On the Channelling of Energy
SY123
Prologue
Energy is Power.
The channelling of energy as a weapon is the ultimate power, as the men and women of the Manhattan Project discovered.
Of course, if only one side of a war has ultimate power, then the side without is lost. Which is why it quickly became apparent that Joscelin Kennard was one of the most dangerous men on the Inside. Sea captain, pirate, artist, conjurer and tinkerer: a child who was unaware of his true lineage, as he had been abandoned in Shadow with an adoptive mother, and no indication of the identity of either parent. Probably some, maybe even all, of those traits on their own wouldn't have been a problem. The problem came when he learned that he had an affinity for channelling energy unheard of before in either the Sable or Aurellis realms, and that was combined with his other skills.
No, to be more accurate, the problem came when other people learned he had that affinity. Specifically other people in the form of Rupert Delatz and the Reich.
The world on which Joscelin was found was a Shadow anomaly: a world where people and materiel could arrive, but could not leave. The Shadow itself, Keillour, was inherently of late-Medieval tech, approximately geographically equivalent to the Earth Shadows, and split into a number of rival Kingdoms. However, at some point in the past, person or persons unknown had set up a system of arcane Collectors there: machines which sent tendrils through Shadow, almost Logrus-like, and brought back items of potential interest, from triremes, to Viking raiders, stately sailing ships, ironclad battleships, mini-subs and even an aircraft carrier, the USS Constellation. "Of potential interest to who" was one of those questions we never did answer. "Why did they built and never come back for the spoils" was another.
Of course, nothing technological worked when it arrived. So the aircraft carrier became useless as anything except an arbalest platform, its complement of planes left to rot on the shore. However, even non-functional technology still had its uses in allowing those who owned it to become a superpower on a world of that tech. In addition, the arrival of new knowledge - for example in the form of a group of Empire mages who were willing to teach the inhabitants of Keillour - also added to the benefits for the first realm to make contact with new arrivals.
If the status quo had been maintained, with the Collectors sweeping Shadow for their unknown masters, and that which arrived on Keillour staying on Keillour, the chances are that Joscelin Kennard would have remained harmlessly within the effective prison that world was. However, what those who built the machines did not allow for, was that their system would suck in one of Cornelian blood, with a full complement of Cornelian curiosity, skills, sheer bloody mindedness and a burning desire to leave; let alone that it would bring a second individual with similar traits and the power of a Creator.
Thus events were set into motion which ultimately led to the development of Weapons of Mass Destruction within the Sable-Reich system, and a demand for Sable's unconditional surrender in the war between the two powers.
Pandora's Box
Of course, it didn't happen overnight. In fact, I believe it took more than ten years until Joscelin found the machines that formed the key to leaving that world, and longer still to open the lock. But during that time, the sequence of events rolled slowly onwards, unbeknownst to the outside world.
The strength of the Kingdom of Clyde was that it was situated close to 'the Graveyard', the reception point for one of the Collectors. Joscelin, and his best friend, Duncan Graeme (who may or may not be a relation to John Graham - one day I'll learn for sure) - another young man with piratical inclinations - cut a deal with King Stuart Campbell, ruler of Clyde. They were given the island of Eilean Shonan as a base for their 'trading operations', in return for which, Joss would act as his agent and agree to work with him as Protector. And as the island perfectly suited their needs, they agreed. Through a network of agents and use of Trump, Joss maintained a watch on the Collection area, which meant that he was often the first on the scene when something new arrived. This, in turn, meant that he could bring anything or anyone interesting back to Clyde, thereby increasing his patron's power on that Shadow, and his own skills and influence.
As Clyde rose to prominence, it began to attract the interest of other Kingdoms on that world. One of the largest of these, the Viking Kingdom of the Norse, was ruled by King Ragnar, a man blessed with daughters, but no sons. Given the culture within which he ruled, he did not consider the lack of a male heir to be beneficial for the future of his realm, and therefore he made the decision to make suitable marriages for his children, such that the overall influence of his Kingdom would be extended, and ultimately an heir of the next generation might be born to rule after he died.
First, he married his eldest daughter, Annifrid, to King Dieter of Leipzig, a Germanic country in the Shadow's equivalent of Europe. Katya, the youngest, saw this and decided she was not interested in being used in that way, and made herself scarce from the Kingdom of the Norse for many years, although she eventually married Duncan Graeme. This left Freya, the middle daughter, who seemed willing to go along with her father's plan. As Clyde became more important, it also became the obvious choice for an alliance, and thus Freya was sent by her father to that land, with the intention of catching either King Stuart Campbell or his eldest son - a namesake of mine - who might be persuaded to take her to wife.
They politely declined - Stuart being already married, and Robert still enjoying his youth too much to marry - instead handing her into the custody of, you've guessed it, the Protector of Clyde. And no, he wasn't a prince. And no, he wasn't a king. But with impressive perception, Freya decided that Joscelin Kennard was the next power in that land and made herself a marriage.
Her father wasn't pleased. Neither was his court. Thus the first time her husband went to visit his new in-laws, Ragnar's brother, Olaf, Prince of Denmark, tried to kill him. In fairness, it should probably be noted that the brother felt that he should be Ragnar's heir, rather than some unspecified offspring of mere daughters, and the support of his own family for his point of view became apparent after his death at Joscelin's hands. With the revelation of treason, Ragnar realised that his new son-in-law might have uses after all and changed his opinion. Thus he made the young man Prince of Denmark, over the bodies of his brother's kin, so that his daughter would have a husband of suitable rank.
And Denmark, as we would learn, would turn out to be the perfect place for a tinkerer with an affinity for energy to cause havoc, because one of the features of that land in that place, was a mineral called 'Godstone', in which arcane energy could be stored for future use. Tons of it. An entire seam of it. Unfortunately, the significance of this was lost on all concerned until much, much later.
So where did the Reich come into the equation? Ironically, through accident and misadventure, but Rupert Delatz was never one to pass up an opportunity for the advancement of his cause, whatever plate it is delivered to him on.
During the last days of Keillour as a closed world, the Collectors pulled in a rich prize: the Kaiserin Elsa, a huge dreadnought - the biggest ship ever brought there, larger even than the Constellation - and one of the flagships of the Reich fleet. She was the lead boat of the Kaiserin class, a relatively recently developed class of dreadnoughts, one of which Sable had tried and failed to capture an example, and equipped with basic but functional magical batteries. Batteries have been long known in Sable and the Reich, although not normally with enough scale to power a battleship. Hence Sable's interest in getting its hands on that technology.
Because his agents near the Graveyard had instructions to inform their employer when anything interesting arrived, Joscelin was the first person on Keillour to make contact with the new arrival. And thus he stepped aboard the Kaiserin Elsa, and met SS-Standartenführer Helena-Maria Latz, a product of the Reich Lebensborn system, and sorcerous protégé of Rupert Delatz.
