Zeke and David were back on the street. The place they were heading to was somewhere in the fourth layer, so they had a ways to go.
“You’re quite the actor, young lord.”
At the unexpected comment, Zeke glanced at his guard as the two made their way down the street. The remark could have been made casually, but he got the idea that David was alluding to something more.
“I get the feeling you don’t approve?” Zeke ventured.
David didn’t immediately respond and Zeke felt like he was weighing his words.
“I… I don’t think it was honorable to deceive the woman like that. Not when considering that we are planning to go into the same business,” he finally confessed.
“I agree, but she would not have helped us otherwise,” Zeke said.
David gave him a stern look. “The cause does not justify the means, young lord.”
“That so?” Zeke’s tone made it clear that he didn’t want to discuss the subject further. However, David didn’t let him off that easily. He lightly grabbed Zeke by the shoulder and bid him to stop. He fixed the boy with a serious look before speaking up again.
“That is indeed so, young lord,” he said earnestly. “Honor is not something you turn on and off as you please. It is an ideal you should strive to embody in every moment of every day.”
There was no response from Zeke, causing David to become even more persistent in his speech. “I know that you have pride and honor in your bones, I’ve seen it! You should not begin to stray from that path now. Maximilian would not be pleased, he would not have—”
“AND LOOK WHERE IT GOT HIM!” Zeke snapped. “He’s rotting in prison while I am left to hold up this crumbling house of cards!”
Zeke’s eyes glowed like a raging storm of molten gold as he shrugged off David’s hand. The butler’s eyes widened, and he didn’t try to seize the boy again. They stood there, locked in a silent confrontation, neither saying a word.
It was David who broke eye contact first. “Apologies, young lord. I was out of line...”
The hostility left Zeke’s eyes. With a sigh, all his rage transformed into a bone-deep weariness. He motioned for his guard to follow as he began walking again.
“No, David, this was my fault,” he said. “I want you to be able to tell me your opinion honestly.”
David acknowledged the apology with a nod, dispelling most of the tension between them. He didn’t speak, however, waiting for Zeke to express his point.
“…But I’ll have to make one thing clear: I don’t care about using dishonorable means.”
David shifted into a subtle grimace at the blatant admission. “That’s not how Maximilian taught you, young lord.”
An exhausted sigh was his only response for a time. Zeke considered how to express his position adequately. “Let me rephrase that. What I meant to say was: I can’t afford to care about using dishonorable means.”
The butler raised his eyebrows quizzically.
Zeke didn’t immediately explain himself. Instead, he looked meaningfully at the other man. “You are what? About 100 years old?”
“97,” David supplied.
“Remind me again, how old was Maximilian when he took control of the family?”
“He would have been around 150 at the time.”
“That means he had become an Arch Mage decades earlier,” Zeke stated. “And there were centuries between then and when you finally got to meet him, correct?”
“That is indeed the case, but I fail to see how that relates to the current situation. What is the point of this line of questioning?”
“The point,” Zeke said with emphasis, “is that Maximilian could afford to be honorable. He was already powerful when he took control of the family. He had become a force of nature by the time you met him centuries later. But I’m holding that same position already, at only 15 years of age, David. Not as an Arch Mage, but as a puny True Mage.”
“Honor is not about strength, young lord,” David admonished. However, his tone had become a lot softer than before.
“Maybe — but strength will prevent you from getting dragged into petty squabbles. I didn’t want to have to trick that woman either, David. However, I don’t think the situation is as black and white as that.”
“How do you figure?” David asked.
“Consider the consequences of failure,” Zeke said. “What happens if our project fails and we don’t manage to acquire the money? What happens when we are caught and sent back to the empire? What happens to my family, to Maya, if we land in the Feuerkranz's hands?”
David didn’t respond immediately. He was clearly giving the argument earnest consideration. Eventually, he still shook his head. “If honor came cheap, everybody would have it, young lord.”
Zeke’s eyes blazed. “If that price is the safety of my family, then you can keep your honor,” he spat. Calming himself, he continued, “Let me be perfectly clear: Putting on an act to trick somebody is the least of the things I would do to keep my family safe.”
Their argument was halted as they rounded the corner. Both remained silent as they reached the checkpoint to pass from the third into the fourth layer of the city. Zeke supplied his family token as proof of identity, allowing for smooth passage. Still, the short interruption gave both men time to cool their heads.
When they emerged on the other side of the stairway, the two had both calmed down considerably. They wordlessly continued on their way. It was David who broke the silence first. “I do understand your argument, young lord, but I don’t agree with it.”
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“That’s fine,” Zeke stated calmly. “I don’t need you to agree with everything I do, as long as our purposes align.”
“Glory or death,” David stated.
“Glory… or death,” Zeke repeated the words of house von Hohenheim with a nod. He had always liked the slogan — so bold, so glamourous, so honorable. However, was this really the right way to go about life? David’s words had opened a wound that Zeke had tried to ignore for a while now.
Maximilian’s uncompromising nature had not gained him any friends among the nobles. Over the centuries, he had managed to alienate them all. In the end, he stood alone. None of the great houses had spoken up in his defense. Not even his most trusted friend and ally, Victor Windtänzer, had stood by him. Zeke had always admired the old man for his integrity, and he still did. Maximilian’s noble character was what made him such a great man. He was a true beacon of righteousness in this dark and sinister world.
However, there was a thought Zeke had been contemplating for a while now: What was the value of being virtuous if it prevented you from doing good? Wasn’t that merely putting on an act then? How could it be the honorable choice to speak the truth when a lie could protect countless lives? Could an evil deed be considered evil when it saved so many?
For the rest of their trip, Zeke was lost in thought. He didn’t have the answer to any of those questions yet, but he felt that they were important, essential even. They would allow him to figure out what sort of leader, what sort of Mage, and what sort of man he wanted to be.
Zeke was only awoken from his contemplation when he felt a hand on his shoulder. Startled, he looked up, only to find David’s kind eyes looking back at him. “I think this is the place, young lord.”
Zeke quickly took out the note he had received at the Hermann company. He checked the name of the street and house number with the location they had arrived at. It was a match, but Zeke could barely believe it. With a raised brow, he looked at David.
“Would a renowned craftsman live in a place like this?”
David shrugged and led the way toward the door. “Only one way to find out.”
The building was fairly spacious, but that was where its good qualities ended. The small lawn in front of the house was overgrown and the weeds had clearly won the battle for dominance long ago. The once-plastered road that led up to the door had been reclaimed by nature. The plant life had even begun to extend up the walls, but not in the artistic way that Zeke had come to love in the empire’s architecture, but in an untamed, chaotic way instead.
Zeke frowned at the state of the house. He would not want to live here. The color had long since been stripped from the facade by the relentless tides of wind and rain. But only his spatial awareness made him conscious of the true extent of the damage. It was a wonder the building had managed to hold out for this long.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
The sound of knocking brought Zeke back from his inspection. He could hear quick footsteps approaching the door from the inside. Zeke perceived a small figure entering his sphere of awareness. Moments later, the sound of a chair being dragged along the floor could be heard. This was followed by the sound of rattling chains on the other side of the door. Finally, a small metal piece was slid to the side and a pair of brown eyes peeked out at them through the opening.
“Who are you?” a squeaky voice demanded to know. The girl was looking at David with suspicion. Zeke motioned for the butler to step back and approached the door with a smile on his face.
“Good day, m’lady,” he said with a slight bow. “My name is Ezekiel von Hohenheim. I’ve come to see Mr. Robins. Might he be available?”
The girl stared unblinkingly at Zeke’s handsome face, clearly mesmerized by his charming smile and impeccable manners. When she responded, she did so in an absentminded tone. “Grandpa is busy with his work at the moment I don’t think he is going to see anyone.”
“Would it be alright if we waited for him?”
“Mhh hmm,” the girl agreed, still looking at Ezekiel.
“Inside?”
