Seeing Gliss back in her normal clothes twanged a small chord of disappointment in Capper's heart. While he knew the shine and glamour of Veridian Shores' higher circles filled his companion with both disdain and frustration in equal measure, he'd hoped she might have kept the dress on for a little longer. The image of her in it was etched in his mind like a piece of fine art. She'd been beautiful.
Now, though, she was back to normal. He found he liked that too. She folded her arms, smiling disarmingly at him and his body trembled at the sight. With an effort, he controlled himself and smiled back. He'd also taken the time to shed his unbearably formal attire, now clad in a pair of baggy, dark green shorts and a black t-shirt, along with his trusty jacket and beanie.
And from the pocket of his jacket he withdrew the heavy, ice-cold bulk of the Keystone. The thing's emptiness still unnerved him, the cold, numb sensation twanging a chord of utter wrongness in his chest. Still, he'd risked life and limb to get it, and the Baelock scholar had certainly been anxious to prevent them from taking it. Gliss's story was ringing truer with each passing minute.
That being said, he still didn't know how this small, fist-sized lump of granite could be such a potent tool. For all intents and purposes it seemed to be little more than a dead, ornate jewel. There didn't seem to be any way to activate it, the only hint to its nature being the unnatural freezing sensation created when it was touched.
"So this is what it's all about?" he murmured, turning the Keystone back and forth in his hand. From the corner of his eye he could see her watching it intently. "Well, we've got it. Now what do we do with it?"
"I guess that depends on you," she replied. "We're in your house. I told you we couldn't let Glaive have this weapon. It's too dangerous for one clan to have that kind of power. And I mean any clan."
He looked at her sharply. "Meaning?"
"Meaning that if you want to keep your precious status quo, I'd take that thing and fling it into the sea."
"You can't mean that."
"I told you, Capper. I came here to destroy it," Gliss said, her voice firm. "I meant it."
"Can you at least show me what it does?" he asked, tossing it carelessly in her direction.
As he'd suspected, a flash of panic crossed her face and she moved with a little too much urgency to catch it in both hands. Did she really want to consign the weapon to the waves? He shot her a smug smile.
Gliss bristled. "This isn't a joke Capper. Do you really want to risk breaking this trinket inside your home?"
"I guess not," he relented with a thin smile. "But do you know how it works?"
"I think so."
"Well?"
"Well what?"
"Are you going to show me?"
"Not in here I'm not." She shook her head. "We need to me somewhere more open. Somewhere it won't matter if there's any ... collateral damage."
"The training pits?"
"No! Are you crazy? That place will be crawling with other Glaives. It needs to be somewhere with just you and me."
Before Capper could think of a location that fitted her requirements, his thoughts were scattered by the sharp rap of knuckles on the other side of the door. In a flashing motion Gliss buried the Keystone in her pocket and stuffed her free hand into the other, making it seem like she had just clenched her fists within her jacket.
"Come," she called. The door swung open and a guard poked his head in.
"Apologies for the interruption, Capper," he said, dipping his head slightly. "But Brooke sent me to find you. She wants to see you both in the archive. Immediately."
"Oh she does?"
"She was quite insistent."
"I'll bet." Capper sighed. "Alright – thanks. We'll be there soon." Once the guard was gone he turned to Gliss. "She knows something's up. I think it's time we got her off our case, one way or another."
Gliss blanched at the thought. "Capper, the less people involved-,"
"I don't care," he said sharply. "I'm sorry, Gliss, but I'm getting a little tired of lying to my friends for you. You might not like her, but we can trust Brooke. And if we keep hiding things from her, sooner or later she'll go to the Elders, friendship be damned."
She pressed her lips together for a moment, brow furrowing in annoyance, but eventually she relented, giving him a stiff, reluctant nod.
Together they traversed the mansion down to the archives where Gliss had first shown him the myths and legends that were buried in the city's past. Capper gazed idly at the shelves of books as he walked. If they survived this chain of events, he resolved he would spend more time here, assimilating the mountains of knowledge that had been at his finger tips for decades. He was immortal, after all.
They found book, back in that same room, with the tome that spoke of the Drucatta lying open on the table. No-one spoke at first. The three of them just stood there, silence crackling so intensely Capper could've sworn the book's pages began to ruffle as though touched by a light breeze.
