"You are quite intriguing, Father Galilei." The pale Lady let the words, and then the silence which swept in on their wake, fill the space between them for many moments. If a kine were to have walked in during those moments, they might have assumed that some particularly masterful yet reclusive wax sculptor was inspecting his work, alone in the skeleton of the Church.
"You have a strange demeanor. It is not so much that it makes you seem as though one has known you for many nights, but rather that one does not need to have known you for more than a single night. Regardless of your other qualities, I would say that that is indeed a beneficial one in a priest. However, I know I do not share that same quality, so allow me to illuminate a portion of myself so that you do not have to stumble onward through the shadows."
A steady flow of air was drawn into her chest cavity and her spine straightened until her posture was like that of royalty. "I remember bombs falling on London. Feeling them tear open earth, and hearing the wail of the sirens as though the city itself was naught but a helpless babe before the might of the Luftwaffe. It was some years after that, yet mere months after my moment of Damnation that I spurned the wishes of my Sire and sought the faith that we now share. As my body had already been preserved, as God had Willed it to be, I bear no scars from the Creation Rite. At the time I was pleased, for I was vain, but there have been many nights since when I have wished for such a badge to wear. Now would indeed be one of those times, so that I might have proof, but I shall not protest if you choose to favor the path of the cautious. For, there are many who would say that I deserve to undertake the rite again.
"Many years after I had joined the faithful I was called upon by my Blood, both my Sire and my Brother both, to aid them in a political affair. They were in the Invictus, much like your precious Travis, and thus all that mattered to them was what use my knowledge could be put towards. In that particular affair, they persuaded me to help them expose an impious pretender who curried favor with the Lancea Sanctum merely for the purposes of having a creed to lie behind. Unfortunately, when my part in the affair was discovered, my loyalty and faith came into question. It was for this reason that I was not called upon, in the year 2004, to participate in the committee pursuing the creation of a revised edition of the Testament of Longinus. That hack, Caroline Petronius of Chicago, was, I suspect, my replacement when a group of scholars was finally charged with writing the new edition. That was merely the most public of my mistreatment, however. There are innumerable other grievances which I could lay at the feet of my former brothers and sisters in faith, and eventually I decided that it would be prudent for me to leave the city of my birth and damnation to start a new.
"Originally I tried settling in Chicago, but as that did not take, and my Brother in Blood had already expressed his intention of settling here, I chose to move once more. His intentions were revealed to be false when I had finally arrived, however, but I chose to stay nonetheless. I am no Legate, after all, and there is something charming about this town. I believe it was not a mistake to decide that it might be home" she divulged, her monologue coming to an end.
"This, brings me, perhaps prematurely, to my offer for you," she added after a pause. "I was wondering if you would form a Coterie with me. A family of the Damned, so to speak."
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