We All Wear Black

[Reiner Dornkirk]

"Hey, my uncle knew my folks in ways I didn't. I grew up with 'em. I loved 'em both, but... They were a different breed. My dad had some pretty radical notions about ways Zaichaer should be different, and I'll wager he tried to drag Melchior into that while he was still trying to get a foothold in the world we actually live in." It clearly pained Reiner to speak on this. His feelings about how he left things with his parents were still very unresolved, and yet his opinions hadn't changed in the wake of their death. He wanted change for Zaichaer, too, but for him the other Dornkirks represented a leap toward the meritocracy of his heart's desiring.

"I can't blame the man for cutting me off." Or at least he wouldn't. He actually blushed at the notion that Stefan was looking forward to meeting him. He didn't know what his cousin knew about him at this point. He assumed Dienerin had filled him in on what he'd gleaned, but then again perhaps the meeting didn't rate that much preparation. Clearly he had more important things to do than study up on Zaichaer's cannon surviving cannon fodder.

He nodded, firmly unable to suppress the smile that tugged his lips at the image of Stefan storming the breach that popped into his mind at Eitan's description.

"Yeah, he did."

At Eitan's description of his reasons to keep fighting, the smile slowly faded from his fair countenance. Reiner didn't have much of what was keeping Eitan's engines burning. No family, save one of the busiest men in their post-apocalyptic dystopia. Like his lighter, he was low on fuel. No one depending on him, in any personal way- Only the glorious (albeit less glorious than previously) State.

"Me? Heh..." He took his cigarette between his lips, and scratched the back of his neck with the hand it freed up. "I'm just glad there are dread mutants for me to take out my rage on. I mean... I'm not glad there are dread mutants, obviously, but target practice on them has been my only outlet. It's just hard when sometimes they look a little familiar, you know? Or..." He took a long drag, "...the little ones that were probably kids." He followed up the thought with a sip.

"Anyhow. A lot of people are out to sea, right now. I'm sure I'll find something worth living for, or die for something worth dyin' for." That didn't seem as daunting a prospect as it once had.

[Eitan Angevin]

"I don't mean to speak ill of the dead," he said on a smoky exhale, "but I don't think we show them any honor in forgetting their flaws, their complexities. I'm an actual bastard but my father was a fucking bastard, and yet... I wish I could have spoken to him before he died." He shrugged. "It would've been awful, most like. He wouldn't have given me anything I needed and I don't think I could give him anything he wanted. But as much as he was... is revered as a hero, I'm not the one who stuck my dick in an elf. I'm just the one who has to deal with the consequences. I chose to be human, and I have been fighting to prove myself ever since. Was offering myself to the Order enough? Enlisting? Holding back the Mists?"

He shrugged. It would seem that Eitan, at least, was quick to consider the man family, baring his soul to someone he had just met. It couldn't be blamed on a glass of schnapps and a cigarette, though grief and nostalgia might have something to do with it.

"The life of a soldier isn't easy," he acknowledged. His stomach turned at the thought of his niece warped by the Mists and attacking Delia. "Every monster slain is a mercy killing, and respite for the living. Your sacrifices shan't be in vain."

Eitan elbowed the young solder's arm.

"Try not to die until you've made a few more Dornkirks, hey? My kid'll need friends."

The captain fished a lighter out of his own coat and set it down between them. His was topped up and they might as well use it rather than what remained in Reiner's.

[Reiner Dornkirk]

"Listen, you knew the man. I didn’t…” Reiner replied, suddenly concerned he might have been overly familiar in his defense of a hero he’d never met. As much as he may have felt connected to Melchior Dornkirk and aspired to emulate his intrepid spirit, their bonds were blood alone.

“I’m… so sorry, Eitan.” In all his focus upon his uncle and cousins, he’d neglected to acknowledge Eitan’s loss of a parent as well. He hadn’t realized Leir Angevin had passed, prior to the memorial they’d just held. It was hard to keep track of all the dead, notable and otherwise, when the priority had to be placed on keeping everyone else alive.

“I can empathize with that. There was a lot left unsaid between me and my folks. They were good people, at heart. They weren’t rough on me like it sounds like your dad was on you. I just… didn’t fit, I guess. And I think it hurt them the way that presented itself.” He drew the glass of schnapps up to his lips and was only able to take in a light sip, before that went spewing forth in a spray of brown mist at the revelation that Eitan was half elf.

