by Auriane Bell
“Adrijan,” she whispered and reached back to take his hand.
“I’m here,” he answered, forcing himself to focus on the transfer again. Meanwhile Alfred’s ashen hair had darkened and almost unnoticeably grown.
“It’s quite enough now,” Vivian sternly said next to him.
Änlin turned to glare at him. “Soon,” she said. Adrijan guessed that she had to dislike seeing her daughter grow up this fast after all.
A few more seconds passed before the blue glow subsided and Alfred turned around.
“Amazing…” Mairin mumbled, arousing Adrijan’s jealousy. Now he remembered that Alfred had indeed been quite handsome two decades ago. He gently pressed her hand to remind her of his presence and he was relieved when she answered in the same way.
Finally Alfred stepped aside to make room for Änlin who kept the weakened Engelin on her legs.
“It cannot be…” Vivian gasped.
It was as if stone had turned into flesh yet at the same time she recognised the angel that had descended from the skies and started to wander among them. She was as much Engelin as the perfect likeness of the statue, that was still in its usual place. Only the blackness of Engelin’s hair drew a fine line to separate them. Mairin was looking at the young woman in awe.
Vivian, first as stunned as she was, now jumped to her side and took her from her mother’s arms. He embraced her keenly, then put his hands on her cheeks and raised her head to be able to look at her face. Engelin’s legs were shaking but it remained unnoticed by her admirer. The master of Mondstein castle was lost, caught in a spell of insanity.
Mairin knew that he would kiss the child who was caught in a woman’s body if she didn’t prevent it.
“Vivian, stop at once! It’s Engelin not-“
“Magdala…” he breathed.
His hands slid down to her shoulders and he drew Engelin close to kiss her.
Mairin shrieked. Why didn’t anyone stop them?
Anxious to separate the man from the girl Mairin tried to get between them but it was Engelin’s hand that weakly stopped her.
“Engelin is dead,” she said.
The child in a woman’s body was smiling.
“Dead?”
“Let’s sit down at the table Alfred has prepared for us and I’ll explain.”
Vivian guided Engelin there without being asked and the rest of them followed. Mairin would have remained where she was if Adrijan hadn’t gently pushed her forward, telling her that it was alright. Reluctantly she chose a seat at the breakfast table and watched Vivian take Engelin to the nearby pillow-bed. Mairin gazed at the white grand piano to her right. Perhaps she was still caught in a dream.
“Engelin was my daughter’s name.”
Again it was Änlin who had started to talk, not the woman who seemed to have lost her identity.
“She died young, soon after her husband, leaving her daughter to me.”
“So you are the beast who sacrificed her,” Vivian gnarled and Mairin thought that if the angel next to him hadn’t put her hand on his, he would have jumped at Änlin’s throat.
“Indeed it was me,” Änlin von Kirchberg admitted smiling bitterly. “It was me who gave Magdala to that man.”
Mairin frowned. “But Magdala is dead,” she remarked, gazing at the young woman on the pillow-bed who was just about to remove the brown contact lenses from her eyes.
Änlin chuckled. “Isn’t she?”
Mairin shrugged. She was tired of the woman’s secretiveness. Adrijan seemed to have had enough of it too.
“Magdala?” It was a question, as well as an attempt to address Engelin’s adult person.
“Yes, Adrijan?” She replied to him, confirming what couldn’t possibly be true.
“Who was the woman you warned me about? Was it her? Are we still in danger?”
Magdala was leaning against Vivian. She had given up two decades and it had left its mark on her.
“I thought she had sold me to that man, that she hated me and that she couldn’t be trusted.” She paused and Vivian caringly confirmed that she was able to continue.
“I’m alright now.”
Magdala comforted him with one of her angelic smiles. There was no trace left of Engelin, the brat. She was a lady through and through.
“To spite her I removed an item that was in her possession. I knew it was important to her. She kept it locked away at all times and when she insisted that I married that man, I decided not to do so without having my revenge.”
Vivian looked worried as she continued.
“At first I tried to destroy it. You see, the hour glass is only part of it. The device as you know it now is very much incomplete.”
Mairin noticed Adrijan’s and Vivian’s surprise. Änlin of course knew about it and Alfred’s handsome face remained – as it was demanded of a servant – expressionless.
“Grandmamma, won’t you let me demonstrate?”
Änlin sighed and handed a sturdy ring to Alfred, who reverentially delivered the item to Magdala.
“Thank you,” Magdala said and held up the ring as well as the hour glass. Mairin noticed that they were out of the same dark, silvery material. The ring was about ten to twelve centimetres in diameter – about the same as the height of the hour glass.
“I was unable to destroy my grandmother’s treasure. Instead the hour glass came lose and being in a hurry as it is common for one acting in secrecy, I decided to take it with me. I put the ring back into its rightful place and hoped that my plan wasn’t going to be discovered until it would be too late.”
“And it wasn’t,” Änlin continued. “I sent her away, unknowingly and the punishment for our foolishness was severe.”
Magdala lowered her arms.
“I thought she would pursue me, that she would do everything to retrieve the item. I was still convinced of it many years later when I was married to you, Vivian. That’s why I tried to warn Adrijan of her coming,” she explained.
