The Dark Edge Chronicles - Clan War

Next Move

Lash sighed as he closed the heavy door behind him and looked around the dusty, worn interior of what used to be his ancestral home.  High in the hills overlooking Kronberg, northwest of Frankfurt and deep in the Altkonig, or Old King's Forest, it had been the refuge for the Lash family for nearly 1200 years.  While still a part of his ancestral lands, the hunting lodge of weathered stone and seasoned logs hadn't seen a Lash for nearly a hundred years.  With that level of isolation, he hoped it had managed to avoid the Hands' notice while they carried out the purge against his clan, the Ventru.

That being said, it galled him to leave the fight behind instead of facing it head on.  He should be down there, on the front lines with the rest of his clan, defending their honor and their heritage.

Instead he was hundreds of kilometres away, hiding in an old hunting lodge.  If he didn't already know his immediate family were all dead, he would've been shamed to the point he would've taken his own life.  A warrior of the Night simply didn't run like a coward. As those thoughts tumbled through his mind, he could feel his fists ball in impotent rage and frustration.

"You look almost human, wearing that hang-dog look," a quiet voice noted from the lodge's entrance.

Thankfully Lash knew that voice, or he would've drawn his Shiva and began firing without question.

"That's because it isn't often that one comes home, thinking it would be to a hero's welcome.  Only to find your clan has been declared traitors to the Night and are in the midst of being purged." He paused to throw a look at the shadowy figure now standing in the open doorway.

"Purged because of my actions."

"Actions taken because you were ordered to, by all accounts," the figure quickly retorted before stepping into the lodge. A quick flip up of the heavy sunrunner hood that was protecting the newcomer's head from the daytime sun and he stood revealed in the dim light that filled the lodge's main room.

The newcomer was lean with a face unnaturally dark and weathered from long hours spent outdoors despite the need to wear sunrunner gear.  But there was no mistaking those eyes as belonging to anything else other than a vampire.  Seeing that face, familiar to him from his days as a boy, Lash couldn't help the slight smile that found its way onto his lips.

"Orin," he said.

"Ingamon," Orin quickly replied with a faint smile of his own before he began taking off the heavy sunrunner robes covering the rest of his body. "I suspected I'd find you here after that debacle at the airport."

Lash sighed again.

"Hands of the Council, there to purge me before I could even make our report," he said, lips tightening. "They treated us like dogs, not even giving us the chance to defend ourselves. They would've killed us all, if I hadn't acted first."

Orin slowly nodded as he tossed the robes onto a handy chair.

"Of course you acted first," he said, looking over at the powerful vampire. <You're a Lash. I wouldn't have expected anything less. Especially since they had acted without honor towards a decorated veteran officer of the Qos Viran." Orin paused by the fireplace to lean a shoulder against it, arms folded across his chest.

"My sources in the Council say they've been looking for a reason to strike against the Ventru. Your supposed alliance with a powerful psionic, regardless of reason, was just close enough to treason for your enemies on the council to push a purge vote through."

While not unexpected, the revelation served only to tighten Lash's lips even further.

"Of course it was me giving them the reason," he hissed, fists tightening further with anger and frustration. Hearing the younger vampire's frustration as he began to attack himself, Orin quickly held up a forestalling hand.