Clockworks Chronicles of Zahn

11) A Journey’s Journal

Mitzie was looking for just the right gear to fit a clockworks mail sorter a secretary for an accounting agency had dropped off to get fixed.

She remembered seeing such a gear among the gadgets she had brought across from her world to Zahn. So, she dumped out the box filled with gadgets and started sorting through the devices trying to find the gear she remembered. She was sorting and digging in a wooden box of her grandma’s. She had used it as a base for one of her devices. It slipped from her hands and fell to the floor, breaking open.

She almost couldn’t believe what she saw spilled out of the box. A two-inch-thick journal and an envelope with “Mitzie” written on the front in stylized calligraphy.

She picked up the items on the floor and she looked at the envelope with several conflicting thoughts and emotions going through her head and heart.

Finally, she placed the journal down on the counter and she, with trembling hands, opened the envelope. The letter within was also written in the same stylized calligraphy as the envelope. She remembered Grandma Marlena writing this way whenever she sent out formal letters and/or invitations.

She read, “My dearest Maritza, if you are reading this letter then I have passed on from this world to my next adventure. I am hoping you don’t weep too much for me for I have had a very long and adventurous life. You see, the stories I have told you of Zahn and my life there were all true. Now I know you’re thinking, ‘you’re crazy grandma’ but it really is so.”

Mitzie thought, “Oh, I believe you grandma. Now.”

She continued to read, “With this letter I have included my journal of my lives and experiences. You have always said I should write down my stories, but you never knew I already had. Before you read my journal, I want you to prepare yourself. You see, I have not told you the whole truth when I told you my stories. Because I didn’t want you to think less of me, I omitted my more sorted experiences and the fact for many years before I came back home to our world I worked as an assassin. I worked alongside my only real friend on Zahn. A woman named Angelika Brenna Walkure. She was also known by many other names in her profession. Visk was her street urchin persona, Vec when she was hiding as a boy urchin, Cassandra was the widowed socialite, and Malice was one of her assassin names. She had dozens over the years to conceal her identity and immortality, as did I. I was one of the few who actually knew her as Bren. Sometimes in a way, you remind me of her. Her build is different but your face reminds me of her, especially your eyes. She had the same pale hazel eyes. Most of the time, they looked sad.

“When I finally returned to our world, I decided to look up her descendants and possibly let them know something about their ancestor. That was when I met your grandfather Paul Walker.

“I really wish you could experience the world of Zahn, which was for centuries more my home world than Earth.

“Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t regret coming back in the least. If I hadn’t, I wouldn’t have come to know your Grandpa Paul or been there to see you born, grow up and become the brilliant woman you are.”

Tears had started to flow uncontrollably from Mitzie’s eyes. Looking up at a celling blurred by tears, she cried out “But I have grandma, I am here now. I hope you can see me now. Look at me now. I’m becoming a clockworks mage as well. All thanks to you Grandma Marlena.”

She struggled to read the last lines of the letter, “Since you cannot see Zahn with your own eyes, you can see them through my eyes. Please take to heart the lessons I have learned in the lives I lived so you may become a stronger and more powerful woman like I know you can be. Your loving Grandma, Marlena.”

Without realizing it, Mitzie had slumped to her knees on the floor. Her tears of both of sadness and joy fell to the floor and on the letter in front of her. She took several long minutes there to get some semblance of composure. The real reason she had put off, for so long, sorting through her grandmother’s things was because she didn’t know how to let go of her. Now, she could not only experience her lives through reading of the journal, in a way it will be like her grandma is still there with her, but she can now also come to experience the world her grandma seemed to love so much. For were not her stories told with such a passion as someone in love? Her train of thought, her reverie was softly pierced by Blake’s voice.

“Mitzie, what’s wrong?” she heard him ask tentatively.

“Oh, nothing. Nothing at all. I just found my grandma again.”

Mike just looked at her with puzzlement in his face.

Tara James stood across from the palace main gates patiently observing and waiting. The one thing she learned from over 150 years of hunting was how to wait.

While sitting there, she opened her journal and carefully noted some more observations about Colonel Cooper’s behavior and patterns. One note was he rarely took the same routs to same places. He seemed to deliberately change up his travels in order to not be predictable. With this observation she realized Cooper was the hardest quarry she ever had to track down. Added his immortality and she realized she really had to plan her next steps carefully.

One of the things that kept her alive for so long was her instinct. She sensed she was being watched. However, when she scanned her surroundings there was no apparent observer. Just some run of the mill people going about their daily business. The only person who was out of place was a young blond girl in a school uniform carrying a book bag, staring around like she was looking for someone.

Tara shook herself and thought, “Maybe, I’m getting a little paranoid because I have never gone after one such as Colonel Cooper.”

However, she also decided to listen to her instinct and move from her vantage point to find another.

She made her way over to a café across from the main gate. She walked in, ordered a coffee and sat down so she could continue to observe the gates.

She sipped her coffee and did a quick scan of the other occupants of the café only to be startled by the same blond schoolgirl standing right next to her looking at her.

The schoolgirl said in a high lilting voice, “Tara James, we need to talk. I was sent with a message.

"You really shouldn't try and collect Cooper. There are much worse fates than death and he will visit them upon you. If for some reason you do manage it, the others will hound you worse than your father did the Varaslak. And one’s fate would be considered kind compared to yours. Don't blame me, I am just the messenger. Oh, and don't believe anything Alexander tells you, she's full of lies and is manipulating you. You need to rethink your life choices before the ‘Ghost’ gets you. "

The voice didn't sound like a schoolgirl and by the time she had absorbed all that was said, the 'schoolgirl' was melting back into the crowd.

The encounter left Tara very disquieted and unnerved.

“Who was the message from?” she asked quietly but no answer was forth coming.