“I…” Hazel eyes darted unbidden to his ears. Perfectly round and human-like, they were. “My apologies. I didn’t know…” He wiped at his lips with the back of his sleeve and cleared his throat.

“But Angevin genes are clearly powerful. You look totally normal! If you hadn’t said anything, I wouldn’t have known…” If there were rumors about his elf blood in Zaichaer, they hadn’t reached Reiner’s rounded ears either. Maybe in more well-heeled company such things were broached, but the Zaichaeri spin machine was more successful amongst the less educated lower classes. Still, Reiner wasn’t stupid. He knew the rich and privileged- particularly those of the Old Guard were prone to perversions that would get a man strung up where he’d been reared. Reiner would have a lot to ponder, between this revelation and the rather… eclectic collection of characters he’d noticed in his brief time aboard Stefan’s massive, airborne life raft. But for now, Eitan’s character was as good as vouched for by his kinsmen, and he seemed like he got it. He aspired toward humanity, because it was simple evolution. Elves were atavistic, and humanity was an improvement upon that lazy prototype. That was why they’d propagated so successfully.

“You’re right about that. Warped by magic, they are, and lost to chaos. I’d sooner take a bullet to the brain than lose my mind and have my body become some… magic meat puppet. No, sir.” He smoked, and snickered grimly on the exhale.

“Well, your kid’ll have to wait a bit for that, I’ll wager. I didn’t even have a girlfriend before the Blitz, and the pickin’s are a lot slimmer these days…” He trailed off and looked out across the courtyard before them. Teeming with life, bereft of the grisly terrors he regularly witnessed below. Life persisted here. It was beautiful and inspiring, but he dared not hope to be invited to stay. Well did he know that there was still work to be done on the ground, and his family leave would be over in a matter of days. Maybe it was selfish to want to stay, anyway and it was as Eitan had said. His sacrifices wouldn’t be in vain.

[Eitan Angevin]

Eitan could only laugh. Perhaps the surgery and his father's reputation really had been enough to erase the shame of his existence. He waved it off, though his hand did run over the roundness of his ear later, when he wasn't thinking about it. They had plenty in common, it seemed, despite Reiner's upbringing. Perhaps the Dornkirk blood was strong like Angevin ichor.

"Well... eventually, we will have saved everyone who can be saved, between those on the ground and those on high. Then you will likely have your pick between your being a veteran, your being a Dornkirk, and all." He laughed again. Everything was still—literally—up in the air, but they had saved many people and many treasures, and Stefan had managed the impossible. Eitan was always tired, but good things were happening: Stefan had a daughter; Lucrece's pregnancy was at a point that the midwife said most danger was likely past; another Dornkirk had been found.

Good things.

He did wish Brenner were there to see it.

"How is morale down there?" he asked. "Has Stef's masterwork of engineering given people hope?"

Stefan could keep them aloft. Eitan could keep them safe. They couldn't house every refugee, but they had been able to coordinate with the likes of Reiner's post. A few other airships from the fleet had made their way home and used the Windworks as a safe port of call. Eventually, Eitan hoped to be recovered enough to ward the Dornkirk hunting lodge, which might be another safe place for their people. But with hope, at least, they could persevere. Already, the Kindred were attempting to help them grow enough food to last everyone through winter.

Perhaps, when he was recovered, he could ward Reiner's post and keep his new kinsman safer from the terrors that stalked the night.

[Reiner Dornkirk]

Reiner blushed a bit, and scuffed the sole of his well-polished shoe on the ground, idly at the talk of coupling up with some mystery lady. He still felt like a kid in some ways, and that was one of them. He'd had his share of dalliances. A few girlfriends, but not that lasted more than a couple of months. A lot of it just felt like a game to him. Often borne of competition between boys in his company, challenges, taunts. Kids made things serious, and he'd known his share of boys who weren't careful and saw their meagre grunt salaries dwindle with newfound responsibility that practically promised to bind them to the slums forever. Old Melchior had it right. He didn't have kids until he was well off and on the West End. Perhaps Eitan was right, and responsibilities would need to shift in the aftermath of the calamity, but it hadn't been something into which the young private had put too much thought to date.

"Hope?" He took an inspiration of smoke through his lips, and clenched his teeth as he drew it deeper into his lungs, even has he drew the cigarette away. Shaking his head, he let it plume through the nostrils of his button nose.

