Brigadier General Rudersdorf : "I expected Major Degurechaff to deliver this briefing herself."

Doctor Laurence : "My apologies, General. However, with the location of Castle Schwartzstein no longer a secret to our enemies, the Director has elected to remain there in order to ensure the safety of our headquarters for the time being."

Brigadier General Zettour : "Understandable. Besides, she is still recovering from what happened on Bovariastadt. How is she ?"

Doctor Laurence : "Recovering well, thankfully. But she took the intrusion personally. When the alarm was raised, she was with the girl she rescued from Being X, and her healer managed to convince her to stay with the terrified child instead of getting out of bed and hunting for the intruders in person."

Brigadier General Rudersdorf : "That's not the job of an officer in any case, let alone one who's not on medical leave only because she's too bloody important. Well, hopefully she'll make a full recovery, and we won't have to ask her to use Kosmosblut again in the future. Now, Doctor, let's get to it. How in all the blazing Hells did this mess happen ?"

Doctor Laurence : "As per our preliminary reports, the Albish spy managed to locate Castle Schwartzstein due to the hasty deployment of Projekt H in response to the Ildoan attack. Speed was of the essence, and while Agent E did her best to cover our tracks, there is only so much that can be done to hide several metal giants being shipped across the train lines."

Brigadier General Rudersdorf : "Agent E ?"

Doctor Laurence : "An operative from Intelligence who was sent to the Division after Operation Shock & Awe. She would've given this briefing herself, but she was injured during the spies' escape. Doctor Iosefka had to use drastic means to keep her alive, and she's still recovering from the resulting exhaustion."

Brigadier General Rudersdorf : "I see. Continue."

Doctor Laurence : "The grimoire which was stolen is officially known as the Kindermärchen, a name it received after the first tests led to Projekt K's own name. It was one of the first products of the Denkmaschine, recreated from fragments of lore belonging to an ancient nature-worshipping pagan cult, which had a lot of influence in what is now the Empire's heartlands before the Remulan Empire conquered the area."

Brigadier General Rudersdorf : "I find that hard to believe. If that cult had the power to summon the kind of creatures which shattered the Dacian Army, surely there would be traces of it in the history books ?"

Brigadier General Zettour : "Not necessarily, old friend. There was no trace of the Nameless City in Ancient Kemetian history either, after all. And I can easily imagine a Remulan Emperor hiding the truth behind several lost Legions to avoid panic, can't you ?"

Doctor Laurence : "That is a possibility, but I should mention that as the sheer power of our research has become evident, we at Division Y have begun to believe that we were fundamentally wrong about what the Denkmaschine does. It doesn't recreate ancient spells so much as create new ones entirely, piecing together the magical lore we provide it in ways that make no sense to our human minds. It's part of the reason why we've followed the Director's example in referring to it as 'Mythos' magic rather than 'Elder' magic."

Brigadier General Rudersdorf : "While that is no doubt as fascinating as it is existentially terrifying, we have more pressing concerns. Namely, why was such an important item just left laying around for the spies to steal ?"

Doctor Laurence : "With all due respect, General, it wasn't. After the initial deployment of Projekt K, the Director sealed the artefact crafted using the grimoire's instructions, and it remains there at the moment, so we don't need to fear the Federation summoning instances of Projekt K in the immediate future. But the Kindermärchen itself contained several other avenues of research. However, due to the threat level to the Reich such knowledge represented, the Director ordered it moved near to the underground vaults, in a reinforced room where it could be studied only with her express permission. That room was as far from Professor Gehrman's workshop as possible. Furthermore, there are dozens of rooms within Castle Schwartzstein : the odds of space being randomly shifted so that the Kindermärchen's study chamber ended up next to the workshop, despite the stabilizing wards put around it precisely to avoid such a scenario, were all but impossible."

Brigadier General Rudersdorf : "Wait a minute. What do you mean by space being randomly shifted ? Is that something that happens in Castle Schwartzstein ?"

