A shift of light, and Lash, Fiadh and the Storm Wolf Jeriko were standing on the landing platform just outside the hidden Qos Viran base, Lash and Fiadh still wearing their Qos Viran tactical fatigues. Thankfully the Storm Wolves, a militant order within Mordecai's inverted psionic faction, also favored military tactical fatigues and she was dressed very similarly to them, just in a shade of dark gray instead of black. Her golden blonde hair pulled into a functional braid, and wearing a significantly more serious expression than she had in Mordecai's lair, the Storm Wolf commander looked ready for battle.
She returned Lash's questioning look with a steady nod. Then the three of them were striding towards the nearly invisible door and the access panel that would open it.
"Captain Kingsguard," the base's AI said. "You wished to be advised when the Lord Commander returned from his medical flight to Stockholm."
Naryan looked up.
"Affirmative, Hunter. Has he arrived?"
"Affirmative, Captain, along with Night Mistress Fiadh and the medical specialist she brought from Stockholm."
Every head in the medical bay looked towards the door when it opened to allow Lash, Fiadh and Jeriko to step through. Then the Storm Wolf was being ignored as Lash found himself the center of attention for Ventru and legionnaires alike.
It started with quick embraces between comrades from first Truk, then Ballan and Fordricht.
"Good to have you back, boss," Ballan said with a relieved smile as Narcist next hugged him, a more emotional and personal thing that Absinthe repeated but a bit shorter.
"Good to be back, Bal," Lash replied with a smile of his own, shaking the French vampire's hand around Absinthe. Fordricht was next, the North African grinning from ear to ear.
"You never cease to amaze, my friend," he said, giving Lash's arm a hearty shake with the tattooed vampiress moving back. Then it was Tanner stepping close, shaking her head in amazement before hugging him.
"Glad to see your Ventru mates were right about your bounce back, Lash," she said, stepping back. "You are legendary!"
"Thank you," he managed before Naryan was sliding past Tanner to take a tight hold of him.
That embrace was filled with much more emotion than either Lash or Naryan initially intended to show in front of the rest. But, in the end it was real and honest.
"I can't say I like this habit of yours," Naryan hoarsely whispered as she clung to him, trembling with the power of her emotions and fighting the need to kiss him.
"This nearly dying all the time!"
"It is getting a bit tiresome, to be honest," he whispered back, his words making her squeeze that much harder.
She managed to pull back just before everybody else began feeling uncomfortable with the length of their embrace. Only to be supplanted by Ellie, Meredith, and Dru.
Jeriko watched the company greet the return of their leader with a thoughtful expression. Then she leaned over to a sadly smiling Fiadh and said in perfect vampiric:
"He's a popular fellow, your Lash," she noted.
Fiadh's expression brightened with pride.
"He has shown them what it means to lead through example, honor, and courage, never wavering from one's moral compass," she said before looking at Jeriko. "He has fought beside them and for them, sacrificing everything to keep them safe."
She looked back at the big vampire, who was quietly reassuring two liliths and a little sister that he was okay.
"And they love him for it. If he stormed the very gates of the Sun to confront the Day Witch herself, they would gladly follow!"
With a final kiss on top of Meredith's head, Lash looked up and found a miserable Sakura standing a few paces away, alone and isolated from the others. It was no secret why: his company blamed her for nearly killing him with her oversaturation. Which, sadly, wasn't really her fault. The fault belonged to Romanescu, the slavers who served him, and the shield suits that put her into hibernation for months.
"Please excuse me," he said and carefully extricated himself to walk towards her.
Then, with everybody intently watching with bated breath, he respectfully bowed in front of her.
"Night Mistress," he said, straightening up to find tears streaming down Sakura's face.
"What troubles you?"
"I ... I nearly killed you!" she sobbed.
"But you didn't succeed, mistress," Lash replied with a smile. "And you didn't strike out of malice. You were cruelly imprisoned against your will, your body unnaturally forced into hibernation. That was not your fault and I don't hold you to account. But if it's forgiveness you seek, you have it."
Then he stepped forward to gather her into his arms to hold her close, an embrace she fervently returned, crying with relief into his shoulder. A heartbeat later they were joined by Meredith and Dru, the two liliths adding their embraces to his.
"And that is why he is legendary!" Fiadh declared with a smile at Jeriko. Then she too went to add her embrace to those of her sisters, and in doing so, drew Sakura back into fellowship.
Lash let the fourfold embrace last a few moments longer then lifted his head.
