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Full Version: A Witch in Exile, a Daughter in Need
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Freya Eistochter
It was perhaps not the most comfortable place to be, but for someone who spend over five years living inside a small rock floating through the Frankfurt system, including one year in a coma, Akabat was quite decent. It had solid ground and fresh water. Most importantly, the former leader of the Bundschuhpartei, Freya Eistochter, also known as ‘The witch of Frankfurt’, was safe here. For well over a year she had been living here far away from everything and everyone that mattered to her. She had little choice after her former apprentice Nika Haupt backstabbed her. She had to hide far from all that she had built. An attempt to return by installing a loyal and likeminded comrade as party leader failed. Haupt won the election, although in the wake of the election campaign the entire party had been fiercely divided and thrown into disarray. Haupt disappeared, Die Weiße Rose has just split off to challenge the dominance of the Vereinigte Widerstandsarmee, and Freya remained in exile. Exiled from the exiled party.

As an agent of the Order, Akabat was a sensible choice to wait out the storm. It was taking its toll on her however. She was a revolutionary, her place was in the revolution, not in a small apartment on a moon in a system so far from all human civilisation.

She lay on her bed in an Order uniform and went through her long black hair with her hand. Something had to be done, but she had so few options. No doubt many would welcome her if she’d return right now to Bruchsal. Many who never even supported her now longed back to that precious bit of stability in the life of turmoil that every member of the Bundschuh is burdened with. They would welcome her as the only certainty in their lives since 818. It was not possible however to return at this point in time. The issue wasn’t those who wouldn’t mind her return, it is those who would. She cannot actually bring stability right now because her adversaries are too numerous and too influential.

And so she sits here. Waiting. Planning. Scheming.

“Witch, there’s a visitor for you.” A male voice on the intercom interrupts Freya’s daydreaming. She slowly raises her left arm and positions the device around her wrist above her face. With her right hand she taps on the device. “Who is it?” She mutters to the device.

“Some ‘Samuel Cohen’. Says he wants to talk to you.”

Freya’s eyes widen and for a moment she is stunned. Regaining herself, she quickly rises from the bed and walks to the door. On her way she quickly adjusts and straightens her uniform. She halts in front of the door, takes a deep breath and presses the button on the door that opens it. Could it really be him? But how? The white panel in front of her slides to the left revealing her visitor.

“Father…”
Freya Eistochter
Freya was trembling. She did not know whether she should be happy, worried, scared or confused. She felt each of those emotions at once and yet very distinctly. Before her stood a man in his early sixties, slightly taller than herself. He was well-dressed with fairly short curly hair starting to go gray, while his bushy moustache was still black as his hair used to be. He looked tired and weak for his age.

“Hannah?” He too is lost in his emotions. Freya slowly steps towards him and then falls into his arms. Hannah. It’s been so long since she heard that name. Hannah Cohen. An ordinary student from Planet New Berlin. It’s been so long since she left her old life behind, hearing her father say her name feels surreal. The name has been disconnected from her current self. And yet, buried deep down, her old self is still there. They stay silent for what feels like an eternity but in reality lasting only seconds. Then Freya steps back. “Why are you here father? And how did you even find me? Were you followed?”

“Calm down, Hannah, can’t I just visit my daughter once in a while?” Her father, Samuel, smirks, but Freya is not so amused. “Don’t fool around, dad. I haven’t seen or spoken to you for seven years. What happened?”

Samuel sighs. “It is true I’m afraid that I didn’t come for a friendly family visit. I had to come into contact with you as difficult as it was.

You vanished as far as I could tell. You used to be on the news every now and then, it’s how we always knew how you were doing. But then at some point there came rumours of turmoil amongst the Bundschuh, and that you were gone. Of course if they captured or killed you the government would proudly announce that so I knew you were still alive.”
While talking the two get into the apartment and sit at a low glass table. Samuel on a couch, Freya on a chair perpendicular to the couch and table.

“But why did you want to find me in the first place?” Freya asked. Samuel's reply was ominous. “It was not a matter of wanting. I’ve wanted to find you for all these years, but always knew I shouldn’t. But now, I had to.”
Freya Eistochter
The words that followed echoed in her head. She could not move her body, as if she was frozen in time. The seconds that passed felt like centuries. She had tried so hard to become a different person, to be Freya, and for so long it seemed she had succeeded. With one short sentence about her older sister, Freya was thrown back to being Hannah again.

“Yvonne is dead.”

Why?

How?


No!

This could not be true, it couldn’t be. It had to be a joke, right? Please, hurry up with the punchline! But there was no punchline, the only words that followed were “I’m so sorry, Hannah.” Words Samuel could barely manage to speak, spoken so quietly, they could barely be heard.

Minutes passed by without another word being uttered. Freya looked down staring at her own hands. Samuel, after uncomfortably hesitating at first, sat down next to her and tried to console her in silence, although he could barely keep himself together. A few tears rolled down Freya’s cheek, the first in almost a decade, but only a few. She then raised her head and took a deep breath and finally after perhaps more than twenty minutes without either of them speaking, she opened her mouth.

“Wh-..” She failed to finish her words, she swallowed, took a breath, and then tried again, now without tremor in her voice. “When did it happen?”