“Wouldn’t it have helped if she had shown up?” Vivian noted. Änlin clearly hadn’t won him over yet.
“But she did show up, my love. Only much later.”
Änlin cleared her throat.
“Let’s try not to confuse our listeners, my dear. Alfred, could I perhaps have a cup of coffee?”
The servant immediately moved to fulfil Änlin’s wish.
“More than being angry about the missing hour glass, I had been worried and ridden by guilt.
I’m not trying to justify what I did, but I’ll try to explain my motivations.
First of all, I knew of course, what it meant to marry her off. Magdala had always been pretty, so it was easy for me to find someone suitable: someone who was interested in her, someone rich. I was so desperate to find someone.
I’ve lived for a long time, thanks to the device – oh Magdala, dear, please show everyone its full potential before you fall asleep.”
Magdala looked indeed exhausted and even though Mairin was wondering about the sight a sleeping angel would be, she was more curious to see the true powers of the magical treasure.
“Of course, Grandmamma,” Magdala said and restored the device by inserting the hour glass into the ring. Even though there was no visible link between the two items they seemed to be stuck together.
Magdala presented it to them in its finished state on the palms of her hands, clearly visible for everyone.
“Don’t be scared,” she said. “It won’t afflict anyone but me.”
The hour glass started to intermit the faint blue glow Mairin was already familiar with, while the ring around it was ablaze with a deep orange light. Magdala closed her eyes and the ring slowly started to spin around the hour glass, gaining in speed and increasing the orbital inclination. The floating device threw blue and orange sparks, bathing Magdala’s beautiful face in colourful light. Mairin was too intrigued by the magnificent spectacle to worry about its outcome.
Suddenly Magdala put her hands together, envel
oping the hour glass, and soon the glow vanished. As a result the young woman looked at them, wide awake and in all her beauty.
“How does it work?” Adrijan was the first to recover from what they had experienced.
“Who knows?” Änlin said with a smile on her lips, indicating that she knew more than she wanted to reveal.
“It gives life, without taking it. You could say it produces life energy.”
“Impossible,” Adrijan mumbled.
“If it takes anyone’s life energy, then we haven’t discovered it yet,” Magdala said. “I’d feel sorry though, if we took someone else’s life, even if it were unknowingly.”
Änlin nodded. “That’s one reason why I’ve kept the device hidden for a long time.”
She took a sip of coffee before continuing.
“I’m old, but unlike you I never managed to accumulate riches. I had to remain hidden and more than once I had to fight for my life.
After centuries I had become lonely and daring, forgetting about the experiences I had made. Perhaps I just wanted to forget about them. To keep it short: I fell in love, got married, had Engelin… and then – after the rise came the fall.”
Änlin paused.
“Without the device, nobody is safe from death.
A sickness befell my husband and instead of accepting the help I had to offer, he lost all faith in me. He claimed that I was trying to keep him from going to heaven. He was so scared of me when he stumbled out the door of our house.”
Änlin’s gaze seemed to be directed towards the past, at the back of her husband.
“I thought I had learnt my lesson then and kept the hour glass secret from Engelin, even when her own husband was on the brink of death. Engelin couldn’t bear the loss. She was following him slowly, dying from inside out. Not even Magdala’s existence was enough reason for her to fight.
One night I couldn’t bear to watch her suffering any longer – it was my loneliness as well as the love of a mother that kept me from letting her go. I tried to persuade her to make use of the hidden powers of the device, but she stubbornly declined. She passed away as well only a few days later.”
Änlin let out a deep sigh.
“It was then that I saw the hour glass for the first time,” Magdala said. “I only knew very vaguely how it supposedly worked, when I took it from my grandmother.
After the years I had already forgotten, only carrying it around as my talisman of revenge.”
“If you were so lonely, why did you marry Magdala off?” Vivian asked.
“We needed money. I had spent most of what I had, trying to save Engelin but of course the doctors back then weren’t worth of any of it. Money was hard to come by for a woman at that time and after a few years the two of us had used it all up.”
“It’s alright, Grandmamma,” Magdala said.
“No,” Änlin shook her head. “I should have found a different way.
All I knew then was that I had to stay alive for Magdala’s sake and so I kept using the hour glass. Soon though we started to look like mother and daughter and a few more years and we would have looked like sisters.
Unknowingly I had created another problem. We had to continue moving not to arouse suspicion. But we grew tired of it. I grew tired of it. The loss of my husband and my daughter, the constant moving, the lack of money…
When that man showed interest in Magdala, I really thought he was godsend.”
“Yet he came from the opposite direction,” Vivian murmured bitterly.
“Indeed,” Änlin admitted. “I should have become suspicious when he told me his condition that I wasn’t to visit Magdala anymore after their wedding. I thought he simply wanted her to himself, that he was just a doting admirer, blinded by her perfection.”
“That was suspicious indeed,” Vivian noted.
Mairin frowned. “Doesn’t it sound just like what was asked of my family?” she interposed.
“That’s what we thought too,” Änlin said. “Anyway, that’s still in the future.
