WALPURGIA ✔️

Chapter 1 - Goodbye life

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"What will happen to Baldwin when we teleport back? What do I have to look after? What do I-?" Andrea raised his hand. "Let me finish my coffee first."

I tensely shifted in my seat while he lazily sipped on the beverage. Ethan eyed me worryingly and placed my breakfast down, urged me to eat as I didn't budge. "Seigneur Baldwin wouldn't like that." "What a shame he isn't here", I mumbled, not caring the least bit.

Alexander tried not to laugh next to me, hiding in the newspaper he was reading. Nathan and Simon looked away from the cartoons for a split second before they were immerged into it again. Lysandre hid his smile. Ethan sighed with a played angry tone and dramatically left my side. It surely would never get boring with them.

"The then Baldwin is replaced with this Baldwin. You both disappear from the now and are put in the past. If anything of you exists at that moment, it disappears until you leave again." So, Baldwin would be simply replaced in the end. Good thing he knew what would await him.

"You should try not to stick out or to change drastic events. Little events won't have that much of a big outcome on our history, but it will meddle with it. If you spare somebody's life, his family's fate might change over the year and who knows, you might return to a new dictator in our current time. You have one purpose and one purpose only: talk to Genevieve and ask why she chose that direction, get the scroll and get the hell out of there."

Andrea slowly took the first bite of his breakfast. "Try to hold yourself back from meeting important people. The more undetected you are the better. If something slips we'll catch wind of it here." "For example?" 

"If you met Queen Victoria – for some absurd reason you would find – and she took a liking to you, you would be mentioned in letters of her. Historians would hunt you down and once they put two and two together ..."

"Understood." It would endanger us all. "No acting silly. No actions without thinking it through." "Exactly", Andrea nodded with his knife facing towards me. "What I've been meaning to ask you all morning long: are you talking this strangely on purpose?" 

"Strangely? Oh, you mean my accent? I've been training with Baldwin to get accustomed to their speech." "You still got a long way to go, maman. I wouldn't have placed that one in the 1840s", Alexander openly judged. "It's better I work on it fast as possible then", I hastily ate the bread in front of me and got up to meet Baldwin in the library.

Two strong hands pressed me down. "We have all the time of the world to teach you the old slang. Eat properly", Baldwin mumbled and with dizzying speed took his seat at the other end of the table, not without greeting his sons and grandchildren – and also Andrea.

"You sound as if you just came from the past", Lysandre's goodbyes were always lacking. For him, there was only the period until the next hello. He struggled to part ways with somebody he cared for. 

"We'll see how much that will change once we are back", I kissed his cheeks. "Once we are close to the future again, I'll make sure the house will start acting strange. Until then, it will listen to Charlotte, you, Alexander and Ethan."

Mentioned people stepped forward. Alexander worryingly followed them. My poor son. "Come here", I pressed him tightly against me. "We'll be back in no time. Don't worry about us, ok?" "I'll try to." "Once I'm back, I'll tell you all the stories. I promise." "Until then, I'll remember your words", he kissed my hands and squeezed them.

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Baldwin insisted we don't depart in front of them. The kids were awfully emotional this morning.

He led us to his office and Charlotte fixed the dress I was wearing. "I did my best", she mumbled as she shook her head at the brown, boring dress. "For a commoner, it's perfect", Baldwin fixed his jacket and sent her off. Charlotte looked back one last time and closed the door.

My vampire wrapped his arms around me, holding onto me from the back.

"My house back then is very familiar to you. It's our getaway home. The quaint house in Paris, in the districts." "The wooden home with the white window frames." "A riverfront home. Built for me from a good friend of mine, called William."

I shook my hands and my cords spread out in front of me.

Time walking was like transporting through dimensions.

Yellow for the transportation, lilac for time.

It needed the goddess's approval.

Silver shot forward.

It took a weaver's understanding of the world; of its connections and hidden purposes.

Black and white – life and death – intertwined with the others.

It took a witch's strength to grant her wish.

The remaining colours tied once around the five main strings.

"Time to weave", Baldwin mumbled into my ear, his voice holding the eagerness of a five-year-old. By holding onto me, he could actually see what I was seeing – and it fascinated him.

"Raise your foot once I count down to one. I'll say now, ok?" He nodded. "Don't worry about me, I'll follow after you."

"With knot of one, the spell's begun."

The cords intertwined in a beautiful pattern and wove on by itself.

All we had to do was lift our leg.

With a gentle goodbye, we left our home.