Lazaruss : IMPORTANT : Ok. I did get another idea for a sequel. So sue me. If you haven't red it thus far, I recommend you pay attention in the first chapter. Those who have may think it doesn't add up whit what I wrote thus far, but I promise it will all come together in the end. And on the beginning of each chapter you'll find a few verses from a grim poem I made up especially for this. It's called " Nightmares have come to life ". Enjoy.


From the thickest dark we arose once more,

there where heavens, the earth has blamed.

What once we planted, from roots they tore.

and what we healed, ill worms have claimed.

Poison springs out of cracks in the land.

Our hearts broke with grief's knife.

Cry along usurper as your knees bend,

for your nightmares have come to life…


Thick veil of black silk was showered with sparkling stars of beautiful colors. Tiny dots were twinkling in red and green at once looking as if trying to escape. Black returned conquering, but only for a moment. Dots of red and green bloomed, taking shapes and growing again. Stinging eyes felt like needle cushiness as they tried to size a fragment of a memory. Black returned once more and went just as quickly. Fresh air unsealed dry lips and a strange sound resonated the void. Dots shivered. Weakness and bitterness made them selves known, as the veil of stars welcomed his hand. It cracked like glass and the light hurled trough, poring its flames inside. A long time passed before the darkness withdrawn once more, and the white rods of light diminished their glow. Strength crept back in small amount and the glass cracked again and again.

He had to get to the hilt. The shattering sound filled his ears like a blast. It was so loud it felt like the earth was tearing it self apart. Between his knees the sword lay, bent like a metal serpent… His talons swiftly probed trough the surroundings. Not an inch of dark was left untouched. Not a spark of strength was spared in the search. The light resumed cracking trough and its passing begun to consume the dark stabbing trough him like white hot pokers. But he didn't care. Precious hilt had to be grasped. Scull hilt. The dark exploded.


" … and the humans… Huh ? … My… my god ! He has awaken !"

" He ?"

" Every punch of his icy hearth beets in my ears like a drum ! Our sire… "

" … rises… he will brake our words and devour us all !"

" With a whisper of a sword… they will be louder than our shouts… "

" Good. This place was becoming too dull. "


" …blood… "; the word was uttered trough glue filled mouth, amidst the scraps of broken bark of a former shell. The light was too bright. The air was too hot. He was too week. His jaw came open and instantly red haze stained his sight. More and more it filled him with bliss and pain and weakness drew back before it. More. The hunger cried. The thirst commanded. Every drop must come to him. He mustn't let go of the hilt. Yes. More haze. More blood. Let the thirst be sated. Let it subside…

The blur cleared. His vision sharpened. Even the darkness of the cave shined too strong. The cave… It was filled with specters and ghosts that guarded and protected. Stalactites and stalagmites grew vertically from the floor and hung from the ceiling obscuring the beyond. In the distance was a silent dripping of water on the cold stone, but it was more like beating a giant drum. Three breaths later, and he was rising on his arms and knees. Three more and he stood up. It was almost impossible to stand on that spinning floor. His thoughts tried to remember how to stand.

" … Kain… I am Kain… "; he whispered

Memories came to him, slow and unwilling and his stand stilled beneath his feet. A sleep. He was asleep, but what was important ? What was it that he had to realize ? Not asleep. Change. Long change. The sword blazed in his hand. He lifted it closer to his face and blinked before it. It was burning him too strong. His huge ears, like those of a bat, sliced along their length were aching him with the noise.

" …Raziel… "

" See !"

He felt strong again. Strong enough to walk. He stepped forward and the arms got stuck on cave decor. Arms rooted beneath those short broad spikes on his shoulders. He closed them on his chest and tried again but again he got stuck. Not those arms. The other arms. He crouched, bended those behind his back and finally stepped forth. The first touch the stone was colder than ice but he pressed on. Glowing ghosts mowed back before his lumbering. And than he remembered :

" … Arms… four arms…? "

He smiled to him self bitterly. Such a lovely transformation. A perfect gift for a monster. Sick giggle cleared his throat. He tried to touch them with his regular arms. They were huge and strangely folded, sloping behind his back. He had a thought of shaking hands with him self and that made him coughed with mad laughter. But than he realized that these new arms were in fact reformed exercises that occupied his back before. Those small wing-like things that once grew beneath his shoulders, about a foot broad and three feet long. Now they were huge… and sharp. They twitched. He allowed him self to extend them pass his hips and at once a cry of rage broke trough the cave.

