Königsstadt, some time ago

“We should be there soon, your highness!” the carriage driver shouted. Prince Alexander nodded in approval.

“Excellent!” Alexander shouted back in response. The small, but opulent carriage bumped up and down as it drove down the cobble-stone streets of Königsstadt. Inside sat Alexander, Alexandra, Ekkehardt, and Siegfried. Conversation between the four had become difficult the moment they had left the palace for the simple reason that a cacophony of voices surrounded the carriage. The streets of Königsstadt were loud and busy on any given day, but today was different as a crowd of girls and young women had swarmed around Alexander's carriage; each eager to catch a glimpse of the young prince. A group of horsemen formed a perimeter around the carriage, but they were only barely able to keep the crowd at bay.

“Thanks for taking the two of us with you, your highness!” Ekkehardt shouted.

“No problem, Ekkehardt!” Alexander shouted back, “I just wish the crowd wasn’t so loud! It’s usually not this big!”

The carriage turned a corner and arrived at a large stone building surrounded by a tall stone wall topped with metal spikes. Two guards inside of the wall opened a metal gate, allowing the carriage and some of the horsemen to come inside while the remainder held back the crowd. The space within the walls was mostly grass with a couple of trees dotted here and there. Alexander immediately stepped out and walked to his driver.

“Thank you, Branislav!” He shouted as Siegfired exited the carriage.

“You’re welcome, your highness!” the driver shouted back with a smile and a thumbs-up. Alexander then turned to one of the horsemen.

“If possible, I would like to address the crowd outside, sir!” Alexander shouted. The man shrugged.

“Whatever you, you’re highness!” He responded. The horsemen then dismounted and formed a human barricade by standing in the open gate as the remaining horsemen entered the walled-in area. Alexander then mounted one of the horses and trotted up just behind the line of soldiers as Alexandra and Ekkehardt got out of the carriage. Siegfried was close behind him.

“It’s him!” one of the girls shouted as she pointed at the young prince.

“Prince Alexander, I love you!” Another shrieked. The entire crowd was ecstatic at the sight of Alexander. Prince Alexander then attempted to calm the crowd by calmly and rationally explaining to them how grateful he was for their support and admiration, but it was imperative that they do not attempt to interrupt him while he was in the process of fulfilling his duties as the crown prince of the Empire and defacto steward of the grand duchy of Ostermania and that he would be more than happy to address any comments or concerns that they had for him (on a first-come, first-serve basis) during the designated times in which he opened himself up for public comment every morning on the first and third Midweek of the month.

This was completely ineffective in silencing the love-struck crowd. After about five minutes, Alexander gave up and ordered the gates to be closed.

The carriage driver then turned to Ekkehardt.

“I love that man to death, but I don’t understand how someone so smart can still be doing this. You’d think he’d stop after the second time he gave that speech… or the seventeenth…” the carriage driver commented.

Alexander rode the horse back to Ekkehardt and Alexandra and then dismounted.

“So, shall we go inside?” He asked. Ekkehardt and Alexandra nodded in approval. The four of them, along with the dismounted horsemen, walked towards the building. As they approached the building’s entrance, a pair of guards opened a large pair of wooden double-doors to allow them inside.

Inside a large group of monks wearing simple brown robes waited inside.The were standing in what appeared to be a sort of lobby or reception area and they were all facing the entrance. Many of them appeared to be either nervous or excited. An old monk standing in the middle of the crowd spoke up as soon as Alexander and his companions entered the room.

“Good morning, your highness. It is a pleasure to see you here today,” He said with a smile.

“Thank you, Brother Florian. I’m glad that I could come here and talk about your proposed expansions in person. I think that there is great potential here to raise the empire’s prestige within the intellectual circles of Yerb and lift some young men out of a life of poverty while we are at it,” Alexander responded. Suddenly a lot of the monks in the room appeared to be a bit more at ease, especially the old monk.

“That is excellent, your highness. I wasn’t sure how you would feel about my proposal for the expansion of the scribe training program and the construction of more shelf space. Some of us were concerned that you may cut our funding for merely suggesting it,” the old monk replied. Alexander shook his head.

“No, I would never do such a thing. I believe that a good king should not make his subjects afraid to simply send a request to him. That is not the way I will do things,” Alexander proclaimed. All of the monks in the room seemed to be more relaxed and happy the more Alexander spoke.

“Well then, if you don’t mind, I would like to give you a little demonstration of our transcription process. I have my subordinate, Schumacher, in the next room who is ready…” the old monk began.

“Pardon me sir, but there is one other thing I wanted to discuss with you before we got started,” Alexander interjected.

“Yes, your highness?”

“I have brought my sister, Princess Alexandra, and her bodyguard, Sir Ekkehardt Lowe, with me today. They wanted to browse your library. That wouldn’t be a problem, would it?” Alexander asked as he gestured towards Alexandra.

