~~~===~~~
Legacy of Kain Chapter 17: Explanations
~~~===~~~
"So - a Kain Highwind started your rebellion?" My mysterious companion and I had been traveling for an hour already, with hardly any words exchanged between us, and I was getting a little edgy.
"A long time ago, yes," he nodded after a moment, his broad ears twitching slightly as a breeze passed by. "What do you mean that you're not him, though? You could be twins, from what we've seen of the few remaining portraits."
"I'm not from around here," I half-explained. "It's complicated - and it doesn't sound like the explanation's going to be pretty."
"Little is on this world, or any other that the Lord and Lady hold dominion over."
"From what they tried on mine, I'm not surprised," I agreed grimly. It sounded like the idea of other worlds wasn't going to surprise them in the least - fortunately. I'd been expecting an uphill battle to get them to believe my story.
"You managed to fight him off," the caracal asked, spinning to face me abruptly. "But how?"
"A friend of mine - the one in the red armor, who destroyed your sister's sword - managed to destroy his Dark Matter, and we have a great number of powerful mages and warriors to handle him after that. Still - it came at a great cost. I don't honestly know how many died in the second battle, and the first almost cost me my oldest friend."
"We have all lost those dear to us," he said, perhaps a little coldly. "One more would hardly be a surprise."
"It is when the one is the greatest warrior on your world," I countered softly. "I know that you've been fighting against Dragonheart for a long time, but we only knew he existed a few days ago. We were damned lucky, is what we were, and I know it. I'm here to try and keep him from causing any more pain - preferably by destroying him, and the Lord and Lady." That earned me a bitter laugh from my companion.
"Then you are a fool, 'Kain Highwind.' Do you really think that we haven't tried everything you're capable of before now? What the hell makes you think you'll succeed where we failed?"
"That's what I hope to find out. But I've failed enough times in my lifetime - this is too big to be one of them."
"I'll hope you're right then - but don't bet on it. Most of the people around here just want to keep their heads down and hope he doesn't decide to make an example of their town. You'll get precious little support from them, and we can't really afford to stick our necks out too far either - all it would take is for him to find out where our base is, and we lose most of our vital personnel."
"Sounds like you're putting all your eggs in one basket," I pointed out with a slight frown. "Is there some reason this base is more important than the others?"
"Besides the fact we've only got a handful of others, and it's our most secure location? Our last 'base' was destroyed when he returned recently - only one Rune Knight died in the process, thank the gods, but even one is a painful blow at this point, especially since she was damned good at her job. The ungrateful bastards turned her in, then got screwed over anyways, according to the news proclamations."
"Even after turning her in themselves? And they still aren't fighting back?"
"That's the way things usually are. The soldiers happen to enjoy being able to play with the peasants - and they can't when Dragonheart's around, unless they're being rewarded for bringing in rebels. So they just neglect to mention the fact that the peasants turned one of us in. The people are too scared to fight back - they know that if they do, things will just get worse."
"It sounds like I came at a good time, then."
"What makes you think that," he asked, looking at me like I was insane.
"The last time things looked this bleak for me," I half-chuckled, "I managed to defeat a god."
~~~===~~~
"My Lord Dragonheart," Scarmiglione said with a deep bow as he looked into the storeroom where the dark knight was finalizing the preparations for the next offensive.
"Ah, Scarmiglione. I assume that you and Caignazzo will be staying here, as per my mother's wishes?"
"I will be staying here," the Fiend of Earth nodded. "However, I regret to inform you that when I returned to the ship, Caignazzo attempted to convince me to turn against you and the Lord and Lady, to take power for ourselves. We had a.dispute." The smile on his loathsome features was too cheerful for what he was saying, and Dragonheart knew it, but this wasn't the time to delay with an argument - or an attempt at disciplining the Fiend.
"I see. And you managed to defeat him on your own? The last time I checked, he was more powerful than you are."
"In raw power, yes," Scarmiglione admitted. "But, in this realm, I have the powers of a true Death Magus at my disposal, as I am sure your mother explained to you, and that gave me the additional power needed to defeat him."
"I do hope the ship wasn't damaged in the process."
"Not at all, my lord. The smell of ozone should have cleared by now, and the remains have been taken to the reactor. There should be enough energy remaining to add a fair amount of energy to the ship."
"Very well. Though I wish you'd let me know about this before killing him - I would have preferred to discipline him with a little less.finality. He could have been useful in the next offensive."
