(If it's been a while read chapter:*) Caryn once carried the name Smoke. Once upon a time she proudly walked a path untold numbers before her walked. She abhored violence. The thought that scared her most this morning was the past tense in that previous thought. She had the same nightmare again. It was such a simple nightmare but it held more terror in its endless torment than any bloodbath she might take part in today. It is her mother standing there just looking at her:she smiles. But Caryn feels in those kind, tired eyes all the shame, disappointment, and heart break her mother must feel at what Caryn has become. Caryn sat up in bed and turned to the her clock and sighed, "I'm going to give him a stern talking to..." Caryn had a wooden cased rectangular clock next to her bedside. It reminded her of a different sort of time in her life. But Silver had taken to playing practical jokes on her and one of his recurring favorites was switching her clock with a silver-metalic digital clock. She couldn't even trust the time on it. No matter what spells she put around her room he always managed to get in eventually. She leaped out of bed, decided it didn't matter what time it was, and continued on to the bath. She went out into the hall to find out from passerby shifters that the time on the clock was indeed correct. Caryn walked to her office and as she walked through these once peaceful halls she recounted a time so far removed from now they could hardly exist in the same world. Her thoughts strayed to a time she was loath to remember. She felt a slight tremor in the ground(now commonplace) and remembered the day this all started; the day the world fell apart all around her and the day she ceased to carry the name Smoke.
Caryn had been hearing some troubling things. Vampires were out of control and hunting in the open. The humans were becoming increasingly chaotic. Wars and politcics never much captured Caryn's interest. What concerned her was the suffering of those involved and not their reasons. A Smoke witch takes an oath. She helps any that come to her walked into the Single-Earth common room and saw everyones interest glued to the T.V. A CNN report was on. She continued to walk until she noticed what it was about. Things were not only chaotic in her world it seemed. The humans couldn't stop hurting each other either. More wars, and more suffering but things seemed set to explode on a colosal scale this time. They reported the increase in murders all around the world and she noticed the tell-tale signs of vampiric had heard from her mother that most hunters had gone underground. She pondered their apparent lack of power. She detested their methods but knew the other witches like her just sought to protect life. Over the centuries their significance seemed to fade. Vampires only grew more powerful while the magic of Machts bloodline only seemed to dim in the ever-growing shadow of the Lunar vampires. This convinced her more than ever that violence was not the answer. Machts bloodline must seek a new way to exist in this world. She turned from the room and went to her clinic office. Some people were already there waiting for her. She was busy healing someones arm when she heard the screaming. She threw out her aura and she felt death all around her. She ran out into the hall to see a group of what must have been witches and some vampires slaughtering everyone within reach. She froze in place for an eternity of a second. She had seen some damage as a healer in her day but the carnage in front of her was on a level that changed her forever. She saw a child run out from a doorway. Evan was a child of one of the unaffiliated witches that lived here. He was only 7 yrs old. He ran out screaming and a witch caught him from behind and burned him alive. Caryn stood there as he screamed. Should she have stood in between them as her training demanded? But that would not have saved his life. It would only have delayed it. She screamed such a piercing wail that to this day survivors can recall its bonechilling effect.. Something inside her broke. She felt her magic shift; something she had never turned to that witch and looked him in the eye. The blackness in his eyes caused her to feel an overwhelming anger. She ran torwards him and she realized just how easy it was for magic that heals to kill. She grasped his hand and made his heart explode.
Caryn walked into her office and closed the door. The stack of reports waiting for here was, as always daunting. Looking back on that day she realized how lucky she had been. She had no training at the time. She ran thorugh that battle-field killing more than the twenty years since. Only later did she learn how to refine her magic; how to turn it into herself to give her strength and speed rivaling many of her enemies. In those violent years she learned that Matchs blood still ran strong in her line. She never heard from any of her line since. The word was they all died that day refusing to use violence even to defend themselves. Single-Earth was not the only place attacked. Someone had tried their hardest to kill every child of Macht that day. She picked up the first paper on her desk and began reading. A few minutes later Nissa walked into the office with a terrible look in her eyes. "Someones here to see you." Caryn turned her chair to see someone she had never thought to see again in this life.