Blenheim Palace

Blenheim Palace is a country house in Oxfordshire designed in the rare and short-lived, English Baroque style and sitting in the centre of a large undulating park. It is unique in its combined use as a family home, mausoleum and national monument. The plan of the palace is a rectangle pierced by two courtyards. On the east side are the apartment suites and on the west is a long picture gallery and library. The palace is flanked by two further service blocks around square courtyards. The east court contains the kitchens, laundry and other domestic offices. The west court is adjacent to the chapel, stables and riding school. The three blocks together form the "Great Court" designed to overpower the visitor arriving at the palace. Pilasters and pillars abound, while from the roofs, themselves resembling those of a small town, great statues in the Renaissance manner of St Peter's in Rome gaze down on the visitor below, who is rendered inconsequential.

The drive out to the 'Nest' takes less than half an hour. When Parker pulls off the A44, the car begins the approach towards an old, stately home - although the huge, solid entrance portico on the north front resembles more the entrance to a pantheon than a family home. A low tower stands at each corner of the manor's central block, crowned with vast belvederes of massed stone that are decorated with curious finials. The towers hint at the pylons of an Egyptian temple, emphasising the same heroic pantheonesque atmosphere.

Rae drinks in the beautiful, sprawling grounds and the breathtaking architecture of the immense structure, finding that she feels quite at home in its stone sterility. She regards Francis from her seat, still uncomfortable with his presence despite the agreement they'd come to. She shoots a quick glance to Aubrey before speaking.  "So, knowing Eve's standard of living, I'd guess that you own a few of the nicer suites here? Fully equipped to accommodate the needs of those such as us."

Francis merely smirks back at Rae as Parker makes the long straight drive through wrought iron gates directly into the Great Court and pulls up outside the huge marble door-case at the front of the building. The driver stops the car, before coming around to open the door for the passengers. "After you, ladies."

Again puzzled by Francis's demeanor, Rae steps out of the car and into the Great Court. The sheer scale of it makes her feel miniscule in comparison, despite already being use to the many ancient and beautiful buildings of the Oxford grounds. Turning back to the driver, she nods respectfully. "Thank you, Parker." She then looks to Aubrey as she emerges from the car, leaning in to speak quietly. "I can't help but find myself impressed, this is gorgeous."

Aubrey rolls her eyes. "The word you're looking for is gaudy,  luv —  passé ."   Nevertheless, the young starlet can scarcely keep her eyes from wandering about the towering columns and baroque faç ade. Across all the penthouse suites of L.A. and New York and London she'd stayed in, beyond any of the great mansions of Hollywood Hills or country clubs Camille had taken them to or lived in, this was undeniably different. Older. Regal, even. 

Francis leads Rae and Aubrey in through the palace's great hall and left down a stairwell to the sublevel. The trio enter a wine cellar, where a large barrel slides aside to reveal secret door in the stone wall. Once more, Francis gestures to the girls to step inside.

Aubrey cocks a brow at the hidden passageway. The thought pops into her mind that there'd be no better place for him to kill her than in some dark crypt under an old cellar, but if he wanted to do that he'd likely have just done so back at Brasenose. Surely?  With a look to Raziel, she steps through after a moment.

Rae's amazement continues as they move through the great hall, eventually ending up at the secret door of the wine cellar. "Ha, someone certainly enjoyed their Arthur Conan Doyle." Noting Aubrey's uneasy glance, she walks a bit closer to the Daeva as they step through the secret entrance.

The secret door leads to a network of catacombs beneath Blenheim Palace. With Francis as their guide, Rae and Aubrey are eventually shown to a suite of vaulted chambers where the palace's baroque style meets some surprisingly high tech facilities and a spacious training room. "Welcome to the Asp's Nest," Francis announces, gesturing to their new environs, before crossing to a corner furnished with chesterfield armchairs and couches in dark red leather. He hangs his sword on a nearby weapon rack and a sharply dressed manservant enters the room through a service door, accompanied by an attractive young couple dressed in little more then underwear. "I'm sure that you're both in need of refreshment. The Nest's facilities are at your disposal."

