The Art of Infiltration teaches that in order to pretend to be somebody else, one has to become somebody else. In order to protect the Conduit one of the guardians of Bergenstätt has to infiltrate the SS. Initially he does not know that this battalion of less than 300 men will rise into the most notorious state police force in history. Taking on the alias Josef Thiefenthaler the guardian soon rises in the ranks of the SS, participating in covert operations prior to the war and in hunting Jews during the war he becomes known as the „eiserne Sepp“ or the „Iron Joe“. In order to pretend to be someone else, one has to become someone else. Gradually the fake personality takes over, the guardian turns more and more into a ruthless Nazi officer. He becomes the Iron Joe.

 

 

The Art of Deception – 1927

 

She found Selig standing by the pond, letting flat stones skip over the water. For once Taube could come to him with a light heart. Selig had been right. Josef had forgiven her and when she had made it clear to Moses that she and Josef were getting married he had eventually given up. He had not done so right away. He had spent almost two months trying to convince her to change her mind. But eventually he had given up. She felt sorry for Moses, but she did not regret her choice. She wanted to spend her life with Josef. As expected her father was furious. Once again he was much more furious than she had expected. He had actually taken it to the limit and forced her to take the matter to the village council, apparently hoping that she was not prepared to do so. But she knew she had only this one more chance with Josef. And she was not about to risk it because her father threw a tantrum.

As expected the village council had voted in her favor and her grandfather Avraham had put her father into his place. The prettiest girl of Bergenstätt wished it had not been necessary to embarrass him so. But it had been his own fault that he had tried to force the issue. The wedding was set for later that spring. The date was quickly approaching.

“It is nice to finally see you smile when you are coming to see me Taube. I was beginning to wonder if it was me that always made you weep whenever you sought me out.”

“I guess I deserved that,” Taube said with a smile, spread her arms and whirled around letting her dress rise a little. For a brief moment Selig’s eyes rested on her calves as they were revealed. He felt a stab go through his heart knowing what both his brother and he had lost.

“So I guess it is too late to tell you that you are making a mistake and that you should marry me instead,” Selig said and made it sound like a joke. But the fact that now she was lost not only to Moses, but also to him saddened him. Taube luckily did not catch the brief moment of pain that displayed in his eyes above his smiling mouth. Taube did consider it a joke and laughed about it.

“I’m afraid you are too late Selig.”

“Just my luck, the prettiest girl of Bergenstätt goes off and marries Josef Blumenthal. I’m happy for you Taube. I think you’ve made the right choice.”

“Thank you Selig.”

“It took you long enough too.”

Both of them laughed. Then they sat down, throwing pebbles into the pond.

“Do not marry Josef, do not marry Moses, marry me. We will have a child together, but he will be like me,” Selig started telling to the girl throwing pebbles into the pond next to him.

“Get over it,” Taube demanded, laughed and shoved him away, asking him not to be silly. He said something else. She shook her head. Her hand went to her lips as she shook her head again.

“NOOOOO!!!” she screeched and ran off to the village crying. Before she got there she stopped to calm herself. She needed to be strong now, strong and hard as steel. Things needed to be put in motion. She hated herself for having to do them. She wondered if she should just go cut her wrists instead. But there was no choice. It had to be done. And it had to be done quickly before Ezekiel had a chance to counteract her efforts as he surely would. He would not like it once he found out what she had done. But this was her choice, not Ezekiel’s. Of course she did not like it any better.

When she reached Bergenstätt there was a lot of commotion. The whole village was in panic. Most were running around like headless chickens, some were crying, others were going from door to door. More than once someone was desperately calling Selig’s name.

“He is fine, skipping stones up by the pond,” she told anyone who cared to listen to her. Looking through the crowd she chose the people she would approach, the people where she would plant her poisonous seeds. She bit back the tears that threatened to overwhelm her again and then emptied her mind like the grandmaster had taught her to do. She focused on her goal. It might not have been a very desirable goal. But there was no choice and therefore it was her goal. And she would reach her goal, even if she knew that she would break down and cry once she had been successful.

She spotted Avrom Bayer and strode toward him with a purpose. Avrom was a couple of years older than Josef and like Josef he was a veteran who had survived the horrors of the Great War less than a decade earlier.

“Greetings Avrom,” she said as she approached him.

