THE RINGSTETTEN SAGA XVII: A HARD TEST

Previously on The Ringstetten Saga:
On a warm springtime's night, Katia, dressed as a Cossack, finally makes it past the fence and wakes Gustav Adolf up, while whispering about their freedom plans. The Russians did not confiscate the Swedish officers' weapons after Poltava: the young lieutenant in blue is still armed on parole and able to defend his beloved.
Both leap over the fort palisade, in the most iconic scene in the story arc, on twin mares stolen from the officers' stables: Gustav Adolf on white Foudre (Lightning) and Katinka on black Poudre (Gunpowder). When the garrison's officers give chase, the fugitives seek shelter in the woods, where they transform into flying squirrels and their steeds into flycatchers (black and white passerines). When the detachment returns empty-handed to the guardhouse, the commandant suffers from a heart attack, clenching his chest and falling unconscious.
In the meantime, the two shapeshifters are still bound for Sweden, always heading towards the setting sun. Until, in late summer, they (as squirrels once more) reach a vast and elegant baroque palace, that Katia mistakes for Versailles. They fall off a fir tree becoming human again.
But they are wearing court dresses instead of their military uniforms, and approached in that state by finely dressed and French-speaking lords and ladies, who mistake them for newcomers of their rank from the provinces. Turns out that their "Versailles" was the Czar's French-style court, on the outskirts of Saint Petersburg, and our hero and heroine receive some aid from His Imperial Majesty to board a clipper, across the Baltic, bound for Kalmar, Sweden. Once they have landed and resume their ride on land towards the Ringstetten estate, summer turns into autumn.
In the Swedish woods, Gustav Adolf and his fiancée transform back into their usual selves, Katia discarding her Cossack's uniform and putting on the frock she had packed in advance. The two young riders, galloping through copses of emerald firs and golden birches, are completely unaware of what will occur once they have reached Värmland. Something that will shatter their hopes and put them on trial.
For a white hare crosses the riders' path before they reach the Ringstetten estate. Just like before the Poltava debacle, the omen repeats itself...
During the cross-country ride, Gustav Adolf decides to tell Katia his favourite story, a tale of the old gods told by his nanny a thousand times, which reminds him of the path he's chosen to take now:
"In Elfland (Alvhem), it was always a cool northern summer, and elves and nature lived in harmony. Their ruler Frey was responsible for the friendly climate and the growth of vegetation.
One day, the smith of Elfland, called Völund, made a sword that could even threaten the gods themselves in order to protect the magical land. He gave this sword to his liege lord Frey, for him to guard Elfland from the trolls and the frost-folk who might arrive as invaders and bring a perpetual winter. This sword was a rapier with runes inlaid on its blade, and Völund had called it Lävatein.
Frey, the ruler of all the elves, was fair-haired and tall, young and dashing forever like all of his subjects. He had a younger foster brother called Skirner, who was more than a friend to him. One day, Skirner persuaded Frey to move his throne to the tallest peak in Elfland. From there, the fair lord could see into the enemy country of Giantland (Jotunheim), and there, in a hall in a rocky glacier valley, he saw a bonnie maiden as young and fair-haired as he was himself. From that day on, he neglected his duties as ruler and guardian of Elfland, and as responsible for the plants' growth and welfare.
In the end, Frey confided in his good friend Skirner that he had fallen in love with a young frost giantess, which might lead to tragedy (being members of enemy species). He couldn't leave his kingdom, or else it would be invaded by his beloved Gerd's own kin... and thus, Skirner volunteered to visit the maiden at her birthplace, the great hall outside which she had been seen.
Thus, the young lad took Frey's reflection from the pond where the secret had been told, and he put this reflection in his drinking-horn canteen. He also asked for Lävatein, for he intended to bring the sword to the in-laws in exchange for their daughter, as a gift of peace. Though Frey knew the price he had to pay, he gladly sacrificed his rapier, the only weapon in Elfland, to attain a romance with his intellectual equal.
