A young genius' scientific chronicles 2

Deleted the old chapter 2 to avoid confusion.

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Back in her second life, Tanya didn’t spend a whole lot of time with the other orphans. She considered her “peers” to be irritants at best, and agents of Being X at worst. 

Between her experiences caring for children as a parent or big sister figure and just… growing up, she became much less reclusive in this one. At least, after Gil and Tarvek kept dragging her away from the safety of her workshop. 

Unlike the orphanage, as one of the few confirmed Sparks she was treated with far more respect than her age would otherwise empower her. Social status on Castle Wulfenbach was a combination of nobility and “sparkiness”, both of yourself and your family. As she had no family, all she had to go on was her own personal status. Fortunately, being a Spark herself, one of five among the children, meant that her status was rather high indeed, with only literal royalty looking down on her. 

Royalty like the twelve-year old Princess Zulenna Luzhakna. “Tch. You really need to take better care of your nails, dear.” Fortunately, Tanya ranked highly enough as a Countess-to-be that the princess felt it was her duty to help with Tanya’s noblewoman lessons, as her senpai of two years. 

“That’s very difficult when I’m working.” Tanya replied. 

Castle Wulfenbach included lessons on all facets of noble life, and that included ballroom dancing. In what Tanya considered to be a sorely needed lesson in humility, social networking, and work ethic, it was custom for the girls to not have any servants handle dressing up (or much else, for that matter), and instead have to either do things themselves or rely on the other girls for assistance. Being able to convince the other students to do things for you was considered just as valuable of a skill as knowing how to actually do things, which made sense for a class of future rulers. 

Tanya was, of course, quite experienced in this. In the years she spent with Visha after the war, many afternoons and evenings were spent dressing up before going to whatever soiree was happening at the Eldorado. Visha loved dressing Tanya up in whatever struck her fancy, and of course she was not so boorish as to not reciprocate. It was simply not complicated enough for her to have not picked things up eventually. 

As was usual, the ten-year-old Tanya was paired up with the eleven-year old Sleipnir, Zulenna was paired up with the forgettable also thirteen-year-old daughter of Duke Strinbeck, Audra, and the fourteen-year old Sun twins paired up with each other. Currently, Tanya, Zulenna and Mingmei were on the receiving end of the manicures, while Sleipnir, Audra, and Daiyu were administering them. “Ah, don’t listen to Zulenna.” Sleipnir suggested, “Sparks need their hands. At least until they invent some tools they can use their toes to control or whatever.” Hm, that actually sounded rather convenient for her mecha… 

“...a simple toe harness could be used to activate subsystems, like maneuvering thrusters…” Tanya muttered before getting interrupted by the irish girl snapping her fingers in Tanya’s face. 

“I’m done.” Sleipnir announced, “You can stop sparking out now.”

Tanya flushed. “Oh. Sorry.” She said, bringing her palms together and bowing slightly before inspecting the work. “Good job.” She said, nodding in approval. 

“Okay, my turn.” Sleipnir said, and Tanya stood up to swap positions. Tanya blew lightly on her wet fingernails, but as she didn’t have the extended claws that Zulenna (and, admittedly, Visha) thought was fashionable she could get right to work without much issue. 

Quickly and efficiently, Tanya identified and filed down all imperfections on the irish girl’s fingers, dipped them in the solution that Tanya had somewhat modified, in a fit of sparky inspiration, with some chemicals swiped from the teaching lab, pushed back the cuticles, and applied a base coat, all to prep them for the next step: painting them. “What do you think of green?” Tanya asked the girl, looking at their options. “Can’t go wrong with matching the eyes.”

“Love it.” Sleipnir chirped, “Hey… does being a spark actually help with this stuff?” As usual when the spark came up, the other girls diverted from their own concerns and paid attention to what Tanya was about to say. 

