Third session, "Mystery of the Dying Clockwork"

Letters home

From the correspondence of Captain Clovis Stahlmachersson, Berlin Police

Tuesday, 7 September, 1875

Dearest Mum and Dad,

Isn't it always the way? The first time in several years that my duties require me to visit the Old Stomping Grounds, and you are both away.

Minty tells me that you have both gone to Potsdorf to attend the Royal Wedding. By happy coincidence, my commander, His Grace the Duke of Wolfenbuttel, is attending the same festivities on behalf of the King of Prussia. Perhaps you have met the Duke and Duchess. Minty has offered to make certain you receive this letter on your return, as she seems uncertain that it would arrive in Potsdorf before you returned were I to mail it.

I have come back to Hinterholz and Wütendefrettchen because of trouble which has befallen Frau Metzger. She has been attacked by ~~perso~~ beings Unknown, and her son has been abducted. You will recall that I was asked to stand as a Godfather for her son at his Christening (I know she greatly appreciated the silver utensils which you sent as a gift on the special day). That is why I feel it is not just my duty as a Policeman, but a more Sacred Trust that I help her find her son and bring the Abductors to Justice.

I am aided in my quest by the ever loyal Acting Corporal Garvey. Though he is still afflicted with many afflictions, he jumps in with all feet and gladly places his nose to the grindstone. Sargeant von Ebersbach, who you might recall also stood up at the Christening, is also pursuing these Abductors. Unfortunately we are currently following leads from different paths, but I am hopeful we will be able to Join Forces before all is Said And Done.

While following the trail, Corporal Garvey and I came upon some other old acquaintances in a spot of trouble. A group of vargr and hexxenwulf had cornered my old friends, Mrs Salmalin, Mrs Frazer, and Mr O'Flaherty. I believe I mentioned in a previous letter that Mrs Salmalin is the Great Grand Niece of the Witch of Darleston, and has inherited the title.

I was able to lend a hand at the right moment and assure their victory. Unfortunately most of the vargr escaped us. As I had to tend to the wounded and the wounded were quite seriously hurt, I opted to bring them to Gate Number 11, where the boys have been very accommodating. Once all are refreshed, I have high hopes we will soon be in hot pursuit.

I am sorry to have missed you. I was so looking forward to some of your home forged bread, Mumm. Alas, it is not to be this time.

I must close this, now, as the Mender is here to attend the wounded, and I want to lend whatever aid I am able. My love to you both. Please know that I am in Good Health and am Happy As Can Be.

Your loving (adopted) son,

Clovis

From the correspondence of Acting Chief Mine Engineer (Regent) Englebert Stahlmachersson

Dear Father,

I trust that your journey to Potsdorf has been a pleasant one.

All is well here. We struck a bit of loose shale in shaft 29 today, but have been able to shore it up with a minimal loss of time. One lad was lost, though it is still unclear why he was in shaft 29, as he was scheduled for guard duty elsewhere. I have asked Bafursson to sort it out. A detour shaft is already begun, and the iron production is still keeping up to quota.

We received a request from the Witch Metzger. She arrived at Gate Number 11 to inquire whether her son had wandered into our mine. I assured her that if a quarter-djinn were in our tunnels, we would surely know of it, but she seemed to fear for his safety. So I have issued a bulletin for all to report any signs of a lost surface child or any shapeshifter encounters directly to me, so that I may forward the news to her and determine the proper course of action.

Today we had another visitation, also at Gate Number 11. This time it was the Witch of Darleston and several companions. It is not, of course, the same Witch of Darleston to whom our people owe a great debt which can never be fully repaid. I understand this one is the grand niece of the other. But we are honour-bound to offer hospitality and aid to the Witch and her Heirs, so I have extended a most hearty welcome on your behalf and given instructions that no comfort is to be spared.

Two of her companions are human, and two are canine. Neither appears to be Beast Men, but it is not entirely certain they are not. Unfortunately she is also travelling with a Fomorian. He is mostly human, but the blood of the giants still burns bright in him. I have been assured that he has renounced the Winter Court and has even embraced the Christian god, though I find that difficult to believe. Still, if the Witch of Darleston calls him Friend, then he is, of course, welcome here.

There is no other news. I look forward to hearing how your negotiations have progressed.

Love to mother.

Your most loyal son,

Englebert

From the correspondence of Chi, nursery maid in the household of the Salmalins

Dearest Uncle:

My journey to the land of the Sahibs continues to reveal new and wondrous things. I have already told you of how strangely green it was at Edenfield, and how different London is from Mhow or Bombay.

Now we have journeyed to a land called Carpania. The capital city is Potsdorf, a name which the children enjoy repeating. I admit it does feel funny to speak it.

