~~Julias~~
He still wasn't comfortable with the Primogen. Much as he had confidence in his abilities and intelligence, they were older than him, stronger than him, and, although he was loath to admit it, they were probably smarter than him. All his poker skills, tested every time he had a conversation. No wonder Viktor turned to stone over the centuries.
White walls, black ceiling, fancy leather chairs, and a glass table. A sight he'd grown to hate over the past few months. But at least the view from the glass wall out into the nightlife of South Side was beautiful; not that he'd get to look out it properly from his seat.
"Get your guys to back off, Maria." Garry, dressed for the street, threw some papers onto the table. "You're ruining good people's homes."
The ghost woman shrugged. "Only kine."
"My friends." The Gangrel glared at her, and Julias winced. Enough malice there to melt ice.
"Yes well, you make friends with kine and expect me to adjust my business strategies because of it. No."
Business strategies made Julias smirk. She'd said it with just enough inflection to imply the real reason: Garry had been seen destroying some of the Lancea et Sanctum's precious artifacts, after Lucas died. Not that Julias hadn't expect that. When your enemy dies, it was customary in many places of the world to burn everything they owned. But Garry had jumped on the opportunity to dig through Lucas's things in Tony's old complex very, very quickly.
The tunnel had since been sealed off, but too little too late. Would Damien care, once he found out? Maybe, maybe not.
Julias looked to the Prince. She was leaning forward to put her elbows on the table, fingers netted together and placed to her upper lip. Pensive. To Julias, it sounded like squabbling children, but maybe that was just something he'd have to get used to. When fighting over something, everyone turned into a juvenile delinquent, or at least pretended to be.
The sheriff wasn't here today though. Interesting.
"The Mirrden district is on the edge of our territories." Garry tapped the papers on the table. "And you're doing construction all over it. Not exactly a big leap to think Xnomina will push into the rest of the district."
And he was right of course. The corporation was run by Kindred, but it was a public and known corporation. Far as the humans knew, Xnomina bought the city rights to start construction on the Mirrden area. The process of moving who lived there out of there would be painful to them, no doubt, but Maria knew Garry was rather fond of the area and its people. Probably the tipping point on her decision.
"It may come to that. And if it does, perhaps the border of our two territories should be addressed? It ran down the middle of a small district; slide it over five feet and it will no longer." Maria reached out for the papers, the pictures, shrugged as she glanced them up and down, and tossed them back onto the table. "You have no legal claim."
"Legal? Who gives a shit about legal. I'm telling you Maria, you're stepping into my territory," Garry said.
Julias looked to Jacob. The Nosferatu was leaning back in his chair, wearing the dark robes he liked for meetings, and he was rocking back and forth a little with his hands hooked behind his head. Not bored though; the conversation seemed to interest him. Probably fuel for more of his games.
But before Maria could respond, Michael threw a finger at Garry.
"You have nerve. I had three Kindred report in of broken bones. One lost a finger. All caused by Carthians."
"You had your people running on my side of the fence, Michael." Garry snarled, a real, Gangrel snarl at his fellow Gangrel. "And not just exploring fledglings. You had dangerous people looking into my business, so I roughed them up. So how about fuck you?"
An unusual amount of heat from Garry. Julias raised a brow, and looked back to Antoinette. She was steel, but she did glance his way a moment before looking back to the arguing group.
"How about you Julias?" Garry pulled out some more papers and threw them onto the table. "Think I don't know what you've been up to?"
His raised brow raised more. But feigning innocence with the man was a bad idea. Much as Garry was loud and loved to push for a fist fight, he was crafty. Maybe that was why everyone acted like children the moment they were fighting over something, to make themselves look more stupid than they were? An interesting strategy. Good poker players.
"What have I been up to?"
"Some eyes told me you'd been talking with Damien." The papers were reports then.
Everyone tensed, a single moment of tightened muscles, before they hid their response. But everyone saw everyone's reaction. Kid was a hot button.
"I have been."
"Yeah well, not sure I agree with where that's going." He raised his hand and started counting off his fingers. "Went to Damien. Then went to Maria. Some eyes told me you're looking to revive the Second Estate."
It was Antoinette's turn to raise a brow.
"Is this true, Mister Mire?" she said.
"... it is." He put his hands on the table, and looked to Maria. A wince from her too, but she shrugged and motioned to him. "I've spoken to Damien, and Maria about this. But we didn't plan to bring it up until we'd discussed it further."
Jacob laughed, a hard chuckle that shut everyone up and turned them all to face him. But he said nothing, only smiled his eyeless smile, until Antoinette groaned, rubbed her forehead, and looked at Julias.
"Arrogant of you, Mister Mire. You were there during the purge; it was a difficult time for all of us. And now you undermine me? You?"
He'd expected either coldness from the Prince, or some fire. But she was looking at him with a mix of concern and pain, as if he'd hurt her.