"So what in Hellgates happened to you?" Brooke asked softly her eyes flickering between them. "You disappeared for half the Synod, both of you. I didn't mention it to anyone because for some screwed up reason I still actually care about what happens to you. I don't know how you slipped away and I don't care. All I want to know what you did."
Capper looked at Gliss and nodded to her once. She looked at him as though he were insane.
"Gliss," he said quietly. "Time to show her."
"Capper I..." Her gaze flickered uncertainly to Brooke.
"If you ever want her to stop treating you the way she does," he continued. "Then you need to earn a little trust. Now, show her."
"Show me what?" Brooke asked, the edge leaving her voice as curiosity took over. "What did you do?"
"This is why we slipped out of the Synod. This was my ... other angle. Baelock had a weapon that made them bolder. Without it, they'll think twice about waging a war."
"A weapon?" Brooke unfolded her arms, staring hard at Gliss. "And you knew it was there?"
"I knew it was in the city somewhere. What I learned here helped me narrow it down exactly."
"So that's why you were looking for the Drucatta." A thin smile split Brooke's smooth features. "Alright, what is this weapon?"
"It's called the Keystone and it dates back to the time of the First."
She stared at him for a moment. "You really believe that?"
Capper chuckled and flapped an impatient hand at Gliss. "Will you just show her the damn thing? We're going in circles again."
With obvious reluctance, Gliss dug a hand into the pocket of her coat and withdrew the spherical bulk of the Keystone. The jewels glinted sharply in the light as she placed it down on the table, its perfectly smooth surface shining like a polished window. Then she stepped back and looked expectantly at Brooke.
The Glaive Elder-Blood appraised the Keystone with a critical eye, moving in a slow circuit around the table. Her brow furrowed and she leaned closer, but she remained silent, her Aspect firm and unwavering, as though she wanted to give nothing away.
"It's a weapon, you said?" she murmured.
"That's right."
"How does it work?"
"I'm not sure yet," Gliss admitted. "But it is referenced in your ancient texts, and ours." A smile hovered around the corners of her mouth and she exchanged a mischievous look with Capper before looking back to Brooke. "Touch it."
"Why?"
"You'll see."
Capper gave her nod of encouragement. "It's okay. It won't hurt you, but you'll see that there's more to this than myths and legends."
Brooke's small mouth twisted into an uncomfortable grimace as she stared at the Keystone. Then her jaw tightened and she stepped forward, reaching out hesitantly. Her palm wavered a few centimetres away from the stone surface, but with a final push of will she made contact.
Her whole body shuddered as though she'd been electrocuted, and a gasp of surprise slipped from her lips, but she held on. After a moment her frame relaxed, as though some kind of electric charge had fled from her body. She looked at them, brow furrowing.
"It's ... cold."
"You're very observant."
"Listen, you-,"
"Alright, alright, alright!" Capper barked before things could escalate. "Can you two try and be civil for five seconds? This is important."
"You're not kidding," Brooke hissed. "What the hell is this thing? It's so empty. There's no presence at all. I can't even feel either of your residual Aspects."
"From what I've read, that's part of its power," Gliss explained, though the hint of derision still lingered in her voice. "It can deaden the space around it. The Vampyr wielded their Aspects much more than any of us – their minds were pure weapons. Imagine the advantage one person could have with something that could take that power away. What it does after that ... I'm not quite sure."
"And you brought it under our roof." Brooke shook her head in disbelief. "Capper, what were you thinking?"
"I was thinking, it would be better for us to have it than Baelock." He made a lazy gesture to the corridor beyond. "You saw them in the Synod, Brooke. For all the talk, they want rid of us. Sooner or later they were going to make their move. This might be the only way to stop this thing from crashing down around us."
"How do you plan on ensuring that?"
"We throw it in the sea."
"What?!"
"He's right," Gliss interjected. "Put this damn thing on a boat and toss it overboard somewhere between here and the Land Across the Water. No-one should have found this thing."
Before the argument could escalate any further, however, the distant thudding of running feet snared Capper's ears and he turned his head sharply toward one of the passages. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Gliss flash towards the table. Then a guard in full battle armour came skidding to a halt out of the hallway, and he recognised Beel. His friend was armed to the teeth and had a panicked expression on his face.
