Season 1, Episode 6 - The Tree Plot III - "Luv(sic)"

Berlin. Year? Unknown. Sometime during the Belle Époque as it was known in France, the Gilded Age as it was known in America. The city wasn’t all there - it looked like an unfinished painting, with the center colorful and the edges a blank canvas of white. The sky was an odd shade of purple and the streets were dark.

In the Reichstag, Chancellor Otto von Bismarck of the German Empire gazed out the windows of the wide glass dome that served as the roof for the central part of the building. Gaslamps and electric lights flooded the capital city as it stretched into the distance, meeting the purple sky.

“Marie Curie is considered the frontrunner for the Nobel Prize in Physics this year,” Bismarck said stoically, not taking his eyes off of the city. “Can you imagine that? A Frenchwoman being the first of her gender to win that prize. Unacceptable. The honor should be ours. That’s why I’m driving the two of you so hard. I want results.”

Standing behind him was Esther and Friedrich von Hinckeldey, General Director of the Imperial Police. Esther went to answer, but Friedrich cut her off.

“Your Excellency, I can assure you that my daughter is working her hardest on her project,” Friedrich said. Esther opened her mouth, but Friedrich spoke once more. “She’s of good stock. There’d be no one better suited to win the Nobel Prize for the honor of Germany.”

Bismarck stroked his beard. “Then why isn’t she here?”

Friedrich paused for a moment, then tugged at his collar. “She’s in university, Your Excellency. You...know how it is.”

Bismarck tilted his head back to look at the Director, then turned his attention toward Esther. “Yet she’s here.”

Esther bowed her head. “I…um…well, the meeting said for me to come-”

“It doesn’t matter who’s here,” Friedrich interrupted. “What matters is the quality of work.”

Bismarck nodded, then turned to face them. “Thank you for bringing that up, Director. I’ve had the two preliminary reports peer reviewed. Esther’s is far more detailed, and, more importantly, far more correct.”

Friedrich briefly glared at her; Esther looked at her shoes.

“The final reports are due at the end of this week,” Bismarck reminded them. “After that, we’ll choose which candidate to back. The German Empire won’t take second place against France. Best of luck…”

He smirked at this last part. “To both of you.”

Esther and Friedrich saluted and departed the dome. Esther wished to walk alone, but Friedrich was there alongside her. He remained quiet at first, but this late at night (or was it day?), there was bound to an isolated spot along the way. When they reached an empty spot in the Reichstag’s grand staircase to the roof dome, Friedrich grabbed Esther by the collars and pushed her against a wall.

“You forget your place, easterner,” Friedrich snarled at her. Esther frowned sadly at the mention of her heritage, but could she really do? “And even if you weren’t, the Nobel Prize is my daughter’s to take. Not yours.”

Esther squirmed against his grip, so he tightened it. “I just wanted to do research,” she huffed out.

“Good. If that’s all you want, then research something else. Don’t go for the Prize.” He gave her a long look in the eyes. “You have by Friday to resign as a candidate. Otherwise…my Police might find something not to their liking about you.”

He let go, flinging his hand away as if he had just touched something impure. He headed down the staircase, leaving Esther to slide down the wall with a long exhale. She held her head in her hands.

Esther looked up at Isaac from the station platform. He sat inside the train, peeking his head out the window to say his goodbyes.

“I’m sorry,” Esther told him, her voice forlorn. “For complaining all the time. I’ll work hard while you’re gone.”

The train whistle echoed around the station, a grand station named Anhalter Bahnof in downtown Berlin, indicating it was time to go.

Isaac waved goodbye. “I’ll be back soon. I heard the ruins of Nineveh are nice this time of year. I’ll bring you back an Assyrian idol or even a tablet.”

Esther smiled. “I’d like that.”

Steam billowed out of the train smokestack and the wheels began chugging along. Esther raised her hand in farewell as her archeologist friend at the university departed for the Middle East. She watched the train steam out of the station, disappearing into the dark cityscape, kicking up wind that made Esther's coat billow. The train whistle kept whistling and whistling and the metallic banging of wheels in motion intensified and the cloud of smoke only enlarged and Esther felt her rising and rising, off the platform, out of the station, until she rose as high as she could and sat upright in bed.

“A dream,” she realized, holding her blankets. She took a look out her apartment window, high up on the nineteenth floor, and saw the purple sky over Berlin, the blank white canvas providing the border of the city scenery.

Isaac had departed several months ago. He would be back soon - Saturday, in fact. Just in time for Esther to tell him that due to unforeseen circumstances, she would have to drop out as a candidate for government backing.

