Secrets of Below

[Alice Hart]

"Exactly Robert." Right now, they were the only kindred in the Domain who had any Faith. She didn't want to force others to believe, because the Doll thought that it would be a false belief, a tainted belief. Such a thing the diminished Circle needed not.

"Thank you." Alice nods another one of her smooth inhuman nods to wards the second Robert.

A hollow laugh, "I'm surprised myself that I've risen this high this quickly considering..." she's only four years dead. "The Farm was firebombed during the Summer Solstice, by the Brood. I wasn't yet initiated then, I was there to observe, and see...if it was something that could answer my questions. The incident made me want to run screaming...if my Blood hadn't thickened, and my eyes hadn't fallen to ash...I wouldn't have sought out the Crone. I would have ran, screaming." She admits without shame. "But my Blood did thicken, and my eyes did fall. And it had to be for a reason. I needed to search outside of the Domain...after the firebombing, every other Acolyte fled. Which says more then I can express about their devotion." a parody of a sneer stretches the Doll's lips. "One I thought was recovering from the fire. A Shadow, who went inside and was set alight....but I haven't seen him. The other, the Gangrel Katya."

The silence stretches, and Alice reaches out toward the second Robert, metaphorically.

"We currently have a member of the Brood cell in torpor. You are welcome to come to our...discussion with her."*

*

Just trying to tie in this to why Longstreet's in Pandora's Box, I figure this'll wrap up before the plot scene dose

[Robert Cross]

This meeting is going better than Cross thought it would. Or could.

The others may sneer at their Family, at their so-called curse, but Cross has seen enough now to know that the trials of the Blood bring a certain solidarity. The understanding unfolding between them now is simply more evidence of this fact.

But that seems to be the only thing he's certain of these nights. That, and the bond that he and Alice share, one that extends beyond even Family.

Alice's explanation of the continued Brood presence in the city is just one example of this uncertainty. Everything is a little more precarious than it might seem. And much more dangerous. Still, for what it's worth, they have each other.

Cross watches Longstreet closely to see how he takes the news. And his reaction to Alice's revelation concerning her recent transformation. Silently hoping that the new arrival will take up arms with them against the scum still infesting the domain.

[Alice Hart]

"Good." Though her voice is hollow, there is a force of shallow emotions threaded through it. That force, paired with the mockery of a sneer twisting her lips and it painted a very clear picture of the Doll's feelings on those blasphemous wretches.

"We heard there was a bomb hidden within the Moore House, but we discovered that it was a red herring. The reason this cell is so focused upon the Circle is because their leader. A Baddacelli named Dirge. Who used be a devoted worshiper of the Crone, and member of the Domain. One in good standing. Apparently."

Alice shakes her head, her ghostly locks tickling her neck.

"Hunters. Maddox was taking up that line, but once again he failed epicly. They've all gone to ground. There's a cult just out of town, the Prince was interested in something...but country to what should have happened, no one took the initiative and dug into what exactly, garnered the Prince's attention. Nothing on VII, or the Lupines."

[Robert Cross]

Dirge.

It was this figure that had led Alice and Cross to the truth concerning her sudden loss of sight in those first, terrifying nights after her transformation. A name found in a book housed in Greenberg's collection at the Bleak Annals. A name that unlocked the mystery of eyes turned to ash overnight.

And now, the name of their enemy. Is it coincidence that the only other member of Alice's bloodline known to have resided in Sacramento, and a former leader of her covenant to boot, is now involved in an assault against the domain, and the Circle of the Crone in particular?

For a moment, Cross is overwhelmed by the unknowns, by the vague sense of plans turning within plans. It is terrifying, this feeling. The Burned Man pulls himself back from the brink, focusing on the conversation at hand.

"Yes, hunters have been an issue for the domain in the past. There was a well-funded group by the name of Task Force: Valkyrie operating here not too long ago. But they were focused, largely, on a masquerade breach committed by the former Gangrel Priscus, Konrad Roth." Indeed, Roth had asked for his help in dealing with these individuals. And Cross had been there the night they'd almost blown the Savage up. Been there to keep Konrad, in the grips of frenzy, from doing anything stupid.

"With his departure, they seem to have gone quiet, but..." He shrugs. You never know.

[Alice Hart]

Alice frowns, she didn't like that she didn't know if those Hunters were active in the Domain. They weren't taken care of, they'd simply disappeared and that didn't sit right with the haunt.

"Apparently so," Alice says to Longstreet. "I don't know why, she wasn't even commonly mentioned when I first arrived. Her tenure in the Domain either didn't last long, or it had expired long before I came. I just of her from what little I've managed to gather since the first attack. Speaking of information, the Prince has given some more information. Apparently she wields a long spear, that is also her ceremonial staff, and has a large attack dog. Ferocious enough that His Grace explicitly warned us - myself and the Reeve - about him."

The change in conversation is obvious, but Alice is glad of it, even as the question makes her pause.

The Wraith thrashes, while hissing it's demands, of Blood and Vengeance.

"Trying not to be proven an animal." she spits before she could stop it.

It was one thing for Robert to know, it was an entirely different thing for Longstreet to know too.

[Robert Cross]

For a moment, a calculating look is Cross's only answer to Longstreet's question. How much should he share with this Pale, even if he is Family? Even if he belongs to the Dark Faith?

Then Alice provides her own, abrupt response. One that Cross understands, to some extent, given what he's seen in the last few nights with her. What he wouldn't give to go to her now, sit down beside her, put his arms around her.

Instead, he answers Longstreet, looking to soften Alice's seemingly cryptic reply by adding one of his own: "I've just returned to the city after a long absence. There's a lot I need to attend to, in the Domain and personally." A pause as he considers just how much needs to be done.

"And, of course, I hope to continue to grow in the Dark Faith."

[Alice Hart]

A smooth nod from Alice. Robert needed to talk to Ale, and the Prince, but hopefully if Ale attends to it, then Asa won't feel the need to.

Alice isn't ignoring what else Robert says, but the Doll holds her tongue.

"His Grace told Ale and I to talk to Twist about Summoning Dirge." Alice still didn't really know what that meant, but assumed it had to do with the Daeva's Majesty. "If we can't locate her on our own."

The Wraith thrashes, the Hunger gnaws.

"The Prince." The answer is bitten out. Then Alice head shakes. "I...frenzied. Killed someone. A Cathrian. It's not that I killed her...it's that I lost control." and was stupid about it. Should have ripped her paltry status from her, said any number of things before or even after to justify it. To make it so Alice was in the right. "The Prince doesn't want an animal as his Seneschal."

She shakes her head once more. If Longstreet asks for more, she'll give it, but with however many she's told it seems like everyone and their mother knew about the Doll's stupidity.