"Capper, Brooke, thank the First," Beel blurted out. "I've just got a report from one of our sentries. Baelock are coming!"
Capper exchanged a horrified glance with Gliss before turning to his friend. "They're coming here?"
"A hundred warriors at least," the guard elaborated. "With the twins leading the charge. This is more than a raiding party. We had to order the sentries to fall back to the mansion and not engage. There are too many of them."
"By the First," Brooke breathed. "Are they really ready to risk attacking us?"
"Looks like it."
She threw a cold stare at Capper and Gliss. "Evidently you weren't as stealthy as you thought."
"We didn't leave anything tying us to that place."
"Go outside and tell them that!" Brooke pointed down the hallway, eyes blazing and fangs sliding to the fore. "Thanks to your little robbery you might have just started the war we were trying stop!" Shaking her head with undisguised disgust, she stormed past Beel and out into the mansion.
Capper's jaw tightened and he looked at Gliss. She held his gaze and slowly shook her head, as if to say it wasn't us. But he didn't believe that. He couldn't. It was too much of a coincidence that Baelock would make such a reckless move so soon after the Synod.
"Are the guards ready?" he said, not taking his eyes off Gliss.
"We're issuing weapons to guards and Elder-Bloods as we speak," Beel replied quickly. "But we could sure use you out there."
"You'll have me," Capper told him. He turned to face his friend, a well of conflicting emotions bubbling like a witch's cauldron inside him. "Get the guards to their stations. I'll meet you at the main gate."
"You got it."
And with that, Beel disappeared, his rapid footsteps echoing away into the passages of the estate. Capper closed his eyes and took a deep breath, trying not to let his thoughts run away with themselves. One thing had to be dealt with at a time. Baelock were coming – he could worry about the fallout after he'd thwarted this attack on his home.
"Capper, wait," Gliss hissed urgently, grabbing his arm as he turned to leave. "If they are here because of what we did, let me help. None of this would be happening if it weren't for me."
Capper shrugged. "Maybe, maybe not."
"Give me a weapon and let me defend this place. It's my home too ... isn't it?"
The words hit him like a gust of cold wind. He stopped, swinging his gaze back toward her. They stared into each other's eyes for a handful of long, booming seconds. Then he let out a sound somewhere between a sigh and a snarl.
"Fine. Come with me."
With Gliss close behind, he took off at a jog through the halls of the Glaive estate, and it wasn't long before the urgency of Beel's warning became clear. Guards were spilling from barrack quarters and passageways, armed and armoured and yelling orders to one and other. He spotted a handful of other Elder-Bloods already making their way out to the grounds with their weapons ready, resplendent in their battle-dress. An array of jewelled duelling rods and hand-crafted bolt-throwers bristled among them, adding splashes of brilliance colour to the grey-black dullness of the guards.
He led Gliss to the armouries above the training arena at the base of the mansion, weaving through the throng of bustling vampires. Marshall flashed past him with a quartet of heavily armed guards in tow, clad in a suit of light, gold-gilded armour and with his duelling rods strapped across his back. He didn't even spare Capper a glance, his face grim and tight with nerves. He wasn't heading for the main grounds, however. He was moving back into the body of the mansion, to the Elders.
Capper didn't care for the armour of status. His personal stand of equipment sat in the personalised bay for the Elder-Bloods, a long, brightly lit rectangle of benches, armour stands and trunks. From his own collection, he strapped on a simple set of grey plate, the smooth, heavy armour covering his torso, with an extra layer reinforced over the heart. Then he picked up his axe, its thick haft bearing the marks of his iron grip. The blade shone viciously in the light of the armoury, kept keen and battle-ready by the clan quartermasters. Then he picked up his heavy knuckle-duster, an inelegant weapon that many of his companions viewed with distaste, but which he had found to be a perfect response to most of the questions asked of him in combat.
Once he had his own weapons, he swept up the set of ornate duelling rods that technically belonged to him, and handed them to Gliss.
"Hope you remember how to use these," he told her.
She gave them an experimental twirl in both hands and gave him a thin smile. "I think I'll manage."
"Then keep them. I never wanted them in the first place." He leaned close, touching his forehead to hers. "However this goes, just stick close to me and don't get killed, okay?"
Gliss placed a hand on his chest, her smile softening. "I'll be right beside you."