Prelude: Life Begins at Night

Silas impressed with the woman's manners replies back to her, "Oh no trouble at all, I was curious so I approached him."  Silas turns his gaze to Akil and answers his question, "And to your question, the answer is both, always both."  He then looks back at the woman and says, "You have a lot on your plate with this one."  He gives a slight chuckle and he interrupts himself,  "Where are my manners?"   he extends his hand towards the woman as to give a handshake,  "The name is Silas, and you are?"

"It seems I might!" Eve replies, relieved. "I didn't want to be so bold as to introduce myself to a gentleman, but it seems we share no acquaintances here?" She looks around, subtly checking how the other vampires seem to react to Silas, then turns back with a smile and shakes his hand. "I'm Geneviève de la Fontaine, from Keble, and this is my childe Rae Andrews. It's my pleasure. What college do you call home? I'm so sorry, I don't think I'm aware."

As Silas hears her name his ears perk up a bit and his eyes dilate as a memory of his past is triggered. "What a beautiful name, Ms. de la Fontaine. I don't come across a name like that very often." Silas maintains his cordial appearance and answers her question, "My stay is currently Worcester. My apologies, I was mesmerized by your beautiful name, what college were you from again?"

"Thank you, we're an old French family." Eve replies, used to being complimented on her last name since francophilia became popular. "Worcester is a beautiful college, you are very lucky! I've enjoyed walking your gardens many times. Oh, that was Keble College, I work for the Bodleian's old text archives. How about yourself?"

"Good evening, it's a pleasure to meet you, Silas." Smiling cordially, she extends her hand out

Silas happy to see another pretty face turns his attention to Rae and reached out to shake her hand, "It's my pleasure."   Not shaking hands for too long Silas pulls away and addresses the pair, "How long have you two been at Oxford?" Silas quickly finishes his thought looking at Eve, "You mentioned working at the archives, how long have you had the position?"

"A few years now, I take it you're new? Have you had a chance to tour the Bodleian yet? It's a very impressive library." Eve beams with pride, as if it were her own home she is talking about.

Scotty ignores Liam's question, stalking up and down like a restless beast. The vampire is unusually introspective tonight and it's not something that the others are used to. Over an hour passes and still the Master has not appeared to give his opening address. This is essentially unheard of and unquiet bubbles and stews amongst the sizeable gathering of vampires. The growing tension is palpable. "Good evening Eve,"  the librarian hears from behind her in Professor Torrance's familiar voice.

Liam sits still on the edge of the gardens, behind the stage. He can see his fellow band members talking from here, Scotty's pacing does not go unnoticed but he tries to push it from his mind. Fiona and Yound Fred still talk in hushed voices. This kind of tension was exactly why Liam hated this kind of thing. When vampires get nervous the beast comes out, and then fights tend to happen, enemies are made, challenges are issued. Politics. Best to keep his back to the wall and remain inconspicuous.

As time passes and the absence of the Master becomes more pronounced, Rae feels the telltale shiver of malicious intent run down her spine. Looking about the courtyard, she notices the unmistakable aroma of blood permeating the air, hanging most heavily around the individuals who relish the cat-and-mouse games of undead politics. While her present company seem relaxed, if not a little more pale than usual, the sources of the aggression appear as the predators that they truly are. All fangs and blood, with skin as brumal as their demeanor, she takes note of their positions, then speaks quietly "The wolves are pacing in their cages, we should take care how we move." She then turns as Professor Torrance joins the group.

"John!" Eve greets her old friend warmly. It had taken a few years for her to call him by his first name, but he had insisted that she do so. After exchanging a couple of pleasantries, she pulls him and Rae aside and asks quietly: "What's going on? This is highly unusual."

John seems equally pleased to see Eve... and equally concerned. "It is..." he replies, "and what's more... have you seen Lady Amissa, by any chance?"

Eve looks around. "I haven't, I'm afraid, not for quite some time actually. Is it something I could help you with?"

Eve's answer does nothing to lessen John's frown. "Lady Amissa, Frazier, Count Dunlop and Blake are all unaccounted for," he tells her quietly.