After a warm leave-taking, Skirner went through many pitfalls and perils to reach fair Gerd's residence. There, he asked the servants to let him have a tête-à-tête with the young heiress... and then, he told her of Elfland and the fair folk, of vast gardens and calm lakes, of Frey's pocket-sized ship that could grow at his will and also fly through the skies, of the golden pig Gyllenborste, that Frey kept as a pet... and, not least, of Frey himself: young and handsome, cheerful and clever, the only match for a maiden like Gerd. Yet she didn't believe the Elven messenger... until Skirner, the sharp lad, put Frey's reflection in her drink (which made her nearly swoon with infatuation), made the engagement known to her caregivers, and handed over the rune-inlaid Lävatein to the household. 
Once the bonnie Gerd had reached the Great Hall of Elfland, a wedding without an equal was celebrated among the Fair Folk. The bride and groom received countless gifts, and the revels lasted from that full moon till the next one. No one regretted having given up the sword..." Gustav Adolf ostensibly concludes the story. The Sidhe has watched her ward return as a young and dashing officer, in spite of the many privations he has suffered. He may be wearing a steel rapier, but it remains in his scabbard, as his pistols do in their holsters. She has fallen in love with the young lieutenant, and is thus determined to take his freedom and make him hers. 
Thus, she casts ferns and strange mushrooms into the spring from which Charles XI had drunk at the start of the season, enchanting it for a second time. This spell, though, is to make any young warrior who drinks from the spring lose all his feelings, his heart freezing to ice.
Katia and Gustav Adolf soon arrive, both unaware of the impending threat to their relationship. As the thirsty lieutenant drinks his fill, he feels a sharp, stabbing pain in his chest, like a stab with a blade of ice, while the enchanted draught lands in his stomach (like if he were "warmed" with brandy, but "cooled" instead). Katia springs to his aid, but he rejects her with an ice-cold glare and continues solo, on Foudre, towards the Ringstetten estate, leaving Katia and Poudre on their own by the spring.
Then, right before the rectory, the Sidhe pulls the dragonfly trick on Birgitta, one of the Reverend's young daughters. The little redhead follows the dragonfly to a clearing where there are rune stones: the Sidhe turns her into a rune stone and takes her form to supplant her.
The Count and Countess are overjoyed with their prodigal son's homecoming, deciding to celebrate it, but he reacts coldly and without one word. His highborn parents attribute this change of character to the war and the subsequent captivity.
When Etienne and Christina pay the estate a visit, the Walloon (next in line for the title and lands of Count of Ringstetten after Gustav Adolf) is surprised by the appearance of the missing rightful heir... and by his change of personality. He tries to reconcile with the young lieutenant, but in vain. In fact, Gustav Adolf looks coldly at Etienne, insinuates that he has tried to claim the lands in his absence, and calls him a usurper. The Wallonian industrialist, feeling offended, challenges his brother-in-law to a duel on Midsummer Green, the day after the harvest fête at sunrise.
Katia makes it to the soldier's croft, where she finds his widow Kerstin and her seven children. The Northlander was called up and killed at Poltava. The young foreigner decides to help them work for their lords: the Count and Countess of Ringstetten, whose only son has just come home from the wars.
Now it's her turn to experience toil and trouble!
During the harvest celebrations, Gustav Adolf announces his intention to leave the Swedish Army and his parents having betrothed him to Birgitta. Katia, who hoped to get to dance with him but was violently shoved aside, feels completely deserted: did she leave everything she knew in vain?
So she takes the knife she had brought from the outpost and slashes her own wrists at dusk, on the edge of the woods, veiled by the evening fog... as Gustav Adolf, returning home from the dance on Midsummer Green with his parents, sees her bleeding and asks her why. A weeping and bleeding Katia calls him a traitor in response. The maiden's blood and tears on the lieutenant's skin break the spell. He asks her for forgiveness, being forgiven, and she is taken back to the estate, where her beau tends to her wounds. The Count and Countess accept Katinka for a daughter-in-law. 

