Martin meets an ancient monk in a Ural monastery:

“Thank you for having received us. We are looking for...”

“I know what you are looking for. I imagined that someone, sooner or later, would come for that. Sit down.”

In a flashback departing from actual European history, Prince Rudolf and his new teen mistress Maria Vetsera travels from Austria to Imperial Russia, looking for answers:

“October 18, 1888. We have just left Warsaw, after about a day's journey. We left Vienna in a hurry, at dawn, with little luggage, trying to take with us only what will be useful to us against the Siberian frost that we are going to encounter.”

“Only my faithful Loschek accompanied us to the station: we couldn’t risk anyone from the court circles noticing us. And if events favor us, we will reach our destination in three, maximum four days of travel.”
‘Why did you decide to keep a diary?”

“My mother advised me to. She believes that writing does me good, helps me to free myself from negative emotions... and perhaps she is right.”

“I believe it too. So write, my dear. Tell everything.”

“Maria... I would never have thought it, but the presence of this young woman fills me with energy and spurs me to continue. Have I finally found what I have been looking for all my life? With each passing day I feel more and more fortunate to have her by my side.”

Don't kid yourself, Rudolf. She's just your latest squeeze, and once you've squeezed the pleasure out of her, you'll move on to another face. Or you would have, if you hadn't convinced her to join you in a murder/suicide.

Scene transitions in this series usually occur at the beginning of a new two-page spread, rarely between one page and the next in a single spread. Page 56 is unusual for transitioning from present to partway through a single page. Check out the creepy eyes of the monk lingering after the transition in the background. Is he remembering or having a prophetic vision? Also, the bottom panel on page 56 contains Rudolf’s diary supimposed on a long shot of the train on which he is traveling.

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