Sitting near Liam on the edge of the back stage, Mehdi notices the manic tension buzzing around the party, ready to ignite at any moment. He looks around anxiously for a while, debating whether or not to track down some booze to ease his nerves. Probably better to remain in the shadows. At last he opens his mouth and turns to his boss "I'm surprised you all haven't been pulled on stage yet. This isn't the kind of event I'd expect to be running behind."

Liam nods. "Me too. Something is happening, and this tension can only lead to battling beasts." &nbsp;He picks up his bass, not plugged in but he strums with it a little. " Maybe we should play? Ease some of the tension. I can't make the decision for them though." He continues plucking as he speaks. "Could be best just to leave. Stay out of harm for tonight at least. But that could be trouble later. Not only suspicious if something has gone wrong, but some people here wouldn't take kindly to my absence." Pluck Pluck A series of A chords follow. "Darling please let me know..." He stamps his foot as he plays, a little louder now, but just for himself, Mehdi, and anyone in the immediate area. Stomping out the beat as he strums and sings. He glances at Young Fred with a little half smile too. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BN1WwnEDWAM" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BN1WwnEDWAM</a>

Khalid keeps a sharp eye on his surroundings with his active mage sight.&nbsp;Both Rae's message and the conversation between Eve and Professor did not give him confidence in the night going peacefully.&nbsp; At least things would be interesting.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Liam's playing does begin to attract an audience of bored vampires and Young Fred taps out a steady beat as the bassist starts to sing. Over the backdrop of The Clash , Silas's keen hearing picks up several strands of conversation from amongst the gathered kindred. "-most out of the ordinary." "All five clan Masters? That can't be right." "What do you mean 'a cat'?" "When did you last see Frazier?" "In the catacombs?" "Where's the Dean in all this?" "Has anyone been able to translate it?" "How much longer are we going to stay?" "Who else is missing?" Right when it seems like the unrest might boil over any minute, a commanding voice calls out across the grounds from the steps before the great hall. "Welcome, kindred, to this year's Michaelmas Elysium. I do apologise for the delay, but it seems that our Master is indisposed tonight. Nevertheless, let us maintain centuries of tradition and drink together this night, at the opening of a new term." The man speaking is Deacon, the Dean of Balliol college and second to the Master. He waxes on for several minutes, before deferring to the evening's entertainment, at which point the Obinos are brought in to play.

Eve relaxes a little when someone finally takes charge and the event continues, but she cannot recall the master ever not having opened the festivities for Michaelmas term. "You don't happen to know Deacon well, do you?" When he shakes his head, she gives his arm a little squeeze. "I'll do some rounds and see if I can learn anything. Rae, with me." Blending into the crowd, Eve starts looking for the Balliol librarian. A passing acquaintance, but at least they've been to a few workshops together. She keeps her ears open for any snippets of conversation.

After a round or two of the gardens, Eve does eventually spot Bethany, Balliol's mousy looking librarian. She's stood in a half-whispered gathering with three other members of her college. As they walk, Rae also catches snippets of conversation from other circles around them. "Well why don't you just get rid of it?" "Where exactly in the catacombs?" "How much did it absorb?" "Have you tried feeding on it?"

Wordlessly heeding Eve, Rae follows behind her as they move through the crowd. Focusing on her surroundings, she takes in all that she can with her heightened hearing, picking up bits of information that begin to form a blurry concept. When they come to a stop, Rae leans in and whispers "Bit of idle chatter, though some manner of mystery is drawing the attention of many. I heard mention of the catacombs." &nbsp;

Eve raises her eyebrows at the mention of the catacombs. "Interesting. Tell me more later, there are too many ears here," she whispers back. "Better not to let on what we know." Stepping up to the group, Eve greets everyone and asks about their loved ones, how their nought week has been, etc. After a bit of smalltalk, she pulls Bethany aside a little and asks her: "Beth, be honest with me, do you have any idea what is going on with the Master? I'm dying to know." Her conspiratorial smile and light tone makes it sound like she is simply looking for some juicy gossip, between girls.

Beth seems preoccupied and glances left and right at others around them. "Do you have a cat?" She whispers. By the band's tent, a ghoul hurries over to the Obinos. "You ready to go?" She asks, clearly stressed.

