And so Leona got a little follow-up from Strauss about the whole sarcophagus deal: It started about a month ago before her Embrace, all the Elders—Kindred who had lived long enough—had sensed a…disturbing change in the air, right from the moment the Ankara Sarcophagus was discovered by human archaeologists. It was, according to the researchers, of Mesopotamian origin, and the carvings on the surface seemed to indicate its connection to a mythological figure named Lamashtu.

Though all evidence suggested that this sarcophagus didn't seem supernatural itself, and there was nothing unusual or "haunting" spotted by the human workers at the digging site, but many Kindred held belief in this saying about the end of the vampire world, which originated from the Book of Nod.

"As you know, the 13 Antediluvian drained their Sires—the three Childer of Cain to gain their power, and thus betrayed Cain. He disappeared afterwards but based on the Book, it would come to a time when he came back for revenge and extinguished our existence: Gehenna, that's the word used to note this Kindred apocalypse, and many people believe the uncovered sarcophagus is the beginning of it, along with many other signs, like the appearance of thin-bloods."

But the more Strauss explained, the more Leona couldn't understand: "But…it just sounds like a superstition to me, shouldn't we have better things to worry about?"

The Regent looked perplexed himself, too: "Under most conditions, yes, I would say the same, but…maybe because you are new to the night and born before this discovery, you cannot sense the change. It was…like I'm being watched all the time by a lurking darkness. No Elder can shake this feeling away, even the most atheistic one among us."

Thus the only thing he advised Leona, was to be really careful—and this time, this "careful" was meant on a whole new level. Moreover, her investigation about the strange Chinese swordsman had turned out to be a dead end, too: some people, especially senior Anarchs had said they confronted such life forms and called them "Chinese vampires", but they didn't ever have a chance to figure out what they were exactly: they hardly spoke, and they either died in battle or fled before it happened.

All things considered, Leona felt more and more strongly that the timing of her Embrace seemed too coincidental with too many turbulences: the sarcophagus, the Sabbat scheme, the Chinese vampires…And again she tried to get in touch with Garrett, but he still had no response, which left her worried: she had told Strauss about those weird…dream and illusions of Garrett, and Strauss confirmed that there was no way it could be caused by "the connection between Sire and Childe"—there had been many cases where the Sire died early in Childe's life, and nothing like this had ever happened.

Leona felt like…being drugged into a bottomless eddy. Plots and conspiracies were going on constantly around her, and she had no clue where they led and how she could find out a solution. She worried in fear, wondering about what exactly Garrett was planning, but then her phone rang a notification and it was Skelter, sent her a photo and updated his "battle training progress" with the Anarchs; and Mercurio also texted her about the two "VIP tickets" for Velvet Velour's future "personal private show" he just received, with a rosy, fragrant card saying this was "the gratitude from VV to the two heroes that came to her rescue"; came to think of, there were people she befriended with like Bertram, both at work and in the Tremere clan…

So it suddenly didn't feel so terrifying anymore, which made Leona smile, in a both reassured and self-mocking way.

"Building ties again, Leona, aren't you? you foolish little girl."

That's what Zack warned her about when she was still…travelling with him—for a life like theirs, they couldn't afford to be attached with anyone else. And though she didn't need to do this since a long time ago, she still felt...connected to that concept.

She whispered to herself so, got up from bed, showered and dressed herself, then headed for Prince's haven, and by the time she arrived, the penthouse was in a quite unusual busy state: people were running around, packing and carrying clothes and luggage, like they were preparing for a long trip of the Prince and the Prime Judicator.

And they were indeed. In fact, Prince LaCroix was calling her and Mercurio to ask for their company in this special business trip: unfortunately, even in the undead society, diplomacy was a necessity, and LaCroix could use some assistance—In a organizational sense, Camarilla, North America is a branch belonging to Camarilla, Greater Europe, and every year it is considered an act of courtesy for Prince LaCroix to attend an annual gathering of all "Kindred nobles" held over there.

"Usually it's only a…gesturing occasion, and I will just take the Prime Judicator and two barons with me, this time, however, is different, and I need someone who's trustworthy, capable but out of the main system, so I want you two to accompany us and conduct a very important mission. The mission itself…concerns the Ankara Sarcophagus, one very famous archaeological object that has been recently uncovered, and I'm sure you've heard all kinds of sayings about it."

"So what of it? The news said it was bought by an anonymous buyer, is it now in Kindred's hands?" After hearing Prince LaCroix's statement about the whole thing, Mercurio asked for details, and the Prince sighed as he answered, looking very troubled:

"Yes, but unfortunately not in Camarilla's hands. And not in Sabbat's, too…It's even worse than that: according the info from Nosferatus, the Giovannis had it in Italy."

