Nobilis – Hyacinth & Ivy: Session 1, Intro 1

To the Nobilis, the symbology of flowers is strong — they are one of the oldest associative symbols, and an almost inseparable part of sympathetic magical rituals. A tiger lily doesn?t just mean strength, it is strength, whereas magnolia is the flower of Nobility.
This is a story of Hyacinth and Ivy.
This is a story of Jealosy and Friendship.
—
The Power of Punishment lay on the cobblestones of a dirty alley. This, as her eyes slowly blinked open, was the first thing she noticed; grimy stones, bits of refuse settles against the juncture of a buildings wall and the ground.
Her cheek was pressed against the stone as well, which meant she was lying on her stomach, with her back exposed to —
She rolled over, blinking rapidly against the noontime sun that snuck through the rooftops overhead to stab at her eyes. The alleyway was dank and old, which seemed familiar, and thick with the stink of molding trash.
That seemed familiar too, although somehow for a different reason.
She sat up, resting her arms on her knees. She was wearing slacks, a jacket. Her knuckles were scraped and bruised. A taxicab drove by the mouth of the alley several dozen yards away and she realised she was in London.
She didn?t know how she knew it was London, what or where London was, or why it filled her with a certain relief, but she knew that she knew.
Forcing herself to her feet, she took stock of her surroundings.
The dead body on the ground between her and the alley?s dead end caught her attention first.
Her reaction was strange, or at least might have been; there was no fear or revulsion, only resignation, as though this were a familiar scene playing out for the hundredth time to no happy conclusion. She approached the face down body (too much like her own earlier pose for comfort) and rolled it over.
A flash. A memory. Looking over the shoulder of a London bobby, looking down on a body, lying in a very similar — the same? — alley. Blood everywhere. the poor woman’s eyes wide with terror and death and the stink of blood and offal is nearly overwhelming and —
Five… no, seven bullet entry points. Centre mass. Also, his eyes were missing. It did not look as though he?d ever had them.
In a sudden flash of memory, she remembered the scene. He was stalking towards her from the dead-end of the alley, half-smiling. She had had a pistol in her memory, and he had been wearing sun glasses.
Searching, she found the gun against the wall and shortly thereafter found a holster for it at the small of her back. The other?s sun glasses she didn?t see.
She frowned. It didn?t feel right, having used a gun. There was something…
Something… off. Wrong weapon. Not the feeling that she wouldn?t have killed someone, but the feeling that it wouldn?t have been this way.
Something was wrong, but that wasn?t quite the worst of it.
She?d been trying to remember her name since she?d first rolled over and faced the sun, and she couldn?t.
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[The nobilis of Punishment is played by Dave Hill.]