Furniture flew through the air and shattered into shards against stone
walls. Invisible fists slammed against the walls and caused dull dents in
them. Malek raged.
"How?!" Malek screamed. "How could he have survived?! Vorador wasn't this strong when he wasn't a fledgling! Who are you? WHO IN THE HELLS ARE YOU, KAIN?!?!"
Malek slumped down in despair. Kain, a fledgling not even a month undead, had calmly breached his walls, beaten down his minions, destroyed his defences, and held his own against Malek himself before making his escape with no serious injury. Malek had designed his bastion to defeat even the eldest of the Vampires that lived. Vorador himself would have been hard pressed to defeat the fortress, though Malek had always hoped he'd give it a try.
But Kain had done it. Armed with his armour and sword, and the Heart of Darkness...and Malek still couldn't imagine how Kain had come across that artifact. The Circle must truly have fallen apart to ever let a Vampire gain possession of Janos Audron's heart. And Kain's power...how could a fledgling be so powerful? That moment when Kain had surrounded himself with the pale blue aegis of the Repel spell...if Malek's last attack, the energy wave, hadn't driven Kain off, then he doubted that he could have defeated the Vampire. Imagine, the great Malek, last of the Sarafan, Guardian of Conflict, dead at the hands of a fledgling. Malek bristled.
But he calmed himself. Kain, for some reason, seemed intent on hunting down and destroying the members of the Circle. Why this would be, Malek did not know - in fact, he privately thought that if anyone wanted to destroy the Circle, they merely had to wait another year or two to allow the Circle to do the job to itself. But if Kain was intent on destroying the Circle, he would attack another member again soon enough, and then Malek would finally return the monster to hell and be done with him.
Malek still couldn't put his finger on the difference he sensed about Kain. For some reason, Kain reminded him of some experimental undead creatures that Mortanius had created, but that didn't make sense. Mortanius was pretty much the only Guardian left with his sanity intact, and Malek couldn't think of a sane reason for the Death Guardian to create a monster and set it on the Circle. Could Kain have been a creation that Mortanius had lost control of? Malek discounted that theory. Mortanius would have told the other Guardians if this was so, and even if he hadn't for some reason, there would be signs of him persuing and attempting to control or destroy Kain. Mortanius was definately still alive (or as alive as the Death Guardian got), but Malek sensed no move from him concerning Kain.
Maybe another necromancer? Maybe a Vampiric mutation? Maybe Kain was an elder who had escaped the purges and was masquerading as a fledgling? It could be any or none of these. Malek shook his head. He doubted he had enough information to work out what Kain was. Dejected, he made his way to MeLoom's tomb and rested against the sarcophegous. Though he had no need of sleep physically, there were some occasions where, drained mentally and emotionally, his remaining human instincts took over. He drifted off into sleep...
***
Malek dreamed of a long corridor decorated with stain-glass windows through which a bright light shined through. Before him, the corridor seemed to stretch on forever. He couldn't seem to look behind him.
Around his arm, he felt a strange sensation. He looked down, and saw a transparent serpent coiling around his forearm. The serpent stretched from his arm to a woman walking beside him, dressed in glowing leather armour.
"MeLoom?"
MeLoom's spirit smiled at him. "Moebius betrayed us a long time ago, but in some things he was right. Time, Malek. Time comes for us all. For some, like me, it comes too soon. For some, like you, it waits too long."
Malek shivered. He wanted to grab MeLoom in his arms and never let go, but all he could do was walk and speak, as if he was merely a character in a play, being played by someone else. "Why do you speak of time, MeLoom? What is it you want to tell me?"
MeLoom's serpent wound further up Malek's arm, and its head caressed his cheek. "Time is not everlasting or all-powerful, despite what Moebius might wish. We all run out eventually. My time, and Neve's time came to an end in the shape of Vorador. The rest of our party met their time's end in a creature from the future. You outlived us all, and you mourn that you will never join your friends, but even you do not have infinite time. And while its end may come in the form of that which you most want to avoid, it may be a blessing in disguise."
The serpent pressed into Malek's lips and caressed his mouth with its tongue, and when it pulled back, it was MeLoom's faced that Malek was looking at. "Remember that I am with you always, Malek. I wait for you to be with me."
