Fernando regarded the Novice in front of him with disdain. He was under no obligation to be nice to her, but in this case he specifically wanted to be stern. Her mistake could breach the outmost defenses of the Chantry, and with Sabbat roaming about, that would not do. Not that any unwanted Kindred could penetrate the defenses, but the Chantry of Cordoba had a reputation to maintain and was a Camarilla bastion in the middle of Sabbat country.

A knock on the door told him it was time to dismiss the Novice. He sent her away with a curt, dismissive wave.

The door opened and a figure poked its head into the room.

"Regent Secundus, the Pontifex has awakened!" The head fled, while the Novice exited the Acting Regent's working chamber.

Fernando Pascoal gathered his thoughts and reached for the bottom drawer of his desk. He broke the wards which held the drawer shut, opened it and took the box that Mistress Fanchon had given him 250 years ago.

As he passed through the main hall, Fernando called his assistant and ordered him to summon all the magi and novices of the Chantry to the Main Chamber. They were to wait for him there, until daybreak. Then, he made for the door that led to the lowest dungeons, to do what he had been trained and destined to do two and a half centuries past.

Pontifex Claudio Severino was lost while performing a ritual the night before the Día de los Muertos in the year 1755. That ritual went terribly wrong and provoked the biggest catastrophe the Old Continent would feel until the World Wars. Besides being directly guilty, the only relevance that event had to the Tremere was what happened to its executioner. Claudio Severino's mind (and Beast) fled his body, yet his physical form showed no symptoms common to Kindred in torpor or Astral Walk. Decades of study in the main Chantry in Vienna gave no answers. Who or what Claudio Severino had become was a total mystery to the Tremere. He was not in the Astral Plane, he had not passed the Shroud and he had not joined with the Abyss. What troubled the elders of clan Tremere the most was that Claudio's body did not seem to lose vitae as time went by. After all studies were concluded, to no avail, his body was transferred back to Cordoba and his second in command given the task to watch over him. Counselor Fanchon devised a small artifact that should be used in case that Claudio's body awakened, if Claudio was not himself.

Fernando went down the circular stairs to the lower chambers. He was not a Kindred to be afraid of anything, but feeling the cold, damp air of the dungeon made him think he wasn't truly ready for what was waiting for him. Deep inside, he had always hoped that Severino would never wake up. It was a lose-lose situation for Fernando. Either Claudio Severino would be awake and sane, therefore taking the post of Regent once again... Or worse.

Fernando found himself gripping the box tightly and wishing its contents would work.

No sound came from the chamber, save for the bolts as the Acting Regent closed the door behind him.

Heightening his senses, the aura of something flickered into being against the background darkness. He knew that nobody or nothing had entered that room since he last had visited, so that aura should be the Pontifex.

"Fernando, how good of you to come. I have been away for a long time, no doubt. How long has it been and why have I not remained in Vienna?"


###

"...we were at the road comin' from Sariñena, doin' our normal checks and this dude steps out right behind us, like that creepy shadow shit you Lasombra do. Says the name's Talley and he needs help. On the road there's this guy lookin' right past us at Talley. We didn't see him comin', but our bishop, who's been around since your s... hmm, Cardinal Monçada, said he was some Tremere biggie from Cordoba."

"So I asked "what'ya wanna do?" and the Toreador bitch from Lisbon who's been hangin' with us started moanin' "oh shit, oh shit, oh shit..." and our pack priest yelled "MAGE!" Then the freak stared at him and he split in fucking half! I mean top-to-bottom samurai shit, just by starin' at him! When I looked back, Talley wasn't there anymore, and Gonçalo, the Brujah idiot, charged at the freak. Poor Gonçalo, fucker mumbled something, pointed and just froze him in the air, like he was paused. Then he shattered in these tiny little pieces, like a mirror! With the other hand, the thing pointed at Brízida Vaz's brat and she burst into flames, shriekin' like a fuckin' harpy."

"Then I turned and ran till I got here, never lookin' back. One of your boys picked me up and brought me here without askin' me or nothing. I was comin' here to tell you this, anyway. So that's it. It's not like I'm a coward or anything but, hell... even Talley ran."

Silence weighed in the chamber for a few moments, like the instants after the repeating fire of a machine gun.

Lucita waved her hand and dismissed the talkative Kindred. Since he obviously only reacted in a world of words, she said "You may go." Then she turned to the creature sitting next to her, her eyebrow arching a fraction. "Well?"

"As always, my trips here are very interesting," said Vykos.


###

Texas John wasn't in pain. He didn't know why, but for some reason that made him feel strange.

He was in the edge of a forest facing a meadow that could have come from Middle Earth. The bright sun wasn't what was bothering him, although that was amusing by itself. He heard a flap of wings coming in his direction. He didn't need to look at the raven. "Matthew?"

"Not tonight," answered the figure behind him. When John turned, he saw a Crusade Soldier, a Templar. He sighed. He knew the mailed Kindred in front of him.

"Anatole. It's that serious."

"One pillar has fallen. Without the Gangrel things will be difficult enough."

John spat. Funny enough, it was saliva. "Why should we care?"

"Because we are in it up to our hair... The Tremere must stand."

John sighed again. "Do I need to go back?"

"You need to finish it, John."

"So say we all..."

"So say we all," Anatole responded.


Germaine was aggravated and bloody. He did not enjoy being aggravated.

Texas John was a mass of blood, bone, hair and rags. His eyes were long gone, as were most of his teeth, and Germaine had learned nothing from this interrogation.

The Brujah was supposed to extract information that would aid him in pulling down clan Tremere as a whole.

His trail had returned him to Lisbon once more. Specifically, to Texas John, the local Anarch leader.

John mumbled something. That was when Germaine saw something that really pissed him off. John's body started to glow, then became spectral, almost transparent. The ragged mass which was once his face knit itself whole. Then he smiled - and vanished.

The only things left in the room were a bloody table and a very, very angry Germaine.