Klaus carried Zene's crate to an appropriate laboratory, still half feeling he should apologise for packing her back up. Of course Barry had known what to say. Klaus was more skilled as a doctor, Jägers aside, but Barry was better with patients. If Klaus talked to them at all, he tended to over-describe what he was doing until the bolder ones asked him to stop.

Barry helped him set up, humming intermittently in a way that apparently distracted Zene, whose eyes kept turning in his direction and changing brightness. "You'll just have to get used to that," Klaus told her. "He does it all the time when he's working."

Gil, Agatha, and of course Tarvek flooded into the room then, followed almost immediately by Otilia and Moxana. Tarvek was clutching a large notebook bound in old leather, the large letters RvR visible on the back cover. Gil and Agatha were both carrying music boxes, one of their own making and one from Tarvek's heap of gifts.

Otilia walked forward as if a little stunned, wings dragging, and leaned over Zene mournfully. "I am sorry," she said softly. "Would that I'd been able to shield you from this."

"We're going to fix it," said Tarvek.

"Are you?" asked Otilia.

Klaus looked up at her, startled by the coolness in her voice. "That is the plan."

"I expect many Sparks have tried to repair the damage others have done over the years," said Otilia.

"They weren't us," Klaus heard himself say, and then reflected that this probably was too classically Sparky to be reassuring. He tried again. "And they had neither Van Rijn's notes nor your help." He hadn't even thought of consulting Moxana, not that he'd be likely to understand Moxana whether she agreed or not, but it hadn't occurred to him that Otilia would object. "Would you have us leave her like this?"

Otilia bowed her head. "No. And you have a better chance than anyone."

Klaus raked a hand back through his hair. "Gil already reconnected her eyes," he said. They'd have to redo it - it wasn't really spliced properly - but it had allowed her communication of a sort. And she could obviously hear. Good thing they hadn't nailed the crate shut again.

"We can ask her," Barry said, then a little wryly, "Even if I told her, already. But she can understand us and has, I think, enough control to respond."

"She has enough control to roll her eyes at the noises you make when you're thinking," Klaus informed him.

"Ask her, then," said Otilia.

Klaus and Barry both turned back toward the broken Muse, only to find Tarvek clambering up to kneel on a stool beside the workbench. He shot Klaus a wary look and then bent over her. "Madame Zene-" He paused frowning, and then said, "Can you turn your eyes right first and then left? Your right and left," he added, evidently feeling this needed clarification. Four soft clicks. When Klaus came close enough to see her eyes they were focussed on Tarvek again, but evidently it had been a satisfactory response, because Tarvek went on, "Taking right to mean yes, are you willing to have us try to repair you?"

Zene's eyes turned firmly to her right, back to centre, and repeated. Twice.

Tarvek's mouth curled upward a little. "Emphatically?"

Yes again. Klaus rubbed his upper lip to hide a smile of his own.

"I shall leave it to your judgement, then," said Otilia to Zene.

Zene rolled her eyes toward Otilia, which with her currently limited facial movement might have been irritation or fondness or simply an effort to see her properly. Moxana, whom Otilia had left by the door, began shuffling her cards rather noisily. Klaus pinched the bridge of his nose and went to move her up by the workbench. "I'm sure she's glad to see you both, but we are going to need some room to work eventually, you know."

Moxana held up a picture of the Fool in full motley. Klaus interpreted this provisionally as Yes, silly.

"I guess you two had better look at the notebook," said Tarvek, with an odd mixture of authority and an unenthusiasm that fell somewhat short of petulance. He handed it to Barry, who laid it gently open at the end of a bench where he and Klaus could easily gather around it and began poring over the table of contents, heterodyning softly. Klaus joined him and let the droning buzz fill his ears and head, almost shutting out the chimes of the music box Gil was winding up.

Almost, but not quite. And he had spent some time focussed entirely on raising his children, once, and since then he had trained himself to process military code messages as urgent and pick them out of a noisy room - so the staccato tapping interspersed with the children's voices going through the alphabet cut into his awareness. At first he analysed them with a fraction of his attention and pointed out to himself that the alphabet did not constitute urgent information, but after Agatha's quiet crow of triumph upon reaching 'Z', he reconsidered his level of interest and looked up.

Agatha was sitting on the workbench next to Zene's head. Gil and Tarvek were on stools on opposite sides of the bench, Tarvek staring at Zene's face as if enthralled and Gil peering into the mouth of one of her brass instruments. Otilia was watching over Agatha's head, with an air of holding her breath even though she didn't have to breathe.

