By Design

[Alice Hart]

Lyssa had protested being left behind, in that silent way of hers, she remembered what happened last time her lady had left her behind, and didn't want to experience that again.

Honestly, Alice didn't want to experience it either, but just like when her eyes fell to ash, if she didn't go out, she never would.

Alice simply wanted to walk, walk as she had for months, but strangely hadn't for what felt like the same, walk in whichever direction the warming breath of Zephyrus would lead her. Alice walked until the Messenger of Spring's breath left her form. By the sounds Alice was in a park, a fake, but oh so real, smile graces the Blind Doll's face as Zephyrus danced betwixt branches, rustling grass and leaves as he did.

Alice, by luck or design was alone in the park, no kine about, as she tilted her head and listened to the sounds of the forest.

[Scylla]

The sounds of the park were an echo of a world that was not past, no matter how little mind those that dwelt beneath city lights might give it. Why, even within the bounds of the city, the reign of tooth and claw still prevailed. Hunters prowled the night. Sleek bodied cats, whispered beneath the underbrush. Coyotes sang their triumphs and warnings. An owl gave its haunting call.

Much, much closer than Alice would have expected. Why, it must have been practically above her, and, just a moment later, she felt the brush of wind as the powerful hunter's wings swept over her.

Once more, it called, filling the night with its sinister voice...

...and, in answer, another voice spoke, the words faint even to the Pale Wraith's ears.

"Quid enim tu inventus est, Macha? Rat a fortasse? Aut lupus est?"

There was something mocking in the voice, yet the words were fond and lilting, as though this was a joke often told.

Footsteps could be heard, too, steady and rhymic, the rustle and clink of a pack accompanying the sounds of feet. Whoever this was, they certainly possessed none of the owl's ability to pass silently in the night.

Indeed, a sharp whistle sounded, as though to punctuate the point, and the owl gave a slight screech in response, and then the stranger was approaching the Seneschal, the owl hooting from its perch atop their pack.

"What say you?" the woman's voice asked, just as the woman's Beast offered it's best growl. "Rat, or Wolf?"

Translation a la google

What have you found, Macha? Perhaps a rat? Or a wolf?

[Alice Hart]

The night chorus still cast a pleasant smile upon the Doll's face. The rustling of wind and branch, the cry and call of beast, then the wings, the voice, the Beast.

The Wraith's once ice grows, now a boiling sea within, the Wraith itself thrashes in the water. A monster at her back, and rival in the woods! Rip, tear, hunt, kill. Notions that should have been easier to ignore were far harder as both Doll and Wraith had tasted victory, even if the experience was colored by the flavor of rot on her tongue.

She was still who she'd been a week ago, and she wouldn't attack a random kindred without cause...but now she knew that she had it in her to attack.

Alice turns from the forest, and towards the direction of the Beast Voice.

"I say wolf." her voice is hollow, months ago she wouldn't have said anything. "If such words don't promote an ego's inflation."

[Scylla]

"Ahhh, fortunate," the strange Kindred husked, striding forward to stand before the Pale Wraith. "I have been hunting for wolf. Quod deam mihi arridet!"

The words blended with the sound of rustling cloth, no doubt the sign that a gesture accompanied the words.

"So, tell me, wolf, whose lands do I walk upon? Whom must I, in tribute, pay? My voyage has not been easy, long plagued by the wrathful gaze of sun, and I would settle if permitted."

more translation, a la google

The goddess smiles on me!

[Alice Hart]

The words pass over Alice, and she realize that not only should she take lessons in Italian, but of other languages as well.

For a moment Alice is still, her hearing heighten to make doubly sure her words would not be overheard by any who shouldn't hear them. The only beating hearts she hears are the small ones from the rightful residents of the forest.

"Tribute...Asa Clake. Lord and Dragon." Says the Haunt, voice soft. "Truly the gods work wonders, I speak in his voice, and have empowered to oversee new arrivals, and aid them in their wish to settle in this fair city." this was a little more formal then even Alice was used to but this rivalmonsterstrangermeat Kindred set the tone, and Alice didn't want to ruin it...it added a certain something to the conversation as it weaved around the night's magnificent chorus.

[Scylla]

"Ah. So I have come to Sacramento, then," the foreign Kindred said after a few moments. "Good, then I have not strayed. And, if you speak truth, and are vox draconis, then I would offer you tribute as well."

A short, low pitched whistle was given, and answered by the owl, shortly before Alice heard the sound of the stranger's pack hitting the ground. Another hoot sounded, this time from above and behind them.

"I am Scylla," the foreign Kindred declared, her voice coming from below as she knelt before the Pale Wraith.

