As Far As You Know
Teasers
The Stronger
“What’s that?”
Kitron looked up from his work and down at the mud-stained little girl that stood next to him, barely as high as his hip. She stood with a gleaming smile on her face as she gazed unblinking at the Deacon, waiting for his answer.
Kitron quickly searched his brain for the name of the new Malkavian. She was... Emily. No, Ebby. She was a brand new fledgling that collected dolls mostly, an innocent little monster girl that was unaware of how dark the night could be. Her smile was a beacon of light in the bleak existence of the Cathedral’s cellars, her happy-go-lucky presence was like a gift from God to make anyone's unlife a little more carefree.
"Well," he said, answering the girl's seemingly dauntless curiosity, "Right now I'm working on something that a wise man brought to me. It's a special blanket."
Ebby’s eyes widened in awe. "Wow! Can I see it?"
Kitron carefully lifted the folded tapestry off of the workbench and lowered it to the girl's eye level so she could see. "Careful, sweetie, it will hurt you, so don't touch it."
The girl gave no response that she had even heard the man's advice. The embroidered threads that made up the symbol of the Eye of Horus fascinated her.
"Swell," Ebby mouthed, but was too stunned to actually say the word. "Where did you get it?" She asked, looking up at Kitron.
"A Nosferatu elder brought it to me. He wants me to clean it up for him."
"Where'd HE get it, then?" Ebby inquired. She was a very curious child.
"Somewhere in the sewers. He was going somewhere and just saw it floating in the water with all the other junk that collects in the sewer. He almost didn't see it."
"So you're fixin' it for him?"
"Yes."
"When's he gonna pick it up?"
"Well, when I finish it I'm bringing it to the Prince’s court. He's going to meet me there later tonight and pick it up."
She turned her eyes back to the brown and yellow hieroglyph. "It's a good blanket. I wonder if it belongs to somebody."
Kitron shrugged as he lifted the tapestry up and placed it back on the bench. "Well, my friend found it, so it's his. Anything that anybody finds in the sewers is finders-keepers."
"What if someone's lookin' for it though? What if they lost it and they need it?"
"Well, I guess they'll just have to get another blanket. If you lost one of your dolls and couldn't find it, would you keep looking or just make another one?" Kitron asked.
Ebby pouted as she thought for a moment. "I guess that they could get another one, but taking other people's stuff isn't nice, Deacon."
Kitron knelt down eye-to-eye with the girl. "Ebby, people lose things. It's a fact of life. You're young to the darkness so you might not understand, but when you lose something, it's gone. You should look for it, yes, but you shouldn't look for it forever. Eventually, if you can't find it, you just get a new one. If the person that lost this really needs a blanket, I'm sure he would've gotten a new one by now. So the lost blanket would belong to whoever found it."
"I guess," was all Ebby said. "Well, I gotta go back to makin' my dolls. I just wanted to take a break and talk to someone."
Kitron got back to his feet. "Well, it was nice talking to you. Come back to talk anytime, sweetheart."
Ebby just smiled at him, blew him a kiss, and scampered away and up the stone stairs towards the ground floor. She scuttled past all the other Malkavians gathered to hear tonight’s mass. She had already talked to them, but they didn't have what she was looking for. Kitron did. Ebby went to her own hiding space behind the wall, arranged everything so it would be nice and neat when she returned the next night, and headed out the door.
Ebby ran down the street as fast as she could, and entered the playground that she now called home. There was a darkly dressed man sitting on a swing. The sound of the rusty chains screeched and squeaked through the windless air. The little girl ran onto the playground, then slowed down as she walked across the sand. If she ran, she would get sand in her shoes, and Ebby hated that.
The dirty little girl walked up to the man on the swing and smiled. "I found it." she said. The man immediately stopped swinging and stood up.
"You did? Where? Where is it?"
"There's a Deacon named Kitron in my church’s workshop. He has it. He says that a friend of his found it in the sewers and gave it to him to clean up. Kitron is gonna fix the blanket up, then meet the Nosferatu at court and give it to him there."
"When?" asked the man impatiently.
"Kitron's cleanin' it now and he said his friend is gonna stop by court tonight and get it."
"Do you know where this court is?"
"Yeah. You know the park on this street?" Ebby asked as she pointed south.
"Yes," the man said, nodding.
"Well, it's on that park. It's the theater that almost burned down a long time ago. Fox, I think."
"Yes, I know which theater you're talking about. Thanks kid. Here. Here's the gift that I promised." The man reached into his coat pocket and withdrew a tiny black dress, a red skirt, and a bikini top.
Ebby's eyes widened as she saw what was in his hand. "Wow! I can have these? These are swell!" She took the clothes out of the man's hand. "Now my two naked dolls have clothes! Wow, thanks a ton, mister!"
Ebby giggled with excitement as she took the clothes and ran off back to the Cathedral, where she kept her dolls hidden and played with them.
Kriezler watched the sweet, innocent youth run off to play with her toys, and smiled to himself. Happiness like that was rare in a Cainite. After admiring the joy of the little girl for a moment, he turned his gaze south, towards Grand Circus Park. He began walking from the sandy playground towards the theater that the Deacon would never reach. The Harbinger of Skulls was truly grateful that he knew an insider, a double agent, a girl that was sweet, but at the same time not as naive as she seemed.
He wondered which of his two Detroit proteges would become the stronger.
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