Thrones in the Fog: Book 4

Six months had passed.

Six months for San Francisco to adjust to the impossible return of Nathan Kent. Six months for old alliances to reform, old enemies to disappear, and whispers to spread through Elysium about who truly had the right to rule the city.

For the coterie, those six months had not been idle.

Each had followed their own threads through the darkness.

Damian Boldin had turned the resources of the Nosferatu toward Graf Orlock, the Jiang Shi of Chinatown, the Black Ledger, and the increasingly disturbing activities surrounding Fleck and Kirin. What he found raised more questions than answers. There was no evidence of the expected war between Ambrogino Giovanni and the Jiang Shi. Some of the transactions recorded in the Black Ledger appeared genuine—but the recipients did not always match older financial records. Someone had taken truth and altered it.

Even more troubling, someone else appeared to be following Damian's investigation.

Max Knight had spent those months hunting Hannibal. Knight Security eventually identified a warehouse in Richmond being used by Sabbat and suspected Black Hand operatives, and Voss independently confirmed what Max desperately wanted to know: Hannibal was there.

But Max had another problem. The destruction of Elysium was beginning to look less like an attack and more like an operation. Multiple ignition points. Remote access using valid credentials. And the most intense fire deliberately concentrated around the archives. Someone had apparently entered the records area before the fire and removed something. Whatever burned that night may not have been intended merely to kill Kindred.

Someone may have wanted to kill history.

Valmont  had spent much of his six months looking backward. Through Necromancy and continued conversations with Dean Hawkes, he had begun reconsidering everything he believed about the Purge of 1997. Hawkes had been Nathan Kent's Governor and one of his most trusted retainers. History had frequently placed suspicion upon him, but Valmont increasingly believed Hawkes had remained loyal.

Then came something considerably more personal. Lucindra.

The Gangrel Primogen and former lover of Nathan Kent may still exist in some form within the ruins of Serrano's old mansion. If her spirit remains there, she may be one of the few witnesses capable of explaining what actually happened during the nights surrounding the Purge.

Other investigations produced equally uncomfortable questions. Fabian Bullard. The missing fortune beneath Oakland. Ling Hong. The strange connections between Kindred who should never have shared common interests. Everywhere the coterie looked, the accepted history of San Francisco seemed slightly wrong. And then Nathan Kent summoned them.

Kent had no interest in having them choose sides in the developing political struggle. Instead, he gave them something considerably more dangerous. Authority. By his word, the four became the Ashen Commission.

Their mandate was extraordinary: investigate the Purge of 1997. Determine who betrayed Kent. Discover what Serrano knew before his fall. Follow the money surrounding the Black Ledger. Determine how Ambrogino Giovanni truly acquired San Francisco. Investigate anyone necessary—regardless of clan, title or position.

Kent wanted names. Or ashes.

The Commission's investigation soon brought them face-to-face with Ambrogino Giovanni. If they expected a frightened Prince desperately defending his throne, they did not find one. Giovanni was candid about the increasingly unstable political landscape. Nathan Kent's return had changed the balance of power in San Francisco, and nobody could yet predict whether the result would be negotiation, political maneuvering—or war.

Giovanni made no attempt to portray himself as innocent. He had manipulated people. Purchased favors. Exploited weakness. Taken advantage of chaos.

But he challenged one fundamental assumption. The Primogen had not betrayed one another—not in the way the coterie had been led to believe.

Giovanni suggested the Black Ledger itself might be the problem. Genuine transactions appeared to have been placed beside altered information, creating evidence of betrayals that may never have occurred. Someone hadn't merely hidden the truth. Someone may have manufactured a version of it.

Whether Giovanni was telling the truth remained unanswered. But there was something unsettling about the meeting. He seemed genuine. Then Giovanni gave the coterie something none of them had previously possessed.

Permission to create childer.

For the first time, each member of the coterie had the Prince's authorization to create a vampire of their own. It was an extraordinary privilege. And perhaps an equally extraordinary political move.

The group also contacted Prince Manfred Sheffield of San Jose who said he knew of a Tremere, Rohan Thack, who could turn Graf's body incorporeal , thus protecting him from the exploding stake. But that would come at a price-a major boon.

Then Gunnar Torsten called. Come to the Transamerica Pyramid.

At the base of one of San Francisco's most recognizable landmarks, another mystery was waiting for them. Azul. Valmont's sire was dead. The evidence suggested she had fallen—or been thrown—from the upper reaches of the Transamerica Pyramid.

Valmont reached beyond death with his Necromancy and found her. But Azul could not provide the answer they desperately wanted. She didn't know how she had gotten there. She didn't know who had killed her. She couldn't even explain what had happened immediately before her death. There was only confusion.

And trauma. Someone had murdered Azul. And somehow, even the dead didn't know why.

Then Max received a message. Gideon isn't safe. Max immediately contacted his ghoul and ordered him to the Transamerica Pyramid. Gideon arrived, apparently unharmed, and joined the coterie. They got into the vehicle. And Jarvis became suspicious. Using Dominate, Jarvis pushed into Gideon's compromised mind and discovered something horrifying. A hand grenade. Gideon had come armed with an explosive—and somewhere inside the commands buried in his mind was the possibility that he would use it against the coterie. They stopped him before that could happen.

Gideon hadn't betrayed them. Someone had Dominated him.

Someone had turned one of their own against them. Azul was dead. Her spirit couldn't remember her murder. Gideon had been transformed into a weapon without knowing it. The Black Ledger may have been altered. The history of the Purge may have been manipulated. And somewhere in San Francisco, someone appears to understand exactly which strings to pull. The Ashen Commission had been created to investigate a conspiracy buried nearly thirty years in the past.

It was becoming increasingly clear that the conspiracy wasn't finished with them yet.