[The Reading] Ley Lines

[Arauchia]

THE TEN OF SWORDS REVERSED

The events in this post take place shortly after Arauchia was turned in Summer 2011

Unnecessary breaths rushed in and out of Adela's lungs as she sprinted down the street. The sun was rising behind her and she could feel it's siren song calling her to slumber. Boots skidded across the pavement as she turned the corner, her goal now in sight. The sewer grate lied just ahead of her. Adela rapidly closed the last yards between herself and the manhole cover, which she rapidly shoved aside before leaping down the opening. Fingers of one hand caught on the ladder rungs while the others reached to pull the cover back and protect her from the oncoming solar flare.

With a bit of a dejected sigh, the fledgling shadow slid down the ladder rails and landed on the cobblestone below. One of Adela's only solaces was that the eternal darkness of the sewer helped stave sleep off for a little longer. She slowly trudged off towards the northwest where her little makeshift camp would be awaiting her. A scowl was worn into her pale features as she revisited her current predicament, much like she always did during her walk home every morning.

Three weeks ago her entire existence had been dumped on its ***. Adela had chased a notorious gangster's trail her from Spain, to Italy, to New York, then out to Harper's Rock. Turned out there was a whole group of gangsters operating out of this little podunk town. They seemed to have a good relationship with the police, so they were able to operate relatively uninhibited. While the Spaniard loathed this corrupted arrangement, it would make it far easier for her to infiltrate the stronghold and take out her mark. Thusly, her blades found his neck and Adela slipped out to prepare to head on home. But she didn't make it.

On her way back to the hostel, Adela found herself under attack by a brunette woman whom she would later come to know as Shan. The last thing she remembered before blacking out was a sharp burning pain in her neck. Next thing she knew she work up on a couch in a stately looking manor and the woman who had attacked her was gone. Without her maker sticking around, Chia felt alone. Granted she poked her head in from time to time at the shadow's guild, but Chia was largely left to her own devices other then the discussions she had been having with Velveteen and Zachariah Staus.

As she reached her alcove, Adela kicked off her boots and started to unroll her sleeping bag. She collapsed onto it, curling up into a little ball as the tears began again like they would every night. Adela had gone from a jet-setting, work hard play hard sort of existence to being stuck in this tiny town. She felt utterly trapped, unable to escape from this fate that had been chosen for her. Supposedly, Shan liked how Adela moved as a hunter while dispatching that slumlord and hand picked her to be apart of the undead legion. Least that's what Velveteen told her. Sure, Adela could see that as a compliment. She just wished to have been consulted before she was robbed of her family, lifestyle, and freedom in moments. Violet eyes squeezed shut as the blonde let her mind drift off to memories of the sun, and that walking into it might be a not so bad way to end her suffering.

But wait a second. Adela abruptly sat up and her eyes shot back open. Instead of cursing her luck for the thousandth time, a new idea came to mind. Senor Staus had talked to her the other day about something for his city council project or something. The different households and factions were discussing how to better manage vampires that violated the code of secrecy they were all to uphold. Things like being spotted snacking on humans, or using powers recklessly in the open. He was proposing a bounty hunting agency.

That wasn't all too dissimilar then what she was, right? Instead of hunting corrupt and cruel humans, she would just be going after badly behaving vampires. And making god money to do it. But furthermore, what if being a vampire made her a more efficient assassin. Then if she could get home, she could help her beloved family in Spain carry out their calling. For the first time in weeks, a faint smile appeared on Adela's thin pink lips. Tomorrow, she would go back and as Senor Staus more about his ideas. But for now she let the anguish fade away and slip into deep sleep.

[Arauchia]

THE DEVIL REVERSED

The events in this scene played out on January 5, 2018. Permission to use Jesse Fforde in this post graciously given by the writer.

"You know there's a way for you to be free of those assholes, right?" Jesse mentioned casually as he stood across from Arauchia from where she sat in their family hang out. "Come again?" Chia's gaze moved from her book to look straight at Jesse. Her lithe frame sat up at attention, almost leaning forward a little as she eagerly awaited the man's explanation. "Yeah its called disenthrallment. Establishes your own bloodline by weakening the tie to your sire. It only became widely available in the last couple years."

The blonde's eyes grew as wide as saucer plates as she was enlightened as to the realm of possibilities before her. Her normally chatty self grew silent as she was at a complete loss for words. Where was this voodoo years ago when she really needed it? Or perhaps Velveteen knew and chose to not tell one of her most loyal foot soldiers about what was there for the taking. Either way it didn't matter now. Violet eyes would close in thought as she gave the impression that she was weighing her options, but deep down, she already had known her mind had long since been made up.

It had been decided the moment she had decided to hunt Shan for abandoning her own flesh and blood. At the time, it seemed the most insurmountable task. First off, the Killer was much stronger than Chia which lead to the Spaniards's attacks being easily dodged. However, this was not a deterrent for Chia. She merely kept training on zombie dogs and Mooncalves until she dispatched them as easily as a knife went through butter. With new confidence in her ever evolving powers, Chia returned to hunting Shan.

