Booke tried to fight back the sobs that wracked her slender frame as she stood, hands clamped so hard against the heavy table in her room that she left deep fingermarks in the wood. Her body shook with unsuppressed rage while her face throbbed dimly where the two duelling rods had smashed into her.

The damage to her skin and bone was superficial – it would be healed in a matter of hours – but the damage to her pride would take a lot longer to repair. She'd fled the training pits as fast as her legs would carry her after the fight. A small part of her mind tried to rationalise it. She'd scored two genuine hits; Gliss only got the better of her by refusing to play by the rules, by being utterly unpredictable.

Not good enough, said another voice in her head. Just not good enough.

She'd spent a long time building her reputation as one of the best duellists in the clan. It made people take her seriously; made them look past the small stature and elaborate outfits she liked to wear. It let people know that she was not to be messed with. Now...?

Now some stray from the north had put an irreparable dent in her carefully crafted image. With a wordless snarl of impotent rage she raked her nails back along the hardwood surface of the table, spraying splinters across the plush carpet of her quarters. Trembling, she turned, leaning back against the table and hanging her head. This wasn't over. She would see that filthy tramp thrown out of the Glaive grounds with a stake through her heart.

A knock at the door snapped her out of her smouldering reverie. She looked up sharply, reaching out to sense the Aspect of her visitor. It was strangely muted, but big, seeming to fill the corridor beyond. With a snort of annoyance she stomped across the room, gripped the handle and wrenched the door open.

To her surprise she found Capper standing on the other side of the threshold with a sheepish look on his face. Her surprise quickly faded, replaced by a simmering, barely containable fury.

"What to you want?" she hissed venomously. "Why aren't you off playing with your little whore from the north?"

"Brooke, please," Capper said, taking a precautionary step out of arms reach. "This is getting out of hand."

"You think so?" She bared her fangs even more. "Because I've not even started yet."

"Look, I know we've had our disagreements over the last couple of days, but I never wanted that to happen." He shook his head. "Brooke, I don't want to fight with you."

"Then what the hell are you doing?!" she demanded, a sob creeping into her voice. "Why are you spending so much time with that stranger? Why are you dismissing everything I say and do? You say you don't want to fight but everything you do just pushes us further and further apart!"

"That's not fair."

"It is exactly fair!" She could have slapped his jaw from his face right there, and it took every ounce of self-control she had not to do it. "Ever since you dragged that girl in here you've completely lost your direction. I am in that chamber by myself trying to stop this whole thing from crashing down around us and all you can think about is your new playmate!"

Something flashed across his face that she couldn't quite read – was it embarrassment? Not precisely. Definitely discomfort, with a strange hint of sadness. His brows pulled in just a fraction, not quite enough to be a frown, but enough for her to notice. A long sigh seemed to deflate his whole body.

"Brooke, believe it or not, I'm trying to get the bottom of why Gliss is in the city," he said at last. "I'm not just hanging around her for fun."

"Well you're taking your sweet time about it!" Brooke snapped, utterly unconvinced by his tissue-thin justification. "And we have guards who could get the information from her. That's why we have them! You should be helping me – right now all I've got is Marshall. And I think the whole world might be going insane because he's the one actually making sense right now."

Capper rubbed his eyes with both hands, exhaling through his clenched teeth. When he eventually took his hands away and looked at her, however, his expression had softened. He reached into the pocket of his brown leather jacket and pulled out a pair of cigarettes. Brooke was about to lash out with another scathing indictment of his character, but a closer look stopped her. These weren't just cigarettes. The two gold-gilded tubes released an intoxicating aroma of cinnamon mixed with the metallic zest of blood.

"Where did you get those...?" she breathed, her anger momentarily forgotten.

"I've still got a stash from the last shipment," he said quietly. "So...can I come in?"

She considered that for a moment. A piece of her wanted to snatch the expensive cigarettes away and slam the door in his face, but equally she didn't want to open the rift between them any further. Eventually, she reached out and took one of his peace offerings. Taking a slow step to one side, she motioned him into the room.

Capper slithered past, his shoulders awkwardly hunched as she shoved the door shut behind him with a bang. She waited, taking a certain twisted pleasure in the other vampire's discomfort as she watched him lighting his cigarette. Sweeping up a gleaming silver lighter, Brooke lit her own and stood in silence, taking a deep, satisfying draw. The taste massaged her throat all the way down through her body, infused with blood, expensively important from the Land Across the Water.

In no hurry to mend bridges, she stood there enjoying the taste while Capper grew more and more uncomfortable. Smoke billowed between them and she felt his Aspect twisting as he squirmed under her gaze.

"You knocked on my door," she said eventually. "So why don't you go first?"

"Fair enough." Capper started pacing slowly across her plush carpet, evidently collecting his thoughts. "I know you think I'm ignoring everything to do with the clan, but I'm not. I'm just working a different...angle."

"And what could that possibly have to do with Gliss, huh?"

"I'm not sure yet. That's what I'm trying to find out. I'm sure she's more than just some stray who wandered here by accident. She thinks she can explain why Baelock are getting so aggressive, but it's all mixed up in myths and legends I don't even remember.."

Brooke could barely contain her disgust. "By the First, are you listening to yourself? What could she possibly know that we don't? You're just crawling around after her because she's different; because she won't make you do thinks the way they are meant to be done."

