The trip had been a very long and difficult one, even for the highly trained Bill Tanner and he sat now on the hard stone, massaging his feet slowly. The journey had been odd, Sorenti had been unusually silent for the duration, he was so unlike himself lately, Bill thought as he looked at his employer. Sorenti knelt comfortably in the middle of the shrine, his palms upturned resting on his knees and his head lolled forwards as if asleep. "Might as well be one o' them bloody statues" Bill mouthed to himself with a smirk. From time to time he had studied Sorenti intensely for any notion of movement, but for nearly seven hours, he had found none. The monks had come and go, their delicate tread quiter than mice, but sounding like elephants to Bill's trained ear in such silence. They had brought him food, drink and a hessian blanket to rest upon, he curled it up now and propped his head up against the wall.

Bill turned slightly so he could view the entire entrance, then wondered why he bothered all the way up here, there was no way anyone could get here unaided and they were many miles from what any might call civilization. He sighed softly and went back to his study of Sorenti. The long golden hair, usually so well styled now fell loose upon his shoulders. His prized, full-length leather jacket with the crossed swords emblazoned on the back, lay where it had been thrown in the corner, a fine layer of sandy dust already collected upon it. His boots lay where they had been kicked off and his Armani trousers were smeared with dust, his once clean white shirt now a murky off-white and the fine gold edging now a dirty yellow.

Bill half laughed as he recalled Sorenti brushing off a speck too small to see before a meeting, then saw him now. So much had changed, he pondered whether someone or something had found a way into Sorenti's mind again, but he knew it wasn't so. Before, Sorenti had looked far away and was without focus, but this time his eyes burned like they had their own fire behind them, he was resolute and impossible to argue with or doubt. Bill settled his mind, Sorenti was definitely still Sorenti, but something wasn't as it used to be, something had changed, or at least something had made him change. He lay on his back and looked up at the dwindling stars overhead, then down to the rough channels carved out of the stone to gather the rainwater.

Sorenti knelt still, as motionless as if he were dead, he had expected a massive flurry of memories all rushing past his eyes as if in a movie, but that had only been fleeting. His mind was quiet, contemplative, but empty, what he searched for wasn't there, his emotions had long left him, so had the ache in his knees, subsiding to an almost warm feeling. He reached out with his mind, over and over, to a place he did not know, certain his answer lay there somehow, totally focused, sensing nothing around him at all, intent on his purpose.

Bill lay back against the hessian make-shift pillow, deciding to let his ears be on guard as his eyes needed rest. It was alright for Mr. Dead Guy over there, he didn't have to worry about human energy, Bill thought with a snicker that he silenced immediately. He looked over at Sorenti, but saw no movement, so lay his head back again and looked up at the sky turning to a faint pink with the coming of the dawn.

The cabin door slid open, drawing inquistive looks from most of the occupants within. The man standing within the doorway spat forth several harsh words in his rough German dialect. Gabriel, unversed in German, sat idly by the window leafing through his New York Times, which his assistant had had the foresight to bring along. Currently, that same assistant leaned forward from the seat across from him.

"He says we'll be at the station momentarily Mr. Jenkins." Gabriel, or Christopher Jenkins, as he had come to be known, glanced up from his paper and nodded abscently. Taking a moment to scan over the fleeting landscape outside, he exhaled the breath he had been holding for the past several hours.

The rich German countryside was soaked in the moon's supple glow, the hues of blue and white hanging off every branch and stretch of grass a Kindred eye could detect. Even the craggy moutains which extended far in the distance could not escape the moon's more subtle touches.

Gabriel returned his attention to his various stockholdings. Unimpressed by the declining American economy, he folded the paper neatly and tossed it onto the oddly colored orange seat next to him. Business meetings were difficult to arrange in the middle of the night, but this merger might prove to be the oppurtunity of a lifetime, at least in a Kine's definition. For the most part the Ventrue Seneschal was content to si....

...S...re....ti....

The image flashed through his mind like a single frame in a film, blinking only momentarily yet etching every detail into his mind's eye. His Sire, once one of the greatest heroes the Camarilla had ever known, now beaten and defeated...on his knees within a stone building...contemplating...searching.....

Gabriel strained, attempting to reconnect, but with failure...he met only with a void. An eerie, powerful, almost overwhelming silence. As the train arrived three minutes late at the station, Gabriel O'Brien pondered the vision...and what it could mean?

((don't worry, i won't send Gabe running after you because of a mental image AGAIN...just wanted to let you know he's still in SOME contact. nice to see you post btw :)

((DAMN! Nice post man! I see you haven't lost any of your impact :D

((wow, thx Frank :) i really appreciate tha...oh, you were referring to Ray...sod off then! lol

((hehehe, thx, now I guess I better post the next bit :? Oh and don't worry Gabe, it's almost dawn lol, don't think you'd have too much chance :(

Bill woke with a start, he had only dozed for what seemed like a few seconds, but already the sun was halfway across the coutyard of the open monastery. He swung his legs off of the stone bench and sat up. The monks were beginning to file out for morning prayer, in almost regimental lines they took their places, each with his own kneeling mat. Bill stood up as they positioned themselves in front of the altar, facing the sun as it steadily approached. He moved to one side as the soft, tuneful plainsong began, watching as the arc of sunlight on the floor moved up and over each row of prostrate monks.

