Human Citadel had seen lots of fighting during its entire existence, but not the kind of siege it was having now. Vampires on wings flew above and around the Citadel, harrying it's defenders who desperately fired arrows at them. This was the first time Razielim vampires were engaged in aerial attack, since their wing bearing numbers had increased to the point where Raziel deemed they could be unleashed on Nosgoth. Humans had thought their Citadel to be impregnable against any kind of vampire incursion, so it was undoubtable that they were shocked to see vampires with wings attacking them. It was at the moment, the only avenue the human architects hadn't counted on when they were building the city's defence's.

But that element of surprise wouldn't help Razielim in the long run though, anytime soon humans would adapt to it and be more prepared for future attacks from sky. Raziel was merely intrigued of this, it would challenge the humans to create proper countermeasures and would also test his children's resolve to overcome them. Unlife certainly wasn't boring right now. All this thanks to their individual evolution which constantly seemed to create new ideas to explore, with no end in sight.

As more of the vampires evolved with their clan leader's ability, humans were challenged, it intrigued everybody to see how they would deal with it. Humans had survived with admirable resilience so far, it would be very disappointing to vampires if humans would give up in the face of such opposition now.

Raziel observed the performance of his children from a nearby mountaintop, smiling approvingly. So far no casualties had occurred, few hits yes, but nothing that had been fatal. And if a direct hit came, it hardly killed the vampire, merely caused to make forced landing, as long as it didn't occur right above the citadel. Raziel had warned his children not take foolish risks, just slowly and patiently test their skills in attacking from above.

Then Raziel heard scraping sound behind him which diverted his attention from the battle, peeking over his shoulder, he saw Zephon climbing towards him along the cliff-side which would normally be unclimbable to anyone else. Raziel turned his attention back to the battle.

Zephon felt irritated that Raziel didn't pay any attention to his climbing effort, instead focusing on his precious flying children. Someday Raziel would have to acknowledge his superior skill in climbing, Zephon almost harbored thought of ripping Raziel's wings off for that joy, not caring about the consequences.

Instead of attempting his treacherous act, Zephon asked, "My children could have done that much more quietly and efficiently, why do you persist your winged offspring were better for the task? Let alone that our broods could have made a coordinated attack for greater result?"

Before Raziel was able to reply, the air shimmered between them and Kain appeared there. Both Raziel and Zephon bowed quickly in unison and then stood up.

"Because, Zephon, it's never wise to reveal all your cards to the enemy. If humans learned of both flying and wall climbing vampires at same time, they will double their efforts to stop both intrusions and anything they come up, would repel both attacks, not just one. Besides, the number of your climb cababable children isn't very numerous yet, more is needed before they become efficient."

Despite Kain saying that, Zephon felt like protesting, even knowing it was futile to argue with Kain. His word was final in all matters.

"Zephon, Master means that your forces should be kept as a secret weapon until really needed. Turel's and Dumah's children are considered our powered up main battle force. Rahab's children are not much for anything else that scouting in watery regions. And unfortunately Melchiach's children's ability only surfaces in areas where the ground is soft, in this case his Clan territory. Mountain regions and such hinder their burrowing ability." Raziel said.

Zephon remained quiet, he clearly was thinking it thoroughly. Kain just remained passive.

"And as you can see, my trump card is used now." Raziel said, pointing towards the human Citadel.

Zephon thought a moment more, then finally, a faint cunning smile surfaced.

"I see what you mean now. Humans do have more bases around here than just their city, like the cathedrals. And should they, which they will, reinforce those places against your flying forces, then things will not be so easy for them. Whereas I and my climbing children can sneak up on them unexpectedly." Zephon couldn't contain his smile.

"Precisely." Kain said.

Zephon graciously bowed to both Kain and Raziel, then began climbing back down. After Raziel was sure Zephon was well away, he asked Kain, "I could have shown him his place for questioning my attack plans, why did you intervene master?"

