I have completed my survey of the fortress peak within which I make my home. After the Mongols, it seemed prudent to survey and locate any resources which could be of benefit. This fortress was built upon a former Roman castrum, a fortified camp in ancient times. Their gravesite gave much insight to the Romans and their military fortifications. It also yielded a cache of weapons which I was able to pass to the local smithies for study. The quality improvement in weapons has begun to generate a small amount of note among the kine rulers, precisely as hoped.

I may not know kindred politics, as us Infitiores have all but rejected it after the Feast of Folly – but kine politics are very familiar to me. These European concepts are simplistic compared to those of the Ayyubid, making the local nobility easy to control. A fancy sword, a special shield, all commissioned through my cities smithies, and these rulers are mine.

With the repulsion of the Mongol infidel, there is an uneasy peace. I am uneasy with this disquiet, for it feels as if we are in the middle of a sandstorm about to erupt. So far, my study of the library has failed to bear fruit, yet the more convinced I am that this library is key to understanding of the region. Fortresses built upon fortresses, designed in a web engineered to trap or release something at its heart, it cannot be happenstance. And the sand, it is shifting. Allies are critical. While Elvira is working on the heart of the Kindred, Victor protecting our western front, and the Bishop works his way through the church, I shall remain a vigilant watch on the kine. With such short lifespans, their plans are more direct, more brutal, than anything our kind can come up with. I hope that our thief can maintain our supply lines, in the off chance it also becomes our escape route should the worst happen.

I do turn my mind to my old home, among the camps, my own tent of my childhood. How alien this place is by comparison, yet now I feel more at home than I have since those days in the desert.

I wonder about the architect Zelios now and again. I must thank him again for his assistance in teaching me how to hide my disfigurement. Perhaps I can gain more insight as to this fortress circle which he is working to reinforce. I doubt that it now is for summoning, else it would have been summoned centuries prior. All of these ancient fortresses were placed here far prior to his appearance after all. A containment circle it must be. But containing what so powerful that it needs a circle on such a vast scale?

Lasarus’ work has taken several different tracts, one a focus upon the physicality of death, another the proximity of life, and lastly on the spirits beyond the veil. Our own abilities for this are a mixture of these, which is proving our own limits. His goal, to divide our capability, to specialize ourselves. I have fallen to task to be one of those to study the physicality of death, to push our own abilities on it to a new level. Others have already developed methods to create a proxy of life, and yet others have begun to make headway on the land of spirits, independent of Ashur’s pets, the Giovanni. If only I knew of a way to disrupt their work so they do not discover the secrets first.

Of course by specializing, each group will become as different from the Cappadocian as the Lamia are. If I uncover the secret of physicality, would that mean the birth of the Malicine? Another bloodline founded by a woman, an amusement for those who demean the feminine. The Blessed Mohammad did warn that pride was to hold man in contempt, so it is to pity and not to judge those unable to.