There was a very faint click and then violet light flickered - no, flashed, in a deliberate pattern, and Klaus took a few steps sideways to get the reflections off brass out of the way.

-a-l-k-a-g-a-i-n-I-d-o-n-t-k-n-o-w-h-o-w-M-o-x-a-n-a-p-u-t-s-u-p-w-i-t-h-t-h-i-s

Moxana serenely held up one of her tarot cards and then flashed it around to everyone else - turning it directly toward Klaus at the end, without looking toward him at all. It was Patience. Otilia smiled, Agatha giggled, and Zene chose to communicate her opinion this time through an elaborate eyeroll.

Tarvek looked up to see where Moxana had pointed the card last, and the abrupt reserve and tension that came over his whole posture made Klaus sigh. Agatha and Gil, by contrast, followed his gaze and both beamed; Gil waved frantically for Klaus to come over and Agatha bounced where she sat. "She can talk to us now!" Agatha said, rather unnecessarily. "She remembered all the letters the first time."

Of course I did Zene signalled. And now I have many questions

"I can only imagine," said Klaus.

"You remember the Lord Heterodyne's explanation, I guess?" Tarvek put in.

Vividly since when are Heterodynes that friendly

Klaus coughed to hide a laugh. "It's a fairly recent development."

"Just since Uncle Barry and my daddy," Agatha said helpfully. "Wait, there was Gradok, maybe?"

I remember Gradok said Zene. And who is Klaus Wulfenbach The violet eyes settled on him again. There is a Storm King and there are Heterodynes and there is she paused, expressively, you.

Klaus took a moment to collect his thoughts. "I suppose it started when I came back from Mars -"

Zene's eyes widened and, with a rather alarming creak, the metal containing her painted eyebrows shifted upward. What

"Should I help?" Tarvek asked, looking earnestly helpful in a way that made Klaus suspect he was carefully not laughing.

"Perhaps that wasn't the best place to start," Klaus conceded. "I'll explain Mars later. But it meant I wasn't here when the Other attacked." Did she know about the Other? "There was a great deal of devastation, and people were attacking one another in the aftermath."

I believe I missed that but it sounds sadly normal

"The Other's attacks weren't," said Klaus. "The infighting, yes. But the attacks were beyond anything anyone had expected. Barry and his brother dealt with the Other, but hadn't yet returned when I did."

"So he decided to fix everything by taking over Europa," said Tarvek. "Then the Lord Heterodyne came back and started persuading everybody to go along with it instead of having to be conquered."

"Right, making alliances and everything," Gil put in, evidently feeling the description needed to be friendlier.

And you my little king Her eyelids lowered fractionally for a moment. Do they do this in your name

"Well, they didn't," said Tarvek, fidgeting. "They weren't meant to know about me until I was grown up and I'm not - quite - crowned yet."

Zene's eyes flickered for a moment instead of flashing and then resumed a more systematic pattern. Please explain more

"Um," Tarvek's gaze flitted around the audience and then returned to Zene. "How long ago did you...?"

1789 and there was rarely anything to hear A short pause. It was very dull and lonely

Tarvek bent over and brushed a hand against her forehead, as if pushing back non-existent hair. "It's been, not exactly a secret but people sort of stopped thinking it mattered, for a long time. Who had the right bloodline. So, I guess they could have found out quick enough who I was, but as long as they didn't know anyone was planning to do anything about it they wouldn't look, and the Baron didn't care anyway. Now it's...it's useful, because the Fifty Families will follow them if it's in my name. But they only just found out."

"I don't know about not thinking it mattered," Klaus said drily. "There were any number of succession wars over it, even if they got a bit lost in the shuffle of all the other wars."

"Hopefully there won't be any more of them," said Tarvek, sounding far too world weary for an eight year old.

Gil leaned across Zene to squeeze Tarvek's shoulder and the knot of instruments rocked against her. "Hopefully."

"Indeed," said Klaus. "I think we have a reasonable chance of toning them down for a while, at least, and while Valois was a man of impressive political and military skills otherwise, I think you'd have to be trying to leave the succession any less clear than he did."

"So that's the short version," said Tarvek. "The long version is really long, and I'll tell you that too. But not when you might have more questions about what's going on now."

Not when I'm listening? Klaus thought, but he supposed he shouldn't say things like that when Tarvek was already apparently convinced he was in mortal danger.

Zene took a moment to consider, then looked at Klaus again. Are you as good as the Lord Heterodyne claims

"Of course he is!" said Agatha.