"My apologies, my lord, but it seemed the safest thing to do - I feared he might attempt sabotage if I left to warn you, and I had few other options that would not have proven fatal to one of us anyways. My craft is not called Death Magic because we are renowned for taking prisoners," he said with a slight chuckle.
"And I am not called Dragonheart because I suffer fools who don't know how to control their power," the dark knight pointed out coldly. "Keep this in mind, the next time you take matters into your own hands. Now, I believe my mother had some use for you - go see to it."
"Of course, my lord," Scarmiglione said with another bow, backing out of the room and closing the door before he reverted to his human form, and walked off with a self-satisfied chuckle.
As he continued through the castle, he let his mind and spirit begin to spread out, drinking up the energies that had seeped into the stone walls for millennia. The growing madness of the Lord of Darkness.. The corruption of the Lady - a corruption that *he* had started, so long ago..
"Those were the days," he chuckled to himself, as he entered the Lady's room. "And they will be again."
"Ah, Scarmiglione," the Lady smiled as she reclined on her bed. "I'm glad you got here so quickly. I take it you've dealt with the last of your little.problem?"
"Caignazzo's thoroughly dead, if that's what you mean," he smiled. "Pompous bastard cowered through the whole thing - he deserved it, too."
"I'm sure he did," she chuckled. "Now, what is the next step of our plans?
"To set things in motion, so that the cycle is complete. We can complete your transformation without the Blue Planet falling. As such, we have all the time we need to conquer the Blue Planet. While your son has the power to take it by force - experience has shown me that it's far more reliable to use more subtle means."
"Very well," she nodded. "I hope you don't expect me to have Ryan pull back if you prove successful - your plan is a redundancy to his own."
"Of course, love," he smiled, extending his hand to her to help her stand up. "After all - with you, what need have I for your counterpart?"
"Exactly," she said smugly, as the two of them left for the Ritual Chambers to begin their preparations..
~~~===~~~
"Mind telling me if you're always this surly," I asked, looking at the strange young woman who was still watching Callista and I like a hawk.
"Only when I'm on duty," she said dryly. "So yes, pretty much always."
"You can trust us, you know - just because your partner's paranoid doesn't mean -"
"If the only reason I didn't trust you was because my brother didn't," she smirked at me, "I'd be gone by now. I'm still watching you because *I* don't trust you."
"Good idea, with that one," Callista smirked. I clenched my hands slightly, biting back several retorts that would do nothing to help my case. I could feel my temperature rising again, and I forced myself to calm down, to prevent a relapse of the attack I'd had before. "He was a Fiend, back home."
"That explains the taint," the dark knight chuckled grimly. "And why I shouldn't trust you."
"*Was* a fiend," I pointed out. "And it was hardly my choice to be created. Unlike the choices in my life, like giving up my powers."
"Just how did you achieve that," the dark knight asked.
"It was during the fight against Dragonheart on our home world - I managed to destroy his dark matter, but lose my fiend powers in the process."
"Destroyed his - but that's impossible! We've been trying to do just that for years!"
"I'm a rune knight by training, and a spirit of fire by birth," I smirked at her. "Destruction is second nature to me, even of crystallized oblivion."
"But how?"
"Creative force," I shrugged. "Flame can destroy, and it can create, kill, or heal. I simply channeled the creative aspect, and our power was mutually negated. Risky, but effective."
"But you didn't succeed in killing him after that," she pointed out with a slight growl, her ears flicking back and forth, her tail twitching in frustration.
"I had literally poured my soul into destroying it, and could hardly lift a sword, let alone channel my trained powers. Kain and Cecil, the other powerful warriors on the battlefield, were gravely injured from the fight before. If there's anybody who should have cut him down, it's her," I explained, nodding towards Callista.
"Why you -" Callista's response was cut off by a question from our guard, as I'd expected.
"Why didn't you finish him off then? You could have saved a lot of people a lot of pain if you had."
"I can't remember," Callista muttered. Just as I'd expected - she hadn't written down all the details of that day.
"Well I hope for your sake it was a damned good reason," the dark knight muttered. "The gods *might* have mercy on you if it was."
"What's done is done," I said quickly, hoping that it wouldn't go farther than I'd hoped. I wanted to take some of the heat off of me - not set these two at each other's throats. "The fact of the matter is that he is still alive, we're here to help you stop him, and you're treating us like the enemy."
"Guess, out of every ten people who try to join us, how many are looking to turn us in for the reward."
