Advent of Change

"One cappuccino with a croissant and one caffe latte, do you need help anything?" hastily said the woman standing in the doorway to the kitchen. A young man, standing by the kitchen counter with his hands occupied with empty cups, peeked at the woman with a side gaze and pointed at the oven in a corner, "Put in another butch of croissants, we will definitely need more today."

The woman nodded and followed the man's order. It was a rare sight to witness Jessie this obedient, but not surprising for the man, considering today's workload they have been met with. It was Saturday, a day off for many, and as a result the perfect opportunity to visit their favourite café. Usually there were three regular workers at this day, in rare cases either Eugene or Jessie were having a day off, but today this fate have fallen upon Arnold.

Currently, the owner of the place was missing, leaving his apprentices to manage the busiest day of the week. The matter was made worse by the influx of not only locals, but also those from far away. September was the time of the year when nature was in its most chaotic state. Trees were losing their friendly colour and taking on the warm paint of wildfires; flowers were dying off, though not in vain, to give off space for seeds to spread; birds were flying away as if escaping the end of the world; and those who stayed were preparing to hibernate and survive the upcoming winter. Even humans, that were seemingly standing above the nature itself, had always been affected by those changes. One of such changes happened right here in France, in 1799. The year when the French Consulate was formed. It was the pillar of modern European democracy, a change that directed the flow of time for the most dominant society in the world. And, oh, the irony of the Consulate being formed in autumn!

The people of this town held this event to heart, deeming it the most important part of their culture. Which was no surprise, considering their ancestors were one of the first ones to succumb to the flames of revolution that were ignited throughout France. Every 10 years, the exact length from the start and up until the end of the revolution, they celebrate the changes in the world, the changes in society and, of course, the changes in themselves.

And the name for this event or rather gathering was "The Fire of Prometheus"! Although, it sounded like a serious celebration that many people still deemed important, as it happened with other holidays prior, currently, it was nothing more but a loud party. Common folk were not able to differentiate this holiday from New Year's Eve or Christmas, just another opportunity to have a glass of cheap wine with your friends. And those who gathered for more traditional celebration, were mostly rich foreigners that could not care less about the culture of the place. It was nothing more but an occasion to establish new useful connections.

Usually, youth did not have strong opinion regarding this celebration, since it did not affect them much, moreover they received free holiday. But Eugene, at that point in time, was particularly angry about it. Not only the major decided to celebrate it earlier, but also Arnold took the task of preparation for the gathering absurdly serious. Since it happened once in 10 or so years, Eugene did not remember well the first gathering he ever had, thus he could not tell whether Arnold was ever so serious about it. And considering Christopher never once whined about it nor warned Eugene of the increase in workload, it was certainly not the case. At the moment, Eugene could only wonder what happened in Arnold's head. 

Alas, the task at hand did not leave much space for wondering, two cups of coffee were ready to be served. Since Jessie was packing the oven up with croissants and idling from time to time, Eugene took one fresh pastry from the basket and brought the order for a customer on his own.

The man exited the kitchen and a bright light coming from outside made his eyes squint, however, no force of nature was able to disturb his balance. Eugene knew this place well enough to move with his eyes closed. He dashed past several tables. Nearly all of them were occupied by both familiar faces and complete strangers. The order was taken to the police commissar, who was taking a break from patrolling the town.

"Hasty as ever, Eugene, having fun in the kitchen?" asked the officer with a mocking smile, to which Eugene replied, "I had more fun being detained for breaking the window."

The police officer laughed and a took a sip out of his latte, "Glad you became a decent man, Eugene."

The young man replied with a wry smile and turned away in search of another client. The one awaiting a cappuccino and a croissant was a young woman in light dress with frills and a weird mask that resembled a panther. At first, Eugene really struggled to understand whether it was Sylvia, trying to prank him, or not, but soon after he realized that the masked lady's tone of hair was slightly darker.

He came closer to her, which caused her to startle, but shortly after the lady realized that she was brought her order. Even though her gaze was half hidden by the mask, Eugene noticed what she had been looking at.

"Are you interested in the painting, madam?"

It was a large oil painting of the battle of Waterloo. There are vast numbers of interpretations and authors of vaguely similar work, but this one was especially valuable. The author of this particular work was Adolph Northern, and the name of the work was "Prussian Attack at Plancenoit". Not quite a patriotic piece of art, but Arnold was still weirdly attached to this work.

The woman nodded lightly and said, "I was wondering about the author of this work, it looks awfully familiar."

Eugene scratched his head, but then, suddenly, Jessie sneaked behind him and exclaimed, "Adolph Northern is the author, of course! He was a German painter who also depicted the retreat of Napoleon from Moscow and Rhine fair. Though, he might not be well known for non-Germans."

"You are not German, yourself Jessie." pointed out Eugene, to which she replied, "Fair point, but it does not mean that exclusively Germans know about him!"

Jessie looked at the lady, who was sitting by the table, in confusion, "Oh, I am sorry for scaring you. I am just really into art. If you would like to know more about this painting, feel free to ask me and not this ignorant buffoon."

"For god's sake, I could tolerate Sylvia calling me like that, but two of you is unbearable."

Finally, the masked lady laughed and said, "You two are so energetic. This piece of art took my interest due to how magnificent it is. No wonder it had been drawn by someone known."

"That's right," nodded Jessie and pointed at another wall, "There used to be another painting by Camille Pissarro, but Arnold had to sell it to the museum. Unfortunately, I did not have a chance to explore it."

"Yeah, Arnold sold it even before Christopher moved to Paris." confirmed Eugene, to which the lady wondered, "Christopher?"

"That's, his brother, he used to work here as well. By the way, my name is Jessie and the one over there is Eugene."

"I could tell it myself." said Eugene and turned around at a sudden sound. The door opened and in came yet another customer. He was expecting to greet Arnold, but seems like they have to struggle all the way until the end of the day.

Both Eugene and Jessie were ready to leave the lady in peace, but before they could do it, she stood up and said with a smile, "Pleased to meet you lot. My name is Eleonora von Schwarz. Hopefully, we will meet once more."