Siblings, Part Two

Snoring away soundly, Kai was awoken to the sound of a loud crash coming from the other side of the house. Falling out of bed quite ungracefully, he rubbed the back of his head as he got up onto all fours. “Great...so much for dreaming about the past.”

Pushing his legs into his pants, he didn't bother with a shirt, yawning as he headed out of his bedroom. This was just the usual routine, after all; getting awoken by the god-awful sound of something collapsing, or starting, or blowing up, and then giving the customary “Are you still alive?” check-in. He was fairly sure his brain was doing all of this unconsciously, anyway – he was certain that he was at least halfway still asleep. Poking his head into Saffi's lab-away-from-lab, he took a look around, and saw her crouched next to a pile of steel thingamabobs. “Hey, Sis. You still alive?”

“Am I alive?!” Naturally, she looked as if she had been up and dressed for hours already. Assuming she had even slept, though the lack of tinkering sounds through the night suggested very strongly that she had. “Am I ever! You won't believe what just happened.” Finally fishing out what she had been apparently hunting for, she retrieved what looked to be a very ordinary chunk of steel to his eyes, and held it proudly aloft. “I've just stumbled onto a process that will increase the tensile strength of my steel by three-point-one-seven percent!” Far from the bird-legged, somewhat frail girl she had once been, she had turned into a dynamo of a young woman over the past few years. Her hair was now almost always unbound, in a dark curtain that she only swept back with a kerchief while she was working, and she had become tall and strong, though where Kai was broad in the shoulders, she was lean but solid. His sister had grown up – though that excited smile of hers hadn't changed in the slightest.

“That's nice,” he said with another yawn. “What's for breakfast?”

“What's for...you great ox.” She bristled with indignation, giving him a slight glare. “I've just made a discovery that will catapult my standing among the inventors of Ludendorf several notches, and all you can think about is your gut?!”

“My gut is my constant companion. If I ignore its needs, it would be like neglecting to oil one of your grinders.”

“If you ask me, your gut could use a little starving. You've been lazier than normal the past few days. You should come assist me in the lab, and help advance the cause of science.”

“Maybe I'll consider it, after advancing the cause of getting myself some grub.” As Saffi rolled her eyes slightly, Kai turned to go back to his room. Fetching some clean clothes, he went to get cleaned up himself. Though he made occasional wisecracks about her devotion to her work, he could appreciate Saffi's ingenuity; that “shower” device she had rigged up was quite convenient, though he still usually preferred to lounge in a bathtub if he had the time.

After he had made himself somewhat presentable, he headed for the kitchen. Sure enough, it didn't even look as if she had stepped one foot in the kitchen at all that morning. In all likelihood, she had not taken the time to eat anything, herself. “Looks like I'll be having two of my best friends over for breakfast today...bread and cheese.” Fetching several hunks of both from the pantry, he took a big bite of the crusty loaf, and gnawed some more as he headed back to his sister. “Hey, Saff, I'm going out for a bit.” She was hard at work again, peering through one of her big magnifying glasses at that same piece of steel once more, and just gave a wave over her shoulder.

The streets of Ludendorf were only somewhat busy, though the people who were out looked to be actively engaged in their business. He would have preferred to have slept at least a couple more hours, but Kai was up and entirely awake by now, so he decided to just go ahead and tough it out. And he did have business this particular day in town. With any luck, he might even finish up everything soon enough to hit the taverns by early evening. For now, though, he would spend a few minutes just enjoying the morning air.

When he finally arrived at his destination a couple of hours before noon, he stopped just outside the door of the small house, checking his shoulder pack before knocking. A moment or two later, a tall young woman with pale blond hair pinned up in a bun answered the door, green eyes looking out at him through thin spectacles. “Oh, good morning, Kai. You're a bit earlier than I expected, but come on in.”

“Thanks, Katia.” Following behind her as she led the way inside, Kai closed the door behind them and walked on into her sitting room. Lamordian houses usually struck him as rather dull and plain, but Katia decorated with whatever flowers she could get, and actually had several paintings she swapped in and out of spaces on her walls with some regularity, though he had not been able to figure out thus far if there was an order, or if she would just randomly decide what to hang where.