With a gasp, Malek sat up away from MeLoom's grave. He looked around at the chamber in confusion. From the moment that Mortanius had cursed him, he had never dreamt, even during the occasions when he had slept. He looked over at the tomb and wondered aloud, "Was I dreaming, MeLoom? Or did you speak to me?"
MeLoom gave no answer.
***
For over a day, Malek aimlessly walked through his castle, his thoughts on the dream. Some of the dream made no sense - MeLoom had said something about his friends being killed by a creature from the future. He remembered the bizzare creature that claimed to share a name with Raziel - had that destroyed-yet-living monster been from the future? And if so, what had happened to it since? Malek chose not to dwell on it - at this point, it made little difference.
But what was MeLoom trying to say? All the talk about time. Was this a warning that Malek's time was up? Maybe that Kain was Malek's fate, the one who would finally end Malek's life, and his pain? MeLoom said that in his death, he might find a blessing in disguise...
Suddenly, he felt another sense flare up. A Guardian was...no, three Guardians, all gathered together, were in danger. The source of peril was...Kain? Again?
Malek grabbed his polearm and prepared to transport himself to the Guardians, up in Dark Eden if his senses were right. One way or another, he knew that he was about to come face-to-face with his destiny.
***
Teleportation over distance was a strange experience. Usually, it felt like no more than fading out of one place and appearing in another, just like teleporting into another room in the same building. Occasionally, though, in very rare incidents, there was a difference. The trip seemed to take a few moments, and you could "see" the scene you were about to step into. Malek experienced this as he moved towards Dark Eden.
He saw a laboratory full of technomagical machines, probably the work of DeJoule. Sure enough, DeJoule was present, wrapped in her insulating cloak. Beside her stood the Nature Guardian, Bane, dressed in furs and his antlered headress. A few steps away was the third Guardian, the Guardian of States, Anacrothe. And facing them all down was Kain, just as Malek remembered him.
"Ah...not one but three!" Kain was saying. "How considerate of them to hasten my search."
Bane seemed unimpressed. "So, the scourge of the Circle has arrived..."
Likewise, DeJoule thought little of the Vampire. "Fear him not, Bane. He is but a whelp. His soul is ours for the taking!"
Anacrothe, on the other hand, was much less enthusiastic than his companions. "Don't be ridiculous! Malek! To our aid!"
"That's my cue" Malek thought. As Anarcothe disappeared, Malek felt himself materialise in the room. Kain took a step back, not in suprise, but more in anger.
"Damn you, alchemist! I had not come this far only to have my quarry escape!" Malek briefly wondered about Kain's mannerisms, talking as if to an onlooker rather than to his enemies themselves. It didn't matter. Malek wouldn't underestimate Kain again, and with two other Guardians assisting him, not even Kain would survive this.
Kain did not attack. Instead he brought out something from within his armour. Malek expected to see the Heart of Darkness, but instead, Kain produced a bone ring. Malek got the feeling that he recognised it from somewhere as it flashed in the air.
And then, all thought of Kain, the Guardians, and anything else left his mind as another Vampire appeared in front of Kain. The one being that Malek hated more than anyone else, even above Moebius.
It was Vorador.
Malek strode forward and pointed at Vorador. He had given up hope of getting revenge against his nemesis, but now that the unexpected oppertunity had presented itself to him, he refused to let it go. "Vengeance! Vengeance for my eternity of suffering!"
Vorador had been unsure what trouble Kain had run into so soon after being warned to stay out of the affairs of mankind, but he had certainly not expected to be facing down his old enemy. However, he did not let any of his momentary suprise appear on his face. He had lost none of his pompous superiority over the centuries. If anything, he had grown even more disdainful. "Whelp! As if you knew what eternity was! Grovel before your true master!"
Vorador's words did nothing to cool the flames of Malek's rage. "Never! I'll hack you from crotch to gizzard and feed what's left to your brides!"
On the edge of his awareness, Malek sensed Bane and DeJoule fleeing from the room, and Kain persuing them. He didn't care. The Guardians could rot in hell at the moment. He'd be damned again if he was going to turn away from a shot at Vorador!
Vorador got the first blow in, sending Malek flying through the air into the opposite wall. Thius move had stunned Malek on their last encounter, but in his new form, he could take a lot of punishment. He got straight back to his feet and prepared for his little suprise, saved for years until he'd been forced to use it on Kain. He straightened out his spear and thrust it forward, firing the energy wave right at Vorador.
