. “Klaus, you came too!” He paused. “Don’t you have your classes today?”

Klaus tensed. “Haupt—” He offered a smile. “Good morning, Werner. I…” He glanced at Hauptmann. “Classes were… canceled.”

Otto stepped out of the back at the moment with an armful of dough. As soon as he saw Hauptmann and the others, he threw the dough onto the counter and threw up his hands. “What the hell?” He eyed Klaus and another woman who stood beside him, gave them a jerk of his head, and then waved his hand at the others. “Do you think this is the Small Services District or something? Beat it.”

Hauptmann exchanged a look with two of the men standing behind him. Werner realized that one of them was Fritz’s dad. Werner waved. Fritz’s dad waved back.

Werner turned back to Otto. “O-man, that’s not very nice.” He waved Hauptmann and the others in. “A friend of J-man is a friend of mine. Mein Haus ist Dein Haus.” Once they settled themselves at one of the tables, Werner offered them each a strudel and a cup of coffee. “It’s on the house!”

“It’s not,” Otto snapped.

Werner waved him off with a chuckle. “But it is!”  He turned to Hauptmann and noticed that Hauptmann and the rest of them were staring at Shion. “Oh, don’t worry about Shion. She’s off duty right now, right?”

Shion nodded slowly.  

“I saw your news bit with Gil on TV, Hauptmann!” Werner continued. “That was really cool.”

“We were made fools,” the older man beside Hauptmann muttered. 

“Yeah, you guys looked really cool!” Werner agreed. “Hauptmann, I didn’t know you felt that way about ELPIS. Did you talk to J-man about it?”

Hauptmann opened his mouth, closed it, and smiled tightly. “No, I haven’t.” He asked. “By the way, Werner, has anyone from that night come by here recently? We came here hoping to recuperate with them.”

“Recuperate?” 

“I mean meet with them,” Hauptmann said.

“Oh…” 

Fritz’s dad eyed Hauptmann and then the older grumpy man. “If not then we have to consider that they make have been taken wherever Stein was taken—”

“Stein? You mean Derik? Oh, Derik’s at the Small Services District!” Werner told them.

Hauptmann exchanged a look with Fritz’s dad and then another older man who looked a bit grumpy. “Is he? How do you know that?”

“Nico was talking about it the other day! He gets really stressed about work sometimes so it helps to talk about it.”

“Right, Nico’s a guidance officer here, isn’t he…?” Hauptmann asked in a way that really didn’t sound like a question.

Werner nodded. “A really good one too!”

Fritz’s dad looked at the older grumpy man. “Werner, did Nico happen to say anything else on that subject?” 

Werner put his hand to his chin as he tried to remember. “Well, he said that about five people from that night already recovered from their VNW. I don’t think he said anyone else being moved to the Small Services District, but he did say that they’re investigating some people maybe being connected to the Raincoat Killer… ” He shivered. “But you guys seem really cool, so you don’t have to worry about that—”

“Recovered?” Fritz’s dad repeated.

Werner nodded before gasping as he remembered something. “Wait—you guys can’t tell anyone this okay? Nico said that we can only talk about it inside shop-ome.” He paused, thinking: wait, had Nico meant that they should only talk about it inside of shop-ome or that only the two of them should talk about it…? Uh-oh—

“Shop-ome?”

Werner pointed to the ground.

Hauptmann held up his hand. “We won’t tell anyone, Werner. Don’t worry—”

“—what the hell is this cat staring at?” 

Werner looked over at the table next to Hauptmann where Klaus, Emilia, a young man who kept staring at him, an older man, and a very tough-looking man and woman. Kaiser was sitting on the table next to them, staring intently at the tough-looking man.

“Aw, Kaiser’s just curious is all.” 

The man snorted.  “You really name him Kaiser.”

Werner chuckled and walked up to Kaiser. “Of course! He’s my king! The Wibele’s number one mascot!” He looked between the two and then said excitedly, “He knows how to do tricks—do you want to see?”

The man’s brows raised. “He does? A cat? Named Kaiser.” The corner of his lip twitched. “Yes, show me, Capricornian.”

Werner was confused by the title but he continued, “Hold out your hand to Kaiser, clench your fist, and say ‘Pfote!’”

The man arched a brow and did as Werner said.

Kaiser tapped the man’s clenched fist with his tiny little cute paw. 

“That’s my Kaiser!” Werner reached into his apron, pulled out a back of treats, and fed Kaiser one.

“Smart,” the man noted. “Smarter than Kaiser I know.”

“What did you say?” The old grumpy man beside Hauptmann said in a low voice. 

“Knovak,” the tough-looking  woman said. “Apologize.”

The tough-looking man grumbled something Werner couldn’t understand under 

Werner got to learn that the man’s name was Nikita Knovak. The woman who yelled at him was Dunya Kramer. The other man who was staring at him was Wilhelm.

A bunch of customers started coming in so Werner had to get going after learning their names. Magda was off for the week so it was a lot to juggle, but that was why Werner was glad to have Ludwig’s and Viktoria’s help. Frau Helga came by again to pick up her weekly tarts and talked a lot about her three cats Eins, Zwei, and Drei. 

The crowd died down a bit around noon, so Werner was able to go talk to everyone again.

There were more people sitting with Hauptmann now. Werner was surprised to see Carl and Allen there. He happily waved at them. Beside them was Valentino, one of the bike riders of Nil’s sub club of VALHALLA. Werner wondered what he was doing hanging out with them and also wondered who the person who sat between Allen and Carl was. That person was dressed in a large hat and a large  pair of sunglasses. Werner wondered if the person would like to exchange sunglasses for a day for fun.

