[WoD] Summons

[Katarina Gordislava]

"Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned."

"How long since your last confession, my child?"

Katarina thought back, and laughed softly. "Many years, Father." Through the grating she could barely make out the youthful features of her priest. "The journey here was long and not without its hardships."

"I know, my daughter. Tell me your sins and we shall see if any grace remains for one such as yourself."

"I have taken life, Father; I have supped on the blood of the young and the old. I have cursed God, and my existence. I have allowed the children of my body to be killed while doing nothing to prevent it." The recitation was rote, but Katarina still felt a twinge of guilt. How many more years would pass before the last shreds of her humanity were totally gone? "I have plotted against mortal governments, and immortal ones."

"Your sins are many, but God has no forgiveness for you, my daughter. He lavishes His love on the mortal: you are anathema in His sight, until the day of your Final Death." The priest intoned his words with no emotion.

Katarina looked down at her folded hands, and flicked a piece of lint off of her dark pants.

"Tell me of the trip to London, my child."

I am no childe of yours, she wanted to say, but bit her tongue. "All proceeded as planned, Cardinal."

[Niccoli Cento]

The priest smiled to himself. "Bene. Western Europe has long been in Camarilla hands, with no reason for them to suppose it would not always be so."

"If I may ask, Cardinal..."

Niccoli felt indulgent. "You may, my daughter."

"What is the plan for London? Merely to confuse and conceal a truer objective... or..." Katarina let her soft voice trail off.

Both, of course. Niccoli smiled again, a charming smile that was completely wasted on the confessional's mesh. "The American Cardinals have taken great strides against the Camarilla and Anarch living on their continent. They wonder why We of Eastern Europe have been sequestered for so long." He paused, "Centuries have gone by and the Sabbat has no stronger foothold outside of our territory than we did when I was first Embraced."

He pressed his pale face close against the screen that separated him from the Archbishop. "You will return to London immediately, Katarina. Take your sorceror with you."

[Katarina Gordislava]

"With respect, I have not yet set foot back in Moscow since my return to Russia." St. Petersburg was the seat of the Cardinal, and after returning Ezserbet to Hungary she had brought what was left of her personal pack straight to Nicholas to report.

"Your Bishops are not capable of running your affairs while you are away?"

"They are, of course." Katarina bowed her head for a moment, studying her folded hands once more. "They will expect another attack. Do you send me away hoping I meet my Final Death at Rodermark’s hands?"

There was no reason to mince words, not when they were alone as they were. Nicholas chuckled, a rasping sound that was incongruous with his handsome appearance. "Of course not, my child. They expect another attack, but not so soon. And it is this second stroke that will hurt them the most - the subtle when they expect the frontal assault."

She had her doubts, but did not say so. The reason that Nicholas had no ambition beyond Russia was quite simple. He was obsessed. Obsessed with a childe he had lost, and so, ultimately, obsessed with her. "As you say, Cardinal."

[Niccoli Cento]

"Of course." He stood, opened the door of the confessional, and stepped out. It was evening at the Russian Orthodox cathedral he 'worked' at. The moon shone weakly through the ornate stained glass windows. As a 'young' priest he presided over midnight mass and could always be found in the church after sunset.

The human priests were all under his control, of course. The only variables in his life were the mortals that would come to Mass, or for confessional. He found that those who chose to confess in the night often had the most interesting sins.

After a moment, Archbishop Katarina emerged from the other side of the booth. She was clad in a simple, matte black pantsuit. Niccoli fiddled with the white priest's collar at his neck, and smiled at her. "I shall send word to you, signora, when you arrive. A house has been made ready for you. Take who you wish, but I require your Vizier to accompany you."

She stepped close, and knelt at his feet. Niccoli placed his hand on her head in a mock blessing. He said nothing, and lifted her upright with a touch. She submitted to him in actions, but her strong and stubborn heart did not. He frowned. Giacomo was much like Katarina, which is probably what drew them together. "Now go."

"Certainly." Katarina turned and walked down the side aisle towards the back of the cathedral, her footsteps echoing loudly. In the last pew lingered a few of her pack, including the sorceror. Niccoli turned towards the altar, giving the religious icons no notice as he folded his hands.