" Noooooooo !"


" Can you fin him ?"

" His mind gains hold too quickly… It warps away from our senses as his consciousness grows. "

" It would be most preferable to locate him. "

" We're trying mistress… We're trying… I can't take hold of it… He's not letting me… "

" We're doing our best, but still by the time you get to him, he'll be at full strength and that you can't endure. "

" That we'll endure for these six days. At the dawn of the seventh day he'll be no more. "


The walls resonated in an echo. He fell on his knees once again and in such short time. This was the last thing he wanted. To grow wings. That gift he stole from Raziel and for that gift he was unworthy. It was an insult of faith to bestow this onto him, and now he'll never have a moment of peaceful conscience. Wings hunted him and mocked behind him, a foul reminder that will newer grow silent. Like he didn't have enough of those. The rage subsided. He extended them. The triangle shaped leather was stretched on long bones that grew from his back. Bones were fat at the root and sharp like hooks at the end and an occasional thorn of white bone would brake to the surface near their beginnings. Wrists near his back were infested with those thorns that were still retaining some hardened fragments of his sleeping shell. Bat's wings, on bones with thorns and hooks. He sighed and razed the reaver, bringing it to his back.

" Choke on them. "; Kain muttered as he was about to slice them off.

Something stayed his hand. Something else and urgent desired his attention. He barely hat time to stop him self before he realized it. Things were wrong. The reaver was lowered and he managed to pace to the cave entrance where once long ago he carved his warnings of trespass. And there he beheld the horror. The land was dead. Life was overthrown. From the mountain's peek he gazed at the waist below trough layers of thick green fog. The earth was deployed of plants and beasts, cracked and bare like a rocky dessert. Not even demons and abominations were roaming the dry country. Bare and gray trees occasionally tore the emptiness, fragile like they would splinter at a merest touch. The waist seemed to have no end. Instinctively he gazed at the pillars, though he already expected what he'll find. They were tall. Tall and black like coal. For a long time he explored this damned land with his mighty senses and than he spoke to him self :

" Typical. "

What ever caused this, has long since won and now it was up to him and Raziel to set things right. So many times… Was there no peace, no end to battles ? He gazed at the waist again. Was this peace of poisoned land really worth of all the fuss ? Was it so valuable ? A priceless garden of illness and venom. Was it all that important ?

" Yes. "

He gazed back at his wings. They were waiting to be tried out. With a mighty leap he stretched them and cast him and Raziel back into the war and upon his departure the cave dwellers returned to the underworld. Their duty was fulfilled.


For a long time the waist was passing beneath him as he flew. Most of the water was green with mold or brown with mud, but there was still scarce life there. On few places there would be tundra or even bare woods, but what creatures remained seemed to be ill or starving. Famine was the only thing that was prevalent, aside from gray and brown rocks sorted in many various shapes like markers along the way. There was so many different forms he wondered whether it was a natural thing.

He discovered that he couldn't shift into a bat form any more. In the end it didn't meter now, but it kind of missed him to disperse in a horde of small beasts. He got used to it, and it was always a most terrifying experience for mortals to get in the way. The thought didn't occupy his mind. Instead he remembered his children and was on his way to uncover their faith.

He remembered their faces. Adella, Tarian and Jasmine. His three offspring and their vampire houses, the Sumnaly, the Tergetti and the Zatarra. Memories kept poring into his mind. He remembered Adella with her tendency to hold on to anything that was still human within her. Why did he ever allowed her to pursue such a cause ? An offspring was supposed to be more… loyal. Yes of course ; somehow she broke out of his hold after sadistically murdering and feasting on her former lover. After that he simply had no desire to bind her will again since she was reminding him too much of him self when he was her age. Memories of his youth were too scares, as well as they should after more than… what ever time has passed by now, and observing Adella was quite refreshing. He couldn't even remember what that white knight looked like. At least he thought it was a knight.