“Taube? Have you heard, Sender…”

“… has died this evening, yes I have heard.”

“And Selig is nowhere to be found…”

“He is up by the pond. I’m sure he will be down shortly.”

“You have seen him?” Avrom asked and sounded relieved.

“He is fine. Don’t worry, this is not the gap.”

“We should go and get him,” Avrom said and was about to make away. But Taube was not done with him yet. She linked her arm into his and led him off to the side.

“Half the village is already sprinting up to the pond. Don’t worry, he is fine.”

Avrom looked up and saw Taube’s words confirmed.

“So you and Josef are finally getting married?” Avrom asked intending to have some small talk and inadvertently giving her just the opening Taube was hoping for.

“Josef is so handsome and he is a real German war hero, don’t you think?”

“Yes, he even earned himself an iron cross during the Great War,” Avrom answered and Taube had him hooked. Using her considerable skill with the art of deception she carefully planted a thought into Avrom’s subconscious while holding a seemingly random conversation with him.

“I think this experience will make him an excellent guardian for Selig.”

“Indeed, I think you will get married to Selig’s first personal guardian,” Avrom said and luckily had not looked at her or he would have seen the pain in her eyes.

After a few more moments of casual conversation Taube spotted her next victim. Lev Goldstein, he was Itzak’s father and was of an age with her own father. He was often critical of her father’s decisions in the council. That was why she needed to plant one of her seeds into him.

“I’ve got to go,” Taube told Avrom and then approached Lev with the same purpose in mind that she had had as when she was approaching Avrom. She still hated herself for doing this. But it got easier after the first time.

“Mr. Goldstein, good to see you.”

 

“Lev Goldstein was one of my great grandfathers on my father’s side,” Elspeth explained in her living room in Muddy Creek.

 

While intruding on Lev’s subconscious to plant another of her thoughts Taube was talking about how beautiful Josef was. She emphasized his European looks, his blond hair, his blue eyes and his tall stature.

Next on Taube’s list was Zeff Kirschner.

 

“And Zeff was your grandfather Yenkel’s father, while Yenkel’s brother Srol was Yosef’s grandfather,” Elspeth told the dark skinned Professor Edwards to let him know how he was related to the guardians of Muddy Creek.

“So Yenkel was married to my grandmother, Ezekiel’s daughter, what did you say her name was again?”

“Charna Zalman;”

“I wished I would have had the chance to get to know them. My mother never talked about them at all,” Raymond Edwards lamented.

“Your mother wanted to get away from it all. Talking of her parents would have reminded her too much of what she had given up when she left Muddy Creek.”

 

“Greetings Ms. Silbereisen,” Zeff greeted Taube, “I see you are unfazed by the death of the Conduit, unlike the rest of the village.”

“Conduits die, but Selig will take over, it is nothing to get upset about,” the girl answered to start the conversation and was already working on intruding on the man’s subconscious.

“I guess you have nothing but Josef on your mind at the moment. It’s good that you two finally got together. I think it will be good for the village to have the ceremony and the celebrations, especially now after the shock of Sender dying.”

“Josef is such a wonderful man and he is so brave. You know that he kept serving Germany even after the Great War was over. He joined the Freikorps and fought the communists in Berlin and in Munich,” Taube rhapsodised about her betrothed, emphasising his bravery and valor.

After a short and seemingly pleasant conversation with Zeff the beauty of Bergenstätt excused herself. She had spotted her next victim. Before she approached Sisel Schuster, Taube took a few deep breaths. That woman she really did not wish to talk to. But she was an essential part of Taube’s deception.

Sisel was a personal guardian of Sender’s and she was the mother of his heir Selig. The girl did not know how much training Sisel had received to qualify her as a personal guardian. She could not imagine that woman had gotten any training at all. But when working the art of deception one could not work based on assumptions. That was a lesson Taube had learned the hard way when she had once attempted to use the art on Josef. Thinking of Josef made her heart ache. She had to steady herself again before rushing after the Schuster woman. Since Sisel had been a personal guardian there was a minute chance that she had also received training in the art of deception. And if she had, she might also have received training in recognizing intruding thoughts. That could have disastrous results if Taube attempted to place one of her thoughts in Sisel’s subconscious. Therefore it was best to avoid taking this chance. But neither was it necessary to do so with the Schuster woman. Taube would just have to tell her what she wanted to hear and Sisel would play her part thinking it was her idea all along. Not every deception required an intrusion into a person’s mind. Sometimes all one had to do was to encourage people to be themselves and they would be deceived just as well.

