Passion in a Vial

I'll take it. It may not be the old passion that I once felt, but to be able to use a little of my blood to produce the desired emotional effect is wonderful. I actually reduced myself to tears playing Schumann last night. It's disturbingly less work, as all I need is blood magick to manipulate the emotional responses, but it's equally nice to not have to put in all the spirit and personal emotion into the piece only to hope leaving an emotional response.

This all started with a certain possibility to increase our political chip pile with Prince Maxwell. This fellow out west has successfully eluded two coteries, a Gangrel coterie named the BrewHa and some Invictus Knights. Talk about opposite. Nobody knew why Mr. Rathbone was being pursued, but the tranquility was undoubtedly going to be ignored by these two very aggressive coteries, and Prince Maxwell needed somebody to find this guy. Ethan found out about a possible blood magick ritual that would help locate us, but every new knowledge comes with a price. This particular price was a bit steep, but in retrospect, well worth it.

Rowen knew the ritual, and was willing to teach Ethan if she could learn a Coil of the Dragon. When Ethan approached me I was taken aback. Firstly, that he would trust me to not risk both our situations if either Covenant found out, and secondly, that he would think having this ritual knowlege was worth risking both our situations. I found myself questioning my loyalties, and then wondered why they were considered loyalties to secretly hide away knowledge. I understand not wanting to share certain knowledges before being published or accredited, but eventually you want everybody to know. Not so with this world, although I can see the danger of Kindred having access to all the knowledge floating about.

Regardless, it was an interesting proposition, and quite frankly, a good opportunity for everybody involved. I discovered another juxtoposition - my years of training had led me to be so easily interested in the Ordo, but my instincts found the blood magick so much more intuitive and interesting. Not everything has to be done a certain way. Knowledge can come in all sorts of ways, just as different learning styles are more effective with certain approaches.

Despite my misgivings about teaching the woman that was so incredibly rude and insulting mere months ago, I found her to be a respectful and avid pupil. She later asked what I wanted to learn through the blood magick and I found myself at a loss. The options seemed endless, until I instantly hit on exactly what I wanted. Passion. I had lost it all. My concerts were robotic and depressive.

One painful and horrifying ritual later, I emptied some of my blood onto the piano keys in the quiet and empty concert hall, with tremendous results.