The vessel itself was large enough not to have been severely damaged by the Collection process. However, its batteries had been drained and none of its other motive methods were functional. Therefore, in the usual, charming way of the SS, she ordered her visitor to assist her in getting the vessel moving once more: And given that the polite request was made at gunpoint, he agreed to try.
When he reached the engine room, he discovered how Standartenführer Latz intended to recharge the batteries: by using a death ritual to try to channel the dying energy of a number of crewmen who hadn't been doing their job properly into the power system. At that point in his life, Joscelin found this idea abhorrent: his lessons with his Empire mage tutors had taught him that magic which reduced the overall amount of life in the universe was evil and carried a dreadful curse. Therefore, he showed her another way: channelling life energy, in the form of a tantric, rather than a death, ritual. And God knows how, but it worked. It was enough to give the Elsa enough motive power to get it to Clyde. Unfortunately, the unexpected side effect was that Standartenführer Latz fell madly in lust with him.
Andrew's assessment after the fact was that the Kaiserin Elsa was so large a catch that the Collectors were strained bringing it in, causing them to be working on overdrive, and setting up a major instability within the system. Twenty-twenty hindsight is a wonderful thing. Whatever the truth of the matter, however, over the next few days, the amount of materiel being brought to Keillour increased dramatically. Of this, two items were the most influential on the events that followed: a mini-submarine, and a vessel from the Empire of Eboracum, carrying a priestess of Sian, Mater Deorum of Aurellis.
Joscelin had barely delivered the Kaiserin Elsa to King Stuart when the sub came through. In itself, it would probably have been considered unimportant, were it not for the fact that it, too was powered by a form of magical battery. The main difference from the Elsa was that the battery was portable, and therefore the arch-tinkerer could take it back to his workshop in Denmark to study it. It didn't take him long to realise that the mineral at the heart of the device, where the magical energy was stored, was the Godstone which shot through the land where he ruled. Thus he realised that he literally had the biggest magical battery in creation under his feet, if only he could work out how to use it. So try to work it out he did.
The next element which led to his escape was delivered into his hands in the form of an apparently insignificant Empire vessel.
Aurellis is set up in an interesting way. When he Created, Roland decided his family should work for a living, and undertake certain responsibilities in exchange for being able to take the Logrus. Not an invalid idea, given how much trouble various of the Cornelian line get up to when they taste Power. Thus everyone who takes the Logrus becomes an Aurellian god or goddess, and each of those has an aspect, and abilities related to that aspect. In Sian's case, this includes the ability to trace bloodlines from physical contact, with the limitation that she has to have met someone of that bloodline in the past: an ability with which she imbues her priesthood.
Making first contact, as was his wont, Joscelin was naturally introduced to the priestess, as she was considered one of the dignitaries aboard the vessel. And as she shook his hand, she realised that he was a child of the gods: one descended from the Pater and Mater Deorum. The identity of his second parent was unknown to her - as it was to Joscelin himself - and thus she prayed to her goddess for guidance in telling her host the information he burned to know: who and what he truly was.
I'm not sure if such a prayer would ever have reached beyond the boundaries of Keillour before the Kaiserin Elsa's arrival and the system was thrown out of balance. But afterwards, it certainly did. Sian heard her call, it piqued her curiosity, and she decided to investigate. Thus she travelled Shadow to find the source of her priestess's call, and came across the Keillour anomaly. Getting onto it, however, proved far from easy, until she enlisted Andrew's help.
At that point in time, the Technocracy was comparatively newly formed, and it had a new technology which, Sian and Andrew reasoned, might not be prevented from access to Keillour in the way that the older powers such as Pattern and Logrus would. Thus between them they broke onto Keillour, the second to last piece fell into place, and events were put into motion that couldn't then be stopped.
When they were introduced to Joscelin Kennard, it took Sian approximately two handshakes to realise that her priestess's suspicions were well founded. The Laird of Eilean Shonan, Protector of the Kingdom of Clyde, Prince of Denmark, was a grandchild of Leyton the Smith - the Aurellian equivalent of Vulcan, if you will - which explained his natural ability to tinker. Unfortunately, he also had other Aurellian ancestry. His mother, Terrea, was the product of an incestuous liaison into which Gaia, goddess of the land who lived within the Aurellis Logrus, had tricked her brother Leyton. And in her position as Gaia's avatar in the real world, her agent when the land needed to be represented in person, Terrea had proven herself to be far from the most stable individual in the Aurellian pantheon. On the other side of the bloodline, Sian quickly realised that his father was my son, although there were also inexplicable traces of Osric in the mix. The specifics of his identity, however, I only discovered later.
Thus Andrew and Sian found themselves presented with the first de Lacy-Helgram blooded individual any of us had ever encountered. The question was, why would Terrea, acting goddess of the land and agent of Gaia, have chosen to have a child with one of de Lacy blood, then abandoned him in Shadow to make his own path. The only answer that came to mind, was that the goddess of the land had seen the instability within Shadow which had led to the founding of the Technocracy, and tried to come up with her own way of fixing the problem. And now her solution, i.e. Joscelin, had no purpose, as the instability had been already resolved with the creation of the Technocracy, before Joss came into his own to effect the cure. Sadly, this led him to attempt to define a purpose of his own.
Of course, their interest in the problem posed by Joscelin's origins quickly took second place to the fact that having made their way onto Keillour, they discovered that they, too, were trapped there. And Andrew's dismay at that small snippet of news was only surpassed when he first visited Clyde as his new nephew's guest and saw the Kaiserin Elsa moored in the Firth of Clyde. Given his love of the Reich, Andrew made a point of avoiding Stuart's guests as they negotiated relocation with the ambassador from the Kingdom of Leipzig - the country on Keillour with which they felt the most affinity - not least of which because his reputation as one of the leaders of Sable's fight against the Reich was likely to have preceded him.
Of course, that didn't stop him considering ways of stealing their ship out from under them, which we did eventually achieve. But at the time his primary concern was to stay out of their way.
In accordance with the rules of hospitality within the Kingdom of Clyde, Joscelin offered quarters to Sian and Andrew within his home on Eilean Shonan. Then he and Andrew - another one who's been known to tinker in his time, which in part explains the nature of his world - set about trying to figure out a way to reprogram the Collectors to let them all get the Hell out of Dodge as quickly as possible. In the meantime, not to be outdone, Sian considered whether there was some way her position as Mater Deorum could be used to communicate her predicament to her family. After all, she had received the communication from her priestess, and given that her power was considerably greater than her follower, and thus she, too, pursued ways to reach off Keillour.
