Tear it All Down [Stefan]

[Brenner Dornkirk]

"Tear it All Down"

25 Frost 121
Dornkirk Manor

"Master Brenner?"

The voice was gentle, albeit firm enough to rouse the Air Commander from a deep slumber. Stirring, he felt the heat of direct sunlight- blinding even through his eyelids. He rolled away from the beam and, squinting, he regarded his newly assigned valet with a snarl.

"Draw the curtains, Dahlbeck."

"I was only trying to-..."

"I am awake. Well done you. Draw the curtains." He instructed sternly, causing the young manservant to dart toward the windows and oblige his master's command. With Stefan having moved out and Brenner's recent triumph yielding political dividends, Lady Sylana found it a prime moment to hire a dutiful valet to attend to her younger son, as Dienerin tended to the elder.

"What time is it?" Brenner inquired as he pushed himself upright and rubbed at his temples.

"Quarter to ten, Master Brenner."

"Scheiße..." The Air Commander muttered. It had been harder to wake since the expedition, for some reason. At first he'd thought he might have contracted a cold in the chilly depths of the Warrens, and then he feared he might have been afflicted with the odd ailment that had been spreading throughout Zaichaer over the past year. Whatever it was, it was slow-moving and incredibly wearying. It had rent the flush from his cheeks, leaving him pallid and drawn. Much of the muscle he'd built in advance of the expedition had dwindled, now, and not for lack of trying to sustain it. But the workouts, too, were harder. He tired quickly and easily. By this point he was probably the slimmest he'd been since his academy days when his body was still developing and his metabolism had been feverish. That wasn't the case, lately, though, he'd just lost his appetite.

"Will you take breakfast before you head off to the Windworks, sir?"

"I shan't." He wrinkled his nose. "I'll just wash up. Have the coach waiting out front by the time I'm through."

*****

Dornkirk Windworks
One Hour Later

Brenner grunted as he swung his legs around and stepped down from the carriage. He glanced to the cloudy sky and, grey though it was, the obscured sun was bright enough to make him squint. Dahlbeck trepidatiously offered an arm, which Brenner smacked away.

"Don't offer me your shoulder like I'm a blushing maid or a bloody invalid, just... Just mind the coach until I return." And with that, Brenner Dornkirk trudged into the Windworks and headed for the offices of his brother.

"Stefan..." He grinned, pausing in the doorway and leaning a shoulder against the frame. "We're overdue for a check-in. I wanted to see where things stand on the pertinent projects." There was the deployment apparatus, the Nachtherr, the beasties themselves... So much to broach, and Stefan had been at it for a few months now, so the dividends were beginning to appear.

Brenner stalked over to a chair and plopped down.

"Sag mal."

[Stefan Dornkirk]

Stefan only grunted at the knock to his office door, it was Dienerin's knock, so the grunt would be enough. A pencil was tucked behind one ear and his coat was thrown over the back of his chair, sure signs he was deep-diving into some project. The slim manservant cleared his throat and said,

"It appears that Master Brenner has just arrived, should I show him right up?"

The elder Dornkirk's mind came out of the forest of study it had been exploring and looked up,

"Of course, you should. Always." It seemed odd that his manservant should have even asked the question. Realizing that relations between the brothers having been... odd, of late had transferred to the servants, even one as close as Dienerin, was not a pleasant thing. The valet nodded and said nothing else, taking himself out with the briefest of bows.

The smile on his brother's face when he appeared was like sunshine. Things had been easier since the expedition, smoother.

"Brenner." He said, returning the expression and stepping around his desk to make a proper greeting. "You always turn up just when I want you. I was going to stop by the house at luncheon in search of you."

Pulling the second chair situated in front of the desk around so they could be facing each other Stefan took it, noting the tension in his shoulders releasing as he did.

"I have a bit of news on a personal project as well. But I'll wait to make that report. Let's see," Deciding to start with the least secret of their secret projects he reached over the desk to dig down into one neat stack, pulling out a folder.

"The fleet of stealth ships are coming along. Recreating The Engine," He did not use the name, even there in his own office, "is giving us some difficulties in recreation but nothing that a good deal of tinkering can't handle. It seems each has to be adjusted personally and, so far, none of the engineers I've allowed into the project has been able to master it, which leaves me. I'm devoting as much time as I can to it but I can only take so much time in the work before... well, you recall how it felt."