“Captain Ditzy,” Carl greeted him.

 “Werner, Mr. Foxman,”  Ludwig said, coming up from behind Werner. “His name is Werner.”

“I know what his name is.” Carl shrugged. “Doesn’t change what he is. Don’t mean anythin’ by it. It’s just what it is. Just like how Cadence’s a priss now.”

Ludwig frowned.

“Carl, please,” the person with the hat clicked her tongue. “Don’t be a child.”

“I ain’t bein’ a child,” Carl said back.

The hat lady’s voice sounded familiar, Werner realized.

Werner stared at the hat person for a moment before he gasped: “You’re Fortuna…. right? I’ve seen you on TV!”

Carl grunted. “There goes the disguise.” He jabbed a finger at Werner. “You better not—”

“You recognize me?” Fortuna interjected. She looked him up and down. “From the weekend I presume?” She glanced at Hauptmann. “Or did Nico mention me? I heard from Mr. Weingartner here that Nico tells you about work.”

Werner looked at Hauptmann. “Yeah, Nico’s looking for you! I think Nico said that a couple of guidance officers were going to swing by—” he pointed to Carl and Allen — “your guy’s house to ask around. Nico said Atienna volunteered to go ask around but he said that Atienna said that Fortuna wasn’t there.”

Everyone exchanged looks. 

“Francis never mentioned anything about that,” Carl said. 

Allen nodded, arms crossed as he leaned back in his chair.

“You said Atienna Imamu was helping Nico?” Fortuna drew.

“Signs half in Virgoan, Virgo sideless in the war,” Vogel said, “and a Virgoan working in tandem with an officer in this place. Let’s not ignore the obvious.”

Valentino nodded. “That’s what I’ve been saying.” He looked around the table. “And we must not forget that there was apparently a Virgoan who could use a conductor while we could not.”

“That and…”

It suddenly became really, really quiet.

“If I may…” Klaus said. He looked kind of upset, his fists balled.  

Hauptmann nodded at him.

Klaus sat up a bit straighter. “Atienna informed me that she was working with Peacekeeper Alice Kingsley on an investigation involving the Raincoat Killer. They believe this person may be either responsible for this situation or an asset in this situation.” He swallowed and then nodded.

“Lance Corporal Kleine.” Fortuna stared at him. “Correct?”

Klaus straightened. 

“He’s no longer a lance corporal,” grumpy Vogel said.

Klaus frowned which made Werner feel upset.

“How familiar are you with Atienna, Herr Kleine?” Fortuna pressed.

Hauptmann nodded at Kalus.

How did Klaus and Atienna know each other again? Werner couldn’t remember.

Klaus answered after a long time, “We became… acquainted after the Week of Blindness, ma’am.”

“That’s not what I asked,” Fortuna said. “I’m asking you how close you two are. How well do you know her? How long have you known her?”

“I—”

“Oh!” Werner gasped as he remembered something Nico told him.  “I can go tell Nico that you’re here right now, Fortuna! So you guys can talk about whatever it is that you need to talk about. I think he’s on lunch break right now, so he’ll probably pick up right away—”

Everyone exchanged looks again.

“Wait. I already talked to Nico,” Fortuna said,  “so there’s no need for that.”

Werner paused. “You did?”

Fortuna nodded slowly. “Yes, Mr. Waltz. It was a private conversation and Nico and I agreed that it was best to act under the pretense that I’m still under investigation even though I’m not. It’s discreet.”

“Huh?”

“Miss Romano is saying that…” Hauptmann drew slowly. “… she’s already talked with Nico and they wanted to keep what they talked about a secret and act like they never talked to begin with. Because it’s a secret, you shouldn’t bring it up with Nico. You’d ruin the act.”

“Oh… really?” Werner scratched his head. “Okay… Well, I’m glad you all and Nico are getting along now. Nico talks a lot about missing how tight him, you all, and Caddy used to be.”

“Amazing…” Nikita said, staring at Werner. Somehow he looked like he was serious but also about to laugh at the same time. He looked at Dunya. “Kapitan, we’re not going to end up like that, are we?”

Dunya looked very serious, hands folded beneath her chin as she leaned forward. She looked at Valentino. “You said that you found several of your men to be influenced by whatever is happening here, correct?”

Valentino’s eyes narrowed. He nodded. “My first lieutenant is a man of irrevocable character. He is a loyal soldier through and through. A private stayed with him the entire night. He informed me that the first lieutenant came down with a bad cough but seemed fine otherwise.” He jabbed his finger on the table. “The next morning, he was a changed man.”

Werner didn’t really understand what they were talking about. VNW stuff?

The doorbell chimed again and Werner looked up to see a whole bunch of people entering the shop. He ran behind the counter again and excitedly began to imagine what they would order. Much to his surprise, the group walked over to the table with Hauptmann.

“Werner…”

Werner looked over to see that Shion was just across the counter for him. Her hand was on his arm and she was looking at the group that just entered.

Valentino stood up and reached for his hip while Vogel suddenly looked very tense. Werner realized that the people who walked in were also from the weekend. He’d seen them hanging around Claire and Ollie back when they were all at Caddy’s house.

“We need to have a civilized discussion,” the woman at the front of the group said. Mai something? Werner vaguely recognizedrecognized her.

“Saggitarians are anything but civilized,” Valentino said. “You Ariesians and Cancerians are no better.”

A blonde man standing to Mai something’s left said, “You may speak for me, Monsieur Vogel, but please don’t speak ill of my countrymen. I’m the only Cancerian here so you should use the singular as to not be offensive, no?”