The young officer spends the whole night awake thinking also of Etienne and the fact that either of them may die the next day. He tells Katia of the argument he had with the Walloon while frozenhearted. The maiden can’t be more worried either.

As the sun rises, Gustav Adolf runs off with Erik, one of the household servants, and a loaded pistol to Midsummer Green. There, he finds Etienne and a younger Walloon, who appears to be a servant of his or someone important at the steelworks.

Katia looks from behind a linden, as both duelists take their steps apart, and soon they are aiming at each other with their loaded guns. She still looks on as two gunshots are heard, scaring the crows off their nests and the rabbits away, and, a second later, she sees Etienne unscathed and Gustav Adolf reeling, bleeding and clutching his left thigh where it joins the hip. The Walloon reaches out to his brother-in-law and offers him to lean against him. Carrying a half-conscious lieutenant leaning by his side, Etienne meets Katia and tells them that he never intended to kill Gustav Adolf, whom he knows and loves since the Ringstetten heir was a child. Moreover, the soldier stationed in next shire is an old surgeon with battlefield experience from the Polish Wars, and Etienne takes his brother-in-law there for this surgeon to tend to his wounds. A draught of brandy and a bullet removal later, everyone is reconciled.
The Sidhe disenchants Birgitta and returns to her usual form, promising that she'll get revenge on the Ringstettens for losing her beau.
Pretty soon, in a modest church by Lake Vänern, merry bells are pealing over treetops and rooftops. Gustav Adolf and Katia are now husband and wife, and soon they will be count and countess!
During the wedding celebrations, the Veiled Singer reveals herself as Ilse and reconciles herself with her family. The old Count and Countess give her the right to roam free with her new loved ones, but she is welcomed, with her spouse and their three children, to the Ringstetten shire whenever she pleases.
And Gustav Adolf concludes, after the wedding fête, the ostensibly finished story of Frey:
"Years went by, elves always young and good-looking, Elfland always friendly and inviting. Then, suddenly, came the great battle of Ragnarök, the confrontation that would put an end to many worlds, including Elfland itself. And Lord Frey was merely armed with a stag's antler, helpless, against a powerful enemy.
The leader of the invading host was Surt, made of fire, the primeval ancestor of all the giants and trolls of Jotunheim. Surt, chaos incarnate, a blade of flaming steel in his right hand, 
It didn't take long for Frey to recognize his own sword, the sacred rapier Lävatein. Though that was the last instant of his existance: no sooner had a flash of regret crossed his mind that the fair lord fell, a blade of fire run through his chest into his throbbing heart.
Thus, Frey was slain with his own sword, the one he had given up for love's sake.
At the same time, the enemy fell as well, Surt's left eye pierced by the antler that Frey had thrust into it as he had lunged forward... to get run through with flaming steel.
The good lord and the devastator had, thus, slain each other at unison.
Subsequently, the land of the elves was completely devastated with fire and sword risen from the vengeful ranks of Surt, and a widowed Gerd and her little son Fjölner were slain, along with most of the fair folk of Elfland: those who didn't make it to the Middle-land (or Earth)."
Like Frey, the former Carolean sees himself as one not afraid of death or dishonour after having left the military profession to contrive to marry his intellectual equal.
Peace seems to have returned to the nation, and to the Northern world at large. The Walloons have, once more, made up with the Ringstettens. King Charles XII dies young and childless, during the siege of Fredrikshald, "a petty fortress", shot in the nape of the neck at night by "an unknown hand", still unclear if of friend or foe, on the 30th of November 1718. General Rehnskiöld, released from captivity, rejoined the Swedish Army and witnessed the death of his liege lord. Aurora von Königsmarck, in her ancestral seat, has died peacefully in her sleep, having accidentally pricked herself with a brooch, which may have been poisoned. And Parliament has been reinstated in Sweden.
Gustav Adolf, now done with his military career and resting on his laurels, is made aware of it all and reflects on the effects of all of these changes. What are great people but mortals, and aren’t empires condemned to decadence? How will the world, or at least the province, remember his legacy?
Three decades after that, two more rune stones stand next to each other, beside Liselotte's, on the road to church, and Katia and her spouse are rulers of the peaceful shire. Etienne, now widowed and elderly, having handed over the steel mill to his eldest son, lives in the hall with them, and he is the children's tutor. The foreign countess has given birth to seven children, of which only the youngest three have survived their first year as punishment from the Sidhe: twin boys, both blond and amber-eyed, and a slightly younger platinum blond and blue-eyed little girl. But... has the Sidhe really forgotten her oath of revenge and decided to put daring Krister, curious Kristian, and self-indulgent Ulrika to the test?

