Naturally I went to the stables anyway. My lord's favourite hunter was gone; he had gone somewhere and given the horse he had taken, I could assume at some speed. But what was I to make of his note? My lord had gone away in the past and left the running of the sanctuary to Raziel, but never at such short notice and, I realised now, never without so much as a nod to me. It was odd, but I would, of course, obey him. Though my obedience did not stretch to returning without some answers. The stable master told me that two Melchium vampires had arrived in the evening and my lord had left shortly after with them. I made a note to ask Melchiah if he knew what was going on, but if there were a problem in his lands Melchiah would not have come to council, and would have asked for more direct help than having my lord sneak out during a celebration.
I returned to the Razielim quarters, hoping that at least one of us had slept in a bed that was our own the night before. I did not fancy traipsing all over the sanctuary trying to find my brother. Thankfully he was there, sitting in bed, awake, alone and surprised to see me.
"My lord is gone," I said, without preamble, sitting on the edge of his bed.
The book he was reading was set aside as he asked, in surprise, "so close to counsel?Are we to delay it?"
"I don't think he's coming back any time soon. I think we're supposed to go on without him."
Raziel nodded as though it meant little to him one way or the other, "where has he gone?" When I shrugged he looked as though I had visibly slapped him, "you don't know?" His surprise was obvious. I doubted either of us could recall a time my lord had left without telling at least one of us where he could be reached. "Well counsel is going to be fun," he said, pushing back the covers and disappearing into his dressing room. "I'll see you in the throne room," he called and I could not hold back my smirk; I was dismissed.
As I left his chambers I bumped into, of all people, his delightful first born, no doubt waiting an audience with his master. My lord momentarily forgotten I found myself beaming at him, only to falter when I was met with a cold, "good morning." He moved to pass me, but I before I realised I had done it I had stepped to block him.
"I seem to remember you being distinctly friendlier last night."
He shrugged, "There's something about waking up in an empty bed I find distasteful, though I hope I was an entertaining diversion," he added, "my lady," and gave an exaggerated bow. I do believe if he thought for one moment he could have gotten away with it he would have struck me. Instead he snarled and made to step past me. For a moment I was stunned, I hadn't expected him to be upset that I wasn't there when he woke. Actually...I hadn't thought about how he might feel at all.
"I'm sorry," I said, quickly but quietly, very aware of our proximity to Raziel's rooms, "I didn't think."
He paused and looked back at me, evidently waiting for me to continue, "you didn't think...?" he prompted.
"This is my home," I said, "this isn't a holiday for me like it is for you, I just got up and went about my business as usual. It didn't occur to me to do otherwise." I wrapped my arms around his waist, in what I hoped was an appropriate gesture, "and you were a bit more than a diversion." I leant up and kissed his cheek. I heard him sigh and when he softened, he kissed my forehead, before pulling right back from me, I was pleased to see that he, like me, wasn't about to publicise our activities to any passing servant. Not a moment too soon either for Raziel stepped out at that moment and almost walked straight into me. "Are you still here?" he frowned.
"Excuse me," I said, leaving them to their conversation. I knew what would be said, after all Raziel would have to remain at the sanctuary until my lord returned, so Azrael would be back at Razielim by the end of the day to run things there. If I thought about it, if I had not bumped into him as I had, he might have left the sanctuary rather less than impressed with me and I would have lost out on what would be centuries of companionship.
The council was a dull affair. Turel had taken his usual offence that Raziel had been left in charge while my lord was gone and without my lord himself to keep him in check he was about as annoying as he could be, even though Raziel was for Turel's proposition, as he knew my lord was.
"How long will it take you to build the extra furnaces to produce the kind of smog you're talking about?" Raziel asked.
Turel reluctantly pointed to numerous locations on the large map before us, "We already have towers here, here and here, and we are currently building here and here, it should all be completed by the end of the month. Whether they will be enough however, we won't know until after we've lit them."
Raziel nodded and turned to Zephon, "how long will it take you to build the farms for the humans?"