Someone cleared their throat behind the blonde man. The blonde man stepped to the side to reveal to very familiar woman standing in the doorframe. Gabrielle the guidance officer and Professor Alice Kingsley.

“Well, this makes it easy.”  Gabrielle said, spreading her arms. “It looks like we all had the same idea.” She nodded at Werner. “Do you have anything with a bit of a kick in it?”

* * *

“What the hell is this, boss?” Otto was punching the dough. 

Werner looked down at the dough and chuckled. “It’s dough, O-man!”

They were in the back of shop-ome working on some Hefezopf and also the big order from the morning. Viktoria was loading some of the prepared batches into the oven. Ludwig was outside talking to Hauptmann and the others.

 “No, I mean what the hell is that sitting at the front of our store?” Otto jabbed his thumb back to the door leading to the store’s front. “We shouldn’t be serving VNWs.”

“O-man, don’t be mean.” Werner frowned but smiled as he looked down and found Kaiser slinking in-between his legs. “Besides, Gil says—”

“Wolff says a lot of things. Doesn’t mean they’re good things,” Otto muttered. “You see how he manipulated those VNW guys back there in his TV spot?”

“What do you mean…?”

Otto just sighed and waved his hand. “Forget it, boss. They just better not come in here all the time.” He punched the dough again. “Like I keep saying, boss, just because you could trust Gilbert there doesn’t mean you should trust Wolff here—”

“Do you have a problem with me working here, Herr Otto, given your perspective?” Viktoria asked suddenly. She was dusting off the apron Werner had given her. “I wouldn’t want to make you uncomfortable.”

Werner suddenly felt sad.

Otto cleared his throat and looked at Viktoria then at Werner and then at Viktoria again. “…Nah, you and your brother are alright.”  

Werner smiled and squeezed Otto’s shoulders. “You see, Otto? You’ve just got to get to know them better!”  

Otto grunted.

Viktoria asked, “Herr Vogt, hat did you mean by ‘the Gilbert there’ and ‘the Wolff here’?”

Otto stopped punching the dough.

Something suddenly ticked in Werner’s chest. Viktoria and Otto began talking but Werner knew he needed to go to the front of the shop. He heard the doorbell chime just as he came to the counter. When he looked up, he saw—

“Atienna!” Werner went to the door and greeted her with a hug. After she hugged him back, he pulled away and studied her face. She looked okay but Werner had a feeling that she was upset. “Are you okay, Atienna?” 

Werner looked past her and saw her friend Sefu. Werner waved. Sefu waved back.

Atienna looked very surprised but she smiled it away. She looked over his shoulder and seemed kind of disappointed. “I see you’re very popular today…”

Werner looked back at the full house. “Yeah! Isn’t it great? Everyone decided to swing by today—”

Someone cleared their throat behind Werner. When he turned, he found one of the women standing and staring pretty seriously at Atienna. Werner tried to wrack his brain for her name. Mai something?

 “It’s good that you’ve come,” Mai-something said. “We have questions for you.”

“Ah… well, I doubt that I’ll be able to answer them,” Atienna said after some silence, “but perhaps we can find an answer together?”

Atienna nodded. Werner spent some time by Atienna after she and Sefu found her seat with the group. He asked how her day was and how her family was and learned that she’d spent most of the week working on the investigation thing with Nico. Werner offered to make her lunches too but she said it was okay. 

Hauptmann suddenly cleared his throat. “Werner, we have some important topics to discuss right now. We don’t know how long these discussions will take, but we would like to begin them as soon as possible.”

Huh?

“Oh…” Werner didn’t really get what was going on but it seemed serious and he knew that it was always best to talk about serious stuff on a full stomach. “I’ll get you drinks and food!”

“On the house?” Carl half snorted.

“On the house!” Werner confirmed before heading to the back. When he returned with a large platter of coffee and pastries, he found Alice and Fortuna standing and talking to everyone²⁴. They all looked very serious again but Werner had no time to join them. As soon as he set down the platters, lunch time was over and customers started to enter and it was back to work.

The big order of cupcakes was thankfully done 15 minutes before it was due with Toria and Otto’s help. Otto was complaining about how Ludwig hadn’t helped them at all with the bake but Werner told him it was a-okay: at least Ludwig was helping! When Werner handed off the big cupcake order to the customer, he saw that Mai something and Argon—at least that’s what Werner thought the curly-haired young man’s name was—were now talking in front of all the others²⁵.  Much to his surprise, Shion was now sitting with them.

Hauptmann suddenly stiffened and said, “It’s code. It might be Common code or some other variation.”

Gabrielle turned to Alice. “Do you have any pictures of that crime scene from your investigation—”

“I do,” Atienna drew. “I’d have to retrieve it first and I wouldn’t be able to decipher it with my current knowledge, but… I suppose we know now who the message was for….”

Werner headed to the back to handle more orders again.

The next time he came by, it was Gabrielle who was standing and speaking²⁶.

Werner wanted to join them but he knew it wasn’t responsible to have a hangout in the middle of work. All he could do was glance at them from time to time. At least he had Kaiser, Otto, and Viktoria to give him company in the meanwhile.

Two hours later and it was time to close up shop. Werner turned on his favorite Caddy song and cleaned to the beat with his handy broom while Otto grumbled something and wiped the counters with Viktoria. As Werner swept, he eventually made his way over to their table.

“—root,”  he heard Fortuna saying. “What did he mean by ‘root’?”

“Whatever it is,” Mai something said, “evidently, we need to find it.”

Root? Finding a root?

Werner perked up. “I had a dream about that!”

Everyone turned to look at him and exchanged looks.

“That’s nice, Werner,” Hauptmann said slowly. “Very nice.”

