DOES ANYONE ELSE READ THESE TWO SERIES? please, please let that be a yes.

Sorry for lack of updates on Broken Lines, school and sports have kept me way too busy.

They're here again in Vienna for one reason or another, because it turns out that abdicating the throne of a country isn't as easy as simply saying so. There were forms to be filled, speeches to be made, and civilians to please. In other words, hours and hours of work for poor Alek.

Deryn wasn't one to be caught sitting around very often, even when dealing with important matters of state. Thankfully, Alek knew that, and excused her from the very long meeting that she shouldn't even have been attending. She had protested just a little bit, suggesting to Alek that she was of use for moral support. In reality, she was already out of the stuffy meeting rooms, and back outside. Deryn was always nervous when she couldn't see the sky.

And so she was now outside just a little way from the courthouse, street food in her hand and a precarious balance on a wall.

Off in the distance, she vaguely noticed a couple hugging. Something about them seemed to radiate power, and notice. Most of the people in the area surrounding the courthouse didn't seem to notice them, to the point of ignoring them- but they weren't bumped into by pedestrians, nor was their path blocked. Deryn had a bit of difficulty focusing on them, but couldn't look away, even when she tried.

Deryn squinted, a bit confused and suspicious as she slid down off the wall to get a better view.

Now it looked like the man was wiping off the woman's face- had she been crying? The man, who was in a dark blue suit, gave the woman a kiss on her forehead and stepped back, dissolving into the crowd- or had it been that an official-looking group of men in Austrian uniforms had simply walked with him away?

She had focused too hard on those vague figures and not enough on her own two feet, because she was shocked into paying attention by tripping over the curb. Pedecabs made assorted hisses and clanking bell noises, angrily rebuffing the English middie that had stumbled into their street. Deryn cursed and yelled back at them, enjoying herself and showing off some of her Clanker-talk. She moved herself back onto the sidewalk, brushing herself off and making sure she hadn't soiled another dress uniform; Dr. Barlow would surely get gray hairs if it happened again.

Yet something felt old.

Deryn couldn't quite remember why she had been so intent to get a good look across the street in the first place. Something in her mind felt hazy, strange. It felt cloudy and somehow soft, and her thoughts buzzed, moreso when a woman (and bloody hell, did she look familiar) placed her hand on Deryn's shoulder.

"Excuse me, miss? Are you Deryn Sharp?"

Deryn felt lightweight, too much so to even protest the use of her name. Barking spiders, some part of her screamed, pay attention! this isn't right!

"Aye."

Her mind was unclear, grasping for holds that weren't there. She nodded at the woman stupidly. Apparently, this woman was accustomed to this sort of reaction, for she didn't react, just simply continued smiling.

"My name is Elizabeta Héderváry."

Cue another nod from Deryn. The woman (Elizabeta, Deryn thinks numbly) gestured to the courthouse where Alek had been in his meeting for hours and hours and Deryn just felt so confused-

"He is precious to you, yes?"

"Yes."

Her answer was without hesitation, and her hands involuntarily clenched at her sides. A moment of lucidity came about, but she can't break eye contact with this woman.

"You should cherish him, then. Love him for every moment, even when you fight. Notice how beautiful he is. And when you fight-" Deryn thought for a moment she heard the woman's voice break, but was unable to be focused on that for too long. "- try not to be too hard on one another."

'She's crying', Deryn thought, but everything was so hazy that she couldn't be sure. She blinked, and somehow everything had gone forward. The woman was a foot or two from her now, standing right in the middle of the sidewalk, but the flow of people moved around her rather than into her.

"I am sorry it had to come to this. I am glad, though, that another story can start when our– mine ended."

Elizabeta reached out a hand, and cupped Deryn's face gently.

"Take care of your Austrian, yes?"

With that, the woman turned to go.

Deryn found her feet were no longer glued to the ground. Something had been lifted from her, but her memories were all tangled. 'Keep your eyes on her', she thought determinedly, striding after the woman in green.

"Wait!" Deryn called out, reaching for the woman. "Who are you?"

'Elizabeta' didn't even turn back.

"Hungary."

Deryn swallowed as she tried to bring moisture to her dry throat. What was going on?

"And the man?"

Elizabeta laughed, the sound jarring like bells.

"Austria."

The pieces fell together, were excruciatingly clear for just one stingingly bright moment. Memories flew back to her, events that had been locked up and somehow covered by her own mind.

There was the man with ridiculous eyebrows (and Deryn had experience with those) onboard the Leviathan that took tea with Barlow on several occasions, the same man who she somehow felt an inexplicable fondness for.

The other American with Malone, the one who had been so bloody loud.

The masked man behind the throne in Istanbul.

That one solider with Tesla who everyone seemed to look right through, despite his bulk.

These revelations and relived memories both terrified her and delighted her, a lifetime's worth of forgotten events piling up on one another.

And then it was gone, back to the place where it had been, that barrage of images and sounds and knowledge. Perhaps Deryn would stumble upon it in the future, if she needed to know about these ... people. It crossed her mind as they were flying back that Alek knew the man Elizabeta had identified as Austria- she would need to ask him-

Forgetting was as quick and blissful as falling asleep.

Deryn squinted. Off in the distance, she vaguely noticed a crowd emerging from the courthouse. It took a few minutes, but Alek joined her, Volger right behind with a group of bodyguards. Alek looked as if he had collapsed upon himself, his shoulders not as straight and tall as she was accustomed to. He choked his words out, stumbling onward none the less.

"They've separated Austria and Hungary, as well as setting up a few smaller nations from the pieces- my homeland-"

Deryn may be common as dirt and unable to relate, but she still offered comfort in the only way she knew how- a hug, for her very dear friend.

"It hurts, Deryn, and I don't know why-"

She remembered, just barely, that someone had told her to value those precious to her. It must have been a long, long time ago, because she could barely remember it, but there was no better time to apply it than now, was there.

"I'm here. It's going to be okay."