148: Wasmeier Again

With the shooting, the fighting, and the strange magic, the guests in the cathedral were beginning to panic now, with many rushing to the doors.

Katarina and Heinrich had both been shot, Fred lay on the ground still on pink fire, and nearly dead. And Blume was shouting for a medic. Fortunately, Willow had been visiting her aunt Amanita who had managed to get invitations to the wedding, and she now made her way through the crowds to get to them.

Willow decided to head for Katarina first. The gunman was still alive and he dragged himself to his feet and headed for one of the side doors. Fred had enough energy left to roll on the floor, trying to put the pink fire out but he was still alight. Hetri rushed to him, and put her cloak around him to stifle the flames.

As a member of the magical colleges, I surveyed the cathedral for a sign of magical power. I could see the pink fire emanating from east side of the cathedral from behind a slightly ajar door. Although I did not have time to study it, I could tell that it was not magic I was familiar with, and it had a slightly sickly sheen to it.

I ran towards the door only to be met by a bolt of the pink fire bursting over me. Greta, who had spent the morning searching for Quintus Fassbinder, and had been late to the ceremony, turned up and declared, ‘Sigmar’s Balls!’ before running towards the door following me, hot on the heels of the gunman. I noticed now he was wearing a blue and yellow cavalry uniform with a twin-tailed comet pendant, and looked like he might be in the Nordland state army.

Willow managed to reach Katarina and asked if she was ok, but she didn’t respond. And so Willow bandaged her wounds, to try to stop the bleeding. But it looked like Katarina needed urgent surgery. Blume was still calling for aid, but Willow just told her to give her a hand, putting some pressure on Katarina’s wound, but Blume was too injured to help.

Fred managed to put the put the pink fire around him out and was able to make it to Blume and tried to heal her wounds.

Meanwhile, I shrugged off the pink fire I had been hit with, and channelled my own magical power, and going through the doorway, I saw a small dishevelled man in torn clothes and mad eyes, and I could see he was riddled with dark magic. And he tried to cast a spell at me, but I was able to stop the magic.

Then Greta and a Knight of the Fiery Heart arrived and charged at the gunman, who managed to fight off Greta and the kill the knight.

Having bandaged Katarina and with Fred indicating that Blume was going to live, despite her whining, Willow made her way to Baron Heinrich, who had a sever chest wound, and Willow told him there shouldn't be any broken hearts at a wedding.

Then Blume was able to get to Katarina, and began dragging her away from the area, telling her that she was saving her life. And then Fred, despite his wounds, was able to charge towards the gunman, too.

Then I cast a powerful spell, igniting Greta’s, and Fred’s, and my own sword with fire magic. The dark wizard tried to dispel that, but I was clearly the more powerful wizard.

Greta struck at the gunman with her fiery blade but was not able to make contact. Then the gunman acknowledged Greta and had a look of surprise in his eyes, like he was not expecting all this dark magic to be happening, and it looked to her like he was accepting his own death as he gave a duellist salute with his blade and prepared to fight on. Then he lunged at Greta and got a good hit on her.

Then I hit the wizard with my flaming sword and killed him, and Fred attacked the gunman with his flaming sword, and finished him off. But as Fred attacked he felt like the gunman had already accepted his death, and wished to go out fighting.

So the fight was over. Willow saw to the wounds of some of the injured guards and knights, and then Greta and Fred. We looked at the dead gunman, who was well dressed and had an expensive sword, and looked like a noble. Others said he was Malthe Barthelm, whose father was a commander in the Nordland State Army.

And Blume and Fred recognised the dead wizard. They said he was Karl-Heinz Wasmeier, who they had already fought and who was behind the plot to replace the graf in Middenheim. They had already told me about the chase through the streets of Middenheim, and the collapsing of the viaduct.

Willow performed some serious surgery on Katarina and reported that the operation seemed to go well, and she expected her to live. I hope she washed her hands, first.

And after helping to clear up we retired to Helstein with the Graf. The crown prince’s contingent returned to Castle Reikguard, and the emperor returned to the palace.

I’m not sure what happened to Hetri. I think she had had enough of humans and missed the mountains, and decided to go back to report to Zhufbar about what she had witnessed here. I think if she had stayed longer she would have had more to tell her king, but at least now, the dwarves of Karaz Ankor might have a better idea of how the Empire seemed to be heading for unrest.

The graf consulted us about the situation. There had been plans for a conclave after the wedding ceremony to cement the alliance, but now without the wedding and the shooting of two of his children, he wondered whether he should now obey the summons to the conclave. The graf wondered whether it could be a trap. He said ‘We all know the story of graf Siegfried and the Council of 1547.’ Fred explained that this was the incident that led to the Age of the Three Emperors.

I suggested that as the graf and the emperor both had the Empire at heart they should meet, but Greta said they should meet as equals, which was a bit difficult as one of them was the emperor.

And the graf asked Willow for her opinion, as she had helped two of his family members that day, and he said she was a friend of the family, which irked Blume. Willow went on about her cousins, the Peartrees who fell out over inheriting their uncle’s farm, and then I lost interest. But she concluded that we shouldn’t put things down to malice when there might be a more reasonable explanation.

So the graf decided to go to the conclave, and said it would be like wolves walking into a griffin’s nest which didn’t make any sense, because you’d have to fly to reach a griffon’s nest, but we understood the analogy. But we said we’d accompany him and be on our guard.