Kat chuckled and shook her head at the irony of the pandemic's effect on the Tremere plans. She stirred her soup and chuckled again.

Tim's eyes went wide at the mention of a witch. "Weren't you scared she was gonna eat you?" he breathed. No doubt he had conjured up one of the pointed hat and broomstick variety. Or perhaps he was being evasive. He shifted in his seat, visibly uncomfortable.

"No, she's very kind," Liam said. "Well - she's like anyone else. She's stubborn, but in a good way. She has her grumpy days but she has a good heart. You'd like her. She likes to eat potato chips and watch television."

"She's also been working on a treatment for the poison. We used it to free Spark-Weaver and her children. Two of them had their first transformation. It was... quite the night."

Kat arched her brow at the revelations, but let the two of them continue their conversation. She pretended to be interested in her soup.

"Oh," Tim said, his tail dropping at the mention of Spark-Weaver. "Is.. . Is she why I couldn't come with you?"

“When I left for Europe?” Liam asked. “Oh, no, Spark-Weaver didn’t come with me. I went alone. I didn’t ask you to come - well, to be honest because it was pretty miserable. It’s not a life I’d want for anyone. I did it because I felt I had to, but you didn’t. You and Kat had a better life here. Even if I couldn’t be with you.”

“Anyway, what Spark-Weaver thinks would never stop me from coming to find you. The caern is all but lost now. But I’m the oldest surviving member and I just wrangled two Cubs back into the fold, so garou or not that’s got to count for something. As far as I’m concerned, you’re family and always will be.”

"Let's hope she sees it the same way," Kat mumbled quietly into her stew.

His words had a better effect on Tim. The massive Garou smiled, and picked himself up. "You're my family, too," he said. "And I would have come with you."

"I know you would have," Liam said, reaching out to lay his hand upon Tim's arm. "I never doubted that for a moment."

He glanced at Kat. "It might take some convincing," he admitted. "Probably best not to surprise her. We can cross that bridge when we come to it." This seemed to be the manner in which he was living his unlife of late - careening from one earth-shattering collision to the next.

"Anyway, its only something we'd have to figure out should you ever chose to come back. I promised I wasn't here to drag anyone away. The two of you seem very comfortable here," Liam said, turning to look around the cabin once more. "Its a good life. Peaceful. You won't find that in Verdant Falls right now."

"I'm happy just to know you're both safe. And it'll be easier to come and visit when I can fly again." If he was ever able to fly again.

"Would you give me a hand in the outbuilding?" Kat said, wiping her mouth and placing the stew bowl on the counter. "I need to thaw tomorrow's dinner."

The outbuilding was little more than a tarpaper shack with a fridge and freezer inside. A large butcher's slab still smelled heavily of old blood. Liam followed Kat there, and when they were inside she closed the door.

"I wanna know what's going on with Book," she said plainly.

Liam nodded and followed Kat ouside.

"Book is Book," he said, leaning against the wall of the outbuilding. "He wants to release It. The Tremere control the ruins though, and he doesn't feel as though he can bargain with them. He wants them gone."

"I also want them gone, but for entirely different reasons. His concerns begin and end with access to the altar. I want them gone from the whole city. I want to end the Fugue, and quite honestly I want to take the Masquerade down with it."

"You asked me before if my position has changed. It hasn't. I've always hesitated to do anything because I've been afraid of the consequences. Even when I had the means and opportunity to act, I didn't. The night Rat tried to kill me solidified that for me. All of us were working at cross purposes with competing visions of a future that couldn't coexist. And Book was stringing us along by telling us what we wanted to hear."

"Because what does he care about the world? We could murder ourselves in a plague of violence and retribution and reduce the planet to a smouldering cinder and it would change nothing for him. His plan has always been to leave us just as soon as he could. We were the means to an end."

"There was only one way in which it could have ever worked, and without meeting those conditions its simply too dangerous to try."

As Liam spoke, Kat produced a frozen package wrapped in butcher's paper, and dropped it loudly on the slab.

"And what's the one way it coulda worked?" she asked tersely.

"Nobody gets to change the world," he said with a shrug. "You get to change yourself. That's it. No big picture. No bringing back a dead loved one or trying to alter reality to fit your will. And you have to trust - trust beyond a measure of a doubt, like the future of the world depends on it that everyone is asking for the same."

"That's it. That's the only way."

Liam fell silent for a few moments and then stirred.

"I'd like to see the sunrise again," he said with a wistful smile. "Through my own eyes."

"But if I never get to again, I suppose that's okay too."

"That's..." Kat trailed off for a moment, thinking about it. "Pretty smart, actually. Providing you can trust your co-conspirators. Which is a big proviso, don't get me wrong."

She leaned against the butcher's block, folding her arms. "So is that what led you here?"

"I'm not just a pretty face," Liam said with a wink.

"I wasn't selling you a story before, Kat. I really did come here to make sure you're both doing okay. Tim and I lived together for years. He was a big part of my life and I was worried when I came back and you'd vanished without a trace."

"I won't say I haven't thought about the rest, but its not why I came. That being said, I do think I could trust you. And Tim. All he's ever wanted is a family. To feel like he belongs somewhere. He doesn't need It to provide that for him. He needs us."

"And I need him too," Liam admitted. "He's pretty close to the only family I have left."

