Off and Away~! (Haven)

[Valentina Audley]

Valentina drops a neat little curtsey to Caiaphas before extending her hand.

"Good Evening Mr Redfern, such as it can be claimed to be so." She's quiet and solemn, watching him carefully.

[Caiaphas Redfern]

The visitor's brows rose in subtle recognition and he said "Oh, of course. The famous Miss Audley. I remember now. Forgive me." as he bowed to bring his face a short distance above her hand, almost but not quite taking hold of it, before straightening again. "Your servant, ma'am."

To Dionysia, cautiously: "I'm not intruding on anything, am I? I would have sent to ask whether I might visit, but I feared that your dismay might not have permitted your staying a moment longer, and then I would have missed you."

[Lady Dyonisia]

"Oh, nonsense," Dyonisia waved away, as if she had not been packing in a hurry three minutes earlier. "My dismay is not so great that I would forgo my farewell with you. I should contact Miss Lovelle, on that note, to see what she has made of the situation."

"But, do not mistake my hurt as a forgone conclusion; only my great desire to resolve the event with yourself permits my heart this luxury! It came as entirely unexpected. Can you believe this? I can't truly describe it, this draining emotion, but all my sensations are big and soft and heavy."

The second collapse of the night - vaguely - into a sofa, her bare arm gesturing the remaining two: please, sit.

"Tell me pet, what do you think of all this? Is there a rhythm, a rhyme that I have missed? Is this not unexpected? Have I been so poor a mistress to the city's social cairn? Have I forgone my duties?" The stare is perhaps a little too intense. "It is as though space has gone syrupy, as in those dreams where you're running but it feels as through you're wading through treacle. Whatever did I do wrong?"

[Valentina Audley]

Valentina takes the hint and settles herself on a near by sofa, smoothing her skirt out as she sits. She watches Dyonisia with apparent concern, though her gaze flicks once or twice to Caiaphas and her expression becomes thoughtful.

She says nothing however, content to leave the answering to Caiaphas.

[Caiaphas Redfern]

Dyonisia's erstwhile assistant glanced about, and selected the least comfortable, most high-backed chair he could see to settle into.

He shook his head. "Absurdity - you did not fail in your duty, mistress. Quite the opposite. You made tactics a sacrifice to conscience, as you have always done. It is one of many things that I have admired in you."

Pensively, he looked up at the exquisite plaster coving of the ceiling, and the glittering chandelier it framed.

"I wasn't there, and have little notion of what occurred, but let me make a theatre in my mind and give the players their due characters..."

After a few beats of a mortal heart, his eyes met hers again.

"The council nominally comprises six Primogen. I am not certain whether Tremere was represented, since lord Campion is now Seneschal, but that would have reduced the number. I did hear that there was at least one abstention...most likely Primogen Langdon, as she is both new and young and may have wanted nothing to do with the affair, and this would have shrunk the pool. So, let us conservatively assume that no more than five Primogen gave voice."

He raised a thumb and spoke with care and consideration as he sifted the elements of the narrative.

"Lord Gideon's was evidently a 'yea'. His motives are opaque but may have included taking insult at your admonishment of him for the cleansing courtesy, or that may have merely been a pretext for a deeper intent. Regardless, we know he chose to move against you."

An index finger now also pointed.

"Lady Leverson...Lord Gideon had publicly and at that point unnecessarily made humble a fellow Architect of his own blood on her behalf at the previous Elysial gathering. We have seen that she is a very proud woman, and if gratitude means anything to her, it is very likely that she would have voted 'yea' on that basis alone. "

The middle finger joined the other two.

"Lady Malota...Well, above all, she was being offered that one of her own blood be elevated to Harpy - how could she refuse!

"There! With these three a simple majority is achieved. We are made a victim of political mathematics, no more, no less. So your perfect adherence to duty is therefore irrelevant, and your conscience may remain pure as driven snow."

He dropped his hand to his lap, and gave a sardonic shrug.

"These are my guesses, but I knew nothing until after the deed was done, and I know precious little still. Will you fill any gaps in my understanding, ma'am? Correct any misunderstandings?"

[Lady Dyonisia]

Dyonisia didn't miss a beat.

"A victim indeed," she murmured in agreement, dark gazed fixed quietly on Caiaphas. "With the defendant absent there is only absolute dominion in the counsel's prosecution. I wonder what could have been said in my name. To set forth from false principles... I am on mindless pause. It is as though all my abstractedness has shrank back to sudden, tight, bristling consciousness at the image you depict. You are so very apt with reducing a story down to its bare bones and necessary point, darling. My skin has livened."

A third sigh, the movement delicate, deliberate. The gaze shifted to the chandelier.