"It's not that simple." He took a vicious draw on the cigarette. "She knows more than you think. Now, I don't know if I believe everything she's saying – you'd never accept it if I told you."

"Try me, Capper," she hissed. "Because right now my head is spinning. I'd love to believe you've got a good reason for acting like such a fool, but if you do why won't you tell anyone? Why won't you explain it to me and why won't you tell the Elders?!"

"Because if I do that before I have all the pieces they might throw her in a cell, or kick her out of the mansion. They'll never believe what I have to say and neither will you – not until I have more information." He dug a hand through his hair in frustration. "Brooke, you're the one who knows how to handle the diplomats. You play the games and you do it better than me – you always have. I do things differently. I need to...feel my way through this, from the ground up."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?!" she exclaimed. "You can't just side-step what's going on between the clans!"

"I'm not side-stepping anything, Brooke. I'll be at the Synod. And at any vote among the Elder-Bloods, I'll back you to the hilt. I trust your judgement – you know that."

She took another draw from the cigarette, swilling the smoke around in her mouth as she considered that last statement. At least she could still count on him in some ways, even if he was acting irrationally in others. Eventually she sat down on the end of her bed, crossing her legs and letting the smoke gently trickle from between her lips.

"So what about the Melding, Capper?" she asked quietly, her anger beginning to subside.

"I don't know." He shrugged, sighing heavily. "If I'm honest, I've been trying not to think about it."

"Well, thanks very much."

"You know what I mean."

Brooke smiled sadly. "Yes, I do. Honestly, I don't know if I'm sure about it anymore."

"You...you'd go against the Elders?" A shocked look flashed across his face.

"Well, clearly your heart's not in it, so why should I fight to make it happen?"

"Brooke, it's not that at all," Capper said, crossing the room and sitting down beside her. "It's just that I never got a chance to make up my own mind about any of this. Nor did you." He paused to take another draw of his cigarette, leaning forward and resting his elbows on his knees. "Do you remember anything from, you know, before...?"

She looked at him in surprise. "Not really, no."

"See? They took that away too." A pang of regret crept into his voice as he continued. "We both probably had lives of our own back then. Then along came the great Clan Glaive. Along came Jocasta and the Elders to bring us for the ride."

"What exactly are you saying?"

"Oh...nothing." He smiled at her. "I just wanted you to understand, if we go through a Melding it should be because we both want to. Not because we were told to, alright? Maybe after the Synod...after all this craziness has been sorted out we can talk about this properly. Right now, we've both got more important things to deal with."

"I suppose that's true." Brooke nodded, then reached over, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder. "Thanks for coming by, Capper."

"It's alright." He made a vague gesture to his face. "How's your...?"

"I'll be just fine," she assured him.

"Good." He stood, finishing the last of his cigarette and stubbing it out in her ornate crystal ashtray. "I'll...I'll get out of your hair then."

"Capper?" she said as he reached the doorway.

He paused and looked back. "Yeah."

"Whatever you're going to do, be careful."

"I will."

Then he was out the door, shoulders awkwardly hunched as he fled. Exhaling a long stream of smoke, Brooke let herself fall backwards, sinking into the deep softness of her bedsheets, safe in the knowledge that Capper hadn't gone completely insane. She still had a lot of questions, and just as many doubts about his guest. His actions remained exceedingly questionable, but she already had measures in place to keep tabs on that.

And right on cue there came another knock at the door; this one furtive and sharp. Brooke allowed herself a satisfied smile. Standing up, she loped across the room and gave the handle a sharp twist and tug.

The door creaked open there stood Finbarr's tall, dark figure.

"I just saw Capper leave," he said quietly. "Is this a bad time?"

Brooke waved a dismissive hand. "As good any. Get in here."

The towering guard stepped awkwardly over the threshold and she sent the door banging shut behind him. Rounding, she placed her hands on her hips and looked at him expectantly. "Well?"

"I just had a long talk with Rune."

"Rune...the librarian?"

"Yes. You remember when you found them in the archives?"

"Of course I do."

Finbarr swallowed hard before continuing. "Well, I, err, I wondered what they were doing there together, so I went back and asked him. He told me they were asking to look into very old history texts."

"What for?"

"Don't know. They never told him and he never asked – but it sounds like they were searching for something."

She sighed. "That figures. Do you know which volumes?"

"Not specifically," Finbarr said. "But it was ancient history, before Veridian Shores and before the Clans. Myths and legends was all he told me."

Brooke's brows creased into a deep frown as she absorbed the information. Ancient texts pre-dating the city and pre-dating the clans? Her historical studies were a little patchy, but she knew that any surviving records of the time wouldn't exist in the common tongue. That took the knowledge of ancient Vampyr that she knew full well that Capper wouldn't have been the one doing the reading.

And she thought back to what Capper had said – how their stray from Iron Hollow thought she had some idea why things in Veridian Shores were spiralling out of control. He'd said it was all wrapped up in myths and legends. Somewhere in those tomes was the reason for Gliss's visitation to the city. Or at least, it was the reason she was serving up for Capper – and he was taking the bait.

"Alright," she said slowly, tapping her fingers gently against the dresser in thought. "This is good. I think I'm going to have my own talk with Rune. I saw some of the tomes they were looking through."

"And me?"

"You? You stay with them – whatever you need to." She patted one of his massive shoulders. "Capper thinks he's got his own angle on this situation with Baelock and it has something to do with whatever they found in those books. Between us we double our chances of figuring it out."