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At the other end of the Brotherhood&039;s coround, John sat at the desk in the training center&039;s office and stared at the co so to earn his money, but with classes on hiatus inde finitely, there wasn&039;t a lot of paper pushing to do
He liked paperwork, so he liked his job Usually he spent his ti injury reports, and keeping track of the curriculuress It was nice towhere it needed to be
He checked his watch Blay and Qhuinn orking out in the weight room and they&039;d be in there for another half hour, minimum
What to do what to do
On a randoh the computer directory and found the folderit, he called up the one Phury had filed about the attack on Lash&039;s house
Jesus Christ The dead bodies of the parents had been seated around the dining roo roo else was touched in the house, except for a drawer up in Lash&039;s room, and Phury had jotted down a side note: personal effect? but of what value as jewelry remained?
John called up the other reports from the houses that had been attacked Qhuinn&039;s Blay&039;s Three other classmates&039; Five other aristocrats&039; Total death toll: twenty-nine, including doggen And the looting had been extensive
Evidently it had been theof Wrath&039;s family&039;s estate back in the Old Country
John tried to ih to have those addresses come out of his mouth He&039;d been a shit, but he&039;d had no love for the lessers
Tortured He had to be dead
For no particular reason, John went into the guy&039;s computer file Phury, or someone, had already filled out the death certificate Name: Lash, son of Ibix, son of Ibixes, son of Thornsrae DOB: March 3, 1983 Date of death: approx August 2008 Age at time of death: 25 Cause of demise: Uncon firmed; assumption torture Location of body: Unknown, assu Society disposed Remains released to: N/A
The rest of the file was extensive Lash had had a lot of disciplinary issues, not just at the training progralymera retreats It was a surprise to see theiven how secretive the aristocracy ith iain, the Brotherhood had required full disclosure of all trainees&039; histories before you could enter the prograuy&039;s birth certificate had been scanned in as well Name: Lash, son of Ibix, son of Ibixes, son of Thornsrae DOB: March 3, 1983, 1:14 ahter of the soldier Nellshon Certification of live birth signed by: Havers, son of Havers, MD Young released frouy was gone
The phone rang,him jump When John picked up the call, he whistled, and V&039;s voice said, "TenYou three be there"
The line went dead
After a ot Qhuinn and Blay The two of them pulled the same kind of whoa pause, and then they all raced for Wrath&039;s study, even though his buddies were still in their workout sweats
Up in the king&039;s pale blue digs, all the Brotherhood was there, filling out the roo dainty and proper about it was overpowered: Rhage was unwrapping a Tootsie Pop over by theby the purple wrapper Vishous and Butch were together on an antique couch, the spindly legs of which you had to worry about Wrath was behind the desk Z was in the far corner, arht ahead into the middle of the room
John shut the door and stayed put Qhuinn and Blay followed his lead, the three of theot," Wrath said, putting his shitkickers up on the paper-covered desk "The heads of five of the founding falymera is scattered around the eastern seaboard and in safe houses Finally Total losses of life are in the high twenties Although there&039;s been a hout our history, this is a hit of unprecedented gravity"
"They should have moved faster," V muttered "Damn fools didn&039;t listen"
"True, but did we really expect anything different? So here&039;s where we are We should expect soative response froainstto try tono one else can be king, but they could ether" As the Brothers s, Wrath held up his hand to stop the chatter "Good news is, they&039;ve got organizational probleive us some time The Princeps Council&039;s charter says that it s here They created the rule a couple of centuries ago to o elsewhere As none of the didn&039;t exist in 1790 when they drafted the current charter, they can&039;t convene a e their bylaws or elect a new leahdyre until they drag their asses back here, at least for an evening Given the deaths, that&039;ll be a while, but we&039;re talking weeks, not e bit down on his Tootsie Pop, the crack ricocheting around the room "Do we have an idea of what hasn&039;t been hit yet?"
Wrath pointed to the far edge of his desk "I e went over, picked up the stack of papers, and handed them out even to Qhuinn and John and Blay
John looked at the columns First was a name Second was an address Third was an estien in the household Fourth was an approximate value of as in the place based on the tax roll Final hether or not the fa had or had not occurred
"I want you to divvy up the list of the ones we haven&039;t heard from," Wrath said "If there&039;s anyone still in those houses, I want you to get the theo with Z Blay, you&039;re going with Rhage Any questions?"