“I've just prepared tea; the usual for you?” When he nodded in response, she headed out of the room and returned with a tray holding two cups and a teapot with vapor streaming out of its top. Once the two of them had taken seats, and each had a full cup, she spoke back up again, adjusting her glasses slightly on her nose and looking over to him. “I trust you've been well?”

“You know me. I get by just fine.” He took a sip from his cup – flavored with a little extra honey – and nodded again. “Tastes good, as always.”

“I hope you haven't been giving Saffi any headache.” Katia just about always looked serious to a tee, so it was hard to tell whether that was meant in jest. Honestly, Kai had long wondered just how the woman and his firebrand of a sister got along so famously. Personally, he enjoyed having a few cups of tea with her, but Saffi was often considerably more animated than he.

“Not more than what's absolutely necessary,” he replied with a slight smile. “After all, the house is usually empty, so I have to make an impact whenever I'm around, right?”

“As boyish as ever,” she said with a shake of her head. “But I suppose I understand what you're saying. As for the matter at hand, you have another deposit to make?”

Serious, and not one to beat around the bush. Katia was an interesting one; he wondered what she was like when no one was around. “That I do.” After another sip from his teacup, he opened his pack and removed a bag full of coins, setting it onto the table between them. “If you would put this in under Saffi's name, I'd appreciate it.”

Looking down at the bag, Katia shook her head again, and then trained her eyes back on him once more. “Without informing her, once again, I take it?”

“If you'd be so kind, I'd prefer it that way.”

“She's going to find out eventually, Kai.” Her look grew even more serious. “And she's going to ask from where it all came.”

“That'll be fine, when the time comes.” He leaned back in his chair a bit, and brought his teacup back up for another long sip. “The sooner she can get her own workshop up and running, the better. That's all that really matters. You know how important it is to her, after all.”

“I do. And I also know how important it is to her that you not put yourself in danger.”

“I've gotta find some way to pass the time.” Letting his head fall back a bit, he looked up at the ceiling for a few moments. “You know how I am, Katia. Sitting around here in Ludendorf would bore the hell out of me. And I don't even fit in around here, anyway; with the exception of you and a couple other people, the consensus seems to be that I'm vulgar and improper.”

“That's where you're wrong,” she said, lacing her fingers together. “I think you're vulgar and improper, too. But I also know that there's more of a person underneath that. I believe that what the people of this city actually think on the matter would surprise you.”

“I don't know about that,” he said with a slight wave of the hand. “Anyway, I appreciate you keeping an eye out for her. I doubt that's the sort of thing that your clients usually ask of you.”

“I didn't befriend your sister because of you,” Katia said with a raised eyebrow, “but you're welcome, nonetheless. Though it would be better if you would just stay around as well. She doesn't say it, but I can tell she misses you when you're gone for months at a time. It wouldn't kill you to stop in more often.”

He was quiet for a long moment, just sitting there with his head resting against the back of his chair. “I know. But there's just so much to do out there. And not enough people to do it.”

Katia looked at him for a while, tapping one finger against a knuckle on her other hand, and then finally finished off her current cup of tea, lifting the bag of coins and carrying it to a table on the other side of the room. “Don't be surprised if I tell you sometime soon that I refuse to keep it a secret from her any longer.”

“I knew you couldn't resist these eyes.”




Letting out a fierce battle cry, Saffi charged headlong at Kai, swinging her sword at his midsection. He blocked it, but she recovered and tried the opposite side, hoping he wouldn't be able to stop the second attack. When he dodged aside, surprising her with his agility again, she switched her weapon to her other hand to block his riposte, and then swung her position out wide, choosing to back off of her assault rather than risk another fierce retaliatory strike.

“Not bad, Saff.” Standing there like a great ogre, Kai hefted the practice sword he held over one shoulder, tapping it a few times as he watched her. Even though they were training, she had the good sense to cover up, leaving only her forearms bare. But Kai, of course, just had to lose his shirt. “I hate getting my clothes all sweaty,” he had said, but he knew damn well he just wanted some of the local girls to happen by their backyard to watch the display again. People often told her that her brother was transparent, but they didn't even know the half of it.

