Infinite Impossibilities
Part 3
As Raziel neared the pillars, a tight feeling began to form in his chest, and walking became more difficult, as if he were struggling through quicksand. He slowed to a crawling pace, pushing hard against the invisible force holding him back with all his strength. Then, as he found he could proceed no further, the voice came to him again.
"The Spectral Plane cannot support you any further in this place. Will your being into the Physical Plane!"
Raziel ceased struggling against the immense force pressing him back, and spread his arms wide. Never having done this before, he hesitated, but the voice didn't give him any further instruction. Tentatively, he willed his body to cross planes. A surging wind took hold of him, and his surroundings blurred. Raziel was overwhelmed with dizziness, and he doubled over, trying not to be violently sick. When the wind abated, Raziel looked up and saw that his surroundings were the same, and yet at the same time completely different. Having been in the Spectral Plane, he found that he now saw things differently in this world.
Resuming his striding pace towards the pillars, Raziel discovered that his walking was no longer laboured. The pillars came into view ahead of him, still standing as he remembered them in his fragmented memory.
Before he set foot on the slightly raised platform upon which the pillars stood, he walked around the area, slowly taking in the similarities and the differences between his mental picture and the reality. With a slight jolt, Raziel's gaze slid over the heavy metal shackles lying shattered on the floor in the centre of the semicircle of pillars. He stepped up onto the platform and crouched down beside the remnants, absently touching them with one clawed hand. Fragments of what must have been an immense stone block to which the shackles were attached were flung in a wide range around the pillars.
Raziel closed his eyes solemnly. Is it really true what the voice told me? Am I really a savage, unmerciful bringer of death, a killer of my own brothers? He thought to himself. Straining his memory to the limits, a memory surfaced from the swirling mists that obscured his full recollection of his past.
"Look at him. He is no longer a Kindred but a raving madman. We would be removing a burden from our kind if we killed him."
"Kain would have us cast into the Abyss. Do you not know that this is his first-born? We were assigned to guard Raziel, not to bestow any kind of judgement upon him."
Straining against his shackles, Raziel bared his fangs and hissed at the two fledglings standing over him as if they had the right to speak any assessment of him. Feet scraping against the stone floor, attempting to stand, a deep growl started in the back of Raziel's throat as he pushed his back against the stone block to which he had been bound for longer than he could remember. Giving up, he relaxed against the cold stone, breathing heavily as he eyed the two guards from half-lidded eyes that seethed with anger.
Raziel was suddenly jerked out of this vivid memory when he sensed the familiar presence of his sire. Standing and turning round in one fluid movement, he regarded Kain with his new insight, studying him in a light that he had not before been aware of.
Kain stood solidly some distance away, arms folded across his broad chest, expression grave and solemn. Raziel spread his feet firmly on the ground in a defensive stance, and raised his hands slightly. Kain returned his lieutenant's gaze nonchalantly.
"And you have returned to me." He said in a soft voice. Raziel remained still and silent as Kain began to pace slowly towards him, stepping up onto the platform.
"Have you come here to slay me?" Kain asked in a bored voice, letting his arms drop to his sides. Raziel stood silently, eyes flashing, regarding his sire for a moment. Lightning-fast, he struck out at Kain with a clawed hand, jumping forward in an effort to catch Kain a glancing blow to the face. Kain responded quickly, sliding to one side, and Raziel pursued with a series of aimed blows in quick succession.
"You have corrupted our kind!" Raziel bellowed, still working to get past Kain's parrying. Kain was being driven backwards as he fought off Raziel's attack, and he kept glancing behind to make sure he didn't back himself into a corner.
"I have refined them!" Kain responded. "We were nothing more than scavengers before I civilised and united them!" Raziel steeled himself and leapt at Kain, crashing into him and pushing him up against one of the tall pillars. He encircled Kain's neck with his claws, bringing his face close to that of his sire. Raziel raised his other hand, claws poised.
"You would have us at peace with the humans? They are nothing but meat! They are not worthy of our time! You would have us as a united force? Then why do we fight among ourselves still!" He cried. Kain pressed his hands against Raziel's chest, trying to force him away.
"Your confusion will be the death of you, Raziel!" He said, a bitter smile lighting his scarred face. "You have always acted upon the smallest force of influence that catches you, haven't you? Even now you're devoting all your energy to act out this part, urged on by the influence wielded by an entity you don't even comprehend!" With that, Kain raised one foot and kicked Raziel from him, sending the Fallen One to the stone platform. Kain strode over to his first-born, and placed one foot lightly but threateningly on Raziel's chest to keep him down before his sire. Raziel struggled, trying to get free, a burning expression of hatred written across his face.
Kain then drew the sword that was at his hip, a monstrosity of twisted metal, and laid the tip gently against Raziel's throat.
"I have spared you once from the fate which any other of my kin would have been condemned to for your heinous acts. However, this must not go unpunished. You have truly outlived your place beside me, Raziel."
Raziel drew a deep breath, and in the silence which crouched over the pair, the voice came to him again.
"Raziel, I give you the instrument with which to become my demonic angel!"
Raziel felt again the tight feeling in his chest, and Kain was thrown to the floor. The two Vampires pushed themselves up, and Kain once again took up his sword. Raziel stood by, waiting for the act of the voice to happen. All of a sudden, Raziel's right arm was drawn upwards, claws spread and palm facing Kain. The sword in Kain's hand seemed to respond in much the same way, and it began to throb with a dull red light. Raziel struggled to keep his balance as his arm pulled him forward, and bracing himself against the force, he held onto his right arm with his other hand. Kain was acting in much the same way, holding onto the sword now with both hands.
At once, the red light shot from the sword and connected both Kindred with a beam of intense red light. The light coiled around Raziel's lower arm, and he cried out in pain. Kain's eyes were wide, uncomprehending. After several long moments of searing pain, the connection between the two weapons was severed, and they were separate. Raziel clutched at his right arm, gasping for breath. The spirit of Kain's sword coiled and shifted around his arm. Raziel flexed the claws of his right hand, and then launched himself at Kain with a cry. The Soul Reaver lengthened and drove through the air blazing a red trail behind it, halting with a shrieking crash against its twin blade as Kain moved to parry Raziel's attack.
"Don't let your mind be dominated, Raziel," he said between blows. "This is not where, or how, its supposed to happen!" Taking a large step back, Kain shimmered and blurred, and then vanished.
Raziel stood for a long time staring at the spot where Kain had stood. Absently, he touched his right arm, and the light of the spirit blade swirled and eddied around his claws. Frowning, Raziel regarded the weapon of destruction now permanently a part of him, a dark parasite feeding off his very soul.