One of the most difficult things I’ve had to learn is to do as the mortals do: trust one’s gut. It is a relatively simple thing to trust science, trust authority, trust one’s elders. But it is not so easy to trust oneself. For in our minds are many factions, each warring for dominance. In fact, I would say it becomes more difficult as we age as it is common to become mired in doubt. We question our own faculties and we are our own worst critics. The younglings we’ve raised begin to assert themselves and we wonder if we’ve reached the quiet stage of infirmity.

“Am I so out of touch? No, it’s the children who are wrong.”

And sometimes our uncertainty rings of truth. It is a wisdom to count the error of our ways and try every method to ensure we do not make the same mistake.

Which brings me to my thesis: Sometimes the children are wrong.

STRAUD

VINCENT, MY GOOD FRIEND.

IT IS GOOD YOU ARE HERE.


On this night, I found myself comfortable in my throne room. Here, I could not be unseated, lest the whole house were to crumble around me. Here, I could not be touched, not by the Camarilla, not by the Sabbat, and not by traitors in my midst.

For I had been here before, and all too recently for my liking.

It was my error in judgement that I had given such power to the man Makoa Kealoha. I had sensed in him a weakness that I thought would have given way to determination. I took his love of family as a strength when it reality it was his greatest fragility – a dire need of comfort.

Now all humans have a need of comfort. Even the Kindred long for safety. Only the insane burn down their houses and scatter their sacred soil into the river.

But without a touch of insanity, one would never venture past his front door and that is exactly what afflicted Kealoha.

In truth the very formation of this coterie was a threat to the individual and the ferocity that accompanies true intelligence. The group shelters and protects the weak, causes him to seek conformity when he should find strength within.

I cannot say for certain what it was that brought me to Embrace this particular young man. He had the confidence and ambition that is a bare minimum for any successful conversion, but that was nothing unique. Looking back on it, I would say what made him unique was his sadness.

A great many, Kine and Kindred alike, are sad. It is a product of this age that a mortal is exposed to many more ideas than ever before, but these distant worlds are just as out-of-reach as they have ever been. And what a man sees, he yearns for. It is probably truer than ever, that old assertion, “ignorance is bliss”. Kealoha knew so much; he was extremely well-read, but this also gave to him a depression unique to those who know what cannot be.

I thought I could fix him, as I always do, by granting him the power he lacked. I thought I could help him by giving him access to my resources and expertise. But what I failed to realize is that I could not change within him the sadness of the one thing I could not give.

Time.

VINCENT

IF YOU DO NOT GRANT HIM CLEMENCY, YOU VERY WELL KNOW WHAT WILL HAPPEN.


Of course I did.

CEDRIC

THAT WILL MAKE THE SECOND TIME IN A YEAR THEY’VE GONE AFTER OUR SLOPPY SECONDS.

MANDARC

IT’S BEEN OVER A YEAR, ASSUMING YOU MEAN VATORE.

CEDRIC

OVER A YEAR THEN.

VINCENT

IT DOES NOT SIT WELL WITH ME TO LET THE ENEMY CHARM OUR FRIENDS.

CEDRIC

IF HE CAN’T HEED A SIMPLE COMMAND, THEN HE’S NO LONGER OUR FRIEND.

VINCENT

LORD, HOW OFT SHALL MY BROTHER SIN AGAINST ME, AND I FORGIVE HIM? TILL SEVEN TIMES?

MANDARC

IS IT SEVENTY TIMES SEVEN OR IS IT SEVENTY-SEVEN?

STRAUD

YES, I AM AWARE OF WHAT MATTHEW HAS TO SAY ON THIS TOPIC, BUT LET ME REMIND YOU OF WHAT PAUL STATED AT EPHESUS.

“DO NOT ASSOCIATE WITH ANYONE WHO CLAIMS TO BE A BROTHER OR SISTER BUT IS SEXUALLY IMMORAL OR GREEDY, AN IDOLATER OR SLANDERER, A DRUNKARD OR SWINDLER.

DO NOT EVEN EAT WITH SUCH PEOPLE.

WHAT BUSINESS IS IT OF MINE TO JUDGE THOSE OUTSIDE THE CHURCH?

ARE YOU NOT TO JUDGE THOSE INSIDE?

GOD WILL JUDGE THOSE OUTSIDE.

EXPEL THE WICKED PERSON FROM AMONG YOU.”

VINCENT

“IT IS NOT THE HEALTHY WHO NEED A DOCTOR, BUT THE SICK.”

STRAUD

YOU HAVE ME THERE, MY FRIEND, BUT NEVER ONCE HAVE I CLAIMED TO BE A DOCTOR.


The night darkened and many friends joined the table, though it always happened that there was enough room to seat them all. Miriam Duatba and Roxanne Schwartz came to say hello. The Camarilla Prince came with the new fledgling Shelby Dawson to pay their respects. And even the demon prince Gwydion Yanúla graced us with his presence. I suspect rumor had drifted on the wind and they wanted to see the precident set.

AINE

(Grandfather – he’s here.)