Leona quickly understood the "delicacy" of the situation. Of all thirteen existing Kindred clans, seven joined the Camarilla, two formed the Sabbat, whereas the rest four declared themselves to be politically independent—and that's exactly what makes them trickier to deal with, because there's no way to be sure about their agendas, making it really hard to decide how to view them, enemy or friend: and they change their sides a lot, depending on the situation.

Giovanni is one of those independent clans, who are known to be the "vampire mafia", mastering and manipulating the human underworld of criminals behind the curtain, and are also secretly into the study of necromancy…which probably explained their interest in the sarcophagus: they all said that "skeletons in the closet" is a literal expression for this bloodline.

"So what do you need us to do?"

Strangely noticing the gloom clouding on Mercurio's face when they mentioned the clan name of Giovanni, Leona raised the question instead to break this slightly awkward silence, and the Prince thought for a while before answering, as if he hadn't really made up his mind until now: "It's a really complex event, with so many eyes around the globe watching…therefore, what I can instruct you for now is to first, find out any further information about the Ankara Sarcophagus, and what the Giovannis are doing with it; second, doing everything in absolute secrecy—your true purpose of this journey will only be known to the four of us in this room tonight, and you shall not leak any findings to anyone, especially people of the European Camarilla. The final decision about sarcophagus shall be made after I hear from your investigation, and the Prime Judicator will inform you of the details. Do you have any questions?"

"No."

Leona and Mercurio both answered clearly, and unlike what he often did—chatted up with everyone and laughed for a moment before leaving, Mercurio turned around in an instant and walked about of the door with his face down, even ignoring Leona and forgetting to driver her home. He never forgot that.

Not that Leona really cared so much about one lift, but she had never seen him so disturbed by something before: in her impression, he was a guy who went the way of Carpe Diem and didn't bother himself too much with…well, anything.

She didn't have any chance to ask by then, though—they were leaving tomorrow night, so she had to immediately go back to her haven and started packing. Luckily, the clever Regent didn't grind her too much on what the mission was, thus she didn't need to struggle between her loyalty to the clan and to the Camarilla: they were so often not the same thing.

Although one weird thing did happen before Leona went to sleep. She was simply looking through the sketches Garrett left on the wall, and noticed one about the street view of Florence: they were going to Italy after all. Then all of a sudden, a stream of images flooded into her head, like the black-and-white picture on the paper suddenly came alive, and guided her to a sumptuous mansion outside of the Florence city, going way underground into some secret, vast chamber displaying countless artifacts, then in the end, it stopped at a long, slim blade made of some weird grey—almost black metal, with its scabbard exhibited on the side.

The illusions…seemed like a virtual tour for a route, with the destination set at the location of this mysterious weapon.

Was it Garrett? Did he hide it inside this sketch? How? Was this information intended…for her? Carrying all these confusions in her head, Leona went on this luxury private jet of Prince LaCroix's, and took off from American soil, flying all the way to Europe.

"Sorry for not dropping you home last night." And Mercurio caught her up, sat by her side and completely back to himself again, "Anything I can do to make it up, emotionally or…physically?"

"How about staying two meters away from me when I sleep on the plane?"

Leona replied and shook her head: A whole day in the same space with this guy, she was bound to go through that kind of stuff for several times.

Watching their conversation on the side, Veronica giggled and said to Mercurio: "If you want to please a girl like Leona, take my advice: this kind of flirtations is working in a completely opposite direction."

Mercurio laughed when Leona shrugged, and he spread his hands trying to explain himself—apparently he didn't want to leave an impression of being shallow and stupid in front of the Prime Judicator: "I know, I'm not really trying to…get her. It's just, her reaction is too much fun…you know, she's always so dead serious…"

But seeing the smirk on Veronica's face, he knew the more he tried, the worse it looked, so he just cleared his throat and excused himself: "I will get you ladies something to drink."

After he left, Veronica took the seat on the couch beside Leona, strangely started to defend for Mercurio: "Don't worry about him, he shows all due respect to women most of the time."

"Well he definitely does that in front of you, Mrs. LaCroix," Finally having a chance to complain about her colleague, Leona opened up all the…dissatisfaction she hid in her chest, "If he doesn't, the Prince is going to put the fear of God into him."

The marriage of the Prime Judicator and the Prince happened long before they were Kindred, and it was well known in the whole vampire society—in their world, this kind of relationship seldom lasted this long. Veronica smiled, with a beam of joy on her face that could be only seen on that of a happily married wife, then a light sadness diluted it. She said: "Mercurio wasn't like that all the time…not when we first met him, anyway."

With Veronica mentioning it, Leona remembered how he responded to even just at the name of Giovanni clan, a strange association she made for no reason. "He looks very…upset about the Giovanni business, is there some sort of Vendetta between them?" Therefore she asked.

Veronica suspired and mulled over her words quietly for some time, trying to find where to start:

"Well…it was a long time ago, when Mercurio wasn't Mercurio yet…"