“Mrs. Schuster, can I have a word with you?” Taube asked keeping her voice meek and friendly.

Carrying Mirele and leading Charna by the hand Golda Zalman had spotted Taube. She had actually hoped to talk to Taube. Her husband Ezekiel needed to talk to the girl. With Sender’s death the guardians were presented with new challenges. The grandmaster was collecting his apprentices around him to make plans on how to deal with any situation that may arise. And Golda had planned to let Taube know about that meeting. But young Ms. Silbereisen seemed to be darting around from one person to another, almost as if she had some ulterior motive in doing so. And slowed down by her two young daughters Golda never got the chance to catch up with the girl.

Since birth Golda’s face had been disfigured, making her look like she could have been the model used for one of Picasso’s paintings. Luckily both of her daughters were taking after their father and looked normal. Most people in the village could not bear to look at Golda. They found excuses to be elsewhere whenever she showed up. Initially only Ezekiel had treated her like a human. This was also how she had ended up marrying him, a man who was thirty-four years older than she was. But shunned as she had been and often still was in the village, she had not exactly had a lot of options open to her. Ezekiel was kind to her and she had taken her chance, kind of throwing herself at him, the only person who treated her normal. Now they had two beautiful daughters and Ezekiel was teaching her guardian lore together with his other apprentices who had by now gotten used to the sight of her as well and had befriended her since.

“Taube,” she called out hoping to catch her friend’s attention, but Taube once again had not heard her. Instead the auburn haired girl was heading straight for Sisel Schuster. Golda would have thought that Sisel would have been the last person on Earth Taube wanted to talk to, especially then, so close to her wedding to Josef.

And Sisel had not been the first person Taube had approached. Thinking that it might be important Golda tried to remember. First she had talked to Avrom. This had not been too surprising, Avrom and Josef were good friends and Taube probably knew him well by now. But then there was Lev Goldstein, Itzak’s father. Why would the girl talk to Lev or to Zeff Kirschner for that matter? And now she was talking to Sisel Schuster. And the two of them seemed to have a civil conversation. Sisel looked like she pitied Taube. And Taube suddenly looked like she was lost and needing help. And it looked almost like Sisel promised to grant her that help. Golda wished she were close enough to hear what was going on.

After Taube and Sisel parted ways – and they parted ways on good terms – Taube headed straight for Moses.

“What are you up to now, girl?” Golda mumbled as she watched Taube hug and kiss Moses. This could not be right. Golda knew of course that for the longest time Taube had been indecisive and flirting with both of the men that sought her attention. But once she had decided to marry Josef she had brushed off Moses almost cruelly. Why was she kissing him now? Was the girl having second thoughts about the wedding after all?

Leaving Moses confused and staring after her Taube next sought out her parents. Like with Sisel and Moses she would not need to resort to the mystical aspects of the art of deception in order to make them play the parts she had in mind for them. She just needed to insult them a little and then gloat that she was going to marry Josef also without their permission.

Never even suspecting that their daughter might play them, Benjamin and Elkie Silbereisen were soon agitated and angry at their daughter. They were none the wiser that they were caught in her web of deceit and that they were about to do exactly what she wanted them to do.

Taube shook her head. Her parents were so easy to manipulate, it was almost scary. But her work had not been done with pointing her parents into the right direction. There were a few other people she still needed to talk to before Selig was found and brought back to the village.

 

***

 

Guarded more like a prisoner than a revered religious icon, Selig was escorted back into Bergenstätt. The agitated villagers crowded around the village square to listen to the words of the new Conduit and to learn who would be chosen as his personal guardians.

Selig picked up a stick and cleared a bit of space around him. Ezekiel noticed that give or take a bit of a wild look in his eyes the boy was remarkably centered for having become the Conduit less than two hours ago. The rest of the villagers could not care less. They were happy that Selig seemed to be more coherent and easier to understand than his father though.

Selig used the stick to draw a swastika into the dirt. Taube, now standing next to Ezekiel asked him, “What is that?”

“They call it a hooked cross,” Ezekiel answered, “It is the symbol of the Nazis.”