Kain looked slowly at Raziel before answering. "Because I intend to keep us united in this evolution cycle, which means I won't tolerate your typical bickering same way like in past. Leading your newly empowered children will be much more demanding than before, since you know what you can and can't do with your Gift. That's why you will learn to coordinate each others weaknesses and use them against humans."

Raziel was puzzled for a moment, Kain was serious about Clans working together to overcome opposition. Raziel found it strange but more he thought about it, more it made sense. Although flying seemed the most superior Gift of all, it had it's drawback. Flying person was more detectable, unlike one who climbed the wall unnoticed or swam along the moat of a castle or some other structure.

"I see it now master, forgive me for speaking hastily. Benefits are plentiful if we overcome our habit to pick each other."

"I figured as much, Raziel." Kain allowed a faint smile to show on his face briefly.

"Now, call off your children, they have harried humans long enough and gained experience in attacking from air. Let humans have a breather from this new and unexpected attack." Kain said wryly.

Raziel closed his eyes and sended a mental command to his children, ordering to withdraw back to Clan Hold.

"There will be many opportunities to test your Clan's prowess, especially when you do it in conjuction with Turel's and Dumah's clans," Kain said.

Raziel bowed to Kain and then took flight, heading back to his Clan Hold to praise his children. Kain watched him go and then moments later teleported away.

Several years passed, during that time humans increased their resistance considerably, despite the flying threat. The entire network of human cities, villages and cathedrals were employed to this end. Since only Raziel's, Turel's and Dumah's forces were in active use, striking back efficiently wasn't an option, despite majority of their children having received their Gift. Zephon's forces were told to lay back, Rahab's couldn't operate anywhere except in water so were mostly relegated to scouting and spying in watery areas with human habitation, and only at night.

Melchiah's forces were being rather useless outside their territory, defense was their only good point which Raziel found good because humans tried pushing into his territory through a small mountain path which wasn't very forgiving for humans to traverse. This was good because it prevented greater numbers from scaling it, but occasional single patrols were able to come through. But Melchiah's territory was between Raziel's and the area leading to the narrow path. So Melchiah's forces served the purpose of keeping humans from attacking Raziel's Clan area, which left Raziel in peace to concentrate on attacks, instead being forced to divide forces to security matters outside his area.

Rahab was frustrated of his limitation currently, it hampered now more than his Gift alleviated it. He needed to find a better place to himself and his children in order to be more efficient. But nowhere near there was a suitable place which would offer both protection and plenty of water where to thrive. There was either one or the other available, but not both.

Only place with enough water to satisfy his whole Clan was far to the south, as observed by Raziel's scouts. It was perfect spot otherwise, except there was a human abbey right next to it causing attacks on the outer borders of the empire. Ideally that abbey would suit perfectly as a base, converting humans place of holy into a vampire base felt sweet, despite preferring a regular fortress. But there really wasn't any time to build more proper base at times like these, so it would have to do as it is.

As Rahab stared the map, he was suddenly struck by an idea. Studying the layout of the valley the abbey was located in, he noticed it would form a perfectly contained area if it were filled with water. As to where to get enough water to fill it, lay right next to the valley. If waters on the mountain lake above could be directed towards the valley, it would flood the valley full enough to cover it almost totally, most importantly the abbey would be submerged. It would be an ideal new Clan Hold then. Also it would make possible for Rahabim to take care of its human occupants with ease since watery attack wouldn't be on the list the humans could defend against, and especially what would flood in with it. Rahab laughed triumphantly, the concept held two things in nice little package. A new home with favoring element around and removal of pesky human resistance.

Kain observed Rahab and his children while they operated under the cover of night to protect them against the sun. They toiled to create a flow for the water to stream down into the valley. Once all the necessary setups were ready, Rahab blasted a certain portion of the cliff edge away. Result was a gigantic waterfall which rushed down into the valley with incredible speed. The humans wouldn't realize what happened before it was too late. Many would perish in the flood and those who didn't, would meet their end in the form of new vampire menace from water, the very element which normally burns away vampiric flesh.