The final crisis which precipitated the end came when Standartenführer Latz, in pursuit of her feelings towards Joscelin, decided to visit Eilean Shonan. Out of curiosity about the quaint customs of the Empire of which she knew little, she visited Sian, whose followers had set up a small shrine to the Mater Deorum. And there she learned something which her mentor, Rupert had neglected to mention: that her natural father was the arch-enemy of the Reich, Andrew de Lacy.
The combination of discovering that information, and the presence of the man himself, caused an emotional turmoil that threw her almost literally into the arms of Joscelin and Freya. And that turmoil, and the fact that Sian was on that world and trying to communicate with Aurellis, led to Terrea learning the whereabouts of her discarded son, and an irrational upswelling of badly misguided maternal instinct. As I've mentioned, she was never the most stable of individuals, and the backlash of emotions caused her to go crazy with a twisted desire to get to Joscelin and rescue him. Therefore, she smashed the barriers around Keillour to get to him, and the final damage was done. That action caused her death at the hands of Helena-Maria Latz, and as part of her Curse, the backlash dragged Joscelin, Freya and Latz into the heart of the Aurellian Logrus, where she had every expectation that they would join her in death.
And Keillour started to rip itself apart as the Collectors finally crashed and burned.
That was the point at which my direct involvement in the whole mess first began. Andrew, finding himself on a world which was about to destroy itself, but where the barriers were finally down, contacted me and asked for my help. I joined him on Keillour and between us we stabilised the world, saving both the land and the majority of its inhabitants (and incidentally, purloining the Kaiserin Elsa for study by Sable's scientists, but that is a by the by). But the genie was out of the bottle.
As I later heard it from Roland, he became aware of the arrivals in his primary Creation instantly, and he went to investigate. Joscelin, being of the Aurellian bloodline, would have survived the Logrus on his own, had Gaia not decided to try to kill him for being party to the death of her daughter. Freya and Latz, on the other hand, only survived their initial immersion in the Power by virtue of being latent shapeshifters, and even then their life expectancy was extremely short: as with the Sable Pattern, only one of the Aurellian Creator's bloodline can survive the Logrus. So using his abilities as Creator, he managed to fish the three of them out before they were damaged beyond repair. Ultimately, the only side-effect of their experience was that all three of them became effective initiates of the Aurellian Pilot system. I also suspect that Joscelin picked up something of a partial aspect related to channelling, stemming from being of the Aurellian line, and therefore falling under Roland's rules of responsibility, but that did not become apparent for some time.
Once they were recovered, Joscelin and Freya returned to Keillour, where they established themselves and their children more permanently in Denmark: Helena-Maria Latz departed for the Technocracy with her father, once Joscelin made it clear he wasn't interested in her advances. And probably the ultimate irony of the whole sorry affair is that having regained his freedom, Joscelin decided to return to his prison to build his power base. Now, however, the doors were open, he knew the potential of the resources in Denmark and how they would complement his own abilities, and he started to work out ways to exploit this.
For a while, matters seemed to settle. Sable established regular contact with its newly found scion, and Andrew and I both spent some time in Denmark, getting to know our new relative. It wasn't until we started making those visits that we began to realise what had been unleashed. We began to see first hand just what Joscelin could do in the ways of channelling energy, especially given the resources at his disposal.
Neither were we the only visitors who started to spend time with the Prince of Denmark. Inevitably, once he learned that he had a new grandson who shared his interests and abilities, Leyton the Smith decided to introduce himself. They got on like a house on fire - to the extent that in the family records, Leyton eradicated Terrea's name from Joscelin's lineage and adopted him as son, rather than grandson - and when you throw in Andrew's own tendencies as a conjurer and lover of gadgets, the three of them began to achieve interesting things, especially with Godstone as a raw material. Between them, they even managed to find a way to power the aircraft from the Constellation, by reverse engineering the batteries from the mini-sub and using the modified design to power the fighters.
Of course, given that he could now leave Keillour, Joscelin did take the opportunity to travel, including visiting Roland's capital of Eboracum. Once the gates were open, it was pointed out that despite his lessons in magic from the Empire mages who had been trapped with him, he hadn't actually ever passed out as a licensed mage, and therefore he would need to take his exams and make the knowledge official. This he did, naturally, and then considered the possibilities of taking his doctorate.
He proposed a thesis subject to the College - somewhat naturally in the field of Energy Acquisition and Transfer - which the magical authorities took one look at and referred to Medea, Goddess of Magic. As she learned the details of his idea, she decreed it to be a valid subject for the thesis, but too dangerous to ever be released (given that it brought new insight into both tantric magic and the use of Godstone as a storage media), and agreed to act as his supervisor, with myself as a secondary consultant if required, on the condition that once the thesis was complete, it be locked in her private library, never to be released to the general public. He acceded to her terms and headed back to Keillour with his mage's signet, and official sanction to try to formalise and get down on paper what he had been doing largely by instinct up until then.
Alas, Keillour's new freedom to communicate with the rest of Shadow was not the exclusive preserve of ourselves and Denmark. It also gave the crew of the Kaiserin Elsa, by then comfortably settled in Leipzig, the opportunity to contact the Fatherland. Word of this reached Rupert Delatz, and he quickly saw an opportunity to turn the like-minded country of Leipzig into a Reich Protectorate. He was so pleased at this unexpected chance, that I don't believe he even killed any of the crew of the Elsa for losing their ship.
My guess is that when he sent agents to Leipzig, he began to receive reports that something was intriguing in the State of Denmark. Something more worthy of his notice than merely a new Reich colony. Operational F15s on a world with Medieval tech and no firearms, for example. And thus began the battle between myself and my brother for the heart, and more especially the mind, of Joscelin Kennard.
Seduction
In the mass of revelations and reunions which hit us as Keillour was brought back into contact with the Inside world, something that Andrew and I both missed was a non-Cornelian tie of blood. Specifically, that the Princess of Denmark was the sister of the Queen of Leipzig. It also escaped our notice that that Annifrid was not having a happy time with her husband, Dieter. As was expected of her, she had duly provided him with sons, but her dynastic duties done, Dieter turned against her and began to treat her cruelly. While she and Freya were far from close, given the proximity of her sister's new home to Leipzig, she approached the latter for help. And when Freya told Joscelin, his usually well-buried honourable instincts came to the fore, and he decided to do something about it.
Around that time, war broke out between the Kingdom of the Franks, and Leipzig: Rupert's agents had introduced a new word into the vocabulary of Dieter's realm. Lebensraum. They had also identified Dieter as the key to extending their influence on Keillour. Therefore, they were authorised by their paymaster to use every means at their disposal to encourage him to formally open relations with the Reich, up to and including tempting him with the potential power that adherence to the ritual traditions of certain elements of the Schutzstaffel could bring, and sharing them with those he trusted.
