Sieghard, 29th Kaldezeit

"Don't know that I can rightly say," said Karolina. "Father Schreiber, those kids looked up to him. It hit her hard when he ran off." She paused, setting down the tray of empty cups she'd been collecting. "Suppose they'll never get the chance to talk it over now."

"I need to be getting on," she said, breaking out of the morbid train of thought with a brisk air of business. "Good to be seeing you again, sir."


Sieghard, 33rd Kaldezeit

Cezar nodded gravely. "Raqiyah's spirit will rest easier," he said. He looked down at the earth of the graveyard. "So many people believed... believe, in the name that creature took. I'd like to think, with him dead, maybe something good might be left behind."