2014.01.21 Challenging Death

Justice vs Retribution
IC Date	Three months after Ignacio died
IC Time	Early evening
Players	Arec Gwydion
Location	Green Knight Investigations
Prp/Tp	None
Spheres	Vampire Independents Mage
Theme Song	The War Inside by Switchfoot

Gwydion is working late in the office since he has an appointment after dark, some papers on his desk that he's filling out while he waits for Arec to arrive. There's a long forgotten to-go cup from Prospect Roasters sitting by the side.

Arec arrives without fanfare. If the door is unlocked he lets himself in and lets Gwydion know he is here by calling softly. "Gwydion?" He doesn't want to surprise the man.

Gwydion left the door unlocked because he was expecting company he stands when Arec knocks and smiles as he beckons him to come in "Hey Arec, you said you might have some work for me to do?"

"Well no." Arec says. "I had some questions about a job. I was hoping you had time to talk. It's a rather serious matter."

Gwydion nods and gestures for Arec to take a seat before sitting back down "Ask away."

Arec sits down. "You know what I am, right? We've been over that I think." He waits for Gwydion's nod before continuing.

Gwydion nods and grins "Yeah, we have"

"So... I have something for you." Arec leans forward and reaches behind his back, pulling out an plastic envelope. Inside is another manila envelope. One with an address that Gwydion probably recognizes. "This is yours." He puts it on the desk between them. "Why didn't you come to me?"

Gwydion blinks and shrugs "As far as I knew he was Sabbat connected or part of Garan's extra-factional clique. Besides, I know about the Right of Destruction and I didn't want to put you in that kind of position. The outcome was inevitable."

Arec steeples his fingers. "I could have answered all of those questions. I could have helped you do it right. Three months it has taken me to track you down. In three months I have found exactly one person that gives a damn about Ignacio. Other than myself."

Gwydion frowns and shakes his head "When he couldn't buy a property he wanted he had his bond-slave kill the original owner. I could have maybe let that go, the guy was hardly a saint and the club was a bit of a dive. But when he had the guy's wife and kids slaughtered? No way was I going to let that go."

Arec waves a hand. "Gwydion, I'm not saying he deserved to live. He earned his death. I'm just trying to understand, how, and why, you decided to do this on your own? You know I'm here. You could have used me as a resource."

Arec leans forward. "I thought my position was very clear. I am not bound by the Traditions. I am not bound to the Sabbat. I am an... I may be THE extra-factional leader in this city."

Gwydion shrugs as he leans back in his chair "It came up in the course of another job I was working. My client was the one who wound up buying the contested property and Ignacio had been threatening him and intimidating him. I looked into the history of the property and that's how I discovered the murders. I wasn't entirely on my own, there were other assets in play. Heck, I already knew where his Haven was but I wasn't going to try and take him on his own ground. But with two adept level willworkers and my spellblade I was pretty confident we could handle it." he blinks briefly "No that part wasn't clear at all, I thought you were Camarilla. Shows how much I pay attention."

Arec sighs, leaning back. "I was once, years ago. But they are sick, corrupt." He furrows his brow, looking past Gwydion, in the distance. "I don't condemn you for killing Ignacio. But the way you went about it. Do you know that the Tremere took the blame for Ignacio's death?"

Gwydion shakes his head "I had no idea, though I suppose given how it went down I can see how that assumption would fit what evidence was left and we tried to leave as little as possible. I suppose I should have put more thought into countermeasures for the letter. Live and learn I guess. I don't really feel much of any kind of way about the Tremere catching some heat, everything I've ever learned about their House hasn't been good but they shouldn't get punished for something they didn't actually do."

"The worst part though." Arec says softly. "Is that a ghoul, Deirdre, was caught in the middle. She had to have a regnant. The Tremere caught her first. Bound to them so soon after Ignacio's death, it was assumed that she was a quisling. She was murdered along with two of them in the final altercation."

Gwydion sighs and shakes his head "That's a mighty sad thing, nobody should get killed without certainty. And how could a Ghoul be a quisling anyway, that doesn't even make sense."

"The bond is not unbreakable. Some are immune. And... it can be suppressed temporarily by those with a grudge." Arec explains: "Did you know Deirdre? She was an aspiring astronomer. She grew up outside the family. She didn't know she was Giovanni until she met Ignacio."

Gwydion frowns "I'd met her at Bytes and Beans a couple of times, didn't know she was vampire involved though. And I suppose if anyone could come up with a way to play fast and loose with a blood bond it'd be the tremere."

Arec nods thoughtfully. He reaches into his jacket and pulls out a thin Wooden Stake. "Do you know how to stake a vampire Gwydion?"

