Whispers in the Evening

The city of Vesper was notorious for the secrecy of its rulers and its cults, their operations obscured behind an unbreachable wall of silence, hidden in an instinctive fog of misdirection and denial which outsiders found baffling, fasincating and frustrating in differing measures. If the truth ever escaped from the labyrinth of lies in which it was compelled to wander, it was usually only after many years. Yet there was an abiding interest in the affairs of the mysterious city which meant that there was always an appetite for gossip and rumour, both inside and out.   Perhaps the most sensational and salacious story to ever emerge from the shadows of the evening city, reached its climax in 626 AF.     The politics of Vesper was complex but it is safe to say that the most powerful position within the ruling oligarchy was usually the Holy Conduit of the Orthodox Monks, a role which Pious Rain had assumed in 617 AF. The Holy Conduit was the beneficiary of the largest of the great temples in Vesper, the Temple of Hesperos. In addition, the Orthodox Monks controlled more than half of the lumber trade and excercised the greatest influence over the passage rights of pilgrims bringing foreign wealth into the city. Rain's main rival was Din Stralek, the ambitious Magister of the Temple of Sleep. An emnity developed between the two men, arising perhaps initially from the historic rivalry for influence and money which their respective Temples had always nurtured, but later deepened by a potent cocktail of sexual jealousy and fear.   Pious Rain was always looking for ways to strengthen his position, and he forged both open and secret alliances to undermine his rivals. He had led the Temple of Hesperos for less than a year when Cimarine Dalaux, the mistress of the Hall of Ecstatic Intention, entered into a mutually beneficial agreement that made them business partners with exclusive social and financial arrangements.     This infuriated Din Stralek, since he found himself frozen out, both politically and personally. He had been rumoured to enjoy the company of Cimarine in an intimate capacity, but after she began to favour Pious Rain, he understood that any privileges he had formerly enjoyed at the Hall of Ecstatic Intention were now denied and that the alliance between the Temple and the Hall, strengthened their finances at the expense of the rest of Vesper.     Pious Rain was a cautious man and he knew that to survive in the cuthroat world of Vesper politics, he needed ruthless friends who could intimidate his enemies. In the shadowy quarters that handled some of the more questionable business in the city, Inbar Ull had made something of a name for himself. He ran gambling houses and traded in narcotics. His blank stare and laconic, low pitched voice was equally effective as the master of ceremonies at the Temple of the Evening Wolves, perhaps the most sinister of the Cults of the Evening and when controlling the twin spider wolves which always accompanied him. By the beginning of 621 AF, Ull was working for Rain as an unofficial bodyguard and enforcer in areas where the authority of the official guards in the Orthodox Monks did not reach.   Now Stralek found himself having to tread very cautiously. Rain had decided that the Temple of Sleep ought to be incorporated into the Temple of Hesperos and Stralek had to stay alert for the possibility of violence on the street. However, the Master of Ceremonies at the Temple of Sleep had not attained his position without possessing a ruthless cunning himself, and he found that he had an extremely useful ally in the person of Laurette Achelle, the mistress of the Temple of Pleasure and her ambitious protégé, Raisa Solenski.     Laurette had her own reasons to oppose Rain and Dalaux. There had been a time, when she had hoped to ally herself with the leader of the Temple of Hesperos and she had been more than friendly with him before he moved into a position of greater power. She was less than pleased, with the business and personal relations he had then established with the younger woman, who she felt had usurped her affection and was eroding her finances too. There had been a time when the Temple of Pleasure was the place that rich pilgrims would choose to meet their intimate needs in Vesper, but the rise of the Hall of Ecstatic Intention had creamed off Laurette's best paying customers. Secretly, Laurette came to hate Dalaux more even that Rain since she was a direct competitor.   Stralek had access to some arcane knowledge obtained in unorthodox ways from the remnant of an Enclave near Vesper. Indeed, it was a strong suspicion that this kind of secret heretical connection lay behind many peculiar features of Vesper politics which would eventually lead to its downfall only a few years later. The suspicions were not unfounded and Stralek was a beneficiary. Having no way to challenge Rain, directly, in discussion with Laurette they came up with a lethal plan. It so happened that one of the most highly sought after ladies in the Temple of Pleasure, had moved to work in the Hall of Ecstatic Intention. Even in her new job Raisa Solenski, still had warm relations with her former boss. She was ambitious and with the right form of persuasion she could be turned. And so it was that Raisa came to act as a strange and very deadly weapon in Stralek and Achelle's plan.   The art of combination nano-poisoning is long lost. It belongs somewhere in the dark recesses of the ancient ages before the Great Forgetting. No one in any of the ages that have come and gone in the awakened world, would have the slightest idea how to manufacture the ingredients and the antidotes, but Stralek had a mysterious Enclave contact who could and did supply him with the subtle substances once used by assassins whose targets turned to dust before the continents of Earth were rearranged.   It must have taken a great deal of foolhardy trust or greed or both for Raisa to take on the task she was assigned. It required her to wear a primer in her lipstick; a substance transfered in kissing but harmless on its own. In the private ceremonies of the Hall of Ecstatic Intention, Cimarine and Raisa would often kiss, both for the gratification of their clients and for their own private pleasure, and each time that they did so, some more of the primer flowed into Cimarine's bloodstream. Then later it flowed into the bloodstream of Pious Rain, as smoothly and silently as a viral vector, passed on to him by his unwitting lover and business partner.   "Now you purge the primer from your blood", Stralek told Raisa, and she drank the cleansing solution, testing repeatedly until it came back clear. Then her shade of lipstick changed to a new and deadly red, laced with the trigger, a substance that would interact with the primer over a few hours to kill the target as the poison was activated by the contact between primer and trigger in the target's body.   And so it was that Cimarine partook of the deadly substance and there was enough time for her to pass it on to Pious Rain, so that they both perished in agony, unaware of how they had been betrayed, whilst Inbar Ull was eliminated at the height of passion by Laurette in the Temple of Pleasure, the better to wrap up loose ends.   That is how Din Stralek and Laurette Achelle gained control over most of Vesper in 626 AF. For her part, Raisa Solenski was rewarded with the job which Cimarine Dalaux used to do, taking charge of the Hall of Ecstatic Intention and becoming Din Stralek's lover.   Yet, this trecherous plot did not go entirely unoticed and in the long run it is likely that it led to the sack of Vesper in 677 AF.