Marius sits in his lab under the Lair, the Catacombs. Armand walks up and Marius stops what he’s doing. “Word?” Marius asks. “Yes, and you are not going to like this. Not one bit,” Armand responded. Marius turned to face his eldest childe, crossing his arms. “Well?” He asked inpatiently. “They are holding her in the Tower, right in the middle of London proper,” Armand said. Marius rubbed his chin a few times. “So they do have control of the Tower as we suspected before. It is there they help Pandora captive,” Marius said. Armand nodded. There was a moment of silence between the two men. They knew they couldn’t let Pandora near the place. “I’ll keep Pandora here, leave Bianca with her,” Marius said, “and we need to summon all our elders for an emergency meeting.” Armand nodded and was off to gather the elders of the family.Some time later, Va’lis came to Marius’ office where he and Armand were planning a rescue mission for Carrie. “So?” Va’lis asked. “We’re going to have to get absolute confirmation that Carrie is at the Tower,” Armand looked to Va’lis. Their relationship up to that point had been in passing. Va’lis was Merida’s sire, thus his father in law. But as the relationship between Va’lis and Marius and Pandora grew, how Armand saw Va’lis changed. He was now more of a brother. “How are we going to do that?” Va’lis asked. Armand proceeded to tell him the plan. Va’lis agrees. Marius goes to protest, “Va’lis I do not think I want you—” Va’lis cuts in, “There is no way you’re keeping me here. I am going Marius.” Armand says, “Its his childe, Marius.” Marius laid in silence for a few seconds, “You both go, together.” The men agreed to meet in Umbra after leaving notice with their families.
Armand and Va’lis make their way to the portal in Umbra and with chants unknown to Va’lis, the portal opens and they go through. It wasn’t Va’lis’ first rodeo on Earth either, so he knew what to expect. They land at the Paris Pallisades compound in the heart of Paris, France. This was Romanus’ territory as is Italy and parts of Germany. The world gate had been hidden and covered with thousands of years of history. In the Pallisades, it was 6 floors deep in the ground. The two took the elevator up 6 floors to the surface where the living quarters were.
They were conjuring up a plan to go unnoticed as they scope the place out. Armand tells him this place, because of its historical importance, is like Fort Knox of course, high security, surviellance cameras, the works. This is all new stuff that Va’lis needs to understand. When the elevator doors open, who is sitting there greeting them? Merida, of course. She was dressed in her Razele leather with her full “war” gear in place. This did not surprise Armand one bit. She’s just not a “sit and wait” kinda girl. Merida did not know Carrie all that well, but she did love Va’lis and the thought of her bloodline being held captive somewhere sent her reeling. Armand couldn’t deny that Merida could be quite useful.
The Razele’s had a special magic that they were keen to weild in Sosaria: Blood Magic. But here on Earth, where the magical energies were far and few in between, those magics did not work. Many of the Sosarian magical energies do not. But Merida… she was special, she is actually from this world and of direct lineage of Maharet and Mekara. She was an Elementalist, still new to the line but none the less she had been in training for quite sometime under them. Elementalism isn’t magical, its element-bound. The presence of earth, water, air, and fire is everywhere. But Va’lis wasn’t having any of that.
An arguement ensues and Merida ends up being sent back to Italy by command of her sire. Needless to say, she was pissed.