Doctor Laurence : "Yes. Our repeated Mythos experiments have led to the fabric of space-time being, for lack of a better word, entangled in the area. We've found ways to stabilize it, thankfully, but random rooms changing locations is still a hazard all personnel are taught to deal with."

Brigadier General Rudersdorf : "I see. Well, no I don't, but I'll take your word for it. But then, if you've got these stabilizers, how did the grimoire's room end up next to the workshop ?"

Doctor Laurence : "We aren't sure, but we have a theory."

Brigadier General Zettour : "Is it going to give us nightmares ?"

Doctor Laurence : "My perspective on such things has somewhat been warped by my time in Division Y, but that is likely, yes."

Brigadier General Zettour : "Fantastic. Go ahead, Doctor."

Doctor Laurence : "Our theory is that the existence of 'children' implies that of a 'parent'."

Brigadier General Zettour : "Please tell me you aren't saying what I think you are."

Doctor Laurence : "I'm afraid so, General. The series of coincidences that led to the spies escaping with the Kindermärchen can best be explained by the intervention of a high-Class Mythos entity, manipulating events to ensure the grimoire ended up in the hands of those who've the potential to be a lot less careful in its use. Our interrogation of the Albish agent has revealed some clues that support this theory, though they are of a somewhat occult nature, making them subject to interpretation. One of the easiest to interpret is the fact that, from the moment the spies entered the castle (and the fact that they succeeded in doing so despite making ingress through a section that was abandoned for very good reason is another piece of evidence that something intervened), the path that led them to the grimoire was a linear one."

Brigadier General Zettour : "So you think this is Being X's work ? Its next move, now that its pawns in the Holy See have been defeated ?"

Doctor Laurence : "No, we do not. So far, all of Being X's actions have been aimed at the destruction of Division Y and the fall of the Empire, although the latter is likely nothing more than an afterthought. And the aesthetics of the Kindermärchen, for lack of a better term, clash badly with those of the Eikons."

Brigadier General Rudersdorf : "Then it is another false god meddling with earthly affairs."

Doctor Laurence : "That is our prevailing theory, yes. We've named that hypothetical entity 'Being K' and are reviewing our security measures to prevent further intervention in our headquarters. It is my personal belief that the entity waited until the Director was exhausted from using the Kosmosblut in Bovariastadt to strike, as she has displayed a certain stabilizing influence since what happened in Arene. I know it sounds a lot like us making excuses for failing to properly secure a dangerous artefact. But the intervention of a high-Class entity really is the most likely explanation for the theft's success. Speaking frankly, Generals, if we at Division Y were bad at keeping dangerous knowledge from the wrong hands, we would all have died years ago due to one of us doing something stupid without the Director's authorization or knowledge."

Brigadier General Rudersdorf : Well, it's not like we have any choice but to take your word for it in any case. Unfortunately, we can't declare war on the Federation to get the book back. For one thing, the people would riot; for another, even if they didn't, the Federation is just too bloody big. We could search for years and not find the grimoire."

Doctor Laurence : "It is the opinion of the Director that war between the Empire and the Federation was always inevitable, irrespective of the Wunderwaffen's existence. Their ideology, and their failure to implement the utopia it promised, leaves those at the top no choice but to seek scapegoats to blame and unify their terrified population against. Until now, they have used internal scapegoats, but sooner or later they'd have looked outward once they'd run out of people to purge. With our prosperity and Imperial system, it would be inevitable that they denounce us."

Brigadier General Zettour : "I can't help but think the Major might be a little bit biased here."

Doctor Laurence : "That is possible. She admitted to despising the Communist ideology on principle. Regardless, in the end, it is all pure speculation. The odds of the Federation successfully developing their own Mythos program using the tome are abysmally low. They don't have anyone like the Director, with an innate understanding of these matters, and their entire intellectual class is either dead, exiled, or dying in their prison camps. All of that might be overcome with a lot of effort and a lot of luck, but …"

Brigadier General Zettour : "… but if Being K already acted to ensure they got the grimoire, it's unlikely to let that be for naught. Did the captive give us any useful intel on its nature and goals ?"

