Weight of the World [Florian]

[Brenner Dornkirk]

"The point?" Brenner smiled, "Why, if we're to be the architects of a new world, it helps to know toward what we're aspiring." The sharpness that was often to be found in the Air Commander's countenance had softened to something warm and cordial. Perhaps the notion that Florian espoused about something akin to friendly feelings toward him, had put him on a similar bent.

"Whether we win or lose, the wars to come will someday end. I wanted to know whether your vision for your future fit in with mine and I'm pleased to note that it does." As Florian reasserted his grievances, the smile faded from Brenner's features and he nodded in acknowledgement. He cracked a little smile at the mention of his 'little speeches', but it was only a momentary flash of a thing that disappeared as he went on.

"Yes, Florian, I will listen to you." He sat upright, placing both hands on the edge of the table between them. "For all my propensity for oration, I'd like to think my ear has always been open to you- Even if you weren't keen to offer me your thoughts. Now, in the spirit of candour with which you so boldly lead your life, I will say this: I may not always agree with you, and mine is not the final word in the Zaichaeri State, but I will listen, I will engage, and I will try to help you realise your vision for the future.

"I hear that Zaichaer failed you. It has failed many, though few so gravely. That is why your voice could stand to be so pivotal in all this. There will be a time of ashes, but after the smoke clears it will be a time to build. Let us be ready." He sat back and took a sip of his coffee,

"And whilst those fires still churn, Florian, perhaps I might persuade our new glorious leader to let you observe... perchance even participate in the punishment we deal out to those who wronged you worst, for they are our enemies too." A grim grin spread across his visage, "And if there's one thing at which Zaichaer has proven adept, it is discipline."

[Florian]

FLORIAN

"Then it will be." Florian asserted. "Hopefully the Grand Marshal will be more amenable to removing me from my fugitive status if she knows how easy it will be to keep an eye on me." A small smile crept back onto his face, and then he started to finish his breakfast pastry as Brenner continued to talk. Part of him wondered what his mother would think of this, of everything. She had both been terrified of him drawing untoward attention and still recited that he would be destined for great things — and he figured you could not have one without the other. There was something to be said about Brenner's brief switch into frankness that Florian appreciated, though he found the comparison to his own candor amusing.

At the mention of retribution against the state-sanctioned experiments conducted on his person, his smile faded and he leaned forward over the table. "I could not say I want anything more than to enact my revenge against the good doctor Constantine and watch that horrific smile disappear." Florian leaned back. "But my loyalty is not contingent on my vengeance." He would find his way towards revenge regardless of official action, and he would sooner ask forgiveness than permission on the matter. If were not to be by government action than he woulld do so with Lyra's help.

"Regardless of smoke, ashes, and the fires of war and coups, I suppose I'll need to figure out what to do when I'm free to walk the streets again. It's almost like a fresh start, though I'll need to do a lot of shopping once I've found somewhere to live..." Florian waved his hand dismissively. "I'm getting off-topic. I trust that you'll be able to convince the new Grand Marshal of what we've talked about already."

"I don't think I ever congratulated you on your promotion, anyway. I take it you're not going to have time for your old Air Commander duties anymore?"

[Brenner Dornkirk]

It seemed there were to be two coups in Zaichaer that week, Brenner thought, as his smile broadened.

“Marshal Kelgarde is an eminently reasonable woman. Pragmatic to a fault. I do not doubt that she will see the merit of emphasising unity and integration in advance of the coming war. It is to all of our benefits.” He’d already convinced her to take far greater risks than this, and she’d displayed her focus on progress by entrusting a member of such a young family to serve at her right hand.

“It seems only fair that the State which failed to protect you grants you the opportunity to exact retribution against the perpetrators…” Brenner posited with a blithe wave of the hand. Florian’s loyalty may not have been contingent upon such an offer but if, as he said, there was nothing he wanted more, then it certainly couldn’t hurt. Moreover, it would feed into a convenient narrative for both the new regime and the integration efforts.

“It must be an exciting notion to ponder. A house with a gate and a courtyard need not feel like a distant pipe dream if all goes to rights. Just leave it to me…” He sniggered and tipped his head in acknowledgement.

“Perhaps it is a bit premature tor congratulations, anyway. To win a coup is not the same as holding onto the office. The old regime still has plenty of disgruntled loyalists who will need to be rooted out and converted, or…” He canted his head to the left, “Otherwise dealt with.” Brenner was glad to be in the camp outfitted with managing the former. The latter would have been more difficult.

“My active status in the ZADC will be transferred to the reserves for the present, but who knows what war will demand of us? I don’t expect I’ve seen my last command.”