It is a German-speaking country almost in the centre of Europe. It is also very tiny. I used to think that the island of Britain was so small compared to the rest of the world, how, then, could it rule so many places? But Carpania is smaller than Indore District! Of course, they do not have an empire -- I know this because I and the children looked it up in the library at the Big House when we learned that we were going to travel there.

The journey was mostly by train, and was more pleasant than I had feared. We had to travel through a rather high mountain pass to get here. The entire country is just one valley between two mountain chains. It is all very pretty, though cold.

Carpania, though it is very small, has a King. And this King is a distant cousin of Sir Cosmo's grandfather (who is a Lord, did I mention this in my previous letter?), which means, of course, that Sir Cosmo's son, Galen, is also related to this King. The King's daughter is getting married, and there is a grand celebration to which all of the King's relatives are attending. Since my employers work for Sir Cosmo, we have all gone along.

On the first night that we were here, news arrived of someone in trouble. A woman who is a good friend to my employers and several other members of the household is in trouble, her son has been abducted. This has happened in a neighbouring country and the circumstances are murky.

Mrs Salmalin is among those who went to assist in finding the child. She, Mrs Frazer, Mr O'Flaherty, and Turgenov left in a flying machine that night. Some of the children wanted to go. My charge, Octavia, was interested mostly in the flying machine, and less in accompanying her mother. Not that she is not missing her Mother, but she is more comfortable with her Mother's absence than she is when her Father is away.

Young Robert and Caroline are another story. While Caroline doesn't talk much about her Mother being away, she sticks close to her brother, and keeps track of everyone. Robert's worrying is more quiet, but quite evident.

Before and during breakfast the children talked of flying machines. Caroline asked her Father several questions about birds, and even convinced him to sketch a particular species of crane. Galen and Caroline both seem, now, to be trying to design their own flying machine, which Daru tells me Galen has tried several times to design his own rocket kite or similar contraption.

We were to accompany the ladies on a visit to a toy factory, so we had to get the children ready for an outing. We were in the second carriage with the childrens, while the ladies and Sir Spencer were in the lead carriage.

When we reached to road into the city, the children were all engrossed by a group of soldiers on horses practising some sort of manoeuvres in a nearby field, when we heard a series of alarming sounds and saw fiery missiles streaking past the lead carriage.

We took cover within the carriage. The children were generally cooperative. They try, at any rate. Thanks to some of the events during their journey in India, they agree that taking cover is the proper initial response to danger. But they also want to know what is happening.

My charge, Octavia, only needed to peek long enough to see her Father running up the hill toward the man who seemed to be firing the rockets, and then she seemed perfectly happy to duck back down. "Papa will get them," she told me, quite firmly.

Mr Salmalin did not have the opportunity. Our attacker's equipment actually accomplished the job. It was a kind of artillery platform for firing rockets at ground targets, and it exploded.

Not before the cavalry officers rode to assist us, and not before Sir Spencer and Lady Cowperthwaite had gotten their guns ready.

The man was alone, and quite dead. He had had help to set up the equipment, but had been left to wait for his targets.

Miss Moriarty and Sir Spencer recognized the rocket equipment in question. The maker is a competitor.

It was a very badly planned ambush. The man had only the one weapon, no means of escape, and no other means to defend himself. He seemed to have had very little training. When his device malfunctioned, he tried to run, but was killed by the explosion.

He had pictures of the coats of arms of His Lordship and one other member of the royal family, a Prince named Stefan, who happened to be the officer in charge of the cavalry unit. The killer had no other means to identify his target than the coats of arms. So the prince had been out in plain sight in a field within the rocket range of fire for hours, but wasn't recognized since the only emblems he wore were regimental symbols.

The carriage the ladies were riding in had been decorated with His Lordship's arms. The carriage we were in was decorated with Sir Spencer's arms. Which is probably why no rockets were fired at us.

His Lordship was not with us. He had gone into the city much earlier in the morning, in a smaller coach. The servants here at the lodge had placed His Lordship's arms on the largest, grandest carriage, assuming that he would use that. He had taken the smaller one so that the large one would be available for our trip.

His Lordship (and Sir Cosmo and the Inspector and Mr Frazer) heard about the attack and came along with the police to see that we were all well. The local policeman wanted everyone to go back to the lodge, because he is convinced that someone is trying to kill relatives of the King. His Lordship and the Prince did not like the idea. His Lordship specifically wanted to take the children to the toy factory as originally promised, and the Prince volunteered himself and his men to protect us.

Mr Salmalin passed us the message from Sir Cosmo and Lady Cowperthwaite to remain on the alert, as there might be another attack. As if we needed such an instruction!

The rest of the journey into the city was uneventful. The toy factory was very interesting, though we only saw some of the workshop. The owner, Master Schultz, is a large, friendly man, much like my Mr. Sunil, the baker. He enjoyed telling stories to the children.

