Interludes in Darkness

Interlude 1

The two servants, male and female, entered the cabin. They were greeted by a serpent’s rattled warning and the low growl of a great cat. Both knelt and bowed their heads, not knowing the current mood of the one they served, but knowing silence and a show of respect were always the safest options.

The cabin was dark, lit only by a single brazier in the middle of the floor, and the air thick with smoke smelling of strange herbs, of acid and of blood. Even if they weren’t looking toward the floor instead of the terrible throne, the seated figure would have been only barely visible. One might have noticed several sets of eyes, including those of the seated figure, some shining yellow, others red. Or one might have noted the seated figure held a staff of dark wood, a spear head of dark iron and streamers of crow feathers on one end, the other end topped with a mummified hand, dead fingers firmly grasping a strange symbol. Patterns of silver and garnet set into a sharp-edged obsidian disc.

The pair knelt, motionless, breathless, for several minutes. Finally the figure spoke. The voice was a mere hiss, yet it seemed to echo in the close, dark space.

“Tell Us of your discoveries.”

(to be continued)

The male speaks first. "I went among them in the manner you commanded, my aspect that of a crow. I noticed one of our kind, and upon geting closer I recognized him as one familiar to me, from the time before I found you, Dark and Terrible Mistress, but of stronger blood than he was then. As I recall, he was strong in our ways. He and a companion - perhaps one of us, I could not tell - went into an establishment. I entered, to see if I could learn more of what he is doing here, but it appeared the establishment catered to our kind. I thought I could detect the faint smell of blood, and there were two more of our kind present. One had powerful blood."

The female speaks next. "I noticed a few of our kind about as well, but none strong of blood. I noticed something else as well, something of more concern. In the downtown area, it appears there is something strange... something wrong about the barrier between this world and those beyond. I noticed several humans who appeared to be spirit-touched, perhaps possessed."

The figure stands from the chair made of bits of bone. "That is the sort of thing that tends to draw the Wolf-Kin. Watch for them, or perhaps the magicians, and if you see any of either, learn all you can about them... but do not engage. Should we determine that this domain fits our needs, we will seek to engage the Wolves more directly at a time of our choosing." The figure - a woman, dressed in a dark robe, the hood drawn over her head and shading her face - paces near the two servants. There is a serpent coiled over her shoulders, and a great cat follows in her footsteps as she paces.

"You are both to go back into the city this night, and spend the next three nights there. I want you to discover more about the Kindred of this city, and find the names and possible locations of the Prince and other officers of the court. Find where they feed." She turns to the male. "Watch carefully this establishment, to see if it is indeed a meeting place for our kind, and watch again for this one you speak of. Determine, if you can, whether he might be an ally... or an obstacle."

Her voice sldes back into a hiss. "The others will expect to hear from me soon. I have told them of the omens, but I wish to have much more to report than you've given me. Do. Not. Disappoint. Me."

Neither replies. The woman returns to the throne. "Begone, and return three nights hence!" Both servants stand and bow before taking their leave.

Interlude 2

Thursday, 12:07 pm

The Hierophant woke screaming. It felt as if her flesh was burning from within.

Immediately upon waking, she knew night had not yet fallen, though there was no light where she slept. She also knew another thing: It was not her that was burning, but rather her childe, faithful Selene, who was dying this day. Through the sympathy of their shared blood, she felt the Vitae within Selene dry up and turn to dust, then her flesh crack and dry and likewise crumble to dust. The entire process took quite a bit less to a minute, but to the Hierophant it felt like hours. She’d never known such pain; even the excruciations she’d suffered in the process of learning the higher secrets of her blood magic paled in comparison.

Her mind sluggish from being wakened from the daysleep, she frantically considered what might have happened. She found it hard to believe Selene would be so careless as to draw the attention of some mortal hunter, or to choose any accessible place to sleep out the day. She wondered if this same doom had befallen her other minion - the male, Proteus - or whether he slept away the day secure within the soil. Most of all, she wondered if she should journey into the city that night to determine what had happened. She thanked the Goddess in all Her aspects that she had the means to answer that question.

Upon a strip of dried, flayed skin, she used her blood to write a question in her native Greek, asking the Fates whether it was wise for her to travel into the city that night to investigate what had happened. She rolled the skin tightly, then swallowed it. She vomited it back up, along with some blood, so immediately that she was certain traveling to the city would be not just unwise, but most likely catastrophic. Yet she had to know what had happened.

She called several of her creatures to her: the puma, the wolf, and her small, twisted offspring - freakish things, their features a mix of rodent and human, with skin and legs like those of a frog. She talked to each, the animals in their own tongue, the homunculi in hers, giving them instructions. They were to travel to within an hour of the city in two teams. The first team would enter the city two hours past nightfall, to determine what they could of the fate of her minions, and whether this city was safe for her and her companions to enter, or whether they should continue elsewhere, while the other team would enter late the next day. With her blood, she bound two of the homunculi – one in each group – to her, such that she would be able to see and hear through their eyes and ears as if they were her own.

Thus she was able to witness the deaths of the first two homunculi and the great cat that had been with her for the past three decades. They were not quite to the outskirts of the city before their bodies failed them. Through the eyes of one homunculus, she watched as its twin shrunk to a dry husk then crumbled to dust, and through its ears she heard the cries of the puma as its body was consumed from within.

Interlude 3/Conclusion

The Hierophant was tempted to send another of her pets to fetch back the others, then contact her companions and suggest they head onward, as this place was deadly to their kind, but she had not achieved her station by being either impulsive or a coward. Instead, she turned again to the wisdom of the blood. This time she kept down the skin upon which she wrote the question, which told her it was better to leave the rest of her minions to their task.

Friday

With great effort, the Hierophant resisted sleep the next day, such that she might know what her spies saw and heard. What she discovered was horrifying, but enlightening.

At various spots throughout the city, and in all the spots her spies had identified as kindred havens, she found piles of dust and ash that suggested that the same doom that had claimed her childe had found many others of Sacramento’s Kindred, perhaps all of them. Overheard news reports noted strange deaths throughout the city, which some sources were attributing to spontaneous combustion.

She also found her childe's car, unattended, and the motorcycle that had belonged to her companion. The pattern of greasy ash upon the ground near the motorcycle suggested that he had been destroyed before he’d fully emerged from the soil in which he slept.

The Hierophant could not tell what had happened – and, more worrisome, had no idea if it might happen again.

Again she asked a question of the Fates: Is it a good idea to call my companions to Sacramento? She kept down the scrap of skin, and felt a sense of satisfaction; she had correctly read the portents that led her here. She knelt and thanked the Goddess for her guidance.

The Hierophant wrote a brief message on a strip of paper:

Come immediately. My messenger will show you the way. Something has happened. As best I can tell, all kindred have been purged from Sacramento. I do not know how or why this has occurred, but we have an opportunity to take the city as ours, unopposed. The Fates smile upon this endeavor.

- C

She rolled the message tightly, tied it with a thin cord and tied the other end of the cord on the foot of another of her creatures, a great horned owl. She told it where to find her companions and sent it on its way well before nightfall, so it would reach them shortly after they awoke for the night.

Though hungry and eager to explore this new Domain in person, she waited patiently for the arrival of her three companions. There would be time enough to feed, there would be safety in numbers, and the others had their own wisdom and knowledge that would assist in solving the mystery of what had happened here. The important thing was that they seize this opportunity and establish themselves before other Kindred learned what had happened. She knew that wouldn’t take long. Vampires, as alpha predators, were very good at sniffing out easy prey. But she and her companions would have long enough to make plans and to be ready to greet others of their kind as they arrived.