[Florian]

FLORIAN

Florian shrugged and considered that, if there were a man alive who liked to hear himself talk more than Brenner, he did not want to meet them. Still, he owed the man-who-liked-to-speak a considerable amount if freedom and position were as promised. Even if his own aspirations tended towards spiteful, he had gone through too much to throw any fleeting good fortune away. Even with the unfortunate start of his interactions with the younger Dornkirk, it was difficult to hate a man who stuck so well to his convictions. Perhaps his consideration of Brenner as something close to a friend was more fact than fiction. It was not too far fetched that he'd even consider him a friend sooner than later, especially if he did not renege on the goals he had shared.

"A house with a gate, a courtyard, and a library even. My goals are far-reaching." He joked. "I guess I'll have to congratulate you again in a month, and a season, and whenever else you consider yourself having held onto your position, eh? You're well-suited towards convincing others of your lofty goals, at least."

Florian looked out of the window. He had rarely such a view of the city and the grey atmosphere of the place built on steam and mechanics. Kalzasi, built into the mountain, was clean and utterly foreign. Maybe he was better off back in this brass city. A few pieces of sun began to poke through the mulling clouds and smog. "And a man of the people at that, ready to go to war. I suppose your promotion comes ill-timed for a military man. I can't say I haven't missed being in the air. The rest of it...well, I think I'd have been happier if I was just trained as a pilot or a navigator than a convenient source of aether. I wouldn't have ended up here, at least, but maybe it's for the best that I have."

[Brenner Dornkirk]

"Throw in a balcony, why don't you?" Brenner suggested playfully, as he reached forth to pluck up another sausage. He'd been fairly ravenous since coming out of the affliction that plagued him after the expedition. He'd gained back some of the weight. He didn't look frail anymore and luckily his rather insatiable appetite hadn't softened his middle. At least not yet. His warm smile gave way to a wan grimace.

"I'm not sure those toward the top of the pyramid are ever wholly comfortable..." It was difficult to sustain power anywhere, but the nature of Zaichaeri politics made high standing particularly treacherous. A simple shift in the winds might see a once favoured regime overthrown- its loyalists executed in the streets.

"Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown." He quoted, looking more harrowed at that notion than ever before. He hadn't had much time to consider some of these ramifications. In a strange way the war would benefit the regime. Zaichaer tended to double down in support of its leaders during wartime. Well, aside from disgruntled Zaichaeri citizens, but that was where the point of this exchange was focused.

"After a fashion." Brenner conceded, "But I enjoy politics and this new position might help me to save the lives of more Zaichaeri citizens than I could from the bridge of a dreadnought. I'll be involved in the strategy sessions and there will be a seat at the war table for me..." He considered Florian's musings.

"Fate accorded you a talent precious rare and passing valuable." He noted, "I know it has proven rather a curse in practise, but these are the things we are poised to change for the future of both our peoples."

[Florian]

FLORIAN

Florian plucked a breakfast sausage of his own from the platter. While he was not nearly as hungry as Brenner, and still stuck to his precise diet plan of just enough to survive, Florian had been making some effort to eat more since he'd arrived back in Zaichaer. It was what his mother would have wanted, at least.

"Like what happened to put you here." He remarked. Brenner was one such benficiary of a regime overthrown, and from his expression and his tone, it was clear that he knew as such. "I can't say I've ever had a chance to be so politically-minded. I've merely been in position to be influenced by its hands. I would like to see that changed." He took another bite from the sausage and, where Brenner looked harrowed, Florian looked thoughtful.

"I've saved lives from it. More than I could as a pilot or a navigator, for sure. I'm still well accustomed to dealing with people who don't like me for any number of reasons. I spent my childhood reading and my adolescence getting into fights with people who thought I was worth less than the mud on their boots. If I had it my way, I don't think I would've stopped reading.

"Do you know the book The Butterfly Knight? It's the story of a wayward knight, little more than a bandit, who steals from those who cross his path in the name of his status. And then, one day, he finds himself a change of heart in a grove of butterflies. He changes his life around, saving the people he once hurt. He makes a name for himself. Marries the princess. It's a chapter book for children, after all. I bring this up because I can't recall you ever being invested in the treatment of Zaichaer's nonhumans before. Did you have a change of heart, Brenner, or are you just concerned about the instability?"

Florian paused to take another bite. "I suppose it doesn't matter if the end goal is the same. I just want to know what you think. And yes, I'd say what I can do has cursed me more than not, but it's also given me opportunity and the power to protect myself that I would not normally have, so in some respects, the pain I have gone through has only pushed me to greater things."

[Brenner Dornkirk]

“Precisely.” Brenner conceded with a single, slow nod. “Perhaps my ambition is greater than my wits to relish such a position.” He glanced across the table to Florian. “You’ll be taking a risk too by throwing in with my lot, but I think both of us have ambitions greater than ourselves. The risks are, then, a sacrifice for the greater good.” He sipped at his coffee.

Brenner smiled faintly through Florian’s recounted tale, and canted a brow at the culminating question.

“Would that make you my butterfly, if I had?” He mused through a smirk.

“But to answer you in earnest: I wouldn’t say my heart has changed, but my focus has. I do not hate the other races. One of my best friends is half elven, as you know, and Zaichaer has rarely seen a truer patriot’s heart than that of Eitan Angevin.” He pursed his lips.

