Vampire: The Masquerade is owned by White Wolf Publishing. My use is in no way meant to challenge their copyrights. This piece is not intended for any profit on the part of the writer, nor is it meant to detract from the commercial viability of the aforementioned copyright. Any similarity to any events or persons, either real or fictional, is coincidental and unintended.

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Epilogue

"Over the years I've tolerated a great deal from you, Philip, but this time I believe you've gone too far," Hassan muttered angrily. A murderous glare appeared in his eyes, and Philip found himself as unnerved as he supposed every one of Hassan's victims always were. But I'm not one of his helpless victims, he reminded himself. He may be one of the most formidable of our kind on this side of the world, but that doesn't mean he has any power over me.

"Why Hassan, you look as if you mean to kill me," Philip commented as glibly as he could manage, noting with satisfaction that he did not hear the slightest hint of trepidation in his voice. Hassan is a Dominion of the True Hand, an assassin of renowned skill. But I'm no slouch, and he knows it. Besides, I have friends. If my ability to hold him at bay doesn't stay his hand, his knowledge of the consequences of any rash actions should at least make him think twice.

"No," Hassan seethed, the glow in his eyes fading the slightest bit as a faint glimmer of rationality twinkled to life. "I'm not going to kill you, Philip. But rest assured that this will not go unanswered. You have no authority over me, and you have no right to make me a pawn in your games. Our superiors will hear of this."

"Our superiors already know," Philip said, relishing the look of shock that not only banished the remainder of Hassan's overt rage, but also replaced it with a comically dumbfounded grimace that lingered for several satisfying moments. The Assamite did not respond, so Philip continued. "My request to have the Telemon neonate observed raised a few eyebrows, as it was still presumed that I was working with Mr. Corben. I explained that I had given up on K.T., but that you had taken him on to mold him in your own image.

"Let me assure you, Hassan, that our superiors were not pleased with either one of us. There were some who questioned my wisdom first in recruiting one as young and hardheaded as K.T. in the first place, and many more who doubted my perseverance when I discarded him after such a short period of indoctrination. The fact that I then went and neglected to report my abandonment of Mr. Corben was not met with an abundance of pleasure, either. Of course, the only thing that turned more heads than your decision to adopt my abandoned apprentice was my sudden interest in an even younger and more unpredictable recruit. It was even suggested that perhaps we had both lost our senses… or at least our good judgment.

"A test was proposed," Philip explained, finally getting to the meat of the conversation. "I was to justify my interest in Yashida by demonstrating that his companion would not cause the same confusion and vulnerability that Erica always incited in K.T. Furthermore, to illustrate my continued cunning, I was to dupe you into throwing your own protégé into the mix, to turn this into a four-way test of the worth of our chosen apprentices and their selected companions. And of course while they were being tested in the field, we were being tested in the classroom, so to speak."

"Son of a bitch," Hassan growled, though Philip was reasonably certain that he was referring to the situation and their superiors rather than to him.

"I've been informed that all of us have passed our tests, though we are advised to be mindful that centuries of service do not provide us with a free pass when it comes to carelessness and stupidity. That goes equally for both of us, Hassan."

"Still testing us after all this time…"

"Yes, and I think that given what we do for the Hand, we of all people should have known better than to get ourselves into this mess," Philip commented, no small bit of embarrassment coloring his voice, providing Hassan with as much of an apology as he could expect to receive. The Assamite took it as it was intended.

"Then we had best make certain that Mr. Corben and Mr. Yashida both excel," the dark-skinned assassin said. "More so Mr. Corben than Mr. Yashida, I suppose, since you have not made any overt move to recruit the Telemon yet."

"That matters little, I'm afraid," Philip replied, managing to keep his anxiety out of his voice as well as he had managed to conceal his fear when Hassan had seemed ready to gut him minutes earlier. "There are some who commented that my strength as a recruiter was in my instinct for finding the diamond in the rough. I was proven dreadfully wrong with K.T., and if Yashida turns out to be another mistake, I may find my position more tenuous than I would like. Times are different than they were five hundred years ago. Even some of the elders are growing impatient, and I think that worries me more than anything."

"Yes, it seems they know far more about something than they're letting on," Hassan agreed.

"Not that that's anything new," Philip pointed out, "but lately it seems as if everything they know that we don't happens to be bad. That makes me nervous."

"It's nothing we can change right now," Hassan responded absently, turning to look out the window. "All we can do is our jobs, and in those jobs we had best succeed."

"I couldn't agree more," Philip replied. "And that's why I think it's best if we end playtime for Mr. Corben and Mr. Yashida."

Fin