Hm. Did it? “...It’s hard to say.” Tanya admitted, “I think it does, indirectly. When I did this with the orphans I led…” Which was her code for ‘in her last life, with Visha’, as Count von Degurechaff did not remotely treat her in any manner that he would a daughter, so she never had access to things like nail polish. But she had to give an impression otherwise. “-I had to focus more to not make a mistake, but now? I can barely pay attention and I still do it perfectly. Just like working on a tedious fabrication.” 

While there was substantial disagreement in academia on what exactly the spark was, it was agreed that it wasn’t some higher being dripping knowledge into a spark’s mind. It was a more general increase in intuition, in sensory acuity, mental processing… There were even benefits on a physical level, a spark builds muscle easily and their intuition applied just as well to optimizing their workout routines, diets, and combat skills as it did to assessing material compositions. A spark was a literal superhuman, and it made sense why political power tended to congregate around them. 

It wasn’t that obvious to her at first, mind you, because she already had combat skills and the paranoia honed from having Being X trying to use bad luck to kill her. But in things like this… that’s where it was apparent. “Tch.” Tanya clicked her tongue, looking at the nail polish and comparing it to Sleipnir’s eyes. “Too dark, not shiny enough. Hang on…” She detached the thin steel backing of a face powder container and ladled out a portion of the nail polish onto it. One-handed, she added a small portion of a silver polish, sacrificing a hairpin to separate it and also mix the result. 

Plucking a few dozen stray hairs from her arms, Tanya bound them into a tiny brush which she then used to apply the new color of nail polish without tainting any of the other brushes. Once finished, she grinned widely. “Perfect.”

“Wow!” Sleipnir said, impressed. “That looks so much better. Look, Zulenna.” She bragged, showing off the new color to the princess. 

“That looks good.” Sun Mingmei said, stopping from her own tending to her sister’s nails to look. “How did you know the proper ratio?” She asked Tanya. 

Eh? “...It was obvious.” Tanya said, suddenly uncertain. After an awkward pause, she sighed. “...I would like to amend my previous statement on the spark and makeup.” She admitted, “As it turns out, it helps quite a bit.” Tanya held out her own fingernails. “Now, I still need polish. Use the silver, please.”

Well, at least she could confidently state that the girls were laughing with her, and not at her. 

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While Tanya did collaborate with Tarvek a few times, spark to spark with Gil as a competent assistant, she largely kept both him and Gil away from her workshop for security’s sake. 

Instead, they had a tendency to stop her from going there and recruit her for general mischief. Tanya had very quickly learned that the dormitory culture did not appreciate people who stayed entirely within the good graces of von Pinn. Well, those who did so by following all rules and within all boundaries. Her secret workshop would be quite the status symbol… if she risked its discovery by showing it off and bragging about it. 

Rather than risking her Absolute Safety Mecha mk. II, she explored the castle with whoever was going to do so. By going along with things, helping, but not initiating, she cultivated a reputation of being ‘a teacher’s pet, but secretly cool’, as she had overheard one of the younger children describing her. 

It was surprisingly fun, as the massive dirigible had hundreds of laboratories, construction work was always being done, and as long as she kept anyone from dying, the worst punishment she could expect was just a few hours of scut duty. It was laughably minor, and she didn’t fear Being X’s curse when she was alert and ready for danger; only when she let her guard down did any of his attempts come close to his goal. 

Well, it helped that Gil had the reflexes of a ninja, and Tarvek had fool’s luck enough to counter her bad luck, he was always accidentally knocking her over (usually onto Gil) to avoid a random hazard, or directing her attention to something that incidentally caused her to notice something dangerous in advance. Their presence was no Absolute Safety, of course, but her friends were rather good protection. 

Today, however, they sought to uncover one of Castle Wulfenbach’s great mysteries: who was Gilgamesh Holzfaller? The boy was at the absolute bottom of the social ladder, with no known family nor the spark. He wisely attached his flag to Tarvek and to a lesser extent herself, which insulated him, but none of the other girls had a single good word for the boy, his reputation for frequent illness and his awkward manner poison to anyone who might have a favorable impression of his appearance. Of course, defending him would just lead them to schoolyard teasing of Tanya liking him romantically, so… she didn’t. 