Doctor Laurence : "None. But based on the contents of the Kindermärchen and the nature of Projekt K, we believe that, where Being X is a creature of tyranny and order, Being K is one more aligned with unchecked life, wilderness and savagery."

Brigadier General Zettour : "Which sounds nicer, but is actually just as bad if not worse for us given that the Empire stands as a bastion of civilization. Besides Projekt K, what else is inside the Kindermärchen that the Russy could use ?"

Doctor Laurence : "I have a list here, from the notes of my colleagues who studied it. Keep in mind that it is incomplete, and experimentation might reveal other uses for the spells we did identify, like the Werwölfe showing multiple types."

Brigadier General Rudersdorf : "This is … God help us."

Doctor Laurence : "To paraphrase the Director, General, God has nothing to do with it. It is up to us to deal with our own mess."

Brigadier General Zettour : "I will see to it that elements of Division Y are moved to the Eastern Army. It'll have to be discreet, however : the last thing we want is to make the Russy think we're preparing to invade and push them to do something stupid."

Brigadier General Rudersdorf : "The problem is, the Russy have a lot more people than we do. If they figure something out, they could drown us under wave after wave of knock-off supersoldiers."

Brigadier General Zettour : "True. And since it's clear conventional troops cannot stand up to Mythos forces on their own, we need to bolster our own ranks if we're to hold the entire border. Since the war against the Allied Kingdom can be summed up as our two nations staring and throwing mean words at each other across the sea, there haven't been mage casualties which could be used to increase the ranks of Projekt U – unless we start executing our own mages in cold blood -"

Brigadier General Rudersdorf : "What the hell, Hans ?!"

Brigadier General Zettour : "… which I'm not prepared to do until things get drastically worse, obviously. However, the Northern and Western fronts have left us with plenty of crippled soldiers who'd jump at the chance to join Projekt W. Doctor, do you think the Division can scale up its efforts in that regard ?"

Doctor Laurence : "We've already reached the limit on how many candidates can be processed each lunar cycle, I'm afraid. At this point, increasing the number would require more trained occultists, and those require a lot of training to avoid things going wrong. On the plus side, the Lunarchs, those Eikons which were liberated from their own indoctrination by the clash between the Director and Being X's proxy, have expressed their desire to join the Division in order to atone for their actions. Director Degurechaff has conditionally approved their request, on the basis that they're cleared as being completely free of Being X's corruption and reach her standards."

Brigadier General Rudersdorf : "Somehow, I'm not surprised that Degurechaff's reaction to acquiring a bunch of fallen angels was to write up a training plan for them."

Brigadier General Zettour : "Assuming it takes the Federation a few months to get their own program started, we would also be able to get a few hundred more Werwölfe, which is nothing to scoff at. We should also transfer more aerial mages to Castle Schwartzstein so that they can be trained in using the D-24. The benefits of a dual-core orb are significant, and Degurechaff's training regime is nothing to scoff at either. Besides, she suggested the creation of a unit of mages for rapid deployment to me some time ago : we might as well test the concept while we're at it."

Brigadier General Rudersdorf : "Good idea. That will keep the occultists busy. We should also see about discreetly increasing the numbers of Projekt M, and keep it ready for rapid deployment to the East in case things escalate."

Brigadier General Zettour : "Burning Russy to the ground wouldn't do our global image any favor, you know."

Doctor Laurence : "Perhaps, but given the alternatives, it might very well come to that. But I do not believe the Lady of Stars will let that happen."

Brigadier General Zettour : "Be that as it may, I think we can try other methods first."

Excerpt of the notes of the briefing given to Brigadier General Rudersdorf, Brigadier General Zettour and their aides by Doctor Laurence of Division Y, Berun, January 18th, 1926.

