Wednesday, 5 November 2:49 a.m.
the upstairs hallway

"Hey! Somebody come here!" Sugar's voice called.
Carid looked up from the broken table she was lugging out of Carleigh and Courtney's room and glanced back and forth down the hallway. "Where are you?"
"Here!"
Suddenly, a crash from the far end of the hall made her spin around in shock.
"First the Gangrel and the wall, now you and the ceiling!" Carid gaped. The Ravnos had kicked out a square of the ceiling out over the decorative table at the end of the hallway. From above. "The people who tried to kill us last night didn't do this much damage!"
Sugar's leg disappeared back into the ceiling and her head appeared upside down from the hole. "There's an attic up here!"
"Dare I ask how you found that?"
"Not unless you REALLY want to know."
Carid decided she didn't.
"Did they tell YOU this place had four floors instead of two?" Sugar asked, still upside down.
"No. Just the first and second...but you remember, the basement was actually walled over. The council might not have not even known about that. And that attic wasn't exactly in plain sight either."
"I knew those guys were senile...." Sugar swung back up into the attic. "Well, we couldn't use this for a haven. There are windows all over the place--hey!"
"What?" Carid looked up through the hole in the ceiling.
"They're coming!"
"Who?! The--" she floundered for a word for them "--people who were here last night?!" she finally managed.
"No!" Sugar suddenly jumped down from the opening, nearly knocking Carid out. "Carleigh and the others!"
"What?!" The Tzimisce exclaimed as they both took off down the hallway. "I thought for sure they were gonna stay in Geneva!"
"Yeah, me too." Sugar agreed as they descended the stairs and nearly charged into Sharma, who was dragging some broken wood out of the sitting room.
"What's going on?!" the shocked Assamite demanded.
"Carleigh and the others came back." Carid called over her shoulder. "And that might be worse than getting whoever did this again." she thought she saw Sharma nod in agreement.
The three of them came out onto the porch just as the carriage pulled up and Cathy's horse came to a halt at the broken railing.
"What the hell are you guys doing here?!" Sugar exclaimed.
"Amy said you were all still alive, so we figured it was safe." Carleigh called, jumping down off the seat next to Sobek.
Carid rolled her eyes. Tremere magic. They were all so stupidly trusting. What if the warlock had been wrong and the lot of them ended up walking right into a trap?
"Plus, we wanted to bring some things we thought you'd need." Seldes said, gesturing to the pile of packages on the floor of the carriage.
"Like blood, maybe?" Sugar asked. "They smashed our food supply, you know."
"What?!" about five of the others exclaimed in unison.
"What do you mean, 'they'?" Sobek demanded.
"'They'." Carid said simply. "The people who vandalized this place. We don't know who they were, so we'll just call them 'they'."
"What did they do?" Carleigh asked, a hand rising to her throat in shock and dread.
"You see the railing?" Sharma pointed to the splintered wood. "That's just the start of it."
"What about our stuff?!" Courtney practically screamed, flying out of the carriage.
"They broke my operating table." Carid informed her as the Lasombra darted past her.
"How can you not know who did this?!" Carleigh demanded as the rest of group followed Courtney's lead and went to see what had become of their personal belongings. "Didn't you find any hint?!"
"They weren't as considerate as to leave a card." Carid sneered.
"We started trying to clean things up earlier tonight." Sugar changed the subject. "But our food supply is history. I hope you all fed."
"Actually, the Gangrel and I had an idea about how to deal with the lack of sustenance." Carid mentioned as the remaining four members went back into the front hall, which was still strewn with broken furniture. "But then she started sniffing the Tremere's bed like it was her favorite dead animal and I lost her."
"What was it?" Sugar asked. None of them noticed as Carleigh began frantically tearing around the hall, kitchen, and sitting room.
"Well, the Assamites have some way of transporting blood, right Sharma?" Carid asked.
"Those methods are a clan secret." Sharma said suspiciously.
"Hey, I didn't say I knew HOW you did it. But we were thinking that you and the Gangrel could go hunting and bring back some animal blood. At least until we develop a way of hunting humans."
Sharma stared at her. "You are asking me to reveal a secret of the Assamite clan that has been guarded with my people's lives since the days of the Eldest?!"
"What if we all promise not to look?" Sugar shrugged.
The Assamite's response was cut off by a shrill scream from above them.
"My TABLE!!!!" Courtney's voice wailed. "Look what they've done to my table!!!"
"Oh, that." Carid muttered. "They should've broken that into smaller pieces, I think I dislocated my back dragging it out."
"You should've left it for her to do herself." Sugar smirked.
"Well, how was I supposed to know they were coming back?"
Carleigh stormed out of the sitting room. "Shut up, Lasombra!" she screamed up the stairs at Courtney. "What do you think you're complaining about?! It was probably your own clanmates that smashed you damn table!"
Suddenly, Courtney was at the top of the stairs, pure rage in her blue eyes. "What did you just say?!"
"You heard me." Carleigh snarled. "Who do you think did all this? Some Toreadors with pointed paint brushes?!"