Apparently, the family records of the students aboard Castle Wulfenbach, the vital paperwork that could be used to verify their identities, was secured surprisingly lightly. Gil found it on one of his solo ventures, as he understandably tried to minimize the time he spent in the public area of the dormitory. Naturally, he enlisted some help to actually penetrate the security that did exist. 

“...We’re in.” Tarvek announced quietly as his device finally managed to crack all three locks on the room. 

“We’re behind schedule.” Tanya observed, standing up from her already-finished work disabling the security clank. She slipped the last of the components she had looted to add to her mech into one of her skirt’s hidden pockets and then wiped her oil-stained hands on her handkerchief before slipping it into the same pocket. 

“About time.” Gil added, finished checking the health of the two Wulfenbach soldiers that were assigned to guard the records room. 

Tarvek opened the door and gestured for them to go in first. “There was an alarm that Gil missed in his description. That took time.”

“A second one?” The boy in question asked incredulously. “Where was it?”

“Not important right now.” Tarvek said as Tanya slipped into the room, watching carefully for more security. “Now, the first thing we need to do is verify that this place is real and not a decoy. Let’s find my records.”

“Good idea. I’ll find my own.” Tanya added, “Gil, keep watch.” Now that they were inside the security perimeter, the locks on the individual records were much more pro-forma, meant to prevent someone from discreetly looking over other records while present legitimately while under the ordinary amount of scrutiny. Every noble was supposed to have a key for their own family’s records, and while obviously the Baron could peruse them at his leisure, theoretically they had to be only accessed with the permission of the family in question. 

Tanya took out her official signet ring, denoting her as the head of the Degurechaff family. A little twist… and a key popped out, easily opening the lock to her records. Now, what is she working with? 

The compartment for her records was one of the larger ones, as it contained, apparently, the entire registry for the Degurechaff family along with supporting documents. Which… made sense, as the castle was still being rebuilt. From the looks of things… yes, she was on there, and had the strongest claim towards inheritance. Every other living relative was married into other noble families, which in her absence could be called upon but as long as she lived… well. She’ll need to stay alert to the possibility of assassins. Particularly from the ones with the strongest claims, as Count von Degurechaff had two sisters, one married to the Baron Selinkov, and another to the King of Holfong-Borzoi. Huh, she was nominally cousins with Zulenna. Was that why the princess was so much nicer to her than some of the other girls? She thought it was just the Spark.  

Well, there also didn’t seem to be a death record for her grand-aunt, who married into… the Heterodyne family, oddly enough, but Tanya felt it safe to assume that she was dead. Was she the mother of the famous ‘Heterodyne boys’? She’ll need to do some research on ‘Tatiana Heterodyne’ to be sure. If only to verify this picture, because the resemblance was uncanny.

Still, either she really was the secret daughter of the count, or the Baron had made some excellent fakes, because everything was in order. No pictures of her as a baby or anything, the only picture of her present was taken while on Castle Wulfenbach, so she was inclined to think ‘good fake’, but… hopefully it’ll hold up. 

“...I found it.” Gil said, sighing sadly. He had a book labeled ‘Holzfaller’, which looked… newer than the other books. Something about the color of the leather… 

“Well?” Tarvek asked, putting away the similar book labeled ‘Sturmvoraus’. “This looks real.”

Gil opened his mouth, but couldn’t seem to muster the nerve to say it. Instead, he handed the book to Tanya. “Here.”

Hm… Ah, it looked new because it was new. Gil’s father, Klaus Holzfaller, was a rural spark, first generation, family of butchers. The machine that Klaus had created out of farm machinery and pork products terrorized a small village, Holzburg, for hours before the Baron’s men took care of it. The creator and his family had been turned into sausage, apparently, except for the late Spark’s son, Gil. With no other family, he was placed among the other children of Castle Wulfenbach. 