January 20th, 1926 – Londinium

The letter rested on the round table between the gathered members of the Albish secret society as they mulled over its contents in silence. The missive had been sent through the back-channels that still existed between the Empire and the Kingdom, despite the state of war between the two countries. It was short and to the point, expressing the condolences of the Reich for the death of the Albish agent Christopher Ward, who had been killed by a Russy infiltrator in a dispute following Ward's successful infiltration of a Division Y facility. That Russy infiltrator had then escaped, taking with her what the letter only described as 'very dangerous Elder lore, especially in the hands of such ruthless men as rule the Federation'.

In the end, it was Mordred who broke the silence first :

"They are claiming Agent 404 is dead, but they're using his actual birth name. Are they deliberately messing with us ?"

Until today, Agravain had been the only member of the Round Table to have known the true name of Agent 404. He'd actually needed to inform the others of who the letter was talking about.

"The most likely possibility is that they actually captured him and are keeping him alive in some cell within Castle Schwartzstein," replied the spymaster, who looked distinctly displeased at the possibility. Although given his training, I would have expected him to hold on under questioning for longer than that before giving them so much as his name.

"Elder sorcery," said Merlin. "No matter how brave and loyal your agent might be, he wouldn't be able to resist magical interrogation once stripped of his own arcane devices. Whatever Agent 404 knew, we must assume that the Empire knows now."

"I know," sighed Agravain. "Our network on the continent was already doing badly since the Imperials figured out we were listening on their communications and changed their codes, but now I will probably need to pull all my remaining operatives from the Empire at the very least."

"And we didn't get anything," said Kay, shaking his head. "We still don't know where this Castle Schwartzstein is located. We do have Imperial maps available, but the odds that Division Y kept using the original name even if they converted an existing location are small to say the least. I'm going to have someone check just in case, but I'm not optimistic. Not that it really matters : it's not like we can get forces in position to attack the headquarters of Division Y even if we knew where they're located."

"Indeed," said Agravain. "Then, of course, there is their claims about the Russy agent. We know from Agent 404's last message that he'd allied with one such operative, and it isn't out of the question that, upon successfully escaping, that spy would've turned on 404 to get the prize."

Left unsaid was that Agent 404 would've done the same if given the opportunity. In the Great Game, allies were only ever of convenience, and those who couldn't turn on their former allies at the drop of a hat rarely lived long.

"They might be trying to get us to worry about the Federation instead of them," suggested Merlin. "A trick to divide their potential enemies, or buy time while Division Y concoct yet another devilry ?"

"Possible," conceded Agravain. "There has certainly been word from my people in the Federation that the Party is growing more and more concerned with the Empire's triumphs in the war, worried that they'll turn their eyes to the East once they've crushed all other opposition. With Ildoa now out of the game, the Imperials might want to prevent any potential alliance between us and the Federation."

Such an alliance would've been distasteful in the extreme, but needs must when the Devil drives, as the old saying went. Churbull definitely had the strength of character (or, less charitably, the lack of scruples) to forge such an alliance against a common enemy.

"Still, we have to consider every possibility, and despite their secrecy the Imperials have, on the whole, been remarkably forthright when it comes to the threat of Elder magic," said Mordred. "So far, the Empire has been very restrained in its deployment of the Wunderwaffen. From what we saw in Kemet and during the Crusade, it's clear that Elder magic has the potential to be much more destructive than what the Imperial Army has used in the past. Whether it's because Lergen has learned the value of not going all-out and turning everyone against him, or because the Not-Man's control over the Empire is still limited, it doesn't really matter right now. The point is that the Federation are unlikely to share that restraint. So let us consider, for a moment, what would happen if General Secretary Josef Jugashvili got his own Wunderwaffen."