But…was that the only option? To give in and back out? Esther slipped out of her bed and paced her room. Searchlights suddenly went up in the city, scanning the sky for British or French flyers, always a danger since the Kaiser felt the need to stick a flag in Morocco.

Esther’s eyes followed the titles of psychics textbooks on her shelves. She had come this far…should she really just give up? But Friedrich had power; Esther had nothing. She was just an easterner found by university scouts who believed in her potential.

That’s right. They believed in my potential. And so did Isaac.

A funny feeling ran through when she thought of his name. Sure, he had saved her a few times when she ran into trouble, but it wasn’t just that, it was something more. Esther struggled to find the right phrase for it. She looked out her window to clear her thoughts; the searchlights found German zeppelins in the sky, plodding along, elevated trains chugging along their tracks that ringed the city, a purple color shading the submerged city - submerged in the subconscious.

I see. It’s not that he saved me. It’s that he inspires me.

Thursday night. By that time, Esther’s apartment had been filled with long pages of research notes, detailing chart upon chart and equation upon equation. She had blown through several fountain pens; her typewriter groaned from overuse with each click of a letter. But she wanted to do her best to win that prize.

Esther knew Friedrich was waiting for her resignation. He would have to wait forever.

Scrawling equations out by candlelight, Esther heard a knock at the door. A knock on the door this late at evening…Esther felt her heart race. Friedrich’s threat should’ve been an empty one. Would he really go as far as to arrest his daughter’s competitor? Too on the nose and too suspicious, right?

Nevertheless, as Esther peered through her keyhole, she realized people with power didn’t need to care about appearances.

The secret police captain on the other side, dressed in his black suit, kicked down her door. Esther had enough time just to see the bottom of his boot coming towards the key; he blew the door off its hinges, striking it with enough force to knock Esther down behind it.

In a daze, the captain’s next words barely registered with Esther.

“By order of the Imperial Police…for violating the laws of the Kulturekampf…we’ll be taking you downtown.”

Esther blinked herself awake and struggled, but an agent wrapped an arm around her neck from behind. As they brought her to her feet, she saw Friedrich had sent a whole group to arrest her, all in suits. The captain took a drag from his cigarette as he gestured with his head toward the hallway - take her away. More agents were waiting outside, their hands tense around billy clubs and Mauser C96 pistols.

Esther gritted her teeth. She wouldn’t go down that easy. She opened wide and bit down on a strong arm around her neck. The agent let go, and Esther went to reach for anything that could serve as a weapon, but the fist to her face was faster. She collapsed to the ground and when she touched her nose gingerly, her fingers came away red.

With an angry look, the agent went to grab her-

Several gunshots went off in the hallway. Both the agent and Esther looked over and saw the officers outside crumple to the ground. The captain raised his pistol and, wrapping his arm around the door frame, fired several quick shots. He then went to poke his head out-

A fist greeted him. The captain fell back into the room, sprawled on the ground, his head swimming. When Esther saw who entered the room, her eyes widened.

“We wrapped up a few days ahead of schedule,” Isaac explained with an easy-going grin. “I came to see you, but I guess you already have guests over.”

Esther chuckled at his joke. The agent near her went to shoot him.

But Isaac was faster. Something left his hands and struck the agent square in the forehead. As he fell over unconscious, Esther saw an object slide away from his face - an Assyrian idol, its bug-eyed face of a god stained red with the blood of the agent.

“A souvenir for you,” Isaac explained. Esther laughed again, laughed real hard, then the captain sat up and shot Isaac.

Everybody looked surprised for a moment, then Isaac grinned. “That wasn’t the only souvenir I brought.” He reached under his coat, and pulled out a two millennium old tablet; he broke it over the head of the surprised captain, knocking him out for good.

Isaac offered his hand; Esther gladly took it.

“They were sent by Friedrich,” she hastily explained as she gathered all her research materials - notebooks, logbooks, textbooks - into a backpack. “He wants me to drop my research project.”

They heard the sound of several horse-drawn carriages arriving on street level outside the apartment complex and briefly looked down at them through the window. “Looks like he’s serious about it,” Isaac commented as more carriages arrived. “Let’s get out of here.”

Esther saw dozens of suited men poured out of their carriages. “Can we make it through them?” she asked in disbelief.

“Not down,” Isaac answered. “We’re going up.”

With that, he took her by the hand and the two fled the apartment. The captain brought more officers than expected; when they arrived out in the hallway, two officers with billy clubs were waiting for them.

