Beginnings
The First Lesson: Beginnings
The First Lesson: Beginnings This night’s cold, not that the packmates are about to admit it. The winter storms blast off the North Pacific and up the Columbia River, driving sleet like knives. The wind hasn’t fallen below 25 miles an hour since sunset.
Gusts sometimes move as fast as cars on a highway. The packmates feel something in the air, though, and without actually speaking a word to each other, they agree that they must take extra care to show they understand their condition.
Read full lesson → Antiquity
The Second Lesson: Antiquity
The Second Lesson: Antiquity The worst of the storm is past now, leaving a legacy of winds chill enough to keep the ice frozen. Andrew’s pack spends two nights seeking out stranded motorists and feeding on them. Andrew makes it a training game, with the object of inflicting the most thorough carnage without any residue for police or others to track. Ming shows the most creative flair, cleverly arranging blankets of temporal shadow to catch the mess she makes eviscerating her victims.
On the third night, Andrew stirs to wakefulness in the pack’s communal haven. Some subconscious signal tells him to keep the pack together. He makes sure the neonates discuss Demba’s lesson and related subjects
Read full lesson → The Great Revolt
The Third Lesson: The Great Revolt
The Third Lesson: The Great Revolt The Festival of the Dead is over. As always, the police and the mayor scramble for hasty explanations about all the extra bodies. As always, they tried to cover it up, but amused Sabbat made sure to keep the local media informed, and the corpses made fine front-page news. Andrew reaches up to feel the bishop’s hat given to him on the last night of the festival, marking his triumph over his rivals. Ductus no more — now it’s Bishop Emory, thank you very much. His pleasure in the moment would be complete were it not for the elder standing next to him, surveying the city from the debris of the house they torched in last night’s fire dance.
Brother Oso looks li
Read full lesson → The Wider Night
The Fourth Lesson: The Rest of the World
The Fourth Lesson: The Rest of the World It’s been fifteen nights since the battered freighter left Bangkok. Andrew and his pack are having a marvelous time. They came on business: The Pacific Rim cardinals “asked” several reliable bishops to investigate rumors of heterodoxy and possible infernalism among the Southeast Asian packs. Andrew decided to bring the pack along, to help them make contacts (and establish some Vinculum ties that might come in handy somewhere down the road) and for a change of scenery. Back in his living days, Andrew sometimes corresponded with a mysterious old crone named Dun Meiling who resided in Bangkok and wrote some of the most scathingly nihilistic revolutionary
Read full lesson → Final Nights
The Fifth Lesson: Into the Final Nights
The Fifth Lesson: Into the Final Nights Demba returns to Portland in mid-October. She’s been traveling around California, trying to make sense of the continuously evolving chaos among Cainites there, and not at all sure she understands what’s going on. She decided to celebrate the Grand Ball in more secure circumstances and likes the style of the Oregon Sabbat.
Andrew, for his part, continues to consolidate his position as bishop. It’s tricky, particularly with two of his pack gone under ignominious circumstances. Ming left a note saying she was off to find the antitribu. Druitt promptly challenged Andrew to Monomacy, claiming obvious failure of leadership, and the ambitious young Cainite p
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