Another World of Dreams-The Escape

Chapter 6 - Southport

Raul stepped in front of the mirror and stretched his back, then started combing his disheveled hair. After a minute's hard work it lay flat against his head. It was as black as a raven, but no one except himself knew its natural color. He put on his top hat and spun around to check that it did not look awry. His reflection satisfied him and he tried not to linger by the mirror. There was no time for that.

He walked down the stairs from his bedroom and out onto the courtyard where his coach waited for him. His butler informed him that the morning correspondence lay on the seat and helped him step inside the wagon. When Raul was young, he would never accept the humiliation of being helped by a human to climb into a coach. But now he knew better. True enough, it made him feel small, but what else could a half-gnome expect from life? He was shorter than adult humans, but he was a giant amongst gnomes. Besides, a man's size did not matter anymore. The era when broad-shouldered swordsmen ruled the world was over.

The coach rocked back and forth as it rolled out onto the cobbled street in front of his mansion. Outside the window he saw two beggars sitting on his porch. He added another bullet point to his mental list over things to do that day: to tell his butler to make them go away. Then he drew close the curtains and browsed through the pile of letters and reports. The coach bounced forward on Norma's lively streets, towards the House of Commons.

There were plenty of people in the great hall as he stepped inside the House. A toothless baron with a toupee greeted him with a welcoming nod. There had been a time when Norma's elite pointed fingers and laughed at his revelation. Back then, he was just an ugly half-gnome in oversized clothes and they believed it to be their birthright to mock him as they pleased. No one understood that they laughed at his ambition, that they laughed at the future, no one except Raul himself. In those days he considered himself lucky if everyone ignored his existence when he walked into a room and kept their humiliating remarks to themselves. Nowadays people used to greet him with respect. Yet there was much room for improvement. One day they would bow before him. Maybe he would be satisfied then, but he was far from convinced of it.

Most of the city's nobility and wealthiest bourgeoisie had arrived. Few held a lawful seat at the Thing, but that was how politics worked in Norma. You simply knew if you were welcome in the House of Commons. Raul was the only one present not a purebred human. That is amusing, he thought. The Beings are free in Norma, but no one is there to stand up for them and protect their freedom. At least he did not intend to waste any effort on the matter.

Raul walked over to a collection of familiar faces: Count Alfred Astor, Colonel Raymond Burg, Duke de Marquis of Estén and a tall man wearing a red-blue uniform with a silver star on his chest. Louis von Sachs, the second son of a poor baron. The young military had made a name for himself earlier that year when he played a prominent part in defeating the invaders on the Dolgrad border. Thick as sewage water in the slum, but bold and handsome. The type of person Raul disliked the most.

"Raul Wager!" exclaimed Ludvig von Sachs with feigned adoration. "How wonderful that someone has come to represent the little people!" He stretched out his hand, but held it too high for the half-gnome to shake it. Raul just glowered at the man. He admitted that big men had a minor advantage on him after all. Then he added the event to his list of reasons to destroy Ludvig von Sachs.

"I see you're still looking up to me," said the military and laughed, but interrupted himself as he realized that the others did not partake in the joke. He excused himself and disappeared into the crowd.

"Von Sachs is low in rank and of little wealth, yet so presumptuous," said the Duke of Estén and shook his head. "Whenever I see the youth of today, I say to myself that the future does not look bright."