"They're ready," he replied, surprising us all, something which brought a smug smile to his lips, "the first crops will take some months to yield, though."
"What about supply?" Dumah asked, looking at the map with his strategist eyes, "we'll need to build better roads if we're going to transport food in such volume across Nosgoth."
Zephon's head jerked up, "you want to build roads through my territory? You want me to give you all such easy access into my lands? I do not think so brothers."
Everyone around the table erupted into protests, talking over each other until Raziel raised his hand, silence falling immediately with the gesture. "Zephon," he asked, pleasantly, "how exactly do you propose to transport the food without the roads?"
Our younger brother was quiet. I could see his insecure mind whirring, trying to find a way to reconcile the need to create a transport hub in his lands while limiting the access given to his brothers. He excused himself and went to the edge of the room where he entered a deep discussion with his first and second born. "In your own time I'm sure, my dear Zephon," Raziel called, impatiently, but Zephon did not rush. When he returned some minutes later, he seemed to have come to some kind of resolution with them, "we will improve or build the roads, but we are talking about building across the entire land, that will take some time."
Raziel nodded, "we better get started then hadn't we?"
It was the shortest council on record. My lord had obviously allowed it to go ahead for formality's sake as most of it seemed to have already been set in motion. I could not recall a council session to be convened, resolved and adjourned in the course of a single sitting.
"Should we not wait for Lord Kain's decision?" Turel asked, he hated it whenever Raziel exercised his power as first-born.
"He approves," Raziel replied lazily, "he may even return before it is all complete in which case if he objects we will still have decent roads." Even Turel laughed, the sound escaping him before he could stop it. Only Zephon remained silent. No doubt as soon as we adjourned he and his entourage would retreat into a corner, if we were lucky, the most they would do is decide on the odd act of sabotage. As they filtered out I called Melchiah back to ask him about my lord's disappearing act. Unfortunately it was obvious from the outset he had no idea what I was talking about. Though he did recall that my lord had recruited two of his clan during the campaigns but Melchiah had not seen them since nor did he know what task had been set to them. In fact he was surprised that they were still in his employ; he had assumed them dead long ago. I had hoped that our conversation would shed at least some semblance of light onto the situation, though I should have known that my lord would not have been so easy to find.
The other brothers remained on for a few days or so before they realised Kain was not coming back, and if he did, he would not thank them for waiting for him, leaving their affairs unattended for no good reason. Raziel and I watched them leave; naturally he would stay with me until Kain's return. "I'm capable of running this place on my own, you know," I reminded him as we watched Rahab disappear into the horizon. "Petitions are hardly the most taxing duty."
My brother gave a small shrug, "no doubt, but I wouldn't want you to get so terribly bored. Besides what is the point in being the eldest if I can't take charge whenever he goes on these little jaunts."
I laughed, the idea of my lord taking 'little jaunts' sounded so casual and belied any concern we had for his unexpected departure. "Besides," he added, "I've already despatched Azrael home. The last thing I would want is to crash whatever parties he has planned in my absence." He did not fail to notice that I missed the joke, though he had no idea why. To be honest, neither did I, I was surprised at how suddenly disappointed I was that I had not gotten to see Azrael before he left. I made some glib comment in response so I would not be plied with questions as to why I had suddenly gone so quiet. I could tell that he was not to be fooled, but he remained blissfully silent anyway. He left me for the throne room where he would give the necessary commands so that all knew, for the time being, Raziel was in charge.
With nothing to occupy myself with I went back to my chambers, deciding that I should probably finish one of the many volumes my lord had gifted me over the years.
Imagine my surprise to find my room carpeted in flowers. The room was an explosion of colour and the scent was positively intoxicating. Flowers of every kind adorned every conceivable space in my rooms and my face lit up, for a moment expecting to see my lord hiding behind a vase. There was a note pinned to one of the stems, with nothing on it but the crest of the Razielim. I smiled to myself and mused that Azrael should be sent home more often if this was my recompense.
