[PK] The Lemon Trees of Adria

[Laeonathan 5892]

 

Lemon Trees of Adria

The death of Vasyl Otto Sarkozic, Cardinal-Magister Montfort (135 to 258 S.A.)

 

★  

It was an early spring evening, and the sun began setting as Vasyl felt strength for the last time – a feeling unknown to him ever since they had settled over from Aevos to Azuras, here where the Adrian people built a new town called Belgrade. He was one hundred and twenty-three years old, and he knew it was his time. He felt that God had given him one more moment. So he was going to use it. The old Cardinal-Magister took out a bottle of wine and his flute, and marched out of the de Sarkozy manor to sit down under a lemon tree.

 

He put the bottle down next to him and began playing his flute. The small Adrian town was illuminated by the gentle, solemn sound of his final playing. His mind wandered back to the days of his youth, when he fought for his liege, Sir Gaspard, in the First Coalition War of the Old Continent. 

 

One day, he and a few Veletzians – the elf named Thalien, the Automaton they called Warlock, and one strange man whose name he had already forgotten set out for the capital of Balian. To their surprise, it was incredibly easy to break in from the docks, and there in the square they found none other than their Queen. She was quickly captured, and it did not even need the magical prowess of  Thalien nor the raw strength of Warlock. Her people and Guards had not even defended her.

 

He laughed, and stopped playing, putting the flute aside.

 

Three times, he poured a little wine into his glass. The first time, he drank and raised his cup to his father, Markus, and his fellow loyal Adrians. The second time, he drank and raised his cup to Sir Gaspard and to his son Tiberius, who had managed to claim the Imperial throne and unite humanity once again. And the last time, he raised his cup to Father Callahan, who had managed to free the Temple from the Sigismundite heresy.

 

 

He knew he had lived a long, blessed life, and he was proud to have helped end the heresy and to have fought for the son of Sir Gaspard to restore a united humanity. He may not have been the greatest hero of mankind, no, not even close. But he knew he had done his part.Winburgh truly remembered. And he had remembered it.

Vasyl looked up to the sky before weakness overtook him, and he fell asleep peacefully with a smile on his face. There he would be found dead under the lemon trees of Adria, within the restored Holy Imperium.

 

★

 

[Crevel 7561]

Upon hearing of the fallen Cardinal-Magister, Father Martin utters some prayers for the Temple and the Sarkozic's peaceful entry to the Seven Skies.

[Navigator 4260]

Casimir Henry Sarkozic signs the Lorraine for his fallen kin.

"Should probably arrange for a funeral. . ."

[Baccaaa 494]

Somewhere in Adria, Regina is strolling, deeply saddened. Vasyl was one of the few people remaining that had fought besides her in the First Coalition War in Aevos for Veletz. She would reminisce of the day Vasyl told her that their names meant 'King' and 'Queen' in their respective languages. Alas now, she was the only one in Adria of such advanced age, beyond that of even her now deceased friend, Vasyl. Deep inside she knew her time would come sooner or later and alas uttered a prayer at the stall she sat upon for the soul of them both.