Her Majesty, Gabriela Cornel, was sitting on her throne, her vassals gathered in front of her. Her face was even paler than usual and an almost neurotic look came from her eyes as she was listening to the report on the current situation. When the royal counsellor had finished his presentation, he bowed again. Nervous sweat dripped down his forehead. Her Highness's anger and grief were unmistakable. This was hardly surprising, as she had just received news of the fall of Meglarsbruck, the largest city in the kingdom and, by extension, the Confederacy. Messenger birds had come from all the countries of Ordania, bringing news that the Melgarists had started huge uprisings everywhere. Some cities had fallen into their hands, but definitely not nearly all of them. Filden, for example, had been able to crush the rebellion and some of its leaders had even been destroyed. The majority of the cities in the west of the kingdom had also remained under their control. On the other hand, the Prince of Cislimesia had very unexpectedly sided with the rebellion.

  And then, of course, there was the capital, Greifenburg, where they also attempted the big leap. However, the seat of power was well secured and had even increased the number of troops stationed here and had not fed its men into the army that Etzel now led. The attempted coup by the would-be revolutionaries had been defeated here and all of those who had tried to storm the palace or open the city gates had been eliminated. However, something completely different was now developing outside the city walls. It looked like the Melgarists were building field camps within sight of the city to besiege it! This would be a monumental undertaking, as the city's defences had been designed precisely for the purpose of withstanding something like this. Nevertheless, the situation looked bleak. Major rebellions had now begun in the rural areas of Ordania. The peasants were rising up and more and more of them were driving out or even lynching their feudal lords. Total chaos reigned!

  For the time being, there was silence in the throne room and the lady just looked down at her subjects without a word. One could cut the tension with a knife. Then she finally took the floor: "Well then, we will probably have to take some drastic measures. Contact Field Marshal Etzel immediately and send him back to the capital. We don't have the troops here to break a siege, but with the army he's raised, it's definitely possible. The 'Martyr Brigades', as these heretics call themselves, don't have that many men." After a short pause, her counsellor raised his voice: "Your Majesty, it would be foolish of us not to make arrangements for a safe escape from Greifenburg. Although I am, of course, of the opinion that the city will hold out, I don't want you to be here while the city is being starved out." - "Don't worry!" she pointed out to the man. "The insurgents haven't even begun to surround the city, yet. Besides, we have a secret passage that we can use as an escape route out of the city, if you can still remember."

  "Indeed, Your Highness! I would, however, recommend leaving the capital now purely as a precaution. His suggestion earned a scowl. She countered: "No, we'll wait a little longer. There's still something I have to do before we leave." - "When the time comes, I'll be your escort," promised Gawein, who was also present. She thanked him for his loyalty, whereupon gave a smug smile. Guntram, who was standing next to him, snorted in annoyance at his behaviour. Then she thought for a moment and importantly added: "In addition, a call to war is to be sent to all kingdoms and countries of the Confederacy. The five Knights of the Lands shall be summoned to defend the future of all of us!" - "Yes, Your Majesty!" replied those assembled, like good tin soldiers.

  That morning, Wenzel was woken by birdsongs coming from outside for the first time this year. This immediately lifted his spirits and he jumped up full of zest to get ready for the day. As he was making his way to August, who had set up in the former mayor's office, he bumped into people he hadn't expected to meet. For once, it was a pleasant surprise for him. There were two pretty ladies in the entrance hall, whose names were Irnfrid and Petra. The two, who were August’s and Theodor's partners, had rejoined them now that the city was under their control. "Hello, Wenzel!" the exuberantly happy Irnfrid called out when she spotted him and beckoned him over. When he came to her, she gave the boy a warm hug. As always, she radiated a warm heartiness. Petra, on the other hand, just stood there and greeted him in simple terms. For whatever reason, she made an annoyed impression. Then Petra asked him: "Where can I find August?" - "On the first floor. You have to go up the stairs over there, then left, then down the corridor and take the fifth door on the right and go in by the big door." - "Sounds complicated," she commented flippantly on his explanation. Then the woman went off on her own to see her husband.

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  Meanwhile, Irnfrid stretched her head out in all directions, admiring the intricately decorated ceilings of the huge palace. She seemed to be doing well. The young man kept standin next to her in order to ask her how she was, but didn't want to disturb her while she was looking at the frescoes. In the meantime, Petra was on her long way up what felt like ten thousand stairs to the next floor. When she reached her husband's room, Brahm passed her on his way out. He had just arranged Wenzel's visit to the large city library with him. Everything had been sorted out.