“Stop!” Tarvek shouted, as Gil ran off from Tanya’s dry recounting of the material within. “Go get him!” He commanded her. “This doesn’t add up.” He added, taking the book from her hands. 

She understood why Gil was so upset. Surely, if he was placed among the children of powerful sparks, like Theo or Z, or the future rulers of the Empire’s various territories, like Zulenna or Tanya herself, he must be the son of someone impressive. Some grand history that he can take pride in whenever Zulenna gets a bit too snippy with him. 

But… alas. His origins were exactly as humble as everyone thought they were. He had nothing to fall back on but himself, and unlike in Tanya’s first life, that was not a comfort but instead a terrible blow, as he never really had the best self-confidence. 

So despite her normal inclination to dig in her heels whenever Tarvek gets too bossy, she followed after her friend of humble origins, hoping to at least keep him out of trouble. 

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She failed. Oh, she found him alright: Right in front of a squad of jagermonsters, who were arguing on who got to take him to von Pinn. Normally this would be a good distraction, but Gil seemed too out of sorts to be making any sort of escape. 

She was quite sneaky, of course… but she had just barely grabbed the boy and slipped away when she realized that she had entered one of the worst possible places to be: one of the Baron’s private offices. 

While he was working. At a glance, he appeared to be drafting some sort of device, presumably to be sent off to someone else to actually build, but she couldn’t identify what it was for in the instant she had before the Baron vaulted over his desk and picked up both children by their legs. She was just glad the hams at the end of the man’s arms were large enough that he got her skirt in his grip, too. It was all she could do to keep the mechanical components she had looted from falling out of her dress. “What are you two doing in this part of the castle?” He asked in a tone that screamed ‘I was bored and this is much more interesting than what I was doing.’ They were doomed. 

“Herr Baron, your orders?” Asked the man’s lackey. 

“Someone get von Pinn.” He said first, “Then, spread out and search for any other children.” The Baron then deposited the both of them onto a single chair, and dared them to try and escape with his gaze. Tanya bowed her head and remained still and silent. Gil just continued to look lost. “Now, your punishment will be slightly lessened if you tell me who else was in this highly secure section of the castle with you. They will also have a much higher chance of survival when found.”

While Tanya wasn’t quite sure why the nation’s despot was acting like a school principal, she decided that this was good for her long-term survival and shamelessly tattled. “We wanted to know who Gil’s dad was and me and him and Sturmvoraus all went and checked out the records vault.”

That snapped Gil out of it. “Tanya!” He said, shocked. 

“We’re very sorry Mr. Baron but we only looked at our own records we promise!” Tanya continued, doing her best to work up tears in her eyes as she begged for her life. She wondered if that window, that showed quite the nice view of the moon over the clouds that Castle Wulfenbach was floating over, could be opened? 

The Baron’s expression softened a little at her crocodile tears, but he still sounded quite angry when he spoke again. “-and yet, you left Sturmvoraus there with the records. Alone. Probably after he told you to leave?”

…Something was going on, here. Tanya didn’t like it. “Gil ran out on his own, I followed.” She said, sniffling from the side-effects of her fake crying, but she carefully omitted the fact that Tarvek did, indeed, tell her to leave. “We know about the… well, Gil didn’t take the news of what happened to his family well.” She said delicately, before plugging the boy’s ears. “I would probably avoid using the word ‘sausage’ around him, if you’d like to avoid making him upset.”

“Tanya! I’m not a little kid!” Gil objected, not liking getting cut out of any part of the conversation. He then took the handkerchief Tanya offered him and blew his nose. He offered to return it, but Tanya silently declined, so he put it in his own pocket instead. 

The Baron hummed at their exchange. “Leave us. I wish to speak to the boy alone.” He commanded. 

Hm. Tanya considered the consequences of her options. While there was a chance this was some kind of loyalty test… she didn’t think so. While she wasn’t the best at assessing people’s microexpressions and moods, she also wasn’t terrible at it, after all the practice she got among her three lifetimes. The Baron seemed more resigned, or saddened, instead of angry. Nevertheless, she patted Gil on the shoulder, indicating her support, before obeying the command. 