Rae stares flummoxed at the layout of the room they've just entered, looking from the complex technological interfaces to training room beside them. Despite the scantily clad couple being the most normal thing in the room, Rae averts her eyes and focuses on the weapons rack instead.  "'Asp's Nest', do others use this facility as well? And yes, I'm quite famished actually, thank you." Moving quickly, she makes the briefest eye contact with the couple and smiles uncomfortably as she takes a seat on one of the red leather couches near them.

Aubrey stops in the doorway as Rae moves past her, for the first time since arriving starting with a look of genuine surprise on her face.  "Okay what? Are you like, fucking batman what is all this,"  she bluntly blurts out, nearly forgetting the still simmering cocktail of vengeful rage and fear she held towards the man. 

Francis glances back over his shoulder with a smirk. "Well, I did spend a lot of time in New York in the 30s and 40s..." he tells Aubrey with a laugh.

"Batman did his work in Gotham.." Rae corrects with an absent-minded tone, as she'd slowly worked up the courage to look the couple up and down, trepidation outlining the vulnerability she felt as she faced the provocation of the nearly nude forms before her.  Slowly, she reaches out a hand to the young woman. "May I?"

The blonde continues to stare directly ahead, not interacting with anyone in the room. "They're food, dear," Francis reminds Rae. "My food, freely given. You don't have to ask their permission."

Rae stills in mild shock and disgust, watching the woman and now noticing the vast emptiness behind her eyes. She considers her feelings for a moment, recalling how she'd spoken to Merric about her feeding. "I state the obvious when I say that we are not human, but...human beings are more than livestock. They should be given a choice. I understand that time has likely flattened such sentiments for you into a belief that humans are not worth feeling for. I do not judge your survival." She stands and walks over to face the blonde, gently taking her hand. She turns the young woman's hand over to make vulnerable the veins beneath, and kisses the skin marked by the faint shades of blue and green. "I prefer to feed consensually. Call it the trappings of a heart that remembers warmth. I trust that you will take this into account for future occasions."  With this, Rae's fangs break the skin of the young lady's wrist. She feeds.

Aubrey regards the two thralls with disdain. Not for the humans ー unlike what Rae was going on about she didn’t care much in regards to all of that nonsense herself ー but just staring at them, vacant and passive as they were, reminded her the man she stood by had done the same to her not even an hour earlier.  She could feel the slightest twinge of hunger prick her senses, but she ignored it. If she was going to feed, it wouldn’t be by handout from him  of all people. She instead looks around at the tech, folding her arms expectantly as they awaited Rae to finish and whatever this was all about to be made clear.

"Very well," Francis tells Rae. "At ease, Olivia." The woman gasps abruptly and stumbles against Rae shivering.

Rae braces herself to catch the woman just as she finishes licking the wound closed. Bringing her over to the leather couch, she slowly sets her down and sits at her side, tending to her. Only a few seconds later does Rae notice Aubrey's impatient posture and sets aside her own feelings to focus on the matter at hand. "I've had my fill for the moment, thank you. We can proceed."

Francis takes a seat on a wingback armchair opposite Rae and Olivia. "Tell me about your awakening. Describe the experience."

It wasn't the line of questioning that Rae had been expecting, and she considers the experience she had with her first jaunt into the dark. "It started as a pulling sensation here, in the sternum. I felt it to the depths of me, and it caused pain when I tried to put distance between myself and where the pull was leading me. It led me to a dark corner of my flat, and when I reached for it, the shadows reached back and pulled me in. Then I was blinded while the darkness seeped into my skin, down into my soul. I could feel it changing me, connecting me to something gargantuan and ancient." She feels for the newfound partner that is the shadows of the world, and swears that the shadow of a nearby corner moves ever so slightly in her direction. "It altered my Beast just as it altered me. Cast it in the metal of primordial silence and patient lethality. It doesn't present to me as it once did. When it was all over, my vision returned to me and I could see the room as it had been just moments before I left. But I was still shadow, without corporeal form and able to move as such. I've done it once since then, and a necromancer informed me that I'm likely in Twilight when I'm immersed in the dark." It is only when she finishes that she realizes she'd done exactly what Aubrey always chides her for; sharing more information than what was asked for. 

Most of the overly flowery description Rae gives blurs through Aubrey's ears like the droning of so much white noise, but she instantly perks up at the last bit, her body instantly shifting forward with sudden curiosity. "A what  told you you're where?"