"Three," I said, remembering the first time I'd been fighting the loosing side of a war. Those were dark days, and things didn't end well at all.
"Try eight. So I think you can understand why we're a little leery of people who show up out of the blue with stories like yours."
"Maybe so - but we come as a team. If you take Kain, you take the two of us. You try to change that, and you lose all three of us. I know Kain well enough to know that that's the conditions you'll be given."
"You have a lot of faith in your friend," she pointed out idly.
"And he's earned it. He's loyal almost to a fault, once he promises to do something. He's faltered before, and hates himself for it, but he's been through the fire before, and come out stronger for it."
"Rune knights and dragon knights," she chuckled, rolling her eyes slightly. "I guess the legends are true."
"What legends?"
"The ones that said the two orders have always been close, not officially, but in practice."
"On our home world, my order was destroyed by the Paladins and the Dark Knights working together - I only survived because I was otherwise indisposed for most of the war. The dragoons were willing to sacrifice themselves to try and buy us some time, so I suppose you could say that's true."
"Which raises one important question."
"What?" She looked towards the sky for a few moments, trying to figure out how to ask, I suppose.
"Are you here for him, or to fight Dragonheart?" I smirked slightly - so, she was thinking. I held my hand up before Callista could answer, thankful when she decided to listen, instead of giving whatever the first answer that came to mind was.
"And if my answer was a guarded 'both,' what would yours be?"
"I'd probably welcome you to the war," she said with a feline grin.
"Then consider my answer a guarded both.."
~~~===~~~
It looked like we'd finally found our destination, a fairly non-descript point in the desert.
"And just where do we go next," I asked, trying to see some sort of building or structure that might be the base we were looking for.
"Down," he shrugged.
"Down?"
"It's not called the Cellar because it towers above everything around it," he chuckled. "Faire du vent," he shouted, pointing towards the ground. Suddenly, the sand seemed to explode with a gust of wind, scattering everywhere as I fell back from the sudden maelstrom, before I realized that it was just clearing the sand out of the entrance to a tunnel.
"How the hell did you do that," I asked, getting to my feet.
"A minor magic Master Tellah put into place for it."
"Tellah?" It wasn't possible - there were too many similarities. They knew a Kain Highwind, they had a Tellah - alive, from the way he talked..
It was unreal.
"Yes - Master Tellah. One of the first rebels, knows more about the Lord and Lady than anybody else alive. Our leader, after Sir Highwind was murdered. Come on, he'll know what to do next."
"If he's so important, then why are you taking me to him if you don't trust me," I asked, following him down the tunnel.
"Your resemblance to Sir Highwind is one thing, along with your name - I suspect you're telling the truth about why you're here. Besides that - he could probably kick your ass without breaking a sweat, if he had to." I raised an eyebrow at that - apparently, we weren't talking about the same Tellah.
"Sounds like a good reason to me," I shrugged. "Though I think you're underestimating me."
"Nah," he chuckled as he moved out into a larger chamber. "You're underestimating Master Tellah."
"Hello, Jack," a quiet voice echoed from a chair along the far wall. "I see you have a new friend here."
"Hopefully," the caracal nodded. "He had two allies with him, who are still in the desert with Shanna."
"And do you have a name," the voice asked.
"Kain Highwind, Former Captain of the Dragon Knights of Baron, from the Blue Planet," I said formally.
"Kain?" Suddenly, the lights in the room grew brighter, and I saw Tellah rise from a chair.
I had only seen him once before, honestly, and that was after he'd given his life to try and avenge his daughter - but I knew this was the same man, for all that I could see. He was just as old, though he looked stronger, healthier, and I could sense an aura of power around him that could surpass even Golbez's, if the need arose.
And I understood why my guide - Jack, apparently - was so confident he could beat me.
"Not of this world - much as you are not the Tellah of mine, I suspect," I clarified, as he stepped forward to meet him. Two aged hands came up to lift my helmet from my head, and I looked at the Sage quietly.
"You're right," he said, a little sadly, "it's not you. Your aura carries the tint of the Blue Planet, as you said. It's good that you're here, though - Jack, have Shanna bring his friends here. I have seen a great many Highwinds in my day, and only one has ever been less than honest and honorable, under his own will." Jack bowed slightly, and took off back up the tunnel, as Tellah gave me my helmet back and turned around, starting back towards his seat.
"Follow me, Kain Highwind," he said. "We have much to discuss, you and I."