"I have a talent for analysis and reconstruction," said Klaus. "I've worked on Otilia's wings, at her request."

Zene looked at Otilia.

Otilia nodded. "I would not have said he had the best chance, if it were not true. But if you objected, I would stand between you." She stopped. Looked at Klaus. Considered. "Would I have to?"

He clenched his jaw. He understood Lilith and Adam choosing to live with the errors Bill and Barry had made as children instead of risking their memories, their identities, in being reconstructed. But this, could he believe it was anything but the damage speaking to choose to stay as Zene was now? The words he finally found were, still tight between his teeth, "I have been in pieces myself."

Gil squeaked and then bit his lip, looking firmly at the knot of instruments.

"I appreciate the understanding," said Otilia. "You sympathise with constructs, since you are one, I am glad it still extends to me now. To all of us. But understand this." She stood very erect. "No one will touch my sisters against their will. Not while we are united."

And would you stop him if Tarvek said to let his regent see what he could make of us sister Zene flashed. I cannot serve my King like this

"Then that is your choice. My last king sent me away from you and this is the result. I will not be ordered to forsake those I should protect."

"No," said Tarvek. He slid away from the box and walked over to tentatively take one of Otilia's hands. "You won't be. I wouldn't."

She bowed her head to him. "I'm sorry. I expect too little of you, child."

"Why are we arguing about this when she said yes?" Agatha asked.

Klaus's mouth quirked. "Hypothetical questions can be important," he said, returning to the side of the workbench. "But perhaps it is time to return to more immediately practical ones."

Yes thank you would someone wind up that music box again it was pleasant

"Not exactly what I would have put in that category, but certainly," said Klaus, trying not to smile as he went to fulfill the request.

How are my instruments

"Er," said Klaus, looking back at the tangle of brass. Beetle's mural did depict Zene with a rather complicated one-Muse-band, so it probably was not actually the case that someone had tied all her instruments in knots around each other, but it didn't look very promising.

"Fixable," Gil said quickly.

Tarvek and Klaus both looked at him and, Klaus suspected, both tried not to look skeptical. "He's right," said Barry, rather startling Klaus, who hadn't noticed when he quit humming. "I don't think it's nearly as bad as it looks at first glance."

"Everything's there," said Gil. "I think it's even mostly supposed to be that shape."

"Gil," Tarvek said, sounding pained, "I don't think that sounds very reassuring."

I really wish I could laugh at you all now remarked Zene.

"I'd take their word about the instruments," Klaus told her. "I'm afraid that's not my area."

I would like to have those back but there are also other instruments and I can sing or at least I am meant to sing do not be distressed

"I'll fix them," said Gil, then cast an anxious glance at her. "If it's okay? I'm not as good at clanks as Agatha and Tarvek, but I'm pretty good with music."

You seem like a nice boy A brief pause. I do not remember Sparks being this young

Klaus swallowed another laugh. "Neither do I," he said feelingly. "It was a bit of a shock to have them break through this early."

I like your son

"Thank you, I-" He paused, scalp prickling. "When did we mention that?" It wasn't a secret anymore, but he didn't remember anybody saying that.

It is obvious, Zene told him.

"Obvious?" Klaus repeated.

"Tinka and Moxana knew without my saying anything," Otilia said, smiling faintly.

Klaus sighed. But the Muses were meant to be able to see the future, he wasn't sure how obvious to them translated. "They could work out who Gil was but Tarvek was a surprise?" he asked.

"We see patterns," said Otilia. She looked at Moxana, who folded a hand out. "I was part of that one. We had no connections to predict Tarvek by."

Klaus rubbed a hand over his face. "Well... I appreciate their not mentioning it prematurely."

"We do not make a habit of plainly telling secrets," Otilia said, amused. "And we're rather fond of you both."

"Maybe you are," Klaus said, returning the faint smile. "I think Tinka regards me as a dubiously necessary evil."

Otilia considered. "Well, we are all fond of Gil, at least."

"I thought you were supposed to be tactful," Tarvek said, sounding vaguely horrified. Then, apparently reconsidering based on extended acquaintance with Otilia, "At least a little bit."

"We were obligated... we were built to be indirect with our first King," said Otilia. "To hint, to guide, to teach, to give him every opportunity to work out our meaning for himself, to do everything but tell, for fear he would rely on us too much or that we would rule in his stead. It was intensely frustrating, and he resented us for it and resented the respect we did receive. It was painful to try to speak plainly, and more so the more we knew that he did not." She lifted her chin, wings shifting and spreading. "But we can also learn."