THE RINGSTETTEN SAGA XV: A FAUSTIAN PACT

Previously on The Ringstetten Saga:
Life has gone on in the shire without any trouble except that. Christina von Ringstetten has become a lonely and thoughtful child, with the maids and Etienne van der Heide, the foundry owner's ten year older only son, for playmates. Though the green-eyed and strawberry blond little girl, educated by the local Reverend, also likes reading books, especially myths and war chronicles.
In the 1670s, catastrophes pile upon each other: royal officials scour the estate to give three quarters of the clan's lands to the Crown, and the King himself is coming to Värmland for a moose hunt (Charles XI having started an absolutist regime); Etienne has left for Uppsala University, leaving Christina on her own with her books; large patches of heartsease that cover the plains predict that it will be an unusually dry summer for that part of Sweden; and Eleonora, who happens to be expecting her third child and hopes that it will be a blond male (after her red-haired daughters, Christina and Ilse) to appease her stern mother-in-law... develops an unexpected craving for wild strawberries. 
An agreement with the Sidhe, the spirit of the woods, will solve all those issues... or not?
The Sidhe looks like a young lady with dark green hair, snake eyes, webbed hands and feet, and a vixen's tail. She wears a moss gown and jewelry made from dewdrops.
 Other Swedish folk figures that appear are trolls (related to the Sidhe); tomts, household gnomes (the Ringstetten estate has a whole family of tomts, while commoners' cottages have only one); Lyckan the church-cat, the ghost of the lucky cat walled in the local church to ward off evil spirits; and the Nix (otherwise known as Kelpie), a freshwater spirit in the form of a dashing young violinist, who lures maidens into rivers and lakes to feed upon their blood (though he can also transform into a wild stallion).
So, Hermann and Eleonora meet the Sidhe in the woods, in late summer/early autumn, and expose all their issues. They reach a pact: the area will remain protected by Sidhe magic if they give her the freedom of their unborn child.
A tough decision that can't be revoked, but they have no other choice.
After the pact is made, the little strawberry bush at the edge of the French garden starts yielding strawberries again. It will yield berries all year round, even in autumn and winter.
A fortnight later, a large mossy rock, invisible to adults but not to children, appears like out of the blue on the French garden lawn. 
And a fortnight after that, the rock moves into the hall.
The rock turns out to be the Sidhe, that hibernates just like the trolls do. She will hibernate in the estate hall every winter from on now.
A fortnight before Christmas, Eleonora's third child is born. To tangle up the plot...  it is the long-awaited male heir! Not only that: Black Maya, who was called for as a midwife, reveals that this newborn was a great war hero and freedom fighter in his past life, now reincarnated as the grandson of his loyal followers...
Now they've got a name for this lad: Gustavus Adolphus (or Gustav Adolf, as it would be in Swedish and German)! When they take him to church for christening, the Sidhe awakens and clings to the horse-drawn sleigh to claim her prize. Christina and Ilse spot her and trick her: their little brother can't be captured before he has received a name. However, the fairy-like spirit yields to the cold and to the sacred ground of the churchyard, protected by the ghost of a lucky black cat called Lyckan (see explanations for more information). But she stays alive, though rather weakened, helping the Ringstettens with all their issues as the three cute-looking children grow into young adults...

• The heartsease/drought issue: the winter snow and moister summers help the Ringstetten lands to recover. The clan at Vänersvik is also rewarded with a dozen lake cows (cattle of the freshwater folk), that yield seven times more milk than land cattle.
• The Etienne issue: the young Walloon returns from university, to marry a sixteen-year-old Christina (his betrothed!), who had been raising the traditional myrtle plant for her bridal wreath in his absence, and return home to inherit the steel mill with a lovely wife by his side.
• The absolutism issue: a dragonfly sent by the Sidhe one autumn day distracts the youngest pony rider in the royal entourage one autumn day. Which leads Charles XI to follow after his son and heir deeper into the woods, until the dragonfly stops next to a spring whose waters the Sidhe has enchanted in advance, to make the drinker forget what he was going to do next. Then, we see Kronprins Charles, a cute-looking lad in a blue uniform, showing his highborn father how he has caught the dragonfly with his own hands... to subsequently pull its wings off and behead it (that gives a clue about what kind of ruler he'll be when he comes of age!). As Charles XI in his huntsman's suit, watching this display of skill and sadism, bends over the spring to quench his thirst and feels a sharp sting in the chest as he swallows the first sip. He forgets about his plans to take the nobles' lands and leaves the Ringstettens to mind their own business.