Faced with war and an enemy who was happy to bring in external military advisors, the Franks called in an alliance with Clyde. In turn, Clyde asked Joscelin if he would be willing to act as King Stuart's representative to the court of King Charles. And prompted by what Freya had told him of Dieter's treatment of Annifrid, the Prince of Denmark was happy to oblige. The combination of the Reich uniforms being worn by Dieter's 'military advisors', and some sterling work Andrew had been doing in convincing him of the evils of the Reich regime, further persuaded Joscelin that fighting with the Franks was the right thing to do, and he launched into the was with the single-minded dedication with which he did everything else.
While the various toys Joscelin and his grandfather had been playing with were too few and far between to make a significant difference to the war, one innovation he did bring to the party made every difference in the world. The English longbow: one of the most powerful weapons of the pre firearms world (and no, the irony of helping the French win a war with English longbows is not lost on me!). The Franks not only beat off the attack from Leipzig, but forced them back across the Rhine. And during one of his visits to his nephew, Andrew managed to engineer the death of Dieter, in the hope that by doing so the Reich's influence would be reduced on that world. Sadly, it turned out to be a false hope.
In the immediate aftermath of Dieter's death, Queen Annifrid's position was precarious. She wanted to act as Regent for her son, the new King. However, the misogynistic establishment within Leipzig meant that the noblemen, the most influential of whom had been recruited into the occult lodge which Dieter had set up as he learned to appreciate Reich ritual, had other ideas. The very most they were willing to condone was forcing Annifrid into a marriage with one of them, who would become Regent in her stead.
Unsurprisingly, Annifrid was not willing to accept this, wanting the power for herself, and enlisted her brother-in-law to turn the tables on those who would have controlled her. They succeeded admirably. Her opponents were thrown into confusion, and she established herself as the power behind the throne. Once that was achieved, Joscelin returned to Denmark, and Annifrid became de facto ruler of Leipzig. He remained an unofficial advisor to her, making occasional visits to her court thereafter. And it was those visits that took him down the slippery slope to a new and darker path.
Having watched with interest the power struggle going on in his new satellite, Rupert Delatz decided to get to know the key participants, especially the Prince of Denmark: the remaining individual on Keillour who his agents had identified as needing to be seduced to the Reich's way of thinking before the world could truly be theirs. The information he was receiving from them on Joscelin's research into energy and magical channelling further piqued his curiosity, and thus he organised a visit.
When he chooses to be, Rupert is a very charming man, especially to a woman attracted to power, like Annifrid Ragnarsian. Thus he charmed his way into her life, her confidence and her bed, with the calculating skill of a past master.
I very much doubt that he intended to fall in love with the woman he was using to increase his influence in that place. My guess is that he was more interested in speaking with Joscelin, and his infatuation with Annifrid sneaked up on him when he wasn't looking. Initially, in his apparently increasingly frequent visits, he forged connections with Dieter's Lodge, stepped in as its Master, and found himself some arcane allies should he need them, as well as securing a power base there. And then he asked to see Joscelin, and Annifrid, in her fascination with her powerful new lover, was happy to arrange a meeting. Thus the Prince of Denmark came to the city of Leipzig, where he was wined and dined by the Reichsführer-SS, and the latter made his first attempt to court him for the Reich.
Initially, these attempts failed. While Joscelin was willing to speak with Delatz and the survivors of the Lodge who still had influence in Leipzig, he disappointed them by showing no interest in the mysteries they were willing to offer him: ritual magic to complement his own arcane studies. He politely declined their advances and headed back to Denmark. Shortly afterwards he contacted me and told me that he had had the pleasure of Rupert's company, but that he had rejected the offer. And satisfied that he was still on side, I left it at that, rather than pursue the matter further. Damn but I forget how persistent my brother can be at times.
Not one to be outdone by rejection, Rupert put Plan B into action. He set about identifying one of the Lodge as a potential stalking horse, and without Annifrid's knowledge, encouraged Duke Heinrich of Saxony to get ideas above his station with regard to supplanting the Regent as ruler of Leipzig. For this, I believe, his reasons were twofold. One, he fully expected Joscelin Kennard to come blazing into Leipzig in justifiable outrage that his sister-in-law was again at risk. And two, if Annifrid were no longer Regent, then she might be persuaded to return with Rupert to the Reich: something I suspect he was beginning to realise was a highly desirable state of affairs - or perhaps that should be a highly desirable affaire of state.
Thus he fuelled Heinrich's ambitions, and Annifrid's fears, to the point that when Saxony formally challenged her right to be Regent, she requested Joscelin's assistance once more, and like the naïvehero he was, he jumped straight in. This time, when the call came through, Leyton was staying with his 'son' in Denmark, and curious about the realm to the south, he accompanied the younger man to the city of Leipzig, where the inevitable came to pass.
What Frida had neglected to mention, on Rupert's suggestion, was that the challenge was literally that: a duel. However, it didn't seem to matter to Joss: as soon as he heard, in a rash gesture of honourable intentions, he immediately declared that he would be willing to fight as his sister-in-law's champion, and the duel took place there and then, in the courtyard of Leipzig palace. Duelling rapiers were quickly provided, and the two combatants faced off on the makeshift piste.
The fight was short and brutal. And to the surprise of most observers, especially Leyton, it was Joscelin who went down with a sword thrust to the gut. Then, before their very eyes, the fallen Prince disappeared, along with the blade which had taken him down, and to the general acclaim of the nobles of Leipzig, Heinrich was declared Regent in Annifrid's place.
In the meantime, Leyton looked with horror at the pool of blood where his son had lain and then stepped out of the crowd and contacted me.
"Robert. I need for you to join me," he said, shaken, "it's Joss."
"What's he done this time?" I asked, sighing slightly - he'd usually done something: he had a talent for it, given that half the time he didn't really know what he was playing with. I extended my hand and went through, and to my surprise realised that Leyton was pale and all but in mourning. He indicated the blood spattered cobbles, and Heinrich being lifted onto the shoulders of his adoring new subjects.
"What happened?"
"I don't know. They were duelling, rapiers, he was injured, and then he disappeared. Andrew mentioned that you have some skill in investigating such things...so I would ask you to investigate."
"Of course," I answered, and as Heinrich's people moved away, I started to do just that. I quickly realised that Joscelin's disappearance was attributable to a spell on the blade which had injured him, which was triggered by the spilling of Cornelian blood, and was about to pursue that enquiry further when I felt a crack on the head and the lights went out.
