Interclan relations

I think we must attempt this. If there is more to discover from the ring, this may be the best way to discern it.

Thaddeus had hoped Alfarinn might have attempted something like this before; it would put him more at ease if someone knew what they were doing. Although he was eager to attempt anything that might lead them in the right direction, this was still a bit of a shot in the dark.

This is not something I've ever attempted before. Though there are books on the subject, combining powers just isn't done that often, particularly with this ability. Still, I believe this is our best chance.

He paused for a moment, thinking.

Using my psychometric abilities tends to be a bit...disorienting for me. I primarily -feel- what is happening to the object, though sometimes I will get quick visuals. It is time consuming for me; the knowledge is not instantaneous for me as it is for other psychometrists.

Perhaps you can tell me a bit about the mechanics of your ability, so that we can discern the best way to proceed?

"Oddly, I see images mostly. I would have thought that I would get feelings as an empath but that was not to be. Though my empathy and psychometry sometimes mesh in strange ways. Usually that would be touching a ring on someone's finger or a piece of clothing."

He considered it for a moment.

"It can be disconcerting at times. I agree. It took me a very long time to get comfortable being in the room with anyone much less touch them." He sighed. "As a young empath without control another person's feelings often overwhelmed me. I feel what others are feeling and if I am not careful then I cannot distinguish the difference between their emotions and my own. That is why normally I do not concentrate on the power. This way I only get the occasional rush of strong emotion instead of the complicated mix a person can go through in the matter of minutes. Also the more I focus the stronger the feeling. Not something I enjoy doing very often.

I tell you this only to prepare you in case that ability is mixed with our other ones. As your psychometry is more a feeling and I am an empath, my own abilities might heighten what you sense in an odd echoing that might over power us both. I will do my best not to let this happen." Alfarinn looked at Thaddeus, very seriously and wondered if the man had any idea what this kind of sharing was going to be like for him. He didn't get close to people often because he knew too much, felt to much and could easily drown in another's pain, fear or even joy.

"As far as psychometry itself goes. I have gotten much better since my time in Anantya and it is far less disorienting, though image flashes unprepared for do make one dizzy while walking and talking. I even take these little things in stride now days."

Despite his reservations about possibly feeling Emma's emotions through the ring and Thaddeus, Alfarinn was actually curious enough to be mildly excited about the prospect of trying this experiment.

Thaddeus mulled over Alfarinn's answer, passing his gloves from one hand to another before setting them firmly on the seat next to him; such behavior was unseemly, after all.

The odd echoing the other man had described sounded vaguely disturbing to him, though he had a hard time imagining it. Thaddeus felt it best to make every effort to clear himself of emotion before embarking on this adventure; he reasoned that that would help reduce the risk of an overload for either of them.

Unfortunately, now that it came down to it, he was nervous. While the idea was a good one (bless Mai for coming up with it), and it would certainly be exciting to try, Thaddeus could not help but feel some fear at the prospect. He would be utterly vulnerable during the process, possibly subjected to more power than he had ever experienced in his life, put through something that he already knew was emotionally trying for him...not to mention he would be sharing all of this with someone he hardly knew. And that was another point of some conflicted feelings for Thaddeus. He simply knew his abilities were not all they could be, and the thought of the other man seeing just how untrained and -young- his power was made him decidedly uncomfortable.

Thaddeus knew he would need to relax in order to get what they needed. Relaxing was not something he did with any great skill; being on guard, watching your back, thinking constantly, those skills make him well suited for the Order of the Night and ill equipped him for these situations.

Fortunately for him, Mai was here. The one person he could let down his guard for, with whom he felt utterly safe around, was sitting next to him. With Mai here, he could do anything, and just looking at her took a good deal of the weight off his chest.

At last, he turned back to Alfarinn.

Mai can pull us out if we appear distressed in any way. When we are ready, I think one of us should start with the ring in their hand alone, and the other of us can join in. That might lessen the shock. I can think of reasons for either of us to start, but ultimately I don't know that it will make a difference.

