Author's Notes: Hey there, everyone. This is a side story that explores the Manchukuo Incident that is referred to often in Those Fallen and is set before the events of Magia, Pacem, Bellum Terrarum. This is a side story for the Magia, Pacem, Bellum Terrarum series that I had in my mind for a long time. I only got around to writing it now and I'm hoping to release these chapters alongside Those Fallen.

Now, without further ado, here is Magia, Pacem, Bellum Terrarum - False Synthesis!

Magic was not meant to bring us miracles.

Those who believe so are fools.

After all - magic is a path paved in tears and suffering,

A vicious cycle that we ourselves have made.

With every passing day, the pain subsides bit by bit,

Corroding our bonds to this world and our feelings for others,

Until we find ourselves numb to our core,

Numb to our very soul.

In that numbness, I felt the smoke of the abyss,

Shrouding my eyes from this world, parching my blackened lips,

Afflicted by a thirst that water cannot quench.

But I am so close,

So close to the end.

I cannot stop anymore.

I will see this through to the end.

Will I finally shatter this pitiful prison of ours?

Only time will tell.

Magia, Pacem, Bellum Terrarum - False Synthesis

The Telegram

June 17, 1939 - Saturday

It was early in the evening in the city of Hsinking, the capital of the puppet state of Manchukuo, where the whispers of war echoed in the streets. The headquarters complex of the renowned Kwantung Army Group of the Imperial Japanese Army was abuzz as telephones in nearly every part of the complex rang and as messengers carried red-stamped letters from the Imperial General Headquarters all the way in Tokyo into the complex.

Over the past few weeks, skirmishes between border units of the Kwantung Army and the cavalry units of the Mongolian People's Republic and their Soviet allies erupted in the cold yet arid tundra plains along the Khalkhin Gol river - disputed territory between Manchukuo and Mongolia. There were worrying reports from the border guards that Soviet motorized divisions were amassing near the border to support their Mongolian allies. In response, the Kwantung Army headquarters received orders that from Imperial General Headquarters to mobilize its armored brigades and to fortify its position along the Khalkhin Gol.

Thus, every inch of the Kwantung Army's headquarters scrambled to organize their northbound expeditionary force save for a lone, quiet corner at the south-east wall of of the complex. In that corner, the three-story, Western-style building named the 'Xia Hua Dasha' building housed the Manchukuo Branch of the Salvae, Terrae Magicae organization. The hundreds of girls who lived there - all Puella Magi who hailed from Manchukuo, Japanese Korea and Mongolia - watched the Kwantung Army mobilize in awe.

Like those of the Kwantung Army headquarters, the communications room at the third floor of the Xia Hua Dasha was also abuzz that evening when a lone communications officer - a sixteen-year old Manchu magi - began her shift. The communications officer watched in horror as their three teleprinter machines were receiving telegraph transmissions all at once. The officer heaved a sigh, and lamented in Mandarin,

"Am I the only one on duty today?"

Still, the officer rolled up her sleeves and laid down a host translation dictionaries and tried to make sense of the telegram prints piling up on the floor.

The officer began the painstaking work of collecting the telegrams and translating them to Mandarin by hand. There were all sorts of telegrams that came in that evening - many being reports from the Witch-hunt expeditions throughout the Manchukuo Branch's large territory. Messages from the other Branches of Salvae in the region - Vladivostok, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore and Manila - also found their way into the officer's work piles from time to time.

Just as always, the telegrams that came her way were standard fare messages and reports that she had gotten used to reading and translating.

However, one particular telegram caught the officer's attention. It was a telegram written in German - one of the languages she was unfamiliar with - that had come from all the way in Berlin. What's more, the telegram was sent by the Magni Domina, Lorelei Sankt, herself.

The officer's heart started to race. She remembered that one of her other colleagues was well-versed in German, but the officer had no choice but to translate the document herself.

