"I was assured you were the best."

"My lord, I cannot do much more than this."

"I have seen you make Melchiah look almost presentable, surely you can do something more?"

"The damage is too severe, my Lord, Kain be praised I have managed to do what I have."

"A poor choice of words..."

I could hear the voices arguing around me, but through the pain I couldn't recognise them. I tried to open my eyes but the faintest glimmer of light sent through me a spasm of pain so intense, I could not suppress the groan.

"She's waking up again, knock her out will you?"

I felt a strong smelling rag press against my nose and I slept again.

My lord? What happened?

When I woke, some weeks later, the pain in my head had thankfully left me. Raziel was beside me reading something. "Morning," I said, struggling to find my voice.

"You're awake," Raziel said, the relief evident in his voice.

I pulled myself to sit up; it took a surprising effort on my part. "My lord?" I asked.

Raziel hesitated, "in his chambers. He hasn't left them since he came back...that day." I started to rise, "and he hasn't seen anyone or let anyone in since then either," he added.

I let myself fall back against the pillows, "what's wrong with him?" I was surprisingly breathless, but then I had been oblivious for some time it seemed.

"Nobody knows. Every now and then I get a message from his steward telling me he wants me gone, then asking why I haven't left yet. But I wasn't about to leave you in the state you were in and he hasn't come out yet...he's put Turel in charge," he added, his lip curling in distaste, "I will be only too happy to leave now that you're awake."

"I'm surprised you waited that long," I muttered, "I'm surprised your pride could stomach it."

I could not fail to miss the look that passed over his face, he hesitated, and when he spoke it was in a voice far softer than I was used to from my brother, "Meg, your injuries were...well they were severe. You very nearly had your skull smashed in. I had to summon the best Melchium healers but even they couldn't..." He passed me a handheld mirror, I couldn't help but notice that it was face down so for the moment I couldn't see my reflection. "You took the biggest blow to the face, Meg." I understood what he was saying and with a deep breath I flipped the mirror over quickly before I changed my mind.

Oh.

It was as bad as he said it was. I barely recognised myself. I'd obviously taken the hit on my left side, my eye was a different shape to how I remembered it, though I could still see out of it and that was something to be thankful for. My cheek was ugly and mangled, my nose looking as though it had been broken numerous times to be reset. On the plus side having one side of my face scarred and marked made the other side seem prettier. I was silent for a moment, "Well at least I'll make Melchiah look good."

I could practically see the tension leave Raziel, he had no doubt been gearing himself up for an hysterical outburst. That would come later, but for the moment I think I was too shocked that my lord had done such a thing and yet not left his chamber to ask after me. I stared at myself for a long time, feeling oddly unaffected that my looks should have changed so. I remember for one ludicrous moment worrying whether Azrael would still find me attractive.

Raziel on the other hand was rising. "I think it's time I left," he said, "He doesn't want me here. I think I have provoked him enough already." He stopped at the door for a moment, "if only we knew who those Melchium messengers were." He gave me a lazy wink and disappeared.

When Raziel had left me I found myself as angry as I'd ever been in my life. It probably wasn't the best idea to get up as quickly as I did, but I was livid, for the first time in my life with my lord, but with him locked in his rooms and apparently no way to get to him unless I wanted the other side of my face ruined, there was nobody I could take it out on.

Well...almost nobody.

I found myself, after a brief but satisfying trip to the cellars to restore my strength, marching down corridors I had never had much use for in my time at the sanctuary. The men still knew me, they stood to attention as I passed, but their gawking faces betrayed how unusual it was to find me stalking these parts. I was looking for one man in particular, unfortunately my infrequent visits, well let's be honest, I had never visited him, meant that it took me longer than I thought to actually find his chambers.

The key to my lord's domination of Nosgoth, even of his own sons, was in the detail. Not a thing happened in his empire without his knowledge. Not a vampire was made that he was not aware of, and no one was assigned a duty that he did not know about. Even my brothers sometimes wondered aloud how he could possibly know everything that occurred. It emphasised his reputation as some kind of God that he clearly had some kind of foresight that allowed him to know the placement of every person in his realm.

The less than glamorous reality of course was just good record keeping. My lord kept meticulous records during the campaigns ensuring a quick resolution to each skirmish. Now even in such an empire with no significant threats the sanctuary housed a lesser known library devoted entirely to these documents. While my brothers' children were loyal to them, my lord had spies in every court who reported to his stewards. Every time a human was turned or a vampire promoted his name found his way onto one of many lists and my lord himself could pass hours studying the lists, knowing to a man how many troops his sons commanded. I had never ventured this way, after all I had never had the need.