His thoughts drifted back on Adella. She was so young and foolish when he left her. When he left them all. Tarian… what was important about him… The proud and over competent Tergetti lord… the Fire-lord… He fell in love with Adella, and stranger still he remembered that his last act before the cocoon was to marry them in a ceremony that would allow them to experience love of the flesh the way mortals do. And of course, Jasmine, his third child and second daughter, the youngest of the tree. She and Tarian might have bean siblings in their mortality, considering how close they were even as humans. They were so bonded by their friendship that he passed the dark gift on her too instead of just Tarian. Memories of their turning nestled in his mind. He stalked restlessly until he found Tarian in the slums trying to escape the series of bad events that ruined his life. Jasmine followed soon after looking for him to try and help him. Sole for Adella's sake, he left them both with their own will, instead of making them fanatically loyal. It was rather an amusing thing to watch them stumble on their own like rats in the maze called Nosgoth, with an occasional hint from him, but after a while he got fond of all three, though he'd never say it out loud. If there was anything any more that gave him satisfaction it was to observe them in their folly and youth.

The incident with Vorador popped into his head next. The old green bat surfaced right about the time for his hibernation, which gave Kain difficulty as he was suppressing the cocoon and dealing with Vorador at the same time. But in the end it all turned out right. Even the humans agreed to a peace with the three vampire houses, an alliance which was named " The Leiman Treaty ". Yes… the treaty. A copy of it was still on his person, safely tucked away. He remembered humans being technologically advanced. For a while in the past he was buried under a mountain, and in the mean time the humans advanced. Finally after more than eight centuries, young captain Adella unburied him having no clue that he was about to become her dark-father. In the time the humans have built sky ships that could go further and faster than even he could in his bat form, perhaps even now. They had huge ships that were able to break the bonds of air completely, venture into other worlds, and had weapons that could fire bolts of searing light. The NUC ; Nosgoth Union Coalition, that's what their defending army was called and Adella was the captain of one of their huge sky ships. The peace he made with them fifteen years afterwards might have bean the best thing he'd ever done.

But now it was all just a ferry tale. When he went to sleep, the land was healed. Its wounds turned to scars and the scars begun to fade. It was all going so well, even the pillars begun to grow and to mend. Now it was even a worse waist then what his Empire made. And his children were no where in sight. From what he sensed, they were mostly dead. His senses still didn't take hold but he felt a presence of another race in control. No. Not the Hylden. Something else… But still, vampires were all but extinct. The young thrall of his three offspring. The knowledge grieved him for a moment and than nothing again. All corpses look alike after a while, and there's no point in crying about it. Tears won't bring them back and besides he wasted all of his tears a very long time ago. The only thing he could and would do now was to seek vengeance, but first he was heading to find what remains of his former world. The only one he could clearly make out was Tarian. He was somewhere in the mountains of Vaserbunde. Adella and Jasmine were alive as well but they were somehow able to hide from his senses and didn't come out. What it meant he didn't bother to guess, when Tarian was about to answer his every question.

But as he was flapping his wings to the city of Vaserbunde, a giant pacing shadow emerged trough the green mist. Kain stopped in mid air and took up the reaver. Raziel's soul glittered on the blade and they stood and awaited this slow lumbering giant. At a first glance it seemed like an enormous armored man with a severe face and a large crystal on his forehead, but on a closer look it was a machine. A mechanical construction of a warrior colored in red and blue. There was one hearth beating within most strangely. Kain had never heard such a sound. Who ever was piloting this mechanical warrior was not any creature he'd ever faced. The machine stopped before him and for a moment they just observed each other. Kain smelled the pilot trough layers of metal. It smelled like a vampire, but not like a normal vampire. Something about it was alien and foreign but the strand of a dark gift was clearly noticeable.

The next moment this huge iron man razed his fist to strike him down from the sky without even mentioning the words 'surrender in the name of…', but though his effort was mighty, it was ridiculously slow and Kain barely had to bother to dodge it. The warrior tried again, but this time his fist got sliced away and fell to the ground making a sound of a large gong. Te warrior looked at his missing arm with wires and pistons sparkling with electricity and oil, and the next moment, Kain broke trough his chest and drilled his way trough to the other side, emerging out of his back. Before he made a full circle around the warrior it collapsed on the ground with a horrifying rumble.

