The Weight of Legacy

The birth record tomes covered much shorter spans than the marital ones had.

Malwine had started browsing those in the year 5750 once again, nevermind that she’d checked the marriages first precisely to confirm when Katrina and Kristian married. But you never knew! Children could have always been born before the marriage!

The first tome had been a bust, though. Predictably so. Each covered less than 10 years, so Malwine found herself having to get up and check another one. She went for Beuzaheim Births 5765-5773 against her own preferences, because looking through this was far more time-consuming than reading the marriage book had been. Beuzaheim had a healthy number of births a year, it seemed.

The names were listed alongside parent names plainly, with headers labeling each month and year. It was considerably more lackluster recordkeeping than the marriages.

She blinked, momentarily confused even as she indeed found the first entry for the family so far—under The Forgetting of 5767.

Ilse Beryllia, born mortal, daughter to Kristian Rīsan and Katrina Skrībanin.

Malwine felt no doubt in her mind that this was her mother. The name was odd, but she could see it being shortened—if nothing else, she was now curious as to whether Kristian and Katrina had fancy birth names too.

…Do I?

Rather than dwell upon it, Malwine pushed forward. The next entry of interest she caught was not one of the couple’s children.

Johanna Maria Bernadette Elisabet, born mortal, daughter to Dietrich fon Hūdijan hlāford and Johanna Babette fon Wurmeyin hlǣfdīġe.

The date also matched what Anselm had told Malwine, being from The Forgetting of 5769. She’d believed him, but having confirmation with a tangible source was always preferred. She would also have to forevermore resist the urge to annoy Bernie with this newfound knowledge of her full name, especially now that she’d seen how those Lord and Lady titles were formatted in documentation.

Malwine giggled. She had not felt this thrilled about doing something in literal years. Even with all the fun she’d had playing around with her Skills at times, there was something about this kind of research that satisfied a need nothing else could.

Anselm had predictably been right about his own birthdate as well. It was the first entry of its month.

The Fog of 5769

Anselm Julius, born mortal, son to Kristian Rīsan and Katrina Skrībanin.

That did bring up a bit of an issue—Malwine had yet to see Thekla anywhere.

Malwine was more than a bit peeved by the implication that she’d been wrong in her initial assumptions about the birth order, even if it made perfect sense. She’d admittedly guessed that with no real backing to the belief and simply ran with it until now.

Near the very end of the tome, she got her answer.

The Forgetting of 5773

Maria Thekla, born mortal, daughter of Kristian Rīsan and Katrina Skrībanin.

That was a surprisingly straight-forward name compared to the others—even in the widow’s Earth, it wasn’t particularly uncommon for people whose name started with variations of Mary to drop it and go by the remainder. It was pretty normal compared to the others.

Really? I’m now surprised by people having middle names? Or perhaps more accurately, Malwine disliked the implication that her own identification abilities weren’t enough to learn anyone’s entire name. Presumably, it was somewhat based on the one they used, instead.

But for real, what the fuck? Why the hell is everyone born during The Forgetting? EVERYONE!

Malwine sighed. Now that the transcriptions were done, she could bring her family tree panel back. In case she didn’t actually find anything else, she might as well save the information now, especially given how she had two panels worth of transcriptions now.

She added the full names she had gotten so far, turning the text that included the name they actually used bolder.