“What does it mean? Why is Selig drawing it?” Taube asked as did a lot of the other villagers. Ezekiel shrugged. He did not know yet, but he feared that the times of leisure had come to an end in Bergenstätt.

“This means war,” Selig started to explain. The villagers took it in stride. There had been wars before. The last one had ended less than a decade earlier. Several people of the village had died fighting in that war. But other than that Bergenstätt had not been touched by the conflict. There had never been any danger to the Conduit or to the guardians as a whole. Besides after the last war, the Great War, the war to end all wars surely humans had learned their lesson. That new war could not be such a big deal. Not after the World War. Nothing could ever couple the slaughter of 14/18. But Selig was not finished with his explanation or his prophecy.

“The Christians have a name for it. They call it hell. They think their hell is a mystical place, one half of what they think the afterlife to be like. They do not know that hell will be right here. Fleets of aircraft shall reduce entire cities to rubble in the span of hours. Cities that were built over the span of a thousand years shall fall within a single day or a single night. Fire shall consume men, women and children alike, hundreds of thousands shall die. By the end of the conflict a weapon shall be built more horrible than any that humans have ever conceived of. Two cities and their populations shall cease to exist in the blink of an eye. This is a war that will not be fought on the field. This is a war that shall be waged by extermination. Soldiers have always died in wars. This time the rest of the population shall burn.”

Taube looked shocked. She had heard Josef’s stories about the war. But what Selig was describing was something else entirely. Whole cities destroyed in the span of a few hours – or even in the blink of an eye. This sounded like…

“The gap,” somebody shouted referring to the guardian version of what in Christianity was known as Armageddon, the end of the world. The gap was what the guardians knew would occur if the connection between God and creation were ever to be severed completely. The Earth, all of creation in fact, as well as God himself would cease to exist if that ever came to pass. The only way that could ever happen however was if the Conduit were killed without an heir.

“Is he talking about the gap?” Taube asked of Ezekiel. The wizard could only shrug. He did not know. But he feared that even if Selig was talking only of a war, the gap would turn all too soon into a real possibility. And all he had were seven guardians who were still following the old ways.

“He did not say this was the gap, but I fear that for those of us who know how to protect the Conduit we may yet be faced with the gap,” the wizard eventually answered.

“This is just a war. It is not the gap,” Selig continued, causing a collective sigh of relief amongst the villagers of Bergenstätt, “But we may yet be faced with the gap as a result of this war. The guardians shall be faced with their biggest challenge in nigh on two thousand years. And if they fail, then this war shall also be the end of time.”

Although unwilling to admit it to themselves, many of the villagers inadvertently searched for Ezekiel Zalman amongst the crowd. The wizard had always warned that the guardians needed to return to the old ways, needed to be prepared to protect the Conduit. Many now feared the wizard may have been right. And now they wondered whether or not they were prepared to face that vision of destruction Selig had presented them with. Should they have been more diligent in preparing for this? Their fears were confirmed when Selig continued.

“Sender had warned us about the beast. Although the beast too is but a player in the madness the world faces, Sender’s words ought to have been heeded! He was the Conduit! What were you thinking ignoring a warning given you by the Conduit?”

The villagers went quiet. Nobody dared to look, neither at the new Conduit nor at Ezekiel Zalman, who had been the only one in the village who had wanted to act upon Sender’s words.

“What if we kill the beast now?” Avraham Silbereisen asked. He was the Mayor of Bergenstätt as well as the father of Benjamin Silbereisen, who had been instrumental in causing the council to vote against Ezekiel’s suggestion.

“If you seek to kill the beast now you will not stop the movement any longer. You will turn him into a martyr and another will quickly take his place and all of us will be hunted. Other measures need to be taken now. These too will bear a risk and there will be no guarantee for my survival. But it is the only chance the guardians have to fulfill their destiny. Sender has mentioned that friendship can give a warning. This is the time when we must seek this friendship.”