She rifled through the communications room for a German-Mandarin translation book and found one at her colleague's desk. The officer set the translation book down on her desk and squinted as she carefully translated the German telegram. The more she translated the telegram, however, the message she wrote down on paper sent chills running up her spine.

The officer scratched her head and muttered to herself,

"What the…? That can't be right."

She shook her head and willed herself on to finish translating the rest of the telegram. When she finished, the officer had transcribed an urgent message meant for the Carissima of the Manchukuo Branch, Lianmeng Hou. All in all, the message sounded crazy and the officer found it hard to believe any of it.

Thus, she double checked her translations but there were no corrections. The worrying story in the telegram stayed exactly the same.

Left without a choice, the officer stapled her translation sheet to the printed telegram and then headed out of the communications office. She locked the door behind her and then held the telegram and its translation close to her chest as she briskly walked through the halls of the Xia Hua Dasha.

Looking for Carissima Hou, the officer checked the Carissima's bedroom, the building's crafts workshop and the main dining hall. The Carissima, however, was nowhere to be found.

As the officer searched on, the contents of the telegram brewed in her mind. Spurred by her suspicion, she started to quietly count the number of Puella Magi she saw in the halls and the rooms of the Xia Hua Dasha. Including the girls who were out on expeditions, there were roughly four hundred and fifty Puella Magi there in the Manchukuo Branch.

The number matched the official census of Salvae, the officer thought. However, she couldn't shake the thought that there were supposed to be more than four hundred and fifty.

What's more, the communications officer couldn't find her two colleagues anywhere in the Xia Hua Dasha. She knew that neither of them were going to be on the Witch-hunt expeditions until July. Something was wrong, the officer thought. Something was definitely wrong.

The theories brewing in her mind brought the officer to wits end. She just wanted to hand the telegram and the translation to the Carissima and be done with it. She wanted to believe that the telegram was just some sort of sick joke - but she knew that the Magni Domina would never joke morbidly.

As she was struggling with her own mind, the officer reached the small section of the Xia Hua Dasha reserved for the twelve Zealots of Carissima Hou - the Carissima's most trusted magi. Aspirants such as herself, no matter what the occasion, weren't allowed in that section. However, the officer figured that a reprimand was a small price to pay for her peace of mind.

The officer snuck into the section and then peeked into the Zealots' quarters. She made herself scarce and made sure that nobody was watching her. Then, she came across a strange, thirteenth door in the hall - one that wasn't in the original blueprint of the Xia Hua Dasha.

She opened the door then found that it was the entrance to a dark, spiral stairwell of stone that was sparsely illuminated by torches mounted on the walls. The stairwell led downwards, further than what her eyes could see in the sparse light. The officer gulped, clutched the papers in her hand and then carefully climbed down the staircase.

As the officer descended into the darkness, a thin veil of smoke started to shroud the stairwell. The smoke obscured the light of the mounted torches and smelled oddly sweet - something like the fragrance of an unusual flower.

Before long, the officer found the bottom of the stairwell where a set of heavy, wooden double doors greeted her. She laid her free hand on one of the knobs and was about to open the door when she suddenly felt the stock of an Arisaka rifle strike the back of her head.

The officer then fell onto the cold, stone floor and passed out.

When the officer came to, she found herself seated on an uncomfortable wooden chair beneath the blinding white light of a single hanging lamp. The fragrant smoke that she saw and smelled in the stairwell was thick uncomfortably thick around her there in that unknown room. The smoke was so thick that she could hardly see further than a few arms' lengths before her.

Moments later, she felt an unforgiving tightness on her arms as she saw leather restraints and a harness that tied her down to her seat. Her legs were restrained in a similar manner that made it excruciatingly hard to move. Tears started to form in the officer's eyes and she wanted to scream, but she felt a cloth gag that muffled her voice.

What in the world was going on? The officer didn't know where she was or why she was brought there. No matter how hard she tried, she could hardly move a muscle and she was still dizzy from the blow to the back of her head.

