Murder at the Cosmopolitan
Part 5. Olga's Story
Thaumont 8, Altendorf.
“So, finally, someone tried to kill the dragon lady!”
Olga von Roegen squealed with glee at this bit of news. She was seated at her desk where she was always at (for it was impossible to move her three hundred-pound bulk elsewhere), reading the documents, reports, and letters brought to her by her magen servants.
“The Paparazzi will make a feast of this!” she said, as she rummaged through the pile of papers and plates on her desk. She found a piece of half-eaten apple strudel (which was not what she was looking for), and regarded it carefully. She sniffed it and decided to plop it into her mouth.
She found what she was looking for: a program of The Doom of Alphatia. With grubby fingers staining the program, she turned to page of the cast members.
“… as Zandor. Maximilliano Pampinei as Jaggar. Baldewijn de Woens as Volospin! Ha-ha!” Olga squealed like a pig.
“Imagine that! A Flaemish actor playing an Alphatian! If that isn’t suspicious!”
Olga then stopped in mid-thought.
“De Woens… De Woens! Good Rad!”
Olga had recognized the name. She had read it somewhere before. But she had to be sure. She turned to the pair of magens standing by the door.
“You! Get me my copy of Glantrian Nobility, Volume IV, Part II, and A Collection of Fenswick Fairy Tales by Geoffrey Purple.” she commanded the magen, as it made its way stiffly towards the immense bookcase on the east wall.
“And you! Get me some beer!” she shouted, tossing her stein at the magen. The heavy stein hit the magen squarely on the shoulder, but it did not flinch. The magen picked up the stein and walked to the kitchen.
As the first magen handed her a massive tome, Olga shouted to the other magen, “And some apple strudel! I need desert!”
Olga laid the volume on Flaemish Nobility on her desk, crushing the papers and other paraphernalia beneath its weight. With one chubby hand, she opened the book. With the other, she reached for some sausages on a nearby plate.
“Pieinants, Pieinants, Edelmiro Pieinants. Here it is. Leopol Pieinants, Duke of Fenswick 879-898. Seneschal, Baltasaer de Woens, 879-914.”
The magen handed a smaller book, an illustrated children’s book with colorful pictures. Olga skimmed through the story of “Jack and the Phoenix” and turned to the endnotes of the book.
“The character of the Duke of Flamebury was based on Baltasaer de Woens, known as ‘Baltasaer the Bloody’ and ‘Terror of the Fens.’ Baltasaer ruled as Seneschal of Fenswick from 879 to 914 and was responsible for many atrocities of the Flaemish against the Fenswick. He died in an uprising in 914 , which was according to legend led by ‘Moorkroft Flaemkiller,’ identified as Jerome Moorkroft by Fenswick historians.”
Olga was pleased with herself—and not just because the strudel and beer had arrived! She was quite sure that this Baldewijn is a direct descendant of Baltasaer the Bloody, and decided to re-check that fact later on.
“So Baldewijn de Woens, descendant of Baltasaer de Woens, Flaemish tyrant and ‘Terror of the Fens,’ decides to assassinate the Princess of the Fenswick, Dolores Hillsbury, but is foiled and killed by John Beaumarys-Moorkroft, descendant of Jerome Moorkroft, ‘Moorkroft Flaemkiller’ and killer of Baltasaer de Woens.”
Olga stuffed an apple strudel in her mouth and swigged a mouthful of beer.
“Da! History has a funny way of repeating itself!”