What do you think?

Alfarinn took a deep calming breath

"I believe it would be best if I start. Not having touched it before the information will be new to me and therefore more overwhelming than it will be for you who has already seen it. You will have some idea what to expect even before touching it. It also lets me get images before adding in feelings."

He was certain that the feelings would be strong from this little adventure and he began to brace himself for it. It did comfort Alfarinn to know Mai was there in the vehicle with them and able to pull them apart should it become necessary but Thaddeus was still in the limo and so close enough that even apart he was likely to feel the other man's strong emotions.

"Shall we?"

He held out his hand and noticed there was a slight tremble. It had been a long time since his abilities actually made him nervous.

Thaddeus nodded in agreement with Alfarinn's suggestion, seeing the logic behind it.

He swallowed hard. He looked to Mai one last time, letting the last of his fear melt away and replacing it with determination. His resolve newly refreshed, he reached out, quickly and carefully, and took the other man's hand by the wrist. He was somewhat relieved that he did, though it was an unnecessary gesture; he had forgotten the odd chill that Alfarinn's hands held and was mildly surprised all over again. Had that reaction occurred while they were sensing, it could throw off everything. He resolutely ignored the tremble in his hands. Instead, he dropped the velvet bag into Alfarinn's open hand and closed the other man's fingers loosely around it.

How long should I wait before I join you?

Alfarinn was momentarily stunned by the touch of Thaddeus's hand on his wrist. There was a wave of emotions to accompany that warm grasp.. Not as much as he anticipated and Alfarinn let them wash over him a moment, getting used to the feel of such close contact.

Determination, first and foremost. Alfarinn smiled slightly. He admired the Anantya's resolve.

There was a slight feeling of fear but he was mastering it well. Then a sense of trust and calm that replaced the fleeting rise of panic. Alfarinn felt relief flood him, this might not be as difficult as he feared. If Thaddeus can keep this much control of his emotions while they are both touching the ring then this whole thing just might work out.

He looked down when he felt the velvet bag touch his palm. Alfarinn nodded once to the Anantya across from him. This was a symbol of their trust and he appreciated it for what it was. He hoped that they would gain knowledge to make the whole ordeal worth the anxiety.

"Give me a minute, the images come at me very quickly. Then begin to slow down and replay themselves as my mind grasps a hold of them. I can then analyze each scene. "

Alfarinn emptied the ring into his palm and was shocked to see what ring it was. Emma's maker's ring. Of all the rings to have! He'd have to explain the signifigance of it to Thaddeus later.

Holding the ring between a finger and thumb, he closed his eyes and concentrated. The images washed over him in a confusing out pouring of flashes... skin, fabric, places, eyes.. too fast.. must slow it down. Alfarinn waited for the rush to be done and then slowly took apart the images separating them out. Soon Thaddeus's impressions would join his own and he must be ready for the added imput.

Thaddeus watched Alfarinn carefully for any sign that the other man was ready. He wasn't entirely sure of it, but he thought Alfarinn's eyes might have slowed in their flickering behind his lids. He wondered vaguely if he looked the same way when sensing, like a person in the midst of a dream. Then he reached out, slowly, and wrapped his fingers around Alfarinn's and the ring.


There was a pale slender hand upon a white post. He could see the ring on her finger. There was the impression of a garden in the background but it was too hazy for him to be certain.


Her soft hand contrasts with the rough wood of the gazebo. Then moving, gliding through something rich and silky...her hair, she's run a hand through her hair.

He saw the same hand this time laying awkward in unlife, blood pooling into the open palm. A large dark hand reached down to pull the ring off her finger.

Blood flows over the ring until he could no longer feel Emma's hand at all. It slips off easily, gliding over the wet, slick blood, when the rough hand pulls it away from her finger.


The ring was being held up for a better look. The face was hazy or dark...maybe masked or hooded? It was hard to tell. So long ago, too many hands have added images over it. Alfarinn could see bright blue eyes, almost inhumanly bright.


