Story 31 - Scourged to Death
Synopsis: It was the first night of December 2015 and the each member of the American coterie is contacted covertly and invited to meet at Club Montage in Krasna Polyana that evening. They arrive and are admitted to the club. There they discover that Layla the Malkavian is the Dominion Mariel.
The coterie is admitted to her private office and wait patiently as she casts a Wanga ritual to insure privacy. Thereafter, she reveals the reason for the meeting, the issue of Kamiko Tanaka's moral decline and the potential possibility of her committing diablerie.
Kamiko's strategic importance to the Manus Nigrum is significant. She is the grand-childe of Antara the Ancient, the Assamite Qadi of Cairo. Her sire is Immana the Assamite councilor of Cairo and the leader of Banu Yashkur. She is also the lover of Baron Marius Egnatius, the favored childe of Svarozic the Ancient of the Old Clan Tzimisce. If she were to become a diablerist or fall to the Beast, her loss would be felt. So the assembled members of the Hand have gathered to discuss what to do about this circumstance. The Dominion charges the coterie in general and Madame Mina personally with averting these potential disasters.
Brian O'Reilly makes no overtures to Kamiko because he feels that she isn't his responsibility and because of the possibility that his political enemies might take an interest in the young Assamite. Yan Sirkov tries without success to meet with Kamiko to offer his support and advice. Madame Mina sends dreams to Kamiko to convince her to trust and meet with the mistress of the Ravnos. Unfortunately, Madame Mina's ploy goes astray when Kamiko Tanaka shows up in her domain of Fakulteta and attacks the Gypsy Carnival. Though Madam Mina has a number of options, she decides to kill the young Assamite in retribution for the murder of her Roma employees.
Prince O'Oreilly and Yan Sirkov arrive shortly after Kamiko's destruction, but the damage is done. Yan departs in the thrall of his darker emotions and he spends the rest of the night in meditative contemplation. While the prince remains to work out what happened, find any loose ends and eliminate them. Madam Mina loses herself in the seduction of young Roma girl and leaves the cleanup to her minions.
Unfortunately for the entire Manus Nigrum coterie, they had been subject to the corrupting effects of dark thaumaturgy, which limited their responsiveness to the disaster at hand. Each deals with their demons in different ways, but the damage is done and Kamiko's death will have profound and far reaching consequences.
The next night the Hand coterie is invited to return to Club Montage to explain their failure. While Brian and Yan receive only scathing rebukes, Madam Mina is charged with cleaning up any loose ends left behind by the dead Assamite scourge.
Madam Mina ignores the Dominion's orders and contacts the coterie's long lost and ancient member. Mina arrives on a distant and alien shore somewhere in the uncharted reaches of the Sea of Dreams. Her old ally graciously welcomes her and accepts her proposal of a renewed alliance. She asks his advice in how to navigate her current dilemma and he proves a number of possible solutions to solve the problem as well as revealing their likely outcomes and consequences. He returns her lost memories and on subsequent visits dissolves the Emperitor's Curse. Afterwards, Mina proposes that they continue their old friendship, he would regain the companionship he craves and she would gain someone capable to act as a sounding board for her ideas. The lost coterie member agrees and Mina returns to the waking world to act on the first step of her plan to minimize the damage done by her killing of Kamiko Tanaka.
Meanwhile, Brian and Yan quickly move to clean up any loose ends left by the dead scourge and try to contain any secrets she might have revealed to outsiders.
