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Kiếm thought she had everything figured out. She was strong, fast, beautiful, deadly and downright ruthless. She was a deadly assassin even before she was embraced. It was as if she had been designed to be a bad-ass weapon for the Camarilla. She should have had an easy life there. Get to the top of the tower so you don’t have to take shit from anyone and stay there for as long as you can. Simple. She was made for this. It’s a cut-throat world and she has the sharpest knife around.
Or at least, she thought she did.
She thought the Ivory Tower was built on a firm foundation made of centuries of rules and traditions. Everything she had heard about it told of its indestructible strength. She knew rationally that there would be some backstabbing inside of the institution. One cannot climb to the top without slipping a knife between some ribs, but she didn’t quite expect everything to crumble as soon as it did.
And now Kiếm is falling, both literally and metaphorically, from the top of the tower.
She's been told since a young age that she can never trust anyone. This is just as true now as a Kindred as when she was alive. The only one whom she can ever completely depend on is herself. Everything she has witnessed tonight between her former coterie and their detestable sires has confirmed this. Every institution Kiếm has ever been a part of has failed her, including the Camarilla. Her ambitions have been built on false pretences, and it makes her feel like a fool.
She’s filled with fury. They’re going to pay for this, for what they’ve done to her and to her sire.
Kiếm is forced to retreat for now, to rebuild and re-focus. As she heads for Club Crimson with her new ghoul, she vows to learn from this experience and come back stronger and wiser. She is not surrendering, never. This is a step backwards, nothing more.
Kiếm imagines throwing Khalida, Rafferty, Coco and Renalto from the top of a skyscraper and watching their bodies splat to the pavement below. Hell, throw the Nosferatu off too. Perhaps they could land just right to get impaled on fence spikes. That would be extremely satisfying. Perhaps as they fall, it would cross their minds to regret underestimating Kiếm and what she’s willing to do to get what she wants.
It’s a small, empty comfort in the middle of a shitty situation.