When I came to, I was on the couch in a well-appointed room with thick stone walls and lead-light windows with stone divides. A castle or fortified manor house maybe? I sat myself up gingerly, and waited for the headache to subside, before standing and crossing to the window. I was looking out on a well-kept estate which I recognised instantly. Panenske Brezany: my brother's home outside Berlin.
I brought Rupert's Trump image to mind and initiated contact.
"Ah, you're awake Mein Bruder," he said pleasantly, and offered me his hand, expecting me to bring him through.
"Yes, I'm bloody awake," I answered, hotly, as he joined me, "I'm bloody pissed off! What the Hell is the meaning of this?"
"I wanted to get your undivided attention," he answered.
"By slugging me on the back of the head? You succeeded. Where is Joscelin Kennard?"
"You automatically assume I have him," came the mild reply, then a pause, then a shrug, "Okay. Guilty as charged. He has decided to visit the Reich and explore his paternal heritage."
"His father is Leyton the Smith."
"No. Like you, Leyton is his grandfather, as well you know. The classification as his son is merely to get over the embarrassment of being incontrovertibly caught with his pants down with his sister. Joscelin's father is here in Berlin, and would very much like to get to know his child."
"According to my information, his father is a de Lacy."
He looked at me, then chuckled. "No, his father is your biological son, which is far from the same thing. Conrad has never been a de Lacy, and my guess is that he wouldn't appreciate being considered one."
"Conrad?"
"You don't know?" he asked, "Strange. I only had to meet the man and I knew immediately. Of course, I was looking for people like him."
I looked at him, frowning slightly.
"Your children - our children - from the inter-war years," he continued, "you know they exist. I remember you investigating the matter when the first one surfaced and you killed him. A terrible waste."
"He was a Thulist," I countered, that fact going a long way to justify the act in my view, despite it leading to my one and only act of intentional filicide.
"As I said, a terrible waste," he retorted, and given the difference in our outlooks towards such things, there wasn't really a good answer I could make to that, "good allies are so hard to find if you can't breed them yourself, and given that our father and Osric had so thoughtfully provided some, and since the land they held dear is gone, I felt honour bound to bring them into a familiar fold if I could find them."
"The Third Reich?" I commented, and he nodded, a self-satisfied smile on his lips. "And this Conrad?"
"Conrad Berthelmes, the esteemed Chairman of the NSRAP."
I looked at him in disbelief, the image of a dark-haired, good-looking man in his mid-thirties, who I had met once or twice when visiting Wilhelm in Berlin, coming to mind.
"Your Party Chairman is my son?"
"By a daughter of Osric, as I understand it," he answered, shaking his head in mock dismay, "Tut, tut, Robert. You really should have been more careful where you sowed our wild oats. I'm amazed at the paternity suits that were never brought against you...but I guess Aunt Sand had your back on that. And as for Conrad, you can thank father for taking him to walk the Pattern in '45, thus giving him the opportunity to disappear into Shadow, rather than be hung by the kangaroo court you helped convene after the war."
"What has this got to do with Joss?" I asked, trying to change the subject away from my earlier indiscretions, and the uncomfortable revelation which Rupert seemed to be relishing with far too much glee.
"As I said, Joss has decided to stay in the Reich for a while...to get to know his paternal heritage."
"I'd like to see him. To confirm to my satisfaction that this is his idea, not yours, given that I know six weeks ago he would have been horrified at the idea."
"I'm afraid that won't be possible."
"What gives you the right to decide that?"
"You mean, apart from the fact that you're in my house, in my territory, and there are nice gentlemen outside the door with machine guns, who are loyal to me?"
I brought Joscelin's Trump to mind and tried to make a contact, but it was blocked.
"Too easy," Rupert commented.
"If he's here voluntarily, why won't you let him tell me that himself?" I answered, and there was a slight pause before his next comment.
"I do not have to justify anything I do to you," and I noticed his eyes narrow slightly. Anger?
"No. But neither will I trust anything you say in that case," I replied, "you know I'll try to find him."
"I'm sure you will," he countered, "however, even if you do succeed in discovering his current whereabouts, which I would lay good money you will not, what makes you think he'd want to go with you, rather than stay in the Reich?"
"His family - his wife and kids are important to him."
"Even as we speak his wife is joining him," he replied, "and as for his children, he has expressed a desire for them to stay in Denmark for now. He will introduce them to their grandfather once he is settled here. And I'm sure the lovely Annifrid - delightful woman - will help them both settle in, so that they can be reunited with their charming sons at a later date."
"According to you, he's expressing a lot of desires."
"And as you disagree with all of them, you are automatically assuming that they aren't his real wishes," Rupert retorted, "your problem, Robert, is you're so enamoured with your bleeding-heart liberal system that you don't appreciate that some people like more order in their lives."
"Order? Joss Kennard? I don't think I've ever met someone who more personified Chaos in my life!" I answered, hotly, "Hell, he's a pirate for a hobby and he routinely meddles in with items and powers he doesn't understand."
"He is a very gifted young man - something you seem determined not to acknowledge - and with me, he has the chance to explore that gift."
"No doubt for military applications? I will try to get him back from you."
"And you will fail," he said, in a tone so cold I could almost see his breath frosting, "Leave, Mein Bruder, and concede the round, before I do something we'll both regret."
"This matter is far from closed."
"We shall see," he replied, and then watched me like a hawk as I brought a Trump of Sable to mind and removed myself from his far from agreeable company.
"Thank God!" came Andrew's voice, as I arrived in the central courtyard of the Palace. I looked across and saw that he was accompanied by a number of hard looking men in Royal Guard uniforms, "I tried to find you and traced you to Berlin."
"Rupert decided to get antsy," I answered, "where's Leyton?"
"Here. He called me when he realised you'd disappeared."
"I've got some news for him that he isn't going to like."
"If it's what I think it is, I'm not going to like it, either, am I?"
"Probably not. Joscelin's in the Reich."
"Fuck!" came the exclamation, "damn, blast, bugger and fuck!"
I looked at him, slightly surprised at his vehemence.
"We have to get him back. Before he can share his work on channelling with your thrice-cursed, bloody Dark Side."
"MY bloody Dark Side?" I snapped, the tension I hadn't realised I'd felt from being in Panenske Brezany suddenly bursting out "at least I can hold a civilised conversation with my Dark Side...most of the time. Which is more than you bloody well can."
"Personally, that isn't a loss in my life," he retorted, "Andreas Delatz an evil bastard and I'm going to destroy him, not invite him to tea."
"When are you going to learn that that will never happen?" I said, the volume rising, "you lost any chance of that, or even of trying to control him, when you didn't listen to me and screwed up manifesting him."
"I screwed up?" he shouted, and his own rage boiled over, "Goddamn it Robert, it was your idea, and I followed your advice. Perhaps I'd have been better to leave him where he was."