~~~===~~~
End Legacy of Kain Chapter 17: Explanations
~~~===~~~
Legacy of Kain Chapter 17: Explanations
~~~===~~~
"So - a Kain Highwind started your rebellion?" My mysterious companion and I had been traveling for an hour already, with hardly any words exchanged between us, and I was getting a little edgy.
"A long time ago, yes," he nodded after a moment, his broad ears twitching slightly as a breeze passed by. "What do you mean that you're not him, though? You could be twins, from what we've seen of the few remaining portraits."
"I'm not from around here," I half-explained. "It's complicated - and it doesn't sound like the explanation's going to be pretty."
"Little is on this world, or any other that the Lord and Lady hold dominion over."
"From what they tried on mine, I'm not surprised," I agreed grimly. It sounded like the idea of other worlds wasn't going to surprise them in the least - fortunately. I'd been expecting an uphill battle to get them to believe my story.
"You managed to fight him off," the caracal asked, spinning to face me abruptly. "But how?"
"A friend of mine - the one in the red armor, who destroyed your sister's sword - managed to destroy his Dark Matter, and we have a great number of powerful mages and warriors to handle him after that. Still - it came at a great cost. I don't honestly know how many died in the second battle, and the first almost cost me my oldest friend."
"We have all lost those dear to us," he said, perhaps a little coldly. "One more would hardly be a surprise."
"It is when the one is the greatest warrior on your world," I countered softly. "I know that you've been fighting against Dragonheart for a long time, but we only knew he existed a few days ago. We were damned lucky, is what we were, and I know it. I'm here to try and keep him from causing any more pain - preferably by destroying him, and the Lord and Lady." That earned me a bitter laugh from my companion.
"Then you are a fool, 'Kain Highwind.' Do you really think that we haven't tried everything you're capable of before now? What the hell makes you think you'll succeed where we failed?"
"That's what I hope to find out. But I've failed enough times in my lifetime - this is too big to be one of them."
"I'll hope you're right then - but don't bet on it. Most of the people around here just want to keep their heads down and hope he doesn't decide to make an example of their town. You'll get precious little support from them, and we can't really afford to stick our necks out too far either - all it would take is for him to find out where our base is, and we lose most of our vital personnel."
"Sounds like you're putting all your eggs in one basket," I pointed out with a slight frown. "Is there some reason this base is more important than the others?"
"Besides the fact we've only got a handful of others, and it's our most secure location? Our last 'base' was destroyed when he returned recently - only one Rune Knight died in the process, thank the gods, but even one is a painful blow at this point, especially since she was damned good at her job. The ungrateful bastards turned her in, then got screwed over anyways, according to the news proclamations."
"Even after turning her in themselves? And they still aren't fighting back?"
"That's the way things usually are. The soldiers happen to enjoy being able to play with the peasants - and they can't when Dragonheart's around, unless they're being rewarded for bringing in rebels. So they just neglect to mention the fact that the peasants turned one of us in. The people are too scared to fight back - they know that if they do, things will just get worse."
"It sounds like I came at a good time, then."
"What makes you think that," he asked, looking at me like I was insane.
"The last time things looked this bleak for me," I half-chuckled, "I managed to defeat a god."
~~~===~~~
"My Lord Dragonheart," Scarmiglione said with a deep bow as he looked into the storeroom where the dark knight was finalizing the preparations for the next offensive.
"Ah, Scarmiglione. I assume that you and Caignazzo will be staying here, as per my mother's wishes?"
"I will be staying here," the Fiend of Earth nodded. "However, I regret to inform you that when I returned to the ship, Caignazzo attempted to convince me to turn against you and the Lord and Lady, to take power for ourselves. We had a.dispute." The smile on his loathsome features was too cheerful for what he was saying, and Dragonheart knew it, but this wasn't the time to delay with an argument - or an attempt at disciplining the Fiend.
"I see. And you managed to defeat him on your own? The last time I checked, he was more powerful than you are."
"In raw power, yes," Scarmiglione admitted. "But, in this realm, I have the powers of a true Death Magus at my disposal, as I am sure your mother explained to you, and that gave me the additional power needed to defeat him."
"I do hope the ship wasn't damaged in the process."
"Not at all, my lord. The smell of ozone should have cleared by now, and the remains have been taken to the reactor. There should be enough energy remaining to add a fair amount of energy to the ship."
"Very well. Though I wish you'd let me know about this before killing him - I would have preferred to discipline him with a little less.finality. He could have been useful in the next offensive."