Vorador sneered. Just before the wave hit him, he turned his body into mist, flowing away from the attack. The wave crashed into the wall and dissolved. Malek thought quickly. In their last fight, Vorador had used his mist form to sneak up on him and attack him from behind. Estimating how fast Vorador could travel, he suddenly brought his elbow up fast just behind his head...
...and smashed Vorador in the jaw, just as he was returning to a solid state! Vorador staggered back, then rubbed the wound on his jaw. Seeing the blood come off on his hand, he looked more furious than Malek had ever seen him before. Once again, he shapeshifted, this time into a wolf. Before Malek could react, Vorador's lupine form was bringing him down to the ground. The wolf's claws slashed right through his armour, tearing metal apart, and scattering his limbs. But this time, Malek found that he couldn't recall his body parts back together. Dimly, he remembered that it was a full moon tonight...
As Vorador sliced through metal and caused Malek to tear apart, the Sarafan's mind became more and more clouded. The surroundings seemed to grow dimmer. All he knew was that he had failed one more time, the last chance he'd ever get wasted.
But there was something else. Another figure stood above Vorador. Her serpent was no longer bound to her skin as it had been when she was alive, but was flowing around her limbs. MeLoom smiled, and reached a hand towards Malek. "As my time ended long ago, now yours does too, my love. Let the monster have his victory. You can have me."
Malek reached up and took her hand. The fading part of his living mind noted that his hand, his body, was flesh and blood once more. But Malek no longer cared. He and MeLoom ran laughing into the light.
***
The slashing and howling stopped, and Vorador was once more in his natural form. He looked around the room. Malek's body parts were so scattered and damaged, there was no hope of him returning to fight again. Strange...in the last few moments, Malek ceased struggling, and Vorador sensed a feeling of relief, even happiness from the Conflict Guardian. The Vampire shook his head. He must have imagined it. No one was ever happy to die.
"Farewell, Malek. Take comfort in the fact that you died at the hands of one far superior to you and your kind." And with that, Vorador disappeared from the room.
Somewhere, in another reality, two lovers joined with long-gone friends and laughed.
"How?!" Malek screamed. "How could he have survived?! Vorador wasn't this strong when he wasn't a fledgling! Who are you? WHO IN THE HELLS ARE YOU, KAIN?!?!"
Malek slumped down in despair. Kain, a fledgling not even a month undead, had calmly breached his walls, beaten down his minions, destroyed his defences, and held his own against Malek himself before making his escape with no serious injury. Malek had designed his bastion to defeat even the eldest of the Vampires that lived. Vorador himself would have been hard pressed to defeat the fortress, though Malek had always hoped he'd give it a try.
But Kain had done it. Armed with his armour and sword, and the Heart of Darkness...and Malek still couldn't imagine how Kain had come across that artifact. The Circle must truly have fallen apart to ever let a Vampire gain possession of Janos Audron's heart. And Kain's power...how could a fledgling be so powerful? That moment when Kain had surrounded himself with the pale blue aegis of the Repel spell...if Malek's last attack, the energy wave, hadn't driven Kain off, then he doubted that he could have defeated the Vampire. Imagine, the great Malek, last of the Sarafan, Guardian of Conflict, dead at the hands of a fledgling. Malek bristled.
But he calmed himself. Kain, for some reason, seemed intent on hunting down and destroying the members of the Circle. Why this would be, Malek did not know - in fact, he privately thought that if anyone wanted to destroy the Circle, they merely had to wait another year or two to allow the Circle to do the job to itself. But if Kain was intent on destroying the Circle, he would attack another member again soon enough, and then Malek would finally return the monster to hell and be done with him.
Malek still couldn't put his finger on the difference he sensed about Kain. For some reason, Kain reminded him of some experimental undead creatures that Mortanius had created, but that didn't make sense. Mortanius was pretty much the only Guardian left with his sanity intact, and Malek couldn't think of a sane reason for the Death Guardian to create a monster and set it on the Circle. Could Kain have been a creation that Mortanius had lost control of? Malek discounted that theory. Mortanius would have told the other Guardians if this was so, and even if he hadn't for some reason, there would be signs of him persuing and attempting to control or destroy Kain. Mortanius was definately still alive (or as alive as the Death Guardian got), but Malek sensed no move from him concerning Kain.
