Chapter 13: The Algeciras Gambit and the

Chapter 13: The Algeciras Gambit and the Dreadnought's Shadow

Spring 1906 - Winter 1908

The year 1906 dawned on a world crackling with tension. In the gilded halls of European power, diplomats played a delicate game of chess, their moves growing bolder and more reckless. In the shipyards of Britain and Germany, the clang of hammers on steel plates echoed the rising beat of a war drum. And in the quiet, calculating mind of Corvus Travers, every international incident, every technological leap, was another column of data entered into the grand equation of his exodus. He was no longer merely observing history; he was profiting from its inevitable, violent trajectory.

The first major variable of the year was the Algeciras Conference. Convened in a sleepy Spanish port town, it was intended to resolve the First Moroccan Crisis, a standoff engineered by Germany to test the strength of the new Anglo-French Entente Cordiale. [1, 2] From his desk in the Department of International Magical Co-operation, Corvus had a privileged, real-time view of the proceedings. Inter-departmental memos, encoded magical dispatches from the British delegation, and Cassiopeia's carefully gathered society gossip painted a picture of a diplomatic masterclass in failure—at least, for the Germans.

Kaiser Wilhelm II, a man whose ambition Corvus found both predictable and amateurish, had intended to drive a wedge between Britain and France. [3] He sought to champion Moroccan independence as a means to challenge France's colonial expansion and reassert Germany's place as the arbiter of European affairs. [4] It was a classic power play, but one executed with a stunning lack of foresight.

"The Kaiser's gambit is predicated on a flawed assumption," Corvus dictated one evening, his words transcribed by a self-inking quill as Archimedes analyzed the latest diplomatic cables. "He assumes the Entente is merely a paper agreement, a settlement of colonial disputes. He fails to grasp the underlying strategic realignment. Britain's primary threat is no longer France, but Germany's industrial and naval expansion. London will not allow Paris to be humiliated, because a weakened France strengthens Germany. It is simple game theory."

The results from Algeciras confirmed his analysis with mathematical precision. Of the thirteen nations present, Germany found itself almost completely isolated, supported only by the crumbling Austro-Hungarian Empire. [1] Britain, Russia, Italy, Spain, and even the United States sided firmly with France. [2] The final act of the conference, while paying lip service to Moroccan independence and German economic rights, granted France and Spain control over the nation's police and finances, effectively cementing French dominance. [4, 5]

> ARCHIMEDES_ANALYSIS: ALGECIRAS_CONFERENCE_OUTCOME.

> STRATEGIC_VICTOR: FRANCE. ENTENTE_CORDIALE_STRENGTHENED.

> STRATEGIC_LOSER: GERMANY. DIPLOMATIC_ISOLATION_CONFIRMED.

> SECONDARY_EFFECT: INCREASED_INFLUENCE_OF_GERMAN_MILITARY_HIGH_COMMAND_OVER_CIVILIAN_GOVERNMENT_DUE_TO_PERCEIVED_POLITICAL_FAILURE. [6]

> PROBABILITY_OF_FUTURE_GERMAN_AGGRESSION_TO_RECOUP_NATIONAL_PRESTIGE: INCREASED_BY_47%.

> CONCLUSION: THE_CONFERENCE,_INTENDED_TO_PREVENT_WAR,_HAS_MADE_A_LARGER_CONFLICT_MORE_LIKELY_BY_HARDENING_ALLIANCE_BLOCS_AND_ENTRENCHING_GERMAN_FEELINGS_OF_ENCIRCLEMENT.

> 

For Corvus, the crisis was a goldmine of opportunity. While the great powers postured, he acted. Using his influence within the Wizengamot's Mercantilist faction, he had his allies champion the "open door" commercial policy that the Algeciras Act guaranteed. Under the guise of promoting free trade, he ensured that TM&E's shell corporations secured lucrative contracts for infrastructure projects in Morocco—supplying enchanted steel for new port facilities in Casablanca and runic-stabilized quarrying equipment for its phosphate mines. He was exploiting the very agreement designed to limit national influence to expand his own private, corporate empire.

The second, and far more significant, event of 1906 was not political, but technological. On February 10th, in a Portsmouth shipyard, the Royal Navy launched HMS Dreadnought. [7] To the public, it was another magnificent symbol of British naval might. To the world's admiralties, it was a revolution. To Corvus Travers, it was the sound of his doomsday clock striking midnight.