The water level didn't fill the whole valley as Rahab had predicted, at least half of the abbey remained above water. Apparently there were some underground cracks and caves which had now turned into flood channels, most of them being the pathways humans used to exit and enter this area. Still, water level was lower than it should've been. On the bright side, the water from the mountains above continued to stream into the valley, although much slower now, creating a small waterfall. All in all, it helped to stabilize the water permanently into the valley. With a twist of irony, Rahab named the place "Drowned Abbey."

His children wasted no time in taking over the place, they jumped in wild frenzy into the water, moving with greater speed in water than land. They quickly entered Abbey through windows and doorways which the flood had opened. It didn't take long for the first screams to start. It was over in about half an hour.

Rahab smiled and prepared to join his children to gaze their new home, he noticed that sun was starting rise so it was high time to leave, he didn't want to feel being burned by the sun ever again. Kain nodded to him and teleported away. Rahab jumped down, forever abandoning the dry land. Some of his children greeted their master to their new home while others were still searching the place for any remaining humans who might've tried to hide.

Rahab was satisfied, they now had the element they were invulnerable against around them, and with proctection against the hated sun in middle of it. There was no better base a water loving vampire could ask.

Sometime later as Raziel was studying the recently updated map of the Empire, his personal servant, a human woman in her mid 20's, approached him. She waited carefully, not wanting to disturb the Clan Leader.

Few breaths later, Raziel placed the map on the table in front of his throne and turned his head toward the servant. "Yes, Alora, what is it?"

Alora took a deep breath to compose herself. "Master, the cellar is…" she hesitated, fearing master wouldn't like the news.

"Out with it, Alora! You know very well I don't punish you or any other human here unless they deserve it, especially not without a good reason."

Alora straightened and composed herself. "Master, the cellar is full of water." She held herself firm despite Raziel's reassuring words.

For a moment Raziel was taken aback. That was the only and probably last time Alora saw her master so surprised. Raziel composed himself in a blink of eye.

"Explain, full of water?There are no lakes or rivers nearby which could fill it, forget Lake of the Dead since it is several metres below us and it's water level has always remained constant."

"I can't explain it, master. The water level reaches halfway to the stairs, I can't see anything which has caused it," she explained, her tone getting panicked.

"I shall investigate, follow me," Raziel said as he rose and headed towards the door in the corner.

Moments later Raziel stood at the edge of the stairs leading to cellar. Alora spoke true, cellar was flooded like she said. Raziel walked to the edge of the water and studied the area as much as he could, but couldn't see anything that revealed the cause.

"Alora, go and find a first one of my children with wings you see and tell him or her with orders from me to fly to Rahab's abbey and ask Rahab to come here as soon as he can. I shall wait here."

Alora bowed to Raziel and then left to carry out his order. Raziel remained standing at the edge of water, deep in thought.

It took about an hour for Rahab to arrive. He stepped in with Alora. Raziel said she could go about her business. She bowed to both Raziel and Rahab and then left.

"It took a while to come, because I had to wait for sunset. Besides, I still have my hands full in my new home so I hope this is important, Raziel?"

"As you can see, brother, my cellar is flooding, I can't see how because there are no appropriate lakes and rivers nearby. I can't investigate the cause or order any of my slaves for it. Naturally you were the best choice since water is your element now. And whatever has caused this, I prefer you check it out first, instead of using one of your children."

Rahab observed the flooded cellar a moment, "It sounds interesting indeed how it could have happened, very well, I shall dive in to take a closer look."

"Thank you, I shall wait here."

