2026-03-07 22:42 - 00:03 PST
The night prior, on the way to the Malkavian Cattle Ranches, Kingsnake had seen her sire. She didn’t remember much from that night, but she remembered his face, and he was there. He didn’t look at her.
“He couldn’t even look at me. He knew, he absolutely knew. The only thing on his face was shame. Like I was some sort of mistake, some kind of accident, or some kind of disappointment. A humiliating footnote.” She’d been angry before, but by now, after the conversations with Kaveh, Jensen, and with Thalia, the anger’s already all burned out. She’d wanted so badly to deck him in the face that night, to force him to acknowledge her existence, and she’d let him go. Now there was just a hollow ache to it all.
Neres comforted Kingsnake and told her that the clan she was sired into was not the clan she had to be. Then, Neres asked something important:
Neres looks Kingsnake directly in the eye. “Darling, are you resolved to choose this path for yourself?”
“Yes, I’m ready. Whatever it takes. I dedicate myself to Set. To escaping the shackles on my soul.” She says it with conviction. It wasn’t simply to please Neres. It was because she’d begun to believe it. Every lesson, every prayer, every rite she’d undertaken.
Neres didn’t make the offer lightly. She asked Phoebe spend a week of deliberation, and then only once she was entirely certain, would they begin the ritual of true Embrace. Perhaps soon, Sacramento would see its second Setite.