Werner nodded before returning to his sweeping—

“Ah, wait…” Atienna  said suddenly. “A dream? Can you go into more detail about that, Werner?”

“Are you serious?” Vogel muttered.

Alice glanced at him. 

Werner stopped sweeping. “About the dream?”

Atienna nodded. Alice did too. 

He put a hand to his chin and pushed up his sunglasses. “Well…. I was here in shop-ome in my dream: closing up, just like now! And then”—he pointed to the door—“this person in a raincoat came in.”

“The Raincoat Killer?” Alice pressed. “Did you happen to see their face?”

“No, no: the raincoat was pink so it couldn’t have been the Raincoat Killer. I couldn’t see their face either.”

Hauptmann exchanged looks with some of the others.

“They attacked me from nowhere and started to go after Kaiser too!” Werner huffed and curled his free hand into a fist. “There was no way that I was going to let ‘em lay a finger on Kaiser.” He put his hand down. “But you know what? While I was fending off that guy, Kaiser started talking!”

“Wait,” Vogel interrupted. “Do you mean your cat?”

“Yeah, Kaiser”–Werner pointed down at Kaiser who was gnawing at the broom at his feet. He chuckled and bent down to scratch Kaiser’s chin.

Vogel scoffed. He put down the fork he’d been using to pick away at the cake Werner had given him earlier.. “This is ridiculous. We don’t have time for this—”

“Wait.” Alice held up a hand. “Where do the roots come in, Werner?”

“Oh! Right!” Werner popped up to a stand. “The person who attacked me kept asking me if I was a root, if this was a root, if that was a root! I couldn’t really focus on what they were saying because they were using their gift from the tree to try to stab me—”

“What color was it?” Alice asked suddenly. “What color was their vitae?”

“Huh? Vitae?”

“What color was the weapon they used to attack you? What color was the light?”

“Uh… it was like a hot pink. I think?”

Alice looked at Gabrielle. 

“What did Kaiser say?” Atienna asked quietly.

Werner shrugged. “I don’t remember, but I woke up right after.”

“Perhaps the doppelganger took the cat’s form,” Arjun said.

“Are you implying we should put any weight into what he’s saying?” Vogel asked. 

“If you say that, General Vogel,” Ludwig said from where he stood behind Hauptmann, “then how can we put any weight into anything we’ve been seeing?”

It got awkwardly quiet.

“Have you had any other peculiar dreams?” Alice asked. “Any that gave you a similar impression to this dream?”

“Peculiar? You mean like weird?” Werner realized he was suddenly the center of attention so he put a hand to his chin so he could act like he was thinking hard: because he was. “Oh! Yeah! There was this one…”

“… yes?” Gabrielle asked after a pause. She had a really nice, relaxed smile. “Don’t leave us hanging.”

Werner tried very hard to remember: “Well, the dream started off with me and the others having to go to Ndoto—but we didn’t know it was Ndoto, at first. We wanted to go somewhere else, I think, but we ended up at Ndoto—but why would you want to be anywhere else but Ndoto?”

“What?” Valentino made a face.

Alice said, “Wait—who are ‘the others’?”

It took Werner a moment to recall. “I think it was Mari, Caddy, J-man, Ollie, and—oh, Gil was there. Nico was there, Francis was there…”

Some of them exchanged looks. Hauptmann nodded at some of the ones who looked at him. 

Werner trailed off as he was distracted by their exchanges. “…I lost track of where I was… but I was there too!”

Atienna opened her mouth but then closed it.

“So you found yourself in Ndoto even though you’d expected to be somewhere else?” Alice asked. 

Werner nodded.

“What happened after that?” Alice asked.

“Well, everyone was super confused and worried and confused, but…” Werner put on a serious face—like the heroes he always saw in big picture movies—and said in a gravelly voice, “At ease,’ I said. ‘We need to survey the perimeter.’” He shook the seriousness off. “Which is weird because what do surveys have to do with math, right?”

“I don’t follow.” Grumpy Vogel looked around.

Werner noticed Ludwig looked tense.

“Because perimeters are for measuring how big a circle is, right? And you take surveys for fun.”

Vogel sighed.

“Just continue,” Fritz’s dad said. “Please.”

Werner nodded. “I think I was really nervous but I didn’t want anyone else to know I was nervous because I knew that that would make them nervous. Hm… Francis couldn’t take us back out of Ndoto even though he was the one who took us there. And something just wasn’t right.”

“What wasn’t right?”

“Ndoto was empty.”

Everyone got super serious all of a sudden. They sat up straighter and looked more interested in his dream story than before.

“What do you mean Ndoto was empty?” Alice pressed.

“No one was here,” Werner replied. “It was really funky. There were no people, no cars, no signs on the buildings or anything. It was really creepy. Oh! And I remember being worried about Atienna in the dream because the place where we were supposed to go to was super important to her.”

“Virgo. Was the place called Virgo?”

“Huh? Well, I don’t think so… I mean, it’d be kind of silly for a country to be named that. Oh, but it actually has a nice ring to it—”

“Continue.”

“Okay… Well, I went with Maria, Gil, and Francis to look around,” Werner continued. “I asked J-man to stay with the others—probably because he’s so reliable. We walked a really long time. I don’t know why we didn’t just find a motorcycle or a car or something. It seemed like we were walking for hours and hours but Ndoto didn’t seem to end. ‘We need to find a vantage point,’ dream me said.” Werner snapped his fingers. “That was when Claire showed up!”

“Yuseong Haneul?” Mai pressed.

“Yep, Claire—but he was kind of different from Claire Claire,” Werner replied. 

