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[Blade Master Model 42]

"But she was here. When?"

"A week or so." Ivan grabbed the cork of the bottle with his teeth, and yanked until the cork came free. Unfortunately, he managed to spill about half of the bottle in the process. "Son of a bitch. Anyway, she's at Castle Leonowicz, scheming with the Earl no doubt. They think they can conquer the world without my research. Well they can try." He moved to put the bottle to his lips, but Jack grabbed his wrist.

"Tell me more about your research on the Kalgarian research." Ivan began to struggle beneath Jack's hand. "After you explain why you're trying to drink yourself to death."

Giarna stopped. "I..." Tears began to form in his eyes. "Since before the great war ended, I have been researching the work of the Kalgarian scholars. With my team, we discovered the true nature of their work."

"True nature?"

"Yes. The abilities of magicians as we understand them direct magical energies generated from within the bodies. This is why, even among mages of equal skill, one can deal so much more damage than another with the same tome. But the magicks of Kalgar were different. They seemed to pull energy from nowhere to create entirely foreign substances."

"Foreign? In what way?"

"They were like nothing we had ever seen in this world. And I discovered why. The Kalgarian wizards were drawing this power from a world outside of ours."

[IamanElfCollaborator]

"Another world? I've heard theories like that. Theories that these weapons were drawing power from places beyond our world. That was the province of crackpots and conspiracy theorists."

This was enough to jostle Theodore into action.

He approaches the conversation confidently, stepping around Jack and Lucette to trap Giarna in.

"I even considered it during my own work on these forsaken weapons. They were outputting too much power for any one person to be able to supply it on their own without significant injury. We considered many things in our research; drawing upon whole populations, perhaps the lifeblood of the world itself, or some sort of luminferous aether we had yet to detect. The power of another world was a hypothesis I considered, but it was preposterous. Drawing magic from other worlds.....I've heard of it in old myths and legends, the stuff of fanciful madmen. It wasn't practical magic. Nothing useful. Nothing worthy of my talents."

"Where are your research notes? And what else have you found out?"

[Blade Master Model 42]

Ivan pointed his empty hand at Theodore. "That's just what I mean! To create a weapon without so much as understanding what it does- Unthinkable! Unconscionable!"

"Of course we know what it does. It vaporizes everything in a mile."

"No no no no NO! That is the result, you simpleton! What does it do?"

"It projects a negative energy field-" Ivan cut him off again.

"No. It creates a portal, between our world and the other." The room was silent for a moment, except for the faint sound of liquid flowing against cloth, and the bitter scent of ammonia filled the air.

[IamanElfCollaborator]

Portals. Another world. Travel between them.

Countless tomes flickered through Theo's memories right then and there, those words having aroused memories of years of Theodore's life. Countless hours of research, countless sleepless nights, countless attempts. He'd believed they were preposterous, yes, but they were worth pursuing, in Theodore's eyes.

It was stupid, what he'd done. He'd thought it'd have been worth it all, for her. But it was irresponsible, foolish, to mess with things that Theodore had hardly believed in the first place and knew scant little about. To understand that these mongrels had done this aroused both anger and curiosity in Theodore, a curiosity that was quickly quashed by sobering reality. If Theodore was foolish to use it for what he had wanted, these fools were doubly so for messing with powers beyond their tiny minds.

Let it go. It was a long time ago. She would want you to. But this cannot go on.

"A portal? Those...mongrels. The risk of something like that....what happens to the matter that is teleported to this other world? What do you know of this world?"

[Lucus Casius]

Ria--who had, through all this--listened with increasing incredulity and decreasing desire to make a terrible joke about stereotypes on Govitan drinking habits being entirely due to this one guy, finally broke her silence.

:  "No, no, stop, no."


:  "Are we really takin' this stuff seriously?  Portals?  Other worlds?  You've gotta be kiddin'.  It's just a big, fancy magical bomb with a heck of a lot of strategic value.  I'd ask if ya were nuts if it weren't for our resident wannabe divinity bein' the one tryin' to lend it some sort of legitimacy."

Ria shook her head and leaned on her spear, looking over at the group's leader.

:  "Hell, Jack, you ain't gonna buy this crap, are you?   If I knew you were draggin' me into some sci-fi bullshit, I'd have gotten some mages to strap rocket-boosters ta Val or somethin'.  Might as well make a whole thing of it."

[Blade Master Model 42]

"It probably gets fucking destroyed." Ivan's head lolled to the side and he squinted over at Theodore. "What we have been able to devise with our own portals that move matter from that world to ours, unlike your own, is that the very nature of the world beyond is antithetical to our own. The base matter in which it exists is horrifically caustic to any material we introduced it to, even glass for god's sake. And the only thing your people could think to do with it is send a mile of perfectly useful land out of existence. Stupid." Ivan chuckled. "But I am not the greatest in the great nation of Govitz for nothing! Through further study, I was able to isolate the source of the power used to create these portals." Ivan released the bottle, and Jack allowed him to gesture with both hands. "That world is home to titanic creatures. The height of a tower and incredibly powerful! If we could only harness their power, it would be a weapon to surpass any other!"

"Weaponize them? How were you going to weaponize a creature you couldn't possibly control?"