"Nah. Not much in the way of hope down there. When it comes, it's lightning quick and gone in a flash. As for this?" He gestured, and glanced across their surroundings. "It ain't nothin' but a rumor, down there. The communications lines are shit, and they keep changing. All these different leaders who weren't even brass, claiming they're the highest ranking this or that surviving, and then running into someone that outranks them the next day. I wasn't in the city when you took off, so for me this may as well have been a fairy tale. Most took it for wishful thinking, or some chaos-cursed mirage made to draw us out of our holes for the slaughter." He took a final drag on his cigarette and snuffed it out on the stone of the bench.

"Sorry. Probably not what you wanted to hear, but... Them's the breaks, I'm afraid. At least where I'm stationed."

[Eitan Angevin]

"Well, fuck," he said, then poured himself another glass of schnapps, checking on Reiner's as well. In some ways, it felt like shooting the shit with Brenner, in other ways, not at all. "Not what I wanted to hear, but that doesn't mean I didn't need to hear it."

He considered.

"We've been so focused since it all happened... Survive. Consolidate. Grab what we could to keep it safe, and then get out. Now we have room to breathe, but we don't, really. There are more people to help. Have to figure out where to move them. How to feed them. Might have to get your inside perspective, or..." He paused. "Fuck it. I'll come down and ward your post, at least. Help you and yours sleep better. We've a few airships now. They could ferry people and supplies between the refugee camps."

Eitan rubbed at his jaw. This was a day to memorialize, but the problems remained even if they were trying to have a taste of the good old days.

"We're not just going to dump you back on the ground and leave you to fend for yourself, Reiner. Whatever happens when you talk to Stef, you have my word that you'll have aid. You won't be without support." Stefan had been distant of late. He was overtaxed, of course. They all were. At least their wives had more time to relax with the newborn and the soon to be born, but even they had responsibilities now that much of the grounds of White Knight Hall was producing food, limited pastureland for the horses his mother-in-law had insisted they bring, and the livestock. The fish pond no longer had only ornamental fish, but those best suited to grow and grow quickly, food for all the refugees. The Kindred were proving as good as their word, helping urge nature along.

[Reiner Dornkirk]

Reiner nodded, when Eitan checked in on his drink.

"I hear that." Hard truths were regular these days and, uncomfortable as they were, wholly necessary for survival, let alone rebuilding.

"Always more people to help." Reiner agreed, "I can see why it feels like you can breathe up here, but down there it's still ash and worse. If there's anything- And I mean anything I can do to help get more people up here to safety, I would give my life in a heartbeat." His hazel eyes darted about their surroundings as he took a sip of the freshly topped-off schnapps, "I wish we could just make more of these. Move the whole operation up here until the breaches get closed..." Briefly he had visions of this brave, new Zaichaer lasting even beyond that. An airborne flotilla, unassailable and mobile. His reverie was interrupted by Eitan's offer.

"Oh wow, you'd do that for us? I mean... I'm sure my commanding officer would be so, so grateful, Captain! No pressure on my end, of course. There are plenty of people to help and my barrack doesn't rate any better than most, but... I know the people there, and they're good Zaichaeri folks just tryin' to survive. Pretty sure they'd build you a statue if you did that for 'em."

His eyes softened in gratitude at Eitan's consoling words. He actually felt them tearing up, and he knew it was the booze greasing the wheels of sentimentality, but the feelings were real. He just usually had the wherewithal to bury them in front of company like this. He took a catch break and fought it off enough that he didn't actually shed the tears that brimmed.

"And if there's anything I can do for you guys up here, of course, I am at your disposal. Now..." He chuckled self-deprecatingly, "I obviously don't have the same resources, but I've got working hands, a couple guns and I take orders well and don't complain too much." He did find it a bit ominous for his forthcoming meeting with Stefan, that Eitan needed to emphasize that he'd help him personally 'whatever happens with Stef', but another sip of schnapps would help with that concern, so he took it.

"When's your wife due, if ya don't mind me askin'?" He pivoted back toward smaller talk, smiling faintly as he did so. His eyes didn't glisten so brightly just now.

[Eitan Angevin]

"Of course I would," he assured him. "Almost blew out my brains keeping the Windworks shielded in the heat of it, so I haven't been allowed to do anything while I recover... but soon enough I ought to be able to, and then yours will be the first stop, but I should do the same for all the other centers of resistence and shelter. We've discussed many options for moving forward, but there are always new factors to consider."

And perhaps he could get Reiner a seat at the table for his perspective.

