10

The age of wonder is always passing, isn't it? You are immortal—must you spend eternity in stuffy little rooms trading bons mots with stuffed corpses?

Which reminds you: the Elysium awaits.

Elysium is one of the defining ideas of the Camarilla. It is a neutral meeting ground where violence and the use of vampire powers are forbidden. In many Elysiums, Kindred are allowed to exist as they are, not as the Masquerade demands they be. Your sire dreamed of blowing up one of these. The Tucson Elysium is located on the roof of a nightclub called the Viper.

You can hear the pounding industrial music from the parking lot, but you're not here for the party. You've been outside the Viper before, but never in and never up. You scan the rooftop and wonder whether to approach first or try to hunt. It's bad form to arrive in an Elysium hungry, but hunting nearby is often forbidden, since it attracts notice.

An eagle settles on a fire escape. You remember the way that eagle looked at you a few nights ago, and you suspect it's the way in. You follow it up the fire escape, trying to ignore the Hunger that has you gnawing on your lip.

You don't know what shadow-art this place employs, but you reach the top step and the empty-looking rooftop of the Viper disappears, replaced by a sprawling patio covered in cacti and desert shrubs. Footpaths lead through the secret garden, and small stone bridges cross narrow rivulets of cold, flowing water. From here, the lights of Tucson are invisible, and the night sky is the way it is deep in the desert: shades of purple and blue and black, with the Milky Way brighter than you've ever seen it.

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