Kain leaned on a smocking dying shell and shook the oil off the reaver before placing it on his back again. What nonsense of a soldier this was. It was almost unworthy to fight with. But victory was victory and now was the time to feast. He was still hungry from his hibernation, and blood of the enemy was his favored dish. The pilot-creature was still alive, somewhere inside the head of this machine. With a strong grab he ripped the metal face off and threw it away, but than he had to pause in disgust. Inside was a pitiful sight indeed. The creature seemed pathetic and ill, and it appeared that the huge robot was actually his life support system. It seemed more like a gray and brown mush of lard with eyes, than like a living being. Diploid of any hair and naked it hissed while trying to resume with breathing trough the air tubes. Wires and conduits were perplexing and coiling around and trough it like a web. Kain could barely make out his arms and legs, swollen like balloons and wrinkled, but he could definitely make out his blood. The creature still had it within his vanes and despite his ill look, it was a blood of a powerful odour. It couldn't even speak, but Kain could easily hear his thoughts :

" You will not win. We shall not loose. Mistress Jordana will crush… "

Kain really didn't want to listen to something like that. A second later and the revolting creature went silent as its blood was being sucked into Kain's mouth. The taste was priceless. A vintage of a most pleasing flavor. The creature clearly had the curse of the dark gift upon it, but it was originally something else, something that had many ancient memories and a long history behind him. Like this pure being was a gathering of at least five generations of his ancestors. The blood within his vanes preserved his father's memories and his father before him and so on. It gave a special spice in the mixture of tastes, along with the dark gift and the touch of vampiric power. It might have bean quite beautiful being once, but the curse of blood thirst warped it into this pitiful excuse for a life, and it was even dependent of the robot's machines to sustain that life.

" A canned meal. "; Kain spoke amused

A silent cry echoed around him, carried in the dry wind that rose sand and dust. A baby was crying somewhere near by. A human baby, no doubt.

" And a dissert ?"; he smiled deliciously. Blood of a child was not much but it was most pure and unspoiled by taints of life.

But suddenly he realized that he couldn't pinpoint where it was coming from. It was like an echo on a dozen stones ringing silently in his ears somewhere within that green fog. A moment later it was gone. It was strange that he couldn't locate this child even with his vampire senses, but he quickly dropped the subject. He'll have to feed on something else later. Now he was going to find his son. He stretched his wings and rose back into the sky.

A hidden cave was nestled high in the cliffs above the Vaserbunde mountains. Nupraptor's Keep finally lay in utter ruin, as well as the city beneath it. It must have bean a grand battle, for it was all completely leveled down. The incident occurred long ago, about a century by Kain's guess, but it was only a passing thought. Further above the mountain slopes where scarcely but birds could reach lay the one he was looking fore.


Gray walls of its interior turned brown by a small fire in the center of the floor oft one larger room deeper within the tunnels. A single creature in a torn black coat was crouching near it, its shadow dancing on the wall behind following shivering flames. A torn chain shackled to his white skin wrist dragged on the stone floor and the sleeve on that arm was completely torn away. He was staring at the flames panting in quakes, and occasionally a tear drop would slide down his white cheek leaving a burned mark. His black hair had grown greasy and ill and many dark wrinkles ridged every bit of his skin.

Footsteps broke his silent moan and he stood up in a flash of horror. A giant shade approached trough the rock and he could only stare at it with his frightened eyes. Kain's red talons grabbed for two stalactites that bared his way, and in an instant they snapped braking like twigs. He emerging into his sight

" Good morning. "; Kain looked him sideways :" You look as if you've seen a ghost. "

The vampire before him backed away and shut his eyes :

" Stay back !"; he shouted :" If you come closer, I'll kill my self !"

" What a stupid treat. "; Kain said to him self and started approaching :" You must have sensed our arrival, Tarian. You first of all. "

A dash of fire embraced Tarian's fists. The chain that was hanging from his bare right arm got red with the heat :

" You want me to believe that ! I won't ! You aren't Kain !"