[Katarina Gordislava]

"Well?" Shelia Ortega's fine hispanic features were twisted into a scowl. Katarina silenced her with a look, and the three other vampires followed her out of the church and into the night of St. Petersburg.

At the bottom of the steps they gathered in a small group. Alexi was fiddling with his jacket, his clothing unfortunately outdated. As vain as he was, he could never quite get the hang of modern fashions. Sheila ignored him coolly, her long wavy dark hair was caught up into a sleek ponytail. She required her ghouls to brush her hair with a hundred and fifty strokes every morning, and it was long enough to cause a problem when she sat down. The others were down the street watching their car.

"We are to return immediately to London." Gordislava couldn't help but frown as she spoke. "Alexi, I want you to continue on to Moscow, to keep an eye on the Bishops. We don't want anyone getting overly ambitious while I am away."

"Of course, Archbishop," Pishenko preened, "I will do so immediately." He was largely useless, and it was a passing resemblence to someone Katarina had once known that had guaranteed him a spot in her protection. That, and his ability with numbers which made him ideal for dealing with the ghouls they kept to handle the financial side of their operations.

Sergei said nothing, but his dark eyes seemed to drink in the moonlight rather than reflect it. "Ortega, take Karpushka and Vlachko and go to London. I want the house the Cardinal has set up for us to be as secure as possible before we get there. We will no doubt have to put up with some Briton Lesombra during our stay. The more you can find out about thelocal Camarilla before I arrive, the better."

"As you say, Archbishop." Shelia bowed, and turned to walk away, melting into the shadows as she did so. The trio would traverse the Abyss, reaching London much faster than she would be forced to travel. Alexi murmured his farewell, and also disappeared into the darkness.

The Archbishop and her Vizier walked around the corner and down the block to where Ivan Galusha waited. He could not travel through the shadows, though his gifting in Potence far surpassed any other of her pack. "I am troubled, Sergei."

[Sergei Vishnyakov]

The trio that had waited on the steps of the cathedral had done so in silence. Sergei had remained distanced from his Lasombra co-conspirators, who continued to eye him uneasily even whilst addressing their superior. It was almost as if, in the quiet of the night, they could hear the wheels turning in his mind. The sorcerer paid them little mind, however. His thoughts were focused solely on the task that had been laid out for them by Niccoli. “Understandably so, Archbishop. That the Cardinal is unwilling to brief you on the true nature of this... excursion until we arrive in London is – while not unusual of his methods – still unsettling.”

There would be rituals to perform, he thought. Rites and such that would provide them extra protection and the clairvoyance needed to deal with the sly minds of the Camarilla. His mind ran over a list of necessary ingredients even as he continued to speak. “...Will the fiend be joining us?” he inquired, referring of course to the Hungarian Tzimisce that had provided much of the muscle of their attack on the Barbican.

[Katarina Gordislava]

Katarina shook her head lightly. "If Eszerbet is a further part of the Cardinal's plans, he did not inform me of it. No doubt she is content to remain in Budapest. I doubt even Cento's threats could roust her from her lair until she has had ample time to rest."

Ivan, a huge bear of a man who defied the vampiric tendency to become slim after the Embrace, opened their doors for them and got into the driver's seat. He spoke little, but missed nothing.

"It will take a day to get transportation arranged. We will have to use a different plane than last time, to avoid suspicious Camarilla eyes." They could simply tag along on a chartered red-eye - the mortals would not even know that they had guests on board. But, only if there was such a flight leaving soon. She looked over at Sergei, "I imagine you will want to gather some supplies before the trip..?"

[Sergei Vishnyakov]

“If we are going to be spending some time in London, then yes... just a few essentials from the haven. I can't imagine the chantry there being forthcoming with anything I might require,” he replied, with a slight chuckle.

“Eszerbet was a liability,” Sergei continued, as a somewhat unexpected afterthought after a moments pause. “The Tzimisce present too many uncontrollable variables. It was her – it's – purpose to provide disposable soldiers and yet she threw a tantrum when they were destroyed. I doubt her commitment to the goals and principles of the Sabbat.”