After about two minutes, the jagermonsters forcefully dragged Tarvek to the office, but she stopped them. “The Baron said he wanted to talk to Gil alone.” Also, the sound-proofing of the Baron’s office was, unsurprisingly, very good. 

The door opened. “Come in.” The Baron ordered. Tanya and Tarvek were shuffled in. Gil looked… shocked, mostly. Confused. “Now, where did you find young Tarvek, corporal?”

“He vas reading ze books, herr Baron.” The jagermonster said. 

The Baron looked smug. ‘Which one?”

One of the Baron’s lackeys held out a book. It was clearly labeled “Censullo”, not any of their names. Damn it, Tarvek, you just couldn’t resist snooping… 

“So, ‘Only read your own records’ was it?” The Baron asked Tanya rhetorically. Uh oh. “Don’t worry, I don’t blame you.” Tanya sighed in relief. “I blame the little spy.”

“I’m not spying!” Tarvek said quickly. 

“You are a Sturmvoraus.” Baron Wulfenbach said, as if that explained everything. “I’d say that only the Mongfish were more of a pit of vipers, but your families have been in bed with each other for a long time.” Literally, if even half of what Tarvek said about his family tree was correct. 

“But I am not spying for my family!” Tarvek continued to insist, stepping closer to Gil. The Baron took a moment to be dramatic, looking outside the office window at the moon. Tarvek slipped closer to Gil and started whispering. Tanya strained to hear him. “Hey, I think there’s more to you than what they’ve been saying. I’m going to find out what.”

Oddly, this seemed to put Gil into a spot of panic that he immediately turned into anger. Why? 

With surprising levels of spite, Gil immediately said: “Check behind the light fixture in his room.” What was going on? What did the Baron tell Gil? 

When all was said and done, Tarvek was expelled from the castle, sent back home. Tanya, of course, fell into line and also disavowed the boy that the Baron was convinced was some kind of malicious spy. 

After all, she had to pick between two loyalties, something she usually goes through a lot of trouble to avoid. Her choices were the boy that was no longer here with a criminal reputation… or the boy that was, who was aligning himself with the local despot, a smart move on his part. Just because she was surprised at his decision doesn’t mean she thought it was a stupid move. It made them all an enemy, but it was hard to go through life without making at least a few of those. 

She should know. 

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It was inevitable, after Gil and Tarvek located her workshop, that it would eventually come to the attention of the castle’s officials. To the boy’s credit, enough time had passed that Tanya was reasonably confident that they didn’t tell anyone, merely their absence was noticed and they weren’t as sneaky as she was. 

Well, Gil wasn’t as sneaky as she was. However, she had thought that the next person to penetrate the security of the fake glitter moth infestation would be some kind of exterminator doing more than laying a few traps and checking them periodically, or perhaps her nominal roommates Slepinir and the Sun twins. Maybe even von Pinn, as the caretaker that she was actively avoiding when she went off to work. 

Instead… one day, still a little out of sorts from waking up, Tanya opened up the Absolute Safety Mecha Mk. II and saw the terrifyingly serious face of Baron Klaus von Wulfunbach. 

In hindsight, it probably wasn’t the best idea to shut the mecha back up in the man’s face. But it was her first response anyway. He looked incredibly pissed off… although she supposed that part could have been her imagination. 

Now, she could have just opened it back up, thinking logically that the Baron, who actively cultivates his fearsome reputation, wouldn’t hold her panicked retreat against her. 

She did not do this. 

Instead, she pulled the panic lever, activating some systems that drained too much power from the electrical capacitors to have on constantly. The gyroscopic dynamos started to spin up at full pace, generating the necessary power from the stockpiled fuel and also activating the magnetic reinforcement feature on the outer shell, and from the sudden pressure on her skin she knew that the kinetic dampeners were also in operational condition. 

