Author: Dmitri

November 20th, 2007
The Chantry

Dmitri peered down the circles he had only hours before inscribed upon the floor within the basement of the chantry. A chalice of blood lay at the center of the circle; the blood that it held once belonging to the man known as Wyatt Chaser. With the incantation at an end, all there was was patience as the magic performed its work and rewarded him with the knowledge he sought.

"Wyatt Chaser, ghoul and thrall to Caroline Getty..."

Dmitri spoke mechanically, the magic working through him as he talked. His mind rapidly sorted through what the words meant even as he continued to speak.

"Caroline Getty, of the clanless, childe of Jeremy Waters...

"Jeremy Waters, of the clanless, childe of Francois Goutierre..."

The magic faded, leaving Dmitri with a distinctly bad taste in his mouth. These beings, these creatures whom he had just felt left psychic impression of sadism and hatred within him, one he knew eminated from the depths of their being and proved, just as well as their actions had, that these creatures were fit only for destruction.

Dmitri pushed to his feet, the oft used cane holding him aloft. /Chaser lied to me.../ the old Russian thought, /Even with Dominate, he lied to me. The Manhater lives, and the bond between him and her proves this. Or, perhaps, he was fooled so completely, he had no choice but to believe./

Dmitri moved to the nearby worktable where the makeshift urn with the 'Manhater's' supposed remains lay. He opened the lid to peer inside and while the ashes had seemed to be those of a human being, Dmitri was no longer certain. There was one way he had to check.

Dmitri closed his eyes and concentrated as one hand plunged into the ashes within the trophy cup, seeking to discover what had happened to the being these had once been. Dmitri's consciousness faded back through time and the impressions on the ashes to find the truth behind them.

Suddenly, Dmitri's mind filled with the images from when this body was last whole. The sun blazed in Dmitri's mind and flames burned everywhere. Even pulling his hand from the ashes and stumbling away, the image would not fade from his mind. Rotschreck boiled within him as he screamed at the horror of the flames and the sun that he witnessed, of this woman's final destruction. Dmitri screamed again and again, collapsing upon the floor of the basement and crawling back towards a pile of old tarps. He covered himself with one of them and lay there, in the blackness, shivering in fear.

He lay there for what seemed a small eternity as the images of the ball of flames that hung in the sky haunted him, of destruction and Final Death. He shuddered and finally extracated himself from the tarp. He looked around the room, assuring himself that he was in no danger of destruction. He stood, staggering without his cane until he could locate it and use it's reassuring support to move normally once more.

"Bozhemoi," he muttered before ascending the stairs back to the upper floors of the chantry. Regardless of his own fears, the Prince needed the information he had just discovered, and he had a letter that needed to be penned.

Later that Night
By Post to Fursa Hand-Steinn

Your Highness,

I have acquired further information concerning the individual known as the Manhater. Wyatt Chaser lied under the interrogation put upon him and she is still alive, though laying low, I believe. I have her true name, along with those of her sire, and her sire's sire. The ashes that we acquired that Mister Chaser claimed to be the Manhater's are not what he claims that they are. The woman we pursue is Caroline Getty, childe of Jeremy Waters, childe of Francois Goutierre, a member of the clanless. Hopefully, this information will allow her to be Summoned and the issue put to a final rest.

Sincerely,

Count Dmitri Romanov
Regent, New Hampshire