Frowning slightly, he glanced out the window of the car. The streets were quiet, but appearances could be deceiving. Ivan drove on quickly, fully aware of the seven-foot monstrosities that could be lurking down any alleyway.

“I can make my own way from the haven to the airport, if you have matters or preparations to attend to,” he added, turning his gaze away from the bleak night and back to Katarina.

[Katarina Gordislava]

"I do." They traveled in silence for a moment before she continued, "That is why children are not Embraced, of course. The tantrums. A child is unsuitable for the vampiric life until it has properly matured."

Katarina glanced out the window, her hands in her lap. "Some of the youngest Embraced have matured since they were turned, but it is not common."

[Sergei Vishnyakov]

The only child that Sergei had ever known to be of any use was the Little Tailor of Prague, a Tzimisce who was renowned for his exquisite yet brutal mastery of the flesh craft, whose gifts produced the most ghastly and powerful ghouls. His was not the mind of a child however. It had long since been eroded into a kind of madness.

“The Cardinal expects us to liaise with the Sabbat contingent in London, then," he sighed. "Yet another potentially damning variable.”

While the coterie Katarina kept had its strengths, Sergei knew they alone could not overcome the Camarilla – unless the Niccoli meant for them to target individual Kindred, rather than the organization at large.

“Surely there are others in Russia that could be sent too, those whom we know and trust already.”

[Katarina Gordislava]

She lifted one eyebrow, and met his eyes. "He did tell me I could take who I wished. But he made it quite clear you were expected to accompany me as well."

It could mean many things, none of them especially good. Alexi would be able to watch over many things on the homefront, but he was not paticularly powerful. If anything happened while they were gone he would alert her to it. "Niccoli did say we were going to be subtle. As opposed to the all-out assault of New Years Eve."

Katarina ran long fingers through her hair, leaning into the corner of the seat against the window, studying her Vizier in silence once more.

[Sergei Vishnyakov]

“I see.”

That Sergei had been named specifically to accompany Katarina was suspicious. While the Cardinal would have expected his Archbishop to take her Vizier with her regardless, it seemed odd that he required her to do so. Perhaps he hoped to rid himself of the burdensome Tremere, knowing full well the strength of the London chantry.

There were rituals he could perform, that would provide him some glimpse into the future. His skill in such magics wasn't masterful, but he possessed enough knowledge to allow him some far sight. If something dark loomed ahead in their future, there was a good chance he would sense it.

“It's a bold move, isn't it,” he said, after a moments silence passed. “There are other western capitols that would have been easier to overcome, giving us a stronger foothold and more support when the time should come to challenge London.”

[Katarina Gordislava]

"It could be a feint, while his true mission is elsewhere." In Moscow, most likely, behind our backs. "We may also be expected to fail. Or the Cardinal is going insane and does not himself have a reason for choosing London."

The car began to slow as they reached the haven, pulling into a short graveled drive that looped in front of the house and back out to the street. Ivan stopped in front of the house and opened Katarina's door.

She paused in the chill winter air, and walked slowly around the car towards the house. "This may be just the second move of a chess match that will take many years to complete."

[Niccoli Cento]

Niccoli waited until he was alone, and then left the sanctuary of the altar and made his way to the basement beneath the cathedral. This was his true Haven, though he shared it with bodyguards and ghouls. The basement had been large enough when he had first come to the church, but over the years it had been enlarged until it was over twice as large as the cathedral above. He had also added a sub-basement where the ghouls and food were kept.

Katarina Gordislava, as she called herself these days, was dangerous. Ambitious enough to pose a threat to his own position, but not powerful enough yet to mount any serious attack against him. She was bound to obey his commands, most of them anyway. There was enough wriggle room in the bonds he'd managed to get on her to cause some concern.

Ghouls in featureless obsidian masks surrounded him, peeling off the humble priest's costume and clothing the Cardinal in a rich red Armani suit. Niccoli fingered the fine fabric of the expensive coat as his second in command entered his private chamber. "Your transportation is ready, Cardinal"

"Bene." He would be in Budapest by the next evening.