Three figures then emerged from the thick smoke and appeared before the officer. The first two were the most senior of Carissima Hou's Zealots - a tall, husky Han Chinese magi and a willowy magi of Pashtun Afghan descent. The two of them wore Arisaka Type 38 bolt-action rifles slung over their shoulders - one of which had a stock stained in fresh blood.

The third figure then appeared and passed between the two Zealots to reveal herself. It was the Carissima of Manchukuo - Lianmeng Hou. She was a Manchu girl like the communications officer and wore her short, curly hair with bangs parted to the side in metropolitan Shanghai fashion. In Lianmeng's hand, she held a slender, silver cigarette holder that reflected the light of the hanging lamp.

The communications officer watched in tearful disbelief as Carissima Hou flashed her a kindly yet sly smile. The Carissima then twirled her cigarette holder playfully in her hands and then turned to her two Zealots without saying a word. Immediately, the Afghan Zealot took out an unusual, hand-rolled cigarette and set it into the Carissima's cigarette holder. The Han Zealot then produced a matchbox from her breast pocket and then struck a match to light the Carissima's cigarette.

Lianmeng then stepped forward towards the tied-up officer and then took a leisurely puff from her cigarette. The Carissima then cruelly blew smoke at the officer, forcing the officer to close her eyes.

The officer then smelled that same odd and flowery fragrance from the Carissima's smoke. It was starkly different from the tobacco smoke of the cigarettes that the soldiers of the Kwantung Army smoked in Hsinking.

Then, the officer finally recognized what that smoke was - opium. The Carissima noticed the officer's shocked expression and smirked at her as she took another puff of her cigarette. Lianmeng blew out more smoke and then said in Mandarin,

"So then, you've figured it out? I'm not surprised. You were always one of my brightest Aspirants. Lorelei Sankt herself said so when she visited here many years back. It's a shame, however, that things would have to come to this. The staircase to this cellar is in an area of the Xia Hua Dasha that only the Zealots and myself can enter. That was one of the rules of this house when we took you in - don't you remember?"

Carissima Hou thoughtfully paced around the tied-up officer in her chair like a vulture circling her prey. She then dug into her pocket and then then brought out the telegram and its translation. She waved it before the officer like a fan as she said,

"You willingly broke that rule to give me this message of yours. Did its contents scare you? Were you unable to believe what you read? Hmph… I don't blame you. Anyone would have reacted that way if they saw what was written here. Well - since you took the trouble of bringing this to me, I might as well read it, yes?"

The Carissima then unfolded the telegram and the translation and then read the message out loud in a dramatic voice,

…

Dearest Lianmeng, stop.

I am deeply concerned by your request for additional recruits for the Manchukuo Branch, stop.

The Manchukuo Branch already recruited 200 girls in 1938 and another 200 in the year before, stop.

The official magi census numbers of the Manchukuo Branch has not increased accordingly and remained at 450 for this year, stop.

This does not add up with our records here in Berlin, stop.

Two hundred girls are unaccounted for as things stand and we have not heard an explanation from your Branch, stop.

We have already sent two telegrams previously but have received no reply, stop.

What is going on there, stop.

Please do not take offense to my decision Lianmeng but I have ordered a team to visit the Manchukuo Branch for an inspection and they are en route as we speak, stop.

I request that you reconcile your records and present all 850 magi of the Manchukuo Branch to the inspection team, stop.

Your concerned friend, stop.

Lorelei Sankt, stop.

...

Lianmeng cackled after reading Lorelei's telegram and them crumpled it up without a second thought. She then brought the telegram to the tip of her lit cigarette and set the document on fire.

The Carissima then let the burning telegram go and flutter down to the stone floor as she spread her arms out wide and cried in a euphoric voice,

"Ah, Lorelei - how much of a fool have you become? What is a Magni Domina but a mere pawn in this game - a pawn who thinks of herself as a queen!"