Maybe another necromancer? Maybe a Vampiric mutation? Maybe Kain was an elder who had escaped the purges and was masquerading as a fledgling? It could be any or none of these. Malek shook his head. He doubted he had enough information to work out what Kain was. Dejected, he made his way to MeLoom's tomb and rested against the sarcophegous. Though he had no need of sleep physically, there were some occasions where, drained mentally and emotionally, his remaining human instincts took over. He drifted off into sleep...
***
Malek dreamed of a long corridor decorated with stain-glass windows through which a bright light shined through. Before him, the corridor seemed to stretch on forever. He couldn't seem to look behind him.
Around his arm, he felt a strange sensation. He looked down, and saw a transparent serpent coiling around his forearm. The serpent stretched from his arm to a woman walking beside him, dressed in glowing leather armour.
"MeLoom?"
MeLoom's spirit smiled at him. "Moebius betrayed us a long time ago, but in some things he was right. Time, Malek. Time comes for us all. For some, like me, it comes too soon. For some, like you, it waits too long."
Malek shivered. He wanted to grab MeLoom in his arms and never let go, but all he could do was walk and speak, as if he was merely a character in a play, being played by someone else. "Why do you speak of time, MeLoom? What is it you want to tell me?"
MeLoom's serpent wound further up Malek's arm, and its head caressed his cheek. "Time is not everlasting or all-powerful, despite what Moebius might wish. We all run out eventually. My time, and Neve's time came to an end in the shape of Vorador. The rest of our party met their time's end in a creature from the future. You outlived us all, and you mourn that you will never join your friends, but even you do not have infinite time. And while its end may come in the form of that which you most want to avoid, it may be a blessing in disguise."
The serpent pressed into Malek's lips and caressed his mouth with its tongue, and when it pulled back, it was MeLoom's faced that Malek was looking at. "Remember that I am with you always, Malek. I wait for you to be with me."
With a gasp, Malek sat up away from MeLoom's grave. He looked around at the chamber in confusion. From the moment that Mortanius had cursed him, he had never dreamt, even during the occasions when he had slept. He looked over at the tomb and wondered aloud, "Was I dreaming, MeLoom? Or did you speak to me?"
MeLoom gave no answer.
***
For over a day, Malek aimlessly walked through his castle, his thoughts on the dream. Some of the dream made no sense - MeLoom had said something about his friends being killed by a creature from the future. He remembered the bizzare creature that claimed to share a name with Raziel - had that destroyed-yet-living monster been from the future? And if so, what had happened to it since? Malek chose not to dwell on it - at this point, it made little difference.
But what was MeLoom trying to say? All the talk about time. Was this a warning that Malek's time was up? Maybe that Kain was Malek's fate, the one who would finally end Malek's life, and his pain? MeLoom said that in his death, he might find a blessing in disguise...
Suddenly, he felt another sense flare up. A Guardian was...no, three Guardians, all gathered together, were in danger. The source of peril was...Kain? Again?
Malek grabbed his polearm and prepared to transport himself to the Guardians, up in Dark Eden if his senses were right. One way or another, he knew that he was about to come face-to-face with his destiny.
***
Teleportation over distance was a strange experience. Usually, it felt like no more than fading out of one place and appearing in another, just like teleporting into another room in the same building. Occasionally, though, in very rare incidents, there was a difference. The trip seemed to take a few moments, and you could "see" the scene you were about to step into. Malek experienced this as he moved towards Dark Eden.
He saw a laboratory full of technomagical machines, probably the work of DeJoule. Sure enough, DeJoule was present, wrapped in her insulating cloak. Beside her stood the Nature Guardian, Bane, dressed in furs and his antlered headress. A few steps away was the third Guardian, the Guardian of States, Anacrothe. And facing them all down was Kain, just as Malek remembered him.
"Ah...not one but three!" Kain was saying. "How considerate of them to hasten my search."
Bane seemed unimpressed. "So, the scourge of the Circle has arrived..."
Likewise, DeJoule thought little of the Vampire. "Fear him not, Bane. He is but a whelp. His soul is ours for the taking!"
Anacrothe, on the other hand, was much less enthusiastic than his companions. "Don't be ridiculous! Malek! To our aid!"
