Gliss was moving before Capper could stop her. She lunged forward with feral speed and slammed a palm into the thin vampire's throat, cutting off any sound he might have made. His eyes bulged in shock and he pawed at his oesophagus uselessly. Then Gliss kneed him in the stomach, doubling him over so she could hammer a double-handed club against the back of his head to knock him to the ground.
In a swift motion she straddled him, jamming a forearm against the back of his neck to keep him pinned down.
"How did you get in here?"
"Shut up!" Gliss snarled.
"You ... you can't take it," the vampire spluttered, reaching out with a look of desperation stamped upon his gaunt features, his eyes locked on the Keystone. "It must ... remain safe. If it is ever used-,"
He got no further. Capper could only watch as Gliss took hold of the man's head and with a single, savage twist, snapped his neck. A wordless gargle shook free from his lips and Gliss released her hold, letting his body thump limply to the ground. His eyes rolled wildly and his body twitched, but he couldn't formulate any words or move. A broken neck wouldn't kill him, but it would certainly keep him out of action for the better part of a day before his vampire body could repair the damage.
"Hellgates!" Capper swore quietly. "What are we supposed to do now?"
"We do what we came to do," Gliss replied without hesitation, but her voice trembled slightly now. "We take the Keystone." She nodded to the object weighing down his right hand like an anvil.
The prostrate figure of the Baelock scholar let out a high, undulating moan of protest, whereupon Gliss spun and slammed a fist into his face with enough force to knock him unconscious.
"What about him?" Capper hissed. "We can't leave him here. If they find him-"
"They won't."
"How do you figure that?"
"You know what I mean, Capper."
He shook his head incredulously. "Gliss, if you kill him-,"
"And if we don't? He's seen us both. He'll point the finger as soon as the Synod ends, and you'll get the war you didn't want. We ash him, now, and no-one will be any the wiser. They'll look for him eventually but there will be nothing and no-one tying us to any of this."
"Shit." Try as he might, Capper couldn't think of a counter to her grim solution. If the cleric identified them Baelock and Glaive would be at war in a heartbeat. He couldn't be the cause of it. Grinding his teeth together he scooped up the antique, ornately carved stake that had been lying next to the Keystone and stepped forward. "Out of the way."
"I can do it, Capper."
"No. We're in this together." He waved her impatiently aside and dropped to one knee next to the fallen Baelock cleric. In a single smooth motion he rolled the man over. "I'm sorry, friend. You shouldn't have come here." Then he slammed the stake down through the vampire's heart, clamping a hand over his mouth to stifle the inevitable death scream.
The struggle didn't last long. The cleric was no fighter, his Aspect weak, and a few seconds after the death blow Capper stood up, looking down grimly at the pile of ash that lay before him. He glanced at the bloodstained stake and closed his eyes for a few seconds, trying his best to order his thoughts, without much success.
Then he felt someone take the stake from his hand. He looked up and found Gliss staring into his eyes. She wiped the blood off on the remnants of the cleric's robes and placed the stake down on its pillow. Then she slid her glove back on.
"Capper," she said quietly. "We've got to go."
"I know."
"We can slip into the debating chamber when they're in full swing – no-one will notice."
"I hope you're right. We've still got plenty of guards to dodge between here and there."
"Well we don't have a whole lot of choice. If we don't rejoin the Synod, someone will notice."
"And what about the Keystone?" he asked. "If anyone sees it..."
"They won't. Grab his cloak and tear off a piece. We'll wrap it up – keep it under your jacket. No-one will be examining us in the chamber anyway. They should be in full swing with your damned debates by now."
"Probably," he conceded. "But we'll need to pick our moment."
"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it." Gliss motioned him onwards. "Follow me."
Allowing her to lead the way back through the passages, he remained close on her heels, acutely conscious of the spherical lump of the Keystone pressing against his side. The rag they'd wrapped it in shielded him from the strange, cold cleaning effect that it seemed to generate, but the vestiges of the sensation still clung to him, as though he still dropped with ice cold water. A thousand doubts and fear whorled through his mind but he did his best to shake them away. One thing at a time. Any other approach would leave him paralysed.
They retraced their steps, carefully gliding around the handful of patrolling guards that still stalked the halls. Although he didn't know the layout of the estate precisely, even Capper could feel the sheer concentrated force the gathered Aspects of so many Elders and Elder-Blood. Like a lighthouse in a storm, the combined power drew them onward until eventually they came to a long passage with a heavy double door at the far end, ornately inlaid with spurs of gold and bronze. From within he could hear the dim clamour of voices and feel a violently churning sea of presences. Whatever was being discussed certainly had the vampires within riled up.
"There'll be a guard on the other side of that door," Capper whispered. "We need to get him out of the way."
"I know. Get into the shadows there," Gliss told him, gesturing to a side passage with one gloved hand. "And keep your Aspect under control. I'll get him to come out of there." Silent and lithe as a cat, she padded up to the door and slid her lock picks free again. The heavy brass lock proved more challenging than the smaller specimens they'd broken through before, but it wasn't long before a heavy clunk sounded.
Instantly she darted back and joined Capper in the shadowed alcove just around the corner, hidden in a nave that may once have housed a statue of some kind. Capper braced himself. If they were caught now they might start a war right in the middle of the Baelock Estate.
A moment later the door swung open and out of it flowed the thunder of noise that seemed to be passing for debate in the main chamber. He had no idea what had been said, but it had pushed the order of the Synod into a barely controlled rabble by the sounds of it. The noise was their saving grace. As the guard stepped past them, a grim expression below furrowed brows, he couldn't hear the soft footfalls as they slipped from their refuge and into the light and noise of the debating chamber.
Capper swallowed hard. Aspects were exploding off each other in the air around them as vicious arguments reached boiling point. The noise was a cacophonous clamour in his ears. He could feel the cold bulk of the Keystone against his side, but between his jacket and Gliss's body tucked against him the thing was as concealed as it could be. Unlike the other artefacts that would have announced their presence, the dead nothingness of the Keystone actually served to keep it concealed from prying minds.
