Perhaps it was for the best not to visit the Anarchs now and to pay the Primogen a visit. Maybe insanity and insanity joined together could negate themselves and actually make some kind of sense, but that sounded more like a desperate wish than a real possibility. LaCroix had said that delivering the letter was important, not urgent, and should he again complain Katherine would really try to point that out unlike the fridge incident. This time she wouldn't just take it! Hopefully. Things liked to change when she stood eye to eye with LaCroix and those things were never in her favour and she could slap herself now. Of course her question was totally stupid. She should have asked him, 'Why didn't you leave me on the roof to die?' Shit!
Katherine stepped outside the Venture Tower into the urban jungle of Downtown L.A., waving her hand to stop a cab. She got into the car and told the driver where her destination was. Gladly she remembered on which street Grout's mansion was located.
It was another cabbie this time, not the one with the unusual red glasses and strange speech who had picked her up in Santa Monica while the blood hunt was on her. He hadn't been very likeable from her point of view. He had certainly known a lot and yet again he was someone wanting to give her advice without providing the slightest bit of information, speaking in goddamn riddles. He told her that LaCroix was making new foes every night and questioned if it was really the safest place for her to be at his side. That may be true but then again, what were her choices?
The Anarchs? Not really. Katherine was raised in a family where both parents were employed by the U.S. Air Force. Organisation was a vital and important factor in Katherine's life and it was still important to her in her unlife. The Anarchs were – well – Anarchs. Chaos, unorganised and structured like a street gang. Whoever could kick your ass the best was the leader, not those with the right qualifications for the position.
Ming-Xiao? Oh please! That arrogant bitch with her nose all high above speech? You are just a dumb vampire and I'm the enlightened guru. Next.
Strauss? He was creepy and besides that Katherine hadn't had much contact with the Regent of the chantry. She couldn't really entrust this to him.
Run away? Yes and then? Katherine wasn't the type of person to run away from problems and conflicts. Again she was influenced by the education from her parents, and where would she have gone? Back to her family? What could she have told them? That she now had a bad allergic reaction to the sun and was on a blood diet? Again, the next option please and there was only one remaining: LaCroix.
He spared her life, took Katherine under his wing and taught her a lot about this world. After the theatre there had been Jack as well, but then after his brief introduction he was of no help at all. Just standing in The Last Round telling her what was good for her and what was not. So much for making free decisions by your own will. But LaCroix on the other hand told her about the clans, the disciplines, and most important of all gave meaning to this new existence, even if it was nothing more than to do the dirty work for him.
Once he really asked Katherine if she had ever been in the military. She'd nodded but he didn't pay attention, looking down again at his desk full of files and paper, but in the same breath he mentioned that he was actually an officer in Napoleon's ranks in the past. Without a doubt that really appealed to her. Ranks, organisation and structure were factors she very much needed in this new chaotic world and LaCroix was that anchor, and still is. Katherine herself was a 'Oberleutnant' in the Bundeswehr. So she knew about the responsibilities taken on for those you were giving orders to, or as LaCroix liked to say, 'the burden of leadership,' which he took very seriously. Katherine often thought that the weight on his shoulders was way too much for him. To be the Prince of a city with the highest Kindred population around, where four factions were fighting to rule it and on top of that your own group didn't trust you, even going so far as to sabotage your plans. The potential power the sarcophagus might have contained must have seemed to him like a heaven-sent resolution for all his problems, and that's why he was so obsessed with it. Yes, that made sense in Katherine's opinion, but it was still only a guess; and to make all of it confusing once again there were those strange feelings for the Prince, despite his bad temper and that he really is a self-absorbed asshole, that she wasn't aware of before. Geez, was she developing some kind of co-dependency syndrome? These last weeks had been too cramped for her to spare time thinking about her personal situation, but all of this was now forcibly rushing into her mind.
The cab stopped and Katherine paid the driver, walking out of the car till she now stood in front of a huge gate – behind it, the mansion of the Primogen. It really looked a bit like Grout's and Katherine turned around, giving the burned ruins of his mansion an odd look. She shook her head as she passed the gates and stepped to the main door, ringing the bell.
A man opened it, dressed like a British butler and even had the right age for it with a grey moustache and his white hair precisely combed.
"Yes ma'am, may I help you?" He even had a British accent.
"Miss Ophelia invited me to a private tea party," Katherine responded. Did vampires really drink tea? She once tried to eat her beloved pancakes and they tasted like ash, but then again Ophelia was a Malkavian. Katherine really preferred a nice tea party with undrinkable tea to facing again such stuff as was in Grout's mansion.
"Ah yes!" The butler smiled politely. "Then you must be Alice. Please, follow me." Now he opened the door wider so that Katherine was able to walk in.
The interior was set from the time of the industrial revolution, as far as Katherine could guess, but there were also a lot of flowers and the colours were friendlier. Not as white and full of gold as LaCroix's bombed office was. Much more elegant and decent and best of all: no ghouls with sharp knives trying to slice her throat open.
The butler led her to the balcony where a round table was standing. From there you had a nice view of the garden, and three out of the four chairs were already occupied. In one there was an old, really used up teddy bear that was missing an eye. On another sat a small porcelain doll which looked antique and last but not least there sat the Primogen. The last vacant chair was apparently for Katherine. The table was covered with enough cups of tea for four people.