"As Qos Viran you will all have an intimate relationship with death. She will visit you time and time again, demanding you yield up your soul for judgment," he said in a quiet voice that nevertheless carried to every part of the medical bay.
"And she'll make you wonder if you're bound for the pyre of the Sun Witch, or the blessed shadows of the Dark Father's garden. And believe me when I tell you I know this from experience."
He paused to look everybody in the face as best he could still surrounded by liliths.
"But, as Qos Viran, it is also your honor and your duty to tell Death that she must wait. She cannot take you yet for your task is not finished. How is it not, you ask. To answer, I ask you: do we still have enemies?"
Jeriko smiled when the entire company shouted with one voice:
"Yes!"
"Can you still fight?" he then asked.
"Yes!!"
"Do the People of the Night still need our protection?"
"Yes!"
"Then by thrice yes do we say No to Death. She will be denied until thrice No. Only then will your duty be done. Only then can you rest."
Lash smiled fiercely.
"And I am not yet ready to rest!" he declared and the bay filled with cheering. He let them go for a long minute before lifting a hand to settle them down.
"Sometimes we need help in telling Death no. And I recently was helped by Mistress Fiadh's friend, Dr. Jeriko, a neuro-somatic specialist out of Stockholm." He indicated Jeriko with a gesture, the Storm Wolf smiling and bowing her head in acknowledgement.
"Dr. Jeriko helped my mind reconnect with my body so I could return to the fight. And now she is here to help the liliths we rescued from the slavers to avoid another accident like what transpired between Mistress Sakura and myself. So let us help her as much as we can and save these queens of our people. As you were, Qos Viran!"
As the vampires began moving around with purpose once more, Jeriko watched one of the vampires turn and approach her, a beautiful woman with flashing blue eyes and a ready smile.
"Doctor Jeriko, I am Captain Naryan Kingsguard, the Lord Commander's Second," she said, extending her hand. Taking it vampire-style, Jeriko gave Naryan's forearm a firm squeeze before letting it go.
"A pleasure, Captain," she said, returning the smile. "And please, call me Jeriko. 'Doctor' makes me look over my shoulder for my boss!"
Naryan chuckled.
"I completely understand," she said. "And call me Narya. I just wanted to thank you personally for helping Lash. He's a lunkhead getting himself into so much trouble. But he's our lunkhead and we'd be lost without him." She then turned and made an after you gesture with her hand.
"Now, if you could come this way, I can show you the first of our stricken liliths!"
Lash watched Naryan interact with the Storm Wolf with no little satisfaction. It was a relationship that needed to work to enable this interaction with the psionics to be successful instead of ending in bloodshed. And he had every confidence that his childhood friend could pull it off.
Even as he thought about her, Naryan looked over at him. Seeing his eyes already on her, she smiled and winked before turning back to Jeriko, the Storm Wolf beginning her examination of one of the liliths.
"A neuro-somatic specialist," Dru said musingly, the Nosferatu lilith still standing close enough to the big vampire that her hip rested against his leg.
"I've never heard of that."
Lash frowned thoughtfully.
"Neither had I, to be truthful," he admitted before looking at Fiadh, who returned his look with a bright one of her own. "Thankfully Fiadh had, and contacted Doctor Jeriko in the hopes she could help. And, well, she helped indeed. Now, I can only hope she can do the same for your lost sisters!"
Then he turned as Sakura hesitantly said his name. She smiled uncertainly when he looked at her.
"My apologies but I was hoping to have a word with you alone," the Japanese lilith said. A quick look at Fiadh, Dru, and Meredith, who all nodded, then he was returning her look with a smile.
"Of course, mistress. There is a lab right there. We can step inside, if that is to your liking."
"It is," she said.
After Lash closed the door behind him, Sakura turned towards him.
"Can we have some privacy?" she asked in a small voice. Lash nodded.
"Hunter, privacy mode." And they watched as the walls frosted into translucency.
"I'm sorry," she said without moving. "I just have had eyes on me ever since my mind cleared from the seasonal overload to find you senseless."
"Mistress, I ..."
"No," she held up her hand. "Please, Lash, let me finish. I know you've publicly stated that you consider it an accident and have forgiven me. And I am immensely grateful for that. An unbearable weight was lifted off my shoulders when you said that."
Abruptly her resolve crumbled and the tears began to pour from her face.
"In that moment when I saw you," she managed between sobs. "Not moving, not responding, it was like my heart was cut out. In the same space of memory I lost everything that defined me as a lilith: my holdings, my clan, and my M'tada. Then I lose you, the savior of not only me, but of all of my sisters taken by the slavers. And in doing so, I tore a hole in the heart of the company that fights to free our people from a corrupt Council that supports those slavers against the Queens' Conclave and my sisterhood."