Francis nods along with Rae's description until she gets to the part about the necromancer. "Raziel, what in Cain's name possessed you to expose yourself to a necromancer ?"

"Circumstance. The same mistake that brought the Circle down upon me also caught the attention of mages that the necromancer works for. He ascertained the details of the inciting event and seemed content to let sleeping dogs lie. Seems those mages just wanted to confirm that some mad creature of the dark wasn't about to go on a killing spree. We got along quite well, actually. Seemed we could have a nice working relationship together." Not wanting to ignore Aubrey, Rae turns to her. "The necromancer was the one who gave me the soul of the man I killed. And Twilight is the realm of ghosts and spirits. And Strix. Normally, what dwells in Twilight cannot interact with the physical world."

"Do not be so quick to trust a mage," Francis warns Rae, "their ploys run deep and rival those of any vampire. You cannot know their true ends. As for the Strix, they do not exist in Twilight unless they choose to embody themselves in it... much like you."

" Ohhh  that's what you meant when you said he was like, a 'death' mage..."  She twirls a lock of her hair around her finger idly as she stares off for a second.  "Don't lose Marvin or whatever's bottle by the way, probs still can use that." "And umm, yeah I  know  what the Twilight realm is Rae-rae,"  Aubrey scoffs,  "Sorry if my first thoughts ran to shitty vamp-roms though? But like okay so if all that's the case like, why are they coming to Oxford now ? And how connected is that to the other weird shit that's been happening because obvs it's all connected, right?"

First looking to Aubrey, she tilts her head in confusion and adopts an overly exaggerated pouting. "Well if you already know, then don't ask like you forgot to study for the exam." She then smiles and winks at her new friend, dropping the theatrics. "And I agree, this all feels too catastrophically convenient. The appearance of Strix are a doom omen, and given the things that have taken place in the last week alone, I'd say that something is coming." She then turns to answer Francis.  "And I'll keep all of that in mind, thank you. So, you stated that the darkness that serves the Strix can be used to bring them down, something that I didn't think was possible. How can we do that? Just what are Khaibit capable of?"

Rising, Francis gestures to the training mats in the middle of the hall that they find themselves on the edges of. "Shall we?"

Rae frowns in confusion. "Now? I don't know if I've given you the wrong impression, but I am not a fighter." Reluctantly, she also rises and follows Francis to the training mats.

"Not yet ," Francis emphasises, "but you will be. It's in our blood." As Rae steps into the brightly lit square, Francis pushes a button on one of computers around the edge, plunging the room into complete darkness. "Even the most keen eyed kindred should be blind in total darkness, but you can see me, can you not, Raziel?"

Rae watches as the room and everything in it is bathed in the shades of gray that she has known since her Embrace. "Yes, but I could always see in the..." Now looking more closely, Rae begins to notice bright spots of color across the bodies of those around her. Cool tones of blue cover Francis and Aubrey, while the human couple and the manservant are distinctive reds, yellows, and oranges. As the manservant shifts in place, the slight movement reverberates through the darkness, accentuating itself to Rae's eyes. "...I can see much more than I could before."

"This is the first gift of the Khaibit," Francis explains,  "the Udjat. Now that you have awakened your heritage, you can see not just in total darkness, but even into Twilight. This same gift protects you from possession by the Strix... which, in turn, makes you a threat." Taking a short blade from a nearby weapon rack, Francis approaches Rae and offers it to her, hilt first.

Rae does her best to absorb this information, taking the blade from Francis. The weight of it feels unnatural, a cold thing with a singular purpose.  "We can't be possessed by Strix? Well that's handy, I have to say. And seeing into Twilight, how do I engage such sight?"

"Only when you open your senses to Twilight," Francis cautions. "Focus on the place that you went to when you became a shadow. Your blood will do the rest."

Nodding, Rae closes her eyes and invokes the shadows nesting in her Vitae. Rather than casting herself into them, however, she invites them to pull the veil from her sight and lay bare the world of spirits. There is a faint ache within the socket just before she opens her eyes again.

"When you see with the Udjat, nothing can blind you," Francis continues, pacing around Rae. "Now take that darkness and bind it to your blade."

