Re: Blood and Iron

Chapter 648: Journey to the North

The cold sea wind carried with it the scent of brine and iron as Josef von Zehntner stood at the prow of the cruiser SMS Sigurd, watching the spires of Copenhagen emerge on the horizon.

Behind him, the Imperial Standard of the Greater German Reich flapped with slow, unhurried confidence.

The Danish colors, red and white, flew beside it, not as conquered spoils, but as a diplomatic courtesy.

Symbolism mattered. His father had drilled that into all his children.

Josef adjusted the cuffs of his long overcoat.

Black wool, civilian cut, and tailored into a fine three-piece suit. A uniform not of war, but of presence.

He wasn’t here to conquer. He wasn’t even here to negotiate in the traditional sense.

He was here to remind Denmark that history still had teeth, and that not all futures ended in blood.

He glanced at the deck, where his attaches reviewed the protocol folders. They were efficient men, quiet, loyal.

None of them bore his family name, and that was by design.

Bruno had raised his sons to understand: no matter how gilded the office, it was the man who filled it that mattered.

And Josef intended to prove that.

The reception at Amalienborg Palace was subdued.

Not cold, but cautious.

King Christian X, now in his early sixties, greeted Josef with the poise of a monarch who had survived Europe’s unraveling by sheer force of inertia and good weather.

Denmark had sat out the Great War. And the second one, everyone knew, was only waiting for the match.

“Prince von Zehntner,” the King said, offering a steady hand.

“Majesty,” Josef replied, bowing at the neck.

No need for flattery. Respect would do.

At the long table set for twelve, the courtiers remained quiet.

Crown Prince Frederick sat opposite Josef, his gaze a careful ledger of curiosity and calculation.

The Danes were not fools. They saw what Germany had become, what Bruno had built.

A continent rebalanced. A titan armored not in hubris, but in gears and steel and restrained will.

Dinner passed with the usual civility.

Wine, roast duck, white asparagus.

Conversation drifted over art, canals, and the curious decline of London theater.

It wasn’t until the plates were cleared and the port arrived that Christian spoke with intent.

“Germany has changed,” the King said. “More than any of us predicted. And not in the way we feared.”

Josef allowed a thin smile. “History doesn’t fear change. Only delay.”

The King chuckled. “Your father’s words?”

“His tone. My phrasing.”

“So why have you come, Herr Zehntner?”

There it was. At last.

Josef placed his glass down. “To extend an invitation. One of legacy, not leverage.”

He let the silence linger.

“The Concordat of Sovereigns,” Josef continued, “exists not to erase borders, but to preserve them. We believe in nations that remember who they are. Denmark remembers. And so we ask: will you stand with us?”

Frederick leaned in. “And if we decline?”

Josef didn’t blink.

“Then others will come. From across the channel. Or from the west. With promises of mutual defense and freedom, and weapons hidden in grain shipments. You will not be left alone. The only question is whether your allies will see you as a brother, or a battlefield.”

No threats. Just gravity.

Later that evening, Josef stood alone on a palace balcony overlooking the dark canals.

The night was clear and silent. In the room behind him, jazz murmured from a phonograph brought by one of the younger court aides.

A subtle attempt at modernity.

Josef didn’t care for it.

He, like his father was a man of tradition. Of elegance.

What passed itself off as music that played in the cabaret clubs of New York was not to his fancy.

It was degenerate, ill-bred, and a mockery of the arts.

Or so Josef thought.

He turned the device off immediately after the aide left. Shaking his head, he lit a cigarette as he smoked off the perch.

He heard the door open and close.

“You speak like your father. But not quite,” said Frederick, now out of uniform, jacket slung over his shoulder.

Josef didn’t turn.

“He speaks like a man who bled for the world he built. I speak as the man who must keep it from collapsing.”

“You’re young to carry such a burden.”

“You’re old enough to know no one else will carry it.”

A pause.

“My father once said,” Frederick offered, “that Denmark survives by not standing in the path of titans. But he also said There is a dignity in choosing which shadow you kneel in.”

Josef turned at that. “Then choose wisely. We bring no chains. Only the offer to stand beside us, not beneath us.”

The Danish prince nodded. “I’ll speak with my father.”

By morning, the papers were signed. Not a treaty, not a pact. An understanding. Denmark would join the Concordat.

Its ports would remain open to Russo-German vessels. Its nobility would be protected under cultural clauses authored by Josef himself.

And in return, Denmark would retain full sovereignty, with German backing if any “external provocations” threatened the North Sea.

The final clause was unofficial, whispered. But everyone knew what it meant.

France and Britain would now think twice about their overtures.

As the Sigurd departed, Josef stood at the rail once more, this time with a letter in hand. Not a report, not a communique. Just a note he would send to his father:

Denmark stands with us. Not out of fear. Out of respect. I did not mention the war to come. I did not need to.

They see it. They all see it now.