Everyone at the table shivered. The Federation was as ruthless in rooting out spies as it was dissenters, but the Allied Kingdom were old hands at the Great Game, and they had still managed to get a somewhat clear picture of what had been going on in Rus since the communist revolution. Regardless of the pretty ideals that the Federation claimed to uphold and which so many intellectuals across the globe were attracted to, the reality was that the Federation was a brutal, repressive, and bloody regime, its immense territory and diverse population held together by the sheer force of will and cruelty of the Party's leadership, which was infested with yes-men, too terrified of being sent to the frozen work camps to dare express any opinion or advice contradicting their superiors.

The thought of 'Comrade Josef' being able to export his revolution using the kind of weapons the Empire had shown thus far in the war was utterly terrifying. Mordred was right : it was incredibly unlikely the tyrant in Moskva would show even a tenth of the Empire's restraint.

"But," rallied Kay, "I don't think we have much to worry about on that end. The Federation put all its mages into death – sorry, I meant 're-education camps', didn't it ? Without them, they wouldn't be able to use anything taken from Castle Schwartzstein, and even if a handful managed to avoid the purges, I don't think the General Secretary will allow anyone but himself having access to such power. And that's not taking into account the recent purge of their entire officer corps to remove any threat to the regime, real or imagined. The Federation won't be able to make any Wunderwaffen of their own, let alone deploy them effectively."

"And yet, if the rise of a hegemon is inevitable, then I'd much rather the Empire fill that role than the Federation, so long as Lergen has been removed from play," Agravain said bluntly.

And that was the problem, wasn't it ? At this point, it was clear that the Allied Kingdom's chances of military suppressing the increase of the Empire's influence (if not territory) were doomed to ignominious failure. For a time, they'd thought the events in Ildoa might get the Unified States on board against the Reich, but their contacts across the ocean had told them it was unlikely, due to the efforts of the Imperial diplomats to explain what exactly had happened.

Barring an alliance with the Russy Federation, which might still happen since the Allied Kingdom still had access to the Kemetian wards and spells as a defense against potential Russy superweapons (since they came from the same source as the Empire's), the stalemate looked like it would continue until the Empire got tired of failed diplomatic overtures and deployed their anti-ship Wunderwaffe until the entire Royal Navy laid at the bottom of the sea. At which point nothing would stop the Imperial Army from landing conventional troops on Albion, and it would all be over.

Securing a diplomatic end to the war would, by all rights, be the correct course of action at this stage. Yes, it would be humiliating and herald a general weakening of the Commonwealth across the globe, most likely with the King of Kemet leading the movement among their colonies, but that was preferable to a foreign army occupying Londinium and dictating terms at the end of a gun.

Unfortunately, there was still the Not-Man and his mysterious 'Adversary' to deal with. Lergen's March on Remula had proven beyond reasonable doubt that the Colonel was more than he appeared, the Congregation's schemes combined with Degurechaff's exhaustion following her deployment in Bovariastadt forcing him to take center stage once again. The Round Table hadn't missed the fact that every time Lergen had taken direct action had been preceded by some event involving the child-looking supersoldier : first in Arene, then when they'd countered their Elder attack on Londinium, and finally the Battle of Bovariastadt. Once was happenstance, twice was coincidence, thrice was clearly the work of an ancient, immortal, body-hopping sorcerer plotting world domination.

As long as the Not-Man was able to continue his work, peace wasn't acceptable. It wasn't just about Albion's global supremacy, the Round Table had already tacitly given up on that; it was about the survival of Mankind as a species free from the tyranny of an immortal warlock and his hordes of monsters.

"Lergen is still in Ildoa, isn't he ?" said Merlin hesitantly. "Monitoring Division Y's efforts in the Holy See and dealing with the locals ?"

"Yes," confirmed Agravain, before frowning. "You aren't suggesting …"

"I am," said the Royal Mage gravelly. "A concentrated strike, using every asset we can muster. The Ancient Kemetians and the knights of a thousand years ago managed to defeat the Not-Man, so it stands to reason that we too can do it with sufficient firepower. The problem will be the supersoldiers around him, but if we focus on killing his current incarnation to the exclusion of all else …"

"It would cost us a lot, and not just in terms of military troops we would have to sacrifice," said Mordred. "The hit to our reputation would be substantial. Lergen is considered a hero in the Empire after his latest stunt : our position at the negotiating table would be damaged, badly."