To protect Gustav Adolf when strolling in the woods, he has been given a cross-shaped pendant that his brother-in-law has made of iron nails, since magical creatures dread cold iron (+ steel) and religious objects. The heir of Ringstetten grows up with war stories by Homer, Ovid, Lucan, and his own grandsire (recall the handwritten Memoirs of a Prussian Lieutenant). In a cottage near the church, a soldier in a blue coat is lodged by royal decree. He's a heavy-set and stalwart Northlander who has fought in the Polish Wars, assigned to Ilse and Gustav Adolf as their tutor, making that another influence for the blond and steel-blue-eyed young noble's penchant for the military.
However, love may prove far more powerful than elemental magic. For soon, Ilse and Gustav Adolf have become a beautiful maiden and a dashing youth. He can't wait to join the ranks, while she has grown attracted to a violinist whose itinerant clan (not Roma, but still stateless performers) visits the shire every Harvest Festival, Christmas, and Midsummer.
However, her parents would prefer one of the other suitors from among the local gentry and wealthy landowners.
Ilse's heart, no matter what, will always beat for Andreas, her Orpheus, who saved her from drowning in Lake Vänern when lured by the Nix (or Kelpie), by stabbing the pond with his knife (cold steel and cross-shaped), when both were children, as she tied herself to a nearby linden tree (with unplugged ears) to be able to hear the Kelpie play the fiddle. Their friendship has grown into something more, as he's always been telling her folktales and she's replied with classical myths.
Charles XI is already good and deceased, succeeded by his son and namesake, an emotionally cold young ruler who wants to find excitement and pleasure on the battlefield.
On Midsummer Night 1701, a sixteen-year-old Ilse disappears, leaving behind what appears to be a suicide letter in her own bedchamber. She has actually joined Andreas and his troupe, to live the life of an itinerant performer. But she is pronounced dead (thought to have drowned in the lake) by her family, leaving Gustav Adolf on his own. And what does her brother do in spring the next year, if not enlist in the Swedish Army and leave for the war on Czar Peter the Great (Actually, any competent commander should know that getting involved in a land war in Russia is not such a good idea. But, alas, young King Charles is merely concerned with glory and reputation) and Elector Augustus the Strong that is being fought in Eastern Europe?
The farewell to the dashing blond ensign knows no equal within this story arc when it comes to heartwarming: his mother and sister burst into tears, Annika has made some cakes, Etienne gives Gustav Adolf a steel crucifix to replace the one made from nails, which is missing.  Lying about his age to enlist in the army (he is actually fourteen, but he says he is sixteen!), he is soon made a lieutenant, and everything seems to indicate that his only officer friend is that dashing drunken freethinker and resident outcast of the regiment's surgeon, the closeted male-whore Jamie Fitzwilliam, that Gustav Adolf is closely knit with his men (a motley crew of Swedish, French, British, stateless… soldiers), but indifferent to his liege and to his general, Rehnskiöld. For the Carolean army has developed a culture strictly based on masculinity: every Swedish military man serving Charles XII must always steel his heart and mind, not caring for pain, love, elation, or any other feeling, positive or negative, and restrain every form of emotional expression. And not marry unless the King himself has found a wife (Charles is only concerned with warfare, and determined never to wed).
In 1701-1702, the Swedish Army is garrisoned for the winter at the Kurland chateau of Würgen and its picturesque environs. Drinking Riesling and playing cards is not enough for Gustav Adolf (now turned a freethinker), who soon learns from his fellow officers of the existence of the one who will be his first love. 
Rumour has it that a beautiful noblewoman, tall as a goddess, beautiful as a fairy, proud and dressed as the Queen of France, and as learned as she is good-looking (speaks several languages, plays string instruments, composes love songs, and writes poetry as easily as you please)... has arrived all the way from the court of Saxony to pay the estate a visit. Countess Aurora von Königsmarck, Elector Augustus's mistress herself. She's the talk of the Swedish camp! They say the Elector has sent her to seduce King Charles... but is this true? What may have brought her to this backwater hinterland, and into the enemy ranks?
This beautiful lady resides currently at the château, while the Swedes are encamped and garrisoned near the village below. Her lavish baroque carriage goes back and forth between the hall and the King's tent. Why not visit Würgen and see what she's like?
The password to enter the hall is "Kungsör"...
That starry winter night, the young lieutenant leaves the camp to climb up the hill, to the estate, where light is shining... curious about such a clever and beautiful lady and eager to make her acquaintance.
"Kungsör!" The password is said out loud. But the château gate is guarded by Swedish soldiers! And they let him in so easily! In the gardens and in the courtyard, he hears the distinct sound of a harp playing. Can it be Königsmarck? His heart is throbbing with impatience!
Upon entering the bedchamber, led by the guards and a few maids, he is struck with awe and paralyzed by all that elegance: in this stunning baroque chamber... a tall, dark-haired Venus in a flowing gown of golden brocade is writing in the light of two pink alabaster lamps, reclining on her dressing table.
As she hears the clomping of heavy military boots, she coquettely says:
"Is that you, my dear Törnflycht? Come in, my lad!"
For she has a young Swedish lieutenant, a born courtier, for a pageboy. And Ringstetten is the spitting image of Törnflycht. What may come out of this? 
The young lieutenant, in spite of being a provincial without any knowledge of courtly culture, decides to carry on the deception, while his heart is throbbing and his cheeks are ablaze:
"I am. Why did you call for me?"
Thus, Aurora turns around and looks at him with wistful hazel eyes, praising the way he looks in a blue uniform and his "tall, blond, and handsome" physique. She appears to have a plan in which the young officer will be involved. His heartbeat intensifies, and he can't take his eyes away from hers.
The maids and butler leave the chamber, leaving the dazzling countess and the dazzled lieutenant for a tête-à-tête, at her beck and call. She shows him to a chair and invites him to sit down, to subsequently confess her feelings for the one she really loves:
"Your king is a hero! I have taken the liberty to write a little ode to him...". Taking forth a little sheet of pink paper, she recites a baroque poem, which she has entirely penned herself, in praise of King Charles XII, comparing him to several gods and demigods of the classical world.
"A court lady like her can only have royalty", Gustav Adolf thinks, dejected and crushed, feeling out of her league. Dazzled by the light of her eyes, he is forced to look down into the soft pavement.
In the end, he is about to take his leave, when she softly pulls the tail of his coat:
"Pardon me if tonight's poem has proved a little tiresome. Please listen to what I have to say. I am, after all, a prisoner in your lands. You Swedes are the ones who have the power here. I only have prayers. And I pray, Herr Lieutenant..."
"If I can..."
"You speak as if I were a traitor! Ever heard of a Königsmarck who failed to keep a promise? I assume you haven't forgotten the plight of House Königsmarck. Since the Thirty Years' War, we served our new motherland of Sweden with blood and honour, confiding in the great fortune that Good Queen Christina had given us. My lord father was Governor of Pomerania. Or that’s what my brother Philipp always said. The late King, Charles XI... he took all the wealth we had, except our ancestral hall back in Saxony. So we left Sweden in dire straits, betrayed by the Crown. We quickly became orphans, my siblings and me..., and then, my brothers fell on the battlefield, in the prime of their lives... except Count Philipp Christoph, who had an affair with our childhood friend Sophie Dorothea, the Electoress of Braunschweig, an unhappily married lady, and vanished at her palace into thin air. I was left alone with my sister Amalie: even our retainers had left our hall. But I was not satisfied with our plight of obscurity... and thus, I left for the Zwinger with my sister, both of us eager to lead the good courtly life once more, with the excuse that His Highness help us find Count Philipp, our missing brother. Et voilà! Auguste, that new Zeus, fell for the young upstart! And we were the talk of the court! But I couldn't forget or forgive what Charles XI had done to me. And I still hope the father's wrongs will be righted by the son. Even though Charles XII doesn't give me a chance! The King doesn't know what it means to be a Königsmarck. He must listen to me come what may! And I love him with all my heart!"
She takes the young lieutenant's hand and looks at him with sparkles in her hazel eyes:
"Every day, after supper, the King has some spare time, for writing letters to his sister. You show me the way. I will come at twilight, dressed in a Swedish officer's uniform. I don't fear the wrath of your Liege. For I know how to put rulers in check. Perchance King Charles will meet me alarmed, but he will part from me redeemed."
The lieutenant gives a cold, hard reply:
"Your Ladyship said that no Königsmarck betrays her promises. You're asking me to commit high treason. I'll never betray my liege lord. You ask me as a lady, and I reply as a warrior. And our whole camp would give you the same answer!", Then he runs away, casting a last glance at an incensed Lady Aurora, who is breaking her fan as she bursts into tears.
Nevertheless, the next day at dusk, a Venus in a plumed tricorn and blue overcoat heads for the Swedish encampment. The King is returning from the estate on horseback as he encounters Aurora. Charles only takes off his hat and gives her a death glare, as he spurs his steed on to the camp. She turns back in tears, rending her coat, carrying the proud certainty that she's the only mortal ever dreaded by Charles XII.
Our young lieutenant regrets having treated his first love so rashly as the army marches southward into Poland: in the summer of 1702... Warsaw, Kliszów, Kraków fall. And the Swedes then head for Saxony, their old land of victories, and they spend the winters in Leipzig...
Our lieutenant is not only excited by the prospect of visiting the places known from history lessons, but also by the prospect of being able to see Aurora von Königsmarck and ask for her pardon.
And his liege lord is even more excited by the idea of visiting the lands where his famous ancestor fought and died for freedom's sake... Charles XII, in Saxony, feels as excited as a child in a huge sweet shop.
Though at first there is friction between Charles and the locals due to the dialect barrier, as he asks for directions to Breitenfeld once and they stand puzzled… then he realizes that they say “Breydenfeelde...” The Saxon dialect is pretty hard to understand.
The King is shown the spot where Gustavus Adolphus fell at Lützen. He's heard whisper: "I have tried to live like him, perchance I will even die such a beautiful death..."
Gustav Adolf, on the other hand, gets déjà vu when a skirmish takes place near Lützen and he is wounded in the shoulder, on the same spot where his royal namesake fell.
Charles XII meets Augustus the Strong von Wettin in Günthersdorf, in between Lützen and Leipzig, in 1706. The Elector is a heavy-set epicurean who behaves kindly and heartily towards his enemy (though his heart is full of rage and disappointment after defeat). A courtier and a warrior have had an interesting parley during the peace conference. And Augustus even offered Charles a few tokens of gratitude, like fruit and a medal with both their portraits. But the peace will only prove a truce...
In early 1707, a Leipzig-based (in Auerbach Tavern) Gustav Adolf is still looking for Aurora von Königsmarck to ask for her pardon... 