"You'd probably have been less psychotic and more stable if you had..." I snapped in reply, but the moment the words were out, I regretted it. However, looking at the blazing white fury on his face - I'd never seen him so angry - I knew that now was not the time to apologise.
"Why the fuck did I bother to even think about rescuing you, you arrogant, self-righteous son of a bitch?" he snarled, and turned on his heel and stalked off towards the palace.
"Andrew, I..."
Then I felt a firm hand on my shoulder.
"Let him go, Robert," Gray said.
"Where the Hell did you sneak up from?" I asked, whirling to see him behind me.
"You pay me to sneak up on people," he replied, with a chuckle, "and I was supposed to be helping plan your rescue. You know, for a psychologist you really know how to say the wrong thing at the wrong time."
"What the Hell am I going to do about him?" I asked, watching Andrew's retreating back, and feeling the anger drain away into regret.
"I know you're worried about him, but publicly telling him he screwed up isn't going to help."
I sighed.
"Perhaps not," I conceded, "Dammit, Gray, should I have chosen someone else to Create, rather than him? Did I let my paternal instincts blind me to the fact that he has some very serious problems? Hell, did I screw up restoring him in the first place?"
"As always when you ask me that, I think speculating about it won't get us anywhere," he replied, "you did what you did because you loved your son, and you must live with your choice and so must he. That's really all there is to it. Let's head inside - I want to know why my idiot employer was in Berlin."
"Your employer didn't have a lot of choice, seeing as he was knocked senseless and all," I answered as we went in through the library door.
"Explain."
So I told him of Joscelin's disappearance, Leyton's request, and my conversation with my brother.
"How bad is this?" he asked, once I was done, "I've only heard second hand what Joss Kennard can do."
"If Rupert can turn his knowledge to military applications, then it would be like Russia having the bomb without the US having got it first."
"Then we're just going to have to find him before it gets that far," he replied, and we set to work.
Rescue
It took about a month of very intensive arcane and mundane intelligence work before we finally located Joscelin Kennard, during which time, it has to be said, relations between myself and Andrew were as frosty as they had ever been, when he was actually around at all, which was rare. I considered whether there was any way I could realistically apologise to him for what I had said, but the problem was that while I had never meant to vocalise them, I'd been thinking those thoughts for some time.
Then, one morning, Gray arrived in my office looking triumphant.
"Danzig!" he said, dropping a file on my desk.
"A large naval and shipbuilding town on the northern coast of Sudetenland East," I answered.
"A large naval town where the first of the new Kaiser-class dreadnoughts is being constructed. And my agents say that there is a research team there which is being personally overseen by the Reichsführer-SS, working on a new power system."
"Joscelin?"
"Joscelin."
"Power systems are a whole lot better than some of the other options he might be working on," I commented.
"It depends if they mean that the ships can be deployed closer to home than has been the case in the past," came the reply.
"Can we get him out?"
"We'd need someone with knowledge of the Danzig facility, and currently only one person comes to mind. Helena-Maria Latz. My investigations indicate that she was peripherally involved in creating the power system for the original Kaiserin-class vessels, and that she was stationed there for a while."
"She's SS..."
"Not any more. Apparently her father has brought her back to the Light. She's been staying in the Technocracy with him: he headed back there after your little altercation in the courtyard."
"That's where he's been hiding."
"I think hiding is unfair - it is his world, and he's still trying to set the place up."
"I guess I'd better bite the bullet and see if he wants to be in on the hit."
"Perhaps."
I brought Andrew's Trump to mind, but was surprised when a youngish man I didn't recognise, with light brown hair and hazel eyes, and wearing an open-necked shirt, answered the call.
"Can I help you?" he asked.
"Who are you?"
"Your Majesty," he said, with a slight nod of respect, "I'm Captain Carragher, the General's AdC."
"I'd like to talk to my son."
"I'll see if he's willing to speak with you," he answered, and I had the distinct impression of being put on hold. Then, a few moments later, Andrew came on the line.
"What do you want?" he asked, far from pleased to see me.
"I'd rather not discuss that over a Trump. May I join you?"
He shrugged, and reluctantly offered me his hand. Deciding not to argue about his choice of venue, I stepped through into a modern-looking living room, tastefully fitted out with angular metal furniture and light coloured fabrics.
"So?"
"What was all that with the Trump?" I asked.
"I don't take Trump calls any more," he answered, "I had a bad experience and swore to myself that no-one would do that to me again."
"Who?"
"That isn't your concern," he answered, coldly, "what did you want to say?"
"We've found our missing pirate."
Suddenly, his mood and body language changed from distant to interested.
"He's in Danzig."
"That's pretty out in the open, isn't it? How long's he been there?"
"Not sure. But Gray thinks you may have someone on your staff who can help penetrate the naval base and get him out."
"Who?"
"Helena-Maria."
"And if she can?"
"We'd like her to lead the team to get him out."
"I've taken a long time to help her get over the fact that he was a complete bastard to her, and now you want me to ask her to rescue him?"
"You could go with her - keep an eye on her."
"Ah, so now you want the psychotic screw-up on your side."
"Andrew, please..."
He looked at me for a moment, before answering.
"The worst thing about what you said is that you really meant it. That was obvious."
"I didn't hugely appreciated being called a son of a bitch, either."
"If I recall, it was arrogant, self-righteous son of a bitch, and it was after you had insulted me. But who's counting," he replied, "Bloody Hell, Robert. If you think that, why didn't you find a more civilised way of saying it?"
"Because I was tired, angry, and I'd just been slugged on the head by Rupert Delatz. I wasn't at my most tactful."
"That you most certainly weren't." He paused briefly, then said. "It's just possible I was out of line."
"It's just possible that I was as well," I replied, and our eyes met. I held his gaze for a moment, and then he broke the contact.
"I'll call Helena."
He did so, and a few moments she came through, dressed in Sable Army uniform, along with Carragher and another man I didn't recognise, but who had a surprisingly Germanic look to him and was wearing the insignia of a colonel. I noticed mage flashes on both their shoulders. Carragher joined us shortly afterwards, now also in uniform and armed. If this was Andrew's team, I was hopeful of success, especially given both Helena's and Andrew's skills at combat.
"Robert, this is Joachim Berger," he said making introductions, although failing to mention where Berger fitted into his organisation, "Joachim...my father, Robert de Lacy."
Berger offered me his hand, which I took.
"Pleased to meet you," he said, his English very slightly accented - Reich accented.
"Likewise," I answered, then looked at them all, "has Andrew given you an idea of what it is that needs to be done?"
"Breaking into Danzig shipyard, by the sound of it," Helena answered, "it's the most likely place where his skills would be being used."