Tanya sighed in relief, now Absolutely Safe. “...I just powered up a mecha in front of the Empire’s despot.” She realized after the last twenty seconds caught up to her. Faintly, she looked at her instruments, trying to figure out what was going on outside. The Absolute Safety Mecha didn’t have much in the way of active sensors going as it was in full lockdown mode instead of mobility mode, but if there was anything relevant to the mecha’s integrity going on, she could tell from power usage, pressure sensors, and a few more exotic measurements. 

Okay, so from the strength of the impacts the barrier is registering, she would estimate that they’re using a heavy clank gun in an attempt to open it. Wait… no, it’s too strong for that. Well, maybe the Baron’s own protection squad has something heftier. Perhaps it’s a pneumatic hammer of some kind? 

She decided to risk a visual. The hebiscope was a pseudo-camera modeled after the scientific concepts of fiber-optics, essentially creating a sturdy, flexible periscope. Resolution wasn’t the best, but… Ah. The Baron was… knocking on the door with his fist. 

…How? Why was he even still within arm’s reach of the thing? 

The Jagermonsters, a tribe of chemically mutated super-soldiers that the Baron had picked up as part of his conquering of Europa, seemed to be chattering to each other, impressed with something. Their boss’ bravery? That would fit what she understands of their culture. 

Crap, the Baron had moved on to shouting, and she couldn’t hear a thing. She has a vox unit in this thing, but the magnetic reinforcement on the armor interferes with radio waves. For some reason, needing to speak with people never came up in her mind as something she’d need to do when the mecha was locked down. Foolish. 

Still, she could maybe improvise something, maybe some kind of fibrous string to transmit vibrations into… yes, this metal mug would be an adequate audio receiver… she could use the anti-air system as a way to get it out… No, the string would require tension, does she have some kind of hose she could use? Tanya looked through the spare parts storage. Ah! This will do nicely. It’s a little thin, but it should work. 

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[Baron Klaus von Wulfenbach]

If he had a pretzel for every time he had to personally tear this little girl out of a walker she was hiding from him in, he’d have two pretzels, which sounded pretty good about now. 

Blast, he shouldn’t have planned to take the girl to a lunch meeting to get to know her better before deciding what to do. He should have known this would have happened. 

“Hey, dot clenk seems pritty tough, Josef.” One of the jagers said to another. 

Josef the jager nodded along. “Ho yas, Klaus iz normally pritty goot at breakink de clenks like crab shells.” He pointed at the door. “Look, deres not even a dent.”

Well, hopefully the girl was smart enough to include audio sensors. “Young lady, if you do not get out of that vehicle now, I will personally throw the whole thing off the castle.” Which, admittedly, the thing looked like it would probably survive. “Into a volcano.” He added. Mount Caldera wasn’t too far away right now…

No reaction. Typical. 

…Well, Spark or not, this was the work of a twelve year old girl. Everyone makes mistakes in their inventions, moreso in the early years. The real test was her attitude towards her mistakes. It’s what separates the good sparks from the great ones, in his experience. 

Still, what was he to do? He lacked the necessary heavy equipment to deal with this, and while he could theoretically just wait for it to run out of fuel, that smacked of admitting defeat. It would not do to present an impression of weakness. Without knowing how much she had smuggled away over the years of her presence on Castle Wulfenbach, it could be as much as… twelve hours for her to run out. At a guess. 

A turret hatch opened up, and instead of a gun that could be used to start tearing the thing apart… a cup on a string came out. 

What. 

…Okay, upon further review, it wasn’t quite a cup on a string, it was a thin rubber hose attached to a metal cup, clearly improvised by someone with access to metal shaping tools and scrap but no actual dishware. He’s seen dozens of cups just like it, even made some himself when he was running with Bill and Barry. So, improvised vox system instead of something properly designed. 

This was good. He was still likely dealing with a terrified pre-teen with too much brains and not enough sense, but this was… not quite familiar territory, but it was within the blast radius of familiarity. 

