Weddings are supposed to be festive; supposed to be. It’s not. There is lots of work. Flowers need to be ordered, cakes need to be baked, instruments tuned, and guests to be pampered. Life is tough for the events organizer here. Alas I, Penny R. Belmont, am the best at organizing such events at least until Reggie screws things up. Luckily she seemed to be in a great and festive mood as of late. I saw she brought some party favors for our guests. I just hope she doesn’t lace them like last time. We don’t need more people tripping. I am still grateful Willie was there to clean the remains off the ceiling last time. I still don’t know how it got there since there are no Coven of the Beast allowed on our premises except him.

Alas I digress, we were awoken to screams as we came upon a dead friend, actually he wasn’t really dead, he’s getting better, but he’s mostly dead, after all we are undead. This was followed by the seeing the night sky lit up as bright as day. The entire complex was on fire and people were running around in panic. I ran to my uncle’s home. It was there I saw the bride-to-be covered in blood and traumatized with the death of her fiance and the kidnapping of my uncle and cousin. We search as best we could, but there are no signs of those missing nor the intruders. I return to a captive being tortured instead of questioned. Her name was Alice. We asked her some questions and then with some sort of mystical power she disappeared after threatened some more by Rin and Tony. I come back down and get a report on this in more detail from the captain. These fucking morons are going to start a war! Keep calm Penny, keep calm, don’t lose control. I will try to handle this as best as I can, but it looks like they will be put on trial. Afterward we fed up and the others rested the day away. I had other business to attend to.

As I walked into the ‘day room’ as they call it, I saw the somber faces of the council. The empty chair sat at the head of the table. I could hear Reggie’s quiet taunts as I walked to fill its vacancy with all eyes on me. “Oh look, Miss Big Shot made it to the top good job since don’t screw this one up,” which was followed by an evil chuckle. The room was completely quiet as I took the awkward position. The head of the guard and the head of the witches sat by my side as our meeting commenced. “We need to address the ‘others’ that are here!”, said one of the council members. He was referring my friends and visitors. Reggie sat there with a smile on her face twirling her hair. He continued on about the attacks on Alice. “She could have been an emissary for another coven or some new guild.” He was met with the counter argument, “If so who invited her?” We debated this for a long time and decided to look into the laws and annals for a long time. It was clear after a few hours there were two punishments when attacks are made up visiting emissaries. They must be staked and buried for five hundred years or be buried unstaked in a silver coffin. My jaw dropped and I pulled my glasses closer to my eyes. There must be some way out of it, some loophole must exist. Reggie sat there with her smirk, “Keep looking sis, you won’t find what you are looking for in there.” She was right I won’t find it in here! How can I save my friends? Why did they have to fucking screw me over like that! They have hung around Reggie for far too long. If only Uncle Sylas was here to give them some kind of pardon or make a new deal. If only I were the blood lor……….! Wait, I am the temporary blood lord! I stood up and pounded my fist into the table. “Here is my decree! They are to be under the watch of Reggie,” her smirk faded at this, “and I as long as they are on these grounds. To go about without us, means they shall forfeit my decree and they shall be staked and buried for five hundred years if this is without incident. If it is with incident they shall receive the silver coffin as a gift from the coven of the lost.” Reggie’s smile returned at the end of this statement. I knew at that moment she would try to disappear on them to force this, I will talk to her privately before she disembarks on the journey to find Sylas with my friends. We continued to discuss business and details about our errors in security and how I will rebuild this coven with the help of the captain of the guard. We looked at the screens after a while, we could see the cameras were capturing the sunset. The day was now over and my friends needed to be fetched for their sentencing.

The next night repairs were made and I decided to talk with Alice. She said she would help us find the attackers and my family. I agreed to meet with her as did the others and she appeared in front of us. After some talking with her, we agreed to go to her chamber and we were teleported to her chambers and were greeted by what I can only imagine was some massive dragon the likes of which I have never seen before. We talked for a long while but did not get much more than she wanted us to succeed in our mission to find the blood lord. I am glad that she is on our side for now. However, there is the matter of summoning the aggressors of Alice to receive their dues. I hope for their sake they see my mercy and grace. Any retort will be met with the full force of our law. Afterwards they will be pleased to know that Reggie will be joining them on the mission, while I try to rebuild my family.

Image from Bonholtzer Productions.