For no good reason John found hireen chair that was behind Wrath&039;s desk It was Tohr&039;s
Or had been
He would have liked Tohr to see hio out and defend the race
"Good," Wrath said "Now get the fuck out of here and do what I need you to do"
On the other side, in the Temple of the Sequestered Scribes, Cor houses and buildings on and placed it on the floor next to her stool She had no idea what to do with the thing Maybe burn it? Wastepaper baskets didn&039;t exist in the Sanctuary
As she moved a crystal bowl that was full of water froht of the ones Fritz had brought her with her peas in them She missed that hobby of hers already Missed the butler Missed
The Prian to rub the crystal, creating ripples in the surface of the water that caught the light of the candles The war effect, and froentle waves cae appeared, she stopped agitating the water and let the surface smooth out so she could watch and then describe what she saw
It was the Priht he&039;d met her at the top of the stairs and looked at her as if he hadn&039;t seen her for a week But he wasn&039;t in the Brotherhood&039;sdown a corridor that was marked with streaks of blood and black heel prints Bodies were crumpled on the floor on either side, the re just athered a sroup of terrified males and females and put them into a supply closet She saw his face as he locked theer in his features
He&039;d scrambled to save them, to find a way to safety, to take care of them
When the vision dimmed, she palmed the bowl once more Now that she had seen what had transpired, she could call it up again, and she watched his actions once ain
It was as the movie had been back on the far side, only this was real; this was past that had transpired, not a constructed fictional present
And then there were other things she saw, scenes tied to the Primale and the Brotherhood and the race Oh, the horror of the killings, of those dead bodies in luxurious housesthe corpses too numerous for her to comprehend One by one, she saw the faces of those who had been killed by the lessers Then she saw the Brothers out fighting, their nu forced too early into the war
If this continued, she thought, the lessers would win
She frowned and bent down closer to the bowl
On the surface of the water, she saw a blond lesser, which was not unusual but it had fangs
There was a knock, and as she jue disappeared
A muffled voice came from the other side of the temple door "My sister?"
It was Selena, the previous sequestered scribe
"Greetings," Cormia called out
"Yoursound as a tray was slid through a trapdoor "May it please you"
"Thank you"
"Have you any inquiries of me?"
"No Thank you"
"I shall come back for the tray" The excitement in the Chosen&039;s voice lifted it nearly an octave "After his arrival"
Cormia inclined her head, then remembered that her sister couldn&039;t see her "As you wish"
The Chosen left, no doubt to prepare herself for the Primale
Cormia leaned back over the desk and looked at the bowl, instead of into it Such a fragile thing, so thin, except at its base, where it was heavy and solid The lip of the crystal was sharp as a knife
She wasn&039;t sure how long she stayed like that But eventually she shook herself out of her numb trance and forced her palms back onto the bowl
When the Priain, she wasn&039;t surprised¡ª
She was horrified
He lay sprawled out on a marble floor, unconscious by a toilet Just as she was about to leap up to do only the Virgin knehat, the ied He was in a bed, a pale lavender bed
Turning his head, he looked straight out of the water at her and said, "Corin Scribe, the sound made her want to weep
"Cormia?"
She shot to her feet The Pri in the temple&039;s doorway, dressed in whites, the medallion of his station around his neck
"Verily" She could go no further She wanted to rush forward and put her arms around him and hold on She&039;d seen him dead She&039;d seen hi around the barren room "All by yourself"
"I&039;m sequestered" She cleared her throat "As I said I would be"
"So I&039;m not supposed to be here?"
"You&039;re the Primale You can be anywhere"
As he walked around the rooht to ask
He looked over at her "No one else is allowed in here?"
"Not unless one of h the Directrix ranted leave bynecessary?"
"In addition to recording the races&039;s general history, we I see the things the Scribe Virgin wishes to keep private" As the Primale&039;s yellow eyes narrowed, she knehat he was thinking "Yes, I&039;ve seen what you did In that bathroom"
The curse he let out echoed up to the white ceiling
"Are you all right?" she asked
"Yeah I&039; to be okay here? All by yourself?"