Ivan grabbed for the bottle again. "This has been the central conceit of my research for the last five years. We can isolate the titans. We can bring them to any location we desire. But we cannot yet control them. They are simple beasts, this much I have discovered. My most trusted assistants have been helping me devise a way to implant the consciousness of a human being upon their bodies to create the ultimate soldier and weapon all in one- but that ended a week ago. The Earl was impatient with my research. He thought that worthless tome that woman brought to him would be of use, but it could tell me nothing I did not already know. So he seized my notes, and told me we would no longer be funded." Tears were flowing down his face, and Jack only watched as he drained the half-empty bottle into his mouth. He dropped the bottle onto the wet carpet and allowed his arm to hang at his side. "I have nothing any more. I never married. I have no family left. I've been stripped of my honors for all the advancements I have made for my home. I couldn't even rise to protect my colleagues when you broke into my home and slaughtered them, because I was too drunk to stand. Is that what you wanted to hear?"

[IamanElfCollaborator]

"The objective hasn't changed, Ria. The annihilation tome is still a bomb. Its strategic value has changed, but that doesn't matter, not to our mission."

Then Giarna starts talking about the creatures they intended to weaponise; how they intended to do it, what they intended to do with it and how they thought to turn it into a weapon. Theodore felt a fury burning deep in himself.

She would hate this. This went against everything she wanted. This went against everything Theodore held dear.

He was right. This was unconscionable; unconscionable in that no man could possibly want this and be sane.

"....do you expect sympathy for telling us that you plan to create abominations stronger than any annihilation tome? You want sympathy, for creating weapons stronger than those strong enough to end hundreds of lives with little more effort than snapping my fingers? Beg for sympathy from the people of Tselino, if it's sympathy you want! You mongrels claim to understand what you toy with. Other worlds, energy beyond measure, alien beings that the world has never seen the like of, and you choose to make soldiers and bombs from them! Your achievements and funding.....what would those mean, when those monsters you created have finished their work and brought this whole world to ruin? You wasted your talents, and wasted the potential of these discoveries on a game of war."

Theodore closes his eyes and backs off. The man had suffered at the hands of his government. He was only doing what he was ordered to, but that was no excuse to Theodore. But he had to be professional. He had to step back.

This wouldn't get him closer to his goal. Calm down. She wouldn't want him like this.

"Jack, we should find out who now has the ability to bring those beasts into being, in addition to locating the tome and Hart, if this man still has enough information in him worth extracting. What else you do with him after that.... I'll leave to you."

[Blade Master Model 42]

"War is a game we all play, boy, whether we like it or not. If I can create a weapon that the enemies of my nation can never, ever hope to overcome, I will. The weapon I sought was controllable. Even after deployment,the chance for surrender exists. The Annihilation Tomes simply erase a sphere a mile wide, and you think to lecture me? Go and fuck yourself, you cretin. I don't expect anyone beneath my genius to understand." He pointed a finger in Jack's approximate direction. "You, spy. I've answered your questions. Give me my drink. I don't like to abandon a project."

Jack retrieved a bottle, but did not hand it over. "What of his questions? Does anyone apart from the Earl have the research and resources to summon these Titans?"

Ivan sputtered for a moment before answering. "Not unless he has given that information to others. But the Earl likes to play his cards close to his vest. I wouldn't think he would share that information willingly." Ivan looked back at Theodore. "What did you say about Tselino? That's the little town over the mountain, yes?"

[IamanElfCollaborator]

"Yes? What of it?"
Theodore is noticeably terse at this point. Whatever beliefs he may personally have about war or peace or whatever rejoinders he might have to having his supposed ego threatened are left unsaid.

[Lucus Casius]

Ria sighed in exasperation at the sheer insanity of it all.  She started to shake her head in response to the man's question, then paused, giving him a shrug instead.

:  "I mean.  It was."

[Powder Miner]

Lucette scoffed during all of this madcap explanation, and met Ria's eyes as she did -- this was all completely ridiculous, she had to agree with the pegasus rider on that. Maybe this was the result of all that alcoholism.
:"Govitz did as Govitz does best with it."

[Blade Master Model 42]

The man was almost as confused as he was drunk. "What are you talking about? Something has happened to Tselino?"

[IamanElfCollaborator]

"The town is gone. The work of an annihilation tome, no doubt."

[Blade Master Model 42]

He slumped over the desk again. "But... Why? Why would Ersht target Tselino of all places? It's a nothing town. What purpose would it serve?" He reached for the bottle again, and this time Jack allowed him to take it. "...I won't apologize for my part in the Titan project. I'm many things, but I'm not a hypocrite. But if I couldn't figure out a way to control the Titans, the Earl has no chance of it. And if they can't be controlled, they're no better than your Annihilation Tomes. Maybe worse. If you're going anyway... I mean-" He forced himself to look at the people standing in his office. "I would ask you to recover and destroy my research. Now leave. You'll spoil my drink."

Jack turned and stepped out of the room, and waited for the others to follow him.

[IamanElfCollaborator]

Theodore simply nods, mostly to himself. More things to mull over. Mainly things that were to be mulled over when his anger had died down. He silently follows Jack out of the room without a word.