Chapter 1
Less than half a century after a second Great War was narrowly avoided, the nations have reorganized, enforced boundaries, and withdrawn into their perspective corners, condemning and ignoring the rest of the world, entrenched in their distinctive beliefs. . .
Anglia Proper
Former England, France, Germany regions
Year 2341
The house seemed to have grown since Nadenya had last seen it. The halls echoed vacantly, the walls tall and looming, shedding cold light in through the narrow, filtered city in which their large house was located. When the trains ran for hours straight during the morning and afternoon hours, the steam was thick, and in the summer, as now, nearly unbearable, even with the windows closed.
And they were almost always closed. That was something her father insisted upon.
The house itself was a namesake, built in the same century the Great Mind had passed away from what was largely considered an assassination.
“What heights the Great Thinker would have raised their fatherland to,” she mumbled in mock sternness, tossing out the phrase her father would say often. “If the Great War had been waged twenty years hence, Anglia Proper would have embraced the world and ruled it as the Great Mind had imagined.”
Few spoke the real name of the Great Mind. Some out of reverence. Some out of clandestine embarrassment at one future the world had escaped.
Those in this last school of thought had guessed through history where that Great Mind would have taken the former nation once known as Germany. Those embracing the first school of thought in history claimed that surely no one would have followed any leader of any nation into such a dark possible future.
In any event, the world had split in the summer of that year.
1929.
Old Europe had dissolved. The American States had fallen economically. The rest of the world sputtered into separate directions and lapsed into a recent past where nationalism was more comfortable and provided stability of the known.
New nations and divisions had formed.
Nadenya knew she was supposed to be in awe of her great history and national legacy, but all she could manage was what the years of indoctrination several academies had imposed on her. Many of the teachings of the initial early Youth Programs had changed from what they were intended to be under the Old Order, mostly diluted into new social standings and proper fatherland citizenry. But there were always the outliers. These had been thinned out even more when some of the more outlandish teachings had been discovered in old papers, and routed out after the Great Mind’s death.
But that was ancient past, as far as Nadenya was concerned.
Since she had turned fifteen two years ago and witnessed her friend kiss a boy not of their social status, she had wondered about the true depth their training held.
Nadenya rolled her eyes even now as she passed the imposing painting of her grandfather, who had coerced the city into planning the housing around the Gerlitch homestead so that the estate would forever be the showcase of the surrounding houses.
“Never a prospect her father would allow her to marry,” she muttered, turning a corner of the hallway, thinking back on witnessing her friend’s kiss. “A mistake.”
And one that could get her friend expelled from High Anglia Meritorious Rank of Our Fathers.
Nadenya knew that all too well.
Now all that remained of the Great Mind were the bronze sculptures, the marble statues showing him arrayed in ancient Roman and Anglian regalia, and fountains and schools bearing his name and fanciful likenesses.
The schools, mostly academies given to the Great Mind’s more docile idealistic teachings, were where he had made his largest marks on history—and his assassins had made certain the Great Mind’s policies had gone no further than advising the nation’s generals and chancellors in cautionary measures.
Even so, the old teachings had scarred the land—in many peoples’ eyes—both foreign and at home.
It had also scarred the children from several nations with the most rigid of academies.
It was that aspect that had ordered his assassination, and the worldwide settling into near total isolationism.
Her steps slowed as she crossed the embroidered carpet of deep burgundy, blue, and gray, the scant bit of color in the hallway.
She was worried about her father’s reaction to her dismissal from High Anglia Meritorious Rank of Our Fathers. He was an unforgiving man, highly placed in the realm, and unapproachable most evenings before his brandy.
Tonight was no different. His study door was open as she passed. He was in his favorite chair, the overstuffed wine and gold wingchair that nearly hid his imposing stature. She could barely see him, only his elbow on the upholstered armrest and the back of his head as he raised the brandy glass to his mouth.
She quickly stepped past the open doorway. She would have avoided the room had she knew he was there. Usually he reserved his nightly drinks until after dinner, but this evening, he had retired from his work earlier. A twinge of pain raced through her stomach beneath her skirts and fitted vest.
She feared she, and her recent antics, may be the cause of his early need for fortitude.
In the full day since she had returned from High Anglia Meritorious, she had not spoke directly to him. At first, it was a relief, but now, as she skirted her father’s presence in the shadows of the great house, fret began to fray her nerves.
Perhaps she could avoid dinner altogether. Her stomach was in no mood for a plate of dry beef and boiled potatoes and blanched beans covered in the cook’s thin brown sauce. It was the basic of suppers, and always served when she had failed, disappointed, or placed lower than her esteemed rank should have in an important competition.
But she did not detect the aroma of beef and potatoes wafting through the halls.
She smoothed her skirt and escaped down the back stairs, wishing the tall walls would close around her in darkness, cocooning her from society.
That would be the word. Society.
How would society judge her indiscretion?
How could she misjudge so poorly?
She still had some misgivings about her friend.
She hurried on.
