Shards of Memory
13th of November 2006 A.D.
"That would please me greatly Your Majesty." the words come easily. They say teenagers are prone of impulse shopping, all the boring daytime television hosts agree. You wonder where on that scale accepting an impulse gift goes? Sure you've never ran a movie studio, but then you have never ran a shell company that hides magical diamond production or a supernatural gang under the streets of Chicago and you still do not, you have people for that. You would provide the... vision, that's right the artistic vision for the studio.
Dismissing daydreams about sitting in a big office somewhere picking out scripts from a big stack for the next
Red Star Production you turn your mind back to the present, bending thought and purpose once more to the scene of the knight's death. Essence burns and eyes swim though it peering at secrets far and wide.
Lost 2 Essence (Occult Excellency and ATB) -> Now at 11/15
As the body of Athanasius Skavis is taken away, you whisper inward-sure: Who is the Empyreal Chaos spoken of by the being summoned through this sacrifice?
The City of shifting brass and snaking roads, of crowds inhuman, never-human moving though the streets in endless dance flashes before your mind's eye, but this time you fly as a bird among the towers born aloft gusts of hot wind. Grand it is in its decrepitude, like a stately palace wrapped in the green of a garden grown wild with neglect. In a a hundred eyes, a thousand, ten thousand you see reflected pain and loss. Scholars go quiet with it, smiths are gripped with a mad desire to create, to fill the void of what once was and hurl themselves into their work. Darker spirits, darker passions cast the wretched into the flames instead, but it will not be enough, it will never be enough
That is when you realize it, the wind that carries you isn't wind at all, it is the labored breath of the city. At first you think that it's dying, failing somehow, but as you listen to it swift and labored you realize that it is trapped in a nightmare It... he...
HE CANNOT WAKE
If he could wake, could have woken, that One would have been and ever be rightly-called the Empyreal Chaos
Lost 1 Essence -> Now at 10/15
Recovered 2 Essence from the secret discovered in the new scene -> Now at 12/15
"What is your will my lady?" the guard you had... Saved? Agreed not to fight at least, says.
"Don't call me that," you answer automatically. It is weird enough to hear it from Usum, worse still to hear it in the light of day from someone whose only using it because he is concerned you will cut off his head. "What's your name?"
"Augustus FitzClarance my lady." When he does not say anything more you wonder if you had offended him... before you realize that he's concerned that saying more will offend you.
"Do you have some place do go?" You do your best to sound sympathetic without straining credulity, for one who has likely heard very little of such. "What is to be the fate of those sworn to House Skavis?"
"Those not involved with the plot have been granted grace by the King, but all the properties and titles of the House are forfeit to be passed on to a more leal cadet branch. It seems unlikely they will wish to be burdened by ones who raised their swords in defense of the traitor."
"I have a place you could go, it is probably not what you are used to but it is sanctuary." So committed you give him a short account of the Jade Dogs, how you are willing to accept all those in need, vampire, ghoul, mortal and more, the perks of the job, including control of unearthly hungers, though something about his expression makes you think Augustus made his peace with his demon a long time ago.
"I am without lord and without honor, I would petition to join your company my lady."
There is only one answer you can give without being a hypocrite, sanctuary is sanctuary, no matter if one is running from guilt at past misdeeds, abuse from superiors, or the threat of political isolation in this most perilous of courts. "Granted freely."
As he stands there, back straight as an iron rod you consider another question:
What were the plans of the being that possessed their master's body?
That the answer is short does not make it any less meaningful:
To Slay you or be Slain in turn ending his service to the Walker Beside either way
Lost 1 Essence -> Now at 11/15
Looks like you had spooked Nemesis, enough that it is sending its lesser kin after you and apparently they don't... like it all that much? At least this one does not seem to have, though you remind yourself of the dangers of drawing conclusions from a sample size of one.
"...House Syliga has always been proponents of peace and stability and no lovers of the leeches." You catch the words at the other end of the table like a bird in flight, from the other end of the table. They are talking about who might replace House Skavis. Isabela's family, Isabela's
father? Careful not to show your feelings on your face you look to Lara.
She nods ever so slightly.
That is going to be trouble you are sure of it, but it's future Molly's problem. Present Molly still has one more question to ask... and you ask it looking down at random among the quests.
Where can I find the largest currently unclaimed collection of records in the language primarily spoken by a Walker heard by this person during the fight?
In the Places Between
In the Wounds dug deep
In the Breaks Between the Broken
Where the Thousand now Weep
Yomi Wan, that much is clear at once, places like the Scar... places there is more than one and all are in the borderlands of the Hells the places where the Yama Kings have not yet gotten the chance to rebuild the place in their image.
You do not spend much longer at the party, much as you might wish to spy more on the White Court it is clear Lara is not going to be so gauche as to announce all the leadership changes with the blood of traitors barely washed from her hands. Thus you and Lydia depart having made new allies, new enemies and especially new watchers.
Once ensconced in Black Rider's decadent leather throne you ask Clippy to play back the recording of the meeting and ask aloud: "What is a Prince of the Earth referred to in this audio recording"
You lose 1 Essence -> Now at 10/15
You/Chosen/Mortals more than Gods/...reation Ruling Mand...
A buzzing like a thousand wasps fills your thoughts. "Ow!"
Seeing Lydia's alarmed look you shake your head. "Tried something to figure out what the Walker said. Don't suppose the words Chosen or Princes of the Earth mean anything to you?"
After a moment she shakes her head. "No, sounds like it could be a lot of things."
"What about something... Ruling
Mandate?" you try, saying the last word even as you guess it.
"Sounds kind of Chinese, you know Mandate of Heaven, maybe you could start looking there," she hazards.
"That does sound nice. The other option is literally hell, or hells..." You are reminded of the exiled shen of Chicago. They are probably pretty well disposed towards you.
Before you can deal with any of that Black Rider pulls up the driveway home and you have to decide what you had been trying not to think of the whole way here, how much to tell your parents.
What part of the night's events do you share?
[] Talking to and killing the Walker
[] Being the proud new owner of the studio that belongs to one of your favorite directors and also a man you killed tonight
[] Just the bare bones about how Lara crushed the rebelion
[] Write in
OOC: I thought about some more chances to talk to other vampires, but this action has already taken quite a lot and we are not even halfway though the month. You guys can talk to Leinth and the like later. 