“You mean he had VNW?” Argon asked.

“Oh no.” Werner paused. “Well maybe. I dunno, but he seemed… more like a kid? He and Ollie spent a lot of time catching up with each other in my dream—which is silly because they hang out all the time. They’re like besties.” He chuckled and waved his hand. “Anyways, Claire led us to the walls of Ndoto. We wanted to try to see if we could get over the walls but…” He put a hand to his chin. “What was it? Oh, we didn’t think Claire could get us over because the rest of us—for some reason—didn’t have our gifts from the tree, you know?”

“You mean you couldn’t conduct?” Valentino pressed.

“Huh?”

Vogel sent Valentino a hard look. “Just continue, Werner.”

“Okay…” Werner wondered if he’d won over Vogel with the cake. “It all worked out though because it turns out Claire could use his gift from the tree. He took Ollie up and I got really worried for them but they came back down eight minutes after.”

“They made it to the other side?” Klaus whispered, glancing at Atienna. “And they saw… people out there?”

“Huh? No, they couldn’t reach the top of the gates. They were saying that it kept going on forever and Claire was getting tired. It was weird because I know the gates are tall but they’re not that tall. Anyways, that’s when Shion showed up!”

“Shion?” 

Everyone turned to look at Shion.

“You were in my dream, Shion!”

Shion offered him a faint smile and didn’t say anything.

“Some stuff happened after that,” Werner continued.

“‘Stuff’?”

Werner thought again. “Yeah, stuff. And then after that stuff, we all regrouped. After that we were suddenly in this really beautiful garden area. There was like a little cute table with cute little white seats in the middle of it and—there was a cat the size of a human sitting there. It was like sitting like a human—y’know—like Meow Meow Man from the comics—” 

Valentino’s face fell flat. “Okay. That’s enough—”

Ouch.

Werner closed his mouth.

“No, continue,” Vogel urged.

Werner brightened. “Okay so even though it was a cat, I was really nervous and tense. Everybody was. Francis knew the cat person though and they started talking—”

“Talking about what?” Allen asked.

“I… don’t remember, but everything was okay after that,” Werner replied. “The cat person told us how to leave.”

Everyone got even more tense than before.

“How do you leave?” Hauptmann asked after a lot of silence.

Werner chuckled. “I don’t remember—”

“Damnit!” Valentino slammed the table. “What do you remember? Nothing! There’s nothing inside that head of yours. You’re an imbecile!”

Werner frowned. “Hey… That wasn’t very nice—”

“He is offering more information than you are right now,” Ludwig interrupted. He reached out, hesitated, and then placed a hand on Werner’s shoulder. “You are fine, Werner.”

Aw. Ludwig was a good guy.

“Capitano, I get that you’re upset,” Gabrielle said. “We all are confused and upset. We all want to know what’s going on. And we all need all the information we can get.” She pointed to Werner and smiled. “And we should be grateful for any information we can get.”

Valentino frowned at her before he sighed and leaned back. “You’re right. I apologize.”

Gabrielle turned to Werner. “Was that… cat person called the gardener?”

Werner chuckled. “No, but that’d be really cute: a cat that’s a gardener! It’d probably grow catnip or something, right?”

“Werner, please focus: what happened after that?” Hauptmann pressed.

“After that…?” Werner tried to recall.  “After that… Olive lost his flower.” 

Unease began to settle in Werner’s chest.

“He lost his flower?” Carl repeated. “What the hell does that mean?”

“We learned we all had flowers but Olive… his…” Werner frowned as his chest began to squeeze. “It was really sad: in the dream. I didn’t know what to do. It was my fault. I wanted to give him my flower instead but I couldn’t.”

Maybe it was a nightmare not a dream.

Werner perked up. “But then someone gave Olive his flower back. I was happy but I also felt uneasy but I felt bad for feeling uneasy. Caddy felt uneasy too but she smiled and acted like everything was okay. But J-man…. J-man was having a really hard time with it because ‘it’s not the same’—is what he said…”

“What does that mean?” Vogel leaned forward. 

Werner frowned.

“Werner,” Hauptmann said, “what does that mean?”

Werner shivered. “I don’t want to talk about this anymore. Sorry. It’s giving me the heebie jeebies.”

Gabrielle arched a brow. “The what?”

“We don’t want to do a lot of things, Werner,” Vogel said, “but we must do them anyways. That is duty. Tell us what happened.”

Werner frowned. This was getting uncomfortable. Kaiser began to run circles around his ankles again so Werner didn’t feel as uneasy.

“It’s okay, Werner,” Alice reassured him. “You don’t have to continue.”

Vogel and Valentino sighed and shook their heads.

“Werner…” Atienna drew. “Have you had any other dreams similar to that? Perhaps you’ve recorded them in a journal somewhere?”

Werner snapped his fingers. “Oh, I do have a little journal thing that I wrote in when I was in the Small Services District. I think I wrote some dreams in there!”

Werner quickly ran to the back kitchen and up the stairs to the home part of shop-ome. He headed to Nico’s workspace and began to dig around the bookshelf. He shifted past the children’s gardening book he’d gifted to Nico on their anniversary before he finally got his hands on his journal. It was surprisingly still sturdy and looking new.

Excitedly, he dashed back down to the shop part of shop-ome and placed the book in front of Atienna.

Alice, Ludwig, Gabrielle, Fritz’s dad, and Klaus were hovered close over Atienna’s shoulder. Atienna opened the journal²⁷ and they all leaned forward. After reading a bit, Atienna looked up and met Werner’s eyes. She looked sad. 