Very regrettably, Isaac had to let go of Esther’s hand to take them on. He used a strong forearm to block a strike of a billy club, using his free hand to smash the officer’s nose in. He then ducked under the strike of the other officer, then delivered an upper cut as he rose from his lowered position. With those two officers out of the way, and with shouting from the lower floors reaching up to them, Isaac led the way once more.

“There’s a back staircase!” Esther called out as they reached the end of the hallway. Isaac and Esther entered the stairwell, a large one with an open space down the middle that the stairs ran around. Up above them, two officers armed with MP18s fired down the stairwell, the bullets ricocheting around as Esther pulled Isaac back into the hallway just in time.

“I have an idea,” Esther told him. She explained it as she took out a clay tablet from his backpack. They nodded at each other, then Esther tossed the tablet into the stairwell. The two officers up above immediately directed their fire on it, enabling Isaac to poke his head into the stairwell and fire on them. Two bullets - two officers crumpling over the railings, plunging down the shaft.

Isaac and Esther grinned at each other, then continued to flee. They heard shouting from behind them, louder and closer now, as they sprinted up the spiraling stairwell. They arrived at the highest floor just as bullets began flying up the stairwell, narrowly missing them.

The two escaped through a door onto the roof. Isaac reached into his bag and pulled out the stone Babylonian Statue of Marduk, taller than either of them, and braced it against the closed door. “That should hold them,” he said.

The two sighed in relief. Then Esther realized the reality of the situation and stepped carefully over to the edge of the roof. She felt her stomach lurch as she saw just how high up they were - the carriages on street level looked like mere ants now.

“Are we stuck?” Esther asked, backing away from the edge.

Isaac shrugged. “Do you think we’re stuck?”

Of course they were stuck. Except, if Esther really thought about it, if she thought about who was with her, and then thought about herself…

“There has to be a way,” she declared.

Isaac nodded, then pointed out into the purple sky. Esther could see a dark shape emerging from the clouds - a zeppelin. Out from its cabin swung a long ladder that they would be able to cling to as the airship passed overhead.

Esther sighed in relief and made her way back to Isaac.

“We have some time,” Isaac said, a smile on his face. “Let’s dance.”

Esther nodded, smiling in return. “Let’s.”

The Statue of Marduk, with its stone arms, reached behind him and unveiled a classical-looking violin. He looked regal with his long beard and boxed hat as he played slowly and smoothly, the bow always find the correct spot as it slid across the strings. The bittersweet Sicilienne flowed from the violin - despite their current location, Marduk played the French version by Faure.

Esther didn’t mind. Isaac raised his hands; taking a deep breath, Esther took his in her own. His hands felt warm, and her heart skipped a beat when his fingers intertwined with hers. Isaac and Esther took turns leading each other, sliding around the rooftop in time to the slow music, the sky moving to a darker shade of purple, the elevated trains picking up their pace around the edge of the city.

The zeppelin moved closer. Keeping one hand intertwined, the two stepped away from each other, then moved back close, their free hands reconnecting. Isaac twirled Esther, then the two slid across the rooftop once more, spinning and spinning, spinning to infinity under a dark purple sky, above a city lit by gaslamps and the inner desire of a soul.

“You inspire me,” Esther told him as she held him close. “You saved me from a spy and you saved me from destroying things with my sister. But most of all, I want you close to me because you inspire me. I’m getting more comfortable with who I am now. And more than that - I want to improve myself.”

Isaac nodded, flashing her a smile. Esther felt a warmth deep inside her, spreading out from heart, reaching her fingertips. Isaac dipped her-

And Esther felt something cold on her face. As she groaned from a dull pain growing in her temple, she tried to get up, but something trapped her. Panic rose over her for a moment; then she realized it was just her blanket. She maneuvered herself out of it and saw her forlorn reflection looking back up at her in the linoleum floor of her dorm room.

I must've fallen out of bed. Trying to regain her bearings, she stood and glanced out her window - the breaking of dawn over the roofs of the Academy and nearby Tsukishima Station greeted her.

“Just a dream,” she realized with a sigh. But what a dream it was! Admittedly, there were a lot (a lot!) of anachronisms in there, along with a hint of fantasy Esther didn’t know she had in her, but that warm feeling in her heart from the Berlin rooftop remained in there, even when reality made its inevitable return.

But then she cringed. What an embarrassing dream! I said too much in it. My dream itself said too much!

She wiped her face and walked over to her wardrobe.

But it wasn’t wrong.

Knowing she wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep, she threw on her greatcoat and decided to go on a walk. It would be good to clear her head before the meeting with the Academy inner circle later that morning.