Spherical Structure

Fabio woke up because the sun's rays tickled his nose, and he immediately jumped up and stared at the narrow window above the bed. It had to be late in the morning!

In contrast to Ludovico, Fabio was not accommodated in the palazzo but at a guest house in the large garden.

When he woke up, his memories of that ghostly experience last night came. After Master Arcimboldo had gone, they had carefully swept up the fragments of the skull and locked it back in the chest. Perhaps the star mystics could still use the remains of the eerie object to start something.

But that wasn't Fabio's biggest problem.

Surely his master was awake a long time ago. The rules of the order provided that the work of a paladin had to start at sunrise. Exceptions were allowed in very rare cases. For example, during heavy physical work the day before.

But even then the regulations saw nothing more than an additional hour of rest.

And a paladin had to be in meditation, never sleeping.

Fabio swung his legs out of bed, gave up his daily physical exercises and squeezed into his still clammy pants, which were on the lid of a chest next to the door. It was custom that paladins slept fully dressed and be ready at all times. But with wet clothes, he hadn't wanted to lie down. Hastily he threw the hanger with the short sword over him as he heard footsteps outside the door.

That could only be his lord Ludovico! He immediately took posture. Certainly awaited him now a hard punishment.

The door opened and Fabio saw to his astonishment the tall servant from last night. The man greeted him with a nod, put a bundle of fresh clothes on the chest and put a tray with

bread, cheese and diluted wine on a stool.

"I don't understand ..." Fabio stared questioningly at the servant. "Where's my master?"

"Signore Ludovico and the baron's nephew set out with the best men two hours ago to comb the woods" the servant explained.

"I beg your pardon? You want to make me believe that my lord

rode off without me?"

"This is how it looks. Signore Ludovico wanted us to see you

wake up after he leaves. " The servant smiles kindly. "And when the baron found out about it, he ordered to let you rest well."

Now Fabio no longer understood anything. This was something that in all of the years he had served the Paladin never happened before.

"Has my master left any instructions for me?"

"Yes. You should take care of the young baroness and your drenched luggage until he returns. But you don't have to worry about the latter. Your clothes are being cleaned by our laundress and patched if necessary. "

The servant pointed to the bundle of cloth

"Speaking of which: The Baron wished that you get something fresh. Because, with all due respect, you smell something. I tried to find something suitable for you. If you need anything else, just ask for me. My name is Giovanni. "

"Thanks" stammered Fabio and turned confused to the clothes Giovanni had brought for him.

"The baron is waiting for you in the garden in exactly half an hour."

"Me?"

Giovanni nodded and left the room.

While Fabio was putting on the clean clothes, his tension increasingly gave way to a feeling of disappointment.

Why had his master left him behind? Didn't the paladin think he was able to take part in the goblin hunt?

It wasn't his first time fighting the fiends! And what did the baron want from him?

But his appetite quickly broke him away from the brooding and he delightedly started his unusually sumptuous breakfast. Then he adjusted his short sword again and left the guest house through the front door.

The air is breathtaking with hibiscus, roses, and jasmine. bees and bumblebees buzzed through the air. Fabio saw artful arrangements of flower beds, whereas hedges and bushes were cut into spherical sculptures.

Gentle curving paths led from the palazzo over the three terraces planted with poplars and cypresses down the slope. Lawns and ponds stretched out below with benches to rest and animal sculptures. His eyes fell on to two gardeners weeding and raking beds.

Fabio hastily slipped under an overhanging chestnut branch and went in search of the Baron. Nothing in this garden was left to chance. Beds, lawns, and ponds followed a strict geometric arrangement. Even the silhouette of the massif of the Dolomites, with its mighty peaks in the distance towering on the northern horizon, seemed to be part of the artwork.

Fabio was so impressed that he only really noticed the fountains in the center of the park when he was almost there. Surrounded by a circular water basin with a star relief on the outside in the middle rose the water. It overflowed into several levels. The top of the fountain ended in a filigree marble blossom, which reminded Fabio of a tulip. A weak trickle from there splashed into the basin below, the edges of which were rounded like clouds. A winged stellar with a star-shaped vessel knelt on each level.

Fabio immediately recognized that the fountain represented the structure of the cosmos. The flower at the top of the fountain stood for the world itself, while the pool edges and basin rim - viewed from above - symbolized the seven spheres that surrounded the sky over Astaria like onion-shaped bowls. Their surfaces were formed by the orbits of the changing stars, the manifestations of the Stellars were built after their tales. A similar representation of the cosmos with the spheres of heaven, Fabio recalled, was also to be found on a tapestry in the large assembly room of Castello di Arborea, the castle of the order of the paladins. According to custom, the changing stars were represented as winged people, whom Fabio identified in turn by their characteristic features as Molunah, Mercury, Venudha, Marsakiel, and Juprabim.

Only on the second edge of the pool from above, between Molunah and Mercury, were there three Stellars instead of a heavenly one. They were somewhat smaller than the other winged ones, but they carried a gold-plated ball on their back: the sun. The Stellars had once placed them in the spherical structure as life-givers.

The whole thing was framed by the edge of the pool with the representation of the star wall, the seventh and outermost sphere. In the vastness beyond, according to the teachings of the star mystics, only the chaos that created the enemy of creation was the star vampire.