Hauptmann stood up and leaned over so he could read it too. After some page²⁸ flipping by Atienna, Hauptmann turned back to him. “Werner, do you remember writing this?”

“Hm… a little, but you know how it is with VNW.”

“Perception,” Alice muttered, pointing to a line on the page²⁹. “As I thought. But what does he mean by this last line here?”

“Curious…” Atienna murmured.

“If that ‘perception’ business is what we’re choosing believe,” Valentino said once he read some pages too, “then how are we to believe anything that we’re seeing and hearing, right now?”

Atienna was running her fingers along the pages³⁰ now.

“What’s this in green ink?” Gabrielle tapped another page³¹. “The handwriting is unique.”

“It is very well that we all do in fact have VNW,” Dunya said suddenly.

Mai something scoffed. “Of course an Aquarian’s will would falter so easily.”

“It has nothing to do with will,” Dunya said. “I am merely stating what everyone else is keeping at the back of their minds. It is best we address this now. We all know what happens when we avert our eyes from the obvious.”

Werner was confused.

There was a long silence.

“I suppose there’s only one way to test that, don’t you think? Whether this is real or not?” Atienna murmured, staring at the pages. “If it’s not real then whatever is done here holds no weight.” She paused. “That being said, there’s only one way to exit reality as we know it, right…?” She slowly looked around the table. “Perhaps… one of us should try…?”

Atienna started receiving hard and strange looks from the other. Sefu, who was standing behind her, furrowed his brows.

“If we still value what we perceive enough not to take that drastic action, then that should be enough to confirm what reality is for us—at least… that’s what Maria once said to me. Of course, it might be nonsense…” Atienna smiled faintly at Dunya. “Ah, I didn’t mean to speak against you, Miss Kramer. I actually do have an idea of testing your concern.” She nodded at Werner and smiled. “Would you mind giving us a moment, Werner?”

“Oh… okie dokie.” Werne gripped his broom, swiveled around, and began walking towards the back. Otto wasn’t at the counter anymore. Werner wondered if he was in the back or if he’d gone home—

“Werner?”

Werner turned to Atienna at her call. “Yes?”

Atienna just stared at him, eyes slightly wide.

Alice stiffened and glanced between them. “Did you call out to Werner just now?”

Atienna nodded, hand at her chin. “It’s…. Stronger then before…” 

Alice turned to Werner. “Did you hear her, Werner?”

“Yeah?” Werner was confused. “She said my name…” He looked back at Atienna. “Did you need something, Atienna?” 

“You said she said your name,” Alice said. She nodded at Atienna again. “How about now?”

“Werner!”

Werner startled and turned back to Atienna. He spread his hands. “Atienna!”

“Saints, I knew it!” Carl suddenly slammed his hands down on the table. “We’re not crazy! This is a sign. This is our proof! This and the journal.” He jabbed a finger at Werner. “You’re useful after all, Captain Ditzy!”

Werner chuckled, looking around. “What’s happening?”

Alice stared at Werner intently. “Werner, don’t you find it strange?”

“Find what strange?”

“That you’re able to hear Atienna even though she isn’t vocally saying something.”

“But she is saying something….” Werner’s brows met. “That’s how I know what she’s saying…”

“Peculiar,” Atienna and Alice said simultaneously

Atienna cleared her throat. “Could you… perhaps… call Otto out if he’s still here, Werner?”

Werner nodded and went to fetch Otto who was cleaning pans in the back. Otto grumbled all the way out and scowled at everyone when Werner put him in front of Atienna.

Alice nodded at Atienna.

“Werner,” Atienna said.

Werner turned to her again. “Hm? What is it, Atienna?”

“I…” Atienna’s lips thinned for a moment. A word came out muffled. “…you.”

Huh?

“Well?” Alice studied  Otto.

Otto looked between them all. “What?”

“Did you hear Atienna call Werner’s name just now?” Hauptmann pressed. 

Otto stared at them. “What?” He threw his rag over his shoulder and stormed back into the kitchen. “Stop wasting my time.”

“I think it’s exam season for O-man,” Werner tried to explain. “That’s probably why he’s so grumpy. He’s usually not like this.”

“Right, well, good kid or bad kid: that was inconclusive,” Gabrielle said once Otto disappeared behind the back doors. She tapped the journal in front of Atienna. “Do you mind if we keep this for a while?” She eyed Hauptmann. “Evidently the Capricornian captain was just as fond as some people here in making codes.”

Hauptmann nodded.

The doorbell chimed again. 

Otto threw open the back door. “Damnit, we’re closed—” He grimaced. “Oh.” And then he went back into the back. 

Werner brightened.

It was—

“Gil!” 

“Good afternoon, Werner—and guests.” Gil stood in the doorframe looking as cool and hip as ever in his fancy suit. Greta was right behind him. She looked nervous but she was wearing a really pretty flower-print dress.

Atienna tensed and began to push the journal on the table down onto her lap. Gil was at her side already though and slapped his hand down on the journal. He studied it.

“Werner, was this journal given to you to write in during your stay at the Small Services District?”

Werner nodded.

Gil pulled it out of Atienna’s hands. “This should have been turned into the guidance officers once you left the facility, Werner. I’ll be confiscating this.”

“Oh… whoospies.” Werner chuckled. “Sorry, Gil.”

The bakery got really quiet. 

“You came at a real convenient time, bastard,” Carl finally said. “You been watching us?”

Gil stared at him, straightened his tie, and chuckled. “It’s easy to turn coincidences into ill intent when you feel unsafe, so I understand where you’re coming from.” He gestured to them all. “I’m assuming you all gathered here to discuss the predicament you think you’re in? It’s good thing to foster community but we should be careful not to become a dangerous group, right?”

