Promises
a tale of Las Vegas by Night
by Matthew B. Harper

he tribunal was called at exactly midnight in the Grimaldi Room at the top of the Monaco Hotel and Casino, crown jewel of Sean Miller's new empire.  The newly crowned Mad Prince of Las Vegas rested on a throne of scorched wood and metal, made from the burnt remnants of his predecessor's desert haven. The velvet cushions on the throne were, needless to say, his own personal touch. Seated to the Prince's right was the Malkavian primogen, who also happened to be his wife, Gwen Miller. She smiled a predatory smile at the man bound in the center of the room - her sire, Sal Meadows. On the Prince's left was the Ventrue primogen, Laurent. He looked displeased, a rare expression to grace his charming features. Next to Laurent sat Trevor, primogen of the Tremere clan. The clean-cut features of the dark-haired young man were completely inscrutable, but his eyes betrayed a hint of sadness. The final member of the Council stood staring out the window at the city beneath. He was Snake, nominal Primogen of Clan Gangrel, though all present knew him to be nothing more than a traitor to his clan, surviving only by the graces of the Prince. The rest of the large chamber was entirely empty.  The justice of the Council was not to be witnessed by outsiders. 

Sal Meadows stood in chains in front of the Council table. The eldest childe of the Prince, he stood before the Council tonight on charges of high treason. The War for Las Vegas had been bloody on all sides. Sean's calculations were that 56% of his ragtag army of ghouls had either been destroyed or vanished during the conflict. Despite such consequences, the War was still, in Sean's mind, a victory. With only a 64.3% success rate, however, Sean could not afford to rest comfortably upon his new throne. The most dismal failure was that his predecessor, Jude of Clan Gangrel, had escaped intact. The neonate Tremere, Steven Carroll, had soon brought the Prince evidence that implicated Sal in aiding her escape. Sean had read his thoughts, and calculated that there was a 93% chance that this allegation was true. Under such circumstances, he had had no choice but to call for a tribunal. As the clock struck twelve, Gwen, as Primogen of the accused's Clan, rose to read the charges. 

"Sal Meadows of Clan Malkavian, you stand accused of treason against your sire and your Prince. How do you plead?" asked Gwen icily. She had Diablerized the powerful Gangrel warrior known as Joseph during the War, and her savagery had only increased since. Everyone present knew how her vote would fall. 

Sal thought quietly for a moment. Then his face brightened and his familiar easy smile appeared. "Not guilty by reason of insanity," he slowly said in his warm Texas drawl. Gwen rose to strike him for his insolence, but Sean raised a velvet-gloved hand and she slowly sat back down. 

 "I sense that he believes this to be true, and has no intention of mocking my court," Sean said. "Let him speak." 

 "I won't deny it, Sean. I did warn Jude about our impending attack, and it is my fault she's still out there, somewhere. But, I couldn't help it, Sean. I owed her a debt," said Sal. 

 "You owe me your unlife, childe, which is a very great debt as well. What debt could possibly be so great that you would betray me to repay?" 

 "I owed her a life boon, Sean. One relating to my...special inclinations.  She saved my little one's life, Sean. She saved Valerie when I couldn't. I owed her for that." Sal responded. "Before I had adopted the girls, I used to go and watch them, sometimes for hours. One night, as they were walking along the sidewalk, Valerie saw a pup, lost and hurtin', lying on the median of the road. She ran to go and get it, to take care of it, and some asshole in a pickup ran right into her. I watched as my baby was lying bleedin' on the street while the asshole drove off as fast as he could. And as I watched, a car pulled to a stop next to my girl's broken body, and Jude herself got out. She bit into her own wrist, Sean, and poured her blood into Val's mouth until Val's wounds closed up and she was fine again. Then Jude kinda growled at the pup and it came over to her, where she picked it up and put in Valerie's arms. Then she smiled and told Val that it was good of her to try and save the pup, but that she should be more careful near busy roads. Val nodded and skipped away with her new pet. And then I stepped out of the shadows." 

 "Go on," said Sean, his brain adding each detail of the story to the equation that would determine Sal's fate. 