He folded the letter, sealed it, and turned his eyes east, toward Berlin.

Toward home.

Toward whatever came next.

As Josef stood there smoking off the balcony, while gazing upon the letter in his hand, Sophie von Hohenburg entered quietly, gloved hands folded before her as she stepped onto the balcony beside her husband.

The moonlight cast a soft glow across her ash-blonde hair, and the satin of her evening dress rustled faintly as she moved.

“You turned off the jazz,” she said, voice gently amused.

“It was vulgar,” Josef replied without looking. “Unfit for a palace.”

Sophie smiled faintly, unoffended. “You sound like your father when he visited Vienna that winter. He said the same thing about the cabaret music. And the women’s hats.”

Josef exhaled smoke into the still air. “He was right on both counts. You do remember what happened to Vienna in the years following the Great War, don’t you?”

There was a moment of dreadful silence.

Sophie realized she shouldn’t have made such a joke.

Too much suffering had occurred, to many dead in the streets. A price paid to restore order.

To restore prosperity.

And all it had cost was her homeland’s sovereignty, and her family’s crown.

Below, the faint clop of horse-drawn carriages echoed across the cobbles.

Copenhagen was at peace for now.

“You were firm,” she said softly. Switching the topic back to the dinner. “But not unkind. You’ve learned how to speak like a sovereign without sounding like one.”

He flicked ash over the railing. “That’s all diplomacy is. A knife wrapped in velvet. My father taught me the blade. You’ve taught me the fabric.”

She touched his arm, resting her cheek against his shoulder. “They listened to you.”

“They listened to Germany,” he corrected. “To what we are now.”

Sophie looked up at him. “Do you ever wonder how different it might have been, had Sarajevo gone another way?”

Josef didn’t answer immediately. They both knew what she meant.

She was born of ghosts, of a dynasty whose murder once shattered the world.

And Josef, son of the man who had let it happen, whose silence had preserved the future at the cost of an empire.

Neither of them knew the forbidden knowledge Bruno had harbored.

Given to him with his rebirth, a gift from another life poorly lived.

They couldn’t know that he knew. But they understood what had come of it. What it had meant for them.

“Your uncle Karl understood,” Josef said at last. “He didn’t ask for revenge. He asked for stability.”

“And I gave him that,” Sophie said, with a flicker of quiet pride. “By marrying you.”

He smiled. “And in doing so, gave me Denmark.”

Sophie arched a brow. “You think I swayed the Queen Mother?”

“I think your presence reminded them that we honor more than treaties. That the Reich does not forget its debts. That bloodlines mean something still.”

She didn’t deny it.

“And the children?” Josef asked.

“They’ll be fine. Your mother has them in Tyrol. You know how she is, she dotes on them. All of them… Your family grows larger with each passing year. And that’s just those of your father’s seed. I wonder how many cousins you have now from his older brothers?”

Josef rolled his eyes, escaping the thought of how large their family reunions had grown.

How even now, his grandfather, still had not been claimed by the reaper.

He shifted his thoughts towards his own children, and how his mother was likely raising them in his absence.

“If I know my mother, our sons will be learning marksmanship from my father, and our daughters will be cleaning the bathrooms, and helping the kitchen staff with the meals. By the time we’re back, our little girls will think of her as the most fearsome tyrant this world as ever seen.”

Sophie laughed at the mere insinuation. “Don’t tell me your mother actually raised your sisters that way?”

Josef chuckled under his breath. “Why do you think their husbands admire them so?”

The mirth faded gently, giving way to something more solemn.

“We might not come back soon,” Josef said, eyes distant now. “Not if the French make a play for Sweden. Or if the Americans push into Norway under trade pretenses.”

Sophie nodded. “Then we won’t come back as guests. But as guarantors.”

He turned to face her. “Does that frighten you?”

She took his hand. “I was born in a collapsing empire. I married into the only one still standing. I have no illusions left to lose.”

Their fingers laced. In the distance, the Sigurd’s mooring lines were being drawn back aboard. The cruiser would leave at dawn.

“You should sleep,” Josef said gently. “We depart early.”

“So do you,” Sophie replied, lingering. “But I know you won’t. You’ll sit and write to your father. Then rewrite it five times.”

Josef said nothing. Which meant she was right.

She kissed his cheek, light as air. “Then make sure you tell him the truth. Not just the results. He needs to know you carry the same weight.”

He watched her disappear into the suite. The silence returned. Even the breeze seemed to still itself out of respect.

Alone once more, he took the letter from his coat pocket and glanced down at the half-finished paragraph. He added one more line before sealing it.

P.S. Sophie believes in this path. That means I do too. She reminds me of you, in her own way. Only kinder. And more dangerous.

He signed it with his name. No titles.

Josef, son of the man who built an empire of restraint. Husband of a girl born from the ashes of one.

And perhaps, in time, a father to a world that never burned again.