Kain glared at him annoyed :

" Than who ?"

Tarian laughed in his cry as his fists grew glowing white like melting iron :

" … Adella… Curse you, cursed Adella… "

Kain grew angry. The next moment he hurled him at the stone wall making a large crack on it. Tarian's flames went out but he wasn't hurt. It wasn't Kain's intention to hurt him. Before he could get up, Kain grabbed his throat and razed him in front of him self. He didn't know what Tarian was rambling about, but he was going to shake the answers out of him if he had to :

" Look at my wings, Tarian ! Would Adella include that in her illusion ?"

Tarian peeked :

" Not Tarian… Tarian was torn apart… I am Sian, the lord of flies… "

He laughed with pain and grief even though Kain's squeeze chocked his laughter.

" You disgraceful fool !"; Kain uttered :" The world has almost sunk into a pit of oblivion and you sit here alone, feeling sorry for your self !"

" You are right… "; Tarian whispered :"… you should sit with me and we'll do it together… "; he laughed again but this time the laughter was cut off as Kain tightened his squeeze.

As he opened his eyes he was in the air. Kain was carrying him by the hand as he was flying trough the greenish air. Huge brown wings, stretched on white thorny bones, bounced the air pass them as he flapped graciously. The earth couldn't be seen trough the green mist but he knew they were high. The soul reaver blazed on Kain's back between his flapping wings and when Tarian looked up its light made Kain seem like he had a halo.

" What are you doing ?"; he shouted and lunched his burning fist at him :" Leave me alone !"

Kain simply grabbed his blazing hand and held him closer to his face :

" Gladly. "

And the next moment he was out of his grasp. Kain was gone and Tarian was just falling down. For a long time he hesitated, but as the earth drew near he extended his arms and started to glide down the rest of the way. Suddenly four long shades surrounded him and mighty steps echoed the silent land. Giant mechanical warriors stepped forth around him each in read and blue metal and a huge crystal on a forehead. Tarian laughed like insane and fell to his knees before them, not bowing but faltering. As soon as he hit the earth, the first giant robot got his head sliced off. The other three tried to fight, but a black shade with a beak of blazing steel butchered them mercilessly. Tarian had to cover his ears before they all fell in an exploding rumble. The next moment passed slow, and once the dust settled Kain presented four corpses of the abomination pilots dragged on the ground before him.

" Taste the truth. "; Kain said strongly

Tarian was starving probably for a long time now. In an instant he forgot about anything that is or was. The blood was the only thing that whispered now. Ignoring the repugnant form of the creatures, he thirstily drained them dry, all four and than screamed so loud that the wind begun to rise again. Blood haze could not be faked. It was the one sensation a vampire could always recognize. Tarian's scream faded and he glanced back at Kain in a sick manner :

" It… is you. "

Kain didn't answer. His wings closed behind him. He was just staring at him patiently, expecting answers.

" You… "; Tarian started :" You… you… You twisted bastard ! Why ? Why me ?"; he tried to hit him, but Kain jumped backwards on the chest of the broken giant robot. Tarian fell to his knees :" Why of all the drunks in all the slums did you have to give me your curse !"

Kain razed his sight towards the east and begun his recollecting. A smile of satisfaction briefly passed over his lips :

" You were intriguing. "

Tarian fell to his knees :

" Why couldn't you just leave me to die… "; he sobbed :" … instead of THIS !"

As he razed his sight, Kain was before him again :

" We saw strength in you. "; he said seriously :" Great will was withering with failures. What was given to you that night was not a dark gift but a second chance, a path that led you to become the strongest of the three. "

" And look where it brought me eventually !"; he glared at him with his lips withdrawn :" I'm less of a being that I was back then. A fine recipient I proved to be and a real responsible one too. Gaze on my triumph, father and be proud ! I doubt that even you ever caused such disaster !"

" Where did the blame really fall, Tarian ?"; Kain asked lightly

" Don't call me Tarian !"; his son yelled :" Tarian died along with her ! I am Sian !"

