It wasn't long after Morgan's ill-fated hunt that she was finally persuaded to tie herself to Joshua with bonds of blood. It was clear that if she didn't, one of the local Sabbat would manage to bind him; certainly they had tried. After managing to avoid the Blood Bond for so long, Joshua could see it was time to give in to a vampire he could trust. And so, now quite inseparable, Joshua and Morgan suffered from many attacks by the tenacious Sword of Caine.Tested by Paradox, Joshua experienced few backlashes only due to stringent control over his use of magick. He took pains to limit himself, using mundane means of defense whenever he could. Making use of enchantment Rotes originally designed for blades, Joshua adapted them for use with modern firearms -- creating extremely effective weapons to use against enemy vampires. Still, it was not enough. Time and again, Joshua's inherent mortal frailty compelled him to call upon vulgar magicks and extensive use of the Blood to sustain himself. He avoided many conflicts altogether to give the mass of Paradox coiled around his soul time to dissipate.
The Blood Bond with Morgan proved to be mutual, something neither of them had expected. They reasoned that it must be due to Joshua's own potent blood, which bears the stamp of his magickal power. The two of them exchanged rings and vows some months later, in a private and personal handfasting; it just seemed right. since that time, they have been husband and wife. Their path was still a rocky one, though. Simple misunderstandings and the sometimes-overwhelming power of the Bond caused a fair share of disputes, and once nearly brought about their deaths. Driven to fits of wild magick by the intensity of their relationship, Joshua sought to end his life with his power, and was punished severely by Paradox. Morgan knew nothing of Paradox Realms, however; she only saw that he was gone, never to return, and it drove her to depression and torpor.
When Joshua returned, he had become pale as death and terribly cold...finding to his dismay that Morgan had been kidnapped by a Sabbat Lasombra with intentions of Blood Bonding her. He banded together with trusted Kindred friends to rescue her from the damnable Sabbat, and they retrieved her from the Lasombra's clutches. But the creature's Final Death would have to wait.
The Sabbat were far from finished with them, as a matter of fact. Morgan could scarcely begin to come to terms with Joshua, changed by Paradox as he was. As the relentless conflicts with the Sabbat wore them down, Morgan began to speak of separating from Joshua for the sake of their own survival. It had finally become too much to handle. Joshua snapped that night; outwardly the transformation was subtle, and has gone largely unnoticed. But at the time, Morgan witnessed the Avatar manifest in physical form, and in spite of their special bond, it nearly struck her down that night. It was then that the dragon appeared long enough to explain the "rules" to Morgan, though it has taken her years to fully understand what the dragon told her. Though in time, Joshua lost the Flaw that had turned him so pale and cold, some of the changes wrought on him during his tumultuous first year with Morgan have remained to the present day. When his voice lowers with an ominous roll like thunder on the horizon, when his eyes turn black and fill with sparkles like the starry night sky...then Morgan knows that the black dragon, his Avatar, is in control. It occasionally frightens those around him, though -- especially Morgan. Time and experience have allowed them to come to terms with what Joshua has become, something both more and less than what he used to be.
One of Morgan's first lessons in the nature of their new relationship came at the hands of vampire hunters. In September, a large band of mortal hunters took it upon themselves to assault the Kindred of Necropolis. Morgan was caught up in these attacks, dragging herself back to their haven -- a townhouse owned by her mentor, the Ventrue Nadia -- on the edge of torpor. Finding Morgan in such a state, her throat cut and grievously wounded, pushed Joshua to a mad rage. He scarcely paused to heal her wounds before storming the city in the form of animate lightning, punishing the vampire hunters for their choice of targets. Reports in the local papers only mentioned electrical fires and explosions, but 43 people had died...some of them innocent Sleepers.Though the dragon may seek its vengeance against forces of Stasis and Entropy, it is certainly not above inflicting serious collateral damage in the process. Joshua has been forced to acknowledge the uncontrolled power the Avatar wields, and more than once he has considered the Embrace as a last resort. Morgan would sire him if anyone could, but she struggles to keep him relatively sane, and most of all, alive. Not only can he protect her better with his magick, but his Destiny seems not to lead him down the same path as the Tremere.
In spite of setbacks such as these, Joshua and Morgan worked together in service to the Camarilla. Between his employment at the new Camarilla Elysium, Fallen Angels, and his work for the Ventrue elder Vergadain, they managed to amass a considerable fortune over time. Joshua paid this little attention, though; it was enough that they had a home and enough resources to continue his studies in the Hermetic arts. Together, Morgan and Joshua weathered a terrible disease that devastated the Kindred of Necropolis. Under Vergadain's employ, they beat down the efforts of a Tzimisce rival of the elder Blue-blood, and survived the attentions of the Technocracy that came with it only by faking Joshua's death. In late November, world news sections of the papers reported the death of one "Joshua Mayforth," a corporate security operative for Verga Corporation, in a terrorist bombing in South Africa.
