21: Opening Night

Festag 14^th Sigmarzeit

You woke up the next day, except you couldn’t wake Dietrich. No matter what you did he was still in a deep sleep and you decided that it must have been the wine.

You had a vague memory of Peepopo but you couldn’t remember why he had been so important, but Heinrich was still a bit annoyed about him. You wondered whether to go back to Father Gunther, but you didn’t have much more to tell him.

Max read the letter again and said that Euphrasia Nocturne meant something like night of good cheer. You went to a wine merchant on the Esplanade and he said he had never heard of it, and he’d not heard of Van Vriessen either.

You decided to head up to Van Vriessen in Handelaarmarkt, and see what that was. Berta brought her hand cart in case you needed to cart some wine. Van Vriessen’s was a walled compound with a house next to it, and when you knocked on the gate some young bloke answered it, and you told him that you had been sent by the Flamingo for some more wine as they had run out. He looked a bit confused and went to fetch someone.

Then some youngish woman appeared and invited you in. She had a slight foreign accent and was a bit younger than Firaglio but, like her, looked sort of younger than she should. And you saw that she had dark eyes, which on reflection was similar to Firaglio’s, even though you had only seen hers indoors, in dimmer light. She also resembled the waitresses you had seen at the Flamingo for athleticism, and wore similar eye makeup. You also briefly spotted a couple of people watching you from the house overlooking the compound.

Max gave her the story about needing wine for the Flamingo and she sort of played along, even though it was obvious to Berta and Heinrich that she didn’t believe him. She asked you to wait so you settled down in the courtyard, while the man who had opened the gate, and another worker, kept an eye on you.

After a while the woman came out with some bratwurst and beans and offered them to Max. It turns out that bratwurst and beans were always Max’s favourite food as a lad and they were cooked exactly how he liked them. So he tucked into his meal. And then she came out with some ale for Heinrich, and that was Heinrich’s favourite ale from back in Middenland. Then weirdly she came out with a shovel, and although Berta could see it was her dream shovel and she really wanted it, she refused to admit it, and refused the gift.

So you thanked her for the food and drink but asked again for the wine. And she told you that you all knew that you had no right to ask for the wine, but you insisted. You were jousting a bit, but then Max mentioned the Unfading Rose and you could see that that made her a bit disconcerted and she demanded you leave.

Heinrich fondled his blade and stood up to her, and they had a bit of a stare off but she eventually backed down, then asked you politely to go. And you couldn’t really think of much else to do but leave. And as you went she said she hoped to see Heinrich again.

So you went back down to the Esplanade. On your way you wondered how she could have known what your favourite things were. You went down the alley behind the theatre and the Flamingo. It looked like they hadn’t noticed that Berta had taken the key as the door was still unlocked. So while Max stood watch, Heinrich and Berta went in and Berta found the crate of black wine bottles where she had left them. So you took the entire crate and carted it away. You stashed them behind some cheese in Johan’s warehouse.

Then you decided to hang out in the Hammer and Bucket until the opera started. You wondered about whether you should stop the play or not. In the Bucket you saw Firaglio knocking back the brandies and she looked really on edge. She told you that she didn’t have her medication because the Flamingo had run out and it was going to be a terrible opening night. Max told her she was going to be wonderful but she wouldn’t be placated and looked genuinely anxious.

So Berta said she could get hold of some of the black wine, and Firaglio looked relieved and said she would pay a couple of crowns for a bottle. Berta pretended to set up a deal with a contact to get the wine, for plausible deniability reasons, but just went round to Johan’s and grabbed a bottle. And Firaglio was happy to pay, and knocked some back. And you could see it had an immediate effect on her, and she immediately relaxed. She gave Berta a free ticket for the performance then went off to prepare.

Max decided he needed to look smart for the opera so bought a fine cloak and hat. You got to the opera early and had a look around, but you couldn’t go backstage so there wasn’t that much to see.

The opera began and it started off pretty conventionally, but then the music began to get stranger. There was a scene with spiders in the forest which reminded you of the spiders in the magical forest, and then there was a scene with Parsnip as Peepopo, and then there was a scene with a one-eyed bog daemon, which didn’t look much like the real ones you had seen.

All the while the music was getting stranger, and like much of the audience Max and Heinrich were entranced, and thought it was great, even though at the back of their mind they knew it was wrong. Berta was not taken in at all by the music and a few of the audience were getting annoyed by it and some walked out.

Then a black void appeared on stage surrounded by pink and green magic, and you could see into it, making out the magical forest you had been in before. And at this point some of the audience began getting hysterical. Berta could hear people banging on the doors of the theatre trying to get out, and assumed you’d all been locked in.

Max and Heinrich made one last effort to free their minds of the discordant music and both managed it. Berta climbed over some of the audience and headed down to the orchestra pit wielding her shovel, and took a swipe at the conductor, who managed to duck the blow in time with the music.

Max took a pistol shot at the conductor and hit him in the leg, and Heinrich strung his bow. And the magical gateway on stage grew so that you could see the forest contained dozens of those daemonic hunter creatures you’d met before. And two of them stepped through the gate into the theatre which made the audience even more distressed.

Berta smacked the conductor with her shovel, killing him. And without their conductor the band began to miss their notes and you felt the power of the music diminishing and the gate began closing. The daemons inside the gate cried in anguish as their portal began to fade.

One of the free daemons stabbed Berta in the head with her trident and Max hit it with a pistol shot. The other daemon waded into the crowd stabbing at whoever it could. Heinrich took a shot with his bow but was jostled by the frantic crowd and missed, then he drew his sword and went to help Berta.

The daemon stabbed Berta again in the head, taking most of Berta’s ear with it and she fell to the ground. Heinrich reached the daemon and hit it with his sword, and it seemed to die, and as it did it was dragged back into the fading gate. Max shot the other daemon and it was sucked back through the gate, and the gate disappeared.

Heinirch tried to see to Berta’s injuries but the mess of her ear made it too difficult, so he picked her up and tried to carry her out. By now the people had managed to break down the doors and were running from the theatre, so you were able to leave the theatre with everyone else. And you carried Berta back to Frau Koester’s to find Dietrich still asleep.