"I will take personal responsibility for it," offered Merlin. "If we share our theory with the Empire, then whether they believe us or not (and they probably won't), then offering them my head in compensation should let them save face. They want the war to end, after all : their own vaunted rationality should keep them from continuing the war just to avenge a Colonel for whose death they already got the one responsible. Especially if we offer to either stay neutral or outright join them against the Federation, should our fears of them developing their own Elder magic program turn out to be founded."

There was a moment of silence as the other members of the Round Table considered the idea.

"Are you sure about this ?" asked Agravain eventually.

"I am an old man," replied Merlin with a smile. "If I can serve my country one last time by helping take out a millennial threat, then I will die happy."

"Then before we decide anything, let us consider the practicalities of such a course of action," Kay cut in. "And even if we decide it can be done, I think we should still ask Churbull for his approval."

"Should we, really ?" asked Mordred.

"What do you mean ?"

"Assuming we go through with this and succeed, then I would argue that giving the Prime Minister plausible deniability would be for the best. If he can truthfully claim this was done without his authorization, then the Empire will be much easier to appease."

Again, there was a moment of silence. In the end, for all their faults and flaws, the members of the Round Table were truly dedicated to their country, and were ready to sacrifice their careers, lives and honor (in order of growing importance) for that. They all nodded solemnly to one another.

"Then," declared Mordred, "let us consider how we might kill Eric von Lergen."

"Although it was touch-and-go on several occasions, Subject Totenkopf is now stable following the reveal of the full extent of his injuries and his current condition. As was expected, the discovery that he's been reduced to a decapitated head floating in a tank was severely traumatic. Were he able to do so, it is clear he'd have ended his own life, and he begged to be terminated for hours before we were able to calm him down. Key to this was sharing the Director's instructions that, upon the end of the Great War, if he still desire to be euthanised, his request shall be granted.

The construction of the Zertrümmerer array has begun, using the flesh-metal interface which Professor Gehrman designed for Projekt P to connect to Subject Totenkopf's spinal column. Although Subject Totenkopf demonstrated magical capabilities, it will be the first time such a large portion of the subject's body is replaced. While the long-term survival of Subject Totenkopf is doubtful, we should at the very least learn plenty on life-support mechanisms for medical use in the future."

Memo sent to the Director of Division Y, January 24th, 1926.

January 25th, 1926 – The Unified States

Sat in his office, the President of the Unified States looked down at the missive which had been sent by the Imperial embassy this afternoon without really seeing it. He'd read it over so many times, the words were burned into his memory.

What a time to be alive, he thought. He'd known his life wouldn't be boring when he'd sworn his oaths of office, but this far surpassed his wildest expectations.

Due to the country being built upon immigration, there was a strong Ildoan minority in the States, and they hadn't taken recent events particularly well. The devastation of the Holy See had predictably caused calls for the Unified States to sally forth in order to punish the wicked Imperials, but mercifully such voices had been in the minority, outnumbered by those who were quite reasonably worried about it happening again in their own cities. The fact that the Ildoan King had so quickly spoken up about the conspiracy that had seized the Holy See and the top ranks of his Kingdom's military had helped as well.

The news of the Francois Eikons being capable of bending the minds of others had also spread, though details were scarce, leading to a profusion of speculation. Thanks to a discreet briefing from the Imperial ambassador, the President knew more about the whole affair, and it hadn't exactly helped him sleep at night. The members of Research Group 51 hadn't seemed to be influenced by anything like it when he had visited, and given the importance of their work he'd plenty of people keeping watch, but would they even realize if the same thing happened to them ?