“And why the hell are you here?” Carl snapped.

“Hey, be nice, Carl.” Werner frowned.

Gil waved him off and headed to the counter.  He smiled at Ludwig as he passed him. “I’m just here to pick up an order from my favorite bakery.”

Werner brightened and began to head to the counter but a hand around the wrist stopped him. He turned. It was Greta.

“Wait, Werner, do you happen to have a copy of Der Wehmütige Gärtner by any chance?” Greta spoke quietly. “It’s a book—”

“Huh? Yeah, of course I do. I actually just saw it earlier while I was looking for my journal—”

Greta whipped around to Hauptmann. “Hauptmann Weingartner, please inspect that book when you have the chance. Gilbert has a copy as well and I believe somehow—there’s something written there. I’m sure of it.” She turned to Werner. “Give that book to the hauptmann, alright, Werner?”

Werner cocked his head. “Okay?”

“Are you okay, Haussman?” Hauptman said under in his breath. “Are you in danger?”

Huh? Danger?

The doorbell chimed again.

Werner looked up to find Kafke and Nil walking in together. They each had two bottles of beer in their hands. They approached Werner just as Gil left the counter holding a small plastic box. 

Kafke jerked his chin at Gil. “Wolff.” 

“Herr Nezche.” Gil smiled. He gave Werner a firm pat on the shoulder. “Be good, Werner.”

Werner nodded. Gil walked past Kafke, took Greta’s arm in his, and exited the bakery.

“Dick,” Kafke muttered.

“Hey…” 

“Anyways.” Kafke pushed a bottle into Werner’s hands just as Otto rounded the counter to stand beside him. “Where’ve you been? You keep ghosting me. We were supposed to hang last night.”

Werner slapped his head. “I completely forgot!” He thumbed Ludwig. “Ludwig’s been teaching me how to play chess³³!”

“Right…” Kafke glanced at Ludwig for a moment. “Listen, Werner, you saw the interview me and Cadence had the other day right?”

Werner nodded.

“You saw how dickish that interviewer was being to Cadence, right? Completely rude. An ass.”

“Huh? Was he?” Werner frowned. 

Kafke motioned for Werner to take a sip of his beer and Werner did since work was over. He then said,  “Yeah, Cadence hid it pretty well because she’s a strong lady, but I could tell she was really hurt by what that dick said.”

Werner bristled. “What? Really?”

“We should teach that guy a lesson—”

“I think you are being too reactive,” Ludwig interrupted.  “You’re reading too much into it. What would your friend Cadence think if you hurt someone on her behalf due to a misunderstanding?”

Werner thought. “She wouldn’t like it very much…”

Kafke arched a brow at Ludwig. “And who do you think you are—”

“Anyways, how did it feel being so close to a star, Kafke?” Otto cleared his throat. “I’m jealous as hell.”

Carl snorted.

The doorbell chimed—again!

“We need to lock the door, boss, and flip the sign.” Otto sighed.

Werner was glad they hadn’t done either of those things though because they he wouldn’t see Ollie, Claire, Lavi,  Eunji, and their friends entering shop-ome at that very moment. Before he could even greet them, he realized that they hadn’t come alone. Right behind them were Fritz and his son Kovich.

Fortuna tensed at the sight of Kovich.

Fritz’s dad shot up. “Fritz.”

Fritz turned to him as Kovich ran into the store. “Dad? What are you doing here? You’re supposed to be at home resting—recovering.”

“Hi, Grandpa!” Kovich waved at Fritz’z dad.

Another kid immediately went to Fortuna’s side and began to talk with her³².

“Dad!” Kovich pointed to the glass display of patisseries at the counter. “Can I get one?”

“I know we’re late, Werner, but I hope you don’t mind if Kovich picks something from the display.” Fritz eyed Kafke and nodded. 

“Yeah, of course!” Werner beamed. “It’s on the house!” He nodded at Ollie. “You and Claire and everyone can take whatever’s left too.”

“Sweet!” Ollie, Claire, Eunji, and their friends headed to the counter.

Kafke pulled himself away from Carl and Allen and approached Fritz. “How is suburban life?” 

“Well…”

Otto, Kafke, and Fritz headed to the counter too as they talked.

Werner looked back to find that Lavi hadn’t joined them. Instead Lavi stood right behind the kid who was talking to Fortuna. Lavi looked pretty mad. Werner wondered if some sweets cheer her up—

“Shut up.”

The kid talking to Fortuna shut his mouth and stared at her.

Werner gasped. “Lavi, that wasn’t nice!”

“Keep your mouth shut. You should stop before you draw unwanted attention,” Lavi continued. She narrowed her eyes at Shion. “You should know better. You’ve already been warned once. Didn’t you notice?” She suddenly turned to Werner and smiled at him. “Let’s play a ball game, Werner.”

Huh?

---

Volker Weingartner sat at a small table tucked into the back corner of the alleyway behind the Wibele. Sitting with him was the Kaiser, Fritz von Spiel, Martin von Spiel, Gabrielle Law, Alice Kingsley, Shion, and Atienna Imamu. Given that the streets in this area were puddle-ridden due to an apparent recent rainstorm, the others had opted to remain within the Wibele. Or perhaps they had remained inside given the selection of guests at the table. Sitting beside the Kaiser after standing across from him during the Week of Blindness felt surreal even though they had crossed paths here many times before.

Just across from them were Werner, Yuseong Claire, Prince Olivier Chance, the prince’s passed yet living sister Lavender Chance, a boy named Kovich who was apparently Fritz’s son, and some other adolescents. They were engaged in a rather loose game of ball. The game made very little sense as it appeared to be a one-versus-many game with Werner playing on a single man team. 