He put the folder with all the details down on the desk near Brenner in case he wanted to glance through it.

[Brenner Dornkirk]

"Well I turn up a lot," Brenner chuckled, "So that observation is especially complimentary." The grin lingered longer than the laughter, and he took the offered seat without hesitation. He was still groggy. Lately the only thing harder than waking in the morning was falling asleep at night- or increasingly often in the wee hours before dawn.

"Well, please..." Brenner gestured, "Consider this your meeting and lead it as you like." He crossed his legs and stretched his spine, arching it against the back of the chair, before settling into a comfortable slump. He turned up the palm of his left hand on the armrest and spread his fingers.

"On the one hand, I don't want to miss the opportunity of our impending visit to Kalzasi to experiment in an aether-rich environment the likes of which we don't have here in Zaichaer." Next he turned up the palm of his right hand to match the gesture on the left,

"On the other hand, I am trying to manage my expectations about how much can be achieved in so short a span of time. I don't want to cross that pernicious threshold that lays between ambitious and overreaching." He leaned forward, dropping his beatific pose, to collect the folder and leaf through it.

"I would like the Nachtherr to be on hand when we travel North. We'll need to travel through the proper channels, of course, as not to make the Kalzasern authorities suspicious, but perhaps Dienerin and a skeleton crew can find fly separately and locate an LZ outside the city where we can stow her. If things go awry with our experiments, it will be good to have our own means of furtive escape on hand..." He mused,

"Not to mention, we might be able to use the ship as a method of deployment... Is there coffee on?" He sat upright, and glanced over his shoulder toward the door through which he'd come.

[Stefan Dornkirk]

As Stefan settled into the meeting his eyes did what they always did while his mind rattled away at its projects; they studied his brother. There was something in the posture. Something in the lines around the eyes, the color under them. The way Brenner's proud spine was hunched rather than just casually relaxing.

Stefan kept talking, listening, while his eyes collected these things.

"I was thinking the same. The Windworks still officially owns the Nachtherr, or, realistically, the Nachtherr doesn't officially exist yet. It might never exist, actually. The first engine, the one I built for it, well, its not as stable as my new design. There is nothing wrong with it, but its effect is more obvious. The newer ones I've been working on cause the mind to slide away from wanting to recognize the existence of the field without causing the nausea or mental disturbance. If stealth technology is what we're going for, well, it would be best if no one remembered at all."

Briefly, his mind touched on the idea that Eitan Angevin had conceived, that, in its current incarnation, it might be used as a weapon. If such was ever needed, Stefan wanted to have it in his back pocket. An ace to pull out if things ever looked dark on the horizon. Yet another way for Dornkirk to step up and be seen as the linchpin to victory. He would speak of this to Brenner, but not now. No one but the two of them and Eitan knew, not even Melchior. Stefan intended it to stay that way, inside the brotherhood.

"I was going to have it brought to around twenty miles outside that accursed city, lying in wait in case the kindly invitations of their pidge aristocracy isn't all it seems." When the conversation turned to the implementation of the new weapon Dornkirk was already promising to the State he nodded.

"Mmm. In my experiments, it seems as though the parasites will multiple if given an environment of ample nourishment. When not they go dormant, dying out slowly." He leaned forward to emphasize his point, "Very slowly. My experiments estimate it is years that they can lay in wait for the scent of aether. We have discussed deployment as a weapon, that might be shot or blasted out over a large area, but these are living creatures, adapted over time for their own survival. It is my growing opinion that, should I be able to get them to reproduce in sufficient quantities, it would be more like..." He lowered his voice, "Eine Plage. Umziehen von host zu host."

Sitting back again he sighed,

"I'm not there yet. They mostly feed on direct aether. A few will feed on what they can get from the squealmice; inherent magic. I haven't been given a subject to test it on a rune yet. I am hoping to be able to breed them together, to hybrid the types until we have something that will remove only the curse. The perpetrators can be dealt with once they are rendered harmless, executed for their crimes, or rehabilitated if they were forced."

He gave a wry smile and glanced back at his brother, "I know you are a man of action, but how would you feel about leading a mission of mercy, rather than waging a war? You'd be just as much a hero, perhaps more so, bringing the continent under Zaichaerian banners without having to slaughter the brothers and fathers of the State's new subjects."

Stefan rang a small silver bell that rested on the edge of his desk, Dienerin popped his head in almost immediately.

