The book he had received from Shadow lay open on the table before him, though not all of its pages were blank anymore. Instead they were covered in runic script, part of a relatively simple code Wilhelm had adopted to protect his research should it fall into the wrong hands, though an encryption he himself had little trouble with after spending a brief period of time acclimating himself with it. The notes were comparisons mostly, of knowledge taken from his own tomes on Merges Sorcery and that from the books that had been recovered from the Museum of Aquatic Nuisances. Comparing how a practitioner of Merges Sorcery manipulated the beast with how a Dragon could utilize the Coils of the Beast to suppress its influence. Both practices were matters of subdual and control, though their methods differed in accordance with their end results.

And ultimately, he was fairly certain that he had been able to distill it all down into one key difference. Merges Sorcery, at the risk of oversimplifying things, used a leash. It offered a measure of control over the beast, and allowed a Vampire to tap its strength, but it could also snap. The Coils of the Beast, however, seemed to be more of a straight up cage. One that they could not maintain for long, perhaps, and one that didn’t allow the Vampire to tap the powers of the beast in the manner of Merges Sorcery. But one that could infallibly contain the beast at the height of its passions as it tried to take control. Of course, in actuality it was all a great deal more complicated than that. Especially when it came to how the two interacted, something that Wilhelm was still attempting to see if he predict, but for now he knew enough. It was time to put theory into practice, time for a Chrysalis.

And to work with the Coils of the Beast one had to get into the right frame of mind. What frame was necessary was something that was obvious enough. The beast was a creature of anger and violence, plain and simple. So Wilhelm picked up his long swords from where they leaned against the wall, and walked to the area of open space he had cleared in one of the rooms of his haven. And then he flowed into the easy movements of a sword dance that his Sire had drilled into him over a century before, one he was intimately familiar with. His feet moved lightly, keeping his balance perfectly centered. His blades sliced through the air around him, steel flashing almost hypnotically in the dim lighting as he fell into what his Sire had always referred to as a dance with death itself.

And he let the dance go, continuing it without conscious effort as he let his body act on whatever passed for muscle memory amongst their kind. And he let his mind drift, relax. And his awareness gradually dimmed; everything got dark, everything got warm. He was entering the Chrysalis, he just needed to bring the beast to the fore. So he pressed the button of the remote wedged between the hilt of one sword and his hand. The remote, in turn, caused a device set against the far wall to spark. And the flash paper he’d plastered against the brick went up in a sudden burst of flame. And he could feel his beast slam into his awareness even as his awareness faded….into warmth…into darkness…

Into the Chrysalis, a place where even a Kindred’s eternal body was mutable, a place where the beast lurked close to the surface. Into a place where he would have to struggle with the beast in order to impose that change. And so he did. Even as it happened he was not quite sure how the man and beast contested each other, and perhaps he would never be able to describe it adequately. But he knew that it was happening. And when he emerged from his Chrysalis some time later he knew that it had succeeded. His first coil had been achieved.

With a small smile of satisfaction he returned to his desk and perused his notes briefly once more. Then he took up pen and paper, and began to transcribe the relevant portions into uncoded English. Ishani would doubtlessly appreciate the insight they could provide.