"Um," said Tarvek, looking slightly daunted by the prospect of an insubordinate psychic warrior, "good."

This should be interesting but is there a reason Tinka objects to Klaus Wulfenbach perhaps he took Europa without caring to seek a Storm King but let us be fair he is apparently giving it back

"Finding an heir with a better claim than average was no longer considered especially plausible," said Klaus. "And no, I didn't particularly care. If my family were inclined to cling to vanished kings we'd still be waiting for the Hungarians."

And yet you are his regent

"I wasn't particularly looking for a Storm King. I still found one," said Klaus.

"And by that point we were kind of attached to him," Barry put in cheerfully.

He does seem like a very sweet child which is a good start

Tarvek looked deeply uncertain about that assessment, but he didn't object.

"I'm somewhat more interested in how he'll grow up," Klaus said drily. "Or can you see that already as well?"

That will take a little longer A brief pause. I cannot smile mysteriously now please pretend I have

Klaus tried not to laugh and ended up clearing his throat rather loudly. "I might take that as a hint to get on with things."

Zene's eyelids half-lowered. I do not think you needed one

Repairing Zene was amazing, even if the damage was sad and the process involved even more time with the Baron. It also involved more time with the Lord Heterodyne and Agatha and Gil, and the Baron spent less time asking him alarming questions. Zene's sense of humour peeked out more and more often. When Agatha and Gil broke into the music room one night (they couldn't sleep) and connected all the instruments so you could play them together, Tarvek carefully piled the connected parts of Zene into Moxana's lap and wheeled them in, and of course they got caught then but Otilia didn't send them back to bed until the symphony was over.

Gil was delving ecstatically into the construction of musical instruments, and got Donna involved when she came in to measure Tarvek for a crown adapter.

"A what?" She'd made him a crown already, in his size. It was electrum and echoed the design of Valois's official crown without being very unwieldy or looking like an imitation. "And you already measured my head," he added, holding very still so as not to mess up her arcs.

"You're eight. You keep growing. But I don't think the original Lightning Crown is going to fit you yet."

Tarvek stared at her and then whipped around to stare at the Baron. "You got it away from the Master of Paris?!"

"What, didn't you want it?"

"Of course I wanted it, but I thought he was," Tarvek gestured vaguely with both hands, "staying neutral. Or has he found a way not to make this look like he thinks I'm real?"

"It's very difficult to stay neutral around Barry," said the Baron. "I speak from some experience."

"You didn't try that hard," said Barry.

"Thanks," said Tarvek, to Barry this time, and then gave Donna an apologetic look and tried to get back into position for her. "...can I see it?"

"It's currently in Castle Heterodyne because Barry is critiquing my security procedures again, but yes." The Baron took off the high-magnification apparatus he'd been using to work on Zene's wiring. "Voltaire's position, by the way, is that you are Valois's heir but that unless you start fulfilling Valois's side of a rather complex web of treaties, which may be technically impossible as of the 1666 treaty let alone the destruction of several of the signatories, this places him under no particular obligation."

Tarvek absorbed this. "...But he sent the crown?"

"There would be obvious problems with my taking the diplomatic position that you are keeping me or Agatha from ravaging France," Barry said cheerfully, "but he has Paris under so much surveillance that he agreed to bet me I couldn't start from the northern gate and get into its room in the Louvre without being caught."

"That's amazing," said Gil.

Tarvek wondered about the soundness of basing diplomatic decisions on stupid bets with Heterodynes and then remembered the Red Cathedral and just nodded.

"He was furious," said Barry. "In a very understated way, but it was more chagrin than offence. I'd actually talked him down on the stakes because it wouldn't have been a good foundation, and I told him how I'd done it - so I may be able to get a new treaty one of these days." He smiled at Zene a little ruefully. "And, ah, I'm afraid they're in worse shape than you were, so I honestly don't know how much we'll be able to do... but Mawu and Liza are being sent up for, effectively, medical reasons."

Six out of nine Muses, even if three of them were in terrible shape. "At least they'll be together," said Tarvek.

"That will certainly not make them worse," said Zene.