Rahab walked into the water and dived into the cellar. There at first he didn't see anything out of ordinary then he saw a hole in the western wall near the ceiling which hadn't been there when he had last time seen this room. Rahab went through it and found himself swimming in a twisting tunnel covered with bricks which later opened into a large chamber. The chamber had marks of human hand, several alcoves dotted the walls. The chamber seemed to be part of Raziel's Hold but why the entrance had been covered? Scanning the chamber, Rahab spotted a small opening in the bottom of the room. The small cave passage was narrow and walls were more rough-hewn. Heading further he came into a smaller, cylinder shaped chamber with another passage in the bottom. The room and the passage were once again brick covered, and this time there were stairs in the passage. Rahab followed the downwards spiraling passage which ended on a small opening. As he swam from the tunnel, he realized he was in the cellar of the Drowned Abbey, with stairs to main chapel just next to him.

Many ideas and possibilities came to Rahab then, considering the tunnel led all the way to Raziel's Clan territory. He also realized why his children hadn't discovered the tunnel yet, they hadn't bothered to explore the cellar at this point because there was more to be done in the dry areas of the abbey. Happy with this revelation, Rahab began swimming back to Raziel.

"All the way into Drowned Abbey?!" Raziel exclaimed. This revelation suddenly explained a dormant mystery to him. Rahab simply nodded in confirmation.

"This finally answers the question of what happened to the human defenders of this fortress. As you know, when my children were finally numerous enough, I took over this human outpost to remove their threat so close to Sanctuary. Humans gave us a hard fight but we pressed on. We engaged in a fierce and bloody fight at the courtyard. Once all human warriors were defeated, we streamed throught the fortress, seeking out remaining humans. But what puzzled us was that other than the defenders at the entrance, there were no sign of any other human life, neither warriors nor servants. Like they had just vanished into thin air.

Whole fortress was searched from top to bottom but no sign was found of how they had disappeared. For a long time we held patrols inside just in case the humans were hiding in some secret room or chamber which we had somehow missed. They could not have all left through the back entrance so soon, we would have caught them. But nothing happened, no humans emerged from secret rooms, if there even were any we thought back then, or came later to try retake their fortress. Everything has been secure here ever since."

"The flood which I used to take over the Abbey in the south, also accidentally revealed the secret tunnel the humans had used to retreat there. It must have been hidden well for none of you to discover it, they must have used some sort of magical concealment. But it didn't prevent water from revealing it. Very ingenious from them, I must admit." Rahab said.

"I agree, why they didn't use it to try take this place back puzzles me. They must have thought the place to be a lost cause and not waste any manpower for retaking.

But now, I have a flooded cellar as a result and no means to effectively drain it. Cellar wasn't an important part of my Hold but still, it bothers me slightly."

"It is not necessarily such a bad thing after all, brother." Raziel turned towards Rahab, interested to know what good there was about it.

"That passage allows a nice bypass route for my children, instead of being forced to navigate through various rivers and such before getting here and back. Also because the passage is entirely underground, they will not be hampered by human patrols scouting waterways and by sunlight in shallow spots. Works day and night. I could not have come up with a better way for transportation myself. Saves lots of time between traveling and scouting."

Raziel was silent for a moment. Rahab thought if Raziel would refuse, he was ready to proclaim him as the most vain and idiotic vampire ever to have existed.

"I agree, Rahab, couldn't have said it better myself. This benefits all of us, in many ways. Even my children won't need to fly to you anymore and risk the arrows of humans when flying over the mountains. Most of all, humans will be puzzled because of your children's almost total disappearance from surface, yet they will be seen moving occasionally around here, without any idea how they have bypassed their carefully placed guards."

Rahab couldn't help but smile. Raziel agreed with him better than he had thought, he would have made a fine second-in-command had he been born as a Rahabim.

"I recommend you post an envoy or two here to make deliveries or message relays much faster." Raziel said.

"Gladly, I shall now use this passage to return my new home and start making preparations. You will see my envoys here within a day."

"I look forward to it." Raziel said, then turned around and returned back to the throne room while Rahab dived and swam away.

Several years passed and the war between humans and vampires reached an stalemate of sort. On vampire's part this came with the acquisition of Drowned Abbey and the underwater passage between Abbey and Raziel's Clan territory. Humans were unable to reclaim their lost areas so they concentrated on defending what they still held. They also couldn't take over any new places from vampires or achieve any significant victory against them. For a while, humans had ceased all major attacks, concentrating only on small skirmishes around the Empire. All Clans took it as a good sign of humans getting weaker and trying to save their strength. Only Kain wasn't convinced, he was certain this was only a sign of humans concentrating their efforts to something else, making the regularly orchestrated attacks secondary. He ordered all the vampires do the same, concentrate mostly on finding out what the humans were planning, causing random disturbance along the way in human settlements to keep them fooled that vampires are doing things as before.

It didn't take long to find out what had drawn humans attention elsewhere. One of Rahab's children arrived one day to Raziel's Hold to deliver urgent news. Hearing that, Raziel immediately took air and flew straight to Sanctuary of the Clans where Kain was waiting.

Raziel landed directly in front of Kain and kneeled promptly, then stood up.

"Master, one of Rahab's children has learned the reason for the recent withdrawal of humans. The scout heard this from humans talking aboard a ship approaching the Cathedral of Sound, as we call it, not far from the Sanctuary. These ships have been approaching and leaving the Cathedral only at daytime to avoid detection because they know most vampires can't approach the area due the heavy sunshine there. The scout avoided burning death by staying in the shadow side of the ship to be able to hear the humans speaking.

He heard that humans have been modifying the Cathedral, additional components such as pipes and steam regulators are being installed in there. Their purpose is to enhance and amplify the sound which the Cathedral normally produces, creating a sound so loud and powerful that it can be heard everywhere in the Empire and is capable of killing all vampires in one swift stroke."

Kain was silent, absorbing the news. The recent irregularities with the Cathedral's sounds should have been indication enough. Normally they were either on stable level which stunned any vampires nearby, or remained silent. Recently it had been mainly silent, occasionally producing sounds with different frequencies for few moments.

"Raziel, since the frontal assault against the Cathedral is out of question, you must now gather all your children capable of flying and take over the Cathedral before humans finish the sound amplification. Failure is not an option!"

Raziel bowed and immediately flew back to his Clan to prepare for battle. He would wait until night before commencing attack since human eyesight was noticeably weaker then. They would not see anything until his forces had reached the walls of the Cathedral. Raziel would lead the attack himself this time, there was no room for errors.

Raziel flew ahead of his children, scouting the terrain for anything unusual. So far their approach had gone unnoticed. He hadn't seen any patrols on the ground or on mountains. He felt confident this would be an easy victory. The Cathedral was heavily fortified against ground assault, it would be suicide to even try. But attack from air was a different matter altogether. It would be easy to access the Cathedral from the top or from one of the windows large enough to accommodate a winged vampire. Then the scouring of the hated voice inducing Cathedral would begin.

Cathedral was in range. Lights emanated from windows and the sound of humans working was audible enough. Raziel remained hovering in place, while indicating his children to attack. They flew past him swiftly and silently.

Splitting in two groups, one heading to top and other seeking access from windows. Both groups got to about halfway to their objectives when the clank of arrows echoed through the air. Before anyone managed to retaliate, several Razielim took direct hits from vampire hunters which had been in hiding at the top and gazing out from windows which had remained dark, probably under some magical concealment. Many fell down to the ground, only few managed to remain in flight, most of the fallen only touched ground and suffered few broken bones along with the damage from arrow but two fell directly into the moat where they dissolved almost immediately.

Raziel couldn't believe his eyes, somehow the humans were able to see them clearly. Normally humans weren't capable of shooting so far without the aid of light. Raziel flew as close as he dared and studied the human archers. After quick and careful observation, he concluded that all the archers wore helmets unlike anything he had ever seen on humans before. Only explanation to that was those helmets allowed humans to see in the dark much better than normally, which meant Raziel might have as well attacked at daylight.

Realizing the futility of continued attack, he ordered all Razielim back to the Clan Hold and fetch all those on the ground still alive. Once vampires were on retreat, humans stopped firing. Battle was lost before it had even began.