"Please go ahead. I'll bring the tea." The butler vanished and Katherine walked over to the table.
"Thank you for the invitation, Primogen." LaCroix had drilled respect for the elders into her head and she'd understood it fast. Their anger was something you didn't want to bring upon yourself. Anger a supervisor, go mop the floor or get a verbal scolding. Anger an elder vampire of the Camarilla you are the mop to clean the floor, and that was one of the nicer punishments.
"Oh dear Alice, Mr. Teddy is so eager to meet you!" Ophelia pointed to the empty chair. "Please, make yourself comfortable my child." It was really strange to be treated like a child but then again she really was a child in this new world. A mere toddler you could say. But a tea party with dolls? Why was she here again? Katherine did as the Primogen told her and sat down.
"Was the dream a nice one? Were there cute little bunnies?" The voice of the Malkavian suddenly sounded like that of a child.
"Straight to the topic as always, Marilyn." She now chuckled in her normal voice, if it was her normal voice.
"I'm sorry but what dream?" Katherine had had one, yes but why in God's name would the Primogen know about that?
"Don't play dumb fledgling! There was one!" Ophelia spoke in a deep and masculine voice.
"Do not be rude to our guest, Mr. Teddy!" she warned the used teddy bear, waving with her index finger.
Katherine was irritated, her face just a big question mark as the butler returned with a tray full of cookies and a pot of tea, both of which he put on the table, bowing and then leaving them again alone.
"Please, please have some." Ophelia pointed to the cookies and Katherine took one hesitantly, so as not to offend her host.
"We'd really like to know what the gift we gave you turned out to be, even if we all can imagine." Ophelia giggled like a schoolgirl, looking conspiratorially to the porcelain doll and poured them all – including the bear and doll – some tea.
"You gave me a dream? I apologize for my ignorance and all the questions but as...Mr. Teddy said," she gave the stuffed animal a wary gaze, "I'm just a fledgling." She was twenty-seven years old and having a tea party with toys like in her childhood, but then again LaCroix had told her to never, ever call a Malkavian a lunatic in their presence. Just play along and they won't mess with your sanity.
"At least she acknowledges being dumb, bwahahahahaha!" Ophelia or the teddy laughed.
"Oh dear, I excuse his bad manners." Again she gave the teddy a warning look, but this time it was a bit sharper.
"Yes we gave you the present of insight. The insight into your own self, little Alice. You seemed so lost in this wonderland. Was it revealing? Please, tell us."
Okay, now it was starting to turn creepy but on the other hand maybe it would be good to tell this to someone – at least as long as that someone wasn't LaCroix. He wouldn't be interested anyway.
"It was dark and my sire said some strange stuff about a jester." Katherine needed to really dig deep in her memories. "Yes and Prince LaCroix was also there, talking about kings and queens and then I saw myself in some sort of post-apocalyptic scenery. It was really...interesting."
Ophelia seemed to follow her every word.
"Magnificent!" she whispered and had a smile on her lips.
"This really answers a lot!" the bear said.
"Actually it confuses me. It just doesn't make sense," Katherine said and looked frustrated. "How are you responsible for this dream?" She wanted to know.
"Ahhh, you are quite bright little Alice." Ophelia clapped her hands, excited. "Thanks to your ivory Prince I am now the voice for all Malkav's children in this wonderland," she smiled. "I just wanted to return him the favour." She gave Marilyn a naughty wink and then she – or Marilyn the doll – giggled again.
"What favour?" Katherine thought slowly like a really dumb first-grader.
Ophelia put her index finger on her lips. "That my dear Alice is a secret."
"Please, just...I need some answers. There are so many questions, they're driving me really desperate." Katherine at last had a trail and she wouldn't let it go that easily.
"Come on Miss! Tell her! Tell her! Just a tiny bit!" the porcelain doll said and Katherine smiled.
"Thank you Marilyn." It was awkward but now she would even talk to a tree for answers.
Ophelia stared at Katherine, no she stared through her, again looking like she was far away, stepping into a completely foreign world.
"We killed the jester in the tower, to be reborn as a king. The puppet is not a puppet anymore." Like in a trance the Primogen muttered these words, but then suddenly she threw her head back with an insane and maniacal laughter. "Two puppets! Two puppets and they are each each other's puppet master, even the master!" She screamed and Katherine covered her ears because the voice was brittle and hurt her eardrums.
The butler stormed onto the balcony toward the Primogen and gave Katherine an angry gaze.
"Leave now! I'll call you a taxicab, but leave immediately!" he shouted at her, grabbing the screaming Primogen who now scratched her face and left there bloody stains all over the perfect pale skin.
"Yes, yes. I'm sorry. Thank you." With wide and fast steps she walked out of the mansion, again just more confused than before. What the hell was that now? Why were vampires so strange? Why did they always have to talk in riddles or use a lot of phrases that said nothing in the end? Would she be the same after some years?
Only a few minutes passed and a cab arrived. Now it was time to deliver LaCroix's letter to the Anarchs. Katherine begged that there wouldn't be even more questions awaiting her.