He looked at Sorenti, still unmoved, kneeling in front of the monks, seemingly oblivious to everything, as focused as ever. Bill watched the sun carefully and as it moved to within an inch of Sorenti's feet, tucked under him in his meditative posture, Bill drew a sharp breath,

"Well, this is it" he muttered as the edge of the sunlight touched Sorenti's toes.

Sorenti reached out again with his mind for the countless time, striving to find an answer, the same place, the same vision, but now something new, an object, hard to make out, but bright, shining, glowing. He concentrated harder than he ever had before, but as the sunlight hit his head, the vision burned with a ferocity that made him mentally avert his eyes, it was blinding. In the middle of it, he caught a glimpse, just a glimpse, of the object in the middle, but as he saw it more clearly, it erupted into flames, everything was on fire, he had never felt heat like this. It all crumbled in on itself as the fire engulfed its prey viciously, till all that was left were ashes twisting and curling in the soft monastery breeze.

Bill sighed heavily and picked up Sorenti's boots, placing them neatly at the side of a bench, then he gathered up the emblazoned jacket, dusted it off and carefully laid it out above the boots. He looked at the emblem fondly for a while, lifted his face to the warmth of the sun, then turned away from the shrine.

((ummm....Sorenti didn't just go up in flames did he?

(( Nice posts ! I just hope that this post is a Dream lol , you didnt killed Sorenti man i hope , or ill have to hurt you badly lol . TELL me Sor's not dead man ))

Bill again found himself wondering what had happened to cause the change in his employer, he couldn't recall anything specific, apart from the bombing of the bank or the overgrown dog Sorenti had brought back to Blenheim. But things like this his boss usually took in his stride, typically amid a mass of other worries too, he just had no clue what had caused an almost staggering change.

He looked up at the sun, there was another thing...Sorenti had always been careful with money, always bargaining to get the price down, threatening and enforcing when necessary....but this...this extravagance had been of enormous cost and Sorenti hadn't even batted an eyelid. All this way and all this money, for what? Bill wondered

"For my peace of mind!" came the voice from behind him.

Bill didn't turn around, he kept looking up at the sun, "I just worry about you, you've changed so much, was all this really necessary?"

"Of course it was! If it hadn't been, I wouldn't have done it! My GOD man, of anyone YOU should know me better than that!"

Bill nodded, "But still I..."

"STOP!.....you know more than you should anyway yet still you fail to understand, perhaps you have grown too close to me over the years, maybe it is time to hire a replacement!"

This visibly shocked Bill, he had always worked hard and never thought he'd hear anything of the sort, especially not from one so trusted.

"Then maybe you trust too easily William, many things change in life, even moreso in death! Watch!"

Sorenti bent down and picked up a small pebble, with a small glance at the retiring monks safely out of sight, he launched the stone upwards. With a popping sound it broke through the immense UV protective glass dome that had been manufactured and fitted at his request, the slight reflective quality preventing a greenhouse effect underneath. A cylindrical beam of sunlight burst through the small hole from the pebble striking Sorenti's upturned palm. A small flame arose and his skin started to smoke, slowly and without expression of pain, Sorenti moved his hand in the beam until it had burned a cross on his palm. When he was satisfied, he removed his hand from the pure sunlight and held it up to show Bill.

Bill couldn't help flinching slightly as he saw the skin still smoking, but then his jaw gaped open as Sorenti closed his hand and opened it again to reveal no marks.

"I..I... I've never seen y..you do that before" Bill exclaimed

"There's a lot you have never seen! You have seen many things, infinitely more than any other mortal might, yet the comprehension is still a little lacking. I could show you, if you were willing, of course it wouldn't work if you were alive." Sorenti said quietly

"Y..You mean? B..b..but, but, I...I...y..you wouldn't kill me, w..would you?" Bill stammered

"Why not? After all, it's what we're best at, from a certain point of view. Join me or die, it's a fairly simple proposal...I'll let you think on it a while" Sorenti smiled darkly, then turned to walk away but Bill stepped in front of him,

"You don't need to give me thinking time, sir" he said, desperately trying to gather himself, "I owe you my life, in fact probably more than my life, if you wish it ended, that's your choice, but I will remain loyal to the end.....sir"

Sorenti smirked "Well that's a start, get this atrocity removed," he said gesturing at the UV roof over the monastery "I want to go home and soon, I have much to do!"

Bill nodded curtly, turned on his heel and saluted, almost Gestapo-like, more out of relief than necessity and disappeared off to make the calls. Sorenti looked ruefully up at the weakened sunlight that had destroyed his vision "One day my friend, one day!" he whispered.

((Sneaky shit! But wtf were the ashes then??

((lmao you can never seem to wait for the next bit Ports hehe....it'll be explained ;)

((Patience is for the half-witted!!

((or Doctors perhaps......oh no, wait....that's patients lol

((Hmmm or Inventors, nope that's patents ;)

((ok, what about solo card players? :twisted: