Kain impatiently paced across the glass floors of the Chronoplast. Centuries ago, both by his own perspective and a truly chronological one, he had been fascinated by the brass machinery under his feet, lining the walls, and hanging above his head. Now, it was only a means to an end.
He had hoped that Raziel would come straight for him, but apparently his brothers' destinies to die by his hand were too strong for him to resist, though Raziel didn't have a reason to resist that urge. Kain felt each of his children dying. As Dumah died, Kain manipulated the Chronoplast to send Turel far away. Perhaps it was possible for one to be spared, though Kain still hoped that Raziel wouldn't meet his fate.
Finally, Kain sensed Raziel's coming and hid to collect himself. Kain never liked to show weakness. When Raziel strode through the double doors, Kain emerged from behind a support. "At last. I must say, I'm disappointed in your progress. I imagined you would be here sooner. Tell me, did it trouble you to murder your brothers?"
Raziel didn't falter this time. "Did it trouble you when you ordered me into the abyss?"
"No." Kain's throat tightened as he forced out the necessary lie. "I had faith in you. In your ability to hate. In your self-righteous indignation."
"Lies. You cannot have foreseen all of this."
Kain chuckled to cover his anxiety. Yes he was lying, but Raziel had guessed wrongly about the truth. Kain knew he couldn't falter now because if he did it would mean disaster for them both and the entire world. "Eternity is relentless, Raziel.
When I first stole into this chamber, centuries ago, I did not fathom the true power of knowledge. To know the future, Raziel... to see its paths and streams tracing out into the infinite... As a man, I could never have contained such forbidden truths... But each of us is so much more than we once were... Gazing out across the planes of possibility, do you not feel with all your soul how we have become like gods? And as such, are we not indivisible? As long as a single one of us stands, we are legion... That is why, when I must sacrifice my children to the void, I can do so with a clear heart..."
He'd practiced this speech enough that he almost believed it himself. Most of it was true, in a way. A single vampire could save the world, though he regretted that any of his children had to pay the price. He confidently reset the dials to the Chronoplast as he said it, having previously set them for a backup plan that would have gone into play if Raziel had been just that much more eager to kill him.
"Very poetic, Kain, but in the end you offer no more than a convenient rationalization for your crimes."
Kain paused, wondering if Raziel was right. "These chambers offer insight for those patient enough to look. In your haste to find me, perhaps you have not gazed deeply enough. Our futures are predestined. Moebius foretold mine over a millennium ago. We each play out the parts fate has written for us. We are compelled ineluctably down pre-ordained paths. Free will is an illusion."
"I have been to the Tomb of Sarafan, Kain. Your dirty secret is exposed. How could you transform a Sarafan priest into a vampire?" Raziel voice broke as he lost his temper and lunged.
Kain caught Raziel, by the throat, grimacing as he felt the lack of a jaw. Kain had anticipated one of his children would discover that. He hadn't expected it to take this long. "How could I not? One must keep his friends close, Raziel, and his enemies even closer." Kain roughly threw him to the ground. "Can you grasp the absurd beauty of the paradox? We are the same, Sarafan and vampire. With our holy wars, our obsession with Nosgoth's domination... Who better to serve me than those whose passion transcends all notions of good and evil?"
"I will not applaud your clever blasphemy. The Sarafan were saviors, defending Nosgoth from the corruption that we represent. My eyes are opened, Kain. I find no nobility in the unlife you rudely forced on my unwilling corpse." Raziel shouted again and lunged harder.
Kain grabbed Raziel by the talons this time. "You may have uncovered your past, but you know nothing of it. You think the Sarafan were noble, altruistic?" Kain threw his child harder, sending him across the room. "Don't be simple. Their agenda was the same as ours."
Raziel painfully crawled to his feet. "You are lost in a maze of moral relativism, Kain. These apparitions and portents... what game are you playing now?"
"Destiny is a game, is it not? And now you await my latest move..." Kain teleported himself to the threshold of the portal that would send both he and his child into the past. "You nearly had me, Raziel. But this is not where, or how, it ends. Fate promises more twists before this drama unfolds completely." With that, Kain stepped through the portal, where there was hope to change their destinies.