Tarvek thought a bit guiltily back to his own clank, currently rather neglected. She wasn't conscious yet and Zene was, so he could hardly neglect fixing Zene to work on her, besides he was learning a lot doing this. He wondered how the Muses would feel about her, whether it was presumptuous to make another like them, and whether she'd be okay if they didn't like her. It wasn't as if he was making her as part of a set, but none of the Muses seemed to like being alone. Otilia hadn't objected to her, though, so maybe it would be fine. She wasn't that similar to them in function either - he was already stretching trying to make a living clank, he certainly couldn't begin to make one able to predict the future - her function was gathering and recalling information, a much simpler task. If he waited until he'd fixed Mawu and Liza, though, he'd never get her done, and he didn't want to leave her half-built forever.

Donna had joined Gil in poking at the instruments by this point and Agatha and Barry had been distracted by them and both started humming again, in a really weird duet that always sounded like it was on the verge of clashing terribly. Zene looked over at them and then at Tarvek, with a deeply grave expression, and said, "I want a kazoo."

The Baron made an odd noise that Tarvek recognised after a moment as a smothered laugh. "They do sound a bit like - But where did you hear about those?"

"Your son," said Zene. "He wants one too, by the way, if he hasn't asked you."

"I was going to ask when everyone was less busy," said Gil. He grinned. "I wasn't planning to imitate Agatha with one, either."

"You could try," Agatha said, giggling.

Once the kazoos arrived Zene played ridiculous buzzing, honking duets with Gil, although she had an easier time not breaking into giggles in the middle of it. Of course she was very good, and it was nice that she was having fun (she had a playfulness that was more like Tinka, in spite of her condition; Moxana's humour was more subtle and Otilia fond but very serious) but Tarvek admitted privately to himself that heterodyning was easier on the nerves.

Gil apparently decided Tarvek's nerves needed more toughening up, because the next day when he wasn't kazooing, he was arguing. About. Everything. He argued about political theory when it came up. He argued for the re-engineering of barnacles for hull maintenance. He argued for getting the newly broken-through Dr. Dominula to convert her army of giant wasps (and hadn't that worried everybody until they found out it was only paper wasps) to a stationery factory.

"After Barry's disappointed lecture I honestly think she'd cry if you suggested it," said the Baron, "and besides, the Jägers ate most of them. Gil-" He paused, giving Gil a look that suggested Tarvek was not the only one finding the conversation strange. "You have to be doing this on purpose. Are you practising for some sort of debate of the absurd or are you trying to convince Tarvek I don't turn into an ogre at the first sign of disagreement?"

Gil glanced at Tarvek and looked guilty.

Tarvek buried his face in his hands. "That's, um. Nice of you. But please stop it?"

"I don't think I can disagree with that one," the Baron said, not quite under his breath.

Gil ducked his head. "Sorry. I thought it might help."

"Well, it gave me something different to worry about," said Tarvek drily.

"You worry way too much," Gil sighed.

"Not usually about your sanity," Tarvek returned. "Didn't you ever worry about yourself?" he added, less sarcastically and without thinking about the Baron's presence. "When you thought you were an orphan and not under anyone's protection, didn't you ever wonder how you were going to survive?"

"I was under his anyway," Gil shot back.

"Yes, but...didn't you wonder why? Or how long for? Or anything?"

Gil raked both hands through his hair, making it even fluffier than normal. "I was kind of distracted! I-" He stopped, clammed up, and then apparently changed his mind again and went on. "I couldn't remember anything much and I didn't want to tell anybody. I was busy trying to catch up."

"You didn't tell me," said Tarvek, even though - with all the other things Gil hadn't told him and he hadn't told Gil - it was silly to feel betrayed about this one. But Gil had known it before he'd known its significance, he'd just hidden it because it was personal.

Gil frowned. "I didn't? I told you the Doom Bell didn't bring up anything interesting. But it wasn't bothering me as much by the time you got here."

Gil had said that, and he'd wondered what sort of bad memories would be boring, but he'd been distracted by the celebrations and hadn't thought about it again. Was that why Gil hadn't fainted, because he had fewer memories to be affected by? "You forgot?" It was better than being left out on purpose, but a little odd. "I couldn't have told, that you were having to catch up."

"I'd hope not. I was getting on better by then." Gil glanced at the Baron. "I finally found out why, he says I already got assassinated once."

"Could you please," said the Baron, "phrase that less like you're expecting it to happen repeatedly."

"Please," Tarvek agreed.

"I told him you're teaching me not to be," Gil said helpfully.

The Baron could hardly disapprove of that, Tarvek thought. "You probably shouldn't tell people you've been dead," he said. "Although you're not Fifty Families." And the Baron was revived, the Baron was a construct, which was still a little hard to get his head around.