The Dreadnought was not merely a new ship; it was a new species of weapon. It was the first "all-big-gun" battleship, eschewing the traditional mix of large and small caliber cannons for a uniform main battery of ten massive 12-inch guns. [8, 9] Powered by revolutionary steam turbines instead of reciprocating engines, it was also the fastest battleship in the world, capable of 21 knots. [8] In a single stroke, it rendered every other battleship on the planet obsolete. [7, 10]

"They've reset the board," Corvus said, studying the detailed schematics of the ship that his industrial espionage network had procured. "Every nation now starts the naval race from zero. Germany's existing fleet is worthless. Britain's is equally worthless. The only thing that matters now is who can build the most Dreadnoughts the fastest."

The Anglo-German naval arms race, which had been simmering for years, now exploded into a frantic, full-scale industrial war. [10, 11] The demand for high-tensile steel, advanced optics for gunnery, and powerful new engines skyrocketed. It was a market Corvus was uniquely positioned to dominate.

He convened an emergency board meeting of Travers Metallurgical & Enchanting, not in a stuffy London office, but within the humming, rune-lit control center of his Welsh foundry. His attendees were his chief metallurgists, his master enchanters, and the glamoured house-elf who served as the public face of the company.

"The naval race is our single greatest business opportunity," Corvus announced, his voice calm but edged with steel. "The British Admiralty and the German Kaiserliche Marine will now require unprecedented quantities of hardened steel plate, specialized alloys for turbine blades, and complex runic arrays for targeting and communication. We will supply them all."

His strategy was one of ruthless, ideologically barren capitalism. TM&E, a registered British company, would become a primary contractor for the Royal Navy, supplying the steel for their new super-dreadnoughts. Simultaneously, a newly created, ostensibly German subsidiary, "Krupp-Stahl Veredelung GmbH," registered through a labyrinth of shell corporations in Switzerland and fronted by a financially indebted German wizard, would begin supplying the highest-grade steel alloys to the shipyards in Hamburg and Kiel. He was applying the same principle of profitable neutrality to naval construction that he was to battlefield supplies. He would sell the armor plate to both sides and profit from every shell fired, regardless of which flag it flew. [12]

The final seismic event of the year struck not in Europe, but on the other side of the world. On April 18th, a massive earthquake, estimated at a magnitude of 7.9, shattered the city of San Francisco. [13] The initial shock was devastating, but the fires that followed, raging for three days, were apocalyptic, destroying over 80% of the city. [13, 14]

While the world read headlines of tragedy and heroism, Corvus saw a perfect, real-world laboratory for societal collapse. He immediately dispatched a team of his most discreet house-elves, led by the grim and efficient Grimalkin, to the ruined city. Their mission was not humanitarian. It was data collection.

They moved through the chaos like ghosts, their disillusionment charms making them invisible to the panicked survivors and overwhelmed authorities. They documented the breakdown of civil order, the summary executions of looters by the military, the establishment of refugee camps, the catastrophic failure of infrastructure, and the improvised, often counter-productive, attempts to fight the fires with dynamite. [14]

> ARCHIMEDES_REPORT: SAN_FRANCISCO_EVENT_ANALYSIS.

> PRIMARY_SYSTEMIC_FAILURES:

> * INFRASTRUCTURE_COLLAPSE: WATER_MAINS_SEVERED,_GAS_LINES_IGNITED.

> * COMMAND_AND_CONTROL: INITIAL_RESPONSE_CHAOTIC,_LACK_OF_CLEAR_AUTHORITY.

> * SOCIAL_STRATIFICATION: REPORTS_INDICATE_PREFERENTIAL_TARGETING_OF_POOR_AND_MINORITY_GROUPS_DURING_ENFORCEMENT_ACTIONS. [14]

> KEY_TAKEAWAY_FOR_PROJECT_ARK: COLONIAL_INFRASTRUCTURE_MUST_BE_DECENTRALIZED_AND_HARDENED_AGAINST_CATASTROPHIC_FAILURE. EMERGENCY_PROTOCOLS_MUST_BE_PRE-ESTABLISHED_WITH_A_CLEAR_CHAIN_OF_COMMAND.

> 

Grimalkin's team also had a secondary objective. The magical community of San Francisco, concentrated in a now-incinerated district known as the "Alchemist's Quarter," had been wiped out. Under the cover of the city-wide destruction, the elves sifted through the rubble of vaults and workshops, acquiring rare alchemical texts, unique American magical artifacts, and, most importantly, the dormant eggs of a pair of Occamys, creatures whose ability to grow and shrink to fit available space would be invaluable for the transport phase of Project Ark.