"My apologies, my lord, but it seemed the safest thing to do - I feared he might attempt sabotage if I left to warn you, and I had few other options that would not have proven fatal to one of us anyways. My craft is not called Death Magic because we are renowned for taking prisoners," he said with a slight chuckle.
"And I am not called Dragonheart because I suffer fools who don't know how to control their power," the dark knight pointed out coldly. "Keep this in mind, the next time you take matters into your own hands. Now, I believe my mother had some use for you - go see to it."
"Of course, my lord," Scarmiglione said with another bow, backing out of the room and closing the door before he reverted to his human form, and walked off with a self-satisfied chuckle.
As he continued through the castle, he let his mind and spirit begin to spread out, drinking up the energies that had seeped into the stone walls for millennia. The growing madness of the Lord of Darkness.. The corruption of the Lady - a corruption that *he* had started, so long ago..
"Those were the days," he chuckled to himself, as he entered the Lady's room. "And they will be again."
"Ah, Scarmiglione," the Lady smiled as she reclined on her bed. "I'm glad you got here so quickly. I take it you've dealt with the last of your little.problem?"
"Caignazzo's thoroughly dead, if that's what you mean," he smiled. "Pompous bastard cowered through the whole thing - he deserved it, too."
"I'm sure he did," she chuckled. "Now, what is the next step of our plans?
"To set things in motion, so that the cycle is complete. We can complete your transformation without the Blue Planet falling. As such, we have all the time we need to conquer the Blue Planet. While your son has the power to take it by force - experience has shown me that it's far more reliable to use more subtle means."
"Very well," she nodded. "I hope you don't expect me to have Ryan pull back if you prove successful - your plan is a redundancy to his own."
"Of course, love," he smiled, extending his hand to her to help her stand up. "After all - with you, what need have I for your counterpart?"
"Exactly," she said smugly, as the two of them left for the Ritual Chambers to begin their preparations..
~~~===~~~
"Mind telling me if you're always this surly," I asked, looking at the strange young woman who was still watching Callista and I like a hawk.
"Only when I'm on duty," she said dryly. "So yes, pretty much always."
"You can trust us, you know - just because your partner's paranoid doesn't mean -"
"If the only reason I didn't trust you was because my brother didn't," she smirked at me, "I'd be gone by now. I'm still watching you because *I* don't trust you."
"Good idea, with that one," Callista smirked. I clenched my hands slightly, biting back several retorts that would do nothing to help my case. I could feel my temperature rising again, and I forced myself to calm down, to prevent a relapse of the attack I'd had before. "He was a Fiend, back home."
"That explains the taint," the dark knight chuckled grimly. "And why I shouldn't trust you."
"*Was* a fiend," I pointed out. "And it was hardly my choice to be created. Unlike the choices in my life, like giving up my powers."
"Just how did you achieve that," the dark knight asked.
"It was during the fight against Dragonheart on our home world - I managed to destroy his dark matter, but lose my fiend powers in the process."
"Destroyed his - but that's impossible! We've been trying to do just that for years!"
"I'm a rune knight by training, and a spirit of fire by birth," I smirked at her. "Destruction is second nature to me, even of crystallized oblivion."
"But how?"
"Creative force," I shrugged. "Flame can destroy, and it can create, kill, or heal. I simply channeled the creative aspect, and our power was mutually negated. Risky, but effective."
"But you didn't succeed in killing him after that," she pointed out with a slight growl, her ears flicking back and forth, her tail twitching in frustration.
"I had literally poured my soul into destroying it, and could hardly lift a sword, let alone channel my trained powers. Kain and Cecil, the other powerful warriors on the battlefield, were gravely injured from the fight before. If there's anybody who should have cut him down, it's her," I explained, nodding towards Callista.
"Why you -" Callista's response was cut off by a question from our guard, as I'd expected.
"Why didn't you finish him off then? You could have saved a lot of people a lot of pain if you had."
"I can't remember," Callista muttered. Just as I'd expected - she hadn't written down all the details of that day.
"Well I hope for your sake it was a damned good reason," the dark knight muttered. "The gods *might* have mercy on you if it was."
"What's done is done," I said quickly, hoping that it wouldn't go farther than I'd hoped. I wanted to take some of the heat off of me - not set these two at each other's throats. "The fact of the matter is that he is still alive, we're here to help you stop him, and you're treating us like the enemy."
"Guess, out of every ten people who try to join us, how many are looking to turn us in for the reward."