Gil rolled his eyes. "Well, it bothered you not to know I didn't remember things. It's not like I'm planning to announce it at school."

"There's not really anyone to dispute Wulfenbach, anyway," said the Baron.

Tarvek nodded. "I didn't really mean you shouldn't tell me." And it wasn't as if Gil had been telling anyone else.

"I didn't know," said Agatha. "But I'm glad you found out what happened to your memories. I didn't know you wanted the Doom Bell to help with that."

"I just thought it might."

"It might be just as well it didn't." The Baron sounded a bit disturbed.

Tarvek peered at him thoughtfully. He rather shared that thought - Agatha probably wouldn't, when it didn't do the same thing to her at all. Heterodynes were amazing but a bit strange, and Gil was just impossible, and for a moment he felt a strange kinship with the Baron as the two people in the room who actually worried about things like that. "I don't think they'd be the things you wanted to remember," he said.

Gil looked away for a moment. "Just then I wanted to remember anything."

Tarvek patted Gil's shoulder in tentative apology, but couldn't think of anything to say to that. Agatha's solution was to put down her tools carefully and fling her arms around Gil, which Tarvek supposed was as good as anything could be. Tarvek tried to get back to work, but he could tell the Baron was looking at him instead of moving and after several seconds his nerve failed and he looked up.

The Baron said, rather grimly, and quietly enough to be overlooked by people who were talking about things or humming, "Perhaps it would be best to have this out in the open as well. I know you don't trust me. Is there anything that would convince you I'm acting in good faith, or are we doomed to spend the next ten years or so like this?"

Tarvek shrank back against the workbench and resisted the rather humiliating desire to hide behind Gil. How was he meant to trust someone who could have him killed? "I don't know," he said. "Is it really...do you really mind? No one in my family would expect me to trust them."

"Your family-" The Baron broke off for a moment, evidently hunting for words, and then finished, "is not exactly an example I want to emulate under the circumstances. Besides, they all like politics."

Tarvek choked back something that might almost have been a laugh, although a very nervous one. "Me neither, actually." Although he did like politics. When he didn't feel likely to be squashed by it, anyway.

"That's a relief," the Baron said drily. "I would rather not spend years trying to sort out what cross-purposes you might think we're working at. And I will grant I can be obstinate, but I don't expect you to agree with everything I say and I certainly don't want you to pretend you do and then go off and complicate things when I'm not looking. I do still argue with Barry, you know."

"It's not as if you could just kill him if you decided to," Tarvek blurted, stung by the unfairness of being blamed for being scared of someone dangerous. He tipped his head back and met the Baron's eyes because fine, he'd wanted to know what Tarvek was thinking. "You can't expect me to pretend you're not doing this because you know you could get rid of me if it doesn't work. I'll try to do what you want, so you don't have to, but I'm not stupid."

Gil gave a sort of choked-off squawk; in his peripheral vision Tarvek saw Barry put a hand on Gil's shoulder, and he glanced up and then went quiet, frowning. Agatha was big-eyed and looked troubled. Tarvek swallowed and kept his gaze firmly on the Baron. Ice-grey eyes and a stony expression and Tarvek felt his pulse beat hard in his throat because maybe he had gone too far, but it was true and he refused to look away or shrink back this time.

"I don't think you're stupid," the Baron said at last. "But perhaps I should have made this more explicit. I am doing this because so far as I can tell it stands the best chance of working out well for... nearly everyone. Not Lucrezia's co-conspirators, perhaps, but it is certainly going better for them than they deserve. For reasons both romantic and pragmatic you are likely to be able to get at least nominal cooperation from more people than I could, even with Barry's help. I am doing this because you want the job, and I don't, and if you can do it well then I will gladly step aside when the time comes. And I am doing it because I am not willing to make an enemy of an eight-year-old and my son's best friend."

"I knew about the cooperation part. That's what I'm for." The title, the bloodline, the story, it was why anyone needed him for this at all. But it didn't mean anyone needed him to have a say in it.

"You are not-" the Baron began, sounding exasperated again, and then stopped — his eyes flicked up to Barry — and looked back at Tarvek for a moment. "You are not just a tool," he said, the words still clipped but less harsh. "You possess an assortment of useful qualities, yes, but you are not the sum of what other people can do with them. Your relatives in particular."

Tarvek wasn't quite sure how to take this and ended up looking at Barry, too. Even though he knew perfectly well that they'd been friends forever and if he was afraid of the Baron then it didn't make sense to assume Barry Heterodyne wouldn't lie for him. But it was hard to believe anyway.