"Can you guide the team in?"
"I can."
I nodded, and then turned back to Andrew.
"Ready?"
"As I'm going to be," he replied, "is there anyone other than Joss I should be looking for?"
"Rupert said Freya was joining him."
"Incorrect," Helena-Maria interjected, "she's in Denmark. I keep in touch with her when she wants someone to complain about her husband to. She was complaining quite recently that he had buggered off somewhere without telling her - she'd thought he was in Leipzig, and began to get worried when she learned that Annifrid was also missing and, like Joss, had left without her children. I think she's worried they've run off together."
"So Rupert lied," Andrew answered, "quelle surprise. Should we be looking for this Annifrid? Is she going to need rescuing as well?"
I shook my head. "I think she's in bed with Rupert. Literally. I expect she's exactly where she wants to be. So get Joss, and either recover or destroy as much of the work he's been doing for Rupert as you can. Out of interest, have you considered taking Freya with you? Her presence may well work to your benefit."
Andrew considered for a moment, then nodded. "Good idea. Helena...?"
She got a deck out of her pocket and shuffled out a Trump, which she concentrated on, and a few moments later Joscelin's wife joined us, dressed for combat.
"Good luck," I said to them, and without further ado the five of them departed and I returned to Sable.
Helena contacted me about three hours later.
"Grandfather, may we?"
She stretched out her hand to me, and first Joscelin, and then Berger and Freya preceded her through, the latter looking upset. When Helena joined us, her sword was drawn and she looked far from pleased. Mostly, though, it was a shock to see how Joss had changed: gone was the wild-haired, tartan-clad, devil-may-care Scottish pirate, and in his place was a short-haired military man in the fatigues of an SS-Brigadeführer. Moreover, he was wearing a Reich mage signet and insignia, and what had to be Reich Pilot wings. In his hand was an attaché case, and at his belt were a sword and an SS honour blade. I didn't like the feel of the blade: it had been used for more than just his military training unless I missed my guess. Had Joscelin become involved in some of Rupert's more dubious ritual practices? That was a question I was going to have to address later.
"What the Hell is going on, Robert of Sable?" he demanded. Even his accent was gone, and he was now speaking in clipped, precise English. As if that wasn't the language he had been speaking recently.
However, before I could answer, I felt a very urgent incoming Trump call. I noticed that Helena had taken up a guard position on Joss, who had laid down the case on a chair, and so it seemed safe to take the call. It was Andrew, and he looked scared, almost terrified - an expression I hadn't seen on his face in all the time Sable had existed - and behind him I could feel a build-up of Pattern energy.
"We need an out. Now. Or I think we're dead meat."
I reached out my hand and first Carragher, and then Andrew came though. However, before the Trump link fully closed there was a huge explosion of Pattern energy, and we were staggered backwards: Carragher and I kept just managed to keep our feet, but Andrew, who was closer to it, was knocked to the ground. The Trump dropped as if fried: like a circuit which had just suffered a catastrophic overload. As it did, I also felt a surge from the Sable Pattern, to which I was always linked, at least to some degree. Something, somewhere had just gone very wrong.
"What the Hell was that...?" I asked, as I helped Andrew up. He stood and dusted himself off, feeling his exposed skin tenderly, as if he felt singed. He looked shaken, as did Carragher.
"There was some kind of proto-Pattern power source in the labs, fed by blood falling onto it from a prisoner hanging above it, being bled slowly to death," he answered, "I honestly don't know what the Hell I did, but somehow I managed to upset the balance and it went unstable. And from the feel that is really bad."
"You crazy, bloody murderer," came Joscelin's voice from off to the side, and I turning towards him I could see rage on his handsome features, his hand moving towards the hilt of his dagger, "do you have the slightest idea how much energy was stored in that?"
"I'm a murderer?" Andrew asked looking at him, disbelief on his face, "you're the one developing WMDs for the fucking Nazi party."
"Yes, you're a murderer. Probably the most heinous practitioner of war crimes in the Sable command structure. A routine executioner of unarmed prisoners. A killer of children."
"All of whom were SS, or SS recruits," Andrew replied, coldly.
"I should do us all a favour and kill you here and now," he continued, moving quickly towards Andrew, drawing as he went. However, Helena was faster, and managed to restrain him with a hand on his shoulder and a blade to his throat. Then she took the dagger from his hand, and tossed it away from him.
"What was the power source, Joscelin?" she asked.
"Classified."
"We can discuss that later," I said, "right now, we're getting Joss out of here and heading to Terra Magica."
I pulled out the Trump and gated us through to Millbank, making sure that the attaché case was also with us. Joss tried to resist, but I managed to keep control of the link and make sure we all got through. I then took a few minutes to speed Terra Magica up to closer to Sable time, lock the doors so that the only people getting in and out were people I wanted to, and added a little something to the wards such that anyone trying to Trump someone or somewhere on the Shadow would find it warm and dead.
"You didn't answer my question, Robert of Sable," he demanded.
"You, Joscelin, need some help. A lot of help. It is my intention to give that to you."
"I don't need any help. I need to return to my work."
"What's in the case?"
"What business is it of yours?"
"Because you are now my guest, and if it's a bomb I'd like to know."
"Guest? Prisoner more like."
"You were Rupert's prisoner. You are my guest."
"Incorrect. Unlike you, the Empire, and your combined hidebound opinions on using blood, pain and ritual as a method of power generation, he was open minded enough about what I can do to offer me laboratories and equipment to allow me to pursue my research. I leapt at the chance. He's even been helping me formalise it by supervising my doctorate thesis, so I can get some of my ideas down on paper. He's also pointed me in some interesting directions which have caused me to revisit my original thesis idea."
"What's in the case?"
"I had some of my notes with me to refer to as I was setting up the energy system for the Kaiser Wilhelm, not that it's any of your goddamned business. Work was going very well until you interrupted me."
I looked at Helena, curious.
"If you thought the Kaiserin Class ships were big, think again," she said, a trace of awe in her voice, "the Kaiser Class was always the proposed next step. The trouble was the fuel and energy system was impractical, and therefore it had never got off the drawing board."
"They were simple to solve once I took a look at them," he snapped, "it amazes me how hard other people find the transmission of energy to be."
"And now there's one under construction?" I asked them.
"Something like that," came the somewhat petulant reply from my grandson.
"Outstanding," I replied, sighing inwardly, and I looked at him. "Where are the rest of your notes, Joss? And how many copies are there"
"Everything is in the labs - the Reichsführer-SS considered that it would be a potential security risk for them to be stored anywhere else as well," he answered, "but they're guarded. You won't get to them. And even if you did, I doubt you could get out that much paper."
"Andrew was in the labs."