"Coffee please, for now, and perhaps luncheon in half an hour?"

Turning back to his brother his eyes informed him of the observations they had been gathering and he said,

"How are you, brother? You look a bit peaky. Still not gotten your color back from the lightness Warrens after these months?"

[Brenner Dornkirk]

Brenner scanned the documents in front of him as Stefan's words appended their contents.

"And the new design will have been executed and installed by the time we leave?" They had about a month left before the trip, which was a lot of time for some things and not nearly enough for others. These were just the sorts of expectations he was making the effort to manage, lest his ambitions rise beyond the practical.

"Well," Brenner chuckled, "To be fair, our acceptance of the invitation isn't all it seems, either..." After all, they were currently in a meeting about how to carry out what amounted to a clandestine attack on their host city, even if they were discussing it under the guise of a scientific experiment. The collateral damage to be incurred meant that there was no way Kalzasi would actually consent to being subject to their hypotheses in action.

He placed the folder back down on the desk, granting his full attention to Stefan as he elaborated on his explanation of the parasites...

"My little Hexenfresser are much as the old texts describe them, then..." And he grinned broadly at the vindication that represented. "And much in the ways I had hoped. Eine Zauberplage ist genau das, was ich wollte. Sie wird sich von Magier zu Magier in Kalzasi und darüber hinaus in ganz Ransera verbreiten." He sat more erect, now, as if this talk was instilling him with rejuvenating energy. As if talking about the end of magic was, for Brenner at least, an enlivening magic of its own.

"Unser rechtschaffenes Geschenk an Großzaichaer, unser glorreiches Vaterland!" He could not help but raise his voice, as if orating to the crowded presidium square, rather than his brother alone in an office.

As he settled back, grimacing slightly.

"The whole point of this, Brother, is to avoid war... Or at least to avoid a war in which human lives are put on the firing line. Let our little locust swarm descend upon our enemy and war within them, but in the end our foe is not the mage. It is the magic." He leaned forward, "I am not some monster, some... Vampyre who covets bloodshed, Stefan, and if we can remove or neuter the potency of the rune without ending the life of the mage, I will consider that an immense triumph. If there is punishment to be meted out, let it be an education for those who've cheated at life being forced to learn how to lead a righteous existence through toil and sacrifice. Like the rest of us." He nodded acknowledgment of Dienerin, and waited for him to step out before replying.

"I'm not sure what it is... Perhaps I picked up another bug in the Warrens than those we were seeking, but..." He shook his head, "Don't let it worry you. I've tackled worse. A nip of caffeine and I'll be right as rain."

[Stefan Dornkirk]

Stefan smiled as Brenner as enthusiastic life seemed to bloom in him. When he grew loud his elder brother scooted his chair closer and leaned in, murmuring,

"While I share your enthusiasm there are those who know our Muttersprache who might still hear you if you begin to give a grand speech." His tone was almost laughing, not at no one's expense. "Don't give away all our secrets yet, Mein Bruder."

Keeping to the same low tone he returned to the subject at hand,

"Your thoughts are mine exactly. I need more testing to be completed before I know how far such a deployment might spread. They don't appear to be very hardy creatures, which helps explain their lack of utter profusion in the Warrens. The handful of tests I've made have only had each deployment slip to two or three other hosts before fizzling out. I need to breed them to be more robust, faster, and, if possible, to each consume more. It will be... a process."

Quieting himself even further and leaning quite close so their heads were together, Stefan went on,

"I am preparing a sample now that, if at all possible, I would like to deploy on a sentient being, or, a pair of them. One with an inherent taint, and one with a rune marking their souls. I need to see what happens when the creature is more complex, can think. We will have to devise both a way to deploy the samples that won't be traced to us, and a method of observation. I was hoping you might assist in that aspect, you are far cleverer than I in social settings."

Stefan didn't need to infect the nobility. Well, not yet. A runebearer fallen on hard times and stolen from the streets would suit fine. A drunkard Availea or Fae’ethalan would do well. Discovering, procuring, and detaining such subjects were beyond his own scope of knowledge.

"As for the ship, I think I'll leave it as is. Having an unexpected weapon on our side likely won't be necessary, but I would rather have it and not need it, etcetera."

He leaned back a little from their quiet conversation when they moved back to speaking of Brenner's well-being, but mostly so he could take a more intentional look.

