Confusing Correspondence [Eitan]

[Stefan Dornkirk]

50th Glade, 124

A messenger had arrived, in person, with a letter for the First Minister, requesting to give it to him personally. This, of course, was not to be allowed, but his private secretary, a Citizen Deinerin, had come down, eventually, to see what the matter was. Upon listening to the man, who named himself Donivan in service to house Monteliyet, the secretary came to understand that the sender of the letter claimed some prior acquaintance with the First Minister and wished to reengage as such.

With some level of convincing he was able to get the messenger to give him the letter, on the understanding that he would deliver it to the First Minister in person, and, in due course (after all the correct protocols for safety had been follow) he did so.

Upon receiving and reading the letter Stefan Dornkirk stood, as he had been, behind his desk, confused. He reread the short missive and then looked up at Deinerin with the slight tilt to his head that suggested there must be something more that the man was about to tell him to explain what he had read.

The secretary, so rarely at a loss of information about literally anything associated with his employer's affairs, either personal or professional, gave a slight, dry shrug.

"I'm sorry, sir, I've no idea."

He went on to explain the circumstances of the letter's arrival and received instructions accordingly. They were, first, to see the messenger comfortably situated with a hot meal and whatever else he might require for his comfort. Second, to see that a member of the Order was dispatched to observe the man and ascertain as much about him as was possible. Third, that High Admirable, High Sentinel Angevin's presence should be requested as soon as was possible, under the understanding that the matter was by no means urgent. If it was a typical day, Stefan might not be able to see Eitan until that evening when they arrived at their shared home. If that was the case it would not be cause for any complain from Stefan, they were both of them busy men.

[Eitan Angevin]

That day, Eitan was unable to tear himself away from Onneifer Airfield until he went home for a late supper. He was still rather exhausted from the ongoing efforts to ward the entire city, but he wasn't the sort to admit weariness when there was work to be done. When he arrived home, his Dienerin took his coat, but then young Devil took the coat from Dienerin, wanting to help. Eitan smiled fondly, tousled the young Lysanrin's hair, and went to check on his wife and newborn son, as well as his toddler. Lucrece let him kiss the babe's forehead, and she stuck her tongue down his throat, but then she pinched his backside and sent him to eat.

The titular head of household sat at table in his shirtsleeves, and a plate that had been kept warm in the oven was brought to him by a servant even as Dienerin brought Stefan to meet him. He smiled, blinking owlishly, and took a spoonful of soup, patting the table next to him so his brother-in-law could join him. A copy of the letter had been brought to him, so the reading of it was out of the way. Discussion required the two of them, however.

"Master Donivan will be spending the night as a guest of the State," he said. "On the morrow, Lessnau will interview him. He's a subtle one; he's likely to draw out details the man doesn't realize he knows. I don't understand why Dreyfus is being coy. Dreyfus is the only Monteliyet you know personally. He did like to wax poetic about wolves when it came to his family. Probably has them embroidered on his knickers if he wears any."

While the late admiral, Eitan's father, had quietly allowed the family's noble—at one point royal—blood to be known, he didn't call himself the Lion of Zaichaer or any such self-aggrandizement.

"If Dreyfus Monteliyet yet lives, it's certainly convenient that he comes crawling back when the worst of things is done. Order agents were all over Karnor, even in Kalzasi, trying to bring people back into the fold. So, it would seem he no longer considers himself a member of the Order. If you want to give him an audience, then I will insist upon being there. I can shield you from any magics he had or has since claimed. He always did seem a little too fond of arcane power. If he is within Zaichaer's dominion, then there are Zaichaeri citizens under his power and it is incumbent upon us to ensure that power isn't corrupt."

Eitan stared at the mouthful of food pierced upon the tines of his fork, as if trying to remember what he was supposed to do with it. After a moment, he ate it, swallowed, and gazed ruefully at Stefan.

