Deep in the bowels of Brooklyn is a Cathedral that stands as the center of the Sabbat’s influence. It has lain curiously quiet since it was attacked in January by a small cohort of vampires and a mage loyal to the cause of their sworn enemy, the Count Vladislaus Straud.

One of the Sabbat fledglings, the young Vanessa Tang, has slumbered since that fateful night. Utterly outmatched by Straud’s granddaughter Áine Baird, Vanessa was struck by the vampiress’s emission of liquid flame and immediately stunned into torpor.

Tonight, her slumber is over.


Unbidden, the vile Doctor Lenard Trelaine strides into Vanessa’s plain basement room. As Vanessa is his Childe, he need only utter one word.

TRELAINE

RISE.


I had no choice but to waken. My eyes fling open and my first comprehension is of shadow.

Of his shadow.

VANESSA

YES, MY MASTER.


I knelt on the ground.

And then thoughts came flooding back to me in an unstoppable torrent.

VANESSA

THAT BITCH!

TRELAINE

NOW, NOW, SUCH LANGUAGE IS UNBECOMING A FINE YOUNG LADY SUCH AS YOURSELF.

VANESSA

THAT CUNT!

SHE NEARLY KILLED ME!

TRELAINE

SHE DID KILL YOU, DARLING.

VANESSA

I WANT REVENGE!

TRELAINE

PATIENCE, PATIENCE.

THE TIME FOR THAT WILL COME.

THE CATHEDRAL IS IN SHAMBLES AND I HAVE GREATER CONCERNS THAN YOUR NEED FOR PERSONAL SCOREKEEPING.

YOU MUST RECOGNIZE SHE WHO SLEW YOU AND BECOME ACCLIMATED WITH THE NEW REALITY BUT YOU MUST NOT LET IT CONSUME YOUR SANITY LEST YOU BECOME USELESS TO ME AND THAT TRULY WOULD BE THE DISAPPOINTMENT OF YOUR LIFE.


I had the urge to bite my tongue but I resisted its siren call. It would do me no good today.

VANESSA

YES, MY MASTER.

TRELAINE

THAT VAMPIRESS IS ÁINE BAIRD.

SHE IS A GRANDDAUGHTER OF VLADISLAUS STRAUD.

WE HAD NOT KNOWN SHE WAS OPERATING IN OUR TERRITORY UNTIL WE SAW HER THAT DAY.

SHE IS EXTREMELY DANGEROUS.

HAD WE KNOWN SHE WAS THERE…

NO, IT WOULD NOT HAVE CHANGED A THING.

WE HAD OUR MISSION AND UNBEKNOWNST TO US, SHE HAD HERS, TOO.

VANESSA

HOW COULD SHE POSSESS SUCH POWER?

TRELAINE

SHE TRAINED UNDER BABA YAGA.

VANESSA

THE BABA YAGA?

TRELAINE

YOU CARRY WITHIN YOURSELF MY BLOOD, AND NOT DISTILLED BY ANOTHER DEGREE.

WE CAN GET THE REVENGE YOU SO DESIRE.

WE NEED ONLY TIME TO SET OUR PLAN IN MOTION.

DO YOU CONSENT TO FOLLOWING ME DOWN THIS DARK PATH?

VANESSA

OF COURSE, MY MASTER.

IT IS NOT A SIMPLE MATTER OF IF, THERE IS BUT ONE COURSE OF ACTION AND THAT IS TO OBEY.

TRELAINE

GOOD.

WE WILL MEET WITH OUR FRIENDS THIS NIGHT.

THEY HAVE SURVIVED.

THERE WAS A GREAT BLAST OF HELLFIRE AIMED DIRECTLY AT OUR CONSTITUENTS.

OUR FOLLOWERS.

MY FOLLOWERS.

IF ANYONE IS ANGRY, CHILD, IT IS I.

VLADISLAUS STRAUD HAS SPAT IN MY FACE FOR THE LAST TIME.

VANESSA

WHERE DID THE HELLFIRE COME FROM?

FROM ÁINE BAIRD?

TRELAINE

THERE WAS A MAGE WITH THEM, LILA BLACK.

VANESSA

WELL, WE HAVE A MAGE TOO.

TRELAINE

WE HAVE MANY MAGES BUT SO DO THEY, YOUNGLING.

IT IS NOT A MATTER OF DOING ROLLCALL.

YES, WE HAVE RESOURCES.

BUT SO DOES HE.

WE MUST PLAN OUR RETALIATORY STRIKE SO THAT IT HITS HIM WHERE IT HURTS.

WE HAVE LAIN IN WAIT FOR MONTHS, LICKING OUR WOUNDS.

BUT IT IS TIME TO RISE TO THIS WAR THEY’VE STARTED.

VANESSA

HOW MANY DAYS HAVE I LAID IN TORPOR?

TRELAINE

TODAY IS APRIL 27.


I fumed with rage. It had been January. I had lost months of time.

TRELAINE

YOUR INTERNAL SENSE OF TIME WILL DEVELOP.

DO NOT BECOME EMBITTERED BY YOUR LOST DAYS.

WE WILL MAKE MORE.

VANESSA

I AM BITTER!

I’VE BEEN SLEEPING WHILE YOU’VE BEEN TRYING TO REBUILD!

TRELAINE

YOUR EMOTIONS WILL CLOUD YOUR JUDGEMENT.