Barry smiled at him - no, at both of them. "He does mean it," he said. "It won't necessarily be easy for either of you. He's pretty bullheaded and while he's absolutely sincere about wanting to know what you think, changing his mind is rather a lot harder. I might not be able to persuade him of much myself if we hadn't met when he was comparatively young and impressionable-"

That got a quiet giggle from Agatha, and the Baron snorted. "Barry, you were fourteen. Although I'm not sure if you were ever impressionable."

"I meant compared to now, not compared to me," Barry said, unperturbed, and returned his attention to Tarvek. "I admit there are hypothetical situations where we might be reluctant to have you running things, but since I know you, I don't think they're likely. If you can manage breakthrough at eight without losing your head much then ruling Europa probably won't do it either." A slightly rueful smile, and his gaze went back to the Baron as he added, "Although really, I think all of us need somebody who can dig their heels in when we've run off with a particularly bad idea."

Tarvek contemplated the implication of Barry Heterodyne running off with a terrible idea and Baron Wulfenbach stopping him. It was difficult to imagine. (It wasn't. Tarvek remembered his father lifted off his feet and Barry's hand drawing back with the sword in it. Although he wasn't entirely sure that had counted as a bad idea from anybody's perspective but Tarvek's own. His father was imprisoned now, and Tarvek realised with a jolt that he believed that without having asked to see him, lately.) "Herr Baron," he said, "why did you stop him from killing my father?"

He didn't look up until he'd finished speaking, and caught the Baron looking a little confused anyway. "It... didn't have to happen. At least not with you watching." Surprise and irritation washed over the Baron's expression at that point, and he snapped, "Oh, for heaven's sake - it was not as a hostage against you."

Tarvek blinked at this unexpected suggestion and swallowed a sudden and inappropriate urge to giggle. "I didn't think so," he said. "I hadn't said anything yet."

"...Ah," said the Baron.

"Articulate as that wasn't," said Barry, "you're right, he stopped me to keep from hurting you any worse, and that was all."

Tarvek had never really thought the Baron would have another reason, at least not like that. He'd believed the Baron was pragmatic enough to kill him if he thought it necessary, but emotional manipulation wasn't his style at all. Was using a puppet, then? Or attempting to lull him into a false sense of security? "I don't...I don't think you'd try to manipulate me, but you're not giving orders either. I thought you might...simply not care." If Tarvek was simply a decoy, something to be used for now and discarded later. "Or be testing me." If he really was being given a chance, but with severe penalties for guessing wrong. "But not over that"

"...Good." The Baron rubbed his forehead. "I had been wondering how asking you what you thought qualified as trying to trick you into saying it," he muttered. Tarvek tried not to scowl at him; that made it sound silly, when most of the time if someone besides Gil and Agatha asked what he thought, it would be stupid or rude or at least very surprising to actually tell them. "Are those really the only possibilities you considered, orders or manipulation? I suppose I was testing, or at least pushing, to see if you'd speak up for yourself."

Tarvek frowned. "I don't like picking fights I can't win."

The Baron grimaced. "You can't spend your entire life pretending to let people walk over you; it ends up functionally equivalent to actually doing it. But I suppose I underestimated what you thought was at stake."

"It's a question of timing," said Tarvek. "There's no point in standing up for yourself when you'll just get stamped down harder for doing it. You need a power base first." Unless, rather unfairly, you were Klaus, because taking over Europa from the wrecked shell of your former town was totally a thing that could happen. He huffed. "Not everyone can do the things you can."

The Baron looked inexplicably confused. Barry said, "The ironic thing in all this is that he was brought up to stay out of continental politics. His parents were a little disconcerted when he took up with Heterodynes." He paused. "Admittedly, at first this was because they thought we might randomly decide to kill him, but I don't think that was all of it."

Tarvek felt a little off balance at that, he wasn't sure what point Barry was trying to make - unless it was that the Baron's rise to power was really surprising, but he knew that. Agatha put her calibrator down and frowned. "That doesn't sound like a very nice thing to have your friend's parents think, just because of your family."

"Not really," said Barry, "but it was... understandable, at the time. They got over it after they met us." His mouth quirked. "Well, actually they invented a family emergency in case he needed an excuse to leave Beetleburg, and were very surprised and a little embarrassed when we showed up with him to see if we could help."

"They thought you'd taken him captive?" asked Gil. "How would you take someone captive at University?"