"I don't need a statue. Just want to keep as many people alive as possible for as long as possible. And perhaps we ought to integrate with your ground forces. Who is in charge down there? We would all be better off collaborating."

As much as his instincts told him to get Reiner on board for the long haul, it would be good to have eyes and ears he could trust on the ground, especially if he could ward some real protections around him and his people. The change in subject derailed those thoughts for a moment.

"Eh? Oh." He laughed, forcing himself not to run his hand through his slicked hair and mess it up. "A month or so if the midwives are to be trusted." Things had worked out for Delia, so he could only hope Lucrece would have an easy go of it. Eitan would just be pacing somewhere nearby, ineffectual and neurotic, though. "I'm hoping for a boy. I'd like to name him Brenner, though perhaps as a middle name. If Stef and Delia have a boy, they could have a Brenner Dornkirk on their hands."

It felt good to dream of little living legacies to his fallen friend.

[Reiner Dornkirk]

Reiner nodded. He knew Eitan was a Reconciliator. He'd been referred to as 'Captain-Seeker' when his name came up with Dienerin, and Reiner knew that meant he either practiced magic or knew a lot about it. Now that he was aware Eitan was a recovering half-elf, it made sense that he was devoting his energies to that side of things.

"I'm glad you're putting your talents to such good use, Cap'n!" He smiled, approvingly. If his cousins trusted Eitan as much as they seemed to, that was good enough for him. Reiner had a chip on his shoulder, too. Being poor was almost as bad as being an elf, he reckoned, so both of them had a lot to prove and Eitan was doing more than his part.

"Heh, that's a more complicated question than it ought to be, but, um... It's pockets and factions. That's where the trouble with communication lines comes into play. I can tell you my unit is under Major Trier. We converted the Hotel Schiller into a blended barrack refugee camp situation. Don't know if you knew the Schiller, but it was kind of a boarding house on the outskirts of what could be considered Zaichaer proper..." It would have been nothing fancy to Eitan, but it was perfectly comfortable to Reiner.

"We're just sort of holding our own, and a lot of other people are, too. We don't have any reconciliators, so we just kind of have to hold down the fort and take in refugees as they come." He smiled at Eitan's response to his question.

"Brenner Angevin does have a ring to it, I'll give you that." The late First Minister had been quite a popular figure among certain sects. Even in The Knob, where he'd once been reviled, he'd made inroads by bringing on that little Lysanrin undersecretary. The choice had baffled Reiner, but he came around to it when he realized the strategic value of placating the bestial populace so they wouldn't rise up during a foreign war and complicate things. He wondered how many Brenners would be born, as Zaichaer plowed ahead.

"It's nice to think about the future, isn't it? Reminds you why we don't just go running headfirst into the breach and see where it gets us." Suicide ran rampant down on the ground. Many had lost so much of their past, they couldn't see how to pave a path to the future. Reiner had considered eating his pistol, but at heart he was too much of an optimist. He was still of an age where he felt invincible and, if he'd survived all he had thus far, he wasn't proven wrong yet. The sun hadn't set on Zaichaer, just yet. Not when minds like Stefan's were able to come up with marvels like this floating city.

[Eitan Angevin]

Eitan decided unilaterally that soon he would have Captain Merovech ferry him down to the Hotel Schiller so that he could set defenses. Perhaps Dr Stechpalme could accompany him and give medical aid to any injured soldiers or refugees; surely there were fluxes and such that could be as much a danger as corrupted monsters in close quarters like that. They couldn't just give speeches about unity and not take care of their people. It was unlikely that Kalzasi would bother with them now, so they could focus on the survivors for the nonce.

"I'll have to meet this Major Trier," he murmured, half to himself. The clockwork wheels in his head were spinning. Perhaps he couldn't save Brenner, but he could protect Reiner and those under his care.

"Aye," he said, smiling. "Many Brenners in the future. And I suppose Stef and I both tried to die heroic deaths in our own way, but here we are. Nothing to be done but stay calm and carry on. All right..."

He topped off their glasses, nudged his lighter toward Reiner.

"You take that. I noticed you were getting low. I should check on my wife, my sister, and my brother-in-law. Would you like to join me?"

Stefan would need some time alone with Reiner, though Eitan wouldn't mind spending time with the both of them. It might ache that it wasn't Brenner, but that wasn't Reiner's fault. In any case, if Stefan didn't invite him to stay for supper with the family or even until they addressed the Council, he supposed he would have to be the one to push for it. But for now, this was a party, albeit a reverent, solemn one.

fin.