The man in question was a Zephonim vampire. One of Zephon's children had turned him against his will and somewhat prematurely in the assault on Avernus Cathedral. My lord had been angry that the gift was becoming so diluted and rather than watch a vampire wrestle with the implications of his own existence, gave him a position as the head of this little department. It suited his bookish nature and he had come to love the figures and tables. The fact that he was so out of the way of the other vampires was an added bonus in his eyes.

I eventually found his rooms. The man himself was sat behind a desk, surrounded by bookshelves that contained leaves upon leaves of papers. "My lady!" he exclaimed, a swift double take took in the state of my face, "it's not often we see you in these parts."

I was in no mood for preamble, my long search had not abated my anger, "I'm looking for two Melchium."

"Might I suggest Melchiah's territory?" he said with a small laugh, the smattering of human clerks around him chuckled; no doubt it was an old joke. I sighed and leaned over the desk, easily lifting the man by his throat a few inches off his seat, just to demonstrate my point. "Two Melchium," he said quickly, "allow me." I dropped him, he shook himself down but carried on, "Do you know their names?"

I shook my head, "I know Melchiah thought they were dead." The Zephonim visibly paused for a moment, but I pressed him, "I know that our lord recruited them before the campaigns, and I know that nobody seems to know who they are." I could hear the denials and excuses on his tongue before he could muster the wit to utter them, "I know you know who I'm talking about. I think they've completed whatever mission Lord Kain set them on and now they've no doubt been reassigned to some cushy part of the territories. I want to know where."

He would deny me even then. I could see him weighing up whether he should protest or not. He must have known that had he done so I would have found them, it would just have been a far more painful process...for him at least.

"As a matter of fact, Lord Kain did recently reassign two Melchium gentlemen," he said, as though he had just thought of it. He leafed through a volume beside him. I could see it was the current record of assignments. Every page was filled with names, their previous assignments and their current location. There must have been thousands of these volumes alone somewhere within this very library. He stopped at the more recent entries and read, "yes, the two of them are now serving on guard duty."

"Where?" I demanded, when he seemed to stop offering information.

He looked puzzled, his mouth opened and closed a few times before he finally said, "I'm not exactly sure."

I spun the volume around so I could read it. He pointed out the two men in question, I noticed their 'previous assignment' was an ambiguous 'services to the empire'. Their current assignment was listed as guard duty, the location simply written (in my lord's hand I noted) 'the graveyard.'

I stared at it for a moment. "The graveyard? I didn't know we still had any," I muttered. We had little respect for the human dead, I was unaware that we still had any graveyards. The Zephonim was consulting a map that hung on the wall, small pins marking out the borders so that they may be changed as daily as the borders did.

"I'm afraid I can't find it my lady and I don't know of any graveyard which requires a sentry."

"Why would a graveyard..." I broke off, suddenly, "Oh of course," I breathed, leaving the Zephonim to his books. I knew exactly which graveyard he was talking about. The only one that he would want to keep in any way hidden from the general populace. The only one that he would care enough to leave guards to kill anyone who came across it.

It was difficult to get to, even though it was attached to the sanctuary and required no travelling on my part. I headed towards the back end of the sanctuary, a rather more neglected place. Sometimes I forgot just how large my home was. There was nobody around here, human or vampire. The chambers were filled with random pieces of junk that we had accumulated and with no good use for them allowed to gather dust in the back rooms. The halls were not maintained and parts of the walls were falling away to reveal the elements beyond. I stumbled a few times and got lost on more than one occasion. But eventually I recognised the familiar nausea that came over me, even though I could not see the graveyard.

I had arrived at the Sarafan tombs that my lord had desecrated an age ago to resurrect his sons. He had never told them of their origins. I don't know why but I assumed it would have just caused more unrest among the humans and possibly even the fledglings to know that they were remade from the vampires greatest enemies. At best I thought my brothers would be disinterested. The entire tomb had been enclosed in a new structure to make it a distant part of the sanctuary, sure enough there was a recently constructed sentry post nearby and I could hear some small activity from within.

"Attention!" I shouted at the building and watched with satisfaction as the two smart Melchium officers, barely recognisable as the kin of those who now struggled to hold their flesh together, hurried out of their post and lined up in front of me. They were in full uniform, armed and with their heads bowed in suitable deference. "Very good," I heard myself complement, as though I were just putting them through their paces.

"Can we help you, m'lady?" one of them asked.

I paced, slowly, before them, "I want to know where Lord Kain went with you." They exchanged shocked glances, "Don't look to each other," I snapped, impatiently, "I know my lord went somewhere with you and I know that the two of you have landed quite the cushy option down here. What did you show him? What was your mission?"

They were silent.

"You can assume that to be an order, gentlemen," I said, angrily, but they would not answer me.

One of them spoke confidently, "with respect m'lady, we take our orders directly from Lord Kain."

I threw my hands up, exasperated, "Lord Kain is at this very moment locked in his chambers, neglecting his duties and leaving the entire land in the hands of Turel of all people! I suggest you answer me, I would not want to hurt you taking the information by force."

