Holier Than Thou

[Soran Nightblade]

Rosalie's expression fell a little at her words. In fact, she looked downright worried. "Is that how all his...p...pranks are?" she managed. "The high priest and the others have been very concerned. They've been in there since...I assume most of the night."

[Emora Deen]

Tenele narrowed her jade-green eyes. "In where?" she asked Rosalie very slowly, tilting her head at the nuns reaction.

[Soran Nightblade]

Rosalie paused, taking in Tenele's expression. "In the Great Sanctuary. Performing the Rites."

[Emora Deen]

Tenele thanked Rosalie quickly and lifted the skirts of her gown to run down the steps. She wasn't sure where the Great Sanctuary was, but she knew that a lot of people would be convening near it. She ran until she saw a cluster of people in the halls, complaining about being kicked out of the pews they were sleeping in so that the priest could expel evil.

Normally not a complaint that she thought she'd hear.

She moved through the crowd of dirty refugees towards the doors. There were two of them on either side of the narthex. She went to the one on the right. Monastery guard stood stone faced in front of it.

"Let me in," she told him quickly.

"Sorry, no one can go in until the priests are done," he replied.

"I order you in the name of the Queen to open that door, or I will make you," Tenele warned him, the tone in her voice not leaving any room for "no".

[Soran Nightblade]

The guard was about to argue back at her, when one of the others whispered something in his ear. "Very well, Lady Raider," he said, stepping aside and opening the heavy wooden door that was about twice their height. The room itself was enormous, with colored glass windows that stretched skyward. At the front of the room, past all the pews was a red-velvet-floored area where Vlad was seated in an ornate high-backed chair. His bare feet were each sitting in a large bowl of holy water. He was positioned in a bright pool of sunlight filtering down from the windows. He was surrounded by candles of various sizes. Holy emblems had been marked on his biceps and hands in gold-dust paint, and a large talisman engraved with runes was hanging on a heavy chain around his neck. The high priest was sitting across from him in a less fancy chair brought up from somewhere, and a number of monks were observing the ritual around them.

The vampire looked positively....bored.

He glanced up, as did the others, as the door creaked open to admit his fiance. "Maiden girl, this is, beyond scale, the worst spa Queenie has ever recommended," he said, his calm voice still filling the huge room.

[Emora Deen]

Tenele looked bewildered at them as she made her way down the aisle. She knew that if he were not protect he'd be dead or in immense pain. She was thankful, very thankful, that he was immune. At the same time she couldn't help but find the whole thing amusing.

"What on earth is going on?" she asked them, making her way around the monks. She ascended the podium stairs towards Vlad, peeking into the tub of water and then meeting his red gaze. "You do get yourself into funny predicaments, dear."

[Soran Nightblade]

The high priest looked over at Tenele and spoke in a tired, but unbiased tone. "According to Lord Dracul, a pair of refugees attempted to send a signal outside the compound last night. He noticed them, followed them, and took one life, while the other escaped into the sewers."

"I've told the story about ten times, but clergymen are nothing if not thorough," Vlad added.

"You have not explained why you took a life, rather than reporting the incident to me. You must know this would cause suspicion and alarm."

Vlad shrugged. "I don't normally work in an environment where such decisions bring on this much....red tape." He gave his feet a small flex in the holy water, sploshing it around his ankles. "Sinead trusts my work." What could he say? That even though he was trying to be Mr. Model Citizen, this whole place still gave him the heeby-jeebies and put him off his game? The only thing worse than a resident vampire was an unstable resident vampire.

[Emora Deen]

Tenele sighed heavily. "Well, the interrogation is through," she told them. Tenele reached out and lifted the amulet off his head, setting it on a large table behind his chair. She knelt and dipped the him of her robe in the water, and began to wipe the gold paint off his abdomen.

"If refugees were Arken spies the Vlad did us a world of good, it also means that there could be more in here," she told the clergymen. "I want security, what little you have, tightened. If the spies were trying to signal someone that means an army is close, if not hiding outside these walls this very minute."

