Luce left the office, and retired for the night.In the heart of the city at night, waited a fair maiden. She wore a contemptuous but weary visage, and yet, it exuded the tranquility of an eastern idol. One may think they stumbled upon an archangel, cast away from the heavenly plane, completely and utterly apathetic to the ongoings of the earthly plane.
“Lady Luce”
A snarky wrinkled but gallantly dressed skeleton of a person asked.
“Klaus, for what reason are you calling upon me?”
The old sack of bones grimaced an emaciated but spiritually fatty smile.
“T’is his highness, Archduke Rudis. He calls for her ladyship’s presence.”
What a silly nom de guerre. The elite, the noble, the industrial are endlessly subtle. Be it through the offshoring of one’s wealth through the bonds of the Société Anonyme de l'Occident Proche, or dressing oneself in a luxurious gown, similar in looks to that of a simple maid, much effort is put to feign frugality to one’s natural inferiors. But the Archduke wears his sins on his right sleeve, and holds out his tar black heart in his left hand for all to see. To name yourself after a city, only remembered in modern times for a pogrom. Even the dead, divine spirit eternally liberated, could never dare to dream of having suching little restraints.
Eyes of crimsons, blood soaked red peered at the two seems where the eyes ought to have been with a predatory look. The old bastard smiled, his wispy lips nearly touching his eyes.
“I’ll lead the way.”
In a sudden but graceful move, the porcelain doll became animated with life. Lead white strands waterfalled down to her waist, only ever so fairer than her alabaster white complexion. She was neither slender nor hefty, tall or short. Her body fat seemed to have been allocated following the blueprints for the absurd absolute ideal of the ‘female’. There was something unholy, heretical about her. A complete and utter, devine or devilish design. A miracle of nature, far, far away from the common man, far up in the world of absolute ideals and absolute truth.
She began to walk with divine steps. Ultramarine ribbons of silk fluttered eclectically in the air, a carnival of fine fabrics only fit for the most saintly of heavenly kings. An immaculate dress, for an ephemeral night.
She traded through darkened hallways of a vain character. 2nd Empire perhaps? There was an anglican character to this manor, an adherence and worship of nature, but the supreme despotic rules of symmetry kept everything in order, preventing any single motif from standing out. Oriental tapestries, jet black ebony floors, crystal chandeliers, oil paintings in the most foreign of pigments. They all populated the unending interiors of this grand home, where the old and glorious regime lives on.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
A great, rose ornamented door opened, and the lady entered. It was a circular room, with three of four sides left wide open, allowing for an unimpeded view of the city. There was an endless sea of sooty gray, speckled with incandescent lights, forming unending grids and rows. The lights made most of the smog visible at night, making the dark plums spewing out of the metal works ever so clearer. They ran late into the night, demand from the Circle is unending.
This was the study room of the Archduke. His highness had one of the only open studies in the city, since rather sophisticated alchemical machines are required to make such a thing possible. A copper cylindrical boiler stood upright in the centre of the room, held by a dark ebony statue that resembled the pillars of Ashoka, just far gnarlier. Copper pipes ornamented with silver floral patterns connected the boiler with the roof making a mesh shaped like a cone. Intricate gold roses and silver leaves were speckled throughout the outside of the mesh, making for a rather beautiful recreation of a rose bush.
Periodically, as soot would start to creep in from the outside, the lions would growl a windy howl, and the soot would stagger back. This centre peace contraption was all that stood out in the circular chamber. It would be relatively easy to miss the balding old fart sitting hunched on his lousy small desk. The Archduke looked like an undistinguished career bureaucrat.
“May blessings fall upon you dear daughter. Look out, see the endless sky, this sea of light, both earthly and heavenly.”
The old man livened up, as though expunged from a decade old phantom, and he fanned his arms out. The grey ing, balding fellow wore a neatly trimmed Wilhelm II and a golden monocle. His rosy, somewhat feeble body was cladded in an all brown tweed outfit, with a gray pair of pants being the only piece detracting from this earthy attire. The old man had gray cloudy eyes, and an amicable enough grin.
“What day is it? Rare to hear of you,let alone se-”
“You already know all that needs to be known about my day, now get straight to the point.”
“There are so few days which I can make myself available, you know? I have a rather prestigious job, handed down by the Circle-”
“Arduke Rudis, I heard that you wished to speak to me, and I am ready to oblige. Just, make it short.”
“Weather has not been great, you know, gray and gray.”
“If you do not wish to see me, I shall leave.”
“Gray, gray, gray, gray, gray, gray, gray, gray, gray, gray, gray, gray, gray, gray, gray, gray, gray, gray, gray, gray, gray, gray, gray, gray, gray, gray, gray, gray, gray….”
The lady took two steps back, and turned to the exit. She nearly reached the doorknob when she heard a loud wheeze
“You are getting married”
Taken aback. “What?”
“You know, when I was young, when I was a very young man. Before I was known as Rudis, my father told me that I was to be married. You know? I was taken aback by the news at first. Considering our circumstances at the time, it was not the prime time to get engaged. I thought it was a joke at first. You know what they say, deadmen tell the best stories! And we were truly dead men then! I thought that perhaps the charred corpses got to his head, but you know what? He was not lying.”
The baldy adjusted his monocle, and glared at Luce.
“The circle has spoken, and I, as an ever loyal subject of the imperial family, answered, You are to be wed to his highness the first prince. When you will be going to Herzstadt, make sure to be on good terms with him.”
“Leave.”