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What goes around, comes around. Suzanne Rochelle thought she was immune to karma. What use is karma to a vampire as old and powerful as she? She has worked long and hard, for several centuries, to get to where she is now. While she was at the top, Suzanne enjoyed a feeling of stability and power.
But then the wheel of fortune turned, and now Suzanne has lost everything she ever felt was important to her. She is in torpor, her kingdom in tatters as the Second Inquisition tears through the city to target both Anarchs and camarilla alike. Worst of all, her lover, her partner for over two hundred years, has met the true death. Oh, how the mighty have fallen.
It wasn’t that Suzanne didn’t expect there to be some resistance from the Los Angeles Anarchs when Prince Thomas declared praxis. She was aware of what had happened to Prince LaCroix when the Anarchs rose up and brought him down. What she did not expect, however, was for her fortunes to turn as poorly as they did. Just when she thought they were gaining ground, drawing the more… agreeable amongst them into the power and security of the Ivory Tower, it all fell apart. Hunters - mortals with machines and weapons she would have never foreseen… the world has changed so much in her time.
If she were conscious, Suzanne would remember again the attack on Versailles she survived while visiting the court of Prince Villon. They had all thought themselves untouchable then too, but fate had other plans. That was the night she met Vannevar, her dashing American Venture gentleman, so smart and so brave… It’s difficult for her to believe that he’s gone now forever. He and Suzanne have been through so many rises and falls over the many, many years. That cycle is broken, and she feels it like a spear in her heart.
History has taught Suzanne that empires rise and fall like the tides. This is the way of the world. You cannot be on top forever. Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it, they say.
The wheel will continue to turn. She’s at the bottom for now, lost and destroyed, but Suzanne’s glorious time will come again. This tragic event was a setback, yes, but her story is not over yet. Another city, another coast… a new chance to rise to power. And what then after that? Revenge? Will the wheel of fortune turn for her enemies as well?
Suzanne has to accept that decision is out of her hands. Some fates are irreversible and inevitable, no matter how much power you have. It’s a bitter pill to swallow.