Magdala was married to that man, and most of you probably know what happened to her then.”
The sudden silence in the room seemed to support her assumption and even though Mairin had been left in the dark about Magdala’s past, she didn’t dare to raise a question. She wasn’t fully without imagination after all.
“I was travelling when that filthy swine finally croaked.”
“But Grandmamma!”
Vivian chuckled. “Please continue, Änlin, you have my full support.”
“Well, she was sold to you then, and even though I had a hard time believing it, you seemed to have treated her well.”
“He did,” Magdala confirmed. “Vivian was good to me.
When Adrijan was dying I was filled with the resolve to do something for Vivian in return. I prayed to God to tell me how to save him. Desperate as I was I placed my talisman beside him and it was then that I remembered what my grandmother had tried to do with it. When Adrijan’s condition worsened I had already made up my mind to try and use it. I had never seen it work in its incomplete form and I was highly doubtful that it would do anything at all. Years had passed and I was almost convinced that it had to have been the fantasies of a child. After all, hadn’t my mother died despite the device? Had it ever helped me when…”
Mairin looked up as Alfred went around the table, refilling glasses.
“Thank you,” she whispered, not to interrupt Magdala and took a sip of orange juice. Funnily she was thirsty, even though she hadn’t said much at all.
“You know how it works. You simply imagine how the life energy flows from you to the recipient – that’s what I did. Not because I knew how to do it, but because I was that desperate and the thing wouldn’t work on its own.
At first I startled after only giving Adrijan a small amount of energy. I was scared, realising the device’s potential and wrote a short note with simple instructions. After that I went to see Vivian and returned to proceed.”
“What went wrong? Why didn’t you stop in time?” Adrijan asked.
“I gave my all for him,” Magdala said, looking at Vivian. “I thought he would be happier that way, but then at the last moment I realised, that I wanted to live. I wanted to live with him.”
Vivian took Magdala into his arms and held her close. “I wanted you both to survive.”
Magdala slightly nodded, restricted by Vivian’s tight embrace.
“You died that day,” Adrijan said.
“She didn’t,” Änlin displaced Magdala and continued to narrate their story.
“But the doctors said-“
“The doctors were wrong and you and Vivian failed to see it. Shortly after, Vivian was already out on his personal vendetta, hunting down the people responsible for your condition and Magdala’s alleged death. I heard he let some of them be burnt alive.”
Adrijan sucked in the air between his teeth. “I didn’t know…”
“You know my temperament,” Vivian said, “and I had many reasons to be angry…”
“How did you find out that Magdala was alive?” Mairin asked Änlin.
“I had stayed close to her even though I hadn’t been permitted to talk to her. I don’t think Vivian was ever notified about my presence near the castle.”
“Indeed I was not.”
“When she ‘died’ the news spread fast. There were people who were glad about it as well as the ones who thought Vivian should have stayed at the castle to mourn his wife. Due to her appearance she was entombed without the usual delay and the moment nobody else was near the tomb besides a guard, I had already bribed my way into it. I had no access to the hour glass though. I could see that it hadn’t been lost but I had also no means to obtain it.
The ring however, was still in my possession and like the hour glass it works on its own. While the hour glass transfers life energy to a person, the ring has the power to take it from others.”
“Wasn’t Magdala at least unconscious? How could
it have worked?” Mairin asked curiously.
“I’m ashamed to admit it, but it wasn’t my life who saved hers. I hired a young, half-starved child from the streets and told her to put the ring on Magdala’s chest. Needless to say, the tomb became someone else’s last resting place.”
A depressing silence followed Änlin’s confession.
“I know it was a despicable thing to do but if it had been necessary I would have sacrificed a coach full of infants to save my granddaughter.”
Änlin paused. Nobody said as much as a word and Mairin thought that it would have been better not to acquire that piece of information.
“After that we stayed together, no matter what. We made sure not to age and moved on whenever we had to. Staying a child helped Magdala to heal and I made sure that she had everything she needed to be happy.
The only problem was, that she could never forget about Vivian. In my opinion he had disposed of her when he had declared her dead but Magdala refused to believe it.
It took her decades to persuade me to get into contact with Vivian, but the more time had passed, the more difficult it had become to talk to him.
Vivian had only risen in status and his riches had multiplied to no end. As much as I tried to make Magdala’s wish come true, I found myself unable to do so.”
“If I had known…” Vivian groaned.
“Well, we didn’t stop trying. I’ve even applied as a maid for Mondstein castle.” Änlin smirked.
“What happened?” Mairin inquired. “You’re surely beautiful enough.”
“Why thank you,” Änlin giggled. “I wasn’t certain that Vivian had survived all those years. There was a rumour in Traumstadt that he was only heir to the name of the immortal. I had to be careful and hide my past and when they found out about that they lost interest in my application.
Our last hope was for Magdala to be chosen as his bride. This was an idea I wasn’t fond of. I was scared for her and didn’t want the past to repeat itself.”
“For this purpose only I allowed myself to grow up,” Magdala said. “I was so nervous when Adrijan came to pick a bride. I wore my most beautiful dress and was standing in the front row – but he didn’t even recognise me and chose someone else.”