The rough hand, ridged with thick calluses, turns the ring over and around with his hard thumb. Thaddeus feels the edge of a chewed, mangled nail before the ring is slid into a small leather bag and crammed into what Thaddeus reasoned was a pocket.

There is another hand, a man's hand. Well manicured, the dark sleeve suggests a fine suit. He sees an ornate looking box resting upon what seems to be a dresser. The box seems out of place in the plainness of the room that can be seen through the mirror. There is a window and Alfarinn could make out the dark image of a building. The House of Pain.

A softer hand, though still very much masculine, lifts up the ring, absently thumbing the red jewel at the top. The ring is placed inside of the box, resting in the soft enclosure. Thaddeus feels the ring slide on the silk; perhaps the box was moved, though there is no way to tell for sure.

A hand placing the ring in a handkerchief of fine linen, then dropping the ring in a dark alley. A deliberate action! No accident.

The ring is lifted by the same softer hand and again he rubs his thumb over the jewel. The ring is then wrapped in something soft and fine. Thaddeus feels it moving loosely within its new wrappings, occasionally striking something solid; possibly the carrier's thigh. Then the ring slips easily through the fabric and onto muddy asphault. The world goes dark and Thaddeus feels the rat's teeth around the ring.

Small fingers and white fabric, a kimono, dirty on the bottom edged with slime. Mai, Alfarinn's mind made that connection easily enough.


Finally, Mai's hand, which he would know anywhere, picks up the ring from a muddy, slimly resting place. He feels the silky fabric of her kimono slide over the ring, then the supple leather of his own gloves.

Thaddeus holding tightly to the ring, his face grim and his brow furrowed with concentration.

The ring strikes the hard tile floor of the museum.

((OOC: Alfarinn's part done in red))

Pulling away from his senses was somehow easier this time around, perhaps because Alfarinn was holding the ring. Rather than jerking his hand as if burned, he calmly and slowly pulled his hand away from the other man's and slid a glove over his right hand, his "dumb hand"Â? as he had heard someone call it, to take back the ring when Alfarinn was ready.

He watched Alfarinn carefully, waiting to intervene if he didn't release the ring soon, and pulled his small notebook out of his pocket, hardly realizing what he was doing.

Overall, he felt that he and Alfarinn had done remarkably well. Thaddeus was quite impressed by Alfarinn's abilities; he had been able to feel much more via the combined powers, and Alfarinn's sense seemed to propel his own into a more orderly direction. The entire experience was actually -less- disorienting than when Thaddeus sensed alone, perhaps because Alfarinn's images gave order to the chaos. The most difficult part was early on, when Emma ran her hand through her hair...her hair had always been a weakness of his and it had been difficult to keep his emotions in check. The box, which Thaddeus had been somewhat anxious about, was much easier this time; Alfarinn's sense seemed to push him through that part more quickly than he did on his own.

Still, they had a lot of information to process, and it was becoming overwhelming to Thaddeus. They needed to start sorting everything out.

Alfarinn felt Thaddeus's warm hand leave his own. He let out a slow breath to release the tension he didn't even notice he'd felt. While He was focused on the images Thaddeus's feelings were not as over powering as he feared. Still, he slowly put the ring back in the bag and then handed it back to Thaddeus.

It was strange, as if someone else sensing emotions freed his own. The light touch of the Anantya's hand on his was enough to allow him to feel what Thaddeus felt but it was not the rush of complicated feelings he was normally associated with his empathy.

Focused, the emotions gave the pictures added meaning. It all made more sense. He was used to sensing feelings just not with his psychometry. When his own powers over lapped he usually received a jarring mix.. the emotions of a person and scenes from an item. The did not normally mesh, it was confusion, not order.

He opened his eyes to see Thaddeus writing calmly in his notebook. This didn't seem to have effected him badly either. Good.

"There is something about the ring that I need to tell you when you are ready. Shall we discuss first?"

Thaddeus watched Alfarinn carefully place the ring back in the bag and hand it back to him, admiring the other man's control and recalling how he had dropped the ring the first time he had sensed it.

