Sonntag der 22. März, 1220
It would seem I've missed an entry. Such things can slip one's mind after a pair of nights such as I've had.
Yesterday evening, our coterie made to pass through a wooded area, only to be barred passage down the only trail by a rude and confident man. Kat attempted to persuade him otherwise, using actual words and sentences, much to my surprise. Rather, she began that way. I stepped in for her when she appeared ready to begin "convincing" the man with her sword.
Unfortunately, the man proved unreceptive, and in fact seemed to know what we were. Abarath placed his hand on my shoulder and told me what I already knew: Talking wouldn't work here anymore, and we would have to earn our passage with this man's corpse. I handed the mantle back to Katherine, who was more than happy to oblige the man.
Unfortunately for her, this proved easier said than done. Both Abarath and I were content to stand down and let her have the position she'd so desired, leaving her to fight the guardsman alone. Abarath stood solidly, though, and I hid a handful of Creo Ignem blood magic within my cloak, just in case. It turned out that this man was more than Katherine's match, just as he was more than just a man. He threw off his cloak and grew to a truly monstrous height, showing himself to be one of the mutts. I felt my blood burn as I remembered my increasingly vivid dreams of Nora's death, and I am almost certain that my fire magic flared in my hand. The mutt gave Kat a decent beating, similar to the one she had given me, and took my fire and Abarath's axe as well, before it finally fell.
As we ventured into the forest, the night grew steadily darker, such that it became very difficult to see, even when I empowered my senses. When there was little more than an hour before sun-up, the forest was still as black as pitch. The cause soon made itself known, killing one of Katherine's wolves as it came. It was like a wolf itself, but made of darkness, and its eyes glowed a devilish green. The shade toyed with us, and that proved its undoing, as the three of us pooled our strengths and dispatched to back to Hell. We are lucky it wasn't with a pack, or we might well have been veal as opposed to victors. Abarath found a cave for Katherine and myself to spend the day, and he and his ghoulish wolf stayed watch at the entrance, although he did so from below the earth again.
Our next evening's travel brought me back to more familiar territory, reaching back through the years of my splintered memory: Cologne. We were well into the Holy Roman Empire, now. I noted that Cologne's new cathedral seemed to be nearing its completion. Perhaps it will be fully built in another decade or two. That cathedral gives me a lasting landmark to count the years with, as its construction began shortly after my birth. Perhaps, one day, God will be merciful, and let me enter it and pray.
Cologne presented Abarath and myself with the opportunity to feed, which we hadn't done for a while. Granted, Katherine had her own kine in tow, but she refused to allow anyone else to feed from them. They follow her willingly, without being dominated or otherwise coerced. They are not ghouls, but mere mortals. I refuse to see such willing prey as human; these are merely kine.
Abarath found his prey quickly enough, and proceeded to make a scene as he chased her. I tried to convince him to stop and adopt a lower profile but, like Katherine, he seems to only understand the stealth of the predator, and not the stealth of the prey. I don't understand how people that pay such attention to the food chain can only understand half of the system.
My own hunt was, unfortunately, less fruitful. I followed a cry for help only to have the privilege of helping a woman extract her foot from the cobblestone walk. Shortly thereafter, a small child came up to me and tugged at my shirt. Foolishly, I assumed he was lost, and didn't consider how strange it was to see a small child out in the city streets at this hour. I walked with him to an alley, only to watch him become a rat before my eyes. I began to back out of the alley, realizing I'd walked into a trap, but my escape was cut off by the rodent equivalent of a mutt. It snarled at me, and left me no option but to fight it. I fought as best I was able, hoping perhaps to get my meal from it instead of from the kin humans it was preventing me from hunting. I had no idea how fast it was, though. I never landed a punch nor bite, and might well have met Final Death if it weren't for Abarath's wolf. The wolf leaped on the rat-mutt and tore into it violently. At its first opportunity, the wolf howled to Abarath, who arrived shortly thereafter, burying his axe in the rat's flesh, turning assailant into meat.
Abarath collected a vial of blood from the rat, just as he had the previous night from the mutt. I wonder what it is about these creatures' blood that makes him collect it that way. For that matter, I wonder too about that strange laboratory I saw back in Sanctuary, the night I learned of Nora's fate. Voradore gave me a small container of flesh, ash, and ichor, which he told me were Nora's physical remains. I took them, figuring to give her a proper burial at least, but I was met by Tad in the library. Tad wasn't his usual self at the time, but then neither was I. He told me he had been sent to collect Nora's remains. He showed me the notice, and it was legitimate, so I gave them to him. He let me follow him to a laboratory I had never noticed before, where he gave Nora's remains to a researcher. The researcher then loaded what was left of my partner into something Tad called "the Vault," and we left, not receiving any further explanation. There is too much happening around me that is unexplained. I need to learn more of my surroundings and the doings of my fellow vampires if I am to survive for any length of time.
My nightmares of Nora grow more vivid. What does this mean? Why do I constantly dream of a scene I have never witnessed? It grows into a more precise picture every day, extending its beginning ever closer to when I'd left her. Am I going mad, or are my senses trying to tell me something important?
Udo der Tote