The years 1907 and 1908 saw the political and social landscape of Britain continue to shift. The new Liberal government, flush with its landslide victory, began to implement a series of sweeping social reforms, including the introduction of old-age pensions in 1908. [15, 16] Corvus viewed these developments with a mixture of contempt and satisfaction. Contempt for what he saw as the inefficient, sentimental redistribution of wealth, and satisfaction that the power of the old, landed aristocracy was being systematically dismantled. [15] The rise of the Labour party and the growing agitation of the suffragettes were further cracks in the edifice of the old order, chaos from which he could profit. [17, 18]

His own son, Lycoris, was now a young boy, being raised not in the stuffy, backward-looking world of his pure-blood peers, but in the forward-thinking, scientifically rigorous environment of Travers Manor. His education was a blend of magical theory and Muggle science, his playtime a series of logic puzzles and strategic simulations designed by Archimedes. He was being forged into the perfect heir for an interstellar empire.

One evening, Corvus took Lycoris to the Aetheria Observatory in the Scottish Highlands. The great crystal lens of the Travers Telescope was pointed towards the Andromeda Galaxy.

"Look, Lycoris," Corvus said, his voice soft. "Most wizards see only the stars as they are named in their ancient charts. They see constellations named for beasts and heroes. They see magic. I want you to see physics. That is a galaxy, a collection of billions of stars, many like our own sun. It is two and a half million light-years away. Its light began traveling towards us long before the first humans walked the Earth."

He pointed to a shimmering overlay on the observatory's main display, a map generated by the Soul-Light Spectrograph. "And that," he said, indicating a faint, pulsing node of energy, "is its thaumic signature. It is a place where magic exists, just as it does here. But it is old, diffuse. Not suitable for us."

He then shifted the view to a much closer star, C-1892-Alpha, his prime candidate. The thaumic signature was a bright, steady beacon.

"That is where we are going," he said. "Not because of prophecy or destiny. But because the data indicates it is the optimal location for our long-term survival. The world down there," he gestured vaguely towards the south, towards London and Berlin and Paris, "is preparing to tear itself apart over scraps of land and outdated ideologies. They are fighting over a burning house. We will not stay to watch it collapse. We will build our own house, among the stars, on a foundation of logic and power."

Lycoris, his young face illuminated by the light of distant suns, simply nodded, his eyes wide with a mixture of awe and understanding. He was not just a son; he was the first true citizen of a world that did not yet exist.

Chapter 14: The Young Turks and the Bosnian Powder Keg

Spring 1908 - Autumn 1910

The year 1908 arrived on the heels of a financial panic in America and growing political instability across Europe. [19] For Corvus, the world was behaving exactly as his models predicted. The old, sprawling, multi-ethnic empires were decaying from within, their foundations rotted by nationalism and their structures too rigid to adapt to the relentless pace of the new century. He watched these developments not with alarm, but with the keen eye of a corporate raider watching a rival company's stock price plummet, preparing to acquire its most valuable assets in the ensuing bankruptcy.

The first great imperial domino to wobble was the Ottoman Empire. In July, a revolutionary movement that had been simmering for decades finally boiled over. The "Young Turks," a coalition of reform-minded intellectuals, disaffected army officers, and nationalist conspirators, launched a successful revolt. [20, 21] From his listening post in the Ministry, Corvus received a flood of intelligence as the coup unfolded. Army units in Macedonia mutinied, a charismatic officer named Enver Bey proclaimed the restoration of the long-suspended 1876 constitution, and Sultan Abdülhamid II, the absolute monarch for over thirty years, was forced to capitulate. [22]

Corvus tasked Archimedes with a deep analysis of the movement, cutting through the romantic, revolutionary rhetoric to the cold, hard data.

> ARCHIMEDES_ANALYSIS: YOUNG_TURK_REVOLUTION (1908).

