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Nobody spares Geppe a second look as he walks up the cobblestone street, despite his only disguise being glasses and a beard. Did people pay so little attention to him when he stood behind Dolf? Dolf..... The movement has grown weak in his absence, but their ideology's torch still burns in the darkness. And Geppe won't let that flame go out as long as he himself lives. Men like him live and die without realizing how they threw everything away by dedicating their lives to hatred.
He arrives to a narrow house, not a very nice house and not in a very nice area, and glances around. There's a few other animals in the street, but nobody's following him or watching the house — or so it seems. Geppe knocks on the door, and after a moment it's cracked open by a female crow whose feathers are messy and maybe even stress-plucked. He last saw her on the fateful night, when he was leaving his last advice in a letter to their leader, and advised the secretary to also flee before the protestors or the old government returned.
"Who are you?"
Geppe takes his brimmed hat off with his right hand and presses it to his chest with his palm as open as possible, hoping that the gesture is both discreet and clear "Miss Lotte?"
Lotte seems to get it and nods "Yes, I am."
The hippo takes the glasses off his snout and Lotte's eyes widen in recognition. It's the former party treasurer, and Dolf's right hand, behind the thick beard. She only manages a small noise of shock. But then she quickly glances behind him, before grabbing him by the sleeve and pulling him in. She's not really strong enough to pull a hippo along, of course not, but Geppe hurries in voluntarily.
"What are you doing here?!" Lotte hisses, peering into the street from the door crack behind him.
"The leader is dead" Geppe says simply. It is a simple thing. As Lotte closes the door and turns to him, Geppe hopes that his eyes aren't red anymore. Or that Lotte won't notice, at least.
"I know" Lotte bows her head respectfully. Neither of them says anything for a moment that feels like it lasts forever. Lotte's gaze wanders between Geppe and the stuff in the first room. How should she continue this conversation? How can she get Geppe out of her house before he sees? Lotte raises her right hand to her heart, slowly, and speaks quietly "Dolf is justice."
Geppe straightens and clicks his heels together, properly like Lotte should also have done, but he too is visibly tired and speaking in a quiet voice "Dolf is justice."
Suddenly, a small voice from the next room almost makes Lotte jump out of her skin "Mom?"
"Willem—!"
Willem looks just like Geppe could imagine his leader looking as a hatchling. But the boy's beak, bumpy like Dolf's, is yellow. The sounds of the world behind the room's walls sound muted in the shocked Geppe's ears. He turns to the woman wordlessly, his expression unclear.
"Is our leader really the father of your child?" He asks about the rumors he came here for, even though now that he's seen the kid himself there's no shadow of doubt. He's definitely Dolf's.
"I.... Uhhh..." Lotte stammers, certainly because of the beak. Maybe she's afraid Geppe will accuse her of impurity and kill her. They're alone, and a crow could never overpower a hippo.
"Mom?" Willem walks to the hem of his mother's dress and looks up at Geppe with their leader's green eyes.
"I swear, I'm not..." Lotte trails off. If she directly denied impurity on her side, she'd be saying that Dolf was the impure one. That's unthinkable, and especially unspeakable. She doesn't think there's a worse crime.
Geppe's eyes stay on the boy. It wasn't cheese on Dolf's beak on their last night. He'd already suspected and feared so, but he had to face it now. Corvids do not have yellow beaks.
But Geppe still loves Dolf. Dolf can choke him, accuse him of betrayal, be revealed as impure, lose power, lose his fortune, even die, without that changing anything. His leader could be and do anything and still be perfect. Like God to Geppe. And just like christians for God's actions, Geppe immediately invents excuses for Dolf's flaws. Impurity doesn't matter because his leader was exceptional, and he was exceptional because he just was.
And Willem too is special and exceptional, because Geppe sees him as an extension of Dolf, the executor of his legacy, the party's future, Waterland's future. To Geppe, Willem isn't his own animal — he only sees his dead emperor. He thinks everything will be fine as long as the beak stays secret, especially from their fellow travelers.
"Who are you?" Dolf's son asks Geppe, pulling him from his thoughs.
The hippo kneels in front of the crow chick, but Willem is still left in his shadow "Hi, Willem. My name is Matias. I was your father's... friend."
Geppe can't think of a way to describe his feelings towards Dolf right now, without giving the boy or especially Lotte the wrong idea (would that idea be factually wrong?), but they were never friends. Dolf was always above Geppe, and that was right. Geppe was just his faithful.
"I came to help you and your mother" Geppe says as he pats Dolf's son's fluffy head.