"Vlad and I will scout the area at mid-day. Give it some time to warm up outside," she told Vlad with a smile. He knows how much she hates the cold.

[Soran Nightblade]

"Very well. If Vladimir were lying, he could not have answered our questions under these Rites. I'm inclined to believe him. However," the high priest said as Tenele cleared the last of the gold dust off him, "It would be a comfort to everyone here if you were to continue to wear a pure emblem, to reassure them of your good will." He held out a charm on a thin gold chain. "I am aware you have been tolerant of much. Will you abide this?"

Vlad eyed the necklace the man held out skeptically. So they wanted to install an alarm, just in case he went AWOL later. "Short leash, boss," the vampire commented as he accepted the charm, meeting the man's eyes. "You can trust me to do what I came to do. Make sure this building remains a sanctuary for you and the residents of Ighten."

"Yes," the man confirmed, and Vlad could tell that he meant it, this time.

The vampire rose to his feet and took a step toward Tenele and felt...nauseous, white-hot, like his entire body was trying to melt, to become the ashen mess it should have been, by all 'natural' laws, in this place. The feeling clutched into him like a raptor's talons, just for a fraction of an instant, and was gone. Other than a quick, unnecessary breath and a momentary pause, there was no outward sign of it. The vampire continued walking toward Tenele and the door, wondering if he'd hallucinated somehow. It had been so brief. Almost nonexistent.

[Emora Deen]

Tenele smiled at Vlad as they left together. "Interesting," she told him with a smile. The guards opened up the doors to allow the over room to be filled with the refugees. They flooded past to escape the over crowded halls. Outside the room she paused and reached for the small talisman. "Well, you're right, he means business... Oh! That reminds me. I better ask what he wanted to speak to me about before I forget. I'll be right back."

Tenele turned and headed into the chaos of the sanctuary as the refugees began to find their things.

[Soran Nightblade]

The high priest was speaking to several monks at the front of the room when Tenele made her way back toward them. He dismissed the monks and turned to face her as she approached. "My dear," he said in a sort of fatherly way, or maybe more a grandfatherly way. "There has been some distraction, but I would still enjoy some time with you, if you will." He gestured toward an office that branched off the sanctuary.

[Emora Deen]

Tenele nodded. "I have time to spare," she agreed. She went with him to the office they had come to the day before. She took a seat across his desk and waited patiently for what he had to say.

It occurred to her then that she had nervous butterflies. What if he said something bad, like how she was not allowed to marry Vlad? Or what if he said something wonderful, like that she could marry him today if she wanted? Tenele's hands rubbed together subconsciously as she waited to hear what he had to say.

[Soran Nightblade]

The man sat down in a chair diagonal to Tenele, rather than behind the desk. "You've been traveling with Lord Dracul for some time, it would appear," he said. His gaze briefly touched the ring she wore on her finger, more a suggestion than a demand. He might live in a compound, but he knew how to see the signs. He waited with the patience of a very old man for her to share what she chose to share.

[Emora Deen]

Tenele followed his gaze to the glint of gold. "I have," she told him. "What once was a dreadful encounter transformed into a remarkable partnership." She smiled remembering how she first met Vladimir Dracul.... He'd helped her get out of the garden after being locked in by transforming into a terrifying beast and then he pretended to try to kill her. And then she remembered how he had destroyed all her dining room furniture and kept her up with pranks for countless nights because he found it entertaining.

"And then a partnership turned intoa different sort of partnership," she told him, lifting her gaze. "He is a good man... if you look past the fangs... and the red eyes.... and the crazed smirk... and maybe that laugh too. My point is, he is a good man, and a man that I care deeply for."

[Soran Nightblade]

The priest seemed to consider this for a moment. "This good man you speak of, he is still a vampire. He devoured a human body last night to nourish his own. He walks freely inside these walls, but he is not...at ease. The immunity he appears to have, he has not had for very long. How is that possible?"