They both exchanged glances again. I all but felt them weighing up whether they wanted to test my theory, but my reputation was well known and they must have known that I had the power to rip a thought from their mind should I choose too. It was not something I had had to engage in often, so much so that where my lord could probe a mind without his victim noticing, I could only do it with a clumsy and ferocious skill that left the other person traumatised. It worked well during the campaigns as both a form of intelligence and torture, but I had had little use for it since.

"We don't know what it was, my lady," the other said, quickly, "you have to believe us we were never told exactly what we were looking for. Lord Kain said that it had once belonged to the time streamer of legends. We never expected to find it, it took us decades."

"Time streamer?" I asked, confused, "what has he to do with this?"

"Lord Kain said that at one time the time streamer had an abode from which he could manipulate time, we were sent to look for it."

"And you found it where?" I prompted.

They both hesitated again, but one eventually answered, "we cannot tell you that my lady. He told us not to reveal our mission to anyone..." he trailed off. I saw that they were resolved. And so I took the knowledge anyway, leaving one of them screaming on the ground while his companion attended him. Any guilt I felt was easily assuaged by the knowledge that soon I would see what had driven my lord to what I tentatively termed 'madness'. Besides, if they had told me without such persuasion then they would have suffered far more at my lord's hands. Poor fools. They were only doing their jobs. Didn't make me any less angry though.

I found my way back to the sanctuary and had my horse readied. I could picture the location of whatever it was my lord wanted to find quite clearly, but I knew that if I did not act now, then I'd forget and I don't think the watchmen could stand up to another one of my interrogations.

The ride was a revealing one. I hadn't realised that the landscape of the land could have changed so much in less than a year during which I had slept for my most recent change. But sure enough there were villages where there had been none, there were new roads, and even signposts. The borders were clearly marked and I noticed that many of the newer villages were as close to the borderlines as they could manage, no doubt filled with watchmen and soldiers. It did mean that I was soon quite lost; the apparent theme of the day. I was used to vast expanses of nothingness, I could point my horse in the direction of where I needed to be and eventually end up there. Now I had to negotiate the new roads which took me to places I had never seen before and I was obliged to ask a young human for directions. He eagerly pointed me in the direction I needed to go and he was rewarded with a smile which he seemed to appreciate even with my smashed visage.

I eventually found my way to the location I had ripped from the Melchium's mind. A remote location somewhere in the mountains, between Dumahim and Turelim. It seemed to be a cave but I recognised small markings from the pillar of time that stood in the throne room. What little I knew of Moebius came from the tales my lord had told me, and those I had read in Vorador's library. I knew he was the old guardian of time, before my lord had ended his miserable life. His treachery was the subject of legends among us, as was my lord's eventual triumph over him. I found my way inside, with some difficulty, had I not seen the image beforehand I certainly would not have found it. It looked as though some damage had been done quite recently, possibly by my lord himself, to disguise the entrance.

Inside there were corridors everywhere, it was made all the more confusing by the fact that I had no idea what this place was or why my lord had been there. I could hear a faint humming though, so without much idea of what I was doing, I headed in that direction.

There were strange panels along the walls that seemed to swirl as I stared at them. Some of them started to show me some strange things. They showed me scenes from what I could only assume was my future, though some of them could have been my past or even recent present. It was somewhat comforting to see myself in numerous panels standing beside the throne, writing letters or playing chess. My future didn't hold much variation for me at least. But then one of the panels showed me myself outside. I wouldn't have recognised the landscape as Nosgoth. The grass was ravaged, the sky was black and everything just looked...dead. If I had to guess I would have said that a fire had hit the land killing everything. I looked at it in shock wondering what could have happened to choke the land of life in such a fashion.

And then I found the source of the humming and I saw it.

I saw, in horror, what my lord had saw. One of the panels, as if on repeat, showed a scene of what was no doubt the future, though I could not imagine it ever to be so. It showed Raziel being flung into the abyss.

I wish I had never come. Over and over again it showed Raziel falling from the cliff, cast in by the hands of his brothers and hitting the waters with sickening force. I knew why my lord had run, what had caused that feeling of absolute distress: the only reason my brothers would dare to have done such a thing, was if my lord himself had commanded it.

My lord had ridden like the devil to get back to the sanctuary, to hide himself away from those terrible images. I on the other hand rode as though to my own funeral. I did not spur my horse on, content to let him wander in whatever direction took his fancy. Where my lord felt anguish, I felt numb. He had no doubt knew of the time streaming chamber and wanted to see how the empire panned out. My mind was racing through possible scenarios, how could Raziel possibly come to such an end? I simply could not grasp what could have happened. What could loyal Raziel have done to have warranted punishment or worse, why could my lord not have forgiven him? My lord had executed many, many traitors in the abyss, I remembered him having to pass sentence on a Turelim who had been particularly useful in the campaigns but had had a surprising change of heart and faced his watery punishment accordingly. My lord had been puzzled throughout the ordeal, it was the first time we had executed a vampire and for what? But he had also been shocked, shocked that one of his own could turn at him and I think somewhere in that largely unfeeling soul of his he was hurt.

Doing such a thing to Raziel would surely destroy them both.

I let my horse carry me away. Eventually I found myself drifting back into the village that I'd passed through on my way to the time streaming chambers. Not that I noticed at the time. At the time I didn't notice anything, not where I was or where I was going. I was so numb I didn't want to think anymore.

The young man who directed me greeted me, but noticed that I was clearly in distress. He took the horse and led me back to the sanctuary. I barely noticed until he nudged me, "My lady, we're at the sanctuary."

I glanced around me, I had no recollection of the journey. I don't remember even thinking. It was as if my mind had just shut down. I thanked the youth, told him to stick around and later, when I was finished with my moping I rewarded him by making him my steward, much to the consternation of my vampire servants. For the moment I went straight to my lord's chambers which were locked, bolted and generally sealed. Until that moment I didn't even know my lord had locks, it wasn't as if anyone would dare to enter his chambers without permission anyway.

I knocked the door without expecting an answer. When I didn't get one I kept knocking. Kain was not the most patient person so I just kept up a constant stream of knocking, knowing that he would tire of it long before I got bored.

He held out longer than I thought he would, but inevitably the doors flung open and he glared at me with a cold fury I'd not seen him wear for many a decade. He faltered though when he saw my face, I saw his grip on the door handle tighten until the handle crumbled beneath his strength.

"Who hurt you?" he demanded, harshly.

"You did," I said, quietly. Before he could react I pushed myself against the door as he moved to slam it on me. It was the first time we had ever had even a vaguely physical confrontation; even the sentries couldn't help but stare. "I found the streaming chamber," I called to him. Almost immediately I felt the door give; he had moved away. I closed the door behind me and joined him on the underside of the couch he was sitting on. The couch was upside down, in fact the entire room was a mess. I don't think a single one of his possessions had survived the carnage that was his temper.

"So..." I said, quietly "I can see why you might not want Raziel around you right now."

"How much did you see?" he asked. He could not look me in the eye.

"Not much," I admitted, though his question scared me. How much did I need to see to know what had happened, "enough," I said, finally.

We fell into an uncomfortable silence, "Lucky you," he said after a while. Another silence, "did you see what became of Nosgoth?" I nodded. "I failed," he said, grimly, "all of these years I thought I was going to restore balance but all the time the world was just becoming more and more corrupt." I couldn't answer him, mostly because I had no clue as to what he was talking about. Frankly I was astounded that he was more concerned with this than what I had witnessed for Raziel. "It seems Moebius will get the last laugh after all."

I don't think he was talking to me, he was lost in his own thoughts. "What about Raziel?" I asked after he had been silent for some time.

"Ah. Raziel," he said, distantly, "I don't pretend to understand that either. Ariel would seem to be correct, however, everything I have built is destined to crumble around me?"

I frowned, an altogether different sensation now that only one half of my face responded to the gesture, "my lord, forgive me..." I thought for a moment, but my prudence seemed to have gone the same way as my face when he threw me into the wall, "it's not like you to be so fatalistic. I watched you build an empire from a mansion we hid in, in the depths of the darkest forest, when the world thought you were dead."

"Am I to challenge destiny itself?" he snarled, "the fates themselves have-" he broke off, as though the answer had just come to him. "I may have been a little premature in my departure, I have not looked closely enough."

I rolled my eyes, "so you came home to trash the place and now you're going back again?"

Kain nodded, "it seems I let my emotions get the better of me," he traced a claw across my damaged cheek in an affectionate gesture, wholly unlike him, "I am sorry, Meg." I leaned against him and he held me for a while, comforting me in a way I had not needed since I was a fledgling, still afraid of the dark.

"Well," I gave a cough, finding the whole state of affairs surreal and slightly awkward, it had not gone unnoticed that for the first time he had called me by my shortened name, as my brothers did.

"I shall return to the time streamer's chamber and this time I shall not be driven away by uneasy portents. I shall attempt not to return here to destroy my chambers," he added with a ghost of a smile. "This time, do not follow me."

I nodded, dutifully, having no intention of ever heading in that direction again. "Shall I recall Raziel?"

"No," came his quick reply, "leave Raziel where he is." My lord paused at the door, "and if you could do something with this," he waved his hand over the destruction he had caused in his outbursts, "I would appreciate it."

"Oh thank you," I said, sarcastically. He looked back at me on his way out and for a moment he smiled. Then his eyes fell on the damage he had done to me and the smile vanished, soon, so did he.