"Three," I said, remembering the first time I'd been fighting the loosing side of a war. Those were dark days, and things didn't end well at all.
"Try eight. So I think you can understand why we're a little leery of people who show up out of the blue with stories like yours."
"Maybe so - but we come as a team. If you take Kain, you take the two of us. You try to change that, and you lose all three of us. I know Kain well enough to know that that's the conditions you'll be given."
"You have a lot of faith in your friend," she pointed out idly.
"And he's earned it. He's loyal almost to a fault, once he promises to do something. He's faltered before, and hates himself for it, but he's been through the fire before, and come out stronger for it."
"Rune knights and dragon knights," she chuckled, rolling her eyes slightly. "I guess the legends are true."
"What legends?"
"The ones that said the two orders have always been close, not officially, but in practice."
"On our home world, my order was destroyed by the Paladins and the Dark Knights working together - I only survived because I was otherwise indisposed for most of the war. The dragoons were willing to sacrifice themselves to try and buy us some time, so I suppose you could say that's true."
"Which raises one important question."
"What?" She looked towards the sky for a few moments, trying to figure out how to ask, I suppose.
"Are you here for him, or to fight Dragonheart?" I smirked slightly - so, she was thinking. I held my hand up before Callista could answer, thankful when she decided to listen, instead of giving whatever the first answer that came to mind was.
"And if my answer was a guarded 'both,' what would yours be?"
"I'd probably welcome you to the war," she said with a feline grin.
"Then consider my answer a guarded both.."
~~~===~~~
It looked like we'd finally found our destination, a fairly non-descript point in the desert.
"And just where do we go next," I asked, trying to see some sort of building or structure that might be the base we were looking for.
"Down," he shrugged.
"Down?"
"It's not called the Cellar because it towers above everything around it," he chuckled. "Faire du vent," he shouted, pointing towards the ground. Suddenly, the sand seemed to explode with a gust of wind, scattering everywhere as I fell back from the sudden maelstrom, before I realized that it was just clearing the sand out of the entrance to a tunnel.
"How the hell did you do that," I asked, getting to my feet.
"A minor magic Master Tellah put into place for it."
"Tellah?" It wasn't possible - there were too many similarities. They knew a Kain Highwind, they had a Tellah - alive, from the way he talked..
It was unreal.
"Yes - Master Tellah. One of the first rebels, knows more about the Lord and Lady than anybody else alive. Our leader, after Sir Highwind was murdered. Come on, he'll know what to do next."
"If he's so important, then why are you taking me to him if you don't trust me," I asked, following him down the tunnel.
"Your resemblance to Sir Highwind is one thing, along with your name - I suspect you're telling the truth about why you're here. Besides that - he could probably kick your ass without breaking a sweat, if he had to." I raised an eyebrow at that - apparently, we weren't talking about the same Tellah.
"Sounds like a good reason to me," I shrugged. "Though I think you're underestimating me."
"Nah," he chuckled as he moved out into a larger chamber. "You're underestimating Master Tellah."
"Hello, Jack," a quiet voice echoed from a chair along the far wall. "I see you have a new friend here."
"Hopefully," the caracal nodded. "He had two allies with him, who are still in the desert with Shanna."
"And do you have a name," the voice asked.
"Kain Highwind, Former Captain of the Dragon Knights of Baron, from the Blue Planet," I said formally.
"Kain?" Suddenly, the lights in the room grew brighter, and I saw Tellah rise from a chair.
I had only seen him once before, honestly, and that was after he'd given his life to try and avenge his daughter - but I knew this was the same man, for all that I could see. He was just as old, though he looked stronger, healthier, and I could sense an aura of power around him that could surpass even Golbez's, if the need arose.
And I understood why my guide - Jack, apparently - was so confident he could beat me.
"Not of this world - much as you are not the Tellah of mine, I suspect," I clarified, as he stepped forward to meet him. Two aged hands came up to lift my helmet from my head, and I looked at the Sage quietly.
"You're right," he said, a little sadly, "it's not you. Your aura carries the tint of the Blue Planet, as you said. It's good that you're here, though - Jack, have Shanna bring his friends here. I have seen a great many Highwinds in my day, and only one has ever been less than honest and honorable, under his own will." Jack bowed slightly, and took off back up the tunnel, as Tellah gave me my helmet back and turned around, starting back towards his seat.
"Follow me, Kain Highwind," he said. "We have much to discuss, you and I."
~~~===~~~
End Legacy of Kain Chapter 17: Explanations
~~~===~~~