“Testing.” He said into the metal cup authoritatively. “One-Two. Can you read me? Over.” He then put the cup to his ear, making the action dignified by sheer force of will. 

Mostly, he heard the humming of whatever magnetron she was using to generate the reinforcement effect. But faintly he could make out a higher pitched vibration traveling along the tube. “...ead you. I’m sorry…m without authorization…ing with… safety inspectors… sorry…Over.”

While he couldn’t catch every word, it was very blatantly the girl groveling for her life. It was the right attitude for her actions. “Open your vehicle immediately.” He demanded. “Every second of my time that you waste adds an additional hour of punishment duty to your docket. Over.”

After a beat, the humming of the machine slowed to a stop, and the hatch opened back up. Tanya’s eyes brimmed with tears, but she was too composed to have been actively crying. That was good, but also bad. He would have to be delicate. Von Pinn was watching, and while the construct was obedient, she was also not rational enough for Klaus to trust that she wouldn’t turn against him if she started to think that he was a threat to the children. 

“Now,” Klaus stated with authority, brooking no disagreement. “-when I heard from one of my spies that someone had been assembling an off the books escape pod, I was, naturally, rather curious as to what you were thinking.” He made a show of looking over the device as he waited for a response. His favorite thing to research, after all, was the Spark itself. It was why he bothered to fabricate that phony heir story, after all. Well, that and it gives him a pliable mind that is indebted to him to administer the Rhine County instead of letting it fall to one of the Fifty Families. That wouldn’t be the worst thing, but if he was preserving the girl anyway… 

Tanya poked her fingers together nervously. “Ah… you see…” She stammered, “It’s not an escape pod, per se, just… a contingency. In case it was needed.”

“You certainly seem to have made yourself at home inside.” Klaus pointed out drolly, peering into the hatch. It was filled with about the same amount of detritus as an average clank stomper’s cockpit accumulated over weeks of patrol. Bits of food, wadded up papers, odd stains, a sock. In other words, it was filthy. 

“It’s quiet in there.” Tanya admitted, “Nothing falls on my head.”

As if on cue, there was a minor tremor, presumably from a relatively nearby explosion. Tanya immediately ducked and rolled, which was smart because there was an immediate misfire from one of the jager’s pistols that passed through where her head used to be. Tanya dove back into the machine and almost closed the door, but left it open a crack. “Or that.” She added, face pale. 

“Von Degurechaff is rather… accident prone, herr Baron.” Von Pinn interjected as she beat the jager half to death with his now-ruined pistol. The other jagers, of course, did nothing beyond speak enviously on how ‘Andre’ was experiencing ‘Von Pinn’s affections’. 

That was actually vaguely interesting. Klaus vaguely recalled a lecture he audited about time travel, and while he had initially thought it was mostly hogwash, having random potentially lethal misfortune was one of the theorized symptoms of being someone who should not exist according to the time stream. 

“Nevertheless, your punishment:” Klaus announced. Tanya did not flinch, instead looking resigned to her fate. “This machine shall be scrapped and examined, and you will return to bunking with the other children.” He was looking forward to examining her first truly independent work as a Spark. There are so few female sparks, after all. Surprisingly, Tanya seemed to be expecting that result, accepting it stoically. “In addition, you will be assigned seven hours of punishment duty, to be assigned by Von Pinn.” The construct nanny nodded firmly at this. 

“Second, you will be assigned a laboratory to build your next project.” Klaus continued, which did seem to surprise the girl. “Write up plans, make a proposal, and you will be provided with proper materials if the plan is approved.” 

“Yes sir!” Tanya replied, saluting. So there’s her steel. He was starting to wonder if she really did lead those children towards the military success they enjoyed, another reason to have used that excuse to get her in the castle. 

Hm. Was giving a spark with a clear natural talent in tactics the resources of a County really a good idea? …Eh, it’ll lead to either yet another rebellion or one of the most stalwart counties in the empire. 

Hopefully she’ll be the first female spark who doesn’t eventually try and kill him.