Fabio remembered that the garden fountains were not working properly. Certainly bubbled in certain times shimmering jets of water from the star vessels of the stellar figures and from the blooming flower.

"Ah, look, there's our squire. I hope the clothes Giovanni brought you suit you?"

The stout figure of Baron de Vontafei rose from a bench behind the fountain. He was accompanied by two Dachshunds with long ears and black fur.

Panting, they jumped around between his legs and snapped for a piece of sausage that he held out to them.

Fabio bowed. "The clothes fit like a glove, you highly born."

"And, rested? After the unpleasant experience last night, I thought I'd let you sleep a little longer."

"Thanks to you," said Fabio. "The sleep was good for me, even if it violates the rules of the order"

"Really?" The baron sliced a sausage he had brought with a kitchen knife and threw the cut piece over to an adjacent grass field. Satisfied, as he watched his dogs storm off to win the treat.

"After all, I know about you paladins, you're pretty strict at all. But if you want, I will not tell anyone that you slept for so long"

" I am forbidden to lie."

"I didn't mean that. " Vittore de Vontafei winked at him, "but if no one asks, you don't need to answer to him"

Fabio sighed but then smiled.

"I hope Paladin Fabricio is also doing well."

"Paladin Fabricio?" Fabio frowned and slowly remembered to have met the burly knight of the order two years ago in Venezia. There was only one knight of that name. "To be honest, I only know this sword brother very vague. Why do you ask for him?"

"He was actually announced to me as my daughter's companion."

"I don't know anything about that, you highly born. My lord Ludovico only informed me a few days ago that we would accompany your daughter to the star mystics. Brother Fabricio was probably assigned another task at short notice. And since we are very close to your country house, we were given this honor."

" Well, I hope that it was not a misfortune that prevented Fabricio from fulfilling his mission. I am very sorry that he cannot be here today. He has a great sense of art, so I really enjoyed his last visit" Vittore de Vontafei looked at Fabio closely.

"But I didn't miss the fact that you, too, have a sense of beauty. " Fabio's face turned red. Was that a indirect hint about Celeste? Had he behaved so strikingly yesterday?

But the baron pointed to the fountain.

"Ah yes, sure, äh..." Fabio cleared his throat. "A marvelous thing."

"It was made twenty-one years ago according to my own design. And none other than the famous sculptor Cosimo Petrarca."

"How does this fountain actually work? I wonder how the water pressure is created for the fountains."

The baron smiled and pointed up to his family seat.

"Our water features are operated by the natural slope of the site. I heard that you already got to know the small river up in the forest. Its water feeds the well under the palazzo, from which a system of water pipes branches in several directions. It not only provides us with running water here, but it also drives two other water features in addition to this fountain, which you can find further down in the garden. Unfortunately, they are currently also out of order."

Vittore de Vontafei sighed, his dogs now raging wildly across the lawn.

"You have to know, I like to surround myself with beautiful things. They make you aware of the splendor of creation again and again."

"I have already heard of your passion. You should also have a precious art collection. Didn't someone break in recently?" Fabio glanced through the groves at the stable at the far end of the garden. To his surprise, the home's colorful panel van stood there, half-covered by a group of trees. Munadella and Ambra were feeding their ponies.

Vittore de Vontafei followed his gaze.

"Ah, the Master Arcimboldo family has already arrived. Very nice. I couldn't allow his wife and his children to stay in the woods when goblins do their tricks." He returned thoughtfully to the starting point.

"A stranger actually entered my property a few nights ago. So far she has steadfastly refused to give her name, but that will certainly change during the upcoming trial. However, the burglar did not make a particularly clever move, even I was woken up by the noise she made." The baron shook his head.

"My nephew followed her into the forest with some guards. There she got caught in one of our wolf traps. By the way, I have to admit: you are amazingly well informed, considering that you are only here for a short day."

"Pure coincidence, you highly born. Was this woman looking for something specific?"

"Unfortunately, I can't say exactly what she did in the tower." Vittore de Vontafei sighed and put the sausage and knife back in a bag.

"However, I had recently added a remarkable watch to my collection, which I had bought for a thousand ducats at an auction near Venezia. It is the work of a sky mechanic named Aucos Calamine and has magical powers. She throws colorful lights on the walls that look like Stellars at midnight."

"The work of a sky mechanic?" Fabio looked up in surprise. According to legend, there had been scholars before who could build magical machines.

The effect of these so-called 'arcanomechanical devices' [the factual term] supposedly even reached the magical powers of the star mystics. The princes and dukes had used the skills of the sky mechanics about five hundred years ago and had enchanted war machines built by them. This rearmament had ultimately led to the great city war and the destruction of Napoli. Only ruins remain of the once-proud port city on the Star Sea, and it has been rumored throughout Astaria that evil forces still work there.

"Are you allowed to have such a device at all? "Asked Fabio in surprise. "I thought during the war the Star Mystics killed the last remaining sky mechanics and all of their work with one spell?"

"The former is correct, the latter is not true," corrected the baron. "star mystics, of course, destroyed all war machines at that time. And certainly, many other artifacts were destroyed in the following years. But there were also great artists among the sky mechanics. Haven't you heard of the Doge's Genoa rainbow column?"

"Yes, it shows the weather for three days. "

"You said it. It is the work of a sky mechanic. Do not believe that she would still stand if arcanomechanical devices were banished and their possession prohibited."