Settling In
Vale woke lying on his back to the sight of floorboards.
All the older buildings in Silas University had secret passages. He had chosen to make the Robespierre his haven. It was a safe distance from the Alchemy Club, and the river that ran through the campus passed close to both. It would provide a safe route to and from the suspected Tremere chantry... or a method of escape, if necessary. It might also have had something to do with the Lasombra antediluvian's predilection for the sea, that was passed on to its childer by varying degrees. Running freshwater was enough for Vale, but there were a number of his clan spending their unlives as literal pirates; the murdering sort, not the Disney myth.
Another benefit was that, in a building meant for education rather than habitation, it was a lot easier to charge his phone without being noticed. Sitting with his back to the wall while the device was plugged in, Vale discovered that he had a lot to catch up on. Laura had released at least half a dozen videos new videos. The Nosferatu had also sent messages, including several scathing remarks about twitter and photoshop, but also the link required to access the videos directly from the Silas ethernet.
Siezures instead of hunger-induced frenzy. Sock puppets. Carmilla punching Will, feeding on Laura, threatening to tear out Danny's spine...
Giant mushrooms?
Nothing yet on the aftermath of their library visit last night.
A slew of curious contradictions gave the Lasombra plenty to think about, but the strangest piece of information came from the Nosferatu. More attempts had been made to upload Laura's videos to youtube, and the Camarilla response was to post the videos themselves, in the guise of entertainment sponsored by a Kindred-controlled company. The implications of a Cainite in control of a company that made products for menstruating women to bleed on were disturbing.
Assuming it would recharge faster if he stopped using it, Vale turned the phone off and considered the possibilities. Clan Tremere was originally House Tremere of the Order of Hermes, until they stole the gift of Caine from the only antediluvian who might not have deserved such a fate. Modifying their hermetic magic to accomodate the nature of Cainite disciplines is what made Thaumaturgy so dangerous and interesting. Vienna was home for the majority of the eldest, former members of the old order, the true Usurpers. Alchemy would be right up their alley, and the mountains of Styria shielded Silas from Western Europe. It was entirely possible that the warlocks had something secret going on in Silas since the dark ages, and the head of the chantry was probably among their eldest.
If he were still a diablerist, Vale would drool at the opportunity to sink his fangs into such a Kindred... but he had already 'stolen' fire from the Tremere, and while they no longer had access to his vitae, he remained a target. He was here to investigate, not confront, and the only reason he had to believe that his use of Obtenebration was not being tracked by anyone on campus was that he had yet to evade anyone.
The Lasombra was still uncertain if Decius would have been trackable. He fed it his vitae every night to maintain its presence in the physical world, so it was possible, if not probable. He would no longer have to feed so frequently with his former minion devoured, but now he had no way to contact Pisha. He certainly was not going to try and replace Decius after the bizarre behaviour he had witnessed in the Abyss last night. That had been troubling. Tremere antitribu had spoken of a thaumaturgical path intended to mimic Obtenebration, but there had never been any evidence that it involved the Abyss or its denizens until now. Or it could be something else that was going on, entirely unrelated for all he knew. Pisha was a necromancer, and she had spoken of a maelstrom in the underworld during all the upset of 1999. Could something similiar occur in the Abyss? And if so, what could be the cause?
Vale would investigate the entire university, not just Carmilla, the Dean or the Alchemy Club. A good start would be a more thorough exploration in Tenebrous Form, starting with what the students were referring to as the 'north quad' and working his way southward. Increased mobility aside, if there were local Tremere keeping a lookout for 'blood magic' on campus, it would be a lot easier to identify and avoid his hunters if they assumed they were looking for a body.
Watching Laura type, Carmilla decided that things with her roommate had gotten decidedly... friendly. They had spent much of the afternoon translating in earnest, her roommate transcribing as she read aloud from the book. She was frustratingly rusty with Sumerian after all this time, which meant her Babylonian and Assyrian were probably even worse. After identifying that statue of Ishtar in the Dean's residence, she had believed that learning the associated ancient languages might help her dig up any clues about her mother and what she was doing. She had told her mother the same story she had told Laura about wanting to read the original form of Gilgamesh. In that regard, Silas University had been good for something, as the only languages they taught were long dead; Middle English of the sixteenth century was the earliest, and that was only because of the Chaucer module in Literature. Of course, nothing had come of it until now. If not for Laura and LaFontaine, she would never have known where to look.
Laura always used three question marks in her transcript whenever Carmilla came across a symbol she did not recognise. There was absolutely no reason whatsoever to find that cute. It made as much sense as translating a book that did not have the information they were seeking, just a whole lot of other ancient evil godlike nasties that inspired all the horrors people have been writing about ever since.
The teenager leaned back after finishing the latest paragraph, declaring, "Well, I'm famished."