“Non-humans…” He seemed to search the ceiling as he contemplated his thoughts on the other races. “There are good ones and bad ones, just as with humans. I think that some races have a wont to be more susceptible to the seduction of aetheric power. For some it is rather writ into their blood, but I also believe that the sentient mind is more powerful than our basest natures. There are many non-humans who are perfectly civilised. I have no quarrel with such creatu-… with such people.” He winced at his own misstep.

“This will be a learning process for me, I’ll grant. But suffice it to say, the only thing I loathe in all the world is magic. That is my enemy. Anyone who shares that contempt is a potential ally, whether they have horns, pointed ears or tails.”

[Florian]

FLORIAN

Brenner's response was aligned with what he expected of some wealthy Zaichaeri who was trying to pretend they were not racist. Florian was tempted to drag him to the Knob, even just to see Franky. If there was any man who had the finger on the pulse of the non-humans in Zaichaer, Florian would say it was the hobgoblin barkeep. He raised an eyebrow at the comment.

"If I were the butterfly that changed your heart I would be very surprised."

Florian's eyes widened at the mention that Eitan was half-elven, though he didn't say anything. He had mentioned problems in his family, and there were rumors, but he had never mentioned that he was half-elf to Florian directly. Brenner's reveal was the first he had heard of the matter.

"I think it gets more difficult when you're visibly nonhuman. Say, purple-grey and horned." Florian smirked. "But I think many in Zaichaer agree with you, human or not, about damaging effects of magic. My mother was one of them. Lysanrin can't even be marked with runes, some ancestral price they paid." He shrugged. "Most people are scared of it. Too many events, recent or no." He let the creature misstep slide, though his eyes darkened just a smidge. He reminded himself that it did not matter his current personal opinions if he were going to try and help. At least his concept of 'civilized' were someone who relied on magic versus those who didn't. Most people in the Knob were just as scared of magic as anyone else. Florian included, though he had the power to protect himself from it. The culture shock of arriving in Kalzasi had been painful, and while he knew Lyra was a mage, it felt different when he knew someone was on his side. Strangers with magic were wildcards. Necromancy and alchemy were the very tools used to keep him alive while he had been tortured under the guise of scientific progress, and there was never a time in his life he had felt more inhuman. He put a hand to his stomach, feeling ill at the barest hint of memory.

"I hope this will work out like we've spoken. I can make my case if you need it. I would very much like to no longer be a fugitive in the eyes of the state for terrors committed against me."

[Brenner Dornkirk]

"Would you be?" Brenner seemed slightly taken aback at that, "You did save my life in the Warrens. I haven't forgotten that... Nor the fact that you served the State despite of your reservations." That was, perhaps, why he'd set himself upon the task of assuaging them. If Florian had done such dutiful work for a cause he was against, imagine how formidable he might be when set to a cause in which he fervently believed.

Brenner was glancing out the window at a passing airship, squinting in an attempt to make out the model, so he missed the shift in Florian's expression at the mention of Eitan's background. It didn't even cross his mind that Florian wouldn't be aware, as it was an open secret in Brenner's circles. It didn't occur to him that Florian wasn't a particular contemporary of theirs who'd gone to school in their midst, when Eitan's origins were harder to hide.

"Well, it wasn't always thus for Eitan... He had his ears altered to better fit in." His eyes turned back toward Florian and he knitted his brow, as a realisation came over him. For the first time in all those years it occurred to Brenner Dornkirk that Eitan's surgical alterations were a sad reflection on the state of things, rather than a noble, aspirant move on the part of his stalwart friend. At the time, it had seemed like he was making a noble sacrifice that lionised humanity, but in this moment he saw it for what it was: self-preservation. Harrowed by the thought, he physically shook it off and reached down for his coffee cup to sip. To Brenner's relief, Florian shifted the conversation to the topic of magic.

"Even Lyra and I first connected over the topic of sorcery's many dangers." He noted, "It was she who put the fear of Arcas in me about Talon's burgeoning strength. I do think she is able to look objectively at these things, as a mage herself. When one has been graced with power, one does not easily part with it, so her methods are more reserved than mine. But still- She recognises the threat it can represent." He nodded,

"I will make overtures to the Grand Marshal about this. I expect she'll want to meet you before agreeing to anything, but we can cross that bridge when we come to it, eh?" Brenner rose to his feet, and pushed the chair back in.

"At any rate, I should head into the office. Enjoy your breakfast. Just let the footmen know whenever you're through and they'll clear away what remains." He took a step toward Florian and placed a fraternal hand on his left shoulder.

"I'm glad we had this talk, mein Schmetterling. Perhaps I'll see you at supper."

[Rune]

R E V I E W

Lore:
Brenner: 15
Florian: 14

Points: 10 each

Injuries/Ailments: None

Loot: None

Notes: