Remus had just returned from his Raven board meeting. discussing guild politics and allocating finances was an entirely different world than he was in when he started the Business. Though it was a steady paycheck with almost no danger to his personal safety. That was so long as he plaid the political game right and stayed in The Foxes favor. Talk about a man who had it all and was two steps ahead, that was the Fox. Nearly everyone in the world felt his off screen influence in some way or another but no one even knew it. He seemed untouchable. He had the brilliant plan to give no rules of conduct to his board members forcing them to play a sort of king of the hill game which kept everyone in check. Most brilliantly, it kept them from focusing on him. Except Remus had things in motion that even if they failed he'd get a fresh start out of the Foxes grasp. He tried not to think about it because even the stray though here int he Raven had a way of telling itself to others.Meeting with his assistant about the rest of his appointments for the day, he heard an interesting piece of news, "There seems to be some lost gold dragon wondering around the country side of Geneva's mainland." "Realy?" Remus mused. The Raven knew everything. Nothing went on in any part of the world that someone in the Raven did not know about. How the Fox had things set up most agents were under constant surveillance and it was all magically stored and constantly reviewed. The Raven was everywhere and knew everything. "Well if its lost...tell Jonathan the Dragon Lord. He'll be sure to help him."
The meeting went on talking about moonsugar shipments and the status of the now destroyed Talyun slave trade. "Thats going to be an expensive loss." Remus said out loud. "Also have a meeting with the Godfather." The Godfather ran the Den. That was the section of the Raven that operated in Geneva. THe Fox kept its operating seperate from the Raven in an effort to hedge his bets and divide power further. Left the running of that organization solely to his brother who called himself the Godfather.
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Dante and managed to find his way out of his cave and through some mountains and to a large flatland. Doing his best to avoid settlements he moved west. West was as good as any other direction. He did encounter a trade caravan who told him Atlanta was tot he very far west so he kept moving that direction. Everything was so small since coming to his new body. People, even horses, buildings all seemed to be built on a different scale than he remembered his whole life. He knew his father was a FUll and powerful gold dragon and now so was he. His thoughts continued to be random and jumbled as he tried to make sense of what had happenned.On the third day, he encountered an Elf who seemed determined to talk to him.
"Lord Dragon, I am Jonathan 'the Rock' Greyfoot. I am sure my fame and tales of my loyalty and power have reached your noble ears. I have come to serve you for I hear you maybe in distress."Dante responded, "Oh thank you, you see I died and woke up as a Dragon. I can't figure anything out. I'm trying to get back to Atlanta."
The elf's expresion was not uncalled for, it was surprise that such a story would warrant. Dante wondered for a moment if he should have worded it better. Then he decided he did not care. He had died and come back he deserved to be a little stressed. 'The Rock' said, "So you have not always been a dragon my lord?"
He asked it with some contempt but for some unknown reason Dante felt inclined to trust him. "No, I use to be a half dragon just recently became a dragon."
"Then why don't you come with the Rock, and in my magnificence you can be instructed."
Dante got nervous, even though he trusted this man and had no reason to doubt the purity of his intentions he could not help feeling nervous. "Why do you want me to go with you?"
"So I may serve you and alld Dragon kind better." Was his quick reheared response.
"No thank you." Maybe he should have went but he felt better figuring it out on his own.
"My lord dragon. YOu can come or be taken."
"What?"
"If you have sought beyond your station and desired to be a Dragon when you were not one and mock the holy superior race then I must take you in for their judgement. It is possible that they will welcome you into their fold but that is up to them to decide."
"No thanks. I'll be on my own."
"It is not a choice. THey Rock has spoken and you two bit imposter nobody will listen. I give you a choice. Would you rather I use magic of my swords to bring you down?"
Dante spread his wings and took off into the air Whatever. His thought was cut short as lightning struck him solid in the middle of his back driving him back down to the ground. A moment later The rock was standing between his wings. Dante let loose a torent of flame and brimstone from his mouth with the intent to incenerate this man before he could do more damage.
The flame seemed to spilt and divide off into different direction as if striking an obstacle just short of the Rock. Jonathan lept forward bladed twirling and a few well placed blows ot the neck and Dante could only see black.
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The Godfather spoke first, "Master Remus thanks for meeting with me. There is problem. We have a Vampire Coven in Tradecity. They've been in Tradecity for a long time. And they pay us a good amount in both favors and money to stay a secret. Well one of your guys dug em up. It was some Showgun from the Night watch. I know the NIghtwatch operates in Geneva and thats fine because I know we own Jeric who runs the Nightwatch. Well this Greyson found them out disrupted them and has send up the information to the rest fo the nightwatch and will most likely tell Galan and the rest of the Isle. That shuts down a lot of our revenue and could comprimise our code standing with them. So what can we do to make this right? And we need to do it fast."
Remus quickly replied, "Has this Greyson already spilled the beans to the night watch? Before he has a chance to talk to Galan and the Isle about this, we must erase all evidence of his encounters with our associates. If he was in a conflict with them, have his life force returned to him. And get a Psyonist to erase the coven and the true nature of all the vampires he has encountered in relation to the Coven. The memories must be altered to have all the vampires of our Coven he has heard of or encountered to be humans rather than their undead counterparts. If he has reported this to the Night Watch, he must return to them and report that he was mistaken."
"He already sent a report to Jeric. THe problem with psionists is that showgun are too. It opens a degree of error that is risky. Maybe we can buy his silence by offering to restore his levels but I doubt it he's an idealist. He is currently unconsciess on the Isle so making him dissapear will be easy. THough that could cause problesm with Jeric who is an idealist as well. Could we just ahve the Empress tell them to leave it alone and ignore it and think that will work? If you need amunition tell em If this is the kinda problems the Knight watch will cause then we'll shut it down in Geneva and elsewhere it causes us problems. Smoke from teh Empire is very resonable. They Greyson seems to be obsessed with a member of that coven named Bella. He may have to bb transfered even if Jeric calls them off the case. What do you think?"
Sighing in exaperation,"Very well, contact the Empress. Have her order Jeric to forget the situation as we are handling it internally. If need be, threaten to pull the Knight Watch from Geneva and elsewhere as we see fit.
As for Greyson, I’ll be nice at first. If he’ll agree to leave it alone and forget any dealings with the Coven, we’ll arrange for his levels to be restored. If he is obsessed with this Bella, perhaps we can use that… send him a letter under the guise as being from a Coven member. Threaten the life of his precious Bella. If he will forget the true nature of Bella and the rest of the Coven, we will spare the life of the one who revealed the secret. Otherwise, we will seek out to destroy all those who Greyson has revealed the secret to. We will be watching…" Remus continued, " This is a sticky situation. How about we have Smoke get Jeric to agree under the Code that this won’t be a problem from him or from his Knight Watch. If they cause us trouble after that, they’ll be code breakers. What do you think? "
The godfather sighed as well. "Well that requires a certain element of trust from us to the knight watch and both Jeric and Greyson don't seem willing to play by the rules. But its the best we have. I'll deal with Smoke and the Empire. You have someone talk to Greyson. We'll stay in touch with all of this."
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Dante woke up in a large stone room. He could hear the Rocks arrogant voice, "Well
Dragon," the word was said with sarcasim dripping from each letter. "You'll be comfortable here until the council can meet and discuss you. You are lucky they are scheduled to meet at the end of this decade."
With that the cocky fool left him alone in his cell. Dante tried everything. Attacked the walls with his claws and his fire, nothign worked. After a long moment he started to pray. Before his prayer could even be uttered Abraham appeared in a torrent of black whirlind. "Just one day on your mission and you fail. Impressioned here. Was I wrong to put my trust in you?"
"No good servant of the Great Father," He tried to use his inate ability to detect lieing to further question this man but found the ability did not work. He figured it was a result of the prison.
"YOU DARE DOUBT YOUR FAITH IN ME? I saved you from the grave and have come here to save you again. Yet you question and doubt me."
Curses, of course he knew I tried to detect lie. "No my lord I just.."
"I understand you mortals are flawed and incapable of perfection. But be warned my mercy and patience are not infinite. I could easily treat you with the same hostility as you have shown me."
He touched Dante's right claw and a scalely tatoo of a Dragaon's head appeared on the back of his claw. A Dragon torso wrapped around his massive foreamrs up to his elbow joint. Looking at his left claw he saw the same. "Remember the covenant you have made with me." Was all Abraham said and then he was gone.
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Master Windstar received a message from Smoke. Smoke was the leader of the IMperial Agency. That was the umbrella organization for all intelligence gathering for the Empress, May she live forever. Master Windstar and his hidden Knight watch reported to the Empress, May she live forever directly but was also to take direction from Smoke.
The Message:
Master Windstar,
Will of the Empress, May she live forever, regarding a Vampire Coven discovered in Tradecity. It is never to be discussed or investigated by you or any of your men. Any evidence of said encounter should be destroyed and never referenced. It is imperial will that the discovery, as far as you are concerned, never happenned. I will hold you responsible if any of the Knight Watch break this directive.
Smoke.
Jeric thought that was an odd order. However, orders were orders and he formed the Knight Watch to serve the Empress, may she live forever, he would never disobey her orders.
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