"I am Ripper. Terror. Slaughter. I am the Storm beneath the Phantom Queen's wings, the Axe in Her hands, the Hunger for death brought upon Her enemies. As tribute to you, and to the Dragon, I offer you my services, so long as I judge them worthy."

[Alice Hart]

"You have indeed come to the River City; Sacramento." says Alice as she wonders over the Latin, she knew that 'draconis' was dragon, but she didn't know what 'vox' meant. Though by tone and context, it was probably something positive, and had something with Asa's membership in the Ordo Dracul.

The whistle, paired with the stranger's sudden sounds had Alice's twitching as her ears tried to paradoxically catch the sounds and flinch from it.

"Scylla." Alice tastes the name on her tongue, trying to hide how startled she was by the stranger - Scylla, kneeling in front of her. This....had never happened to the Blind Doll before. "A warrior." Alice says, distilling the flow of words to their essence. "Your arrival is timely. Or Divinely inspired. Our enemies numerous." focusing once more on the heartbeats of the area...still only the animals that are one part of the night chorus. "The Brood bays at our doorstep. Hunter slink in the shadows, a cult grows at our borders, and mortal alchemists are playing with things beyond their ken."

A spark of excitement, of anticipation grows within the Haunt. Someone this formal could be Unconquered, but none of her words fit. None of the Second Estate would use these words, nor would they let her use of 'gods' go without a word. If she were a Dragon she would name herself so, there was ample opportunity to speak of her ties with the Ordo, and to the Prince...Unaligned was a possiblity, but Alice thought not, what Alice thought was why there was this bud of excited anticipation to bloom.

"Tell me ripper, terror, slaughterer, Scylla. Tell me your Clan, and name your Covenant."

[Scylla]

"The Lords call my blood Savage," Scylla replied with a half laugh, "but short sighted are they. We all spill blood so that we may lap at it. The difference is that some see mysteries within red depths as we bend to lap."

Scylla licked her lips unconsciously, the thought of blood rousing the slumbering Beast, and then she couldn't help but grin, fangs bared in the darkness. Alas, she couldn't yet turn her thoughts to prey.

"Your second question I have already answered," Scylla continued, fangs sliding back away as she turned her gaze upwards, towards the Pale Wraith once more.

"I am the servant of the Phantom Queen, the Defender of the Circle that gathers in worship, the Stormcrow waiting to pick the flesh clean from the Corpse God."

And though it was dangerous to admit such before she learned of just what Covenants made up this domain, there was no fear in Scylla's still heart. She had survived purges and fire, chains and spears. Even if this pale wolf was trying to lead her into a trap, even if her speech of the Gods was false, the Stormcrow would not be daunted.

"What of you?" Scylla prompted as she rose to her feet once again. "What name do you hail by, vox draconis? What blood runs in your veins? At whose altar do you worship?"

[Alice Hart]

Alice's tongue meets her lips as Scylla speaks of lapping up blood. She didn't want to glut herself, nor did she crave it more then normal, but to rend flesh with fang, to have blood to meet her tongue...maybe she should have supped upon Lyssa's offered veins before she left on her walk.

The revelation comes, and strikes Alice like lightning. "Morrigan. You are of the Blood of the Morrigan." her hollow tone filled with false awe. Alice had heard whispers in the late summer of her initiation from the Sisters Three, of the venerated bloodlines the Circle could boast, and the Stormcrows were the one of the most revered.

Shocked as she was she needed the Stormcrow's prodding to bring her out of the most of it.

"Alice Hart is the name I claim." but, it wasn't the one she was born with. Alice wonders now, as the nights drew on, would she have told Robert the name her mother gave her had the Burned Man stayed. "And if you cannot guess my Blood by my face, then it is you who are blind. I am Nosferatu." is boldly said by Alice for the first time in her unlife. "And I am an Acolyte of the Circe of the Crone...before your arrival. The only Acolyte Sacramento could boast."

[Scylla]

"Mock me not, Alice Hart, for what you say is true. I am Stormcrow. Daughter of Badb, Macha, and Nemain. And if you are the only Acolyte within this Domain, then that means you stand as High Priestess, and I, as your servant."

The call of the owl sounded above them, then, ominous and deep, and full of Night's promises.

"If you do not trust me," Scylla continued, "then issue a challenge, and I shall prove myself in your eyes, in the eyes of the Phantom Queen, and in the eyes of whatever other gods and goddesses might wish to bear witness. So I promise you."

Even as the words left her mouth, Scylla raised her wrist to her mouth, and the sickening sound of flesh parting under fangs reached Alice's ears as the Stormcrow freed the veins beneath her skin and let her vitae fall to water the ground between them.