Charles has also met Gottfried Leibniz, home to his birthplace from the Prussian court. But, in spite of both of them being such great mathematicians, the chat is nothing about numbers. The philosopher, drunk on Rhenish, tells the young ruler about his meeting with the Czar in the Low Countries and how often he (the Czar) wenched a peasant woman in the marsh reeds. Leibniz has made a strong impression on Charles, who has taken note of all that the learned Leipziger has said about passions and how emotional passions surpass the physical ones.

In February, at the chateau of Liebenwerda, a short distance east of Leipzig, the Elector of Saxony is hosting a big-game hunt when a group of Swedish officers step into the picture. Everyone gets drunk that evening at the great hall. Romances with señoritas and mademoiselles in Augustus's young Mediterranean years are passionately discussed. The half-drunken ruler takes up some iron horseshoes and breaks them with his bare hands. And all the glasses are raised to the invincible Elector and Lord of Saxony, who breaks hearts like he breaks iron and steel... and even his enemies' swords, including that of the Swedish brat!
Thus he says, loudly, and confidently, as he breaks a rapier, with his bare hands as well.
The lieutenant learns that Aurora, after falling from grace, has been banished (or rather banished herself) from court to her ancestral seat of Quedlinburg, across the electorate. 
For Augustus has found himself a new mistress, an Austrian court lady he met at a ball hosted by the Kaiser in Vienna, and the Countess of Königsmarck has not been able to bear the ascendancy of her rival, returning with Maurice, the son Augustus gave her, to Quedlinburg. The reveal sends Gustav Adolf von Ringstetten into a state of shock.
He'd rather go westward to see her, but the call of duty shows him the way eastward, into the rising sun. King Charles has set his eyes on Russia, and he won't be satisfied or stop until the Swedish flag flies from the Kremlin's highest tower.
Thus, when Charles XII and Rehnskiöld have Russian prisoners of war beheaded, our lieutenant is left not to express his own conflicting feelings under death penalty, as he swings the rapier that signals the firing squad to fire their guns.
Yet those unfortunate Cossacks will soon be avenged by Fate on the 8th of July 1709, after a ruthless winter has already decimated the Carolean host.
Gustav Adolf is also made cupbearer to his liege lord and general, becoming, a tad against his will, their mutual catamite in the Royal Swedish Ménage à Trois.
En route to the war front at the fortress of Poltava, a white hare crosses the Swedish Army's path. The pathfinder warns the leaders that it's a not so good omen. Though Charles and his generals don't believe in the sign.
Already in early July, they have taken Poltava and broken the bridge across the Vorskla, when suddenly, after a few days of waiting, the enemy host repairs the bridge, crosses the stream, and encamps. The Swedes, excited, leave the fortress and encamp across the Vorskla, facing the encampment of flags white, blue, and red, and green-coated enemies...
A fortnight later, a messenger in uniform reaches the Ringstetten estate with an important message for His Lordship and Her Ladyship: something has befallen their only son on the battlefield...

THE RINGSTETTEN SAGA XIV: LIFE GOES ON AND ON AND ON

Previously on the Ringstetten Saga:

The independent and self-reliant tomboy queen (traumatized by her mother's fate, she declines to marry not to feel sorrow or have her wings clipped by love and/or obedience: "Free was I born, free I live, and free I shall die") feels the weight of the crown heavy upon her head. She came to visit the La Gardies as an excuse to inform them of her upcoming abdication, having already appointed the successor who will rule in her stead as she seeks adventure and thrills across Europe.

So, the next day, it's time to say farewell to the Queen, who has to inform her mother and courtiers of such a relevant decision. Later on, in mid-December, Liselotte and her children have been preparing the welcoming of another Eleonora: Alois's and Hedwig's daughter, who arrives three days later from Dalecarlia to marry her childhood friend Hermann and live with her in-laws. The betrothal is celebrated on New Year's Day.

However, Gerhard acts coldly towards his daughter-in-law and prefers to keep on writing his memoirs, having consecrated a room in the estate to his weapons and to the medal that Her Majesty gave him. The young lieutenant who fought so gallantly for the Protestant cause revives in the prose that graces his library, upon reaching the part of his life when he met the Swedish royals. Thus, Gerhard keeps on writing more and more passionately for each day... and even more upon realising that Liselotte, just like the Queen, has always looked and acted like Gustavus Adolphus… since, unknown to her, the Hero King of Lützen is her birth father, making her a legitimized royal bastard. At their next family Christmas, the memoirs writer finally discloses this under the influence, yet, surprisingly, no one is upset, and Liselotte herself remarks that she looked and acted like the late king more than like Colonel von Tarlenheim, while also realising why she was made a ward of the Crown after her apparent father’s death. Which means the Ringstettens have got true royal blood running through their veins!