"We can discuss now, but we will be lacking in concrete information until Lessnau reports in. If you wish to invite him to the High City to meet, the Order will secure a location such that you will be safe. If you wish, we can deliver Donivan to him via the Searing Victory and meet with him on his own turf." There were some aspects of this that Eitan was clearly taking control of, but he was also allowing Stefan agency to make decisions, and Stefan knew he could persuade Eitan to bend or change with a cogent argument and solid facts.

[Stefan Dornkirk]

The First Minister came home to find that he was the last to arrive, but since his manservant was also his private secretary he didn't need to inform the man of anything that still needed doing as they entered the Hall together. It was past the time for supper, particularly in a household with multiple infants and toddlers as well as their exhausted mothers, but food was always kept warm for him and anyone else who happened to be working late. The comings and goings within the much-shared home had lessened to a trickle now that the city was reopened and no lack of space, either personal or professional remained but the staff still maintained a level of vigilance that would likely take years to relax out of.

He went first to the nursery where he found his children asleep in their cradles and his wife asleep in a chair nearby. If she remained thus when he returned he would carry her to their bed but for the time being, he let her rest as she was. Entering the dining hall he was greeted and beckoned and answered both. Sitting down heavily in the chair nearest his brother where a plate had been laid for him, he sighed and let his mind begin to fall out of the swirling storm of information and orders that kept it aloft through the day.

Thus it was a confused humming that greeted Eitan's initial piece of information as Stefan took a moment to recall the odd happening to which he refered.

"Oh, yes." He nodded to the messenger being subtly interrogated, it was what he had expected but he was still grateful that it was being taken care of. To the supposition of the sender of the missive, he made a face that implied both confusion and consternation.

"I could not think of who else it might be myself but Dreyfus died long before the events of the 34th, let alone the Eclipse. He was declared so by the Order. My mind conjures only awful possibilities for what a letter from him might mean."

The Mists had caused many extraordinary and macabre things to happen, including several bodies of dead Zaichaeri rising from their graves. In all the cases he had examined the bodies had been either controlled by some other creature or mindless versions of their living selves who could not have possibly conceived of a letter, let alone written one.

"Do you think it might be an imposter? A mage who can change their face or a creature who can assume the form of a human? The estate and family wealth would be worth coming to claim."

Leaving the Order, to Stefan's knowledge was a decision left to the upper brass of the Order and most likely to come about only upon the death of the member. He had never actually asked after this and knew that, on occasion, people had retired from the branch after they could no longer effectively serve but simply choosing to leave did not seem like the way of it.

Stefan too was tired and distracted enough to hardly recognize what he ate but he pulled himself back into the present at Eitan's wise suggestion and nodded, trying for a smile.

"You are right, as usual. Let's forget about it for tonight and wait until we know as much as we may from Lessnau."

There was always more work but Stefan was finally learning, or more accurately, being taught by his close family to leave time free of it. So, he changed the topic to their children and let the meal pass without further mention of the issue.

Somewhere down in the city a man who might or might not consider himself a citizen of Zaichaer was being carefully observed by aetheric means while he was provided with every comfort the city currently had to offer. The next day would be an interesting one for them all.

[Eitan Angevin]

"I was not in a position to read his personnel file when he supposedly died," Eitan admitted. "A great deal of such records were lost in the destruction of the old Hall of Reconciliation, but I have Minders looking it up. Regardless of what they find, we will suss out the truth between us. Whether Dreyfus Monteliyet in fact or fiction, this person is playing at something, wanting to connect with the highest office in the High City."

When Stefan changed the subject, Eitan smiled wearily, nodded, and patted his hand. The rest of the meal passed with a little conversation and more comfortable, companionable silence.

*~*~*

On the morrow, rested and back to exuding an air of exact, exacting perfection, High Sentinel Angevin and his brother-in-law, First Minister Dornkirk, met in the latter's office. It was good, he thought, for a head of the military and the head of the Order to show some deference and respect to the civilian leader of Zaichaer. It was important for the people to realize that those branches of the government served them as much as governed them.

Seated and drinking tea served by one of the Dienerins, Eitan gave his report.