The Carissima lowered her arms and then grumbled, speaking in an irritable tone all of the sudden,

"Still - if a pawn moves across the table, she will become a queen. This inspection team of hers is going to be a pain in the ass, but don't worry. I'll prepare a 'proper welcome' for them. I'm in the middle of a breakthrough here and I'm not going to let anyone stop me - not even Lorelei Sankt herself!"

Lianmeng then tilted her head and looked back at the tied-up officer with a devious smirk,

"In any case, you must be wondering about the things you read in the telegram. You must be wondering how two high-priority telegrams slipped the sharp eyes of our communication room. Well - what if I told you that I received both of those telegrams?"

Lianmeng then patted her breast pocket and then pulled out two similar telegrams to the one that the communications officer brought with her. The Carissima then said,

"I have both of those telegrams right here - along with the two messengers who sent them!"

The Carissima waved her hand and cast a blast of air that cleared some of the smoke away from the room. The tied-up officer's eyes widened in shock as she saw her two colleagues - the other two communications officers of the Manchukuo Branch tied up in chairs as well.

The two other officers had blank eyes and parched lips that whimpered for help in their obscure minority Chinese dialects. The both of them fluttered between wakefulness and sleep in cruelly short intervals and they were shivering with inhuman spasms that rattled the leather restraints of their chairs.

Lianmeng then took one last, long puff of her opium cigarette and then handed her cigarette holder to the Han Zealot. The Carissima's expression changed abruptly again, this time from mischief to melancholy as she said,

"It truly is a shame that we have to part ways like this. I liked you. I liked all three of you. You were the best communications officers in all of East Asia, but I have to do what's necessary to see things through to the end. The three of you are collateral damage - and so are those poor four hundred souls that Lorelei Sankt seeks to find. All of you will become a part of something greater."

The Carissima held out her hand and then the Afghan Zealot produced a box that she popped open. Inside the box was a bottle with a label written in Pashto and was filled with cloudy black fluid - the same color as the blank eyes of the two suffering communications officers strapped to their seats- and a syringe.

Lianmeng carefully took the syringe and skillfully filled it with cloudy black. She then flicked the needle of the syringe with her finger and said,

"I am charting a path to Heaven, but it involves having to go through Hell. I am very close to finding my way through. I just need a little more time - and just a few more sacrifices. So, no hard feelings."

Lianmeng then nodded to the Han Zealot and said,

"Hold her down."

The communications officer's muffled yet harrowing cries filled the hidden room of the Xia Hua Dasha but never reached the ground floor and she was never heard from again.

January 20, 1939 - Tuesday

Three days later, an hour before the break of dawn, a peculiar boat quietly approached the wharf of Port Arthur at the southernmost tip of Manchukuo. It wasn't a Manchukuoan fishing boat like the other small vessels docked there nor was it like the destroyers of the Imperial Japanese Navy anchored a ways off.

Instead, it was a US-made Patrol Torpedo 'PT' Boat that had been stripped of all its heavy weapons and was run by one of the most celebrated Maultiers of Salvae, Terrae Magicae - Serafina Larivenko. The young Ukrainian lady in her early twenties dropped anchor at the docks and skillfully moored the PT boat.

Serafina's eyes scanned the docks and the nearby IJN destroyers to check for any prying eyes but there were none. The Japanese sailors were still drunk from their shore leave at Port Arthur while the Manchukuoan fishermen were being held up at the gates.

Once the coast was clear, Serafina navigated through the interior of her boat and the boxes of food, guns and ammunition scattered about to wake up her PT boat's lone, passenger who had fallen asleep while sitting down. The Ukrainian girl gently laid a hand on the passenger's shoulder and spoke in lightly accented English,

"We made it to Port Arthur, Carissima Elise. Welcome to Manchukuo."

To Be Continued