Courtney was down the stairs now and right up in Carleigh's face. "Why don't you just spit it out, you Ventrue filth?! You think the Sabbat did this!"
"Think?! What do you mean, think?! I know it! And you damn well know it too. I wouldn't be surprised if you--or that fiend over there--had something to do with this from the start!"
Carid deemed this the right moment to get involved. She grabbed Carleigh by her shirt collar and nearly lifted the Ventrue off the ground. "We tipped the Sabbat off did we?" she hissed. "We called them and told them to come here and smash our stuff? Is that what you think happened?!"
Carleigh didn't seem to be dissuaded by the Tzimisce's death grip on her. "Why were you in such a hurry to get here, huh?" she sneered. "Wanted to get here in time to be taken back to your own clan? Did they come a night early? Was that the problem?"
Carid's eyes went crimson with rage.
"What the HELL, Ventrue?!" Sugar exclaimed. "In case you've forgotten, there were FOUR of us riding back here last night! It wasn't just Carid!"
Carleigh ignored her. "I knew we never should have made a deal with the Sabbat scum! What can you expect from your kind but a stake in the back?! You don't have a scrap of loyalty or honor in you, not even for your own kind!"
"You excrement!!!!!!!!!!" Carid shouted, raising her free hand to knock off the Ventrue's head.
"SHUT UP!!!!!"
The shout sounded so much like the roar of a lupine that everyone actually did shut up and look to the source.
Michaela Greywauld stood at the top of the stairs, looking every bit as angry as Carid. "You're an idiot, Ventrue." she said in a more normal tone, then descended the stairs to where Carid still had the Ventrue collared.
"The Sabbat did not do this." she said directly to Carleigh.
"BAH!" the Ventrue spat. "How would you know?!"
"How could you NOT know?!" Michaela challenged. "The house is still standing, you fool. Do you think the Sabbat would have attacked this place without burning it on their way out? That's their trademark, isn't it? If the Sabbat was here last night, why is the building here tonight?!"
"You call me a fool!" Carleigh yelled in her face. "That's exactly what they want us to think! They're trying to throw us off the traaaaAAAH!"
*CRASH*
Carleigh was sent careening into a pile of broken chairs. Carid brushed her hands off. The Ventrue was even easier to throw than the Tremere. "You really are a fool." she spat. "We're not like you. When we do something, we admit it. We don't 'throw people off the track', or deny our involvement in the fires that burn throughout Europe! Unlike you guilty fools, we have no conscience to make us ashamed of what we do. And we care nothing for 'security', either. If you could have destroyed us, you would have done so by now. We fear nothing from any of you. When the Sabbat does something, the world knows about it!"
"Plus, the packs are total pyromaniacs." Courtney added. "You couldn't have gotten them out of here without something being burned."
"Exactly." Michaela said.
Carleigh struggled to pick herself up. "Fine then, oh wise wolf. If the Sabbat didn't do it, who did?"
"Smashed furniture, broken bottles...." Sugar mused. "Sounds very Brujah." Luckily, Cathy was out of earshot. "In other words, very Camarilla."
"Impossible! The Ventrue organized this from the start!"
"And we all know how closely Ventrue stick to their principles when threatened with loss of support." Sugar sneered.
"And how do you know it wasn't your kind?!"
"We would've taken the stuff, not break it." the Ravnos said simply.
Having lost that battle, Carleigh turned to vent her aggressions on Michaela, who was now standing with her back to the rest of them. "Is that what you were getting at, Gangrel?! In case you've forgotten, your clan is Camarilla too!"
"I don't know what Kindred were here...." Michaela said, after a pause. "but I know who I smelled upstairs."
"Oh, right!" Carid exclaimed, remembering the incident with the Tremere's bed. "What did you smell?"
Michaela sighed heavily. "........Humans" she said darkly.
"WHAT?!" was the exclamation of the hour.
"Humans?!"
"No way. Not possible."
"You mean ghouls, right?"
"NO!" the Gangrel barked. "I do not mean ghouls. I mean the Society!"
Now there was no word of the hour. Everyone just stared in stunned silence.
"Like...the Society of Leopold?!" Sugar gaped after a few moments.
"I'll never forget that smell...." Michaela growled. "They were here, mark my words."
"Hold on. Just hold on a minute." Carid lifted her hands defensively. "You're saying the Society did all this?"
"I know what I smelled."
"Um...ignoring the absurdity of that statement..." Sugar muttered.
"Wait, what about the letter?!" Carleigh demanded. "The letter from the council. Are you saying that a band of mortals destroyed a group of elders? They made it quite clear that the attackers were their opposition."
"That letter could have been forged." Sugar pointed out.
"But all the same, how could they have known where to find us except by actually attacking the council?"
By this time, most of the group had filtered out onto the stairs and were quietly witnessing this conversation.
"The Society is far more than a 'band of humans'." Michaela muttered.
"But you can see why I'm suspicious, I hope!" Carleigh huffed. "I mean, I know they're strong, but really! THAT strong?!"
