Afya was embraced between 861 AD and 511 AD. Her story mentions several historical events which may help to narrow this down a little more. Between 637 and 651 AD Islam invaded the Persian Empire. The Abbasid caliphate arose within the new Islamic culture around 750 AD and lasted until 1258 when the Mongols invaded.

I must confess dear one, that I lied to you many times. I am not the daughter of a spice merchant from Constantinople, and I was not made an orphan when his caravan was attacked on the border of Bohemia. I was actually born the daughter of a minister in Persepolis during the rise of the Abbasid caliphate. My grandfather converted to Islam and gained a significant rise in providence because of it, though my grandmother still followed to the old ways and told me some of it in secret when we were alone. Her way was the eternal flame of Zoroastra, rather than the more common Mithraism so even before Islam the women of our family were used to keeping secrets.

As a young woman I was a muslim, but when they started to execute followers of Mithras and the Zoroatrian faith I joined a group of rebels. We did our best to help people escape to the Indus valley. Though in the end we lost, the Indus valley was under the same strict ethics and soon followed suit. That is how I met my sire. She was one of the high priestesses of the eternal flame, and I suppose she saw potential in me like I did in you. I think in my case it was really only my affinity for languages.

What else can I tell you? My native tongue is Parni, though I have not spoken a word of it in a very long time. I may even be the last speaker of it now the Mongols control my homeland. In my time I have seen both of the gods from my homeland, the first eternal flame still burns in its stone cruicible and it does not need fuel, I have learned something of magic and science to try and understand why but have not found a reason. I am not sure if it divine though, it does not actually seem to have any purpose other than to simply exist as a curiosity. The being that they call Mithras, is actually a very old and powerful vampire. He is currently clinging to the last of his old territories and barely has any impact on the modern world.

Out of a hundred women who fought for the defense of the victims of Islam, I was selected for special training by my sire, and this is how I became an Assamite. During the holy wars against the Christians I was taught to be an infiltrator and an assassin. We identified pockets of kindred not of our blood and executed them. In time I grew dissolusioned with the path we had taken, and realised I had become what I most hated. That is how I found myself talking to one of the most ancient members of our clan I know of, I only know her as the librarian which is as much a name as it is her title. For example, you know me as Afya. That is just 'shadow' in Arabic, it is the name I was given when my sire released me. My mortal name is what I was called before I learned who I am now, so I do not use it any more. Besides, both my grandmother and my sire believed there was power in a name.

My questions were answered with a mission which has puzzled me for several decades. The librarian was studying reports by our clan from the time of the fall of Carthage. She told me that the extermination of the other clans within our empire was similar, and she wanted to know the answer to one question "what occured between three kindred, Troile, Ilyes and Moloch on the tower at the last". More than that she wanted me to ask a very specific person that question. The infamous great father dragon, the Drakon. It took me decades to find him, and another decade before he would allow me to speak with him. The only answer I got was to follow someone called Corvinis. I was very frustrated, and I thank any god who would listen every night that he chose to forgive my rude behaviour. I have no doubt that if my path crosses his again I would not survive. There are stories that a great grandchilde of an Assamite elder vizier who slighted him in some way was sent as an envoy from the Ottoman kindred to ask permission to capture Constantinople. Although the grandchilde was an elder by our reckoning the party returned without him and a polite answer thanking the Ottoman kindred for their manners, but rejecting their request and explaining that the grandsire's debt of transgression had finally been paid. I am told the Ottoman's have still not dared to even attack.

I found Corvinis eventually, he is called 'the watcher' of Constantinople though he is a Greek by origin, and a Byzantian by politics. It turned out, though he knew a great deal about that war that the names I gave meant nothing to him. After several decades of serving the cause he did I eventually realised that it was a hunt for demons. That was a cause I did not mind serving and so I took my time, I will probably be reprimanded for that when we return.

I have been a part of this group for well over a century now and only a few years ago Corvinis told me the full tale of Carthage from his point of view. I think he struggles to remember things, and I was lucky to catch him in a chatty mood. His tale got me no further at all though, there was nothing new to me or to the librarian. Then you came along.

It was Infurious who figured out that there was something strange about Lientz. He asked me to take up watching the castle where the kindred met and keep an eye out for anything unusual. The mission was a little vague, but I am patient and I watched and waited. Eventually it was something you told me which gave me my only lead. You told me that you had collapsed at your sister's funeral. It was a while before I found the records. Your sister had been removed from them. Nobody in the castle even spoke about her. After a while I realised that the kindred of the town were also unable to remember her, only you and your father knew who she was. There were a hundred nobles at your sister's funeral, but only your Aunty Margaret was outside of the princes influence. That was why I went to Innsbruck. I wanted to find out if your Aunty remembered your sister. I am afraid that she did not. That was when I realised that the events were far greater than a rogue kindred or even a demon. Whatever the thing you saw was it is something else. I now believe that the answer to librarian's question is simply what you saw on that tower. Though how the Drakon could predict even half of this is beyond me.

The tradition of our clan is that as soon as possible following an embrace of a new childe into our clan that childe is taken to meet the elders of our clan. You will be judged and if you survive you will be named and you will be an Assamite. That will mean that you will write the first annal of your life and present it to the librarian. This is a secret of our clan, but that does not mean that the Drakon would not know it. Hopefully I am just being paranoid, I still shudder every time I recall my meeting with him.