> PRIMARY_MOTIVATORS: OPPOSITION_TO_HAMIDIAN_AUTOCRACY, RESENTMENT_OF_FOREIGN_INTERVENTION, DESIRE_TO_MODERNIZE_AND_STRENGTHEN_THE_STATE. [21, 23]

> IDEOLOGICAL_COMPOSITION: HETERODOX. INCLUDES_LIBERALS,_CONSTITUTIONALISTS,_SECULARISTS,AND_A_GROWING_FACTION_OF_AGGRESSIVE_TURKISH_NATIONALISTS. [21]

> PREDICTED_TRAJECTORY: INITIAL_PHASE_OF_LIBERAL_REFORM_AND_MULTI-PARTY_POLITICS_WILL_FAIL_DUE_TO_INTERNAL_FACTIONALISM_AND_EXTERNAL_PRESSURES. THE_MORE_RUTHLESS,CENTRALIZING_NATIONALIST_FACTION(COMMITTEE_OF_UNION_AND_PROGRESS) WILL_CONSOLIDATE_POWER, LEADING_TO_AN_AUTHORITARIAN_REGIME. [23]

> STRATEGIC_IMPLICATION: THE_POLICY_OF"TURKIFICATION"WILL_ALIENATE_NON-TURKISH_MINORITIES(ARABS,_ARMENIANS,_BALKAN_SLAVS),_ACCELERATING_THE_EMPIRE'S_DISINTEGRATION. [22, 24]

> 

The revolution was a gift. The ensuing chaos provided the perfect cover for his operations. While the new government in Constantinople struggled to establish control, Corvus's house-elf teams, operating under the banner of a newly created archaeological acquisitions company, moved swiftly through the provinces. They weren't seeking gold or jewels. They were hunting for knowledge and power. In a forgotten monastery in Anatolia, they acquired a set of scrolls detailing ancient Hittite enchanting techniques. From a reclusive Sufi order in Damascus, they procured texts on soul-magic and astral projection that had been lost to European wizards for centuries. The collapse of the old order was a fire sale, and Corvus was buying up its most priceless, intangible assets.

The most immediate and dangerous consequence of the Young Turk Revolution was the opportunity it gave to the Ottoman Empire's rivals. Seeing the chaos in Constantinople, Austria-Hungary acted. On October 6, 1908, the Habsburg foreign minister, Alois von Aehrenthal, formally announced the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, two Balkan provinces that Austria-Hungary had administered since 1878 but which were still nominally Ottoman territory. [25, 26]

The act lit a fuse in the Balkan powder keg. Serbia, which viewed Bosnia's large Serb population as part of its own national destiny, was enraged. [27] Russia, the traditional protector of the Slavic peoples, felt betrayed and humiliated, having been outmaneuvered by Aehrenthal in a secret diplomatic agreement. [28] The international crisis escalated rapidly.

Corvus watched the unfolding drama with the detached satisfaction of a chess master seeing his opponent fall into a carefully laid trap. The hardening of the alliance blocs was now irreversible.

"Germany has given Vienna a 'blank cheque'," he explained to Cassiopeia one evening, gesturing to a map of Europe projected onto the scrying mirror. Red and blue lines connected the capitals, showing the interlocking treaties of the Triple Alliance and Triple Entente. "They will back Austria-Hungary unconditionally. Russia, still weakened from its war with Japan, cannot risk a war with both Germany and Austria. They will be forced to back down. But they will not forget this humiliation. Serbia's hatred for Austria will become absolute. We are now one assassination away from a continental war."

His prediction proved flawless. Germany stood firmly by its ally, and Russia, unable to secure firm military backing from Britain and France for a war over the Balkans, was forced to accept the annexation. [28, 29] The crisis subsided, but the damage was done. The battle lines for the Great War were now drawn in stone.

For Corvus, this was simply good business. The Bosnian Crisis created a surge in demand for his products. His shell company, Nox Solutions, began to funnel untraceable funds and secure communication devices to radical Serbian nationalist groups like the Black Hand, fueling their anti-Austrian activities. At the same time, Aegis Enchantments signed a lucrative new contract with the Austro-Hungarian Ministry of War to supply their border garrisons with advanced defensive wards and long-range scrying sensors. He was selling the gasoline to the arsonists and the fire insurance to their victims, profiting from every transaction.

While the world lurched closer to war, Corvus's own world-building project was accelerating. At the Travers Institute, the first cohort of students was now entering early adulthood. Their education was nearing completion, and it was time to test them. He assigned their final thesis project: a full-scale strategic simulation.

He gathered the twelve students, led by the brilliant and devoted Elara Vance, in the Institute's central command chamber, a room that resembled a military war room more than a classroom. A vast, enchanted map of Europe covered the central table.