"If they could do that to the elders..." Ben whispered.
"They couldn't have!" Maria snapped. "I don't care how powerful these people are supposed to be; the elders are stronger!"
"You put too much faith in them." Cathy muttered.
"Quiet!" Carleigh cried. "We have to think!"
There was a long pause, in which just about everyone assembled was doing nothing but hoping someone else was actually able to think of something.
"...What if it wasn't the Society who killed them?" Sobek finally spoke.
"Then who?" Amy asked.
Sobek shrugged. "This is just a theory...but what if there were Kindred working with the Society?"
Yet another statement to stun the room.
"That's......crazy!" Ben gasped. "Kindred would never work with the Society!"
"The Society would never work with Kindred!" Amy pointed out in addition. "That could never happen!"
"But you don't know that." Courtney said. "There are some pretty crazy Camarilla out there."
"Oh, can we just stop it with the sect arguments!" Seldes yelled in frustration. "Fighting amongst ourselves gets us nowhere!"
"He's right." Mei's childish voice spoke up. "We all need to stop arguing. It's very detrimental to progress."
Everyone stared at her for a second. None of them had expected a word that big to be in Mei's vocabulary. The kid was just full of surprises. But now the group had bigger fish to fry.
"This is getting us nowhere." Carid sighed. "All we've established is that we don't know. All we know is the Society was here. Everything else is nothing but speculation."
"That's assuming the Gangrel's right."
"I said I'd never forget that smell." Michaela growled. "I meant it."
"Okay, let's just trust Michaela's nose for the moment, okay?" Sugar cut in. "Alright, we don't know. So how do we find out?"
Michaela finally turned to face the group. "This is what I think. You can listen to me or not. But I think we should do what we came here to do. Spy on the Society. Find them out and destroy them. Bit don't let them know we're there. Just do whatever we can to learn about them and damage them and maybe then we'll find out what happened here."
The others paused for a moment, considering.
"Not a bad idea." Carid said finally. "I might even be tempted to say a good idea."
"But what about our clans?" Ben asked. "If this was the Society's doing, then they didn't order it. They haven't rejected us!" he sounded so happy all of a sudden.
"We can't let them know." Carleigh said firmly. "If we do like the Gangrel says, keep this a completely covert mission, we can't let any of them know. Besides, if we are to operate on the basis of the possibility of a mole to the Society within the clans, how can we tell anyone we are still even alive?"
"And how do you think they found us in the first place?" Sobek pointed out. Ben looked utterly crestfallen.
"But then how can we stay here?" Amy said suddenly. "What happens if and when they come back?"
"They won't be back." Michaela said with absolute certainty. "They think we've fled. This will be the last place they think to look for us again. More likely they'll check our home countries or former havens if they believe us to still be a threat."
"Alright then, are we agreed?" Carleigh asked the general assembly. "We do what we came here to do and tell no one about it?"
There were no voiced objections.
"Hold it." Maria held up a hand. "How are we supposed to find them? The elders were supposed to get us started on this, right? Does anyone even know how to track the Society?"
"I think I may be able to help with that." Amy volunteered. "If I can put together a workroom somewhere, I can create a stream-of-consciousness crystalline alert system."
There was a collective blink.
"In English, sil'vous plait?" Cathy said.
Amy shook her head. "I can cast a spell that will tell us where they are. If I can have a workroom."
"Maybe you can use part of that basement we found." Sugar suggested.
"Basement?"
"Well, then, that's settled." Carleigh smiled. "So this is it?"
"I feel like we should be swearing some kind of oath at this point...." Ben mused.
"Well, if you want to be dramatic..." Carleigh smiled. She pushed one of the still standing tables to the center of the hall. "Everyone come stand around here. Where's Alectz?"
The Malkavian came running out of the kitchen. "Here she is!"
"Um...okay. Come stand."
The fourteen Cainites stood around the table, not touching it for fear of making it collapse.
"May I?" Carleigh looked round the faces of the others, particularly at Sugar.
"None of the rest of us know what to say." the Ravnos shrugged.
"Alright then." Carleigh cleared her throat. "We are no longer beholden to the council, or to any elders. Until we complete our mission here, and that is to destroy the Society of Leopold and its sisters and to uncover the treachery in the ranks of our people, we swear no allegiance to any clan, but to the Childer of Caine as a whole. We serve our race against a common enemy, regardless of clan or sect differences. We are The Thirteen."
There was a brief pause.
"But aren't there fourteen of us?" Mei's little voice rose in confusion.
"MEI!!!!!!!!!" the others shouted as a unit.
"That could have been such a MOMENT!"
"You ruined it!"
"Oh, sure, 'The Fourteen' sounds real good....."
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Mei wailed, trying to hide under the table.
Carleigh stared at the spectacle. Her speech....
She glanced to her left and somehow locked eyes with Carid. Suddenly, they both just burst out laughing. And they continued laughing while the others all mauled Mei for ruining a wonderful dramatic moment.