Liam keeps strumming, looking to Scottie and Fiona for the cue. Making the decision was not for him.

Scotty sighs and rolls his eyes, before grabbing his guitar and leading the Obinos up onto the stage, where he begins to crank out the intro to Purple Haze .

As Eve speaks with Bethany, Rae continues to observe the huddled groups scattered across the area. After a short time, she spots several members of the Concord talking among themselves, and recognizes Ezra listening intently to the conversation. Strikingly handsome, as always, she's come to trust the fellow neophyte. His interests and proximity to her own age allowed for common ground through shared experience, and his guidance was always appreciated.&nbsp; Rae moves closer to Eve so that she isn't heard aloud "There are a few members of the Concord here, I'll go say hi and see if they know anything more than we do." Walking across the yard, she approaches the group, stopping closest to Ezra, "Good evening, all. I hope this night finds you well."

Plugging his bass into the amp,Luam follows Scotty onto the stage and continues to flawlessly play along, staying on the back of the stage, he can't help but steal the attention of everyone in the audience, no matter how hard he tries to be subtle in his perfection.&nbsp;

The gathered vampires nod a greeting to Rae as one of their own and Ezra looks down at the girl with a subdued smile. "Is it? An unusual evening, certainly Rae. What do you make of the missing Masters?"

"I don't... I thought it's a college cat? No, wait, Balliol has a tortoise... whose cat is this?" Eve seems quite confused by the presence of a pet inside Balliol. Glancing at Rae, she nods, frowning in concern. Something appeared to be quite off.

"It's mine ," Beth hisses in return, "except I've never owned a cat. I never bought a cat. I don't even like cats, but now this one won't leave my side." The librarian gestures across towards the fellow's garden, where a tabby cat and a persian can be seen resting atop the wall. "That one there, that's Andrew's and the other is Nick's. I don't like this, Eve. Cats shouldn't just show up out of nowhere."

Rae gives Ezra a wry smile in return, "Disconcerting, to say the least. This news has spread like wildfire just as many of Oxford's Kindred are gathered in one place, distracted and otherwise unable to intervene in events elsewhere."

Ezra looks down at Rae contemplatively, before glancing across the cluster of Concord vampires at a women with hooded grey eyes like two pools of mercury. Her thick, straight, white hair is very short and her skin is like creamy porcelain with a high forehead and a pointed chin. Rae recognises this as&nbsp;Dawn Cavanaugh, a senior member of their covenant. Dawn takes a moment to look Rae and up and down, before nodding Ezra in return. "You're an expert on dead languages, aren't you Rae?" He asks.&nbsp;

Upon being looked over by the senior member, Rae momentarily casts her eyes downward, wishing to show reverence to Ms. Cavanaugh's station.&nbsp; "Just&nbsp; Sanskrit, for now. It will take some years before I become articulate&nbsp;in the likes of Latin, Aramaic, and so on."&nbsp;

"We have something of a mystery that we've been unable to translate," Dawn explains, "perhaps you could take a look?"

"I would be more than happy to, ma'am." Rae says as she once again lowers her gaze, before coming up to meet the woman's eyes this time.&nbsp;

Alarmed, Eve asks: "Whatever do you mean, 'it's yours'? These cats just showed up and started following you? When?"

"Something has been found in the catacombs and there's need for... a translator." Ezra elaborates. "Could you come now?" " This week ," Beth explains, "and we can't get rid of them!" Eve feels something soft brush up against her ankle. When she looks down, she sees a fluffy pale ginger cat rubbing against her.

"Yes." Rae nods "Though I would like to alert Eve before we leave, she may want to accompany us."

Once more, Dawn nods her ascent to Rae.

Mehdi sulks behind the stage for a while, feeling incredibly out of place. At the fresher parties and jazz clubs he could at least pretend he belonged, but here the patrons saw right through him and they despised what they found. Even walking to the bar to grab a drink seems like a harrowing task, but as he finally stands and surveys the battlefield, two cats perched on a wall offer the perfect distraction. He'd never had much affinity with animals before his durance, but now they regard him with a certain familiarity. As they purr and nuzzle against his hands, he turns back and catches Eve and another kindred looking in his direction. He spies another feline at her feet, and wonders who's brilliant idea it was to bring cats to this otherwise dismal affair.