Well, to be fair, the first sensing had been a shock to him.

I'm honestly not sure if we both got the same information from that sensing, so yes, it would be prudent to mention anything important we might have seen or felt, and get all of the information on the table before we analyze it. Did you see something before I joined you?

"It is her maker's ring." Alfarinn said quietly. "They were made a long time ago and passed from one vampire to their child but the vampire could only have one ring. It took on some of his essence, bonded to him in a way. It could only be passed on to once.. For this child it unlocked its secrets. It would bond with them until they chose to pass it on."

He paused a moment to eye Thaddeus as he told him the rest.

"She never passed it on. I do not know if Emma ever made others." He looked out the window a moment. "Perhaps some time in the past, perhaps some that didn't survive." Alfarinn saw his own child dead in his arms. A great warrior, friend and king, dead by the hand of a traitor. That was the first but not the last. He shut his eyes on the memories willing them away before turning back to his companion.

" She never spoke of any that she had created so perhaps there was never anyone but you. The ring is yours, some of her remains inside it to guide you, Thaddeus."

Her Maker's Ring.

Thaddeus had only heard of a Maker's Ring once before, long ago in an ancient text, and the reference had been brief, a passing note rather than a definition or explanation. He made a mental note to check out the passage in the library when he returned home.

He had not, however, known the significance of this ring, and was deeply moved when Alfarinn explained its origins. He allowed himself to wonder, for a moment...and then supposed he would never know. Still, for some reason the simple fact that she had worn that particular ring, on that particular night, brought him a measure of...not happiness, exactly, but warmth.

He looked at the bag in his hand, and wondered if he could go about wearing the ring without forever sensing her death on it. Much as he longed to be close to her in some way again, he didn't know if he could bear it. For now, it was enough that she had worn it, that it was of her, that he could perhaps choose to wear it one day.

Thank you for telling me this. This ring seems to be a piece of more than one puzzle...I cannot explain it, but this knowledge...

Thaddeus shook his head. He had wanted to say, this knowledge makes me feel whole...but that didn't quite sound right in his mind, and anyway he felt vaguely uncomfortable revealing something so personal. It was unnerving to him, to feel this way in front of Alfarinn.

This knowledge is strangely fitting. Yet more evidence of fate's intervention in this matter.

He looked down at the ring in the bag again, reflecting. After a moment, he looked back to Alfarinn.

Do you suspect, as I do, that Mai's finding of this ring was no accident?

Alfarinn kept his face expressionless as he waited on Thaddeus to ponder all that he had said. It was sometimes difficult to be in the presence of a empath. Unnerving, to make matters worse, Alfarinn wasn't even of his clan. So he simply watched and nodded.

"Yes, I believe that the image with the handkerchief was someone who knew there would be images attached to the ring. They did not wipe it down though and that part confuses me. Not that it would have done any good. Nothing so simple like that. It would seem they dropped it on purpose.. but to what purpose I do not understand."

Alfarinn pondered it for a moment, continuing to speak his thoughts out loud.

"Could have wanted us to sense something... or more likely you. Why then the handkerchief? Finger prints? Maybe the person who dropped the ring did not know you had this talent. Perhaps the location was supposed to be the clue. We have not explored that option."

Point taken. Though I cannot help but think that if the ring were dropped specifically for Mai to find, it was intended to get back to me as well; our friendship is no secret.

As to the purpose for dropping the ring...I cannot say for certain, but I do not like the feeling that I am being manipulated in some way.

Thaddeus sighed thoughtfully and stroked his chin.

The same hand placed the ring in the box, then removed it. I caught at least some of the image there...

Thaddeus shook his head.

For some reason your comment about location made me think of that, but I'm getting ahead of myself. I didn't recognize what little I saw before the ring was placed in the box, though I felt I should. Thaddeus shrugged

Mai, is there more you can tell us about where you found the ring?

Mai turned her blank gaze away from the windows and fixed white eyes on Thaddeus.