"Your task is this," Corvus announced, his presence commanding absolute attention. "You will be divided into two teams. Team Alpha will represent the Triple Entente. Team Beta, the Triple Alliance. You will be given access to Archimedes's full database on the economic, military, and political status of each nation as of this year, 1909. You will then wargame the coming conflict. Your goal is not simply to win, but to do so with maximum efficiency and minimum cost. You will manage supply chains, allocate resources, direct troop movements, and engage in diplomatic maneuvering. The simulation will run for six months. Begin."

For the next half-year, the students lived the war before it happened. Elara, leading the Entente side, immediately identified the weakness of the Schlieffen Plan and devised a counter-strategy focused on rapid mobilization and a flexible defense. The Alliance team, in turn, focused on exploiting Russia's logistical weaknesses and initiating a campaign of unrestricted submarine warfare far earlier than the Germans would in reality. They fought their war with ruthless logic, unburdened by the sentimentality or incompetence of real-world generals. They were a testament to the success of his educational methods—brilliant, analytical, and utterly loyal to the system he had created. They were the future leaders of his colony, and they were ready.

His most personal project, however, remained his most challenging. In the sterile depths of the Sanctum Sanctorum, Project Immortality was entering its most dangerous phase. The first clone vessel was mature and stable. The Psyche-Matrix was calibrated. It was time to begin the live mapping of his own consciousness.

He sat in the throne-like chair, the complex silver helmet descending over his head. Hundreds of hair-thin probes, guided by magic and microscopic machinery, made contact with his scalp. They did not pierce the skin, but phased through it, their tips coming to rest against the surface of his brain.

"Begin low-level mapping of the primary visual cortex," he instructed Archimedes.

He felt a strange, tingling sensation, a sense of being read, not by a mind, but by a machine. On a crystalline display before him, a three-dimensional, glowing model of his own brain began to form, neuron by neuron. It was the ultimate act of introspection. He was watching his own mind being digitized.

The process was slow, requiring immense concentration. He had to remain perfectly still, his thoughts focused, as the probes mapped the intricate web of his neural pathways. The slightest error could lead to catastrophic data corruption. [30]

One afternoon, during a session mapping his long-term memory, something went wrong. A micro-fluctuation in the lab's power supply caused a momentary desynchronization in the Psyche-Matrix. For a fraction of a second, two memories tried to occupy the same neural space. He was simultaneously in the Sanctum and back in his 21st-century boardroom, closing a hostile takeover. The sensory input was overwhelming. The scent of sterile ozone mixed with the smell of expensive coffee. The cool metal of the helmet blended with the feel of a silk tie around his neck.

The world fractured. For a terrifying instant, he lost his sense of self, his identity flickering between Corvus Travers, the 48-year-old wizard, and the ruthless businessman he had once been.

"Abort! Abort session!" he managed to gasp, his heart pounding.

The probes retracted instantly. The sensory overload vanished, leaving him trembling slightly in the chair.

> ARCHIMEDES_REPORT: MAPPING_SESSION_7B_FAILURE.

> CAUSE: POWER_FLUCTUATION_RESULTED_IN_TEMPORAL_MEMORY_OVERLAP.

> SYSTEM_INTEGRITY_COMPROMISED.

> RISK_OF_PERSONALITY_DRIFT_ESTIMATE_INCREASED_TO_41.3%.

> RECOMMENDATION: HALT_ALL_LIVE_MAPPING. RECALIBRATE_ENTIRE_SYSTEM. DEVELOP_A_QUANTUM-COHERENT_BUFFER_TO_PREVENT_DATA_COLLISION.

> 

The incident was a stark reminder of the immense risks he was taking. He was tampering with the very hardware of his soul. [31, 30] Voldemort's method was brutal and crude, but it was simple. His own method was elegant, scientific, but infinitely more complex and fraught with a different kind of peril. It was not enough to simply transfer his consciousness. He had to do it perfectly, without losing a single byte of data, a single nuance of the man he was. Failure meant not just death, but the potential erasure of his very identity, a fate far worse than oblivion. He would not fail. He would simply have to build a better machine.

Chapter 15: The Comet and the Hoax

Spring 1910 - Autumn 1911

As the world entered the second decade of the twentieth century, it was gripped by a peculiar celestial anxiety. Halley's Comet, the most famous of all cosmic wanderers, was returning to the skies of Earth after its 75-year journey through the void. For Corvus Travers, this astronomical event was a trifecta of opportunity: a chance to study mass hysteria, a perfect cover for his clandestine operations, and a unique scientific prize for Project Stargazer.