As the months wore on, Joshua acquired something of a reputation among the Kindred of Necropolis. Will-workers were rare enough in the dark city, but he stood out as unique among them. Enmeshed in vampire politics, fast becoming an expert on Kindred culture and powers, Joshua walked the razor's edge of life as a ghoul among vampires, and thrived. The Tytalan motto is "through strife, power;" it would seem that Joshua had taken this to heart.
Morgan's star rose along with that of her Hermetic lover, as well. With Joshua at her side, Morgan worked first as an Archon, then retired from her position with the Camarilla to become a Deputy Sheriff under Prince Morrigan. When Fallen Angels was first opened, it was Morgan and Joshua who took on the task of peace-keeping in the new Elysium. Many a night saw Morgan peace-bonding swords while Joshua took on all comers with eldritch lightning and enchanted bullets. Much time passed before the vampire club became more strict in its laws.
They witnessed Sabbat "defectors" enter the Elysium to court the local Toreador, then run laughing back to Sabbat territory armed with new lore on their enemies. Assamites once frequented the club, and they became friends -- if such vampires could be called such -- with the local Silsila, a nameless, inscrutable voice from the shadows in the back of the club.
Morgan rose to the rank of Whip among the Gangrel in short order. With one Jessica Doe-Aspiri serving as Primogen, they presided over a handful of clanmates in Necropolis. As always, it seemed that the Gangrel Clan was one of wanderers, not citified and settled Kindred. Jessica even took on the job of Prince of the City for a time, and Morgan became the Gangrel Primogen -- a post she held for years, after a fashion. But the reign of Prince Jessica was fated to be nasty, brutish and short...and when she was kidnapped by the Sabbat, it was the beginning of the end.
The Gangrel Prince was picked off and impersonated by the Sabbat Malkavian Pandora, and certainly the entire affair was drenched in questionable circumstances. The Sabbat was found out, but not destroyed successfully. Joshua might say that was due to him missing the affair. But Jessica was found to have escaped her imprisonment, and with his particular expertise concerning Blood Bonds and the "Sabbat variant," it was obvious to him that Jessica had survived free of Vaulderie bonds.
However, things did not turn out as well as they might have hoped. With then-Tremere Regent Clare Blackthorne leading the charge, Tremere and Toreador turned on Jessica and demanded her resignation. Joshua's findings were denounced as the ravings of a ghouled Marauder by Clare herself, and the Tremere went so far as to try to inform the Technocracy of Joshua's whereabouts. Such was the gratitude of the Tremere for Joshua's efforts to ward Fallen Angels against the Camarilla's enemies and uphold the Traditions. It was a lesson Joshua never forgot. In the end, Jessica's own Tremere "husband" was dust in the wind, and so was the reign of Prince Jessica. The conspiracy of Toreador and Tremere was later made plain for all Kindred to see, but the damage had been done. Jessica was seldom seen again in the city, and for good reason.
As their first year together drew to a close, Morgan and Joshua watched over the remains of the Gangrel Clan. The ill-fated Princedom of Jessica was perhaps a sign of things to come, but while the Clan as a whole grew unsatisfied with its place in the Camarilla, the Gangrel of Necropolis remained steadfast -- due in no small part to their dedicated opposition to the Sabbat. When the Sword of Caine threatened to rise up against the Camarilla, it was inevitably the Gangrel who took them on without hesitation. Brujah may join in the brawl, but time and again, it was the Gangrel who drove back the Sabbat offensives. Joshua himself took to patrolling the streets of Necropolis and the entire domain in search of Sabbat to kill, and in that he was satisfied. The vampire hunter at last had found his place among the vampires: slaying the worst of them at will, with the blessing of the others. As a hunter of the undead, Joshua was without peer.
Still, the dragon inside him had its own agenda. On a trip to Rome, Morgan and Joshua chanced to find her old tomb in the catacombs under the city, prepared for the times when Morgan was required to spend time in torpor. The sight of the tomb nearly took Joshua from her forever as he relived a part of his past that he had forgotten...in fact, it was a past life remembered.
Joshua had never been one to have ties to his past incarnations, but the experience was overwhelming: something had to be done. Gyrithe Ruyter, a friend of theirs from Clan Ventrue, offered her skills as a psychologist to help with Joshua's tenuous grip on sanity. It was at the very end of 1998, shortly before the New Year, that psychotherapy and hypnosis brought the dragon out again to speak of this previous incarnation -- a master Hermetic called Arminius...
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