Carmilla raised an eyebrow. "Really? You could eat after the dozen virgins that are skinned alive and-"
"Once was enough, thankyou!" Laura cut her off before she could repeat the really nasty part. "But yeah, I should probably put something healthier than cookies and soda in my stomach at least once every twenty-four hours."
"Sounds sensible, I guess."
Laura's eyes narrowed as she observed the sly grin on the vampire's face. "And you're thinking that means more chocolate for you."
"The thought crossed my mind," Carmilla admitted as nonchalantly as she could.
The teenager bent over to slip her shoes on, and hide the smile she couldn't keep off her face. It was not until she stood that the idea came to her, and it fell out of her mouth without thinking. "Would you like to come with me?"
The vampire raised an eyebrow at the rushed invitation. "I think you'll be safe enough, cupcake... as long as you stay away from the soup."
"I know, but... I mean, you can eat more than chocolate, right?"
"Only for the flavour." Carmilla closed the book and held it loosely to her chest as she lay back in her bed. "I've been up all day, which isn't as easy as you might think. I'll take this opportunity for a nap while you go masticate."
"You'll be here when I get back?" Laura asked.
"No promises," Carmilla said, but the smile on her lips was good enough for the teenager before she grabbed her wallet and made her exit as quietly as possible.
Vale's exploration of the campus was slowed by his observations of the students. More than once, he found himself pausing as he overheard a snippet of conversation about secret societies or manifestations or glowing runes. The study of Abyssal occultism had a purposeful lack of anything glowing, and it was the only subject the Lasombra had ever been interested in. Silas may be the only university in the world so steeped in occultism, but none of it was familiar to such a specialised researcher. The longer he paid attention to the students, however, the more he noticed a pattern.
The Zeta Omega Mu fraternity was not European in the slightest, but literally comprised of American style "bros" despite the multiculturalism of its members. Laura had stated in her videos that the missing girls entered a 'party animal' stage, and Vale was beginning to wonder if something similiar was going on with the Zetas. Who were they sacrificing goats to? And then there was the Summer Society, a group of phyiscally active feminists with a curious tendency to violence levelled against all perceived enemies. The Cainite suspected something of Greek origin behind that. He had yet to identify any members of the Alchemy Club, and suspected they kept to themselves more than most. The fact that they seemed to wield social status on campus comparable to the fraternity and society certainly suggested there was more to them, but if they followed the same pattern, they were also mere mortals. A Tremere overseer could be their figurehead... perhaps the club had been set up as a method of recruitment? A university advertising its occult education to attract interested parties would bring potential childer to the Tremere.
All still conjecture of course. Pisha might not set foot so close to Vienna, but the Gangrel scholar Beckett might find Silas interesting enough to visit. There was also a Tzimisce elder with similiar interests, making it the only one of its clan that Vale would not seek to destroy on sight. However, before the Tremere had usurped the Salubri, they had experimented on both Gangrel and Tzimisce, to the ire of both clans. Beckett might not hold a grudge, but Vykos... if Silas was an interest of the Tremere, Vykos might do more harm than good, and the kine would be caught in the crossfire. They would probably suffer even if there were no Tremere here... a sensible Tzimisce was still a Tzimisce, after all. The Nosferatu may be cursed to wear their horrible visages, but the Tzimisce were the most monstrous of all the clans.
When it came down to it, they all had their own thing to focus on. Vale had the Abyss, Pisha the Underworld; Beckett sought quantifiable truths of vampirism while Vykos was a Noddist, looking to the closest thing Cainites had to a Bible for those same truths.
Laura's voice.
She was walking from the cafeteria to the dormitories with LaFontaine, updating the redhead on their progress in translating the Sumerian book. That was certainly something the Lasombra was curious about, and this would be the first opportunity to learn something ahead of the videos Laura posted. Vale threaded his tenebrous self through the shadows perpendicular to the path they were taking, slipping into the subflooring of the more modern building and following the girl's footsteps to the room she shared with Carmilla. Knowing that the camera and computer Laura used to make her videos were against the wall opposite the door, the Lasombra threaded himself through the power supply fixture that both devices were plugged into, moving up the wall and settling across the underside of the desk.
Vale remained there, listening as the dialogue between Laura and Carmilla bounced back and forth between translation and banter. The former was disturbing; the latter could only be disturbing to a Cainite that had abandoned his own humanity years ago. Sarcasm seemed to transcend such things, but the emotions flying between the two... the Lasombra had not paid much attention to such things beyond how Carmilla could take advantage of Laura's naivety. The possibility that the vampire genuinely cared for the kine had not occurred to him until now.