Kain's impatience gave birth to a most disapproving roar that silenced everything else. Tarian was grabbed in a field of his telekinesis and he pressed him hard on the metal shoulder of a giant warrior :

" By what right do you dare to rename your self ?"; Kain shouted

" By… the words that still bind me… 'two parts of a single whole and one can not dwell without the other'… "

Kain loosened his grip. These were the words of the ritual that married Tarian and Adella. One couldn't dwell without the other. But Adella was still alive. He was sensing her and Jasmine hidden somewhere. Impatience was nagging in the back of Kain's mind, but he pushed it away. He released the strands of his magic and newly named Suan continued :

" Tarian perished along with Adella, my father. Sian is all you have left. "

" It will do. "

" Will it ?"; he smirked :" Will it really, or are you just too disgusted to say it ? I have no more use and no purpose. Kill me, father and wash my failure with my blood. "

Kain approached slowly with a line of sympathy stretching trough some corner of his undead heart. For a while he hesitated and than he whispered :

" It would be so easy, wouldn't it ?"; he asked :" To simply die and leave it all behind. "

" That's the best use you'll have from me… "; he smiled drunk with grief and his knees faltered.

" Selfish child. "; Kain grudged :" You think your pain is grater ?"; he approached with his cold eyes cutting trough everything :" You thinks your burdens are heavier ? How many times do you think Raziel came close to stab trough Kain's chest ? How many times do you think we prayed for an end ?"; he grabbed his shoulders and razed him at his feet :" You think your scars run deeper than ours ?"

" You… are… "

" Insane !"; Kain yelled and made a few steps backwards like he wanted to display it :" More than you can ever hope to become ! And now, here we are, two insane vampires and a sword of hope ! What will we do ?"; he turned and looked back at him over his shoulder and his folded wing :" What would you do with hope ?"

Sian remained confused for a while. He dropped his eyes on the dead ground. Not even worms coiled within it any more. All was dead. He giggled sourly. It soon grew into a laughter :

" Well, I already have nothing left to loose. Make your effort if you will, and I may as well die along the way. "


There was no need to fly the rest of the way, and there was much need to speak so the father and the son continued on foot sloping towards the allegedly abandoned caves of Stahlberg. Their path led them to an old stone shaft, drilled long like a deep canyon for the purposes of construction material. It was a quarry. Silence dominated the hollow howl, stirred by nothing but a few pebbles that would roll down before their passing. The slope was steep and rocky, virtually inaccessible but not for a vampire. Canyon's sides were completely showered with bare gravel and chunks of stone. It was so unstable it could start a land slide if one wasn't careful. As they descended in this gorge, Sian, as he was calling him self now, was telling his sire about the horrible faith that now lingered upon Nosgoth :

" For a time everything was well. "; Sian told him :" We had a lasting peace with the humans, we both progressed, evolved,… Our number grew slowly, but we didn't ask for more. We had everything we wanted and the humans did too. "; he grudged bitterly :" Than they came. Kreedans they are named and they exist only for conquer. Their technology was somewhat more advanced… their magic was strong and cruel as their hearts. There were too many humans and too few vampires… only two hundred. But we bounced them back. We thought it was over… but their defeat only strengthened their intent to invade us. It seams that their leader, a powerful witch Jordana, personally took over their next attack. We were caught unprepared, unprepared for what she had unleashed upon us. It was a creature, most of all… The beast Chron. He and their soldiers swept over us. "

" The oldest trick in the book. "; Kain muttered :" What you defeated was a testing force. Their real attack came after they evaluated you. "

" We fought as well as we could, "; Sian continued :" but there was no point. The human leaders sounded a general retreat and it all fell apart. After that we tried to cope, to organize, but the Kreedans were gaining foot too fast. They struck the humans first and cut them off, and we had to flee east, but they were catching up… Adella, Jasmine and I agreed to give our lives and buy time for our children to escape. We did so. The ground was floating with Kreeden blood before we were beaten, but still they captured us… I remember dungeons and torture and silence. I was alone with no whisper or answer. They somehow bind our dark gifts and held us in torments until we would brake…until we would serve… I think Adella somehow fooled them. I can only guess that she convinced them in her loyalty. She came to my cell and set me free. I was weak and ill, starved and hurt, but still seeing her alive gave me strength. She gave me the instructions how to escape alone while she frees Jasmine…"; he started shacking :" I… I tried to convince her that she'll need my help, but she said I was too week. She… she… I let her go. By the time I made my way out… They caught them again, and I could only flee. "

" It was the right thing to do. "; Kain gazed at him

" Than why… why does it hunts me… every single moment since !"

