by Edward Cupps and Dustin Evermore


Fianna approached Celeste. As was typical for Celeste, she was busy in the lab working on another technological wonder, and 'shushed' Fianna when she walked in, just before she could make a sound and interrupt. Celeste made a frustrated sound and shoved the safety goggles she had on to the top of her head while she bent over a tangled wad of wires and circuits with a soldering iron. Fianna stood waiting and watching curiously for a few minutes.

"Aha!" Celeste cried as the last wire melded itself into a strange looking chip with spidery leads splayed in every direction. "What's up Fianna?"

Fianna hopped up on a stool. She eyed the strange device warily. It skittered delicately about on the table for a moment before Celeste noticed and placed an up-turned glass jar over it to keep it from running away.

Celeste's technological magic always seemed both strange and wondrous to Fianna, and she shook her head in amazement before she spoke. "Actually, I wanted to talk to you about something kind of personal. You have a few minutes?"

"Always, what's up?"

"I just wanted to say thank you for always helping me out with things this past year. You've really helped make my life a lot easier since coming here and I really appreciate that."

"It's the least I can do for a sister in magic and a friend. Roma says that our friends are extensions of ourselves. I believe her."

Fianna fidgeted a moment. "I find myself in a place where I'm trying to identify who is a good friend and who is not. This is a complicated age and things are not so clear to me as I think they should be. I find myself in the embarrassing position of having to ask." She bit her lip and shifted on the stool, crossing her legs nervously.

"What I wanted to ask was if you did all these things because you wanted to, or if you just did it because Roma asked." Fianna hurried to say, "Either way, I'm equally grateful."

"What if I told you it was one and then it became the other? What I mean is that, when Roma asked me to teach you and help you learn about the modern world, I of course obeyed and was enthusiastic to do so. But, since I've got to know you, I've begun to like you...a lot.

"I mean..." For a moment, she hesitated, and then looked Fianna deeply in the eyes. "...you're like me, an outsider to the Tremere, to the kindred in general. As you may know, I'm not a normal warlock. In fact, I was a mage long before I was embraced. I don't really want to get into my past right now, but suffice it to say that I understand loss, disillusionment and pain. My magic is seen as weird and incomprehensible by most Tremere. Few understand me. As few understand you. I'd like to understand you and I'd like to think you'd like to... try to... understand me."

Fianna slid down off her stool and moved close to the attractive technomage-vampire. Large, dark eyes looked so deep, they almost seemed black, and they were accompanied by a shy smile. "It has been a very long time since I had someone as close as a sister." Fianna spoke softly, "We are like black and white you and I. We complement each other." She moved closer, looking up into Celeste's eyes. Spontaneously, she reached around and gave Celeste a warm (for a vampire) hug, but released her momentarily.

"I want us to be like sisters, because truly we are in a real sense. I know I really have been depending on you, and you have been so kind. I'll probably have to keep asking you for help, too, because I have lifetimes of experience I must un-learn. And I want you to know I will repay that in kind any way I can, because it's important to me." Fianna looked Celeste steadily in the eye, showing only naked honesty.

Celeste's hand touches Fianna's temple; her eyes locked with Fianna's, "I should tell you something... I, I didn't completely tell the truth about that night at Elysium. When I was dancing with you, I was not looking for weakness in the others watching. I was looking at you. Only you. I don't know how I even heard Roma's voice calling us down, if it was her at all."

Fianna looked down a moment, but when she looked up again, she wore a smile.

Celeste leaned forward and touched Fianna's head slightly, gently kissing her on the forehead. "Maybe...there is more to this than we know? I so love being around you."

Suddenly realizing she was less than a millimeter or two from Fianna's lips, Celeste sat back. "But...um, we really should study; I know you have a lot to learn tonight. Suddenly and quickly she mumbled, "imeanthatyouareworkingwithromaonthatonediscplineonanother... imeanishouldcont inuewiththis... itsveryimportant...very..."

Fianna saw Celeste's nervousness and sudden discomfort. "You're right," she whispered. "In the Chantry we must work on our studies. But outside, you're my sister. And I'll do anything for a sister." Fianna realized her hand was lingering on Celeste's shoulder. With a soulful, seductive smile, she withdrew and took a couple steps back. "As always, Celeste," she said in a louder, clearer voice, "thank you."

The raven-haired beauty gracefully left the room, leaving Celeste to her work and her thoughts.

"Wait", Celeste quietly spoke. But Fianna had already left. Silently she returned to her work, but her mind was elsewhere. After a hour of not being able to concentrate, she got up. Thinking to herself, "Why am I suddenly so coy, so reserved? This is not like me. Maybe I'm nervous because of something else. Something I have not known since ages ago?". Suddenly, "Dancing", she thought. We are happiest when we are dancing, uninhibited and no longer retstrained by tradition and work. Celeste excused herself from studies and looked for Fianna.

Celeste knocked on the door of Fianna's chamber. Fianna looked up in surprise. She had an electric guitar in her hands and was wearing head phones as she played along to a musical instruction audio. Celeste fanned a half-dozen cd's, celtic music (thinking Fianna might like it), and she invited Fianna to go dancing...

With an excited grin, Fianna pulled off the headphones and said, "I'd love to!" She took her long hair in a hand and put it in a twist, holding it in place with two shiny black little sticks which trailed a couple small feathers on strings. "I'm ready!" she said, putting down the guitar and walking briskly toward Celeste at the door.