"Well, I'm not physician, old chap, but you might want to go and ask Dr. Stechpalme to take a look at you. Her knowledge of what might inflict someone was more extensive that I would have believed. Or even," Here his expression took a decided turn towards a grimace, "Lightborn, if he is still around. No use suffering needlessly for our cause when you have suffered enough needfully already."

[Brenner Dornkirk]

“Naja…” Brenner grimaced as his enthusiasm was curbed by practical concerns, “Heutzutage sprechen zu viele Zaichärier Kathalisch. Sie wollen wahrscheinlich wie Dornkirker sein.” He offered with a lighter volume albeit a graver expression. It only darkened further at Stefan’s assessment of the Hexenfresser and their apparent fragility.

“That is very disappointing to hear.” He bemoaned, “The texts suggested a much hardier entity than what you’re describing. But are their limits to their dormancy? We discovered them inert in the depths of the warrens in a cavern bereft of any apparent food source. They might have been there for centuries… millennia, even, only to awaken when we presented them with a viable source of nourishment.” He paused considering Stefan’s immediate goals.

“It shouldn’t be difficult to procure a specimen or two for experimentation. We’re in good standing with the State and they seem keen to accelerate the effort to weaponise the ‘fresser. I can speak with the State Department about lending us a few convicts who won’t be missed.” He considered, “I wonder whether we shouldn’t explore how they might interact with Lysanrin. Their odd relationship with magic could hold answers that wouldn’t otherwise occur to us.” He shrugged one shoulder and glanced sidelong as the coffee service was toted into the room. He nodded acknowledgment to the man servant and gestured to the desk before him to indicate he wished to be served.

“What I’ve been considering is a set of clockwork boxes which we can stow in all the major population centres of Kalzasi. They can be set to open simultaneously at a designated time. If we can target heavily populated areas like markets, amphitheatres and the like we’ll have the benefit of plenty of places to hide the apparatuses as well as large swaths of potential food sources for the ‘fresser.” He smiled faintly,

“I think the pidge prince’s wedding seems a prime opportunity. Perhaps I might even have an ally gift Talon with a puzzle box timed to release a cloud of Hexenfresser into the reception hall. Who knows what a divine food source might do to the little beasties?” The gathering promised to boast hundreds of the most potent mages in the rival city. Such an opportunity might not present itself again for years.

“I would, of course, offer a perfectly innocuous gift myself… but I’ll be there to observe whether the results be pervasive or disappointing.” He leaned forward to collect his coffee and take a relishing sip.

“I have it under control, Stef. Worry not.”

[Stefan Dornkirk]

Stefan leaned back in his chair a bit and laced his fingers in his lap as he did when he was sinking deeper into a scientific topic.

"I don't believe they are weak, I believe they are adapted to their environment. They seem to eat their fill and then sink back into the hybernative state. It likely evolved as a survival trait due to the environment. I am guessing that, in their original form they did not fall dormant as soon as they were sated, but continued to go about their lives. All we must do is get their survival instincts to believe that there will always be enough food for them. I am working at the problem from several angles, hoping to do just that. They must come out of their dormancy, or at least, have some way to sense when they have both depleted their current stores of aether and there is more nearby. I have not been able to isolate the mechanism, but am working on that as well. "

Delia was being good about it, understanding and encouraging, but he knew that his life of rising early to get to the Windworks and then staying up late working on what they had harvested from the Warrens was not sustainable. His brows rose at the idea that the government might simply give them criminals for test.

"Hmm. I suppose they might. Executing someone, justly, for treason is the correct thing, but if they could be used to assist society in moving on from their crimes, well, what better way to pay back what they stole? I will make inquiries, unless you think you'll have a better footing for it?"

Pulling his notebook from across the desk he made several notes as the refreshment tray arrived and coffee was poured for them both. Dienerin knew the look he got when he was concentrating on something and wouldn't want to be asked inane questions, so the man left again without comment.

Stefan continued to make notes and encouraging sounds as Brenner explained his ideas for deployment. They were quite good and Stefan had even started to make several little sketches but he stopped abruptly as the final suggestion for a test was revealed.

"No." He said, with a little swipe of his hand that implied something being cut off. "Forgive me, brother, but deploying the 'fresser anywhere near Kalzasi's elite would be a grave mistake. When we deploy them we want to take the whole lot of them entirely by surprise. It will only work to great effect if there is no warming, no prelude. They are not as advanced in the sciences as our great State but they have far more users of the unnatural arts. The parasites would be discovered and, regardless of where they thought it had come from, they would begin work on something to counter it. Above all else, secrecy is of the utmost import. I admire your intuition and would love to see that farce of a 'marriage' celebration torn asunder by justice but satisfaction must take a back seat to the greater good."