I sat admiring them for a long time, though flowers in Nosgoth never did last long once picked. Reluctantly after some days I gave the orders to clear them, increasingly aware as I did so, that that would be the last time I would ever be given fresh flowers.
For the first month my lord's mysterious disappearing act had us perplexed. The second month had us approaching something akin to worry. By the third month Raziel had stopped mentioning it as if that would somehow allow us to focus on other things. By the fourth month I had started going out of my mind with worry and had dropped all pretence of pretending otherwise. I decided that if we had not heard anything soon then I would search for him while Raziel assured me that my lord would be fine, that no harm could have come to him and that we would just have to wait until he came back to find out what was going on. I knew he was right, of course, but that did nothing to put my mind at ease. Not even the more than occasional letters exchanged with his attractive first-born proved a welcome distraction. Nothing it seemed could prevent my mind entering a state of panic every time I noted my lord's constant absence.
Then, quite suddenly, something strange happened. As we entered the fifth month without him, both Raziel and I, sitting as we were in the throne room, were suddenly overcome with the most extreme feeling of despair. I sank to the ground and felt so utterly distraught. It was as though my life were ending. It lasted less than a moment but in that burst of feeling I think we felt more pain than we would encounter in a lifetime.
"What in hell was that?" Raziel snapped, visibly shaken, but angry. Annoyed at whatever that was to have reduced him so.
He helped me back to my feet, "I don't know, I've never known anything like it...do you think it was my lord?" I asked suddenly. I had no reason for thinking like that, nothing like that had ever happened to us, but I somehow knew that wherever he was my lord had felt something so utterly unthinkable that he must have lost control and in that moment we all felt it. I found myself crying bloody tears for the first time in centuries with no idea why I should be doing so. "That's it, I'm going," I said, pushing past my brother, "I don't care if I have to cross every square foot of this bloody land I'm going to find him."
Raziel didn't try to delay me, it didn't matter to him where I was, though he did point out that I had no idea where to start looking. It's a good thing my idea came to nothing, had I gone through with it, it would have taken me years to find him, assuming of course that he chose to remain stationary. In the end as I was screaming at the poor stable master to get my rider ready we heard a shout from one of the watchmen that my lord had been sighted, riding hell for leather towards the sanctuary, by a Turelim patrol. Thank the Gods for the whisper.
I ran outside and despite the threatening rain, waited impatiently to see him return. Raziel sighed loudly from within the stables, "he'll get here when he gets here, Meg, there's no need to wait for him like a lost puppy," as though he wasn't doing just that. I ignored him and after just an hour of waiting I was rewarded.
I heard him before I saw him. The sound of his hunter's hooves were unmistakable and I could tell by the sound that the horse was being ridden almost to death. Even though he rode straight past me, I glimpsed that he seemed fine. He was at least physically uninjured and looked the same as when he had left. I ran into the stables behind him, the relief that flooded through me was enough to make me need to lie down. I felt giddy and light hearted; so relieved was I to see him. The feeling was apparently less than mutual, he had dismounted before I caught up with him and was practically running through the sanctuary without so much as a glance in my direction.
"My lord!" I called, struggling, even at a brisk jog to keep up with him. He was scaring me somewhat, "my lord, what's wrong?" He ignored me, slamming his way through doors, heading for his private chambers.
"Sire?" I heard Raziel call from somewhere behind us.
"Go home Raziel!" came my lord's swift response in a voice I barely recognised. I actually felt Raziel shrink away from the venom evident in the command.
"My lord?!" I called, in little more than a gasp, I didn't know what was happening. Or what had happened. "For the love of..." I shouted, "slow down!" I reached out to grab his shoulder, but as soon as my hand touched it I felt myself being thrown back. I barely recall Raziel shouting something as I experienced what it was like to fly for a brief moment before I came into contact, rather harshly, with the wall. My last, irrational thought before a burst of pain in my head caused me to lose consciousness was that my lord had at least retained his fabled psychic powers.