“Can you tell us how to go about this task?” the Mayor asked of the Conduit. There was a brief scare when Selig, who had been uncannily coherent up until that point, suddenly had foam around his mouth and was babbling something no one could understand. For a brief moment the Conduit looked straight at Taube. She gave a barely perceptible nod. Aside from Selig only Golda noticed. She wondered what was going on, but already the Conduit started talking again, “There is a paramilitary group in Germany today known as the Sturmabteilung or SA. A number of members of the SA used to be members of the Freikorps, the rest are mostly untrained ruffians. The SA is also known as the brownshirts. Here in Bavaria there is a tiny subdivision of the SA calling themselves the Schutzstaffel or SS. Currently the task of the SS is to protect speakers of the NSDAP from attacks by radical communists. But their significance will grow as events in Germany unfold.”

Ezekiel who had kept himself informed of current events was nodding.

“One of the guardians, one who is skilled in the art of infiltration, must be sent to infiltrate this SA. He must use his skills to rise to a prominent position and then catch the attention of one of the leaders of the Schutzstaffel, a man by the name of Heinrich Himmler. It is essential that the guardian earns membership within the SS, even if they do not appear to be very influential at the moment. The guardian chosen must be a master of the art of infiltration and other arts necessary to accomplish his tasks. He must know all aspects of the arts, including the largely neglected mystical aspects of these arts. If this guardian fails to gain the trust of this Himmler and the SS then the world will come to an end!”

Suddenly all eyes turned toward Ezekiel. The wizard had always claimed that the guardians needed to continue to study all aspects of the seventeen gentle arts. But he had been alone in this presumption and except for a handful of Ezekiel’s apprentices none of the guardians could perform these skills any longer. The grandmaster feared he knew what that was leading up to. There was none more skilled in the art of infiltration than Ezekiel’s own protégée Josef Blumenthal. But Josef, he hoped, would be the one to replace him as grandmaster eventually. Josef was the one he had started teaching everything he knew about the soul shredders and about the ascension, lore that had been hidden and almost lost even long before the people of Bergenstätt had all but abandoned the old traditions. Ezekiel knew that Bennie would immediately nominate Josef to take on this task, if only because this would take Josef out of the village and then Bennie’s daughter Taube would not be able to marry Josef. But Ezekiel Zalman needed Josef here in the village to continue his studies. He could not afford to lose the boy on a mission to befriend some Nazi or other. Ezekiel knew he had to act fast and use the art of deceit to make sure the villagers chose another for the mission. Moses Schuster was very skilled in the art of infiltration as well. He was a close second to Josef’s skill. Losing Moses would be a loss as well. Losing any of his apprentices would be a big loss. But Moses, unlike Josef, was not essential for Ezekiel’s plans.

Before anyone, especially Benjamin, could point a finger at Josef Blumenthal Ezekiel had to nominate the Schuster boy. And then he had to use all his skill against his own village to get them to confirm his choice for the mission.

“Moses has proven himself very skilled in the art of infiltration. He will be more than capable of completing this task to the Conduit’s satisfaction,” Ezekiel quickly suggested and then sent out thoughts of confidence in the boy’s abilities to everyone in the village. It would have been better to work on people individually and plant more specific thoughts in their subconscious. But Ezekiel did not have time to do so. He needed the majority of the villagers to vote for Moses and against Josef, who was sure to be nominated by Bennie in a heartbeat.

“I’m sure Moses would be a good choice, but the Conduit has made it clear that we need to send the best. And there is one who had received training from the master much longer than Moses. Josef Blumenthal has been studying the arts under the grandmaster’s tutelage since before Moses was even born. I think the Conduit has made it clear that we need to send Josef,” Benjamin Silbereisen suggested as expected. Benjamin also gave a self-satisfied smile in the direction of his daughter Taube. This way Josef would finally be out of the picture and out of the village. If all went well he would not return there for years. That would stop Taube’s silly plans of marrying him and even the way for her to marry Moses instead as both he and his wife had wanted to begin with.

“No, please Josef and I are about to be married! Don’t send him away,” Taube begged frantically.

“Hush you silly girl,” Ezekiel hissed at her, “If you want Josef to stay here let me handle this. Don’t give your father any more incentive to push for his choice.”

Golda watched and had to wonder. Was Taube really this silly or was she working her own deception? What was she talking with all of these people about earlier? But that was a silly thought. Why would Taube of all people manipulate the villagers to send away Josef? Or had she changed her mind after all? Was she in love with Moses after all? But that would mean she must have known what Selig would say before he had said it to the rest of the village. Taube had known where Selig had been when everyone in the village had been searching for him. Had he revealed his prophecies to her first? But still, it did not make any sense at all. Taube had been flirting with both men, but Golda would bet her daughters’ lives on the fact that Taube wanted to spend her life with Josef. Perhaps she had just panicked and been silly after all.