While his daughter-in-law is with child, girls from nearby farms and villages come to the estate as servants, and the French garden becomes more beautiful for every day in springtime. Annika, the favourite among all these maids, is the orphaned granddaughter of the local wise woman, Svarta Maja (Black Maya), who tends to the Ringstettens as well as any qualified physician. The Walloons (Protestant Walloons in Sweden!) from a nearby iron foundry also become their friends and partners: the nobles come to the foundry where they live for Christmas, and the Walloons come to visit the estate in midsummer.

As Eleonora finds out, by midsummer, that she is with child (she was not sure until then), Gerhard reaches the part of his memoirs when he comes to Sweden and has a conversation with the Queen, commenting on the impression that she made. In early winter, the next generation of Ringstettens is kickstarted with Hermann's and Eleonora's eldest child: a premature little girl, that is christened Christina in the parish church. Sadly, such a joyful event is to be associated with a dramatic one: as the first snowdrops of spring appear in the French garden, the veteran officer is found unconscious in the library, before his desk, as he reached the account of his eldest grandchild's birth in the memoirs. Gerhard is strangely pale and cold, unable to breathe. He reacts upon being given water and brandy to drink, but his heartbeat has weakened to a flutter. The bullet in his chest, after being lodged in his left lung for decades, causes the searing pain and weakness that he is experiencing.
At dusk, the same evening, the flutter of his heart is finally silenced. It is up to Liselotte to finish his memoirs with the account of her beloved spouse's death and obsequies.
The next day, Gerhard receives his eternal rest in between the nearby church and the French garden, in a baroque shrine where Ringstettens of upcoming generations will follow him. On a wall of the shrine, Liselotte has the poem that her husband wrote at the start of his memoirs written (here is a translation of the full inscription, the original being in German and Swedish):

HERE LIETH

COUNT GERHARD WILHELM VON RINGSTETTEN

BORN IN 1615 - DIED IN 1654

LIEUTENANT IN THE FRENCH ARMY

LIEUTENANT IN THE SWEDISH ARMY

LORD OF THE RINGSTETTEN ESTATE

KÜSTRIN HAD THE HONOUR OF BEING HIS BIRTHPLACE.

HE CAME OF AGE IN CAMPS, TO SERVE A GREAT LEADER

IN THE GREATEST WAR OF HIS DAY

FOR THE HIGHEST CAUSE OF HIS DAY.

HE FREQUENTED MANY LANDS AND NATIONS.

SUCCEEDED WHEN TRIED,

SUCCEEDED IN LOVE,

SUCCEEDED IN LIFE.

"NO CHALLENGE WAS TOO HARD: I STROVE TOWARDS THE LIGHT.

YET I CAN'T COMPREHEND THAT I'LL BE OUT OF SIGHT"

The whole Ringstetten shire is in mourning, and the Tarlenheims come over from Dalecarlia. The Walloons and Black Maya are consternated as well. Yet even more misfortunes await the Ringstetten clan: it'll take a decade for an exhausted Eleonora to conceive another child, much to her mother-in-law's chagrin, and Queen Christina's successor dies in 1660, to be succeeded by his only son, Charles XI. 
One only cloud looms above them: the current master Hermann, Liselotte's and Gerhard's eldest son, is not able to leave for any war due to his brittle state of health, leaving his younger brother Konrad, the spare, in charge of the foreign campaigns.
Life has gone on in the shire without any trouble except that. Christina von Ringstetten has become a lonely and thoughtful child, with the maids and Etienne van der Heide, the steel mill owner's ten year older only son, for playmates. Though the green-eyed and strawberry blond little girl, educated by the local Reverend, also likes reading books, especially myths and war chronicles.
In the 1670s, catastrophes pile upon each other: royal officials scour the estate to give three quarters of the clan's lands to the Crown, and the King himself is coming to Värmland for a moose hunt (Charles XI having started an absolutist regime); Etienne has left for Uppsala University, leaving Christina on her own with her books; large patches of heartsease that cover the plains predict that it will be an unusually dry summer for that part of Sweden; and Eleonora, who happens to be expecting her third child and hopes that it will be a blond male (after her red-haired daughters, Christina and Ilse) to appease her stern mother-in-law... develops an unexpected craving for wild strawberries. 
An agreement with the Sidhe, the spirit of the woods, will solve all those issues... or not?