He must have sensed her slight inner annoyance, because he furrowed his thick eyebrows a little, and tilted his head. “What is it? Not ready to quit already, are you? We just started.”

“I know I've asked you this what must be a thousand times already, but don't you think we're wasting time here?” Shifting from her ready stance, she rested the tip of her own practice sword on the packed earth. “Lamordia has a thing called 'guns,' you know,” she said sarcastically. “And I'll be using one of those if I get into trouble.”

Kai was obviously unswayed, though she hadn't really expected him to be otherwise. “Guns are powerful, but they can backfire, and it's tough to hit a moving target. But this,” he said, gripping his sword underneath the hilt and holding it out in front of him, “doesn't have the risk of backfiring or exploding, and doesn't have to be reloaded.”

“You really are an old-fashioned stick-in-the-mud,” she replied. “So you're saying that you only trust the simplest weapon to get the job done, even if it's horribly lacking?”

“I suppose you could put it that way.” He tapped a finger against his chin, looking up in thought. “Though, really, there's nothing simple about the weapons you've made me, Sis. I mean, Schneider and Grimgail, they're marvels of weaponcrafting the likes of which you won't find in many places in the Core.”

“You can stop trying to butter me up.” Lifting her sword again, she pointed it right at him. “Especially since you take such horrible care of my creations that it's a wonder they're still holding together without my routine maintenance.”

“Hey, don't blame me. If I don't thump an enemy hard enough, it won't go down.”

“One does not go around thumping anything with a Saffi Naustvik masterpiece!” She ran at him again, swinging twice, three times, and managing to just barely catch his arm, though the big lug shrugged it off and kept on moving. “Seriously, what do you expect me to do here? It's not like I'm going to be able to knock you out with this practice sword.”

“Just score one good hit on me, and we'll call it quits.”

They battled back and forth for several long minutes. Well, Saffi battled, while Kai blocked and dodged around as if he were just out for a brisk morning walk. It was ludicrous: he knew she wasn't a fighter, tall and strong though she may have been, so all of this was pure silliness when it came down to it. Except...there was something in his expression as they fought. It wasn't just the fact that he was smiling; after all, her brother had a habit of smiling even at the most completely inappropriate times. Rather, she could tell that this smile wasn't trying to hide anything. He was genuinely enjoying himself, engaged in this worthless folly that was just cutting into the time she could have been working on her newest blueprints, and that he could have been using to hunt something down for dinner. She didn't see much of that kind of smile anymore from him.

And so despite her occasional bellyaching, she kept at it, determined to get one good smack in on her overbearing brother before this thing was over with. But he clearly hadn't intended to make it easy on her, whatever his reasons. When it looked like she was barely making any headway at all, she gritted her teeth a bit in frustration, and narrowed her eyes at him. How did one go about getting in “one good hit” on someone who was ex-military, after all?

Just then, it came to her. Starting off into another dash towards him, she looked past him, and her eyes widened just a little. “Hey, Victoria, when did you get here?”

“Victoria?!” Kai's eyes lit up in eagerness, and he actually turned his head to see empty air. Turned his head, in the middle of a sparring match!

Saffi, of course, wasted no time in bringing her practice sword around to whack him in his midsection, and the “oof!” she got in response as he stumbled a little brought a devilish grin to her face. Brandishing her weapon once more, she held it up so that the surface was just a few inches from his head, and then gave him a light tap on the forehead with it. “Looks like I win this round, Mr. Gullible.”

“I'm fairly sure that's cheating.” Though the fact that he laughed in the middle of it suggested he didn't actually feel cheated in the slightest.

“Hey, my house, my rules.” Tossing the sword to the side of the yard, she turned and wiped her brow, heading towards the door leading back into the house. “Anyway, let's go back inside. I'm in dire need of a bath, and you're in dire need of figuring out what we're going to eat tonight.”

“Ja, Hauptmann.”