“Oh, that won’t be a problem, your highness. I believe her highness has visited us before, so there is nothing to worry about,” the old monk answered.

“Thank you, sir.” Alexandra said. After a few more minutes of conversation, Alexandra and Ekkehardt left the group by taking the door on the right, which lead to the library, instead of the door on the left, which led to a room where scribes would transcribe literature.

The Königsstadt Imperial Library was a massive building run by the church.It was connected to a monastery and a transcription facility that employed both monks from the church and scribes hired by the Imperial government. Due to the value of the books and codices within, the library was not open to the public. It was uncommon to see someone casually browsing the shelves of this library and it was almost unheard of to have a book or codex checked out there. Thankfully for Alexandra, being a member of the imperial family granted her the privilege to do such things.

The princess happily walked by the massive bookshelves. She scanned every spine with great enthusiasm as she searched for the codex she came here for. Her condition had not yet worsened to the point where such activity was unsustainable.

“Are you sure they have it?” Ekkehardt asked as they walked through the library. The shelves were not organized in any manner other than recency. The books and codices that had been placed in the library most recently were in the front, while the older ones were in the back.

“I’m sure. It’s the single most important history of the Reman Republic’s transformation into an empire. How could they not have it?” Alexandra responded.

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“Yeah, but you’re specifically looking for an Alemanian translation. Are you sure the scribes have gotten around to translating it? I mean, the church wants them to spend most of their energy transcribing scripture and religious documents. Do you really think they had time to translate some old Hellastani codex about pagans killing each other hundreds of years ago into Alemanian?”

“Well, translating it into Alemanian would still be of benefit to the church. It does provide some level of context to what was going on in the Reman Empire during the church’s foundation. Also, their weird form of government is fun to read about,” Alexandra explained.

“You mean the one where the people elect a new king every year?” Ekkehardt asked. Alexandra shook her head.

“Well, technically the Remans at this time had two heads of state that each sort of acted like co-monarchs and they were elected each year, but these elections were set up in a way that favored the wealthy,” Alexandra corrected.

“Oh… I didn’t know that,” Ekkehardt responded.

“Yeah, for some reason, many people outside of the Strivalian peninsula know a lot about the imperial era of Reman history, but they don’t really talk much about the republican or monarchical eras. I really want to impress Prince Francesco with my knowledge of that time in my next letter.” Alexandra said. A frown formed on Ekkehardt’s face when he heard that Strettian prince’s name.

“Oh… Um… shouldn’t you wait to receive Prince Francesco’s letter before you plan out your response?” Ekkehardt asked. There was a lot of concern in his voice.

“Oh, don’t worry about that Ekkehardt. Prince Francesco is a very busy man and he’s probably just taking a lot of time to respond to me. He’s probably working really hard preparing to rule Strettia, just like how Alexander is working really hard,” Alexandra responded. Ekkehardt knew that what Alexandra was saying wasn’t true and not just because nobody in the world worked as hard as Alexander. He knew that Alexandra, on some level, had to know too. He had known her long enough to know that she wasn’t stupid. His heart ached as he thought about this. He wasn’t sure what to say. He knew that saying the truth out loud would just hurt her and that wasn’t what she needed right now.

“Yeah, on second thought maybe it would be best to prepare a little bit before-hand so that you can get your response out to him a little bit faster…” Ekkehardt said reluctantly.

“Oh! There it is!” Alexandra exclaimed as she pointed towards a codex on the bottom shelf. She bent over and picked up the large, leather-bound tome. She then proceeded to read the cover.

“The History of Reme, volumes 3-9 by Lucius Brando of Mizraimopolis… Metrovingian translation by Jean-Michel Descoteaux,” She read aloud as her enthusiasm quickly evaporated. She then let out a sigh.

“Oh… that was disappointing…” Ekkehardt said. Alexandra opened the book and began to scan its contents.

“Well, I can still read it, but it’s going to be a pain in the ass. I guess I’ll take it and if we find an Alemanian translation, then we’ll take that instead.” Alexandra said. She then handed the large codex to Ekkehardt and kept walking. They turned a corner and spotted a door that was left ajar. Alexandra’s eyes widened with excitement as she knew exactly what that meant, even without reading the large sign that said ‘Restricted Section’. She then turned to Ekkehardt with a wide, mischievous smile on her face.

“No,” Ekkehardt responded. Alexandra’s expression remained unchanged.

“Come on…”

“No, I don’t want to get you in trouble.”

“Nobody else is in here, Eike…”

“Nope. We’re not going in there again.”

“Nobody would even do anything if they found me. I’m a princess, remember?”

“No.”

“We’ll be in and out real quick.”

“No.”

“It’ll just be a peek.”

“No.” Ekkehardt repeated. Alexandra stared at him with her big, sad, green eyes. After a few moments Ekkehardt shrugged.