At least Teslus hadn't suggested they join the Crusade against the Empire when it had been declared and the President had called him to ask about the Ildoan superweapon which had opened a path through the Alps. The arcane scientist had sounded very curious about the mechanics of such a weapon, but hadn't had any theory to offer that was compatible with the fact the Empire had later claimed to have disabled it without laying waste to most of Europa in the resulting detonation.

And if that wasn't enough to worry about, now this. The Russy Federation had successfully stolen the notes from which the Wunderwaffe which had broken the Dacian Army so completely had been created. The thought of the Reds with such army-destroying weapons at their disposal was utterly terrifying. Few of the survivors of the civil war had fled to the Unified States, but enough of them had for the President to know it had been fought with a level of brutality rarely seen in this day and age, and if the rumors that made it through the information cordon isolating the Federation from the rest of the world were to be believed, then things had only gotten worse since.

It was bad enough that the President was giving serious consideration to the Imperial proposal in this latest message. The Reich diplomats were canny enough to know that asking for the Unified States' outright support was non-viable, politically speaking. Instead, they'd offered to assuage the concerns of the American population by transferring the task of overseeing the Kingdom of Ildoa to their armed forces, with the Imperial Army focusing its efforts on containing and decontaminating the ruins of the Holy See.

With the Ildoan Army in shambles after their crushing defeat at Bovariastadt, the Kingdom of Ildoa needed help maintaining public order. Many of the surviving Ildoan soldiers had returned to their barracks at the call of the King, but others had deserted, and while most of those had simply taken off their uniforms and gone home, enough had turned to banditry to pose a real problem to the country's security. The President was confident his nation's armed forces could deal with that, and in the process, position themselves somewhere they could do some good if (or, most likely, when) the situation in the East went wrong.

And of course, deploying the regular Army would be the perfect cover to send the new superweapons of Research Group 51 as well, just in case. It was a risky move : if the best case scenario (which, to their credit, the Imperials had said could very well happen) where the Federation failed to make any use of the data they'd stolen, then he would've risked exposing his nation's superweapon program to the Empire while gaining nothing in return.

Then again, what was the point in investing millions of dollars into researching and building superweapons if they weren't going to use them to safeguard the interests of the country and its people ? And even if the Imperials learned about it, well, the mere fact of their existence could still serve as deterrence to the overly ambitious in the Reich.

Yes, decided the President. He was going to call in the Generals and ask for their advice, then, unless they convinced him it was a bad idea for reasons he hadn't considered yet (after all, he was just one man, and there were things he simply didn't know about), he'd call Teslus and tell him to prepare to move.

Besides, once the superweapons were in Ildoa, there would be nothing preventing them from going North instead of East if the situation changed. The President had no intention of declaring war on the Empire and starting an apocalyptic conflict between the creations of Division Y and those of Research Group 51, but keeping your options open was a trick every successful politician learned early.

February 4th, 1926 – Russy Federation Capital Moskva

The building was nondescript. It wasn't too recent nor too old, and there were dozens of others like it in Moskva. Yet anyone spending a few hours watching passer-bys would have realized there was something off about it. People tried very hard not to look at it, and those who did immediately looked elsewhere, while sending furtive, scared looks around to see if anyone had noticed them looking at it.

It wasn't the only building in the glorious capital of the Russy Federation where the people who went in didn't always come back out, far from it, but anyone who had survived the last few years in this city knew it was best to just pretend the building didn't exist.

In a room inside that building, the woman who went by the name of Natasha sat, a pitcher of water and a few leftover breadcrumbs on the table in front of her. Her journey back from the Empire had been difficult, and it showed in the one-way mirror that occupied most of one wall. Her clothes were tattered, her skin dirty and scratched, her face was gaunt with exhaustion and hunger, and there was a wild look in her eyes, all of which combined to make her look more like a vagrant than one of the Federation's top operatives.