The panic began, as it so often did, with a combination of scientific discovery and journalistic irresponsibility. Astronomers, using the new science of spectroscopy, had detected the presence of cyanogen gas—a deadly poison—in the comet's tail. [32, 33] This fact, combined with the knowledge that the Earth would pass directly through that tail in May 1910, was all the fuel the popular press needed to ignite a global firestorm of fear.

A French astronomer, Camille Flammarion, mused publicly that the cyanogen could theoretically "impregnate the atmosphere and possibly snuff out all life on the planet." [33] Though he later clarified it was a remote possibility, the headline was too sensational to ignore. Newspapers across the globe ran with the story, and a wave of primal terror swept through the public consciousness. [32, 34]

From his study, Corvus monitored the phenomenon with detached fascination. He saw it as a perfect, large-scale experiment in social engineering and market exploitation.

> ARCHIMEDES_ANALYSIS: HALLEY'S_COMET_PANIC_OF_1910.

> PRIMARY_CATALYST: AMPLIFICATION_OF_SCIENTIFIC_SPECULATION_BY_MASS_MEDIA.

> PUBLIC_REACTION: IRRATIONAL_FEAR,SUSCEPTIBILITY_TO_MISINFORMATION,AND_A_SURGE_IN_SUPERSTITIOUS_BEHAVIOR.

> ECONOMIC_IMPACT: EMERGENCE_OF_A_MICRO-ECONOMY_BASED_ON_FEAR.

> EXAMPLES: SALE_OF"ANTI-COMET_PILLS"(SUGAR_AND_QUININE),GAS_MASKS,"COMET-PROTECTING"_UMBRELLAS. [34, 35]

> CONCLUSION: HUMANITY,_REGARDLESS_OF_TECHNOLOGICAL_ADVANCEMENT,_REMAINS_HIGHLY_SUSCEPTIBLE_TO_MANIPULATION_THROUGH_FEAR. A_VALUABLE_LESSON_FOR_FUTURE_COLONIAL_GOVERNANCE.

> 

While people on the streets below caulked their windows and bought useless trinkets, Corvus was high in the Scottish mountains at the Aetheria Observatory, conducting the most advanced analysis of the comet in history. The Travers Telescope, with its massive crystal lens, provided images of unprecedented clarity. But the true prize was the data from the Soul-Light Spectrograph.

As the Earth passed through the comet's tail, a fine, shimmering dust, invisible to the naked eye, settled in the upper atmosphere. The spectrograph went to work, analyzing not just its chemical composition, but its thaumic signature.

"The cyanogen levels are negligible, as predicted," Corvus noted, observing the readouts. "But the thaumic energy is remarkable. It's not ambient, like the background field. It's… structured. Almost like a stored memory."

Archimedes processed the data. "HYPOTHESIS: THE_COMET'S_ICE_AND_DUST_ACT_AS_A_CRYSTALLINE_MATRIX,_RECORDING_THAUMIC_SIGNATURES_FROM_THE_DEEP_SPACE_ENVIRONMENTS_IT_TRAVERSES. IT_IS_A_NATURAL_VOYAGER_PROBE,_CARRYING_DATA_FROM_BEYOND_THE_SOLAR_SYSTEM."

This was a monumental discovery. The comet was a Rosetta Stone of cosmic magic. The data it carried would be invaluable for refining the search parameters of Project Stargazer and for understanding the fundamental physics of the universe he intended to colonize. The world's fear was his scientific windfall.

The comet panic also provided excellent cover for Project Ark. With much of the world looking to the skies in terror, his house-elf acquisition teams moved with even greater freedom. In the chaos, they mounted their most audacious mission yet: the acquisition of a breeding pair of Ukrainian Ironbellies from a secluded, poorly guarded magical reserve in the Carpathian Mountains. The operation was a masterpiece of logistics and magical firepower, and by the time the comet had safely passed, two of the most formidable magical creatures on Earth were slumbering peacefully in a new, dimensionally expanded habitat deep beneath Travers Manor.