"I am very aware of the dimensions my body occupies, here, in this room, the cottage, the town, the valley, limestone Bath, the big, aching slant of the planet, space and time that used to dissolve into God but now seems to go eventually via the hypothetical sieve into a pointless looped nowhere and nothingness."

"As I say: I was not there either. Your guesses are almost as good as mine. I would add that Clan Malkavian might have been unrepresented - their Primogen's constant absence at court would not go amiss - and therefore, this might alter whom it was that was marked by their lack of vote." A noise, frustrated, in the back of her throat. "I do not know what is worse, that the Gangrel youth, little more than a wet Childe, might have had a say in such a decision beyond her understanding, or that the Malkavians did not, given their clan is not best known for their positive reception to being ignored for voice. Perhaps the Nosferatu spoke on their behalf-" the tone dropped, disapproving. "Perhaps not."

"But above all, what an awful turn of events. The Brujah in bed with the Ventrue Primogen, what a fall for their temperamental pride. Be it well on their clan though, to be so domesticated. I do wonder if Lady Leverson is altogether too much the mongrel that has rolled over onto her back to bare her Welsh belly to her new master. Oh - darling - I apologise, have I upset you with such fierceness? Mr. Redfern, Miss Valentina, what did you think of the Lady Leverson?"

[Valentina Audley]

Valentina smiles politely. It is the look of a society lady at a select social gathering, perfectly correct but not displaying any real emotion. She shifts in her seat so as to face Dyonisia more, which seemingly inadvertently, briefly obscures her face from Caiaphas. In that brief moment the looks she gives Dyonisia entreats very clearly - can I talk to you alone later?

"Milady, I thought Lady Leverson most preoccupied this night. Indeed, every time I saw her she was strolling round the hall with Lady Deheubarth and they were deep in conversation. I do hope the good lady has not bought bad news for Lady Leverson. Still, I am not as skilled in this matters as a harpy and like as not I have missed some subtlety from the matter." Valentina favours Caiaphas with a smile.

"What say you Mr Redfern?"

[Caiaphas Redfern]

As Dyonisia's explanation ran its course, Caiaphas' expression tightened, hardened, eyes narrowing, fingers tightened on the arms of his chair, digging into the leather with force enough to leave permanent marks. He only half seemed to have heard Valentina's question, responding just with a vague shake of his head, eyes still fixed on Dyonisia. The pair of preternaturally sensitive Toreador could practically smell his fury as it mounted in his spirit and he struggled to master that which howled within.

"M'Lady, are you saying...Are you saying that the decision to replace a long-abiding Harpy...a decision of great importance but at the same time a decision of very little urgency...was executed in the absence of one of the sitting Primogen? Without any advance notice...on a night when the city burned and it was known that many members of this fief, including a Primogen, would have been prevented from attending?"

[Lady Dyonisia]

Proximal vice, of course, stirs the Beast like nothing else. For the Toreador it was subtle: a dilation of pupils, a soft snap-crack of breath. Dyonisia paused before she responded, caught off-guard but quietly partial to the man's reaction. One elegant eyebrow arched upwards.

"Lest the Malkavian Primogen did remain under an Obfuscate throughout the entire night, then she did not step foot into nor out of that meeting."

Sometimes you let silence do the heavy lifting. In the three, four seconds that passed, she considered her once-Harpy. "Quite my reaction, too. I'm given to believe her Whip was injured attempting to reach Elysium, which might explain many of their clanmates absences. With the Sheriff currently indisposed, we do not know how many of Clan Malkavian are well to this night. Less well than is natural for them, that is," she added as an afterthought.

"Given the riots began in the south, it could very well have damaged their journeying first." A helpless shrug. "Myself and Miss Audley had such tremendous difficulty returning home that without Mr. Dubois' company we would surely have not. I cannot fathom the strength of problem that any Malkavian might have had trying to wade through the very thick of it. Their Primogen is more protective than most; you know it likely they would have aborted any attempt to reach Elysium should she feel her clan threatened."

[Caiaphas Redfern]

Caiaphas' eyes shut, and he began to internalise and process this new information. Dyonisia could see the soul's breath that roiled over him in crimson shrink back down into his person like a gaslight being starved of fuel, as he brought his passions back under the mastery of his will. It continued to burn at his centre, however, a white hot ball of concentrated, controlled anger.

His eyes snapped open and he donned a dark and joyless smile.

"Two months ago, m'Lady, you said you wished to move to Bristol...and I, sentimental fool that I was, convinced you to stay because I enjoyed your company and spirit even more than I desired to be Master Harpy of this domain. Well, look what a bitter harvest that has reaped for the both of us, with your feeling compelled to leave anyhow but with less of your dignitas intact, and I bereft of the office I should have inherited by virtue of long service...Pah...

"My only hope now is that you might one night find it in yourself to forgive me."