Picking up on the mood of the party and perhaps emboldened by the lack of many senior figures, as their Hendrix cover comes to an end, a tense and slightly ominous bass line issues forth from the stage. Liam stands in front of the drum kit, bouncing back and forth as he and Young Fred issue the rhythm. Perhaps it was a message, perhaps just a cool song that they enjoyed playing. Certainly a statement that background elevator music was not their business. Liam spins back around as the guitar kicks in and Fiona fills out the tune. Scotty's vocals a perfectly suited to the slightly harsher tone of the song and the synergy of the band captures and holds the tense mood of the party in place perfectly. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s88r_q7oufE" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s88r_q7oufE</a> &nbsp;

Pulling her leg away, Eve says a quick good bye to Bethany and rejoins Rae. She had never been too fond of cats when people started keeping them as pets, personally, she preferred them outside the home. Nodding at everyone she knows and briefly catching up with Ezra, Eve joins in next to Rae and just catches the end of their conversation.

Rae smiles as Eve arrives "So it seems that we're drawn to the catacombs after all. Do you wish for any of the others to come with us?"

As the cat seems to motion to follow her, Eve is keen to leave college. "Perfect, let's say our goodbyes and head out. Yes please alert Liam, it would be rude to leave without saying anything." Making some slightly rushed good byes to everyone, Eve soon returns to the group, ready to head out.

Nodding, Rae quickly finds that Liam is performing, and decides to look for Mehdi instead. Noticing him near a wall, she makes her way over to him, "Hello again. It seems that our attention is presently being pulled elsewhere, and Eve and I wanted to say goodbye to both you and Dr . McCarthy &nbsp;before we departed."

Rae is possibly the warmest undead Mehdi has met so far, so he's quite delighted as she approaches. "Oh! That's a shame, you two are the only ones here I don't feel like I have to watch my neck around." He glances back to Liam on the stage, thinks for a moment and then turns back to Rae. "I'm sure Liam will want to say goodbye to you two as well, can you wait a minute? I'll try and get them to take a break after this song."

Rae's lips part in a wide, sincere smile. "That's very kind. I'm sure that we can wait for a few minutes, I'll just go grab Eve and let our travelling party know."&nbsp; Walking back across the courtyard, Rae approaches her sire "Mehdi will be retrieving Liam from the stage momentarily, if you believe that we have a few minutes to spare. We can wait over by that wall there." Rae says as she indicates.

Slightly uneasy, Eve keeps a close eye on the strange cat, but nods to Rae. "Of course, perhaps his fae friend can share some insight on these... animals." Approaching Mehdi, she fills him in on what Bethany told her about the cats. "Your kind share an understanding with all creatures, I believe? What do you think made these cats follow vampires around? Could this be fae magic?"

Mehdi’s eyes widen as Eve speaks, and he gains a bemused smile. Finally, some entertainment at this party. “That’s a bit of a misconception. Some of my kind do have an affinity for certain animals, but just as many have an aversion.” He says with a shrug. “If these cats were affected by the wyrd in any way I’d be able to tell, but to me they look like regular little kitties.” His voice becomes quite affectionate for the last few words, and he kneels down to pet the cat that seems to have attached to Eve. “Alright, I’ll try and go steal Liam.” Mehdi makes his way back behind the stage. As the current song draws to a close, Mehdi leans forward “Pssst! Liam,” he frantically waves his boss over and then explains the situation as told by Eve. “There’s something really off about all of this; I think we should go with them. Can you make up some excuse?” he says with a gesture to the rest of the band shooting him impatient death-glares.

A piercing howl peals through the night as the Obinos' song comes to an end. Silence falls all across the garden quad. Some vampires freeze, others drop into a bestial crouch as though ready for a fight, others begin to carefully head towards the front quad. "Scotty, where are you going?" Fiona hisses. When Liam turns around the gangrel is gone.