Each of our children left the factory with a new toy. Octavia, Robert, and Galen each chose mechanical birds. Caroline chose a cavalryman on horseback. Galen has already taken his bird apart. Robert has kept his out of reach of Galen, as has Octavia. Galen has been busy drawing all the parts from his disassembled toy. He fell asleep before he could get very far at trying to reassemble it. Which is probably just as well. Miss Moriarty or Sir Cosmo will probably have to help him. In the morning. They're likely to be too tired when they return.

They are at a reception at one of the Palaces. Carpania is a small country, but it has many palaces! I've seen the list of the events her Ladyship is to attend (Tattvick is in charge of the list, of course), and there are six different palaces that the Royal Events are taking place at over the next twenty days. So many parties and dances and receptions! I always thought Europeans had rather short and uneventful wedding celebrations. Obviously that's not the case for Royalty.

I haven't done enough meditating today. I will close this now.

All my love,

Chi

From the correspondence of His Highness Prince Stefan zu Sponheim

Dearest Mother,

Aunt Edeline expressed great disappointment you could not attend the Queen's Reception. I made excuses, but I don't think Grandfather believed them. His Majesty is very sensitive. I understand why the prospect of seeing your half-sister married off is not enough to tempt you from the lake house, but he takes these things personally.

What you might find more interesting is the prank Grandfather seems to be playing on our soon-to-be in-law. He's invited some rather distant relatives... a descendent of a daughter of one of the other Dukes of Stramberg--yes from before the unification of the duchies. It's the English Earl who is the uncle to Cousin Luella Pinker. You may recall the distant English relative who has visited Aunt Edeline regularly since they were both girls together at that school in Vienna? The Earl still qualifies for the line of succession, which is the excuse Grandfather used to invite them.

Though why His Majesty thinks he needs an excuse in his own Kingdom, I'm not sure.

The Earl has a Grandson who is not technically a noble, and is married to a Hindoo woman. The grandson is rather famous is some circles for his scientific work and his success in industry. I've only met him briefly, but have had several conversations with other members of his household, and they are all quite charming, beautiful, and intelligent. A combination which is woefully difficult to find.

The prank is that this grandson and wife (and several other members of the household) are all known to the Duke of Florin, and have caused some considerable trouble to him in the past. So Grandfather arranged for them to attend the reception, but had kept the details under wraps. He had them brought to a receiving hall that was not being used for the ball, and spent some time getting acquainted.

The Hindoo wife? You will not credit this--I fully expect you to accuse me of fabricating it to raise your curiosity, but I swear it is true--she is a granddaughter of one of the Godmothers. I hadn't been aware any of the Godmothers was Hindoo, but then, it was all rather before my time, wasn't it?

Grandfather had the portrait of the Godmothers being rewarded by Frederick William III (you know the one--it has that truly astounding cat and all the mangoldwurzels in it) moved into the receiving room so he could show it to them about talk about it. Then lined us all up (I and Konrad had been commanded to attend), with ladies of their household on the arms of one of the gentlemen from the Royal Family, and we went in.

The first inkling the Duke of Florin had that his nemeses were here was when Grandfather enthusiastically introduced his "dear cousin" to Arabella. He made such a show out of pointing out how close to England Florin is, and how easily this English cousins could visit. The Duke nearly spit his wine all over himself. He looked both appalled and scared out of his wits.

I am going to have to find out more about their history (the Duke and our English Cousins, I mean).

Princess Christiana, the mother of the Duke, seemed on the contrary, very pleased to see the visiting English. She clearly has a warm relationship with several of them. Which seems to upset the Duke even further.

The reception was otherwise a typical affair. After the events earlier in the day it would have been exceedingly dull. Fortunately the ward of our English cousin, a charming young lady by the name of Miss Moriarty, was in attendance. She's not yet 16 and she already has patents registered in her name. Not just any patents. She's one of the designers of that Diabolical English Rocket Battery I was trying to explain to you on my last visit.

Not the same Rocket Battery which caused the excitement earlier in the day. That was a Prussian-made disaster.

I realize I haven't explained about the excitement. I meant not to mention it, but you will hear about it from other sources in any account. There was an incident with a rocket. Some Anarchist type trying to kill the English Earl. Or just shoot at anyone connected with the Royal Family. It was all quite poorly executed. I suspect we're all in far more danger of being bored to death with all these balls.

We are all on guard, and I don't think a couple of deranged malcontents will be able to do more than cause a lot of bother.

When I joined the cavalry I did hope to ride into battle. One would hope that it would be in a noble cause against a host of opposing soldiers. Instead, I must watch incompetents kill themselves using equipment they don't understand. It really is quite unacceptable.

I hope this letter finds you well. I do look forward to seeing you soon.

Your loving son,

Stefan

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