Had he hurt her?
"I'm not trying to bring about another Lucas, Primogen. Even Maria does not want that." And she didn't. She didn't want the violence and mindless destruction Lucas brought, none of them did; except for perhaps Viktor. Good riddance.
"Then what are you doing?"
"Trying to give people a chance. Damien is not Lucas, and it was Lucas who made the Second Estate so violent, to push for constant expansion at the cost of the other covena—"
"The Invictus profited, remember?" Garry leaned in close, and stared Julias in the eye. A little more sneer and Julias was sure there'd be dog drool on his lip. "The First and Second Estate, lovely bedfellows."
He really didn't want to have this conversation yet. Not enough information, not enough feel for the mental state of everyone, trying to play poker without knowing people's quirks or habits.
"Garry, you know me well enough to—"
"Viktor's childe? Think I have the right to be a bit suspicious, especially after what you did to Mike."
Mike, the hacker kid. Right, Julias had wiped his mind of memories, invaded his brain.
Shit.
"Viktor's mission, Garry, his orders. I did what I could to—"
"You violated him."
"I didn—"
"Don't give me that shit Julias. You act like the nice guy, but—"
Enough.
Julias snapped his hand out and grabbed the man by the neck. At some point, they'd both leaned in more and more, until Garry was in striking distance. And he wanted to hit him, god he wanted to hit him in his idiotic, short-sighted Carthian face.
No one moved. Everyone went silent, and stared. Jacob's jaw dropped, but that didn't stop him from smiling like a jackass. Garry could have retaliated, but he just stared at him with wide eyes.
"Stop. Interrupting. Me." He shoved the man back into his chair before he stood up, and slammed his palms down on the glass table. Fuck these elders and their pompous garbage. "Shut the fuck up, and listen, you simple, myopic fool. Damien is not Lucas, just as I am not Viktor. Damien is willing to revive the Lancea et Sanctum, with the sole purpose of preaching his religion. And not the 'dominate everything' version either." He offered Maria a small glance before looking back to Garry, and the Prince. "No power, just a voice. He deserves a chance, and the Lancea et Sanctum deserve a chance."
He sat back down, and glared. Not like him to get angry, but at that edge there was a flash of white in his eyes, and he just wanted to rip Garry apart, get into his head and force him to tear off his own fingers. Bastard was too strong for Julias to get into his brain, but the imagery was pleasing nonetheless; at least, until he noticed Jacob in the corner of his eye. He was still smiling, and looking straight at Julias.
"Boys," Antoinette said with raised hands, elbows still on the table, "let us not revive old hatred, especially now that many of the people responsible for them are gone. Mister Mire, Madam Turio, you have talked with the boy about this?"
Maria shook her head. "I haven't yet, and I would have liked to before we proposed this. But we knew others, Garry in particular, would balk at the idea."
"He is not the only one who would." The Prince got up, and walked over to the window. No one joined her, they never did. But then, she rarely got up from the table to stare out the window like that. "People died, Mister Mire. People close to Garry, and others close to myself. The purge was a horrible time for all of us. Not only the purge, but just a few weeks ago, I had the retired Archbishop, thirty of his subordinates, and Damien at my doorstep. Lucas died, I nearly died, and the blood of thirty Kindred soaked my hands, and my sheriff's sword. I listened to that man preach of Longinus's mission as he assailed my home with bullets. As Damien's sword tasted my blood. And you... dare to ask Damien of this before speaking to me?"
No pause, no shift in inflection, nothing to give up the lie that she or the sheriff were the ones to kill Lucas. She'd be the sort to talk during poker, and dance around the lies she'd weave, the false tells, the fake reactions for each hand. Scary, when you were good at it.
And he didn't know what to say. He sat down, brought a single finger to his lip, and stared at the table. He was supposed to have a speech made, points to argue, evidence to overrule opinions. But Garry threw him a curve and he didn't have anything prepared. He—
"That is a good point."
They all turned to Jacob.
"What is?" the Prince said.
"Well, if Lucas and his little army got slaughtered, why is Damien still alive? Why'd you spare him?"
"I..." With a long sigh, Antoinette walked back to the table and sat in her Princely chair. What would she say? If it had been her choice, she wouldn't have spared him. The only reason Damien was still sucking blood was because Jack let him live. "I... saw the broken look in the boy's eyes, before Lucas was dead. He was... different."
Julias could feel his lip trying to smirk, and spent every reflex he had to keep it still. Jack's words.
Maria and Garry looked at her, then each other, and then lowered their eyes. Michael didn't look like he cared about any of this, but Jacob, the bastard Jacob was grinning as he listened, and waited.
"Then, you agree with Julias," Jacob said, "about Damien. He's different than Lucas. And you might not like the Lancea et Sanctum, but it was Lucas who lead to the purge, right? I say give the kid a chance. Worse comes to worse, you can kill him."