"But he isn't holding any papers, is he?" he retorted, looking over at my son, hatred burning in his eyes, "So even though you have seized me, my mentor can continue my work." He sounded triumphant as he said it.
"Oh Joss," I said, shaking my head in resignation, "I can see that you and I are going to need to spend a lot of the next few months talking and working together."
"So you can bend me to your liberal-minded will?"
"No, so I can restore you to your liberal-minded self. Freya, do you want to stay with him. It's going to take a long time to bring him back to his normal self."
"Definitely," she answered, crossing to him and taking his hand in hers, and I saw him smile for the first time since he had been brought through. At least I could see that he still loved her.
"Joscelin. Did Rupert offer to allow your family to be with you?"
"He said they would be joining me once I was settled."
"And would say you were settled there?"
"Of course. I had everything I needed to continue my work."
"And yet your family had not joined you."
He thought about that for a moment, then snapped: "He warned me that you would try to twist things to suit you if we ever spoke. Well, you won't find me an easy mark."
"As you can see, Freya is here with you now, and you have my guarantee that your children will be here by the end of the day. Call it a sign of my good faith."
"We shall see."
"You shall indeed, Joscelin," I replied, "For now, make yourself at home, and please don't try to leave. I will be back this evening."
And with that, I took Andrew and his group, minus Freya, back to Sable so that they could go on bound.
"Can you save him?" Andrew asked, as he was leaving, "or is he too dangerous to leave alive?"
"The problem will be what happened to his notes: if Rupert has those, then it is irrelevant whether Joss is alive or dead - although I would infinitely prefer him alive. He is my grandson after all. However, to find out where the notes are, I need to know what happened after you left Danzig. I'll call you when I have anything."
"Agreed."
"Do me a favour. Get his children and bring them here - maybe Duncan and Katya as well - and I'll take them back to Millbank when I go later. Between them, they may be able to help me put him back on the straight and narrow."
"Will do. See you later," he answered, and he gated out. Almost as he disappeared, a servant found me.
"General Graham is looking for you, Your Majesty."
"Tell him I'll meet him in my office."
"Very good, Sire."
I strolled over to my office to find Gray sitting in one of the armchairs. He looked white as a sheet.
"What's wrong?" I asked, conjuring up a stiff drink for him - even if it was for psychological, rather than physical reasons. He took it gratefully and drank from it, without even his usual regretful look.
"Danzig has been obliterated."
"Excuse me?"
"Obliterated. Vaporised. Wiped off the face of Magica Superior."
"When?" I asked, but I knew the answer before he said it.
"About half an hour ago. Casualty estimates currently suggest that that well over five hundred thousand were killed outright in the blast, but that is expected to rise: beyond the blast radius, there are also reports of victims who have been crushed, burned and generally exhibit the symptoms of having been hit by a huge pressure wave. There are also fires raging and a lot of structural damage."
I conjured myself a drink to join him, and took a slug of it.
"The dockyard and harbour facilities seem to have been the epicentre. Where, in fact, I told you Joscelin would be, about five hours ago. And I'm told that an SS-Brigadeführer matching his description passed through here shortly before the blast."
"Christ," I muttered to myself as I tried to visualise devastation on the scale he was suggesting.
"Who was on the mission, Robert?"
"Andrew, Helena-Maria Latz, a couple of Andrew's people, and Joss's wife."
"Did they mention anything which might have been related to this?"
"Andrew came through in a hurry, saying he thought he'd destabilised something - and the Pattern blast from it fried the Trump link. Joss went ballistic when he heard."
"All shipping in Danzig harbour, commercial and non-commercial has been destroyed. As has the entire industrial area, which was located nearby for obvious reasons. Also, shops, housed and offices. In fact, nothing survived that blast within a half-mile radius of the epicentre. Thankfully, the central shopping and entertainment areas were outside the blast radius, although they have suffered considerable damage. Did Joscelin say any more?"
"One of his more rational comments to Andrew was along the lines of 'do you have the slightest idea how much energy was stored in that'."
"I think we know the answer to that now, Robert," he said, and I nodded. I thought we did, too.
"Has there been a reaction from Berlin?"
"At the moment they're calling it a tragic accident in the dockyard research facilities. The Reich Central Security Office has declared a state of emergency in what's left of Danzig and the surrounding area, and even as we speak the Kaiser and the Reichsführer-SS are en route to pay a morale-boosting visit."
"And no doubt try to figure out what happened, in Rupert's case - he was never one for morale-boosting."
"No doubt."
"By obliterated..."
"I mean just that. Buildings, shipping, vehicles, people. All vaporised. All that remains is an empty crater, about half a mile deep and which, incidentally, is open to the sea and causing other problems in itself."
Which presumably meant that Joscelin's notes were also destroyed. However, by the sound of it, that benefit paled in comparison with the scale of the damage wrought. The only positive things - if anything could truly be considered positive - were that it could hopefully never happen again, if the notes were gone and, if the Powers that Be were with us, Rupert would attribute it to a mistake on Joscelin's part, and believe that his protégé died in the explosion.
"Robert, I have to ask this. And you're not going to like it."
"What?"
"Was it an accident?"
"Of course it was..." I began, but he raised his hand and stopped me.
"Hear me out. You said Andrew was present, and we both know his feeling towards the Reich. We also both know what he has become capable of since his return. While he was away something snapped, and he has returned a driven man, obsessed with defeating our enemy at any cost. Bearing that in mind, can you be completely sure that Andrew is innocent of intentionally causing this?"
I thought about how he had seemed when he called me, and what he had said.
"I am as sure as I can be without looking into his head to find out," I answered.
"If this was intentional it was murder on the biggest scale I have ever seen in a single event," Gray answered, "and if there is the slightest chance that it was intentional, and Andrew is capable of snuffing out that many people, all those lives, you need to curb him, and you need to do it now. Favourite son or not."
"He was frightened when he called me, Gray. It's a very long time since I've seen that. Frightened, confused and unsure of what he'd done, although he had a feeling it was very bad. And when he explained it honestly seemed to me as if he had no idea what he had done."
"Robert, I truly hope you're right."
He downed his drink and got to his feet.
"I should be getting back to the Maze. I've got a busy afternoon ahead of me."
"I can imagine," I answered, "I'll be in touch later."
I watched his retreating back as he left, and then sat down behind my desk. I would need to send formal condolences to Berlin. Even though the heart of the blast had been Rupert's own project, it sounded as if the devastation had ended tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of lives. And many of those were going to have been innocent bystanders.
I got out a piece of writing paper and a pen, and started to draft a statement of condolence. But as I did so, I considered Gray's words, and hoped that I wasn't being the biggest hypocrite in creation, and apologising for an intentional act of mass murder.