"That's my cue" Malek thought. As Anarcothe disappeared, Malek felt himself materialise in the room. Kain took a step back, not in suprise, but more in anger.
"Damn you, alchemist! I had not come this far only to have my quarry escape!" Malek briefly wondered about Kain's mannerisms, talking as if to an onlooker rather than to his enemies themselves. It didn't matter. Malek wouldn't underestimate Kain again, and with two other Guardians assisting him, not even Kain would survive this.
Kain did not attack. Instead he brought out something from within his armour. Malek expected to see the Heart of Darkness, but instead, Kain produced a bone ring. Malek got the feeling that he recognised it from somewhere as it flashed in the air.
And then, all thought of Kain, the Guardians, and anything else left his mind as another Vampire appeared in front of Kain. The one being that Malek hated more than anyone else, even above Moebius.
It was Vorador.
Malek strode forward and pointed at Vorador. He had given up hope of getting revenge against his nemesis, but now that the unexpected oppertunity had presented itself to him, he refused to let it go. "Vengeance! Vengeance for my eternity of suffering!"
Vorador had been unsure what trouble Kain had run into so soon after being warned to stay out of the affairs of mankind, but he had certainly not expected to be facing down his old enemy. However, he did not let any of his momentary suprise appear on his face. He had lost none of his pompous superiority over the centuries. If anything, he had grown even more disdainful. "Whelp! As if you knew what eternity was! Grovel before your true master!"
Vorador's words did nothing to cool the flames of Malek's rage. "Never! I'll hack you from crotch to gizzard and feed what's left to your brides!"
On the edge of his awareness, Malek sensed Bane and DeJoule fleeing from the room, and Kain persuing them. He didn't care. The Guardians could rot in hell at the moment. He'd be damned again if he was going to turn away from a shot at Vorador!
Vorador got the first blow in, sending Malek flying through the air into the opposite wall. Thius move had stunned Malek on their last encounter, but in his new form, he could take a lot of punishment. He got straight back to his feet and prepared for his little suprise, saved for years until he'd been forced to use it on Kain. He straightened out his spear and thrust it forward, firing the energy wave right at Vorador.
Vorador sneered. Just before the wave hit him, he turned his body into mist, flowing away from the attack. The wave crashed into the wall and dissolved. Malek thought quickly. In their last fight, Vorador had used his mist form to sneak up on him and attack him from behind. Estimating how fast Vorador could travel, he suddenly brought his elbow up fast just behind his head...
...and smashed Vorador in the jaw, just as he was returning to a solid state! Vorador staggered back, then rubbed the wound on his jaw. Seeing the blood come off on his hand, he looked more furious than Malek had ever seen him before. Once again, he shapeshifted, this time into a wolf. Before Malek could react, Vorador's lupine form was bringing him down to the ground. The wolf's claws slashed right through his armour, tearing metal apart, and scattering his limbs. But this time, Malek found that he couldn't recall his body parts back together. Dimly, he remembered that it was a full moon tonight...
As Vorador sliced through metal and caused Malek to tear apart, the Sarafan's mind became more and more clouded. The surroundings seemed to grow dimmer. All he knew was that he had failed one more time, the last chance he'd ever get wasted.
But there was something else. Another figure stood above Vorador. Her serpent was no longer bound to her skin as it had been when she was alive, but was flowing around her limbs. MeLoom smiled, and reached a hand towards Malek. "As my time ended long ago, now yours does too, my love. Let the monster have his victory. You can have me."
Malek reached up and took her hand. The fading part of his living mind noted that his hand, his body, was flesh and blood once more. But Malek no longer cared. He and MeLoom ran laughing into the light.
***
The slashing and howling stopped, and Vorador was once more in his natural form. He looked around the room. Malek's body parts were so scattered and damaged, there was no hope of him returning to fight again. Strange...in the last few moments, Malek ceased struggling, and Vorador sensed a feeling of relief, even happiness from the Conflict Guardian. The Vampire shook his head. He must have imagined it. No one was ever happy to die.
"Farewell, Malek. Take comfort in the fact that you died at the hands of one far superior to you and your kind." And with that, Vorador disappeared from the room.
Somewhere, in another reality, two lovers joined with long-gone friends and laughed.