Gwydion waggles his hand back and forth in a maybe gesture "In theory, never actually tried to do it though. It'd be a way to take a prisoner sure but pretty much all three vampires I've had call to want to do violence to, capturing wouldn't have solved the problem. I suppose I could have captured him and turned him over to the Vampire authorities but as far as I knew there weren't any he really answered to or would have had jurisdiction over him. And its not like I could turn him over to the mundane police."

Arec says, "The advantages of staking are that you can negotiate afterward. You don't have to remove the stake. It's a permanent end to their activity. It gives you time to find the authorities. It lets you assure yourself of his guilt. Blood bonds do not break. Ghouls are not suddenly stranded without it. If you need practice. I will offer myself."

Gwydion shakes his head "Guilt was solidly confirmed, I'd spent hours of subjective time running over the events of the night of the murders of the Masterson family with my scrying spells. There was going to be no negotiation, no compromise, no way for that to end other than his death. I'm sorry about what happened to Deirdre but that's a result of whoever went after the Tremere without being sure of their guilt, not because I wasn't sure about Ignacio's."

Arec sighs, reaching out a hand to reclaim his stake. "I was afraid you would feel that way." Arec admits. "So how did you go about it, killing Ignacio?"

Gwydion shrugs and sighs "I sang a Death Note, dividing his cells from each other entirely, I might have over done it a little bit because I had no idea of how hard a target he was going to be. My sword didn't even come into play."

Arec says, "The note you sent. That was to lure him out. Did you inform him of why you were killing him, did you take any steps to curtail his actions other than kill him?"

Gwydion frowns and shakes his head "There was no curtailing to be done, though when he showed up to the warehouse I did tell him why it was going down. He'd had children slaughtered on his order, there's no coming back from that."

"I see." Arec says quietly. "I've killed children." "In the revolution. And later, in the final throes of Napoleon's conquests. His last conscription called up boys and old men, fourteen years of age. He gave them muskets, marched them against the English without concern for their lives. I've lost control, killed because of the bloodlust, it is indiscriminate." Arec says, giving his confession. "You think that I deserve the same fate?"

Gwydion sighs "Ignacio's crime wasn't one of passion or an act of war. He had innocents slaughter because he was a spoil sport, because he didn't get his own way. Willfully evil and deliberately malicious. You and he are not the same."

Arec says, "You made that judgment so quickly. How can you be so confident? Did you look inside my mind and see what I did during the revolution? I hate who I was then. But I was less than a year embraced, the same as Ignacio. You do not know the man he could have become. The only thing separating him and me is two centuries of experience."

Gwydion says, "I'm trained pretty intensely on judging people's character and interpreting evidence. I didn't look inside your mind or back along your timeline but I really doubt the only thing that makes you different is two centuries worth of experience. You at least try to not be a monster, he reveled in it."

"Not now. No." Arec pursues the question though. "So you are going to continue to end lives, at your discretion, without consulting with anyone other than your own conscience and training?"

Gwydion frowns "I didn't do this casually, I didn't do this trivially. If there had been any room to question I would have kept questioning before taking action. Some lines I won't ever let get crossed. And might I do it again in a similar situation? Sure I will, because I'll have made damn sure they deserve it first or like with the Rippers because they were in the act of trying to kill people."

Arec shakes his head as if to clear it. "What authority do you claim to act under? What oversight keeps you from preying on them the same way they prey on others? You're more powerful than any vampire. You cannot say that there is no authority to report them to. You made no attempt to do so."

Gwydion sighs and shakes his head "All that's required for evil to win is for good men to do nothing. I didn't prey on him, I judged him and executed him. And not because he was a Vampire, because he was a monster. For oversight? There are bigger mages and organizations of mages out there than me or even Cross if we were to go off the rails."

Arec clasps his hands across his chest. "So you are a law unto yourself. With only paradox and some nebulous technocracy to answer to." Arec says, "And you intend to do it again, you would change nothing. I'm offering myself as a resource so that you do not repeat your mistakes." You say, "Will you use me?"

Gwydion nods "I do not accept that anything I did was a mistake but now that I have someone internal to the vampire community to consult with for another layer of verification I certainly will. By preference I think each group would police its own members."

"I am glad that I have made my presence known to you at last." Arec says sardonically. "If we cannot be partners, let us establish a professional relationship then. We will police our own, but you will give us a chance to do so before taking action. If you feel compelled to act, bring it to our attention first. Mine, specifically. Or I shall find you again. This time it will not take three months." He stands up. "It is a great disappointment to me that you do not seek justice, but are satisfied with retribution."

Gwydion sighs and shakes his head as he stands as well "Justice is preferable but vengeance is acceptable. I'll bring it to your attention if I can but if there's a clear and present danger to someone's life? I will act, though I might start carrying around a stake or three for more granularity in proportion of response."

Arec straightens his jacket. "Then this was not a waste of my time." He moves toward the door.