Whether it had been the trip to the Warrens, his marriage, or that he was simply finally growing into his place in the world, but this speech wasn't the sort Stefan would have delivered to his brother at the start of that year. It was respectful and still held the personal tones of their connection but it was far more assertive of what he knew than it ever had been before.

Taking up his cup he sipped at the hot, bitter liquid.

[Brenner Dornkirk]

"Mm, I see the merit of your concerns." Brenner considered, "Were we to deploy them prematurely... Before they've adapted along the lines toward which you strive, that would give the enemy time enough to develop ways to combat them. We must optimise their efficiency before we loose our plague upon an unsuspecting mage state. They must spread quickly and pervasively so the enemy has no conceivable opportunity to combat them before they've swept through the populace." He posited.

"No, no... There are no dearth of mages in Zaichaeri dungeons awaiting trial or sentencing. Our reputation as Dornkirks should be perfectly sufficient without me needing to trouble the Brass with such details. If you run into any trouble procuring specimens for your experiments, just let me know and I'll call in a few favours." He nodded at Stefan's assessment, smiling.

"Indeed. Whether or not their sacrifices be voluntary, it seems a rather poetic form of retribution. Charged with abusing magic, they will help to bring an end to future such incursions."

Brenner's lips tensed as Stefan countered him, but he didn't interrupt the speech. He drew the coffee to his lips and his hand was aquiver. Whether that was due to his ails or vexation was unclear, perhaps even to Brenner.

"Kalzasi's elite are the most potent food source we could possibly offer them, and the wedding will be a singular opportunity to have most of their ranks in one, confined location. Prioritise this work above all else. Make them hungry, nae, make them ravenous and insatiable. Make them fast, efficient, pervasive." He pursed his lips, "And you mistake me if you think the wedding would be a warning. The wedding would be the catalyst. All of the 'fresser must be deployed simultaneously throughout the city. To attack the poorest and most wretched amongst their number and fail to strike at the most powerful and, indeed, the most nourishing sources of aetheric energy would be the mistake." He paused to take another sip of coffee.

"If you cannot achieve this in the allotted time, we must delay the entire endeavour. That would grieve me deeply, but... I will abide." He paused, "But the longer we wait, the more powerful Talon grows. I have it on good authority that he is not even aware of his full potential and, once he broaches it, all of our efforts may be for naught." He placed the cup back down, with bit of a clatter.

"And all the world will be doomed."

[Stefan Dornkirk]

The elder brother nodded, as he listened, adding a splash of milk to his coffee before taking a second sip. It seemed that Brenner understood his concerns. It wasn't like Stefan's brother to act rashly, but they were walking unknown territory, cutting edge stuff that might very well slice them to gristle if they weren't exceedingly careful.

"You have it exactly. When we chose to use it, I want it to sweep over the nations of the continent with the type of total insurance of success that the religious use to speak of the wrath of the gods. Quick, unstoppable, and perfect." His tone was similar to the one he used to discuss shipbuilding with his engineers but there was something more to it, almost as if he too was reaching for the holy.

"That would be very helpful, brother. I haven't spent enough time in the academic circles enough to know the procedure for procuring controlled test subjects or substances, your assistance would move things along at a much more desirable pace."

His brows rose as the extent of Brenner's intentions came clear. Setting aside his cup, he leaned forward again, speaking in the low tone that would not carry,

"With your help getting test subjects I might be able to have a test batch prepared by the time of the wedding, but having a large enough supply to seed throughout the city?"

Stephan brought a hand to his brow, holding it and trying to do calculations with limited information. "I would need the use of mages to feed them constantly, to train them to eat continuously. We would have to have a large group of agents working in the city to place them and release them all at once. Even if they are in the ravenous state we hope, I can't know how they will react to being dispersed into a wide area. I haven't even begun testing how they move in open spaces. I was working on air deployment and a bit on a sort of gun to fire them into a single target."

The flow of his voice trailed off and he reached over his desk for a notepad where he began scratching notes, calculations and diagrams.

Keeping up with Brenner's ambition had been, in a very real way, the work of Stephan's life.