CALM YOURSELF.

VANESSA

ONLY BECAUSE YOU COMMAND IT, MY MASTER.

TRELAINE

GOOD.

YOU WILL NEED YOUR COMPOSURE.

IT IS IMPERATIVE YOU DO NOT EMBARRASS ME.

DO YOU WANT ME TO REGRET WAKING YOU?

VANESSA

NO, MY MASTER.

I WANT YOU TO BE PROUD TO CALL ME YOUR CHILDE.

TRELAINE

I WILL BE, SO LONG AS YOU BEHAVE.

NOW, THERE IS MORE YOU SHOULD KNOW.

OTSUKA HAS BEEN MAKING THE ROUNDS TO THEIR POORLY GUARDED DENS THROUGHOUT THE CITY.

OUR ENEMY GROWS IN NUMBER – VLADISLAUS STRAUD HAS FORMED AN ALLIANCE WITH THE CAMARILLA FOOLS.

VANESSA

WE CAN DISPATCH THEM EASILY.

TRELAINE

I DO NOT DISAGREE WITH YOU BUT WE MUST BE CAUTIOUS.

THEY FALL UNDER THE PROTECTIONS OFFERED BY MY OLD RIVAL NOW.

VANESSA

WHERE IS TRENTE GAGARIN IN ALL OF THIS?

TRELAINE

FURIOUS.

YOU’LL SEE HER SOON ENOUGH.

WE WILL NEED HER HELP TO EXACT OUR REVENGE.

BUT THAT MUST BE OUR SECONDARY GOAL.

WE ALSO MUST SET ASIDE OUR ASPIRATIONS IN THE MIDDLE KINGDOM FOR NOW.

IT IS TOO RISKY.


I had been hoping to absorb their ancient souls into my own. It was my birthright.

VANESSA

AS YOU WISH, MY MASTER.


I was beginning to calm but the flood of images I’d seen still boiled my blood. But my sole purpose was to obey, even as every fiber of my being yearned to erupt in an uncontrollable rage.

TRELAINE

YOU WILL CONTINUE TO FEED AND GROW.

DO NOT WORRY ABOUT THAT.

YOUR THIRST WILL BE SATED.

YOU NEED ONLY FOLLOW ME.

I WILL PROVIDE.

VANESSA

I FOLLOW YOUR LEAD, MY MASTER.

TRELAINE

I AM GRATEFUL YOU ARE STILL WITH US.

IT COULD HAVE BEEN WORSE.

ÁINE BAIRD HAS A REPUTATION FOR DRINKING THE BLOOD OF HER VICTIMS.

VANESSA

I THOUGHT THE THIEF HAD A PROHIBITION AGAINST THAT.

TRELAINE

HE DOES.

BUT SHE HAS BEEN TRAVELLING ON HER OWN FOR MANY A YEAR.

I ASSUME HER CHOICE OF PREY HAS CREATED A RIFT BETWEEN THEM.

VANESSA

HE IS A COWARD.

TRELAINE

HE HAS HIS REASONS, THOUGH WE MAY NOT AGREE.

WE CAN TRUST VLADISLAUS STRAUD TO ACT CONSISTENTLY WITHIN HIS MORAL FRAMEWORK.

HIS FOLLOWERS, HOWEVER, ARE SOMEWHAT LESS PREDICTABLE.

VANESSA

COULD YOU BEND THEM TO BETRAY HIM?

TRELAINE

I COULD, BUT THAT WOULD SEEM TO SAY THAT I WANT WHAT IS HIS.

I DO NOT WANT HIS CHILDER.

I WANT THEM GONE.

VANESSA

I WILL HELP YOU SEE IT COME TO BE.

TRELAINE

SO YOU SHALL.

STAND, AND LET US GO MEET THE OTHERS.

YOU HAVE A FEW MINUTES TO COMPOSE YOURSELF.

I WILL LEAVE THE ROOM.


He disappears in a cloud of mist that smells like burning grasses.

And I am left alone in my room. I remove the pajamas I’m wearing. Running my hands down my waist, I find that everything about me is intact. I have to change every element of my clothing.

I idly wonder if the Doctor Trelaine knows a cantrip to compose his clothing. There is no way he goes through this drudgery the old-fashioned way.

I put on panties and a bra and look to my wardrobe for a dress. Yes, I still had to go through these ordinary chores, including making sure my clothing was clean and presentable.

I had chosen a uniform as was the custom of many, but not all, I knew. My Master, the Doctor Trelaine, generally wore one of several uniforms, depending on the role that was required of him that day and time. Though we called him the Doctor, I generally knew him as the Cardinal, despite having met him in his usual Mortal-facing guise. Tonight he had come to me in his house-clothes, though it rarely or never affected my pursuit of my goals. He still emenated a presence that transcended whatever mask he wore in that place.

My dress had been chosen as the most beautiful thing I could thing of. It began as a fade into my skin and became inky blue-black. I wondered, from time to time, if it weren’t a gift from My Master himself. How hard would it be to spoof the website on which I’d purchased it, and insert an item of his choosing? When I’d received it, the dress had seemed otherworldly perfect. It matched my skintone perfectly, and the color gradient accentuated, rather than distracted from my thin but athletic build. It had always been effortless to maintain my figure, even in life. Just a little discipline to get on the treadmill once in a while.

Finally I was dressed and ready to greet the day. Or night. I left my room.