As the wizard had feared, Benjamin was encouraged by his daughter’s ill-timed outburst and immediately added another argument to his cause, “I realize the timing is bad, especially for my daughter’s wedding plans. But we are guardians first. The wishes of the individual have to be put behind the security concerns about the Conduit. Is that not so Ezekiel?”

“We must listen closely to the wishes of the Conduit to guide us, but the Conduit has not mentioned any name. He only mentioned that it needed to be a guardian skilled in the art of infiltration. How long one studies the arts is irrelevant. Some people learn very quickly, others learn very slowly. Moses is my best student when it comes to the art of infiltration,” Ezekiel said, hoping to salvage the situation. He also projected his confidence in Moses’ abilities once more.

Elkie spoke up and as expected she supported her husband. But Elkie had never been very influential in council. Her voice did not matter. Sisel of course wanted to keep her Moses close to her and also spoke out in favor of sending Josef. She was a personal guardian of Selig’s father Sender and as such she held some sway in the decision. But luckily she was a very annoying woman. If convinced that Moses was as good a choice as Josef would be, many in the council might vote with Ezekiel if only in order not to agree with Sisel Schuster.

Suddenly however arguments were made favoring choosing Josef for the mission. Many of these arguments came from people Ezekiel would not have expected to support Benjamin and Sisel’s efforts. On the contrary, Ezekiel had been certain they would be his allies in nominating Moses for the mission.

Zeff Kirschner stated, “The Conduit mentioned that some of the members of the SA had been in the Freikorps. Josef has been with the Freikorps as well, this might give him an edge that Moses would not have. So while it does not happen often, I find myself agreeing with Benjamin. Josef would be a better choice for the mission.”

Josef’s friend Avrom Bayer spoke up next. But once again the argument he made was in favor of sending Josef out of the village instead of arguing to keep his friend in the village, “Josef is a decorated war hero, if these Nazis are so nationalistic and so proud to be German then an iron cross would go a long way for them to accept Josef as one of theirs.”

Then there was Lev Goldstein, “From what I know these Nazis have a very specific idea of the image of a proper German. Moses may be skilled in the art of infiltration and he would have no problem passing as a Bavarian, but his dark locks and tanned complexion hardly make him an ideal German, not by the Nazi ideology. Josef on the other hand is blond and blue eyed. I’m afraid I too need to agree with Benjamin on this. Josef is a better choice for this mission, regardless of how they may compare in skill.”

Ezekiel could barely keep himself from swearing loudly. This was not going as planned, not at all.

Golda looked at Taube. Avrom Bayer, Zeff Kirschner and Lev Goldstein, the girl had spoken to each one of them before. What was the girl up to?

Sisel saw that this was a chance to do Taube the favor the girl had unexpectedly asked for earlier today.

 

“Mrs. Schuster, can I have a word with you?” Taube asked keeping her voice meek and friendly.

Sisel was worried. Her son Selig had turned into the Conduit and he was missing. Taube was supposed to have been married to her other son Moses, but the silly girl was chasing Josef instead and had now garnered support from the village council to get married without her parents’ permission - against Sisel’s vote as well as the votes of Taube’s own parents Benjamin and Elkie, one might add. She had in fact broken her Moses’ heart, so Taube was not Sisel’s first choice of a conversation partner.

“What is it girl? I really have no time for your games right now,” Sisel said and tried to push past Ms. Silbereisen. But Taube begged her to listen.

“I think I’ve made a terrible mistake Mrs. Schuster and I do not know how to fix it anymore.”

“That seems to be what you do best girl. Whatever mistake you think you made, it can’t be half as bad as the mistake you made when you forced the council to accept your ill-considered marriage with the Blumenthal boy instead of listening to your parents.”

“I know Mrs. Schuster. That is the mistake I am talking about.”

That stopped the other woman short. She turned to face Taube.

“That realization comes a bit late don’t you think girl?”

“I know, and I don’t know what to do now. Will I have to marry Josef now?”

“Well better late than never I suppose,” Sisel said harshly, but then felt pity for the girl, “It will be highly unusual, but if you are serious I will bring the matter up anew in the council.”