"No documents exist that support Monteliyet's death," he admitted, "but I have it on good authority that there was an investigation into his disappearance. Someone didn't trust the evidence. But, in any case, the man Donivan knows his master as Dreyfus Monteliyet, and a settlement has grown up around an old Monteliyet property to the north of the city proper." He pushed a memo with demographic information gathered from the man with and without his permission. He also knows that his master is afflicted with the Rune of Vitalis. Ein Vampir." He sighed, but it was not yet late enough in the day to pinch the bridge of his nose. There was no headache quite yet.

"It remains your decision whether and how to meet with him, but I spoke to Beeman about digging up what we know about the threat this person might pose, and intend to question Valencia as well."

[Stefan Dornkirk]

Stefan sipped at his own tea, not even yet wishing that there was brandy in it. It was warm but not hot, as the weather was at last of a disposition that hot tea was not required, nor really preferred.

The First Minister nodded along to the report, offering a small sound of regret here, another of interest there. At the last revelation he shuddered. Vampir were little more than a myth in Zaichaer, though he knew that they existed in fact elsewhere.

His own personal recollections of the man who he had known by several names were as confusing to him then as they had been at the time. In public, he had been arrogant, competitive even combative with almost anyone he came across but it seemed specifically with both Stefan and Brenner. Eitan had been pulled into those odd little social spats at times and had risen to the brothers' defense as readily as either of them had to each other's.

The handful of times he had met the man alone had only added to the enigma. When they had met on official business at the Windworks the combative condescension had been on in full force and had nearly come to blows. Yet, when they had run into each other at Stefan's boxing club and actually come to (mutually agreed upon) blows, the connection had been significantly more genuine, open even. Perhaps he had caught Monteliyet on a good day, or a bad one. Then he had shown up to Stefan's wedding with an exquisite and entirely unexpected gift. What had been meant by that, he had never been able to imagine.

Whatever the case, the connection between their families had been distantly polite, the connection between them personally had been stormy and vague. Then, he had died. Supposedly. The loss of so many vital government records made so much of his job significantly more difficult. People having to prove their own identities to claim their property was only the beginning of the trouble.

Dark blue eyes fell on the pile of paper work that he intended to work through that day. Tea with his brother in law was pleasant, but neither of them had significant time to spend figuring out a mystery that could probably be solved with ease.

"I'll send back a letter with the messenger, we'll arrange a meeting. We'll both go and, with your approval, a number of other Order members who can confirm the claimant's identity. Whoever he is, a powerful mage can not be allowed to hold sway over Zaichaeri land without any oversight."

Stefan did not personally know what the law was concerning the Rune of Vitalis. The Order certainly knew, but it hadn't ever been something he'd been even close to needing to consider.

[Eitan Angevin]

"As you wish, First Minister," he said smoothly, with a smoother smile. "Dienerin, please set up a meeting with Ms. Grey at her earliest convenience."

"Aye, sir," said the younger of the Dienerins. He still responded as though he were a military man and not a veteran and Eitan would give him a commission if he so desired, if only he would remain in Eitan's service. He didn't know what he would do without the valet at this point.

Eitan took a sip of his tea and set it aside until it cooled. He was glad that spring had come and that he wouldn't be drinking tea as quickly as it could be made to stay warm even in the dog days of summer this year.

But ere the meeting with the would-be Monteliyet, he would have a packet to read from Beeman and the Minders, as well as a briefing on whatever the covens knew of him and vampires in general. It would fall upon him to keep the leader of the free world safe during this conference. Never mind the free world; he would have to answer to Delia if a single hair upon Stefan's fair head were harmed, and he feared his sister's wrath more than he did any monster with rune-cursed blood.

For a few minutes, he let his dark eyes rest upon that head, downcast at his own mountain of papers.

The strange revelation that came with the birth of his twins still weighed heavily upon Stefan. Eitan didn't always know what to do, and he hated that. But, eventually, he got back to his own work and his cooling tea.

[Finn]

Review

Experience: 10xp to be used at your discretion

Injuries: n/a

Loot: n/a

Notes: I do believe Stefan has moved on, so just reviewing this for posterity. Let me know if I missed anything.