"I don't know, apparently they thought we might have all Beetleburg in our terrorised thrall." Barry stopped to consider this. "I'm not entirely sure that would have been impossible, considering the reactions we were getting when we first arrived. Klaus was no end of relief; we were sure we could make friends if we got a chance to actually talk to people, but they kept dodging."

Tarvek bit his lip, because in a moment he was going to start giggling helplessly, and it wasn't even really at what Barry was saying (which didn't sound a lot of fun, even if he was being lighthearted in his description of it). But...they'd started out with Gil arguing for complete nonsense, gone into the Baron not being happy with Tarvek avoiding arguing with him, and now they were talking about Barry as a teenager. Apparently even if the Baron was annoyed with Tarvek he wasn't annoyed enough to even stay on the subject.

"I had been planning to avoid them based on the family reputation," the Baron said easily. "Which did include their being alarmingly easy to like against one's better judgement, so it wasn't completely inapplicable."

"You don't seem to have rethought it," said Zene. "But I see what you mean. I wondered at myself for trusting in a Heterodyne even as he spoke, but it was so easy." She looked toward Tarvek, arm still outstretched untiring where Barry and Agatha had been working on it before they got sidetracked. "He and your Baron spoke of you over my crate," she said.

The Baron went very still for a moment, and then pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head. "That's how you knew about Gil," he said.

She smiled, head and eyelids turning down, mock-demure. "It would have been obvious anyway."

The Baron rolled his eyes. "As long as we're back on the topic. I don't want to harm you, whether you believe me or not. And I can think of few things more exasperating than not only constantly dealing with politics but doing it through a puppet king. Until I realised you were afraid for your life I was wondering whether you just intended to do everything behind my back or if they'd actually broken you of expressing yourself."

Tarvek gazed at the Baron solemnly, no longer feeling like laughing at the digressions. If he didn't want a tool...honesty was a dangerous gamble, but worth trying. "I never meant to stay just a tool," he said, "but it didn't seem like a good idea to let anyone know that. Not until I had a chance. I suppose I did intend to do everything behind their backs."

The Baron leaned on the edge of the workbench, looking at Tarvek, and the grey eyes were a little relieved and more than a little ruefully amused. "I suppose I can see why you wouldn't want to announce that their puppet king had his own plans."

"Yes," said Tarvek. And maybe it was the slight relief he'd seen, the realisation that the Baron was glad he wasn't a malleable puppet, maybe it was that he'd spent most of his life being obedient and quiet around adults and pretending to know less than he did, but he found himself carrying on in a sudden rush of desire to impress and just wanting to be seen. "I still do have plans. I can't do much with the adults yet, but the other kids...Tweedle's the hardest he thinks subtlety's the same as weakness so you have to face him head on and he's older. I didn't think that one through, but being mad at him might have been better. Anevka will back me, there's no advantage to her in switching allegiances, and Seffie's backing me now because it looks like I'm winning. She wrote to Grandma, so probably even the adults will at least not try to kill me for a while. And I made allies here," he added, smiling, "when at home we only meet other people in our family and everyone wants the same thing, and here there are people like Zulenna who really do only want to rule their own bit but they're Fifty Families and their approval can still matter. And I have Gil." He stopped, out of breath and a bit embarrassed, especially since he'd just announced that to not only the Baron but Barry - who was less likely to think he was stupid but might not approve - and Zene.

Gil beamed at him. The Baron's eyebrows were up a little, although actually he'd started smiling just a little at the mention of Gil as well. "You are going to be interesting to work with," he said. "I'm not sure how clear Barry was on your family's willingness to kill each other when he suggested they'd cooperate largely because you're in a position they can't expect to step into." (He glanced at Barry, who shrugged slightly in a way Tarvek interpreted as "More or less.")

Tarvek smiled back at Gil and then nodded. "That was Seffie's reasoning," he said. Work with. He was a little awestruck at that, even if he did intend to rule Europa one day and even if he hadn't wanted to be a puppet.

"Reassuring in its way, I suppose." The Baron actually did look more relaxed. Tarvek didn't think that really had much to do with Seffie.

"I'm glad to have you two sorted out," Gil said, peering into the mouth of Zene's opheiclide. "But I still think I'm going to have a try at the barnacles sometime."

"You could have clockwork barnacles," Agatha suggested.

"They'd rust in seawater."

"I bet Miss Donna could fix that."

"I don't want clockwork barnacles," Gil said patiently.

"Well, why didn't you just say so?"

Tarvek caught the adults' fondly bemused expressions and finally let himself start giggling.