NOTE: this is the last slow, easy chapter. everything has been organized nicely and the plot will be ... plotty in the next chapter. get ready for the ride!

as the next chapter is going to be MUCH longer, expect a few days delay before it is finished.

III

ONBOARD A CIVILIAN AIRSHIP (SOMEWHERE OVER SWITZERLAND) OCTOBER 21st

This was third time tonight that some dammed ex-middie had tried to tell her how to behave on a barking airship. Her. 'Deryn Sharp', decorated officer on the Leviathan, boffin, successful fabricator of eight species, was being told how to conduct herself on an airship! She wondered why the boy was here, all five feet of rashy skin and awkward limbs of him, instead of in the Air Service. Deryn didn't really bother with considering it, though she allowed herself a snicker when, while escorting her back inside, the boy had tripped over a piece of rigging.

Now, back inside, she watched as he met up with another boy, who he quickly raced off with, pushing and shoving along the hallway together, grins splitting their faces.

Her hands clenched for just a moment , and she pressed her forehead to the glass window of the observatory cabin. This is not what she wanted, nor will she ever be fully satisfied with this life. Nothing says she can't close off her mind and fantasize, once in a while, if that boy had given up an empire for her, a common girl.

And then the memories she's fought so hard against come back, layering on top of each other like cards in a deck. She shut them down quickly, once the images of them came up. Barking spiders, it hurt.

And in that moment, Deryn resolved to enjoy this trip, at the very least the airborne bits, and deal with him when they arrive in Austria-Hungary and not a moment before.

He will not take her heart and break it again. She doubts he even intended to, the first time around. She wonders what he thinks, if he thinks about her at all.

VIENNA, AUSTRIA-HUNGARY (HOFBURG PALACE) OCTOBER 23rd

Pomp and ceremony is very, very nice. It prevents people needing to think. All one needs to do is follow a template set up by years and years of tradition to the letter, and everyone's happy.

There were rules for the first formal receiving of a representative of another country. Alek was glad there were, he'd been up more than half the night for the past week, speaking with the Bolshevik representative. His advisers had saved him, accompanied by Volger, insisting that he needed his sleep. The Russian had just scoffed, mumbling something about lazy emperors. Alek had chosen to ignore the comment, and had been escorted out of the room by Volger.

The Russians had no respect for royalty, of course, but the alliance was essential, if not now, then of course when the last few members of the Tzar's family were killed (and they would be, that was clear, it was just a question of when, really) and Russia crumbled while a new government struggled to reform itself. And perhaps they would take kindly to former allies, and perhaps they would not. But they would be too weak to do anything about it for a few years, and by then Austria-Hungary would be strong enough to counter anything.

It was all just a matter of diplomacy and counter-diplomacy.

That being said, Alek was almost (but not quite) eagerly looking forward to his meeting with the British representatives. The Embassy had told him that he would be receiving a boffin and their assistant, and that both of them were able to speak German easily. Two creatures would be coming with them, and Alek had easily made arrangements for both of his guests to have accommodations for their creatures.

He liked the British. Alek's first order as Emperor had been to bring Austria-Hungary out of the war. His second had been a treaty with Britain, to 'forge bonds of peace, as is Our sincerest wish'. Sometimes he didn't wonder if his fierce wish to stay so connected with Britain is because of Deryn. They had been pulled apart so quickly after New York, scarcely ten days after he had decided to pursue his birthright. Alek prided himself on having few regrets, but not having more time with Deryn was one of them.

Yet, she had made no move to contact him. As the years had passed, he had sadly come to the realization that she really must have wanted nothing to do with him. Dr. Barlow and Count Volger had occasionally exchanged letters, but Deryn was not mentioned in any of their correspondence. After two years, he had given up, accepted it, and turned his mind away from her and her brilliant mind and wit, and back to his Empire's success, as it should be.

Alek had received word that the representative boffin had arrived the past night, and requested a meeting the following morning. Said meeting was scheduled to begin in two minutes in his personal office.

His Imperial and Royal Apostolic Majesty Aleksandar sat in his chair with ease. Dressed in civilian formal clothes, he still made an impression with the picture of his father behind him, a smaller portrait of his mother on his desk, and the Austria-Hungarian crest rendered in large glory on the front. The whole message was one of semi-informality, yet it conveyed obligatory respect. Just right for meeting an ambassador.

His train of thought was broken by Volger opening the large doors, entering and followed by two guards who took up their positions on either side of the door. Alek noted he looked a little flustered, but brushed it off as a slight conflict with the Bolshevik again. The wildcount took up the duty of announcing his visitors who were a few steps behind him in the shadowy hall.

"May I present the representatives of the British Empire, Dr. Nora Darwin Barlow, and her assistant, Mr. Dylan MacGregor Sharp."

The lady boffin swept into the hall with the grace and dignity Alek remembered, a greying Tazza at her side. She offered the curtsey due Alek, which he received with a nod, and stepped aside to let her assistant come into view.

And then Deryn walked in, head held high, Bovril on her shoulder. Alek felt his breath catch for just a second- she was still so beautiful, even dressed like that. And a doctor, too! They had so much to catch up on.

Yet something in her eyes was cold and unreadable, and those eyes stayed on him as she bowed and stepped back.

The room was dead silent for a moment.

"Reunification," Bovril said, and giggled.