November 22, 1800 12:13 a.m.
basement of the house
"There!" Amy exclaimed triumphantly. The pale blue crystal glowed slightly as the Tremere admired her handiwork. "Now...let's see if it works."
She laid bothe her hands on the dsides of the crystal, which was situated on the top of a tall stand in the middle of her new workroom. It had been so nice when everyone moved out of the basement. How was she supposed to do any secret magical work with thirteen members of other clans were coming down here every single day? But now she could work.
Amy closed her eyes and concentrated. In her mind's eye, she saw her inner energy condense around her chest, meld with her will from her mind, travel down her arms and infuse the crystal with energy. Then she visualized the planet depicted in the crystal sphere.
When she opened her eyes she saw that it was so. Excellent. The spell had worked. An image of the planet was imposed along the inside surface of the crystal. It looked like one of those 'globes' which were becoming so popular with astronomers nowadays, yet far more accurate. At least it should be. The idea of the spell was to project an image of the actual earth through the channeling of personal will and the planet's own energy. And since the information on the placement of continents was taken directly from the earth mother, it was far more accurate than anything a human cartographer could devise.
Well, now that that was done, where was that ghoul of Michaela's?
She went upstairs into the kitchen. Ana was there, doing something with a table leg.
"What are you doing?" Amy asked.
"Measuring the width of this." Ana said, marking a peice of string in her hand and standing up. "The Toreador asked me to before he left last night...that and a few other things..."
Amy shook her head. The poor girl was going to end up being a slave, what with being the only ghoul in a household of vampires used to more than three servants at any given moment. Hopefully she was up to it.
"Well, you can do the rest of whatever it was he asked you to do later." Amy motioned for her to come. "I need to show you how to operate this device."
Ana placed the string down on the table and followed the Tremere down to the basement.
She gasped when she saw the glowing sphere in the center of the room. "What is that?!" the crystal seemed to be filled with liquid, and when Ana got a closer look she saw that was because the image was so detailed that it depicted the movements of the oceans.
"That," Amy said proudly, "is how we are going to track the Society of Leopold. As soon as I charge it to do so, which will be in a moment, there will be indicators of the Society's activity at any place on that diagram."
"But how will you know?" Ana looked up from the sphere. "How can you separate the Society's energy from all the other energies out there?"
"Believe it or not, you can chart a person's energy by their predjudices." she bent down over the globe. "Every person has an aura, and in that aura you can find anything you ever wanted to know about the person. You see their desires, their dreams, their loves, and their hates. The spell I will cast was created by my elders to monitor those who would do us harm. It pinpoints those who have a certain componant to their aura. Specifically, a certain hatred." she stood up and began to pace around the room, imitating one of her most despised mentors. "Now, I'm not suggesting we attack every single person on the earth with a hatred of vampires. That would be ridiculous. No, our targets are the concentrated centers of a certain hatred, the bases of like-minded individuals who would like nothing better than to see our species wiped off the face of the earth."
Ana stared for a moment. "Wow."
Amy smiled, proud of herself. "Your task will be to locate these centers of activity and somehow get word to us...wherever we may be." she did not mention how Ana was supposed to accomplish this. No one ever did in the Chantries. You were told what to do and then left to figure out how to do it on your own.
Ana continued to stare at the sphere. Amazing. But why didn't the Tremere activate the spell already? Did she want Ana to watch? Probably... Well, better let her show off.
"So..." Ana began. "What do the indicators look like?"
Amy smiled and crossed to the other side of the sphere. She placed her hands on both sides of it and began to chant under her breath something in a language Ana didn't understand.
The ghoul shook her head a little once the Tremere closed her eyes. What a show-off. Oh well, if she could do things like that she would probably be the same way. If not worse.
As Amy chanted, the sphere began to glow and small specks of red started to appear across the surface of the planet's projected image.
Amy opened her eyes and took her hands away. Ana did her best to look properly awed at the Tremere's powers. It seemed she did a good job because the Tremere puffed up like a peacock. It was all Ana could do not to smile, or worse, to laugh.
Amy pointed to a spot on the sphere. "You see these small specks?"
"Yes."
"Those are individual people. They may or may not be of any import. But our targets are these." she indicated a larger red spot. "These are the bases of the Society. Now, pay attention." she placed her index figer on the red spot. "To get an exact location, you must touch it like so, and then envision a larger image."
Ana looked confused.
"Just touch it and think at it. Think 'larger image' or anything you want. Channel your will into it. It doesn't take that much, so you should be able to manage it."
Ana's eyebrows almost went up. Was the Tremere implying that she had a weak will? Wouldn't she just like to know....
"Here, try it." Amy stepped back.
Ana placed her finger where Amy's ahd been. She didn't think at it. She just willed the image to enlarge itself. Hmph. The Tremere thought that just because she was a Gangrel's ghoul she didn't know how to focus her will. Arrogant.
The image of the entire world vsnished an in it's place there appeared an enlarged projection of southwestern Europe. The red spot was considerably larger now. Ana willed it to show the exact location. This time, the spot itself grew to encompass one 'side' of the sphere and inside it there appeared an image of a stone and wood house. The building was non-descript, possibly a boarding house; not like the churches and cathedrals the Society was reputed to frequent. Though truth be told, these nights the Society was basing its operations out of small parishes in the middle of nowhere rather than in places like the Notre Dame Cathedral.
Amy peered over her shoulder, surprised that the ghoul had managed that so easily. Perhaps she had some magical background? But if she did, why in the world was she a Gangrel's retainer? She put that issue out of her mind for the moment and took a closer look at the building. It somehow seemed familiar....
"Back it up. Show the city its in."
Ana took the image to the necessary area.
Amy examined the image...houses...inns and bars... and on the horizon, the tall smokestackes of a closed down factory....
"Oh, great Triads...." Amy gasped. "They're in Geneva!"