Escaping the Empire after she'd shot the Albish agent had been a challenge. Imperial Intelligence had been in an uproar, scouring the country for her and what she carried. Several times, she'd been certain her discovery was imminent, only for random chance to give her a way out. Even so, she'd had to walk through kilometers of countryside on foot in the middle of winter.

The door to the room opened, and a man Natasha had met several times before, but whose name she had never been told (not that she'd ever asked, she knew better than that) entered. She put down the cup of water she'd been holding and stood up.

"Comrade Natasha," he greeted her. "It pleases us to see you returned to the Motherland."

"Comrade Overseer," she greeted him back. "I am pleased to be home also."

They sat, and the man placed a sheaf of paperwork in front of him, before taking a pen out of a pocket. Every motion was smooth and deliberate, speaking of a routine he'd practiced a thousand times and more.

"Your mission was successful, I take it ?"

"Yes. I located the headquarters of the Imperial dogs' superweapons division, and managed to infiltrate them before escaping."

She took out an annotated map containing the location of Castle Schwartzstein and handed it over.

"Impressive. We'll do a full debriefing of what you saw there later. In the meantime, did you succeed in your other objective ?"

"Yes, Comrade."

Slowly, carefully, she unwrapped the grimoire she'd carried across half of Europa. Despite the damage the rest of her possessions had suffered, it was completely untouched. For one brief moment, she felt the irrational impulse to keep the book close to her, but she suppressed it and laid the tome on the table between her and her handler.

"I do not know what is inside this book," Natasha said, "but the Imperials kept it locked and chained in one of their castle's room, and they were very determined to recover it."

"You have done a great service to the people, Comrade Natasha," the overseer congratulated her in a voice as cold and lifeless as the northern plains. "Your devotion to the Motherland will not be forgotten. For now, I think you deserve some proper rest."

Oh yes. She wanted to sleep for an entire week, once she'd gotten some actual warm food in her belly. And perhaps, now that she didn't have to carry that tome any longer, the nightmares that had haunted her every stolen moment of sleep since she'd escaped Castle Schwartzstein would leave her in peace. The nightmares hadn't been about her killing Christopher : it would've been easier if they had. It hadn't been the first time she'd killed a man she'd been intimate with, nor, most likely, would it be the last.

No, instead those nightmares had been filled with fanged mouths, yellow eyes, and the bleating of goats, along with the feeling of running away from something while knowing with bone-deep certainty it could catch her at anytime it so chose and was merely toying with her. It was all probably due to her stress at being on the run from the Empire and what she'd seen in Castle Schwartzstein : now that she was back in the safety of the Motherland, it would all fade away.

Several hours later, in the room provided to her by her human masters, Natasha learned that she had been overly optimistic, as the nightmares returned in full – and this time, the shapeless pursuer didn't bother toying with her.

AN : Oh, hello Laurence. Doing better here than in Yharnam, I see. And I'm sure Natasha's dreams are nothing to worry about.

Fun fact : the next chapter was going to be something people have asked for some time : a breather/slice-of-life episode. We were going to check in on various characters while there was something of a time skip on global events as things progressed in the Federation.

Or at least that was the plan until that old bastard Merlin came up with the idea of assassinating Lergen as a prelude to serious peace talks with the Empire. I hadn't planned for that, but it made sense when I wrote it and now I am stuck with it. The Muse, as ever, is capricious and not to be denied.

If you have suggestions regarding how the Allied Kingdom might try to kill Lergen while he's in Remula, feel free to post them. That plot development caught me completely by surprise, so I don't have ANYTHING prepared for it. Same thing for the slice-of-life one after : I have a list of scenes prepared, but please tell me who you want to check on before we return to our regularly scheduled eldritch horror.

And yes, Being K is Not!Shub-Niggurath. Of course, there will be some adjustments from the Cthulhu Mythos, but that's the general gist of the entity.

I wonder if anyone will catch the reference in poor Agent 404's section. And as always, I look forward to your thoughts, comments, ideas and theories.

Zahariel out.