Occasionally, whenever Kovich would gain the upperhand on Werner—which was quite often, Fritz would clap loudly.  Martin would glance at him every time. The two had a rather serious conversation earlier in which Fritz expressed his concerns to Martin about him wandering around with his condition. Volker had put in a note to himself to discuss the matter privately with Martin later. Volker hadn’t heard from Heimler since he had been reunited with his ‘son’, and he was concerned whatever fate had befallen Heimler would befall Martin as well.

“We should probably have these meetings once a week,” Gabrielle Law spoke. “We need to keep an eye on each other.” 

Volker nodded in agreement. 

Something fluttered in the corner of his eye. A butterfly with a peculiar set of white wings that caught the light in such a way that it shimmered. It landed on the table just in front of him in-between the glass cups of water Werner had provided for them earlier. 

“That would be best,” Dunya agreed.

Volker felt an unease crawl up his stomach as he stared at the butterfly³⁴.

He blinked.

The butterfly was gone. An empty, turned over glass cup stood in its place. 

Volker looked up and saw Yuseong Claire and Lavender Chance playing the ball game with Werner and the other adolescents. When he looked over at Kafke, he noted that the way was chugging down his second bottle of beer. Fritz was once again cheering loudly for Kovich.

Gabrielle met his gaze.

A question evidently lingered in her eyes.

tatu

---

Atienna visited the Waltz Wibele five hours after closing. She knew the only people around the area now were Werner, Nico, and the Waltz siblings. Nico and the Waltz siblings were inside the Wibele—the former at the storefront and the later group in the backrooms. Meanwhile Werner was in the back alleyway behind the store.

Atienna visited Nico first and then opted to bypass Ludwig and Viktoria. Instead she headed to the back alley where Werner was crouched facing the wall. There was a small white cat eating out of hand, but it darted it off as soon as it registered her.

Werner let out a gasp. “Atienna! You’re back! Did you see Nico?”

“He’s resting,” Atienna told him. She led him to the table in the corner to sit.

“Aw, already?” He hummed. “Well, he did have a long day. You know Nico’s a hard worker!”

Atienna closed her eyes for a moment. There was some silence and then—

“So do you need something from me, Atienna?”

Atienna chuckled, opening her eyes. “I suppose enjoying silence together isn’t an activity you’d find enjoyable.” She leaned across the table slightly. “Could you keep a secret for me now, Werner?”

“Sure! I promise I won’t tell anyone—”

“Do you know what happens to dishonest people when they finally become honest?”

Werner’s brows met. “Is this the secret?” He smiled. “What happens to them?”

“They come alive,” Atienna said. “Their heart expands, spilling out everything that’s been kept inside and divulging it all for the world to see. At first it’s dirty like the filth that comes out of a dam when it’s pulled open—but then, it becomes clear and crystalline. Like fireworks. All those colors, popping, popping, popping—all at once.”

“Pretty,” Werner noted. “Like the Tree Festival?”

Atienna smiled. “There’s a peculiar issue with opening containers that have always been sealed. If there’s a pressure built up inside that container, whatever is inside just keeps pouring out.  A catalyst has been set off and their heart can’t help but continue to pour and squeeze even if there’s nothing left. Even if everyone who looks on seems utterly disgusted. Their heart can’t help it.”

Werner stared at her as she went on. 

“Their heart squeezes and squeezes and squeezes still in hopes of pouring something else out, collapsing in on itself until there’s no more space to collapse into. When it tries to unfold itself, there’s nothing left. Just a gaping void with a desire to be filled.”

Werner listened.

“So, it tries to take everything that it can in despite the fact that everything that it takes in is crushed and consumed immediately. I mean—a container with no lid, no top, no bottom, will never be filled, don’t you think? They can only regret ever being honest to begin with.” Atienna smile again. “Do you understand… Werner?”

Werner said after a pause, “Like a dying star.”

Atienna looked at him. “How… did you know that?”

“Huh?”

“How did you know that a star functions like that…?”

Werner shrugged. 

Atienna stared off at some point in the distance. “You shouldn’t know that. I’m sorry.”

“Huh? What are you apologizing for, Atienna?”

“I’ve been too preoccupied with a rather… extravagant herbicide enthusiast. I suppose she’s right in her own merit…” Atienna let out a breath. She stared at him intently and then took his hand in hers. “Werner, do you think you’d be able to—” She caught herself and released his hand before smiling. “Nevermind. Could you hold onto something for me instead? I had Nico holding onto it for me, but I believe it would be best for you to instead.”

Werner brightened. “Of course—”

Werner blinked groggily. He was on the ground now—wet, because half of his face was in a puddle. Something was licking his face but it was hard to concentrate on that because his chest really hurt. He blinked again before realizing that it was Kaiser that was licking his face. He chuckled a bit before he felt a pain in his chest again. He grimaced and tried to roll onto his back.

“—erner! Werner!”

Werner was sat up by two pairs of hands. He realized with much fondness that it was Shion and Ludwig that were beside him. He knew Ludwig had been inside shop-ome, but he wondered where Shion had come from.

“Shion?” He asked. “Ludwig? What time is it?”

Ludwig said something but the pain in Werner’s chest blurred it out. He doubled slightly with a wince.

“Ouch.” He uncurled himself a moment after. “I think I fell down wrong…”

Shion placed a hand on his chest. “Atienna visited… didn’t she?”

Werner nodded.

“Did she ask you to hold onto something for her?”

He nodded again.

Shion’s lips pulled thin and she glanced back at Ludwig. “Did you say yes?”

moja—

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