Fractura Pyramidis

"The Regent's iron will preserved us when others sought freedom. I have walked six centuries beneath the weight of duty, and I tell you: to question is to weaken. Every crack in our discipline is a door for the Sabbat, for the Anarchs, for the beast within. I did not survive the Inquisition, the Convention of Thorns, and the fall of Vienna to watch neonates debate whether obedience has merit. The Pyramid stands. I stand with it. That is enough."

"My soul is forfeit — I accepted this the night Tremere himself whispered the price of eternity into my ear. Every century since has been penance served willingly. When Vienna burned, I did not weep for stones and mortar. I wept because the fire proved what I had long feared: that our unity was always more fragile than our pride admitted. But fragility is not weakness. Glass can be reforged. The Pyramid will stand again, not because it must, but because I will carry each stone myself if necessary."

"I held Marseille for two hundred and fourteen years. My chantry was a jewel — our library rivaled Vienna's southern collection, our wards had not been breached since the Revolution. When the Pyramid's bonds broke, I expected chaos. Instead, I felt... peace. For the first time in centuries, my thoughts were entirely my own. That peace terrified me more than any Sabbat siege. I chose to remain loyal, to rebuild the bonds voluntarily. Three months later, House Carna's emissaries arrived. I listened. I should not have listened. They found my ashes in the chantry's hearth. The official report states 'Sabbat incursion.' The truth is far more personal."