Ishani sat in an uncomfortable chair facing Saul. He was sitting in an identically uncomfortable chair. Made of a hard wood, the backs straight almost to the point of painful posturing, the seats flat with no contours for comfort of any kind. Her bottom had gone numb hours ago and her legs seemed to be there only because she could see them. She could only imagine the kind of pain Saul was in. But that was the point, really. He needed to understand patience and the necessity of thinking before he acted. Especially when they were on the brink of attacking Horizon and he would barely be 48 hours dead when it happened.

Finally, she leaned forward and examined the beads of sweat trailing down his skin and the slight tremer of his body as he fought to continue his motionless position. "Are you ready now? Have you prepared yourself to kiss your soul good-bye?"

Her words are harsh in comparison to the quiet tone she had been adressing him with. "Not that I truly hold such concepts to be true with any kind of religious ferver, but it is common agreement among most that once one is sired, your soul is dammed to whatever hell you currently believe in. Of course the fear of that dies with the passing of the centuries for some." She looked at him intently. "Or mere decades for others."

She stood so suddenly, forcing vitae into her dead muscles, that Saul flinched. She walked around her own chair to stand behind it. "Now keep in mind that there could be many complications involved in this process." She turned and faced him, holding up one hand and ticking off the different possabilities on each finger. "First, you may not even survive the change. Very few mortals do. Their physiology is far too weak for most to accept the ravages of the change. Second, you may survive the initial process only to be killed a short time later by the temper of your sire. And, by the way I have a very infamous temper. Third, the Prince may decide that you are too much of a liability and order me to kill you. Fourth, you may do something incredably stupid and get yourself ashed by my order or the Princes. And, of course the last option, I may decide you are no longer worthy of the Kiss and kill you on a whime."

Her hand dropped back to her side. "You see, Saul, once I turn you.......you belong to me until I decide you are ready to go out into kindred society on your own. You will obey my commands without question. You will follow the laws that I set forth and the laws of the Prince. To fail in either area is to meet final death."

She moved back to stand in front of him and leaned down to stare intently into his eyes. "All of this clear to you my pet?"

He nodded solemnly.

"Good." With a flash of speed born of a skill she'd learned recently, Ishani set herself upon him. He cried out in surprise, but the cry died to soft moans soon after her teeth sank into his flesh. She sucked the life out of him slowly, savoring the taste and feel of the blood coursing down her throat. She waited until the last breath rose in his chest and began to rattle out before she slashed her wrist and shoved her own blood into his mouth. He drank reflexsively. As she willed her vitae to course through her veins and out of her wrist, she concentrated to instill the correct properties needed in the blood to cause him to awaken as a childe rather then just a ghoul. The concentration took quite a bit out of her and when she was finally done, she collapsed to the floor, sitting beside his still unconscious body.

She came awake suddenly, feeling the passage of a day as Saul continued to sit, slumped into the chair. She knew it would probably take another half night before he would awaken, perhaps longer. Sometimes it took a full 48 hours before the new childe would rise. But she was patient.

She got herself back to her feet and grabbed a book from a small table in the coner. She sat back in the chair and began to read.

Hours passed and still Saul did not stir. She thought that maybe she had failed. Maybe his body was too ravaged by the mortal illness for the change to take affect. With a solemn heart, Ishani set the book aside and rose to go inform her Prince of her failure.

She had placed her hand on the knob of the door when she heard a rattling breath emerge from the still, dead man in the chair. With a slowness born of disbelief, Ishani turned around to face Saul, her new childe.

She smiled in triumph.