 " 'Prince Jude', I said, 'my deepest thanks for saving that girl. I love her dearly.' She sorta sniffed me then, and her face grew cold. 'A whelp of that upstart Malkavian, and one created without my permission. You seem harmless enough, though your sire will soon feel my claws. You owe me your life now, whelp, and the life of that girl. If she is yours, be lucky I see something of myself in her. It is mostly for her sake I let you live. Go before I change my mind.' I nodded and walked away. And that's what happened. She let me and Valerie live and I helped return the favor. It wasn't a betrayal. We still won. I just had to pay off my debts, is all. Especially with the kid involved, Sean. Especially then," Sal said. 

 "Well then, I suppose the time has come. Votes, please. Snake?" 

The biker turned from the window to face the others.
His golden eyes gleamed in the dim light. "If that bitch Jude ever finds me, I'm gonna die - slowly. And it's your fault she's still out there somewhere, Sally-boy. No mercy for traitors, they say. Of course, if that were true, Sean woulda just had me staked and suntanned instead of letting me join up. So, tell ya what, I'm gonna abstain and let the rest of ya fight it out." 

 "Trevor?" 

 "The peculiarities of Sal's blood do seem to have had some influence in his decision to warn Jude. It is dangerous that he cannot maintain his Will any better than that, but he is still very young, and such things take practice and age to acquire. Our victory is complete, and I feel that the new chantry I have established here is secure despite Jude's escape. Prestation is a powerful tradition amongst our Kindred, and even you, my illustrious Prince, have been subject to its vagaries before. Let Mr. Meadows continue to live, for his mistake is not so great that it cannot be learned from." 

 "Well spoken, Trevor. Laurent?" 

 "I am disturbed that such a thing could be done by one so close to the heart of our alliance, my Prince. Yet, he is of your Blood, and carries the special circumstances that come with that. His actions may not be entirely his own, but they are serious indeed. I, too, am at a loss for the proper course of action, and I will leave the decision in your capable hands, my Prince. I abstain." 

 "Gwen, my dear. How do you vote?" 

 "He has betrayed both your office and your friendship, my love. And he has done it for the sake of a human child's life. Such a reason is foolish at best, and this court has no need of fools. I brand him a traitor to his city and his Clan, and ask for his death by sunlight." 

 "So it truly falls to me," said Sean. "Very well. I fought hard for the power I now wield, and the responsibility that comes with it. Nevertheless, I cannot in good conscience either release or condemn this man, for I have calculated that there is exactly a 50% chance of either option being the right one. And so, I will call upon the unofficial patron deity of my city to determine his judgement." 

 So saying, he drew a single silver dollar from his pocket. "You are in the hands of Chance now, childe. Call it in the air." And he threw the coin into the air. 

 Sal Meadows ignored the drop of blood sweat rolling down his forehead, and taking his first deep breath since he stopped needing to breathe, said, quietly, "Heads." 

he coin turned end over end in the air, with all eyes upon it. Sal focused his thoughts on his two girls, while Sean attempted to calculate the side the coin would land on, based on its current trajectory. The coin struck the new marble floor of the Grimaldi Room and bounced once, twice, and then three times before coming to rest, heads-up, on the ground. Sal breathed again, but this time it was a sigh of relief. Gwen reluctantly got up and unchained him. 

 "This tribunal is adjourned. Leave me to discuss things with my wayward childe." said the Prince. The Primogen all went their separate ways, leaving Sean and Sal alone. 

 "How'd ya know I'd pick heads, Sean?" Sal asked his sire. 

 "I can read minds, remember? If I had picked up thoughts about the tail-side of a coin during that 50-50 bit I would have used the other trick coin." Sean smiled and picked the two-headed silver dollar off the ground and slipped it back into his right pocket, while pulling a two-tailed one from his left. "I wasn't going to kill you, Sal. You still owe me $9 million." 

 "I knew that, but why the whole coin thing anyways? Why not just vote in my favor?" Sal asked. 

 "Well, Sal, according to my calculations, the Primogen of Las Vegas now consider their Prince 16% more insane than they did during the last iteration. This means they are 23% more likely to fear me and 8% more likely to underestimate me. It was good politics. Besides, Gwen is only 1/162 as angry at me as she would have been if I had voted in your favor, which is good survival instincts."  And then the Mad Prince of Las Vegas smiled at his childe and vanished into thin air. 

 "I guess that's why he's the Prince, and I just play poker," Sal joked to himself as he ambled down to the Monaco's day-care facilities in search of a suitable way to celebrate his freedom.