Her head bowed and, for a long moment she let the tears wet the floor. When she finally controlled herself enough that she could speak, her voice was thick with emotion and sorrow.
"And now, with nothing, and worth nothing, I come to you on bended knee, throwing myself upon your mercy." And Sakura slowly sank onto her knees before looking up and holding out her hands to him. "I beg you, High Lord Ingamon Lash of House Lash, foremost House of Clan Ventru. Take me into your household and clan and grant me the protection of your might and power!"
Lash's eyes widened as he was taken aback. A formal request to be accepted into his household? To eschew her own House and Clan Nakagi to join Ventru?? But surely she knew that liliths couldn't be taken into a household like that! Her very request was against some of the Conclave's most powerful and ancient laws!
"I'm sorry, Mistress Sakura, but I must refuse," he said, triggering another fountain of tears from the Japanese lilith. "I cannot take you into my House. It is forbidden by the Conclave's most powerful laws. I would survive the inquisition that would be launched if I was to take you in, but you would not."
Then he knelt in front of her.
"But I will give you this pledge: I, and those that follow me, will work tirelessly towards restoring not only you, but all of your stricken sisters to the holdings of their birthrights. We will rebuild your Guards and renew the bonds to your Houses and Clans of your birth. You have my blood vow on this." He paused to hand her a small towel.
"And, as your request has stirred my heart, it has also stirred my mind. Grant me a moment's pause, if you will."
"Of course," Sakura said, pushing aside her disappointment as she wiped away her tears with the towel to watch the big man stand and step to the door.
"Captain Kingsguard, please join us. And Fiadh, and Meredith as well, if you would, please." He then stepped aside to let first Naryan into the privacy-enabled lab, then the red haired Irish lilith, and the blonde lilith, closing the door behind Meredith.
"Thank you for joining us," he said, his tone formal as he let his eyes take in Naryan, Fiadh, and Meredith. He then stepped to Sekura and helped her to her feet. He looked down at her with a smile and a nod before returning his attention to the other three.
"Mistress Sakura has brought to my attention a matter of the greatest importance that I feel we need to immediately address. When I extended Ventru's protection over Mistress Fiadh after the destruction of her holdings and Guard by the White Flame's, it was an honor to serve House O'Broin, Clan Magnar, and the Queens' Conclave in keeping her safe from harm while escorting her to NachtFeuer."
He paused to return the bright smile Fiadh was aiming in his direction.
"But now we are beyond NachtFeuer and Mistress Sakura has aptly illustrated a continuing need to protect Night Mistresses that have had their resources and holdings taken by force from them, leaving them defenseless. As much as I would be honored to take them into my House and use the strength and power of House Lash to keep them safe, the Queens' Conclave will not permit it. However, with Captain Kingsguard as a representative of the Conclave and witness, I propose the following: until the disenfranchised Night Mistresses can be restored, House Lash will make those Night Mistresses who are willing, adjuncts to the House, able to draw on House resources for their needs and be protected by House soldiers, lords, and High Lords."
He looked at a stunned Naryan.
"How stands the Conclave on this matter?"
Naryan blinked as she tried to absorb what Lash was proposing. Then she looked at the ceiling.
"Hunter, on my authority as a Captain in the Silver Legion of the M'tada, access the Queens' Conclave database, ident copper serpent 1177 Ingamon."
"Authority verified. Accessing the Queens' Conclave database." A slight pause, then: "Access confirmed."
"Search the database for the following legal precedents: does attaching a lilith as an adjunct to a Major House contravene any Conclave law or protocol?"
"Searching," the base AI's soft, sexless voice announced, followed quickly by: "No laws or protocols are violated by such action, Captain."
"Then make the following notation: as of this date and time, House Lash of Clan Ventru has willingly offered adjunct status to Liliths disenfranchised by circumstance and war."
"Acknowledged. Please verify on behalf of House Lash, Lord Commander," Hunter quietly directed.
"On behalf of House Lash, I, High Lord Ingamon Lash do verify we have willingly offered adjunct status to qualified Liliths who have been disenfranchised by circumstance and war."
"Verified and noted. Be advised: a copy of this verbal protocol has been sent to the Queens' Conclave for their advisement and consideration."
"We are so advised," Lash said with a nod to Naryan. He then turned to the three liliths. And found them all already down on their knees, holding their hands up in supplication. He chuckled softly.
"Sooo, you accept our offer, then?"
****