50th Ash, 124 Though Stefan was worried that the secrets might leak out, spill into the minds of those who would carry them to nations capable of coming to rip them from him, he did trust Eitan. Eitan trusted in his Sentinel of Information to spin and control anything that was revealed beyond their...

12nd Ash, 124 In the weeks following the activation of the remains, Stefan had repeated the experiment, which he had difficulty thinking of on those terms. It was still referred to thus to outsiders, which was everyone but Eitan. How Eitan referred to the situation to others, Stefan did not know. H...

Through the auraglass goggles Stefan could see that the additional power from the mechanized muscle structure, from the helmet moving up through the whole, mixing with that which was in the skull and... changing color? That didn't make sense but Stefan knew that it was his mind's attempt to interpr...

The tension, both positive and negative that had been bouncing around inside Stefan's head, his chest, his limbs, stopped as soon as Eitan made his proclamation. It narrowed to a laser focus, to a set of pin-point goals, like lights at the end of very long tunnels. He would not run headlong into th...

Stefan hardly noticed Lessnau joining them in his hurry to lead Eitan down through his laboratories. When the man spoke, to reinforce Eitan's affirmation, he nearly jumped, and then nearly became embarrassed. Thankfully, that emotion had been soundly beaten out of him as a child, it was impossible ...

Stefan had not sat down and it was only once he had finished speaking and was awaiting Eitan's judgement that he realized that the High Sentinel's judgement was exactly what he was waiting for. The man was his friend, his brother, his partner in more things that he could have easily named, but in t...

75th Searing, 124 The conversations hadn't gone as badly as the First Minister had feared they might. Despite the lateness of his return, or perhaps specifically because of it, it had been noticed. Though neither his wife nor Deinerin had spoken to him about it, they had conspired to let him sleep ...

62nd Searing, 124 It was late, later than Stefan should have been down in his earthbound sanctuary of cogs and scattered schematics. Late enough that it would be commented on by both his wife and his manservant. If he was lucky those comments would be in the form of knowing and slightly judgemental...

45 Searing 123 There is a silence that comes after an explosion. The sudden, massive concussive force is so destructive that it takes away your ability to hear anything else. It rings inside you, high-pitched like a scream, while blocking out all else. A sound so overwhelming that it shatters the p...

Stefan watched, torn. Between siding with his instincts and a lifetime of training. Between the good of his child and the obvious revulsion of the man he was closest to. Between fear and anger and grief and so many more. He nodded, said whatever words felt best to convey his willingness to keep her...