Kat's demeanor shifted a little. She went from folding her arms to hugging them. She stared at the meat. "Sorry, I just have trouble believing that anything that happens to us is a result of his machinations."

"He led you to us. Each one of us. Most you turned into allies. Some you killed. But one by one you cleaned house. You were his coup. Tim and I left that life because of you. And you happened because of him. He plays your... frustrating likeability the way he played -" She caught the words in her throat. "The way he played my rage and Tim's innocence. I believe that you're here because you miss us, and those feelings are genuine. But answer me this. The witch who led us back to you. Who introduced you?"

"Jack," Liam replied. "But Book was there to make sure I didn't miss the call," Liam confessed a moment later.

"Don't get me wrong, Kat. I know he's using me. I'd be fighting the Tremere regardless. Freeing It is another matter altogether. If we were to consider it, and I hold the same reservations as you do, Book gets what he wants. There's no way around that. The question comes down to whether we can abide that, not whether we like it."

Liam shrugged. "I don't know what the right answer is. I do know Book wont stop. We might not be around when he eventually succeeds but he'll keep trying. He has all the time in all the worlds."

"And if I'm being honest, I worry less about what Book wants than I do about what his future confederates might desire. What if he reconsiders his stance on the Tremere and decides they're his ticket to freedom after all?"

Kat laughed and shook her head. "You're on to something there, but it's not what you're thinking," she said. "He's with you because you're going to kick the Tremere's collective ass. He's behind the winner. Always has been. If you fuck that up, then you can bet your ass that's when he's going to introduce himself to the other side. And you really don't want that to happen because that'll mean you've already lost. If there's one thing you can count on for Book, it's that his presence in your life is real good tidings for you. Right up until it isn't."

"I guess what I'm getting at is, you're not the only one knocking at my door tonight. He's asking me if I want to take another spin on his little carnival ride. The question is: do I?" she gestured around herself. "It's not like I'm happy here or anything. We're safe, sure, but do you think I like living out here in bumblefuck? Liam, I would snap a puppy's neck if it meant I could have a restaurant-quality meal and a soaker tub. And I love dogs."

"So come with me," Liam replied. "I'll... figure out Moira. No, she's not going to like it. But I do think I could talk her down off her high horse."

"Robyn knows I might come back with the both of you. I never promised anything, but it was always a possibility if I sought you out. We have a camp in the woods. Pockets is there. Moira and the kids. And a few families and individuals we 'freed' from Verdant Falls. Its rustic, but its more built up than here," he continued, taking in the hunting cabin with an encompassing gesture.

"You'd have a community. And God knows we could use an experienced hand like yourself."

"All of them know about the Tremere, obviously. Only Robyn has any notion of Book though. We've been working quietly with Miss to try to undermine the Pyramid's foundations without their knowledge."

"I'm not looking to build another Tribe. Those have all failed. If there's to be any sort of arrangement as I see it, it would be you, me, Tim, Robyn and Miss. And of course, Book, because he gets what he gets regardless. Six people. Small goals. We change ourselves, not the world."

"Its a lot to chew on, I know. I'm not looking for an answer tonight. Trust doesn't come easily to our kinds, and with good reason. But it starts with honesty."

Kat smirked. "You know, I think I know why you and Tim hit it off so well," she said. "You're an idealist, just like him."

"I kinda figured we were going with you the moment you showed up," she said. "I wasn't about to let you breeze in after ten years and break his heart all over again when you left. It was that, or put you in the swamp before he saw you."

"Well then, I appreciate you chose not to put me in the ground," Liam said with a grin. "I'd have had a hard to explaining that one back home."

"It'll be good to have you both back. I'll try not to be so frustratingly likeable."

"You will fail," Kat said with a chuckle. She pushed herself off the slab, and grabbed the meat. "C'mon, Tim's probably getting suspicious by now. I'll let you be the one that tells 'im."

Tim had finished his salad bowl full of stew when they returned, and was ladling himself some seconds. Given the size and length of his claws, this was a messy and delicate operation. Judging from the scars on the ladle, it was also a common one.

"More deer," he said in a singsong voice as he spied the package.

"More deer," Kat replied, with far less enthusiasm. She placed it in the sink to thaw out for tomorrow. She grabbed a well-used mop from the corner and went to clean up after Tim.

Liam followed Kat back inside and resumed his seat opposite Tim once more. "I see you worked up an appetite today," he remarked with a grin. "What do you think about coming back with me to Verdant falls? Both of you. I can't speak for how good the deer is, but I'm sure we'll be able to wrangle up something."

Tim perked up, and his tail began to wag. "You mean we'd all get to live together? That sounds great!"

"I have to lay the groundwork, but yeah. I think so," Liam said. "I'm looking forward to it."

"Honestly its been too long."

Tim stood, reaching across the table and hugging Liam. "This is amazing!" he exclaimed. "I can't wait!"

Kat was a little more restrained with her jubilation. She eyed the venison in the sink and remained quiet.

Liam winced, but only the ribs that had already popped that evening gave him any grief. Tim was being gentle. "It'll be good to have you back," he said. "I'll spend the day here." He glanced up at Kat. "Is there somewhere safe?"

Happy to end the scene here

"Our root cellar," she said. "It's not very warm, or very clean. But it's dark."

She wasn't kidding. The night was young, and they stayed up far too late with lighter conversation. But when it came time for Liam to retire, he only had potatoes and turnips to keep him company.

[5 XP for the scene.]