Unlike Norman or the rest of his team, Warin avoided Victoria as much as possible during the cold winter months, and instead opted to relieve Simon of his duties training the newest recruits. In his god-fearing opinion, even if she was found to be mostly benign by an angel, the scheming vampire would likely betray them if she was given the choice. Whatever she was planning behind her indifferent facade, all he had to do is become strong enough to overpower her twisted ideals.
The trainees in question varied greatly in both competency and skill. While some were complete amateurs, others had received training somewhere and often took over their lessons. Each recruit had their own story, however neither their God nor their mission cared for such trivial pursuits. Unless you can channel your past into something constructive, it would simply weigh you down. A vampire does not care if you are the bastard child of a noble, blood is blood. A werewolf cannot remember who it has killed, nor will it think twice about attacking someone recently orphaned. Avenging loved ones, protecting your family's honour or helping to reduce the number of orphans, those are ideals which one can channel to exterminate those who dare touch God's Children. This harsh lesson was drilled into the recruits at every point.
The few times in which he interacted with the vampire were during Katherine's various experiments, acting either as an observer or in a more hands on manner, and occasionally escorting the inhuman creature to their trading guild of choice. One of the few redeeming qualities about this particular vampire was that she respected his disdain for her existence and did not try to force any familiarity between them. Each interaction was silent and communicated before hand, maintaining the hostile distance between them. The only offer she extended to him during these outings was to cover the cost of a drink or meal while she went about her business. The offer in itself was partially out of formality and partial kindness, as waiting around during the winter months is never comfortable.
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The cold winter weather forced some portion of the training in-doors, substituting combat practice with lessons in theoretical and biblical subjects. Warin's lessons covered the various supernatural threats, their legal authority, divine incantations, purifying rituals and general survival tips, while other clergy filled in the less practical areas. Each topic could be refined once they had been out in the field. Previous experiences had shown Warin what happens to those who live coddled in the realm of theory. The results were usually not pleasant. Each of his other companions also joined them occasionally, providing their expertise and fragments of knowledge to contribute to their education.
Eventually Victoria was invited to speak to the recruits, many of them were confused as to why the shy nun was there instructing the class. Even with his deep hatred of her very being, he did get some measure of satisfaction from watching the over-confident whelps fall over when she summoned her familiar. They learned a valuable lesson to not judge everything off of appearances, evil can take many forms and they were lucky that this lesson was a forgiving one.
Her lessons were different that what he had expected, covering the various different creatures and their general dispositions. While some of her lessons bordered on heresy, such as the nature of magical contracts and which creatures were generally safe to deal with, most were practically focused with a few examples provided. Unlike Warin's students who were only listening to her words, Simon, Katherine and that excitable scholar were eagerly taking notes on her lessons. The vampire's lectures always seemed to inspire energetic debate and discussion in Simon's office afterwards, furthering her insidious machinations.
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By the ending of winter, the recruits began to show some measure of promise. The basic formations and tactics used by his order had become a solid foundation in their repertoire. Regardless of how they were split apart or their relative location, they could usually pin Warin down to a confined space and proceed to land hits with their practice weapons. Even in mock battles, Warin and his team often struggled to maintain their advantage. They had of course, tried pitting them against Victoria but her methods and combative style were less than ideal.
The results of the mock battles were either one sided victories with Victoria being cornered and subdued quickly or an exercise in futility as she had quickly become adept in stalling tactics. The few times she was given time to set up, she had set up various traps and hiding places from which she could either: wait out their pursuit or utilise Rose to launch quick assaults before recalling her back before any response could be measured. Even Norman's team, with William adding additional support, struggled against her deferment tactics. She was smart enough to know her limits and never contemplated a direct fight, forcing her to try to win via alternative conditions such as looking to outlast the allotted time of their mock hunts. It is a good thing for our mission that few creatures would choose adopt such cowardly tactics, as the demon-spawn were confident that their strength could overwhelm our attacks.
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The call to muster was given in the dead of night, the familiar had been sent ahead by her mistress as a warning to the church of an incoming hostile guest. The Vampire had found another one of her kin's Ghouls and was bringing it back to the church, apparently there was another twisted soul lurking around the town. Simon gave hurried orders to be carried out, “Everyone! Have the recruits at all of the entrances in pairs. Victoria is has found something dangerous and is bringing it to us. She has hidden the existence of her familiar so Rose will brief us once she and the threat are secured in the basement.” Internally Warin felt feelings of both vindication and anger with Vampire's latest stunt. Surely this time she shall be executed, along with proof of her misdeeds.