“Fine, we’ll go in…” he said. The two of them then walked into a small dimly-lit room lined with bookshelves. There was also a small desk in the middle of the room. Alexandra began to quickly investigate the shelves as Ekkehardt watched the door. Alexandra skimmed through every title as fast as she could. She turned away from the shelf for a moment to sneeze. It was at that moment she realized that there was something different about the room. Something that had changed since the last time she was in there: A codex had been placed on the desk in the middle of the room. Alexandra walked over to investigate it. The codex was bound in black leather and its title read ‘The Profane Bestiary’ by Piotr Czarny. A thin piece of red parchment was placed into the codex like a bookmark and there was a letter placed next to it. The red parchment was placed at a point very close to the start of the codex. Alexandra picked up the letter and began to read it.

Dear Florian,

Adi and I were doing the inspection of the restricted section that you ordered when we found that one of the codices, ‘The Profane Bestiary’ by Piotr Czarny had a page missing. I’ve marked the missing page with a piece of parchment for your convenience. To be completely honest with you, neither of us have any idea how this happened. According to our records, the codex entered our inventory sixty years ago and we don't have any evidence that it was lent out or officially requested for on-site reading during that period. It’s entirely possible that we received it in this condition. Regardless of what happened, I’ve sent a letter to Mario Basso in Reme and Marcel Deschamps in Marais requesting either a spare copy of the codex or a transcription of the missing page. Either will allow us to repair the codex and return it to its original state. I wanted to ask if you could help me reach out to other libraries for assistance. I’ve been told that you have a point of contact in Juttica that might be of assistance. Any help that you can provide us in this matter would be greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,

Lars

P.S. Adi and I both think we need to update our security protocols for the Restricted Section. The way it is right now, someone with bad intentions could easily walk in and out without us knowing. We have some suggestions that we’d like to run by you whenever you have free time.

Alexandra then set the letter back down on the table, right where she had picked it up from in the first place. She then opened the copy of ‘The Profane Bestiary’ to where the piece of red parchment was and started reading.

Chimera:

A creature with the supernatural ability to change shape between that of a human and that of an animal. It possesses both the intellect of man and the strength and reflexes of a beast. According to the writings of Drakon Makris the Younger (as recorded by Akakios Papadopoulos), Chimera were used as spies, assassins, bodyguards, and thugs during the Hellastani golden age. They would serve the powerful men of Hellastan from the shadows as they feuded amongst each other. It was only the Farcini invasion and the subsequent formation of the Hellastani League, which consolidated power within Hellastan in the hands of the King of Argeadia, when reports of Chimera began to decrease. Such reports slowed to a trickle during the League’s conquest of Farcina and Mizraim and would all but cease by the time of Reme’s ascendance as a major power within the region.

According to Akakios Papadopoulos, interest in the creation of Chimera would surface within certain circles of the Oriental Reman Empire’s elite as the empire’s decline became evident to all. Some believed that these creatures, if made in sufficient numbers and controlled by the empire, could turn their fortunes around. Papadopoulos would eventually rediscover the means by which one could create a Chimera, but by that point there was no changing the inevitable. I will now describe this foul process. It begins by acquiring…

It was that point in which the text on the left page had ended. The subsequent page, as described in the letter, was torn out. Above the text, Alexandra could see a set of three images arraigned from left to right. The image on the left depicted a naked, muscular man holding a labrys in his right hand. The next image showed another humanoid figure that resembled the man, but this time it was larger and its head was replaced with that of a bull. The final picture, depicted a bull with a labrys lodged into the ground next to it.

Just as Alexandra was finished looking at the picture, she heard a door open in the distance.

“And this, your highness, is our library…” A familiar voice announced.

“Alex, we need to get out of here!” Ekkhardt whispered. Alexandra quickly set the book down just like how she had found it. Then, both her and Ekkehardt got out of the Restricted Section as fast as humanly possible. They were far enough away when they rejoined Alexander that nobody suspected a thing. The term ‘Chimera’ was filed away in the back of Alexandra’s mind as some little piece of trivia that she never expected to put to use. Life went on for Alexandra, just as it did for Ekkehardt, Siegfried, and Alexander.

What she didn’t know, or more accurately, wasn’t aware of, was that life went on for Lars the scribe as well. Two months after Alexandra’s visit to the library he would receive a letter from Mario Basso of the church’s grand archive in Reme. Mr. Basso wrote that the archive did, in fact, have a copy of The Profane Bestiary in its possession and that it did indeed have the page the Lars’ copy was missing, but he wasn’t going to transcribe it. He wrote that he had read the missing page’s content and that it would be in everyone’s interest if Lars’s copy of the codex remained in its current state. Mr. Basso instructed Lars to put the codex back where he found it and forget about the missing page. He would receive a similar letter from Mr. Deschamps in Marais the following month. Lars decided to take the advice.