"The loud place with the thumping noise. The young others go there often. Not his kind" Mai waved a delicate hand in Alfarinn's direction.

"The rat carried it down into the tunnels but that is not where he found it."

She waited serenely to see if there was anything else Ba-di wanted to know.

Hmm. Thaddeus wondered if Mai thought the matter unimportant; she had a tendency to relay only relevant information, and hadn't given them anything that held meaning for Thaddeus. Still, one of the things Thaddeus liked best about Mai is that one had to actually think when having a conversation with her. He gave her a little smile.

Thank you Mai.

He looked over at Alfarinn, an unsure expression on his face.

Tunnels...maybe a subway station? Thaddeus felt his cheek twitch at as he mentioned the city's public transport. God, what a revolting place. It was almost as bad as the sewers, a place Thaddeus couldn't imagine anyone walking into. Younger vampires, though, were more tolerant of such modes of transportation, so perhaps this was what Mai meant.

Alfarinn thought of what Mai had said.

"Loud place with the thumping noise." He chuckled sofly. "A night club. There was also an image of the House of Pain in one of the impressions from the ring. As Mai pointed out, not me, but the...other others go there. It would seem to indicate the House of Pain as well. Not many Tacharan visit Club Eternity, for which I am grateful."

He crossed his legs and leaned back in the seat, getting into a more conversational tone now that the sensing was over.

"What did you make of the eyes? Several vampires that I know have eyes that are not colored normally. These 'could' belong to a human but I think it is safe to assume a vampire. For several reasons, one they were an odd almost inhuman blue and two there seemed to be only one person besides Emma at the time of those flashes. Suggesting to me one person, there was very little way for a human to have taken on a vampire single handedly in the middle of the night back then, especially not one of Emma's age."

"Any thoughts?"

Yes, he was a vampire. Must have been of quite an age to murder Emma single handedly.

Thaddeus said it quickly, in an out of hand sort of way, with an odd confidence for such a speculative subject matter. He did not look at Alfarinn, but instead seemed focused on Mai's feet. If asked, he would have replied that he wasn't looking at anything at all. He muttered then, almost as if to himself.

I'm not sure if that was you or me.

He turned his head, looking in Alfarinn's direction but not quite at him, his brow furrowed.

Did you...feel anything strange when you saw him?

A poor way to word the question, Thaddeus knew. Still, without being quite able to nail down exactly what he had felt when he looked into the killer's eyes, it was the best he could do.

Of course it was natural to feel -something- when you looked at the one who murdered someone you loved. But this strange twisting of the gut had felt odd to Thaddeus. It gave him a sense of foreboding he couldn't shake away.

Alfarinn closed his eyes and recalled the image of the blue eyes to his mind and then called up Thaddeus's feelings. Interesting.

He opened his eyes again and looked at Thaddeus.

"He was bitter... That is odd. That does not seem the correct feeling of a person working for a group or perhaps someone merely hired. It would seem...personal."

Alfarinn had originally thought perhaps the killer was simply working for someone. He'd been a mercenary in times past so it didn't seem that unheard of for this person to have simply been a hired gun, so to speak or perhaps working with someone. This feeling thoug, this man had a reason to hate either Emma or vampires themselves. Since Thaddeus seemed certain that the killer was a vampire then it would make more sense that the murderer felt this bitterness towards her and not their race.

Thaddeus felt goosebumps rise on his arms at the word personal. It was a chilling thought indeed, that someone wanted her dead, not for information or possessions, but simply because of who she was.

Bitter. Thaddeus wondered at that, it didn't feel quite right, but he imagined Alfarinn was better at discerning feelings than he was. Besides, it could be that his own feelings were meshed in and confused with the killer's. Alfarinn had warned him of this sort of confusion before they began.

I don't know how deeply personal it was. This killer knew exactly how to kill a vampire, quickly and efficiently.

You asked me, earlier, if I was there that night. I was.

Thaddeus pinched the bridge of his nose and fell quiet.