Sian roared and unleashed a bright wall of heat that went into the mountain side. The next moment they both had to jump and fly up not to get washed away with a landslide that went away. A rumbling river of smoking rock passed in an instant and it was safe again to stand. They landed down and continued sloping silently. Kain made no comment on Sian's outburst. He just led him on slowly down without a word. Sian swallowed and resumed his tale :

" They took them both… and tortured them sadistically… they tortured them until they swore to loyalty… Then they tortured them again until they were sure it was truth… until they went insane… Finally they placed what was left of them to some kind of a machine of spinning mirrors, and what came out… Adella and Jasmine killed what was left of the houses and they killed them with a smile. I tried to save them… I tried… but I couldn't go against them. I just couldn't fight them… "

" We can. "; Kain replied with malignant tone

Sian stopped :

" Killing them now would be a blessing for all. But when you speak of it, you speak as if you don't care. Tell me, father, will their deaths mean anything to you ? Will mine ?"

Kain turned to him with an empty face :

" We shall love you while you are alive. "

" And afterwards ?"

Kain looked away for a moment somewhere towards the eastern edge of the quarry :

" We have witnessed mountains rise and fall, and those both good and evil fight and die. Many of them we have forgotten and many will yet be forgotten. In the end, it comes down to a simple truth ; none of us meters. Not you or Kain or Raziel. Not any one. The only thing that meters is Nosgoth. "

" Nosgoth is made of those that give their life for it "; Sian said :" as well as of wind, earth, fire and water ! You can't save this world without caring for its people too !"

" Not for those who are dead. "; Kain said stubbornly

" And what are we, if not dead !"; Sian protested :" What are Adella and Jasmine, if not lost ?"

" You… can not see the forest from the trees. "; Kain spoke annoyed

" And you can not see trees from the forest. You don't care of anyone's faith, save your precious Raziel !"

In an instant Kain blast him away with his telekinetic bolt and slammed him to the ground :

" If you were any other creature…"; Kain growled trough his teeth :" … we would obliterate you. "; Sian picked him self up and Kain at once seemed to be confused somehow. Finally he sighed, actually ashamed :" Forgive us… forgive me. Temper is not my defining attribute. "; Sian cleared the sand off his torn filthy coat, and Kain approached him, asking:" Have you seen war ?"

" I have !"

" And how did you deal with what you saw ?"

" I mourned !... At least I had the heart to honor the fallen !"

Kain stepped closer to him and placed his palm on his own chest :

" This heart envies you for that. "; Sian was grudging but he razed his sight to him :" When you die, my son, we'll burry you along with your murderers, pass the dark gift on, and love those after you as much as we love you. "

" Than… you can expect the same from me. "; Sian gave him a cold stare

" We pray for nothing else. "; Kain smiled at him warmly :" A moment is short, Sian. In a blink of an eye the whole world can change. Cry for the inevitable while you can, while you have the heart… and be proud of it as much as we are proud of you. "

Sian sighed still sulking but he knew all too well that Kain's fuse was short. Besides this world was enough to make anyone stemming with rage. The way he managed to keep his cool thus far was impressive, even if it was connected to Kain's heartlessness. In the end it might have bean Sian's own anger and bitterness that made him attack his sire's judgment, or maybe he was trying to change him, or prove that he him self was old now. Old enough to lecture him.

" You can't teach old dog new tricks. "; Sian said with a smile

Kain just frown a little holding his smile back.


Lazaruss : Ok. This was the basics for all of you. In the next chapter things will get more interesting. The idea for this actually came from Ayla Curtis and her Beyond the Edge. Give her a round of applause, come on ! Yeah ! Put those hands together ! That was Ayla Curtis, ladies and gentlemen !