Sisel planned already to bring the matter up once more even if Taube now changed her mind again. The girl was a silly goose, but her Moses loved her. If she could still arrange a marriage between Moses and Taube, her son was sure to be grateful, and happy.

“You would do this for me? After everything I have done?”

“We have all been young and silly once girl, of course I’ll help you.”

“Thank you Mrs. Schuster,” Taube said and sounded relieved, but it was all she could do not to state that some of them may have grown older but were still dumb as straw.

 

“It has already been mentioned that Josef and young Taube were planning to get married soon. And some of you may consider choosing Moses over Josef for this matter alone. But let us remember that the girl was caught in a love triangle with both Josef and Moses. So we will not do her much of a favor, regardless of which we choose for the mission. But while she may be too embarrassed to speak up herself, I think we all know that Taube got herself entangled in a struggle with her parents. It was a struggle I’m afraid I must admit I added to by being a little bit over eager to agree with her parents and to have her married to my son. So she did what young people are prone to doing. She did the exact opposite of what her parents wanted her to do. Her parents wanted her to marry Moses, so she chose Josef, a man who is nine years older than her and who was traumatized by the war to boot. We all know that this would make her life very difficult, but since it has been her own choice she cannot now change her mind without losing face before her parents. But if Josef gets chosen for the mission the girl will get another chance to choose, either Moses or one of the other young men in the village. So I must beg you not to let your pity for the girl influence your choice. I strongly believe that by sending away Josef you will in fact do her a favor.”

“Oh come on Sisel, we all know that you wanted her to get married to Moses and it vexed you to no end that she chose Josef instead. But this is below even you,” Ezekiel argued and nudged Taube, “Speak up girl! If you say it they will believe it.”

But Taube did not speak up. She looked embarrassed and turned her head away, staring at the ground in front of her.

“Well the girl is clearly shocked that this has turned into a discussion about her relationship again,” Ezekiel stated, desperately trying to salvage the situation. Why did Taube not speak up? This was a disaster.

There were of course a few voices in favor of sending Moses out instead of Josef, but aside from Josef’s father Fischel and Josef’s sister Schprinza those voices were few and far between.

While Ezekiel was frustrated in his efforts to keep his protégée in the village, Selig walked up to Taube. Nobody except Golda, who still tried to understand what was going on, paid it any heed. Golda moved a bit closer, trying to hear what Selig said, even if the Conduit clearly intended his words for Taube’s ears only.

“This is your choice? You are sure about that?”

Taube nodded. She did not dare to speak for fear that she would start crying.

Selig turned to the villagers and loudly announced, “Ephraim Schuster, Taube Silbereisen, Schprinza Blumenthal and Moses Schuster shall serve the Conduit as personal guardians.”

Ezekiel could not believe what he heard. The Conduit had not chosen Josef? Josef was the best trained guardian in the village, but the Conduit had not chosen him. Selig had chosen Moses though. This choice had all but sealed Josef’s fate. Even those few villagers who had still been in favor of sending Moses instead of Josef on that mission would not suggest sending a personal guardian of the Conduit on a mission that would separate the guardian from the Conduit for a prolonged period of time. To be honest, even Ezekiel Zalman would not be so bold as to suggest such a course of action. The wizard would have to find another heir to pass on his knowledge to, because Josef was lost to him.

Once again the villagers noticed that the Conduit seemed to prefer guardians trained by Ezekiel. Benjamin noticed and tried to save face.

“Don’t read too much into this,” he told the gathered crowd, “Yes the Conduit did choose three young people who were trained with Ezekiel’s black magic, but he also chose my daughter Taube who…”

“… had secretly been studying under Ezekiel for the last five years,” Taube finished her father’s sentence a little different from the way Benjamin had expected. It took the wind right out of his sails and he closed his mouth that had stayed open when Taube had announced that she of all people had also learned from Ezekiel Zalman.

Josef meanwhile watched the proceedings and was stunned. The Conduit had not chosen him. The Conduit had chosen Moses instead of him. That could not be. That could not be happening. Not now! Not with his wedding being just around the corner. And now he was supposed to leave the village to infiltrate that Sturmabteilung? He could not even find the words to utter a few curses. He was just stunned. How could that have happened? Sure, Selig was also Moses’ brother, but Selig was the Conduit. He would not favor his brother now that he was the Conduit. Would he? Selig had never interfered in the relationship with Taube, neither for nor against Josef.