But now there was another concern. Velveteen said that if she didn't hurry, Shan could slip into a deep slumber and not be seen for a while. Time was of the essence so Chia started to make nightly visits to the location Shan had been spotted, just after she fed and was at her sharpest, and began her attacks. These were not just randomly placed attacks for the most part. Instead, Chia struck with the deadly accuracy she had prided herself in as an assassin.

Bullets in the knee caps to represent the crippling effect Shan's choice had on Chia's dreams.

A knife in the back to convey the betrayal felt in Shan's decision to turn her and then carry on like Chia didn't exist.

A slash at the neck to symbolize Chia's manner of death.

A spread of buckshot into the gut to physically depict the sucker punch the Spaniard felt from her abrupt changes.

The Killer would bleed like a stuck pig, but each wound stopped bleeding by Chia's next visit. Just when she thought that her efforts were going never ever be enough to rid her of this woman, Chia struck a blow to Shan's rib cage just under the sternum. As soon as it connected, she knew something connected. There was no struggle to get her knife free. It merely slid out as the older vampire started to crumple to ash before her eyes. Chia could ferel her mouth hanging open as she watched the disintegration take place, equal parts shocked that she had actually accomplished her goal and morbidly curious at the vampire death process. Sure she had been told about it at work, but seeing it for herself didn't do any of the descriptions justice.

At the time, Chia felt like this act of revenge had allowed her to move on. But as she sat there reflecting on the option extended to her, it brought up a more visceral reaction. A newfound desire to be freed of all of her previous history in this town. Tytonidae had all gone to **** anyways while she was gone and Senor Staus was gone too. Hardly anyone remembered her, so why not shake off her past experience and start anew?

"Do you want me to perform the ritual?" The steely-eyed necromancer inquired of Chia as she stood there on the opposite side of the bar, seeming to wait for her to snap out of it. Chia's violet gaze zoned back in on Jesse, unsure of how long she had been lost in her own thoughts. What would she do as her own master? She didn't know yet. But she was excited to find out.

A devious smile slowly formed on the Shadow's lips as she slowly opened her eyes and rose to her feet. "Si, I would. I be forever in your debt, again." The Spaniard curtsied, but she couldn't help but laugh as she watched Jesse roll his eyes into oblivion at Chia's overly formal mannerisms just like he did when they first met.

Thus Arauchia Rivera was reborn, and was now the captain of her own destiny.

[Arauchia]

THE HIEROPHANT

"Captain's Log, 6th July 2020"

The Spaniard took a long drawl on the cigarette between her lips, holding the smoke in her lungs for a few moments, then blew it out overhead. Chia absolutely hated the recorder, but it had become a necessary evil. After the re-establishment of the Enforcers, the Chia decided that her newest recruits needed to understand the past in order to better serve their mission. As months passed and recruits transformed from novice greenhorns to trusted lieutenants, they urged Chia to record her experiences, memories, and musings. That way if she were to get drawn down or sent to the Fade and not make it back for awhile, they would be able to educate the next generation.

"Its been about six months since everything seemed to lurch back in time and people are still having a hard time readjusting to the masquerade. Its surely not as glamorous, but I have concluded that I think this is for the best. We lived freely for a few years and we saw what we were rewarded with. The humans tried to "cure" us into extinction. Paladins grew more brash. Then there was that whole siren incident. I'm still convinced they were trying to get down into the Ruins so they could kill the Old One, thinking if they killed her it would cause the rest of us to disintegrate. Isn't that what happens in Anne Rice's Queen of the Damned? But rest assured my brothers and sisters, that's all a fairy tale anyways."

Chia ashed the still smoldering cigarette butt in her ash tray as her last sentence trailed off. Eyes glanced over to the window across from her desk. It was still dark, but the faintest hints of indigo and pink could be seen on the horizon. Daybreak was coming soon. While the sun used to be absolute torment, sunrise was now the Spaniard's favorite time thanks to advanced training with the wraiths. Chia loved to stand there at this window and watch the dawn greet the earth as she reflected on past and present.

"Some times I miss how things used to be. God only knows how many people are trapped behind the veil like I was for years."

The blonde paused a moment thinking back on that rebirth into the realm of the living she had experienced. In the months after her reappearance, many other elders followed as the rift continued to widen. But then it retreated back the way it came. It took the zombies with it, and a peace soon followed. It was during this peace, vampire-kind discovered that the humans seemed newly ignorant of their presence in this place. However, no one could explain what had happened. And as the fade worked in mysterious ways, it probably would remain a mystery for many years to come.

"Perhaps this is why I push for rehabilitation, fines, and maiming instead of Realming people. Sure, we need to deal with those who are putting our species at risk, but if we kill off too many of our own? We will just die off anyways.The reason we should, no must, maintain the masquerade is because it enables balance to be maintained. If we do not kill our meals, we will have a sustainable blood supply for decades to come. If they don't know we exist, they cannot fear us, and thus not devise ways to murder us like they did the elders."

Chia leaned forward in her chair and gave the little black box a smile, much like she would a most trusted confidant. "Captain Rivera signing off."