~ Kain
Patience.
That is the key.
The irony that it takes so much time to understand time is not lost on me.
I have watched myself born. I have seen with older eyes the madness that infected me at the very moment of my first breath. A madness which I have always known lingers too close to the surface for my comfort. I watched myself die, set upon by murderers outside a tavern, reborn at Mortanius' hands and then, I watched myself, as I am now, die once more.
Strange.
I thought I would have a more heroic death. But here it is played out for me to see, like some poorly choreographed mummery. My life runs its course, in the past of all places, cut down on the very tomb of my enemy by the wraith that was once my beloved son.
And so Moebius gets the last laugh after all. The game was rigged by him so expertly I had never stood a chance. My most fervent hopes and dreams are revealed to be fantasies, vain fancies with no hope of consummation. I had hoped my empire would restore my beloved Nosgoth, that the vampires would claim the land once more and the pillars would stand tall again.
I have been many things in my life. Idealistic I had not thought was one of them.
At least I have the comfort of knowing that of the two choices presented to me, I chose the lesser of the two evils. Had I surrendered my life as a willing sacrifice as Ariel had wanted Nosgoth would surely be in a more sorry state than at present.
Two choices.
Like the two sides of a coin. Kill myself and end my race damning Nosgoth to the corruption of the humans. Or refuse. Damn Nosgoth to the corruption of my tainted offspring. Well played Moebius, well played.
I was weary. I had spent so long here I had lost track of time. It had been years at least, staring across the infinite. I needed time to reflect. Most of all I needed company. I found myself wanting the company of my children. My thoughts turned to them as my comfort.
Idealistic and sentimental. Perhaps I should massacre a village on my way home, just to remind myself who I am.