Josef saw how his world was breaking down all around him. The gap could not be any worse than that! He was denied his rightful place as a personal guardian while Moses got his place, he would have to leave the village, and he would have to leave Taube. It was expected of a man to be strong and not to become emotional, but looking at Taube it was all he could do to fight back the tears.

Why?

Taube noticed his gaze. She could not bear to look at him and lowered her gaze to look at the ground in front of her feet.

“I am so sorry my love. I am so sorry,” she mumbled and started to cry.

But then she got a hold of herself. She wiped away her tears. There was one more thing she needed to do. There was one more thing to ensure that Josef would go on this mission and would not be tempted to turn back and to betray the Conduit. It was the hardest thing she ever had to do. Her knees felt like jelly. Her heart was racing. That was wrong. Every fiber of her body and every cell of her mind told her that was wrong. But it had already been done. She just needed to finish it now.

She steadied herself and stepped before the assembled villagers and started to speak, “As Mrs. Schuster has mentioned not all of my choices were thought through very well. My intended marriage to Josef was one of these poor choices I had made. But since you have chosen Josef to leave the village I have been given a second chance. I would like to announce that I will follow my parents’ advice and will get married to Moses Schuster. And I assume that we will soon also see Ephraim and Schprinza getting married. This way the personal guardians of Selig will also be couples.”

It gave Josef the rest. He did not even argue anymore. There was no point for him to stay in the village any longer. That part of his life has come to an abrupt and cruel end.

Was that really happening?

Josef just walked away.

Ezekiel too was stunned and could not explain to himself just what had happened there today. He claimed to be a master of the art of deception! It should have been easy for him to sway public opinion to choose Moses instead of Josef. Well at least up until the point when Selig had chosen Moses as a personal guardian.

“I do not understand,” Ezekiel confessed to his wife, “How could I have failed so completely?”

“You never had a chance my love and neither had Josef,” Golda told him, “she has truly mastered the art of deception and she even outplayed the Master himself.”

“Who?”

Golda looked at Taube.

“Taube?”

“She had the entire village wrapped around her little finger all along, they were all doing her bidding and none of them was the wiser. I could be wrong, but I think Selig asked for her approval before he named his guardians.”

“A Conduit does not ask the approval of a guardian,” Ezekiel stated and was scandalized by the mere idea of it.

“Obviously no one had told Selig.”

“Even if you were right, what would be the purpose?”

Golda shrugged, that was the one part she had not yet figured out.

 

“Do not marry Josef, do not marry Moses, marry me. We will have a child together, but he will be like me,” Selig started telling to the girl throwing pebbles into the pond next to him.

“Get over it,” Taube demanded, laughed and shoved him away, asking him not to be silly.

But Selig suddenly sounded serious. He suddenly sounded ominous.

“The guardians stand before their biggest trial in centuries. The fate of the world hangs in the balance. We must return to the old ways, Ezekiel’s ways, or I will be the last of the Conduits. The one you marry must be sacrificed to save me. The other will have to leave the village. You may choose who is who, or I must make the choice for you.”

“This is not funny Selig,” Taube said but laughed at his ill-conceived joke anyway while she shoved him away, “Don’t be silly Selig.”

Selig turned to her. There was something in his eyes, something that had not been there before.

Taube shook her head. No! This could not be. Not now! Not when things had finally started working out for her.

“It is not Selig talking to you my poor girl. But earlier warnings have been ignored and the options of the guardians are limited now.”

Taube’s hand went to her lips as she shook her head again. No! Please no!

“It grieves me that you must suffer for the mistakes of others. But there is no other way. The only kindness I can offer you is to let you make the choice. Moses and Josef, one will have to die to save me, the other will have to be sent out of the village on a vital mission. His fate is not sealed yet, but he will not have a chance to return for many years.”

“No!”

“I am sorry, but you must make your choice and I will support it by choosing my guardians accordingly. Or I will have to choose for you. There is no other way, not anymore.”

“NOOOOO!!!” she screeched and ran off to the village crying. The Conduit called it a kindness to make her choose which of her two lovers must leave her and which would be doomed to die. She cared for Moses, more than she admitted to him. But she loved Josef. If she had to choose one of them to die…