Just as the comet hysteria was fading, another, far more amusing event captured the public's imagination, reinforcing Corvus's belief in the utter complacency of the British establishment. On February 7, 1910, a group of mischievous intellectuals, including a young Virginia Woolf, executed the infamous Dreadnought Hoax. [36, 37]

Disguised with blackface makeup and elaborate robes, the group, led by the notorious prankster Horace de Vere Cole, posed as the Emperor of Abyssinia and his royal entourage. [36, 38] They sent a forged telegram to the Royal Navy's flagship, HMS Dreadnought, announcing their imminent arrival for a tour. The navy, completely duped, rolled out the red carpet. They were welcomed with an honour guard, given a full tour of the world's most powerful warship, and managed to carry on conversations in a gibberish of Latin and Swahili, punctuated by cries of "Bunga! Bunga!" [39]

When the hoax was revealed to the press by Cole himself, the Royal Navy became a laughingstock. [37] Corvus followed the story with glee.

"It's perfect," he said to Cassiopeia, reading the account in the Daily Mirror. "It reveals every systemic weakness of their society. Deference to authority, obsession with appearance over substance, and a complete lack of imagination. They saw the robes and the dark skin and their brains simply shut down. They never once questioned the premise."

"It's a dreadful scandal," Cassiopeia replied, though a hint of a smile played on her lips. "The Admiral's wife is mortified. They say she won't be able to show her face at court for months. It's a perfect opportunity to promote our candidate for the Naval Procurement Committee."

Their exchange highlighted the perfect synergy of their partnership. He saw the strategic and security implications; she saw the social and political leverage. [40, 41] He analyzed the system's flaws; she exploited them. Their marriage was a well-oiled machine, ruthlessly efficient and entirely devoid of the emotional complications that so often clouded the judgment of their peers.

Their life together was a carefully managed performance of Edwardian high society. They hosted lavish parties, their names appeared in the society pages, and they were seen as the epitome of the new, dynamic aristocracy—wealthy, powerful, and impeccably respectable. [40] Behind the scenes, their home was the nerve center of a burgeoning interstellar empire.

Their son, Lycoris, was now nine years old. His world was not one of pony rides and society tutors. It was one of logic, science, and strategy. That spring, Corvus took him to the Vivarium for the first time. They passed through a shimmering portal and stepped from the cool stone of the manor's sub-basement into the humid, sweltering heat of a recreated Congolese rainforest.

Lycoris stared in silent awe at the towering trees, the exotic, magically-bred flora, and the sound of a Nundu roaring in the distance, its call safely contained within its own habitat miles away.

"This is our true legacy, Lycoris," Corvus said, his voice echoing in the vast, enclosed space. "Not the manor, not the money, not the name. This. A self-contained, perfectly balanced ecosystem. Every plant, every insect, every beast from our world, preserved and ready for transport. When the old world burns, we will use these to seed the new one."

He knelt and pointed to a small, iridescent beetle crawling on a leaf. "The great families, the Malfoys, the Blacks, they pride themselves on their blood purity. It is their greatest weakness. They are inbred, stagnant, resistant to new information. An ecosystem requires diversity to thrive. It needs predators and prey, parasites and hosts. It needs change. Remember that. Purity is stagnation. Diversity is strength. That is the most important lesson I can ever teach you."

Later that year, in the autumn of 1911, Corvus reviewed the progress of his various projects. Project Midas was generating profits beyond his wildest projections. Project Ark was nearly 70% complete. Project Legacy had produced its first batch of hyper-competent graduates, now being seeded into low-level positions within his own companies and the Ministry, forming the nucleus of his future colonial administration. Project Stargazer had identified three viable candidate worlds, with C-1892-Alpha remaining the prime target.

Only Project Immortality remained a significant hurdle. The memory-mapping incident had forced a complete redesign of the Psyche-Matrix. Archimedes, working with Corvus's own insights into soul magic, was now developing a new approach, one based on quantum-coherent data transfer. It was slower, more complex, but theoretically safer. [31]

He stood in the Sanctum, looking at the empty clone vessel, still floating in its nutrient bath. He was fifty years old. According to Archimedes's projections, the Muggle world would likely tear itself apart in a Great War within the next five to seven years. The subsequent technological leap in aviation and rocketry would make the Statute of Secrecy untenable by the 1960s. The clock was ticking.

He felt no fear. Only a cold, exhilarating pressure. The world was a complex, chaotic system, but he understood its variables. He had the wealth, the technology, and the will to see his plan through. Dumbledore and Grindelwald could have their petty wars. The kings and kaisers could march their armies to oblivion. He was playing a different game entirely, on a scale they could not even begin to comprehend. He was not fighting for a country or an ideology. He was fighting for the future of magic itself, a future that lay far beyond the dying star of Earth.