“Mhh hmm,” the girl agreed again. She had still not averted her eyes.
Some time passed in silence. When she still hadn’t made a move to let them in, Zeke cleared his throat. “You have to open the door, m’lady.”
“Hmmmmm? Ohh, right, sorry, give me a moment!” With that, the metal plate slid back in place. This time, it only took her an instant. With nary a sound, the massive, metal-reinforced door pivoted. Zeke studied the way the hinges were operating. He had never noticed a door of this size before that managed to move so quietly. His focus was broken, however, by the small silhouette that emerged from inside the house.
The girl appeared to be around nine or ten years old, with light brown hair that had been braided somewhat amateurishly, most likely by her own hand. Her eyes, shaped like almonds, were a rich shade of oak. Upon catching her gaze, Zeke found himself unable to resist smiling broadly. He was drawn to the genuine guilelessness that shone through in her expression.
“Hello, m’lady,” Zeke said one more time. The girl blushed shyly and squeaked out a ‘Hello’ in return. “May we come in?”
She nodded and stepped to the side, allowing Zeke and David to enter. After they were both inside, she went about closing the door. Zeke noticed that the back of the door was a complex maze of levers, chains, and gears. This had clearly been a project somebody had undertaken for fun. There was no reason to design such a complex system for practicality. After the clicking and clacking of the door had finally stopped, the girl waved at them shyly before skipping down the hall.
Zeke and David exchanged a glance before they followed her with a chuckle. Zeke noticed that the building was in a far better state now that they were inside. Here, some of the walls had even been reinforced with metal. He had read that this was a typical setup if one planned to experiment with volatile substances or technologies.
“Would you like some tea while you wait?” the girl asked as she entered the room at the end of the hallway.
Zeke and David followed right behind her. They found themselves in a room that could have been the kitchen. It was hard to tell under all the books, pots, notes, plates, and bottles that covered every surface.
The girl jumped like a cat that's tail had been stepped on. She had obviously forgotten about the mess and quickly turned to see if Zeke had already noticed it. To her dismay, he had already perceived everything. The girl’s face turned a deep shade of crimson as she stammered out an excuse. “Stupid Granpa was supposed to clean… he never does it when he says he will…”
“That’s quite alright,” Zeke said in a soothing tone. “How about we wait somewhere else?”
The girl nodded wordlessly and led them diagonally across the hall. The many armchairs and couches made this room out to be some type of living room. Zeke sat down on a couch and the girl took a seat across from him. David remained standing next to the door. He could feel that the girl was wary of him and didn’t want to get in the way of the conversation.
“What's your name?” Zeke asked when they had both settled in.
“I’m Lue,” the girl replied with a smile. She didn’t directly stare at Zeke anymore, but he could still see her catching glimpses of his face when she thought he wasn’t looking.
“Nice to meet you, Lue,” Zeke said. “I’m Ezekiel, but my friends call me Zeke. You can call me that as well if you want.”
“M’kay, Zeke,” she said with a giggle.
“Sooooooo, what do you do around here, Lue?” Zeke questioned.
“I draw a lot!” Lue bragged. “Granpa says I have a talent for it.”
“Wanna show me?”
“Sure!” the girl exclaimed energetically, as she ran to the corner of the room, where a bunch of papers lay strewn across the floor. She soon returned with both of her hands full of papers. She took the spot next to Zeke as she handed him the bundle.
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Zeke studied the topmost drawing carefully. He immediately recognized what was depicted on it. This was an old way to design a switch that would change the enchantment on a war bow. He glanced over at Lue and saw her smile up at him with her innocent eyes.
“What do you think, Zeke?”
Zeke flipped through the stack of papers. One after the another, he could make out many of the rudimentary engineering components he had also gotten to know over the last couple of days. Many of them had a small twist to them. Zeke wondered if the girl had come up with them herself or if she had copied them from her Granpa.
Before he could question her about it, heavy footsteps could be heard from the hallway. It was only moments later that somebody stepped through the door.
“Who are you people, and what are you doing here?”