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Eric was one of the current batch of recruits, joining the churches' efforts after a particularly sadistic necromancer had thoroughly rampaged through his former home. Every night the memories of his hometown haunted him with visions of countless skeletons maiming anything which held a pulse. It was the same nightmare, over and over. Trapped as a child and constantly running through burning surrounding dotted with his family being tortured, never being granted peace in death. The necromancer had been dealt with shortly after the raiding of his village, leaving him directionless and alone. One of the Night Hunters who had saved him recommended he join their order and defeat those like the necromancer who posed a threat to humanity.
Tonight's nightmare had a particularly bad one, preventing him from further sleep. Redressing in his padded armour, he decided to wander the chapel to get his mind away from his torturous memories. It was at that point Katherine and Elias began to wake up all combat personal inhabiting the church, giving them urgent marching orders. As the first to show up, Eric was positioned at the main entrance. Through the gap in the chapel doors, his seniors were having a heated discussion with Victoria. The words 'Ghoul' and 'Vampire' were frequently uttered outside, luckily few civilians knowledgeable of the matter were around at this time in the morning.
The sounds of the group entering the church were the last things he could remember. Something about the ghouls appearance, possibly enhanced by his nightmares from earlier, triggered Eric into action. He only snapped out of his trance-like state to find the corpse-like ghoul impaled on his weapon, uttering ever-fading curses towards their captive Vampire to the stunned silence of the on-lookers. He just stood there shaking as Simon removed the ghoul from his trembling arms.
It was the Vampire who calmly removed her cloak and wrapped it around him, before embracing him. “Calm down, you are safe now. The ghoul is dead.” Eric could only collapse, coming to terms with his trauma-driven actions. Around him he could only vaguely hear the surrounding noise and frantic cleaning, as to hide the evidence of what had occurred. When he first tried to remove himself from the Vampire's embrace, she would reassure him: “Whatever state you are currently in is of no use to anyone. You can remain as you are, until you are calm.” He ended up falling asleep in her arms, obvious to the chaos he had caused.
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Faced with the fallout from Eric's manic episode, each member of the team was given a few hours to prepare before getting briefed on the situation, allowing the new recruits to compose themselves before storming a vampire controlled castle. The plans of attack and strategy were carefully composed with-in Simon's office, with Rose acting as Victoria's proxy given that her master was still predisposed tending to the emotional wounds of Eric. The true nature of Lord Geoffrey was now open to those with-in their circle. Unfortunately, they were unable to count on the local guard for backup, as some were likely under the employ of Lord Geoffrey's sub-ordinates. Simon would eventually look back at the bizarre chain of events and laugh at how quickly; Victoria had gone from being tortured by their god to helping plan an assault on another vampire. It was certainly an extreme change in circumstances.
The situation, as it stood, was clouded in unknowns. From Victoria's observations only some of the house-staff were loyal to the vampire Piers, others remained in line due to reasonable fear of punishment and notions of self-preservation. The remaining soldiers, lords and servants would have to be fought in some manner, that is of course ignoring any ghouls which were kept hidden out of sight. The castle, on the outskirts of York, was only partially fortified and its stone walls had become mostly decorative in function as prolonged sieges had mostly died down on the British Isles. Breaking into the castle would require considerable effort on their behalf, however the church did have a few holy relics to be used in this kind of emergency. The one they currently had in their possession was partially modelled off of a story from the gospel of Matthew*, where-in Jesus cleared the corrupt from his temple with a hand-woven whip. The relic was an ancient goat-leather whip had been woven into a gauntlet, allowing the wearer of considerable faith to force open any entrance regardless of lock or barricade. Their plan was for most of their forces to storm the front gates while a small faction of hunters would cut off any fleeing vampires.
On the conclusion of their meeting, Simon sought out Victoria. She was sitting quietly on a pew, shaded from the dawn's burning rays, still calming the distraught Eric. “I am surprised that you are still tending to him” his tone conveyed both sincere concern and suspicion at her act of kindness towards someone who had inadvertently sabotaged her attempt at safely leaving the town. “Whatever has been done, has been done. For what is to come, having him coherent and functional will do more for my continued survival than an act out of short-sighted rage. If you don't mind, can you please get one of the sisters to help Rose with some jars she is bringing up.”