As Francis speaks, Rae notices a faint mist that begins to flow around the room, what she imagines is the lingering materials of Twilight.  Doing as instructed, Rae holds the blade before her, willing the dark to take the blade and coat it in stygian strength. At first, the shadows lick at the tip of the blade, but it remains unchanged. Straining her focus, she wills more forcefully for the blade to become an extension of the dark, an extension of herself. Gradually, she watches as minute tendrils of shadow wrap around the weapon, painting it in darkest obsidian.  But the exertion pulls too much from her too quickly and she falters, managing to regain her balance before beginning to fall in earnest. Looking back to the weapon, it twitches in her grasp as some of the darkness snaps away with great tension to reveal the mundane blade beneath.  "...that doesn't look right."  

The lights come back up and Francis gives Rae a satisfied smile. "You've taken your first step into a larger world. Given time, you will learn to manifest your Pseshkf at will."

"Is that how we fight them? Weapons coated in our dark can kill them?"  Looking back to the blade, it has returned entirely to its normal state.

Francis nods slowly. "The Pseshkf will wound them... the rest is surviving to get close enough to strike."

Rae nods, offering the blade back to Franics by its hilt. "So I'll need combat training, then? And is practice all that is needed to master the...Pseskfh? Or is it something more?

"Discipline," Francis adds with a smirk, taking the blade and replacing it on the rack. "It may take some time, but i can teach you everything that you need to know."

"Much obliged, Frank." With a smile, she returns to her seat on the couch. "Now, at the risk of straining your generosity, I have an addendum that I would like to make to the conditions I presented earlier."

Francis arches an eyebrow and folds his arms. "Take a moment to think before you push your luck, Raziel. You are young and have much to learn. If you want any chance of having your requests agreed to, then you can start by showing your elders a little respect."

Rae raises her eyebrows in return and smiles lightly as she raises her hands in surrender.  "My sincerest apologies, I'll focus on the matter at hand then. Are we able to see Strix when they are possessing bodies, such as The Black Cat?"  She then looks over to Aubrey, curious as to what she's made of all of what she's just seen. "And how is Aubrey to defend herself without the benefits of our bloodline?"

When the lights first went out, Aubrey spent all of a few seconds trying to strain her eyes against the black, but quickly gave up and instead focused her hearing on the movements of the two Mekhet, though her mind quickly drifts in lieu of anything to look at to everything to look forward to. Already in her mind's wandering eye, plans began to spring forth like leaks from the cracks of a dam she had forgotten she'd once built up. A dam that took the form of humanity that she increasingly realized served less and less purpose to a creature of the night.  It's only as the lights flash back on and her eyes winced in the sudden brightness that she refocuses, having picked up a good deal of what the two had discussed even as she was elsewhere. "I've been told I'm like, really good at playing against type," she shrugs, "Try me."

Francis shrugs. "That's not my concern. You insisted that she be protected and she will be."

"That was your deal with  her,"  Aubrey steps around one of the odd tech consoles in the room,  "not  me.  We haven't made one yet. "  Her gaze remains down and away still from the man as she runs a hand along a baroque column to her side side.  "So what exactly  is,  like, the point of all this? Is it all just hunting strix and 'protecting the innocent kindred they would attack'? Doesn't totally seem your style to be honest."

"Power," Francis declares simply. "The clans need the Khaibit to guard against the strix. That leverage is valuable, but it also comes with responsibilities."

"So you're just like, a mercenary with job security," she nods in understanding. " Sooo  cool, really! Power's power though, I get that. So like the way I see it, it makes sense for one of, I don't know, two things?" Running a finger over her lips, she can still faintly taste where the last of his vitae had dried upon them. "One, you could leverage so  much more aid out of people if you had more who can do what you can helping you out, yeah? So teach me that shadow stuff and I'll make, like, the same shortsighted deal she  did to help or whatevs. Or two..."  Aubrey spins about and affixes her gaze on the two mortals still in the room, her eyes subtly hardening and smile waning into a hungry leer. "...You teach me that gross trick you pulled on me earlier — the same one they're under now." "Either way,"  she shrugs,  "as Rae-rae pointed out back at Brasenose... you arguably  owe  me."

Aubrey's bravado elicits a chuckle of amusement from Francis. "I do?"