Carmilla was technically older than he was, but Cainites far older than either of them had been able to hold onto their humanity. Canis Nobile had been a Roman soldier, significant enough in rank to warrant a gladius fashioned specifically for him; Cainites of his era had called it the Via Humanitas, and he had maintained his despite the depradations of his very nature for two thousand years. Vale had abandoned his own humanity because he had allowed himself to grow too close to the Beast, and required a new system of morality to avoid losing himself to it completely. The Path of the Abyss had been a natural fit, even though he had originally spurned the interest of the Children of the Abyss, as they called themselves. When the subculture of the Lasombra had first approached him, he had already recognised the limitations of his generation; since diablerizing an elder, the possibilities they had offered showed much more promise.
Laura eventually suggested a good night's sleep to the supposedly nocurnal roommate. Carmilla kept the lights on her side of the room on so that she could continue frowning at the contents of the book they had purloined from the library. The kine had turned her back to Carmilla for the sake of trying to fall asleep despite the light, but before Vale had decided to slip back outside and continue his exploration of the campus, he was interrupted.
"Carmilla?" Laura spoke softly.
"Mm-hm?"
"Are you... would you be willing to... tell me about Ell?"
A long silence followed, and the teenager thought it was the only answer she was going to get until Carmilla finally responded. "She lived in a schloss near my family's land... the first time I saw her was in a dream, when she was little." She did not mention how she had also dreamed of feeding on the girl.
Laura rolled over to face her roommate's bed, but Carmilla was lying on her back, the open book lying across her stomach as she stared at the ceiling... or perhaps, not seeing it at all. "Does that sort of thing happen a lot? With vampires, I mean."
"No. But I think... if that's how she appears in the dreams of the girls that are taken, maybe I marked her somehow, even then." A sigh. "I didn't meet her face-to-face until... you know... but I recognised her right away... and she recognised me, too. I guess I thought..." Soulmates. "I thought it was a sign, that something could change. Would change. Not how I hoped, as it turned out."
The heartbreak in the vampire's voice threatened to break Laura's heart as well. "Do you think it would have made a difference, if you had told her before your mother did?"
"It was... a different time," Carmilla answered uncertainly. "Science had become the new faith, but people still turned to the supernatural when science didn't provide sufficient answers. It's easier to deny the existence of vampires these days, even when you run out of scientific explanations."
"Yeah, well, any doubts I might have had ended when you bit me," Laura said, than hurriedly added, "Not that I can blame you. I mean, I did tie you up for days, and you had a good reason-"
"Okay, stop," the vampire interrupted, "We've been over that, so stop making excuses for me. It's not like I'm ever going to apologise, anyway. You may not like it, but I've been doing what I have to do... the rest of the time, I do what I can."
"I get that, but... you're not alone, anymore. Hopefully, together, we can put an end to this, once and for all."
Carmilla seemed to consider this, and with a muttered, "Maybe," she picked the book back up to continue reading.
When silence fell once more, the Lasombra exited the way he had come. Students turning in for the night meant it would be easier to explore the rest of the campus before returning to the dormitories to do the same, though the latter would also be for the sake of feeding. The Sabbat mocked the Camarilla and made a habit of breaking their Masquerade, especially as a war tactic; resources wasted on covering up the acts of vampires would be resources not used against the Sabbat. In the old days, if Vale did not kill by feeding, leaving his victims in a weak and disoriented state was never an issue. Subtlety was a game more often than a necessity. After New York changed hands, settling into a Camarilla-controlled city required a more moderate etiquette... and he had to admit, being able to wipe or alter the memory of his visit did broaden the possibilities when it came to feeding.
Not that he was kowtowing to the Camarilla, of course. Yes, the Masquerade was a good idea in the technological age, but the leaders of the sect liked to pretend that they were not part of the neverending Jyhad with which they had been cursed, or that Gehenna was only a myth. Vale was certain that the Inner Circle knew exactly what had happened to the Ravnos and their founder. The Sabbat had been founded in opposition to the Camarilla, to hunt down and destroy the antediluvians that threatened all their progeny. Gehenna had come early for the Ravnos clan, but the Camarilla could not admit that the opposing sect had been right all along. Political bullshit. The Jyhad, having the Kindred dance from their puppet strings until Gehenna comes.
At the height of the Anarch revolt, the Lasomba destroyed their founder while it slept, followed by the Tzimisce. They founded the Sabbat, but in five hundred years, they had accomplished nothing more than to oppose the Camarilla. The Jyhad, again. Several other antediluvians had been destroyed and since, but the Sabbat never added to their original tally of two. Two, out of thirteen. Or less. Or maybe more. After several thousand years, who could be certain?
Vale was not Sabbat, but he believed in its original purpose. He would never call himself Camarilla, never call himself Kindred. He was Cainite, because he acknowledged where he came from, and where all his kind were going. Only the Black Hand was still doing anything to stop it, and he would do what he could toward that purpose.
He needed to find a way to renew contact with Pisha.