  She simply went in without knocking. When August saw her, his mood immediately brightened, if only briefly. "Honey, how nice that you're here now, too!" He wanted to get up, but then remembered his ruined leg. Remaining seated in his chair, he said: "And how are you?" - "Just fine," replied the lady without further ado. She had immediately realised that something wasn't quite right. "Why don't you get up and give me a kiss?" August, who was not prepared for such a situation, nervously replied: "I can give you a kiss on the hand, can't I? As befits a noble lady." Petra was now all the more suspicious and asked directly: "What's wrong? Tell me." The Chief of Staff sighed and then stood up. When he showed and explained to her what had happened, a look of confused dismay could be seen on her face at first, but it quickly turned to anger. He tried to reassure her: "It'll subside over time, don't worry so much." - "We both know that's not true, August!" she immediately contradicted him. As a result, nothing more came from him. He also knew that his leg wouldn't get better anymore. "I don't understand this. Don't you have the boy under control or what's going on?" his wife now complained. "What's done is done. I can't change it anyway. Besides, it wasn't intentional." - "You don't know that. You don't know anything about magic." The man was silent for a moment, but then replied: "Give things time. All things come with time." Whatever he meant by that…

  Brahm walked quickly down the stairs. Then he saw Wenzel, Ferenc and Irnfrid standing together and chatting. "Well, Wenzel, everything has been discussed. We can leave right away, if you want." The wizard replied in his typically uncertain manner: "Er, yes, okay." The three men then set off straight away. They went out into the fresh air and were pleased to realise that it was the first day that was relatively warm. Spring had finally arrived and life was returning to nature. They saddled their horses and rode along the wide avenues of the imperial city. Their destination was not far away anyway. The streets were not necessarily empty, but they were much less busy than usual, and the people they saw were very often soldiers patrolling the city. On the way to the library, they didn’t draw anyone’s attention, as they didn’t have any kind of identifying sign, flag or coat of arms, yet, that would make Wenzel recognisable as the Chosen One. They rode up to the building and dismounted. Once again, it had a relatively high staircase that had to be climbed in order to enter the building. "Why is everything here built such high stairs?" the lad asked himself.

  They entered the building and saw that there was no one at the reception. So, they simply walked in without hesitation. The first shelves they came across were filled with books on theology. That’s not what they were interested in at all. The books with restricted access had to be somewhere else than directly past the entrance anyway. "Where should we look first, Brahm?" - "I don't know, let's go up the stairs over there. Maybe there's a map of the layout somewhere." As they took the first steps, however, a voice emerged from the rows of books far to the back: "Wait! Hold on a minute!" A middle-aged lady with dark hair and glasses ran towards them. After she had made it to them, she said, panting: "The library is temporarily closed! Please leave again!" - "In that case, you should have locked it," Ferenc logically noted. The lady in a pleading tone conveyed: "Please leave! I have to protect the books and can't allow..." Brahm interrupted her harshly: "The Chosen One will not be denied! Show us where you have the secret section with the books on magic!"

  The woman backed away fearfully. She looked at the three of them, one by one, and then dropped to her knees. "Forgive me, my lords! I had no idea!" That made Wenzel feel very uneasy. So, he went up to her, trying to reassure her. "Please, don't be so frightened. There is no reason for this. We don't mean any harm. I just want access to the archives. She gave him a look, that was still full of worry and replied: "What can I say? The books, you are looking for, are no longer here." At that moment, the young man was surprised. "What? Why?" - "Many decades ago, the king had them all collected and transported to the library in Greifenburg." The young man pondered this for a moment. Then he replied: "Okay, then there's probably nothing we can do. Next stop: Greifenburg."

  But now Brahm intervened again: "Wait, wait! I won't believe any lie I didn’t come up with myself! We'll search the whole building to make sure what the librarian said is true." Ferenc agreed with him and Wenzel couldn't really see any problem with erring on the side of caution. This endeavour took many, many hours. In the end, it turned out that the lady had been telling the truth. The Chosen One was really annoyed by this. Nevertheless, the fact, that they were trying so hard to hide the knowledge meant that it was worth obtaining.